The Wages of Fear

Title: Le salaire de la peur
Year: 1953 (France), 1955 (US)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writers: Henri-Georges Clouzot & Jérôme Géronimi, based on the novel by Georges Arnaud
Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, Peter van Eyck, Véra Clouzot
Music: Georges Auric
Distinctions: currently #143 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 148 minutes
Synopsis: 300 miles of disrepaired roads in two trucks full of volatile explosives
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for pacing, cinematography and music) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

Very effective suspense. The plot doesn't get started until about an hour into the movie, but once it gets going it's great. The characters aren't likable, but given their situation you can't help sympathizing with them.

Wonder Woman

Title: Wonder Woman
Year: 2009 (direct-to-video)
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Writer: Michael Jelenic; story by Jelenic & Gail Simone; characters by William M. Marston
Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, Marg Helgenberger, Oliver Platt, Virginia Madsen
Music: Christopher Drake
Length: 74 minutes
Synopsis: Wonder Woman leaves her island to save the world from Ares
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).
Objective Rating: 1/10 (gets a point for acting) c. 1.4/4 (Bad).

Blah. It had some nice touches here and there, but mostly it was just kind of lame.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Title: Batman: Gatham Knight
Year: 2008 (direct-to-video)
Directors: Yasuhiro Aoki, Yuichiro Hayashi, Futoshi Higashide, Toshiyuki Kubooka, Hiroshi Morioka, Jong-Sik Nam, Shoujirou Nishimi
Writers: Josh Olson, Greg Rucka, Brian Azzarello, Alan Burnett, Jordan Goldberg, David S. Goyer; stories by Goldberg; character by Bob Kane
Starring: Kevin Conroy
Music: Christopher Drake, Robert J. Kral, Kevin Manthei
Length: 75 minutes
Synopsis: a collection of Anime Batman shorts
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), July 2008
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).
Objective Rating: 2/10 (gets points for cinematography and special effects/design) c. 2.2/4 (Okay).

Crazy disappointing. And it takes a lot of suck for me to not like Batman. Although perhaps my judgement is skewed as I was expecting greatness.

Justice League: The New Frontier

Title: Justice League: The New Frontier
Year: 2008 (direct-to-video)
Director: Dave Bullock
Writer: Stan Berkowitz, based on the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke
Starring: David Boreanaz, Miguel Ferrer, Neil Patrick Harris, Lucy Lawless, Kyle MacLachlan, Kyra Sedgwick, Jeremy Sisto
Music: Kevin Manthei
Length: 75 minutes
Synopsis: the formation of the Justice League in the 1950's
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), April 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for dialog and cinematography) c. 2.7/4 (Good).

Much better than most of the crap that passes for super hero movies.  The dialog is corny, but it's the sort of comic book world where it should be a little corny.

Superman: Doomsday

Title: Superman: Doomsday
Year: 2007 (direct-to-video)
Directors: Lauren Montgomery, Bruce W. Timm & Brandon Vietti
Writers: Duane Capizzi & Bruce W. Timm
Starring: Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters
Music: Robert J. Kral
Length: 78 minutes
Synopsis: Superman is killed
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), October 2007
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: n/a (too long since I've seen it)

What  I wrote after watching it:
Superman dies after 15 minutes of fighting. This is significantly less believable than dying after 11 comic books worth of fighting. It's just like, wait, why is he dead already? Dudes with kryptonite have given him worse beatings than that. If they got rid of some tedious love story crap and added in ten more minutes of fight, it might have worked. Otherwise, good movie. Better than the 90's animated series.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Title: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Year: 2003
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writers: John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris; story by Brancato, Ferris & Tedi Sarafian; based on characters by James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken
Music: Marco Beltrami
Length: 109 minutes
Synopsis: yet another time-travelling Terminator tries to kill John Connor
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 3/10 (gets points for pacing, special effects/design and subjective rating) c. 2.0/4 (Indifferent).

