"She Was an Acrobat's Daughter"

"She Was an Acrobat's Daughter" (short), 1937. Various animals go the the movies.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Starring Dave Barry, Sara Berner, & Mel Blanc.

Concept: C
Story: F
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: My first impression was that it's awful and doesn't make any sense. After watching it a couple more times, I've figured out how to navigate it well enough that it's grown on me. I still wouldn't call it a good cartoon, but maybe I'd feel differently if I understood half the references. C

GPA: 2.2/4

The Evil Dead

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 40 of 100



The Evil Dead, 1981. Five young people go to a remote cabin in a spooky woods and nothing could possibly go wrong.

Written & directed by Sam Raimi. Starring Bruce Campbell, with Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, & Theresa Tilly.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: Too ridiculous to be scary, and too seriously trying to disturb to be much fun. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Fury

Fury, 2014. A tank advances through WWII Germany.

Written & directed by David Ayer. Starring Brad Pitt, with Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, & Jon Bernthal.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's pretty intense, considering there are no characters to empathize with. Just a lot of assholes, being assholes, with a tank - and one guy with a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. B

GPA: 2.9/4

"Porky's Romance"

"Porky's Romance" (short), 1937. Porky Pig courts Petunia Pig.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Starring Joe Dougherty, & Bernice Hansen.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: D
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: Pretty bad character design, but I love the backgrounds. B
Acting: D
Music: A
Enjoyment: I don't know why I like this cartoon. It's just different from what you expect from a 1930's cartoon. It's got the story of a romantic comedy of the period, but amped up on Looney Tunes silliness. It reminds me of Harold Lloyd. B

GPA: 2.3/4

John Wick

John Wick, 2014. A crime boss's son pisses off a former assassin.

Directed by David Leitch, & Chad Stahelski. Written by Derek Kolstad. Starring Keanu Reeves, with Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, & Adrianne Palicki.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: D
Music: It's crappy music, but it's right for the movie. B
Enjoyment: Plenty of fun while you're watching it, but instantly forgettable afterward. C

GPA: 2.4/4

Survivor: Season 16

Survivor: Season 16, 2008. 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: The internet tells me this is considered the best season (next to season 1, which just gets credit for its historical importance). I've seen less than a third of the show so far, but I'm confident that I can go ahead and agree with that assessment. It takes a few episodes to get going, but once the great players (so many great players) find their footing, it's pretty much as good as this show could possibly get. B

GPA: 2.4/4

"Porky's Road Race"

"Porky's Road Race" (short), 1937. Celebrity caricatures race.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Starring Elvia Allman, Dave Barry, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, & Tedd Pierce.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: Not memorable in any way, but there's enough frantic whimsy to keep it going. C

GPA: 2.0/4

West Side Story

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 39 of 100



West Side Story, 1961. Romeo and Juliet on the streets of New York.

Directed by Robert Wise, & Jerome Robbins. Written by Ernest Lehman, based on a play by Arthur Laurents, based on a play by William Shakespeare. Starring Natalie Wood, & Richard Beymer, with Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, & George Chakiris.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: A lot of it is very good, particularly when it's having fun. But I have never seen the appeal to Romeo and Juliet, and the adaptation does nothing to make those tedious characters any better. It's a love story between two people who have barely met, and who have no personality outside of their mutual obsession. C

GPA: 2.5/4

The Book of Life

The Book of Life, 2014. The gods of the dead wager on some mortals' lives.

Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez. Written by Gutierrez, & Douglas Langdale. Starring Diego Luna, with Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, & Kate del Castillo.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It struggles between being an ambitiously bizarre movie, and being a by-the-book children's movie. The latter wins out, but there's enough of the former (in addition to some good gags) to keep it fun. C

GPA: 2.7/4

"Pigs Is Pigs"

"Pigs Is Pigs" (short), 1937. A pig overeats and has a nightmare.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Starring Billy Bletcher, Bernice Hansen, & Martha Wentworth.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Half the cartoon is boring, and the other half is just a lot of whimsical machinery. C

GPA: 1.9/4

The Powerpuff Girls: Season Four

The Powerpuff Girls: Season Four, 2001-2002. Three little girls are superheros.

Created by Craig McCracken. Directed by McCracken (12 episodes), Randy Myers (5), Robert Alvarez (3), John McIntyre (2), Rob Renzetti (2), & Lauren Faust (2). Written by Charlie Bean (2 episodes), Cindy Morrow (2), Clay Morrow (2), Faust (2), Chris Mitchell (2), Kevin Kaliher (1), Dave Smith (1), Chris Savino (1), Paul Rudish (1), Mark Andrews (1), Shellie Kvilvang (1), Chris Reccardi (1), Dave Dunnet (1), & Justin Thompson (1). Starring Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong, & E.G. Daily, with Tom Kane, & Tom Kenny.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Inconsistent, but when it's good, it's pretty damn wonderful. A

GPA: 3.2/4

The Drop

The Drop, 2014. A bar owned by the mob is robbed.

