Space Janitors: Season One

Space Janitors: Season One, 2012-2013. A couple of guys are janitors on the evil empire's space station.

Created & written by Geoff Lapaire & Andy Hull. Directed by Lapaire. Starring Brendan Halloran & Pat Thornton.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). Most of the season is basically a series of sketches, which is when the show's at its best.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Uneven, but when it's good it's memorable and funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

the first half hour of Sans Soleil

Sans Soleil, 1983. A photographer observes contrasts in foreign cultures.

Written & directed by Chris Marker. Starring Alexandra Stewart (English version).

(unofficial ratings, as I didn't finish the movie)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). It's not that it's A Bad Movie. I just personally felt no reason to continue watching it. It's kind of impressive that, 30 minutes in, a film could fail so completely to engage me on any level.
(Estimated) Objective Rating: 1.3/4 (Bad)

"Snow Business"

"Snow Business" (short), 1953. Sylvester and Tweety and a mouse are snowed in.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Warren Foster. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's a refreshing break from the formula. The bits with the mouse are very funny. The bits with Tweety are typically obnoxious.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

"La Jetée"

From my 1960s Science Fiction Marathon, part 2 of 6.



"La Jetée" (short), 1962. A man from a post-apocalyptic future is sent back in time.

Written & directed by Chris Marker. Starring Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain & Davos Hanich.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 4/4 (Great)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). It's no Twelve Monkeys, but it's pretty great. I don't think I'd usually be a fan of this style (a series of still photographs with narration), but with this particular story it's effective.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.4/4 (Very good)

The Time Machine

From my 1960s Science Fiction Marathon, part 1 of 6.



The Time Machine, 1960. A Victorian inventor travels to the distant future.

Directed by George Pal. Written by David Duncan, based on a book by H.G. Wells. Starring Rod Taylor.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). There isn't much to Wells' story to begin with, but they did an appalling job of adapting it. They seem to have tried to turn it into the standard Atomic Age anti-war morality tale, but by the end of it wound up with an unambiguously pro-war morality tale instead.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Lots of great, and lots of terrible.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). I didn't expect much, and I didn't get much. The book is not particularly suited to being a movie, and despite all of their changes to the story, they didn't do a single thing to address that problem. And the few things that the movie should have been able to have in its favor - adventure, suspense, and a sense of wonder - are absent.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

Django Unchained

Django Unchained, 2012. A freed slave and a bounty hunter work together.

Written & directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz & Leonardo DiCaprio.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). Lots of fun. Not as fun as Kill Bill or Inglourious Basterds, but lots of fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.7/4 3.8/4 (Great)

"A Bird in a Guilty Cage"

"A Bird in a Guilty Cage" (short), 1952. Sylvester vs. Tweety in a department store.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Warren Foster. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). It actually has a beginning and an end, which is pretty good for this sort of thing.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). Sylvester gets a couple great character moments.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). There are some really great gags in this one - some of them are recycled almost verbatim from Bugs Bunny cartoons, but they're actually done better here. Freleng's in rare form. Wait a minute, I liked a Tweety cartoon? What the hey?
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

VSM: 1960s Science Fiction

We've done this with the 50s and 70s, so the 60s were inevitable. They're a relatively sparse decade when it comes to iconic sci-fi (if you don't count tv shows), and I'm impatient anyway, so it's a short list. I think that might be the new norm for these marathons - just hit the few most important/most promising titles and move on.

These are all movies that we've either never seen or haven't seen in a very long time (no need to re-watch Planet of the Apes and A Space Odyssey for the third times in as many years).

Very Slow Marathon #13 - 1960s Science Fiction
1. The Time Machine, 1960
2. "La Jetée," 1962
3. Alphaville, 1965
4. Fantastic Voyage, 1966
5. Fahrenheit 451, 1966
6. Barbarella, 1968

oscars

I live in a small town, so it's typical that I haven't been able to see most of the Oscar nominees when they're anounced. This last year, though, I've seen almost no new movies at all. (12 movies? Yikes. And I didn't even finish one of them.) The one theater in the county has gotten too expensive, and it's not a nice enough place to justify the price. So I have to travel to see a movie in the theater. Awards Season movies have to wait until DVD. (Well, maybe we'll spring for Django.)

