4D Man A.K.A. The Evil Force, Master of Terror (1959)

An American science fiction directed by Irvin Yeaworth.
A scientist is working on a machine which can make any object pass through another item. He goes to live and work with his brother and falls in love with the brother's fiancee. The brother thinks that he has made the machine work, but he is doing it himself.
Cheesy late '50s science fiction. I think that explains it perfectly. The plot and characters heavily reminded me of The Twilight Zone. Special effects were probably amazing for the time. There were the obvious prop and editing tricks like lining up the jewelery store window so that it didn't need glass (image) and the hand in steel prop. There was also compositing when he walked through walls. It looked really obvious and unconvincing by today's standards, but it must have seemed really cool in 1959. The credits say "color by De Luxe" and judging by the date, one of the better camera and film setups was used. I'm not talking Panavision Technicolor good, but almost. Audio was mid-range biased and a little raspy. Everyone was announcing their dialogue lines. Most of the soundtrack was dissonant jazz, but there was some stereotypical science fiction music as well. I rate it tolerable. It would get a worse score without the good video and special effects. You might not want to watch it.

12 and Holding (2005)

An American drama directed by Michael Cuesta.
A group of children have problems. 1 boy's brother died in a treehouse fire. He visits 1 of the boys responsible in prison. 1 fat boy fell out of said treehouse during the fire and lost his sense of taste. The gym teacher wants him on the football team, so he eats healthy and exercises. A girl has a crush on a construction worker and sneaks into his apartment.
Most of this was terrible, but there were some good parts. The plot had interesting material in it, but moved far too slowly. Many of the characters developed over the duration. This is more than I can say for most films. The kids tried to fix their problems and some of the parents came to realize they had problems. The video looked alright. The camera placement was all really obvious and standard. Also, some of the less eventful shots lasted too long. Slow pacing. Audio was a nightmare. The copy I got had been compressed, normalized or had the volume raised to the point that everything was clipping like an old kung fu movie. The waveform would look like a series of boxes. I rate this tolerable because some of it was really good. The problem is that most of it was really bad. You might not want to watch it.

Tick, Tick, Tick A.K.A. ...tick...tick...tick... (1970)

An American crime drama directed by Ralph Nelson, starring Jim Brown, George Kennedy and Fredric March.
A new black sheriff is elected in a southern town. He arrests a white man for drunk driving and causing an accident. The arrested man's friends and family get angry and start demanding he be set free, so the old sheriff works as a deputy to help solve the problem.
Not bad. The plot held my attention and the characters were written and acted well. I liked what some of the people said about being a sheriff, not a white or black one and the girl being killed was a girl, doesn't matter what color. The video was Panavision Metrocolor. If you've been following my posts, you know this is perfect. Even if I were to make a film now and had access to those cameras and film, I would still use that. Audio was good. I could hear all the dialogue and the 1960s folk rock soundtrack fit the setting. I rate this adequate. It's better than o.k. because it brings up discrimination issues and used awesome video recording equipment.

3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom (2012)

An American black comedy directed by Jordan Roberts, starring Chris O'Dowd and Ron Perlman.
A young man has been hiding in a desert, writing a book. His mom invites him to his brother's graduation from rehab where a woman runs into him on her bicycle. He takes the woman to a clubhouse behind his parents' house and they have sex. The brother has been recording video the whole time and uploads it to a website.
Not very interesting. The plot seemed rambling and unfocused to me. There were plenty of characters, but the 2 brothers were developed most. Video looked very much of the time, but there were some 4th wall breaking production jokes included. Audio was good. I could hear the dialogue and the soundtrack music was not annoying. I rate this o.k. because it was mediocre.
When I started this list of "every film ever made", I was concerned that there may be lots of bad ones. This was unreasonable and unthinking of me. A little bit into the list, my concern is that there will be TONS of mediocre ones. I would rather watch something horrible and write a scathing review than a long line of average films and rate them all o.k. because they were produced fine, but were uninteresting.

