The General

Title: The General
Year: 1926 (Japan), 1927 (US)
Directors: Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton
Writers: Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton, adaptation by Al Boasberg & Charles Henry Smith
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
Music: random classical music
Distinctions: currently #126 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 103 minutes
Synopsis: a Southern train engineer during the Civil War
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay)
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for pacing and music) c. 2.9/4 (Good)

Cute movie, but not great. It's probably very important and influential, but I wouldn't know about that sort of thing. The points off for pacing and music are entirely because of the version I saw. The IMDb says there are a number of 75-minute versions with original music. So it's pretty unforgivable that Netflix has a budget video with an arbitrary public domain music track that nearly renders the movie unwatchable (after being unimpressed with the movie, I watched a minute or two of it with the sound off and was amazed at how much better it was).

Doctor Who #112-114: The E-Space Trilogy

Title: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (”Full Circle” / “State of Decay” / “Warrior's Gate“)
Year: 1980 / 1980 / 1981
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Peter Grimwade / Peter Moffatt / Paul Joyce
Writers: Andrew Smith / Terrance Dicks / Stephen Gallagher
Starring: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell
Episodes: 12, at 25 minutes; 3 stories at 4 episodes each, from the middle of season 18
Synopsis: The Doctor and Romana are trapped in a parallel universe
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, cinematography and special effects/design) c. 2.5/4 (Okay).

Well-performed - with the glaring exception of Matthew Waterhouse. And, for 1980's Doctor Who, reasonably well-written - with the exception of "Warrior's Gate," which makes no sense. The first two stories don't really stand out as memorable, but they're good.  The show's last gasp before moving full on into the 80's and crap-as-the-norm.

Doctor Who #84: The Brain of Morbius

Title: Doctor Who: “The Brain of Morbius“
Year: 1976
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Christopher Barry
Writers: Terrance Dicks & Robert Holmes
Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the 5th story (of 6) from season 13
Synopsis: a mad scientist is assembling a body for an evil brain-in-a-jar
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and acting) c. 2.6/4 (Good).

This is from the era when Doctor Who was in its prime: Tom Baker's Doctor with Sarah Jane, up against sci-fi versions of classic horror stories. It's not a very good episode - one of the worst from the period - but still good.

Justice League: Season Five

Title: Justice League Unlimited: Season Three
Year: 2005-2006
Network: Cartoon Network
Creator: Bruce W. Timm & Paul Dini
Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos (7 episodes), Dan Riba (6)
Writers: Dwayne McDuffie (6 episodes), Matt Wayne (6), J.M. DeMatteis (2), Paul Dini (1), Geoff Johns (1)
Starring: Kevin Conroy, Maria Canals-Barrera, Susan Eisenberg, Phil LaMarr, Carl Lumbly, George Newbern, Michael Rosenbaum
Music: Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion
Episodes: 13, at c. 20 minutes
Synopsis: The Justice League vs. The Legion of Doom
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few days
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and music) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

Lots of fun, but not as good as the previous "Unlimited" seasons. The focus is mostly on the villains, which wouldn't be so bad except that Lex Luthor is the only serious villain that's interesting this season. Meanwhile, most of the best heroes, like Batman, have smaller roles than guest characters.

Note: There seems to be some confusion over what makes up a season of this show. The DVD set for what I'm calling JLU season three is labeled "season two," while the set of JLU seasons one and two is labelled "season one." And seasons 1-3 of JLU are simultaneously seasons 3-5 of JL. What?

There Will Be Blood

Title: There Will Be Blood
Year: 2007
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson, based on a novel by Upton Sinclair
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Dillon Freasier, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor
Music: Jonny Greenwood (and non-original music)
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Actor (Day-Lewis) and Best Cinematography; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Editing and Best Sound Editing; currently #128 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 158 minutes
Synopsis: a successful oil man is revealed to be a misanthropic sociopath
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for concept, story and pacing) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

I don't really get the point of this. It's very well shot, the acting is great, the music is great. The writing of any given scene is great. But it's very slow, and there's just not much of a story. I expect more than subtle character development when I sit down for a period epic.

Doctor Who #70: The Time Warrior

Title: Doctor Who: “The Time Warrior“
Year: 1973-1974
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Alan Bromly
Writer: Robert Holmes
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the 1st story (of 5) from season 11
Synopsis: a shipwrecked alien kidnaps scientists into medieval England
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), April 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and music) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

One of the better stories, but not a particular favorite of mine. It's the first appearance of the Sontarans, which look completely absurd but are one of the more cleverly thought out creatures in the show.

