The Battle of London (film #10 in the Documentary section of Movieflix (www.movieflix.com)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]

This British film rather breezily documents the London Blitz and the pluck of the Londoners in coping with the hardships of the bombings. It's historically interesting and fun to watch, but not especially deep. This has more nostalgia value than value as an historical document, though it was made at the time. A mildly interesting bit of WWII ephemera.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

Apollo, Segment 1001 (in the Documentary section of Open Video Project). [Category: News]

This is a short film about the Apollo XI mission, the first one to land a man on the moon. There’s mostly just footage of highlights of the mission, with radio transmissions to and from Mission Control and synthesizer music on the soundtrack. The synthesizer music gets rather annoying after awhile, but other than that, this is a nice little wrap-up of the most memorable space mission ever.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

Beer and Art (film #10 in the Indie section of Movieflix (www.movieflix.com)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]

A neurotic woman shares a poem she wrote with a coworker who ridicules her. She then goes psycho and tries to kill the coworker, but she can’t escape the vision of her stern writing teacher. I suppose you’re supposed to sympathize with the coworker, but I’m a bit neurotic myself and I root for the poet every time (though I will admit the poem is excruciatingly bad). This is pretty well done, but I don’t really get what the point of it is supposed to be. The fact that it was directed by a man doesn’t reassure me, either. Still, it’s better than much of the stuff in the Indie section of Movieflix.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.

Down & Out! (film #2 on The Educational Archives, Volume Four: On the Job (Fantoma, 2002)). [Category: Industrial]

This safety film about fall prevention has one actor in it who is required to fall over and over and over again, poor shmoe. After awhile, you begin to wonder about the workplace safety conditions of this stunt man, that is, if you're not busy laughing at all his pratfalls.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: **. Overall Rating: ***.

California Picture Book (film #157 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Hollywood]

This black-and-white, silent film from the 40s shows us a series of scenic views of things to see and do in California. That's it, really. It's sort of like a film version of one of those postcard strips, only in black-and-white. It does have some historical value, though.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: **.