3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

An American crime film directed by Demian Lichtenstein, starring Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak and David Arquette.
5 Elvis impersonators rob a casino. They fight amongst themselves until 2 are left. A single mother at a hotel with a thieving son falls in love with one and they leave. The other follows them, trying to get the money.
Starts strong and then dies. The plot held my attention for the first 34 minutes (the heist) and then became dull. The characters were predictable and uninteresting. Video looked exactly as one would expect a 2001 Hollywood film to look. I could hear all of the dialogue. There was some good Elvis music, but there was also rock music of the time, which was not so good. I rate it o.k. because it was mediocre.

360 (2011)

A French Austrian Brazilian British crime drama directed by Fernando Meirelles, starring Jude Law, Moritz Bleibtreu, Jamel Debbouze, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Anthony Hopkins.
People are involved in sexual situations. One woman is a hooker, a man orders her, but misses the connection, a sex offender gets out of jail and is tempted by a beautiful woman at the airport...
Boring and desultory. The plot or plots did not hold my attention at all, maybe because of the audio, which I will get to. There were far too many characters. Some of them seemed to be connected in some way. The video was all great. There was a variety of shot duration and camera placement. It really looked great, natural and not forced. The audio was horrible. Most of the dialogue was whispered. When that happens, I take it as a sign that the filmmakers thought dialogue was unimportant and don't care if the viewer hears what people are saying. If the dialogue was important, we should be able to hear it, right? Given that I only heard a few words and phrases over the course of almost 2 hours, I rate this bad. It looked great, but sounded terrible. Don't watch it.

47 Ronin (2013)

An American samurai fantasy directed by Carl Rinsch, starring Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada.
A "half breed" (English Japanese, but this is never mentioned) man is in love with the daughter of a feudal lord. A witch is fooling around with the political situation to have the lord executed and an evil man installed in his place, engaged to the daughter. The son of the lord and the half breed gather a group of fighters to dethrone the evil man.
Very pretty, but pretty boring. The plot failed to hold my attention. Some of the characters were developed and changed over the duration (son of the feudal lord goes from hating Keanu to fighting alongside him). I really didn't get the half English thing. I thought he was half Tengu and that the witch should have been played by a white woman because then the non-human characters would also be non-Asian. The video was mostly new Hollywood style, without a hint of Japanese framing (like camera on the roof). There were also tons of digital effects. If some physical effects like models, props and mechanically animated costumes had been mixed in, it would have been more convincing. Audio was decent and I could hear everything. It also came with good subtitles. I rate it o.k. because of too much CG and 1 white actor on an all-Asian cast.

42nd Street (1933)

An American musical drama directed by Lloyd Bacon and Bubsy Berkeley, starring Warner Baxter, George Brent and Ginger Rogers.
A theater director is putting on a stage musical and a new actress joins his group.
Mediocre, but moderately entertaining. The "pre-code" element comes in the form of the lead actress being involved with 2 men: 1 financially backs the play and the other is her vaudeville partner. The plot was not very interesting to me, but reminded me of Me and Orson Welles (2008) and Topsy Turvy (1999). I'm not really into the "getting ready for a theater performance" plot. The characters were acted well and some showed some depth. Check out the girl with the monacle (image). Watching black and white 4:3 video again after so long is different. Way back then, the camerawork was really obvious and basic, but showed everything going on very clearly. Another time difference was the audio. Everyone was almost announcing their dialogue. I could hear all of it, but there was not much variety. There must be something between announcing and whispering which makes sense... Oh yeah! The 1970s and 1980s had reasonable audio. If you liked the other 2 films I mentioned above, this would be good to watch. Otherwise, eh... I rate it o.k. because it wasn't very bad or very good.

13 Going on 30 A.K.A. Suddenly 30 (2004)

An American fantasy romance directed by Gary Winick, starring Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer and Andy Serkis.
A 13 year old girl wishes to be 30 years old and magic glitter makes it so. She then realizes that she has been a horrible person between.
Sappy and crappy. The plot was alright in 1988 (Big), but did not need to be repeated so frequently. I'm referencing the film with the girl wishing on candles, but don't want to remember what it was called. The characters were mostly shallow. Jenna and Matt developed a little bit. The video was "chick flick" bright and had no unexpected camera placement, editing or anything of that nature. I could hear the dialogue and the soundtrack music was mostly 1980s pop. This brings up what I thought was the only good scene: the Thriller dance. Even though this was crappy and not worth watching, I've seen so many films which are so much worse. I rate it poor. You probably should not watch it.

