Mister Comfypants

top ten by decade

2012-03-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

We're having a little vacation starting tomorrow, so I won't be posting for a week or so. In the mean time, here is an enormous list - my top ten high-scoring feature films by decade. (Note: These aren't necessarily my favorite films, and they're not necessarily the ones I think are best. They're the ones that have the highest scores, averaging my "subjective" and "objective" ratings. Also note: These lists are limited to movies I've watched since I started movie blogging about four years ago.)

00s
1. Wall-E, 2008
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004
3. Moon, 2009
4. Where the Wild Things Are, 2009
5. The Dark Knight, 2008
6. 25th Hour, 2002
7. Inglourious Basterds, 2009
8. Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2003
9. Amélie, 2001
10. In Bruges, 2008

90s
1. Dark City, 1998
2. Twelve Monkeys, 1995
3. Magnolia, 1999
4. The Sixth Sense, 1999
5. Pulp Fiction, 1994
6. Reservoir Dogs, 1992
7. American Beauty, 1999
8. The Big Lebowski, 1998
9. Groundhog Day, 1993
10. Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990

80s
1. Time Bandits, 1981
2. Labyrinth, 1986
3. The Dark Crystal, 1982
4. The Princess Bride, 1987
5. My Neighbor Totoro, 1988
6. The Blues Brothers, 1980
7. First Blood, 1982
8. The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988
9. The Empire Strikes Back, 1980
10. Return of the Jedi, 1983

70s
1. Dog Day Afternoon, 1975
2. The Muppet Movie, 1979
3. The Godfather, 1972
4. Rocky, 1976
5. Network, 1976
6. The Exorcist, 1973
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975
8. Alien, 1979
9. Star Wars, 1977
10. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971

60s
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966
2. Dr. Strangelove, 1964
3. The Sword in the Stone, 1963
4. Yojimbo, 1961
5. Planet of the Apes, 1968
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966
7. A Fistful of Dollars, 1964
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961
9. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962
10. For a Few Dollars More, 1965

50s
1. 12 Angry Men, 1957
2. The Night of the Hunter, 1955
3. All About Eve, 1950
4. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957
5. Stalag 17, 1953
6. Vertigo, 1958
7. Witness for the Prosecution, 1957
8. Strangers on a Train, 1951
9. Seven Samurai, 1954
10. Love in the Afternoon, 1957

40s
1. Casablanca, 1942
2. Brief Encounter, 1945
3. Dumbo, 1941
4. The Third Man, 1949
5. Shadow of a Doubt, 1943
6. The Red Shoes, 1948
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948
8. The Shop Around the Corner, 1940
9. It's a Wonderful Life, 1946
10. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940

30s
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939
3. The Wizard of Oz, 1939
4. Frankenstein, 1931
5. M, 1931
6. King Kong, 1933
7. The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938
8. The Thin Man, 1934
9. City Lights, 1931
10. A Night at the Opera, 1935

20s
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928
2. Sherlock Jr., 1924
3. The Circus, 1928
4. The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926
5. The Gold Rush, 1925
6. The Cameraman, 1928
7. The General, 1927
8. Metropolis, 1927
9. Why Worry?, 1923
10. Street Angel, 1928

Samurai Jack: Season One

2012-03-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Samurai Jack: Season One, 2001. An ancient demon traps his enemy in the distant future. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Robert Renzetti, Randy Myers & Robert Alvarez. Written by Genndy Tartakovsky, Paul Rudish, Chris Mitchell, Carey Yost & others. Starring Phil LaMarr & Mako.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Most of the acting is mediocre. But then there's Mako, giving one of my all-time favorite performances. Granted, that performance is mostly just yelling in a thick accent - but it is perfect.
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites, 4/4). God damn this show is awesome. If I could make a TV show, and Samurai Jack didn't already exist, this is the show I would make.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.6/4 (Great)

"Bathtime in Clerkenwell"

2012-03-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

"Bathtime in Clerkenwell" (short), 2003. A singing cuckoo army comes out of a cuckoo clock. Directed by Alex Budovsky. Music by Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld).

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I don't know why they call this a film; it is a music video. Lots of fun, though.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Gates of Heaven

2012-02-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 7 of 15

Gates of Heaven, 1980. People talk about the pet cemetery business. Directed by Errol Morris.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). Not that kind of movie.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: n/a
Acting: n/a
Music: 3/4 (Good). No music, except when it's played on camera.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). No commentary, no explanations, no hint at what Morris is thinking - just People. Although it consists of almost nothing but talk about pet cemeteries, that's not what it's about. Here's what Ebert's essay has to say about one of the film's monologues: "William Faulkner or Mark Twain would have wept with joy to have created such words as fall from her mouth, as she tells the camera the story of her life. She paints the details in quick, vivid sketches and then contradicts every single thing she says."
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

"All a Bir-r-r-d"

2012-02-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

"All a Bir-r-r-d" (short), 1950. Sylvester and Tweety are on a train together. Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Tedd Pierce. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). I've never understood the draw to these two.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). Wonderful backgrounds. Too bad there are only a few shots where you get to appreciate them.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). There's only one funny gag in the whole cartoon - unless you think seeing a cat get punched in the face is funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler

2012-02-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922. A criminal genius uses his mind-control powers to cheat at cards. Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Lang & Thea von Harbou, based on a novel by Norbert Jacques. Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Bernhard Goetzke, Aud Egede Nissen & Gertrude Welcker.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). Cops versus gangsters directed by Fritz Lang. What could possibly go wrong?
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). Wait, the criminal mastermind's great scheme is to... cheat at cards? He can control people's minds, he has a gang at his disposal, he's a master of disguise, and he uses all this to cheat at cards. And, naturally, when various unrelated people start losing at cards, the state prosecutor diverts all his attention to this important case. What the hell.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad). The pacing of any particular scene is good, and the movie does finally start to move toward the end. Why is this 4½ hours long? Sinister raised eyebrows are fun and all, but after a few hours they do start to get tedious...
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). With some amusing jabs at expressionism. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who isn't in love with the "great" silent German films of the early 20s.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). Klein-Rogge is quite good. There's a lot of ridiculous over-acting.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). It's good for 3 or 4 (out of 12!) acts, near the end - when Mabuse finally starts fighting. But then there's the other 3½ hours of the movie. It's the kind of corny, serial-ish writing that might be fun despite itself in a 90 minute movie. Did I mention this is 4½ hours long?
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

"Moving Illustrations of Machines"

2012-02-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

"Moving Illustrations of Machines" (short), 2000. Bizarre, complex machinery operates. Directed by Jeremy Solterbeck.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). Non-existent.
Characters: n/a
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: n/a
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Fascinating and impressive.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

"Parking"

2012-02-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

"Parking" (short), 2003. A persistent blade of grass disturbs a parking lot. Written & directed by Bill Plympton.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Not funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.7/4 (Eh)

"Uncle"

2012-02-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

"Uncle" (short), 1996. Childhood recollections of the narrator's uncle. Written & directed by Adam Elliot. Starring William McInnes.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good). No music.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Much the same as "Cousin" - only good on its own, great as part of the trilogy.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

"Cousin"

2012-02-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

"Cousin" (short), 1999. Childhood recollections of the narrator's cousin. Written & directed by Adam Elliot. Starring William McInnes.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good). Too short.
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good). No music.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). As a middle chapter of the Elliot's "Uncle"/"Cousin"/"Brother" trilogy, it's great. On its own, its very nice but nothing amazing.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good)

