Old & New---

I watched these films this week:

FIRST WATCHES

Firecreek (1968) James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Dean Jagger.  Part time sheriff takes on a gang of vicious outlaws who blow into town.  Only for fans of the main stars or die hard western fans.  I found it forgettable.  6/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062975/combined

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2009) Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas.  Remake of a 1956 film noir with Dana Andrews.  About a writer who is trying to expose corruption and the district attorney.  It goes terribly wrong when he is charged and convicted of a murder and is on death row.  Not as tension filled as the original.  6/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183251/combined

Edge Of Darkness (2010) Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone.  A homicide detectives daughter is killed and he wants to find out why.  Was the bullet meant for him?  Gibson is looking his age and is very stocky and short. Story moves along at a fairly good pace.  Violent and there isn't much mystery or suspense.  6/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226273/combined

ENCORES:

I Met My Love Again (1938) Joan Bennett, Henry Fonda, Dame May Whitty, Dorothy Stickney, Tim Holt. Teen sweethearts plan to marry as soon as he gets out of college, but she gets tired of waiting and marries a dashing author she meets one night.  Years later after she has had a child and is living in Paris with her ne'er do well husband, who only wants to party and hasn't written a thing in years, he is killed and she comes back to her home town.  Will they meet again?  Fair little romance for the shop girls and house wives of 1938. Bennett is luminous.  7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030256/combined

Spellbound (1945) Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll.  Hitchcock directed, and it has the famous scene of the gun turning and shooting directly into the camera.  Story of mental institution and the doctors that care for the patients.  But the new head of the institution arrives and things go wrong.  The instant rapport of the young female doctor and this new guy and what they do when she discovers he is an amnesiac, is the story.  The Dali inspired cinematography is interesting but not necessary.  Performances are all fine and the score is haunting.  9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038109/combined

Lili (1953)  Leslie Caron, Mel Farrar, Jean Pierre Aumont.   As a young woman, I was enchanted with this film and the sweet story.   A young girl from the country arrives at a town thinking she will be able to work at a family friends store, but finds it shut down and she is stranded with no one to help her.  As she starts  climbing a ladder at the fair to jump, a puppet starts talking to her and she is so enchanted she talks to him and his other puppet friends.  The other fair employees gather and watch and they end up giving her a place to stay and a job doing the same every performance.  Caron is perfect and Farrar has never been so romantic in another film.  Aumont is a charming rogue.  7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046000/combined

WALL-E (2008) Pixar animation.   The only animation film I have ever watched all the way through and loved.  It is charming and the little robot in the future America of waste, who is cleaning things up but gets taken to outer space and the ship where the remaining earthlings live, is just wonderful.  His adventures are magical and how he gets back to the one roach that is left of earth - and home - is a sweet story.  8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/combined

North Country (2005) Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean.  Story of the first successful case won against sexual harassment in 1984.  The film shows the way an abused woman, who needs a good job so she can provide for her children, and goes to work in a mine.  They have to hire women but the men think it is their right to have those jobs so they mistreat and harass all the women workers.  One finally is fed up and hires a lawyer who takes the case to court and asks the judge to declare it a class action suit.  Judge says if lawyer can get a total of 3 in the case he will declare a class.  It is shown in the courtroom that others do stand up and they do win their case and the company does have to have rules against harassment posted at the mine.  Because of this case, around the world the same thing happened at other companies.  Theron and all the actors are spot on.  Not a fun subject, or film, to watch but an important milestone in human rights.  8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395972/combined

The Big Year (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012) and The Bodyguard (1992) - all films I watch over and over and watched this week.  Legacy a new favorite and I watch parts of it whenever I get bored.  Renner a new favorite actor.