45/2477. I Love Melvin (1953)
MGM tried to recreate the magic of Singin' in the Rain by re-teaming Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor to diminishing returns. Yes, there are some entertaining song and dance numbers, but the plot is a stretched terribly thin and the chemistry between the leads just doesn't work as well without Gene Kelly.

46/2478. Three the Hard Way (1974)
The title explicitly refers to the plot in which three action heroes (Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly) must race to three different American inner cities to stop mass poisonings. At least, I think that's the plot. The actual scenes aren't staged, filmed, or edited particularly well. (There's a scene near the climax where Brown literally trips over a folding table and has to stumble out of the way of an incoming breaking glass stunt. I guess they had to use that take because they only had one pane of glass?) But no one is watching this movie for the narrative. We watch to see Jim Kelly go kung fu on a bunch of cops and Jim Brown climb a dam with his bare hands and Fred Williamson kill a bunch of Nazis with explosions (plus a trio of topless motorcycle prostitutes who interrogate a man to death... with sex!). And we do get all that and more.

47/2479. The Big Trail (1930)
On the other hand, the amount of pre-planning and care that had to go into the massive wagon train scenes in John Wayne's first starring role is downright impressive, even if Wayne is not so much. They really don't make 'em like this anymore.

48/2480. Kaboom (2010)
Awful, just awful. The film juggles a lot of pop culture elements that also turn up in other fringe indies (coming of age struggles, philosophy, sex, homosexuality, religious cults, prophecies, conspiracies, psychic powers, witches, etc.) but the third act just kills all momentum with a long sequence of talking heads trying to explain everything that to that point hadn't made much sense. And then the movie just ends. I can only assume that the filmmaker Gregg Araki ran out of money and gave up. Avoid this turkey at all costs.

49/2481. The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Now this is eccentric filmmaking done right. This, writer/director Jacques Demy's musical follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, is definitely not perfect (the unrhyming song lyrics distracted me throughout), but it is very, very colorful and charming and life affirming. It also happens to have Gene Kelly in it. Coincidence? I think not.

More to come.

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