Singin' in the Rain (1952)

While the movie as a whole was very good, I saw the story as being more interesting than the songs that are supposed to frame or enhance the story - in fact, I would have liked to have seen more of the films main story explored.

The songs themselves - while good as stand-alone pieces - oftentimes didn't fit entirely well (meaning transitions in to or out of) or felt as if they were slotted in in adjunct ways. This is especially notable in the film's climactic Broadway melody sequence, which dragged and had nothing to do with the film as a whole.

The Last Battle (1983)

In a desolate landscape, hand-to-hand combat featuring improvised weapons rules the land. What's more interesting than that is how the film creates its mythos around itself. At first, the hero doesn't speak because he's alone. Then nobody in groups talk to eachother - an unspoken method of tried-and-true actions dictate their behaviour? Then you realise that nobody is talking to anybody and by then, the amazing visuals and curious nature of his quest have drawn you in.

My only criticism is that the ending doesn't wrap things up - or leave things open ended enough - to be truly satisfying.

The Thin Man (1934)

A run-of-the-mill detective film which manages to complicate things about twenty minutes in by introducing several dozen characters while maintaining very little driving force to the plot itself. Soon after, the film pares back to basics with the reluctant detective focusing solely on the case at hand, up until the various threads opened in the first third need to come to a head.

The film itself is competent and remains interesting, if extraordinarily dated - specifically, if you don't find rampant alcoholism and (not so) subtle sexism to be funny, then the jokes are relatively thin on the ground.

The Public Enemy (1931)

While a competent film - about two street hoodlums who grow into a life of crime, especially bootlegging - made more interesting by the fact that it was made during the period that prohibition was in action (in America, at the time). The film itself is simply a run-of-the-mill Gangster film.

During the rise and inevitable fall of the two main characters, we get to see them grow and change, harden up and come into the constant ire of the police. There is an interesting dynamic arc going on with Powers' family which ultimately raises the integrity of the film.

Alien (1979)

While I can safely grant you that the practical effects are mind blowing, the set design is amazing and the mood is kept tense and excitable throughout the film... I can grant you those things.

What I didn't expect in going to see Alien for the first time was the amount of running back and forth down the same corridor for seemingly no reason and the rescuing (again and again) of a cat, once again, with no reason given. Though tense and visually appealing, a lot of the air is taken out of it due to these repetitious and unexplained exercises.

Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

Throughout this film, I spent most of it trying to figure out what it was I was seeing. Was this a love letter to drugs, told from a users point of view, or a condemnation of drugs? Ultimately, it seemed to come down to this: Some people use drugs; that's all.

Winding from one scene to the next, there seems to be no drive to the film except these facts: he uses, police want to catch him. Apart from that, there's remarkably little here and maybe that's because I can't relate to it, but to me it felt uneven and incomplete.