Star Trek: Voyager: Season Seven

Star Trek: Voyager: Season Seven, 2000-2001. A spaceship stranded on the other side of the galaxy continues to make its way home.

Created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, & Jeri Taylor. Directed by Mike Vejar (6 episodes), Allan Kroeker (5), Terry Windell (4), David Livingston (3), LeVar Burton (3), Winrich Kolbe (2), Robert Duncan McNeill (1), Peter Lauritson (1), & Roxann Dawson (1). Written by Kenneth Biller (12 episodes), Mike Sussman (7), Robert Doherty (7), Brannon Braga (5), Michael Taylor (5), Bryan Fuller (5), Raf Green (5), James Kahn (4), Phyllis Strong (4), André Bormanis (3), Rick Berman (2), Joe Menosky (1), Carleton Eastlake (1), Mark Haskell Smith (1), Eric Morris (1), Robert Lederman (1), Dave Long (1), Jack Monaco (1), Larry Nemecek (1), J. Kelley Burke (1), Andrew Shepard Price (1), & Mark Gaberman (1). Starring Kate Mulgrew, with Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan, & Garrett Wang.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: There's a lot of mediocrity, and expectations were pretty high, given the past two seasons' quality and the fact that the impending end of the series should make big things happen (it never did) - so I'm reluctant to say it was good. But it has its moments, and at its worst it's still watchable. B

GPA: 2.4/4

The Cosby Show: Season One

The Cosby Show: Season One, 1984-1985. The day-to-day life of a large, wealthy family.

Created by Ed. Weinberger, Michael Leeson, & Bill Cosby. Directed by Jay Sandrich. Written by John Markus (9 episodes), Earl Pomerantz (3), Matt Williams (3), Jerry Ross (2), Elliot Shoenman (2), Matt Robinson (2), Carmen Finestra (2), Weinberger (1), Leeson (1), Michael Loman (1), Karyl Geld Miller (1), Korby Siamis (1), Winifred Hervey (1), & Emily Tracy (1). Starring Cosby, with Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, & Keshia Knight Pulliam.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: The best season of the best sit-com of all time. Not that I've watched a lot of sit-coms, but I'm still confident that nothing else comes close. A+

GPA: 3.2/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

Divergent

Divergent, 2014. A dystopian society maintains order by eliminating people who don't conform.

Directed by Neil Burger. Written by Evan Daugherty & Vanessa Taylor, based on a book by Veronica Roth. Starring Shailene Woodley, with Theo James & Kate Winslet.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Painless. There's nothing good in it that isn't shamelessly stolen from Hunger Games, and there's nothing original in it that isn't nonsense. But they made a pretty okay movie, considering what they had to work with. C

GPA: 2.2/4

The Phantom Menace

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 26 of 100



Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, 1999. Political machinations lead to war... in space!

Written & directed by George Lucas. Starring Liam Neeson, with Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, & Jake Lloyd.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: Terrible effects, but great sound. D
Acting: D
Music: B
Enjoyment: Grating. I hadn't seen it since it was originally released, so I didn't remember just how bad it is. I thought maybe it was judged harshly because of the high expectations. No. It's just awful. Depressingly bad. F

GPA: 1.5/4

The Twilight Zone: "The Big Tall Wish"

The Twilight Zone: "The Big Tall Wish" (episode 27 of 36 from season one), 1960. A boy makes a wish on behalf of his boxer friend.

Created & written by Rod Serling. Directed by Ron Winston. Starring Ivan Dixon, with Stephen Perry.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: D
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Not my favorite, but if I had to pick one episode of The Twilight Zone that demonstrates what it can be at it's best, I'd likely pick this one. A

GPA: 2.9/4

The Raid

Serbuan maut, 2012. A SWAT team raids a gangster's apartment building.

