Wednesday 28 August 2024




72/2383. Captains Courageous (1937)
I've never read the original Rudyard Kipling story, so I cannot say how well this hews to that. Is there a good reason that Spencer Tracy is playing a -- *checks notes* -- Portuguese sailor? He's too good an actor to let the film down, but he really does stick out a bit. Otherwise, I liked it.
73/2384. X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963)
To its credit, this Roger Corman movie avoids the common movie tropes associated with x-ray vision and lechery, but that's in party because it avoids just about anything that might be interesting. Yawn.
Coke looks tasty in the 1960s!
74/2385. The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Just like the book it's based on, despite including (too many) scenes of his younger years, this isn't a biography of Charles Lindbergh as much as a lightly fictionalized recreation of his most famous flight. Given Lindbergh's many personal controversies, it's not surprising that it lost money, though I mostly blame that on it being very, very boring, just as you would expect from a 33 hour plane trip across the ocean. As much as I like Jimmy Stewart, he is clearly wrong for the part.
75/2386. Armored Car Robbery (1950)
A tight film noir heist/police procedural in which the not-as-bright-as-they-think-they-are thieves are as unlucky as the conveniently-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time detectives are lucky. Very enjoyable B-movie fare.
76/2387. Sapphire (1959)
This movie's title doesn't do it any favors. Maybe something more memorable would help draw more praise to this quirky London miscegenation crime mystery. Perhaps it's the Agatha Christie influence, but I think no one does the whodunit as well as the Brits.
77/2388. The Right Stuff (1983)
Why had I never watched The Right Stuff? Because it was too long. Well, it's still too long, and to my disappointment, it's also so invested in the mythology of the Space Race that it doesn't really care about the actual history. (Style trumps substance in almost every scene.) But what a great cast!
Coca-Cola is the right stuff in the 1980s (pretending to be the 1960s)!
More to come.
Comments (4)
| Leave a Comment | Tags: coke movies