House (1977)

Its bizarre factor makes it tempting to give this a higher grade than it deserves. But, since it could've easily been made by a few of 8th graders with a camera and buckets of technicolor fake blood, I won't pretend.

After a group of girls have their holiday plans fall through, Gorgeous offers her auntie's house as an option. See, she's upset that her father is remarrying -- never mind that she's only met her aunt once when she was a child -- and wants to get away. The friends' names are a little bit of ridiculousness of their own: Gorgeous (she's pretty!), Fantasy (she daydreams!), Prof (she wears glasses!), Melody (she likes music!), Kung Fu (she's sporty!), Mac (she likes to eat and everyone keeps pretending she's fat but she's really NOT!), and Sweet (she's... sweet, I guess). Welp, Auntie says to come on ahead and so they do.

The Aunt has apparently turned evil because her boyfriend didn't return from the war like he promised he would decades before. Her house and cat are also evil. Together (but mostly the house), they take down the girls one by one because eating unmarried girls is their passion. I don't know. It's so aggressively mad I can't even beLIEVE that a movie this fantastically insane exists. I mean wowza.

F

Annie Hall (1977)

Though I really loved this the first time I saw it 30ish years ago, it has not aged well. I'm not even talking about the "child molesters" comment early on and the later mention of a sexual encounter with 16-year-old twins (though they do land with heavy thuds now that we know what we know). I mean that I've seen better versions of this story in the near 50 years since its release with better direction and better performances.

I don't begrudge this groundbreaking film its place in history. This must've felt so fresh in the way it broke the fourth wall with regularity and refused to adhere to a linear timeline. Alvy himself is a romantic lead that hadn't been seen: he's built like a 13-year-old waiting for his growth spurt with a personality that could be described as "perpetual gripe," but it told the truth that women can see past quite a bit in pursuit of a compatible mate.

That said, this has become nothing more than a curious time capsule I'm unlikely to visit again.

C+

Airport '77 (1977)

A big fancy private plane with a bunch of precious artwork and VIPs aboard  is headed to the owner's museum opening. Not only is the star power ramped up even more (Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Olivia de Havilland and more), but the story's got more going on too. While it's still essentially "oh no, big trouble, we all might die," the heroics are spread more evenly amongst the cast.

Skippable for sure, but you'd still probably have a good time on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and this playing.

C+

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Our local theater was showing this for a couple of weeks after Burt's death, so we thought we'd grab the opportunity to take our son and his girlfriend to see an irreverent comedy from our childhood on the big screen.

And, wow. We were shocked to find that this isn't funny at all. It felt worn out... lazy... just not worth the trouble. Why is it so hilarious in my memory? Am I thinking of a different movie?

D+

Slap Shot (1977)

Though there are some guffaw moments (the Hanson brothers’ first time on the ice certainly qualifies), it moved at a much slower pace than I’d remembered. Still fun, but I’m seeing a few cracks I didn’t the first time through, which was probably 20 years ago.

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+

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

Suspiria (1977)

This movie has been on so many "Top Horror Movies of All-Time" and "Best Cult Films Ever" lists that I couldn't wait to see it. So, to all those who have hyped this movie to high heaven, I say to you: What. The. Hell.

Apparently I'm supposed to be blown away by the sets and the lighting...but, dude, if you don't have a story to go WITH that stuff, you're in the wrong field. Pull out your Nikon, publish a coffee table book, and leave the moving pictures to someone else.

It's not scary. It's not beautiful. It's not cool. It's not well-acted. It's not anything other than a waste of time.

D

21 Up (1977)

This time the filmmakers decided to gather these young adults, who were first captured on film for British TV at age seven, for a screening of the first two installments. The mingling afterward is some of the most interesting footage here. Many of them seem to want to try to analyze who they were back then -- comparing their "now" selves with the "then" children and young teenagers. They're as interested in the changes as we are, apparently.

One thing I'd noticed in the second installment but which was, in this one, much more pronounced, was what seemed to be a bias coming from the interviewer (who, I assume, is Michael Apted himself). He almost talks down to Symon, who seems to deliberately choose not understand what's being implied about his not-good-enough lifestyle. The trio of schoolgirls, now all working class women -- two of whom are already married -- do not take the bias so calmly. Jackie and Lynn especially seem quite agitated when it's suggested that they might be jealous of those who've had more money and less hardship.

This was, for me, the most intriguing update so far. I've now got people for whom I'm rooting (Tony) and those who baffle me (Suzy). Reality contestants have nothing on these true reality stars.

A-

Equus (1977)

Boy crafts a religion around horses, then turns against his "god" with a scythe and lands in a mental hospital. Now…let's get to the root cause of his actions. Diagnosis? He's nuts! Case closed.

D+

That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)

Older man's obsessed with younger woman. Does she love him? Is she just shy? Is she making a complete fool of him? I was drawn into trying my best to answer these questions, but after about an hour I despised the girl so much I no longer cared. No wonder I didn't date much when I was young – I didn't understand the formula for keeping a man interested! There WAS a kind of cool device of having two actresses playing the same role – but it ended up being a stunt rather than the breakthrough it might have been.

In a nutshell: Sexy girl ruins man’s life. Silly man.

C+

The Turning Point (1977)

MacLaine and Bancroft are fine; the dancing is lovely; but it's all in vain as they're trapped in a thoroughly uninvolving story. There's no one to root for (with the possible exception of Tom Skerritt - who logs about 10 minutes of screen time) and our promising ballerina "heroine" has about as much acting ability as Andie MacDowell (no, that ain't a compliment).

Do yourself a favor, fast forward to any Mikhail Baryshnikov dance piece and forget the rest.

D+