Goin' South

Goin' South (1978) starring Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, Veronica Cartwright. Directed by Jack Nicholson. Western comedy in which Nicholson plays an outlaw who escapes the hangman's noose by marrying Steenburgen, a spinster (it's a local law). This was Steenburgen's first film, and she's great to watch. Also Belushi's screen debut. Unfortunately, this movie has one of the dumbest scripts I've ever seen, with many improbable events and things happening that are later forgotten. Some people like this movie, but I found it really stupid. (It does offer English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C-

The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Bloom (2009) starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell.

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 (1995) starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan. For fans of space travel, this is a movie not to be missed. The ill-fated Apollo 13 flight is depicted brilliantly, warts and all. The glitches started early, with astronaut Ken Mattingly (Sinise) being bumped from the flight and replaced by Jack Swigert (Bacon). Jim Lovell (Hanks), commander of the mission, reassures his wife Marilyn (Quinlan) that 13 is just the number that comes after 12. But 13 indeed proves an unlucky number, as an explosion disables the spacecraft and forces the crew of Apollo 13 to go into survival mode. As we see in this movie, they just barely survived. It's an exciting and intense film, and even though I knew the outcome, I got caught up in the drama of the moment. Very, very good. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the DVD.) Grade: A 

Alex and Emma

Alex and Emma (2003) starring Kate  Hudson, Luke Wilson, Sophie Marceau. A writer (Wilson) must write a book within 30 days to pay off his gambling debts, or die. He hires a stenographer (Hudson) to help him get the words down on paper. Naturally, they fall in love. This movie is extremely lame, with a weak script and so-so acting by Wilson and Hudson. I fell asleep watching it (though admittedly I was sleep-deprived). (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: C 

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump (1994) starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Forrest Gump (Hanks) is a simple-minded man with an IQ of 75. In this movie, we see him grow up from boyhood to adulthood. He becomes a college football player, war hero, owner of a gigantic corporation, and fathers a child by his lifelong love, Jenny (Wright). I found the film to be utterly charming and very likeable, both funny and romantic. It won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. (The English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are highly legible.) Grade: A-   

Arthur

Arthur (1981) starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry. Perpetually drunk young millionaire Arthur (Moore) is supposed to marry Susan (Eikenberry) in an arranged marriage, but he falls in love with Linda (Minnelli), a poor working girl. Moore does a great job of acting drunk; but although the movie is hilarious, I can't quite reconcile myself to condoning alcoholism, as the movie seems to do. I was thoroughly entertained, but I kept thinking, would both of these beautiful women really fall in love with someone who is always falling-down drunk? So I can't wholeheartedly recommend this film, but if someone asked I would say, See it, by all means. It's a very well made movie, and it won two Academy Awards, one for Best Song, and one for Best Supporting Actor (Gielgud). (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+    

The King of Marvin Gardens

The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) starring Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn. Nicholson and Dern play brothers David and Jason. Jason has wild plans to set up a little empire on the small Hawaiian island of Tiki, and David at first goes along with him, hoping and praying that his brother's plan has merit. But David soon comes to see that the plan is just a wild pipe dream, and that the expected financing is not going to materialize. Burstyn plays Sally, an increasingly unstable woman who was Jason's lover, but is now being replaced in his affections by Jessica, her stepdaughter. This is a pretty entertaining movie, with lots of colorful characters, and a setting in Atlantic City. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B 

One from the Heart

One from the Heart (1982) starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski. Directed by Francis Coppola. This was a vanity project for Coppola, and boy did it flop. Second-rate acting and a weak script make this one of the worst movies I've ever sat through. In fact, I fell asleep watching it, something that virtually never happens. Seriously, Francis, what were you thinking? Grade: D

Antwone Fisher

Antwone Fisher (2002) starring Derek Luke, Denzel Washington, Joy Bryant, Salli Richardson. Directed by Denzel Washington. A troubled sailor (Luke) is sent to see a Navy psychiatrist (Washington) to try to unravel his behavioral problems. From their sessions emerges a tale of incredible abuse and neglect, and a resolve to overcome his past and push through into a better future. In the process, the sailor ends up helping the psychiatrist in unanticipated ways. This is a well told, and ultimately very moving, story. Not a great movie, but certainly worth watching. Grade: B+ 

The Apartment

The Apartment (1960) starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray. Directed by Billy Wilder. C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) has a problem with his apartment. To further his ambitions at the insurance company where he works, he has allowed executives there to borrow his apartment for their illicit romantic trysts. The trouble really starts when he lends his apartment out to the head of personnel (MacMurray), and falls for the head of personnel's girlfriend (MacLaine). Part comedy, part drama, this is a movie that manages to be both touching and funny. Lemmon and MacLaine are superb. Lemmon has never been more appealing, and MacLaine has never been more lovely. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It's a joy to watch, and I highly recommend it. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are very legible.) Grade: A  

The Helen Morgan Story

The Helen Morgan Story (1957) starring Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, Gene Evans, Alan King. Directed by Michael Curtiz. There really was a Helen Morgan, and she was a big star during the 1920s and '30s. This largely fictionalized movie focuses on Morgan's (Blyth) romances and alcoholism. Although she performs a number of songs, her career as a torch singer seems to be in the background in this film. Newman plays a cheap hood who she falls in love with early on and can never stop loving -- in contrast to her real life, where she was married three times. This film is billed as a Paul Newman movie, but it's one he'd probably rather forget. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B- 

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner. DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a real-life Wall Street honcho who made a fortune in the stock market and then ended up serving time in prison for his shenanigans. The movie is very heavy on "colorful" language, drugs, nudity and simulated sex. The movie is also three hours long, and every other word is fuck. I found it distasteful for the most part, and I can't recommend it. Some parts of the film were funny, so you might classify it as a black comedy, but I don't think the funny outweighs the ugly. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B- 

Charade

Charade (1963) starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy. Grant and Hepburn meet, as if by chance, while on holiday in the Alps. When Hepburn returns to Paris, she learns that her husband has been murdered, and that he had stolen $250,000 in gold. Grant arrives in Paris soon afterward and comes to her aid -- or so it seems. Is he a friend, or is he just another thief trying to get his hands on the money? It's practically the very last scene in the movie when we (and Hepburn's character) find out. Truly, this is an excellent movie, mixing suspense, romance and comedy and thoroughly entertaining the audience. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, but can only be accessed by using the Subtitle key on the remote control.) Grade: A  

Wonder Boys

Wonder Boys (2000) starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey, Jr., Katie Holmes. Professor Grady Tripp (Douglas) is 50 years old and stands at a crossroads of his life. His young, beautiful wife has left him, and he's struggling to write his second novel, seven years after the first novel was a big hit. Plus, his girlfriend Sara (McDormand) announces that she is pregnant. The movie follows Tripp through a picaresque weekend in which he blunders around town in a marijuana haze, trying to figure out what to do and specifically what he wants. In the process, he gets involved in the life of a morose student (Maguire) and fends off the advances of an attractive female student (Holmes). I found the film to be fairly entertaining, though there were some bits that didn't work. The Extras on the disc are mostly of the self-congratulatory type. English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are provided and are highly legible. Plus, the songs are subtitled! Grade: B

Tim's Vermeer

Tim's Vermeer (2014), documentary. Produced and directed by Penn and Teller. Tim Jenison, an inventor and old friend of producer Penn Jillette, had a theory that Johannes Vermeer, the 17th-century Dutch painter, may have used technological means to achieve the photorealistic effects in his paintings. Jenison, as documented in this film, went on to demonstrate just how this might have been done, and he is certainly very convincing. He actually built an optical device that allowed him, avowedly not a painter, to re-create a painting by Vermeer in phenomenal detail. The film is fascinating, although at times it moves a bit slowly. At 80 minutes, it is certainly not overlong. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, and are highly legible.) Grade: B

Her

Her (2013) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (voice), Amy Adams, Rooney Mara. Directed by Spike Jonze. In the year 2025, Theodore (Phoenix) falls in love with his computer's operating system (voice of Johansson). What's more, the OS "falls in love" with him. But of course it can't be that simple. Suffice it to say that his OS has the ability to learn and evolve, and their relationship goes places one wouldn't dream it could go. This is a very interesting "what if" sort of movie. It's not believable for a second, but it poses some fascinating questions about the nature of intelligence and emotion, and of the future of computers. It certainly made for a good evening's entertainment. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B+

