And Now for Something Completely Different

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth. The Monty Python gang appear in a number of funny skits originally seen on their TV show in England. Included are the Dead Parrot, Upper-Class Twit of the Year, and the amusing Lumberjack Song. This movie is a great introduction to Monty Python's strange style of humor for anyone who hasn't seen them in their original numbers. They're really very silly, but that's intentional. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A- 

The Anderson Tapes

The Anderson Tapes (1971) starring Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Margaret Hamilton, Christopher Walken. Right after being released from prison, Duke Anderson (Connery) starts organizing another heist, this one of the apartment building where his girlfriend (Cannon) lives. What he doesn't realize is that his every move and every utterance is being taped by various authorities. When it comes time for the robbery to go down, a veritable army of cops is waiting to bring Anderson and his cohort to justice. This movie really has the look and feel of the '70s captured, from the typeface of the titles to the cheesy soundtrack by Quincy Jones. This is not one of Connery's finest films. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B- 

Anastasia

Anastasia (1956) starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes. Pure fantasy based on historical facts. Brynner plays a Russian who selects "Anna Anderson" (Bergman) to play the role of Anastasia, believed to be the last surviving heir to the Russian throne. His motive: A supposed inheritance waiting in British banks, said to be worth ten million pounds sterling. Bergman won an Oscar for her portrayal of the woman, but we never do find out if she's really Anastasia (she's not). The movie, though rooted in the true-to-life assassination of the royal Russian Romanovs by Bolshevik revolutionaries, is pure fiction based on wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it works on its own terms, at least as long as you're not too picky about facts. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B   

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London (1981) starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne. Written and directed by John Landis. While backpacking through England, an American named David (Naughton) is bitten by a werewolf, while his friend Jack (Dunne) is killed. As it turns out, David becomes a werewolf himself, and Jack returns to haunt him, insisting that David must die to free Jack from limbo. The special effects by Rick Baker  won an Oscar, and the movie displays a wicked sense of humor, even while remaining a full-blown horror picture. For this type of film, it's really quite good. Many scenes are memorable. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are supplied on the disc.) Grade: B+  

American Splendor

American Splendor (2003) starring Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis. The story of Harvey Pekar, comic-book writer and publisher, who has appeared a number of times on the Letterman talk show. The movie takes a dark turn when Pekar is diagnosed with testicular cancer, but he gets through the treatment and gets the all-clear from his doctor. The film is presented in a kind of quasi-comic book style, and is the more entertaining for it. Giamatti is good in the role of Pekar, and Davis is also very good as Pekar's girlfriend and later wife. It's a low-budget but well produced movie, and I enjoyed it. (Subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

An American in Paris

An American in Paris (1951) starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary, Nina Foch. American ex-pat Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) lives in Paris, tries his hand at being a painter. He falls in love with a French girl (Caron) while being sponsored by a rich American woman (Foch), who tries to advance his career. There's lots of singing, dancing and music involved, and it all results in a "happy" ending. I was only slightly bothered by the age difference between Kelly (40) and Caron (20), making her motion-picture debut. There was a long ballet number toward the end of the movie that I found rather boring. Overall, the movie holds up rather well, though I found it somewhat dated. (Subtitles in English are offered on the disc for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B  

Halloween

Halloween (1978) starring Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles. Low-budget horror flick about a maniac who strikes on Halloween at the age of six, returns 15 years later to continue to terrorize his small town. This movie has become iconic and has been much imitated, but none of the copycats has lived up to the original. The film was highly successful at the box office, grossing a total (domestic and international) of $70 million. It was Curtis's movie debut. Interestingly, the film is not really a "slasher film," because Micheal Myers (the villain) doesn't always kill with a knife, but strangles two of his victims. My big problem with this movie on DVD is that it has no subtitles for the hearing-impaired, and no closed captions. Grade: D 

The World's End

The World's End (2013) starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Pierce Brosnan. Five buddies set out to relive their high-school days by going back to their home town and doing a pub crawl to 12 drinking establishments, ending with a pub called The World's End. But their quest leads them into surprising territory, as they find that their home town has been taken over by aliens who intend to conquer the Earth. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's just a toss-off of a movie, with cheap special effects and a weak script. There is some humor to be found in some of the friends' interactions, but it is seldom really funny, unless you think getting drunk is inherently funny -- which I don't. The aliens, in particular, are rather lame. They are extremely fragile, and their heads and limbs pop off rather easily in a fight. Their blood is blue, in case you're curious. Altogether, a disappointing movie. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Love Actually

Love Actually (2003) starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy. It's four weeks to Christmas, and it seems like everyone in Britain is falling in love. Some of the relationships end well, some not so well. A large cast of (mostly) British actors gives this movie a (mostly) sprightly air, and there are multiple happy endings. Also, it's a Christmas movie, which gives it an added lagniappe of sentimentality. Whether this is to your taste or not, only you can decide. It gave me, for the most part, great pleasure. This is a romantic, Christmasy movie, and it might be best viewed by people in a romantic, Christmasy mood. Others could find it sad. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+ 

Elysium

Elysium (2013) starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga. The year is 2154, and Earth has become sharply divided into the Haves and the Have-nots. The ultra-rich live on a space station high above the surface of Earth, and have medical technology that can cure any disease, repair any damage. Max (Damon) receives a lethal dose of radiation on the job and has five days to live -- or to get to Elysium and be cured. I'm a sci-fi freak, so I was eager to see this movie and find out how the premise had been translated to the screen. I was disappointed. The special effects are pretty good, but the plot boils down to a hand-to-hand fight on the space station -- always a cop-out, in my opinion. In addition, the acting had some weak spots and the script had some weak dialogue that detracted from the overall effect of the movie. Plus, the ending was too pat. So I can't give this film the highest grade, even though I applaud the attempt to make a full-on sci-fi drama. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

American History X

American History X (1998) starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Fairuza Balk, Beverly D'Angelo, Avery Brooks, Stacy Keach, Jennifer Lien, Elliot Gould. A neo-Nazi skinhead racist (Norton) kills two blacks, and ends up sentenced to prison. Surprisingly, doing time turns his head around, and after being released three years later, he decides that he wants out of the white-supremacist movement. His first priority: trying to prevent his little brother (Furlong) from following in his footsteps. This is an intense movie, filled with racist rhetoric, and the script seems loosely stitched together. But it was fascinating to watch, especially with former Star Trek franchise stars Brooks and Lien in the cast. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever (1991) starring Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee. Written and directed by Spike Lee. A black man and a white woman (Snipes and Sciorra) fall into an affair, with disastrous consequences. Neither can keep from talking about it to friends, who inevitably tell other friends, and eventually family. Both families reject the offending lovers, and their friends aren't much better. The movie explores the sociology and psychology of skin color, and it's none too subtle about it. But it's eminently watchable, with developments coming fast and thick. This is a seminal film, not to be missed. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+   

A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives (1949) starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, Jeffrey Lynn. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Three married women receive a letter from the town flirt that says she has run away with one of their husbands. Then, in flashback, we see each of them in her relationship with her husband, and each of them has a reason to believe her husband might have left her. Then, at the end, of course, we get the final reveal. It's a well crafted movie that makes the lives of these people interesting and keeps us involved. Mankiewicz won Oscars for the script and for Best Director. An enjoyable movie. Also included on the disc as an Extra is an interesting documentary about the off-screen life of Linda Darnell, which ended in tragedy. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+  

American Dream

American Dream (1989) Documentary. Directed by Barbara Kopple. In the 1980s, a Hormel meat-packing plant in the small town of Austin, Minnesota decided to unilaterally lower the wages of its unionized workers from $10.69 an hour to $8.50 an hour. The union went out on strike, but in the anti-union atmosphere of the Reagan '80s, they stood little chance against the power of management. This movie documents their struggle, and how the management of Hormel slowly wore them down by refusing to negotiate. It's a sad story, and in many ways it's the story of America in the post-Reagan era. Reagan fired all the air-traffic controllers when they went out on strike, and that set the tone for the rest of his presidency. In effect, he broke the unions. Foreign competition may have done the job anyway, but this film shows the agonizing death throes of one union, Local P-9 of the meatpackers' union,  in painful detail. The movie won an Oscar as Best Documentary. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013) starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne. Before the planet Krypton explodes, Jor-El (Crowe) sends his son Kal-El (Cavill) into space on a rocket to Earth. Kal-El grows up to become Superman, and faces his greatest challenge when General Zod (Shannon) arrives on Earth, bent on changing it to a Krypton-like planet where his people can be restored. For me, this film had a Transformers-like feel to it, as various parts of Earth were trashed (and many lives lost) while the aliens battled it out. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane convincingly, while Kal-El's Earth parents, Ma and Pa Kent, are played creditably by Costner and Lane. Whether anyone will ever make a good Superman movie again remains to be seen. This one is just passable. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B  

