The Great Runaround

La Grande Vadrouille; war comedy, France / UK, 1966; D: Gérard Oury, S: Louis de Funès, André Bourvil, Terry-Thomas, Claudio Brook, Mike Marshall, Marie Dubois, Pierre Bertin, Andréa Parisy, Mary Marquet

Paris during World War II. German soldiers shoot a British war plane over the city, and thus the three British pilots—Reginald, Peter, MacIntosh—parachut and disperse over the city. One lands on a building of a painter, Augustin, who flees with him inside the apartment of Juliette, a puppet player, to hide him. Another British soldier hides inside the theatre of conductor Stanislav. Unwillingly, after being persecuted by Nazi soldiers, Augustin and Stanislav join forces and find the third British soldier. The six of them thus decide to flee towards South, to the free zone, where the Allies will pick up the three British pilots. However, because they missed the train, Peter took off by himself, and was caught by German soldiers. Stanislav and the others took a postal van to south. Dressing up as German soldiers, they set up a fire inside a German base and use the chaos to free Peter. They thus manage to reach the free zone.

The highest grossing French film of its time, a one which set a record with over 17,000,000 tickets sold at the box office, "The Great Runaround" is set in Paris during World War II, but director Gerard Oury refuses to treat it as such, and thus—in spite of its dark-serious setting—it is simply a fun, optimistic and cheerful 'light' comedy. The rescue mission of the three British pilots turns into a comic road movie, but it shows its overstretched running time since the repeated motive of the protagonist just running away, and running away, and running away from the German soldiers does get repetitive in the last third, which has too much 'empty walk' and too little inspiration for something more versatile. Nonetheless, comedian legend Louis de Funes again has a field day as conductor Stanislav, delivering a few delicious gags. The highlight is the boarding house sequence: during the night, Stanislav accidentally enters the wrong bedroom and lies on the bed, not realizing that the person covered with a blanket and sleeping next to him is not his friend, Augustin, but actually his enemy—a German officer, who is snoring. Oblivious, Stanislav thus remembers that Augustin told him to "whistle" if he starts snoring, so Stanislav whistles to cause the snoring to stop. But since it doesn't work, Stanislav uses all kind of outrageous squeaks, peeps and "duck sounds" to make him stop snoring, in a moment of hilarious insanity. Nobody else in the movie, not even comedian Bourvil, is close to reaching even a tenth of de Funes' comic scale here. There are also other amusing scenes (a British soldier falling with a parachute over a Zoo, trying to avoid to land in the lion's cage; a miniature statue with the Hitler salute on a cake...), but the last third seems too mechanical and routine to truly ignite into something more ambitious.

Grade:++

Zootopia

Zootopia; computer-animated fantasy comedy, USA, 2016; D: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, S: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, Shakira

After a long and discouraging process, bunny Judy Hopps finally completes her training and becomes the first rabbit police officer. She goes to the police precinct in the city of Zootopia, but is assigned to only write parking tickets. At the same time, a mysterious case is plaguing the city: 14 predator animals are reported missing. Judy makes a bet with her Police Chief: if she can solve the case in 48 hours, she will become a full fledged police officer. If she fails, she resigns. Judy joins forces with a fox, Nick, a con artist. The two find an asylum where the 14 predators are held, who have all gone mad. The police then arrests Mayor Lionheart for holding the asylum. It turns out only predator animals develop these symptoms of madness, while herbivorous animals are exempt, sparking a rift of mistrust between the two in Zootopia. Judy however discovers that it was all just a ploy from Bellwether who became the new Mayor and who uses these scare tactics to stay in power. Bellwther is thus arrested.

Surprisingly thought-provocative and subversive, this computer-animated film rightfully seized the attention of both the critics and the audiences alike. It owes this to a story that works both as an entertaining 'buddy' comedy as well as a more complex, multi-layered commentary on multiculturalism and the clash between biological determinism and free will. Another plus point is the excellent heroine, bunny Judy (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), whose charm and enthusiasm engage the viewers. The only problem is the size of some animal characters: some are huge (such as elephants), some are small (such as mice), creating a disproportionate ratio at times. The jokes work and have inspiration: the opening has the two parents trying to "subtly" discourage their kid, Judy, from pursuing her dream as a police officer, with her dad even saying: "If you never try anything new, you never fail!" 