Beginners

2012-02-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

Beginners, 2011. A man with a gay father doesn't know how to have a happy relationship. Written & directed by Mike Mills. Starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer & Mélanie Laurent.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 4/4 (Great). I've despised this same character (The Man Who Doesn't Know How to Love) in countless movies, and disliked all of those movies because of him. But here, I'm completely with him the entire time. They made me understand and relate to a person I've never understood before.
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). It might be too hip for its own good. Sometimes it feels like you're watching Tumblr: The Movie.
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). That took me by surprise. I was expecting the same old tired Quirky Indie Dramedy. This has the elements of that formula, but for once something powerful and honest is built out of them.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.1/4 (Very good)

My Darling Clementine

2012-02-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 6 of 15

My Darling Clementine, 1946. Wyatt Earp becomes marshal of Tombstone to find his brother's murderers. Directed by John Ford. Written by Samuel G. Engel & Winston Miller, story by Sam Hellman, based on a book by Stuart N. Lake. Starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature & Cathy Downs.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good). It's uneven, but there are some really great lines in there.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent). Mostly it's good bordering on great, but I was completely lost (geographically speaking) during the final shootout.
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Fonda has an unexpected cheerful energy which is quite nice.
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Thoroughly entertaining. It sure is a relief to finally have a good movie in this marathon; I was almost ready to give up on Ebert.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2012-02-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000. Chain gang fugitives have adventures. Directed by Joel Coen. Written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, based on an epic by Homer. Starring George Clooney, John Turturro & Tim Blake Nelson.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Wonderful Coeny Coenness. I'm perplexed at how the most basic of lines manage to get a laugh out of me.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.5/4 (Very good)

Spellbound

2012-02-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

Spellbound, 1945. The new head of a mental institution is a disturbed impostor. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Ben Hecht, adapted by Angus MacPhail from a novel by Frances Beeding. Starring Ingrid Bergman & Gregory Peck.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). A respectable, exceptionally rational person suddenly, without cause, becomes an irresponsible, obsessive idiot, and we are just supposed to accept that... because she is a woman.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). Granted, the most ridiculously bad bits of dialog are immediately called out by another character as being ridiculous. But that does not excuse them.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's badly written in a way that is quite off-putting. On the other hand, I was engaged and entertained throughout the movie.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

Body Heat

2012-02-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 5 of 15

Body Heat, 1981. An affair leads to murder. Written & directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Starring William Hurt & Kathleen Turner.

Concept: 4/4 (Great). Noir! Suspense! Crime! Thrills and chills! What could possibly go wrong?
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad). It would have been fine for most 80s movies, but come on, this is supposed to be noir. I demand visual flair!
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Maybe it's unfair to take points off for 80s fashion. It's not their fault that they didn't think, for instance, that William Hurt's mustache was ridiculous. But again, this is noir. There are expectations to be met. The juxtaposition of 80s and 40s style might not have been so obvious back in 1981, but... it has not aged well.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible). The same complaints as the special effects/design point, but amplified a million times.
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). It's polished and crisp in place of grittiness. It's blunt and soft-core porn-y in place of wit and innuendo. There's no mystery. The plot twist supplies the bare minimum necessary for the genre. They don't even have the decency to give us a voice-over narration. And what good there is can hardly be seen through the glare of the 1980s.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

2012-02-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 1971. Some apes travel back in time to the Planet of the Humans. Directed by Don Taylor. Written by Paul Dehn, based on characters by Pierre Boulle. Starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy, Eric Braeden & Ricardo Montalban.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). As long as science has already been abandoned in the second movie, you might as well embrace it and have some ridiculous fun.
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). I could accept a man in an anthropomorphic gorilla suit wearing clothes, wielding a gun and riding a horse. That was fine. But a straight-up man in a gorilla suit? No. That's just silly.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's extremely corny, but it's also entertaining. Too bad Kim Hunter isn't the star of all five of these movies.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

"Brother"

2012-02-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

"Brother" (short), 2000. Childhood recollections of the narrator's brother. Written & directed by Adam Elliot. Starring William McInnes.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Not that kind of movie.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good) No music.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Absurd humor side by side with sincere autobiography, with a dry, pensive tone that makes it hard to tell which is which.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.4/4 (Very good)

Pickpocket

2012-02-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 4 of 15

Pickpocket, 1959. An arrogant man is obsessed with pickpocketing. Written & directed by Robert Bresson. Starring Martin LaSalle, Marika Green & Jean Pélégri.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). There's some great suspense in the beginning, but it very quickly deteriorates into pretentious crap. Bresson deliberately alienates the audience every chance he gets.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

Crazy, Stupid, Love

2012-02-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2011. A divorced, middle-aged man learns to pick up women. Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa. Written by Dan Fogelman. Starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore & Emma Stone.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Great cast, good writing, and an effective balancing of comedy and drama.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Two

2012-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Two, 1988-1989. A giant space ship flies around the galaxy, ostensibly exploring but usually running errands. Directed by Rob Bowman, Winrich Kolbe & others. Written by Maurice Hurley, Tracy Tormé, Richard Manning, Hans Beimler, Melinda M. Snodgrass & others. Starring Patrick Stewart & Jonathan Frakes.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Better on average than the first season, but much more uneven. When it's good, it can be pretty clever. When it's bad, it can be completely awful. There are even a couple episodes in season two that are bad enough that they're not even fun to watch, which is really something coming from me.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

The Science of Sleep

2012-02-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

La science des rêves, 2006. A guy that can't keep dreams straight from reality harasses his pretty neighbor. Written & directed by Michel Gondry. Starring Gael García Bernal & Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Basically just a feature-length music video. Gondry has a wonderful visual style, but when it comes to writing, he seems to have no interest in character. Seeing as this is supposed to be a sort of love story (or is it? fuck if I can tell), giving the audience some inkling of what the characters' relationship is might have been helpful...
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

The Exterminating Angel

2012-02-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 3 of 15

El ángel exterminador, 1962. Upper class dinner guests are unable to leave a room, for no apparent reason. Written & directed by Luis Buñuel.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). It was okay for the most part, up until the very end. There's a cheap gag of a coda that's frustratingly stupid and obvious. It might have been a good movie if the characters had any depth whatsoever. But that would require admitting that people are human, which is a point of view I suspect (based on this one movie) is beyond Buñuel.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

2012-02-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 2 of 15

Angst essen Seele auf, 1974. An interracial couple is surrounded by former Nazis. Written & directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Starring Brigitte Mira & El Hedi ben Salem.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). I'm fortunate that I don't relate to this movie. I don't personally experience prejudice in my day to day life. In the film, it's just taken as a given. There's no attempt by Fassbinder to explain or understand it; it's just the way things are. Intellectually, I know that people as hateful as those in the movie are real. Even today, some of them are successful, powerful politicians. But, emotionally, I find I'm unable (or maybe unwilling) to accept it. The result is that the movie feels unbelievably over-the-top to me.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

Floating Weeds

2012-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 1 of 15

Ukigusa, 1959. A traveling actor returns to the town where his now-grown son lives. Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. Written by Kôgo Noda & Ozu. Starring Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô, Ayako Wakao, Hiroshi Kawaguchi & Haruko Sugimura.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad). I would love the way its paced, if it were a more interesting movie. This story is too boring for such a patient approach.
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). This is my first Ozu film. My impression is that he's an excellent director and a godawful dull writer.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

The Guard

2012-02-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

The Guard, 2011. A small town Irish cop pisses off an FBI agent during a drug smuggling investigation. Written & directed by John Michael McDonagh. Starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong, Fionnula Flanagan, Liam Cunningham & David Wilmot.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). A western set in modern times, which also happens to be a hilarious comedy. Stylistically, it's very much the same as In Bruges, which was made by this director's brother. The two McDonaghs might as well be the same person. It's not as amazing as In Bruges - the plot isn't very original - but it's a wonderfully fun movie.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.4/4 (Very good)

Bridesmaids

2012-02-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

Bridesmaids, 2011. A woman's life falls apart while her best friend plans her wedding. Directed by Paul Feig. Written by Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo. Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd & Melissa McCarthy.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Well, that was completely different than what I expected. Yes, there are lots of dick jokes and a lengthy vomiting scene, but it's not really that kind of movie. If you took all the jokes out, you would still have a perfectly good (if significantly shorter and less entertaining) drama. I guess all the comparisons critics made to The Hangover just meant "this is also an R-rated movie that is funny" - because that is all they have in common.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

VSM: Ebert's Great Movies, part 2

2012-02-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

(Picking up from the 1st Ebert's Great Movies Marathon)

I've decided to expedite my Ebert's Great Movies watching by limiting it to just the titles I haven't seen, or haven't seen recently. Also being skipped are the titles that aren't available from Netflix. (E.T. is one of those. The hell?) So: of what's left, from the contents of the first book, sorted according to the articles' dates on his website, here are the next 15 Great Movies.

