no more rhymes now, I mean it! / Anybody want a peanut?

Average rating: 8. Yay!

Infernal Affairs II {Mou gaan dou II} (2003) - "In this prequel to Mou gaan dou (2002), Chan Wing Yan has just become an undercover cop in the Triads, while Lau Kin Ming joins the police force. Both the Triads and the police find an enemy in a rival crime boss."
length: 1 hour, 59 minutes

source: I own the trilogy on DVD (first film reviewed here and here)
I watched it because: I'm trying to mix up film ages and genres, to keep things fresh. It's been a while since I've seen Hong Kong martial arts.
IMDB: 7.2/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 75% Audience: 83%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "What a good show. You're so friggin' photogenic."

MPAA rating: NR

directed by: Wai Keung [Andrew] Lau, Alan Mak

my notes: it's a good one, if more disjointed and less charismatic than the first. I liked Anthony Chau-Sang Wong as SP Wong, and especially Francis Ng as the nefarious Ngai Wing Hau. If you see the first, watch the second as well.

overall:  recommended

The Brylcreem Boys (1998) - "In 1941, as part of an effort to remain strictly neutral, the Dublin government made a deal with both Berlin and London whereby any soldier, sailor or pilot captured on Irish soil, whether of German or Allied forces, would be interned for the duration of the war. What the Irish failed to tell was that they would intern everybody in the same camp. It is here that Canadian pilot Miles Keogh and German pilot Rudolph Von Stegenbeck meet after a fight in which both their planes were downed. Outside the camp, both fall in love with the same woman, an independent Irishwoman who refuses to take sides in their private little war."

length: 1 hour, 46 minutes

source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: it's one of my favorites, which I haven't seen in far too long (2016??)
IMDB: 6.2/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: N/A%
my IMDB: 8/10

notable quote: "Yes, this could be awkward—but only if one of us makes us so."

MPAA rating: PG-13

directed by: Terence Ryan

my notes: Billy Campbell is the obvious draw, Jean Butler's debut is worth the look, Gabriel Byrne is always marvelous...but Angus Macfayden is outstanding. A Scottish actor playing a German, acting against an American actor playing a Canadian, wooing an Irish dancer in her first movie. 

    This is a laugh-out-loud, cry-fat-tears kind of movie. My affection for it is a 10.

overall:  strongly recommended

The Princess Bride (1987) - "Return to a time when men and swamps were swamps. Fire Swamps, that is. Full of quicksand and Rodents of Unusual Size. Lagoons were inhabited by shrieking eels. And the most beautiful woman in the world was named... Buttercup? Well, it's a bent fairy tale. Complete with all the fencing, chasing, escapes, and silly accents you'd expect. Including such unique folk as Inigo Montoya, who has dreamed his whole life of finding the six-fingered man who killed his father. Fezzik is his enormous sidekick. And Max is the kvetching miracle man. Blonde Buttercup loves Westley, a poor stable boy. But when he's captured by pirates, she's chosen by evil Prince Humperdinck to be his princess bride. Along the way, she gets kidnapped, he gets killed. But it all ends up okay."
length: 1 hour, 38 minutes

source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: it's been too long since I've seen it, and I really needed a pick-up today
IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 96% Audience: 94%
my IMDB: 10/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Passions (2002) #88

notable quote: "'You mock my pain.'

    'Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.'"

MPAA rating: PG

directed by: Rob Reiner

my notes: in some ways, by some definition, this is the best film ever made.

Academy Award nominee: Best Music, Original Song—Willy DeVille (for "Storybook Love")
overall:  super highly recommended

The More the Merrier (1943)

ayup, I liked it so much that I've now watched it twice in a month. Pretty sure y'all don't need another review so soon. (Previously reviewed here.)

Blackboard Jungle (1955) - "World War II veteran Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) takes a teaching position at a rough New York City school for boys. The staff warns him that the students are nearly impossible to control, but the optimistic Richard remains unfazed. Soon, though, he realizes that his class isn't merely rowdy—they can be downright dangerous. The students, led by the thuggish Artie West (Vic Morrow), threaten their teacher and his family with violence, yet Richard refuses to give up on the troubled teens."
length: 1 hour, 41 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: I like Glenn Ford, and it's one of his most highly-rated films
IMDB: 7.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 74% Audience: 78%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "Come on. For a bright boy, you didn't learn nothing. Well, take me down. Come on. Step right up and taste a little of this, Daddy-O."

MPAA rating: Approved

directed by: Richard Brooks

my notes: hard to watch, a little dated, and yet still compelling and ultimately realistic now. All right, there might be a bit more teacher-on-student violence, but certain things were acceptable in 1955 that are verboten today. (Also, the script contains numerous expressions of racial and gender biases, only some of which are addressed.)

    Fine performances by Ford, Sidney Poitier, Morrow, and Richard Kiley.
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Writing, Screenplay—Brooks

• Best Cinematography, Black and white—Russell Harlan

• Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black and white—Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis, Henry Grace

• Best Film Editing—Ferris Webster
overall:  recommended

 

[the title quotation is from The Princess Bride]