Doctor Richard Johnson invites Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, and Russ Tamblyn to stay at the 90 year old Hill House to investigate reported paranormal activity. The activity grows as the house seems to react to Harris’s presence. The tension and atmosphere created in the film are palpably effective. The women are great in their respective roles, especially in comparison: Bloom smart, cool, and worldly and Harris uncertain and inexperienced. I don’t remember the remake from more than twenty years ago being horrible, this is obviously the superior film, though the casting in that film makes a lot of sense in comparison to this one. 

Based on the video game series of the same name, fortune hunter Mark Wahlberg seeks out Tom Holland, the brother of his former partner who has disappeared, hoping to use him to locate the treasure of the Magellan expedition. As a mindless action film, it’s not bad, though completely forgettable. With the natural agility of a dancer, Tom Holland well carries out the athleticism for his role, but his chemistry with Wahlberg is lacking with Wahlberg mostly phoning it in. The adventure challenges are fairly entertaining and the choice of Antonio Banderas as a bad guy is an interesting one, though he’s not given nearly enough to do.   

After stealing her pushover cousin’s fiancé, Margaret Lockwood finds her new married life in the country boring. Utilizing a convenient secret passageway in her house, she begins a secret career as a bandit to spice things up. It’s quite a bit of fun watching her devil may care attitude and her complete disregard for prescribed gender roles. Unfortunately everyone else in the film are a bunch of wet blankets and the Code favors them over someone who lives for herself.  

Similar to The Killing Floor , this made for television film chronicles a bit of American labor history. Here, it’s an effort led by organizer A. Philip Randolph (played by Andre Braugher) to unionize the all Black Pullman porters who were traditionally called George (after George Pullman) by the white patrons. It’s fairly straightforward, but like that other film, it gives a glimpse into history that is often taught or talked about. It’s noteworthy that Randolph had a long history of fighting for equal rights from his days as a union organizer to later fights for civil rights, including mentoring Martin Luther King Jr.

After presumably killing the last of the evil Deviants, a team of ten Eternals spend the next five hundred years waiting for their next mission. When unexpected attacks cause the group to reunite and question their purpose on Earth. I was curious what a Marvel film directed by Chloé Zhao would look like and it’s unfortunately quite boring. During its excessively long and over CGI-ed run-time, it unnecessarily jumps back and forth in time and is just boring despite having an intriguing cast with Gemma Chan, Kumail Nunjiani, and Brian Tyree-Henry. Somehow the characters reside in the same universe as other Marvel characters yet they aren’t aware of/don’t bother showing up for a universe changing event.   

Richard Conte returns home to discover his father has lost his legs in a trucking accident perpetrated by Lee J. Cobb, an unscrupulous San Francisco produce dealer. Conte partners with the man who bought his father’s truck to get even with Cobb. I would never have thought there was such a thing as the dark underworld of fruit sellers, but here it is. Cobb plays a cunning and ruthlessly charismatic bad guy while Conte is a man who thinks he’s more in control than he is. As a noir, it even includes a femme fatale and the nice, good girl, but neither of them sticks to those simplistic roles.