Rocky III

Title: Rocky III
Year: 1982
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Writer: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Mr. T
Music: Bill Conti, Survivor
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Song ("Eye of the Tiger")
Length: 99 minutes
Synopsis: after years of shallow success, Rocky gets his ass handed to him
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for concept, cinematography and music) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

What made the first two Rocky movies great was they were basically dramas about Rocky and Adrian, and those two characters just work great together.  The boxing stuff was a secondary part of the story. Rocky III, however, is pure boxing movie. If you hadn't seen the first two movies, you wouldn't even know the characters from watching this one. That said, it's very entertaining for a sports movie. Especially when all sorts of crazy stuff comes out of Mr. T's mouth.

Doctor Who #52, 62 & 131: Beneath the Surface

Title: Doctor Who: Beneath the Surface (”Doctor Who and the Silurians” / “The Sea Devils” / “Warriors of the Deep“)
Year: 1970 / 1972 / 1984
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Timothy Combe / Michael E. Briant / Pennant Roberts
Writers: Malcolm Hulke / Malcolm Hulke / Johnny Byrne
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney / Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning / Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Carey Blyton / Malcolm Clarke / Jonathan Gibbs
Episodes: 17, at 25 minutes; 1 story of 7 episodes (the 2nd of 4 stories from season 7), 1 story of 6 episodes (the 3rd of 5 stories from season 9), and 1 story of 4 episodes (the 1st of 6 stories from season 21)
Synopsis: creatures who inhabited Earth before humans want their planet back
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), June 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for concept, pacing, acting and subjective rating) c. 2.0/4 (Indifferent).

The 80's story strongly pulls down the average of the three. "The Silurians" isn't a great episode, but it's good. Surprisingly fast-paced for seven episodes. The music is particularly horrible; the DVD includes an entire documentary about how horrible the music is. "The Sea Devils" is nothing special, but it's got some good solid Doctoring. It's basically the same story as "The Silurians," with a subplot around The Master (who has some great cornball lines) added. "Warriors of the Deep" is completely terrible. Possibly the worst special effects of the entire series. And awful writing; I am shocked at the quality of writing the BBC was willing to film and broadcast in the 80's.

Witness for the Prosecution

Title: Witness for the Prosecution
Year: 1957
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Larry Marcus, Billy Wilder & Harry Kurnitz, based on the play by Agatha Christie
Starring: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
Music: Matty Malneck
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Laughton), Best Supporting Actress (Lanchester), Best Editing and Best Sound Recording; currently #129 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 116 minutes
Synopsis: a man's wife testifies against him at his murder trial
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and music) c. 3.3/4 (Very good).

Very entertaining, especially Laughton's performance.  I think snarky wit is the foundation of the English legal process.  I never would have seen the ending coming even if I'd had reason to expect a twist - but I didn't have reason, because it still would have been a good movie without the twist.

Doctor Who #51: Spearhead from Space

Title: Doctor Who: "Spearhead from Space"
Year: 1970
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Derek Martinus
Writer: Robert Holmes
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the 1st story (of 4) from season 7
Synopsis: aliens plan to invade earth with the help of a plastics company
How I saw it: on video a couple times (rented from Netflix), most recently a few months ago
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and special effects/design) c. 3.2/4 (Very good).

If you want to get started watching Doctor Who, I'd say after the new series, this episode is the best place to jump in. There was some major retooling done for the seventh season, and this is like the start of a new show, with a new Doctor introduced gradually from the perspective of the other characters. It's also probably the highest quality of all the classic stories, with writing, acting and production values on par with (low budget) feature films of the time. The plot is almost identical to "The Invasion," but it's a good plot to steal, so I don't mind.

Doctor Who #46: The Invasion

Title: Doctor Who: "The Invasion"
Year: 1968
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Douglas Camfield
Writer: Derrick Sherwin, story by Kit Pedler
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Nicholas Courtney
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Don Harper
Episodes: 8, at 25 minutes; the 3rd story (of 7) from season 6
Synopsis: the Cybermen are preparing to invade Earth
How I saw it: on video a couple times (rented from Netflix), most recently a few months ago
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for special effects/design) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

Iconic. One of the best classic Doctor Who stories. Great directing, decent writing, excellent use of location filming, and girls climbing ladders in miniskirts. Even though it's 8 episodes long, when 4 episodes of most stories seem like too much, it never stalls or hits any slow points. Two episodes have been lost, with only the soundtracks remaining; they've animated those soundtracks, and the results are quite good. I think it's the first time that this particular alien invasion formula (later to become a staple) was used on the show.

housekeeping post

I felt the need to adjust the top end of my Subjective Ratings scale, because there were a number of movies I'd wished I'd given an 8/10 and didn't - movies that stand out as being particularly excellent but that I didn't love for one reason or other. I had had 7/10 defined as "liked it" and 9/10 defined as "one of my favorites," with 8/10 (as well as the other even numbers) undefined. Now I'm clarifying the scale as follows:

10/10 = favorite of my favorites
9/10 = one of my favorites
8/10 = great
7/10 = good
6/10 = okay
5/10 = indifferent
4/10 = eh
3/10 = bad
2/10 = terrible
1/10 = eew get it away!
0/10 = Mulholland Dr.

