"The General" (1926)

A Buster Keaton movie.  Confederates are the protagonist and Union the antagonists in this story line, but otherwise, movie isn't political.  It's an adventure action comedy, with a romantic twist threaded through it.  Mildly slapstick/physical humor, of course, since it is a silent movie.  Absolutely delightful movie.  Grins and smiles throughout this movie where I found me sitting on the edge of my seat without the stress of a supercharged suspense movie.

Trying to decide of Buster Keaton was a short man.  This movie made it look so.  The movie definitely highlighted the strength and agility needed by train engineers--or abilities had and used by Buster Keaton--or both.  "A Crash Course on How to Run a Steam Engine in 1861" certainly crossed my mind, but the character Johnnie Gray didn't need the crash course; he already knew.  Still, the various adventures along the way opened up to me details I hadn't pieced all the way together--things that were matter-of-fact, day to day things then.  Interesting.

"Fantomas V: The False Magistrate" (1914)

Once again, great story-telling in that I had no idea how and where the story was going to go even up to the end.  The one exception was that Fantomas would somehow escape (so that there could be more stories to come) and that otherwise everything else would be found out and resolved.

And once again I'm affirmed in my thinking that movies need more bassoon music.

And Fantomas's lover/girlfriend/romantic interest?  She sure has a time of it, poor girl.

This Fantomas movie had more lost filmage then others I've seen, so there were screens of narrative writing to help cover gaps in the story.  As far as fantastic stunts, the scene in the bell tower is worth considering.  Not a lot of Juve and Fandor this time.  Compared to other Fantomas stories, this one seemed to have a lot more letter writing and just sitting and talking--which is a challenge for silent movies.

Once again, well done, people.

"The Single Moms Club" (2014)

Very good.  Very very good.  Just repeat that over and over about 50 times.  (balanced stories, and balanced types of stories; balanced types of characters.)  Very nice.  (49, 48, 47 ...)

"Lemonade Mouth" (2011)

This was a very good movie.  It is a musical, a teen movie, and a Cinderella story all rolled into one solid smooth-flowing summer delight.  Many of the songs start in either found music moments or poignant story moments that spark a song.  The characters are real--the guys and girls alike, including strong girls and ones less so (but that learn to be strong in other ways).  The "bad guys" take a mild form of other band rivals and of a school with an out-of-balance focus on which extra-curriculars are important.  While the school may be out of balance, there isn't any program bashing.  The energies center more around a principal that is played a comic edge off of center.  Same goes for the rival band in that, while the rival band stirs things up, this movie isn't about bullies bashing, bully bashing, or bashing bullies back.  This movie is sooo, nicely done--and without ham-y acting.

Why have I resisted this movie for so long?

If you enjoy any of the above elements, then I would hardily recommend this movie.