Looper

Looper (2012) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels. The setting is 2044 Kansas, and Gordon-Levitt plays a looper -- a hit man who kills people sent back from the future to be disposed of. Problem is, his own future self (Willis) is sent back to be killed, and he can't quite bring himself to follow through. The logical flaw becomes obvious when you consider: Why send loopers back to be killed by their own past selves? Why not send them back to be killed by someone else? This point is glossed over in the movie, but of course there are always going to be logical flaws in a time-travel film. In general, I'd say that this one is pretty well done. For those with a taste for sci-fi, this will prove to be an entertaining movie. I'm already wanting to see it again. (Closed captions are not included, but the disc has good English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) starring Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Dean Stockwell. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Preston Tucker (Bridges) wants to build the "car of the future" in the 1940s, only to be crushed by the Big Three and their political cronies. Tucker is an historical figure who really did build cars in the 1940s, and many of the innovations he envisioned for the Tucker automobile have become standard or optional features of cars today. In fact, he built a car that was "too good": The Big Three saw that it would cost them billions of dollars to keep up, and they exerted all of their political muscle to stop Tucker Motors from ever becoming a viable company. At least, that's the version of the story presented by this movie.  It's a rousing story and very entertaining to watch, thanks to strong writing, direction and acting. (Closed captions are provided for the hard of hearing, as well as English subtitles.) Grade: B+

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Batman (Bale) comes out of retirement to fight the ultra-evil Bane (Hardy). Bane seems to have the best of him early on, but who knows how this will turn out? This movie is the end of a Batman trilogy, so anything is possible. I found Bane's mask to be a bit of a distraction -- and it made everything he said hard to understand. I'm not a big Batman fan, so there was some mythology from earlier films that I wasn't clear on. This is a big, rousing superhero movie, and fans of the Batman will be pleased. (Closed captions are not offered, but English subtitles are.) Grade: B+

Arbitrage

Arbitrage (2012) starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta. Robert Miller (Gere), a big-time Wall Street money manager, is facing fraud charges over $400 million he's lost for an investor. This is not a good time for him to get in a car wreck with his mistress (Casta) in the car, killing her, and leave the scene of the accident. But that's what he does. A persistent homicide detective (Roth) quickly gets hold of the case and won't let go. Can Miller maneuver and buy his way out of trouble? He gives it his best effort, but his daughter (Marling) and his wife (Sarandon) are on to him. This is a pretty strong  movie, but it lacks a satisfying ending -- even though Miller manages to avoid getting arrested, his life seems to be falling apart; and then the film just abruptly ... ends. The flick didn't do much at the box office, and you can see why -- there's really nobody to root for. More than anything, this movie made me sad. (English subtitles are offered, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

Little Man Tate

Little Man Tate (1991) starring Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest, Adam Hann-Byrd, Harry Connick, Jr., David Hyde-Pierce, Debi Mazar. Directed by Jodie Foster. Fred Tate (Hann-Byrd) is a seven-year-old prodigy, but his mother Dede (Foster) lacks the resources -- emotional and intellectual -- to help him realize his potential. He is discovered by the professor (Wiest) who runs a special school for geniuses, but really all Fred wants is to have friends like a normal kid. This movie was Foster's first-time effort as a director, and it shows. The film has a nice feel to it, but it meanders a bit, and the ending seems overly sudden. Still, it's a flick that will stick with me for a while, and I won't soon forget about little man Tate. (Subtitles in English are not offered, but closed captions make up the lack.) Grade: B 

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) starring Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Scott Jacoby. Foster stars as a thirteen-year-old named Rynn who lives, apparently, alone in a house in a small town. Sheen plays a surprisingly creepy role as Mr. Hallet, the son of Rynn's landlord -- a young man who takes an overly personal interest in the girl who rents from his mother. What has happened to Rynn's parents, and can Rynn really take care of herself? This is a quirky little film that offers plenty of rewards. Very entertaining. Foster, as always, is very good. (English subtitles and closed captions are both available.) Grade: B+  

Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday (2003) starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon. Directed by Mark Waters. Lohan has become a Hollywood pariah, and I don't care much for Curtis, but this movie really worked for me. Curtis and Lohan play a mother and daughter who magically switch bodies, then must deal with the confusions, misunderstandings, and general hassles of being each other. Both actresses do an excellent job of acting like someone of a different age. Harmon, in the role of Curtis's fiance, brings gravitas and solidity to the film as well. The script deserves credit, because there are no wasted scenes or unbelievable happenings -- it all just flows so well. It's hard for me to understand why an old fart like myself likes this movie so much, but I do. This is that rare case when a remake (the original came out in 1977) is better than the original film. (Subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-