That won't change anything in the middle, and I'm not going to worry about how it effects the bottom (how much I dislike a movie doesn't really matter much to me), but it means that a lot of high-rated movies are getting slightly higher ratings.

7/10's promoted to 8/10:
Frankenstein (1931)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Per un pugno di dollari (1964)
In Cold Blood (1967)
Harold and Maude (1971)
The Conversation (1974)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)
Synecdoche, New York (2008)

8/10's promoted to 9/10:
Brief Encounter (1945)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Rocky (1976)
Groundhog Day (1993)
In Bruges (2008)

9/10's promoted to 10/10:
Network (1976)
Up (2009)

Doctor Who #45: The Mind Robber

Title: Doctor Who: “The Mind Robber“
Year: 1968
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: David Maloney
Writer: Derrick Sherwin, Peter Ling
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury
Music: Ron Grainer (theme)
Episodes: 5, at 25 minutes; the 2nd story (of 7) from season 6
Synopsis: the 2nd Doctor and his companions are trapped in a world of fiction
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), most recently a few months ago
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, cinematography and special effects/design) c. 2.7/4 (Good).

It's the sort of story that's very obviously made for kids, and it's not very well executed. But it's also a fun and imaginative idea. Includes devices such as the Tardis falling to pieces, the Doctor needing to reassemble his companion's face (resulting in a change of casting when he messes up), and Gulliver from Gulliver's Travels speaking only in lines from the book. Gets a bonus point for Zoe's bum.

Doctor Who #27: The War Machines

Title: Doctor Who: “The War Machines“
Year: 1966
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Michael Ferguson
Writer: Ian Stuart Black, story by Kit Pedler
Starring: William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze
Music: Ron Grainer (theme)
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the last story (of 10) from season 3
Synopsis: a military computer tries to conquer humanity with robots
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), January 2009
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, dialog and special effects/design) c. 2.5/4 (Okay).

One of the worst-written episodes of the entire series (despite having more or less the same story as Terminator), but executed well enough to make up for it.  Directed well, very melodramatic.

Return to the Planet of the Apes

Title: Return to the Planet of the Apes
Year: 1975
Network: NBC
Creator: David H. DePatie & Friz Freleng (developers); Pierre Boulle (characters)
Director: Doug Wildey
Writers: Larry Spiegel (6 episodes), Jack Kaplan (3), John Barrett (3), J.C. Strong (2), Bruce Shelly (2)
Starring: Austin Stoker, Philippa Harris, Henry Corden, Richard Blackburn, Edwin Mills, Claudette Nevins, Tom Williams
Music: Dean Elliott
Episodes: 13, at c. 24 minutes
Synopsis: three astronauts crash on the Planet of the Apes and defend its human population from a mad gorilla general
How I saw it: on video (have on DVD), over the past few days
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 3/10 (gets points for concept, music and subjective rating) c. 1.6/4 (Eh).

Terrible acting. Terrible animation. Terrible writing - although the overall story arc is actually pretty good, enough so that I enjoyed the show. Check out the deceptively fun theme music sequence:



We also recently tried watching the 1974 live action TV series. Couldn't get past the first disc (four episodes), it's just too awful. I have never seen a TV show that's more insulting to its audience. Compared to that, the cartoon seems great.

Doctor Who #17: The Time Meddler

Title: Doctor Who: “The Time Meddler“
Year: 1965
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Douglas Camfield
Writer: Dennis Spooner
Starring: William Hartnell, Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves
Music: Ron Grainer (theme)
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the last story (of 9) from season 2
Synopsis: another renegade from The Doctor's world (The Meddling Monk) is out to "improve" history in North Umbria, 1066
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and acting) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

Clever story. Not flashy or exciting or anything, but it's fun to get into the ideas. The "history lesson" aspect is integrated into the plot well; the nature of the Monk makes history a matter of strategy and not just the setting.

Doctor Who #10: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Title: Doctor Who: "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"
Year: 1964
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Richard Martin
Writer: Terry Nation
Starring: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Francis Chagrin
Episodes: 6, at 25 minutes; the 2nd story (of 9) from season 2
Synopsis: 22nd-Century Earth has been conquered by Daleks, and the Doctor and his companions join up with the human resistance
How I saw it: on video a couple times (rented from Netflix), most recently a few months ago
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, pacing, cinematography and special effects/design) c. 2.3/4 (Okay).