Heavenly Creatures

Heavenly Creatures (1994) starring Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Morrison. Directed by Peter Jackson. Based on a true story, two teenage girls in New Zealand (Lynskey, Winslet) form an obsessive, exclusive friendship. They develop their own little fantasy world, and feed off each other until they reach a state of hysteria,  ending up collaborating on a murder. It's a beautifully made movie, with the girls' fantasy life vividly shown. The fact that it's a true story makes it all the more chilling. (English subtitles are supplied for the hearing-impaired, and are very legible and well done -- even the songs are subtitled.) Grade: A-   

Hitchcock

Hitchcock (2012) starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Toni Collette, Danny Huston. Hopkins portrays legendary movie director Alfred Hitchcock, and Mirren plays his wife, Alma. This film is about their relationship, while at the same time showing glimpses into the making of Hitchcock's movie Psycho, which was released in 1960. As portrayed here, Hitch and Alma had a symbiotic relationship, and Alma played an equal-partner role in the making of his films. Meanwhile, it's fun to see Johansson's take on Janet Leigh, which it seems to me she did a pretty good job of portraying. This is not a great movie, but it's an entertaining diversion for an evening. I got the Blu-Ray copy from my library, and the Extras are copious. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+  

Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, George C. Scott. Directed by Otto Preminger. Rather long courtroom drama about a small-town lawyer (Stewart) defending a man (Gazzara) on murder charges after the man killed his wife's (Remick) rapist. This was probably a somewhat racy movie back in '59, but today it seems rather stilted and underdone. There are some fine performances in it, however, particularly Stewart, who towers over the courtroom scenes, and O'Connell and Arden, who are both fine in supporting roles. Music by Duke Ellington, who also appears onscreen. Although the film was released in 1959, it was shot in black and white, which might turn off some viewers. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B  

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) starring Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee. Based on the Broadway musical, I recall seeing this movie in 1967 and rather liking it. Unfortunately, the DVD is totally devoid of subtitles for the hearing-impaired, and I found it too tedious to watch all the way through. Grade: F

The Harvey Girls

The Harvey Girls (1946) starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury. Attempt at a "musical Western" mostly falls flat. Designed as a vehicle for Garland, it pretty much serves that purpose, but silly script and (mostly) lame musical numbers sabotage the film at every turn. Plot has Garland traveling by train from Ohio to a remote little fictional town called Sandrock out west (apparently in Arizona), where she has agreed to be somebody's mail-order bride. When the marriage plans fall through, she joins up with a bunch of young women who are traveling on the same train with the object of being waitresses in a Harvey House restaurant. The Harvey House restaurants were apparently a nonfictional fixture in the West, but the movie does little to explore that aspect of the plot. Low point is probably a "brawl" between the Harvey Girls and the ladies of a local saloon, which comes off as totally phony  (Judy is lovely, but she can't even fake a fight). The film has English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, but the songs aren't subtitled! Grade: C+  

Hair

Hair (1979) starring John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo. Directed by Milos Forman. Attempt to bring 1968 stage play to film, really doesn't try too hard to replicate the play, but instead makes many changes, and consequently fails. Some of the songs are enjoyable to hear again, but the plot of the movie is really not much to brag about. Savage plays a young man who is entering the Army and is headed to Vietnam, Williams is the head of a band of hippies that Savage hooks up with, and D'Angelo is Savage's romantic interest. To the credit of the DVD, it does have English subtitles to aid the hearing-impaired, and even the songs are subtitled. Grade: C 

Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction (1987) starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer. Happily married Dan (Douglas) has a weekend fling with book editor Alex (Close), but soon learns that she doesn't consider it a fling. When Alex confronts him with the claim that she is pregnant, things get serious. Dan gradually comes to realize that Alex is not normal, as she shows up at his office and his home without being invited. The movie escalates nicely as Alex becomes more and more unhinged. Dan's wife Beth (Archer) assumes greater importance as the film progresses, and she has the honor of administering the crucial coup de grace in the climactic scene. This is an involving movie that will keep you glued to the screen, but it doesn't hold up very well to critical examination of the plot points. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Lust for Life

Lust for Life (1956) starring Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown. Vincent van Gogh (Douglas) struggles to develop his now-famous painting style, while at the same time struggling to make a sale. Quinn won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Van Gogh's friend and fellow artist Paul Gaugin. Surprisingly, van Gogh did not cut his ear off over a woman, but after an argument with Gaugin. Donald turns in a solid supporting performance as van Gogh's brother Theo, who kept van Gogh afloat with donations of canvases, paints and cash. Douglas may be accused of overacting a little bit, but it can't be easy to portray someone who is steadily losing his mind. Van Gogh's life ended in suicide, but of course today his paintings are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The movie is amply illustrated with pictures of van Gogh's actual paintings. (The disc supplies English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B  

Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion (1956) starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins. A pacifist Quaker family, living in southern Indiana during the Civil War, struggles to maintain ideals while under threat of attack by Rebel raiders. Surprisingly, the war section of the movie occupies only a fraction of the screen time; much of the rest of the film is filled with comic vignettes from the lives of the main characters. Cooper stars as Jess Birdwell, the patriarch of the family, and McGuire plays his minister wife, who tries to restrain her son Josh (Perkins) from going off to fight the Rebels. The film starts slowly but builds momentum until the final action scenes put an exclamation point on the story. Very entertaining, well acted, and ultimately moving. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

Antonia's Line

Antonia's Line (1995) starring Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans. Following World War II, in Holland, the widow Antonia (Ammelrooy) and her daughter Danielle (Dottermans) return to Antonia's home town, where Antonia's mother lies dying. The pair settle in to make a life for themselves, and Antonia establishes a matriarchal line of women passing down through her daughter Danielle to Danielle's daughter Therese, to Therese's daughter Sarah. The movie won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and the award was richly deserved. Always unpredictable, always interesting, this is a film worth seeking out. It's in Dutch, with English subtitles that are very legible. Grade: A 

El Cid

El Cid (1961) starring Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren. Directed by Anthony Mann. Don Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, also known as El Cid (Heston) rises to power, marries the beautiful Chimene (Loren). Based on the true story of a Spanish national hero, this is a grand historical epic. It's obviously a big-budget extravaganza, and one can see all the money that was spent up on the screen. This DVD also has copious Extras, including a making-of feature and a behind-the-scenes featurette. Amazingly, one of the Extras reveals that Heston and Loren despised each other! I found the movie, despite its excessive length of over three hours, to be eminently watchable and emotionally rewarding. A really good film. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A-   

The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty (2013) starring Toni Servillo. Jep Gambardella (Servillo) is a 65-year-old Italian who once wrote a novel but has not done much since. He writes magazine articles and goes to parties. In this movie he wanders around Rome and observes various weird things. This film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, though for the life of me I can't see why. It just doesn't turn me on. (In Italian and other languages, with English subtitles.) Grade: C 

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) starring James Whitmore, Beverly Garland. Note to self: This disc has no subtitles in English to help the hearing-impaired. Grade: F

Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back (1967) starring Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Donovan. Documentary about Dylan's 1965 tour of England, starting in London. Features lots of backstage footage of Dylan interacting with various people, also some limited concert performances. Dylan performs "The Times They Are a Changin'," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Strictly for Dylan fans. (Subtitles in English are provided.) Grade: B- 

The Color of Money

The Color of Money (1986) starring Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, John Turturro. Fast Eddie Felson (Newman) takes on a protégé named Vincent (Cruise) who has huge amounts of natural talent. But Vincent refuses to play the game (nine ball) according to Felson's rules, and the two eventually come to a parting of the ways -- until they meet in a huge nine ball tournament in Atlantic City. There are many things in this script which didn't make sense to me, and the movie's main redeeming feature is Newman's performance (he won an Academy Award). Cruise was just irritating, but Mastrantonio, as his girlfriend Carmen, was extremely fetching. (The film has English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Rachel, Rachel

Rachel, Rachel (1968) starring Joanne Woodward, James Olson, Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons. Directed by Paul Newman. Affecting story of how spinster teacher Rachel (Woodward) tries to break out of her confining life of living with her widowed mother (Harrington). She has a brief fling with a childhood friend home for the summer (Olson) and suspects that she might be pregnant, and this provides the impetus she needs to take a giant step. Good, adult entertainment. Nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Woodward, and Best Supporting Actress for Parsons. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