Very Slow Marathon #8 – The 2nd Ebert's Great Movies Marathon
[note: You can find this list from the sidebar, under "Very Slow Marathons."]

1. Floating Weeds, 1959
2. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, 1974
3. The Exterminating Angel, 1962
4. Pickpocket, 1959
5. Body Heat, 1981
6. My Darling Clementine, 1946
7. Gates of Heaven, 1978
8. The Lady Eve, 1941
9. Days of Heaven, 1978
10. A Woman Under the Influence, 1974
11. Written on the Wind, 1956
12. Woman in the Dunes, 1964
13. Swing Time, 1936
14. Red River, 1948
15. Pandora's Box, 1928

Time After Time

2012-02-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 12 of 12

Time After Time, 1979. H.G. Wells chases Jack the Ripper to 1979. Written & directed by Nicholas Meyer. Story by Steve Hayes, based on a novel by Karl Alexander. Starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner & Mary Steenburgen.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Very good design, bad effects.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). If only it had been the chess game that the movie's own recurring metaphor wants to believe it is. In the few parts where it lets itself be the suspenseful thriller it should be, it's quite good. But for the most part, it's an implausible, tedious love story. Hard to believe this was written by the same guy behind the best Star Trek movies.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

And that's the end of another Very Slow Marathon. But did we win the marathon? That is what everyone wants to know, right? Well, the movies were, on average, pretty damn mediocre. Subjective ratings: 5.4/10; Objective ratings: 2.2/4. It's ever so slightly on the positive side of the scale, though, so yes. We win. But it was close.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

2012-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 11 of 12

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978. Plants from space are replacing people. Directed by Philip Kaufman. Written by W.D. Richter, based on a novel by Jack Finney. Starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright & Leonard Nimoy.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent). And now... we will run away for 45 minutes.
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Great effects, bad design.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I guess they couldn't think of an ending (even though the ending is one of the few great things about the book); instead it just turns into a zombie movie. Still good, though. Plenty scary, with an entertaining cast.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

Beetlejuice

2012-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Beetlejuice, 1988. A ghost couple is bad at haunting. Directed by Tim Burton. Written by Michael McDowell & Warren Skaaren, story by McDowell & Larry Wilson. Starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones & Winona Ryder.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). The delightful weirdness is at odds with the misguidedly Hollywood-ized plot, but Burton forces the weirdness to the top.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

2012-01-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 10 of 12

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977. Space aliens visit Earth. Written & directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr & Melinda Dillon.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). The last half hour or so is great, as are a number of other scenes throughout the movie. But I couldn't care less about Richard Dreyfuss or his mashed potatoes.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

Logan's Run

2012-01-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 9 of 12

Logan's Run, 1976. Two people escape from a city where no one's allowed to live past 29. Directed by Michael Anderson. Written by David Zelag Goodman, based on a novel by William F. Nolan & George Clayton Johnson. Starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan & Peter Ustinov.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). It's pretty good for the most part, but falls apart right at the end.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Good design, bad effects.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It doesn't meet its potential, but it's still perfectly good. Ustinov's character is fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

East of Eden

2012-01-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

East of Eden, 1955. A teenager is jealous of the love shown to his brother. Directed by Elia Kazan. Written by Paul Osborn, based on a novel by John Steinbeck. Starring James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos & Jo Van Fleet.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). The book is unfilmable; a faithful adaptation would be about eight hours long, and an unfaithful adaptation is guaranteed to be inferior (this is Steinbeck we're talking about, after all). Focusing on just a small part of the book is a good idea, but why on earth would they pick the end of the book? Bah!
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Not only does their "abbreviation" turn the story into a trite love triangle, but it creates plot holes and inconsistencies, and necessitates expanding the story further than it can stretch. This is a 500+ page book - if half your script is completely new material, you're doing something wrong.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). This point would certainly get a "good" rating or better if I hadn't read the book. But I have, so I know how badly Osborn messed things up.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent). A Steinbeck adaptation with dialog that is anything less than amazing? Sad.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good). It tries too hard, and the color is bad, but I like it well enough.
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Is there some reason James Dean can't wear period clothing? Some sort of contract point about minimum shirt collar size?
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Dean has a great energy, and moves like Toshiro Mifune. At best, everything still feels like a Performance, but it's at least striking.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It could have been a lot worse. I've really got to stop watching adaptations soon after reading the book. It only ever upsets me.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

The Stepford Wives

2012-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 8 of 12

The Stepford Wives, 1975. A town's housewives happily do nothing but housework. Directed by Bryan Forbes. Written by William Goldman, based on a novel by Ira Levin. Starring Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss & Peter Masterson.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good). Great toward the end. Bad in the first half.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Surprisingly suspenseful (especially surprising since the mere fact that this is in a science fiction marathon spoils the plot) and intelligent.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

Fantastic Planet

2012-01-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 7 of 12

La planète sauvage, 1973. Humans are an invasive species on a planet of giants. Directed by René Laloux. Written by Roland Topor & Laloux, based on a novel by Stefan Wul. Starring Jennifer Drake, Eric Baugin & Jean Valmont.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Some excellent design, but I expected a lot more.
Acting: 1/4 (Bad). Acting from the voices is fine. Acting from the animators is nonexistent.
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). For the most part it's interesting but not engaging. The ending is awful enough to cancel out the rest of the movie's value.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)

oscars, blah

2012-01-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

I was getting ready to write a lengthy Oscar nominations reaction, but you know what? Fuck the Oscars. Jonah Hill is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and Albert Brooks is not. Tree of Life is not nominated for visual effects. And don't get me started on the animated feature category...

I was already fairly disconnected from the awards season this year to begin with. Over the past year, the cost of going to see a movie in the theater has gone up while the quality of the experience at my local multiplexes has plummeted. Half the screen out of focus, projected so dimly that subtitles are grey, background noise drowning out quiet dialog... And, most importantly, the movies that are actually worth seeing (according to critics) almost never play anywhere. Meanwhile, I got a new TV for Christmas. Nothing special, just a 32". No super HD, no blu-ray, no home theater system - I've just got a decent TV and a DVD player. And the experience of watching a movie on that is far better than any theater in the region. Seriously, the theaters here have gotten so bad that even if I took my basic TV and cheap DVD player to a crowded room with a sticky floor and broken seats, it would still be a better experience than the local multiplexes. Consequently, I've only seen maybe three movies in the theater since the summer (whereas last year I went almost every week).

But still, I thought, "Oh, I'll put the movies that are nominated for major awards in my Netflix queue, and watch them eventually." But then I see that at least one movie with scathingly negative reviews is nominated for Best Picture. And of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, only and small handful are nominated for anything. And then I remember watching The Blind Side, and finally it dawns on me: The Motion Picture Academy are a bunch of idiots.

Well, so much for not writing a lengthy post.

I guess as long as I've come this far, I might as well make some lists, for my own reference. Asterisks mark movies that are available on video.

