SPLAT
1. POINT BLANK (1968) - John Boorman brings his stylized, off-kilter sensibilities to Richard Stark's "The Hunter" (remade in 1999 as Payback, The Last Mel Gibson Movie I Really Liked). Caught off guard by how much this inspired Soderbergh's The Limey, down to and especially the stream of consciousness flashbacks and frequent time-shifting. Different enough from the source that the ending surprised me, and Angie Dickinson was a knockout. I swear Lee Marvin has like ten lines in the whole film.
2. DARK STAR (1974) - John Carpenter's first film (actually a student film expanded to feature length after being sold to a distributor), this thing used to play at 3AM on Channel 2 in NY all through my childhood. Today its lived-in spaceship setting peopled with hairy amateur actors makes it feel like a mash-up of Clerks and Moon. I was especially surprised at how much Moon drew from the film visually, especially with Pinback's diary. Some dated humor but not at all without its moments, and Carpenter scoring anything is always fun to hear.
3. JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK (2010) - Frank and candid, and a surprisingly touching look at how we try (in vain, ultimately) to author our own legacies. The small segment on Flo Fox killed me.
4. AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970) - Dry and slow, but overall effective and a strong finish, and an important link in the slasher genre (though not at all a slasher film itself). Borrows the "whodunit" elements of giallo, edging it closer to the original Friday the 13th, and has a nice xenophobic horror vibe that you can trace forward to stuff like Deliverance and the hillbilly locals of a couple Platinum Dunes remakes.
5. THE FIGHTER (2010) - Parts of this movie knocked me for a loop on account of some addiction issues in my own family that've been going on for over 20 years. Can't really be objective about the movie just yet. It seems like a very mainstream tale elevated by the supporting roles and the direction. I hope Christian Bale wins the Oscar for it.
6. I SELL THE DEAD (2008) - A re-watch, though it didn't feel like one, as my first viewing was of a substandard theatrical screening of a DVD; audio mixed for television just doesn't sound right in theaters, and it compounded the thick accents in the film, as well as the moody photography. It's really worth a look; an 85 minute love letter to Amicus, Corman, The Doctor and the Devils, and other disreputable gems of old.
7. RUTHLESS PEOPLE (1986) - Easily the first time I've seen it in 20 years; forgot it was a Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker production. Wish they'd done more like this, along with the spoofs for which they became famous. Still holds up, with only the fashions and interior design truly sticking out as dated (though that's part of the fun for me). Bill Pullman is the hidden gem, but everybody's good, down to the weary, irritated cops.
8. IN THE LOOP (2009) - Equal parts hysterical and horrifying. Really hoping politics isn't like this. Sorry I'm late to this one.
9. RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) - Been at least ten years. Little moment I noticed for the first time: as the guys sit around talking Madonna, Steve Buscemi looks around for the waitress, agitated and fiddling with his empty coffee cup.
10. MR. MAJESTYK (1974) - I seem to be watching this every month. Still my favorite Charles Bronson.
11. GOOD HAIR (2009) - All I can say is I HAD NO IDEA. Black hair is serious shit. And now I know how to do serious damage to anything from cloth to metal with hair relaxer.
12. BLACK SWAN (2010) - Expertly executed and an effective horror movie in the early Polanski mode. Very similar to The Wrestler in its themes about the self-destructive "artist." (And perhaps the closest any filmmaker has ever come to really pulling off that shot where the protagonist recognizes a person as someone else for a split second.)
13. THE GREEN HORNET (2011) - Wish I listened to everybody about the 3D. Otherwise a great time. Kato-Vision would have been a fun little moment if they didn't make a big deal out of it in interviews beforehand. It's basically Robocop targeting all the threats in the room. Fluffy fun with an insane body count.
14. ORPHAN (2009) - Sad I waited; learned of the twist beforehand, which for some reason sent me running to watch. It's a pretty mainstream effort, but no one promised a smart or classy film (is there anything cheaper than opening a movie with a nightmare stillbirth?) But there's something more going on. What feel like cheap false scare tactics at first glance are really more like the kind of uneasy setups you find in an Argento film - the way Suspiria or Tenebrae are constantly framing the action as if something horrible is about to happen but never does, and there's a creepy mural reveal that feels like straight-up Italian Horror. (One thing that did not feel Italian - the husband. What kind of sissy gets that woozy over one bottle of wine?) Would have scored a couple extra points if they killed the son, but hey. As for the trappings, the predictability, the crazy twist - this movie came to party, and it doesn't care if you already know the playlist. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Would make a nice double feature against parenting with Splice.
15. BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981) - How have I never seen this? Three neighborhood kids are born during an eclipse. If I understand my astrology, and I think I do, this clearly means they'll become psychopathic monsters and start killing people for fun when they turn ten. 80s stalwart Billy Jacoby was my favorite of the kids, wandering through town with an enormous revolver to match his enormous eyeglasses, shooting whoever he comes across like a pint-sized Howard Unruh. Bonus: MTV's Julie Brown (white, not Downtown) getting extra naked while ten year-olds peep on her. Extra Bonus: watching Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne on-camera throw to this film through gritted teeth.
16. THE KING'S SPEECH (2010) - Any movie that makes you feel sympathy for the Royal Family is doing something well. Lots of great moments between Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, backed by a pretty perfect supporting cast. It's a tiny story, not an historical epic. People have criticized the way it presents the British Royal Family in a nostalgic, reverent light, but the movie seemed appropriately critical (or cynical, at least) of the empty pomp and circumstance surrounding the powerless monarchy. The trick of the movie is that it molds all that - and a looming world war - into one really sympathetic lead's "pain in the ass job", essentially, and you end up really rooting for him. Firth and Rush go a long way toward selling that feat, as does the PAINFUL opening scene. Total Oscar bait, but if we're going to fling around the "nothing wrong with formula when formula works" for The Fighter, it has to apply here as well.
