These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Stalker (1979) — 9/10

Tarkovsky sets the mood without CGI, without effects, with a simple camera and the... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Trophy Kids (2013) — 6/10

This is a documentary about the middle- to upper-class youth sports scene in the... [More]

1. L’Arcano Incantatore (1996) — 7/10
2. Tom Segura: Mostly Stories (2016) — 7/10
3. Lilya 4-Ever (2002) — 9/10
4. Taxidermia (2006) — 8/10
5. The Tenant (1976) — 7/10
6. Straw Dogs (1971) — 5/10
7. Du rififi chez les hommes (1955) — 8/10
8. Shame (2011) — 7/10
9. Vier Minuten (2006) — 7/10

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Men Behind the Sun (1988) — 3/10

This is the story of a Japanese biological-weapons experimental camp/base.... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Dead Calm (1989) — 5/10

Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill star as couple who’ve lost their child in a car crash that... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) — 6/10

Willem Dafoe is Jesus, Barbara Hershey Mary Magdalene and Harvey... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Police Story 3: Supercop (1996) — 6/10

This is a decent farce action/adventure through several countries with... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

Everest (2015) — 7/10

Kath and I went to see this in an actual theatre, complete with 3D glasses and... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood. YMMV.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) — 7/10

This is the slasher film that redefined what it meant to be a... [More]

These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of over 900 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie.

Citizenfour (2014) — 8/10

This is Laura Poitras’s Academy Award-winning documentary about the events surrounding Edward Snowden’s revelations and release of the documentation that proves that the United States and its NSA has been and continues... [More]

Scanners (1981) — 6/10

This is a David Cronenberg movie about very special people who can control other people’s minds with their own. The movie is very much of its time—it is basically an action-adventure story of conflicting mind-control factions. The pacing is quite slow by today’s standards, but the story is pretty interesting—even if the parts involving computers are laughable. Also, about a quarter of the movie is taken up with people squinting and sweating at each other, trying to... [More]

The Unborn (2009) — 5/10

This is a decent horror-film concept wrapped in a movie with terrible dialogue and acting. The main character is a nearly impossibly thin and tall young lady of indeterminate age. She and her friends are uniformly vapid, dim, anorexic, entitled, rich (look at their houses!) and bitchy. It nearly goes without saying that no-one is funny. I watched half an hour, during which my attention drifted. I was brought back by the movie breaking the “show don’t tell” rule in... [More]

1. Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way (2014) — 10/10
2. Killer Joe (2011) — 7/10
3. Bringing Out the Dead (1999) — 8/10
4. Transcendence (2014) — 6/10
5. They Live! (1988) — 8/10
6. I Spit on Your Grave (1978) — 4/10
7. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) — 7/10
8. The Devils (1971) — 9/10
9. The Secret Of Nikola Tesla (1980) — 7/10
10. L’Artiste (2011) — 9/10
11. An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) — 7/10
12. Fast & Furious AKA Fast and Furious 4 (2009) — 6/10

Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way (2014)... [More]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) — 6/10

An F. Scott Fitzgerald story directed by David Fincher and starring Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt and Julia Ormond sounded great on paper. It was a good movie, although at 2:45 a bit long, with many interleaving vignettes and stories from the lead character’s life. Benjamin Button is a man who was born old and lives his life backward. The filming and plot reminded me of Forrest Gump with Pitt playing Gump and Blanchett playing “Jenny”. Pitt even... [More]

1. Lee Camp: We Are Nothing (2014)
2. Godzilla (2014) — 6/10
3. Game Change (2012) — 7/10
4. The Hunger Games (2012) — 8/10
5. Central do Brasil (1998) — 6/10
6. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) — 6/10
7. Babylon A.D. (2008) — 6/10
8. Immortals (2011) — 5/10
9. Man on a Ledge (2012) — 5/10
10. Last Night (1998) — 6/10
11. 12:01 (1993) — 4/10
12. Bronson (2008) — 7/10
13. Spring Breakers (2012) — 5/10
14. Waydowntown (2000) — 5/10
15. Greg Proops: Live at Musso & Frank (2014) — 9/10
16. Die... [More]