Something's Gotta Give

Something's Gotta Give (2003) starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet, Frances McDormand. Nicholson plays a successful entrepreneur who is dating Peet, who plays Keaton's daughter. Surprisingly, a romance develops between Nicholson and Keaton, and also between Keaton and Reeves. All the acting is very good, and this makes for a diverting and entertaining romantic comedy for adults. (Subtitles in English are available, and are very legible.) Grade: B 

Married Life

Married Life (2008) starring Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams. Cooper is happily married to Clarkson, but wants to leave her for McAdams. An interesting premise, perhaps, but one I don't get to explore because the disc doesn't have English subtitles for the hearing impaired!
Grade: F

Captain Blood

Captain Blood (1935) starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone. Flynn's first Hollywood film made him an instant star, and he was cast as a swashbuckler for many movies after this one. In Captain Blood, Flynn plays an English doctor named Peter Blood who is imprisoned for giving medical treatment to a rebel in 1685, and later sentenced to go to Jamaica as a slave. Needless to say, he doesn't stay a slave long, and after a time he escapes and takes over a Spanish ship, which he turns into a pirate vessel. Captain Blood soon becomes a famous and dreaded pirate, and his adventures continue from there. De Havilland is lovely as his young romantic interest, and Atwill and Rathbone are effective as villains and rogues. It is an entertaining movie to watch, even though it dates back to 1935 and is in black and white. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

Angels with Dirty Faces

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, The Dead-End Kids. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Cagney and O'Brien play childhood friends who end up going in different directions as adults -- Cagney becomes a notorious gangster, and O'Brien becomes a priest. They still love each other though, and when Cagney gets in a shoot-out with police, O'Brien steps in to try to save his life. The disc features copious Extras, including a Warner Night at the Movies and commentary on the film. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

The Shop Around the Corner

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan. Set in Budapest sometime in the 1930s, this movie tells the story of two shop clerks (Sullavan and Stewart) who secretly exchange letters full of high culture and insight, but who don't know that the person they are exchanging letters with is working beside them every day. Naturally, in person they argue and squabble, and they claim not to like each other. Meanwhile, there are several interesting subplots which impel the film along in a most entertaining way. Viewers who see this film may recognize the seeds of "You've Got Mail," the 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan movie that had the same theme, except that the two exchanged emails instead of letters. This film helped establish Stewart as a leading man. (The English subtitles are highly legible, being bright yellow against a black-and-white movie.) Grade: A-  

Lovers and Other Strangers

Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) starring Gig Young, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Anne Jackson, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Michael Brandon, Richard Castellano, Diane Keaton. The plot of this delightful comedy revolves around the impending marriage of Mike (Brandon) and Susan (Bedelia), and encompasses the relationships of several of their friends and relatives. Why should a marriage work, and what goes wrong when a marriage doesn't work? This is the theme of the  movie, and it is explored through the marriages and infidelities of the characters who revolve around Mike and Susan. Highlight of the film is Oscar-winning song, "For All We Know," which is sung during Mike and Susan's wedding. A very entertaining and funny movie. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-    

The Swimmer

The Swimmer (1968) starring Burt Lancaster. A middle-aged man named Ned Merrill (Lancaster) sets out to swim through all the swimming pools in his neighborhood to get back home to his wife and two daughters. At first, the people around the pools he swims are friendly, but gradually they become more and more hostile, and we learn more and  more about Ned's sordid past. Lancaster is really pretty good as the man who we learn, as time passes, just might be crazy. (The English subtitles are almost too small to read. There are no closed captions.) Grade: B

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom. The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins and his company of dwarves journey through Middle Earth, through Mirkwood and through wood-elves territory, to the dwarves ancestral mountain -- under which dwells the dragon Smaug. It is there that Bilbo -- the "burglar" of the company -- is designated to steal the Arkenstone, which will enable the dwarves to re-establish their kingdom under the mountain. The movie is the second in a planned trilogy, and thus all the stories are left in suspension at the end. In that way it is unsatisfying to watch, but in every other way it is superb. The film was shot in New Zealand, and the unspoiled landscapes make a beautiful backdrop for the story as dwarves and hobbit are pursued by a relentless (but not too bright) band of filthy Orcs on their journey to the Lonely Mountain. It's a propulsive tale with scarcely a quiet moment. Although it is two hours and 40 minutes long, it does not seem overlong, and it is difficult to find a flaw in this story based on the J.R.R. Tolkien book. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A- 

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour (1967) starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel. Directed by Luis Bunuel. A young wife (Deneuve) cannot (or will not) have sexual relations with her handsome husband (Sorel), but she soon takes to working as a prostitute at a brothel in the same city where they live. She frequently has fantasies and dreams about strange sexual tableaux which include her husband, but for some reason she just can't have sex with him. This is certainly an interesting movie to watch, and there are intriguing developments in the plot which keep the viewer involved. (In French, with English subtitles.) Grade: B 

The Answer Man

The Answer Man (2009) starring Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, Lou Taylor Pucci, Olivia Thirlby, Kat Dennings. Twenty years ago, Arlen Faber (Daniels) wrote a spiritual self-help book titled Me and God. Ever since then, people have pursued him, looking for answers. He has been a virtual hermit until he throws his back out and has to seek the help of a chiropractor named Elizabeth (Graham). This movie is a sort of romantic comedy, but unfortunately, the chemistry between Daniels and Graham is virtually nonexistent. Furthermore, the script is extremely ragged, with many scenes thrown in for no apparent reason, and with many other scenes that might have helped to advance the story left out. Thirlby and Dennings, two beautiful and talented actresses, are pretty much wasted in this film; their parts are mere sketches. I was very disappointed in this movie, and would not recommend it to anybody. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are not included, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: C 

A Nous la Liberte

A Nous la Liberte (1931) starring a French cast. Supposedly a "classic comedy," I found this movie to be a bore and quite unfunny. It may have been state of the art in 1931, but it has not aged well. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: D

Walk the Line

Walk the Line (2005) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick. Phoenix plays country star Johnny Cash in this biopic, and does a pretty good job of singing Cash's hit songs. Witherspoon won an Oscar for her sparkling portrayal of June Carter, Cash's eventual true love and wife. A movie like this is a tough sell, because Cash is so recognizable and it's just about impossible for an actor to look like the person he's portraying. Phoenix gives it his best shot, but he falls short. Also, the film puts a little too much emphasis on the soapy aspects of the story, namely Cash's long and arduous effort to get Carter to agree to marry him (it wasn't that hard in real life, according to a recent biography of Cash written by Robert Hilburn). Ultimately, for me, the question is, did the film draw you in and make you forget that you were watching an actor portray an icon? The answer, for me, was no. (The film has English subtitles for the hard of hearing, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B- 

Nebraska

Nebraska (2013) starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach. A delightful mix of drama and comedy in which the elderly Woody Grant (Dern) starts walking to Lincoln, Nebraska after he receives a letter telling him he has won a million dollars. The letter is a scam, of course, but Woody is convinced that he has won. Eventually, his son David (Forte) agrees to drive him to Nebraska, and they set off on a road trip together. They stop off in the town of Hawthorne, Nebraska, where Woody grew up, and word gets around that Woody has won a million dollars. Old friends and relatives come out of the woodwork wanting their "share" of Woody's winnings. The film has many amusing and engaging details, and scarcely takes a wrong step. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Dern. I enjoyed it immensely. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A     

The Angel Levine

The Angel Levine (1970) starring Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte. Morris Mishkin's (Mostel) wife is on her deathbed, and God sends a probationary angel (Belafonte) to help him. The angel has some unresolved issues that he has to work on, too. This movie has not aged well, and I didn't care for it too much. Belafonte's not much of an actor, and I found the soundtrack irritating. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C 

Frozen

Frozen (2013) Animated. Voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana. Two orphaned princesses live in the kingdom of Arendelle, but one, Elsa, is a "Snow Queen." She has the power to create winter, and she accidentally sinks the whole kingdom into winter with an angry wave of her hands. Her little sister, Anna, must do what she can to break the spell and restore summer to the kingdom. This movie was shown in 3D in theaters, so it surely loses something on the TV screen, but it is still quite entertaining, and a funny snowman character named Olaf provides plenty of comic relief. I'm not usually a fan of animated movies, but this is a good one. Grade: B 

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013) starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto. McConaughey won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ron Woodroof, a real-life AIDS patient who in the '80s formed a "club" of people who found their own experimental treatments for the disease, which was then new and not well understood. Leto won an Oscar for his portrayal of Rayon, a transsexual who also had AIDS and who went into business with Woodroof supplying non-FDA approved drugs to AIDS patients. Garner is also good as a compassionate doctor who sees that AZT is not working on her patients and befriends Woodroof. This movie was nominated for Best Picture, but of course didn't win, losing to "Twelve Years a Slave." This film was a little too gritty for me to say that I enjoyed it, but after watching it I can say that it is a good movie, and worth seeing. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+   

