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boredconnoisseur's Replies
Cameron Crowe:
Almost Famous (2000) 71
Jerry Maguire (1996) 65
Vanilla Sky (2001) 55
We Bought a Zoo (2011) 50
Elizabethtown (2005) 45
Say Anything..... (1989) 40
Singles (1992) 39
Aloha (2015) 33
He's not exactly active for a director very Hollywood in sensibility......in that sense the lackluster state of his filmography isn't the least bit surprising to me.
100: A+. The cream of the crop. Haven't graded anything this high IIRC.
91-99: A. Excellence.
82-90: A-. Very good/great work from my POV.
73-81: B+. Generally well-done and possibly deserving of placement on an annual top 10 list.
64-72: B. Not bad, far from great, elements leave something to be desired.
55-63: B-. Somewhat mediocre. Passable, but not far removed from low tier.
46-54: C+. Not good. Rather disappointing though it could be worse for whatever reason.
37-45: C. Quite bad.
29-36: C-. Woeful on the whole, technicalities like cinematic presentation can still be competent though.
19-27: D+. Very very bad, quality is generally awful.
10-18: D. Like the above, only taken down a notch and even more amateurish.
1-9: D-. Godawful, thoroughly trashy.
0: F. The very bottom of the barrel. Haven't graded anything this low IIRC.
With that out of the way, last week's lineup:
The Girlfriends (1955, Michelangelo Antonioni) 71/100
Hi, Mom! (1970, Brian DePalma) 49
Still Breathing (1998, James F. Robinson) 72
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991, Steve Miner) 27
Fargo (1996, Joel Coen) (rewatch) 68 - Buscemi isn't likable in the least for a main character or even a lowlife thug (casting makes perfect sense here) but at least he gets fed to a wood chipper.
HealtH (1980, Robert Altman) 29
Hard Core Logo (1996, Bruce McDonald) 36 - Canada, bleh.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance (2011, Youichi Mouri) 81
Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa) 49
The Joy Luck Club (1993, Wayne Wang) 72
Smoke Signals (1998, Chris Eyre) 18
The Darjeeling Limited (2007, Wes Anderson) 44 - immensely boring esp. given the setting, was never much of a fan of this director though.
Big Trouble (2002, Barry Sonnenfeld) 33
Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock) (rewatch) 61
Home Invasion (2016, David Tennant) 37
Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Godard) 60
Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen) (rewatch) 73
Not a good film in the least, but not bottom tier either. On the meager list of positives, Powers Boothe makes perfect sense as a villain.
It's too bad Pernicious is a second-rate (I'd say somewhat worse) gorefest at the core more or less, with plot twists that seem to have carefully eyed the I Know What You Did...... horror flicks, so........
The acting's not the worst, the production values were decent and at least two of the three chicks were kind of hot, but it's.........bleh (hence the 5/10 rating). And that ending sure didn't leave anything resembling a good aftertaste.
Woody Allen.......in no way do I consider admirable. One-dimensional L.A. geek who is occasionally tolerable if only because he's made way too many films and they can't all be one-man shows.
Unfortunately, this week I watched a lot of crap for the first time. Crap or disappointing stuff. Lost Highway is imperfect/flawed but nowhere near as bad or uninteresting as a lot of this. Of course some of it going in I wasn't expecting much from to begin with (Veronica Guerin, Patient Killer, the newest Spider-Man, etc.). The Monty Python compilation was occasionally funny (i.e. the dental sketch) but that's it. Even the better stuff I watched was plagued by annoyances.....such as the requisite Latino 'actor/actress' in the Brando film.
Dragonslayer (1981, Matthew Robbins) 35/100
Elizabethtown (2005, Cameron Crowe) (rewatch) 45
Pernicious (2014, James Cullen Bressack) (rewatch) 51
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993, Stuart Gillard) 41
Deterrence (1999, Rod Lurie) 45
Mother's Day (2010, Darren Lynn Bousman) 38
My Cousin Vinny (1992, Jonathan Lynn) 35
Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks) (rewatch) 80
Mighty Aphrodite (1995, Woody Allen) 45
The Post (2017, Steven Spielberg) 34
Quintet (1979, Robert Altman) 48
Veronica Guerin (2003, Joel Schumacher) 41
Selomine (1953, Budd Boetticher) 51
Code of Silence (1985, Andrew Davis) 35
Jungle Fever (1991, Spike Lee) 32
True Crime (1999, Clint Eastwood) 37
Patient Killer (2014, Casper Van Dien) 48
And Now for Something Completely Different (1971, Ian MacNaughton) 53
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, Jon Watts) 43
Take the Money and Run (1969, Woody Allen) 42
The Bad Batch (2016, Ana Lily Amirpour) 33
Tales of the Taira Clan (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi) 58
One-Eyed Jacks (1961, Marlon Brando) 68
Midnight Cowboy's overrated - not crap - in large part because Buck/Rizzo don't evolve much as characters throughout the movie, so the ending is almost telegraphable.
