Movies Seen in 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) ✭

Even worse than the third film. It's a shame that this movie made a freaking billion dollars. That's just encouraging Disney to churn out more these subpar pirate movies. All disjointed action sequences and boring and/or convoluted plots. The first movie was fun, the sequels have literally all put me to sleep since.

 

August: A movie starring Josh Hartnett as the founder of a dot com startup that's in trouble. The subject matter is interesting, but the movie isn't very good. One of the best parts was seeing David Bowie in a small role. Also, apparently the title comes from the movie taking place the month before the 9/11 attack. From this little fact, the audience is supposed to understand that whatever happens in the movie will have been in vain.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus: I couldn't even finish it. I thought it was going to be dumb and campy in a fun way, but it wasn't. I won't bother with the sequels either.

 

Green Lantern (2011) ✭1/2

Pretty pathetic movie. The first teaser or trailer had me pretty excited for the movie. Then, I was at the theaters one night and saw the full trailer. I could tell it was going to be pretty bad then. The scathing reviews confirmed my suspicion, but I still wanted to see how bad it was for myself.

Pretty bad. The villain is lame, Ryan Reynolds looks bored, and it's all just a little silly. DC superheroes really haven't done as well as Marvel in the movie department other than Batman... ever.

 

Spoiler: #1-169.

1. In the Heat of the Night (A)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B)
3. The Passion of the Christ (A)
4. Mamma Mia! (B)
5. All About Eve (A)
6. Looking for Anne (C+)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (B+)
8. The King's Speech (A)
9. How Green Was My Valley (B-)
10. Black Swan (B+)
11. Made in Dagenham (B)
12. Gentleman's Agreement (A-)
13. Barney's Version (A-)
14. Out of Africa (B)
15. The Social Network (A-)
16. The Sound of Music (B)
17. Pulp Fiction (A)
18. Forrest Gump (A)
19. The Shawshank Redemption (A+)
20. The Illusionist (B-)
21. The French Connection (B+)
22. Network (A+)
23. Incendies (A+)
24. Mrs. Miniver (A)
25. A Fistful of Dollars (B+)
26. For A Few Dollars More (B)
27. WALL-E (A+)
28. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A)
29. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (B)
30. Gigi (B-)
31. I Love You Phillip Morris (B+)
32. How To Train Your Dragon (A)
33. Tarzan (B+)
34. Oliver! (B+)
35. Gosford Park (A-)
36. The Princess Bride (B+)
37. All the President's Men (A-)
38. Oliver Twist (B+)
39. My Fair Lady (A+)
40. Hanna (A-)
41. The Godfather (A+)
42. The Godfather: Part II (A+)
43. The Godfather: Part III (A-)
44. Dog Day Afternoon (A)
45. Taxi Driver (A-)
46. Great Expectations (B+)
47. The Last Airbender (D-)
48. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (A+)
49. Raging Bull (B+)
50. GoodFellas (A-)
51. Spartacus (A+)
52. The Deer Hunter (B+)
53. Reservoir Dogs (A)
54. A Clockwork Orange (A)
55. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (A+)
56. Gone With The Wind (A+)
57. On the Waterfront (A)
58. Thor (B+)
59. The Seventh Seal (A-)
60. Hamlet (A)
61. All the King's Men (A-)
62. Roman Holiday (A+)
63. Rebecca (A-)
64. Notorious (A)
65. American Madness (B+)
66. It Happened One Night (A-)
67. Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (C-)
68. You Can't Take It With You (B+)
69. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (A-)
70. The Heiress (A+)
71. X-Men: First Class (A-)
72. Super 8 (B+)
73. Dr. No (B-)
74. From Russia With Love (A)
75. Captain Blood (A+)
76. The Best Years of Our Lives (A+)
77. The Adventures of Robin Hood (A+)
78. The Treasure of Sierra Madre (A+)
79. From Here To Eternity (A)
80. To Have and Have Not (B)
81. The Big Sleep (A-)
82. Barry Lyndon (B+)
83. The Snake Pit (B+)
84. Hoosiers (C-)
85. Rocky (A-)
86. Midnight in Paris (B+)
87. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (B+)
88. Key Largo (B-)
89. Bridge on the River Kwai (A)
90. The Apartment (A-)
91. Captain America: The First Avenger (A-)
92. Ordinary People (A-)
93. Days of Heaven (B+)
94. Yojimbo (A-)
95. Tangled (A)
96. Cowboys and Aliens (B)
97. Crazy, Stupid, Love (A-)
98. Beginners (A-)
99. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (A+)
100. Bonnie and Clyde (A-)
101. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (A-)
102. Elmer Gantry (B+)
103. Sanjuro (A-)
104. The Help (B+)
105. Dark Passage (B+)
106. Easy A (B)
107. Rob Roy (B+)
108. The Great McGinty (C+)
109. Christmas in July (B-)
110. The Tree of Life (B+)
111. The Lady Eve (A-)
112. Sullivan's Travels (B+)
113. The Palm Beach Story (A+)
114. A Passage to India (A-)
115. Glengarry Glen Ross (A-)
116. Hail the Conquering Hero (B-)
117. The Great Moment (C+)
118. Platoon (A)
119. Atonement (A+)
120. Patton (A)
121. Pan's Labyrinth (A+)
122. The Debt (B+)
123. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (A-)
124. The Pawnbroker (A-)
125. Double Indemnity (A)
126. Mildred Pierce (B+)
127. The Postman Always Rings Twice (C-)
128. The Great Dictator (A+)
129. La Belle et la Bete (B+)
130. Contagion (B+)
131. The Age of Innocence (B+)
132. The Remains of the Day (A+)
133. His Girl Friday (A)
134. Howards End (B+)
135. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (A)
136. The Lion King 3D (A+)
137. Paths of Glory (B+)
138. Big Fish (B+)
139. The Magnificent Ambersons (B+)
140. Dumbo (A-)
141. Smiles of a Summer Night (A)
142. The Ides of March (B-)
143. Moneyball (A-)
144. A Few Good Men (A+)
145. Some Like It Hot (A+)
146. The Talk of the Town (B-)
147. The Last Picture Show (A-)
148. Attack the Block (B)
149. The Awful Truth (A-)
150. Ben-Hur (B+)
151. Only Angels Have Wings (B)
152. Midnight Cowboy (B-)
153. Holiday (B+)
154. Modern Times (A+)
155. Singin' in the Rain (A)
156. A Star Is Born (1976) (C-)
157. A Star Is Born (1954) (A-)
158. Time Bandits (C)
159. Kagemusha (B)
160. Immortals (C+)
161. J. Edgar (B)
162. City of God (A)
163. Cinema Paradiso (B)
164. Three Colours: Blue (B+)
165. Three Colours: White (A-)
166. Three Colours: Red (A-)
167. The Muppets (B+)
168. Election (A)
169. Le Havre (C+)