Philomena

Philomena (2013) starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. An unemployed journalist named Martin Sixsmith (Coogan) helps a retired nurse named Philomena Lee (Dench) search for the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years before, when she was a teenager. The search takes them to an abbey in Ireland, then on to America. The movie is a delightful examination of the contrast between their two personalities and world views, and it's all squeezed into an economical hour and a half. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Dench. The film was based on a true story, and is an exemplar of how the evil nuns in Ireland took pregnant teens and virtually imprisoned them and then sold their babies (in this case, for a thousand pounds). It's a very clean movie, with scarcely a wasted word or a wasted motion. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc. Closed captions are not.) Grade: A-    

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks. Walt Disney (Hanks) attempts to convince P.L. Travers (Thompson) to sell him the rights to her book "Mary Poppins" so he can make it into a movie. She resists fiercely, because she is afraid he'll try to make it into a cartoon, which she detests. Travers, however, needs the money and her resistance slowly crumbles. This is a fun movie which suffers slightly from the continuous flipping back and forth between flashbacks to Travers' childhood in 1901 Australia and the time of the negotiations, 1961. Hanks makes a pretty good Walt Disney, but you never forget that he is Tom Hanks, not Walt Disney. Thompson steals the show as Travers -- she is very convincing in the role, and expresses a wide range of emotions very well. (The disc provides English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

Little House on the Prairie - Season 3, Disc 1

Little House on the Prairie - Season 3, Disc 1 (1976) starring Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Alison Arngrim. Little House on the Prairie is comfort food for the mind and heart, and this disc from Season 3 doesn't fail. There are four episodes on the disc, a total of about 176 minutes, or nearly three hours of schmaltz. Two of the episodes involve Laura Ingalls' (Gilbert) sister Mary (Anderson), and two involve a feud between Laura and Nellie Oleson (Arngrim) over a horse. If you've ever seen an episode of Little House, you pretty much know what to expect. Good and right win in the end, and all is right with the world. (English subtitles are not supplied, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: A  

The Accused

The Accused (1988) starring Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis. Foster won an Oscar for her performance as Sarah Tobias, a young woman who is gang-raped in a bar, only to see her rapists plead to a lesser charge. McGillis plays the prosecutor who decides to try and get justice by bringing to trial the men who cheered the rapists on. (The English subtitles are very good -- very clear and legible.) Grade: B+

Another Year

Another Year (2010) starring Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight. Directed by Mike Leigh. Happily married, mature couple Tom and Gerri (Broadbent and Sheen) play host to a group of neurotic friends and relatives. Chief among the neurotic friends is Mary (Manville), who is  in her 40s and fading fast. Mary is sort of the core of the movie, as everything revolves around her. She is deeply troubled, and she relies too much on Tom and Gerri for emotional support. She also drinks too much. Mary has an inappropriate crush on Tom and Gerri's son Joe, and she cracks when Joe finally brings a girlfriend home. Manville won several awards for her acting in this movie, and she is very good. The film, at first amusing, gradually becomes tragic. (The English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are very good -- large yellow letters against a black background.) Grade: A   

Angel on My Shoulder

Angel on My Shoulder (1946) starring Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, Claude Rains. Gangster Eddie Kagle (Muni) is killed by one of his henchmen, goes straight to Hell. But Mephistopheles (Rains) has a use for him, and Kagle gets to return to Earth and take on the identity of an honest judge. The judge is loved by a good woman (Baxter) and she turns Kagle from evil to good. The problem with this disc is that it has no subtitles for the hearing-impaired, and also lacks closed captions. As a result, many passages of dialogue were unintelligible to me, and this disc earns a Grade: F   

August: Osage County

August: Osage County (2013) starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard. The all-star cast is almost reason enough to see this movie about a dysfunctional family in Oklahoma. When the patriarch of the family (Shepard) kills himself, all the daughters (Roberts, Lewis and Nicholson) return home to be with their mother (Streep). The mother, who has mouth cancer, proceeds to rip everyone in the extended family with vicious criticisms under the guise of "telling the truth." Streep and Roberts are excellent as the mother and daughter who practically can't stand the sight of each other. The rest of the cast is close behind, with every performance clearly delineating one of the characters in the extended family. This film is well written, with dialogue that regularly cuts to the quick. Sometimes it's not pleasant to watch, but it ultimately rewards the viewer with deep insights into what makes a family so dysfunctional. I liked it. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A-  

The King and I

The King and I (1956) starring Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson. Musical in which Kerr plays Anna Leonowens, a woman who in 1862 journeys from England to Siam (now Thailand) to be the schoolmistress to the king's (Brynner) hundred or so children. The conflict in the movie arises out of the fact that Anna and the king are both strong-willed individuals, and they clash from the start. The beauty of the film derives from the music and words by the talented duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Songs include "Hello Young Lovers," "Getting to Know You" and "Something Wonderful." Brynner won a well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of the king of Siam. Kerr's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon. I found this to be an entertaining movie, although the subplot about the love of Tuptim and Lun Tha could have been trimmed considerably. Also, some of the songs were quite lame. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

Another Woman

Another Woman (1988) starring Gena Rowlands, Ian Holm, Mia Farrow, Blythe Danner, John Houseman, Sandy Dennis, Philip Bosco, Martha Plimpton, Gene Hackman. Written and directed by Woody Allen. It's one of Allen's "serious" films, in which a fifty-something philosophy professor (Rowlands) rents a small apartment in which to write a book, and finds that she can hear, through the heating vents, the conversation in a psychologist's office next door. She overhears a woman (Farrow) talking about the meaninglessness of life, and it starts her (Rowlands) thinking about her own life. Much of the structure of the movie seems derived from films by Ingmar Bergman, although of course Allen adds his own signature touches. I found the film a bit too introspective, and I'm not particularly enamored of Rowlands, who is in almost every scene. This is a quality film which has had much thought put into it, but I just didn't like it very much. (Subtitles in English are not provided, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B  

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn. Directed by Robert Wise. Andrews stars as Maria, an aspiring nun who is assigned to be governess to the seven Von Trapp children, and who falls in love with Captain Von Trapp, the children's widowed father. Set in the late 1930s, the film shows the Von Trapp family fleeing from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. This is a musical, and the songs pretty much make the movie. Andrews practically glows as she befriends the children and teaches them how to sing. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Songs include "Do Re Mi," "Climb Every Mountain" and the title tune. (English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave (2013) starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch,  Brad Pitt. Directed by Steve McQueen. In 1841, a free black man named Solomon Northrup (Ejiofor) is tricked,  drugged and shanghaied into a life of slavery. The evils of slavery are shown in all their vileness. The movie is a powerful denunciation of slavery, especially as practiced in 1800s America, but one has to wonder whether it is really necessary to go to these lengths to denounce an institution which has been dead for 150 years. The movie won the Oscar for Best Picture, and also for Best Supporting Actress (Nyong'o). Bad as Solomon Northrup's experience was, the ending of this film seems anticlimactic. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960) starring Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore. This disc is a complete disaster. Not only is it lacking in English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, but the disc is not indexed -- so you can't stop the movie and take a break, because when you return it will start over again from the beginning. As I said, a complete disaster. Grade: F

Diary of a Chambermaid

Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) starring Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli. Directed by Luis Bunuel. Bunuel takes a look at the rise of Nazism in Europe in the 1930s and a chambermaid's view of  bourgeois society in the same time frame. Moreau stars as a chic domestic worker who travels from Paris to the hinterlands to work for a decidedly eccentric family. She witnesses men talking with satisfaction about killing "wops" and "kikes." She suspects Joseph, the groundskeeper of her employer, of raping and killing a little girl who lived next door. (The omniscient camera knows that she is right.) It's a strange movie with some strange characters, but more conventional the Bunuel's usual offerings. It's in French, with English subtitles. Grade: B+   

