Run, Fatboy, Run

Lynn’s Druthers Marathon, part 12



Data
Title: Run, Fatboy, Run
Year: 2007 (UK); 2008 (US)
Length: 100 minutes
Director: David Schwimmer
Writers: Michael Ian Black & Simon Pegg; story by Black
Starring: Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Moran, Harish Patel
Music: Alex Wurman (mostly non-original music)
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Synopsis: a guy runs a marathon to prove himself to a woman he left years ago

My reaction
Concept:
Story:
Characters:
Dialog:
Pacing: Cut like a trailer.
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
Music: Good songs, used badly.
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, ). Every romantic comedy cliche, and not funny. Given the cast, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that their intention was to spoof romantic comedies - that it's intentionally unfunny, and that's what's meant to be funny.
Objective Rating (Average):

Alien 3

Data
Title: Alien 3
Year: 1992
Length: 114 minutes
Director: David Fincher
Writers: David Giler, Walter Hill & Larry Ferguson; story by Vincent Ward; based on characters by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
Oscars: nominated for Best Visual Effects
I saw it: on video several times, most recently yesterday (have on DVD)
Synopsis: deadly alien on a prison planet

My reaction
Concept:
Story: No original ideas were allowed anywhere near this movie. And look how many writers there are! I think that's because, the worse a script is, the more people that are "brought on board" to "fine tune" it.
Characters: They would be a nice enough group of people to be eaten by a deadly space monster, except that those that have any development (and by any development, I mean enough that you're able to tell them apart from other characters) get it by explaining their back stories to each other.
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography: Oh, David Fincher. If you want your movie to be "dark," that doesn't mean you should turn the lights off.
Special effects/design: Wonderful, wonderful special effects. Except for the creature. The creature is a cartoon half the time.
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, ). Not scary. It's creepy - overflowing with creepy - but never scary. There's no suspense, probably because it's painfully predictable, but also the editing and score don't help any. The action scenes are tedious and confused. Ten straight minutes of running through corridors? Not only is that boring, but it makes about as much sense as branding the movie "Alien Cubed."
Objective Rating (Average):

Star Trek: "The Changeling"

Data
Title: Star Trek: “The Changeling”
Year: 1967
Network: NBC
Episode: the third (of twenty-six) from season two; 50 minutes
Creator: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: John Meredyth Lucas
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
Music: Alexander Courage (theme); Fred Steiner
I saw it: on video and TV several times, most recently yesterday (have on DVD)
Synopsis: an old deep space probe has changed into something deadly

My reaction
Concept:
Story: It starts out with a promising idea, somewhat reminiscent of I, Robot. But they make the probe/robot too powerful, so it becomes yet another God-Like-Powers mess (with the inevitable out-logicking a computer thrown in for good measure).
Characters:
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, ). It's mostly camp value, but I like it alright.
Objective Rating (Average):

Doctor Who #160: The TV Movie

Data
Title: Doctor Who [aka Doctor Who: The Movie]
Year: 1996
Network: BBC & Fox
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Geoffrey Sax
Writer: Matthew Jacobs
Starring: Paul McGann, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, Sylvester McCoy, Yee Jee Tso
Music: John Debney
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Synopsis: The Master hopes to resurrect himself by stealing The Doctor's lives

My reaction
Concept:
Story:
Characters:
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design: Bad effects, great design.
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, ). Who thought this plot was a good idea for a standalone movie and/or American pilot? It's bad enough that it doesn't make any sense, even if you know who these characters are; they also completely fail to include the stuff that hooks people into the series. The whole point of the show is that he can and does go anywhere in time and space, and this movie is set entirely in present day California. (Oh, sorry, it's set three years in the future. For no apparent reason.) They don't even bother to explain what the TARDIS is until about halfway through; before that, you get inexplicable images of a 1960s police box spinning in a CG vortex juxtaposed with shots of an old man in a vaguely steampunk sitting room. How can that possibly make any sense? Seen as just an episode of the series, it's mediocre at best, but as a movie it's a horrible mess.
Objective Rating (Average):

Thelma & Louise

Data
Title: Thelma & Louise
Year: 1991
Length: 130 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Callie Khouri
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel
Music: Hans Zimmer (and non-original music)
Oscars: won for Best Original Screenplay; nominated for Best Director, Best Actress x2 (Sarandon & Davis), Best Cinematography and Best Editing
I saw it: on video (rented from Greencine), a couple days ago
Synopsis: two women are pushed into becoming fugitives

My reaction
Concept:
Story: I would say great, but the ending is sooooo corny.
Characters: The leads are good, but all the men are cliches. Maybe that's intentional.
Dialog:
Pacing: There's a lot wrong with this movie, and with early 90s cinema in general (of which this is a quintessential example), but at least it's not boring.
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, ). For a while it seems like a good movie, but somewhere around the third act... idunno, Ridley Scott just looses his shit or something and forgets what kind of movie he's making.
Objective Rating (Average):