Terry Nation's idea of suspense is to have people going somewhere, and one of them has a limp (but, no, how can he go somewhere with a limp!?). I enjoy it well enough, but it's a fairly average story.

Donnie Darko

Title: Donnie Darko
Year: 2001
Director: Richard Kelly
Writer: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone
Music: Michael Andrews (and non-original music)
Distinctions: currently #131 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 113 minutes
Synopsis: an unreasonably intense teenager is visited by (or hallucinates) a timetraveller in a creepy bunny costume
How I saw it: on video a number of times (used to have on DVD), most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, cinematography and subjective rating) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

It presents itself as a sort of jigsaw puzzle for the audience to solve. For years I thought it was a good movie that I just hadn't figured out yet. Then I found out (from a commentary or some other DVD bonus feature) that the writer/director did not in fact know what was going on. So, it doesn't actually make any sense. Re-watching it yesterday I tried to ignore the puzzle aspects and just enjoy the movie for what it was, but found it impossible. Even knowing there's no solution, I couldn't help trying to figure it out. It's just the nature of the plot; it challenges you to solve a puzzle with no solution. Extremely frustrating.

Doctor Who #1-3: The Beginning

Title: Doctor Who: The Beginning ("An Unearthly Child" / "The Daleks" / "The Edge of Destruction")
Year: 1963 / 1963-1964 / 1964
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Waris Hussein (Unearthly), Christopher Barry (Daleks, 4 episodes), Richard Martin (Daleks, 3 episodes; Edge, 1 episode), Frank Cox (Edge, 1 episode)
Writers: Anthony Coburn, C.E. Webber, Terry Nation, David Whitaker
Starring: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Norman Kay, Tristram Cary
Episodes: 13, at 25 minutes (1 story of 4 episodes, 1 of 7, and 1 of 2); the first 3 (of 8) stories from season 1
Synopsis: an elderly alien kidnaps two English schoolteachers when they follow a student to his timetravelling spaceship
How I saw it: on video a couple times (rented from Netflix), most recently a few months ago
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, pacing and cinematography) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

The first episode, where we meet The Doctor and his Tardis, is very interesting for a fan to see what the Doctor was like when he first started hanging out with humans.  But, ironically, the start of the show would be a bad place to start watching Doctor Who. The character hasn't quite solidified at this point - Hartnell's portrayal is right on from the start, but he's written as self-centered, unwilling to help strangers, and even dishonest. And little details, like bits of the Tardis breaking down for the first time, fill me with a dorky glee that wouldn't be there if I hadn't seen later episodes first. As for the actual adventure in "An Unearthly Child," they get caught up in uncharacteristically well-written prehistoric politics, which makes for one of the better early episodes.

In "The Daleks," The Doctor meets the Daleks for the first time, and they are more clumsy and less threatening than ever - about 10 people invade the Dalek city and win with almost no difficulty. The writing is tedious, halting the story for repetitive side stories for complete episodes at a time.

"The Edge of Destruction" is filler - only two episodes, with no sets other than the Tardis and no guest stars. Mostly it felt like they were just making stuff up as they went along (which they probably were), but the ending is cute enough that I've grown to like this story despite its faults.

Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects

Title: Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects
Year: 2007
Network: Sundance Channel
Director: John Edginton
Starring: Robyn Hitchcock
Music: Robyn Hitchcock
Length: 53 minutes
Synopsis: interviews and performances of Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 (aka most of R.E.M.)
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), April 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 5/10 (gets points for concept, dialog, pacing, music and subjective rating) c. 2.0/4 (Indifferent).

Nothing amazing but I'm glad I saw it. It is definitely a documentary, not a concert video; the filmmaker did not go out of his way to show the performances in their best light. If you're not already a fan of Robyn Hitchcock, don't watch this (although I don't know why you would watch it if you weren't).

The Villain

Title: The Villain
Year: 1979
Director: Hal Needham
Writer: Robert G. Kane
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Music: Bill Justis
Length: 89 minutes
Synopsis: basically a live-action road runner cartoon
How I saw it: on video a number of times, most recently (rented from Netflix) April 2008
Subjective Rating: 1/10 (Eew get it away).
Objective Rating: 1/10 (gets a point for concept) c. 1.2/4 (Bad).

Terrible, terrible movie. It has no comedic timing, so none of the (stolen) gags are funny. The writing is terrible. They clearly didn't even bother writing dialog in a few places (which is really painful in Arnold's case). And it just kept going...