Judy, as a police officer, is presented remarkably super-ambitious: when assigned to be a parking inspector, she announces: "I'm going to write 200 parking tickets before noon!" There are numerous sight gags (the animal nudist camp) and satirical jabs at society (the highlight being the greatest spoof of bureaucracy on film, in the sequence where Judy is annoyed that sloth animals are assigned at the office, who work and talk, almost literally, in slow motion), while some jokes with purpose even reveal a lot of the personality of some characters (for instance, con artist Nick, who earns double when he sells popsicles to managers, and then collects the wooden sticks they threw away to sell them to a lumber shack). A more somber, multi-layered tone gives meaning to the characters in the finale, in a remarkable commentary on the trends of its time, the notion of politicians resorting to ultra-nationalism and inventing "enemies" from the "others" in order to stay in power based on fear, remarkably shaming and exposing several techniques of authoritarian regimes. Luckily, "Zootopia" refuses to dwell too long on politics, therefore avoiding to try to turn into liberal mouthpiece, and presents all these elements naturally, since they are imbibed in the story and the character interaction. "Zootopia" shows how, sometimes, "kids' movies" can be more fun than movies for grown ups.

Grade:+++

La La Land

La La Land; musical / drama / romance, USA, 2016; D: Damien Chazelle, S: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, Jessica Rothe, J. K. Simmons

Los Angeles. Mia is a waitress who is an aspiring actress. She attends almost every audition, but always fails to get a role. She meets Sebastian, a pianist who aspires to open his own jazz club, in a time when jazz is dying out. The two of them fall in love. Eventually, Sebastian succeeds as a pianist in a hit band and plans to go on tour with them, but his obligations cause him to miss Mia's monodrama in a theatre. Mia gives up upon her dream, but a casting agent calls Sebastian and Mia thus lands a role in a hit film shot in Paris. Some time later, Mia is a famous actress, married to David and mother of a child. During a traffic jam, David and Mia de-tour and land in a night bar, coincidentally owned by Sebastian. He plays a song conjuring up how he wished he could have kissed her from day one, married her, had a child with her, experienced adventures, toured Paris, until everything returns to reality. Mia, crushed by this "what if" emotion, walks away from the night club.

In a time of 'dark realism', director-screenwriter Damien Chazelle surprised the viewers and critics with this movie that is a piece of innocence, a gentle, lovable semi-fairy tale that stands out like a sore thumb due to its genre, yet still managed to pull it through thanks to his honest, genuine ode to the plight of people who follow their dreams even when the whole world is discouraging or ridiculing them. Why a musical? It is unknown, since the story would have worked as a 'straight forward' narrative, anyway, yet Chazelle loves music so much he wanted to risk. "La La Land" is a highly untypical modern film "against the norm" that pays homage to classic musicals from the 50s, yet its thematic core works on a higher level. It has two problems, though: the middle part is somewhat stale, routine; whereas Sebastian's story is of lukewarm interest—but Mia's story is simply excellent, showing her long journey of trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood, and genius actress Emma Stone raises to the occasion, giving her both an emotional, charming and humorous dimension.

There are a lot of highlights: the opening 4-minute scene, filmed in one take, where people dance during a traffic jam, is exquisite; the dance sequence where Mia and Sebastian are sitting on a bench and for a brief moment even dance just by tapping their feet is stylistically irresistible whereas it is a lot of fun watching Mia enduring ridiculous auditions from uninterested casting agents, since the viewers can identify with her ("Because I’ve been to a million auditions and same thing happens every time. Where I get interrupted because someone wants to get a sandwich. Or, I’m crying and they start laughing. Or, there’s people sitting in the waiting room, and they’re like me - but prettier and better!"). Some choice of the music is very refreshing, as well (A-ha's "Take on Me", for instance). "La La Land" is the movie equivalent of a person you fell in love with even though he/she was not your type: it is so idealistic and unusual, it is almost puzzling, yet its charm sweeps you over despite these flaws. It has numerous sweet moments, but ends on a sober, deeply sad note. The ending is both enchanting and disillusioned, speaking about some sad observations that people can enjoy in naive love only up until a certain point in life, since when they grow up, they have to take on a more pragmatic path that signals their loss of idealism. Rarely has a director ever crafted such a unique ending where the viewers watch surreal-fantasy "what if" images for 3-minutes, not knowing what is going on—until they reach the "punchline" at the end and "get it". But when they "get it", everything suddenly fits like a giant piece of dominos suddenly falling into place.

