Three Violent People

Three Violent People (1956) starring Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Tom Tryon. Heston returns to Texas after the Civil War and impulsively marries a woman (Baxter) he meets in town. Soon he must do battle with carpetbaggers, while dealing with the facts about his wife's shady past. Muddled plot seems to be all over the map, with no clear resolution at the end. (To its credit, the disc offers subtitles in English, as well as closed captions.) Grade: C+

3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma (1957) starring Van Heflin, Glenn Ford, Felicia Farr. Suspenseful Western based on an Elmore Leonard story. Heflin plays rancher Dan Evans who, desperate for money (and his sons' respect), takes on the job of guarding killer Ben Wade (Ford). The plan is to put Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma before his gang shows up to free him. When seven of his gang ride into town, the tension mounts. I'm partial to Westerns, and this one is nearly perfect. Grade: A-

Three Sisters

Three Sisters (1970) starring Who Cares. Filmization of Chekhov play is marred by the fact that it has no subtitles for the hearing impaired and no closed captions. It's a total waste. Grade: F

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers (1974) starring Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee. Part swashbuckling and part slapstick, this movie is a fresh take on the musketeers' legend. Curiously enough, they always use swords, never muskets. The plot is of little significance, but suffice it to say that there are lots of sword fights, lots of romance and lots of intrigue. A fun film. (Subtitles are not offered, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: A-

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) starring Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, January Jones, Melissa Leo. Mike (Pepper), a gung-ho border security agent, accidentally kills a friend of Pete (Jones), a bilingual ranch boss. Pete forces Mike to help him take the body of Melquiades back to Mexico for burial. This is a fairly entertaining, colorful Western set in modern times, but the pace lags at times. (English subtitles are offered on the disc, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

This Man Must Die

This Man Must Die (1970) starring Michel Duchaussoy, Jean Yanne, Caroline Cellier. French film about a man whose young son is killed by a hit-and-run driver. The man swears vengeance, and sets out to find the driver responsible. When he finds him, the situation proves more complicated than he might have anticipated. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: B+

This is Spinal Tap

This is Spinal Tap (1984) starring Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner. Directed by Rob Reiner. Rock "mockumentary" makes fun of the declining fortunes of a formerly popular metal band called Spinal Tap. There are some funny moments, but the movie is surprisingly depressing as the band breaks up when Nigel (Guest) walks off stage. Still, it's a landmark film, with some famous bits in it (the amplifier that's better because it goes up to "11"). (The disc doesn't offer English subtitles, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: B

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) starring Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Spencer Tracy, Phyllis Thaxter. Unfortunately, the title is almost literally true. About 30 seconds of this movie is devoted to the actual raid on Tokyo during World War II. The rest of the movie consists of the lead-up to the attack and the aftermath. Still, it's an engaging story which has the virtue of being based on true events. There's a rising sense of excitement as the film builds to the bombing raid on Japan. Then, afterwards, there's something of an anticlimactic feeling to the rest of the movie. We never do find out just how much actual damage the attack achieved. (The disc offers English subtitles, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady (2011) starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent. This film makes the unfortunate choice to start with Maggie Thatcher in her dotage and show her life in too-brief flashbacks. We spend more time with her in her senility than in the rest off her life combined. Although Streep won an Oscar for her portrayal of the British Prime Minister, I wasn't entirely convinced by her performance. To top it off, I don't like Thatcher's politics. (The disc offers English subtitles, but not closed captions.) Grade: B-

This Island Earth

This Island Earth (1955) starring Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, Faith Domergue. Human-looking aliens "recruit" Earth scientists to help in the development of sources of atomic power. It turns out the aliens need help fighting an interplanetary war in a solar system far away. There's no getting around it -- this is a hoakey movie. The plot is silly and the special effects are primitive. Yet still I found myself watching compulsively. It's definitely not for sci-fi purists, but for campy entertainment it would be hard to beat. (Subtitles are available; closed captions are not.) Grade: B

This Gun for Hire

This Gun for Hire (1942) starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston. Killer-for-hire named Raven (Ladd) does a job for traitor Willard Gates (Preston) and gets paid in "hot" money. On the run, Raven travels to Los Angeles to get revenge on Gates and expose his plan to sell poison gas to the Japanese. In the course of events, nightclub entertainer Ellen Graham (Lake) gets mixed up in the deal. The film mixes crime and war themes with only partially successful results; its principal claim to fame is being Ladd's movie debut. (The subtitles included on the disc are adequate. No closed captions.) Grade: B