17. FIRST BLOOD (1982) - Haven't seen in 25 years. Tight, efficient b-movie. Made me miss the Pacific Northwest. Young David Caruso and Chris Mulkey! Richard Crenna gets a full belly of scenery. And how many deleted scenes can claim responsibility for an entire franchise?
18. CENTURION (2010) - Neil Marshall continues his homage-athon with this mash-up of Southern Comfort and The Warriors (thanks, Brendan) transplanted to 2nd Century Britain. Not the delirious fun of Doomsday, but fun enough. Fassbender's the goods, and the three women in the film were all gorgeous. I guess I have to get used to this digital blood that never looks real shit, huh?
19. TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009) - Listless and dull, full of the kind of continuity porn found in a fan film. And telling that the only real fun in the movie was Naked Plastic Schwarzenegger.
20. DR. NO (1962) - It's popular to say Daniel Craig is now the "best" Bond, but Sean Connery's spectacular in this first film, just an earthy brutal bastard. This film is a really talky piece that's not yet a franchise entry; he's not a superhero yet. They're just adapting a book, so nothing feels forced or formula. (I only wish it hadn't dialed back the weirdness of Fleming. Fleming was a kinky bastard.) Plus it's all kinds of racist. Leiter calls Bond a "limey" and a woman calls a black character an "ape." The new films needs more snobby bigotry, xenophobia and misogyny.
21. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) - Still a favorite, despite not being that much better paced than Dr. No.
22. WATCHMEN (2009) - I probably should have went for the director's cut this time, but the theatrical was on the DVR. Still not a fan; this time the wigs were more distracting than the music. Even the civilians felt dressed up; weird wigs and summer stock-ish costumes and plasticized make-up everywhere. Fealty to the wrong shit, but maybe impossible to ever really get "right."
23. THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984) - Pure nonsense, but charming nonsense. Did I ever see this? I feel like I must have, but I barely remember anything. An incredible cast of character actors having a great time.
24. THE WOLFMAN (2010) - Mashes up parts of Werewolf of London, The Wolf Man, Curse of the Werewolf (and was that a nod to the Piccadilly Square scene from American Werewolf in London?), but somehow less than the sum of its parts. Heresy, but I don't think Rick Baker's werewolf design helped. I hear the director's cut is better.
25. COMMANDO (1985) - A movie from which I must have seen every one-liner without ever watching all the way through. It's between RAW DEAL and this movie where Arnold becomes the big Arnold cliche we all know. Full of ridiculousness. Vernon Wells' psychotic gay meltdown at the end is a howl, as is the opening montage of Arnold and Alyssa Milano having a fun father/daughter day. Glorious.
26. DRIVE ANGRY (2011) - "SHOT IN 3D!" Still looks kind of crappy. If you don't have Cameron money to throw at 3D, maybe don't bother. Big stupid confection. I barely remember it.
27. BEYOND THE LAW (1992) - The kind of B movie that's awesome in the context of stumbling onto it on cable at 2AM; less so when buying the DVD and watching it intentionally. Charlie Sheen's great, and is surrounded by a quality supporting cast. Film is undone by a Paul Scrader-esque shitty soundtrack and three montages too many.
28. MAJOR LEAGUE (1989) - Not gonna lie; watching this today, got a little choked up when Ricky Vaughn takes the mound, 75,000 Indians fans cheering for him. Total moment in time which today reminds one how much Sheen really fucked his career up.
29. STRAIGHT TIME (1978) - Dustin Hoffman in a great little movie that feels like part of the Tarantinoverse, for a couple of reasons. Full review.
30. RE-ANIMATOR (1985) - Seeing Re-Animator: The Musical in LA this month led to me revisit the films. The first is still a classic, and (with apologies to Romero and Raimi) blows away just about any other zombie movie of the decade. Sharp, funny script, just enough fealty to the Lovecraft stories, and a pair of great performances in Jeffrey Combs and David Gale.
31. BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990) - It tries to ramp up the crazy, and still has the benefits of Combs and Gale, but the plot, not at all helped by Claude Earl Jones' tone-deaf performance as a police detective, drags this one down, and the absence of Stuart Gordon hurts more than you'd think. (Doesn't help that the DVD is just shit, with poor audio and a 4x3 frame you can letterbox with the subtitle button.)
32. BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR (2003) - True story: I reviewed this in 2003 for a website (that's since lost the review), and a blurb from my review is on the DVD cover. (IMMORTALITY!) I think they just needed all the good press they could get. While it in no way measures up to the original, it's actually aging a bit better than the second one, and prison-set horror is always fun. Plus, Jeffrey Combs' likely-final turn as Herbert West deserves some respect, as he acts circles around a largely Spanish-born cast. (Who knew Arkham, MA had such a large, dubbed-over Latin community?) The end credits feature a rat having a kung fu fight with a re-animated severed penis.
33. OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (2006) - Recently recommended to me. I didn't realize it was a parody of an existing series of spy novels and films from France. It's both a better-realized counterfeit of the 60s spy film, and full of subtler humor than anything Austin Powers or The Pink Panther series ever aimed for. The lead is a great blend of Sean Connery and Bob Odenkirk, with a dash of Sacha Baron Cohen. Amazingly authentic looking, and full o' laughs.
34. THE ROOM (2003) - Late to this one. Everything everyone has ever said about this movie is true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5utc5TOPNbo
35. OSS 117: LOST IN RIO (2009) - The goofing on French attitudes towards Islam in Cairo, Nest of Spies shifts here to awkwardly anti-Semitic, but places it all in a buffoon's mouth. Still a gas, but I think I liked the first film more.
36. THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005) - Wasn't sure I should count this, as it's only 46 minutes long. Well-meaning silent film adaptation of the Lovecraft story by a pack of fans. I admired the effort and it's not without its charms, but basically 45 minutes of people telling each other stories in flashback, with precious little onscreen occurrence.
37. DAGON (2001) - Regrettably continuing my Lovecraft kick by rewatching this one, an adaptation of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." Same writer, producer and director of Re-Animator and From Beyond. So how'd this turn out so lousy? An hour of one chase scene in the rain after another can't have helped. And a lengthy exposition scene spoken in a near-impenetrable accent wasn't so hot either. There's also something to be said about not taking Lovecraft's stories involving creepy locals out of his native New England. Got kind of good in the last 20 minutes, but even Gordon's "Masters of Horror" episode was better.
38. SOURCE CODE (2011) - Like Moon, Duncan Jones takes familiar sci-fi territory and injects a surprising amount of emotion into it. Not perfect, two scenes too long, but good work from everyone.
39. CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972) - Rewatched the original cut in anticipation for the kinda-sorta remake coming in August. Really bloody! Also, in the film's 1991 future-world, a human labor demonstration is told to knock it off or their collective bargaining rights will be taken away. Huh.
40. SUPER (2011) - Need to come up with less lazy comparison points than Taxi Driver and Observe And Report, but those are the first that come to mind, aside from the even more obvious Kick Ass comparisons. I liked it better than Kick Ass. Great cast, great aesthetic. We need more James Gunn movies.
41. GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (1984) - A movie I want to love, but it's kind of too long while still not being long enough (whole sections seem to be missing; "Hey, I killed a panther in between scenes, WHAT"). Rick Baker's apes are getting a little dated, but the jungle stuff still works.
42. NO ESCAPE (1994) - Rewatched while sitting in a hotel room. Martin Campbell's straightforward direction and a solid cast take this a couple notches above a Road Warrior rip-off, but it's still a total Road Warrior rip-off. In the future, bad guys WILL look like Klingon cosplayers, they WILL have dwarves among them, and good guys will dress in earth tones. Bad guys will be either British, Jewish, or gay, or any combination thereof.
43. HANNA (2011) - Nice little surprise; glad I avoided all the gushing and went in cold. Broad and nuanced at the same time. Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan all doing some great work in here (and Tom Hollander was unrecognizable and awesome). Usually not a fan of latter-day, showy Steadicam shots, but Joe Wright is judicious here, and knows when to let fly.
44. BLOW OUT (1981) - I'm not a giant De Palma fan, I think his misses are more plentiful than his hits, but BLOW OUT just works. And to hell with M. Night, apologies to the Rocky series, THIS is the movie that shows you Philly.
45. JONAH HEX (2010) - How much of this movie is on the cutting room floor? Michael Shannon (and Tom Wopat!) suggest there was a bigger film at one point. I liked parts, and would have given this a pass had it been filmed by Italians 35-40 years ago.
46. DIVERSION (1980) - The 45 minute British short upon which Fatal Attraction is based. Cold and efficient; the woman playing the fling does a nice job of turning with not many scenes in which to do it. The film is basically the first act of Fatal Attraction.
47. SWAMP THING (1982) - Just shit. I'm so on board with this venture, with the premise, with the locations, and Craven just screws up at every turn. You can practically feel him condescending to the material. So ripe for a decent adaptation. My nomination: Duncan Jones. A proper adaptation of the Alan Moore run is right up Jones' existential sci-fi alley.
48. HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011) - Expanded from a fake trailer made for a Grindhouse tie-in contest (in which a friend and I submitted two entries of our own back in 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0N4yen5ilg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KUobZwrZBQ), I was happy to see Hobo With A Shotgun didn't go with the now-tired scratched up 70s exploitation aesthetic. There's a great title sequence with a sort of Morricone rip-off opening theme, but then it quickly changes gears toward more of a garishly colorful, Troma-on-crank 80s home video vibe. Rutger Hauer seems to only occasionally know what movie he's in, but that might be intentional. Probably plays best with a crowd.
49. CUT-THROATS NINE (1972) - Great minimalist Spanish Western with a simple plot, lots of gore, some Beach Red-type flashbacks, and a protagonist switch that beats out To Live And Die In LA by a dozen years.
50. NO WAY OUT (1973) - Alain Delon as a hit man out for revenge against his former employers. Some Road Warrior-level car action, and a really nice example of the Italian Crime Film.
51. THE FACE WITH TWO LEFT FEET (aka THE LONELY DESTINY OF JOHN TRAVOLTO) (1979) - Dopey Italian comedy about a group of hotel co-workers who get their nerdy friend to impersonate John Travolta. Kind of harmless and silly until you get to a close up and can actually see surgical scars on the dude, who looks astonishingly like Travolta. Full review.
52. SAVAGE! (1973) - Nasty blaxploitation from the Philippines about a mercenary and lots and lots of explosions.
53. FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (1972) - Fun enough, I enjoyed it, but I'm just not passionate about kung-fu films.
54. (THE OTHER) CINDERELLA (1977) - "X-rated" musical version of the fairy tale. Tame, racist and grating.
55. FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) - Michael Douglas kicks off a whole new chapter in his career, playing guys who get into trouble to due to penis use. Efficient and slick and well-performed. The original ending would have killed this movie in the history books.
56. THOR (2011) - Pretty much dumb fun that skates by on charisma and cute humor. Loki was pretty awesome, and though I haven't read all the comics, he seems like an upgrade from the source material. I was feeling pretty charitable because it's not like I have any idea how to make a movie out of Thor. But I did feel nice and vindicated over my prediction a couple years back that all this shared universe shit is going to hobble the individual films.
57. SPLICE (2010) - $10 at Amazon! Still great. Didn't catch on the first viewing how badly they were screwing up at work due to their new parenting duties. Nice touch. And the score is VERY Howard Shore. Still dying to know what Cronenberg thought of this one.