That said, this year's nominees look like an unusually good bunch of movies. Typically a quarter to a third of Oscar nominees are movies that I wouldn't want to watch if I was paid to. This year, there are only three that I outright don't want to see (The Impossible strikes me as morally uncomfortable, The Invisible War would be too upsetting, and Mirror Mirror because who gives a shit about Mirror Mirror), but none that I wouldn't be willing to see.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of pleasant surprises among the major nominees. I get the feeling that if I'd seen any of these movies, I might even want to watch the broadcast. I suspect Lincoln (with a little help from Les Misérables) acted as a lightning rod for all the stereotypical Academy Voters, keeping their votes away from the usual crap that gets in.


Now some lists, for my own reference.

nominees that I've seen:
-The Avengers - effects
-Brave - animated film
-Moonrise Kingdom - writing
-Prometheus - effects
-Skyfall - cinematography, score, sound, song

nominees that I need to see:
-Amour - picture, directing, writing, actress, foreign film
-Argo - picture, writing, supporting actor, editing, score, sound
-Beasts of the Southern Wild - picture, directing, writing, actress
-Django Unchained - picture, writing, supporting actor, cinematography, sound
-Frankenweenie - animated film
-The Hobbit - production design, effects, makeup
-Les Misérables - picture, actor, supporting actress, production design, costumes, makeup, sound, song
-The Life of Pi - picture, directing, writing, cinematography, editing, score, production design, effects, sound, song
-Lincoln - picture, directing, writing, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, cinematography, editing, score, costumes, production design, sound
-The Master - actor, supporting actor, supporting actress
-Paranorman - animated film
-Silver Linings Playbook - picture, directing, writing, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, editing
-Wreck-It Ralph - animated film
-Zero Dark Thirty - picture, writing, actress, editing, sound

nominees I might see:
-5 Broken Cameras - documentary
-Anna Karenina - cinematography, score, production design, costumes
-Chasing Ice - song
-Flight - writing, actor
-The Gatekeepers - documentary
-Hitchcock - makeup
-Kon-Tiki - foreign film
-The Pirates! Band of Misfits - animated film
-A Royal Affair - foreign film
-Searching for Sugar Man - documentary
-The Sessions - supporting actress
-Snow White and the Huntsman - effects, costumes
-How to Survive a Plague - documentary
-Ted - song

nominees I don't want to see:
-The Impossible - actress
-The Invisible War - documentary
-Mirror Mirror - costumes

the internet doesn't even know what these are:
No - foreign film
War Witch - foreign film

The Sopranos: Season One

From my Best TV Shows We've Never Seen marathon - part 5 of 5.



The Sopranos: Season One, 1999. A mobster sees a therapist.

Created by David Chase. Directed by John Patterson (2 episodes), Allen Coulter (2), Chase (1), Dan Attias (1), Nick Gomez (1), Alan Taylor (1), Lorraine Senna Ferrara (1), Tim Van Patten (1), Andy Wolk (1), Matthew Penn (1) & Henry J. Bronchtein (1). Written by Chase (5 episodes), Frank Renzulli (4), Robin Green (3), Mitchell Burgess (3), Jason Cahill (2), Mark Saraceni (1), James Manos, Jr. (1) & Joe Bosso (1). Starring James Gandolfini.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good). They're good characters, but apart from their humorous sides, I never had any reason to care about any of them.
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good). There are a number of moments of greatness from Gandolfini. Mostly, it's not an Impressive Acting type of script.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's all very good, but I expected more. It picks up in the last couple episodes, so I have high hopes that later seasons will be better. There's a lot to appreciate about it, especially if you consider what TV dramas were like back in 1999. I just wasn't pulled in.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.1/4 (Very good)

The Guild: Season Six

The Guild: Season Six, 2012-2013. An awkward online gamer goes to work for The Game.

