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-