MARCH

Boogie Nights
The Transporter
Everything or Nothing
Side By Side
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Talking With Gods
6 Days to Air
Batman Forever
The Mindscape of Alan Moore

Pitiful month for me. With 8, my weakest since I saw the same amount last March. I blame Portal 2, Bioshock, and the Half Life Episodes. Damn new computer!

February
Week of 2/4 – 2/10
Amour (2012) ****
Side Effects (2013) ***
Week of 2/11 – 2/17
Love (2011) ***
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) **
Week of 2/18 – 2/24
The Room (2003) *
The Goodbye Girl (1977) ***½
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) ***½
Week of 2/25 – 3/3
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) ***

At least the games you're playing are about as good as it gets. In a strange coincidence, I've been playing through those again lately too.



I love Ghibli films, and figured I needed to give some time to the ones I hadn't seen yet. You should definitely check out Pom Poko. Apart from Grave Of The Fireflies, it's probably the best I've seen of the non-Miyazaki Ghiblis.

Yeah it's been a pretty awesome month

Heh. Typo.



Is this the Pam Grier-starring blaxploitation movie? How did you like it?

The movie is no great shakes, but Grier herself is terrific. Very tough, very sexy, and she's 100% authentic. A lot of actresses don't come across well in action-oriented roles, because there's a pervasive sense that they're not as tough as the roles they're playing. You never get that from Pam Grier.

Oh, crap. That's right.

Here's my February tally:

FEBRUARY:

1. The Passionate Plumber - 5/10
2. Batman: Black and White - no rating
3. Speak Easily - 7/10
4. She (1965) - 6/10
5. The Big Boss - 6/10
6. Parker - 5/10
7. Sleep Tight - 7/10
8. Alex Cross - 5/10
9. Side by Side - 7/10
10. High Sierra - 7/10
11. Here Come the Co-eds - 7/10
12. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - 5/10
13. Breakfast at Tiffany's - 4/10
14. Band of Outsiders - 5/10
15. Bullet to the Head - 5/10
16. Bully (2011) - 6/10
17. Indie Game: The Movie - 8/10
18. Mama - 5/10
19. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - 6/10
20. "Cinematic Titanic": Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks - no rating
21. Silver Linings Playbook - 5/10
22. Stingray Sam - 7/10
23. Hang 'Em High - 7/10
24. Hit the Ice - 7/10
25. Robot & Frank - 7/10
26. Warm Bodies - 7/10
27. A Good Day to Die Hard - 5/10
28. The Great American Broadcast - 7/10
29. Little Giant - 6/10
30. Gypsy (1962) - 5/10
31. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 - 6/10
32. The Master (2012) - 7/10
33. The Last Exorcism Part II - 4/10

MARCH:

1. Holy Motors - 4/10
2. Swing Fever - 7/10
3. Playmates - 7/10
4. City Girl - 6/10
5. Compulsion - 6/10
6. Jack the Giant Slayer - 5/10
7. The Miniver Story - 6/10
8. Oz the Great and Powerful - 5/10
9. Grave Encounters 2 - 5/10
10. Tai Chi Zero - 5/10
11. Limelight (1952) - 6/10
12. The Time of Their Lives - 6/10
13. The Man with the Iron Fists - 6/10
14. Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away - 6/10
15. Orchestra Wives - 5/10
16. Amicus: House of Horrors - 6/10
17. Cinematic Titanic: "Blood of the Vampires" - no rating
18. The Bishop Murder Case - 5/10
19. The Kennel Murder Case - 7/10
20. The Dragon Murder Case - 7/10
21. The Casino Murder Case - 7/10
22. The Garden Murder Case - 5/10
23. Calling Philo Vance - 5/10
24. G.I. Joe: Retaliation - 5/10
25. All That Jazz - 9/10
26. Killing Them Softly - 5/10
27. The Collection - 5/10
28. Broadway: The American Musical - 9/10
29. Dragonwyck - 7/10
30. The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter - 8/10

March

1. Eat This New York
2. Wake in Fright
3. Italianamerican
4.

I saw only one new movie in the month of February, and only saw three total in addition to missing the Pedros despite filling out half of a ballot. Star ratings are out of 4 and the asterisk denotes a repeat viewing.

Chinatown-***1/2
*Wedding Crashers-****
Gone in 60 Seconds-***

I thought Chinatown was a really fantastic movie, but I don't necessarily think that it's one of the greatest off all time. I give Wedding Crashers a better rating not because I think its better directed, written, or acted, but because Wedding Crashers is my favorite comedy. Gone in 60 Seconds is a guilty pleasure action movie that I grew up watching on cable all time and still find entertaining.

Grading art on a linear scale is a capricious thing.

You gave a movie that's funny for 45 minutes, then takes an hour long nosedive into formulaic romance territory, then funny again in the last 15 minutes, 4 stars when Chinatown only merited 3.5? I wonder how you sleep at night

I would like to point out that Gone In 60 Seconds achieved a full three stars.

