I don't usually run movie posts back-to-back like this, but Dad's still his own part-time job. (There are only so many hours in a day, you know.) Add to that the fact that I've lost sleep because I left my phone and wallet in a Ted's Montana Grill yesterday, and, yeah, another movie review post is all you're getting.

97. (1536.) Night and the City (1950)
I found this hard to watch because I didn't sympathize with the protagonist at all. However, it has some pretty good cinematography, especially the shot of the protagonist caught by headlights in an alley as the mob closes in on him. Good noir.

98. (1537.) Hidden Figures (2016)
I'd categorize this as Bubblegum Biopic: a history of American popular culture punched up for mass consumption. (That's not an insult. My favorite musical, 1776 would fall in the same category.) I really enjoyed this, too. In hindsight, I'm glad it was nominated for an Academy Award so that more people will be encouraged to see it.

99. (1538.) Friendly Persuasion (1956)
Quakers! Civil War! Church Organs! Girls! Geese! If this sequential series of unrelated events was supposed to have a point, it went over my head. (*Someone* must have gotten it. It was nominated for Best Picture in '57. Quakers must have been a big Academy voting block back in the McCarthy era.)

100. (1539.) Destination Wedding (2018)
Recommended by friend Otto, this romantic comedy has only two roles, played by Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as two mismatched, unlikable people destined for one another. Or not. Otto's right, it's got some funny in it, especially if you like the actors.

101. (1540.) Till the End of Time (1946)
Have you seen The Best Years of Our Lives? Yeah, this is that, but much more boring.

102. (1541.) Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
Have you seen Vanishing Point and Sugarland Express? Yeah, this is those. It's pretty good, actually.

103. (1542.) Outlaw Blues (1977)
Peter Fonda was the embodiment of 60s-70s counterculture on celluloid, here playing a felon who goes on the run from the law while simultaneously becoming the Next Big Thing in country music. It has its moments, in no small part thanks to Susan Saint James.

More to come.

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Today's list includes two of the best movies I can remember seeing ever. They both won Best Picture Oscars, and they totally, 100% deserved them. The first one is

51. (798.) The Artist (2011)
It might sound ridiculous to say this about a black and white silent movie released in the 21st century, but The Artist is moving pictures distilled to its core. Yes, the story is a sappy retelling of A Star is Born, but it is a really, really well made sappy retelling. I give it my highest recommendation.

52. (799.) California Split (1974)
Robert Altman was so determined to make movies that seemed like snapshots of real life, he frequently failed to consider just how damn boring real life is. This, like so many of his films, has great verisimilitude but weak entertainment value.

53. (800.) The Visitor (1979)
Let me start by saying this movie is bad: derivative, slow, cheap-looking, and just plain horrible. Yet it has a spark of... well, something that won't let you look away, especially if like me you grew up in Atlanta in the late 1970s, where and when this was shot. Atlanta is practically a character in this film — it was filmed in Ted Turner's house — with stars like Lance Henriksen, Shelly Winters, John Huston, Glen Ford, and Sam Peckinpah. How do you go wrong with a cast like that? See The Visitor and find out for yourself.

54. (801.) Absence of Malice (1981)
Tivo decided I should watch Absence of Malice, and I'm glad it did. I think Paul Newman became a much better actor as he matured and didn't have to inhabit every role like someone with something to prove. (Wilford Brimley is in only one scene at the climax of the movie, but he's really the best part of the whole thing.)

55. (802.) Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The hits keep coming! Alfred Hitchcock managed to create film noir right in the heart of America with this story detailing a fatal loss of innocence. Uncharacteristic for Hitchcock, the third act has the slowest pace of the movie — once the characters have caught up with what the audience has known all along, I think it's time to take off the brakes — but still very good.

56. (803.) Chariots of Fire (1981)
Two men driven to run... run. Yay? It does look and sound great, though. I suspect that this film won Best Picture only because after The Deer Hunter in '78, Kramer vs. Kramer in '79, and Ordinary People in '80, anything that was even mildly uplifiting looked fantastic to the Academy voters.

