"Bacall to Arms"

"Bacall to Arms" (short), 1946. A wolf freaks out while watching To Have and Have Not.

Directed by Robert Clampett, & Arthur Davis. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: C
Story: F
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: There's enough Clampett energy to keep it enjoyable, but none of the gags are actually funny. C

GPA: 2.1/4

To Have and Have Not

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 38 of 100



To Have and Have Not, 1944. A fisherman gets involved with the French resistance.

Directed by Howard Hawks. Written by Jules Furthman, & William Faulkner, based on a book by Ernest Hemingway. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, & Lauren Bacall, with Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, & Marcel Dalio.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: It desperately wants to be Casablanca, and it does a pretty good imitation. Meanwhile, Lauren Bacall. A

GPA: 3.4/4

Survivor: Season 13

Survivor: Season 13, 2006. A reality game on South Pacific islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Of the six seasons I've seen so far, this one stands out as easily the best. There are lots of great players (half of them, on other seasons, could have run the game), and the competition stayed strong right through the end of the game. B

GPA: 2.4/4

"The CooCoo Nut Grove"

"The CooCoo Nut Grove" (short), 1936. Celebrity caricatures at a night club.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Starring Peter Lind Hayes, & Wini Shaw.

Concept: D
Story: F
Characters: F
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: Caricature cartoons are never good, and as caricature cartoons go, this one is pretty dull. C

GPA: 1.9/4

"Little Beau Porky"

"Little Beau Porky" (short), 1936. Porky defends a Foreign Legion fort.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Starring Joe Dougherty, & Billy Bletcher.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Kind of awkward, and not funny. Porky's starting to get cuter, which is really the only positive. D

GPA: 1.7/4

"Porky's Poultry Plant"

"Porky's Poultry Plant" (short), 1936. Porky defends his farm against birds.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Starring Joe Dougherty.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: F
Music: Carl Stalling's first cartoon, and it is striking, after watching a lot of earlier Looney Tunes, how far a Stalling score goes to making a cartoon. Once you've got Stalling, you've already got half the cartoon. A
Enjoyment: It has the old-timey approach (or lack there-of) to story and characters, but takes some big steps towards the classic Looney Tunes approach to humor. C

GPA: 1.8/4

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner, 2014. A group of boys wake up with no memories in a giant maze.

Directed by Wes Ball. Written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, & T.S. Nowlin, based on a book by James Dashner. Starring Dylan O'Brien, with Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, & Kaya Scodelario.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: Inconsistent effects, but some great design. B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: For most of the movie, it seems pretty great. But it's a mystery with no solution, so it doesn't work. C

GPA: 2.4/4

The Last Laugh

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 37 of 100



Der letzte Mann, 1924. A hotel doorman is disproportionately upset about being demoted.

Directed by F.W. Murnau. Written by Carl Mayer. Starring Emil Jannings.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: F
Cinematography: It's obviously hugely important and ground-breaking, but it's pretty basic by modern standards. B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: I don't know why this is highly regarded. Maybe it's because not many people watch something with such a dull story unless they're predisposed to like a dull movie. Apart from the historical importance of the cinematography, there is no reason to watch this. F

GPA: 1.7/4

Survivor: Season 12

Survivor: Season 12, 2006. A reality game on Panamanian islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: There are a couple great strategy moments, but a lot of the season goes by without anything happening. There are only two or three contestants to root for, and all but one of them is out of the game by the halfway point. C

GPA: 2.0/4

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes: "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (tv movie), 1988. Sherlock Holmes solves a murder possibly involving an evil dog.

Series created by John Hawkesworth. Directed by Brian Mills. Written by T.R. Bowen, based on a book by Arthur Conan Doyle. Starring Jeremy Brett, & Edward Hardwicke, with Alastair Duncan, Kristoffer Tabori, James Faulkner, & Fiona Gillies.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: Remarkably poorly edited. D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Holmes isn't around much in this story. When he is, there are a couple nice scenes. Mostly it's pretty dull, though. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Calvary

Calvary, 2014. A priest is informed that he'll be murdered in one week.