58. BRIDESMAIDS (2011) - The film succeeds where SNL failed - I enjoyed watching Kristen Wiig for 90 minutes. Franklyn Ajaye makes me laugh for no reason. Tim Heidicker makes me laugh because he was a fucking extra.
59. HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. (1976) - Compelling doc about a Kentucky coal miners' strike turned violent in the early 70s. What sticks out is how the heroes of the struggle turn out to be the wives. A nice prognostication of how Corporate America would be preying on the working class in the coming decades. Chilling stuff. As a documentary, kind of cool to see a film just trying to keep up with what's happening in front of the camera, rather than the kind of spoon-feeding contemporary docs take as a given.
60. THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928) - Paul Leni knew what to do with a camera better than Tod Browning ever did, and boy did he know how to cast a silent film. The collection of faces in the movie - beautiful, ugly, evil or compassionate- is incredibly eye-catching and eclectic. Not a vanilla face in the bunch. Really helps carry the thing.
61. THE EXORCIST (1973) - The filmmakers say it's a film about faith, but the restoration of Father Karras' faith comes in the worst way possible. If there are demons, Friedkin tells us on the disc, there must also be angels, and therefore a God. But we see no evidence of angels, and the God, as presented in this film, is a harsh deity.
62. RITUALS (1977) - A Canadian Deliverance riff, elevated by good acting. Reminded me of the nihilistic Cut-Throats Nine.
63. TAKING CHANCE (2008) - You'd have to be a robot to not feel emotionally drained by the movie, but there's almost no movie. No conflict, no resolution. Just a series of sad scenes. Kevin Bacon plays a Marine well.
64. CAT PEOPLE (1982) - Frustrating, visually opulent to the point of silliness, a male character obsessed with/idealizing a woman - it's a Paul Schrader movie! He's going for some kind of mythological angle, but the script takes its lazy time getting to anything. Can't call it a bad film, but Schrader gets in his own way again. Nastassia Kinski's gorgeous, and the score sticks in your head. (But, Schrader being Schrader, you frigging KNOW that when Bowie says "See these eyes so green", the camera will be close in on a pair of green eyes.) I'd say Malcolm McDowell is miscast, but to remove him would take most of the livelihood out of the movie. Surprised at how many scenes Schrader recreated from the original, as he seems to be mostly uninterested in the original's themes, has said he didn't think it was very good, yet the scenes that are repeated in his remake seem mostly like nerdy Easter eggs for fans of the original (Alan Ormsby's doing, I guess, though I'd have guessed Ormsby would have written a more crowd-pleasing script.)
65. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) - Hammer does something interesting by smashing Dr. Frankenstein and Igor together - he's an aristocratic egomaniac playing God, but he's also a scuzzy ghoul who's not afraid to do his own dirty work. So his assistant becomes the film's conscience, and in effect the pair are cinematic precedents for the two male leads of Re-Animator. Except...that dynamic was already in Lovecraft's stories, which predate this film by about 20 years. Huh. Anyhow, it' s feels like a fresh dynamic at the time, and Peter Cushing's a true villain in the film. Fun stuff.
66. CAT PEOPLE (1942) - As dated as you'd expect a 70 year old film to be, but still fun to watch and an important link in the evolution of the "monster movie" after Universal's heyday. And it's amusing to watch old movies trying to be suggestive and risque. Greg Mank, the liveliest of the classic horror scholars, does commentary on the DVD.
67. EASY A (2010) - Smart and sweet and not terribly realistic. I was distracted from my normal "girls aren't allowed to dress that hot in high school" observations by "girls in high school wouldn't know what 'southpaw' means" type observations. Still, funny and charming. Nice 80s teen movie callback.
68. CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944) - Really a stretch to call this a sequel. Need to read up on how this came to exist.
69. AMERICAN GIGOLO (1980) - I get annoyed by a Paul Schrader movie, so I go on a Paul Schrader Instant Watch mini-marathon. That's how I do. This was better as a film overall, but there's still that Schrader-esque thing where you feel his Calvinist roots getting all "OMG isn't this naughty and decadent??" Plus he just copies himself a dozen years later in Light Sleeper. Skinny Bill Duke! Giorgio Moroder is emerging as the real hero of this period of Schrader's career.
70. THE HANGOVER PART II (2011) - When Ken Jeong faceplants on the glass coffee table, I thought we were in for a dark ride. This is not a dark ride. This is a very familiar ride. There was something completely joyless about the way it went through every single beat of the first. It has moments, but mostly because there's literally no way a close-up of a monkey French inhaling while Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" plays on the soundtrack can be unfunny.
71. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011) - Cut loose from the boring continuity of the first three movies (as well as Bryan Singer's crippling need to make the proceedings "grounded"), this is way more fun than you'd expect a fifth movie in a franchise to be.
72. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (2009) - A mistake.
73. GET HIM TO THE GREEK (2010) - Russell Brand - a guy I don't hate like some do, but a guy I never run out to watch. He's such a squatter on my DVR. Whatever, I laughed.
74. THE FOUNTAIN (2006) - Late to this one. Depressed the hell out of me. Great, quiet science fiction.
75. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010) - Funnier the second time. Lots of throwaways I either missed or forgot about.
76. MARWENCOL (2010) - Brain damaged beating victim's action figure art therapy. Kind of amazing in more ways than you'd expect.
77. PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) - Blu-ray from France. Amazing print; never saw it look this good. Still a favorite.