170. Almost Famous: The Bootleg Cut (A+)
171. About Schmidt (A-)
172. Drive (B)
173. Hugo (A)
174. Ed Wood (A+)
175. Out of Sight (A)
176. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (B-)

Continuing with my informal George Clooney week, his 2002 directorial debut, which was previously the only one of his four films that I hadn't seen. Clooney, unlike a lot of actor-directors, usually doesn't take the lead in his own movies (only in the overlooked Leatherheads, and even there he was co-lead), though he's always there in some capacity.

I spent most of the movie thinking what an unorthodox choice this seemed for Clooney when compared with his later work, but when looking at the end credits I realized it had a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, which explains a lot. And, honestly, this feels like a mismatch of writer and director. Kaufman screenplays need directors who really gel with his unique sensibility, like Jonze and Gondry; Clooney tries (indeed, this is by far the most visually interesting of his films), but his instincts are just different from Kaufman's, both in terms of comedy and drama. Either of those other directors, or maybe the Coen Brothers (with whom Clooney frequently collaborates), would be better choices for this material.

That said, it's not a bad movie by any means. Well-acted, there aren't really any bad scenes, and there's memorable stuff; but it just doesn't click to the poin of becoming anything beyond decent. And to be honest, while I think Clooney's a mismatch as director, this doesn't feel like Kaufman's most incisive work either.

 

Ninja Cheerleaders: I've been wanting to see this for a few years now and I finally got the chance this week. The movie should have been called Ninja Strippers, because the three ladies were strippers preparing for a stripping contest while having to deal with rescuing their sensei (George Takei) who was kidnapped. How was the movie? It was pretty bad. It had the writing and production values of the dialog portions of a porn movie, you know, the parts where there's no sex and they're trying to set up a plot with a bit of banter. Takei was decent enough though and Ginny Weirick is very easy on the eyes. From the DVD "making of" documentary, it seems as if all involved had a good time making this, but in the end, it just didn't have the lustre of a well made motion picture.

Primer: Two guys are working on an invention in their garage and accidentally realize that what they made can do something quite extraordinary. Great concept, but it's often hard to follow. It's an independent film that was made on a budget of $7000. but looks quite professional for what it is. Check it out if you're into indie scifi.

Doubt: A priest is suspected of sexual impropriety with a minor. Not an exciting story, but the movie is made excellent by the performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Those three alone are the movie. It's rare to see something like that. You could have put all three of them on a blank stage with no sets or props and it would have been gripping.

 

#64 Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ✭✭✭1/2

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It does have a few flaws, but the CGI apes are phenomenal. I know it wasn't necessarily part of the plot, but I thought that the girlfriend could have had a bigger role in the story. She kind of bugged me... just being there.

