Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

The Black Belly of the Tarantula / La tarantola dal ventre nero (Paolo Cavara, 1971) 7/10

This giallo depicts a unique way for the killer to strike his victims. He inserts a poisoned needle into the neck of women and while they are conscious but paralyzed he uses a knife to cut open their stomach. When a big star is killed off at the start of a movie the screenplay ensures she is given ample moments to shine during her short time on screen. And shine she most certainly does here. Barbara Bouchet, playing a two-timing wife, gets to play a scene right after the film's credits where she is accused by her angry husband of infidelity after which she is brutally murdered in the following scene. Her shining moment comes during the opening credits as she is shown nude getting a massage at a beauty parlour with the camera moving into extreme closeup almost caressing every part of her oily naked body. Nudity of the gratuitous kind is part and parcel of a giallo and there is more as the killer goes on a rampage paralyzing and mutilating women. A tired and jaded cop (Giancarlo Giannini), living with his sympathetic girlfriend (Stefania Sandrelli), is in pursuit of the killer. The owner (Claudine Auger) of the beauty parlour knows who the killer is but before she can divulge the information to the cop both she and her assisstant (Barbara Bach) find themselves pursued by the murderer. As with most Italian slasher films there is a lot of style over actual substance. Acting by most of the supporting cast is mediocre, the dubbing is atrocious, the score compliments the action on the screen and the lead actors are often very famous movie stars who surprisingly participate with great relish. And this one has a killer title. Also interesting to see two Bond girls in this - Auger from "Thunderball" and Bach who would be one in the distant future in "The Spy Who Loved Me".

Non si sevizia un paperino / Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972) 8/10

A southern Italian town attracts a journalist (Tomas Milian) from Rome when three young boys are found brutally murdered by an apparent serial killer. Fulci's signature graphic violence sets the scene as he films various physical attacks and murders with detailed relish as he shows human skin being torn, faces getting smashed on rocks, necks getting slashed and heads getting deep gashes. Blood oozes and each death rattle is shot in extreme close-up. Welcome to the exciting world of the Italian giallo. There are plenty of murder suspects in the small provincial town - the old hermit (Georges Wilson) who likes to practice magic, his half-crazed witch-like daughter (Florinda Bolkan) who likes to threaten children and practices voodoo by sticking pins into dolls, the rich city girl (Barbara Bouchet) who is despised by the villagers and likes to dabble in drugs and has a kinky habit of seducing little boys while naked, the village idiot who is caught burying a dead child, the priest (Marc Porel) who spends a lot of time with the village kids and his mother (Irene Papas) whose deaf and dumb daughter may have witnessed one of the murders. The film paints a horrendous picture of small-town Italy full of perversion, ignorance, madness and murderous intent. Fulci maintains suspense and a creepy atmosphere throughout with each mystery evolving into a new riddle. The cast is uniformly excellent but the english dubbing leaves much to be desired.

[gunnar]

Eraserhead (1977) - 5.5/10 - A man deals with his mutant baby, his girlfriend and her odd parents, and a neighbor woman all in his bleak landscape. I suppose that this is David Lynch's ode to fatherhood. It definitely has a lot of style and substance and rates very high for that. My problem is that I really just didn't like the film. Lynch can be hit or miss for me. For example, I liked Blue Velvet quite a bit, but disliked Mulholland Drive and Wild at Heart.

Cat People (1942) - 7/10 - Oliver is an engineer who meets a fashion designer named Irena at the zoo. The two start dating and fall in love, but Irena is afraid of a curse from her Serbian homeland that she will turn into a cat and kill her lover. I thought that this was fairly well acted all around and it was an entertaining film.

Point Blank (1967) - 8/10 - Lee Marvin stars as a man who was betrayed by his partner during a job and left for dead. He survived and sets out to get the money that he is owed. It is a nice action film and Marvin does a nice job along with the supporting cast which includes Angie Dickinson.

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - 8.5/10 - In a small village in 1940 Spain, a young girl gets a bit obsessed after seeing the 1931 movie Frankenstein. Her parents are a bit distant and her older sister can't resist playing into the girl's fears/beliefs a bit. I thought the movie was beautifully shot and had pretty nice performances from the two girls.

Killer's Kiss (1955) - 6/10 - A boxer relates the events that happened to him over the previous few days, including a boxing match, meeting a girl, and crossing her underworld friend. There is a nice chase and fight scene at the end of the film, but much of it is pretty uninteresting.

Nothing But Time (1926) - 7/10 - A day in the life of Paris with minimal commentary. I thought it was well put together and interesting to see a bit of the city life from nearly a century ago.

[Reza]

Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982) 9/10

As with all good gialos there is an abundance of gratuitous female nudity, a flashing razor or an axe, slashed throats or other body parts and fountains of gushing blood. An American writer (Anthony Franciosa), in Rome to promote his latest bestseller, is stalked by a serial killer who is copying the murders in his book. The film is a series of long set pieces with nubile women (and sometimes not so nubile men) being stalked by an unseen killer, then attacked and wounded briefly before managing to get away running hysterically only to be overpowered finally and slashed to death. Some women are fully clothed while others are in a state of undress in the most improbable way. These scenes are all accompanied by a pulsating synth-heavy score inspired by rock and disco music by the Italian band Goblin.
The detective (Giuliano Gemma) and his cronies are in close pursuit but have no clue whatsoever as between bouts of bad acting the events unfold with repeated twists maintaining suspense right till the end when the killer is revealed and comes to an ironic end. Argento's forte is in creating and maintaining a sense of dread as the killer stalks the victim not unlike how Spielberg staged the scenes with the shark in "Jaws". He uses extremely long takes in open settings often in crowded areas where a number of pedestrians, shoppers, kids intermingle before the killer strikes an often unsuspecting victim. Set in Rome the film surprisingly dispenses with a touristic view with all the action taking place in residential areas or in modern outdoor locations. Argento wanted to show the city's modern touch away from its familiar museum-like outlook. The film memorably uses its production design - intentionally white interiors to contrast starkly with the red blood once the splattering begins - and bright lighting (courtesy of the brilliant cinematographer Luciano Tovoli) which helps to emphasise the graphic murders. This is one of Argento's masterpieces and a must see.

L'avventuriero / The Rover (Terence Young, 1967) 5/10

Odd little Italian film made in English with an international cast seemed to be about pirates on the high seas but instead turned out to be an intimate little drama about a number of very damaged people. A counter revolutionary and former pirate (Anthony Quinn) returns to french soil after years at sea and falls in love with a mentally damaged young woman (Rosanna Schiaffino) harboring a terrible secret from her childhood who in turn loves a french naval officer (Richard Johnson). Rita Hayworth is the young woman's elderly aunt who is secretly in love with the pirate. It's a treat to see Rita reunite with Quinn after 26 years when they both appeared in "Blood and Sand" in which they danced a mean tango. Bleak story is based on a book by Joseph Conrad.

The Lady Vanishes (Anthony Page, 1979) 5/10

Cybill Shepherd, dressed in a white lamé gown, sets the tone for this remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1938 film. It is based on that screenplay by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder and in turn on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. Unfortunately it was someone's decision to direct the leading lady as if she was Carole Lombard in a 1930s screwball comedy which Shepherd perfectly and annoyingly emulates. She is loud, shrill, obnoxious and a pain in the ass from start to finish playing a much-married American madcap heiress traveling on a train in pre-WWII Nazi Germany. An elderly British nanny (Angela Lansbury) seems to have disappeared off the train and everybody seems to deny having seen her. With the help of a wise-cracking American photographer (Elliott Gould) she hopes to get to the bottom of the mystery. The nationality of the leads here have been changed from British to American so the subtle comic and romantic elements that Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood brought to the original film are completely lost in this boistrous exercise in excess. The delightful cricket-mad characters - Charters and Caldicott - desperate to get back to England in time for a match are thankfully retained here and like Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in the original we get the equally droll Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael. The rest of the supporting cast are all well upto mark - Herbert Lom as a sinister doctor, Jean Anderson as a baroness and Vladek Sheybel as a trainmaster. Sadly the two leads let down what could have been a marvelous return to the original source and are repeatedly upstaged by the two cricket loving fans.

The Thirty Nine Steps (Don Sharp, 1978) 7/10

Not a remake of the classic Hitchcock film but an adaptation of John Buchan's novel from which the Hitchcock version diverted. The ending here too diverts from the book with an action set piece involving Big Ben and its 39 steps. A retired British intelligence officer (John Mills) suspects German sleeper spies upto no good in Britain just before WWI and jots down details of what they are planning to do in a diary. When his life is threatened he confides in a visiting South African engineer (Robert Powell) just before he is murdered which gets pinned on the innocent man. A fugitive he manages to escape custody and is chased all over Scotland by the cops and the spies. A superb supporting cast - Eric Porter as a cop, Michele Dotrice as a love interest, David Warner as a deadly spy, Ronald Pickup as a relentless assassin - plus fantastic location work on the Highlands make this a fun chase film.

Married Life (Ira Sachs, 2007) 7/10

Musical chairs amongst the married set circa the 1940s. A middle-aged businessman (Chris Cooper), in love with a much younger war widow (Rachel McAdams), tries to poison his wife (Patricia Clarkson) only to find that he would be lost without her. Meanwhile his best friend (Pierce Brosnan) seduces the mistress and discovers that his wife is also having an affair on the side. Exquisite stylized production feels like a noir made by Douglas Sirk with languid pacing which actually helps the story about characters all caught in a tight embrace involving jealousy, betrayal and an intent to murder. Who knows what goes through the mind of the person who sleeps next to you. That's the intriguing question the film asks.

[gunnar]

Frances Ha (2012) - 7.5/10 - Greta Gerwig stars as a dancer who is struggling to make a living and advance in her career. She lives with her best friend in Brooklyn, but has to find a new place to live when her roommate decides to move to a more expensive area. The film follows her struggles and relationships with others over a period of time in a fairly low key, but pleasant film.

Birthplace (1992) - 8.5/10 - Henryk Greenberg is an American who was born in Poland who escaped the Holocaust as a young boy, though many of his relatives were not as fortunate. He returns to where he was born to try and find out what he can about the murders of his father and younger brother. It's a very well made and sometimes powerful film.

The Story of Kindness or How to Behave (1987) - 7/10 - This VIetnamese documentary looks at human suffering and the meaning of kindness. It was interesting.

The Quiet Earth (1985) - 8/10 - A New Zealand scientist wakes up one morning and finds that he is apparently the last person on Earth. He tries to find other people without success and eventually starts to lose his sanity until a change occurs in his situation. I thought it was a pretty good science fiction story.

Contratiempo (2016) - 8/10 - A young businessman wakes up in a hotel room with his lover dead and the room locked from the inside as the police arrive to investigate. He is awaiting trial when one of his lawyers shows up to go over the details of the case, including anything that he may have left out of previous testimony. There are a number of twists and turns in an enjoyable locked room mystery.

Over the Garden Wall (2014) - 9/10 - Two brothers get lost in the woods and have a series of adventures as they try to get home. This is a mini-series, but clocks in at just under 2 hours so is also essentially a movie as well. It was very good.

The Three-Sided Mirror (1927) - 6/10 - A wealthy young man falls for three women from different backgrounds (consecutively, not at the same time). There was some interesting imagery in the second half of the film, but overall I thought it was just okay.

[Big Magilla]

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 8/10 - An older couple loses their home and the two are separated as they each move in with a different one of their adult children. The children find them to be a burden and make plans to get them out of their home. It's a good film and the situation is a sad one. The children and their spouses definitely seem ungrateful and somewhat uncaring, but I think the couple deserves blame as well with springing the situation on the kids at the last minute when they had ample warning. Unlike Leo McCarey (and probably many others), I prefer The Awful Truth.

They're both great films.

The Awful Truth. which is my all-time favorite comedy, was a Depression era hit because it took audiences out of themselves. Make Way for Tomorrow, which is even better, was a colossal flop because the same audiences did not want to be reminded of their everyday real lives.

Although made two years after Social Security became law, Make Way for Tomorrow deals with the way things were for ordinary Americans before social security and before it kicked in for those who were eligible. There are no heroes or villains in the film. The 70-something father, played by 61-year-old Victor Moore, who almost always played ne'er-do-wells, plays one here. He evokes sympathy for his plight but not for his actions. His 70-year-old wife, played by 47-year-old Beulah Bondi in state-of-the-art old age makeup, is blameless. She can be at once annoying and heartbreaking, as in the celebrated scene in which she puts on a brave front that all but stops daughter-in-law Fay Bainter's bridge party cold, but she always evokes sympathy.

Bainter, who was just four years Bondi's junior, plays her put-upon middle-aged daughter-in-law with her customary sad puppy dog eyes, evoking empathy for a character that could just as easily have been played as a villain by a less gifted actress. Bondi and Bainter both had long stage careers, but Bondi was always a character actress. She made her film debut reprising her villainous role in 1931's Street Scene. Bainter, on the other hand, was a major star. Her last Broadway role was as the social climbing wife in the original production of Dodsworth opposite Walter Huston. Make Way for Tomorrow was only her fourth film. Here their roles are reversed to the benefit of both actresses who would go to long screen careers.

The film gives Bondi and Moore a glorious night out on the town reunion before they are separated once again, possibly forever. The ending of the original novel was even more bleak. It ends with Bondi's character standing over her husband's gravesite, one that she would likely soon share.

So, yes, they gave McCarey his first Oscar for the wrong film. That did again when they gave him a second one for Going My Way instead of The Bells of St. Mary's.

[gunnar]

My Darling Clementine (1946) - 8/10 - Henry Fonda stars as Wyatt Earp in this John Ford western based on the shootout at the O.K. Corral. It's got nice performances and good cinematography and is a very good western.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - 9/10 - David Niven stars as a British airman named Peter who has to bail out of his airplane without a parachute. The last person he talks to is an American woman named June (Kim Hunter) manning the radio. They fall for each other in their brief time over the airwaves. Due to a mixup in the afterlife, Peter survives and wakes up on a beach the next morning. He quickly locates June, but later discovers that the afterlife wants to rectify their mistake and he must defend his right to stay. Niven and Hunter are each excellent as is the supporting cast. It's a very nice film.

L'Age d'or (1930) - 7/10 - An odd surrealist film that was strange, but somewhat compelling.

Fantastic Planet (1973) - 8/10 - On a distant planet, giant blue humanoids keep small Oms (humans) as pets. A few of the blue aliens think that Oms may be more advanced than just mere pets, but the majority treat tame Oms as pets and wild Oms as pests to be exterminated. Things start to change when one tame Om escapes with a learning device. This was a pretty nice animated film.

Posle smerti (1915) - 7/10 - Andrei lives with his aunt and doesn't get out much. His friend takes him to see a well known actress performa and he finds her interesting. He becomes obsessed with her a few months later after she dies. It started out a bit sow, but was decent overall.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - 7/10 - In 1900, a group of schoolgirls visit Hanging Rock for a picnic. Some of them decide to climb the rock and are not seen again. Search parties are sent out as the stories of witnesses come out. I thought it wasn't bad, but I may not have been in the proper frame of mind to appreciate it more.

L'Atalante (1934) - 8/10 - Jean is a barge captain on the Seine and when he marries Juliette, a girl from a small town, he brings her on board to live. Juliette adapts to barge life, but really wants to see Paris, but Jean gets jealous whenever she shows any attention to other men, including members of his crew. This was a pretty nice feature.

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 8/10 - An older couple loses their home and the two are separated as they each move in with a different one of their adult children. The children find them to be a burden and make plans to get them out of their home. It's a good film and the situation is a sad one. The children and their spouses definitely seem ungrateful and somewhat uncaring, but I think the couple deserves blame as well with springing the situation on the kids at the last minute when they had ample warning. Unlike Leo McCarey (and probably many others), I prefer The Awful Truth.

Quixote (1965) - 8/10 - This film was shot by Bruce Baillie during a cross country trip and is presented without narration. It provides a slice of life view of the U.S. at this time and is also interesting in the way the scenes cut from one to the next and perhaps some subtle (or not so subtle) commentary along the way. I enjoyed it.

