March 2012
by raadadz | created - 01 Apr 2012 | updated - 06 Apr 2012 | PublicAll the feature-length films I've seen in March. I also saw Oliver Stone's Looking for Fidel, but IMDB doesn't seem to have it listed.
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1. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,362 | Gross: $4.36M
While most of the film is a triumph of plot and atmosphere, it starts disintegrating towards the end, largely due to the increasing emphasis on a harebrained romantic angle. [B+]
2. The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A lawyer defending a wealthy man begins to believe his client is guilty of more than just one crime.
Director: Brad Furman | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy
Votes: 253,552 | Gross: $58.01M
Some snappy editing, scoring, and directing make what could have been an entirely forgettable movie something more. [B-]
3. The Hit List (2011)
R | 90 min | Action, Thriller
A man creates a hit list with a stranger during a drunken night out and must then race to try to save those he marked for death as the bodies pile up and all fingers point to him.
Director: William Kaufman | Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr., Cole Hauser, Jonathan LaPaglia, Ginny Weirick
Votes: 12,055
Just as *beep* as you'd expect it to be, and then some. [F]
4. Higher Ground (2011)
R | 109 min | Drama
A chronicle of one woman's lifelong struggle with her faith.
Director: Vera Farmiga | Stars: Vera Farmiga, Joshua Leonard, Dagmara Dominczyk, Norbert Leo Butz
Votes: 3,277 | Gross: $0.84M
A fascinating effort, although not an entirely successful one. For a film more matter-of-fact and complex than most movies about faith, it's startlingly closed-off when it comes to its characters.
5. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,092 | Gross: $9.45M
Admirably straightforward but ultimately too earnest to lend credibility to its heavy-handed political agenda. [B-]
6. Battle Royale (2000)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama
Votes: 194,272
Obnoxiously stupid. Trying to have its cake and eat it too, Battle Royale tries to be an over-the-top film about child murder and a Serious Political Movie at the same time. Needless to say, it fails miserably at both. [D]
7. Point Break (1991)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty
Votes: 201,943 | Gross: $43.22M
One of the slickest, most adrenalin-pumping action movies of the '90s, if not ever. [A-]
8. The Take (2007)
R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After he's shot during a heist in East L.A., an armored truck driver wrestles with rehabilitation and tracking down the man who committed the crime.
Director: Brad Furman | Stars: John Leguizamo, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Perez, Bobby Cannavale
Votes: 2,453
It never decides if it wants to be a complicated story of a man slowly going insane or a simple revenge pic, cannibalizing itself in the process of its own indecision. [C-]
9. The Bang Bang Club (2010)
R | 106 min | Biography, Drama, History
A drama based on the true-life experiences of four combat photographers capturing the final days of apartheid in South Africa.
Director: Steven Silver | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman, Taylor Kitsch, Neels van Jaarsveld
Votes: 11,522
An amazingly unmemorable film. [D-]
10. Naked (1993)
Not Rated | 131 min | Comedy, Drama
An unemployed Mancunian vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell
Votes: 43,890 | Gross: $1.77M
Mike Leigh at his finest. Funny, brilliantly cynical, and downright lyrical, Naked offers one of the finest portraits of contemporary England. [A]
11. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A debonair, adventuresome bank executive believes he has pulled off the perfect multi-million dollar heist, only to match wits with a sexy insurance investigator who will do anything to get her man.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, Jack Weston
Votes: 28,007
The screenplay is just an increasingly weak series of excuses for McQueen and Dunaway to display their sexual chemistry, which would be fine if they had any. Over the course of the film, it becomes clear that McQueen is more interested in himself than in his airheaded costar. [C+]
12. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Socially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone-sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious Lena.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Andrews
Votes: 177,234 | Gross: $17.84M
Nothing short of great. Don't be put off by the casting of Sandler or the mess that was Magnolia (Anderson's previous effort). I can't think of another recent American film that displays such boundless charm and exuberant beauty. [A+]
13. Freaks (1932)
Not Rated | 64 min | Drama, Horror
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates
Votes: 50,553 | Gross: $0.63M
Running at a slim 60-plus minutes, it's more a quick, forgettable curio than a fully-fledged film. [C]
14. Assassination Games (2011)
R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two assassins agree to work together as one tries to avenge his wife and the other collects a reward for a job.