American Beauty

American Beauty (1999) starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney. Directed by Sam Mendes. Surprisingly good look at two families in suburbia who just happen to live next door to each other. The key character is Lester Burnham (Spacey), who narrates  throughout the movie about his pathetic little life. The main nuclear family is made up of Lester and his wife Carolyn (Bening) and their daughter Jane (Birch). Their next-door-neighbor Ricky (Bentley) has the at-first-creepy habit of videotaping everything he sees, especially Jane. Ricky's father (Cooper) is a retired Marine who is fanatical about his son's behavior. The movie really comes alive when Lester goes to see Jane's performance in a pep rally and falls instantly in love with Jane's friend Angela (Suvari). The film is a true original, with unexpected events at every turn. The movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Screenwriter, Actor (Spacey), and Cinematography. It really is surprisingly excellent. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc.) Grade: A-  

Allegro Non Troppo

Allegro Non Troppo (1976) animated. Italian answer to Disney's "Fantasia" is mediocre at best. One or two of the animated segments stand out, but mostly the animation is not very good, and the live segments in between are just plain stupid. Music by Debussy, Dvorak, Ravel, Vivaldi and Stravinsky, among others, is illustrated by Italian animators with uneven results. The live segments are in black and white, in Italian with English subtitles. The truth is I found the movie profoundly soporific, and I slept through half of it and had to go back and re-view it. I enjoyed the nap. Grade: B-

Amadeus

Amadeus (1984) starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones. Directed by Milos Forman. Abraham won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri, the unfortunate 18th-century composer who lived and worked at the same time and place as Mozart. Salieri was a mediocre talent at best, and he was undone by his jealousy of Mozart's effortless genius. Hulce, as Mozart, makes the composer seem convincingly obnoxious, and the script is beautifully written to illustrate Salieri's mixed feelings about Mozart. He recognizes Mozart's talent -- perhaps he is the only one in Vienna who does -- yet he resents Mozart's person. The movie also won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and I think they were well deserved. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as are closed captions.) Grade: A   

The Bridge at Remagen

The Bridge at Remagen (1969) starring George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall. Near the end of World War II, the Germans are on the run, and only one bridge remains spanning the Rhine. It's the escape route for 75,000 German troops, but also an invasion route for Allied soldiers. Unfortunately, this movie never makes clear just exactly what all the fighting is about. Do we want to destroy the bridge, or preserve it? It's never made quite clear in the film, although historically the Allied armies went to great lengths to keep the Nazis from blowing up the span. The movie features lots of neat soldier action, with machine guns and tanks and explosions, but it lacks a coherent script that would explain why all the shooting is taking place. (The DVD does not offer English subtitles, but does have closed captions.) Grade: B-   

Amelie

Amelie (2001) starring Audrey Tautou. Although I give this movie an "A" before, I was curiously disappointed this time. I think the fault must lie with me, but I can't figure out why I didn't enjoy the film as much as I had before. All the charms of this oddball movie are still there, and Tautou dazzles in the title role. But for some reason it just didn't register with me as in the past. (In French, with English subtitles.) Grade: B

The American

The American (2010) starring George Clooney, Violante Placido. A weapons expert and assassin (Clooney) is forced to hide out in a small Italian town for a while, but he fails to keep a low profile, continuing to work and developing a serious attraction to a beautiful prostitute named Clara (Placido). As his past gradually catches up to him, he makes up his mind to get out of the criminal business he is in. But it may prove to be too late, as his boss puts out a hit on him. The movie is partially in Italian, but English subtitles are available throughout. Grade: B-

Amelia

Amelia (2009) starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor. The story of famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart (Swank) is told, using her around-the-world attempt as a framing device. You already know the basic outline of the story, and there are not a lot of surprises here, but I found the movie to be an interesting telling of a classic American tale. Swank is fine in the title role, and Gere is not bad as her business associate and later husband. Not an earth-shaking film, but a good evening's entertainment. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B 

Almost Famous

Almost Famous (2000) starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by Cameron Crowe. In 1973, a 15-year-old writer (Fugit) gets a dream assignment: to write an article for Rolling Stone about a mid-level rock band, and to travel with the band for  part of their tour. Based on director Crowe's real-life experiences as a young writer for Rolling Stone, the movie gets behind the façade of the rock band's public face, and reveals things that they would rather not have the public know. The name of the fictional band is Stillwater (I've never heard of them, anyway), and they are led by the charismatic Crudup. McDormand plays the writer's mother, and Hudson plays a groupie whom he falls in love with. It's a better movie than you might expect, very well made and capturing a quintessential time in American pop culture. (Subtitles are provided for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+   

All Things Fair

All Things Fair (1995) starring Johan Widerberg, Marika Lagercrantz, Tomas Von Bromssen. In 1943 in Sweden a high school student falls for his attractive young teacher, and she responds by throwing herself into the affair. There's one major complication -- she's married. This movie, in Swedish with English subtitles, has many "Swedish" aspects that do not quite translate into English. It is a well made film, but there were several moments when I thought, "Wha?" The characters certainly seem to act in unpredictable ways, which is a good thing, but sometimes what they do just doesn't make sense. This movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Grade: B   

All the President's Men

All the President's Men (1976) starring Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook. Redford and Hoffman play Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal open. The movie is a combination newspaper procedural, detective story and thriller, and my only criticism is that I wanted to see the story play out all the way. Instead, we get the initial research that the reporters did, followed by a quick wrap-up at the end of the film in which a teletype prints out all the results of their efforts. It's a pretty effective ending, but the feeling I got was that the filmmakers just ran out of time and went for the quick wrap-up. Still, a very intense, involving film. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A- 

All the King's Men

All the King's Men (1949) starring Broderick Crawford, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge. An honest politician named Willie Stark (Crawford) loses a couple of elections early in his career, then comes to the realization that the way to win is to cheat. He becomes a populist (modeled on Huey Long) who will make a deal with anyone to get elected, and who is willing to play to the "hicks" and the "yokels" to stay in office. This movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Crawford) and Best Actress (McCambridge). I thought it was good, but not that good. It certainly made for a diverting evening's film viewing. (Subtitles in English are included.) Grade: B 

The Uninvited

The Uninvited (1944) starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Gail Russell. A brother and sister (Milland, Hussey) in England decide on a whim to buy a grand house that they chance upon near the seashore. Wouldn't you know it, the house turns out to be haunted. No ambiguity here, we actually see the ghosts as they manifest themselves. The house turns out to have a malignant spirit that wants to kill a young woman (Russell) who once lived there. Not a terribly scary movie, this one has a lightness of spirit the sets it apart from the usual haunted-house flick. (Subtitles in English are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B

The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back (2013) starring Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph. Young Duncan (James) finds himself trapped on a family vacation with his mother Pam (Collette) and her jerk of a boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan finds his redemption in a water park run by Owen (Rockwell), where he gets initiated and learns to find friendship. He also meets a girl (Robb), who follows him and (eventually) kisses him. This is a pretty good movie, though James's silent brooding in the beginning is a little hard to enjoy. It gets better as it goes along. (Subtitles in English are provided, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The To Do List

The To Do List (2013) starring Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Alia Shawkat, Sarah Steele, Scott Porter, Rachel Bilson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Connie Britton, Clark Gregg. Recent high-school graduate Brandy Klark (Plaza) decides she needs to get some sexual experience, so she makes a list of sex acts she wants to complete before she goes off to college. Then, using various guys of her acquaintance, she proceeds to work her way through the list. This movie is a rather raunchy, mostly unfunny exercise, with just a few jokes that hit the mark. I found it repellent. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are provided, and they're very good.) Grade: C-   

