025 E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

This movie was so popular I doubt very much I need to offer any sort of re-cap, but for the sake of thoroughness, I will just say that this film is about a boy who finds a stray alien and decides to keep him. They become empathically bonded, and E.T. begins to suffer illness, possibley from ingesting whatever he finds in the fridge. When the authorities finally find E.T., they both he and the boy have become very ill. They do everything they can for them, but E.T. doesnt' get any better until his freinds return. He fakes his own death to get all the scientists out of the house, and then the kids smuggle him to the moutaintop where he boards his space ship and escapes.

ONe of my favoirte aspects fo this film is the accurate portrayal of chldren. They are not always loveable, but they are always honest.

024 Raging Bull (1980)

This is the tragically sad story of a real-life prize fighter. It a rags to riches to rags story that just left me heart broken.

023 The Maltese Falcon (1941)

This is a great old fashioned caper.

022 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A strange oblisk appears among a group of ape-men (not quite Neanderthals). When it gives off a high pitched sound, they're intelligence level spontaneously evolves to the point that they understand the use of tools. They use them to kill a rival group of ape-men. Then we see a group of people traveling to moon where excavations have revealed another strange oblisk. It generates a signal which can be tracked across the galaxy. Astronauts embark on a mission to follow the signal. They are accompanied by a super smart computer which kills most of them. The sole surviving astronaut completes the journey. He is greeted by a comfortable living space where he grows old and dies. The final image is of an enormous nebula shaped like a human embryo. I have read that we are supposed to understand that this astronaut made the next leap in evolution to a physical state of pure thought - a completely ridiculous story to my way of thinking.

I did appriciate the visuals of the trip to the moon; although, the dialogue was excruciatingly dull. I also enjoyed very much the battle with the super smart computer. That was clever, far-fetched, but clever.

021 The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

This story is all about the dust bowl of the 1930s, but it tries to make a hero of the main character, but there is something weak and stupid about him that I just couldn't forgive.

020 One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

Jack Nicholson's character thinks he can do some easy time if he convinces his warden that he is crazy, and he gets himself transferred to a mental hospital. he raises all kinds of ahvoc while he's there and hen he learns that he won't necessarily be released when his time is up, but he will remain committed until the doctors decide that he is cured. When he chafes at this and other injustices he is subjected to electro-shock therapy and finally labotomized. It's a truly horrific look at the state of mental health care in the 1970s.

019 Chinatown (1974)

This is a beautiful movie. The art direction is first rate. And, it's a totally cool who-done-it with lots of twists and turns. But, the ending is so cynical that it just broke my heart and turned my stomach.