Aliens

The Top 63 Marathon, part 10



Data
Title: Aliens
Year: 1986
Length: 154 minutes (special edition)
Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron; story by Cameron, David Giler & Walter Hill; characters by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein
Music: James Horner
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing; Oscar nominations for Best Actress (Weaver), Best Score, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Editing and Best Sound; currently #53 on the IMDb's Top 250



My reaction
Synopsis: space marines visit a colony infested by deadly aliens
How I saw it: on video many times (have on DVD), most recently yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Good.
Characters: Indifferent.
Dialog: Bad. Game over, man!
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Indifferent. About half the cast is really good, and the other half is really bad.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites). There's a lot of action movie cliches and general James Camerony corniness that comes pretty close to wrecking it, but overall it's extremely effective. And it's a lot scarier than I'd remembered it being.
Objective Rating: 2.8/4 2.9/4 (Good).

Spirited Away

The Top 63 Marathon, part 9



Data
Title: Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Year: 2001 (Japan), 2002 (US)
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Rumi Hîragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki (Japanese version); Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden (English version)
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Animated Feature (2003); currently #55 on the IMDb's Top 250



My reaction
Synopsis: a witch who runs a bath house for gods turns a girl's parents into pigs
How I saw it: on video many times (have on DVD), most recently yesterday (Japanese version)
Concept: Great.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). Delightful. But not quite as wonderful as I remember thinking it was in the past - probably because I've seen a number of amazing cartoons (Snow White and Wall-E, for instance) since the last time I watched it.
Objective Rating: 3.5/4 (Very good).

awesome people part 10

Here are a few random people who happen to be awesome. I’m just saying.

Dave Eggers
Evidence:
- Away We Go, 2009 (co-writer)
- Where the Wild Things Are, 2009 (co-writer)

Clint Eastwood
Evidence:
- Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, 1966 (Blondie)
- Unforgiven, 1992 (director/William Munny)
- Gran Torino, 2008 (director/Walt Kowalski)

Douglas Adams
Evidence:
- Doctor Who, 1978-1980 (writer/script editor)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1981 (creator/writer)

Christopher Nolan
Evidence:
- Memento, 2001 (director/writer)
- Batman Begins, 2005 (director/co-writer)
- The Prestige, 2006 (director/co-writer)
- The Dark Knight, 2008 (director/co-writer)

Bill Murray
Evidence:
- Ghost Busters, 1984 (Peter Venkman)
- Groundhog Day, 1993 (Phil)
- Lost in Translation, 2003 (Bob Harris)

Lost: Season Six

Data
Title: Lost: Season Six
Year: 2010
Network: ABC
Episodes: 18, about 42 minutes each
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Jack Bender (8 episodes), Paul A. Edwards (3), Tucker Gates (3), Bobby Roth (1), Mario Van Peebles (1), Daniel Attias (1), Stephen Semel (1)
Writers: Damon Lindelof (7 episodes), Carlton Cuse (7), Edward Kitsis (4), Adam Horowitz (4), Elizabeth Sarnoff (4), Paul Zbyszewski (3), Graham Roland (3), Melinda Hsu Taylor (2), Jim Galasso (2), Greggory Nations (1)
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Nestor Carbonell, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn
Music: Michael Giacchino

My reaction
Synopsis: "candidates" vs. smoke monster
How I saw it: on hulu, as it aired
Concept: Terrible. It's like the whole show has just been a giant practical joke.
Story: Terrible. Not only is the ending disappointing beyond anything I could have imagined, but there isn't even anything interesting that happens on the way (with the minor exception of "Ab Aeterno").
Characters: Good. While there are a lot of great characters, they all fade into the background in the last few episodes.
Dialog: Bad. If you fed past seasons' scripts into a computer that could look for common phrases and randomly arrange them in a grammatical context, you'd get most of season six's dialog.
Pacing: Indifferent. They let on that it wasn't going anywhere a bit too early, so by the time the finale came around I didn't even care anymore and was just watching out of habit. Also, what's with >50% of the finale consisting of the same scene, repeated over and over again?
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good. Most of the cast has gotten tedious by this point, but a handful are still quite good.
Music: Indifferent. Even Giacchino underwhelms. What the hell? Maybe he's just got better things to do than put any effort into this crap.
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad). So very angry with these writers. They took a popular culture icon and crapped all over it. Note to self: serial drama + mystery = don't get involved.
Objective Rating: 1.8/4 (Eh).

ETA: I forgot to mention/complain: DRAIN PLUG!

