Sicario

Sicario, 2015. An FBI agent is given a morally ambiguous assignment.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Written by Taylor Sheridan. Starring Emily Blunt, with Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, & Daniel Kaluuya.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's intense and engrossing, but not satisfying. The story and character don't arc so much as spiral. C

GPA: 2.8/4

Survivor: Season 28

Survivor: Season 28, 2014. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: This cast is a weird group. There are a lot of people playing hard, which makes for an excitingly unpredictable season. But there are also almost no likable people, and a lot of bitterness and fighting. Overall, as annoyed as I often was with it, I suppose it had me hooked in. B

GPA: 2.3/4

The Martian

The Martian, 2015. An astronaut is stranded on Mars.

Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Drew Goddard, based on a book by Andy Weir. Starring Matt Damon, with Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, & Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Concept: A
Story: A
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: They would have had to have messed this up pretty badly for me not to love it. They did not. It's faithful to the book, only simplifying or cutting things out for time. The book is much more effective, though (although maybe that's just because I didn't know what was going to happen). I really hope this new trend of science fiction movies that are actually science fiction keeps up. A+

GPA: 3.6/4

The Cosby Show: Season Six

The Cosby Show: Season Six, 1989-1990. The day-to-day life of a large, wealthy family.

Created by Ed. Weinberger, Michael Leeson, & Bill Cosby. Directed by Tony Singletary (14 episodes), Jay Sandrich (8), Chuck Vinson (2), Carl Lauten (2), Neema Barnette (1), & Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1). Written by John Markus (19 episodes), Carmen Finestra (18), Gary Kott (17), Mark St. Germain (4), Lore Kimbrough (2), Ehrich Van Lowe (1), & Matt Robinson (1). Starring Cosby, with Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina LeBeauf, Geoffrey Owens, Lisa Bonet, Joseph C. Phillips, Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, & Raven-Symoné.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Basically, The Cosby Show lasts for five seasons. Then it's replaced with an ordinary sitcom that happens to feature the same characters. B

GPA: 2.4/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

The Odd Couple

The Odd Couple, 1968. Two divorced men live together.

Directed by Gene Saks. Written by Neil Simon, based on his play. Starring Jack Lemmon, & Walter Matthau, with John Fiedler, Herb Edelman, David Sheiner, Larry Haines, Monica Evans, & Carole Shelley.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: The first act is pretty great. After that, it settles down into standard TV sit-com humor. B

GPA: 2.4/4

Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing, 1987. A rich girl falls for a dance instructor "from the streets."

Directed by Emile Ardolino. Written by Eleanor Bergstein. Starring Jennifer Grey, & Patrick Swayze, with Jerry Orbach, & Cynthia Rhodes.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: I believe "hot mess" is the term. B
Enjoyment: The only way I can make sense of this movie is that it's actually about time-travelers. C

GPA: 1.7/4

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

Parks and Recreation: Season Five

Parks and Recreation: Season Five, 2012-2013. An idealistic civil servant is a city council member.

Created by Greg Daniels, & Michael Schur. Directed by Dean Holland (6 episodes), Craig Zisk (4), Ken Whittingham (2), Kyle Newacheck (1), Wendey Stanzler (1), Morgan Sackett (1), Dan Goor (1), Norm Hiscock (1), Nick Offerman (1), Tristram Shapeero (1), Amy Poehler (1), Nicole Holofcener (1), & Alan Yang (1). Written by Aisha Muharrar (3 episodes), Hiscock (3), Yang (3), Schur (3), Joe Mande (3), Harris Wittels (2), Alexandra Rushfield (2), Megan Amram (2), Dave King (2), Goor (1), Greg Levine (1), Nate DiMeo (1), & Matt Murray (1). Starring Poehler, with Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, & Rob Lowe.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: There are some hilarious moments, mostly revolving around Chris Pratt. But it's also moved pretty well away from the goofier-than-reality world the show inhabited at its best. B

GPA: 2.6/4

Parks and Recreation: Season Four

Parks and Recration: Season Four, 2011-2012. An idealistic civil servant runs for office.

Created by Greg Daniels, & Michael Schur. Directed by Dean Holland (5 episodes), Troy Miller (2), Randall Einhorn (2), Schur (2), Charles McDougall (1), Wendey Stanzler (1), Jorma Taccone (1), Nicole Holofcener (1), Tucker Gates (1), Michael Trim (1), Morgan Sackett (1), Robert B. Weide (1), Dan Goor (1), Tristram Shapeero (1), & Amy Poehler (1). Written by Goor (3 episodes), Aisha Muharrar (3), Alan Yang (3), Schur (3), Norm Hiscock (2), Katie Dippold (2), Harris Wittels (2), Chelsea Peretti (2), Dave King (2), Mike Scully (1), Nick Offerman (1), & Poehler (1). Starring Poehler, with Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, & Rob Lowe.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's not as funny or charming as the previous two seasons, but it's still a very good show. B

GPA: 2.6/4

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

Parks and Recreation: Season Three

Parks and Recreation: Season Three, 2011. A city parks department copes with budget cuts.