Nominees that I've seen:
*Drive - sound
*Harry Potter 8 - art direction, makeup, effects
*Midnight in Paris - picture, directing, writing, art direction
*Moneyball - picture, writing, lead actor, supporting actor, editing, sound
The Muppets - song
*Rango - animated feature
*Rise of the Planet of the Apes - effects
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - writing, lead actor, score
*The Tree of Life - picture, directing, cinematography

Nominees that I haven't seen and want to see:
The Artist - picture, directing, writing, lead actor, supporting actress, editing, cinematography, art direction, costumes, score
The Descendants - picture, directing, writing, editing, lead actor
*Bridesmaids - writing, supporting actress
Hugo - picture, directing, writing, editing, cinematography, art direction, costumes, sound x2, effects, score
A Separation - writing, foreign film
*The Ides of March - writing
*Beginners - supporting actor
*Warrior - supporting actor
*Hell and Back Again - documentary feature
My Week with Marilyn - lead actress, supporting actor
The Adventures of Tintin - score

Nominees that I haven't seen and wouldn't mind seeing but don't really care:
Pina - documentary feature
*Jane Eyre - costumes
*Real Steel - effects
War Horse - picture, cinematography, art direction, score, sound x2
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - lead actress, editing, cinematography, sound x2
*A Better Life - lead actor

Nominees that I don't know anything about one way or the other:
Albert Nobbs - lead actress, supporting actress, makeup
Bullhead - foreign film
A Cat in Paris - animated feature
Chico & Rita - animated feature
Footnote - foreign film
In Darkness - foreign film
Monsieur Lazhar - foreign film
W.E. - costumes

Nominees that I haven't seen and don't want to see:
*Margin Call - writing
Undefeated - documentary feature
*Kung Fu Panda 2 - animated feature
Paradise Lost 3 - documentary feature
Puss in Boots - animated feature
Iron Lady - lead actress, makeup
*Anonymous - costumes
*The Help - picture, lead actress, supporting actress x2
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - picture, supporting actor
*If a Tree Falls - documentary feature
*Rio - song
*Transformers 3 - sound x2, effects

Flight of the Navigator

2012-01-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

Flight of the Navigator, 1986. An alien abduction drops a boy off eight years in the future. Directed by Randal Kleiser. Written by Michael Burton & Matt MacManus, story by Mark H. Baker. Starring Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens & Howard Hesseman.

Concept: 4/4 (Great). Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the only Hollywood screenwriters who have heard about physics!
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Maybe it's just nostalgia. (I watched this movie a lot when I was a kid.) It's a really unique premise, though, and they manage not to mess it up.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

2012-01-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970. An astronaut explores the Planet of the Apes, looking for Charlton Heston. Directed by Ted Post. Written by Paul Dehn, story by Dehn & Mort Abrahams, based on characters by Pierre Boulle. Starring James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison & James Gregory.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent). Mostly good, but there's some unforgivable, unnecessary pseudo-science.
Pacing: 4/4 (Great). Most of the time, the pacing is only okay. But I've got to give full points because of the last couple minutes of the movie.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It has no right being good, but it is. They clearly don't have a fraction of the first movie's budget, and it's the type of movie that typically depends on special effects. The script is sloppy and dumb, but somehow ends up working anyway. It's like three or four different movies mashed together. But that keeps you on your toes; you really have no idea where it's going. And the ending is perfect.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

Doctor Who #71: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

2012-01-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: "Invasion of the Dinosaurs," 1974 (the second story of five from season eleven). A mad science conspiracy manipulates time. Directed by Paddy Russell. Written by Malcolm Hulke. Starring Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Noel Johnson & John Bennett.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 0/4 (Terrible)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Boring. Occasional bursts of camp and one or two unexpected plot turns aren't nearly enough to save it.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.0/4 (Bad)

Westworld

2012-01-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 6 of 12

Westworld, 1973. At an Old West-themed resort, robot cowboys have real guns, and nothing could possibly go wrong. Written & directed by Michael Crichton. Starring Richard Benjamin, James Brolin & Yul Brynner.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's a crappy movie, but it's the kind of crappy movie that's fun to watch.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)

"Mt. Head"

2012-01-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

"Atama-yama" (short), 2002. A cherry tree grows out of a man's head. Directed by Koji Yamamura. Written by Shoji Yonemura. Starring Takeharu Kunimoto.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Amusing, and fascinating in its weirdness. I like when things play with logic, and this does that really well and seemingly effortlessly.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 (Very good)

Doctor Who #83: The Android Invasion

2012-01-18T15:14:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: "The Android Invasion," 1975 (the fourth story of six from season thirteen). Alien invaders use android doppelgangers. Directed by Barry Letts. Written by Terry Nation. Starring Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Milton Johns & Martin Friend.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). There are lots of little good ideas here and there, but overall its sloppily and lazily written. It just wouldn't be a Terry Nation script without at least one twisted ankle.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

The Incredibles

2012-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

The Incredibles, 2004. A super-powered family forced into hiding saves the day. Written & directed by Brad Bird. Starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Spencer Fox, Sarah Vowell & Elizabeth Peña.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). So very much fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.8/4 (Great)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Soylent Green

2012-01-16T20:43:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 5 of 12

Soylent Green, 1973. A murder investigation leads to uncovering a conspiracy. Directed by Richard Fleischer. Written by Stanley R. Greenberg, based on a novel by Harry Harrison. Starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young & Edward G. Robinson.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Serviceable entertainment. It never bothers to do anything beyond what it needs to to work. I suppose the plot might have been more interesting if you somehow didn't know the ending, but of course everyone knows it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

Do the Right Thing

2012-01-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

Do the Right Thing, 1989. Racial tension builds up around a Brooklyn pizzeria. Written & directed by Spike Lee. Starring Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro & Rosie Perez.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). Hey kids, racism is bad, okay? (Seriously, though, this movie isn't like that at all; it's just what you'd expect from the concept.)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's easy to see why this made Spike Lee famous - and why he continues to be so highly regarded despite the fact that the majority of his films are not. Although it's not really my thing, it stands out as a masterpiece of its era.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2012-01-15T14:13:00.000-08:00

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2011. A retired spy investigates a possible Soviet mole. Directed by Tomas Alfredson. Written by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan, based on a novel by John le Carré. Starring Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch & Tom Hardy.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good). They could have been great if we'd been able to spend more time with any of them.
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It never managed to engage me; there's no suspense. I like it anyway, more or less. The realism is interesting, and (unlike the book, which is incomprehensible) things fit together to make a sort of jigsaw puzzle. You can only see how it all works after everything's finished, though: Smiley almost never drops his poker face, and you don't get to ride along with the character as he figures it out. He just reads his files, then announces when he's done, and that's about it.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.3/4 (Very good)

Midnight in Paris

2012-01-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Midnight in Paris, 2011. A writer has nightly visits to a fantasy 1920s Paris. Written & directed by Woody Allen. Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams & Marion Cotillard.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Pleasant, amusing and memorable.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 (Very good)

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One

2012-01-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One, 1987-1988. A giant space ship flies around the galaxy, ostensibly exploring but usually running errands. Directed by Rob Bowman, Cliff Bole & others. Written by Maurice Hurley, D.C. Fontana, Robert Lewin, Gene Roddenberry, Herbert Wright, Tracy Tormé, Hannah Louise Shearer & others. Starring Patrick Stewart & Jonathan Frakes.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad). There's a lot of very good acting sprinkled throughout, but mostly its awful.
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Popcorn television. There's not much reason to like it. So much is badly done. There's not a single episode without at least one damning flaw. But I just love watching it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