Created by, written by & starring Felicia Day. Directed by Chris Preksta.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). These last couple seasons (this one more so than five), something just isn't clicking. It has its funny moments, but it was always the characters, not the humor, that made this show worth watching. Now there are a bunch of new characters that seem like they might be fun (but that there isn't enough time for in the 10-minute format), while the old characters are forced further and further out of the Awkwardly Hanging Out Together place where they worked so well.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

"Mike's New Car"

"Mike's New Car" (short), 2002. Mike Wazowski shows off his new car to Sully.

Directed by Pete Docter & Roger Gould. Written by Docter, Gould, Jeff Pidgeon & Rob Gibbs. Starring Billy Crystal & John Goodman.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Funny and well-made, but unremarkable.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

"For the Birds"

"For the Birds" (short), 2001. Birds on a telephone wire laugh at a dopey newcomer.

Written & directed by Ralph Eggleston.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). It's basically just a single gag (with some buildup and elaboration), but it's funny and delightfully cute.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.1 (Very good)

"Going! Going! Gosh!"

"Going! Going! Gosh!" (short), 1952. Coyote tries to catch Roadrunner.

Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Michael Maltese.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Like every Roadrunner cartoon, one perfectly-executed gag after another.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)

"Windy Riley Goes Hollywood"

"Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" (short), 1931. A fast-talking New Yorker goes to Hollywood.

Directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. Written by Ernest Pagano & Jack Townley. Starring Jack Shutta & Louise Brooks.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). Crap. Crappy crappity crap. Also, crap.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.9/4 (Very bad)

Diary of a Lost Girl

Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, 1929. A young rape victim is sent away by her family.

Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Written by Rudolf Leonhardt, based on a book by Margarete Böhme. Starring Louise Brooks.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible). It's a little shocking that a Kino DVD would do this badly with such a classic film.
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Brooks is charming of course, but there really isn't anything else worthwhile in the entire movie. It's about as much fun as you might expect from a movie about rape.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

"Ain't She Tweet"

"Ain't She Tweet" (short), 1952. Sylvester needs to cross a yard full of dogs to reach Tweety.

Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Warren Foster. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). I hate Tweety too much to give more than a 2 in this category, but Granny is great.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). One of the better Tweety cartoons - there's relatively little Tweety in it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

It's Such a Beautiful Day (feature version)

It's Such a Beautiful Day, 2012. Compilation of "Everything Will Be Ok," "I Am So Proud of You," and "It's Such a Beautiful Day."

Written by, directed by & starring Don Hertzfeldt.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). Individually, these films have an excellent sense of pacing, but it's a chaotic, non-tradition pacing. When you watch one of them on its own, it's messy, but it feels right. But no editing has been done to adapt them to a feature film. They're just strung one after the other, and it doesn't really work. It's not a huge problem, and I would still give this film a 9/10 if it weren't for its redundancy. I'm able to watch them seperately, and the combined version takes a little away without adding anything, so why watch them combined?
Objective Rating (Average): 3.3/4 (Very good)

Predator 2

Predator 2, 1990. The Predator vs. an LA cop.

Directed by Stephen Hopkins. Written by Jim & John Thomas. Starring Danny Glover.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad). Glover might be a lot easier to sympathize with than Arnold, but oddly, his acting isn't any better.
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). I recognize it doesn't deserve it, but I love this movie. The dialog and acting are cringe-inducing pretty much any time anyone opens his mouth. The violence and gore is disgustingly senseless beyond reason. There's no craftsmanship beyond what's necessary to get by. Everything good about the plot (apart from the superficial change of background) comes directly out of the first movie. But there's just something about the concept of the Predator, hunting down a single bad-ass guy, that makes for one of the most fun action movies ever. It's kind of like a game of Who Would Win in a Fight.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 2.3/4 (Okay)

Ordet

Ordet, 1955. A family on a farm has their faith tested.

Written & directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on a play by Kaj Munk. Starring Birgitte Federspiel, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay Kristiansen, Preben Lerdorff Rye & Henrik Malberg.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible). These aren't characters, they're positions in an argument.
Dialog: 0/4 (Terrible)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Beautiful photography, but it's not a movie so much as a dramatic recitation of an essay.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.7/4 (Eh)