3 from Hell (2019)

An American crime film by Rob Zombie, starring Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Richard Brake.
In a direct sequel to House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005), Otis and Baby escape from jail with their half brother, Winslow and go to Mexico.
Definitely worth watching. It makes me want to watch the 2 previous films again. This is part of Zombie's Firefly Trilogy (of 4 films?) which also includes The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009). I don't really get that part. The plot of this was as good or better than the 2 previous films in the direct timeline. I like the Otis and Baby characters and adding Richard Brake as their relative makes sense. The video was very Rob Zombie and mostly good. There were a few action scenes with editing cuts which were too fast for my taste, but everything else looked good. I could hear all of the dialogue and the soundtrack was classic rock as I have come to expect. I would really have liked to know this was a sequel before watching because I would have watched the others first. The 2003 film was mostly horror and dark, 2005 added a crime element and this was mostly a crime film with a little horror twist. If you liked the other films of the series, you should watch this. I rate it awesome.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)

An American animated musical comedy by Rob Zombie, starring Paul Giamatti and Rosario Dawson.
A luchador wrestler witnesses a beautiful woman being abducted by a gorilla. While tracking them down, he calls in the aid of his female co-worker and her robot.
This is pretty goofy for Rob Zombie, but I understand how it makes sense. The fictional world of the film is populated by characters from fantasy and horror settings as well as shapely women. The plot was very cartoony and the characters were a little shallow. Actually, the villain was most developed of all of them. There was plenty of nudity and profanity. The animation style reminded me of old Ren & Stimpy cartoons in the way that movements were exaggerated. I could hear all of the dialogue and there were good subtitles. The music sounded like maybe there was some Brad Neely influence, but he did not make it. I think this makes a great contrast to the dark and bloody bulk of my Rob Zombie film collection. I rate it adequate. You might want to check it out.

Halloween II (2009)

An American slasher horror by Rob Zombie, starring Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton.
The continued story from the 2007 film. Michael's younger sister (who supposedly killed him in the first one) is having mental issues. Michael is alive and back in town as well.
This was very much like the 2007 film, but not as good because it lacked the back-story section, which was the only part I liked from that. The plot mostly made sense, but it lacked the character development of its predecessor. Really, I found it boring and predictable. I saw every kill coming from minutes away. The video was not as good either. There were some dream/hallucination scenes which looked good, but some of it was cut so quickly that it was almost coruscating. I didn't get the thing with the white horse, except that Death rides a white horse. It must really be that simple because the rest of the movie was. The soundtrack featured an extremely wide range of music, but some of the sound effects were really annoying. There was also lots of shouting and crying in the dialogue. How many times in a row must a character say "fuck!" before the audience gets that they are unhappy? I'm keeping this to complete my Rob Zombie film set (more of that soon), but I wouldn't recommend it unless you HAVE TO watch full sets, regardless of varying quality. I rate it o.k. and it should only be watched right after the 2007 film.

Halloween (2007)

An American slasher horror by Rob Zombie, starring Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris and William Forsythe.
Zombie's take on the Michael Myers story includes the background of the killer. He came from a family which had a negative influence on him and was mistreated at school. He killed his family and was imprisoned in a sanitarium before escaping to return to his hometown.
This was worth watching. I liked the back-story part most (about the first hour) because it had a more engaging plot and developed the main character. That being said, I don't think that Michael Myers is a very good horror film villain. He's crazy and he kills and that's it. Angela from Sleepaway Camp is more my style: she kills anyone whom she believes to be misbehaving. There's some discrimination and reason involved. Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street only kills Elm Street teens and uses dreams to do it. Typical of Rob's other films, the video was done quite well. There tends to be lots of contrast between scenes and this was emphasized in this film with the ultra-bright psyche ward against Halloween night. Audio was actually good. There's not much to say when it all sounds correct. I would say this is slightly above average and worth watching. I rate it adequate.

