Spartacus (1960)

Ho-hum.

Director Stanley Kubrick's fifth feature film won four Academy Awards, including best supporting actor for Peter Ustinov, but this 1960 epic didn't dazzle this movie-goer.

Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a slave in Rome. After working for the Romans on a mountainside, he is purchased and sent to gladiator school. There, he falls for Varinia (Jean Simmons), a sex slave for the gladiator hopefuls.

Spartacus' rebellious streak - he knawed on a Roman guard's leg while carrying rock - rises up again. He leads a rebellion of gladiators. The pushback against Rome picks up speed. Other slaves join the gladiators. Their goal is to reach the ocean and sail back home.

The Roman senate, not keen to see slaves succeed in their freedom quest, seek to stomp out Spartacus and the other rebels.

What's most interesting about this film is Ustinov's role as Batiatus, who purchases slaves. Batiatus is a coward and opportunist. He easily spots chances to make money and make sure when trouble comes up, he's nowhere to be found. Batiatus kisses a lot of backsides to get his way. Nice job, Peter Ustinov!

Spartacus isn't too subtle in contrasting the slave leader's bid for freedom and efforts by his Roman counterpart Crassus (Laurence Olivier) to curtail freedom of Romans as part of his plans to be Roman leader.

The romance between Spartacus and Varinia shows promise when both are captives, but gets bogged down in standard lovey-dovey scenes once they're free.

For a movie about two opposing forces, there's not a lot of time spent fighting in this film. What is interesting is how Kubrick handles large crowd scenes, especially as Roman solders fill a field in preparation for a final showdown with Spartacus and company.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: Jean Simmons was in Guys and Dolls. She was also a harpist in Caesar and Cleopatra.

Kirk Douglas will celebrate his 100th birthday in 2016.

John Gavin, who appears as Julius Caesar, was Sam Loomis in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Spartacus was Charles Laughton's second last feature film.

The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Gary Busey rocks in this biography of American rocker Buddy Holly.

He earned an Oscar nomination for best male lead for this entertaining 1978 effort from first-time director Steve Rash.

Busey is intense as the young singer/songwriter who knows the music he wants to make, but has to contend with plenty of flack from detractors who don't want to hear rock and roll, or see him associate with black entertainers in the mid-1950s. The Texas native does a fine job with his vocal takes on most of Holly's major hits including Rave On, Oh Boy! and Maybe Baby.

It's a year after graduating from high school and Holly is starting to feel pressure from his parents (Neva Patterson and Arch Johnson) who want him to put his guitar down and go to college. Church preacher (Richard Kennedy, in very fine form) warns his congregation, including Holly and his parents, of "this jungle rhythm" that's "a threat to our very society." Holly's original rock material gets the kids excited, but the sponsors of his live spots on radio want him to stick with country - not rock and roll. That won't cut it with Holly. He quits the broadcasts.

Opportunity knocks when Holly and his band, drummer Jesse (Don Stroud) and Ray Bob (Charles Martin Smith) on stand-up bass, get an invite to Nashville. Hope of a record deal turns to frustration when the producer wants Holly to ditch rock for, yep, traditional country. His time ends in frustration in Music City, but another door soon opens when a New York-based label gets its hands on one of Holly's live performances. Sales are good.

Cue the chance to record material the way Holly wants, and plenty of success on the charts too.

Holly woos Maria Elena (Maria Richwine), a secretary to a studio boss, and deals with more race issues. She's Puerta Rican and Catholic. He's not. Holly turns on the charm to get the blessing of Maria's aunt, Mrs. Santiago (Gloria Irizarry).

At times, The Buddy Holly Story feels too obvious in its depiction of the American rock and roll legend. Hey, here's Buddy experimenting in the studio. Watch, Buddy deals with racial prejudice. Gailard Sartain, so wonderful in Mississipi Burning, doesn't fare well in his brief turn as The Big Bopper. But there's also some fine camera work, especially tracking Holly and his band backstage at New York's Apollo Theater and capturing the energy of Holly's performances. Stroud shines behind the drum kit too.

Rock and roll lost a great talent in Holly, killed in a plane crash in February 1959. He was 22.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: The Buddy Holly Story marked film debuts for Maria Richwine and Fred Travalena, who appears as deejay Madman Mancuso.

Neva Patterson, who died in 2010 at 90, appeared in An Affair to Remember and All the President's Menn.

Comedian Paul Mooney appears as Sam Cooke.

The Buddy Holly Story won an Oscar for best music.

Holiday Inn (1942)

Now this is more like it.

Christmas in Connecticut and It Happened on Fifth Avenue were OK Christmas films, but definitely don't deserve to be called classics.

Holiday Inn doesn't rank alongside It's a Wonderful World either, but it's definitely closer in quality to Frank Capra's fine 1946 effort than those other two films recently reviewed on this site.

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire only made two films together - Holiday Inn and Blue Skies four years later. There's one good reason right off the bat to give this film a look. Bing sings plenty and Astaire is a treat to watch on the dance floor - especially on an Independence Day routine with firecrackers as props. Wow, this guy is smooth.

Here, Astaire playing dancer (what else?) Ted Hanover, is a cad. He wants to share the stage with top-notch female talent. If that hurts Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), too bad.

Hardy and Hanover are a team when the film opens on Christmas Eve.

"This is our last night in show business," Hardy suggests. He wants out of the constant grind of performing. His plan - buy an inn in Connecticut and only perform on holidays. "I want to be lazy," he declares. Maybe no one has told him how much work the average entrepreneur faces. Hardy plans to settle down with Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale), who's also part of the act. It's too bad it's Hanover she wants to find under the misiletoe for the rest of her life.

Hardy's heart bounces back soon enough when he meets Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), a young lady with a fine voice and dancing talent. She's keen to work at Holiday Inn to start her career. When Lila ditches Ted for a better half with lots of cash, the smooth as silk hoofer goes on a major bender and makes his way to Holiday Inn. He and Linda are a hit on the dance floor, but he's so smashed he remembers little of the great talent he cut a rug with. "I've got to have a partner," he vows. His agent, Danny Reed (Walter Abel), joins in the search for the mystery woman.

Hardy, who has already been burned by Hanover once in matters of the heart, does his darndest to keep Linda away from Ted. His ploy works - for a while.

Seeing Crosby sing and Astaire dance is reason enough to watch this film. Plus, Bing sings White Christmas. White Christmas! That would be the biggest selling single for decades until Elton John's retake on Candle in the Wind paying tribute to Princess Diana in the late 1990s.

It's unsettling to see Crosby and Dale put on blackface for a song and dance number saluting Abraham Lincoln. Blame that on the times of racial inequality in the United States. Blackface would be gone by the 1960s.

The film's finale is a treat - an acknowledgement of Hollywood's world of make believe. Is actual director Mark Sandrich seen among the crew preparing for a movie's climatic scene? Another nice touch - Bing and Fred reprise the film's first song, updated to reflect how their ways with the ladies have gone.

Holiday Inn. Great cast. Fine music and dance. Now this is how the holidays should be spent.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: Character actor Irving Bacon has some fun as Gus, a taxi driver who ferries Linda Mason to Holiday Inn. He appeared in more than 500 films and television shows including Gone With the Wind and Shadow of a Doubt .