The Anniversary Party

The Anniversary Party (2001) starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming, Jane Adams, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals, Phoebe Cates, John Hickey, Parker Posey, Kevin Kline, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. Reilly. Written and directed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming. A recently reunited couple (Jason Leigh and Cumming) hold a party to celebrate their sixth anniversary. He is a writer, about to become a director, and she is an actress. Their friends are mostly movie industry people or writers, and they all come over to interact and make drama, and in real life they are mostly actor friends of Jason Leigh and Cumming. The movie is modestly entertaining, but it kind of runs off the rails when one of the guests (Paltrow) offers the gift of Ecstasy to the married couple, with enough thrown in for everyone at the party to take Ecstasy. The characters in the movie do not act as I would have expected a bunch of people on Ecstasy to act, but what do I know? It strikes me as kind of a Hollywood insider film, and that makes it kind of interesting, but mostly it just seems like a low-budget vanity project. (English subtitles are available on the disc for the hard of hearing.) Grade: B  

Camelot

Camelot (1967) starring Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings. I recall really liking this movie when I saw it in 1968. Oh what a difference 45 years make. It now strikes me as a surprisingly bad movie musical, with Harris being rather weak in the lead role of King Arthur, and Redgrave not really that beautiful as Queen Guenevere. The scene where Nero, as Sir Lancelot, kills his opponent in a jousting match, then brings him back to life, stands out as extremely phony. The songs are generally pretty good, but the  singing isn't strong. The introduction of Hemmings as Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred, and the subsequent downfall of the Round Table, is just a downer. Not enjoyable at all. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C  

Gravity

Gravity (2013) starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Bullock and Clooney play astronauts who get stranded in outer space by satellite debris which strikes the shuttle they came up in. It seems that there is no way for them to get back to Earth, but they formulate a plan which involves going to the International Space Station and using the Soyuz escape capsules to safely descend from orbit. This is a propulsive nail-biter of a movie, with seemingly accurate depictions of what it would be like to be marooned in space. I found the soundtrack to be a bit intrusive at times, but that is a minor quibble. My main regret is that I didn't see this film in an Imax 3D theater. I imagine it would have been spectacular. Cuaron won the Academy Award for Best Director, and the film won in several technical categories. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A-

Tristana

Tristana (1970) starring Catherine Deneuve, Franco Nero, Fernando Rey. Directed by Luis Bunuel. Tristana (Deneuve), upon her mother's death, becomes the ward of a family friend named Don Lope (Rey). Though Lope is a trusted family friend, he soon seduces the innocent Tristana, who is, after all, only a teenager. Later, though, Tristana becomes disgusted with Don Lope and begins going out on her own. She falls in love with an artist named Horacio (Nero) and eventually ends up running away with him. This has been called by some the quintessential Bunuel film, and it is filled with deformity and scary dream sequences. The more I studied it, the more I liked it. It's in Spanish, with English subtitles. Grade: B+ 

Rififi

Rififi (1955) starring Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Magali Noel, Robert Manuel, Jules Dassin. Directed by Jules Dassin. French crime noir in which four jewel thieves pull off an incredibly lucrative heist -- only to find that a slip-up by one of them endangers not only the take from the robbery but the life of one of their sons. Dassin is actually an American director who was blacklisted during the early 1950s, and had to go to Europe in order to be able to make films. This movie is actually a pretty great crime film. Of particular note is the actual heist scene itself, in which the four men go about the business of breaking into a jewelry store and cracking the safe with no soundtrack -- no dialogue or music -- except the incidental sounds of the break-in and safe-cracking. The actors were not well known, even in France. An entertaining and involving movie. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: B+   

A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera (1935) starring Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter King, Margaret Dumont. The Marx brothers take their insane brand of humor to the opera and chaos reigns. Carlisle and Jones provide a romantic substrate which propels the movie forward and gives it form. Of particular note are the stateroom scene, the tearing up of the contract by Groucho and Chico, and the single-handed destruction of the opera set by Harpo. And of course Chico plays the piano and Harpo plays the harp. One of the best Marx Bros. films. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A- 

American Hustle

American Hustle (2013) starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence. Directed by David O. Russell. The acting is excellent in this retelling (with variations) of the Abscam scandal of the late '70s and early '80s. Of course the film's producers have gone to town with the period detail, period music and late-'70s-early-'80s fashions in clothes. That's half the fun of the movie. Bale and Adams play a con-man and -woman who team up to rip off clients, then get busted by FBI agent Cooper, who co-opts them into helping him in a sting operation, in which several high-ranking politicians are induced into taking bribes and then arrested. The movie is based on fact, but there is a lot of wiggle room allowed by the script, with several important departures from real people and events. It's a very entertaining movie that got Oscar nominations in all four major acting categories. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, and are highly legible.) Grade: B+   

The Spectacular Now

The Spectacular Now (2013) starring Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kyle Chandler. Uninspiring romantic comedy-drama, in which zero-charisma Teller pursues Woodley, although it is mostly a one-sided relationship (she really likes him, while he is just toying with her). This is an independent, low-budget movie, and it shows in scene after scene. This film struck me as just a cheap remake of so many teenage romantic comedies that have come before, and it lacks a spark to make it really special in any way. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C-

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) starring Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders. A lonely widow (Tierney) is romanced by the ghost of a dead sea captain (Harrison) in her cottage by the sea. The movie sustains its charm by allowing the characters to maintain their decorum (the sea captain never touches the widow, although he is shown touching other characters in the movie). When the widow falls for a flesh-and-blood man (Sanders), the sea captain voluntarily fades out of the picture to let events go where they will. It's a well mounted film, with scarcely an off note. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

Cabaret

Cabaret (1972) starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey. Minnelli gives Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles, young American woman caught up in phony glitter of Berlin in 1931, just as the Nazis were beginning their rise to power. The movie is nicely paced, with romance between Minnelli and York being interspersed with cabaret numbers, concluding with Minnelli's spirited rendition of "Life is a Cabaret." The film won eight Oscars in all, and is very entertaining while at the same time being ominous (those dang Nazis again). (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

The Grandmaster

The Grandmaster (2013) starring Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi. Actually a fairly typical chop-socky movie with high production values, will be of interest only to martial arts enthusiasts and perhaps people of Chinese ancestry. I found it to be pretty much a bore. In Chinese, with English subtitles. Grade: C

Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake, F. Murray Abraham. This is a rather depressing movie about a week in the life of Llewyn Davis, a folk singer in New York in 1961. The film has an interesting structure, as it loops back on itself and the opening is repeated at the end, a very unique approach. But in between, it is all about how Davis can't get it together, and how he is forced to sleep on friends' couches every night because he can't afford a place of his own to live. There is a lighthearted bit about a cat, which comes into Davis' possession after he accidentally lets it out of a friend's apartment. But mostly the film just seems downbeat to me, and Davis is not a very appealing protagonist. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B-

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland. Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) takes another giant step toward becoming the leader of a revolution. In this film, the evil President Snow (Sutherland) contrives to have past winners of the Hunger Games come together as Tributes to battle each other -- thus, he believes, snuffing out any revolutionary sentiments among the people of Panem. But his plan backfires as the past Victors unite behind the saying, "Remember who the real enemy is." This was a very entertaining, if far-fetched, movie. Hoffman makes one of his final film appearances as a Gamemaker who is secretly a revolutionary. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A-

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars (2004 TV series) starring Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni. Veronica Mars (Bell) is a spunky teen-ager who is learning how to be a private eye from her father (Colantoni), the disgraced former sheriff of the fictional town of Neptune, Calif. Her father's disgrace has fallen on Veronica, costing her her social standing at Neptune High School, where she was once part of the "in" crowd. Now Veronica hovers about the fringes of the school's social stratus, doing her own thing, investigating crimes and just trying to get by. The show has lately been in the news, as Veronica Mars the movie is going to be made thanks to a Kickstarter campaign on the Internet. Many of the original stars from the TV series will appear, although they'll all be ten years older now. It's something to look forward to. (The DVD provides English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

About Time

About Time (2013) starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy. Tim (Gleeson) learns on his 21st birthday that the men in his family can travel in time. When he falls for Mary (McAdams), he finds that his talent is essential to winning her love for himself. Complications inevitably ensue, but for the most part they work out. The movie has its heart in the right place, but the time-travel paradoxes are not very well worked out, and ultimately, for me, the film failed. It was entertaining and the ending was satisfying, but the internal logic just didn't work. Plus, in a practice I find increasingly common and very irritating, the "bonus" part of the disc is off limits to renters and can only be obtained by buying the Blu-ray disc. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are supplied on the disc.) Grade: B-