78. THE TREE OF LIFE (2011) - I hate the idea of "a la carte" movies, of playing "what if?" and wondering out loud about whether slicing out large chunks of a movie would improve it. (But seeing how Malick did just this with The Thin Red Line, maybe a little grace can be granted.) I found myself doing just that with this film's "history of life in the universe" scenes, only because Malick succeeds so well with the Pitt storyline at eliciting emotional responses from the audience using almost no traditional narrative scenes. Using nothing but moments, playing off each other like memories do, he creates a more emotionally complete portrait of a family, of boyhood, of parenting, than I've seen in a long time. There are no false notes in that narrative.It's his "swinging for the fences" stuff that takes things to another level but, sadly, loses a chunk of the audience. I liked seeing the first (?) moment a living thing treated another living thing with compassion, seeing grace evolve next to nature in that river bed where Pitt's kids would play thousands of years later. This is not a subtle film! (I was teasing my wife with the "dinosaur paw move" all night - (Palming her head) "Nature." (removing hand) "Grace." While we were doing that I realized Malick had already made this a recurring thing in the film, with Pitt palming his kids' heads the whole movie.) But that framing device (as well as Penn's - what year are the Penn scenes supposed to be taking place? If he was a kid in the 50s he'd be 65 now) don't feel fully formed to me. I wonder if they're the victims of time cuts. I want to know more. I want to see it again. It's an imperfect and at times amazing film.
79. THE TERMINATOR (1984) - Just a perfect, tight little B-movie thriller. How'd we stray so far? I watched it twice in a week.
80. FAIR GAME (1986) - Not the Cindy Crawford motion picture. There's a great dichotomy in a certain strain of Ozploitation, where a pro-nature, conservationist message is served by a film that kills the living shit out of a bunch of animals. Great movie if you hate kangaroos.
81. SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE (2010) - Yes, she was. Fluffy nonsense with some good one liners. Alice Eve has two different color eyes - a mutation, a very groovy mutation. I liked Krysten "Kat Dennings Sidekick Syndrome" Ritter.
82. ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011) - Bet I don't see a better movie this summer. Perfectly captured childhood - bicycles, fireworks, playing war in your neighborhood, alien monsters with glow-in-the-dark teeth...loved how it owned its low-budget monsters in a clever way. It will soon be dated by all the London slang, but the slang felt genuine, as opposed to the made-up slang of 80s kids' movies. I left hoping parents who know their (appropriate-age) kids could handle the language and violence will show it to them. This is a gem.
83. GANJA & HESS (1973) - A film I have been grappling with for 19 years. Full review.
84. GREEN LANTERN (2011) - It's not terrible, but there's a plodding sense of "let's get Green Lantern 1 out of the way." The design is all pretty great (though the shape of Parallax's head left no mystery as to its backstory), the effects all work, the actors all do their jobs. But the script never takes it to level of that rush you (I) felt seeing Superman or Spider-Man onscreen for the first time. And it spends way too much time doing a rote xerox job of those templates, and its biggest sin is leaving the one thing that makes Green Lantern different - the Corps, the "part of a larger whole" aspect - on the table, completely untapped. Instead GL mopes around Earth by his lonesome in scene after scene of dialogue. The action is superior to Iron Man's, making me think this was one or two snappy dialogue rewrites from being way better.
85. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (2011) - Swing and a miss! Noble effort and not without its moments, but the story, like Watchmen, is about its own medium. Adapting it at all felt "off", and the end result bears that out.
86. YOU DON'T KNOW JACK (2010) - Cool to see Pacino doing such good work at this stage.
87. DOWN WITH LOVE (2003) - There are movies which, as you watch them, you're equal parts baffled and grateful they ever got made. This is one such movie. Grindhouse led a wave of "period drag" - movies pretending to be they're from another time period. But this one (and Far From Heaven) led the recent pack, and deserve more credit. Criminally underloved. Ewan McGregor as Sean Connery as Rock Hudson is an all-timer.
88. UNKNOWN (2011) - A couple drafts from being the script it needed to be. Felt as if it was too embarrassed to really embrace the goofy concept (disappointing considering the director also did Orphan), and if it really wanted to be a Taken follow-up, the "Liam Remembers Liam-Fu" moment should have come sooner.
89. FROM HELL (2001) - Jack the Ripper with The Wizard of Oz's color palette. Feels like a school play in parts. A shame.
90. BAD TEACHER (2011) - Solid premise, good jokes, doesn't know where to go. I laughed the whole time, though.
91. THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976) - A very special episode of Intervention. Duvall is great as Watson, Alan Arkin is a compassionate Sigmund Freud, and Nicol Williamson does a nice balance of genius and wounded as a coked-out Sherlock Holmes.
92. SISTERS (2006) - Brian De Palma's 1973 film isn't some super-compelling story; it's an exercise in style. So that makes this plodding remake extra pointless. Dull as dishwater (and mostly the same color).
93. FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) - Still fun. 1985 was a good year for horror nerds. Better than The Lost Boys.
94. ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS (1964) - Fun to see cinematic space travel set squarely between JFK's death and the point at which Star Trek and 2001 reset all the rules. Odd blend of nonsense of plausible science fiction. Gorgeous Technicolor and surprisingly touching in parts. But not this part, which is a bit of un-PC biz out of left field: http://bit.ly/pITcV8
95. HORRIBLE BOSSES (2011) - Affable comedy. Should a comedy about murdering your boss be affable? I kind of just smiled for the running time.
96. PROJECT NIM (2011) - Great story, way more about human folly than the ape's journey. The movie picks a LOT of low-hanging fruit, but the human subjects are all kind of asking for it.
97. STREETS OF FIRE (1984) - Rarely seen "sidequel" to The Five Heartbeats. Everyone in this movie talks as if they're one of the Bowery Boys. Jim Steinmann does the Jim Steinmann thing. Willem Dafoe looks like Bowie and Ranxerox had a kid who was really into rockabilly and fascism. Michael Paré is objectively terrible, and the dialogue is as clunky as 1977-era George Lucas. And this movie SO thought it would get a sequel. Maybe one with more than one street set!
98. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982) - Still works; I cry at the end every time! Nicholas Meyer's commentary track should be mandatory for anyone interested in screenwriting or directing. Incredibly smart dude. And seeing it in HD, I no longer think Montalban is wearing a rubber chest. I think it's more of a corset/push-up bra for his pecs.
99. CAPTAIN AMERICA (2011) - I enjoyed watching it; can't say it did much wrong, but it's already fading from memory. Spider-Man 2's title as Best Superhero Movie is unchallenged. These movies are increasingly getting by on jokes, though. Plus, it felt as if the ENTIRE THEATER was talking through the movie. For the first time I really felt like that battle's been lost.
100. THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976) - As a Bowie fan I watched this film a few times in the 80s. This was my first viewing of the uncut version, which adds almost a half hour of new scenes. The restored scenes make the film feel whole, finally, yet it's more impenetrable than ever. It offers everything (laughs, pathos, ideas, emotion, a great cast) but "gives" nothing. And I love the way Roeg hops across time. Check out the DVD commentary track for Bowie's great impression of Rip Torn.
101. PROPHECY (1979) - A paper mill's mercury leaks into a river, creating tadpoles the size of cats, pissed off raccoons, faux-drunken Indians, and a giant mutant bear which looks to be made out of raw meat. Shockingly violent PG movie! Here's how the 12 year old kid gets it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8WlqFdlo6g
102. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011) - It's so odd to me that there's a new POTA movie in 2011, that it's very good, and that it's popular. What I liked best was that it's a movie that takes its silly premise as seriously as ten year old me took the content of the originals, and really works (and succeeds) at selling that earnest investment back to the jaded 2011 viewer. There's also a lesson in here about sending your audience out of the theater right after your best scenes (a no-brainer, but seemingly forgotten in recent years). Not perfect but a solid, very satisfying reset.
103. BEST WORST MOVIE (2009) - The horrible little kid actor from Troll 2 grows up and makes a movie about that movie. Not quite as good as American Movie, but it's up there.
104. BUFFALO '66 (1998) - I tend to not fall into the "liking something because it's different" camp, but I do very much love how different this movie is. It doesn't look like any other movie, play like any other movie, feel like any other movie. Walks that tightrope where it dares you to hate it. Didn't fall off the tightrope for me. Still love it. It's on Instant in HD! Go watch.
105. PIRATE RADIO (2009) - Great cast and January Jones in a nightie. I love Richard Curtis' BBC sitcom stuff, but man alive is he a lazy director. This movie is 75% montages.
106. THE FINAL PROGRAMME (1973) - Scenes I love, but what the hell with this movie? So self-consciously bizarre.
106. THE TOWN (2010) - Ben Affleck directs the hell out of it, but I was never won over by the character or story. Solid action film with lots of good actors screaming at each other.
107. FIGHT CLUB (1999) - Millennial "30 year old boy" angst seems a bit dated now (go figure); more of a black comedy than ever. Still a great looking film.
108. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (2011) - A movie out of time, old-fashioned and stubbornly so. Horror-wise, its biggest hurdle is that the most horrifying moment involves teeth and a chisel and happens in the opening scene. I did find the creatures scary enough, though. There was one jump scare of a creature's face that made the hair on my arms stand up.
109. OUR IDIOT BROTHER (2011) - Pleasant and profane, probably one or two rewrites from being really good. Awkwardly tries to give Paul Rudd's Chance the Gardner-type character some kind of arc, but too late.
110. MEGAMIND (2010) - A lot of fun. Kids get some great movies nowadays.
111. COBRA (1986) - Utterly retarded. The villains have the motivations of characters made up by 11 year olds during a backyard game of war.
112. JOHN RAMBO (2008) - When Clint Eastwood was 62, he made Unforgiven. When Stallone was 62, he made this film. I believe the goals were the same, but one of the gents was out of his goddamn mind. Fun stuff, as John Rambo destroys a pretty missionary's belief in God.
113. THE EXPENDABLES (2010) - Truth in advertising! Somewhere between John Rambo and this film, Stallone crawled out from inside his own crazy ass and started listening to websites. The Observer Effect. And it took a toll. Whole movie feels like fan pandering, as opposed to the crazy, singular WTF vision of the previous film.
114. CRUISING (1980) - A narrative mess. Friedkin crying about having to cut out a half hour doesn't make up for the fact that he cheats by using no less than three different actors as the killer at various points of the film. Dirty pool. Can't say what the cuts did; as it stands, terrible film, fascinating time capsule (of a Hollywood attitude, not of a legitimate historical scene).
115. RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES (2011) - Starts slow and clunky, but the story is bigger than the filmmakers' intentions, and elbows its way to the front and grabs you like Fincher's Zodiac. I was gasping out loud at each new clue falling into place. I'm sad that there's now an answer, but I couldn't help but be excited for these guys as they figure it out.
116. THE A-TEAM (2010) - Dumb, mostly fun, except for some near-incomprehensible action sequences.
117. SAVING PRIVATE PEREZ (2011) - Fun blend of Scarface, Spaghetti Westerns and Mexican Narcocinema.
118. WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE: A FILM ABOUT THE DOORS (2009) - Jim Morrison porn.
119. DRIVE (2011) - Liked it a lot. Somewhere between Far From Heaven and Death Proof on the fetish/"faux period" film scale. The "dorky badass" protagonist is one way to get the internet screaming about your movie.
120. DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) - Coming from the guy who gave us the nigh-impenetrable The Man Who Fell To Earth, the imagery and symbolism are kind of on the nose here. But the constant tone of mournfulness and dread is hard to shake, and Roeg's editing makes for some incredible sequences.
