La Terra Trema

La Terra Trema (1947) starring a non-professional cast. Tired of being exploited by wholesalers, a poor Italian family of fishermen tries to mortgage their house to buy a boat and go it alone. But when they lose everything in a storm, they must find work to pay their debts. I wasn't expecting to get absorbed in this movie, made in Italy, in 1947, about fishermen -- but I did. My only complaint is that it is relentlessly downbeat, and certainly can't be accused of having a happy ending. (In Italian and Sicilian dialect, with English subtitles.) Grade: B+

That's Entertainment, Part II

That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) starring a galaxy of MGM stars. Sequel to 1974's That's Entertainment! features Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Eleanor Powell, Laurel and Hardy, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante and more. Most of the ground was covered in the first movie, but still there are good numbers here and there. (The furnished subtitles are not very good, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B-

Then She Found Me

Then She Found Me (2008) starring Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick. Directed by Helen Hunt. After her husband (Broderick) leaves her and her adoptive mother dies, April Lepner (Hunt) is accosted by a stranger (Midler) who claims to be her birth mother. After April falls for a new guy named Frank (Firth), she learns that she is pregnant -- by her ex-husband. It's a wish come true, but a complicated situation. This is a fairly amusing little movie, but certainly not one for the ages. Hunt's attempt to star in and direct a film produces mixed results, and the movie seems very ragged in tone. Hunt herself is less than spectacular. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are provided. They are adequate, which is good since closed captions are not offered.) Grade: B

That's Entertainment!

That's Entertainment! (1974) starring too many greats to mention. The actors who made the first 50 years of MGM musicals are celebrated in this look back from the vantage point of 1974 -- which now seems like so long ago itself. Among the artists whose works appear are Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Cyd Charisse, Donald O'Connor, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante. It's a grand nostalgia tour for those who are old enough to remember movies of the '30s, '40s and '50s, but for younger viewers it probably won't do much. (The subtitles included on the disc are poor, but closed captions are also available.) Grade: B+

Casablanca

Casablanca (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. A strong candidate for best Hollywood picture of all time, Casablanca won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Bogart stars as Rick Blaine, who owns Rick's American Cafe in Casablanca during the early years of World War II. Much to his surprise, who should walk through the door but his lost love Ilsa (Bergman) with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Henreid). Victor is a top leader in the underground resistance movement against the Nazis, and he and Ilsa are trying to escape to Lisbon and then to America. At first Rick is in no mood to help them, but later, after he hears the whole story, things turn around and he gets to deliver one of the greatest speeches ever. (Subtitles are provided, but the closed captions are more readable.) Grade: A

Texas

Texas (1941) starring William Holden, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor. In 1866, former Confederates Dan (Holden) and Tod (Ford) head to Texas to try and make their fortunes. They end up on opposite sides of the law -- and in competition for the same girl (Trevor). This Western is played largely for laughs, although there's lots of good cowboy action, too. There are several shootouts, a stagecoach robbery, a cattle drive and a stampede. Altogether, it's a pretty entertaining movie, although the ending seems rather abrupt. (Subtitles are offered in English, Japanese and Spanish; closed captions are also available.) Grade: B

Moneyball

Moneyball (2011) starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright. Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) is desperate for players because his budget is so low. In rides Peter Brand (Hill), a young Yale graduate who has statistics-based ideas about how to optimize a major-league payroll. And putting up resistance is team manager Art Howe (Hoffman), who insists on having control over the lineup card. The baseball sections of this movie are great, and Pitt seems at home in the role. But when Beane goes off the field and deals with his 12-year-old daughter, the movie tends to stall out. Still for anyone who knows baseball, who has played baseball, who follows baseball, this is a great movie. (Subtitles are available; closed captions are not.) Grade: A-

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (1956) starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne de Carlo. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Storytelling on a grand scale; even at three and a half hours it doesn't become boring, as Moses (Heston) leads the Hebrews out of captivity in Egypt. Brynner makes a great villain as the pharoah Rameses, although it's hard to understand why he doesn't kill Moses early in the action. It's all a lot of superstitious nonsense, of course, but at the same time it's a majestic story. (Subtitles in English are available; I chose the closed captions.) Grade: A-

Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment (1983) starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, Danny DeVito, John Lithgow. Classic tearjerker has some great moments, but doesn't really hold up after all this time. This movie won five Oscars, including Best Picture. The subtitles are good, and closed captions are available. Grade: B

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton. Super-agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF crew set off in pursuit of some stolen Russian nuclear codes. The action is almost non-stop from beginning to end, especially during the first two-thirds of the film. During the last third the movie begins to feel a little too long, but it all works out in the end, and I suspect theater-goers left feeling they had got their money's worth. I felt that there was no real suspense -- we know that Hunt is not going to be killed, and we know that no nuclear warheads will be detonated. But in this case it's the journey, not the destination, that provides the entertainment. (Subtitles in English are offered, and also closed captions.) Grade: B+

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds. George Smiley (Oldman) learns that there is a mole in The Circus (British Intelligence) and comes out of retirement to try and track him (or her) down. The movie's attempt to condense a John le Carre novel into two hours makes it just too tough to follow. The film is long on plot and talk and short on action, though I'm not sure that's what made the difference. There are an awful lot of characters to keep track of, and even with the subtitles turned on I couldn't keep track of them all. I have the feeling that this is a really well made movie, intricately plotted, but I just couldn't follow it. Grade: B-