[Big Magilla]

Had the film been in contention for the 1942 Oscars, I would still have given it to James Cagney for Yankee Doodle Dandy, but for 1943 he should have won, though I can understand why Paul Lukas' patriot won over Bogart's cynic in the day.

I would still have voted for Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier, Rains would be my pick for Notorious three years laer.

[Reza]

Casablanca (1942) - 8/10 - I decided to rewatch this film since I was a bit underwhelmed when I watched it a long time ago. I enjoyed the film a lot more this time around.

When I first saw this, probably in the 1960s, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. The clichés were old when the film was made, but it grows on you. By the third or fourth go-around you can say Bogie's lines before he does. By the sixth or seventh, you can say everyone's else's as well.

And by the 10th time and beyond you still find the film amazing and continue to wonder why both Bogart and Claude Rains did not win Oscars.

[Big Magilla]

Casablanca (1942) - 8/10 - I decided to rewatch this film since I was a bit underwhelmed when I watched it a long time ago. I enjoyed the film a lot more this time around.

When I first saw this, probably in the 1960s, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. The clichés were old when the film was made, but it grows on you. By the third or fourth go-around you can say Bogie's lines before he does. By the sixth or seventh, you can say everyone's else's as well.

[gunnar]

M (1931) - 9.5/10 - A serial killer is on the loose in this Fritz Lang classic. The killer abducts and kills young children and has been doing so for months. The police don't have any leads and are cracking down on the criminals in their search for a clue. The criminal organizations decide to track the killer down themselves to relieve the pressure they are feeling. The movie is excellent and definitely lives up to its reputation.

Close-Up (1990) - 7/10 - A poor man with an interest in film pretends to be a well known director and becomes acquainted with a family in Tehran. The film is essentially a documentary with quite a few parts reenacted by the actual people involved. It starts with a journalist covering the arrest of the imposter and then proceeds through the trial and its aftermath. It was interesting at times and a bit boring at other times.

Casablanca (1942) - 8/10 - I decided to rewatch this film since I was a bit underwhelmed when I watched it a long time ago. I enjoyed the film a lot more this time around.

Stormy Weather (1943) - 7.5/10 - The film is a musical romance with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lena Horne in the leads, but that mainly serves just to allow a number of Black performers to make music and dance. In addition to Robinson and Horne, we get to see Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and many others, including a spectacular dance number from the Nicholas Brothers. It is a fun film with lots of good performances.

Vampyr (1932) - 5/10 - This vampire movie certainly had a lot of atmosphere and while the ending was good, I didn't really care for most of the film. I can see why others might like it, but it wasn't for me.

Badlands (1973) - 8/10 - Terrence Malick directed this film about a teenage girl who goes on the run with her older boyfriend after he kills the girl's father. The two are on the run for quite a while. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen were each very good in their roles. The movie is inspired (or loosely based) on the Starkweather killings fro 15 years earlier.

The Nazis Strike (1943) - 7.5/10 - The second Why We Fight documentary looks at the advance of the German war machine as they spread the Nazi ideas through Europe. It had some decent footage and gave a fairly good look at the early stages of the war. I recognized Kazimiera Mika grieving for her sister in a couple of the clips. She was the subject of one of the most famous photos from that time and just passed away in 2020.

[gunnar]

Rush (2013) - 7/10 - Chris Hemsworth is race car driver James Hunt who had a rivalry with fellow driver Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) in the 1970s. Much of the film focuses on their battle for the Formula 1 Championship in 1976. Hemsworth is good as Hunt and Brühl is very good as Lauda, but the movie itself didn't really feel that compelling, especially in the race sequences, though they were filmed well. It is a decent and watchable movie, though.

Zero for Conduct (1933) - 5/10 - Four students at a strict boarding school are constantly getting in trouble and decide to rebel on the school's Commemoration Day. The movie isn't really all that interesting and none of the students stand out. There are a few interesting bits here and there, but overall it isn't that great.

