Lost in Translation

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 65 of 100



Lost in Translation, 2003. Two people with unhappy marriages meet and hang out in Tokyo.

Written & directed by Sofia Coppola. Starring Scarlett Johansson, & Bill Murray, with Giovanni Ribisi, & Anna Faris.

Concept: D
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It evokes something. And with these two leads, you can't really go wrong. B

GPA: 2.8/4

The Goonies

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 64 of 100

The Goonies, 1985. Kids find a pirate's treasure map.

Directed by Richard Donner. Written by Chris Columbus; story by Steven Spielberg. Starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, & Jonathan Ke Quan, with John Matuszak, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, & Anne Ramsey.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: So much yelling. D
Music: C
Enjoyment: Two hours or screaming children. I really do not get what people see in this movie. D

GPA: 1.6/4

Donnie Brasco

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 63 of 100



Donnie Brasco, 1997. An undercover FBI agent infiltrates the mob.

Directed by Mike Newell. Written by Paul Attanasio, based on a book by Joseph D. Pistone, & Richard Woodley. Starring Al Pacino, & Johnny Depp, with Michael Madsen, & Anne Heche.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's too slow; the relationship stuff in particular is boring. It's an interesting story, though, and would have been a great movie with some better editing. B

GPA: 2.8/4

True Romance

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 62 of 100



True Romance, 1993. Newlyweds go to Hollywood with a suitcase full of stolen cocaine.

Directed by Tony Scott. Written by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Christian Slater, & Patricia Arquette, with Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rapaport, Saul Rubinek, & James Gandolfini.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: How does a movie about a guy obsessed with Elvis have such shitty music? D
Enjoyment: The tone doesn't mesh with the material. It seems like Tarantino wrote a satire, but Scott didn't notice. C

GPA: 2.5/4

As Good as It Gets

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 61 of 100



As Good as It Gets, 1997. An obsessive-compulsive misanthrope learns to be slightly less horrible.

Directed by James L. Brooks. Written by Brooks, & Mark Andrus; story by Andrus. Starring Jack Nicholson, & Helen Hunt, with Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, & Shirley Knight.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: The score is ridiculously overdone, but there's some good pop music. C
Enjoyment: Harmless. There are some bits of memorable dialog here and there that manage to make it more than just a 90's artifact. C

GPA: 2.3/4

Clerks

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 60 of 100



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

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

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

GPA: 1.5/4

Mutiny on the Bounty

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 59 of 100



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

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

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

GPA: 2.5/4

The Game

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 58 of 100



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

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

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

GPA: 2.7/4

Home Alone

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 57 of 100



Home Alone, 1990. A boy left home alone thwarts burglars.

Directed by Chris Columbus. Written by John Hughes. Starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, & Daniel Stern, with John Heard, Roberts Blossom, & Catherine O'Hara.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: D
Enjoyment: Every now and then there'll be something amusing (like John Candy) - just often enough to emphasize how bad the rest of the movie is. D

GPA: 1.2/4

The Rules of the Game

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 56 of 100



La règle du jeu, 1939. Rich people gather for hunting and a party.

Directed by Jean Renoir. Written by Renoir, with Carl Koch. Starring Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, & Renoir.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: I don't get it. Is it supposed to be a comedy? I honestly can't tell. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Men in Black

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 55 of 100



Men in Black, 1997. A cop is recruited to a secret space-alien cover-up organization.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Written by Ed Solomon, based on a comic book by Lowell Cunningham. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, & Will Smith, with Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio, & Rip Torn.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's rarely funny; most of the "comedy" just involves people getting slime dumped on them. But the world-building is handled well, and there are enough weird-looking people/creatures to keep it fun. C

GPA: 2.5/4

American Psycho

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 54 of 100



American Psycho, 2000. A serial killer blends in on Wall Street.

Directed by Mary Harron. Written by Harron, & Guinevere Turner, based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis. Starring Christian Bale, with Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, & Cara Seymour.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: It starts out good - suspenseful and interesting. Then without warning reality breaks and that's about it for the movie. C

GPA: 2.7/4

Breathless

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 53 of 100



À bout de souffle, 1960. A car thief shoots a cop, then hangs out with a girl for a few days.