Predictable, filled with plot holes, corny dialog... but the other two Terminator movies had two out of three of those faults. It's not really all that bad. There's a fifteen- or twenty-minute action sequence near the beginning that's fun and solidly put together. It's worth watching if you like that sort of thing.

Lost: Season Four

Title: Lost: Season Four
Year: 2008
Network: ABC
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Jack Bender (6 episodes), Stephen Williams (5), Eric Laneuville (1), Stephen Semel (1), Paul Edwards (1)
Writers: Damon Lindelof (5 episodes), Carlton Cuse (5), Drew Goddard (3), Brian K. Vaughan (3), Edward Kitsis (3), Adam Horowitz (3), Elizabeth Sarnoff (3), Greggory Nations (1), Christina M. Kim (1), Kyle Pennington (1)
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Evangeline Lilly, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Terry O’Quinn, Harold Perrineau
Music: Michael Giacchino
Episodes: 14, at c. 43 minutes
Synopsis: Survivors vs. The Boat
How I saw it: a few episodes streaming online, February 2008; on video (rented from Netflix), over the past couple weeks
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for pacing) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

This was the first time the DVD of the previous season came out early enough for us to be caught up in time to watch the show as it aired. Unfortunately, we grew bored after about three episodes and stopped watching. Nothing really seemed to be happening, and the cliff-hangers were completely dumb. It didn't help that two of the best characters were killed off in season three. I had thought I would give up on the show, but eventually curiosity and my obsessive-compulsive nature (I started the show, so I have to finish it!) got the best of me and we rented it. I'm glad we did. Those first episodes were just as bad or worse as I remembered, but it picks up eventually. A lot happens in the last few episodes, and the finale is pretty crazy.

Lost: Season Three

Title: Lost: Season Three
Year: 2006-2007
Network: ABC
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Jack Bender (7 episodes), Stephen Williams (7), Paul Edwards (2), Eric Laneuville (2), Tucker Gates (1), Paris Barclay (1), Karen Gaviola (1), Fred Toye (1), Bobby Roth (1)
Writers: Damon Lindelof (8 episodes), Carlton Cuse (8), Drew Goddard (5), Edward Kitsis (5), Adam Horowitz (5), Jeff Pinkner (4), Elizabeth Sarnoff (4), Christina M. Kim (2), J.J. Abrams (1), Alison Schapker (1), Monica Breen (1), Jordan Rosenberg (1), Brian K. Vaughan (1)
Starring: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn
Music: Michael Giacchino
Episodes: 23, at c. 43 minutes
Synopsis: Survivors vs. Others
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), December 2007
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.5/4 (Very good) 3.6/4 (Great).

A lot is answered and explained, leaving most of the remaining "mysteries" fairly concrete and specific. The heroes appear to be at least somewhat in control of things for once. I've yet to watch any of season five, but I'd guess this will have been the show's peak.

Lost: Season Two

Title: Lost: Season Two
Year: 2005-2006
Network: ABC
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Jack Bender (7 episodes), Stephen Williams (7), Eric Laneuville (2), Paul Edwards (2), Alan Taylor (1), Adam Davidson (1), Matt Earl Beesley (1), Roxann Dawson (1), Karen Gaviola (1), Deran Sarafian (1)
Writers: Damon Lindelof (9 episodes), Carlton Cuse (8), Steven Maeda (4), Leonard Dick (4), Edward Kitsis (4), Adam Horowitz (4), Elizabeth Sarnoff (4), Christina M. Kim (3), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (2), Craig Wright (2), Dawn Lambertsen-Kelly (1), Matt Ragghianti (1)
Starring: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Watros
Music: Michael Giacchino
Episodes: 24, at c. 43 minutes
Synopsis: Walt is held by the "others," a second group of survivors is found, and a Locke pushes a button
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), September 2006
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.6/4 (Great).

Slightly better than the first season.  Enough questions are answered that when loads of new inexplicable things happen, you're able to trust they will be explained eventually, which makes it all the more exciting.

