The Laughing Policeman (1973): In San Francisco, California, one victim in a mass murder is a police detective. His partner and a new partner investigate in the city's seamy side.
My Comment: Just another boring Walter Matthau film, with an uninteresting plot. Throughout the film, the Matthau character is chewing on something, gum presumably although we never see him unwrap a new stick or discard an old one. He's just constantly chewing, which I guess is supposed to mean he's in deep thought, or preoccupied, or something. It's pointless and irritating.
Matthau was one of those overrated actors who always ended up the same character, no matter what role he played - like Jack Klugman, who always ended up being the slob Oscar Madison, no matter what role he played. The only thing Matthau ever did in all his films was hang his head and look like a depressed basset hound. I think almost any other actor would have been better than Matthau in almost any of his films.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/CataJbO316Kk/

Seconds (1966): The story of a middle-aged New York banker who, disillusioned with his life, is contacted by an agency known as "The Company" which specializes in providing "rebirths" under new identities and appearances altered by plastic surgery.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://ok.ru/video/7703039380174

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959): A surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
My Comment: Acting! Also, what a dumb plot.
Bad (1-4)
Watched on TubiTV

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat. (1999) By happy chance I happened to catch the beginning of this and stuck with it. I’ve never been a huge fan of Andrew Lloyd Weber (particularly not since ‘Cats’) but I have to confess to thoroughly enjoying this production. It was both spectacular and fun. And staging it as though it were a school play, and including the children in the musical numbers, was true to the spirit of the original which was, after all, a show intended for amateur performance. Can’t fault this one (10/10)

Magnum Force (1973): Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan pursues a conspiracy of vigilante cops, who are not above going beyond the law to kill San Francisco's undesirables.
My Comment: Second of the "Dirty Harry" films and typical of the series in most respects. The 1970's street scenes are almost always interesting to me in these films, and in this case we see the famous winding Lombard Street in a rather unkempt condition.
Good (6-8)
Watched here: https://ok.ru/video/7321189026390

Big Stan (2007): A timid con man panics when he learns he's going to prison for fraud, so he hires a reclusive martial arts guru who helps transform him into a kung fu expert with the ability to fight off convicts who want to either hurt or love him.
My Comment: I like Rob Schneider, but this just isn't funny enough to give it even a mediocre rating.
Bad (1-4)
Watched on TubiTV

Serpico (1973): An honest New York cop named Frank Serpico blows the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.
My Comment: Another 1970's cop drama in gritty New York City, this one based on a true story. IMDb gives precise filming locations and it's fun looking up those areas in Google Maps and seeing what they look like today.
Very Good (8-10)
Watched here: https://ok.ru/video/7786331507415

Cape Fear (1962): An attorney and family man is stalked by a violent psychopath and ex-con who is bent on revenge for the lawyer's role in his conviction eight years prior.
My Comment: Typical contrived plot, with predictable ending.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://ok.ru/video/1613432687328

12 Angry Men (1957): The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
My Comment: As usual for Henry Fonda films, or pretty much anything else put out by that family, this has a decidedly left wing agenda. Also, one of the 12 men is played by Jack Klugman, who surprisingly does not come across as the slob Oscar Madison, as he usually does no matter what role he plays, but that's likely because he thankfully only has two or three short speaking parts.
Currently rated #5 on IMDb's "Top 250 Movies", but grossly overrated, imo.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://ok.ru/video/97575832302

The Hot Chick (2002): Hilarious tale of a mean girl teen who is cursed by being switched into the body of a 30-ish loser thief while trying to get back to her real life.
My Comment: Another Rob Schneider film without enough funny one-liners to earn a mediocre rating from me.
Bad (1-4)
Watched on TubiTV

Red (2008): A reclusive man sets out for justice and redemption when three troublesome teens kill his dog for no good reason.
My Comment: Cheesy, cringey, simplistic, low budget.
Bad (1-4)
Watched on TubiTV

