David Copperfield (1935)

DAVID COPPERFIELD  (1935)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: George Cukor
    Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, W.C. Fields,
    Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Roland Young,
    Basil Rathbone, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lewis Stone,
    Elsa Lanchester, Arthur Treacher, Una O'Connor
The Dickens tale about a boy who has many fateful adventures on the way to becoming a man (and coincidentally a writer much like Charles Dickens). The acting is melodramatic in a way that hasn't been seen since, well, this movie, but Dickens devotee W.C. Fields cuts through all that as the perfect Mr. McCawber.

The November Man (2014)

THE NOVEMBER MAN  (2014)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Roger Donaldson
    Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey,
    Bill Smitrovich, Amilia Terzimehic, Will Patton
My old friend Dr. Sporgersi was the one who first recommended the "November Man" novels to me, years ago. The books are the work of a Chicago newspaperman named Bill Granger, and they're about an American assassin named Devereaux, who works for an entity called "R Section", an outlier of the CIA that specializes in wet work. Devereaux's like a more remote, more cryptic, more elusive James Bond, and when I read on IMDb that Pierce Brosnan was going to play the role in a "November Man" movie, I thought it had real potential. That the finished product is mostly a case of potential unrealized isn't Brosnan's fault. Accent notwithstanding, he's well-cast as the methodical, cold-blooded Devereaux. It's the script, which takes most of the mystery out of the character and most of the intrigue and suspense out of the plot. What you're left with is a formula action flick in which things blow up and guns go off and cars chase each other at high speeds through oddly empty city streets. It's based very loosely on "There Are No Spies", which I remember as the best of Granger's books, the one I couldn't put down, and I guess this is one case where I'd suggest skipping the movie, if you can dig up a copy of the novel instead. 

Sons of the Desert (1933)

SONS OF THE DESERT  (1933)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: William A. Seiter
    Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase,
    Mae Busch, Dorothy Christy, Lucien Littlefield
Stan and Ollie party it up at a lodge convention in Chicago, after telling their wives they're going to Hawaii for Ollie's health. When the wives learn the truth, the boys are in big trouble. Leonard Maltin considers this Laurel and Hardy's best feature, and it's a prime example of their peculiarly childlike attitude toward women. It's as if their social development in that area had stalled out at around age six, making you wonder how their characters ever could've courted members of the opposite sex. Their primary relationship - completely asexual - is with each other, and the feature film they seem most at home in isn't this one, but "Babes In Toyland", where they literally become characters in a fairy tale.  The international organization of Laurel and Hardy enthusiasts takes its name from the title of this movie. 

The Babadook (2014)

THE BABADOOK  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Jennifer Kent
    Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall,
    Barbara West, Chloe Hurn, Tim Purcell
Here's a movie for anybody who's ever wondered what life might've been like in the Bates home with just Norman and Mother, back when Norman was , like, eight. It's a creepy little thriller from Australia, about a disturbed young boy and his exasperated mom and a book called "The Babadook", which they read together one night before going to bed. The book is like a collaboration between Edward Gorey and Edgar Allan Poe, and it's not the kind of thing a frightened kid should be looking at before going to sleep. The exact nature of the horror in this is never entirely clear, but one thing is: You cannot escape the Babadook. Not that these characters aren't going to try, no matter how crazy or bloody things get. They've made a pact to protect each other, after all. And a boy's best friend is his mother.

The Conquering Power (1921)

THE CONQUERING POWER  (1921)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Rex Ingram
    Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Ralph Lewis
Rudy plays a French playboy who has to make his way in the world when a miserly uncle cheats him out of his inheritance. Valentino made this on the heels of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", as his career was really taking off. Unfortunately, his character disappears for a big chunk of the movie, and without his presence, something's definitely missing. That wouldn't happen so much in the years and films that followed. 

Under the Skin (2013)

UNDER THE SKIN  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Jonathan Glazer
    Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, 
    Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell, 
    Kevin McAlinden, Andrew Gorman, D. Meade
Some trips you go along for the ride more than the destination. Some movies, too. Take this one. Scarlett Johansson, barely recognizable with a blank face and a black wig, plays an alien from somewhere, driving around Scotland in a van and picking up solitary men, who end up in some weird state of suspended animation. You start out not knowing what the hell's going on, and ten minutes in, you're pretty sure you're not going to find out. But you never know where Glazer's going to go with it, either, or what he's going to put on the screen next. That's one reason you're along for the ride. Another is that you keep wondering at what point Scarlett Johansson will take off all her clothes. She does that eventually, but the movie leads up to it gradually, like a slow, episodic striptease, revealing a little at a time. The rest is pretty cryptic, but keep your mind open, while your eyes are on Scarlett, and the ride could be worth it. Try it and see.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

GHOSTBUSTERS II  (1989)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Ivan Reitman
    Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver,
    Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis,
    Annie Potts, Janet Margolin, Harris Yulin,
    Peter MacNicol, Ben Stein, Philip Baker Hall
Five years after their epic encounter with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, the Ghostbusters have more or less disbanded. Egon (Harold Ramis) is working in a research lab. Ray and Winston (Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson) are performing at children's parties for snotty kids who couldn't care less. Venkman (Bill Murray) is hosting a transparently fraudulent psychic television show. But evil is afoot, big evil, and when the River of Slime that runs beneath the city breaks to the surface, who ya gonna call? A lot of this is a rehash of the first "Ghostbusters" movie, which means that some of it's pretty funny, and some of it's just big and loud and silly. Murray's as smug as ever, and Sigourney Weaver does not turn into a slobbering dog monster this time around. Also, the Marshmallow Man has been replaced by a tall, green, New York City landmark with a torch and a crown. Maybe you can guess who that is.