The Ghost Writer

Data
Title: The Ghost Writer
Year: 2010
Length: 128 minutes
Director: Roman Polanski
Writers: Roman Polanski & Robert Harris, based on Harris' novel
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams
Music: Alexandre Desplat

My reaction
Synopsis: a writer working on a former prime minister's memoirs ends up involved in deadly shenanigans
How I saw it: in the theater, yesterday [update: rewatched, on video from Netflix, August 2010]
Concept: Bad.
Story: Great. The final scene could have been better - it's a good ending as far as the mystery goes, but not so good dramatically. The rest of the movie is extremely well written.
Characters: Indifferent. They're more like chess pieces than people.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good. I was kind of dreading seeing a movie with both Ewan McGregor AND Pierce Brosnan - I mean, how could that possibly be good? But actually everyone is very good. Also, Brosnan doesn't have a big role.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). A very high 7. I'm not a big fan of the light-on-action-thriller-for-grownups genre, but it's pretty cool to see two movies in a short time (this and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) that do it so well.
Objective Rating: 3.1/4 (Very good).

Monsieur Verdoux

Data
Title: Monsieur Verdoux
Year: 1947
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin, based on an idea by Orson Welles
Starring: Charles Chaplin
Music: Charles Chaplin
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay

My reaction
Synopsis: a man murders wealthy women to support his family
How I saw it: in the theater, yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Good.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Indifferent.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). When it's funny, it's good (although never great), but there's a lot of movie here that's more along the lines of serious drama. I can't help thinking of this as Time Travelin' Charlie Chaplin's attempt at making a Coen Brothers movie - which sounds like a great thing, except it's not. Chaplin's a great comic, but I don't think he's much of a filmmaker. I understand it's a groundbreaking movie, but when you've seen some of the great black comedies that followed it, it doesn't hold up.
Objective Rating: 2.7/4 (Good).

Doctor Who #86: The Masque of Mandragora

Data
Title: Doctor Who: “The Masque of Mandragora”
Year: 1976
Network: BBC
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes each; the first story (of 6) from season 14
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Rodney Bennett
Writer: Louis Marks
Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Dudley Simpson

My reaction
Synopsis: evil space energy invades 15th-Century Italy
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), a couple days ago
Concept: Indifferent. Space energy doesn't exactly make for a compelling antagonist.
Story: Indifferent.
Characters: Indifferent.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Indifferent. Nice sets and costumes, but bad visual effects.
Acting: Good.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). It's a pretty dull episode overall, but Tom Baker manages to save things (as usual).
Objective Rating: 2.2/4 (Okay).

Iron Man 2

Data
Title: Iron Man 2
Year: 2010
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Justin Theroux, based on characters by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke
Music: John Debney (and non-original music)
Oscars: nomination for Best Visual Effects

My reaction
Synopsis: Iron Man tries to keep his suit's technology to himself
How I saw it: in the theater, yesterday
Concept: Bad.
Story: Bad.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Bad.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Good.
Music: Bad.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). The action is terrible, and the plot is basically just an excuse for the action. Despite that, there's not actually much fighting, which is a good thing. Still, the plot is completely uninteresting, and anything that's good about the movie was much better in the first one. It's implied that in the period between the two movies, Iron Man did a lot of saving the day, maybe even some superhero-ing. Why can't we see that movie?
Objective Rating: 2.0/4 (Indifferent).

The Blind Side

Data
Title: The Blind Side
Year: 2009
Length: 129 minutes
Director: John Lee Hancock
Writer: John Lee Hancock, based on the book by Michael Lewis
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron
Music: Carter Burwell (and non-original music)
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Actress (Bullock); Oscar nomination for Best Picture

My reaction
Synopsis: a black, homeless teenager is taken in by white, wealthy football fans
How I saw it: on video, a few days ago
Concept: Terrible.
Story: Terrible.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Good. I guess, more-or-less. For a bad feel-good movie, it's good acting. For an Oscar-winning movie, it's pretty underwhelming. It might have been a lot better if the script had given them anything that comes remotely close to having an emotional impact.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad). If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie. And here I was upset about Avatar's Oscar nominations...
Objective Rating: 1.8/4 (Eh).

Phoebe in Wonderland

Data
Title: Phoebe in Wonderland
Year: 2009
Length: 96 minutes
Director: Daniel Barnz
Writer: Daniel Barnz
Starring: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson
Music: Christophe Beck

My reaction
Synopsis: a disturbed little girl gets the lead in a school production of Alice in Wonderland
How I saw it: on video, a few days ago
Concept: Indifferent.
Story: Indifferent. There's nothing wrong with the story, it's just not a story-driven kind of movie.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Great.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Nothing spectacular, but good. It has some nice quiet humor, and it's pleasant to watch even when it's dealing with emotionally unpleasant situations.
Objective Rating: 3.1/4 (Very good).

Doctor Who #73: The Monster of Peladon

Data
Title: Doctor Who: “The Monster of Peladon”
Year: 1974
Network: BBC
Episodes: 6, at 25 minutes each; the fourth story (of 5) from season 11
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Lennie Mayne
Writer: Brian Hayles
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Dudley Simpson

My reaction
Synopsis: the Doctor returns to Peladon, where the working classes are being exploited to further an intergalactic war effort
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Bad. Of all the stories to give a sequel... yeesh.
Story: Good.
Characters: Indifferent. They're good characters in theory, but it's not very well-written as far as character stuff goes.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Bad.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Bad. Greatly improved since the last Peladon story. But then there are the badger-clowns...
Acting: Indifferent.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). I kind of hate planet Peladon, but it isn't nearly so bad this time around.
Objective Rating: 1.9/4 (Eh).