Lost in America (1985) - 7.5/10 - Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty star as a married couple who decide to leave their jobs in California, liquidate all of their assets, and travel the country in a motorhome. Problems arise at their first stop in Las Vegas. This was a pretty solid dramedy.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - 8.5/10 - Dennis Price stars as Louis Mazzini, a distant heir to the Dukedom of Chalfont. In revenge for their treatment of his mother, Louis decides to murder the eight heirs who are in line of succession ahead of him (all played by Alec Guinness). What follows is a smart black comedy.

Persona (1966) - 7/10 - A popular stage actress named Elizabet (Liv Ullmann) stops speaking for no apparent reason. She is deemed to be otherwise in perfect health physically and mentally. A nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) is hired to be a companion to Elizabet and to tend to her needs. Most of the film features Alma talking to Elizabet, sharing personal details, and slowly seeming to lose her sense of self. The movie is very well done for what it is, but it isn't a film that I really enjoyed all that much.

Lonesome (1928) - 8.5/10 - Mary and Jim are lonely New Yorkers who get up early for work and go about their day. They each decide to go to Coney Island after work and they meet and have a wonderful time together. However, fate intervenes to separate them. I thought it was a wonderful film with great leads and creative filming techniques.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003) - 7/10 - An alien band is kidnapped, brainwashed, and brought to Earth to perform and win an award. I like Daft Punk and didn't know that they had made an entire movie to go along with one of their albums. It was decent.

[gunnar]

Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 7.5/10 - A group of criminals pull off a diamond heist, but it goes bad as the cops seem to be waiting for them. They suspect that there might be a rat in their group. I though Buscemi and Keitel in particular were good and it was a good movie, but I didn't think it was in the same class as Pulp Fiction.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) - 8/10 - I've never been that interested in South Park, but this was pretty funny and had lots of good songs parodying various musicals. The March of War bit was a nice touch.

Ghost in the Shell (1995) - 7/10 - I read the manga back in the 90s and enjoyed it, but had never watched the anime. This cyberpunk film has pretty good visuals and a decent story, though it could have been better.

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) - 9/10 - Bill has some unspecified illness which causes memory and physical issues. The story is animated, but mixes in real footage here and there. The story is a mix of humor and drama and is told in a stream of consciousness fashion. I thought it was excellent.

Dracula (1931) - 6/10 - Bela Lugosi stars as Count Dracula. The movie isn't bad, but it feels like they left way too much out.

Harold and Maude (1971) - 8.5/10 - Harold is a young man obsessed with death. He fakes realistic suicides regularly and his mother has become somewhat inured to them. He attends funerals of strangers and drives a hearse. He meets 79 year old Maude at a couple of the funerals. She is an eccentric who likes to attend funerals of strangers and randomly steal cars. The two become fast friends. The movie has quite a bit of dark humor and is very entertaining.

[gunnar]

The Great K & A Train Robbery (1926) - 7/10 - Tom Mix stars as a detective hired to investigate a series of train robberies. He learns that there is an inside man so he doesn't correct the assumption that he is a bandit. There is plenty of action and I thought it was a nice film.

The Toll of the Sea (1922) - 7/10 - Lotus Flower is a Chinese girl who finds and helps rescue an American man who is floating in a tide pool near the sea. They fall in love and marry in the Chinese fashion. He plans to take her back to America with him when he leaves, but is discouraged from doing this by his friends. I thought it was a decent film and it was a very early technicolor feature. The colors and scenery look great.

Temptations of a Great City (1911) - 6/10 - A man with a good job plus additional financial support from his wealthy mother finds himself deep in debt to a loan shark due to his partying and spendthrift ways. The loan shark is aiming for the mother's money. The man complicates things by starting a relationship with the loan shark's daughter. It wasn't bad.

[gunnar]

College (1927) - 7/10 - Buster Keaton is a bookish young man who graduates at the top of the class in high school, but the girl he likes rejects him due to his aversion to athletics. In college, he tries all sorts of athletics in order to win her over. It was okay through a good part of the film with a few nice gags sprinkled in, but nothing really special. It comes together nicely in the end, though.


