Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

The 501 Must See movies book has been goal of mine for some time. The book is divided into 10 genres with 50 films each [plus 1] and the musical genre is the one I have seen the least in. Couple that with having seen very few of the musical/comedy golden globe winners I have decided to dedicate April to Musical Month.

Starting with a musical that is actually on a number of lists, Filmsite 100, 501 Must See Movies, in the National Film Registry, nominated for 4 Oscars, and the 1001 Movie Book this is a musical I've actually been looking forward to.

Set in the year before the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, the story revolves around Esther [Judy Garland] and her family [3 sisters, mother, father, and maid]. Dad is offered a job in New York and decided to move the family after Christmas. The preparation of leaving St. Louis is the focus of the film and how great the city is, is the theme for many of the songs.

I was probably a little harsh on the rating since it is the first of a month full of musicals that are sure to get worse. It wasn't bad, I just didn't love it. It was a little long at times, but the pace of songs was good.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037059/

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The Perils of Pauline (1914)

What a fiasco... finding this film was nearly impossible, and with numerous versions it was quite confusing. This serial film was redone several times, the original being in 1914 with remakes in 1933, 1947, and 1967. The 1933 version was released in 12 episodes, the 1947 version was a feature length film just under two hours, and the 1967 version was originally released in Brazil made for TV and starred Pat Boone. The 1933 version is on VHS at my library, but this version was almost impossible to find. As part of the National Film Registry it is available in small chunks but even the full version that I found is incomplete. Only 4 or 5 of the episodes remain in their full ~30min versions. Several of the episodes are lost forever and only 8-12 minutes have been restored. The original had 20 episodes but only the European edition survived which is 9 episodes and what seems like portions of three others. It is all very confusing. Anyways I watched what I could find.

The first episode explains the background story. Pauline was left a fortune by her uncle, but she is not to have the money until she marries. Her guardian is left to hold the money until she is married, and she decides to have some fun before marrying her fiance Harry. Koerner (the Guardian, and bad guy) plots to kill her to keep the inheritance for himself. Each episode stars with a grand adventure and ends with a narrow escape. From being stranded in a hot air balloon, to lost at sea, to kidnapped by cowboys. The episodes start to get repetitive after the first three or four, so I'm not to disappointed that I have incomplete footage. There is little closure on the series also, and it seems that they were all left pretty open ended, much like a television series [if you didn't already know serials were the precursor to tv series that teens went to the theater to see weekly almost 100 years ago.]

It was ok, I would have been fine with 1-2 episodes, and watching 4-6 hours of silent footage is not really that fun. Check out the first episode if you can find it, and call it a day.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004465/

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Jules and Jim: Jules et Jim (1962)

This film actually finished a list for me, and it has been a while since I've finished a list. Just a film forum's top 100, but still. This film is also in the 1001 movies book, and one I was slightly interested in.

Directed by François Truffaut, who also did The 400 Blows, an imdb top 250 film that I enjoyed and is credited for starting the French "New Wave." The film stars Jeanne Moreau (Catherine), Oskar Werner (Jules) [best known for Fahrenheit 451], and Henri Serre  (Jim).

The story goes that Jules and Jim became great friends, Jules being from Germany and Jim from France. They hit off their friendship in Paris and it is easy to assume that this might be a homosexual relationship. Never made clear in the film, maybe because that would be too extreme for 1962, or maybe because they were just friends. It is hard to tell and I'll let you assume for yourself. Anyways, they do chase girls around and the film moves pretty rapidly until Jim meets Catherine. As a friend Jim tried to tell his friend that this is the kind of girl that will never be happy with just him, but he doesn't care and they get married.

I better stop there because I will give away the whole plot if I say more. The film is really about the interaction between the three of them. It is full of different emotions, and will really make you think. I would suggest this to film buffs, or those aspiring to be one, like myself.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055032/

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TRON: Legacy (2010)

Now I just watched the original TRON just a couple years ago. I have to say that I didn't like it. I even gave it a 5/10 and remember dozing off a couple times during the "action" sequences. I really didn't even realize that Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner ("Tron") were brought back to do this sequel.