Director: Ernie Barbarash | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Ivan Kaye, Valentin Teodosiu
Votes: 18,413
Shamelessly derivative and cheap, Assassination Games is one of those movies you watch then completely forget about. Van Damme is still a badass, though. [D]
15. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
When his family goes away for the summer, a hitherto faithful husband with an overactive imagination is tempted by a beautiful neighbor.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts
Votes: 42,414 | Gross: $12.00M
Billy Wilder's filmmaking prowess is nowhere to be found here; it's nothing more than a lazy excuse for Monroe to wiggle across the screen. [C]
16. Rampart (2011)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama
Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival.
Director: Oren Moverman | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Bernthal
Votes: 25,224 | Gross: $0.97M
Really disappointing. I loved Moverman's last film, The Messenger, but Rampart is too unfocused to effectively capture any of that film's bittersweet humanity. [C]
17. Le Beau Serge (1958)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama
After long absence, a man returns to his hometown only to find his best friend has become an alcoholic.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michèle Méritz, Bernadette Lafont
Votes: 3,761
It's a film about growing up, it's a film about hometowns. It's about small town vs. big city. It's about social perceptions and memory. It's genteel and sophisticated while being unabashadly and unpretentiously emotional. It's nothing short of brilliant. [A]
18. Dead End (1937)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The lives of a young man, a young woman, an notorious gangster, and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie
Votes: 8,579
Unequivocally awful. The astonishingly bad acting is outweighed only by Wyler's shallow and condescending characterization of the lower classes. [D+]
19. My Joy (2010)
Not Rated | 127 min | Drama
A few days in the life of truck driver Georgi, which seems to be a never-ending nightmare, a spiral of violence and abuses of power.
Director: Sergey Loznitsa | Stars: Viktor Nemets, Vladimir Golovin, Aleksey Vertkov, Dmitriy Gotsdiner
Votes: 2,621 | Gross: $0.01M
A dense and sometimes oblique film, but never boring. Seamlessly weaving brutal and surreal vignettes that span decades, My Joy creates an astonishing and refreshingly original look of Russian society.
20. The Football Factory (2004)
R | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Sport
An insight on the gritty life of a bored male, Chelsea football hooligan who lives for violence, sex, drugs & alcohol.
Director: Nick Love | Stars: Danny Dyer, Frank Harper, Tamer Hassan, Roland Manookian
Votes: 32,752
Little more than just another Guy Ritchie knockoff, but still fun while it lasts. [C+]
21. Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
R | 110 min | Drama
The emotional intricacies of a polyamorous relationship between young artist Bob and his two lovers: a lonely male doctor and a frustrated female office worker.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Peter Finch, Glenda Jackson, Murray Head, Peggy Ashcroft
Votes: 7,059 | Gross: $0.54M
The story of two people teetering on the edge of inevitable heartbreak, Sunday Bloody Sunday flawlessly captures the ups, downs, and flatlines of impending tragedy. Much like David Lean and Noel Coward did 25 years before with Brief Encounter, Schlesinger creates a love story that never forgets the relative mundanity of its characters but never sells them short, embracing the everyday beauty and tragedy found in every human relationship. [A+]
22. This Sporting Life (1963)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
Despite success on the field, a rising rugby star senses the emerging emptiness of his life as his inner angst begins to materialize through aggression and brutality, so he attempts to woo his landlady in hopes of finding reason to live.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell
Votes: 7,127
Gorgeous photography, smooth direction, and a knockout performance by notorious hellraiser Richard Harris all lend this quintessentially British film a whiff of greatness. [A]
23. Dark City (1950)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Gamblers who "took" an out-of-town sucker in a crooked poker game feel shadowy vengeance closing in on them.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger
Votes: 2,693
Something of a cop out; it's as if halfway through the film the makers of the film realized they had a thoroughly despicable protagonist and threw in every tired movie shortcut to make him sympathetic. [C]
24. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Not Rated | 141 min | Drama, Western
After robbing a Mexican bank, Dad Longworth takes the loot and leaves his partner Rio to be captured, but Rio escapes and searches for Dad in California.