When Caesar first sees the dog on the leash in the park... that will probably forever be one of my favorite scenes in a movie. Andy Serkis sold that moment.

 

Spoiler: #1-169.

1. In the Heat of the Night (A)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B)
3. The Passion of the Christ (A)
4. Mamma Mia! (B)
5. All About Eve (A)
6. Looking for Anne (C+)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (B+)
8. The King's Speech (A)
9. How Green Was My Valley (B-)
10. Black Swan (B+)
11. Made in Dagenham (B)
12. Gentleman's Agreement (A-)
13. Barney's Version (A-)
14. Out of Africa (B)
15. The Social Network (A-)
16. The Sound of Music (B)
17. Pulp Fiction (A)
18. Forrest Gump (A)
19. The Shawshank Redemption (A+)
20. The Illusionist (B-)
21. The French Connection (B+)
22. Network (A+)
23. Incendies (A+)
24. Mrs. Miniver (A)
25. A Fistful of Dollars (B+)
26. For A Few Dollars More (B)
27. WALL-E (A+)
28. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A)
29. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (B)
30. Gigi (B-)
31. I Love You Phillip Morris (B+)
32. How To Train Your Dragon (A)
33. Tarzan (B+)
34. Oliver! (B+)
35. Gosford Park (A-)
36. The Princess Bride (B+)
37. All the President's Men (A-)
38. Oliver Twist (B+)
39. My Fair Lady (A+)
40. Hanna (A-)
41. The Godfather (A+)
42. The Godfather: Part II (A+)
43. The Godfather: Part III (A-)
44. Dog Day Afternoon (A)
45. Taxi Driver (A-)
46. Great Expectations (B+)
47. The Last Airbender (D-)
48. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (A+)
49. Raging Bull (B+)
50. GoodFellas (A-)
51. Spartacus (A+)
52. The Deer Hunter (B+)
53. Reservoir Dogs (A)
54. A Clockwork Orange (A)
55. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (A+)
56. Gone With The Wind (A+)
57. On the Waterfront (A)
58. Thor (B+)
59. The Seventh Seal (A-)
60. Hamlet (A)
61. All the King's Men (A-)
62. Roman Holiday (A+)
63. Rebecca (A-)
64. Notorious (A)
65. American Madness (B+)
66. It Happened One Night (A-)
67. Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (C-)
68. You Can't Take It With You (B+)
69. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (A-)
70. The Heiress (A+)
71. X-Men: First Class (A-)
72. Super 8 (B+)
73. Dr. No (B-)
74. From Russia With Love (A)
75. Captain Blood (A+)
76. The Best Years of Our Lives (A+)
77. The Adventures of Robin Hood (A+)
78. The Treasure of Sierra Madre (A+)
79. From Here To Eternity (A)
80. To Have and Have Not (B)
81. The Big Sleep (A-)
82. Barry Lyndon (B+)
83. The Snake Pit (B+)
84. Hoosiers (C-)
85. Rocky (A-)
86. Midnight in Paris (B+)
87. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (B+)
88. Key Largo (B-)
89. Bridge on the River Kwai (A)
90. The Apartment (A-)
91. Captain America: The First Avenger (A-)
92. Ordinary People (A-)
93. Days of Heaven (B+)
94. Yojimbo (A-)
95. Tangled (A)
96. Cowboys and Aliens (B)
97. Crazy, Stupid, Love (A-)
98. Beginners (A-)
99. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (A+)
100. Bonnie and Clyde (A-)
101. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (A-)
102. Elmer Gantry (B+)
103. Sanjuro (A-)
104. The Help (B+)
105. Dark Passage (B+)
106. Easy A (B)
107. Rob Roy (B+)
108. The Great McGinty (C+)
109. Christmas in July (B-)
110. The Tree of Life (B+)
111. The Lady Eve (A-)
112. Sullivan's Travels (B+)
113. The Palm Beach Story (A+)
114. A Passage to India (A-)
115. Glengarry Glen Ross (A-)
116. Hail the Conquering Hero (B-)
117. The Great Moment (C+)
118. Platoon (A)
119. Atonement (A+)
120. Patton (A)
121. Pan's Labyrinth (A+)
122. The Debt (B+)
123. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (A-)
124. The Pawnbroker (A-)
125. Double Indemnity (A)
126. Mildred Pierce (B+)
127. The Postman Always Rings Twice (C-)
128. The Great Dictator (A+)
129. La Belle et la Bete (B+)
130. Contagion (B+)
131. The Age of Innocence (B+)
132. The Remains of the Day (A+)
133. His Girl Friday (A)
134. Howards End (B+)
135. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (A)
136. The Lion King 3D (A+)
137. Paths of Glory (B+)
138. Big Fish (B+)
139. The Magnificent Ambersons (B+)
140. Dumbo (A-)
141. Smiles of a Summer Night (A)
142. The Ides of March (B-)
143. Moneyball (A-)
144. A Few Good Men (A+)
145. Some Like It Hot (A+)
146. The Talk of the Town (B-)
147. The Last Picture Show (A-)
148. Attack the Block (B)
149. The Awful Truth (A-)
150. Ben-Hur (B+)
151. Only Angels Have Wings (B)
152. Midnight Cowboy (B-)
153. Holiday (B+)
154. Modern Times (A+)
155. Singin' in the Rain (A)
156. A Star Is Born (1976) (C-)
157. A Star Is Born (1954) (A-)
158. Time Bandits (C)
159. Kagemusha (B)
160. Immortals (C+)
161. J. Edgar (B)
162. City of God (A)
163. Cinema Paradiso (B)
164. Three Colours: Blue (B+)
165. Three Colours: White (A-)
166. Three Colours: Red (A-)
167. The Muppets (B+)
168. Election (A)
169. Le Havre (C+)