Written & directed by Jean-Luc Godard; story by François Truffaut. Starring Jean Seberg, & Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: F
Cinematography: Bonus point for the editing. B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: I simply will never understand the French New Wave. The more I see of it, the more bored it makes me. This movie has a great sort of stylistic energy that made me really want to like it. But no. So boring. D

GPA: 1.9/4

The Fugitive

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 52 of 100



The Fugitive, 1993. An innocent convict becomes a fugitive.

Directed by Andrew Davis. Written by Jeb Stuart, & David Twohy, based on characters by Roy Huggins. Starring Harrison Ford, & Tommy Lee Jones, with Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, Joe Pantoliano, Andreas Katsulas, & Jeroen Krabbé.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: I'm with Tommy Lee Jones' character: I don't care whether or not Ford killed anyone - or about the one-armed man, and definitely not about a pharmaceuticals conspiracy. The movie's still entertaining, though. When it stays simple - just a hunter and a fugitive - it's quite well done. B

GPA: 2.5/4

Airplane!

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 51 of 100



Airplane!, 1980. An illness dooms a passenger plane; hilarity ensues.

Written & directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, & Jerry Zucker. Starring Robert Hays, & Julie Hagerty, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Lorna Patterson, Robert Stack, & Stephen Stucker.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: I rarely find parody to be funny, and most of what this movie is parodying are disaster movies that are now lost to time. So it really should not work. But it has some of the best jokes in film history. B

GPA: 2.0/4

Interview with the Vampire

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 50 of 100



Interview with the Vampire, 1994. A vampire tells his life story.

Directed by Neil Jordan. Written by Anne Rice, based on her book. Starring Brad Pitt, with Christian Slater, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Stephen Rea, & Antonio Banderas.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: D
Pacing: B
Cinematography: I suspect it's just the DVD that's crappy quality, but it looks like it's filmed on videotape. D
Special effects/design: B
Acting: It's bizarre how bad Pitt is in this movie. C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Even though the characters and romance - which are essentially what the movie is about - are corny and uninteresting, it's still a good movie. There's enough serious fantasy and horror to give it a compelling gravity. B

GPA: 2.2/4

Sullivan's Travels

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 49 of 100



Sullivan's Travels, 1941. A Hollywood director tries to experience life as a tramp.

Written & directed by Preston Sturges. Starring Joel McCrea, & Veronica Lake.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: An enjoyable movie. Its more serious parts don't work as well as the comedy - it's too bluntly trying to say something rather than tell a story. But for a movie with a social message, it's aged remarkably well. B

GPA: 2.9/4

Grease

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 48 of 100



Grease, 1978. 1950s teenagers do cliche 1950s things.

Directed by Randal Kleiser. Written by Bronte Woodard; adapted by Allan Carr from a play by Jim Jacobs, & Warren Casey. Starring John Travolta, & Olivia Newton-John, with Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, & Didi Conn.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: I think 1978 was just a terrible time to make a musical. A lot of these songs would be good, but they've had all the life produced out of them. Meanwhile, there's no story to speak of. I guess it's supposed to be a romance, but nothing in that vein ever amounts to more than an excuse to feature 1950s scenery. C

GPA: 1.5/4

X-Men 2

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 47 of 100



X-Men 2, 2003. The US military tries to kill superhumans.

Directed by Bryan Singer. Written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, & David Hayter; story by Zak Penn, Hayter, & Singer. Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, & Ian McKellen, with Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Brian Cox, & Alan Cumming.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: Pretty boring. Most of the ending is a mess. It could have been a lot worse, but it's sad that this is considered to be one of the better X-Men movies. C

GPA: 1.8/4

This Is Spinal Tap

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 46 of 100



This Is Spinal Tap, 1984. An aging rock band goes on tour.

Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by & starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, & Reiner.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Overrated. There are some very funny scenes, but not enough to sustain an entire movie on their own. C

GPA: 2.1/4