The Conjuring

The Conjuring (2013) starring Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston. A family moves into a house that turns out to be haunted, and they hire a paranormal-investigator couple (Wilson, Farmiga) to try to get rid of the demons. Then, to further complicate matters, the evil spirits go after the paranormal experts' family. This is a spooky, creepy movie that generates a genuine feeling of dread. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are offered on the disc, although closed captions are not.) Grade: B 

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray. Famous anti-war movie tells World War I story from point of view of young German men, although they all speak English in the  movie. The film shows how grand patriotism contrasts with the realities of war and death, and how the young soldiers react to being placed in this new, stressful situation. Ayres, who stars as young soldier Paul, later became a pacifist and claimed conscientious objector status in World War II. The message of this movie is not dated, although the technology (quality of image and sound) is. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc, although closed captions are not.) Grade: B+

All Night Long

All Night Long (1981) starring Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Diane Ladd, Dennis Quaid. Hackman stars as George Dupler, a mid-level executive at a drug-store company who begins the movie by throwing a chair out through a window and punching his boss. In the process of restructuring his life, he meets and falls for a woman (Streisand) who is gradually won over to his crazy new way of life. Dupler's son (Quaid) is already having an affair with the woman, which makes things kind of awkward between them. This is an oddball little movie which offers its own rewards and has an upbeat ending. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B 

All of Me

All of Me (1984) starring Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Victoria Tennant. Directed by Carl Reiner. Cranky, rich, but bedridden woman (Tomlin) arranges to get her soul transferred into a young, healthy woman (Tennant) upon her death. But the plan goes awry, and Tomlin's soul ends up in a lawyer (Martin) who doesn't really want to be a lawyer. The movie is uneven, but has many funny scenes, and Martin is brilliantly funny as the man whose soul shares his body with a woman's soul. Unfortunately, this is a bare-bones disc, and has no subtitles or closed captions. Grade: B

Fantasia

Fantasia (1940) starring Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Narrated by Deems Taylor. Walt Disney Studios creates a marriage of classical music and animation, with eight different sections filling out this two-hour movie. Included are Bach's Toccata and Fugue; Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (excerpt); "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (with Mickey Mouse); "A Night on Bald Mountain"; "The Dance of the Hours" (with dancing hippos and alligators); and Stravinski's "Rite of Spring" (showing evolution through the dinosaurs). Fantasia is a fantastic movie. It even includes subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Grade: A-   

Allegheny Uprising

Allegheny Uprising (1939) starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, George Sanders, Brian Donlevy. In 1759, a few years before the War for Independence, a valley of Pennsylvania colonists rises up against British rule, led by Jim Smith (Wayne). Trevor plays Wayne's romantic interest, and she's one scrappy frontierswoman. This is quite the colonial tale, though obviously shot on a low budget. It succeeds in entertaining, and is said to be based on a true story. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The Heat

The Heat (2013) starring Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy. Bullock and McCarthy play an odd couple of law enforcement trying to bring down a drug ring in Boston. The movie is a mess in many ways, but it certainly has its moments. Bullock plays an uptight FBI agent from New York, while McCarthy is a brash and potty-mouthed police officer from Boston. They are thrown together on a case and proceed to drive each other crazy -- until they learn to love each other. This film is obviously a variation on a well worn theme, but it almost works. Bullock is a little out of her element here, but McCarthy is note-perfect and really brings the movie to life. The movie has an improvised feel to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, except that some of the improvised humor just misses the mark. I ended up feeling good after watching this film, so it must be said that the formula worked, at least in part. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as are closed captions.) Grade: B

When Comedy Was King

When Comedy Was King (1960) starring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand, Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson, the Keystone Kops. Silent comedy classics from 1914 onward through the twenties are featured in this brief (81 minutes) compilation film. There are plenty of laughs to be had here if your sense of humor is still intact. If you love the old silent comedy classics, this movie is a must-see. (Subtitles of any kind are not available, but after all these are silent films.) Grade: B 

All About My Mother

All About My Mother (1999) starring Cecelia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penelope Cruz. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. When a woman loses her son, she returns to Barcelona and reconnects with her earlier life there. This Almodovar's tribute to women, and one can only imagine that his own mother may have born some resemblance to the women in this movie. It's an intensely interesting movie, with lots of transsexuals and pregnant nuns. It also pays tribute to All About Eve and A Streetcar Named Desire. It's in Spanish, with English subtitles. Grade: A-    

All About Eve

All About Eve (1950) starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Davis stars as a fading Broadway star who takes in a devoted fan (Baxter), who turns out to be a conniving bitch who wants to use Davis (and others) to start an acting career of her own. The film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Sanders). This is a perfect little film with a brilliant script (by Mankiewicz) that tells a human story which rings true. (Subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A  

Aliens

Aliens (1986) starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton. Directed by James Cameron. Ripley (Weaver), the only survivor of the first mission to LV-426, returns with a fresh crew of gung-ho Marines to wipe out a colony of alien creatures. Weaver was nominated for an Academy Award for her excellent performance as the forceful Ripley. The movie is propulsive in its action sequences, driving forward with constant suspense, and arriving at one of those endings which Cameron became famous for after he directed The Terminator (1984). This is a real kick-ass movie, and deserves the attention of action and sci-fi fans everywhere. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+   

Alien

Alien (1979) starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright. Directed by Ridley Scott. Commercial spacecraft responds to a beacon and the crew end up being hunted down by a scary and very lethal alien creature. The only survivor is the forceful, resourceful Ripley (Weaver).This movie is a kind of cultural touchstone, and has some really neat ideas and some well earned scares. But after the creature is aboard the space ship, it amounts to little more than a haunted-house horror show. And an anti-corporate tirade (not such a bad thing). The version I watched was the Director's Cut, which added some footage not shown in theaters and trimmed a few scenes here and there. I didn't find it to be an improvement over the theatrical version. I remember this movie being a really big deal when it came out in 1979, but it is now mostly a disappointment (though a necessary prelude to the superior sequel, Aliens.) (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B-    

Alice's Restaurant

Alice's Restaurant (1969) starring Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, James Broderick. Amateurish movie incorporates the song "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" into it's otherwise flabby plot. Not much is going on here, and the acting is really not up to snuff. Some good music is included, along with a guest appearance by Pete Seeger. This film really seems like an anachronism. I was expecting to feel some nostalgia for the '60s, but the effect was the opposite. Did we really look like that? Did we really act like that? Phoo-eee. (The disc has closed captions, so the hearing-impaired aren't entirely left out.) Grade: C

Operation Crossbow

Operation Crossbow (1965) starring Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, John Mills. During World War II, British agents parachute into Nazi-occupied Europe on a mission to stop the German V-1 rocket (flying bomb) project. At the last minute, the mission is canceled -- but not before two of the agents have already made the jump. Loren plays the ex-wife of one of the identities that has been assumed by one of the agents (Peppard). Although Loren gets top billing, her part is really rather small; in fact, she dies early in the film. The pyrotechnics are rather impressive, as the Germans progress past the V-1 to the V-2 rocket, and we see large sections  of London obliterated. Overall, however, the movie is rather fantastical and hard to believe. I don't think the bombing of the V-2 facility actually took place as represented in the movie. (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: B-   

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller. This latest addition to the Star Trek canon tries hard but makes the mistake of dipping into the past, bringing back Khan as a villain. It also feels compelled to get a little too busy, with all kinds of camera motion and crazy camera angles. I'm a big Star Trek fan, but this movie failed to grab my attention  in a really big way. The plot was too complicated and too poorly explained. I just didn't enjoy it. On the plus side, favorite characters all returned, and there was even a Tribble subplot. It should have been good fun. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) starring Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Green Bush, Alfred Lutter, Diane Ladd, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Burstyn won an Oscar in the role of Alice, a woman whose husband (Bush) dies and who must then decide what to do with her life (and her 12-year-old son, played by Lutter). Kristofferson plays the gentle man she meets along the way, who tries to win her heart. The movie makes lovely use of music. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+  

