Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991)

Cast: Jet Li, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan, Jacky Cheung, Kent Cheng, Kam-Fai Yuen, Shi-Kwan Yen, Shun Lau, Wu Ma, Jianquo Qiu, Cheun-Yan Yuen, Chi-Yeung Wong, Shun-Yee Yuen, Xiong Xinxin, Jonathan Isgar, Mark King, Steve Tartalia, Colin George. Screenplay: Tsui Hark, Kai-Chi Yuen, Yiu-Ming Leung, Elsa Tang. Cinematography: Tung-Chuen Chan, Wilson Chan, David Chung, Ardy Lam, Arthur Wong, Bill Wong. Art direction: Chung-Man Lee. Film editing: Marco Mak. Music: Romeo Diaz, James Wong.  

John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Dean Winters, Adrienne Palicki, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, John Leguizamo. Screenplay: Derek Kolstad. Cinematography: Jonathan Sela. Production design: Dan Leigh. Film editing: Elisabet Ronaldsdóttir. Music: Tyler Bates, Joel J. Richard. 

Keanu Reeves reminds me of Gregory Peck, another handsome movie star of limited acting range who succeeded by being eminently likable. Just as Peck was miscast as the demonic Captain Ahab of John Huston's Moby Dick (1956), Reeves struggled to play the villainous Don John in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993) -- something about both performers seems to draw a sympathetic response from the audience. That something is certainly needed in John Wick, with Reeves playing a remorseless hit man, though the actor is so innately likable that the filmmakers didn't really need to kill Wick's puppy to elicit audience sympathy. Shoot-'em-up thrillers are so common these days that adding another franchise to the action genre seems like overkill. But what makes John Wick work is screenwriter Derek Kolstad's ability to craft a believable alternate world in which the character can seem plausible. Director Chad Stahelski (and his co-director David Leitch, who was denied that credit by the Directors Guild) manage to create an ambience that evokes both French gangster movies and Hong Kong martial arts films -- Jean-Pierre Melville meets Tsui Hark -- while retaining a peculiarly American love of artillery and automobiles. 

Battling Butler (Buster Keaton, 1926)

Cast: Buster Keaton, Snitz Edwards, Sally O'Neil, Walter James, Budd Fine, Francis McDonald, Mary O'Brien, Tom Wilson, Eddie Borden. Screenplay: Paul Gerard Smith, Al Boasberg, Charles Henry Smith, Lex Neal, based on a play by Stanley Brightman and Austin Melford. Cinematography: Bert Haines, Devereaux Jennings. 

Rich man Alfred Butler (Buster Keaton) goes glamping with his valet (Snitz Edwards) and falls in love with a backwoods maiden (Sally O'Neil). When he's mistaken for the lightweight boxer Alfred "Battling" Butler (Francis McDonald), he has to prove his manly prowess to her burly father (Walter James) and brother (Budd Fine). Unfortunately, Keaton's comic routines in the boxing ring pale in comparison with Charles Chaplin's boxing scene in City  Lights (Chaplin, 1931). Keaton gets more laughs from entering the ring, getting tangled in the ropes, than he does while in it. Not one of Keaton's more inventive feature films, Battling Butler suffers a little from predictable plotting, derived from a Broadway musical that starred Charles Ruggles. Still, even a second-tier Keaton film is better than almost anyone else's standout movie.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn, 2014)

Cast: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, Michael Caine, Fiona Hampton, Samantha Womack, Mark Hamill, Jack Davenport. Screenplay: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, based on a comic book by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. Cinematography: George Richmond. Production design: Paul Kirby. Film editing: Eddie Hamilton, John Harris. Music: Henry Jackman, Matthew Margeson. 

Torch Singer (Alexander Hall, George Somnes, 1933)

Cast: Claudette Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners, Lyda Roberti, Baby LeRoy, Charley Grapewin, Sam Godfrey, Florence Roberts, Virginia Hammond, Mildred Washington, Cora Sue Collins, Helen Jerome Eddy, Albert Conti, Ethel Griffies. Screenplay: Lenore J. Coffee, Lynn Starling, based on a story by Grace Perkins. Cinematography: Karl Struss. Costume design: Travis Banton. Film editing: Eda Warren. Music: Ralph Rainger. 

Claudette Colbert displays a contralto singing voice athrob with vibrato in Torch Singer. She also runs the gamut from suffering unwed mother forced to put her infant daughter up for adoption to hard-bitten nightclub singer who sins her way to success. It's not a great performance either vocally or dramatically -- Colbert seems to be channeling Mae West's attitudes and mannerisms -- but it's fun to watch. The plot hinges on whether she will reunite not only with her daughter but also with the man who done her wrong. What do you think? 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)

Cast (voices): Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Sujimura, Hisako Kyoda, Goro Naya, Ichiro Nagai, Kobei Miyauchi, Joji Yanami, Minoru Yada. Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki. Cinematography: Yasuhiro Shimizu, Koji Shiragami, Yukitomo Shudo, Mamoru Sugiura. Art direction: Mitsuki Nakamura. Film editing: Naoki Kaneko, Tomoko Kida, Shoji Sakai. Music: Joe Hisaishi.  

Never Open That Door (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952)

Cast: Ángel Magaña, Renée Dumas, Nicolás Fregues, Diana de Córdoba, Roberto Escalada, Ilde Pirovano, Norma Giménez, Luis Otero. Screenplay: Alejandro Casona, based on stories by Cornell Woolrich. Cinematography: Pablo Tabernero. Production design: Gori Muñoz. Film editing: José Gallego. Music: Julián Bautista.