"Porky and Teabiscuit"

"Porky and Teabiscuit" (short), 1939. Porky Pig accidentally buys a racehorse.

Directed by Cal Dalton, & Ben Hardaway. Written by Melvin Millar. Starring Mel Blanc, & Joe Twerp.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's pleasant enough.The humor is hit and miss, and never enough to get a laugh. C


GPA: 1.9/4

"Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur"

"Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" (short), 1939. A caveman hunts Daffy Duck.

Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Dave Monahan. Starring Mel Blanc, & Jack Lescoulie.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: Half the attempted humor is just a Jack Benny impersonation (apparently). The rest of the cartoon is pretty good. The dinosaur is cute, and Daffy is daffy. C

GPA: 2.3/4

Clerks

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 60 of 100



Clerks, 1994. A convenience store clerk has a crappy day.

Written & directed by Kevin Smith. Starring Brian O'Halloran, & Jeff Anderson, with Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, & Smith.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: F
Special effects/design: C
Acting: It looks like it was shot on a VHS camcorder, and yet it is the acting that most makes it seem amateurish. F
Music: C
Enjoyment: When I was a teenager, I used to love Kevin Smith movies. I also loved Nine Inch Nails. Teenagers are stupid. C

GPA: 1.5/4

The Babadook

The Babadook, 2014. A widowed mother is haunted by a boogeyman.

Written & directed by Jennifer Kent. Starring Essie Davis, & Noah Wiseman, with Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West, & Benjamin Winspear.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: The first half or so of the film is stressful to watch. That's necessary for the later parts to work as well as they do, though, and there are more than enough great ideas and images in the film to make the unpleasant parts worth enduring. B

GPA: 3.3/4

Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea, 2014. A little girl is a selkie.

Directed by Tomm Moore. Written by Will Collins; story by Moore. Starring David Rawle, with Brendan Gleeson, Lisa Hannigan, Fionnula Flanagan, Lucy O'Connell, & Jon Kenny.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's beautiful to look at. It could use more of a sense of humor. The story is too much like My Neighbor Totoro for it's own good (with some doses of Spirited Away and Brave thrown in); I liked it quite a bit, but it's nowhere near Totoro quality. B

GPA: 3.0/4

"Seal Skinners" / "Mama's New Hat"

"Seal Skinners," and "Mama's New Hat" (shorts), 1939. Boat captains try to catch an escaped circus seal. / A horse tries to recover its stolen hat.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Joseph Barbera ("Mama's New Hat"). Starring Billy Bletcher, & Mel Blanc ("Seal Skinners").

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: The animal characters are good - especially the horse. But not good enough to make up for the usual Captain and the Kids cast. C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: "Mama's New Hat" is recognizably a Friz Freleng cartoon, featuring some ideas he would reuse (and improve) later. Both cartoons have serious problems with story. C

GPA: 2.0/4

"The Captain's Christmas"

"The Captain's Christmas" (short), 1938. A man with guns poses as Santa Claus.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Joseph Barbera. Starring Mel Blanc, & Billy Bletcher.

Concept: C
Story: F
Characters: What is this guy even supposed to be? An evil pirate? A blundering but good-natured sailor? I can't tell. F
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: C
Enjoyment: Why is any of this happening? I'm so confused. D

GPA: 1.3/4

Whiplash

Whiplash, 2014. A drummer has a sadistic teacher.

Written & directed by Damien Chazelle. Starring Miles Teller, with J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, & Melissa Benoist.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: It's tense and gripping. It would have been intolerably stressful (you're basically watching someone be psychologically destroyed for two hours) if it weren't for occasional injections of humor. C

GPA: 2.8/4

"Daffy Duck in Hollywood"

"Daffy Duck in Hollywood" (short), 1938. Daffy Duck visits a movie set.

Directed by Tex Avery. Written by Dave Monahan. Starring Sara Berner, Herman Bing, & Mel Blanc.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: A
Enjoyment: Daffy cuts his own film, which we then get to watch. It's a brilliant idea, but the actual result is disappointingly tame. C

GPA: 2.2/4

The Cosby Show: Season Five

The Cosby Show: Season Five, 1988-1989. The day-to-day life of a large, wealthy family.

Created by Ed. Weinberger, Michael Leeson, & Bill Cosby. Directed by Tony Singletary (16 episodes), Jay Sandrich (5), Chuck Vinson (5), & Carl Lauten (3). Written by John Markus (21 episodes), Carmen Finestra (19), Gary Kott (19), Janet Leahy (2), & Mark St. Germain (2). Starring Cosby, with Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina LeBeauf, Geoffrey Owens, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, & Keshia Knight Pulliam.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Continuing the same hilarious-but-sitcom-y quality of seasons three and four, except without any bad episodes. A

GPA: 3.0/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

"The Daffy Doc"

"The Daffy Doc" (short), 1938. Daffy Duck is a doctor.

Directed by Robert Clampett. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: There are some bits that go on a little too long. And the animation is sloppy (although, in a rough and dirty kind of way that works for the material). But it's Clampett's Daffy, at his most Clampetty - trying to murder people for fun. B

GPA: 2.6/4

"The Night Watchman"

"The Night Watchman" (short), 1938. A kitten learns to stand up to kitchen-invading mice.

Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Tedd Pierce. Starring Mel Blanc, & Margaret Hill-Talbot.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: Such horrible colors. C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's a throw-back to much earlier cartoons. Considering that this is the debut of Chuck Jones, the old-fashioned cutesyness is unexpected. I guess when you're at the same studio as Avery and Clampett, the best way to make yourself stand out is by being conservative. C

GPA: 2.1/4

"Porky in Egypt"

"Porky in Egypt" (short), 1938. Porky Pig's camel goes mad.