A Fistful of Dollars

Title: Per un pugno di dollari
Year: 1964 (Italy), 1967 (US)
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Víctor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas Gil & Sergio Leone; story by A. Bonzzoni, Catena & Leone; based on a movie by Ryuzo Kikushima & Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè
Music: Ennio Morricone
Length: 99 minutes
Synopsis: a wandering gunfighter tries to make some money by getting rival gangs to kill each other
How I saw it: on video a couple times, most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.7/4 (Great).

Very good movie, but not as good as I remembered it being. Perhaps my opinion was inflated by associating it with its sequels. It's interesting to watch it shortly after seeing Yojimbo; some scenes are identical, while large portions are completely different. There are some great scenes in Yojimbo that aren't in Fistful of Dollars, and a lot of the Dollars versions of things are better than in Yojimbo, so I can't really say either one is better than the other.  Although I like Mifune's character better than Eastwood's.

Wild Strawberries

Title: Smultronstället
Year: 1957 (Sweden), 1959 (US)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin
Music: Erik Nordgren
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (1960); currently #132 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 91 minutes
Synopsis: an old man on a road trip faces his mortality
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for concept, story, pacing and subjective rating) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

Slow and boring. Great music. I always complain about the Nihilist outlook of this sort of mid-century European art film. But in this case, the ending is up beat, and it just confuses me. I do not know what to make of a happy Ingmar Bergman character.

The French Chef: Volume One

Title: The French Chef: Volume One
Year: 1963-1973
Network: PBS
Starring: Julia Child
Episodes: 18 (selected from throughout the show's run), at 28 minutes
Synopsis: Child teaches us how to cook for 1960's/70's dinner parties
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story (n/a), cinematography, special effects/design and acting (n/a)) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

My wife got a kick out of these, but I don't really see the fun in cooking shows. And apparently traditional French cooking makes me nauseous ("If you don't leave the [fish] heads on, you won't be able to tell what it is!"). Child is charismatic, though (much to my surprise). And the show's never boring.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Title: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Year: 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: David Koepp; story by George Lucas & Jeff Nathanson; characters by Lucas & Philip Kaufman
Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt
Music: John Williams
Length: 122 minutes
Synopsis: Indiana Jones gets a new sidekick, and some weird stuff happens around them
How I saw it: in the theater, May 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for characters, pacing, acting and subjective rating) c. 2.1/4 (Okay).

Disappointing all around, but fun enough to be entertaining. The plot doesn't make any sense, and isn't affected by anything the heroes do. I only give it a point for characters because of John Hurt's performance. I'm shocked to see that Williams did the score himself; there isn't a single moment  where the music adds anything. The more I've thought about it, the more I've hated this movie. I'm sure my rating would plummet drastically if I were to re-watch it (not that that is something I could ever see myself doing).

Wall-E

Title: Wall-E
Year: 2008
Director: Andrew Stanton
Writers: Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, story by Stanton & Pete Docter
Starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
Music: Thomas Newman
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Animated Feature; Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, Best Song ("Down to Earth"), Best Sound and Best Sound Editing; currently #42 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 98 minutes
Synopsis: a trash-compacting robot falls in love
How I saw it: in the theater, June 2008; on video (have on DVD)
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 4.0/4 (Great).

Amazing. After seeing it the first time I wrote: "Probably the perfect movie." Maybe that's a bit strong (but maybe not). It is a bit strange that I seem to be the target audience; someone making a movie that is exactly the movie I want to see is pretty much the last thing I would have expected to ever happen.

Rambo

Title: Rambo
Year: 2008
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Writers: Art Monterastelli & Sylvester Stallone; character by David Morrell
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz
Music: Brian Tyler
Length: 92 minutes
Synopsis: rescue the good guys, kill the bad guys, the end
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), June 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, characters, dialog and music) c. 2.3/4 (Okay).

Not as good as Rocky Balboa, which is saying a lot since this is much more the sort of movie I tend to like. Worth seeing for the exploding people, though. If you see this as the fourth part of a series, you can even see some interesting character development. If you see it as its own movie (or maybe as a sequel to First Blood), then Rambo's just there, being a badass.

It Happened One Night

Title: It Happened One Night
Year: 1934
Director: Frank Capra
Writer: Robert Riskin, story by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
Music: Howard Jackson, Louis Silvers
Distinctions: Oscars for best picture, director, screenplay (non-original), actor (Gable) and actress (Colbert); currently #134 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 105 minutes
Synopsis: a famous heiress on the run from her father is helped by a reporter
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for characters, dialog, special effects/design and acting) c. 2.3/4 (Okay).

Amusing in places, but tedious overall. For much of the movie I was distracted by the fact that a grown woman who was apparently kidnapped by her father is hiding from the police rather than getting their help. And the idea of calling her husband (who she's trying to get to) never even comes up. It seems very bizarre that it won all the Oscars it did; it's entertaining, but it's not by any stretch a Great Film.