The premise of the film is that after 20+ years of Kevin Flynn [Bridges] disappearance his son find that he has been trapped in the alternate universe or the system since then. I was hesitant to give this film a chance. The first TRON flopped but had a cult following, and this one flopped to everyone surprise. I'm really not sure why people are surprised when sequels to cult films don't do well at the box office. Doesn't that mean they did a good job with it?

Maybe this will have another cult following, but I think it was a little too late. The Disney element makes it cheesy and the 3d element is frustrating. The acting from the son, Sam [Garrett Hedlund], and the girl [Olivia Wilde] were not great, and the plot was stupid enough to put you to sleep. Not worth your time, and the action scenes were very limited which was pretty surprising.

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104001/

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Megamind (2010)

This was the biggest animated film of the year to not get any recognition from the Oscars or Globes. I actually got it confused for a while with Despicable Me, because it stars the villain. The background story was more entertaining for me on this one, but the overall film was much better in Despicable Me, largely due to the lead character's voice work.

With Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Ben Stiller, and Jonah Hill this is quite the cast. Problem for me sometimes is that the voice identifies the star more than the character and I can't "believe" that is how this character should sound. Ferrell was just annoying to me at times. The other big problem for me is that this was a kids movie. The other nominees were all animated film that appealed to all audiences. To me this was just for kids, with little to no adult humor. I found the jokes childish, but then again that is what I expect from Ferrell, and how I picture him most of the time.

It got a 3/5 on the KSF. Honestly I don't remember much that wouldn't be appropriate for little ones, but there is a lot of violence and people "die." Maybe you don't care about this with your children, but it bumped it from the tame 2/5 to a 3/5 which is still pretty low. Not a great or memorable animated film.

KSF: 3/5
Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001526/

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Werckmeister Harmonies: Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

As I wrap up this Top 100 list from this random movie forum it has been very painful. Last Year and Marienbad and Solaris were the last two, and this one and Marienbad are only on this list. Not a lot of incentive to watch this one, since it is also a two and a half Hungarian film.

It is also my first Béla Tarr film. Tarr is a famous international director, and arguably the best that Hungary has ever produced. So it had that going for it. I was also aware that this film is slow ans artistic, so I was prepared.

The opening scene is strange, an interesting play in a bar where the audio seems to be greatly out of sync. I was sure this was a dubbed portion until I got further into the film, I'm still unsure what that was about. The music is fantastic, and the scene was artistic and beautiful [not something you hear me saying much in reviews]. I just loved when he left the bar and walked down the dark road. The plot is very basic but I feel that my conclusion about the film may be different than others [see the comments for the spoiler on this if you want]. The plot is that a whale exhibit is in town and the townspeople are in an uproar over the self titled "prince" who has been making speeches at the exhibit. The crowd turns to mob later in the film and it eventually picks up its pace. It is very slow at times, which fits the theme and my final conclusion.

Overall I really liked it, I didn't love it, and I really don't see myself watching it again. That is what keeps it from being an 8/10. So what is the title? Well the main character's uncle is a music theorist who believes that Andreas Werckmeister (who invented the music scale with 8 notes) was wrong and basically messed up how we listen to music. The lecture is part of the film, and difficult to follow, but interesting.

Anyways, look at the comments for spoilers.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249241/

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Last Year an Marienbad: L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

Yay, I have my new worst film of the year. Winning in a landslide is an artsy film with NO plot whatsoever. The type that I loath because it does not go anywhere or mean anything, nothing memorable to boot.

The film starts in the middle of scene in a chateau, e.g. French castle. All I can guess is that this class of society takes long summer vacations at estates like this and the two lead characters start a conversation in which the guy starts trying to convince the girl they met there last year. Hence the title.

He then vividly describes their encounter which she denies, or has forgotten. That's all. Really. The whole plot. Two hours of him trying to convince her they knew each other and her saying that she doesn't know him. Rubbish. 

Vote: 1/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054632/

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