12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys, 1995. A man from a post-apocalyptic future is sent back in time.

Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by David & Janet Peoples, based on a film by Chris Marker. Starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe & Brad Pitt.

Concept: A
Story: A
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: Clever, intricate, dramatic, funny. Amazing visuals. I have a hard time imagining how anyone might not like this movie. It's been more than five years since the last time I watched it, and I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up - like a lot of other movies I loved when I was a teenager. Nope, still great. A+

GPA: 4.0/4

(update of a previous post - original is here)

The Heat

The Heat, 2013. An arrogant FBI agent and a crazy cop have to work together.

Directed by Paul Feig. Written by Katie Dippold. Starring Sandra Bullock & Melissa McCarthy.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: Bonus points for the title sequence. C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's very funny, but underneath the humor is an earnestness. The same sort of tone usually works well for Paul Feig, but in this case it's horribly misplaced. It's like the movie doesn't know it's supposed to be a parody. C

GPA: 2.2/4

Star Trek: Voyager: Season Five

Star Trek: Voyager: Season Five, 1998-1999. A spaceship stranded on the other side of the galaxy continues to make its way home.

Created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor. Directed by David Livingston (7 episodes), Cliff Bole (3), Les Landau (2), John Kretchmer (2), Winrich Kolbe (2), Allan Kroeker (2), Terry Windell (2), LeVar Burton (1), Mike Vejar (1), Anson Williams (1), Terrence O'Hara (1), Robert Duncan McNeill (1) & Allan Eastman (1). Written by Brannon Braga (11 episodes), Joe Menosky (9), Michael Taylor (9), Bryan Fuller (7), Kenneth Biller (5), Nick Sagan (5), Rick Berman (3), Jimmy Diggs (2), Harry 'Doc' Kloor (1), Jeri Taylor (1), Scott Miller (1), Eileen Connors (1), Robert J. Doherty (1) & Bill Prady (1). Starring Kate Mulgrew.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Some of the best of Voyager so far. There are a few great episodes, and the worst episodes all have something interesting to offer. There are still only two good characters, one of whom is inconsistently written, so it's no TNG or DS9. But it's consistently pretty good. B

GPA: 2.5/4

The Twilight Zone: "Perchance to Dream"

The Twilight Zone: "Perchance to Dream" (episode 9 of 36 from season one), 1959. A man is convinced that he will die if he falls asleep.

Created by Rod Serling. Directed by Robert Florey. Written by Charles Beaumont. Starring Richard Conte.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Not the most compelling episode, but the twist ending has the sort of cleverness that I expect from The Twilight Zone. B

GPA: 2.5/4

MythBusters: 2005 Season

MythBusters: 2005 season* [year three]. A couple special effects guys and cohorts test whether various urban legends are possible.

Created by Peter Rees. Starring Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: D
Special effects/design: B
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Some of the best episodes of the series are in this batch. 2005 seems to be the beginning of MythBusters' few years of greatness. They've gotten the hang of how to make a good show, they have a lot of questions to test that we really want to know the answer to, and there's a real sense of discovery with most of the things they do. A

GPA: 2.4/4

*There doesn't seem to be any standard for what constitutes a season of MythBusters. No two sources I can find agree with each other. So I'm going with Wikipedia's arbitrary but conveniently simple method of dividing the show by broadcast year.

[quasi-update of a previous posts - originals are here, here & here]

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club, 2013. A redneck with AIDS fights the FDA.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack. Starring Matthew McConaughey.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: They're such caricatures, I could see this same script being filmed as a comedy. C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: I'm never a fan of the true-story-of-triumph-over-adversity genre; it would almost always be better to make these stories as documentaries. McConaughey's performance is great enough to make this one work, though. B

GPA: 2.5/4

Short Term 12

Short Term 12, 2013. An employee at a short-term foster care facility had a bad childhood.

Written & directed by Destin Cretton. Starring Brie Larson.

