The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)

There's a chase across the rooftops of Paris and a hair-raising scene in the high-up girders of the Eiffel Tower but not much else of interest in this 1949 Simenon book adaptation that has Charles Laughton's Maigret and the Paris police mostly just waiting and watching as the suspects in a murder investigation run around in circles.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Rocky III

The presence early on of Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips heightens the feeling that with this third Rocky movie you are merely watching a World Wrestling Federation-style soap opera in which alliances switch and change simply to continue the melodrama, and so Rocky aligns himself with former rival Apollo Creed, takes on new rival-in-the-ring, boxing up-and-comer Clubber Lang (Mr T), and poor Adrian begins her demise, turning into the sad onlooker she becomes in Rocky movies evermore...but then "Gonna Fly Now" starts, there's some slow-mo muscle montages, Apollo Creed appears in a crop-top, and at least for the last half hour the appeal of the original Rocky returns.

★★★☆☆

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Rocky (1976)

Written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, this feelgood schmaltz delivered with a grubby working class credibility introduces Rocky Balboa, a boxer with a heart of gold who would feature in seven subsequent movies, who wanders Philadelphia being called a 'creepo' and being yelled at by his trainer, best friend and the heavies who employ him until he finds Adrian, a timid pet shop store owner whom Rocky brings out of her shell and in return is boosted with a self-respect that enables him to give boxing champion Apollo Creed - and Life - a long overdue uppercut.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Batman (1966)

It might be time for this camp, shiny stocking-ed Batman to make a comeback because after the deadly earnest of the Christopher Nolan trilogy, this movielength episode of the Adam West series of the 60s is a hoot - a largely plotless but good-time romp featuring hilarious lollybag costumes, deadpan delivery of some overwrought dialogue, and a pantomime finale in which all the characters (Batman, Robin, The Penguin, The Riddler, The Joker, Catwoman and some henchmen) appear in a prolonged unchoreographed and daggy-beyond-belief fist fight aboard a submarine.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS