An American docufiction directed by Lionel Rogosin.
Several poor men in New York City are addicted to alcohol. A new guy shows up, gets smashed and then leaves.
This is true fucking grit. When your cast gets arrested and returns with shaves and haircuts because you're filming the actual thing, that's raw. Even rawer yet was the sterno drinking scene. Apparently, yellow listerine was not a thing back then. I can't speak very highly of plot or characters, but the camera-work was amazing for having to be hidden most of the time. Other shots were done at night with no dedicated lighting. I would put this almost on par with Annoying (2015) which was just slightly grittier. I rate this awesome for having the balls to really show life in the gutter.
A French Mexican adventure directed by Luis Bunuel, starring Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, Georges Marchal and Michel Piccoli.
A revolution starts because the government takes over mining claims in South America. An old man and a stranger who is new in town are blamed for it, so they leave with the man's daughter and prostitute mistress as well as a local priest. They take one of the military men hostage and head into the rain forest. He escapes with their food and meets up with other soldiers before being shot. The group is left to find their way out of the jungle with no supplies.
This was slow to start, but I liked it more as it went on. The plot started off looking like a Sergio Leone fistful of revolution epic, but turned into wilderness survival for the better. The characters were relatively static, but what interested me was that their relationships with one another changed over time. The hero was a typical Indiana Jones dude who came into town like Trinity. Dialogue was all in French, but I found good English subtitles. I thought the acting was spot-on, but stereotypical like the characters. The world already had tons of western cowboys to model the hero and romantic interest after, as well as the old man in 1956. Costumes looked like a standard western, but sets and filming locations went far beyond that old Texas town. There was lots of jungle B-roll and the locations for scenes in the jungle looked good too. I really like those big, weird-shaped trees. Camera-work was definitely to my liking and very much Sergio Leone style. There were lots of long shots showing distance and space, but not many close-ups. Doing a quick click-through, I hear no non-diegetic music. The dialogue would have been the correct volume if I needed to hear some French and the sound effects were mixed loud, but not clipping. IMDb has a rating of 6.9/10 listed and Rotten Tomatoes has 92% Tomatometer with 60% Audience Score for an average of 73.66%. I would go a little bit higher than that and was glad that Rotten Tomatoes had such a high site score for it. I rate this adequate and would recommend it if you want to see a Sergio Leone film starring Indiana Jones on a jungle survival adventure.
An American science fiction directed by Fred F Sears with special effects by Ray Harryhausen.
UFOs appear, but because of miscommunication, they become a threat and the military fights them.
Stupid! The plot was typical of the time and genre: peaceful aliens are greeted by violent humans and turn to violence. The solution to the problem was absolutely brilliant too: Using magnets to crash the saucers right down on your stupid heads. The characters were so shallow they were like cardboard cutouts. There were some visual effects, but Harryhausen is known for doing much better things than this. The audio was horrendous! The flying saucer and death ray sounds got annoying very quickly. Overall, a piece of crap. I rate this bad. DO NOT WATCH!!!
An American science fiction directed by Hollingsworth Morse.
A rocket hits the Earth and is traced to a moon. Rocky and crew are sent to investigate. They find that the moon has been taken over by a villain who has lied to the inhabitants.
This was very much like the other Rocky Jones film, so I will just elaborate on my previous post. The plot was very clearly communicated in both of them. There was never any doubt who was who, where they were or what they were doing. The relatively high quality video definitely helped in this. Usually science fiction sound effects from this era tend to be harsh and screechy, but that was not the case here. I would recommend these films to anyone looking for decent science fiction from the '50s. Another o.k. rating.
An American adventure film directed by John Huston, starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles.
A man intent on joining the crew of a whaling ship meets a harpooner at an inn. Together they board the Pequod under the command of Captain Ahab who is in search of a white whale.
The film itself wasn't too bad. The plot and characters kept me interested and it was alright technically. I can see why it is famous because it was almost enjoyable. Unfortunately for this film, I have read the book. The actual action that takes place in this megalithic tome would barely fill a childrens' picture book. That is why it is so disconcerting that they got most of the plot wrong. They got the right characters on the right boat and there was a white whale, but that's where the similarity ends. It's like if I asked someone to make coffee and they turned the switch on without plugging it in, tossed some grounds in the glass pot, spilled water on the table and placed a filter on top of the machine. They had so little to do and should have gotten everything right. I'm rating this poor because it's an alright movie, but it isn't Moby Dick by any stretch of the imagination. I would only recommend this to those who will never read the book.
A Japanese science fiction directed by Koji Shima.
Aliens come to Earth to warn humans not to use a nuclear super-weapon. WAIT! They came to warn us about a planet that is about to collide with the Earth and we need to use that nuclear super-weapon (for which they have conveniently destroyed the plans) to stop the impending collision.
The plot was muddy and characters hard to keep track of. The production value was terrible, with washed out yellowish video and annoying distorted audio that included a high pitched shrieking screeching sound whenever the aliens were around. Obviously, nothing good can be said for style. Pacing and timing was spot-on, although it counts for very little. I'm going to have to rate this shit because of the raspy, metallic screaming noise generated by the aliens. This film should come with a strong and blatant warning of it's own not to watch it.
An American science fiction crime film directed and produced by Jack Pollexfen, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
A criminal is executed and his body sold to a scientist for experimentation. The scientist reanimates the corpse and the criminal seeks revenge on his former co-workers for having betrayed him and letting him get caught. The undead criminal is immune to most types of damage and mute due to the procedures of the scientist who reanimated him. A showgirl turns out to be a valuable contact for the police as they try to track down this immortal killer.
I found the plot to be interesting and very clearly presented. The characters were in classic gangster crime/film noir roles, but they worked in this context. Obviously the video was in black and white and the audio was a little treble-biased, but these facts did not detract a great deal from the film. Style was pretty generic and standard for the date, but the pacing felt natural and presented events in a timely fashion. Considering the generic style and absolute mountain of movies I watch, I probably wouldn't watch it again. The clear presentation and general coherence lead me to rate it adequate. I would recommend viewing if you watch lots of movies or are just looking for something slightly better than average to pass the time.
An American action western film directed by Albert C. Gannaway and Ismael Rodriguez, starring Bruce Bennett, Faron Young and Lon Chaney Jr.
With an all-star cast like this, you would think it would be a great movie, but no. Faron Young sang a country song and the rest was trash. The acting was bad, editing worse and video looked dirty. The audio was somehow crystal clear like it was recorded yesterday (using vintage equipment, of course). The plot was pointless and the characters were nearly unidentifiable. I'll just go ahead and rate it bad. You're better off listening to Faron Young singing "Long Green Valley" without the rest of the movie.
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.
This is an update to the previous post.I watched the whole movie and found it to be totally worthless.A young woman is supposed to marry an unsuccessful man on her 20th birthday. She sleeps in a crib in his house and "Aunt Rose" also lives there. At night, the man burns down a competitor's cotton gin. The owner of the burnt gin shows up the next day and spends the day trying to seduce the woman. The unsuccessful man gets home at night and gets angry.This is a film from the "most controversial films" list and I found it to be extremely tame. It's best to avoid this movie if at all possible.
A drama directed by Elia Kazan.Something happens to someone... I think. Or at least I would hope so.The audio sounded like it had been put through a distortion pedal and the video was in black and white and full screen.I watched this for 46 minutes and couldn't hear anything anyone was saying. The audio was that bad. I had a feeling that turning it up was not an option because it would only fuzz out more. I was told that this was a very controversial film, but when the dialogue all sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown, it's difficult to raise eyebrows. I'll try to watch it tomorrow during the day because I have nothing else to do and can turn it up loud. This one needs to get cranked to hear anything. I'm calling it undecided due to audio issues. I will post a picture and a more definite rating later. When I can hear it.
A science fiction directed by Fred M. Wilcox.A crew of astronauts lands on a planet which the residents told them not to land on. The scientist who lives there has a beautiful daughter and access to alien technology.The audio was fine and the video was in color.check out: The lo-fi special effects (including sound) and the invisible monster.Cheesy sci-fi sound effects and a scorching hot actress make up the good part of this flick. The plot leaves much to be desired and the robot is a little annoying. I'm saying o.k. because of the balance of good and bad elements. I almost burned my fingers getting a picture of Anne Francis!