Hamlet

Title: Hamlet
Year: 1996
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: William Shakespeare, adapted by Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Richard Briers, Julie Christie, Nicholas Farrell, Derek Jacobi, Michael Maloney, Kate Winslet
Music: Patrick Doyle
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration and Best Costume Design
Length: 242 minutes
Synopsis: a prince discovers that his uncle killed his father
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), June 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for pacing, special effects/design and music) c. 3.2/4 (Very good).

I probably couldn't have followed it if I hadn't just read the play. But I did, so it was great. I don't see how you need to put a swelling score under all the monologues, though. And as long as it has to be four hours long anyway, might as well go for five and not rush things. The special effects/design couldn't have been better for the most part, but there is the little matter of the ghost. And its completely sucking. But overall it's a good movie: one of the best stories ever written, with a great cast.

Up

Title: Up
Year: 2009
Directors: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson
Writers: Bob Peterson & Pete Docter, story by Peterson, Docter & Thomas McCarthy
Starring: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai
Music: Michael Giacchino
Length: 96 minutes
Synopsis: an old man uses balloons to fly his dead wife's dream house to South America
How I saw it: in the theater, yesterday
Subjective Rating: 9/10 10/10
Objective Rating: 10/10

Wonderful movie. It's not perfect - the whole talking dogs thing (there are dogs, and they can talk) seems out of place, the three dog villains are lame/undeveloped, and Carl's infirmities are wildly inconsistent. But any flaws are barely noticeable. I liked Wall-E better, but then I'm a science fiction geek so I guess that's to be expected. I'll be surprised if this doesn't turn out to be my favorite movie this year.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Title: Boksuneun naui geot
Year: 2002 (Korea), 2005 (US)
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writers: Jae-sun Lee, Mu-yeong Lee, Yong-jong Lee, Chan-wook Park
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Du-na Bae
Music: non-original music (as far as I can tell)
Length: 129 minutes
Synopsis: a kidnapping gone wrong leads to violence
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), today
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for characters and pacing) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

Very slow. Interesting, but no fun. Basically a series of unpleasant things are happening around a pair of unsympathetic characters. It's not a bad story, but it's far too miserable and joyless for me.

Glenn Gould: On and Off the Record

Title: "Glenn Gould: Off the Record" / "Glenn Gould: On the Record"
Year: 1959
Directors: Wolf Koenig & Roman Kroitor
Writer: Stanley Jackson (commentary)
Starring: Glenn Gould
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Glenn Gould
Length: 30 minutes (each)
Synopsis: a documentary crew follows Glenn Gould, to his home ("off the record") and to a recording session ("on the record")
How I saw it: on video (rented on VHS from the library), July 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, cinematography, special effects/design and acting (n/a)) c. 2.8/4 (Good).

Not a great documentary - very low budget - but you can't go wrong with the subject.

The Dark Knight

Title: The Dark Knight
Year: 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan; story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer; characters by Bob Kane
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Music: James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Ledger) and Best Sound Editing; Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects, Best Editing and Best Sound; currently #7 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 152 minutes
Synopsis: The Joker hatches schemes
How I saw it: in the theater, July 2008
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for cinematography) c. 3.8/4 (Great).

Not the Perfect Super Hero Movie it's hyped to be (it is a contender for the Best Super Hero Movie, though). I think Batman Begins might actually have been better movie, although I liked this one a lot more, thanks to the Joker. Heath Ledger is amazing, and then some. But then there's Two Face. . . Not a bad performance. Even a good one by most standards. But when the climax of the movie is him opposite Gary Oldman, following the Joker's big finale... "good" is way out of its league. And Two Face's special effects are unbelievably terrible. It's very anti-climactic, ending with that rather than the Joker. But this is mostly nit-picking; as you can see from my rating, I love this movie.

Enchanted

Title: Enchanted
Year: 2007
Director: Kevin Lima
Writer: Bill Kelly
Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall
Music: Alan Menken
Distinctions: three Oscar nominations for Best Song ("Happy Working Song," "So Close" and "That's How You Know")
Length: 107 minutes
Synopsis: a Disney fairytale princess comes to the real world
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), July 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 5/10 (points off for dialog, cinematography, special effects/design, acting and music) c. 2.3/4 (Okay).

Fun movie, only good for one watch. There were lots of chances to turn this into a terrible movie, but they managed to get through. It would have been nice if they'd used old school animation for the fairy-tale world; instead it's a modern style, which is strange since modern "2D" animation isn't typically used for much other than TV shows. Although the acting and music are both bad, it doesn't really hurt the movie; they're both what they need to be.