Concept: Why is it that about 1 in 3 indie dramas are about child abuse? What is the obsession? D
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: The cast turns what would have been a run-of-the-mill coping-with-abuse story (seriously, why are there so many of these movies?) into something fairly remarkable. A
Music: B
Enjoyment: (Spoilers ahead.) There's a character who likes to tell stories, and it's pointed out that he's not necessarily faithful to reality. He chooses to end his favorite story at a happy point, although the "real ending" is bluntly tragic. This movie would seem to be one of his stories. You know these characters don't get to live happily ever after. The rules of tragedy, everything about their situations, and clear foreshadowing, tell us something earth-shatteringly horrible is about to happen. Cretton doesn't make us watch that part; he chooses to end the story at a happy point. I appreciate that. This movie's depressing and miserable enough as it is. C

GPA: 2.7/4

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938. A rebel challenges a usurper.

Directed by Michael Curtiz & William Keighley. Written by Norman Reilly Raine & Seton I. Miller. Starring Errol Flynn.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: It's corny and dated, but in a way that's fun if you get into the old-timey adventure spirt of it. B

GPA: 3.0/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]

"Freddie Rich and His Orchestra"

"Freddie Rich and His Orchestra" (short), 1938. A swing band performance.

Directed by Lloyd French. Starring Freddie Rich, Nan Wynn & Joe Sodja.

Concept: C
Story: F
Characters: F
Dialog: F
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: F
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's pretty good music, which is all that should really matter with this sort of short, except that it's not quite good enough to warrant a filmed performance. And no one has much in the way of stage presence (except for the drummer, who is awesome). C

GPA: 1.3/4

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine, 2013. A rich woman loses her money and moves in with her sister.

Written & directed by Woody Allen. Starring Cate Blanchett.

Concept: Kind of A Streetcar Named Desire, except well-written. D
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: It's heavy for Woody, and a downer, with just enough humor to keep it entertaining. B

GPA: 3.2/4

The Twilight Zone: "Time Enough at Last"

The Twilight Zone: "Time Enough at Last" (episode 8 of 36 from season one), 1959. A dull bank teller is the lone survivor of a nuclear blast.

Created by Rod Serling. Directed by John Brahm. Written by Serling, based on a story by Lynn Venable. Starring Burgess Meredith.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: I'm finally starting to catch on: these don't work as science fiction because they're not science fiction. They're fairy tales. Modern, cynical fairy tales. That's okay. I like fairy tales, too. This one in particular makes no sense on a literal level, either with the plot or the characters - but it works, on a bedtime story level. B

GPA: 2.8/4

The Twilight Zone: "The Lonely"

The Twilight Zone: "The Lonely" (episode 7 of 36 from season one), 1959. A prisoner on a desert asteroid gets a robot companion.

Written & created by Rod Serling. Directed by Jack Smight. Starring Jack Warden.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's a little disappointing that they didn't do something more interesting with the conclusion. And it's getting to be par for the course that they don't address most of the many questions raised by the scenario. B

GPA: 2.8/4

Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station, 2013. The last day in the life of a man murdered by the police.

Written & directed by Ryan Coogler. Starring Michael B. Jordan.

Concept: C
Story: A
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: The most soul-crushingly depressing movie I've ever seen. It opens with actual footage of the event. Obviously, this film is not entertainment. F

GPA: 3.0/4

Frozen

Frozen, 2013. A princess is isolated because she can't control her magic ice powers.

Directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee. Written by Lee; story by Buck, Lee & Shane Morris, based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. Starring Kristen Bell & Idina Menzel.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: It's not my taste, to the point of making me cringe a little. But it's very effective, and well done for what it is. B
Enjoyment: Of the recent crop of Disney princess movies, this is the only one I've seen so far (unless you count Brave). I'm impressed. It's no Pixar or anything, but it's solidly good. A far cry from the Barbie doll ad that I was afraid it might be. B

GPA: 3.1/4

"Get a Horse!"

"Get a Horse!" (short), 2013. A bad guy after Minnie Mouse forces Mickey out of the movie.