Harold Lloyd shorts

Now or Never (1921) - 8/10 - 36 minutes - Lloyd is rushing back to meet his girl for her 18th birthday. He ends up on a train having to care for a young girl during the trip while his girlfriend is otherwise engaged. It's a pretty funny and entertaining film, especially once they get on the train.

The Marathon (1919) - 7.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd is interested in a girl with many suitors and also has to evade the father, a former heavyweight boxer. This is like a long Benny Hill skit and is pretty funny.

Captain Kidd's Kids (1919) - 7/10 - 20 minutes - Lloyd is recovering from his bachelor party when he ends up going on a cruise.

By the Sad Sea Waves (1917) - 7/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is at the beach and becomes a life guard to try and impress a girl. Lots of comedy from other people, but it is a fun short.

Two-Gun Gussie (1918) - 6/10 - 9 minutes - Lloyd is a piano player who gets mistaken for a tough gunfighter. It has its moments, but is so-so.

A Sammy in Siberia (1919) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is a soldier who comes across a young woman who is being chased by a group of Bolsheviks. I enjoyed this, but there isn't really much to this short.

The Non-Stop Kid (1918) - 5.5/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd is interested in a girl whose father has plans for her to marry a professor so Lloyd goes in search of the professor. It had a few good moments, but was a bit lame.

The City Slicker (1918) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd is a city slicker brought in to modernize a rural hotel. There are a few creative bits, but mostly it is so-so.

Next Aisle Over (1919) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd becomes a shoe salesman in a department store while in pursuit of a girl. There is plenty of slapstick here.

A Submarine Pirate (1915) - 4.5/10 - 24 minutes - This is really a Syd Chaplin short with Lloyd in an uncredited role. Chaplin is a waiter who overhears a plot to use a submarine to steal gold from a passenger ship. He decides to take over the plan himself. It's not that great.

Bashful (1917) - 6/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd stands to inherit two million dollars if he has a wife and baby so the girl he likes pretends to be his wife and the butler sets out to find a baby. There are a few good gags here.

Over the Fence (1917) - 5.5/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd works for a tailor and finds two tickets to a baseball game so he invites his girl, but the tickets are taken. This apparently was the introduction of the 'glasses' character. It wasn't bad, but it was way too short.

Ring Up the Curtain (1919) - 6/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd is a stage hand who hits on the leading lady of a theater troupe that just arrived. It was okay.

Bliss (1917) - 6/10 - 12 minutes - Lloyd encounters a wealthy young woman on the street and decides to dress up and pay her a visit to court her. Her dad is pretty tough on suitors who aren't noble. There were a few good gags, but nothing special.

Lonesome Luke, Messenger (1917) - 7/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd and Snub Pollard (who appears in many Lloyd shorts) are messengers who come across a girls boarding school so they decide to stop there. Plenty of Benny Hill antic ensue. It wasn't as polished as his later work, but it was fun.

Luke Joins the Navy (1916) - 4/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd is a store clerk who decides to join the navy. There isn't much to see here.

Clubs are Trump (1917) - 6/10 - 25 minutes - Lloyd and Snub are hanging out on a park bench when they decide to try and steal a couple of women from their boyfriends without success. They fall asleep and dream of being cavemen with lots of people hitting each other in the head with clubs. They wake up and there is a lot more getting hit in the head with billy clubs courtesy of the police. It was okay.

Spring Fever (1919) - 6.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd works in an office, but is distracted because he has spring fever. He leaves work and causes plenty of mayhem in the nearby park where he happens to find a girl.

Look Pleasant, Please (1918) - 7/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd works at a corner mart and later ends up being recruited by a photographer whose roving fingers caused a woman to call her husband.

All Aboard (1917) - 6/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd's girl is being taken on a cruise to Bermuda by her parents so he sneaks on board to be with her and the usual havoc ensues.

That's Him (1918) - 6.5/10 - 11 minutes - Lloyd and his wife are going to take the train to visit his aunt, but he forgot the tickets. He races back home to find them only to get mistaken for a mugger and burglar and chased by the police. It was amusing.

Love, Loot and Crash (1915) - 5/10 - 11 minutes - This is a Keystone Kops film with Lloyd planning to elope with his girlfriend, but there is confusion when a new housekeeper plans to steal from the house and escape at the same time. It had a few good moments.

