A Mexican American adventure directed by Luis Bunuel, starring Jaime Fernandez.
The Robinson Crusoe story: An Englishman is shipwrecked on an island for many years and eventually befriends a victim he saves from cannibals.
This was a basic telling of the story. I read the book a while ago and liked it. It seemed that the book had Robinson in a more humbling experience, but this film had him keep his bravado and arrogance. I don't remember the dog and cat being in the book, but I could be wrong. This was recorded on shitty film, not the Technicolor/Cinemascope good stuff. Hence, although it was in color, it looked pretty bad. It looked dirty to tell the truth. If this were being written for school, I would have to discuss western colonialism ideas and why Robinson treated Friday like a slave. He did, but that's how the book was written in 1719. I rate this adequate, but it's going in my Shipwrecked folder with the Cast Aways and Swept Aways. Watch it if you like desert island survival flicks as much as I do.
A Mexican drama directed by Luis Bunuel, starring Jorge Mistral.
Two young women are living with a rich insect collector. One of them is his wife. Her long lost lover returns from a journey and this causes problems. The other problem is the drunken man from whom the insect collector got so much money. When not putting pins through moths, rich boy goes to terrorize this poor sod and try to take his home, causing Mr. Drinky to get violent.
It's really weird to half-understand the spoken language of a film while reading subtitles. The plot started out really weak and prissy, but it got way more interesting and gritty as it went. Obviously, I don't remember the characters' names, but I could identify them very easily. Even the butt-ugly maid and silent boy were identifiable characters. Dialogue flew by at an alarming pace. English speakers think Spanish sounds fast, but the subtitles were almost flickering they changed so quickly. Add to that understanding about half of the spoken Spanish and it's clear why I forgot names. The sets and costumes seemed like a mishmash of whatever European clothing and buildings could be found in Mexico at the time. I'm not saying they looked bad, just a little desultory. The video quality is what looked bad. It was grainy, noisy, blurry and dark. The shots seemed to be composed thoughtfully though. Speaking in the audio department, dialogue seemed to be at the correct level, but sound effects were more towards '70s kung fu style clipping. IMDb lists a rating of 6.8/10, AllMovie lists an AllMovie Rating of 2.5/5 with 4/5 User Rating and Rotten Tomatoes lists 67% Audience Score for an average of 66.25%. I would argue for a little bit higher grade just for ease of character identification. There are lots of films that could learn much from this! I rate it poor. This is what happens when I watch a movie, work, and then try to write about it. If you really need to see Mr. Drinky get tormented by the bug collector, go ahead and watch it.
An American western by Don Barry de Acosta A.K.A. Milton Poimboeuf.
Jesse James is in town with his gang of outlaws. While there, he has mutiple simultaneous relationships with the local women.
This was pretty bad. The video was blocky and pixellated. The audio was gritty and muffled. Though it looked and sounded bad, the acting was the worst part. The sheriff and his daughter were the worst actors. In the saloon, there was a line of dancing girls who could not coordinate their movements and were all wearing different dresses. It was the sloppiest line of dancing girls I have ever seen. On the plus side, there were some good camera shots in the ending gunfight. I have to rate this bad. Don't watch this unless you like Howling: New Moon Rising (1995).
An American mystery thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart.
A disabled photographer lives in a city tenament building that has a window facing other buildings full of apartments like his own. He watches the neighbors through this window and suspects that one of them has committed murder.
The camera-work was spectacular! We have panning and zooming working together to look into other windows and then the camera pulls back to reveal that it has been in the main character's window all along. He gets out his binoculars and the viewer sees his view through them, as well as his telephoto lens camera. The plot and characters were clearly communicated and easy to keep track of. The style was very much of the times, but still good. The pacing really speeds up toward the climax when multiple things are happenning in a short amount of time and we get lots of short and action-packed camera shots. I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in photography (still or video). I rate it good.
An American romantic drama directed by Richard Brooks, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon and Donna Reed.
A couple who meet in Paris have various drama in their lives. The man is an ex-soldier who wants to be an author, but becomes an alcoholic. The woman comes from a family which lives a regal lifestyle, although being totally broke. They have a daughter together who adds to their problems.