Paisan

Paisan (1946) starring Carmela Sazio, Gar Moore, Bill Tubbs, Harriet White, Maria Michi. Directed by Roberto Rossellini. This movie is one of Rossellini's neorealist films, which takes a look at conditions in Italy near the end of World War II. In this case, he looks at the Allied invasion of Italy, starting in Sicily and working its way up the peninsula. His object is to illustrate the problems that were caused when the liberators (mostly Americans who spoke only English) were unable to communicate effectively with the Italians they were liberating. My problem with this film is mainly that when the Americans spoke, their English was not subtitled, and I could rarely understand what they were saying. So I missed out on a large part of the movie. Nevertheless, there was enough that I could understand that I was able to get the gist of most of the scenes, and I really felt that this film had a lot to say. It's an episodic movie, told in six parts, and each part takes place a little further north in Italy. Some of the episodes were better than others, but in general they were very well done. The film is mostly in Italian, with English subtitles. Grade: A- 

Scenes from a Marriage

Scenes from a Marriage (1973) starring Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. A married couple, played by Ullmann and Josephson, seem perfectly matched, except that he goes and falls in love with someone else, named Paula. This movie explores the years in which they fall apart, contemplate filing for divorce, get divorced, and eventually end up married to other partners. But still, at the end, they meet up while their spouses are away for a liaison at an old country cottage. It's basically a relationship movie, and it's very talky. In fact, almost all the action is talk. That's not necessarily bad, but in this case that talk is in Swedish, translated into English, and I can't help but think that something was lost in the translation. It's certainly a watchable movie, even mildly entertaining, but I didn't find it to be the great Bergman movie that some have made it out to be. It is, of course, in Swedish with English subtitles. Grade: B 

Blue Is the Warmest Color

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) starring Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux. A sort of coming of age story about a high-school girl named Adele (Exarchopoulos) who finds that she is more attracted to girls than to boys. She falls in love with a fourth-year college student with blue hair named Emma (Seydoux), and they enter into an intense relationship which involves showing graphic lesbian sex scenes lasting several minutes. Eventually, though, Adele cheats by sleeping with a man, and Emma throws her out. The emotions shown by both actresses are very strong, and Adele, although she is the cheater, is heartbroken. Emma was The One for her, and Adele has great difficulty moving on. Even at nearly three hours, the movie does not seem too long. In fact, it barely sketches years of their relationship. The only quibble I have is that the actresses don't noticeably age, even with the passage of several years through the film. But this can be forgiven when a movie shows such raw emotion so convincingly, and Blue Is the Warmest Color is a film which  sticks with you long after the closing credits run. It's in French, with English subtitles. Grade: A-   

Petulia

Petulia (1968) starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Richard Chamberlain, Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight. Non-linear storytelling stands out in this dramatic romance wherein Petulia (Christie) is a kook who decides to pursue Archie (Scott), even though she is already married to David (Chamberlain). The movie starts in the middle of the story and then tells the rest through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Although this movie has been highly praised by critics, I found the film's style to be distracting and not particularly pleasing. Although all the pieces are there, they're scattered around, and I couldn't see that any particular purpose was served by scattering them. Not one of my favorite movies. (Subtitles in English, as well as closed captions, are offered on the disc.) Grade: B  

Goldfinger

Goldfinger (1964) starring Sean Connery, Gert Frobe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton. Third entry in the 007 series has James Bond (Connery) stylishly thwarting Auric Goldfinger (Frobe), an arch-criminal who plans to set off a nuclear device in Fort Knox and contaminate the U.S. gold supply.  Blackman plays the funny-named  Pussy Galore, whom Bond manages to persuade (ahem) over to the side of the good guys. The movie is entertaining throughout, with many exciting action scenes and lots of clever gadgets. Memorable scene has Goldfinger's secretary (Eaton) being killed by being covered entirely in gold paint. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

Made for Each Other

Made for Each Other (1939) starring Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson. Movie-quality soap opera about Lombard and Stewart getting married, then battling illness, lack of money, Stewart's meddling mother (Watson) to try and find happiness. Running gag has the family unable to keep a maid because Stewart's mother keeps driving them off. The film tends towards the maudlin in final third, but everything suddenly works out in last two or three minutes. A fairly enjoyable outing, worth it to see Stewart and Lombard on screen together. (The disc provides excellent English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas. Grant and Loy play a married couple living in a cramped apartment in New York City, who decide to move to the boondocks in Connecticut and buy a house there. Only trouble is, the house they buy is unlivable, and they have to tear it down and build a new one -- at great expense. Low-key comedy is a pleasure to watch, with Grant and Loy very convincing as a married couple, and Douglas as their lawyer who tries to warn them that they are getting into deep trouble when they buy the property in Connecticut. Naturally, as they are building the new house, nothing goes right, and expenses mount. Grant's reactions to the rising costs provide most of the comedy, with the workmen building the house providing local color. A good quality old film. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+ 

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Blythe Danner, Simon Callow, Kyra Sedgwick. Newman and Woodward play a middle-aged couple living in the late 1930s through the middle 1940s, dealing with changing times and their three children's desires for different lives. Mr. Bridge (Newman) is a stiff, emotionally distant father and husband, and Mrs. Bridge (Woodward) is a desperately lonely housewife who just can't get enough affection from either her husband or her children. Danner is Mrs. Bridge's best friend, Grace, who sinks into alcoholism and ultimately suicide. I can't help but feel a faithful affection for this movie, even though it's full of plot holes. I just enjoy watching it and observing the changes that all the characters go through. The film does a good job of evoking its time and its place, and it's real escapist entertainment. It's that rare thing, a portrait of a marriage between two mature people. (The subtitles, for the hearing-impaired, are highly legible.) Grade: A-  

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter (1945) starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey. Directed by David Lean. Two ordinary people -- a man and a woman (Johnson, Howard), both married to others -- meet by chance at a railway stopover. Over the course of a few weeks, they fall hopelessly, desperately in love with each other. But the movie, told from Johnson's  point of view, shows that she has a kind and loving husband and two adored children at home. She never meant to fall in love with someone else, it just happened. The love affair between Johnson and Howard is never consummated, and they eventually come to their senses and give up their affair. One gets the feeling that Howard wants it to continue more than Johnson does, but he does the noble thing and takes a job in South Africa, which will keep them apart and prevent them from doing anything foolish. This is a small, sad movie with an inevitable ending -- but one which, in 1945, must have titillated audiences no end. It's a British production, which may account for some of its reserve. The film makes excellent use of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, which weaves throughout the action. Really a perfect little movie, in its own way. (English subtitles are provided for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A- 

The Awful Truth

The Awful Truth (1937) starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Cunningham. Screwball comedy in which Grant and Dunne play a married couple who, based on mutual suspicion, decide to divorce. Both make plans to remarry, but spend the rest of the movie trying to prevent each other from moving on with someone else. Dunne is especially hilarious in a scene where she pretends to be Grant's sister and barges in on a social occasion thrown by his fiancée. (The DVD offers highly legible English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game (1939) starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor. Directed by Jean Renoir. In the introduction to this movie, Renoir says that he wanted to make a film that would be pleasant to watch, but which would uncover the rottenness of society. The movie shows the romantic foibles of an assortment of French men and women at a country estate, and under the cover of light comedy manages to satirize the follies, rituals and class distinctions of the bourgeoisie. I found the film to be for the most part entertaining and at times funny. It's in French, with only adequate English subtitles. Grade: B+   

All is Lost

All is Lost (2013) starring Robert Redford. A man near the end of his life (Redford) finds himself stranded aboard his sailboat, which has sustained damage in a collision with a floating storage container. We watch him as he mentally figures out each step in the process of trying to survive, while there is a minimum of dialogue (just a little monologue). Redford proves his ability to command the screen, and he is on camera for virtually every shot of the  movie. It's a harrowing experience, as his boat slowly disintegrates and he is forced to resort to the life raft, and has to work out  problems such as how to get drinkable water and food to insure his survival. The movie keeps us under suspense -- we are in doubt up to the very end as to whether he will survive or not. It's an absorbing film, though I wouldn't exactly say I was entertained. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B 

Enough Said

Enough Said (2013) starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette. Louis-Dreyfus stars in this charming romantic comedy as Eva, a middle-aged woman who falls in love with and imperfect man named Albert (Gandolfini) and at the same time becomes friends with his ex-wife, Marianne (Keener). The catch is, Eva doesn't know at first that Albert and Marianne are exes. She dates Albert and listens to Marianne criticize her ex, but doesn't put the two together until it's too late. It's refreshing to see a romance between two mature people on screen (they both have grown children). And it's squirm-inducing to watch Louis-Dreyfus wriggle when Albert and Marianne find out that she's been trying to sustain relationships with both of them at the same time. I felt profound sympathy for all the characters, and really enjoyed the movie. (The subtitles for the hearing-impaired are quite good and legible.) Grade: B+ 