The Bodyguard

Title: Yojimbo
Year: 1961
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa & Ryuzo Kikushima
Starring: Toshirô Mifune
Music: Masaru Satô
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (black-and-white); currently #132 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 110 minutes
Synopsis: a wandering samurai tries to get rival gangs to kill each other
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great)
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.8/4 (Great)

Great, fun movie. Mifune's character is probably one of the best (or at least most important) ever put on film. This movie's not quite as good as the spaghetti westerns it inspired, though. (Interestingly, it isn't just the plot and characters that Sergio Leone ripped off, but also the style. And the few aspects of the style Leone missed got picked up by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill.) I would just give it a 7/10, but I bumped it up a point simply because of the music. My new favorite film score.

Dark City

Title: Dark City
Year: 1998
Director: Alex Proyas
Writers: Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs & David S. Goyer
Starring: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien
Music: Trevor Jones
Length: 100 minutes / 111 minutes (director's cut)
Synopsis: a man wakes up with no memory, apparently a murderer; oh, and aliens control the world
How I saw it: on video many times (have on DVD), most recently (director's cut, rented from Netflix) August 2008
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.9/4 (Great).

This is such a bizarre and interesting movie. Sutherland's acting is a little off, but otherwise everything is nearly perfect.

As for the director's cut, there are two major changes, and both are significant improvements. However, there are also a million other tiny changes, adding a line or two of dialog here and there that contributes nothing and sometimes makes the flow of the scene awkward. There's a lot more explaining, of things that never needed explaining; just sort of introducing details for the sake of explaining them. It still gets the same 10/10 as the original version, but I'd have to say it's not quite as good.

Othello

Title: Othello
Year: 1965
Director: Stuart Burge
Writer: William Shakespeare
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, Frank Finlay, Derek Jacobi
Music: Richard Hampton
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Olivier), Best Supporting Actress (Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Redman) and Best Supporting Actor (Finlay)
Length: 165 minutes
Synopsis: a villain convinces his enemy that his wife is unfaithful
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), August 2008
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 3/10 (gets points for characters, cinematography and acting) c. 2.1/4 (Okay).

It did the job - I wanted to see Othello performed, and that's what this movie is: a performance of the play. But I don't really care for the play, and they didn't bring anything to it to change that. The acting is good, but not as great as you would hope given the cast, and not as engaging as what I imagined when I read it. I specifically rented this version because it's the entire play, but this play just isn't interesting enough to warrant filming the entire thing.

Fawlty Towers

Title: Fawlty Towers
Year: 1975, 1979
Network: BBC
Creators: John Cleese & Connie Booth
Directors: John Howard Davies (series 1), Bob Spiers (series 2)
Writers: John Cleese & Connie Booth
Starring: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs, Connie Booth
Music: Dennis Wilson
Episodes: 12, c. 30 minutes (two series of 6 episodes)
Synopsis: an angry jackass runs a hotel
How I saw it: online (streaming from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and special effects/design) c. 3.3/4 (Very good).

I hadn't bothered to watch this for the longest time simply because the premise sounded dumb, but in fact this is John Cleese at his best.

The King of Kong

Title: The King of Kong
Year: 2007
Director: Seth Gordon
Starring: Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell
Music: Craig Richey
Length: 79 minutes
Synopsis: disputes over the Donkey Kong high score world record
How I saw it: online (streaming from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 5/10 (points off for concept, cinematography, special effects/design, acting (n/a) and music) c. 2.6/4 (Good).

Entertaining and interesting, and I found myself still thinking about it afterward. The best documentaries always seem to be the ones that make you ask, "Why on earth would you make a documentary about that?"

The Honeymooners

Title: The Honeymooners
Year: 1955-1956
Network: CBS
Director: Frank Satenstein
Writers: Marvin Marx (16 episodes), Walter Stone (16), Leonard Stern (14), Sydney Zelinka (14), Herbert Finn (9), A.J. Russell (9)
Starring: Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Joyce Randolph
Music: Jackie Gleason (theme song), Sammy Spear
Episodes: 39
Synopsis: a scheming bus driver and his wife in a run-down New York apartment
How I saw it: on video (rented partly on VHS from the library, partly from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and music) c. 3.2/4 (Very good).

I don't like 1950's sitcoms, but this show is great. Not "funny for the 50's" or "funny for a sitcom" - just plain hilarious.

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Title: Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Year: 1982
Director: Terry Hughes & Ian MacNaughton
Writers: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones & Michael Palin
Starring: Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, Palin
Length: 77 minutes
Synopsis: film of a concert of a reenactment of sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 5/10 (points off for concept, story, cinematography, special effects and music) c. 2.1/4 (Okay).