Directed by Lauren MacMullan. Written by Paul Briggs, Nancy Kruse, MacMullan & Raymond S. Persi. Starring Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner & Billy Bletcher.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: The first part, when it's just a straight old-timey-style cartoon, is great - whimsical and funny (which is really saying something for Mickey Mouse). Then the fourth wall thing comes along. It's a cute idea, but poorly executed, inexplicably losing any sense of comedic timing. It doesn't help that similar gags were done a lot better back in the 20s and 30s. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Her

Her, 2013. A man and an artificial intelligence fall in love.

Written & directed by Spike Jonze. Starring Joaquin Phoenix & Scarlett Johansson.

Concept: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: I was expecting a great movie, and this greatly exceeded expectations. Absolutely every aspect of it is interesting and beautiful and unique. A+

GPA: 4.0/4

The Twilight Zone: "Escape Clause"

The Twilight Zone: "Escape Clause" (episode 6 of 36 from season one), 1959. A paranoid jackass sells his soul for immortality.

Written & created by Rod Serling. Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Starring David Wayne.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's a shame they didn't have time in one episode to really play with this idea. It could easily have been a feature film. It's amusing as it is, but frustratingly shallow compared to the potential. B

GPA: 3.0/4

The Twilight Zone: "Walking Distance"

The Twilight Zone: "Walking Distance" (episode 5 of 36 from season one), 1959. A man takes a walk into his childhood.

Written & created by Rod Serling. Directed by Robert Stevens. Starring Gig Young.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: Why did they make up the father to look old enough to actually be the guy's dad? Did the makeup department not understand the concept of time travel? C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: There are some very good bits in it, but overall it's slow and not particularly engaging. C

GPA: 2.6/4

oscar nominees

Here, for my own convenience, is a list of Oscar nominated films that I haven't seen yet (see the full list of nominees here):

Movies I look forward to seeing
- All Is Lost: sound
- Blue Jasmine: original screenplay, lead actress (Blanchett), supporting actress (Hawkins)
- Ernest & Celestine*: animated feature
- Frozen: animated feature, song
- Her: picture, original screenplay, production design, score, song
- Philomena: picture, adapted screenplay, lead actress (Dench), score

Movies I'll likely see because they're Important
- 12 Years a Slave: picture, directing (McQueen), adapted screenplay, lead actor (Ejiofor), supporting actor (Fassbender), supporting actress (Nyong’o), editing, production design, costume design
- Dallas Buyers Club: picture, original screenplay, lead actor (McConaughey), supporting actor (Leto), editing, makeup
- The Hobbit Part II: sound x2
- The Hunt: foreign film
- The Wind Rises: animated feature
- The Wolf of Wall Street: picture, directing (Scorsese), adapted screenplay, lead actor (DiCaprio), supporting actor (Hill)

Movies I don't plan to see
- August: Osage County: lead actress (Streep), supporting actress (Roberts)
- The Book Thief: score
- The Croods: animated feature
- The Great Gatsby: costume design, production design
- The Invisible Woman: costume design
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa: makeup
- The Lone Ranger: makeup, effects
- Lone Survivor: effects, sound x2
- Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, song
- Prisoners: cinematography
- Saving Mr. Banks: score
- any of the documentaries (because Oscars and documentaries do not mix; a nomination is a pretty good sign of a bad movie)

Movies I haven't heard of before today
- Alone Yet Not Alone: song
- The Broken Circle Breakdown: foreign film
- *Ernest & Celestine: animated feature
- The Grandmaster: cinematography, costume design
- The Great Beauty: foreign film
- The Missing Picture: foreign film
- Omar: foreign film

The Spectacular Now

The Spectacular Now, 2013. A teenage alcoholic meets a nice girl.

Directed by James Ponsoldt. Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, based on a book by Tim Tharp. Starring Miles Teller & Shailene Woodley.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: A
Music: B
Enjoyment: A story about a class clown type - which often has an attempted light tone - and there is not a drop of humor anywhere to be seen. Granted, that's appropriate to the character; he likes to think of himself as the life of the party, but in fact has no sense of fun. But this movie's too boring to care about any of that dramatic stuff - much like I wouldn't give a crap about this guy's problems if I knew him. C

GPA: 2.3/4