Klondike Kate (1943)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by William Castle
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Mill Creek)

A train load of dance girls arrives at a remote town in the Yukon during the gold rush days. They are hired to work in a saloon by Tom Neal, much to the irritation of the owner of the other saloon owner in town who sent for them. Arriving on the same train is a young Ann Savage who lays claim to Neal's saloon with a deed from her dead father. He tries romancing her to save the saloon and she plays along for awhile, but is more interested in the saloon. Eventually the rival owner from across the street challenges him to a winner-take-all card game. However, when it is discovered a marked deck was used a huge bar brawl erupts between the rival factions. The rival escapes, but then is accidentally murdered by his girl friend. Neal is blamed and is almost lynched, until Savage realizes she loves him after all and comes to the rescue. William Castle's directorial debut is a quickly paced above-average programmer, though studio-bound sets make it seem rather confined given the setting. Savage and Neal would work together again just two years later in the film noir classic Detour. 

Max Dugan Returns (1983)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Herbert Ross
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

School teacher and single mom Marsha Mason struggles to make ends meet while raising her teenage son Matthew Broderick. Enter Jason Robards, her elderly father who disappeared decades ago. He is dying of cancer and loaded with cash he embezzled from a Las Vegas casino he felt ripped him off. At first she resists his offerings of cash and gifts, but eventually comes to accept both him and the ever more luxurious handouts. Meanwhile, her new potential boyfriend and police detective Donald Sutherland becomes increasingly suspicious of her new situation. Light-as-air comedy from Neil Simon, but Robards and Jason are up to their usual standards, Broderick not so much. 

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)

CoMix Wave (Japan)
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, GKids)

Three childhood friends, two boys and a girl, attempt to build a plane so they can visit a mysterious tower in another part of a Soviet-occupied Japan. However, before they can complete it the girl disappears and the boys pursue their own scientific careers. Years later, they find out the girl is in a coma at a government research facility and her condition is related to the tower. They reunite to finish the plane, save the girl, and possibly save the world. Convoluted anime tries to mix concepts such as parallel universes with teenage love, and mostly fails. It is beautiful to look at, however. 

Ice Age (2002)

Academy Awards, USA 2003

Nominee Oscar

Best Animated Feature Chris Wedge

Twentieth Century Fox
Directed by Chris Wedge
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Fox)

A wisecracking sloth is saved by a woolly mammoth from a couple of rhinos, then joins him on his trek northward. They pick up a human baby along the way, saving it from an icy death after his mother is attacked by saber-toothed tigers. One of the tigers later joins them, but in reality is leading to an ambush by others in his pack. They have several adventures, eventually learning to trust and like each other. The saber-toothed tiger eventually comes to respect the mammoth and cannot go through with the ambush and helps them fight off the pack. Occasionally lively but mostly predictable kids feature with rudimentary CGI that is really starting to show its age. 

Nightwatch (1994)

All Right Film Distribution (Denmark)
Directed by Ole Bornedal
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

A law student takes a night job as a security guard in a hospital. He roams the dim halls of the research labs and morgue on his hourly rounds. His best friend, a practical joker, pretends to be a body, but almost gets him fired. Meanwhile, a serial killer is loose and the body of his latest victim, a prostitute, shows up in the morgue. His friend hangs out with the same crowd and sets him up with one of the friends of the victim as a bet. The police come investigating at work, and they begin to suspect him after they find out about his bet. He spends the night in the morgue with his girlfriend to prove his innocence and come face to face with the real killer. Moderately entertaining thriller marred by kinky sex and jarring violence. 

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

Twentieth Century Fox
Directed by Rob Minkoff
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Fox)

Sherman gets into a fight with a girl on his first day of school and is accused of biting her. His guardian dog Mr. Peabody invites the girl and her parents to their home in hopes of reconciling and avoiding child protection services. The girl convinces Sherman to show her their time machine, and they have several adventures. Peabody has to save them from ancient Egypt, but they have trouble getting back to the present. Peabody is assumed killed in ancient Egypt saving them again, but Sherman and the girl use the time machine to save him. In the process, the open a rift in time that threatens to destroy everything. Pleasantly diverting animated entertainment aimed at kids but with enough references to keep adults interested as well, just like the old Rocky & Bullwinkle Show on which these characters originated. 

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Directed by Steve Loter
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Disney)

This is really the story of "Fawn", an animal fairy who lives in Pixie Hollow with Tinker Bell and the rest of the fairies. Fawn is sort of the St. Francis of Pixie Hollow, nursing injured and abandoned animals back to health. One day she hears a low moan coming from the forest and finds a mysterious creature with a thorn in its foot. She frees the thorn and watches as the animal instinctively builds towers out of found rocks. Meanwhile, the protectors of Pixie Hollow conclude it is the "NeverBeast" told in legend who will destroy them. When the animal accidentally injures Tinker Bell, Fawn thinks they may be right and allows it to be captured. However, when Tinker Bell wakes up she tells them the beast actually saved her life, so Fawn decides to free it. The NeverBeast then proceeds to fulfill its real destiny of saving Pixie Hollow, not destroying it. Afterwards, there is a heart wrenching scene where the beast goes back into hibernation for a thousand years, with Fawn saying goodbye. The last of six Tinker Bell films stands with some of the best in a long line of Disney animal films, especially recalling Old Yeller. Don't let the title fool you. 

The Bridesmaid (2004)

First Run Features
Directed by Claude Chabrol
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, First Run Features)

Young Benoit Magimel falls in love with one of the bridesmaids at his sister's wedding. Their torrid affair soon comes crashing down when she asks him to kill someone to "prove his love"for her. Not wanting to lose her, he fakes killing a homeless man who lives on her property. Satisfied, she returns the favor by claiming to have killed someone a few days later. Magimel investigates and finds out it is true, but has trouble breaking up with her despite his horror. Slow, unmoving Chabrol, with the central motivation for the murder left completely unexplained. 

Tom Sawyer (2000)

MGM
Directed by Paul Sabella and Phil Mendez
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, MGM)

Tom and Huck witness a murder by "Injurin' Joe", but vow to keep it a secret lest Joe track them down. A deputy is falsely arrested for the murder, but Tom and Huck prove him innocent. Later, the boys are assumed drowned in the river after escaping from Joe but show up at their own funeral. The eventual showdown with Joe occurs in a cave. The old familiar Mark Twain story is given a rudimentary treatment by MGM, who outsourced the animation to Taiwan and used country music stars for the voices and songs. The results are uneven at best. 

Holocaust 2000 (1977)

American International Pictures

Directed by Alberto De Martino

My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4

IMDb Wikipedia

(DVD, Lionsgate)

Industrialist Kirk Douglas plans to build a nuclear power plant in the desert of a country in the Middle East. His plans are thwarted by visions of a mythical beast and warnings of the apocalypse. They all turn out to be true when his son is revealed to be the Antichrist. Blatant rip-off of The Omen with gory Italian violence influences that sicken rather than shock. Kirk is in full-on goofy mode, just like in Saturn 3, and his naked nightmares are just plain silly.