Annie Hall

Annie Hall (1977) starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Carol Kane. Probably Woody's best movie, stars Allen and Keaton in an autobiographical romantic comedy with many fine Allenisms, funny comparisons of New York vs. Los Angeles, Keaton singing (twice!), the lobster scene in the kitchen, "The Sorrow and the Pity," Marshall McLuhan, etc. The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Keaton. Many memorable and funny bits, lots of them derived from Allen's own life and from his life with Keaton. Truly a movie to be scene repeatedly and enjoyed every time. (Subtitles in English are very good.) Grade: A   

Anne Frank Remembered

Anne Frank Remembered (1995) Documentary. Directed by Jon Blair. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Diary read by Glenn Close. This movie tells the moving story of the young Jewish girl who, with her family, hid from the Nazis for two years in a house in Holland, and who famously kept a diary of her thoughts while in hiding. The film tells the story from the start through the time Anne and her family spent in concentration camps after being discovered. Remarkably, Anne's father, Otto, survived the camps and lived until 1979. Anne, her sister Margot, and her mother all perished in the camps. The movie tells its story in German, Dutch and English, with highly legible English subtitles. Grade: A-  

Anna and the King of Siam

Anna and the King of Siam (1946) starring Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb. Dunne stars as Anna, an English woman who in the 1860s journeyed to Siam (today's Thailand) to tutor the king's (Harrison) 67 children in English. After she arrives, everything boils down to a struggle of wills between her and the king. Neither can be said to have won, but she gains the king's respect because she speaks the truth to him -- something that his Siamese subjects are too frightened to do. My main quibble with this film is that Harrison is miscast as an Asian king -- he's an Englishman, and he scarcely even loses his accent. He doesn't even look vaguely Siamese. Cobb, as his majordomo, looks equally Caucasian. That problem aside, this is a pretty good movie. I was very moved when the king died. (The disc includes subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired, and they are quite legible.) Grade: B 

The Sorrow and the Pity

The Sorrow and the Pity (1970) Documentary. Directed by Marcel Ophuls. This movie looks at life in occupied France during World War II, largely through interviews with those who lived through it. At four hours, it's a long movie, but it needs to be this long to cover the subject thoroughly. Among those interviewed are members of the Resistance, collaborators, Germans who were in France during the war, and innocent bystanders. Also shown are scenes of the repercussions after the war for those who cooperated with their German occupiers. Some suffered severe consequences, others got off lightly. The movie is divided into two main parts: Part 1, the Collapse, and Part 2, The Choice. Part 1 deals with the ease with which the Germans were able to conquer France, and Part 2 deals with the choice Frenchmen had to make between resistance and cooperation. There are many gradations of distinction among people who made different choices, and the film explores them all in depth. Some might find this movie dry, but I was very interested, even though my mind occasionally wandered. The film is mostly in French, with highly legible English subtitles. Grade: B 

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) starring Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Piccoli. Directed by Luis Bunuel. A group of people try to get together for dinner, but are continually interrupted by absurd, surreal events. Some of the events seem real, but then they are seen to be somebody's dream. After seeing the movie, I am unable to separate dream, fantasy and reality. I'm not sure Bunuel meant for any of the events in the film to be real -- it's all one big joke on the audience. But it's a magnificent joke, and I enjoyed watching it from start to finish. I would even go so far as to rank it as one of the best movies I've seen. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It's in French, with English subtitles. Grade: A 

Canvas

Canvas (2006) starring Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden, Devon Gearhart. This movie tells the story of a family in which the mother (Harden) has been stricken with schizophrenia. Her husband (Pantoliano) copes by building a sailboat in the yard, and her son Chris (Gearhart) copes by being a kid. It's a moving and somewhat scary story that is said to be based on a true family's tale. The filmmakers obviously cared a lot about their subject and have put a lot of heart into this film. (The DVD lacks subtitles in English, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: B+   

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None (1945) starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward. A group of eight people are lured to an isolated island, where they stay in a mansion and are killed off one by one. Based on an Agatha Christie story, this is a pretty good mystery. There's only one problem with this disc. It has no subtitles of any kind, nor does it have closed captions. Makes it pretty rough to watch for the hearing-impaired. Grade: F 

The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones (2008) starring Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, Michael Pena. Three Iraq War veterans return to the United States and end up embarking on a cross-country road trip together. Each has his or her own wounds to deal with, both physical and psychological. They are "lost souls," with only each other to rely on. McAdams steals the picture with her enthusiastic performance as Colee, a private who has a flesh wound and a guitar she has salvaged from her squadron-mate Randy, who was killed by an IED. Colee hopes to return the guitar to Randy's family, and to ingratiate herself with them. Each of the three combat veterans has issues to deal with, however, and they try to help each other, with varying results. I found this movie engaging, although some of the side trips the trio took were unnecessary. Worth seeing for McAdams performance, if nothing else. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

The Girl Can't Help It

The Girl Can't Help It (1956) starring Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London. Silly bit of pop film about agent (Ewell) who is hired by gangster (O'Brien) to make the gangster's girlfriend (Mansfield) a star. Trouble is, she can't sing! Or so we are led to believe. The movie's saving grace is that the agent and the girlfriend visit several nightclubs trying to get her noticed, and at each nightclub a different contemporary act is performing. The viewer gets to see live performances of songs by Fats Domino, The Platters, Gene Vincent, and Little Richard. Mansfield isn't bad in this picture, but she isn't called on to do much acting. Julie London performs a lovely rendition of "Cry Me a River." (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C   

American Heart

American Heart (1993) starring Jeff Bridges, Edward Furlong, Lucinda Jenney, Tracey Kapisky. Just released from prison, Jack (Bridges) finds himself tracked down by his son, Nick (Furlong). Jack doesn't know much about being a father, but Nick is in desperate need of a father figure in his life. They form an uneasy truce, and end up sharing a flop-house apartment. Jack is determined to stay on the straight and narrow, but Nick doesn't know any better and starts stealing. This is a sobering drama of a movie about what it's like to be down-and-out in modern America (it's set in Seattle). Bridges and Furlong both turn in excellent performances. (Subtitles in English are not available on this bare-bones disc, but closed captions are provided.) Grade: B+

Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers (1930) starring Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Lillian Roth. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, an African explorer just returned from the Dark Continent. Chico plays the piano, Harpo plays the harp, and Groucho shoots an elephant in his pajamas. There's a stolen painting in the mix, but it only serves as a convenient plot device. The Marx Brothers are given plenty of latitude to practice their patented brand of insanity, and many of the jokes will be familiar to fans of the comedians. This was only the Marx Brothers second movie, and there are plenty of rough spots and wasted moments, but it still manages to get enough jokes in to be worth watching. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

Angel Face

Angel Face (1952) starring Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons. Directed by Otto Preminger. An ambulance driver named Frank (Mitchum) is called to the scene of a near-asphyxiation, where he meets Diane (Simmons), the beautiful but hate-filled stepdaughter of the woman who almost died. Diane turns out to be a manipulative witch, and she gets Frank to quit his ambulance-driving job and come to work as a chauffeur for her father and stepmother. Diane tries to get Frank to fall in love with her, but he's not having it, sensing there is something a bit off with her. Then, when her father and stepmother die in a car crash, Diane and Frank are arrested and charged together with murder. I found the premise and the resolution of this movie to be outlandish, and I was not satisfied with it. However, it did keep my interest, and I think it will stick with me as a memorable film. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Don Jon

Don Jon (2013) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore. Gordon-Levitt, who also wrote and directed, stars as a playa named Jon who can get women any time he wants but still prefers Internet porn. He gets involved with Barbara (Johansson), who catches him watching porn and makes him promise to quit watching it. Meanwhile, Barbara pushes him to take an evening class to improve himself, and there he meets Esther (Moore), an older woman who is more understanding of his porn habit. The movie gets a lot of its laughs from Jon's weekly attendance at church and his visits to the confessional booth. This is a movie aimed more at younger viewers, and I found that I had a little trouble relating to it. Nevertheless, it provided for a satisfactory evening's entertainment. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B   

Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013) starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek. Grace (Larson) and her boyfriend Mason (Gallagher) are counselors at a home for unwanted children, where the residents "age out" at 18, and where all the kids are troubled to some degree. Of particular notice is Jayden (Dever), a girl who comes to the home but doesn't expect to stay long because "I'm going to my father's house." For a low-budget film, this one is particularly well done, and I was moved by the plight of these poor homeless kids. Complications set in when Grace learns that she is pregnant, and when she learns that her abusive father is about to be released from jail. (Subtitles in English are not offered on the disc, but closed captions are available.) Grade: A- 

Angel Eyes

Angel Eyes (2001) starring Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Terrence Howard, Sonia Braga, Jeremy Sisto. A female cop who is estranged from her family (Lopez) runs into a lost soul (Caviezel) who is trying to recover from his own tragedy. They make an odd couple, but eventually it is revealed that they have a connection that brings them together. There's not much original or new in this movie, which has the feel of a TV movie of the week. There are a few nice scenes, and no really big blunders in the story-telling, so it makes a pretty watchable evening of entertainment. Lopez looks a little strange with blond hair, but Caviezel fits comfortably into his part and the viewer can't help but root for them to work things out. (The subtitles are very good, with both English and French available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table (1990) starring Kerry Fox. Directed by Jane Campion. The life of New Zealand's most celebrated and prolific author, Janet Frame, is told in this biopic based on her autobiography. Frame, who appears to have suffered from social anxiety disorder, was falsely diagnosed as schizophrenic as a young woman; she was confined to a lunatic asylum for eight years and subjected to 200 electroshock treatments during this time. She also lost two sisters to drowning in separate incidents and had a brother who was epileptic. Somehow, through all this, she managed to write a book of short stories which was published while she was in the asylum, and which saved her from undergoing a lobotomy. After her book was published, she traveled to London, Paris and Spain, all the while continuing to write. In Spain she at last fell in love -- with an American who left her at the end of the summer to return to his teaching job. The movie, though a bit long at two and a half hours, tells her story with sympathy and not too much pity. Frame's stature as an author, especially in her native New Zealand, can scarcely be exaggerated. She became a towering literary figure, despite the hardships she endured. This is an amazing story about triumph over adversity. (Subtitles in English are available, although they are a bit hard to find.) Grade: B+   

In a World...

In a World...  (2013) starring Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino. Written and directed by Lake Bell. Set in the world of voice-overs, this is a quirky movie which has as its central conflict a competition for the job of voicing the trailer for a new series of four movies about Amazon women. Bell stars as Carol Solomon, a woman who is in competition with her father (Melamed) for the job. She gets into various romantic complications along the way, and the film is filled with interesting characters. I found it mildly amusing. (The subtitles for the hearing impaired are very legible, almost to the point of being intrusive.) Grade: B

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine (2013) starring Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Blanchett is devastatingly good in the title role as a Blanche DuBois type of character whose world is crumbling around her. The script and direction by Allen is pretty near flawless, and he paints a picture of a woman (Blanchett) who, through careless and greedy living, has brought about her own downfall. This is definitely not a comedy, which we've come to expect from Allen, but a heart-breaking drama. Blanchett's character calls herself Jasmine, and she arrives from New York to San Francisco, where she hopes to start over again, beginning with moving in with her adopted sister, Ginger (Hawkins). The problems that brought Jasmine to this pass soon crop up again, however, and she seems to end up homeless. This is a movie which would reward multiple viewings, and I recommend it highly. (The subtitles for the hearing-impaired are highly legible.) Grade: A 

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips (2013) starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi. Since this movie is based on true, recent events, most viewers will know going in how it ends. But that doesn't detract from the drama and the suspense as Phillips' (Hanks) ship is taken over by Somali pirates and Phillips fights to maintain control without getting anyone killed. The movie is quite skillfully made, and you can't help a surge of emotion as the U.S. Navy comes steaming over the horizon to the rescue. Hanks is excellent in the title role, and Abdi is very convincing as the leader of the pirates. The only thing that was slightly disappointing was the moment when the Navy SEALS took out the pirates, which happened so quickly that it was hard to tell what had just happened. A very good film. (The English subtitles, for the hearing-impaired, are very legible.) Grade: A-  

Prisoners

Prisoners (2013) starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano. Two little girls, two six-year-olds, are abducted, and their parents begin a frantic search for them. On father (Jackman) abducts a suspect and tortures him horribly to try to get him to tell where the children are. Meanwhile, a detective (Gyllenhaal) methodically pursues the case, making progress even though the case is murky and strange. The ending is a bona fide surprise, and I give the movie marks for this. The tangled plot works out pretty neatly, and it made for a fascinating, if sometimes gruesome, watch. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+  

Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station (2013) starring Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer. True story of Oscar Grant (Jordan), a young man who was shot in the back and killed by transit police in Oakland, California, in 2009. The movie traces Grant's last day of life, New Year's Eve, 2008. At 22 years of age, he was something of a loser. He had already served time in prison for drug-dealing, and was recently fired from his job for chronic tardiness. But even though he wasn't an upstanding citizen, the film asks, did he deserve to die? The answer, clearly, is no. He wasn't doing anything wrong when the transit police singled him out for attention, and his shooting, as shown in the movie, was unprovoked. This film succeeds in making you feel sympathy for Grant and for his family, and you feel his death as a terrible injustice. For this reason, the film is a success. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B    

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and a cast too large to enumerate. Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, a fictional White House butler of 34 years' service. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, the film spans history from the administration of Eisenhower to the advent of Obama. Gaines actually served Eisenhower through Reagan, but the film continues after he retires. Some of the portrayals of presidents by familiar actors are jarring, but in general the film works. The main  problem is that it tries to do too much, and ends up short-changing many of the eras in history which it limns. I wanted to see more of Gaines work in the White House, but we catch only occasional glimpses of what goes on there. The film spends a lot of time on the civil rights movement, which was proceeding at the same time as Gaines' service in the White House. Gaines' son, Louis, becomes a civil rights activist, much to Gaines' displeasure, but they later reconcile. Overall, this is a good movie and Whitaker delivers an excellent performance as the title character. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

The Buddy Holly Story

The Buddy Holly Story (1978) starring Gary Busey, Charles Martin Smith, Don Stroud, Maria Richwine. Starting in Lubbock, Texas in 1956, this movie tells the story of the meteoric rise and brief career of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly (Busey). Busey, Smith and Stroud perform the songs of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and those performances are the high point of the movie. It's great fun, for the most part, and Busey was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the role of Holly. Not a typical Hollywood biopic, this film captures the excitement of the early days of rock 'n' roll, and any viewer who grew up with this music will find much to like. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are included on the disc.) Grade: A-  

Blackboard Jungle

Blackboard Jungle (1955) starring Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Vic Morrow, Louis Calhern, Sidney Poitier. Juvenile delinquency is the theme of this movie, and Ford plays an idealistic teacher who believes that if he can just find the right formula, he can get through to these kids. This was the first film to use rock 'n' roll, as Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" plays over the opening and ending credits. The school seems kind of weird. The students are all male, and it is never explained why there are no girls going to this high school (although some of the teachers and staff are women). Altogether, it's a pretty strong movie, fairly believable and with impact. Poitier shines as one of the delinquents. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

Angel and the Badman

Angel and the Badman (1947) starring John Wayne, Gail Russell. This Western has three flaws: The subtitles on the DVD don't work, the sound quality is poor, and the disc is not indexed, so you can't stop the playback to take a break without losing your place. One of the worst packages I have seen. Grade: F

Bus Stop

Bus Stop (1956) starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Hope Lange. A young cowboy named Bo (Murray) decides it's time to find himself a gal, and he falls immediately in love with Cherie (Monroe), a saloon singer. This is the film in which Monroe proved that she really could act, and she's very good. The plot flows as it should, with Bo proclaiming that he and Cherie (he calls her Cherry) are going to be married, while she insists that she is not going to marry him. He "kidnaps" her, and they end up stranded together at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. That's where the drama plays itself out. I found this to be a very satisfying movie. Although not a great work of art, it was enjoyable to watch and the ending was a happy one. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

Love, Marilyn

Love, Marilyn (2012), Documentary. Using a newly discovered cache of writings by Marilyn Monroe, this movie uses various celebrity presenters, who read Monroe's words for the camera. Also seen: loads and loads of footage of Monroe, either in acting assignments or being interviewed by the press. What emerges is a new portrait of Marilyn, seen from a slightly different angle than ever before, and thus, in my opinion, worth seeing. This is not great art, but it is great pop culture, and I found it thoroughly absorbing. (Subtitles are not offered on the disc, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B