Lost: Season One

Title: Lost: Season One
Year: 2004-2005
Network: ABC
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Jack Bender (8 episodes), Tucker Gates (3), J.J. Abrams (2), Kevin Hooks (2), Greg Yaitanes (2), Stephen Williams (2), Michael Zinberg (1), Marita Grabiak (1), Rod Holcomb (1), Daniel Attias (1), Robert Mandel (1), David Grossman (1)
Writers: Damon Lindelof (10 episodes), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (5), Carlton Cuse (5), David Fury (4), J.J. Abrams (2), Jeffrey Lieber (2), Jennifer Johnson (2), Leonard Dick (2), Christian Taylor (1), Paul Dini (1), Lynne E. Litt (1), Drew Goddard (1), Brent Fletcher (1), Janet Tamaro (1), Edward Kitsis (1), Adam Horowitz (1)
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Ian Somerhalder
Music: Michael Giacchino
Episodes: 25, at c. 43 minutes
Synopsis: an airliner crashes on a mysterious island
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), November 2005
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for pacing) c. 3.2/4 (Very good).

My reaction at the time was that it's very well done, but I didn't think it lived up to the obsession people had with it. Too many mysteries were unanswered and seemed unanswerable, so I didn't expect the plot to get anywhere for a few years at least (oh how wrong I was...). It was very refreshing to have a network show with good production values that wasn't about doctors, lawyers or government agencies. That's not so rare anymore, but still I've yet to see one since Lost that's actually any good (although to be fair I don't watch much recent television).

The Night of the Hunter

As of this post, we're caught up on The List.  That is, I've made a post for all of the movies watched so far as part of my project of watching all of the IMDb's Top 250.

Title: The Night of the Hunter
Year: 1955
Director: Charles Laughton
Writer: James Agee, based on the novel by Davis Grubb
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce
Music: Walter Schumann
Distinctions: currently #159 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 92 minutes
Synopsis: a mad "preacher" is after money that two kids have hidden
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and special effects/design) c. 3.2/4 (Very good).

A very strange film for the time - in a good way. It's interesting how it plays with expectations and repeatedly defies its genre, without ever being unsatisfying.

Love's a Bitch

Title: Amores perros
Year: 2000 (Mexico), 2001 (US)
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Starring: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero
Music: Gustavo Santaolalla
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film; currently #163 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 154 minutes
Synopsis: three different stories concerning love and dogs
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for dialog, cinematography, special effects/design and acting) c. 2.2/4 (Okay).

More of a three part miniseries than a movie. Unlike most movies that do this multiple-stories-because-we-can't-be-bothered-to-make-one-story-good-enough-to-make-a-movie b.s., the stories actually are dependent on each other in crucial ways. But there is no unifying climax; they just each do their own thing, and that's it. Only one character in the whole movie is even remotely interesting. And it doesn't help that the supposed-to-be-very-serious turning point for that character is funny. The music is a mess. For the first hour there's no music. Then out of nowhere, it's loaded with bad Mexican pop music. For the last hour or two, it has what sounds like the score from Mighty Max.

Into the Wild

Title: Into the Wild
Year: 2007
Director: Sean Penn
Writer: Sean Penn, based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Starring: Emile Hirsch
Music: Eddie Vedder
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Hal Holbrook) and Best Editing; currently #142 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 148 minutes
Synopsis: an angsty privileged kid ditches his family to live as a tramp
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 3/10 (gets points for characters, special effects/design and acting) c. 1.9/4 (Eh).

Bah. An idiot behaves like an idiot, and philosophizes like a stoner. For two and a half hours. While his sister reads a book to the audience. The music is terrible (it put Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" in my head). The acting is excellent.