Written & directed by Gareth Evans. Starring Iko Uwais, with Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, & Ray Sahetapy.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: D
Enjoyment: 90 minutes of brutal fighting, and 10 minutes of plot. It is what it is. C

GPA: 2.0/4

The Twilight Zone: "Execution"

The Twilight Zone: "Execution" (episode 26 of 36 from season one), 1960. An old west outlaw is transported to present day New York.

Created & written by Rod Serling, based on a story by George Clayton Johnson. Directed by David Orrick McDearmon. Starring Albert Salmi, with Russell Johnson & Than Wyenn.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: A fun idea, and the story never becomes predictable. There's so much more that could have been done with it, though, if they weren't limited to 25 minutes. B

GPA: 3.1/4

Noah

Noah, 2014. Noah saves the animals from the end of the world.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Written by Aronofsky & Ari Handel. Starring Russell Crowe, with Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, & Douglas Booth.

Concept: I can see how it isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I love what they're trying to do with this movie - taking the grand, mythological aspects of the bible (rather than the lessons the stories were meant to teach) as a starting point for high fantasy, the way Tolkien used European mythologies. A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: D
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: Post-apocalyptic science fiction alongside pseudo-stop-motion storybook elements. The animals look kind of crappy, but they're actually a pretty small part of the movie. A
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Pretty damn cool. If anyone was going to love this movie, it was me. But it's too long, and drags a lot. B

GPA: 3.0/4

Intolerance

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 25 of 100



Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, 1916. Babylon is attacked by Persia, Jesus is crucified, the Huguenots are massacred, and the modern-day working class are oppressed.

Written & directed by D.W. Griffith. Starring Mae Marsh, Constance Talmadge, & Margery Wilson, with Elmer Clifton, Miriam Cooper, Josephine Crowell, Howard Gaye, Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Vera Lewis, Tully Marshall, Seena Owen, Alfred Paget, Eugene Pallette, & Maxfield Stanley.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: C
Music: n/a (Netflix sent us a crappy edition, which necessitated watching with the sound off. )
Enjoyment: It could have been a lot worse. It's clearly a very important movie. I didn't get anything out of it, though, other than historical appreciation. C

GPA: 2.3/4

The Twilight Zone: "People Are Alike All Over"

The Twilight Zone: "People Are Alike All Over" (episode 25 of 36 from season one), 1960. A frightened astronaut meets the people of Mars.

Created & written by Rod Serling, based on a story by Paul W. Fairman. Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Starring Roddy McDowall.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Pretty good episode. It's not until near the end that it becomes clear where the story is going, so there's some suspense. B

GPA: 2.8/4

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York, 2008. An unhappy theater director stages a replica of his life in a warehouse.

Written & directed by Charlie Kaufman. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, & Tom Noonan.

Concept: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: I found myself checking the time more and more often as the movie goes on, but I wouldn't change anything. It's never boring, and in the end you feel like you've lived through these years. B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: Strange on a level that's strange relative to other Charlie Kaufman movies. Usually when a movie is described as having "dream logic," it's code for saying they do whatever arbitrary, surreal nonsense seemed like a good idea at the time. But with this movie, it actually does use dream logic. I don't always know what's literally going on, but still at any point I could pause it and explain what's happening, and why. A

GPA: 3.8/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

The Twilight Zone: "Long Live Walter Jameson"

The Twilight Zone: "Long Live Walter Jameson" (episode 24 of 36 from season one), 1960. A history professor knows his subject a little too well.

Created by Rod Serling. Directed by Anton Leader. Written by Charles Beaumont. Starring Kevin McCarthy & Edgar Stehli.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: They clearly spent the entire budget on the makeup effect. B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's a pretty good story, although the execution is rougher than I expect from this show. B

GPA: 2.6/4

Away We Go

Away We Go, 2009. An expectant couple searches for a place to live.

Directed by Sam Mendes. Written by Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida. Starring John Krasinski & Maya Rudolph, with Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey, & Paul Schneider.