170. Almost Famous: The Bootleg Cut (A+)
171. About Schmidt (A-)
172. Drive (B)
173. Hugo (A)
174. Ed Wood (A+)
175. Out of Sight (A)
176. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (B-)
177. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (A)

Concluding Clooney Week with his 2000 first collaboration with the Coen Brothers. There's surprisingly little of the Coens' usual dark humour in this one, but otherwise their comic sensibility remains much the same (verbose dialogue and all). It's a very fun movie.

 

189. Manhattan Murder Mystery (B-)

An enjoyable Woody Allen movie, but certainly not top shelf. Part of the problem is that the movie isn't always successful blending suspense and comedy. Most of the time, the suspense just isn't all that effective. Still, it's nice to see Keaton and Allen back one last time, even if this isn't Annie Hall. Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston are both good in support, too.

Visually, it's a bit dull, to the point that the allusion to The Lady from Shanghai in the finale ends up feeling out of place, since the rest of the movie has been so ordinary. This surprised me, since Carlo Di Palma photographed a number of much better looking Allen movies.

I don't to sound down on it, though. It's a funny movie. Worth watching on Netflix Instant, where I caught it.

 

You planning to see Hugo, Harvey?

 

I would like to see it, although I don't particularly care for 3D, so I may wait until home video. That decision may be taken out of my hands however, since I'm spending the next three weeks with my parents rather than staying in LA, so it may not even be playing nearby.

 

Spoiler: rest of list

1. Alien 3 (assembly cut) - B
2. Let the Right One In - A
3. Inception - B.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - B+
5. Lilo and Stitch - A
6. Despicable Me - B
7. Forbidden Planet - B+
8. Clerks - B
9. Metropia - C+
10. Brand Upon the Brain - B
11. Beltesassar Animation Festival 17 - A
12. Buried - B+
13. How to Train Your Dragon - A
14. Monsters - C+.
15. The Tune (Bill Plympton) - C
16. House (1977) - B
17. Institute Benjamenta - B-
18. The Triplets of Belleville (rewatch) - A
19. Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer, 2005) - B
20. Paradise Lost (1999) - C-
21. Daybreakers - C
22. The Wizard of Oz (rewatch) - A
23. Winnebago Man - A
24. The Social Network - B+
25. Book of the Dead (2005) - C
26. Megamind - B
27. North By Northwest (1959) - A
28. The Plague Dogs (1982) - B+
29. Burn After Reading - B
31. The Incredibles (rewatch) - A
32. Fire and Ice (1983) - D
33. Bad Santa - B
34. Twelve Monkeys (rewatch) - A
35. Sweeney Todd - B+
36. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 - B
37. Alien IV (Blu-ray) - D
38. American Movie (1999) - B
39. Naked (1993) - B
40. My Neighbor Totoro - B+
41. Pulp Fiction (Rewatch) - A+
42. Fight Club (Rewatch) - B+
43. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams - B
44. Falling Down (Rewatch) - B
45. Crazy Heart - C+
46. Confessions of a Superhero - B
47. The King's Speech - B+
48. Pinnochio (Disney, rewatch) - B
49. Network - A
50. Paprika - B+
51. All The President's Men (1976) - A
52. The Illusionist (2010) - B
53. Rashomon (1950) - B
54. Wall-E (rewatch) - A
55. Tron Legacy - C+
56. American Psycho - B
57. Rango - A-
58. Rear Window - A
59. Stranger Than Paradise (1984) - B
60. Get Low - B
61. Boken Flowers - A-
62. The Amazing Screw-On Head - A
63. Inland Empire (David Lynch) - B
64. Paul (2011) - B
65. Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch) - B
66. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa, 1962) - B+
67. X-Men: First Class: B
68. The Fighter - B
69. Tangled - B
70. Be Kind, Rewind - C+
71. Black Swan - B-
72. Howl's Moving Castle - B+
73. Star Wars: A New Hope - Blu-ray Transfer Grade: B+
74. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Blu-ray Transfer Grade: A.
75. Pulp Fiction (rewatch, Blu-ray) - Blu-ray transfer Grade: A
76. Brazil (rewatch) - B+
77. Citizen Kane (rewatch) - A
78. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters - C
79. Magic Trip (2011) - B
80. The Lady of Names (2011) - B
81. Bright (2011) - A
82. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Blu-ray) - A
83. Robocop - B
84. Hellboy (rewatch) - A
85. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) - A
86. This is Spinal Tap - B
87. Ghostbusters (rewatch) - A
88. Vertigo - A-
89. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2: A-
90. Heavy Metal (rewatch) - C+
91. Crumb (rewatch) - A+
92. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition) - A+
93. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) - A+
94. Kiki's Delivery Service - B+
95. Jurassic Park (rewatch) - B+
96. Tron (rewatch) - A
97. The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear - C
98. Jackie Brown (rewatch) - B
99. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - A

