I’m closing out 2024 with my usual recap of all the films that I’ve reviewed during the past year. For 2023, I wrote nine reviews; in 2022 I wrote … well, nine reviews; and in 2021 … only a sad number of five reviews.
The good news: For 2024, I’ve reviewed 20 films and brought my total of reviews to 404 since I started the blog in May 2014. The bad news: Not all the 20 films were good!
Since the total is 20 reviews, I’m spreading my year-end review out over three days. Here are today’s six recaps of reviews from 2024:
‘The Anderson Tapes’ – *** ½ – review posted Aug. 3, 2024
(1971; 99 minutes; rated GP; directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Alan King, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Walken)
Here is a Sean Connery flick that’s pretty much a caper film, but is better described as a wonderful crime drama. It has gritty parts; it has light humor; and it has a wonderful cast. Connery sets out to rob an entire apartment building in New York City on a holiday weekend and you’re along for the ride. The interesting part is how it is told through a variety of surveillance cameras and recorders.
‘The Blob’ – *** – review posted June 20, 2024
(1958; 86 minutes; rated ‘Approved;’ directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and Russell S. Doughten Jr. and starring Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut and Earl Rowe)
Here is Steve McQueen’s first starring role in a “big” motion picture … and it is a classic in the horror genre. McQueen and his date see a “shooting star,” but it’s actually a meteorite that cracks open and releases a “blob” that consumes every living thing in its path. The film has zero amount of the blood-curdling special effect that would come 30+ years later, but is a classic because it conveys scares well without the gore.
‘How to Beat the High Cost of Living’ – *** – review posted Aug. 15, 2024
(1980; 105 minutes; rated PG; directed by Robert Sheerer and starring Susan Saint James, Jane Curtain and Jessica Lang)
Here’s a film that gets a good grade because of its cast and the emotion behind its storyline rather than the rather television-ish production of 1980. It is the story of three women in various degrees of financial distress who plan and execute a robbery of their local mall. Find this one, it’s an interesting look at 45 years ago and its headliners are worth watching.
‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ – **** – review posted July 29, 2024
(1956; 80 minutes; rated Approved; directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter and Larry Gates)
Here is one of the all-time classics of horror and it was remade well in 1978. The original blends typical sci-fi horror (aliens take over our bodies) with some violence not usually seen at the time of the film’s premiere. The films story unfolds in nice fashion and leads up to the penultimate chase of the good guys by the “pod” people and finally its satisfying climax. All-in-all, it earned and deserves its billing as a “classic.”
‘Pal Joey’ – ** – review posted July 22, 2024
(1957; 111 minutes; rated ‘Approved;’ directed by George Sidney and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak)
Here’s your basic 1950s-1960s vehicle for superstar Frank Sinatra. He arrives in town with a plan to open his own joint and becomes involved with two women: one whom he had previously had a relationship (in today’s terms) and the other a beautiful young woman who catches more than his eye. Sinatra’s character is “Joey” and he becomes almost everyone’s pal. This is a decent effort by the entire cast.
‘The Valachi Papers’ – * ½ – review posted April 14, 2024
(1972; 125 minutes; rated R; directed by Terrance Young and starring Charles Bronson, Leno Ventura and Jill Ireland)
Here’s a very bad film starring Charles Bronson that looked to cash in on the early 1970s renewal of interest in organized crime and was released seven months after a certain mob film about a certain “godfather.” However, this film just stinks from the acting to the screenplay to its direction. You might only consider it out of lack of any other film or as a judicial character said in another film, out of “sheer morbid curiosity.”
There you have it! The first of three days of reviewing my film reviews from 2024.
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