Written & directed by John Michael McDonagh. Starring Brendan Gleeson, with Chris O'Dowd, & Kelly Reilly.

Concept: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: B
Acting: I know a limited-release Irish film isn't going to get any Oscar attention, but I will still be upset when Gleeson doesn't get a best actor nomination. A
Music: B
Enjoyment: Easily one of the best films I've seen all year, and, objectively, one of the best-made I've seen in years, It's much less of comedy than the other McDonagh brothers' films - and too depressing to be a favorite of mine, despite its greatness. A

GPA: 3.7/4

The Hundred-Foot Journey

The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2014. An Indian family opens a restaurant in France.

Directed by Lasse Hallström. Written by Steven Knight, based on a book by Richard C. Morais. Starring Manish Dayal, & Helen Mirren, with Om Puri, & Charlotte Le Bon.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Painless. It has some charm - mostly from the cast, and the scenery is nice. C

GPA: 2.3/4

Blazing Saddles

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 36 of 100



Blazing Saddles, 1974. An Old West railroad baron arranges the appointment of a black sheriff.

Directed by Mel Brooks. Written by Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, & Alan Uger; story by Bergman. Starring Cleavon Little, & Gene Wilder, with Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, & Brooks.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Half the jokes aren't funny, but they just keep coming. It's too shamelessly silly to not be enjoyable. B

GPA: 2.8/4

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Seven

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Seven, 2002-2003. The vampire-hunter faces a hopeless battle.

Created by Joss Whedon. Directed by David Solomon (5 episodes), James A. Contner (3), Nick Marck (2), Michael Gershman (2), David Grossman (2), Marita Grabiak (2), Rick Rosenthal (1), Alan J. Levi (1), Michael Grossman (1), Douglas Petrie (1), David Fury (1), & Whedon (1). Written by Jane Espenson (6 episodes), Drew Goddard (5), Petrie (4), Rebecca Rand Kirshner (3), Drew Z. Greenberg (3), Fury (3), Whedon (2), & Marti Noxon (1). Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, with Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg, & Alyson Hannigan.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Buffy's Greatest Hits. There aren't any ambitious or novel episodes to stand out as memorable, but the story keeps you hooked (despite seeming too simple to carry 22 episodes). And they manage to find an epic, satisfying way to conclude the series, which is impressive considering they'd already killed the main character as a previous season finale. B

GPA: 2.6/4

The Phantom of the Opera

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 35 of 100



The Phantom of the Opera, 1925. A madman living beneath Paris is obsessed with an opera singer.

Directed by Rupert Julian. Based on a book by Gaston Leroux. Starring Lon Chaney, & Mary Philbin, with Norman Kerry, & Arthur Edmund Carewe.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Surprisingly enjoyable. It's corny, not at all scary or suspenseful, but it's fun. B

GPA: 2.5/4

Star Trek: Enterprise: Season Two

Star Trek: Enterprise: Season Two, 2002-2003. A spaceship crew explores the galaxy.

Created by Rick Berman, & Brannon Braga. Directed by David Livingston (5 episodes), James A. Contner (4), Roxann Dawson (3), David Straiton (3), Allan Kroeker (2), Mike Vejar (2), James Whitmore, Jr. (2), LeVar Burton (2), Patrick Norris (1), James L. Conway (1), & Robert Duncan McNeill (1). Written by Berman (13 episodes), Braga (13), Chris Black (5), Mike Sussman (5), Phyllis Strong (5), John Shiban (4), David A. Goodman (2), André Bormanis (2), Dan O'Shannon (1), David Wilcox (1), Allan Kroeker (1), & Hans Tobeason (1). Starring Scott Bakula, with John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, & Connor Trinneer.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: I can tell them apart now, so that's nice. C
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's a lot better than the first season, but that's not saying much. And the later episodes are mostly better than the earlier episodes, so the season probably seems better looking back than it is. C

GPA: 1.8/4