And even more classics (pre 2000) films watched and reviwed. I’m on a real tear here due to an ongoing Watchlist Challenge on Letterboxd.

1903 – The Great Train Robbery – a classic old silent with imagery you may have seen before. But I got nothing out of it for all of its 12 minutes.

1915 – Alice in Wonderland – one of three silent adaptations of the classic novel. Weird to adapt a story that’s all about wordplay into a silent picture though. Nice costumes for the animals and even nicer on-location shooting.

1924 – Girl Shy – A very enjoyable Harold Lloyd silent with a lot of fun romantic comedy cliches before they were cliches. Also fun for acknowledging the toxic masculinity of pick-up artists way back in the 1920s.

1928 – The Passion of Joan of Arc – a truly innovative and effective silent film that doesn’t feel like most silents of the era. Great use of close-ups and a killer performance from the lead. This is one of the best early cinemas/silent films I’ve seen.

1935 – Werewolf of London – I was expecting a lot better from a Universal Monsters movie before The Wolf Man took over werewolf duties. It’s pretty dull and resembles more a Jekyll & Hyde movie more than a wolf man flick.

1953 – Invaders from Mars – a below average ’50s alien invasion flick. It’s first half is MUCH better than its second half, crammed full of boring stock footage of armies ready to attack the aliens. The 80s remake was much better.

1953 – Monster on the Campus – a pretty generic 1950s creature feature about a scientist who cuts himself on a coelacanth specimen and devolves into a caveman. Not terrible but not near the top of 50s sci-fi/horror.

1967 – Casino Royale – the early satirical version, not the great Daniel Craig one. A very, very bad film that makes me appreciate the groovy satire of the Austin Powers 007 spoofs over this lame attempt from just a few years after the franchise kicked off.

1971 – Zaat – an absolutely terrible movie about a scientist who turns himself into a fish man in order to take over the world. His goals are mighty, his ideas much less so.

1973 – World on a Wire – a movie that shouldn’t really exist. Virtual reality / simulation theory from 1973? At least a decade before any other films got the same idea? It’s kind of boring but I dig its ambition and how it doesn’t care if a 70s audience even understands their concepts and philosophy.

1975 – The Devil’s Rain – William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerrit, Eddie Albert, and John Travolta (?!) in a very 70s devil worship movie. Pretty sure this is why the Satanic Panic happened. Not a terrible movie but struggled to feel original (at least by today’s standards).

1976 – Silver Streak – a classic (but fading into memory) comedy thriller starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Got a kick out of it. Not as good as its rep back in the day.

1981 – Evilspeak – a wannabe classic of 80s horror that almost gets there but doesn’t quite. Amusing at times, especially with its ’80s era computer being possessed by a demon gimmick.

1981 – Inseminoid – a total ick factor title for what’s ultimately a Z grade Alien knock-off that forgot to include the aliens. Pregnant women be crazy, yo: the movie. Its hideous bad.

1982 – Fanny & Alexander – a bit cryptic and arm’s length for me… and knowing it’s cut down from a 5 hour cut, a little scattershot at times. But it’s a solid watch but not the amazing movie that matches its reputation, at least not on first watch.

1986 – Dolls – A pretty decent B movie about killer dolls and the witch who makes them haunt her house. Kinda fun.

1992 – Porco Rosso – As the only remaining full length feature from Hayao Miyazaki, I wish I liked Porco Rosso more. It’s good, surely, but suffers a little from focus and head scratching plot ideas. Still, an aviation pig fighting the Italian fascists in his airplane during WW2 is not a bad choice.

1993 – Trauma – Dario Argento makes a decent Hollywood picture… too bad it lacks any of his crazy ideas. It makes the movie approachable to normies but also rather bland compared to his usual crazy.

1997 – Cure – A remarkably cold, borderline analytical mystery/thriller that has a lot in common with Seven… only more moody and less bleak (but not by much). People are dying randomly… is it society falling apart or is there a Svengali triggering the deaths? Very dark and hypnotic.

1999 – Komodo – a verry good (for a B movie) set of special effects in one of the least interesting creature features you can get. No doubt though the effects wizard who directed it was good at his job of being an effects guy (not so much as a director).