DotJ was crappy, dullsville imo. Zinnemann doesn't give it much personality and Mr. Fox is amateurish, one-note as the assassin himself.
As for my filmviewing week, it was pretty average.
Mission to Mars (2000, Brian DePalma) 29/100
The Color of Money (1986, Martin Scorsese) 47
The Vanquished (1952, Michelangelo Antonioni) 44
Geostorm (2017, Dean Devlin) 47
Blowup (1966, Michelangelo Antonioni) (rewatch) 67
Mumford (1999, Lawrence Kasdan) 38
God of Gamblers (1989, Wong Jing) 55
Honkytonk Man (1982, Clint Eastwood) (rewatch) 68
Alphaville (1965, Jean-Luc Godard) 67
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998, Tim McCanlies) 36 - and to think for something so banal/uneventful it apparently has a good online reputation.
House of Flying Daggers (2004, Zhang Yimou) 60
The Client (1994, Joel Schumacher) (rewatch) 33
The Dark Tower (2017, Nikolaj Arcel) 46
"Fantasia 2000" (1999, various) 49
Cruise's looks have vastly improved over time if anything. Back in the '80s he was a kind of unsightly presence tbh.
Silence is kind of mediocre and muddled. In fact Scorsese tends to be kind of vacant, a tad lost even whenever he's not working with his star of choice DeNiro.
Sixteen Candles (1984, John Hughes) 42/100
Festival (1996, Im Kwon-taek) 69
The Whole Nine Yards (2000, Jonathan Lynn) 31
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994, Joel Coen) 52
As Tears Go By (1988, Wong Kar-Wai) 45
The Long Goodbye (1973, Robert Altman) (rewatch) 71
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999, Michael Hoffman) 44
JCVD (2008, Mabrouk El Mechri) 47
Halloweentown High (2004, Mark A.Z. Dippe) 55
La Notte (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni) 69
Julius Caesar (1970, Stuart Burge) 45
A Perfect Murder (1998, Andrew Davis) (rewatch) 56
Dogville (2003, Lars von Trier) (rewatch) 70
The Paper (1994, Ron Howard) 52
Southland Tales (2006, Richard Kelly) 50
Jason Robards and William Shakespeare adaptations.......seem real hit/miss to me (didn't view any good/decent ones this week). Both probably even more wildly varying in quality on the whole than an obvious vanity project like Dogville.
Keaton or Natalie Portman, even when she was blatantly excused for being underage way back two decades ago. Both rarely deviate from a 'bitchy' mode.
Next all of Wong Kar-Wai's movies to date:
In the Mood for Love (2000) 75
Chungking Express (1994) 73
Days of Being Wild (1990) 71
Fallen Angels (1995) 70
The Grandmaster (2013) 66
Ashes of Time (1994) 56
2046 (2004) 51
My Blueberry Nights (2007) 48
As Tears Go By (1988) 45
Happy Together (1997) 42
[quote]When you listed the BBird movies, what did the numbers after the date mean?[/quote]
Personal ratings out of 100. So my 46 for The Incredibles means around 4.5/10 or so, hovering around a C grade.
General audiences/critics were far, far more receptive to The Incredibles than Ratatouille in general, despite it being more shrill and unsubtle and not surprisingly, more popular.
1. Walking Across Egypt (1999, Arthur Allan Seidelman)
2. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997, Jan de Bont)
3. 1941 (1979, Steen Spielberg)
4. Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000, John Ottman)
5. Bio-Dome (1996, Jason Bloom)
6. 8 Million Ways to Die (1986, Hal Ashby)
7. Sweet November (2001, Pat O'Connor)
8. Bats (1999, Louis Morneau)
9. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015, J.J. Abrams)
10. Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor (1994, Albert Pyun)
11. Maniac (2012, Franck Khalfoun)
12. The Order (2001, Sheldon Lettich)
13. The Meteor Man (1993, Robert Townsend)
14. Sleepwalkers (1992, Mick Garris)
15. The Avengers (1998, Jeremiah S. Chechik)
16. Gulliver's Travels (2011, Rob Letterman)
17. The Skulls (2000, Rob Cohen)
18. The Cat in the Hat (2003, Bo Welch)
19. Halloween II (1981, Rick Rosenthal)
20. The Power of One (1992, John G. Avildsen)
21. Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016, John Stockwell)
22. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015, Matthew Vaughn)
23. Knock Off (1998, Tsui Hark)
24. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003, Troy Miller)
25. Kick-Ass (2010, Matthew Vaughn)
26. Kafka (1991, Steven Soderbergh)
27. Evolution (2001, Ivan Reitman)
28. Boxcar Bertha (1972, Martin Scorsese)
29. Cyber Bandits (1995, Erik Fleming)
30. Predators (2010, Nimrod Antal)
31. Four Rooms (1995, various)
32. Spawn (1997, Mark A.Z. Dippe)
33. One Night at McCool's (2001, Harald Zwart)
34. Staying Alive (1983, Sylvester Stallone)
35. Zambezia (2012, Wayne Thornley)
36. Getaway (2013, Courtney Solomon)
37. All About Steve (2009, Phil Traill)
38. Kindergarten Cop (1990, Ivan Reitman)
39. Power Rangers: The Movie (1995, Bryan Spicer)
40. Basquiat (1996, Julian Schnabel)
41. Big Daddy (1999, Dennis Dugan)
42. Species II (1998, Peter Medak)
43. My Soul to Take (2010, Wes Craven)
44. Constantine (2005, Francis Lawrence)
45. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969, Sydney Pollack)
46. Double Take (2001, George Gallo)
47. Human Nature (2001, Michel Gondry)
48. Slipstream (1989, Steven Lisberger)
49. Apt Pupil (1998, Bryan Singer)
50. The Lady in the Van (2015, Nicholas Hytner)
That's my current bottom 50 of films I've watched and given a very low rating to date. I'd say they all qualify as D-grade and to be hated.