We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Swinton plays a mother named Eva whose son Kevin (Miller) seems to hate her from the moment he is born. Kevin acts perfectly normally towards his father, Franklin (Reilly), but seems to do everything in his power to aggravate his mother. Eventually he grows into a sociopathic monster. Director Ramsay, for some reason, has chosen to tell the story in a loopy, non-linear manner. Having read the book, I always knew what was going on, but I'm not sure the artificial confusion was necessary to make a good film. The book was dynamite, but I don't think the movie even comes close to doing it justice. The ultimate, necessary massacre scene, especially, I felt fell short of having the full impact it could have had. (English subtitles are furnished and are adequate. Closed captions are not offered.) Grade: C

This Boy's Life

This Boy's Life (1993) starring Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio. Based on Tobias Wolff's autobiography, this movie tells the story of Toby (DiCaprio), a boy who does battle with his abusive stepfather (De Niro). Toby's mother, Caroline (Barkin), is an optimistic spirit who eventually runs out of energy to move on and settles on Dwight (De Niro), a mean-spirited, even depraved man who courts her nicely and then turns abusive. The film is compulsively watchable, and all in the cast deliver fine performances. (Subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), documentary. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Archival film, video, still photos, music and interviews are used by Scorsese to illustrate Harrison's life as a Beatle and later as a solo act. Extensive coverage goes to George's spiritual evolution and his involvement with Eastern religions. The second half of the movie (after he leaves the Beatles) tends to be slow in parts, but overall it's an excellent and moving portrait of Harrison, the "Beatle who changed the most." (The supplied subtitles are adequate. Closed captions are not furnished.) Grade: A-

Thirteen

Thirteen (2003) starring Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto. Troubled young Tracy (Wood) spins out of control under influence of "bad" girl (Reed), while her mom Melanie (Hunter) just tries to keep her little single-mom household together. Complicating matters is the fact that Melanie is a recovering alcoholic, always just one step away from taking that first drink. It's a scary, believable look at how one girl from a broken home runs off the rails. To the filmmakers' credit, there's not a happy ending to be found. (The supplied subtitles are adequate, the closed captions are better.) Grade: B+

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) starring Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright. A weird kid named Oskar (Horn) loses his father (Hanks) in the terrorist attack on 9/11. Oskar finds a key among his father's belongings, and sets about searching all of New York to find the lock that it goes to. Along the way, he is helped by an old man who doesn't speak (von Sydow). Although this movie has many flaws, I still found it moving in the way it protrays the grief of one young boy who has lost his father on a fateful day. (The subtitles furnished on the disc are pretty good; closed captions, not offered, would have been better.) Grade: B+

The Third Man

The Third Man (1949) starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Valli, Trevor Howard. American writer Holly Martins (Cotten) arrives in Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime (Welles) only to find that Lime has been killed in a traffic accident. Martins smells something fishy about Lime's "death," and decides to stay on in Vienna and find out what's going on. This is one of the better movies I've seen lately, full of iconic imagery and carried along by a fast-moving plot. Based on a novel by Graham Greene, adapted for the screen by Greene. (The furnished subtitles are at times hard to read. Closed captions are not available.) Grade: A

The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line (1988) Documentary. Directed by Errol Morris. An investigation into a murder in Dallas, in which an innocent man was convicted of the crime. After this movie came out, the evidence was revisited, and the innocent man was exonerated. I found the film modestly entertaining, although I had some trouble following it. (Subtitles and closed captions are both offered on the disc.) Grade: B+

The Thin Man

The Thin Man (1934) starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan. Nick and Nora Charles (Powell and Loy) get involved in a murder case, but they don't allow the investigation to come between them and their drinking. This was the first in a highly successful series of movies teaming up Powell and Loy, and it features some snappy dialogue and comedy along with the mystery, which is actually of secondary interest. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Thing from Another World

The Thing from Another World (1951) starring Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James Arness. Now-classic sci-fi about a flying saucer crashing near the North Pole; creature (Arness) found in a block of ice turns out to be vegetable in origin -- and lives on blood. This is a rather entertaining early movie about the dangers in the skies -- i.e., what if a superior, space-faring race comes to Earth and wants to dine on us? This is a seminal film which any fan of sci-fi/horror would probably enjoy. (The subtitles are adequate; closed captions, easier to read, are also available.) Grade: B