100. The Lion King - B. Haven't seen this movie since the 90s. Stunning Blu-ray transfer. These old Disney films really look great in high def, there's no denying that. This movie falls about in the middle of the pack of Disney films with me, in that it tells the same story that the majority of their films tell, and the musical numbers are memorable but not particularly special.

101. Alice (Svankmajer, rewatch) - B-. Svankmajer's twistedly literal re-interpretation of the Alice in Wonderland story, now on Blu-ray. Plays like a bad acid trip. It's a little boring, honestly, but has some of his best animation segments in it. I think the premise is a little too thin for the film's running time.

102. X-Men (rewatch) - B-. Pretty good, but I can't help but think of the much better X-2 when I watch this movie. Toad and Sabretooth are kind of pointless villains.

103. Lost in Translation (rewatch) - B. This film is most notable for it's gorgeous cinematography. It's just a beautiful film.

104. Malibu Express - D. Cheesy 80s boob-and-gun movie. I'm just padding my review count here. >_>

 

I watched Sucker Punch last night for some reason. Its obvious to me why it gets all the negative flack it does, and I have to say I agree with most of said flack. About the only redeeming quality I was able to discern was that Emily Browning bears an eerily creepy resemblance to a friend of mine. So much so that I literally called her asking if she had been in this movie and just never told us.

 

Caught up with library copies of The Reader and The King's Speech.

The first was rather more interesting, but it got rather more fascinated by the erotica than in fleshing out the story, which seemed to have something to do with German war guilt as well as the abused loving the abuser. We don't see enough of Ralph Fiennes adult version to get the latter.

Plus the discord between the submissive illiterate off screen in the SS and the sexually aggressive woman in postwar Germany may not inspire complete disbelief but it is a little straining. One aspect, that people who in other circumstances never would have done such things, is muddied by making Kate Winslet's character such a marginal figure. And, generally, the role of social forces in such atrocities (Philip Zimbardo of Stanford Prison experiment fame labeled it the bad barrel theory vs. the bad apple theory,) is not dramatized by a bedroom drama.

The erotica is very well done. Naked people are like pretty scenery and pretty scenery rarely detracts from a movie.

The King's Speech suffered enormously by a continual surprise that 1.) people in their right minds gave a shit about what some German princeling thought 2.) people never heard anyone stutter without feeling the utmost contempt and 3.) victory in WWII depended upon a smooth speech by the King instead of the Soviets. This was puffed up enough to be a balloon in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. On a personal level, Edward VIII was far and away the man you'd most like to party with. (Especially if he brings Wallis.) And on a political level, when George VI actually utters the phrase "divine right" you're not really any better than Edward.

Hollywood may despise stutterers because perfectly smooth speech is just the only thing, but the general notion that stutterers are just cowardly losers (Reginald Barclay Syndrome,) is a little example of the real hidebound conservatism in Hollywood. It is of course the teasing that makes stutterers shy, not the opposite.

 

George was born and raised in Britain, to parents born and raised in Britain, to a grandmother born and raised in Britain by a father born and raised in Britain by a father born raised in Britain by a father born and raised in Britain. "German" is a bit of a stretch, no?

In any event, people very much did care what he thought, so how is that a flaw in the film?

Huh?

At no point was there the implication that his speech was crucial. It was his personal struggle to perform his duty, and that duty did indeed matter, even if it wasn't make-or-break.

George believed in divine right, like every royal of his generation (as does his daughter, by most accounts, though not her children and grandchildren). So what? And I would think that being much more responsible makes him better than Edward.

Did you actually watch the movie?