Concept: People Who Love Each Other: The Movie. B
Story: B
Characters: The secondary characters are too absurd, but the leads make up for it. A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: Often great. B
Music: B
Enjoyment: I thought it was great the first time I saw it, and the second time around I got a lot more out of it. (Maybe I was expecting a comedy the first time, given the cast, and held the lack of belly laughs against it.) Seeing real love portrayed in a movie is a rare and powerful thing. A+

GPA: 3.5/4

[update of previous post - original is here]

Freaks

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 24 of 100



Freaks, 1932. A woman feigns affection for a circus dwarf.

Directed by Tod Browning. Based on a story by Tod Robbins. Starring Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor, Harry Earles, & Daisy Earles.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: F
Music: C
Enjoyment: Notable for being a weird movie, not for being a good movie. There are some okay scenes. Ford and Hyams are good together - although they're a very small part of the movie. It might have been an okay movie with better acting in the main roles. C

GPA: 1.6/4

Oculus

Oculus, 2014. A woman plans to document an evil mirror's evilness before destroying it.

Directed by Mike Flanagan. Written by Flanagan & Jeff Howard, based on their short film. Starring Karen Gillan & Brenton Thwaites, with Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, & Garrett Ryan.

Concept: B
Story: It opens with a dream sequence. This situation continues. There are probably a couple dozen instances (I'm not even exagerating) of Waking Up From Something Horrible Oh It Was All a Dream. Which I guess is the point? Which makes everything pretty pointless. D
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's very scary, but takes cheap routes to get there. Like variations on a theme of eating glass. C

GPA: 2.4/4

The Twilight Zone: "A World of Difference"

The Twilight Zone: "A World of Difference" (episode 23 of 36 from season one), 1960. A man finds he's an actor, shooting a movie that he thought was reality.

Created by Rod Serling. Directed by Ted Post. Written by Richard Matheson. Starring Howard Duff.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: A neat idea that could have easily turned into a bad episode, but they handled it well. B

GPA: 2.8/4

The Conformist

Il conformista, 1970. A man concerned with normalcy goes to work for fascist Italy.

Written & directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on a book by Alberto Moravia. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, with Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio, & Dominique Sanda.

Concept: C
Story: It wouldn't be a bad story, but it's badly told. D
Characters: Again, bad storytelling probably takes a lot away. D
Dialog: D
Pacing: F
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Well, that's a mess. I guess it's important for innovating non-linear film? Unfortunately, the result in this case is just taking things out of a context where they might have worked. And I'm not sure it would have been any good to begin with. D

GPA: 1.9/4

21 Jump Street

21 Jump Steret, 2012. Crappy cops go undercover as teenagers.

Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Written by Michael Bacall; story by Bacall & Jonah Hill, based on a tv show by Patrick Hasburgh & Stephen J. Cannell. Starring Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum, with Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, & Ice Cube.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: Mostly harmless. It's not a funny as I expected it to be, and I didn't have high expectations. It's fairly amusing, though. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Five

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Five, 2000-2001. The vampire-hunter inexplicably has a little sister.

Created by Joss Whedon. Directed by David Solomon (4 episodes), David Grossman (3), James A. Contner (3), Whedon (3), Nick Marck (2), Dan Attias (2), Marti Noxon (2), Michael Gershman (2), & Christopher Hibler (1). Written by Jane Espenson (5 episodes), Douglas Petrie (4), Noxon (3), David Fury (3), Rebecca Rand Kirshner (3), Whedon (3), & Steven S. DeKnight (2). Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, with Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg, & Anthony Stewart Head.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: Gellar is great. B
Music: Bonus points for silence. B
Enjoyment: It's as if time-travelling Joss Whedon read my complaints about previous seasons' moping/brooding, and adjusted the show accordingly. About halfway through the season, the boring boyfriend character is cut, and suddenly they have room to focus on telling great stories. And boy howdy they take advantage of it. A

GPA: 3.1/4

The Twilight Zone: "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"

The Twilight Zone: "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (episode 22 of 36 from season one), 1960. A meteor and power outage lead to paranoia.