Director: Marlon Brando | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado
Votes: 13,248 | Gross: $9.37M
A pleasant surprise. While it's not a classic, it is more engaging and ambiguous than I expected.
25. Intacto (2001)
R | 108 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
In a world where luck can be taken from a lucky person by a luckier person's touch, a small group of lucky people compete to be the luckiest and for the other contestants' luck.
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | Stars: Max von Sydow, Eusebio Poncela, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Mónica López
Votes: 13,628 | Gross: $0.30M
Entirely forgettable, Intacto's novel premise only serves to make the film more intriguing at the time. [C]
26. Hotel California (2008)
95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When Troy turned on crime boss Dmitri Debartolla he was forced to leave Los Angeles and lay low in Miami. After two years, and the loss of his leg in a shootout with a Cuban crime syndicate... See full summary »
Director: Geo Santini | Stars: Erik Palladino, Tyson Beckford, Simon Rex, Tatyana Ali
Votes: 316
One of those post-Tarantino pics that seems to think that inserting the word '*beep*' between every two syllables distracts the audience from inane and inconsequential dialogue. [F]
27. Stagecoach (1939)
Passed | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Votes: 53,695
My first Ford. The character dynamics are wonderfully fleshed out, never succumbing to the temptation of caricature or cliche. I could've done without the unearned sentimentalism at the end, but that's really a minor complaint. [A-]
28. The Yellow Sea (2010)
R | 136 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When the attempt to kill a professor goes wrong, a series of violent events are triggered which force a taxi driver to run for his life.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Lee Yoo-mi, Ha Jung-woo, Lee Hee-joon, Kim Yoon-seok
Votes: 22,937
The needlessly convoluted setup is really just prep for some memorable action sequences, which, in the end, can't redeem a soulless and otherwise turgid movie. [C]
29. The Naked Spur (1953)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 12,652
James Stewart seems a bit out of his element (that may have been the point) in a Western with a few great moments. [B+]
30. 21 Jump Street (2012)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson
Votes: 597,880 | Gross: $138.45M
Fun, surprisingly heartfelt Odd Couple flick. [B-]
31. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Horror
The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis
Votes: 593,341 | Gross: $13.54M
Wright, Pegg and co. are so gleefully reverent of their movie icons it's contagious.
32. Cape Fear (1962)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin
Votes: 31,850
Mitch's bravura performance and a terrifically developed sense of dread power this noir-tinged picture. [B+]
33. No Way Out (1950)
Passed | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier
Votes: 6,271
It's hard to trash a movie with such good intentions, but No Way Out is, frankly, nothing short of incompetent, and in the end, too timid to handle such explosive material (the black man is relegated to a role sitting uneasily between top billing and second fiddle. [C]
34. Tower Heist (2011)
PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
When a group of hard-working guys find out they've fallen victim to their wealthy employer's Ponzi scheme, they conspire to rob his high-rise residence.
Director: Brett Ratner | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda
Votes: 150,895 | Gross: $78.05M
Though occasionally very funny, it's kind of a half-assed job on everybody's part. [D]
35. Immortals (2011)
R | 110 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.
Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, John Hurt, Stephen Dorff
Votes: 176,345 | Gross: $83.50M
A bizarre pop art fixture, but more importantly, a blast of a B-movie. [B-]
36. The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Approved | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In 1916, a shadowy serial killer is targeting women with "afflictions"; one night during a thunderstorm, the mute Helen feels menaced.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith
Votes: 11,253
A valiant attempt at a murder mystery/social commentary fails on both counts. [C]
37. Gun (I) (2010)
R | 82 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Angel is released from prison and is reunited with his friend Rich who helps him smuggle weapons in a gun-running ring. But Detroit police and the FBI have declared war on arms smuggling.
Director: Jessy Terrero | Stars: 50 Cent, Val Kilmer, AnnaLynne McCord, James Remar
Votes: 3,933
Jesus *beep* Christ they don't get worse than this. Incompetent on every level imaginable, but not even in an inadvertantly funny way. [F]
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