I realize the system doesn't necessarily work this way, but this would imply that Chinatown is halfway from Gone In 60 Seconds to Wedding Crashers in terms of quality.

EDIT:

I'm not out to give anybody a hard time. I just think that grading movies is funny for precisely this reason.

that's going against the consensus here.



bit surprised by this.

A weak 3.5 perhaps, but I found the film delightful.

Yeah, Holy Motors got to a point at which I not only had no idea what the hell was going on, I didn't feel like putting in the work towards deciphering whatever symbolism it had. If people dig it on some deeper level or just like how random and weird it is, be my guest. Me? I thought it was tiring, sluggish, and nowhere near as fascinating as it thinks it is.

This is a fair point. However, the film also worked for me on the most fundamental level, as in what was presented on-screen was always engaging and never anything other than fascinating. I couldn't put it all together in my head (and still can't), but I felt every individual episode was a self-contained work of great cinema. That's what made me rate it so highly.

Calling it for March.

A paltry 30 new viewings, brought upon by a particularly nasty streak of feeling burnt out on flicks and forcing myself to finish ones I've started.

Ah, well. Must press onward, eh?

MARCH:

1. Holy Motors - 4/10
2. Swing Fever - 7/10
3. Playmates - 7/10
4. City Girl - 6/10
5. Compulsion - 6/10
6. Jack the Giant Slayer - 5/10
7. The Miniver Story - 6/10
8. Oz the Great and Powerful - 5/10
9. Grave Encounters 2 - 5/10
10. Tai Chi Zero - 5/10
11. Limelight (1952) - 6/10
12. The Time of Their Lives - 6/10
13. The Man with the Iron Fists - 6/10
14. Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away - 6/10
15. Orchestra Wives - 5/10
16. Amicus: House of Horrors - 6/10
17. Cinematic Titanic: "Blood of the Vampires" - no rating
18. The Bishop Murder Case - 5/10
19. The Kennel Murder Case - 7/10
20. The Dragon Murder Case - 7/10
21. The Casino Murder Case - 7/10
22. The Garden Murder Case - 5/10
23. Calling Philo Vance - 5/10
24. G.I. Joe: Retaliation - 5/10
25. All That Jazz - 9/10
26. Killing Them Softly - 5/10
27. The Collection - 5/10
28. Broadway: The American Musical - 9/10
29. Dragonwyck - 7/10
30. The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter - 8/10

And that's March. Mostly docs, although The Mindscape of Alan Moore is sort of part doc, part performance piece.

Ah, well. Onward and upward.

---

APRIL

Time After Time
Star Trek: First Contact
The Captains
American Graffiti
Groundhog Day
Trance
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Paperman*
42
Evil Dead (2013)
Re-Animator

*I don't usually list titles here that aren't features, but this short movie contains more visual storytelling acumen than most features these days.

March

3/1/2013: Holy Motors: 10/10.
3/1/2013: The Wages Of Fear: 9/10.*
3/2/2013: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978): 10/10.*
3/2/2013: On The Waterfront: 10/10.*
3/3/2013: Videodrome: 9/10.*
3/3/2013: This Is Not A Film: 7/10.
3/4/2013: Punch-Drunk Love: 9/10.*
3/5/2013: Out Of The Past: 9/10.
3/6/2013: Wreck-It-Ralph: 6/10.
3/7/2013: Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2: 3/10.
3/7/2013: Tangled: 9/10.*
3/8/2013: Laura: 6/10.
3/9/2013: Reservoir Dogs: 9/10.*
3/10/2013: Notorious: 10/10.*
3/11/2013: My Neighbors The Yamadas: 7/10.
3/12/2013: Z: 10/10.*
3/13/2013: Samsara: 7/10.
3/14/2013: The Leopard: 8/10.
3/15/2013: Charade: 10/10.*
3/16/2013: Swing Time: 8/10.
3/17/2013: The Wild Bunch: 8/10.*
3/18/2013: Like Someone In Love: 8/10.
3/19/2013: Zero Dark Thirty: 9/10.*
3/20/2013: Anna Karenina: 4/10.
3/21/2013: The Game: 8/10.*
3/22/2013: The Trouble With Harry: 7/10.
3/23/2013: Brazil: 9/10.*
3/24/2013: I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok: 4/10.
3/25/2013: Annie Hall: 10/10.*
3/26/2013: The Big Heat: 7/10.
3/27/2013: The Asphalt Jungle: 8/10.
3/28/2013: Lincoln: 7/10.*
3/29/2013: Stoker: 7/10.
3/30/2013: Room 237: 7/10.
3/31/2013: Allegro Non Troppo: 10/10.*

*repeat viewing

Top ten first-time viewings:

Holy Motors
Out Of The Past
The Leopard
Like Someone In Love
The Asphalt Jungle
Swing Time
This Is Not A Film
Stoker
The Big Heat
Room 237