Today I watched "The Man in Grey" (1943) directed by Leslie Arliss. I've really enjoyed the "Gainsborough ghastlies" that I've managed to see. While this one wasn't as outrageously fun as "The Wicked Lady," it was still very enjoyable. All four of the leads were very go...

I saw "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" today with my son.

I enjoyed it a lot and I left my comments in the Sci-Fi & Fantasy section.

My son and I saw "Captain America The Winter Soldier" (2014) today. I really liked it. It took a little while to get going, but I have to say that it completely won me over by the end. The cast is terrific, and it was fun to see Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford together. There are plen...

Today I watched "Under the Volcano" (1984) directed by John Huston. I had never seen the movie before. I only knew about "Under the Volcano" because a professor I detested said it was the greatest novel about alcoholism ever written. So I skipped the movie. I'm glad I finally gav...

I was very impressed with "The Woman in Black" when I saw it a couple of years ago. It did seem to owe a lot to Val Lewton in how it generated fright in the viewer. The 1968 Japanese movie "The Black Cat" is finally available in the US under the Japanese name "Kuroneko."...

Last week I watched "Rescue Dawn" (2006) directed by Werner Herzog. It is a dramatization of the story of Dieter Dengler, the subject of Herzog's "Little Dieter Needs to Fly," his documentary about the one American POW who escaped during the Vietnam war. "Rescue Dawn" i...

I've been watching "The Yakuza Papers" (1974) directed by Kinji Fukasaku recently. This was a Japanese TV miniseries based on the life of a real Yakuza (gangster). It is an interesting experience, the first time I've really enjoyed a Yakuza movie. It is very dynamic and at times feels like...

As for Henry King, I really liked "The Black Swan." It had a wittiness about it, particularly the battle of the sexes part, that I didn't really expect to find in a swashbuckler. (Now the first time I tried to watch "The Black Swan," I hated it, because the TV station cut the fir...

Today I watched "Captain from Castile" (1947) directed by Henry King. It started out with promise, but the longer this one went on, and it went on for two hours and twenty minutes, the less I liked "Captain from Castile." I found Tyrone Power's character oddly passive in this fil...

Today, my son and I saw "The Lego Movie." It was good, and we had a good time. I don't think the movie is as wonderful as the critics had led me to believe. I found the main hero rather bland (although that may have been the point.) The movie picked up a lot for me when Batman (voiced by W...

I agree that "classic" Hollywood always had remakes. Besides "The Maltese Falcon," you had several films based on Robin Hood, Zorro, even the novel Captain Blood. (I know some people would say that remaking a silent film as a talkie isn't exactly a "remake" as, say, rem...

Yesterday I watched "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) directed by Wes Anderson. I didn't see this film when it first came out, and that's probably for the best. I had a real problem with this movie, which is essentially about a father who skips out on his family when the children are small and...

Yes, that was "Die, Monster, Die!" One of my favorite Karloff performances of the Sixties is in "Black Sabbath" (1964) directed by Mario Bava. It is called "The Wurdulak," and Karloff plays a Balkan vampire who preys upon his own family. That has always been my favorite...

Today I watched "Die, Monster, Die!" (1965), directed by Daniel Haller. It was a letdown. I briefly entertained hopes, seeing that the script was by Jerry Sohl, who was a friend of Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, but the script was a lame copy of the AIP Poe movies with some Fifties...

Today I watched "The Bridge at Remagen" (1969) directed by John Guillermain. "Film Comment" had a spotlight feature on Guillermain in the most recent issue, and that prompted me to watch "Remagen." The movie left me with mixed emotions. On the one had, the battle scenes...