Move On (1917) - 4/10 - 5 minutes - Lloyd is a police officer who tries to make out with a maid he likes, though his sergeant likes the girl, too. Not very long or good.

A Gasoline Wedding (1918) - 7.5/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd's girlfriend has plenty of suitor (a common theme with Lloyd) and her father wants to marry her off to a wealthy man. Lloyd and his girlfriend make their escape. I thought this one was pretty good.

Don't Shove (1919) - 5/10 - 9 minutes - Lloyd's girlfriend is having a birthday party, but he gets chased out by the father. Later, they all end up at the roller rink.

The Big Idea (1917) - 7/10 - 10 minutes - Lloyd works at an antique store where business is slow. He comes up with a big idea to drum up business. This one was relatively simple, but fun.

[Reza]

The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder, 1997) 7/10

You don't wanna mess with anyone who loses family through violence begotten via some political agenda. The one who gets left behind has nothing to lose with revenge on the mind. And hey, the dude here is a Serbian Muslim (well, duh...) who loses his wife and daughter in a sniper attack. Ten nuclear warheads are being transported on a Russian train, one is detonated on the train as a decoy while nine are hijacked. It is upto a US Army Colonel (George Clooney) and a White House nuclear expert (Nicole Kidman) to track them down. As with all such films the action set pieces make or break it. This one has three action clichés but all rip roaring amazing - a car chase set on the streets of Vienna (although shot in Slovakia) with the two stars being chased by the Russian mafia, Clooney atop a helicopter and being lowered down onto the truck carrying the warheads which is tottering half off the bridge and the final chase on the streets of New York ending up inside a church. Clooney and Kidman have kick-ass chemistry on screen but the script has no romance lined up for them. Leder, making her debut as a director, crisply manages to stage the action. Ofcourse there is nothing we haven't seen before in countless such thrillers but its all been competently put together and makes for a harmless watch. You enjoy it and then forget it a day later.

The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002) 7/10

Richard Chamberlain was the star of the tv adaptation of Robert Ludlum's spy novel. This was years before Matt Damon turned this into a franchise which is the closest thing we have to an American version of James Bond. The CIA assassin, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), is fished out of the ocean shot twice in the back and suffering from amnesia. A link to a Zurich bank locker reveals to him his name on a passport, lots of cash and a gun. With people out to kill him (Clive Owen appears briefly as one of the attackers) he manages to escape with the help of a girl (Franka Potente) and discovers that he was part of a covert section of the CIA as a trained super assasin who decided to give it all up. Only he is in too deep and his handler (Chris Cooper), and his boss (Brian Cox) - both highly suspicious - want him dead. Action packed film is shot on exotic locations with Damon making a superlative brutal hero. As with most such films there is not much depth to the proceedings but Damon settles rather well into the role.

The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, 2004) 7/10

Bourne (Matt Damon), hidden from the world in Goa with his girlfriend (Franka Potente), has to go on the run when an assassin tries to kill him but gets her instead. He is also framed for two recent murders in Berlin by his old CIA handler (Brian Cox), has to prove his innocence to a new CIA chief (Joan Allen) and seek revenge on the Russian who murdered his lady friend. Action packed sequel has a car chase sequence on the streets of Moscow as its highlight. Damon, in full on deadpan mode, continues to grow into the role and Greengrass provides the action sequences with a sense of dizziness. One does wonder at the end what became of all the mayhem left as collateral damage in the wake of all the car crashes.

The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2007) 7/10

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), still trying to discover his past, finds himself on the run once more as he is hounded by a ruthless CIA official (Scott Glenn) and his agent (David Strathairn) but helped along the way by two other agents (Joan Allen & Julia Stiles) who believe in him. A great supporting cast compliment Damon. Edgar Ramírez as an assassin, Paddy Considine as a journalist whose discovery takes Bourne closer to his past and Albert Finney who is his past and the answer to the mystery of all his anguish. Superbly shot film won 3 Oscars - for film editing, sound mixing, sound editing - all of which helped make the action scenes so memorable.