Grade:+++

Aloha

Aloha; comedy, USA, 2015; D: Cameron Crowe, S: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin, Jaeden Lieberher, Ivana Miličević

Having recovered from an injury in an Afghan operation, military contractor Brian grudgingly flies to Hawaii to join an operation in which billionaire Carson plans to launch a satellite and start a space center. He meets his ex-girlfriend there, Tracy, who is now married with another man and has two kids. He also starts a relationship with Air Force Captain Allison, who persuades him that space should only be used for pacifist research, and should stay off limits for military build-up. Upon learning that Carson plans to launch a nuclear payload in the satellite, Brian hacks and programs it to self-destruct in orbit. At first, his superiors are furious, but Brian gains affection of Allison.

When the news spread that brilliant director-screenwriter Cameron Crowe managed to rally genius actors Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Bill Murray for his next film, hopes were high that such an ensemble of talent will lead to another one of his great films. Unfortunately, their collaboration, "Aloha", is a mediocre, routine drama-comedy without inspiration. The main problem is the thin story that meanders from subplot to subplot, involving several storylines which clash without much sense for a purpose, or even a sense for anything. Crowe was always at his best while observing human characters and letting them interact in comical stories, yet in his later films, from "Elizabethtown" onwards, he had less and less highlights to show, and here these characters never manage to rise to the occasion or lead to some brilliant scene. One rare example when he proves a "right hunch" is the party sequence where Brian holds two drinks in his hands, but a military officer tells him that tycoon Carson wants to talk to him. Brian asks when, and the officer takes both of his drinks from his hands and replies: "Now". While a neat set-up, the following dialogue with Brian and Carson is strangely pointless and boring. At least it also features a neat sequence where Emma Stone and Bill Murray are dancing with each other. The love triangle between Brian, Tracy and Allison never ignites, resulting in a routine achievement, and a "shoehorned" satellite launch near the end, proving a strangely lackadaisical and un-engaging film for Crowe.

Grade:+

Earth

Zemlya; silent drama, Ukraine, 1930; D: Alexander Dovzhenko, S: Semyon Svashenko, Stepan Shkurat, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova, Nikolai Nademski

Ukraine during the beginning of Soviet collectivization. Grandfather Semyon dies, leaving the farm to Opanas and grandson Vasyl. The news of the mandatory collectivization is mixed: some farmers, mostly kulaks, would rather kill their livestock than to give it away to strangers, but the younger generation, led by Vasyl, embraces the change. Tractors are brought to the rural area, speeding up plowing for the harvest. One night, as he was dancing from joy, Vasyl was killed by an unknown assassin. Opanas holds a mass funeral for Vasyl, refusing priests or religious ceremonies. During the funeral, a man goes crazy and admits he killed Vasyl, while Vasyl's wife is in agony.

The last great Soviet silent film, "Earth" is a propaganda film that was elevated to something beyond, to a genuine, lyrical art-film thanks to the skills of director Alexander Dovzhenko who refused to focus only on the political dimension of the story. Remarkably simple, and yet so effective, "Earth" was enriched with aesthetic shot compositions (a man holding a speech while the background is covered with thousands of faces from the crowd who listen to him; the contrast between close up shots of people's faces and wide shots of the vast farms; the dynamic parallel montage of the funeral, the assassin admitting his crime and Natalya's madness as she is jumping naked in the house; branches of trees are "brushing" Vasyl's face as his corpse is carried through the village) and director's intervention. It is also full of symbolism, pertaining to the circle of life and man's connection with nature—in the opening shots, grandfather Semyon dies, signalling the end of an old era and a beginning of a new one (collectivization and industrialization of farming) while Vasyl's funeral is treated as part of the cycle, where man is born from nature and is returned back to nature after death (the final scene)—as well as a few unusual scenes that "spice up" the movie (farmers urinating into the tractor's cooler to make it start). Dovzhenko crafted a fine movie language which allowed him to shape and lead the story into an experience that stimulates the viewers more through their subconscious and emotional level than their rationality.

