Soylent Green

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

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

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

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

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One (26 episodes), 1987-1988. A giant space ship flies around the galaxy, ostensibly exploring but usually running errands.

Created by Gene Roddenberry. Directed by Rob Bowman (5 episodes), Cliff Bole (3), Corey Allen (3), Paul Lynch (2), James L. Conway (2), Joseph L. Scanlan (2), Russ Mayberry (1), Richard Colla (1), Richard Compton (1), Michael Rhoades (1), Kim Manners (1), Mike Vejar (1), Les Landau (1), Win Phelps (1) & Robert Becker (1). Written by D.C. Fontana (5 episodes), Maurice Hurley (5), Gene Roddenberry (4), Robert Lewin (4), Herbert Wright (3), Tracy Tormé (3), Hannah Louise Shearer (3), John D.F. Black (2), Robert Sabaroff (2), Richard Manning (2), Hans Beimler (2), J. Michael Bingham (1), Katharyn Powers (1), Michael Baron (1), Richard Krzmeien (1), Diane Duane (1), Michael Reaves (1), Michael Halperin (1), Worley Thorne (1), Larry Forrester (1), C.J. Holland (1), Lan O'Kun (1), Patrick Barry (1), Michael Michaelian (1), Karl Geurs (1), Ralph Sanchez (1), Sandy Fries (1), Joseph Stefano (1), Deborah Dean Davis (1), Deborah McIntyre (1) & Mona Clee (1). 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

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

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 5/4). Gene Wilder, you so creepy.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 3.3/4 (Very good)

Take Shelter

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

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"

"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

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

"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

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 5/4). 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 3.5/4 (Very good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"Rejected"

"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 5/4). Some sort of non sequitur masterpiece.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 3.3/4 (Very good)

Doctor Who: Series Six, Part Two

Doctor Who: Series Six Part Two, 2011. An alien travels through space and time while putting off dying.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Nick Hurran (2 episodes), Richard Senior (1), Richard Clark (1), Steve Hughes (1) & Jeremy Webb (1). Written by Steven Moffat (2 episodes), Mark Gatiss (1), Tom MacRae (1), Toby Whithouse (1) & Gareth Roberts (1). 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

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

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

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"

"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 5/4). Perfect comedic timing.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good) 3.1/4 (Very good)

The Andromeda Strain

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)