This would have been a TV Movie of the Week thirty years ago. It's pretty much paint-by-numbers. On the plus side, the acting is good. It's just that the story falls short of their efforts.

Like the movie Spotlight (2015), this one reveals an organization that destroys lives with impunity. Whereas that earlier movie covered the Catholic Church's pedophile ring, this one reveals that gene...

This fictionalized story of the famous French novelist Colette is apparently set in an alternate universe where, although the population still writes in French, they've apparently given up on ever bei...

The acting, direction, cinematography, sound design, and other technical aspects of this movie are all top notch. Visually, I felt at times as though I were peering into a living painting, while at ot...

This movie does a good job of showing us three adults who are in love with each other and who decide to make a go of it even though the transgressions involved carry serious penalties. All three main ...

It's Fingersmith, but better. It had some scenes that were a bit more graphic than strictly necessary, but otherwise it's great. Actually, it's reminiscent of "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her L...

This is a really good film about sports, equal rights for everyone, and most of all it's about love. Larry actually loves Billie Jean and it shows in every scene. And she loves him; it's not his fault...

This is yet another romantic story that doesn't feature any evidence of love at all. Carol and Richard both want to possess Therese, but neither really cares about her. Harge wants to possess Carol bu...

Everything works in this one. They brought together a bunch of famous actors, gave them a good script about a real issue, then directed and filmed it well. One of the movie's messages is that organiza...

This is the story of broken people breaking each other. The story is predictable, partly thanks to the writers telegraphing the ending early on through some heavy-handed foreshadowing. A story with no...

This film hit the mark on all the technical merits. And it's a walk-and-talk movie, which I normally enjoy. But it just never grabbed me. There was never a point in the film when I wanted to turn it o...

This was a really good story about how family and community can be both a source of strength and something that holds you back at the same time. The acting was great and it was such a treat to see Joa...

It's a rom-com about unrelatable rich people, but it's well done and very enjoyable. It helps that the cast list is loaded with charismatic actors that everyone knows and that's important because the ...

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Watching this, I couldn't help but think of Natalie Harp. But that aside, this is a fascinating and compelling look at a regime as it dies, as seen through the eyes of a servant. Everything that is oh...

I have the original 1933 movie this is based on, but I haven't watched it yet. This Reagan-era version from Blake Edwards starts out well but goes downhill to the end. The peeping tom scene is creepy ...

I liked this movie when I was a kid, so I decided to revisit it. As an adult, I can see why I liked it -- the kid is the smartest character in the movie -- but there just isn't much to the story. It's...

I love the view that this film gives me of E.C. Segar's world of Popeye. The 1930s Fleischer Studios short subjects gave me my first view of his world and have remained my favorite filmed version of t...

This film launches a critique of war early on and never lets up, but at the heart of the movie is the relationship of proud coward and fixer Charlie (Garner) and war widow Emily (Andrews). That relati...

This reboot works. It uses the same types of humor as the old TV shows and movies, and also like them it throws its attempts at humor at you so fast that if some of them don't land it's no problem. Un...

All westerns are myths, seen through the filter of the sensibilities of the time and place in which they were produced. And this one is a very, very 1950s America myth. Every interaction is incredibly...

Apropos of this film's primary genre, it's made from the severed parts of previous films, stitched together with no thought to hiding their origin. And like a zombie, with each act it loses a bit more...

I'd been looking forward to watching this for a long time. I'd bought it a few years ago, then got sidetracked watching a few hundred pre-Code movies. Now that I'm taking a few months to watch post-19...

This anti-racism movie (based on the William Faulkner novel of the prior year) is generally well done, but it comes off a little too Hollywood for my taste. The way the lawyer speaks in pronouncements...

This movie made me laugh out loud so many times during its nearly two hour length. Nothing left me gasping for air, but there weren't any boring parts either. It's absolutely stuffed with good filmmak...

A man is on the run. He's a fugitive from justice. He makes his way to an attic. He's hiding from everyone in town and even from another man in the same house! So of course he throws the attic windows...

Gary Cooper is at his awkward best in this romantic comedy about eight nerds and a tough-as-nails gangster's moll. There are some typical 1940s silly bits, but they don't get in the way of the story v...

This, the final WC Fields vehicle, has convinced me that I've changed. Forty years ago I thought of WC Fields as a comic genius. Back then I used to watch his films when the local independent station ...

This one took a while to get started, but once it was going it was an enjoyable enough movie. Charles Laughton's rich-old-man shtick is solid, and Walter Catlett's portrayal of the family doctor is on...

Thousands of flights booked by the pedophile financier’s staff connected associates and victims to a global network of properties

The premise of this movie is intriguing, but it's undermined by the characters being unbelievably stupid. Character after character behaved as though they had no sense at all. It's the equivalent of e...

How perfect is it that we get to see William Powell, who had a great career in the pre-Code era, play a pre-Code character in 1940? His character brings some of that pre-Code feeling to this film. Pow...

This anti-fascist film hits powerfully, its force undiminished by time. The actors all do a great job bringing the strong script to life. There are so many scenes in this one that will stick with me f...

Most of this movie is fun, but there aren't a lot of surprises in it. The principal cast largely play the types of roles they're famous for playing. The story proceeds predictably for the most part, w...

Joan Blondell and Melvyn Douglas perform to the level of the material in this comedy-mystery hybrid. Unfortunately that material is very uneven. The biggest problem with the picture is how firmly it b...

Given that both of the main roles were recast from the original movie's Lionel and John Barrymore, I was surprised at how well this movie turned out. Warren William does very well in the role of the d...

They say a lesser Lubitsch is still a Lubitsch, and that holds true for this one, even though it's a remake of a 1923 silent. This edition certainly benefits from Billy Wilder's writing, too. The firs...

This movie is so good. The rapid-fire wisecracks, the developing relationships between the actresses living in the boarding house, and the ever-building fundamental story and its denouement make this ...

With Anita Loos co-writing the original story and the screenplay, I was really hopeful for this one, but I was braced for disappointment given the strictures of the Code and how Hollywood was managing...