Solaris

2012-01-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 4 of 12

Solyaris, 1972. An alien ocean is a mind capable of fabricating reality from thoughts. Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy. Written by Fridrikh Gorenshtein & Tarkovskiy, based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem. Starring Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet & Anatoliy Solonitsyn.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). What's there is mostly great, with a couple glaring exceptions. However, a number of scenes that would have been expensive to shoot are conspicuously absent.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). Every now and then, the plot will inch forward, ever so slightly. When that happens, it's interesting, and seems to have potential. It happens very rarely, though.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

2012-01-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971. Five children tour an eccentric candy-maker's factory. Directed by Mel Stuart. Written by Roald Dahl, based on his book. Starring Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson & Peter Ostrum.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Wilder is great, of course. The rest just get by.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Gene Wilder, you so creepy.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 (Very good)

Take Shelter

2012-01-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

Take Shelter, 2011. A man dreams of impending doom. Written & directed by Jeff Nichols. Starring Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain & Tova Stewart.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). It's so cliched, there are parts where you can actually say the lines along with the actors without having seen the movie before.
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Interesting, but not interesting enough to compensate for the pace. I never quite got into it, probably because the writing is uneven.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Forks Over Knives

2012-01-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Forks Over Knives, 2011. Several doctors make an argument for veganism. Written by, directed by & starring Lee Fulkerson.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). Maybe I should say "n/a" rather than "terrible," but that doesn't seem right. Any and all movies need a story, and the lack of one should count against it.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 0/4 (Terrible)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). It's very educational, and I think people should watch it. But it's also a bad movie - dull, extremely poorly made, and biased.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.9/4 (Very bad)

"The Meaning of Life"

2012-01-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

"The Meaning of Life" (short), 2005. Life on Earth does its thing; meanwhile, the universe. Written by, directed by & starring Don Hertzfeldt.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). The short, silly, non-religious, cartoon version of Tree of Life. Its visuals might not inspire the same sense of awe (although they are impressive by normal standards), but it is infinitely more watchable. Also, first.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.1/4 (Very good)

Silent Running

2012-01-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 3 of 12

Silent Running, 1972. A mad ecologist tries to save Earth's last plant life... in space! Directed by Douglas Trumbull. Written by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino & Steven Bochco. Starring Bruce Dern.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). With three writers - not including Trumbull - they still couldn't manage to come up with more than twenty minutes of material.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad). Mostly fine, but the (crucial) model photography is terrible.
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Ever notice how sometimes when an expert specialist is put in charge of a project, his/her area of specialization suffers? It's the "Don't worry, he's got this" effect. Or, in this case, it could be more specifically identified as the "Where's Douglas? Oh, playing with his robots again" effect.
Acting: 1/4 (Bad). It's not Dern's fault, though. There's no way to not be bad with this material.
Music: 0/4 (Terrible). What... I just... what the fuck?
Subjective Rating: 1/10 (Eew get it away, 0/4). It is shockingly awful. I was literally shocked by how awful it is. It made me angry.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.7/4 (Very bad)

Hertzfeldt's Animation Show Cartoons

2012-01-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

"Welcome to the Show" / "Intermission in the Third Dimension" / "The End of the Show" (shorts), 2003. Fluff balls introduce an animation showcase. Written & directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Starring Hertzfeldt & Robert May.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's mostly gibbering nonsense, but in a good way.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Planet of the Apes

2012-01-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

Planet of the Apes, 1968. An interstellar voyage crashes on the Planet of the Apes. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Written by Michael Wilson & Rod Serling, based on a novel by Pierre Boulle. Starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans & Linda Harrison.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 4/4 (Great)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Some of the effects are great, some are bad. All of the design is bad.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Harrison's performance is easy to overlook, but pretty impressive once you start paying attention to it. And Hunter does remarkably well for being buried in rubber.
Music: 4/4 (Great). It's silly, but I don't care, I love it.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). It's the quintessential science fiction film of an era (for all the right reasons), and a damn good movie besides that.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.4/4 (Very good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"Rejected"

2012-01-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

"Rejected" (short), 2000. An animator makes horrible commercials. Written & Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Starring Hertzfeldt & Robert May.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Some sort of non sequitur masterpiece.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 (Very good)

Doctor Who: Series Six, Part Two

2012-01-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: Series Six Part Two, 2011. An alien travels through space and time while putting off dying. Directed by Nick Hurran, Richard Senior, Richard Clark, Steve Hughes & Jeremy Webb. Written by Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Tom MacRae, Toby Whithouse & Gareth Roberts. Starring Matt Smith, Karen Gillan & Arthur Darvill.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). Still too focused on an awful over-arching story, but for the most part that's limited to just a couple of the six episodes.
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). At its worst, it's horrible and makes no sense. At its best, it's clever and makes no sense. There are also some parts that make sense, but those are recycled and dull.
Characters: 3/4 (Good). Best part of this half-season? River Song is only in two episodes. (And her story's wrapped up enough that she might be gone for good!)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good). The Moffat-written episodes are just as awful as the first half of the season was, pacing-wise, but the other four slow down enough that we can catch our breath. There are even several strong emotional scenes.
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Mostly great, with just enough instances of of bad CG to bring it down a point.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Like the first half of the season, there's only one great episode. And if I hadn't seen Lost, I'd say the resolution to the season-long story arc couldn't have been more disappointing. Steven Moffat has made a remarkable 180 in the last couple years, going from being the best Doctor Who writer to the worst since the 1980s. It's really just the great cast that's carrying the show at this point. Although, given Moffat's demonstrated love of narrative curve-balls, I wouldn't be surprised if he turns around and does something great again next season. (And I haven't seen the latest Christmas special yet, so for all I know he already has.)
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

The Trip

2011-12-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

The Trip, 2011. Two comics go on a road trip in the north of England. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's not as funny as the clips I've seen and heard had led me to expect, but there a several hilarious bits. The serious parts aren't so good, but they put the humor into an interesting context.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Best of My 2011

2011-12-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here are my year-end top movies lists, for each of my rating categories. As in previous years, this is the best of my year, not of the year; everything (and only things) I saw for the first time since the day I posted year-end lists last year are eligible.

Concept
1. Monsters, 2010
2. Attack the Block, 2011
3. Mr. Hulot's Holiday, 1953

Story
1. 13 Assassins, 2010
2. Exit through the Gift Shop, 2010
3. Wait until Dark, 1967

Characters
1. The Thin Man, 1934
2. Mr. Hulot's Holiday, 1953
3. Another Year, 2010

Dialog
1. The Thin Man, 1934
2. Another Year, 2010
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928

Pacing
1. Hanna, 2011
2. Commando, 1985
3. Unstoppable, 2010

Cinematography
1. The Tree of Life, 2011
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928

Special Effects/Design
1. The Tree of Life, 2011
2. Sleeping Beauty, 1959
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 2011
4. An American in Paris, 1951

Acting
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928
2. Blue Valentine, 2010
3. Drive, 2011

Music
1. A Hard Day's Night, 1964
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928
3. The Tree of Life, 2011

Subjective Rating
1. Winnie the Pooh, 2011 (10/10)
2. The Muppets, 2011 (9/10)
3. "The Ballad of Nessie," 2011 (9/10)
4. The Circus, 1928 (9/10)
5. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928 (9/10)

Objective Rating
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928 (3.9/4)
2. Winnie the Pooh, 2011 (3.7/4)
3. Drive, 2011 (3.6/4)
4. Another Year, 2010 (3.6/4)
5. The Illusionist, 2010 (3.5/4)

THX 1138

2011-12-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 2 of 12

THX 1138, 1971. A man in a far-future dystopia is arrested for not taking enough drugs. Directed by George Lucas. Written by Lucas & Walter Murch. Starring Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley & Maggie McOmie.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). I expect the original film would get an overwhelming "great" in this category. But instead I had to watch the new version with cartoons drawn on top of everything. Because George Lucas is a dick.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's a speculative rating, really. Since the DVD just has the director's "cut," I can only guess what the original was like. It seems very interesting, and surprisingly intense for such an eye-roll-inducing set-up.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