Directed by Robert Clampett. Written by Ernest Gee. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: I kind of love this camel. B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: I get the feeling this would have been a great cartoon, if you were watching it in 1938. Is it filled with references, or is it filled with non sequitur craziness? Probably both, but without an intimate knowledge of 1930s popular culture, there's no way to understand what's happening. And the internet doesn't seem to be able to clarify any of it for me. C

GPA: 2.6/4

"You're an Education"

"You're an Education" (short), 1938. Characters come out of travel ads.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Written by Dave Monahan. Starring Mel Blanc, & Billy Bletcher.

Concept: F
Story: F
Characters: F
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: This style of cartoon is always awful, and this is one of the worst of them. Too fast to blink, not very good music (which is usually all there is to hold one of these together), and an extra helping of ethnic stereotypes. F

GPA: 1.0/4

"Little Pancho Vanilla"

"Little Pancho Vanilla" (short), 1938. A boy wants to be a bullfighter.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Written by Tedd Pierce. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: C
Enjoyment: Grating. F

GPA: 1.4/4

Mutiny on the Bounty

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 59 of 100



Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935. A cruel captain drives his crew to mutiny.

Directed by Frank Lloyd. Written by Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman, & Carey Wilson, based on a book by Charles Nordhoff, & James Norman Hall. Starring Charles Laughton, & Clark Gable, with Franchot Tone.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: You wait an hour and a half for the mutiny, and the whole thing ends up lasting about five minutes, mostly in montage. And the best part of the story, Bligh's survival after being set adrift, gets even less screen time. Meanwhile, it feels like there must be at least twenty minutes worth of people saying goodbye to each other. This is not the high seas adventure I was promised. C

GPA: 2.5/4

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008. Two girls spending the summer in Spain fall for a polyamorous artist.

Written & directed by Woody Allen. Starring Rebecca Hall, & Scarlett Johansson, with Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, & Patricia Clarkson.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: It works well, despite Having Something To Say rather than a story to tell. Woody splashes characters together to try to express something, with an effect a lot like the paint-splashed abstract art featured in the movie. B

GPA: 2.9/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

The X-Files: Season Two

The X-Files: Season Two, 1994-1995. Two FBI agents investigate spooky cases.

Created by Chris Carter. Directed by Rob Bowman (7 episodes), David Nutter (5), R. W. Goodwin (2), Kim Manners (2), Daniel Sackheim (1), Carter (1), Michael Lange (1), Win Phelps (1), Stephen Surjik (1), Nick Marck (1), James Whitmore, Jr. (1), Michael Vejar (1), & James Contner (1). Written by Carter (7 episodes), Glen Morgan (5), James Wong (5), Howard Gordon (5), Paul Brown (2), Sara B. Charno (2), Frank Spotnitz (2), Chris Ruppenthal (1), Steve De Jarnatt (1), Alex Gansa (1), Darin Morgan (1), & Vince Gilligan (1). Starring David Duchovny, & Gillian Anderson.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: Inconsistent. There are some great episodes, and some really awful ones. But even at its worst, it still manages to be entertaining on some level. Even the lack of Scully early in the season is fairly quick and painless. B

GPA: 2.3/4

The Game

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 58 of 100



The Game, 1997. A rich asshole joins a mysterious game.

Directed by David Fincher. Written by John D. Brancato, & Michael Ferris. Starring Michael Douglas, with Sean Penn, & Deborah Kara Unger.

Concept: B
Story: A
Characters: The ending fails miserably in the reasonable-human-behavior department. [spoilers:] They spend the entire movie breaking this man, then in about three seconds he snaps back as if nothing was ever wrong (but he learned a valuable lesson about being a different sort of asshole than he used to be, so good for him). What do you get for the man who has everything? PTSD. D
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It seems fun from the standpoint of putting together the puzzle pieces of the plot. But the suspense is of the variety that focuses on making the audience uncomfortable; if the protagonist were at all sympathetic, I'd probably hate the movie. C

GPA: 2.7/4

"Cracked Ice"

"Cracked Ice" (short), 1938. A W.C. Fields pig tries to get booze from a rescue dog.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Written by Jack Miller. Starring Tedd Pierce, Mel Blanc, & Dave Weber.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Moderately amusing. It helps that the character has some personality, even if it is just a caricature of someone else's character. C

GPA: 2.3/4

"Wholly Smoke"

"Wholly Smoke" (short), 1938. Porky Pig learns a lesson about not smoking.

Directed by Frank Tashlin. Written by George Manuell. Starring Mel Blanc, & Tedd Pierce.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: I guess someone forgot that cartoons are supposed to be entertaining. D

GPA: 1.8/4

Stand by Me

Stand by Me, 1986. Four friends hike for a day to find a dead body.

Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by Raynold Gideon, & Bruce A. Evans, based on a book by Stephen King. Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, & Jerry O'Connell, with Kiefer Sutherland, & Richard Dreyfuss.

Concept: D
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's weird that this movie is as good as it is. Its components are things I don't usually like in movies, but in this case they all come together to make something quietly poignant. A

GPA: 3.0/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

"World of Tomorrow"

"World of Tomorrow" (short), 2015. A child is contacted by her future clone.

Written & directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Starring Julia Pott, & Winona Mae.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Cute, and amusingly dark. It's probably Hertzfeldt's most accessible film in a long while, although it's not as strong as the "Beautiful Day" trilogy (especially visually), or the "End of the World" comic book (even though much if it is adapted from there). He loses something working digitally, but if it means he can work faster, it's a reasonable trade-off. A

GPA: 3.1/4