Pulp Fiction - 78
The Hateful Eight - 76
Reservoir Dogs - 74
Death Proof - 74
Jackie Brown - 66
Inglourious Basterds - 57
Django Unchained - 54
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - 50
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - 43
His act is growing thin. He needs to rein himself in in the future, lay off the overwritten lines.
Beg to differ about The Sixth Sense. It sucked, Willis is probably among the most overpraised and overused leading men actors, period. His turn there was catatonic, like he sleptwalk through it.
The Iron Giant (1999) 66
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) 56
Ratatouille (2007) 47
The Incredibles (2004) 46
Tomorrowland (2015) 45
Brad Bird, textbook example of an underachiever.
There's something unsavory, underhanded, even snotty about Daniels I've never liked. Surprised he hasn't been typecast in kooky vagrant roles or that Terry Gilliam hasn't employed him yet.
Room (2015) (rewatch) 45/100
Singles (1992) 39
The Day of the Jackal (1973) 45
L'Avventura (1960) 59
Wake of Death (2004) 66
Infernal Affairs (2002) 78
Julius Caesar (1953) 56
Superman III (1983) 48
Miami Vice (2006) (rewatch) 58
Young and Dangerous (1996) 49
subUrbia (1996) (rewatch) 67
The Quiet Duel (1949) 53
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) 43
Nocturama (2016) 43
Piranha (1978) 36
Barb Wire (1996) (rewatch) 41
Last Knights (2015) 62
Infernal Affairs II (2003) 64
A Hole in the Head (1959) 40
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) (rewatch) 54
"Paprika" (2006) 60
Sleeper (1973) 68
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) 65
Animal House (1978) 46
Batman & Robin (1997) (rewatch) 51
If not for Goldenthal's score (sort of bombastic yet also evocative and nails a good deal of what Batman is all about), that last one would probably be a 4/10 or lower. Parts of it feel unfinished. One mistake Schumacher made was relying on Goldenthal's good score in an attempt to paint over a weak script, even if the score itself does manage to retain my interest. His biggest was completely miscasting Clooney as Batman.
Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016) D+
About Elly (2009) B-
It (2017) C+
Duel (1971) (rewatch) C+
Maurice (1987) C+
Fallen Angels (1995) (rewatch) B
Spellbinder (1988) D+
M. Butterfly (1993) (rewatch) C
Take Shelter (2011) C+
The Wrestler (2008) (rewatch) C+
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) C+
Marvel's Ultimate Avengers (2006) B
Happy Together (1997) (rewatch) C
The Cell (2000) B
Paul Thomas Anderson next -
Magnolia (1999) 82
Boogie Nights (1997) 72
There Will Be Blood (2007) 69
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) 59
The Master (2012) 50
Hard Eight (1996) 46
Inherent Vice (2014) 42
Phantom Thread (2017) 39
Kind of a familiar trajectory but that just might be the studio stipulations butting their way in at the edges.
I doubt you could vouch for that as Curry didn't even figure into the mini-series nearly as much as 2017's Pennywise. But then you likely prefer the mini-series - talk about no accounting for taste - which is still crap and has a woeful second half.
Marisa Tomei
Most movies in the English language
Instantly sprang to mind.
I say 5/10 because it felt like a trifle coming from someone as experienced as Altman, basically like he threw on an LP of '70s country hits trusting it to carry a 2 hour+ movie. Half of the runtime is musical if that. A few good bits but the filler seems to outweigh them. I'd put H. Gibson/Hamilton in the minus folder.