The Graduate

Title: The Graduate
Year: 1967
Director: Mike Nichols
Writers: Calder Willingham & Buck Henry, based on the novel by Charles Webb
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross
Music: Paul Simon, Dave Grusin
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Director; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Actress (Bancroft), Best Supporting Actress (Ross) and Best Cinematography; currently #157 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 105 minutes
Synopsis: guy has an affair with his parents' friend
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for pacing and cinematography) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

It's a good movie, but it's kind of painful how unrelatable everyone is. Are the musical interludes really necessary? The cinematography is interesting; I don't think it's any good, but it's interesting.

Finding Nemo

Title: Finding Nemo
Year: 2003
Directors: Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
Writers: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson & David Reynolds
Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
Music: Thomas Newman
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Animated Feature; Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Score and Best Sound Editing; currently #161 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: a fish swims through the ocean to find his son
How I saw it: in the theater, 2003; on video a number of times (have on DVD), most recently March 2009
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for concept) c. 3.6/4 (Great).

I would go on about how good it is, but whatever, you've seen it.

Brief Encounter

Title: Brief Encounter
Year: 1945
Director: David Lean
Writer: Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean & Ronald Neame, based on a play by Noel Coward
Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress (Johnson) (1947); currently #167 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 86 minutes
Synopsis: an ordinary mother/housewife imagines telling her husband about a man she fell in love with
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 8/10 9/10 (One of my favorites)
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.7/4 (Great)

The depth and realism of the characters in this movie is remarkable. Take the scene where she lies to her husband - something you see on just about every episode of every bad sitcom, not to mention almost every "romantic" movie ever made; this movie is probably the only time it's felt as gut-wrenching as it should. I don't care for Rachmaninoff, but they used the music cleverly: what's on the radio while she's "telling" the story is the flashback's score.

Trainspotting

Title: Trainspotting
Year: 1996
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: John Hodge, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald
Music: non-original music
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay; currently #169 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 94 minutes
Synopsis: a low-life is on and off of drugs
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2009
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for concept, story, characters and subjective rating) c. 2.5/4 (Okay).

As far as I can tell, the point of this movie is to make you feel vaguely sick to your stomach. I don't get it.

Star Trek

Title: Star Trek
Year: 2009
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, based on the TV show by Gene Roddenberry
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban
Music: Michael Giacchino
Length: 126 minutes
Synopsis: a time-traveling Romulan has a vendetta against Spock
How I saw it: in the theater, today
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for story and cinematography)

Fun and fast paced. There's some nice comic relief, and loads of geek-pleasing moments. The action scenes are a mess. The plot isn't very interesting, mostly just getting the characters re-introduced - which is fun for a fan, since it's extremely well cast (especially Karl Urban's Bones) and the characters and dialog are well-written - but there's still not much plot. It's not a science fiction movie, and it's not a submarine movie like previous good action versions of Star Trek have been. In place of those elements, there's standard loud, fast-moving-camera dumb action. They've got the characters down right, now they just need to put them in a movie.

ETA, 11/18/09: post updated/replaced here

Dog Day Afternoon

Title: Dog Day Afternoon
Year: 1975
Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Frank Pierson, based on an article by P.F. Kluge & Thomas Moore
Starring: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon
Music: none (except for an Elton John song over the opening credits)
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Pacino), Best Supporting Actor (Sarandon) and Best Editing; currently #164 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 125 minutes
Synopsis: inept bank robbers end up taking hostages
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), February 2009
Subjective Rating: 8/10 9/10
Objective Rating: 10/10 c. 3.9/4 (Great)

Continuously suspenseful, but also a lot of fun. Al Pacino plays a likable character for once, which is nice. Sidney Lumet is, apparently, awesome.

Stand by Me

Title: Stand by Me
Year: 1986
Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans, based on a novella by Stephen King
Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland
Music: Jack Nitzsche (and non-original music)
Distinctions: Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay; currently #162 on IMDb's Top 250
Length: 89 minutes
Synopsis: four friends hike for a day to find a dead body
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), February 2009
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for concept and cinematography) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

Well-made as far as story-telling goes. The acting is surprisingly good, too; it's hard to believe that these kids are directed by the same guy who made North.