Sort of the And Now for Something Completely Different for people who hate production values. It's kind of pointless that it exists, but it's still funny.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Title: Kind Hearts and Coronets
Year: 1949 (UK), 1950 (US)
Director: Robert Hamer
Writer: Robert Hamer & John Dighton, based on the novel by Roy Horniman
Starring: Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Alec Guinness
Music: Ernest Irving
Distinctions: currently #135 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 106 minutes
Synopsis: an estranged descendant of a Duke murders his relatives for an inheritance
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and music) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

It's only occasionally funny enough to get a laugh, although it is consistently entertaining otherwise. Alec Guinness plays eight roles (all of them fun characters), and I might not even have guessed they're the same person if the blurb (and the opening credits) hadn't pointed it out.

I Am So Proud of You

Title: "I Am So Proud of You"
Year: 2008
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Writer: Don Hertzfeldt
Starring: Don Hertzfeldt
Music: non-original music
Length: 22 minutes
Synopsis: the continued misadventures of a man with unspecified neurological problems
How I saw it: in the theater (part of An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.8/4 (Great).

Beautiful and funny.  The sequel to "Everything Will Be OK" (which can be seen on volume 3 of The Animation Show).  It's not as silly as earlier Hertzfeldt cartoons, but it's certainly one of his best. The expressiveness of the stick-figure animation is mind-boggling.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Season One

Title: The Sarah Jane Adventures: Season One
Year: 2007
Network: BBC
Creator: Russell T. Davies
Directors: Alice Troughton (4 episodes), Charles Martin (4), Graeme Harper (2), Colin Teague (1)
Writers: Gareth Roberts (5 episodes), Phil Ford (4), Philip Gladwin (2), Russell T. Davies (1)
Starring: Elisabeth Sladen, Yasmin Paige, Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony
Music: Murray Gold (theme song), Sam Watts
Episodes: 1 at 60 minutes, 10 at 25 minutes
Synopsis: Sarah Jane Smith teams up with a gang of children, age target-viewing-audience
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 5/10 (points off for concept, characters, cinematography, special effects/design and music) c. 2.1/4 (Okay).

Okay for a kid's show.  It's no Doctor Who, but it's somewhat entertaining and watchable.

The Go-Getter

Title: The Go-Getter
Year: 2007
Director: Martin Hynes
Writer: Martin Hynes
Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, Jena Malone
Music: M. Ward
Length: 93 minutes
Synopsis: an angsty teenager takes a road trip in a stolen car
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for concept and cinematography) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

It's got a lot of Bad Indie Movie tropes, but manages to be a pleasant romantic comedy despite itself. Not the sort of movie I like (we just rented it because of M. Ward - it's the movie responsible for the formation of the band She & Him), but I liked it anyway.

Step Brothers

Title: Step Brothers
Year: 2008
Director: Adam McKay
Writers: Will Ferrell & Adam McKay; story by Ferrell, McKay & John C. Reilly
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins
Music: Jon Brion
Length: 98 minutes
Synopsis: Two middle-aged guys who live with their parents become step brothers
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), December 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, cinematography and music) c. 3.0/4 (Good).

Will Ferrell: Man-Child. That's all I need to say. Either you think it's funny or you don't. If you don't, something may be wrong with you.

Hellboy

I felt the need to post this one to balance out my negative rating of Hellboy II.

Title: Hellboy
Year: 2004
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro; story by del Toro and Peter Briggs; based on the comic book by Mike Mignola
Starring: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones
Music: Marco Beltrami
Length: 122 minutes
Synopsis: a demon raised by the US Government fights supernatural badguys
How I saw it: in the theater, 2004; on video a number of times (used to have on DVD), most recently a couple years ago
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: n/a (too long since I've seen it, but I'd guess 7 or 8/10)

Lots of fun. The title character is instantly likable. The villains are original. The story is far from perfect, but compared to the typical genre/action movie (especially some of the crap that comes out of adapting comic book characters), it's excellent. Probably one of the top five superhero movies I've ever seen.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Title: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Year: 2008
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro, based on the comic book by Mike Mignola
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Seth MacFarlane, John Hurt
Music: Danny Elfman
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Makeup
Length: 120 minutes
Synopsis: an elf tries to rule the world with mythical robots
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), November 2008
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad).
Objective Rating: 1/10 (gets a point for pacing) c. 1.5/4 (Eh).

They did manage to get Hellboy into the movie for a few minutes, but that's about the only good thing about any of the ideas here.  When a movie has Ron Pearlman and John Hurt and I can't even give it a point for acting... something is very, very wrong. Maybe I'm being harsh because I had high expectations. Probably not.