The Enemy Below (1957)

Director: Dick Powell

Writers: Wendell Mayes, D.A. Rayner

Composer: Leigh Harline

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Curd Jurgens, David Hedison, Theodore Bikel, Russell Collins, Kurt Kreuger, Frank Albertson, Dough McClure, Gordon Mitchell

More info: IMDb

Tagline:In the most amazing saga in the fighting annals of the U.S. Navy!

Plot: During World War II, the USS Haynes, an American destroyer escort discovers a German U-boat in the South Atlantic. A deadly duel between the two ships ensues, and Captain Murrell must draw upon all his experience to defeat the equally experienced German commander.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

Man, I loves me some good submarine movies.  Add to that ones from WWII, made pre-1980 AND in color with a great cast!  Mitchum & Jurgens made great adversaries.  They respected each other from a distance and we get to see them both in action...and they're both major badasses.  I loved how the Germans weren't portrayed as fanatics, clowns or monsters.  That was so refreshing to see the intelligent, human side of an enemy.  I was surprised (and pleased) that the entire picture, save the first few minutes, is the cat and mouse game between these two.  They get a lot of mileage out of it and a lot of tense moments.  It's maturely handled.  I'm so used to Dick Powell doing comedies that I was taken aback that he delivered such a great action picture.  And Leigh Harline's score was great and all I remember him from were his scores for early Disney animated features like SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) and PINOCCHIO (1940).  The Netflix bastards cropped the 2:35 image to 1:85.  Asshats.  Show it like it was intended for fuck's sake.  I reckon I'll have to get my hands on the DVD if I want it proper.   
 

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Director: Wes Anderson

Writers: Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach

Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh

Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, Bud Cort, Seu Jorge, Robyn Cohen, Waris Ahluwalia, Pawel Wdowczak, Matthew Gray Gubler, Seymour Cassel

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The deeper you go, the weirder life gets

Plot: With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Geez, I can't believe it's taken me more than a decade to get around to this.  Bill Murray is awesome.  I can't imagine anyone else playing this part.  He's hilarious.  The story has quite a few turns that you don't see coming, and it's hilarious!  The special effects are purposefully corny but they're fun as hell.  As usual with a Wes Anderson the cast is stellar.  Willem Dafoe cracked me up.  The only one I had issue with is Owen Wilson but only with his horrible Southern accent.  It was awful.  I don't know why he didn't speak normally.  Bill Murray brings it (no surprise), though, and in spades.  It's going to be a sad, sad day when he kicks the bucket.  But until then, we've got at least 40 more years of new Billy movies.  The Criterion DVD looks great.  It's loaded with extras. I'd love to get the Blu-ray but fuck is it expensive (still, after all these years)!

Black Death (2010)

Director: Christopher Smith

Writer: Dario Poloni

Composer: Christian Henson

Starring: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, John Lynch, Tim McInnerny, Kimberley Nixon, Andy Nyman, David Warner, Johnny Harris, Emun Elliott, Tygo Gernandt, Jamie Ballard, Carice van Houten

More info: IMDb

Tagline: In an age of darkness one man will face the ultimate battle against evil.

Plot: Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is given the task of learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Shaky cam be damned!  Oh, and The Plague.  I digs me some Medieval Sean Bean and, once again, he delivers the knightly goods.  The film's OK until they boys get to the small village for an overnight stay.  Then it gets really good and a lot of shit starts hitting the oxen-powered fan.  So if you watch this and you're just not feeling it, wait until about midway into the picture and stick around for another half hour and watch how crazy good it gets.  Any fans of David Warner?  He's barely in this.  Don't get too excited, but any David Warner is better than no David Warner.  That's what my Grandma used to say after a hot shower.  Like every movie Ray Charles ever watched, this movie is dark; it's dark in tone and visually.  And it's got one hell of a dark and cynical ending.  I'll tell ya, until they got to the village, it felt like it was going to be a middle of the road, bland-ish Medieval costumer and then it started getting better and better until it ended up a real peach.  I watched it on Netflix even though I have the DVD.  At some point the Blu-ray will fall into my lap and I'll give it another spin and dig into the extras. 

Agnes of God (1985)

Director: Norman Jewison

Writer: John Pielmeier

Composer: Georges Delerue

Starring: Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly, Anne Pitoniak, Winston Rekert, Gratien Gelinas, Guy Hoffmann, Gabriel Arcand

More info: IMDb

Tagline: What unspeakable crime took place behind the third floor window? Only Agnes knows. And Dr. Martha Livingston is the one person who can unravel the mystery.

