Wait Until Dark (1967)

This film shows up on people's top 100 thrillers list, so I decided to watch it with my wife and 12 year old daughter. It scared my daughter so much that she was crying at the end and had to sleep in our bed with my wife, and I slept in her bed. I kept trying to turn it off but she wanted to see how it ended. It really doesn't get scary until the last 30 min.

Audrey Hepburn deserved her oscar nomination for this role. I liked watching a younger version of Alan Arkin, I am so used to seeing him as an older actor. Same goes for Richard Crenna- I have seen him in many movies but he is older.

This is a fun thriller and if it came out today it would be rated PG. As is, it doesn't have a rating because it came out in the 60's. I give it 4 stars.

Notorious (1946)

This 3 star movie could have been a 4 if it wasn't for a few flaws. 1. I expect to be surprised when watching a Hitchcock movie. This movie was very predictable, and maybe I am too spoiled by Hitchcock's other movies, but there just wasn't a lot of suspense and guessing for the viewer. 2. In the movie Ingrid Bergman works as an American Agent (spy) alongside Cary Grant. Together they steal a key from Claude Rains so that they can go into the wine cellar and look at some stuff. They both know that Claude will be going into the cellar that night, which means he will notice his key is gone from his keychain and he can't get in.

The next morning Bergman slips the key back on his key chain and her and Grant act as if Rains would never know they took it. Of course he would know. It wasn't there when he needed it, and now it was there. So of course he know knows that Bergman is spying on him, and then he starts plotting how to kill her. (The reasons she was in the house is because she married him as a cover up.)

I was disappointed the Hitchcock allowed the mistake in the movie. Bergman and Grant saw Rains try to get into the cellar, they obviously knew that he would look for the key and not find it. HELLO PEOPLE. If you are going to steal someone's key, do it when they don't need it and put it back before they notice. It was funny to me that Grant and Bergman thought they got away with it.

Aside from that, the movie is fun to watch. This is a younger Bergman and Grant was already a star by 1946.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

I don't know what shocked me more 1. Reading on IMDB that the actor playing the main role of Eric Liddel (Ian Charleson) died of AIDS at the age of 40 in 1990. or 2. How great the second half of this movie was.

The first half bored me to tears. The second half was 4 stars all the way. How refreshing it is to see a movie come out of Hollywood that actually has God as the main them woven throughout the script. Very suprising and impressive.

This movie as good as it was will not make my list. I felt the director could have done more with the love interest inbetween Harold Abrahams and the actress. The first half just dragged on WAY to long for me.

One of hte greatest scenes in movie history

The Miracle Worker (1962)

Everyone has heard of the stories and relationship that Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan had with each other, but to see them portrayed in a movie is incredible. Anne Bancroft plays Sullivan, while a young Patty Duke plays Keller. Both women were very deserving of their Oscars. 4.5 out of 5.

Paper Moon (1973)

I have heard about this movie, and have been intrigued about it for some time now but have been hesitant for one reason—O’Neal. Their personal lives have turned me off, but finally I gave into this Father-Daughter movie. Ryan O’Neal (Moze) plays a grifter who is scheming poor people out of the little amounts of money they have during the Depression. Along the way he hears that an old friend of his has passed away, and has left a nine year old daughter Addie (Tatum O’neal).
He takes on the task of driving her to her next of kin in Missouri, along the way continuing to grift. Addie begins to play along in the roles with Moze. They grow close together during these adventures across the heartland of America. In the end of the movie you get what you would expect out of a feel good movie.
Watch for Randy Quaid in one of his earliest movie roles.
Tatum and Ryan played well off of each other, but all-in-all the movie is very flat, only 2 stars. I am shocked that Tatum won an oscar for this roll. It felt like a poor persons Annie.

The Train Robbers (1973)

I added this to my queue because I had read it was one of John Wayne's better films during the last ten years of his career. I also knew that Ann Margret was in it, and I have always liked her.

I can't find a trailer for this one, but it was a fun 3.5 stars for me. I loved the ending in particular.