Created & written by Rod Serling. Directed by Ron Winston. Starring Claude Akins, Barry Atwater, & Jack Weston.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: A great idea, not executed particularly well. The turns are too sudden and extreme to be believable, and it ends up more a political cartoon than the thriller or parable it's meant to be. C

GPA: 2.4/4

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014. Super secret spies are so secret they don't know their own secrets.

Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo. Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, based on books by Ed Brubaker, Joe Simon, & Jack Kirby. Starring Chris Evans & Scarlett Johansson, with Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, & Frank Grillo.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's great - nearly Avengers great - for the first two thirds or so. Then it gets boring. The quality of the action plummets, the plot "twists" are disappointingly unclever, and the banter disappears. B

GPA: 2.8/4

The Milky Way

The Milky Way, 1936. A milkman with an uncanny ability to duck becomes a boxer.

Directed by Leo McCarey. Written by Grover Jones, Frank Butler, & Richard Connell, based on a play by Lynn Root & Harry Clork. Starring Harold Lloyd, with Adolphe Menjou, Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William Gargan, George Barbier, & Dorothy Wilson.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: One of the funniest movies from Hollywood's "Golden Age" that I've seen - and by far the funniest Harold Lloyd movie. It doesn't have anything to offer other than laughs, but it's hilarious. A

GPA: 2.4/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

The Cat's Paw

The Cat's Paw, 1934. A man raised in China comes to America and runs for Mayor of a corrupt town.

Written & directed by Sam Taylor; story by Clarence Budington Kelland. Starring Harold Lloyd & Una Merkel, with George Barbier, Nat Pendleton, Grace Bradley, & Alan Dinehart.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's more like a 1980's movie than something you'd expect to be made by a silent film star. Except that if it was made in the 80's it wouldn't be any good, while this is quite witty. B

GPA: 2.2/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

The Twilight Zone: "Mirror Image"

The Twilight Zone: "Mirror Image" (episode 21 of 36 from season one), 1960. A woman encounters evidence of her double.

Created & written by Rod Serling. Directed by John Brahm. Starring Vera Miles & Martin Milner.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It doesn't really go anywhere with its idea, but it's a creepy enough idea to make a good episode on its own. B

GPA: 2.6/4

The Twilight Zone: "Elegy"

The Twilight Zone: "Elegy" (episode 20 of 36 from season one), 1960. Space explorers discover a world frozen in Earth's past.

Created by Rod Serling. Directed by Douglas Heyes. Written by Charles Beaumont. Starring Cecil Kellaway, Jeff Morrow, Don Dubbins, & Kevin Hagen.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: I don't know why this episode didn't work for me. I like all the elements, and it's not badly put together. None-the-less, it didn't really work for me. C

GPA: 2.2/4

Muppets Most Wanted

Muppets Most Wanted, 2014. Jewel thieves use the Muppets as a cover.

Directed by James Bobin. Written by Bobin, & Nicholas Stoller. Starring Steve Whitmire & Matt Vogel, with Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, & Peter Linz.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: I guess the Muppets are in it. Technically. C
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: We left the theater debating whether this movie or Muppet Treasure Island is worse. In retrospect, that was grossly unfair to Treasure Island. C

GPA: 1.8/4

"Party Central"

"Party Central" (short), 2014. The Monsters University monsters steal a frat party.

Directed by Kelsey Mann. Written by Pete Docter. Starring Billy Crystal, Charlie Day, Dave Foley, John Goodman, Sean Hayes, Joel Murray, Peter Sohn, & Julia Sweeney.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: I loved these characters in their movie; here, they might as well not even be there. D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: At least Disney's putting shorts in front of their movies (even if it is only the "kid's" movies). I love that. If they keep at it, they'll eventually make a good one again, I'm sure. C

GPA: 2.0/4