The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

I rather enjoyed the first half, in which I couldn't help but be impressed by Ingrid Bergman as a single woman determined to become a missionary to China. She gets no encouragement, but her single-minded assurance that this is God's will for her keeps her plugging along. The obstacles don't magically disappear, even once she finally makes it to her destination, but she's indefatigable and pretty inspirational.

The problems were that it just dragged on too long and that, though based on a true story, there were some obvious "no way" moments. Has some charm but no staying power.

C+

More Than a Game (2009)

Documentary profiling a tight-knit group of five friends who played basketball together from elementary school up through high school. I was never bored, but I'm not sure how much I or anyone else would care if one of the friends didn't happen to be LeBron James.

B-

A Special Day (1977)

There's no getting around the fact that the quality of this DVD messed up any chance of pleasure being derived from the content. This was, without a doubt, the very worst professionally-produced disc I've ever viewed. It looked as though a 20-year-old VHS tape that had been taped over dozens of times had been transfered to DVD with no concern about the fact that the tape is rather off-track most of the time. It's also atrociously dubbed with no subtitle option.

So, it's hard to know for sure what I'm judging, but my gut tells me that even if the recording had been pristine I wouldn't want to go higher than a C+. Although I have no desire to see it again as the story is capital-D Dumb (overworked, underappreciated housewife has an afternoon of passion with the dapper gay man across the tenement courtyard), I feel as though I'll have to at some point, just to be sure I don't like it.

C+

The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Promising high school ball player and his pals jump into the world of drugs. There goes his scholarship, but here comes a whole new world of fame as a tragic poet. Score!

There's no nuance and no reason to care except for the fact that young DiCaprio displays what a terrific actor he was from the beginning (though it could be argued that he'd already accomplished that -- and better --in What's Eating Gilbert Grape...so, perhaps there's no reason to care after all).

D+

The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

Such a weird movie.

Burt Munro's a nutty guy who lives in what amounts to a garage, pees on a lemon tree in his yard, and owns a genuine "Indian" motorcycle. He's a kind of joke in his New Zealand town, but he's decided to run his bike on the Salt Flats in Utah, by golly, and he aw-shucks his way all the way there and, wouldn'tcha know it, becomes a bona fide folk hero in the process.

Munro meets a cross-dressing clerk in, as (s)he calls it "Hollyweird," shacks up with a lonely widow who helps him fix up his broken down rig along the way, and generally charms everyone he meets, though I'm not sure how he does it because he just got on MY nerves.

I'm betting that the real story, stripped of all the force-fed feel-goodness, is a dandy. But this telling, because it was so obviously tarted up with smiley stickers and pixie dust, just left me cold.

D

Afghan Star (2009)

The most interesting thing about this documentary that takes a look at an "American Idol"-type show was the information that Afghanistan, just a couple of decades ago, was quite westernized. It was more than a little jarring to see shots of school campuses where the women wore feathered hair and knee-length skirts -- they looked just like students at my college in the late '80s. The fact that the population has been stripped of rights they formerly held was so shocking that I almost couldn't process it. Yes, I'm appalled at myself for somehow just assuming that "they're used to it...it's awful, but that's the way it IS there," when most of the adult population can remember clearly that it wasn't always like that.

Still, the movie itself wasn't as compelling as I believed it would be. The glimpse inside the culture was fascinating, but seeing it almost as a side-story as we follow around some of the contestants (who are probably some of the least "average" citizens there) made the whole situation feel preposterous.

B-

Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

Oh my gosh. Not only is it amateurish, it's a nasty little waste of time.

Basically, Diane Keaton is a good girl gone wild...a teacher for the deaf who falls all too eagerly into the world of casual sex, recreational drugs, and whatever else is on offer.

I can't believe this has been on my "to see" list for 15+ years. So much yuck.

F

Breaking and Entering (2006)

Rich business owner with an office in the bad part of town suffers a break-in and becomes involved with the mother of one of the thieves.

Somehow, despite the sympathetic circumstances of both of the leads and the talent/likability of the actors playing them (Jude Law and Juliette Binoche), this quickly becomes a "no one to root for" deal. Everyone behaves distastefully and there are too many extra hurdles for these people that it just becomes unbelievable.

Jude Law is very vulnerable here, but the movie felt both too muted and too full of portent for me to ever get on its wavelength.

C-

The Children's Hour (1961)

A child's gossip at a boarding school ruins the reputation of the two women who run the place together. This is a devastating movie, hindered only by a couple of performances: 1) the over-the-top "lead in the school play" style of the malicious little girl and 2) the barely-bothering-to-phone-it-in weirdness of James Garner.

Miriam Hopkins taking on the role of the flaky aunt (she played one of the teachers in the original version of the film) is a nice touch.

B+

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Lots of fun -- very '80s (in the telling as well as topic). We laughed out loud enough times to justify the price of admission.

B