Ann-Margret plays Mrs. Lowe, a widow who wants to clear her dead husbands name. He had worked alongside 10 other men and stolen a million dollars from Wells Fargo. 7 of those men are still alive, and Mrs. Lowe hires Lane (John Wayne) to take her to where the gold is before the other 7 get there first. Apparantley all 10 men had hidden the gold and then promised to go back and get it later on when the law wasn't after them. Mrs. Lowe has a son, and she wants her son to know that the honest thing to do is turn the stolen gold in. She promises to give the $50,000 reward money that Wells Fargo is offering to Lane and his crew.

Lane hires some of his old war buddies, who have also pulled off a few heist jobs with him in the past. Mrs. Lowe insists coming alongside the crew, in fact she won't tell anyone where the gold is because she doesn't trust them, so she has to come along.

This is a great western for a number of reasons- great shoot outs, a fun romantic tension between Wayne and Margret, and one of the best endings to a Western that you will ever see- it really suprised me. Oh and Ann-Margret looks great in this one.

Indiscreet (1958)

The last 30 min of this movie is 5 stars all the way. The first hour is a typical romantic storyline. The movie is amazing because it is showcasing two great performers- Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Stanley Donen directs (Singing in the Rain).

I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys witty romantic comedy's, especially if you are a Grant fan.

The plot is simple- Bergman finds out that Grant's front of being married is false. He tells women he is separate from his wife and can't get divorced. This of course allows him to leave relationships whenever he wants to, and of course the lady that has fallen head over heels for him understands, because after all he is married. Everything turns on him when she finds out he is single. I laughed out loud during some of my favorite lines of the movie-

Anna- "How dare you make love to me and be a married man"

Phillip- "There is no sincerity like a woman telling a lie"

Anna- "This is a very diplomatic matter, I don't want you putting your foot in it. Phillip: I deal with diplomatic matters every day without feet.

I love the part where the butler and his wife say back and forth to each other "you are a coward" "I am a coward" "you should be ashamed of yourself" "I am ashamed of myself".

I also like it when Cary Grant says "It is a fallacy in literature works that women are the superior gender when it comes to romance" Cary Grant's dancing is worth watching the movie! Funny stuff.

Cary Grant humor isn't for everyone, but man that guy is so smooth with his lines that you almost miss a lot of his dry wit comedy. I loved this movie and may be putting it on my top 100 list. Next up for me is African Queen with Hepburn and Boghart.

By the way, I can't find a trailer on youtube for you, sorry.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

This was the last film that Bruce Lee acted in (he died before the premier of the film at age 32). Talk about taking a dull pencil and jabbing it in your eye!! This movie was horrible!! It was filmed without sound, and then dubbed in a studio afterwards, and it really felt like it. It felt like you were listening to a radio show, while watching an unrelated show.
Enter the Dragon has a large cult following…the only positive thing I can say about this movie is that the fighting was incredible. Bruce Lee was a master in Martial Arts, but he was no actor. WAAAAAAaaaauuuuuuuuugggghhhhhhhhUUUUAAAAAAAAA!!!! (That is my kung fu shout)

I LOVE PATTON

especially the soundtrack!!!

Patton (1970)

Incredible acting by George Scott. Incredible directing by Schaffner. I think it is funny that Scott refused to even attend the Acadamey Awards, let alone accept his Oscar for this role. A 4 star movie.

One, Two, Three (1961)

This is a Billy Wilder directed film about a Coke-a-Cola executive working in West Berlin. The executive is played by James Cagney who is given the task of babysitting the CEOs seventeen year old daughter. Well, the daughter runs off and marries a communist from East Berlin, and that is when the real fun begins. Cagney must make his boss believe that the boy is from a good aristocratic family, but he boy fights all of the capitalistic ideas.
I enjoyed watching this film, and laughed out loud several times. I grew up during the end of the cold war, but I can appreciate some of the propagandas that were spewed back and forth from the USA and the USSR. There are some very stereotypical images and slogans cast around in this film. I also enjoyed the simple references to other James Cagney films, (such as the smashing of the grapefruit in the side of his girlfriends face in The Public Enemy).
I read that James Cagney had such a negative experience filming this show that he did not act for over twenty years after it. What a shame, I really think that James Cagney is a superb actor. This will not make the list, but if I had a top list for comedies this would be on it. A good watch for people who can understand the cold war propaganda (our kids would not get the humor).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011)

I do not have much to say about this film, except that it was a good ending to the series. It will be a long time before we see movies like this that will lapse a generation.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart (winning his first Oscar) and Katharine Hepburn team up for this witty well played romantic comedy. This movie has a lot to offer and I give it 3.5 stars.