Grade:+++

Taxi

Taxi; documentary / docufiction, Iran, 2015; D: Jafar Panahi, S: Jafar Panahi, Hana Saeidi, Nasrin Sotoudeh

Tehran. Equipped with a secret camera, film director Jafar Panahi is driving a taxi car, picking up people, but charging them nothing for the drive. He just wants to hear their stories and way of thinking about Iran's society. The first customer is a man supporting capital punishment for a man, he hears, who was charged with stealing car tires, but a female teacher opposes the death penalty. Next customer is Omid, who sells bootleg copies of films, and wants Jafar to assist him, since Jafar's recommendations caused a film student to buy more films from Omid. Jafar picks up two women holding two fish in a glass of water; afterward his 10-year old niece Hana sits in the passenger's seat, telling about her assignment in school: she has to make a short film. When Jafar exits the car, Hana films a boy taking some money that fell from a passing couple. Next is Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, who is carrying flowers with her. Jafar and Hana exit the cab and walk away, while a robber breaks in and steals their camera.

For his 3rd film since Iran's 20-year old ban on him making movies, director Jafar Panahi proved once again his resilience: he is such a cineast that he is a film-addict, an author who either has to continue making movies or he will die. It is in his blood. "Taxi" is a highly unusual, almost Godard-like inventive evasion of the ban: he is driving a taxi and listening to passengers coming and going in his cab, listening to their thinking. It is unknown which way he achieved this. He probably toured driving a taxi, recorded real people entering his cab with a secret camera, but then went on to re-stage these events with actors playing these passengers, in an untypical docufiction film essay. While at first the viewers might feel reluctant to engage in the movie upon hearing that it is just a set of static episodes of people talking in a cab, with time—just like a good conversation—it grows on them, since there are some really interesting, sometimes comical characters popping up.

One example is Omid, a seller of films on bootleg DVDs, who tells Jafar he has the newest film for him, Allen's "Midnight in Paris". When a film student shows up, Omid suggests several titles, ranging from Kurosawa to Hollywood hits, so the student asks Jafar for his opinion on which movies he should watch, and then buys from Omid all what Jafar recommended. The movie also features a very cool moment where Jafar's problem solving skills rise to the occasion: two women are in the cab, holding a giant bowl of water with two fish in them, yet when the cab abruptly stops, the bowl breaks, leaving the fish on the floor, but Jafar simply exits the car, goes to the trunk, pours water from a container in a plastic bag and puts the fish in them, thereby saving them—like a king. Another sweet character is the 10-year old niece, Hana, who has to make a short film for her school homework: there is a neat scene where she uses her photo to film a boy taking some money that fell off from a passing couple, so she talks with him and tries to persuade him to return the money, so that he can "be the hero of her film", and do the right thing. Another great "guest" in the cab is human rights lawyer Nasrin, who does an irresistibly metafilm joke: she "gives" a rose flower to the camera, saying: "This is for the audience. Because one can always count on the movie viewers". It is remarkable how elegant and fluent the movie is, even though, by its concept, it shouldn't be, since it once again shows that life is made up out of small things which all form a part of its pleasure.

Grade:+++

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York; comedy, USA, 1992; D: Chris Columbus, S: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, Brenda Fricker, Devin Ratray, Hillary Wolf, Kieran Culkin, Ally Sheedy, Donald Trump

Here we go again: the large McCallister family is again traveling for Christmas, this time to Miami, and they again displace Kevin (11) who mistakenly boarded a plane for New York. Alone in the big city, Kevin uses his dad's credit card to make a hotel reservation and stay overnight. However, on the street, he meets the two burglars again, Marv and Harry, and overhears that they plan to rob a toy store for Christmas. Kevin thus foils their plan and lures them into an abandoned apartment where he sets up numerous booby traps for them. Thanks to a help from a pigeon lady, Kevin manages to beat Harry and Marv who get arrested by the police. He is then reunited with his family.