The Sniper (1952): A sniper kills young brunettes as the police attempt to grapple with the psychology of the unknown assailant.
My Comments: Decent film noir with cool early 1950's San Francisco street scenes, including cable cars.
As an aside, I looked at two of the filming locations (thanks to IMDb) on Google Maps. The first, a nighttime scene from early in the film, is a short street named Calhoun Terrace. The second, from the end of the film, is 450 Filbert St., and the street itself. Both locations remain relatively unchanged from 75 years ago, which I find fascinating. The house on Filbert Street even has the window shades drawn, just like in the film.
Good (6-8)
Watched on TubiTV

Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It (2014): Julian is broke and makes a deal with Cyrus, his arch-enemy; Ricky heads to Ottawa to stop the legalization of marijuana; Bubbles reluctantly joins them on his own quest to claim an inheritance left to him by his long-lost parents.
My Comment: Just not funny enough.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched on therokuchannel

Dementia (1955): A young woman spends a surreal and violent evening on the streets of L.A.’s Skid Row while struggling to distinguish her dreams from waking life.
My Comment: Short, 56 minutes, with no dialog. A similar concept to David Lynch's 'Eraserhead', but not nearly as good. The film seems to have an alternate title of 'Daughter of Horror'.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched on TubiTV

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989): A sexually repressed woman's husband is having an affair with her sister. The arrival of a visitor with a rather unusual fetish changes everything.
My Comment: After 36 years of ignoring it, mostly because of its pretentious title and no particularly good word-of-mouth, I finally watched this, for lack of better options.
A broadly predictable and indeed uninteresting plot, this is one of those films that seems to have been deliberately made to promote certain actors - yeah, Hollywood does that all the time. Also, the plot coattails off the popularity of video taping of that era, which is gimmicky. According to IMDb, this film played in Berlin theaters at the time the wall came down and a lot of East Germans went to see it, but were disappointed upon realizing it wasn't X-rated, which is funny.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/foVMmMLSc4vw/

Killer's Kiss (1955): Ready to catch a train to his hometown, a washed-up boxer tells us about the strange and twisty events that happened to him the past couple of days.
My Comment: Okay film noir.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched on TubiTV

Viridiana (1961, Spain, subtitled): Viridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/WqJZfJC30ITE/

2 movies I saw in a theater last summer -

28 Years Later - Britain has been sealed off because of the zombie contagion or whatever for 28 years which seems very unlikely to me. “Couldn’t the outside world work with survivors to eliminate the zombies?” was a question I asked myself. Instead it’s like “we just don’t go there anymore and nobody gets out” Um okay..Some survivors live on an island - they were annoying except for one boy who is the hero. It wasn’t a bad film but I wasn’t able to buy into the premise successfully
4

Weapons - I was disappointed because it got some good reviews. Kind of all over the place. Dark cinematography so sometimes I didn’t have a clue what was happening. Some people applauded at the end
5

Scarecrow (1973): An ex-con drifter with a penchant for brawling is amused by a homeless ex-sailor, so they partner up as they head east together.
My Comment: An unlikely pair, played by Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, team up to travel from California to Pittsburgh, where the former wants to start a car wash business. Their mode of travel is hitchhiking and freight train hopping, and there are pitfalls along the way. Reminiscent of 'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot', but grittier. I'll call it "Good", but only just.
Good (6-8)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/Z1yR526jaN2o/

When Worlds Collide (1951): As a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home.
My Comment: Decent early 1950's Sci-Fi. Excellent color film quality.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/BELJ4LCJInZ6/

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964): An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
My Comment: Not my kind of film, and possibly the first Bette Davis film I've watched in its entirety. Never cared for her, always playing a drama queen with a lot of screaming. Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten, on the other hand, are likeable.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/KwdlXTdWBQIW/

Take the Money and Run (1969): The life and times of inept bank robber Virgil Starkwell.
My comment: Not particularly funny.
Mediocre (4-6)
Watched here: https://old.bitchute.com/video/IbW87XdRvPn4/