Thanks to the Olympics, I barely saw any new movies in February.

18. (555.) The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
This was just a little caper-slash-romance featuring Joan Crawford, William Powell, and Robert Montgomery.

19. (556.) Runaway Train (1985)
Ugh. I hate it when my action movies try to teach me a lesson about Life. That star Jon Voight landed an Academy Award nomination for this film underscores why I don't care for Oscar.

20. (557.) Lady for a Day (1933)
This was Frank Capra all the way, and I only watched it to torture myself. The movie is about a mendicant woman who puts on a big show to get her daughter married to nobility. Of course, the final curtain falls before the woman has to return to life on the street. Don't dwell on reality, right, Capra?

21. (558.) RoboCop (2014)
You know you've failed when a movie with a plastic model antagonist is more insightful than your film. Like so many modern movies, this film wants to be "realistic" in its treatment of a cyborg police officer. "Realism" all too often is a code word for having no sense of humor. This film's only saving grace is the over-the-top performance by Samuel L. Jackson.

22. (559.) The Gambler (1980)
I suspect that no one ever told Kenny Rogers "no." They should have.

23. (560.) The Paper Chase (1973)
As a child, I remember HBO really promoting the hell out of this movie. It's really not that good. Not quite a coming-of-age story, its year-in-the-life format does little to show us anything deeper about the human condition other than "don't be a robot" and "stop and smell the roses sometime." Emerson it's not.

24. (561.) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
I know now why I avoided this movie so long. I probably should have avoided it longer. I really hate watching movies about bad people doing bad things. I want to see the bad people punished.

25. (562.) The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Man, Walter Matthau was terrific. I understand why I didn't like him as a kid: you need some life experience to see his characters underneath all of their artificial crust.

Eight movies is the lowest in any month since I started tracking in 2012. The second lowest was 10 in August 2012. You remember what happened that month? The Olympics. If there were three more days in February, I might have gotten to 10 this Olympiad, too.

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To be continued...

 

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