 

Spoiler: Rest of my list

1. The Fighter: B-
2. Batman(90's saga): A-,B-,C-,D
3. Star Wars OT-Special Edition: B+, A, B
4. The Green Hornet: B
5. True Grit(1969): C+
6. Lord of the Rings saga: (A,A,A)
7. The Machinist: A-
8. Season of the Witch: B
9. Frozen: A-
10. Due Date: B+
11. Planet of the Apes(2001): B-
12. Faster: C
13. Romance: D (French film, subtitled)
14. YPF: C- (YPF=Young People F*&^ing)
15. The Beautiful Truth: B-
16. Strictly Sexual: C+
17. DOOM: C
18. Brothers: B+
19. Men In Black II: B-
20. The Crow: Wicked Prayer: C-
21. The Soloist: C
22. Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love: C+
23. I Now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry: B-
24. Battle in Heaven: C+ (Mexican film, subtitled)
25. Legion: B-
26. Battle: LA: B+
27. Righteous Kill: B
28. Dracula II: Ascension: B-
29. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li: D
30. You Don't Mess With the Zohan: C+
31. Finding Bliss: C
32. Dracula III: Legacy: B-
33. Tangled: B+
34. Paul Blart Mall Cop: C-
35. Chloe: B
36. Kung Fu Panda: B-
37. Centurion: B
38. The People I've Slept With: C
39. Grown Ups: B-
40. The Conspirator: A-
41. XXX: State of the Union: C+
42. Fast Five: B+
43. THOR: A-
44. Priest: D+
45. The Fourth Kind: B+
46. POTC: On Stranger Tides: B-
47. Turtles Forever: A-
48. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story: B+
49. Easy A: A
50. Inception: B
51. #1 Cheerleader Camp: D
52. Freakanomics: C+
53. Green Lantern: C
54. The American: C-
55. Super 8: A
56. Green Lantern: First Flight: B
57. Transformers: Dark of the Moon: B-
58. 9 Songs: F
59. Kings Speech: A-
60. Whiteout: C+
61. Passion Play: D+
62. Captain America: The First Avenger: A-
63. Marley & Me: A
64. Date Night: C+
65. Frantic: B+
66. Presumed Innocent: A
67. Invictus: A
68. Rocky: A
69. Hurt Locker: A+
70. Rocky II: C+
71. Rocky III: B+
72. Rocky IV: A
73. Cowboys & Aliens: B
74. Wonder Woman (DC Animated): B+
75. Rocky V: B-
76. Conan The Barbarian('11): B-
77. Dinner for Schmucks: D
78. Nothing But the Truth: B
79. Snow Angels: B+
80. Everybody's Fine: C-
81. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: A+
82. Fragments: C+
83. Fright Night ('11): A-
84. Cold Comfort Farm: D
85. Machete: C-
86. The Queen: A
87. Public Enemies: B+
88. Drive Angry: D
89. Red Riding Hood: C+
90. Fright Night ('85): B
91. Love & Other Drugs: B
92. X-Files: I Want to Believe - B+
93. Source Code: A-

94. Paranormal Activity 3: A
95. Rachel Getting Married: C
96. Love Guru: F
97. Funny People: C-
98. Win Win: B+
99. Everything Must Go: B
100. Scott Pilgrim vs The World: D+
101. American Ninja: D
102. Revenge of the Ninja: D
103. Lonesome Dove: A

Hung out with some friends and our deal was to watch some movies we hadn't seen. The two Ninja movies are C-list, it'd be an insult to B-movies to call them Bmovies. They are the type of movie you talk through and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Lonesome Dove, a mini-series movie event. First time I'd ever seen it and it was damn good. Ranks right up there in terms of 10 best Westerns I've seen.

 

I think he was referring to Hitler. And if he was, he'd still be wrong because Hitler was Austrian, not German.

It isn't.

I too am befuddled at this remark.

Too, the idea of the film (and, historically, actually) is that Bertie/George's speech roused the nation so and united them in common cause to fight Hitler. It's one thing to go to war, its another thing to go to war and believe in why you're doing so. As the film demonstrates, there were several people in England at the time who did not see Hitler's Germany as a threat or who basically agreed with him. Quite rightly, Bertie and his advisers saw the threat Hitler posed and knew they had to do everything they could to stop him. To do this, they needed the people of Britain on their side.

Indeed.

 

Monsters (2010) ✭✭✭

It's just kind of there. A nice film, but overall a little disappointing.

 

Much more closely than you did. The response of the crowd to the stutter displayed contempt for the speech, either directly or in assuming the prince was humiliated in public. The sadness over the fate of "Cousin Wilhelm" makes German princeling not a stretch.

The notion that modern audiences should share the adoration of monarchy is stupid. The bland assumption that we shouldn't even notice the obsequiousness of the characters toward the monarchy borders on the offensive. One of the most pressing questions about this movie is why does any of this matter to anyone except the man and his family? This question is not even addressed.