The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Jesus (Dafoe) struggles with the conflict between his supposed divinity and his status as a human with normal feelings and desires. The movie's twist comes near the end when Jesus' "guardian angel" appears and takes him down from the cross. It's an imagined retelling of the Christ story, and at nearly three hours long it seems unnecessary to me. (Subtitles are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B

The Teahouse of the August Moon

The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) starring Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Paul Ford, Machiko Kyo, Eddie Albert, Henry Morgan. In 1946 in Okinawa, U.S. Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) tries to "Americanize" an Okinawan village. He's supposed to deliver lectures on democracy; instead, he ends up going native in this delightful comedy from a more innocent time. Brando does a passable Okinawan accent as he plays an interpreter. (Subtitles in English are offered, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-

Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), Documentary. Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo ... these are the places mentioned in this Oscar-winning documentary about the use of torture under the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11. This is a distressing, disturbing and depressing movie in which the U.S. is clearly not the good guy. Most of the blame goes, fittingly, to President George W. Bush and his underlings, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The orders to "take the gloves off" came from the very top, yet only enlisted men were called to account for the crimes committed in America's name in prisons around the world. It's enough to fill a patriotic American with shame. (The DVD provides English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, but not closed captions.) Grade: A

A Taste of Cherry

A Taste of Cherry (1997) starring Homayoun Ershadi. A man (Ershadi) drives around the outskirts of a city looking for someone to bury him after he commits suicide -- or to help him if he fails. It's an Iranian film (with English subtitles), with Iranian sensibilities, and it really didn't speak to me. Grade: B-

Tarzan and His Mate

Tarzan and His Mate (1934) starring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan. Bad white men come to the jungle hoping to steal a fortune in ivory from an elephant graveyard. They ask Tarzan (Weissmuller) for help, but once he understands what they are after, he refuses. Meanwhile, the white men try to lure Jane (O'Sullivan) into leaving Tarzan and coming back to civilization. It's kind of an entertaining movie, in a retro sort of way, but definitely not state-of-the-art. (The disc offers English subtitles, and also closed captions.) Grade: B

The Descendants

The Descendants (2011) starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges. Directed by Alexander Payne. Matt King (Clooney)'s wife lies in a hospital bed, in a coma after a boating accident. King is left in charge of his two daughters, Alex and Scottie (Woodley and Miller), to whom he is practically a stranger. To top it all off, he learns that his wife was cheating on him and was planning to ask him for a divorce. This movie is a very good drama in an exotic setting, and the cast does an all-around excellent acting job. (Subtitles are available, as well as closed captions). Grade: B+

Targets

Targets (1968) starring Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Karloff plays Byron Orlok, a retiring movie star much like himself, and O'Kelly plays Bobby Thompson, a youngish man who likes his guns. The two are fated to meet when Thompson goes on a murderous rampage, and Orlok makes an appearance at a drive-in which is showing one of his old movies. This was Bogdanovich's first feature, and it is enhanced by an Extra on the DVD in which he describes the making and marketing of Targets. (English subtitles are available, but choose the closed captions if you can.) Grade: B

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew (1967) starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton. Shakespeare's famous comedy is brought to the screen, with Taylor as the shrew of the title, and Burton as the man who marries her for her fortune. He tames her by mistreating her, and the play can easily be taken as misogynistic. I, for one, found it problematic for that reason. Also, it seems to me, it is pretty clear that Burton is a Shakespearean actor, and Taylor is ... not. Those caveats aside, the movie successfully brings the play to the screen. (Subtitles in English are available, but I chose my preferred closed captions.) Grade: B

The Talk of the Town

The Talk of the Town (1942) starring Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Cary Grant. Leopold Dilg (Grant), facing trial for arson and murder, escapes from jail on a rainy night. He lands on the doorstep of Nora Shelley (Arthur), who is preparing a rental house for its first tenant. She takes pity on Dilg (he is, after all, Cary Grant) and lets him spend the night in her attic. Her tenant, a law professor named Michael Lightcap (Colman), arrives 24 hours earlier than expected, and the stage is set for madcap comedy -- and a serious look at the difference between law and justice. The Talk of the Town was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

Rancho Deluxe

Rancho Deluxe (1975) starring Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Slim Pickens, Elizabeth Ashley, Harry Dean Stanton, Charlene Dallas. Two modern-day cattle rustlers (Bridges and Waterston) have dreams of a big score, but the rancher they plan to steal from has brought in a legendary stock detective (Pickens) to stop them. Off-beat comedy throws the audience a big curve, and it's a strike. Very satisfying overall and fun to watch. (The disc lacks English subtitles, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B+

Take the Money and Run

Take the Money and Run (1969) starring Woody Allen, Janet Margolin. Directed by Woody Allen. Incompetent criminal Virgil Starkwell (Allen) continually flubs his attempted robberies, but keeps on trying. Along the way, he (improbably) falls in love with and marries a girl named Louise (Margolin). The jokes come fast and thick, and about half of them are very funny. This was Allen's first film as writer, director and actor. It's not a great movie but provides a pleasant evening's entertainment and some good laughs. (The disc includes subtitles in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+