Plot: When a naive novice nun is discovered with a dead newborn in her convent quarters, a court-appointed psychiatrist investigates her case.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

OK drama/thriller with a strong cast and good performances and an even stronger score by Georges Delerue.  I dig that guy's work A LOT and it only reminded me of how it's been far too long since I listened to his scores.  Gorgeous music.  I figured there wasn't going to be anything in this worthy of consideration to be included in the exploitation genre of Nunsploitation but I was at least hoping for something captivating enough to hold my attention.  I started to slip in the last half hour.  Perhaps the play was more engaging.  The Columbia DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen.  The only extras are two trailers (A SOLDIER'S STORY and THE CHINA SYNDROME - both fullscreen).

Bigfoot's Reflection (2007)

Director: Evan Beloff

Writers: Evan Beloff, Darryll D.B. Walsh

Composer: Toby W. Richardson

Starring:  Who knows, they didn't bother to list them in the film's credits.

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Does the creature we seek live within us too?

Plot:  This film follows dedicated researches on their quest to find Bigfoot.

My rating:  5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I don't know why I bother with Bigfoot documentaries.  Maybe I'm secretly hoping for a good laugh.  At least the ones made in the 70s are entertaining.  I don't believe in Bigfoot.  It would be cooler 'n' hell if one was found but lets' face it, there has been no proven evidence of the existence of any such creature.  This brief film (48 minutes) is just a few stories by a small handful of folks who are active Bigfoot hunters/researchers/believers.  Their stories are similar and they aren't all that entertaining.  There is some discussion of the famous Patterson film made in the 60s and it's remarkable how many different ways folks can come up with to say that it's authentic like "if it's a man in a suit, you'd have to glue each hair to the body in order to see such muscle definition" (you can't see muscles, sorry).  That's just one example and I'm paraphrasing.   The people interviewed are earnest and they seem to be convinced without a shadow of a doubt that they've experienced, first hand, the creatures.  Are they delusional or are they making this up for the attention?  Beats me.  The music was soothing and the mountainous locations were pretty.  I'd totally be willing to go a-huntin' for some Bigfeets in the gorgeous mountains if someone would throw me some plane tickets and some camping gear.  I'll believe in whatever you want for a couple of weeks hiking and camping in the beautiful wilderness.  Anyone want to go?  This'll be fun.

Libeled Lady (1936)

Director: Jack Conway

Writers: Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, George Oppenheimer, Wallace Sullivan

Composer: William Axt

Starring: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin, Cora Witherspoon, E.E. Clive, Bunny Beatty, Otto Yamaoka, Hattie McDaniel

More info: IMDb


Plot:  A newspaper man, his jilted fiancée, and his lawyer hatch an elaborate scheme to turn a false news-story into the truth, before a high-society woman can sue for libel.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

Cute movie and not a dull moment.  I was hoping for more of a lightning fast screwball comedy and even though it's not the home run I was wanting, it was still fun.   Myrna Loy had the best quips and retorts, enough to get the only big laughs out of me.  The cast is great and the story moves along at a fast clip as well as the quick dialogue.  Man, they sure had a higher rate of words per minute of dialogue on average than they do now.  They were some fast talkin' mo-fos.  The Warner Bros. DVD only has two extras - the theatrical trailer and a radio program, Leo Is On the Air (14 minutes). 

The Quiet Man (1952)

Director: John Ford

Writers: Frank S. Nugent, Maurice Walsh

Composer: Victor Young

Starring: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, Francis Ford, Eileen Crowe, May Craig, Arthur Shields

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Action...Excitement...Romance...Fill the Screen!

Plot: A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Here's the John Wayne movie for people who don't care for John Wayne.  It is weird NOT seeing him in a Western or war film.  There's no action (except for the fist fight at the end) and there's very little macho Duke (until the end).  I really enjoyed it.  It's a light drama so there's some funny thrown in from time to time. Barry Fitzgerald was hilarious as Michaleen Oge Flynn, the matchmaker/puppet master that helps Sean (Wayne) get Mary (O'Hara).  Victor McLaglen plays her brother, Red.  He does look way too old to be her brother but it's not something that you think about much.  Just roll with it.  It's also strange seeing Wayne in a foreign country.  The Irish locations are gorgeous.  But then they contrast it with the really cheap looking backdrops for the sets in Hollywood.  Some of them are just awful.  I've known about this picture since I was a kid 40 years ago but I've only just now gotten around to watching it.  I'm sure in another thirty years I'll come across it again and slap it in the holodeck or VR or whatever format the kids are using then.