M

The Top 63 Marathon, part 8



Data
Title: M
Year: 1931 (Germany), 1933 (US)
Length: 110 minutes
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Thea von Harbou & Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre
Distinctions: currently #56 on the IMDb's Top 250



My reaction
Synopsis: a child-murderer is hunted by gangsters and the police
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Great.
Characters: Indifferent. Apart from Lorre's character, no one has any personality whatsoever.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Good. Great in the second half, but a bit slow to get started.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Good. Mostly great, but I've got to take off a little for some problems with the sound.
Acting: Great. Kind of, I guess. At least Lorre is great.
Music: Great. I could be forgetting something, but I think there's no music except for the character whistling.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). It's got some problems. The first half is very dated (although in the second half it turns into one of the best serial killer movies ever made), and the final scene (where someone talks directly to the audience) really bugs me. But I almost gave it an 8/10.
Objective Rating: 3.4/4 (Very good).

Doctor Who #61: The Curse of Peladon

Data
Title: Doctor Who: "The Curse of Peladon"
Year: 1972
Network: BBC
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes each; the second story (of 5) from season 9
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Lennie Mayne
Writer: Brian Hayles
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Dudley Simpson

My reaction
Synopsis: intrigue, as alien delegates visit a backwards planet
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Indifferent.
Story: Indifferent. Good for the most part, with a few major lulls.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Bad. There are a couple good ideas, like a head in a dome with oozing slime, but the execution is terrible and the costumes are some of the worst ever.
Acting: Bad. Apart from Pertwee and Manning, everyone is pretty awful.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). Nothing really worth seeing, but I was reasonably entertained - often for the wrong reasons.
Objective Rating: 1.7/4 (Eh).

Double Indemnity

The Top 63 Marathon, part 7



Data
Title: Double Indemnity
Year: 1944
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder & Raymond Chandler, based on the novel by James M. Cain
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Music: Miklós Rózsa
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Stanwyck), Best Score, Best Cinematography (black-and-white) and Best Sound Recording; currently #58 on the IMDb's Top 250



My reaction
Synopsis: murder for insurance money
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Good. Predictable, but solidly written.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Bad. Wonderfully, wonderfully bad.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Bad.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). I guess it was groundbreaking, but it's aged into cornball kitsch. I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be a comedy. It's very entertaining, though, whatever its context.
Objective Rating: 2.6/4 (Good).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Top 63 Marathon, part 6



Data
Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Year: 2004
Length: 108 minutes
Director: Michel Gondry
Writer: Charlie Kaufman; story by Kaufman, Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst
Music: Jon Brion (and non-original music)
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; Oscar nomination for Best Actress (Winslet); currently #57 on the IMDb's Top 250



My reaction
Synopsis: a couple have each other erased from their memories
How I saw it: on video many times (have on DVD), most recently yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites). One of those movies where I always forget how good it is. It evokes this strange feeling, like waking up from a sad dream to find out everything's okay - a particular sort of beautiful joy that can only come out of sadness.
Objective Rating: 3.9/4 4.0/4 (Great).

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Data
Title: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Year: 2009
Length: 123 minutes
Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: Terry Gilliam & Charles McKeown
Starring: Heath Ledger, Lily Cole, Christopher Plummer, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Tom Waits
Music: Jeff Danna & Mychael Danna
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design



My reaction
Synopsis: a magical old man has a deal with the devil
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Bad.
Characters: Bad. There was huge potential here, but nope, no good.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Indifferent. F***ing Verne Troyer... there's a reason his only memorable role was mute.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). I challenge anyone to make sense of this movie. Go ahead, just try it.
Objective Rating: 2.4/4 (Okay).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Data
Title: Män som hatar kvinnor
Year: 2009 (Sweden), 2010 (US)
Length: 152 minutes
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Writers: Nikolaj Arcel & Rasmus Heisterberg, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace
Music: Jacob Groth

My reaction
Synopsis: a journalist investigates a 40-year-old mystery, while a hacker spies on him
How I saw it: in the theater, yesterday
Concept: Indifferent. A thriller featuring a hacker? Really? Is it 1995 yet?
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Great. Continuously engrossing.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). A strong film - both in the well-made sense and in the black coffee sense. There are some scenes that are horribly unpleasant to watch. But they're a relatively small portion of the movie, and they make important contributions to the story and characters. Overall, it's a much more entertaining movie than I expected based on its Swedishness, the bad poster and the premise (which in fact is not anywhere near as lame as it sounds when glibly summarized).
Objective Rating: 3.2/4 (Very good).