121. THE HELP (2011) - A fish in a barrel "racism is bad" film, but maybe each generation needs this story to be told to them again? I dunno. Weird seeing Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard in the same movie.
122. REAL STEEL (2011) - Pretty great kids' movie! I would have loved this at 12. And I'm glad the robots didn't talk.
123. KILLER ELITE (2011) - Kind of boring! Like a colorless blend of Munich and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
124. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) (2009) - Some really effective marketing has made this thing a legend. What gets lost in the furor is that it's crafted rather well, and the mad scientist is some of the best casting I've ever seen. And when a movie breaks so many taboos, it leaves you completely unsure of how it will end, which is a rare thing anymore.
125. CROPSEY (2009) - Wished it spent more time building the legend, but still a worthwhile true crime film.
126. HITCH HIKE (1978) - If the rape scene in Straw Dogs distressed you, stay away. David Hess and Franco Nero in a clash of the cretins. A vacationing Nero rapes his own wife a couple times. Then triple threat David Hess (hitch hiker/escaped mental patient/bank robber) shows up. Primo Italian sleaze. It's just different over there. Corrinne Clery is gorgeous.
127. THE THING (2011) - We continue the annoying trend of calling remakes "prequels" or "sequels" (or JJ Abrams' Star Trek) in an attempt to assuage fanboys that there's one true, precious, untouched canon. But make no mistake, this is 100% a remake of Carpenter's 1982 film (itself a remake), refusing to ever even try to stand on its own. I liked parts (the autopsy scene, the attempt to reinstate the asshole "anything for science" antagonist from the 1951 original, but this is ultimately a beat for beat retread of Carpenter's film, decorated in fanboy homages/flourishes like Dean Cundey-esque lens flare.
128. THE THING (1982) - Still great. No new insights gained, except that an R rating in 1982 is very different than an R rating in 2011. Things were wetter in 1982.
129. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (FULL SEQUENCE) (2011) - An assault on viewers that also functions as a sharp commentary on missing-the-point fans and remakes. Would make a great double feature with the 2011 THING!
130. WHITE ZOMBIE (1932) - Still a captivating little (one hour six minutes!) flick, with some great production design and Lugosi playing a guy named Murder Legendre! That's how you do a scary name, Lucas! Lugosi plays him with more energy than his Dracula, more sadistic, under some weird-ass Jack Pierce makeup. It's also a neat look into early independent horror. They sidestep the boring Universal protagonist cliche - the object of desire's husband is kind of an asshole, and the guy who covets her so much that he pays Lugosi to zombify her is halfway sympathetic, and more likeable than the husband (an ineffectual protagonist who, learning his late wife is grave empty, reacts to the idea that she might be alive but in the hands of native Haitians by shrieking "Not that!" and proclaims he'd rather she were dead...) There's also a spectacular scene of zombies churning a sugar mill, where all you hear on the soundtrack is the groaning and cracking of sugar cane as the zombies up top dump in cane while the zombies below push around the Wheel of Pain or whatever, grinding it up. One zombie falls in and the creaking and snapping sounds just keep going, and the zombie doesn't utter a sound. Pre-Code high five!
131. ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) - Laughton's great! He's got a fat Tim Curry-type swish. And look no further for evidence that Lugosi was a terrible businessman: one year after Dracula and he's covered in hair and given ten lines.
132. BATMAN: YEAR ONE (2011) - I liked it! There are worse looking DC animated films out there. Just wish the art looked more like that of the comic it's based on.
133. THE HOWLING (1981) - Mostly holds up, was probably a lot funnier in the dusk of that 70s EST self-help shit. Robert Picardo looks exactly like Ronnie Dobbs. Transformations go on forever, but look mostly great.
134. IT'S ALIVE (1974) - The baby kills aren't what move the plot along really, but the over the top commentary suggesting the mutant baby is the result of zygotes evolving to beat birth control is pretty fun, as is the protagonist's arc of wanting to kill then save his fucked up progeny. I'm actually a little curious to see the sequels now.Bernard Herrmann score!
135. TOURIST TRAP (1979) - The production designer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (who also decorated Dick Miller's bookstore in The Howling with TCM props) is in great effect here, creating terrifying mannequins and telekinesis effects (and a killer that looks an awful lot like Leatherface in some scenes). The score by Pino Donaggio is pretty creepy as well. Tanya Roberts is gorgeous.
136. DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) - Feels more like a play than a movie, but works if you let it. Even on a lesser effort, Romero's pacing used to be so much stronger. And there's a mournful quality to how this movie spends so much time having humans just turning on each other. In that context, there's something really broadly touching about the drunk and the pilot opting for heroism (or at least opting for good) in the face of the apocalypse.
137. TAKE SHELTER (2011) - I was hoping for a lot more from this film, about a husband and father who thinks the end of the world might be coming, but who might also be losing his mind. There's some interesting moments about how exposed modern man must feel in the wide open spaces, a kind of helpless vulnerability. And the premise hit home, as I know people who are in fact "prepping" for the Next Big Disaster. It's a real movement, and it's rich territory. But the movie doesn't seem too interested in that stuff, instead running in circles as we toggle from wondering if he's crazy or if he's right. I almost slept through the answer.
138. GHOSTS OF MARS (2001) - Ten years between me and this film - or maybe ten years with no real John Carpenter output - have improved it a bit. The familiar siege plot is what Carpenter does best, and this might be the closest to actual Hawks Carpenter got. The cast is solid, and once all the metal bands get out of the way, the score is fun and familiar; it's all cheese, but it's ripened nicely. Even the endless flashbacks inside flashbacks didn't bother me this time around. Its worst sin is the endless dissolves- not just to transition between scenes, but within scenes themselves, often added to shorten single shots. There was probably a slower but better film in the editing room that made someone impatient. Also, WIPES. Diagonal, vertical, AND circle wipes all present and accounted for. Full revisit here.
139. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994) - Still not a fan. Dream logic movies have to work extra hard for me to be on board; here the device just feels like an excuse for jump scares and set pieces. The film's good moments are few and unconnected, and the lead pinballs from one moment to the next in an empty pantomime of forward momentum.
140. THE WARD (2010) - John Carpenter made a movie where, after an atmospheric killing in the opening scene, a bunch of girls hang out and talk for 45 minutes before any of them get killed. 33 years later, he made another one. Nice to see Carpenter's framing again, but saddled with a super-tired twist ending and none of the great character actor types used in his good films, not much to recommend here.
141. RIO BRAVO (1959) - Well-drawn characters you just enjoy watching, and really leisurely paced. But at over 140 minutes, I was surprised at how much I just wanted the movie to keep going. And I'm sort of even more surprised at how much of a siege movie it ISN'T!
142. THE FLY (1986) - Never realized as a kid how much of the movie's emotional content rests as equally on Geena Davis as it does Jeff Goldblum. And the quickness with which he fixes the flesh problem is a little more glaring now. Still a classic. And Cronenberg gives the first full screen end credit to the makeup effects team. Classy move.
143. THE DESCENDANTS (2011) - Alexander Payne does a nice job showing the absurd and messy end of the grieving process, a mosaic of the different ways we handle loss.
144. MARATHON BOY (2011) - I walked away from this just feeling drained and despairing. Horrific picture of India.
145. HUGO (2011) - Scorsese spends about an hour going overboard with the 3D. Really embracing the gimmick and having fun, but also going off the deep end with dust particles and smoke and steam and dizzying tracking shots and little touches that are all great on their own, but nearly oversaturate the first chunk of the movie. The early cinema moments are great, though. That type of energy where Scorsese's enthusiasm is infectious, like first 15 minutes of Goodfellas type stuff. Ultimately it felt like he was using the 3D to smuggle a film history/preservation lesson to the audience, which in an of itself is hilarious and awesome.
146. THE FLY II (1989) - It tries, self-consciously zigging where the original zagged, and isn't at all a retread, but it's still a tone-deaf misfire, with lesser deign work, a transformation that takes longer than the original yet still feels rushed, and a spiteful ending that doesn't have enough closure to call "happy", though that seemed to be the goal.
147. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005) - Holds up; the sorta wobbly line readings and weird dream geography/continuity of the first half kind of play into Tom Stall's manufactured reality. Or maybe I'm imagining that. Will have to check the commentary. This blu ray is kind of terrible looking.
148. EASTERN PROMISES (2007) - Cronenberg brings his sensibilities to his most straightforward story to date; the questions of identity are still there, but perhaps less front and center than his previous film. Viggo has become his Deniro!
149. THE MUPPETS (2011) - A sweet love letter to the property, perhaps a little exclusionary for kids, taking no time to orient new viewers about the Muppets. 8 year olds have no idea who the Muppets are.
150. THE SEVEN-UPS (1973) - An obvious cash-in on The French Connection (with a story credit by one of the real cops from that case), this isn't on the same level, but its central car chase easily trumps Friedkin's. And Bullitt's. And pretty much every other one I can think of. New York was made to be filmed through a long lens onto 70s film stock.
151. SHAME (2011) - Definitely the year of Fassbender.Tragic little story about how our private compulsions define and limit us.
152. MIMIC (1997) - I remember nothing about this movie from 1997, so not sure what was restored for this director's cut. Great creature work and production design. Still has a kind of unengaging third act.
153. MIMIC 2 (2001) - Why did I do that?? Takes the burning question of what happened to Mira Sorvino's co-worker from the original and answers: She went on to star in what looks like a softcore porn movie without any sex scenes, getting trapped in a school as a giant bug stalks her. Yes, stalks her. In that way. I need to hurry up and watch another movie so this doesn't end up as the last one of 2011.
154. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) - Seeing this so soon after The Muppets, I realized both fall into a category of "kids' movies that kids aren't really sold to kids." I don't know any children for whom this is a classic. It's got great design and I like the songs, but it definitely clicked more with young adults when it came out, and seems to have not organically grown into the holiday perennial it wants to be.
155. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011) - a super dry breath of fresh air - measured, mature, demanding of your attention. Perhaps the most well-cast film of the year. I hope they make another one.
156. YOUNG ADULT (2011) - Affecting and challenging portrait of a selfish. self-involved protagonist that will irk a lot of viewers. Rang really true. I hope Patton Oswalt gets some recognition.
157. MEEK'S CUTOFF (2010) - Felt like the kind of filmmaking experience the cast and crew make for themselves, as opposed to with an audience in mind. Which is fine, but I felt a bit left out. Shooting it 4x3 "because that's how women would see the frontier through their bonnets" feels like the wrong move to me as well. Kind of aggravated by the non-ending as well.
158. THE DEPARTED (2006) - First rewatch since 2006. Still hilarious and tense in all the right parts.
159. DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE (1965) - AIP nonsense with Vincent Prince and Frankie Avalon that's somewhat funny, slightly racist and horrifyingly/delightfully sexist. I think 60s film stock is my favorite to look at in HD (even when it's stolen from older movies, as it is here), but a few too many scenes of women robots being punished and subjugated to call it harmless fun. Unless the next film you watch is Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS.
160. ILSA: SHE-WOLF OF THE SS (1975) - Shot on the sets of Hogan's Heroes, and lit as flatly as that sitcom was, gives this movie a weird alternate universe kind of disconnect. It all looks phony and stagebound, then gets super ugly and weird and hateful. There's probably some essays online about how this was actually empowering to women in some way, but it's just low-rent hateful, with more of a sheen than I'd expected. Special trash.
Edited by Phil - 1/1/12 at 9:17am