A Walk in the Clouds

A Walk in the Clouds (1995) starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini, Debra Messing. Paul Sutton (Reeves) returns from World War II to find that the wife he has been pining for (Messing) is a bimbo, and that he has a bad case of PTSD. When he goes on the road to "find himself," he meets a young woman (Sanchez-Gijon) on the train, and she proceeds to throw up on him. Naturally, he falls in love with her. This movie is nothing more than a high-grade romance novel brought to the screen -- an art form for which, unfortunately, Reeves is ill-suited. It's a good entertainment, but not great art. (The DVD offers subtitles in English, and also closed captions.) Grade: B-

Village of the Damned

Village of the Damned (1960) starring George Sanders, Barbara Shelley. In the village of Midwich, England, every animal -- humans, dogs, cattle -- passes out at the same time and stays unconscious for a couple of hours. Much to the consternation of many in the village, a group of children are conceived during this period. The children are unusually quick to gestate, and to mature after birth (all born on the same day, by the by). Soon, the people of the village realize that the children have amazing powers of mind -- but no compensating emotions. This is an eerily effective movie which takes a simple premise and develops it to its logical conclusion. Very entertaining. (Subtitles are offered, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

It Came from Outer Space

It Came from Outer Space (1953) starring Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush. A spaceship crashes in the desert, leaving a giant crater, and soon aliens start taking the form of humans in order to effect repairs to their ship. One man (Carlson) is enlisted by the aliens to help them, but he can't get anyone human to believe him. Based on a story by Ray Bradbury, this movie is primitive by any standards. The special effects are poor and the acting is amateurish. Even by my standards, this is one sci-fi film that I wouldn't have minded not seeing. Grade: C

Waking Sleeping Beauty

Waking Sleeping Beauty (2010) -- Documentary. Directed by Don Hahn. Disney veteran Hahn takes a look at the studio's revival, from its nadir in the 1970s, through the '80s and '90s, during which were produced such animation successes as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin,  Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. This documentary takes a look behind the scene, showing such honchos as Roy Disney, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg as they struggled behind the scenes to control the direction the studio would go -- and who would get credit for the successes. For Disney fans who are curious about the nuts and bolts of animated film making, it's a great movie to see. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Wait Until Dark

Wait Until Dark (1967) starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Jack Weston. Three criminals (Arkin, Crenna and Weston) expend an incredible amount of energy trying to find a doll filled with heroin. They suspect that Susy Hendrix (Hepburn) knows where it is, and (since she is blind) they think it will be easy to con her into giving it to them. But she turns out to be one smart blind woman, and their plot goes awry. It all leads up to a very scary climax, in which Mr. Roat (Arkin) terrorizes Susy in her darkened apartment. Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar for her work in this film, which was a box-office success. The doll, of course, is a MacGuffin, and a little doll filled with packets of heroin would scarcely seem to merit all the intensity that the three crooks focus on it. Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining movie, well produced with good acting all around. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+ 

Waitress

Waitress (2007) starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith. Written and directed by Adrienne Shelly.  Russell plays Jenna, the waitress of the title, who is not just a waitress but a wizard with pies. She's trapped in a loveless marriage and pregnant, but her pregnancy leads to her meeting the dreamy new ob-gyn in town (Fillion), whom she promptly falls madly in love with. The movie does not go in the direction you expect it to, and that's a good thing. In its own way, this is a perfect little movie, and certainly deserves to be enjoyed. Sadly, Shelly was murdered after the movie was made and before it hit theaters. When you see this film, you'll realize how great a loss that was. (English subtitles are available, but the closed captions are better.) Grade: A-

The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear (1953) starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel. In an impoverished village somewhere in Latin America, four desperate men are hired by an American oil company to drive two trucks loaded with nitroglycerin. If they hit a bad bump or if the nitro gets too hot (from the sun), boom! They're goners. The tension builds as the unpaved road gets rougher and rougher. The setup seems to call for one of the trucks to blow up, but which one will it be? For $2,000 each, the men are risking their lives -- and their sanity. I rather enjoyed this movie, although it was a bit long at two and a half hours. (The film is in French with English subtitles. There were several occasions when English was spoken and the subtitles were dropped, making it hard for me to follow.) Grade: B   