The real crux is the gullibility in assuming that the King's speech made any difference in public support for the war. Publics always support wars in the beginning, just because authority says they are in some fashion self defense. Worse, there was no morally principled opposition to Hitler on the part of the English government! Not when Hitler took over, not when Hitler intervened in Spain, not when Hitler took over Austria, not when Hitler carved up Czechoslovakia, and damn little when Hitler threatened Poland. The fucking English literally sent their diplomats on a slow boat to conduct negotiations with the USSR to present a united front. The English were so in sync with Hitler's antiCommunism that they were just about as tempted to go to war with the USSR over Finland, even though the Finnish dictator Mannerheim was another asshole buddy of Hitler.

No, the movie's revisionist take on the importance of the essence of Englishness being foes of Hitler is just drivel.

 

Spoiler: #1-169.

1. In the Heat of the Night (A)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B)
3. The Passion of the Christ (A)
4. Mamma Mia! (B)
5. All About Eve (A)
6. Looking for Anne (C+)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (B+)
8. The King's Speech (A)
9. How Green Was My Valley (B-)
10. Black Swan (B+)
11. Made in Dagenham (B)
12. Gentleman's Agreement (A-)
13. Barney's Version (A-)
14. Out of Africa (B)
15. The Social Network (A-)
16. The Sound of Music (B)
17. Pulp Fiction (A)
18. Forrest Gump (A)
19. The Shawshank Redemption (A+)
20. The Illusionist (B-)
21. The French Connection (B+)
22. Network (A+)
23. Incendies (A+)
24. Mrs. Miniver (A)
25. A Fistful of Dollars (B+)
26. For A Few Dollars More (B)
27. WALL-E (A+)
28. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (A)
29. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (B)
30. Gigi (B-)
31. I Love You Phillip Morris (B+)
32. How To Train Your Dragon (A)
33. Tarzan (B+)
34. Oliver! (B+)
35. Gosford Park (A-)
36. The Princess Bride (B+)
37. All the President's Men (A-)
38. Oliver Twist (B+)
39. My Fair Lady (A+)
40. Hanna (A-)
41. The Godfather (A+)
42. The Godfather: Part II (A+)
43. The Godfather: Part III (A-)
44. Dog Day Afternoon (A)
45. Taxi Driver (A-)
46. Great Expectations (B+)
47. The Last Airbender (D-)
48. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (A+)
49. Raging Bull (B+)
50. GoodFellas (A-)
51. Spartacus (A+)
52. The Deer Hunter (B+)
53. Reservoir Dogs (A)
54. A Clockwork Orange (A)
55. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (A+)
56. Gone With The Wind (A+)
57. On the Waterfront (A)
58. Thor (B+)
59. The Seventh Seal (A-)
60. Hamlet (A)
61. All the King's Men (A-)
62. Roman Holiday (A+)
63. Rebecca (A-)
64. Notorious (A)
65. American Madness (B+)
66. It Happened One Night (A-)
67. Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (C-)
68. You Can't Take It With You (B+)
69. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (A-)
70. The Heiress (A+)
71. X-Men: First Class (A-)
72. Super 8 (B+)
73. Dr. No (B-)
74. From Russia With Love (A)
75. Captain Blood (A+)
76. The Best Years of Our Lives (A+)
77. The Adventures of Robin Hood (A+)
78. The Treasure of Sierra Madre (A+)
79. From Here To Eternity (A)
80. To Have and Have Not (B)
81. The Big Sleep (A-)
82. Barry Lyndon (B+)
83. The Snake Pit (B+)
84. Hoosiers (C-)
85. Rocky (A-)
86. Midnight in Paris (B+)
87. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (B+)
88. Key Largo (B-)
89. Bridge on the River Kwai (A)
90. The Apartment (A-)
91. Captain America: The First Avenger (A-)
92. Ordinary People (A-)
93. Days of Heaven (B+)
94. Yojimbo (A-)
95. Tangled (A)
96. Cowboys and Aliens (B)
97. Crazy, Stupid, Love (A-)
98. Beginners (A-)
99. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (A+)
100. Bonnie and Clyde (A-)
101. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (A-)
102. Elmer Gantry (B+)
103. Sanjuro (A-)
104. The Help (B+)
105. Dark Passage (B+)
106. Easy A (B)
107. Rob Roy (B+)
108. The Great McGinty (C+)
109. Christmas in July (B-)
110. The Tree of Life (B+)
111. The Lady Eve (A-)
112. Sullivan's Travels (B+)
113. The Palm Beach Story (A+)
114. A Passage to India (A-)
115. Glengarry Glen Ross (A-)
116. Hail the Conquering Hero (B-)
117. The Great Moment (C+)
118. Platoon (A)
119. Atonement (A+)
120. Patton (A)
121. Pan's Labyrinth (A+)
122. The Debt (B+)
123. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (A-)
124. The Pawnbroker (A-)
125. Double Indemnity (A)
126. Mildred Pierce (B+)
127. The Postman Always Rings Twice (C-)
128. The Great Dictator (A+)
129. La Belle et la Bete (B+)
130. Contagion (B+)
131. The Age of Innocence (B+)
132. The Remains of the Day (A+)
133. His Girl Friday (A)
134. Howards End (B+)
135. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (A)
136. The Lion King 3D (A+)
137. Paths of Glory (B+)
138. Big Fish (B+)
139. The Magnificent Ambersons (B+)
140. Dumbo (A-)
141. Smiles of a Summer Night (A)
142. The Ides of March (B-)
143. Moneyball (A-)
144. A Few Good Men (A+)
145. Some Like It Hot (A+)
146. The Talk of the Town (B-)
147. The Last Picture Show (A-)
148. Attack the Block (B)
149. The Awful Truth (A-)
150. Ben-Hur (B+)
151. Only Angels Have Wings (B)
152. Midnight Cowboy (B-)
153. Holiday (B+)
154. Modern Times (A+)
155. Singin' in the Rain (A)
156. A Star Is Born (1976) (C-)
157. A Star Is Born (1954) (A-)
158. Time Bandits (C)
159. Kagemusha (B)
160. Immortals (C+)
161. J. Edgar (B)
162. City of God (A)
163. Cinema Paradiso (B)
164. Three Colours: Blue (B+)
165. Three Colours: White (A-)
166. Three Colours: Red (A-)
167. The Muppets (B+)
168. Election (A)
169. Le Havre (C+)