Alice Adams

Alice Adams (1935) starring Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray. Directed by George Stevens. Based on a Booth Tarkington novel, this movie tells the story of a lower-middle-class girl named Alice (Hepburn) and her efforts to win the affections of a rather wealthy young man named Arthur (MacMurray). Hepburn is utterly charming in the title role, and the film is very funny in its own underplayed way. There's a whole side-plot about Alice's father and his ambitions to start a glue factory, but many plot threads are lost in the main story about the romance between Alice and Arthur. For a movie this old, it was quite engaging and entertaining. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

Eyes Without a Face

Eyes Without a Face (1960) starring Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli. After disfiguring his daughter in an automobile accident, mad surgeon (Brasseur) tries to restore her face by stealing faces from other young women. When one transplant fails, he vows to keep on trying until he succeeds. Horror film is only partly successful, as it is tripped up by flaws in logic of plot, and weak script. But certain scenes do engender horror, and the film is considered a classic in certain circles. In French, with English subtitles. The subtitles seem to be flawed. Grade: C+ 

The Haunting

The Haunting (1963) starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn. Directed by Robert Wise. Haunted-house feature has a small group of "researchers" taking up residence in a 90-year old house in remotest New England. Loud noises, disembodied laughter, etc. combine to scare the bejesus out of the researchers, who are there because their leader (Johnson) wants to prove that the supernatural exists. This movie seemed really tame to me, and not scary at all. Actual human monsters, such as serial killers or gangsters, are far more frightening to me than things that go bump in the night. The only thing that sets this film apart for me is Julie Harris's performance as a middle-aged woman who is slightly off-plumb and really wants something -- anything -- to happen to her. This is only so-so scare fare. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B-  

Alfie

Alfie (1966) starring Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Shirley Anne Field. Caine plays Alfie, a philandering cad, who thinks he's got it all figured out but ends up asking "What's it all about?" The young Michael Caine was certainly handsome enough to pull off the role as a serial womanizer whose credo is, Take your pleasure, but don't let anyone get too close. He never falls in love, seeing no advantage in getting all involved with a bird. And he refers to all "birds" as "it." He's a tremendously misogynistic character, and hard to like, but by the end of the movie I had developed a kind of sympathy for him. Cher sings title song, "What's it all about, Alfie?" (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: A- 

Before Midnight

Before Midnight (2013) starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. Directed by Richard Linklater. Follow-up to 1995 and 2004 films brings the two main characters up to date, with Hawke as a father torn by the absence of his son, while Delpy is the now-middle-aged mother of his two twin daughters. The movie consists mostly of one long conversation between the two, which devolves into an argument, which gets pretty nasty before it is over. Although the movie consists almost entirely of this one dialogue, it doesn't fail to hold the viewer's interest, and gives birth to profound thoughts about relationships past and present. If you've followed these characters through the two earlier movies -- "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" -- you will want to see this installment and be brought up to date. Good, mature filmmaking. (Subtitles are available in English for the hearing-impaired, but not closed captions.) Grade: A- 

Man Hunt

Man Hunt (1941) starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine. Directed by Fritz Lang. In 1939, before World War II had broken out, a British man named Thorndike (Pidgeon) carries out a "fake" assassination attempt on Hitler, only to be apprehended by the Nazis. He manages to escape and stow away on a ship bound for England, but once back home he finds himself pursued relentlessly by German agents. Although the movie strains the bounds of believability, it is still an entertaining propaganda film, made in America but set in Britain. Bennett provides a strong female love interest, playing a lower-class girl named Jerry who helps Thorndike out, then falls for him. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

That Hamilton Woman

That Hamilton Woman (1941) starring Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbry. Lady Emma Hamilton (Leigh), wife of the British ambassador to Naples (Mowbry), meets and falls in love with Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson (Olivier). Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, it's a tragic romance between two people who are married to others, and Leigh and Olivier have never been more attractive on screen. Their love affair is utterly convincing, plus, there is a grand sea battle thrown in for effect. Notice that this movie was made two years after "Gone With the Wind," so Leigh was near the height of her career. The fact that this film was shot in black and white hardly detracts from the appeal. I genuinely enjoyed it. (Subtitles in English are available, which is a good thing because closed captions are not included.) Grade: A- 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, Alan Marshal, George Zucco. Holmes' (Rathbone) arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty (Zucco), concocts a convoluted crime to distract Holmes from his real aim, to steal the crown jewels. Despite Moriarty's brilliant plan, Holmes catches on (of course). But the movie is stylishly carried off, with Watson (Bruce) being the object of fun more than once. For 1939, this is a pretty good mystery with lots of atmosphere and a dearth of red herrings. Not bad. (Subtitles in English are included, although closed captions are not.) Grade: B  

Operation Pacific

Operation Pacific (1951) starring John Wayne, Patricia Neal, Ward Bond. World War II submariner Duke Gifford (Wayne) is so dedicated to his career that he loses his wife (Neal). Four years after their divorce, they meet again on Pearl Harbor, and their "zing" is reignited. This movie contains lots of submarine action, and one of the major plot strands concerns torpedoes that hit enemy ships and don't explode. Wayne is in top form as a Navy man who is overzealous about his ship and tends to neglect his woman -- until he learns his lesson. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+ 

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great (1956) starring Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom. Over two hours long, this failed epic spends far too much time on Alexander's intrigues in Greece, doesn't have enough time left over to devote to his conquests and death. The script has many holes in it, and the acting is only so-so. Burton, who was about 30 when the film was made, is too old for the part of Alexander, who died at the age of 33. Altogether, a very disappointing film about a grand subject. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: C

Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky (1938) starring a cast of Russians from the 1930s. Leonard Maltin calls this movie a masterpiece, but he is way off the mark. The DVD is terrible. It is not indexed, so you can't stop the film to take a break without losing your place. It's in Russian with English subtitles, and the subtitles are illegible about half the time. The sound quality is terrible, and the black-and-white picture is not much better. The plot concerns a Russian effort in the 13th century to repel an invasion by Teutonic (German) knights, an odd parallel considering what was about to happen in Europe at the time the film was made. The movie is hyper-patriotic on behalf of Russia. The acting is so-so, and the script is quite clumsy. It was not an enjoyable viewing experience. Grade: D

The Alamo

The Alamo (2004) starring Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echeverria. In 1836, a small band of Texas patriots (about 200 defenders) fights an army of thousands of Mexicans in one of the pivotal battles of the war for Texan independence. Thornton is a standout as Davy Crockett, who finds he must live up to his legend even though he is only a man. The movie is well mounted, with convincing period detail. It also follows the general Sam Houston (Quaid) after the Alamo, as he uses the Alamo as a rallying cry to his army in a decisive battle with Mexican General Santa Anna and his army. It's a pretty good action flick, although I found it lacked immediacy and I found it hard to care about this battle fought in 1836. I can hardly imagine what the audience for this film would be. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Air Force One

Air Force One (1997) starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Wendy Crewson, Glenn Close, Dean Stockwell. Air Force One is, of course the jet that the president of the U.S. travels in. In this case, the president is played by Ford. Air Force One is taken over by a group of terrorists, led by Oldman, who has his own agenda. It's a post-Cold War thriller, with the president of Russia cooperating to help the U.S. get out of the mess they've gotten into. The movie requires a strong dose of suspension of disbelief, and even then it's a pretty standard Harrison Ford thriller. I have to admit, Oldman makes a pretty good bad guy. I found the appeal to patriotism to be moving, even as I felt myself being manipulated. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B-  

Airport

Airport (1970) starring Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, Van Heflin.  Somewhat soap-operaish tale of airport socked in by snow and heroic efforts of airport boss (Lancaster) and others to clear a runway blocked by a plane that turned too soon. Also features a man (Heflin) with a bomb who hopes to collect on flight insurance so that his wife will be set for life. Hayes is a delight as a little old lady who makes a habit of stowing away on flights so that she can see her daughter, who lives in a distant city. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B

La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita (1960) starring Marcello Mostroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noel. Directed by Federico Fellini. Famous Fellini film is somewhat disappointing in the viewing, shows its age early and often. Mostroianni plays Marcello, a tabloid reporter who is disgusted by what he does for a living but can't seem to break free of it. Paparazzi are a theme throughout the movie, showing up every time someone remotely famous says or does anything. The film is highly episodic, and some of the sections are interesting, but it doesn't add up to much -- and it's a real butt-buster at two hours and 50 minutes of length. It's also in black and white, which in this case worked against the film for me. Fellini fans will no doubt love it, but it left me rather cold. (In Italian, with English subtitles -- except when the occasional character speaks in English, in which case it is not subtitled.) Grade: B-  

The Fugitive

The Fugitive (1993) starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, Joe Pantoliano. Dr. Richard Kimble (Ford), falsely convicted of killing his wife (Ward), escapes and goes on the run, pursued by a dogged U.S. Marshal (Jones). The scene where Kimble escapes is spectacular, involving as it does a bus crash followed by a special-effects train crash that really blows you away on the big screen. Aside from the excellent acting (Jones won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor), this film benefits from a brilliant script and the constant tension of the chase. It's one of the best movies I've seen this year. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-  

Airplane!