Dante's Peak

Dante's Peak (1997) starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton. Vulcanologist Harry Dalton (Brosnan) is the only one who believes that the dormant volcano Dante's Peak is about to blow, and he gets in trouble for alarming the townfolk. The mayor (Hamilton) of the town of Dante's Peak seems attracted to him, but before they get a chance to kiss, the mountain starts erupting. From that point on, all is chaos. I wanted to compare this movie to Volcano, the other flick that erupted in 1997, and it seems to boil down to whom you prefer -- Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche, from Volcano, or Brosnan and Hamilton.  On that basis, I'd have to say I preferred Dante's Peak. It's really kind of a toss-up though, otherwise. Neither one is a great film. (This DVD includes English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, which is fortunate because it lacks closed captions.) Grade: B

The Wackness

The Wackness (2008) starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby. In the summer of 1994, young Luke Shapiro (Peck) is selling pot in New York City, getting ready to go off to college. Life isn't great for Luke, whose parents are constantly bickering, and who is still a virgin. Then he meets his psychiatrist's (Kingsley) stepdaughter (Thirlby), and romance, or at least friendship, blooms. This is an odd little movie, with quite a few original turns. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Peck is less than compelling in the film's lead role. I kind of enjoyed the movie, but it was uneven. (Subtitles are lacking, though closed captions come to the rescue.) Grade: B

Volcano

Volcano (1997) starring Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffman, Don Cheadle. The La Brea Tar Pits erupt into a volcano spewing lava, and all of Los Angeles is threatened with annihilation in this exciting disaster movie. Luckily, Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche are on the scene, as a disaster official and a geologist, to save the day and divert the lava into the sea -- and maybe, just maybe, fall in love. The special effects are very good. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are included, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B   

The Wackiest Ship in the Army

The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1960) starring Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson. Set in 1943, this World War II tale involves Lt. Rip Crandall (Lemmon), who is assigned to take over a "ship" dubbed the Echo. Crandall has experience sailing yachts, which qualifies him to captain the Echo from Australia to a small island in the Pacific Ocean. From there he has to transport an Australian ship spotter into enemy territory in New Guinea. This movie is a fairly light-hearted story about sailors on a special mission during World War II. Nelson, as Crandall's second-in-command, even sings a song in the Officers' Club. I found the film to be fairly entertaining. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel. Several British seniors at or past retirement age decide that they can live more cheaply in India, and can't afford to live in Britain, so they engage rooms at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur. Naturally, the hotel proves to be less than advertised. Each of the senior guests has his or her own story, a reason why they were let down, why they couldn't afford to stay in England. And once they reach India, each follows his or her own story line. One thing that is most remarkable about this movie is that all the stories are wrapped up nicely (and none too believably) in the final 10 or 15 minutes. It has a contrived feel to it that I found none too pleasing. But if you must know, it has many happy endings. (Subtitles for the hearing impaired are available, also closed captions.) Grade: B 

Radio Days

Radio Days (1987) starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Seth Green, Julie Kavner. Directed by Woody Allen. Woody conjurs up what one must assume is a nostalgic version of his own boyhood, growing up in New York in the days when radio was king. The movie has some nice touches and some humorous moments, plus a  lot of great old music that played on the radio back in those days. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: B

The Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard (2008) starring Colin Hanks, John Malkovich, Emily Blunt, Tom Hanks. Malkovich plays "The Great Buck Howard," a mentalist whose career has been in decline for many years. Colin Hanks stars and narrates as a law student named Troy who quits school to work as road manager for Howard. This movie was reminiscent of "My Favorite Year," another film in which a young protagonist learns life lessons from interacting with a difficult older star who is trying to regain his lost glory. The movie is funny and ultimately moving, with Blunt supplying the romantic interest and Tom Hanks, Colin's real-life father, playing his disapproving film father. The Great Buck Howard is modeled on a real mentalist, Kreskin, who performed many of the same tricks and whose secrets were never uncovered. (The DVD does not offer subtitles in English, but closed captions make up the loss.) Grade: B+  

Volver

Volver (2006) starring Penelope Cruz. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. A woman named Raimunda (Cruz) journeys back to her home village in La Mancha. Mysterious goings-on are eventually explained by the appearance of what appears to be the ghost of her mother. Meanwhile, her daughter accuses her husband of trying to rape her -- which explains why she killed him. Raimunda decides to dispose of the body without telling the authorities. All the strange events are eventually explained, but it takes some real story-weaving to accomplish it. The bottom line is that I really enjoyed this movie, even though it is in Spanish with English subtitles. The subtitles, by the way, are very good -- highly legible. Grade: A-