I am in no way interested in the lives of these people. Their problems are not mine and I care not what becomes of them. Mostly a talking movie (besides writing, kissing and drinking), it held little to capture my attention. I sat through about an hour of the two hour duration before turning it off. The audio and video were fine and there were some creatively framed shots. The plot was clearly communicated and the characters were identifiable. Although technically sound, it did not interest me. In accordance with my turnoff rule, I rate it shit.
An American science fiction directed by Hollingsworth Morse.
A set of moons attached by an atmospheric belt enter a solar system and cause problems for the people there. After the narrow escape of a space station, the moons begin their collision course with another moon. The leader of the 3rd moon is hostile and is unwilling to accept outside help.
This was pretty hokey. The science ideas involved were absurd. Such is the way with '50s science fiction. Being part of a television series, the characters were already known to the audience and not developed in this film. The plot was dependant upon the absurd science ignorance of the 1950s. Production value seemed alright to me. The spaceships looked a little bit small and the landing and takeoff scenes could easily have been recycled. Overall, it was mildly amusing. I rate it o.k.
A British crime film noir directed by Joseph Losey, starring Alexis Smith and Dirk Bogarde.
A psychologist is attacked by a criminal on the street. Instead of turning him in to the police, he offers a home and help. As the psychologist tries to address the causative issues of the criminal's past, his wife falls in love with the criminal and they have an affair.
I really liked the plot and characters. The stuck up rich woman, tired of her boring old husband, goes for the bad boy. I thought it was technically sound with decent camera-work and passable sound. The editing made sense with the story and there were no mistakes or confusing cuts to unrelated scenes. What we've got here defines my adequate rating. It does it's job quite well, but does not make me sing it's praises. This would be one to watch if you're looking for decent public domain films.
An American adventure film produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder.
A botonist and his photographer go on an expedition in the Himalayas and struggle with their native guides for control of the mission. They eventually capture a yeti and return to America. The yeti escapes and the police try to catch it.
Such a lame and stale plot! Trecherous native guide, monster in the sewer, whatever. The characters were as stereotypical as the plot and the style was bland. Not only that, but the monster is never clearly shown. At least the pacing was a little better than the last few shit-flicks. This type of movie doesn't require a long explanation. I rate it bad. You probably shouldn't watch it.
An American science fiction film directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder, starring Peter Graves.
A scientist is missing during a nuclear test. Upon his return, he is acting weird, steals military documents and crashes his car in the area of the test. When he is drugged at the hospital, he tells a story of alien abduction and the aliens' plans to take over the Earth. Nobody believes him and they treat him as a mental patient.
This is about how I feel all the time. I know the aliens want to kill us and see clear evidence that their plan is working. When I tell anyone, the ideas are dismissed as rumors and hoaxes regardless of how much evidence that is in plain view that I site. Good luck checking Facebook from within a mass grave! We have different aliens in the "real world" and they have different plans. I wish that the solution were as simple as in this film. The audio was amazingly clear and free of dead air hiss for the date and the video looked alright, if pretty standard. The closeup shots of spiders and lizards did not convince me that they were giant, even with the actor standing in front. This scene was my favorite not because of the giant creepy crawlies idea, but because I like nature photography. Obviously, I liked the plot and thought that the characters displayed a realistic response to the conflict. I liked this film more for the ideas than the actual movie itself. I rate it adequate for giving me a good example to type about.
An American romantic adventure directed by Reginald Le Borg.
An archaeologist in South America is researching precolumbian ruins and is sent a female photographer. He does not approve of a woman holding this job, but she manages to convince him otherwise. She finds them a guide and on the way into the jungle, the two men quarrel over who will win the woman.
The plot was easy to follow and the characters identifiable. The straight ahead camera-work made the presentation very clear. Technically speaking, it was an alright film with no problems. It just didn't strike my fancy. The subject matter was outside my normal fare and the style wasn't sufficiently strong to make me like it for artistic reasons. What we've got here is a regular movie that's alright to watch. I rate it o.k.