"Billy's Balloon"

2011-12-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

"Billy's Balloon," 1998. A child is attacked by his balloon. Written and directed by Don Hertzfeldt.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: n/a
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites, 4/4). Perfect comedic timing.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good)

The Andromeda Strain

2011-12-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

from my 1970s Science Fiction Marathon, part 1 of 12

The Andromeda Strain, 1971. Scientists in a secret lab fight a disease from space. Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Nelson Gidding, based on a novel by Michael Crichton. Starring Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson & Kate Reid.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). It doesn't help that half the lines are accompanied by gestures like whirling around, or pulling off glasses.
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). Wise tried valiantly to make a serious science fiction film emulating A Space Odyssey. Any possibility at taking it seriously, though, is undermined by extreme corniness. Combining Space Odyssey's pace with a B movie level of intelligence is a fairly disastrous recipe. Of course, luckily for me, that didn't stop Wise from using that same recipe again to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture - but that film had enough grandeur and spectacle to make it work, while Andromeda Strain is forced to fall back on its half-baked plot to hold your interest.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)

VSM: 1970s Science Fiction

2011-12-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Mostly this list is limited movies we haven't seen (except for Logan's Run, which we saw about a decade ago, and Close Encounters, which I think I saw once but too long ago to remember), which is why obvious choices like Star Wars and Alien aren't there.

Very Slow Marathon #7 - 1970s Science Fiction
[note: You can find this from the sidebar, under "Very Slow Marathons."]

1. The Andromeda Strain, 1971
2. THX 1138, 1971
3. Silent Running, 1972
4. Solaris, 1972
5. Soylent Green, 1973
6. Westworld, 1973
7. Fantastic Planet, 1973
8. The Stepford Wives, 1975
9. Logan's Run, 1976
10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977
11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978
12. Time After Time, 1979

(2001: A Space Odyssey)

2011-12-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 13 of 13

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968... I've got nothing new to add to my earlier post: linkity link.

"Lily and Jim"

2011-12-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

"Lily and Jim" (short), 1997. An awkward blind date. Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Written by Hertzfeldt, with Karin Anger & Robert May. Starring Anger & May.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Fairly funny, but rough.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

(The Godfather)

2011-12-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 12 of 13

The Godfather, 1972. ...I don't really have anything new to add to my post on this from about a year ago, so here's a link to that.

Harold and Maude

2011-12-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Harold and Maude, 1971. A morbid, rich teenager falls in love with a crazy old lady. Directed by Hal Ashby. Written by Colin Higgins. Starring Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort & Vivian Pickles.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Re-watching it for the first time in several years, I started off annoyed at how self-absorbed Maude is (not annoyed that the character's written that way, mind you, but annoyed with Maude personally - the character's too entertaining to want her to be different). But as little hints of her life are dropped here and there, I came around to understanding her a little, and seeing the events of the film in a different perspective - as the conclusion to a long, tragic story.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.3/4 (Very good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"Genre"

2011-12-24T21:02:00.000-08:00

"Genre" (short), 1996. An animator torments his cartoon rabbit. Written and directed by Don Hertzfeldt.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). It was great concept, when Chuck Jones did it.
Story: 1/4 (Bad). No story.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Funny but derivative.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

The Passion of Joan of Arc

2011-12-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 11 of 13

La passion de Jeanne d'Arc, 1928. The heresy trial of Joan of Arc. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. Written by Dreyer & Joseph Delteil. Starring Maria Falconetti.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 4/4 (Great). Although a detailed plot synopsis would sound like an unremarkable historical drama, the execution of the writing is absolutely perfect.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great). It's taken from the transcripts of the actual trial. I never expected to see this level of realism in the dialog of a movie earlier than the 50s, much less in a silent.
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 4/4 (Great). One of the greatest performances, ever.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Emotionally powerful, intellectually fascinating, visually striking, and entirely unique.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.9/4 (Great)

Doctor Who #149: Paradise Towers

2011-12-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: "Paradise Towers," 1987 (the second story of four from season twenty-four). Something is killing people in a dystopian apartment building. Directed by Nicholas Mallett. Written by Stephen Wyatt. Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Richard Briers & Howard Cooke.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). At least it makes sense. It's full of plot holes, but it makes enough sense that you can identify the plot holes. That's pretty good for late 80's Doctor Who.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). Some nice ideas for characters, but with terrible execution.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Silly, but a completely wrong type of silly for Doctor Who. It's like the writer had never seen Doctor Who, heard it was a children's show, and then... just didn't give any more fucks. Poor Sylvester McCoy - between this and "Time and the Rani," he really got a horrible start to his Doctor. If I'd been watching at the time, I might even have thought he was worse than Colin Baker.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.1/4 (Bad)

L'Avventura

2011-12-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 10 of 13

L'Avventura, 1960. A man and a woman don't find their missing friend. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Written by Antonioni, Elio Bartolini & Tonino Guerra. Starring Gabriele Ferzetti & Monica Vitti.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). The epitome of narrative vacuum.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible). Not that it could have been improved - the sadistically slow pace is necessary to convince you that he meant to do this.
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). I don't even know.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). It's good when it's there. It's usually conspicuously absent.
Subjective Rating: 1/10 (Eew get it away, 0/4). It's like watching paint dry. Completely, utterly awful. My wife says, "The word you're looking for is inane. Inane."
Objective Rating (Average): 1.4/4 (Bad)

Lilo & Stitch

2011-12-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

Lilo & Stitch, 2002. A cute, fluffy space monster uses an orphan as a human shield against his pursuers. Written and directed by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders. Starring Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders & Tia Carrere.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). I had forgotten how wonderful this movie is - right up there with Pixar's best.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.4/4 (Very good)

"Ah, L'Amour"

2011-12-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

"Ah, L'Amour" (short), 1995. Women over-react to a man's advances. Written & directed by Don Hertzfeldt.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's a loooong way off from the beautifully expressive animation that Don would do later. It's entertaining, though. And very short.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

La Dolce Vita

2011-12-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 9 of 13

La Dolce Vita, 1960. A jackass is a jackass. Directed by Federico Fellini. Written by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano & Tullio Pinelli, with Brunello Rondi. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée & Yvonne Furneaux.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). No story. No dramatic tension of any kind.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). I'm torn here. They're very well developed characters. I mean, the movie does nothing but develop the protagonist for three hours. But he's so completely unlikable and unrelatable, I can't bring myself to call him a good character. Presumably this attitude toward him is my fault, not the movie's; so many people love this movie, they must be relating to him at least a little. I find that thought depressing.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). It's the sort of movie that gets heavily analyzed because the audience has Nothing Else To Do for 3 hours.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

2011-12-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986. Kirk & friends time travel to the 1980s. Directed by Leonard Nimoy. Written by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett & Nicholas Meyer; story by Bennett & Nimoy; based on a TV show by Gene Roddenberry. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy & Catherine Hicks.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Nine times out of ten, when humor and the original Star Trek cast mix, the result is a disaster. But in this case, it's brilliant. It's not quite as good a movie as Wrath of Khan, but it's close.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)

Doctor Who #148: "Time and the Rani"

2011-12-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: "Time and the Rani," 1987 (the first story of four from season twenty-four). An evil Time Lady needs the Doctor's brain in order to carry out an experiment. Directed by Andrew Morgan. Written by Pip & Jane Baker. Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford & Kate O'Mara.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). The first episode is okay. The rest consists of a cycle of various protagonists alternately escaping and getting re-captured. And the mysterious master plan that you're supposed to be in suspense over turns out to be plot-holed gibberish.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.3/4 (Bad)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