40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)

A French British American romantic comedy directed by Michael Lehmann, starring Josh Hartnett and Griffin Dunne.
A man who has broken up with his girlfriend is addicted to sex. He takes a vow of celibacy for lent, but meets a woman and begins a relationship with her.
Not quite as bad as it would seem at first glance. The plot was a little bit predictable and the characters were a little bit shallow, but I've seen many films with much worse. The humor was all about sex, but it didn't get into the really crude and immature style which most American romantic comedies go for. Video was mostly good, if a little too bright and cheerful looking. There were some special effects, but nothing amazing or worth writing about. Audio was a problem because I got a bad file. It was all skippy and warbling. Besides that, there was the prerequisite inaudible whispering. There was a quote I saw while looking for an image: "sexy, fresh and wildly hip". I thought it was stale and bland above all else. I would almost suspect that this set out to be a mediocre film because it did such a good job of being so. If it wants that middle o.k. rating, here it is. Don't go out of your way to watch it.

31 (2016)

An American horror by Rob Zombie, starring Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Judy Geeson and Malcolm McDowell.
A group of traveling circus workers are abducted in a desert. Their captors force them into playing a game in which they must survive in a maze for 12 hours while hired murderers try to kill them.
Very very Rob Zombie. The plot was typical of the horror/gore/slasher genre and the characters were not really anything special or different. They definitely were not developed well. Does Richard Brake (image) look like a young Billy Bob Thornton? What was developed was sick humor, tension and blood. I think that should be obvious and expected of Rob Zombie at this point. Video was great. There was a variety of shot angles, proximities and lengths. Audio was good, except some whispering. It seems kind of weird that Rob Zombie (metal musician) would use mostly classic hard rock in his soundtracks, but maybe he grew up listening to it like most metal guys. If you like Rob Zombie films, you will like this. Just don't expect anything different from his other films. I rate it adequate for being well made and enjoyable, but predictable.

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

An American action war film directed by Noam Murro, starring Lena Headey, David Wenham and Rodrigo Santoro.
The events surrounding the plot of the 2006 film are told. The Athenian naval forces fight the Persians.
This should have been called 300 II: The Quest for More Money. It had lots of what made the original great, but way too much of it. The plot focused on politics and military campaigns, rather than the personal story of King Leonidas. What the plot lacked was focus. There were tons of characters and I thought the acting was lackluster. There must have been a decision not to develop a few characters, but throw armies around instead. The video was cheesy. It all looked like the first film, but way overdone. There was way too much slow motion and so much CG that it looked more like the God of War and Prince of Persia games for PS2 than a movie. The audio was not too bad. I could hear almost everything, but was glad that the copy I got came with subtitles. Then the ending credits played and my respect for the audio job went down the toilet. Black Sabbath's War Pigs song is not appropriate in this context. If you liked the 2006 film, don't watch this. If you liked Peter Jackson's Hobbit films, this was made just for you. I rate it bad because it would have been alright if it had not been trying to ride the coattails of 300 so hard.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A British American science fiction directed by Stanley Kubrick.
A black monolith is found on the moon, with a beam pointing to Jupiter. A team of astronauts are sent in a spaceship powered by an "infallible" computer.
A visual masterpiece, an audio nightmare. The sparse plot failed to hold my attention and the shallow characters did not even make me care to find out what happens next. I have watched this a few times, but it was not on my blog, so I watched it again just to review. All of the video looks amazing. I really like the shots with rotating sets and camera to simulate space travel. Even the sets in those scenes are amazing. However, Kubrick forgot that a movie has audio as well as video. It sounded like Wendy Carlos puked on her keyboard to record the soundtrack. There is only Kubrick to blame for this, as he used pre-existing classical music recordings. The worst was the scene in which David Bowman was unplugging HAL 9000. The shrieking white noise would work as a Ludivico Technique to make me hate science fiction films. I would really like to like this movie because it looks so good. It just sounds so bad that I have to rate it shit. I will never be watching it ever again.