Airplane! (1980) starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Leslie Nielsen. One of the funniest comedies ever, laugh-a-minute humor coming at you for practically the entire movie. At one point it made me laugh out loud, which is really hard to do. The presence of "serious" actors Stack, Bridges, Graves and Nielsen adds to the humor as they all play it straight and in various ways make fools of themselves. This is a spoof of all the "Airport" type films that appeared in the '70s, and it hits the mark far more often than it misses. A very funny comedy. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+   

Agnes of God

Agnes of God (1985) starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly. A young nun (Tilly) gives birth to a baby in the convent and then, apparently, murders the baby. A court-appointed psychiatrist (Fonda) is sympathetic, but finds no easy answers. Based on a stage play, the film is only partially satisfying, leaving many questions unanswered. Still, three strong performances from the lead actresses make this a movie worth viewing. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

Aimee & Jaguar

Aimee & Jaguar (1999) starring Maria Schrader, Juliane Kohler. In 1943 in Berlin, two women fall in love with one another. One is a young German hausfrau with a husband and four children, the other turns out to be a Jew. Even though war is being waged all around them, they try to love each other through it. It might sound like an outlandish plot, but it has the virtue of being true. Unfortunately, it does not have a happy ending -- another characteristic of true stories. The movie is quite well made, and the love scenes between the two women are tastefully done. In German, with English subtitles. Grade: B+ 

Alice in Wondreland

Alice in Wonderland (1951) starring the voices of Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna. Episodic animated rendering of the Lewis Carroll classic, with memorable sequences including the Cheshire Cat, the unbirthday party, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, and the Queen of Hearts. Although truly weird, the movie does little to engage the heart, and thus fails a achieve high art. Entertaining pretty much all the way through, though. (Subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) starring Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro, Helena Rojo. Directed by Werner Herzog. In the 1560s, a mad group of Spaniards set out from Peru, after conquering the Incas, to seek El Dorado, the fabled city of gold. A man named Aguirre (Kinski) takes over part of the expedition and sets off on his own with a cohort to seek to conquer all of South America (although he has no idea how large it is). The expedition, of course, is doomed, and this movie can be watched as an example of the dangers of pride and ambition. It's a tense film, and you may leave it with a feeling of doom. It's in German, with English subtitles. Grade: B+  

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) starring Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento. From Irving Stone's book, which covered Michelangelo's entire life, comes this adequate movie depicting the battle between Pope Julius II (Harrison) and Michelangelo (Heston) over the  painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The depictions of Michelangelo's works are inspiring, without a doubt, but the plot of this movie is lacking in inspiration. It's only a so-so entertainment, and not one of Heston's greatest performances. Harrison is lacking in gravitas in the role of the pope. I was a bit disappointed in the film. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, James Broderick, Chris Sarandon. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Sonny (Pacino) and Sal (Cazale) team up to try and rob a bank, and it turns into a media circus when all the police show up. It turns out that Sonny is doing it to try and get money for his homosexual lover's (Sarandon) sex-change operation. Durning and Broderick play cops who try to negotiate with Sonny for the release of hostages that Sonny and Sal are holding in the bank. It's a pretty entertaining movie, thanks to Pacino's performance as the conflicted Sonny. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+ 

After the Thin Man

After the Thin Man (1936) starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart. Sequel to the first Thin Man movie has Nick and Nora Charles (Powell and Loy) journeying to San Francisco, determined to put detective work behind them. But it is not to be as a murder occurs right in their own circle and Nick is called on to solve it. The murder mystery is really just a backdrop for "snappy chatter" between Nick and Nora and the rest of the cast, but it has lost some of its snap in the last 75 years and is only mildly amusing. This is a fairly diverting movie, but nothing to write home about. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

After Life

After Life (1998) starring Aarata, Erika Oda, Susuma Terajima. Japanese fantasy film about workers at a way station for the dead, who spend one week with the newly deceased and help them choose one best memory from their lives, which the agents will then film and send on with the dead to the afterlife. The dead will then spend eternity experiencing this memory, and forget about the rest of their lives. It's an interesting conceit, but I found this movie to be pretty limp and not terribly engaging. It's in Japanese, with English subtitles. Grade: C

Back to the Future

Back to the Future (1985) starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover. Young Marty McFly (Fox) accidentally travels back in time from 1985 to 1955, in a time machine built by Doc Brown (Lloyd). In 1955, he encounters his own parents (Thompson, Glover) -- when they were young. He gets enmeshed in their lives, and realizes that he must go back to the future after he manages to get them together. Although this movie is riddled with paradoxes and inconsistencies, it is nevertheless one of my favorite movies. There is so much good stuff here that it cancels out the bad. (Subtitles in English are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: A-   

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1952) starring Dan O'Herlihy. Directed by Luis Bunuel. Sometime in the 1600s, a man named Robinson Crusoe (O'Herlihy) leaves home to sail the seas. Much to his dismay, his ship is blown far off course by a storm, and he is stranded on an uninhabited island. By pluck and quick wits, he manages to survive, and eventually ends up spending 28 years almost completely alone on the island. His only relief from loneliness is his man Friday, a native who shows up on the island about half-way through the film. It's a moderately entertaining movie, although there's only so much you can do with one man cast away, alone on an island. In the end, his exit from the island seemed a bit anticlimactic, and the film overall was kind of a downer. (Captions in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B 

Advise and Consent

Advise and Consent (1962) starring Henry Fonda, Don Murray, Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres. Long but interesting drama about wheeling and dealing (and blackmail) in the U.S. Senate. Fonda plays a man who is nominated by the President (Tone) to be Secretary of State, and most of the rest of the cast play senators who must deliberate and decide whether to confirm him in the office or not. The movie borders on melodrama, but is still absorbing enough to hold the viewer's attention and to make sense. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone. The classic movie has all the Robin Hood stories you'll remember, unless you're a Robin Hood scholar. Flynn is the definitive Robin of Locksley, and de Havilland is lovely as Maid Marian. Rains and Rathbone are fine as the villains, Prince John and Sir Guy, who try to take over England and raise taxes while Richard the Lion Heart is gone to the Crusades. Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the movie is a little too colorful. But it certainly provides a fine evening's entertainment, with lots of '38 Extras. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A- 

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) starring John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown, Jonathan Pryce, Uma Thurman, Sting, Robin Williams. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Typical Gilliam fare has Baron Munchausen (Neville) riding in to save a city from the depredations of the Turks in the late 18th century. Everything about the film is fanciful, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I found it to be a mildly diverting evening's entertainment, certainly not one of the great films, but worth watching for the most part. (The supplied English subtitles are very legible, and the disc also offers closed captions.) Grade: B

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring (2013) starring Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Clair Julien, Taissa Farmiga. Based on actual events that happened in 2008-9, this movie tells the story of a small group of Southern California teens who targeted celebrities for burglaries. The film commits the cardinal sin of being repetitive and boring for the first hour, then depressing for the next half-hour. The viewer is really given nothing to care about, as none of these teens has much depth or any distinguishing characteristics at all. It's not a terrible movie, it's just not very good. (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: B-   

Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek (1964) starring Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, George Foundas. A young Englishman (Bates) arrives in Greece, on his way to the island of Crete, where he has inherited a lignite mine. On the way there, he meets a Greek named Zorba (Quinn), who attaches himself to him and whom he hires to try and bring the  mine up to working order. Once in Crete, the young Englishman gets involved in the affairs of the people of the small village to which he travels. The movie has a certain earthy zestfulness, courtesy of Quinn and Kedrova, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a dying prostitute. The film also won Oscars for cinematography and art direction-set decoration. Grade: B

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Barrie, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine. Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) investigates a murder on the moor. When an old family legend is revealed (the Hound of the Baskervilles), Holmes is not fooled, and uses his deductive powers to catch the murderer. It's a very atmospheric movie, with lots of mist and howling by the hound. Oddly enough, Rathbone has little actual screen time. Mostly Holmes is in London while Watson (Bruce) is on the moor acting as his eyes and ears. This is not a great film, but is notable for being the first pairing of Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. (Subtitles in English are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B  

Adam's Rib

Adam's Rib (1949) starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell. Tracy and Hepburn appear together in one of their celebrated pairings, as two lawyers on opposite sides in a murder case.  Tracy appears for the prosecution and Hepburn for the defense in the case of a woman (Holliday) who shot her cheating husband (Ewell). Of course, the case bleeds over into Amanda (Hepburn) and Adam's (Tracy) marriage because yes, they happen to be married to each other. I found this to be a pretty good entertainment, and you can't fault the star power of the actors. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

The Absent Minded Professor

The Absent Minded Professor (1961) starring Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Ed Wynn. Professor Brainard (MacMurray) is so preoccupied with his research that he forgets his wedding -- three times. His bride-to-be (Olson) gives up on him, but then he invents flubber (short for flying rubber) and the plot thickens. When he puts flubber on the soles of his college's basketball team, the fun starts. The team is able to bounce around the basketball court like kangaroos. Then the professor figures out how to use flubber to make a car fly, and we're off to the races. This movie is silly, but still a lot of fun. It's short, at an hour and 36 minutes, which is something I like in a movie. There's lots of slapstick and funny situations, and everything works out in the end. What more could you ask for? (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

It's Complicated

It's Complicated (2009) starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Lake Bell. Jane (Streep) falls into an affair with her ex-husband Jake (Baldwin), who has remarried to a younger woman (Bell). Meanwhile, Jane is beginning to feel attracted to Adam (Martin), the architect who is designing an addition to her house. Since Jane and Jake have three grown children, it's a bit of an understatement to say it's complicated. This movie showcases Streep's talent, and has warmth and humor. I liked it, aside from the presence of the odious Alec Baldwin. It certainly provides an evening of diverting entertainment. (English subtitles are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B+  

The Young Philadelphians

The Young Philadelphians (1959) starring Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith, Robert Vaughn. Newman stars as a young man named Tony Lawrence in Philadelphia in the late 1940s through the 1950s. Something goes horribly wrong between his  parents on their wedding day, with the result that his father turns out to be someone other than the man who married his mother. It's all about social climbing and career success, however, and Tony learns his lesson early. Later, he goes on to act as defense lawyer for a friend (Vaughn) who is falsely accused of murder. It's all one great big melodrama, which is another way of saying it ain't art. But it is an entertaining movie, and I didn't feel like I had completely wasted my time. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B   

Absence of Malice

Absence of Malice (1981) starring Paul Newman, Sally Field, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Wilford Brimley. A reporter (Field) is fooled into printing a story that is critical of an innocent man (Newman). Offended by the cruel power of the press, he decides to get even -- and succeeds. Newman and Field have one love scene together, but frankly there's not much believable chemistry between the two. The main plot, with Newman setting up the government officials who are harassing him, is pretty nifty. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The Wrong Man

The Wrong Man (1957) starring Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Unusual entry in the Hitchcock body of work has Fonda playing real-life musician who was falsely accused of a series of crimes. Strongest performance of the movie comes from Miles, who plays his wife who cracks under the strain of the wrongful prosecution of her husband. The film is generally rather low-key and grim, with the steely bands of justice slowly closing around Fonda's character, even though we are pretty sure he is innocent. The real core of the film is his wife's breakdown, which persists even after he is exonerated. Definitely not a feel-good movie, but one well worth seeing. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Longest Day

The Longest Day (1962) starring John Wayne, Rod Steiger, Robert Ryan, Peter Lawford, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, many others. This World War II epic takes a sweeping view of June 6, 1944, the day of the Normandy invasion -- the day when the Allies finally struck back at Hitler's Germany and began the process of ending the war. Numerous well known actors and future stars appear, many of them in roles so brief that they can only be called cameos. The combat scenes are very effective, and in many cases you get the feeling of actually being there. For anyone who loves history, and especially the history of World War II, this is must-see viewing. Not necessarily a great movie, but definitely an epic. (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: A-  

The Addams Family

The Addams Family (1991) starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Dan Hedaya, Elizabeth Wilson. The macabre humor of the Addams family takes center stage as the family lawyer (Hedaya), coveting the Addams' wealth, plants a phony Uncle Fester (Lloyd) in their midst. Huston and Julia are excellent as Morticia and Gomez, who are absolutely in love with each other and share a morbid sense of humor. The script is a little weak in spots, but the movie is a fun watch. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Stories We Tell

Stories We Tell (2012) Documentary. Directed by Sarah Polley. The stories in question are Polley's family stories, the stories told by her siblings and her father about her late mother. The big reveal in this movie is that Polley's father Michael was not her biological father; she discovered in her 20s that her biological father was a man whom her mother had met while acting in a play in Montreal (the family lived in Toronto).  I found this movie mildly interesting, but hardly earthshaking. To Polley it must seem like a big deal that her father was not her biological father, but in today's society it seems like a commonplace. The film is well produced and clearly plotted, so it is something of a pleasure to watch. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

L'Avventura

L'Avventura (1960) starring Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lea Massari. A small group of idle rich arrive on a deserted Mediterranean island for a lark, only to find excitement when one of their group (Massari) disappears. The rest of the film is ostensibly about the search for the missing woman, except that it soon branches off into a romance between her boyfriend (Ferzetti) and her friend (Vitti). The commentary track on this DVD makes the case that it is a great film, but I couldn't quite see it. It's certainly an interesting film, but I predict that most American viewers won't like it much. It's in Italian, with English subtitles. Grade: B

The Young Lions

The Young Lions (1958) starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange, Barbara Rush. World War II study has Brando as a German who is conflicted about the war, Clift and Martin as American G.I.s who fight prejudice in basic training, then end up fighting together in Normandy. It's a pretty good movie, one of the better ones to look at WWII. It even shows the liberation of a concentration camp. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

Adaptation

Adaptation (2002) starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Judy Greer. Directed by Spike Jonze. In a unique melding of screenwriter's and director's sensibilities, Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief is brought to the screen -- in unrecognizable form. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman becomes a character in his own screenplay, as he struggles to adapt The Orchid Thief into a movie. The book is a nonfiction account of John LaRoche, a real-life orchid collector who lives in Florida, and has scarcely any plot to speak of. It's beautifully written, however, which is probably why it got optioned to be made into a film. Kaufman apparently struggled with finding a way to convert the book into a movie, and ended up writing his struggles into the plot of the film. Jonze, to his credit, goes with the idea and enthusiastically directs it into this twisty, turny, weird movie. This is a crazy mixed-up film, and it won't be to everyone's taste. As for me, I was somewhat disappointed. (Subtitles are available in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole (1951) starring Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling. Cynical New Mexico reporter (Douglas) sees a chance to revivify his once-thriving career when he stumbles on an Indian ruin with a man trapped inside. He manipulates the situation to stretch out the story, so that he can reap more glory, but the strategy ends up backfiring on him. The whole story takes on a carnival atmosphere as people come from miles around to witness the rescue of the trapped man.  As a former newspaperman, I found this story less than believable, but it made its point fairly effectively. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, but not close captions.) Grade: B-   

The Abyss

The Abyss (1989) starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn. In an underwater sci-fi adventure, a crew of divers on an oil rig goes down to investigate a nuclear submarine which has been sunk. While investigating, one of the crew (Mastrantonio) sees an underwater UFO. Meanwhile, a Navy SEAL team which has been sent to check out the status of the nuclear sub begins to interfere with the crew of the oil rig. Biehn gets to pull his favorite assignment as an actor by playing a member of the SEAL diving team who gets "pressure psychosis." I watched the "extended" video version of the movie, which, at two hours and forty-five minutes, is a bit too long. Also, the film kind of goes overboard in depicting the underwater aliens and their concern for mankind. It would have been fine just to know they're there and that they are aware of us. Still, a rather enjoyable viewing experience. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B        

