not that action, you idiots! The kung-fu thing!

Average rating: 8. Four solid films!

Flushed Away (2006) - "After an ignoble landing in Ratropolis, a pampered rodent (Hugh Jackman) enlists the help of a sewer scavenger (Kate Winslet) in finding his way back to his posh London flat. Getting home is not the only problem, however; a rodent-hating toad (Ian McKellen) wants his notorious cousin, Le Frog (Jean Reno), to exterminate the pair."
length: 1 hour, 25 minutes

source: streamed on PeacockTV
I watched it because: Le Frog!!
IMDB: 6.6/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 72% Audience: 65%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "I find everyone's pain funny but my own—I'm French!"

MPAA rating: PG

directed by: David Bowers, Sam Fell

my notes: cute, clever, funny. It's no Ratatouille (2007, reviewed here), but it's a good rodent movie (and by far better than the unmentionable one, 1997, reviewed here). I will definitely watch it again when it comes along.

overall:  recommended

Dead Poets Society (1989) - "Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His roommate, Neil Perry, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each does so in his own way, and is changed for life."

length: 2 hours, 8 minutes

source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: (reviewed here)
IMDB: 8.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 85% Audience: 92%
my IMDB: 9/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Cheers (2006) #52

MPAA rating: PG

notable quote: "'"Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams and I'll show you a happy man."'

    '"But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be."'

    'Tennyson?'

    'No, Keating.'"

directed by: Peter Weir

my notes: a beautifully sad movie that pokes me in all the right, hard places. Yes, I've seen it a dozen times (at least) and, yes, I sobbed again.

Academy Award winner: Best Writing, Screenplay written directly for the screen—Tom Schulman
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Picture—Steven Haft, Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas

• Best Actor—Robin Williams

• Best Director—Weir

overall: highly recommended

Land (2021) - "From acclaimed actress Robin Wright comes her directorial debut Land, the poignant story of one woman's search for meaning in the vast and harsh American wilderness. Edee (Wright), in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again."
length: 1 hour, 29 minutes

source: streamed on Peacock
I watched it because: ...Demián Bechir...
IMDB: 6.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 69% Audience: 84%
my IMDB: 8/10

notable quote: "'Why are you helping me?'

    '... you were in my path.'"

MPAA rating: PG-13

directed by: Robin Wright

my notes: this is a beautiful, quiet, desperately sad, inspirational, well-filmed, thought-provoking film. It's a story for grown-ups.

overall:  strongly recommended

From Here to Eternity (1953) - "At an Army barracks in Hawaii in the days preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor, lone-wolf soldier and boxing champion 'Prew' Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) refuses to box, preferring to play the bugle instead. Hard-hearted Capt. Holmes (Philip Ober) subjects Prew to a grueling series of punishments while, unknown to Holmes, the gruff but fair Sgt. Warden (Burt Lancaster) engages in a clandestine affair with the captain's mistreated wife (Deborah Kerr)."
length: 1 hour, 58 minutes

source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: it's been ages since I saw it last, and I was in the mood for swoons (not previously reviewed)
IMDB: 7.6/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 88% Audience: 84%
my IMDB: 8/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Movies (original list 1998) #52

    100 Years…100 Passions (2002) #20

MPAA rating: Approved

notable quote: "You're crazy—I wish I didn't love you! Maybe I could enjoy my life again. ... I've never been so miserable in my life!"

directed by: Fred Zinnemann

my notes: critically acclaimed puts it mildly. This is a powerhouse film, one of the great oldies with a huge cast, the majority of whom are major household names now. The story of how it was made is a doozy, with some method actors getting hammered before their drunk scenes and so forth.

Academy Award winner:
• Best Picture—Buddy Adler

• Best Supporting Actor—Frank Sinatra

• Best Supporting Actress—Donna Reed

• Best Director—Zinnemann

• Best Writing, Screenplay—Daniel Taradash

• Best Cinematography, Black and white—Burnett Guffey

• Best Sound, Recording—John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD)

• Best Film Editing—William A. Lyon
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actor—Montgomery Clift

• Best Actor—Burt Lancaster

• Best Actress—Deborah Kerr

• Best Costume Design, Black and white—Jean Louis

• Best Music, Scoring of a dramatic or comedy picture—Morris Stoloff, George Duning
overall:  recommended

 

[the title quotation is from Flushed Away]