The same jokes, just a different background: the inevitable sequel to the highest grossing comedy film of its time, "Home Alone", managed to encompass the entire crew from the 1st film, yet it offered very little of new ideas or innovations to justify the continuation of the storyline. The opening act is arguably the best, managing to actually conjure up two surprisingly good jokes: Kevin records his own voice on a tape recorder and then plays it in slow motion, to make his voice sound slow and deep, like that one of an adult, in order to make a phone reservation of a hotel room. He also has a charming scene when he uses the hotel pool wearing a giant swimsuit. Unfortunately, the story quickly loses its power and gets trapped into routine, with too many scenes recycled from the 1st film (the black and white gangster film is again used to trick people into thinking its a real person talking; Kevin again bonds with an outsider who was ostensibly scary, but turns out actually a kind person, in this case, a pigeon lady). While the action finale was suppose to be the highlight, in reality it proved to be misguided: looking from today's perspective, all the numerous traps set up to hurt and maim burglars Harry and Marv now seem almost like a torture chamber from the "Saw" movies. Not only that, but they are only intermittently funny. Mostly they are just weird and forced, especially when Daniel Stern is exaggerating with his insane screaming. The only good bit is actually when hundreds of pigeons "attack" Harry and Marv who are covered with bread crumbs. A solid, yet spasmodic sequel. 

Grade:+

The Vanishing

Spoorloos; thriller / drama / mystery, Netherlands / France, 1988; D: George Sluizer, S: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege, Gwen Eckhaus

Rex and Saskia are a Dutch couple traveling from the Netherlands to France. Their car runs out of fuel and stops in the middle of a tunnel, so Rex leaves Saskia alone to fetch some gas in a can. Resuming their drive, the couple makes up and stop at a rest area. Saskia goes into the store to buy some drinks, but never comes back. Rex contacts the police, but to no avail. Three years later, Rex is still searching for Saskia and plasters the streets with her missing posters. Finally, he is contacted by the perpetrator: Raymond, who invites him to drive in his car to France. Raymond, a seemingly normal family man, then reveals he kidnapped and chloroformed Saskia and offers to tell Rex what happened to her if he drinks coffee with a sleeping pill. Rex does, falls asleep and wakes up inside a coffin, buried under the earth.

A rare example of a 'minimalist thriller', George Sluizer's most famous film is also highly untypical and unconventional in its structure: the murderer is revealed already 24 minutes into the film, whereas it contains only a single scene of violence, yet its creepy tone keeps the viewers intrigued until the end. Not since Myers from "Halloween" or the unknown killer from "Zodiac" has there ever been such a disturbing murderer as Raymond Lemorne, precisely because he is, just like the said villains, a symbol for evil without a motive. Unlike other killers, he is perfectly rational and without any urge. His murder is not motivated by hate, nor by any self-interest or ideology. Neither was he interested in raping Saskia, nor was his act caused by loneliness, since he is a happily married man, a chemistry teacher with two kids. He is what makes the whole story so unsettling, so puzzling, since his reasons cannot be comprehended. This is also what distinguishes Sluizer from Hitchcock: despite several thrillers and crime mysteries, Hitchcock's main character was always the good guy, while here Sluizer picks the bad guy as the main character.

In flashbacks, Sluizer shows Raymond meticulously preparing for the misdeed: he buys a secluded cottage on the land and puts spiders into a drawer, causing his teenage daughter to scream. Later on, he asks a far away neighbor if he heard the scream, and when the farmer confirms he didn't hear anything, Raymond realizes the place is suitable for noise isolation due to its remoteness. He lies on a table and chloroforms himself, only to later on, upon waking up, look at his stop watch and write down in his notes that he was unconscious for 18 minutes and 54 seconds, which means his victim has to be no further than 17 minutes of car drive away from the cottage. While "The Vanishing" suffers from an overstretched running time and an occasional 'empty walk', especially in the second half, it has just enough tricks, ideas, taste and sophistication to fill its entire running time with something to see. There is something of a philosophical question by the villain: in a flashback, Raymond tells how he jumped from a balcony when he was 16, and broke his bones, just like that, to show that it is "not predestined", i.e. that his free will is stronger than his fear of jumping. He then mentions he actually saved a girl from drowning in water, but something bothered him: "My daughter was bursting with pride. But I thought that her admiration wasn't worth anything unless I could prove myself absolutely incapable of doing anything evil. As black cannot exist without white." His goal is horrifying—to prove that free will is stronger than his own moral. The ending shows his own failure of idealism for actually going through with his own plan, in a dark vision of free will.

Grade:+++

Why Him?