Ninteen Eighty-Four A.K.A. 1984 (1984)

A British science fiction drama based on the book by George Orwell, directed by Michael Radford, starring John Hurt and Richard Burton.
A dystopian future society forbids thought. A man who works in a "fact checking" job for a newspaper realizes what truth is and that he is being lied to. He meets a woman who feels the same and they have a romance, but are caught by thought police.
This is a weird one. I really like the plot and the ideas behind it, but this was extremely unpleasant to watch. I would classify this alongside THX 1138 (1971) and Metropolis (1927) as films about runaway governments. I really like the genre and wish that more people would get into this set of ideas because this science fiction is getting closer to present day fact every day. The characters in this film were cast correctly and acted their roles well. The video was very stylized, with drab city scenes, bright outdoor scenes and institutional torture chambers. It was the torture chambers which irked me most. It seemed too convincing and there was a scene with possible abuse of real rats. I don't object to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) having a real turtle mutilated, but there was a time when rats were my only friends and a pet turtle will never like a person. Editing was very slow compared to the newer films I've watched recently. Audio was generally alright, but there was some whispered dialogue which was too quiet. I have to give it a pink rating because I like the subject matter and the book, but not the film. If you don't know the story, you need to watch it.

30 Minutes or Less (2011)

An American crime comedy directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Michael Peña and Fred Ward.
A pool cleaner wants to have his rich father assassinated and asks his friend for help. The hitman costs $10,000 so they abduct the pizza delivery driver and attach a bomb to him, telling him to rob a bank. The pizza boy picks up his friend and they try to go through with the robbery.
Not too shabby. Cliche, predictable and stupid, but funny. The plot held my interest really well and the characters fit their roles well. Everyone did a good job of acting, but I like Jesse Eisenberg because of his role in Zombieland (2009). The video that I found was absolutely terrible. It was stretched vertically and very grainy. I would not recommend arabmoviez. The video all looked to be correct exposures and there was shot variety. Editing was mostly quick because of the numerous action scenes. Audio was surprisingly good, although that may just be the extreme compression. I could hear everything well. I'm rating this adequate because it's a fun movie that should just be taken at face value. You might want to watch it if you liked 21 & 22 Jump Street (2012 & 2014).

27 Dresses (2008)

An American romantic comedy directed by Anne Fletcher, starring James Marsden, Edward Burns and Judy Greer.
A wedding planner is a bridesmaid at all of her friends' weddings. She falls in love with a reporter who writes a newspaper article about her.
Stupid. The plot did not hold my interest, but the characters did show some depth. Acting and dialogue were what the current internet calls "cringe-worthy". I think the "Benny and the Jets" musical number was too much. Video was typically bright and saturated. Audio was not too shabby. I could hear everything and it was not overly dynamic. The best part of this was the spikes on the main character's collar at a goth wedding (image). I really don't like writing bad reviews, so I try to make them short. I rate this bad. Don't watch it.

Up series (1964 - 2012)

A British documentary directed by Paul Almond and Michael Apted.
Beginning at the age of 7, 14 British people are interviewed every 7 years.
This was definitely interesting. There is a 2019 film, but I was not able to find a copy. Given that I watched over 13 hours of material in a few days, I did get a little tired of repetition. If I had watched them on TV when they came out, I would have enjoyed it more and that is why the repetition was there. TV viewers are not expected to remember what all 14 people were doing for the past few chapters. I think the idea was a good one, if a little intrusive into the lives of these chosen people. I find that I share the most similarities with Neil. He was the one who was homeless before becoming a politician. I'm not saying that I am either of those things, but like him, I am viewed as an eccentric. There were some great quotes from the whole series and none of the people were boring. It was not quite as deeply informational as I would like from a documentary, but it was not completely entertainment either. There was no techno and mostly talk, so that was good. I rate it adequate and wish I had watched a few less of the episodes.