About Schmidt

About Schmidt (2002) starring Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates. Shortly after Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) retires from his job in the insurance business, his wife dies, and he embarks on a personal journey of discovery which has plenty of funny aspects, as well as plenty of poignant facets. His daughter Jeannie (Davis) is on the verge of marrying a hopeless loser (Mulroney), and Schmidt decides that his mission in life is to stop the marriage from going forward. His attempts to intervene, however, only go to show what a chasm has opened between him and his daughter. This is a funny and sad movie, and Nicholson turns in a very good performance as Schmidt. I found it well worth the investment of time to watch. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+  

About a Boy

About a Boy (2002) starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult. A totally self-absorbed bachelor named Will (Grant), who lives off the royalties from a song his father wrote, decides to pose as a single dad in order to pick up women. What he doesn't count on is Marcus (Hoult), a 12-year-old boy who meets him and decides that he, Will, would make a good addition to the small family of Marcus and his mother (Collette). Marcus starts coming over to Will's flat uninvited and watching TV with him. Will resists, but eventually is won over. This movie is a pleasant story of how two people can form an attachment without the usual Hollywood trappings, and how that attachment can be a benefit to everyone involved. It's also a funny film. I enjoyed it quite a bit. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are offered on the disc.) Grade: B    

American Graffiti

American Graffiti (1973) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul LeMat, Charlie Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Wolfman Jack, Harrison Ford. Written and directed by George Lucas. Outstanding, groundbreaking film is about a group of teens in 1962 and their activities on the last night of high school. The soundtrack of the movie is made up entirely of rock 'n' roll music from the era 1955-62, so this is a real nostalgia piece for those who went through their teens in the late '50s or early '60s. The film also launched the careers of many of the main actors who appear in it. The disc also features a fine making-of documentary which is over an hour long and includes all of the principals involved in the making of the movie. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, and the songs are captioned.) Grade: A    

You Can Count on Me

You Can Count on Me (2000) starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Rory Culkin. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Siblings Sammy (Linney) and Terry (Ruffalo) are orphaned at a young age, and this of course affects the whole course of both their lives. Sammy becomes ultra-responsible, trying to keep everything normal, while Terry becomes a classic fuck-up. When he comes to visit her in the small town where she lives, they get quickly entangled in each other's lives, and Uncle Terry forms a bond with Sammy's son (Culkin). Meanwhile, Sammy embarks on an ill-advised affair with her married boss (Broderick), and her long-suffering boyfriend asks her to marry him. The script is very well written and the movie is expertly directed. It's a small, dramatic story that is very well told and acted. Good film. (Both subtitles for the hearing-impaired and closed captions are available.) Grade: A-  

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) starring Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead. Directed by Orson Welles. Story, set in 1873 and the following years, about two families -- one on the way up and one on the way down. It all starts with an innocent incident in which Morgan (Cotten) falls on his bass fiddle while courting Isabel Amberson (Costello). She marries a different man, one whom she does not truly love, and all the complications that follow arise from that one decision. The story is told rather elliptically, and the dialogue struck me as old-fashioned -- not always a fatal flaw, but in this case I think it detracted from the movie's effect. The film would probably benefit from repeated viewings. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B

No Place on Earth

No Place on Earth (2012) Documentary. A true story of survival dating back to World War II, when 38 Jews managed to survive the Nazi occupation of Ukraine by hiding in a cave for 18 months. It's a rather well made film, mixing current action (five of the people who were in the cave still survive, and tell their story for the camera) with reenactment of what life in the cave was like. Those who survived the war in the cave now have 125 descendants, mostly in Canada and the United States. I found the movie to be moving and uplifting. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+ 

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) starring Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas. Rather long but enjoyable comedy about a 1910 London-to-Paris air race, with international competition, cheating and romance. The filmmakers built several reproductions of actual early airplanes and used them in the film to nice effect. The humor is a bit broad, but it's all in good fun and the actual race is somewhat exciting. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Young Poisoner's Handbook

The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995) starring Hugh O'Conor, Antony Sher, Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd Pack. Young Graham (O'Conor) decides to become the world's greatest poisoner, starting with his stepmother. The film goes on in some detail about his stay in a psychiatric facility after he is convicted of murder, but I had trouble following it because THIS FILM HAS NO SUBTITLES OR CLOSED CAPTIONS. Nothing. Nada. Zip. For that reason it gets a Grade: F

The Woman in Green

The Woman in Green (1945) starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell. Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) faces off against Professor Moriarty (Daniell) and his female ally (Brooke), who have concocted a scheme which involves hypnotism, blackmail and murder. It's a rather well made movie, but the sticking point for me was the hypnotism aspect, which I found totally hokey. And why the movie is called The Woman in Green makes no sense, since the film is in black and white and no reference is ever made to the color of anyone's clothes. I'm not an aficionado of Holmes movies, but this one definitely falls short. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Pollyanna

Pollyanna (1960) starring Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Richard Egan, Karl Malden, Nancy Olson. A young orphan named Pollyanna (Mills) arrives in town to live with her Aunt Polly (Wyman). Although the town is divided and contentious, Pollyanna gradually wins them over with her optimistic "glad girl" philosophy of always finding something in any situation to be glad about. When tragedy befalls Pollyanna, the people of the town rally round her and lift her spirits. This is a good Disney movie, suitable for family viewing. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+     

42

42 (2013) starring Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Lucas Black. In 1947, Branch Rickey (Ford), owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decides it is time for an African-American to play major league baseball. The prospect he picks is Jackie Robinson (Boseman), who goes on to be the first black major leaguer in the modern era, not to mention rookie of the year for 1947. For anybody who loves baseball and social justice, this is bound to be a deeply moving film. My only criticism is that Boseman, a first-time lead actor, is a little lacking in charisma. Plus, the film ends at the finish of his first season, and I would have liked to see a little more of his career. Still, it's an excellent film. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A-

The Bad News Bears

The Bad News Bears (1976) starring Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten, Jackie Earle Haley. Losing Little League team the Bears are taken over by Coach Buttermaker (Matthau), who brings in a ringer named Amanda (O'Neal) to pitch. He also brings in a ringer named Kelly (Haley) to play center field and hit, and the team actually makes it to the playoffs. There is no feel-good ending, however, and the team stays true to its basic character. The movie makes good use of musical themes from Bizet's Carmen. The script could use some work, but it's an entertaining and off-kilter sports film which is certainly worth seeing. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc.) Grade: B    

Woodstock

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (1970) Documentary. Performers featured in the film include Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Canned Heat, Country Joe McDonald, Ten Years After, Santana, John Sebastian, The Who, Janis Joplin, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. The music aside, the filmmakers interviewed young concert-goers as well as inhabitants of the surrounding area to get a balanced picture of what the experience was like. No movie can really hope to capture what it was like to be there, but this one comes as close as can be expected. Woodstock won the Academy Award for best documentary the year it was released. (Subtitles in English are included, and the songs are, blessedly, subtitled.) Grade: B+

Zodiac

Zodiac (2007) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny. Interesting drama about the so-called Zodiac killer, who terrorized San Francisco in the late 1960s, and the detectives and newspapermen who become obsessed with solving the case. Gyllenhaal in particular, as Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle who can't let go of the case years after the Zodiac has quit killing, stands out. Others in the cast give good performances, and the direction and attention to period detail is outstanding. This is a very involving movie which tells a riveting story. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, Glenn Strange. Not only do Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (Strange), they meet Dracula (Lugosi) and the Wolfman (Chaney) in this horror-comedy from Universal. I found it all rather silly, and the comedy routine of Abbott and Costello did not strike me as particularly clever or funny. Still, this is a film you almost have to see, just so you can say you've seen it. It's a classic of its type. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B  