170. Almost Famous: The Bootleg Cut (A+)
171. About Schmidt (A-)
172. Drive (B)
173. Hugo (A)
174. Ed Wood (A+)
175. Out of Sight (A)
176. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (B-)
177. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (A)
178. Jackie Brown (A)

With this, I've now seen all the major Tarantino movies (which I define to mean "every Tarantino movie other than Death Proof"), and, on one watch, I would say this is probably my second-favourite of them after Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino's slowest-paced work, by far, and I imagine this threw a lot of his Reservoir Dogs fandom for a loop. Grier and Forster are very memorable.

179. Fanny and Alexander - Theatrical Version (A-)

You it's a Bergman project where you're an hour into a three-hour film before they identify Fanny.

Bergman's last theatrical release (he made a TV miniseries version of this same movie, which I'll watch at some later point), having reined in the pessimism considerably from some of his other work. Usually thoughtful, often ponderous, with many memorable scenes.

Which was true to life. What's your problem?

Wilhelm II was descended from George's great-aunt, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, who married the Crown Prince of Prussia. My great-aunt may marry a Romanian, but that doesn't make me Romanian.

There's certainly plenty of intermarriage with German royal families in the history of the Windsors, but that hardly makes them "German" (particularly ludicrous with George V, who was the quintessential Little Englander).

Modern audiences do care about the monarchy, quite a few of them; you can see that in everything from the reaction to the death of Princess Diana to the recent royal wedding. Moreover, since the monarchy did/does exist, and George has a duty to perform, I don't see how it's some big problem to present a very relatable problem and ask the audience to care. Movies ask audiences to relate to and care about things not comparable to their own situations as a matter of course.

And you seem to have missed that one of the main themes of the movie is interactions between the isolated royal family and the down-to-earth Australian commoner, who is very uninteresed in many of the pretensions of the upper class.

I'd hardly call that a pressing question, but the movie raises that subject at least twice; George himself explicitly notes in one scene that if he were a private citizen, no one would care about his situation. And in the climactic discussion with Logue he points out that, as a constitutional monarchy, he has no real authority, and his main role is to speak as the head of state, something which, due to his situation, he cannot do. That's the whole crux of his situation.

That's complete nonsense, and demonstrably false from history. Heck, in this specific instance, the public was initially extremely hostile to the idea of another European war; that was the whole reason for appeasement.

What on Earth are you talking about?

You aren't reviewing the movie, you're listing things you disagree with in reality and then complaining that the movie reflects this.

 

First, in purely cinematic terms, the scene is not true to life. Which is a flaw in the drama, especially as this scene is meant to dramatize the stakes.

Second, movies that affirm the conventional views are making an artistic choice. An artistic statement in favor of the status quo is a message. There is no reason to withhold criticism on the specious grounds that it doesn't address the movie.

A man who wants a knighthood is not a down to earth commoner, Australian or not, and trying to pretend he is questioning the monarchy in some fashion is just the script phonying up the real story. Cf. The Madness of King George for a similar character.

Supporting a war is not at all the same as being eager for one. The relief at dodging the bullet over Czechoslovakia was real, but if the Poles hadn't supported the Nazis and war broke out, the population would have supported it. The notion that the king had diddly to do with inspiring support for the war is questionable in the extreme.

Third, the review was not very positive but it seems to me that the real sting is not about the movie but about its relations to the real world. Or is it possible there's another real world connection validating the movie? Is there a stutterer in your life? There is in mine, which is why I could tolerate watching this movie.