Directed by Michaël R. Roskam. Written by Dennis Lehane, based on his story. Starring Tom Hardy, with Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, & John Ortiz.

Concept: B
Story: A number of Lahane's novels have been adapted into critically-acclaimed movies. Clearly, being a good novelist does not make you a good screenwriter. D
Characters: Walking cliches, many of them boring. C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: A lot of talented people get together and do no one's best work. It tries hard to be intelligent and have something to say, but doesn't succeed. You could do a lot worse, but there's no reason to see this movie. Unless you need to watch Tom Hardy love a puppy. C

GPA: 2.3/4

Survivor: Season 15

Survivor: Season 15, 2007. A reality game in rural China.

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: Pretty boring. The likable people are bad players, and the good players are assholes. C

GPA: 2.0/4

"Milk and Money"

"Milk and Money" (short), 1936. Porky Pig takes a job as a milkman.

Directed by Tex Avery. Starring Billy Bletcher, & Joe Dougherty.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: Perfectly okay. It's not funny enough to be memorable, but it's amusing. C

GPA: 2.2/4

"Porky in the North Woods"

"Porky in the North Woods" (short), 1936. Porky Pig defends a game preserve from a poacher.

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

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's story-oriented, with a boring, lazy story. C

GPA: 1.7/4

Gone Girl

Gone Girl, 2014. A woman in an unhappy marriage disappears suspiciously.

Directed by David Fincher. Written by Gillian Flynn, based on her book. Starring Ben Affleck, & Rosamund Pike, with Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, & Kim Dickens.

Concept: C
Story: A
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: D
Enjoyment: It's about as bitter an cynical as a movie could get. A director with any sense of fun, or with a taste for suspense, could have made a great movie out of the material. But Fincher, as usual, prefers to wallow in his misery. The only strong response I had to anything in it was a sense of uneasiness from brutality (both physical and psychological). It's a lot like Seven that way. It has the general shape of a thriller, but it doesn't function so much as a suspense story as a series of awful things for us to gawk at. I still wouldn't say it's a bad movie, though, as it excels in a number of areas - especially the acting - enough to keep it watchable. C

GPA: 2.5/4

Survivor: Season 14

Survivor: Season 14, 2007. A reality game on Fijian islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: Only one tribe is playing Survivor, the other is just competing in challenges. How is that a show? F
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Weird season, a little too desperate to be unpredictable. The first half is terrible. Just pure crap. The second half picks up a lot, though (once the producers back off and let people play the game), to the point where it's some of the best of the show that I've seen. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Angel: Season Four

Angel: Season Four, 2002-2003. The vampire detective is distracted by the latest apocalypse.

Created by Joss Whedon, & David Greenwalt. Directed by Terrence O'Hara (3 episodes), Michael Grossman (2), Marita Grabiak (2), Skip Schoolnik (2), Bill L. Norton (2), James A. Contner (2), Jefferson Kibbee (2), Whedon (1), Vern Gillum (1), Sean Astin (1), Steven S. DeKnight (1), Jeffrey Bell (1), David Straiton (1), & Tim Minear (1). Written by DeKnight (6 episodes), Jeffrey Bell (5), Elizabeth Craft (5), Sarah Fain (5), Mere Smith (4), David Fury (4), Whedon (1), Ben Edlund (1), & Minear (1). Starring David Boreanaz, with Charisma Carpenter, J. August Richards, Amy Acker, Vincent Kartheiser, Andy Hallett, & Alexis Denisof.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: D
Enjoyment: Previously I've described angel as frustrating because there's about five good minutes per episode, just enough to keep you watching an otherwise bad show. This season, there is nothing (except for the one episode that Whedon did, which is on about the same level as a mediocre Buffy episode). Now we're just watching because we've come this far. D

GPA: 1.4/4

The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls, 2014. A boy raised by subterranean creatures must save them from genocide.

Directed by Graham Annable, & Anthony Stacchi. Written by Irena Brignull, & Adam Pava, based on a book by Alan Snow. Starring Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, & Ben Kingsley, with Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, & Tracy Morgan.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: The comic relief characters are fun. The main characters are awful. D
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: Good, but I'm unimpressed. I'm not sure I would even have noticed that it's not CG if I hadn't known. Not sure if that's the fault of poor projection at my local theater, or if it's the increasingly computerized approach to stop-motion. B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: There are cute things, and the sense of humor is good, so you could do a lot worse. C

GPA: 2.4/4