2011-12-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 1984. Two people sharing one brain need to recover a lost body... in Space! Directed by Leonard Nimoy. Written by Harve Bennett, based on a TV show by Gene Roddenberry. Starring William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Robin Curtis, Merritt Butrick & Christopher Lloyd.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). So, if I was going to pick a classic episode for a movie to emulate, "Spock's Brain" wouldn't exactly be my first choice. But negative associations aside, it's a pretty good concept.
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Why are Klingons even in this movie? Because if you didn't have battles and fisticuffs, it would be too damn science fictiony, I guess. Okay, blowing up the Enterprise is pretty cool - but is it worth turning what could have been a unique psychological drama into a mediocre action vehicle?
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Most of the effects are excellent, but the entire climax of the film takes place on Planet Styrofoam.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Shatner and Kelley are both surprisingly excellent. Curtis, however, is painful to watch. Who would have thought a movie could ever suffer from not having Kirstie Alley?
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's close to being a good movie. The script is quite nice, regardless of my pet peeve with the The Third Act Of All Films, Regardless Of Genre, Must Be An Action Sequence formula. If only that action sequence had been any good...
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

"It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown"

2011-12-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

"It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" (TV short), 1992. Christmas-related sketches. Directed by Bill Melendez. Written by Charles M. Schulz. Starring Jamie E. Smith, Phillip Lucier & Lindsay Benesh.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). Why does this exist? More importantly, why is it on video?
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). No story.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). A relentless barrage of four-panel "jokes," animated for no apparent reason. All the faults of the 60's special, magnified, with none of the charm.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.6/4 (Eh)

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

2011-12-16T14:51:00.001-08:00

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" (TV short), 1965. A depressed kid is talked into directing the school Christmas play. Directed by Bill Melendez. Written by Charles M. Schulz. Starring Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea & Tracy Stratford.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Points off for conspicuously absent sound effects.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). The voices are perfect.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Mildly wonderful. I probably saw it as a kid, but I have no memory of watching it before yesterday. So, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find out how good it is.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

Hellboy

2011-12-15T12:49:00.001-08:00

Hellboy, 2004. A demon raised by the US Government fights supernatural badguys. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Written by Del Toro; story by Del Toro & Peter Briggs; based on a comic book by Mike Mignola. Starring Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans & Karel Roden.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 4/4 (Great). The development is pretty terrible, but there's enough Awesome that I have to give full points in this category.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). The CG is mediocre. The practical effects and design are great.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's fun. There's some great action. But I remembered it being a lot better than it is. Maybe I had lower standards for a superhero movie back in 2004. Or maybe now that I've seen it enough that the cool bits aren't novel anymore, I'm less distracted from the mess of a story.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

2011-12-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982. An old enemy of Kirk wants vengeance. Directed by Nicholas Meyer. Written by Jack B. Sowards & Meyer; story by Harve Bennett, Sowards & Samuel A. Peeples; based on a TV show by Gene Roddenberry. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley & Ricardo Montalban.

Concept: 4/4 (Great). Revenge is a great motive for any action movie. And on top of that, this movie's a polar opposite of the first one - not that it's necessarily a better direction, but it's great that it's such a different direction. You'd never get that kind of change of pace from a modern franchise.
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). The effects are great, but why are the bad guys a hair band? Maybe in the remake Khan will be emo. If only it had been made in the 70s, they could have been punks.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Ham sandwich! But I'm okay with that.
Music: 1/4 (Bad). Oh, James Horner, you so awful.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). It used to be one of my favorites. Usually when I like a movie this much, it gets better with every viewing, but this one seems to get a little worse every time. There's no subtlety; what you get is just what's there on the surface. Still awesome, though.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good)

The Wizard of Oz

2011-12-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 8 of 13

The Wizard of Oz, 1939. A witch and a lost girl fight to the death over a sparkly pair of heels. Directed by Victor Fleming. Written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson & Edgar Allan Woolf, based on a book by L. Frank Baum. Starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley & Margaret Hamilton.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Garland is great. The rest are entertainingly hammy.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Whenever I watch this, I try to imagine what it would be like to see it for the first time. I can never tell, but I do usually notice things that have previously been invisibile-due-to-familiarity. One thing I managed to pull out of it this time around was just how good a song and performance "Over the Rainbow" is. I mean, yeah, I've always known it's great, but this time it struck me how much it probably would have floored me if I'd never heard it before.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.6/4 (Great)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Serenity

2011-12-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

Serenity, 2005. Space fugitives have government secrets. Written and directed by Joss Whedon. Starring Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau & Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). A TV show with a large cast and a slowly developing plot is supposed to make a watchable movie how exactly?
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good). Great with banter, often bad with plot-related stuff.
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). Mostly good, with some key moments of awful.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). There are moments of greatness, and moments of embarassingly bad crap. But even if the crap weren't there, the great bits wouldn't come together into a coherent movie.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

Finding Nemo

2011-12-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

Finding Nemo, 2003. A fish swims through the ocean to find his son. Directed by Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich. Written by Stanton, Bob Peterson & David Reynolds. Starring Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould & Willem Dafoe.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). I would go on about how good it is, but whatever, you've seen it. Everybody's seen this, right?
Objective Rating (Average): 3.6/4 (Great)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"The Flying Mouse"

2011-12-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

"The Flying Mouse" (short), 1934. A young mouse wishes for wings. Directed by David Hand. Starring Clarence Nash.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). Heavy-handed moralizing, but with some nice animation.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

"Elmer Elephant"

2011-12-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

"Elmer Elephant" (short), 1936. Other animals make fun of an elephant's trunk. Directed by Wilfred Jackson. Written by Earl Hurd, Bianca Majolie, Ted Sears & Roy Williams. Starring Bernice Hansen.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Um... who cares?
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

Dumbo

2011-12-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

Dumbo, 1941. A circus elephant has embarrassingly large ears. Directed by Ben Sharpsteen. Written by Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Otto Englander, Bill Peet, Aurelius Battaglia, Joe Rinaldi, Vernon Stallings & Webb Smith, based on a book by Helen Aberson & Harold Pearl. Starring Edward Brophy, Cliff Edwards & Verna Felton.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good). The plot could potentially have been very tedious, but this movie is a model of economical storytelling (without ever rushing anything).
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). Sad, and beautifully uncomplicated. When everything turns out happy in the end, it's so sudden and arbitrary and absurdly thorough, it doesn't feel real - like someone was telling a sad bedtime story and realized at the last minute that if it didn't have a happy ending the kids would be up crying all night. The adults in the audience are left to decide for themselves what really happens.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.5/4 (Very good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Doctor Who #132: The Awakening

2011-12-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who: "The Awakening," 1984 (the second story of seven from season twenty-one). An historical reenactment awakens a buried psychic entity. Directed by Michael Owen Morris. Written by Eric Pringle. Starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Polly James & Denis Lill.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible). I don't see how it could possibly make sense.
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad). It's two episodes, from a script that was originally meant to be four. The re-writing process must have involved a paper shredder and some scotch tape.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). It's crap, but at least it's not boring. On the contrary, you're kept very occupied trying to figure out what any of this is supposed to mean. You don't know what the monster is (except that it comes from another planet), or why it's there until the very end of the episode where The Doctor explains everything (and it's a pretty weak explanation with gaping holes in it) and also mentions that, "Oh, by the way, I've just defeated it." How? "Because I said so."
Objective Rating (Average): 1.2/4 (Bad)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