An Australian American swashbuckling action adventure directed by Byron Haskin, starring Robert Newton.
A pirate captain pretends to aid a governor in the capture of another pirate while all the time plotting to return to an island to get treasure. The other pirate has a boy that John knows as a cabin boy and John takes the boy with him because he has an item that indicates the location of said treasure. The tavern wench is betrothed to John, but he leaves before the wedding and together with the boy, they go in search of the treasure.
The main character, Long John Silver makes the film here. With all of his "AARRR" and "BELAY"s, he defines pirate talk. Everything else about the film takes a back seat to this. With style dictated by pirate talk, everything else becomes unimportant. I'm rating it adequate because his pirate talk was repetitive, but very in character. If ye don't agree, I'll make ye walk the plank!
An American crime drama directed by Ed Wood, starring Steve Reeves.
A small time criminal who is the son of a plastic surgeon and his gangster partner rob a theater, killing the night watchman and wounding a woman. The gangster kills the surgeon's son to protect himself and orders the surgeon to change his face so he can get away.
I actually thought this was pretty good. The plot was interesting and I liked the ending. The style was typical of the time period, but good and almost gave off a Twilight Zone vibe. On the negative side, the characters were extremely shallow. The production was also sub-par (come on, 1954? You expecting CG in HD?). Anyway, I'm rating it adequate because I think it's worth watching.
An American western directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Joan Crawford.A woman opens a casino in an area where a railroad will soon go through and hires a musician to play guitar there. The locals dislike the businesswoman and the guitar player turns out to be a gunslinger.Standard western, say thankee. The characters and plot were alright as well as the pacing and the style. I'm not concerned about production value on films from this era because it would be a detriment to their ratings. The guitar playing was so fake that a non-guitarist could tell he was faking and an audio track was being played. There was also a fake background scene in which the characters were obviously standing in front of a backdrop. What I saw was a decent western and I'm rating it adequate.
An American horror directed by Jack Arnold.One scientist finds a fossilized claw in the Amazon rainforest. He brings it back to the center of operations and gets other scientists to go with him in search of more information on the same creature. It turns out to be a semi-aquatic, violent humanoid and there is disagreement over whether to escape or try to get information when some of the crew are killed by it.The plot is very simple and the characters are superficial. Basically, it's a simple movie to present the Gill-man monster. It wasn't poorly made, but it was very predictable and lame. I'm rating it poor.
An animated drama by John Halas and Joy Batchelor.The animals of a farm overthrow the human farmer and run it themselves. When the pigs take over, the other animals start to question if this new leadership is the same as the old.This story is one that I've heard compared to the way things have worked in the history of the real world. Under pig rule, all of the ingredients are there: lies, a class system, a military police force... Sounds like the way that the United States is run these days. I'm rating this good for being politically accurate.
action films directed by Hiroshi Inagaki.Musashi Miyamoto grows from a young soldier to an accomplished fencer.There was no audio at the end of the third film.This was typical samurai stuff. Everybody's poor except the nobles and almost everyone fights. I'm rating it o.k. for conforming to the norm.
A science fiction directed by Ishiro Honda.An American journalist goes to Japan where a giant monster is destroying civilization.The audio was low and the video was in black and white and full screen.This being the first Godzilla movie, it was a little better than some of the others. For example, you couldn't see as clearly how fake the tiny cities and toy trains were. It was alright, but I like the ones where he faces off against wild monsters from space a little more.
an action movie co-written, edited and directed by akira kurosawaa village in abject poverty needs to hire samurai to defend against bandits.the video was in black and white and in full screen. the audio was in japanese, but subtitles were provided.check out: the fat samurai. these dudes are supposed to be dirt poor, so why does he have such a gut?this flick is way oldschool. I've never liked old samurai films to begin with and this one was over 2 hours long. I'm not saying it was bad, but it sure doesn't deserve green text. it just depicts abject poverty so well that it stays out of the red. also, I didn't get the whole thing with the dude finding that the farmer had all that samurai stuff hidden in his house. they needed war gear and there it was. must be some japanese honor thing.