Why Him?; comedy, USA, 2016; D: John Hamburg, S: Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Griffin Gluck, Cedric the Entertainer, Keegan-Michael Key, Kaley Cuoco (voice)

The middle aged couple Ned and Barb are invited by their daughter Stephanie (22) to California to spend Christmas with her new boyfriend, Laird. Upon arrival at his mansion, Ned and Barb discover that Laird is a rich CEO of a video games company, yet that he is a slob, and an unbearable one at that. Ned is especially frustrated as to why Stephanie would fall for such a guy. The mansion is high tech, which makes his stay there uncomfortable, while a party there turns into a drug orgy. When Laird announces that he bought Ned's shrinking company to save it, Ned hits him and leaves. However, when Laird lands with a helicopter with Stephanie at Ned's home, they all make up.

Actors Bryan Cranston and James Franco are dancing on the edge of career suicide: "Why Him?" is a terrible pseudo-comedy, indicating a trend that some people forgot how to make a good comedy and deluded themselves into thinking that scnes of shallow nonsense is some sort of talent. Crude, vile, bloated, dumb, where Franco's character has been reduced to just a primitive hillbilly, and where 50 % of all jokes are just based on sexual innuendo, "Why Him?" seems as if it was written by a 12-year old, where any bad idea is automatically accepted without further scrutiny, obvious in too many scenes of actors' improvisation—without any punchline at the end of these prolonged scenes. The opening has the typical "mass embarrassment" joke, where Ned and his entire team at job are having a Skype conversation with his daughter, Stephanie, while all of a sudden her boyfriend, Laird, enters her room and starts dancing with his naked butt, ostensibly unaware that dozens of people are watching on the big screen. Then Ned meets Laird's mansion, which has a dead moose "conserved" in a bowl of urine; Laird gets angry that his back tattoo didn't turn out good and then encourages Ned's 15-year old son to swear. And of course, Laird always talks about having sex with Stephanie, while her parents are standing just a couple of feet away from him. Needless to say, nothing of this is funny. It's a misguided waste of time. The only good joke is Ned sitting on the toilet and realizing that the modern high-tech mansion has a "paper-free toilet", so the butler has to come in and press the computer button for an automatic wiping of his butt. There are comedies that make a false note, but then "recover" and continue with good jokes to compensate. "Why Him?" is established on a false note, and embraces it until its done to death. As flawed as it was, "Meet the Parents" is miles better than this, both in humor and taste—and that's already saying a lot.

Grade:-

Captain Blood

Captain Blood; adventure, USA, 1935; D: Michael Curtiz, S: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone

England, 1685. Summoned in the middle of the night, Dr. Peter Blood rushes to give medical care to a wounded man, a rebel against King James II, but when the Royal Guards show up, they arrest them both. Three months later, ostensibly because he helped a rebel, a court sentences Blood to slavery on a Caribbean island run by the notorious Governor Bishop. However, Bishop's niece, Arabella, likes Blood and treats him well. When a Spanish ship attacks the town, Blood and numerous other convicts steal the ship and become pirates who want to plunder to take revenge against the British government. Captain Blood saves Arabella from rival pirate Levasseur, and finally hears that James II has been replaced and that the new king will grant him amnesty if Blood helps in the war against the French. Blood's ship gains victory in a battle against the French, and thus he is given the position of the Governor, replacing Bishop.

The movie that catapulted Errol Flynn into stardom, this "swashbuckling" adventure is part pirate, part revenge film, yet it does not seem as fresh today anymore as it was back during the time of its release: while undeniably a good film thanks to the skills of competent director Michael Curtiz, and fine performances, most notably the new star Olivia de Havilland, it is somewhat too standard and too conventional made, especially in the tiresome ship battles at the sea in the finale, which somewhat reduces its appeal. Neither is it that fun as some claim it is, though it has a few deliciously humorous lines ("A man should not be late for his own hanging."; when Blood hears about the staged trial, and that anyone who even helped a rebel will be punished in the name of James II, he addresses the merciless judge: "What a creature must sit on the throne who lets a man like you deal out his justice."). It takes too long for the story to finally get going (Blood only becomes pirate Captain Blood an hour into the film), yet as it is, it offers that 'good old school' charm from the 'Golden age of Hollywood', when idealism, humanism and honest, wonderful heroes inhabited the screen, fighting for justice without too much grey area. The odyssey of the noble doctor Blood comes to full satisfactory conclusion at the end, when the tables are turned, which makes for a compelling watch.

Grade:++