2011-12-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979. A giant, deadly spaceship is headed for Earth. Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Harold Livingston, story by Alan Dean Foster, based on a TV show by Gene Roddenberry. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Persis Khambatta & Stephen Collins.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). I want to give them credit for trying - a sci-fi movie this expensive, post-Star Wars, with no action of any kind. And to be fair, there is quite a bit of suspense, considering how long the movie takes to get going. But for all the good intentions, there isn't much of a story at all, and what little there is is lifted directly from episodes of the TV show.
Characters: 3/4 (Good). I would say they're bad, but then there's Bones. Being awesome. And apparently not having anything to do on the ship but pace through the halls and occasionally insult people.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). Douglas Trumbull is pretty much the best thing to ever happen to science fiction.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good). I kind of hate Goldsmith's version of the theme. A lot. But the V'ger music is pretty cool.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Although there's only one credited screenwriter, it was in fact written by committee, and it hurts for it. Script-wise, it's more like Star Trek's Greatest Hits (minus the action) than a story of its own. But the visuals! Trumbull should have been credited as the star; I'm pretty sure his effects get more screen time than the actors.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)

"Christmas Comes but Once a Year"

2011-12-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

"Christmas Comes but Once a Year" (short), 1936. A cackling old man builds an impromptu Christmas for orphans. Directed by Dave Fleischer. Starring Jack Mercer & Mae Questel.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). Good score, terrible singing.
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Not funny, but I enjoy the animation style - probably because I haven't seen many Fleischer cartoons from this era.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.7/4 (Eh)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

2011-12-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, 1964. Martians kidnap Santa. Directed by Nicholas Webster. Written by Glenville Mareth, story by Paul L. Jacobson. Starring John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill McCutcheon, Victor Stiles & Donna Conforti.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible). A terrible idea, yes, but in a good way.
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: 0/4 (Terrible)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 0/4 (Terrible)
Special effects/design: 0/4 (Terrible)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 3/4 (Good). I like the theme song, and the score is surprisingly okay.
Subjective Rating: 1/10 (Eew get it away, 0/4). Despite appearances, it's not a campy fun sort of bad movie. How can a movie about Santa Claus vs. Martians not be campy fun? It's just so damn bad. It makes Ed Wood look like a master craftsman.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.4/4 (Terrible)

The Third Man

2011-12-07T14:10:00.001-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 7 of 13

The Third Man, 1949. An American in post-war Vienna tries to clear the name of his recently deceased friend. Directed by Carol Reed. Written by Graham Greene. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles & Trevor Howard.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great). Visually, this movie is as good as it gets.
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). Bombs are a great set designer.
Acting: 4/4 (Great). Oh man, Welles' grin alone could earn this movie a 4. It's surely one of the Top Ten Moments of Acting.
Music: 4/4 (Great). It's my second time watching the movie, and I've had a complete reversal on my reaction to the music. It had seemed so completely wrong for the movie. It is wrong for the first half of the movie, and by the time it starts to fit, I had already rejected it. But on the second viewing, the effect has changed so much it's like a different score. Watching that first half of the movie knowing that the title character is on his way - knowing the character and how Welles plays him - the score is absolutely perfect. It's hard to imagine the movie with a traditional mystery/crime score. It would still be a great movie that way, but... I don't know. Maybe Welles' performance wouldn't seem so great without that music to prepare you for him.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). An all-around damn good movie.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.8/4 (Great)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

The Night of the Hunter

2011-12-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

from my 1st Ebert’s Great Movies Marathon, part 6 of 13

The Night of the Hunter, 1955. A mad "preacher" is after money that two kids have hidden. Directed by Charles Laughton. Written by James Agee, based on a novel by Davis Grubb. Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin & Sally Jane Bruce.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 4/4 (Great)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Powerfully suspenseful and visually beautiful. Mitchum's preacher is one of the scariest movie characters of all time. It's a strange movie, combining expressionist horror and noir crime thiller - taking the best from both worlds without much regard for the audience's expectations. I appreciated and enjoyed it a lot more the second time around.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.7/4 (Great)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

2011-12-06T13:22:00.001-08:00

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984. Indiana Jones discovers an evil cult in India. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz; story by George Lucas. Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan & Amrish Puri.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). If it weren't for the fact that it's a sequel to a great movie that demands a sequel, it would be a pretty bad concept.
Story: 1/4 (Bad). "Quick, we must escape through these plot holes! What's that? No, we can't go out the front door like everyone else. That's not exciting enough!"
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). What's with these people? It's like Lucas went out of his way to think up the most annoying characters possible. Granted, none of them are played by Shia LaBeouf, so it could be worse.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). Grating. Not that they could have done any better with this writing.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's a reluctant 7. It's ever so slightly better than a 6. Partly it's nostalgia; I watched this a lot as a kid. And partly it's the scary bits; there are some moments of greatness in there.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Star Trek: The Animated Series: Season Two (wrap-up)

2011-12-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Star Trek [The Animated Series]: Season Two, 1974.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). The concept of the show as a whole is good, although the episode-by-episode concepts only average out to about 1.8/4.
Story: 1/4 (Bad). Rounded down from an average of about 1.3/4.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). Average: 1.0/4.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). Average: 1.0/4.
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent). Average: 2.0/4.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent). Average: 2.0/4.
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Average: about 3.2/4.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). Average: 1.5/4.
Music: 4/4 (Great). Average: 4.0/4.
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Average: about 4.7/10. Although I only thought one episode was really bad, the rest are all mediocre. The unrelenting barrage of mediocrity has a cumulative effect of A Very Bad Show Indeed.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)

The Episodes, sorted by subjective rating (objective rating in parentheses)
5/10
- "The Pirates of Orion" (2.3/4)
- "Albatross" (2.0/4)
- "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" (1.9/4)
- "Bem" (1.9/4)
- "The Practical Joker" (1.9/4)
3/10
- "The Counter-Clock Incident" (1.8/4)

Star Trek: "The Counter-Clock Incident"

2011-12-05T12:26:00.001-08:00

Star Trek [The Animated Series]: "The Counter-Clock Incident," 1974 (the last episode of six from season two). Time moves in reverse in a another universe. Directed by Bill Reed. Written by Fred Bronson. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols & James Doohan.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 0/4 (Terrible)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 0/4 (Terrible). The first ten minutes of the episode, before shit gets ridiculous, might have been good. Horrible performances by Nichols and Doohan ensure that it's not.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). It hurts. It physically hurts to watch this one. So little of this episode is logical, it's remarkable that Spock's brain didn't explode.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

Star Trek: "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"

2011-12-05T12:14:00.001-08:00

Star Trek [The Animated Series]: "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth," 1974 (the fifth episode of six from season two). A former Mayan god is a found to be a conceited space monster. Directed by Bill Reed. Written by Russell Bates & David Wise. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley & James Doohan.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). How many times has this plot been done on Star Trek? Enough already. It wasn't a good idea to begin with.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

Sesame Street: Old School, Volume Two

2011-12-03T22:27:00.001-08:00

Sesame Street: Old School Volume Two, 1974-1979 (the first episode of each of seasons six through ten, plus a few hours of other sketches). Some people and monsters really love the alphabet. Written by Joseph A. Bailey, Sara Compton, Jerry Juhl, Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss, Emily Perl Kingsley, David Korr, Ray Sipherd, Norman Stiles & Paul D. Zimmerman. Starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Caroll Spinney, Northern J. Calloway, Emilio Delgado, Loretta Long, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath & Roscoe Orman.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4). The quality drops noticeably in these episodes compared with Volume One. There's still a lot of great Muppet stuff, but it doesn't usually have the feel of Jim and Frank Messing Around and Doing Whatever They Like that the early years had (which is not surprising, since they've got their own show by this point, whereas in the early 70s Sesame Street was their only regular outlet to get stuff on TV).
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)

Star Trek: "Albatross"

2011-12-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

Star Trek [The Animated Series]: "Albatross," 1974 (the fourth episode of six from season two). McCoy is accused of starting a plague. Directed by Hal Sutherland. Written by Dario Finelli. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley & Lou Scheimer.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). It promises to be some sort of legal drama, but they have to skip the entire legal part thanks to time constraints - which leaves you with... people turning color because of Space Magic? I don't even know. But the aliens look pretty cool.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)