Santa Claus 1985

Starring: David Huddleston

An old woodcutter is given immortality by the elves and turned into Santa Claus; In modern times, he goes to New York to rescue a discontented elf from the clutches of a demon toy maker.

The first half of this movie was extremely good. Nicely acted with Huddleston superb as Santa, amusing toys and a general feel-good factor perfect for Christmas. It loses it somewhat when the action moves to New York. Dudley Moore stays nicely in character and the kids are cute. It just doesn't work when John Lithgow's character claims he will be taking over Christmas. All very well in New York, the rest of the World just seems to have been forgotten in this argument. Good fun though.      6/10

Listen Darling 1938

Starring: Mary Astor

Children try to find their widowed mother a new husband.

A delightful Judy Garland movie where a family hit the road in a caravan to try and find the mother a new husband. Well cast, light-hearted and constantly watchable. Judy Garland sings pitch-perfectly and the whole thing bowls along to a most satisfactory conclusion.       7/10

Johnny one-eye 1950

Starring: Pat O'Brien

Two gangsters out to get each other are led together by a small girl and a dog.

Johnny one-eye is a dog!  The plot crawls along at a very pedestrian place. The print that I saw of this movie was so grainy that it looked about 20 years older than it is. But the girl and the dog were cute and I just considered myself lucky to be able to see this one at all.      3/10

Seven days to noon 1950

Starring: Barry Jones

A Professor engaged on atomic research threatens to blow up London unless his work is brought to an end.

Spiky little thriller that keeps up a good pace and although obviously slightly dated, holds up quite well still today. Some interesting observations on human behaviour, but there's no way on earth that an evacuation of London would be so orderly today. Although disaster was averted, it didn't have the ultimate happy ending that I was expecting. Well worth a view.     8/10

Heathers 1988

Starring: Winona Ryder

A highschool student begins to systemically murder his fellow students.

I don't fully get black comedy. I understand the dark side, but don't ever find it particularly funny. A psycho kid attempting to blow up a high school is just too near the mark to be entertaining, whether it's done tongue in cheek or not. Christian Slater is his usual oddball self and there is a certain irony in the gorgeous Winona Ryder playing a character who goes a little off the wall.            6/10