Winchester ’73 (1950)

The day s of ’47 are upon us and I was in the mood for Western films. This one has it all guns, Indians, horses, more guns, and a girl. Jimmy Stewart stars as the hero of the day Lin McAdam who wins an interesting shooting match to win a repeating Winchester rifle. Well, it gets stolen, sold, stolen, found, gifted, stolen, stolen one last time, and then redeemed by the rightful owner. Shelley Winters plays the love interest, Tony Curtis plays a soldier, and Rock Hudson plays an Indian Chief. This had probably one of the best shoot outs at the end of the movie I have ever seen, but it felt like an eternity getting there. This was a good story, which for me did not translate over to a good movie. Stewart was good as always, but the supporting cast was mediocre at best. Just 3 stars.

Destry Rides Again (1939)

James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich star in this western movie. Tom Destry (Stewart) is the son of a famous sheriff, who has since been killed (shot in the back). Frenchy (Dietrich) is a show girl in the local saloon who hangs around with the tough gamblers and helps them cheat unexpecting customers out of their land, clothes and money. Destry is called into town to help rid the town of the bad guys. Unbeknownst to the Sherriff, Destry does not carry a gun. To make a long and uninteresting story short, Dietrich is a horrible singer and actress; Stewart saves the film and the movie and the gun fight is predictable. 1 and ½ stars.

Stagecoach (1939)

I finally made it to this gem, which has been sitting in my instant queue forever. This is a 4 star movie but not a 5 one for me. It will not make my top 100. There were a few things at the end of the movie that were confusing to me. I love all the characters. I enjoyed how director John Ford allowed adequte time for those characters to deveop their roles effieciently.

How to Steal a Million (1966)

5 Stars. It made it on to my top 100 list. Those two actors worked beautifully together. What a great movie. I loved everything about it.

Buck (2011)

This is a documentary about the horse whisperer Buck Brennaman. My wife was surprisingly interested in going down to the Broadway in SLC to see this movie. I had heard about this on the Movie Show on KSL and Steve Salles gave it a solid 4 stars, so of course I was interested in seeing it.

I loved this movie!! I went into thinking we were just going to see his methods of training horses, but actually what I came out with will change my life. The way he cared for and trained horse can carry over to all aspects of your life.

Buck trained horse riders and trainers that if you teach a horse strong resistance than they will always display resistance. If you make the horse an extension of your body than they will do what ever you need them to do. I realize that this might be confusing, but trust me it all works out in the documentary.

As I walked out of the theater I defiantly had a lot to think about, especially with how I work with and raise my own children. I would give it 4 stars because it caused me to think.

About A Boy (2002)

Somebody at my rehearsal was telling me how they love this movie. Luckily I found the movie on Netflix and I really enjoyed it. Hugh Grant is great in this movie, and I think the child playing the main role did a fantastic job. Well done. I give it 4 stars. It is very creative and original. I love the way the mom dresses her kids, especially the rainbow jacket.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The last three Bogart movies I have watched were all gems, so I was excited to finally get to this one. Unfortunately it was a let down for me. Bogart's character is a slick, quick on his feet private detective named Snead. He gets involved with a bunch of crooks as they try to chase down a gold statue (The Maltese Falcon) which has been eluding people for centuries. No one seems to know where it is. The ending is disappointing. A 2 star film. Bogart does a nice job playing his role, but everyone else seems to just be watching him and saying their lines when it is there turn, no one seems to be acting. I expected more from director John Huston. This film is supposed to be one of the best film noir detective movies, I just couldn't get into it.

Even though I didn't like this film, I am not giving up on Bogart. I have another on of his in my queue. However...up next for me is Audrey Hepburn in "How to Steal a Million."