Created by Greg Daniels, & Michael Schur. Directed by Dean Holland (4 episodes), Randall Einhorn (2), Wendey Stanzler (1), Schur (1), Tucker Gates (1), David Rogers (1), Rob Schrab (1), Michael Trim (1), Ken Whittingham (1), Nicole Holofcener (1), Troy Miller (1), & Matt Sohn (1). Written by Alan Yang (2 episodes), Norm Hiscock (2), Harris Wittels (2), Katie Dippold (2), Dan Goor (2), Schur (1), Emily Kapnek (1), Aisha Muharrar (1), Emily Spivey (1), Amy Poehler (1), Greg Levine (1), & Brian Rowe (1). Starring Poehler, with Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, & Rob Lowe.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Hilarious, and just an all-around nice place to be. A

GPA: 2.9/4

Parks and Recreation: Season Two

Parks and Recreation: Season Two, 2009-2010. An idealistic civil servant tries to get a park built.

Created by Greg Daniels, & Michael Schur. Directed by Troy Miller (4 episodes), Jason Woliner (3), Dean Holland (3), Alex Hardcastle (2), Tristram Shapeero (2), Paul Feig (1), Seth Gordon (1), Schur (1), Charles McDougall (1), Millicent Shelton (1), Daniels (1), Randall Einhorn (1), Ken Kwapis (1), Michael Trim (1), & Ken Whittingham (1). Written by Schur (4 episodes), Katie Dippold (3), Harris Wittels (3), Daniel J. Goor (3), Norm Hiscock (2), Rachel Axler (2), Alan Yang (2), Aisha Muharrar (2), Mike Scully (2), & Amy Poehler (1). Starring Poehler, with Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, & Chris Pratt.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: Unashamedly goofy. A

GPA: 2.9/4

Live and Let Die

Live and Let Die, 1973. An international gang murders a few people.

Directed by Guy Hamilton. Written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on a book by Ian Fleming. Starring Roger Moore, with Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, Julius Harris, Geoffrey Holder, & Gloria Hendry.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: F
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: D
Music: D
Enjoyment: I continue to be amazed at just how bad James Bond movies can be. Each one manages to top the last in awfulness. This one is so boring, it's exhausting. F

GPA: 0.9/4

Parks and Recreation: Season One

Parks and Recreation: Season One, 2009. An idiot civil servant tries to get a park built.

Created by Greg Daniels, & Michael Schur. Directed by Daniels (1 episode), Seth Gordon (1), Jeffrey Blitz (1), Michael McCullers (1), Beth McCarthy Miller (1), & Schur (1). Written by Daniels (1 episode), Schur (1), Rachel Axler (1), Daniel J. Goor (1), Alan Yang (1), Tucker Cawley (1), & Norm Hiscock (1). Starring Amy Poehler, with Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, & Chris Pratt.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: We've already started watching season two, so I know it gets a lot funnier. But these first few episodes aren't that great. It's just a copy of The Office, with about one laugh per episode. C

GPA: 2.5/4

Survivor: Season 27

Survivor: Season 27, 2013. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: D
Enjoyment: One of the series' better seasons. The majority of the contestants are seriously playing, and the gimmick of playing in pairs adds a lot of new complexity to the strategy. B

GPA: 2.4/4

Kingsman

Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2015. A boy is recruited by secret agents and saves the world from a mad scientist.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Written by Jane Goldman, & Vaughn, based on a book by Mark Millar, & Dave Gibbons. Starring Taron Egerton, & Colin Firth, with Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Mark Strong, Sofia Boutella, & Sophie Cookson.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's kind of a parody without jokes, but for the most part it manages to be fun enough to be entertaining. It might have been a pretty good movie if one or two tasteless scenes had been cut. C

GPA: 2.1/4

The Thief of Bagdad

The Thief of Bagdad, 1924 [2004 Kino edition, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra score]. A thief tries to win a princess.

Directed by Raoul Walsh. Written by Lotta Woods; story by Douglas Fairbanks. Starring Fairbanks, with Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards, Sôjin Kamiyama, & Anna May Wong.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: D
Music: C
Enjoyment: This is essentially a Disney movie, minus the singing. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Ex Machina

Ex Machina, 2015. A robot woman's consciousness is tested.

Written & directed by Alex Garland. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, & Oscar Isaac, with Sonoya Mizuno.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: I expected to love this movie. It's a good movie - beautiful to look at, and intelligent - but I definitely did not love it. I was promised a meditation on the nature of consciousness. There is a lot of that, but it's equally as much about the untouchable power of the super-rich, which is not such a fun subject. B

GPA: 3.3/4

Survivor: Season 26

Survivor: Season 26, 2013. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: The first half of the season is stressful and intense in the worst way: one of the players is apparently not just crazy in the usual reality TV contestant way, but genuinely psychotic - abusive and dangerous. It's a shame, since he renders unwatchable what might otherwise have been a good season. And then another player is pulled from the game because he was starving. This is not entertainment. D

GPA: 2.0/4

Tabletop: Season Three

Tabletop: Season Three, 2014-2015. Minor celebrities (and some not-so-celebrities) play board games.

Created by Wil Wheaton & Felicia Day. Directed by Jennifer Arnold. Starring Wheaton.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: It's uneven compared with the first two seasons, but a few great episodes (like "Cards Against Humanity" and "Dread") are exceptionally great. They do seem to be playing increasingly more games that don't work well with the show's format. A+

GPA: 2.7/4