Samurai Trilogy

dir. Hiroshi Inagaki – 5.91 – This is not a surprise to me but it may be the first time I considered that samurai films, as a genre, are sibling films to westerns. Again, this is not something I was unfamiliar with but I just never bothered to fire off too many computational processing power on it. These three films are well made and entertaining but as time went on my attention started to pull away to the performance. And here is the problem, I cannot say that I was awake for the whole thing but I don’t feel like I missed anything. I am not looking for pictures that command full attention but it is nice to know that my time is a worthy consideration for the director.
I. Musashi Muyamoto – 1954 – 6.27
II. Duel at Ichijoji Temple – 1955 – 5.60
III. Duel at Ganryu Island – 1956 – 5.87

A Matter of Life and Death

dir. Michael Powell – 1946 – 8.53 – As love stories go I cannot speak highly enough of Michael Powell’s A Matter of Life and Death and I will speak highly enough later with a full review.

Blood for Dracula

dir. Paul Morrissey – 1974 – 4.40 – After watching Flesh for Frankenstein I had an idea of what to expect on this one and it sure didn’t let me down in that one specific way I expected. This by no means is an endorsement, the film is terrible, just in a decent way. You’ll laugh whether they intended it or not.

Tales of Hoffman

dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – 1951 – 7.93 – A re-watch of Tales of Hoffman found the film in a dead drop from number 2 down the 22 (it is worth noting that this is out of nearly 400 films). This is completely understandable as it only fair to revisit the top 25 often enough to act as a balance. I do now, and will always, recommend that people watch this film.

Chungking Express

dir. Wong Kar-Wai – 1994 – 8.73 – As Hoffman drops so raiseth a new number two, (well, a tie). This is the first of many expected viewings of Chungking Express. I, wow. But more on that later.