The Young Victoria

The Young Victoria (2009) starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent. During a few years in the early 1800s, there was some doubt as to whether Victoria (Blunt) would become Queen at all. Her uncle, King William, wanted her to succeed him, but her mother (Richardson), and her mother's lover, tried to force a regency on her. She refused to buckle under, and the rest is history. More than that, though, this movie tells the story of the romancing of Victoria by Prince Albert (Friend), who, as it turned out, really loved her. When they eventually marry, it is almost an anticlimax, but they, as a couple, form the heart of the film. It's a well told tale, beautifully mounted, which it was a pleasure to watch. (Subtitles in English are provided on the disc for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+  

My Darling Clementine

My Darling Clementine (1946) starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, Cathy Downs. Directed by John Ford. One of the great Westerns, stars Fonda as Wyatt Earp, Mature as Doc Holliday and Brennan as Old Man Clanton. Downs plays the Clementine of the title, and the woman Earp falls in love with. The movie is one long buildup to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, where Earp and Holliday wipe out the evil Clanton gang once and for all. An interesting feature of this disc is the Extra which compares Ford's original version to the cut that was eventually released in theaters. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A-

Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, Elsa Lanchester. Sequel to Frankenstein picks up where the first film left off, with the monster (Karloff)  miraculously surviving the fire at the mill, and with the sinister Dr. Pretorius (Thesiger) proposing to Baron Frankenstein (Clive) that he should create a female version of the monster. This film is an improvement on the original in almost every way, adding a musical score and better quality picture and sound. The movie also has a dry sense of humor, something the original lacked. The scene of the monster encountering a blind hermit in the woods is a classic, which would later be spoofed to great effect in Young Frankenstein. In this movie, the monster even learns to talk. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+   

Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1931) starring Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff. The original monster movie, with Clive as the mad scientist, Henry Frankenstein, and Karloff as the monster he creates from dead body parts. Of course, he doesn't intend the monster to be a monster, it's just that his assistant provides him with an abnormal brain to use in his effort to revivify dead tissue. This is a classic, almost must-see movie, with many memorable moments. (Subtitles in English are available for the hard of hearing.) Grade: B  

Young Mr. Lincoln

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) starring Henry Fonda, Alice Brady. Directed by John Ford. Surprisingly effective look at a few days in the life of a young Abe Lincoln. Most of the film is taken up with a jury trial, in which Lincoln defends two brothers who are accused of killing a man. Fonda does a good job of portraying Lincoln during the days before he even dreamed of running for president. (The disc includes subtitles in English, which is a good thing because it doesn't have closed captions.) Grade: B+  

You Kill Me

You Kill Me (2007) starring Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson, Philip Baker Hall, Dennis Farina. Lukewarm black comedy in which Kingsley plays a hit man who botches a job because he's an alcoholic. His Polish crime family banishes him from Buffalo to San Francisco, where he is supposed to dry out. There he meets a woman (Leoni) and falls in love. But there is still unfinished business in Buffalo, and he is obliged to go back and set things right. Attempt at comedy flops mostly because one has trouble feeling sympathy for a hit man. On top of that, it's just not believable, even if you accept the premise. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available, which is a good thing because closed captions are not provided.) Grade: B-

Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein (1974) starring Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman. Directed by Mel Brooks. Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder), grandson of Victor Frankenstein, returns to Transylvania and again takes up the work of bringing the dead back to life. Once again, things go terribly, hilariously wrong. If you're familiar with the work of Mel Brooks, you know that his movies are laugh-out-loud funny, and Young Frankenstein is one of his more successful films. It's a delightfully daffy spoof of Frankenstein films, and every actor's work is spot-on -- especially Teri Garr, who gives a breakthrough performance. Shot in beautiful black-and-white, the movie captures the mood of an old monster movie, and then goes off on zany tangents. It's a great comedy, and holds up as well today as it did in 1974. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+  

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine. Directed by John Ford. Tenderfoot lawyer Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) arrives in the old west town of Shinbone aiming to help bring civilization to the territory, but he must contend with the evil Liberty Valance (Marvin), who challenges him to a gunfight. Luckily, Stoddard has the backing of he-man Tom Doniphon (Wayne). This movie got little respect when it was first released, but is now regarded as one of the great Westerns. One of Wayne's best performances -- he really dominates the screen in every scene where he appears. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A 

You Can't Take It With You

You Can't Take It With You (1938) starring James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold. Directed by Frank Capra. Typical Capra fare has Stewart and Arthur falling in love -- but they come from contrasting households. Stewart works at his father's (Arnold) bank, while Arthur lives in a household, overseen by Barrymore, where free expression reigns supreme. The twist is that Arnold wants to buy Barrymore's property to cement a colossal business deal, but Barrymore refuses to sell. It all works out in the end, of course, but the ending seemed a bit contrived to me. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

The Searchers

The Searchers (1956) starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood. Wayne stars as Ethan Edwards, whose young niece Debbie is kidnapped by the Comanches during a raid on Edwards' brother's farmstead. Edwards, an avowed Indian hater, sets off on a mission to find Debbie (Wood) and free her from the Comanches. Widely praised movie strikes me as not that great. There are many fine sequences, the photography and action are good, but it just doesn't all come together for me. It's an epic Western, for sure, but the script seems lacking in clarity. (Subtitles in English, as well as closed captions, are available.) Grade: B  

Yes Man

Yes Man (2008) starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel. Carl (Carrey) attends a seminar and makes a pact to start saying "Yes" to everything. When a hobo asks him for a ride, he says "Yes." When the hobo asks him for all the money in his wallet, he says "Yes." And so on. Deschanel provides the romantic interest as a motorcycle-driving singer in a weird band. The movie moves along at a nice clip for about an hour, then hits a roadblock when the characters travel to Lincoln, Nebraska. Suddenly, everything goes wrong, and the film never quite recovers. Still, it's a sweet, likable movie. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B 

A Year of the Quiet Sun

A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984) starring Scott Wilson, Maja Komorowska. In 1946, an American serviceman in postwar Poland finds himself attracted to a Polish woman who has been widowed by the War. He tries to take her back to America with him, but she says it is hopeless. What really irritated me about this film is that it is partly in Polish and partly in English, and there are no aids to help the hard of hearing to understand the English parts (the Polish sections are subtitled in English). So I missed a lot of dialogue. That aside, it was an intense, affecting film to watch. Grade: B-

Working Girls

Working Girls (1986) starring Louise Smith. A fictional film that takes a look at the lives of "high class" prostitutes in Manhattan. Don't let the setup fool you, this is a down and dirty film. The action almost all takes place in a small apartment where a number of prostitutes hang out and receive clients. There's  plenty of bare skin for people who are inclined to enjoy that sort of thing. For me, the movie was spoiled by the fact that there are no subtitles for the hearing-impaired, and no closed captions. For that, I give the film a Grade of D-

The Yearling

The Yearling (1946) starring Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman, Jr. A boy named Jody (Jarman) becomes attached to a fawn whom he adopts and names Flag. But Flag grows into a yearling, who gets into Jody's family's crops and threatens their livelihood. Eventful, richly textured movie is definitely not just for kids. Shot in beautiful Technicolor on locations in Florida. Peck won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Pa, and Jarman won a special young-actor Oscar. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-

Yellow Sky

Yellow Sky (1948) starring Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark. In 1867, a gang of outlaws led by Peck turns up in a ghost town called Yellow Sky. Living in the town is a young women (Baxter) and her grandfather, who have a secret -- they have a gold mine up in the hills. The gang determine to steal the gold, and they fall out with each other over how to divvy up the booty. This is a serviceable Western, but a little too scattered to be first class. Its real assets are Peck and Baxter, who light up the screen with their chemistry. (Subtitles in English, as well as closed captions, are available on the disc.) Grade: B  

Ziegfeld Girl

Ziegfeld Girl (1941) starring James Stewart, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr. Three young women (Turner, Garland and Lamarr) find their lives changed when they become performers in the Ziegfeld Follies. There's lots of singing and dancing, and plenty of subplots, but for my money Garland is the star of the movie. She's also the one, thanks to her singing talent, who becomes a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. It's all good clean fun for the most part, it's just too bad it was shot in black and white. Such a subject seems to call for color. If you enjoy old movies, this one might be good for a look. (English subtitles, as well as closed captions, are available on the disc.) Grade: B