Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume VII

Before I started The Quentin Chronicle, I used to send my family a very succinct bi-monthly cinema scan of movies I watched on the idiot lantern, either off a DVD, streamed Netflix or directly from a movie channel like TCM. This is not to be confused with the actual movie reviews I wrote after seeing new releases in the theater. Other than the movie titles themselves, the cinema scans included the year and genre, the major star or two, a very abbreviated plot description and my grade. On the scans, I used the same methodology for grading as that described in my January 12 post ("Prelude To 2011 Movie Ratings Recap"). I watch a fair amount of movies on the tube, so I started compiling the bi-monthly lists to help me keep track of what I'd seen. The lists are also intended as a guide for future Netflix use, rentals or movie channel watching. As you will quickly see, I don't put a lot of time into this venture, although I do try to give each flick an honest grade.

I find it interesting to see some of the older movies that have received a lot of publicity over the years. Academy Award winners are a part of our heritage, so I keep a lookout for them. Same thing for Alfred Hitchcock mysteries and Clint Eastwood westerns. I also enjoy seeing some of the film stars of yesteryear. Many of them, like Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, had long careers, so if you watch enough films you'll see how they changed throughout their careers.

One thing I've noticed about watching older movies is that some of them do not seem to age well. For example, I remember seeing "The Mouse That Roared" in a theater when that movie was first released in 1959. At the time, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Maybe the fact that I was twelve years old had something to do with it. But, when I saw it again last year, I viewed it as being merely amusing, and could only bestow upon it a B-. Conversely, when I saw "Ship Of Fools" in 1965, I thought it was tedious. Nevertheless, I took a chance on it last year when that movie appeared on TCM, and then gave it an A-. The undertones of the pre-World War II background were more noticeable to me. Maybe I was more wide awake than I was in '65!

In 2011 I e-mailed six bi-monthly cinema scans, which included a cumulative total of fifty-four movies. From that group, I have listed at the bottom of this post the nine movies to which I awarded an A or an A-. Now that I have this blog up and running, I have decided to decrease the frequency of my scans from bi-monthly to quarterly. Amazingly, when I informed my family last December of my planned switch, there was neither a hue nor a cry from any of them begging me not to make the change. I think I have made the right decision.

So, now that you have the background, here is my latest cinema scan for the movies I watched on the boob tube during the first quarter of 2012.

1. Doctor Zhivago (1965 drama; married Omar Sharrif falls for hot nurse Julie Christie in the midst of the Russian Revolution) B+

2. Duck Soup (1933 comedy; Margaret Dumont appoints Groucho Marx to be the leader of the little country Freedonia, and before you know it a war with Sylvania begins) B-

3. Fail Safe (1964 drama; President Henry Fonda calls the shots when, due to technical errors, a US bomber is on its way over the Arctic Circle to drop two hydrogen bombs on Moscow) A-

4. The Fugitive (1993 drama; Police Lieutenant Tommy Lee Jones looks high and low for escaped convicted killer Harrison Ford, while the latter risks his life to find his wife's real killer) A

5. The Shop Around The Corner (1940 Drama; Jimmy Stewart romances co-worker Margaret Sullavan by sending her anonymous letters) B-

6. Snow Falling On Cedars (1999 drama; Reporter Ethan Hawke discovers evidence that may help a Japanese-American defendant in a murder trial, but his love for the defendant's wife causes him to balk) B+

7. Strangers On A Train (1951 drama; Farley Granger meets Robert Walker on a train, and devises a plot in which they would each murder someone that the other person wants killed) B

8. The Train (1965 war drama; Paul Scofield is a World War II German colonel in occupied France who wants to steal French masterpieces and send them to Germany by rail, but French rairoad man Burt Lancaster has other ideas) B+

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Movies which I graded A in my 2011 cinema scans:

Bagdad Cafe (1988); Dial M For Murder (1954); Kramer vs. Kramer (1979); The Maltese Falcon (1941); The Miracle (1959); You've Got Mail (1998)

Movies which I graded A- in my 2011 cinema scans:

Bridge On The River Kwai (1957); Ship Of Fools (1965); A Shot In The Dark (1964)