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Today's review: 42nd Street.

42nd Street is notable because it was the film that would define the shape of the musical for years to come. That alone is enough to get it onto a lot of “all time great movies” or “movies that changed cinema” lists. But unlike some movies that are on those lists, this one remains entertaining to watch.

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This weekend's review: Dhanwaan.

Even though I still wind up baffled more often than not by Bollywood movies, I’d seen enough of them by the time I got to Dhanwaan that I thought I mostly had a handle on how they worked. At the very least, I could use my general knowledge of movie tropes to have a pretty good idea of what to expect. But the movie ( Read more... )

Today's review: The Third Alibi.

I had The Third Alibi on my “to watch” list due to a combination of a catchy title and a review of it I saw on Livejournal. As is so often the case, by the time I finally managed to find a copy of it, I’d forgotten most of the details, so I was able to go in blind and be surprised. And while I overall appreciated ( Read more... )

This weekend's review: The Quiet.

The summaries I’d seen of The Quiet got me curious to see the movie, especially since the hook was an unusual one. On the other hand, I first found the movie as part of a cheap DVD pack that didn’t have enough interesting looking movies on it to make it worth buying. In retrospect, I probably should have used that ( Read more... )

This weekend's review: Gray Lady Down.

Despite being a submarine-centric movie, Gray Lady Down isn’t a reject from my Sub Month project; I just stumbled across it somewhere else and thought the title and summary made it worth seeing. And the movie does wind up containing elements that work or that I like. The problem is, those bits are scattered ( Read more... )

The second part of the double feature: the 1938 version of The Dawn Patrol.

While remakes of movies are nothing new, I did find it odd when I realized that the 1938 version of The Dawn Patrol was made a mere eight years after the original. Still, I was curious to see if the new filmmakers, writers, and actors would improve on the weaknesses of the ( Read more... )

Sorry for the lack of review on Wednesday; I had a lot of stuff going on. To somewhat make up for it, I'll be posting another double feature this weekend. To start with; the 1930 version of The Dawn Patrol.

I put the 1930 version of The Dawn Patrol on my “to watch” list because it had been recommended by dfordoom here on Livejournal and it seemed ( Read more... )

This weekend's review: A Hatful of Rain.

I knew going into A Hatful of Rain that it was a movie centering around drug addiction. While it ran the risk of being preachy, it also had a decent chance of being pretty harrowing, similar to The Lost Weekend or, to a lesser extent, The Man With the Golden Arm. Well, it certainly wasn’t as good as either ( Read more... )

Today's review: Jigar.

The summary I read of Jigar (Courage in English) read as follows: “An engaging action-sport film, where a man avenges his sister's humiliation by participating in a deadly kung-fu tournament.” With a summary like that, I think it’s only natural to assume that the main focus will be on the tournament, with the motivation for ( Read more... )