57. (804.) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
It's practically a crime that more people haven't seen this movie that seriously investigates the meaning of life without ever forgetting that the whole point of movie-making is entertainment. (It helps that it's filled with actors I love.) Like The Artist, another metatextural movie about actors, I give Birdman my highest recommendation.

58. (805.) John Wick (2014)
After so many deep movies in a row, I needed something a little shallower, which is what Keanu Reeves does best. Thanks, Johnny Utah.

More to come.

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I ended up watching nineteen movies in March. I've already covered the first 8, so here's the second batch of 6 more.

34. (571.) The Slender Thread (1965)
A race against time to save a woman who can't communicate. The portions with Anne Bancroft are boring, but Poitier is his usual, awesome self.

35. (572.) Speed (1936)
No, this is not the Keanu Reeves version, but the Jimmy Stewart version. In Mark Evanier's obituary of Jimmy Stewart, he recounts a conversation with Stewart in which the movie star said, "I don't remember a thing about it but apparently, I made it." It was apparently Stewart's first starring role, but it isn't very memorable.

36. (573.) It Happens Every Spring (1949)
An unknown breaks into big league baseball as the "next big thing" with an unusual background. (See also: The Natural, The Rookie, Rookie of the Year, Major League, etc.) Pretty entertaining, although I always think of Lost Weekend when I see Ray Milland, so its weird to see him play The Absent-Minded Professor. Otherwise, a fun hour-and-a-half.

37. (574.) Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Mom made me watch it. I didn't want to. It's every bit as violent as its reputation, but I still didn't enjoy it.

38. (575.) Run, Fatboy, Run (2007)
David Schwimmer's directorial debut is hit and miss. It's almost like the director didn't know who his audience was, so he threw everything he could think on the screen. It's not bad, just schizophrenic.

39. (576.) The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937)
I love William Powell, but this film tried my patience. Part romance, part spy thriller, part comedy, it spends just a little too long on each element to be really satisfying.

More to come.

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It's the end of the world as we know it: Keanu Reeves is starring in the upcoming remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still as -- you probably guessed it -- Klaatu. As if having Neo, "the wooden one," playing the intergalactic harbinger of alien distrust with strong Christian parallels isn't bad enough, this time around instead of warning us about nuclear proliferation he'll be lecturing about how we mistreat the environment. That's right: Al Gore is an alien.

Where did we go so wrong? How did a B-movie warning about the evils of the Cold War become translated into a modern political statement against our own carbon footprints? More importantly, where was I when nuclear weapons became less of a danger to the continuation of the human race than automobile exhaust? To quote the director, Scott Derrickson, "the original being a Cold War film was addressing what was clearly the greatest threat for the human race at that time, mutual nuclear destruction, and that's not the most pressing threat that we face now." Hmm: the gradual warming of the Earth versus instantaneous incineration by terrorists. They don't teach you much about the real world in film school, do they, Scott? Remember the Doomsday Clock? It's still ticking.

What's next, a remake of On The Beach where the Earth's last survivors huddle on Mt. Everest as the rising ocean levels guarantee an unavoidable death by drowning? How about a new Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Greenhouse Effect) in which Slim Pickens determinedly sprays CFC-laden aerosols in the upper levels of the stratosphere? Will the modern version of Failsafe detail the intentional extermination of the endangered American Bald Eagle in exchange for the accidental destruction of the Siberian Tiger? No doubt the perennially invading Body Snatchers will be reborn as Earth plants striking back at the human race that has focused on dooming them.

You know what the kicker in all of this is? Since Hollywood can't leave well enough alone, Gort will not be a robot this time around. (Heck, he won't even be real! Just a CGI cartoon.) Though this is ostensibly because the aliens are "green" -- read: "hippies who prefer biological engineering (good?) to manufacturing (bad!)" -- I suspect that it's actually because they didn't want any unfavorable comparisons between the acting of Reeves and an immobile piece of metal.

Sigh. Klaatu Barada Nikto, indeed.

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