1. Man of Steel (2013) — 5/10
2. The Birdcage (1996) — 6/10
3. Bad Words (2013) — 8/10
4. The Other Woman (2014) — 3/10
5. Life of Pi (2013) — 8/10
6. The Cold Light of Day (2012) — 4/10
7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) — 5/10
8. The Wire (Season 5) (2008) — 10/10
9. True Detective (2014) — 10/10
10. Kingpin (1996) — 6/10
11. Interstellar (2014) — 9/10
12. X–Men: Days of Future Past (2014) — 6/10
13. Joe Dirt (2001) — 5/10
14. Barbarians at the Gate (1993) — 5/10
15. Battle of... [More]

He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) — 3/10

A star-studded cast can’t save this utterly derivative and cliché script. Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Scarlet Johannson, Justin Long, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck. And Busy Phillips—of Freaks and Geeks fame—had a small role. This movie purports to dispel the myths of dating, marriage and male/female relationships. Though it may appear to do so superficially—at least it very clearly tells you that it... [More]

I’ve been asked for movie recommendations often enough of late that I thought I’d put together a bit of a summary of the mini-reviews I’ve made over the years.

The following list is not comprehensive nor does it necessarily comprise my favorite movies, though many favorites are here. I made the list with a particular couple of friends in mind and tailored it to include the movies I thought they might find interesting but had most likely not heard of or hadn’t yet seen. I also only chose movies... [More]

Gravity (2013) — 6/10

I can only say what I thought of this movie based on the way that I saw it: in HD on a conventional screen at home. I can imagine that the experience was very different in 3D and on a giant screen with a kick-ass sound system. The only downside I can think of is that if the sound-leveling was the same in the theater, it would have been an ear-blistering experience. If you set the volume high enough to hear the occasional radio whispers, many other parts of the movie... [More]

The Thin Red Line (1998) — 7/10

I was not surprised in the least to confirm that Terence Malick directed this film about the US attack on Guadalcanal in the Pacific Theater in World War II. The film starts with character portrayals of the various sailors on the vessel with a lot of the by-now classic Malick voice-overs. The cast is just loaded with acting talent (male-only), featuring Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, John Travolta, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviziel, Elias Koteas, John C. reilly, Woody... [More]

The Thing (1982) — 8/10

John Carpenter’s classic horror film, set in Antarctica. The sets and effects are really, really good. Not even just “for that time”, but just good in a timeless way. This is a great example of how you don’t need CGI to make a good movie. Just the models alone are a terrifying vision of twisted horror. The camera knows enough to linger on them without anyone saying anything. Spoiler alert: the “thing” is a shape-shifting, virus-like alien life-form that can’t really... [More]

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005) — 6/10

This is a Steve Coogan vehicle which is kind of like a documentary about Steve Coogan making a movie of the essentially unfilmable post-modern novel Tristram Shandy, a humorous, rambling book that is describes as follows in Wikipedia:

“ostensibly Tristram’s narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and colour... [More]”

1. Rampart (2011) — 7/10
2. World War Z (2013) — 7/10
3. Hesher (2010) — 9/10
4. Sleep Dealer (2008) — 7/10
5. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) — 8/10
6. Looper (2012) — 7/10
7. Checkpoint: Everyday Life in Palestine (2003) — 7/10
8. Human Resources (2011) — 8/10
9. Oblivion (2013) — 8/10
10. Gift – Jane’s Addiction (1993) — 4/10
11. Nothing like the Holidays (2008) — 6/10
12. Garden State (2004) — 7/10
13. Limitless (2011) — 7/10
14. Pacific Rim (2013) — 9/10
15. The Central Park Five (2013) — 8/10
16. Ghost... [More]

The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 the Third Tower (2008) — 6/10

A documentary putting out the evidence that Truthers provide for Tower 7 and then debunks it piece by piece by piece. It’s quite well-done, letting some pretty damning evidence speak for itself. Availalble online (YouTube).

The Name of the Rose (1986) — 7/10

This is a crime movie that takes place in a 12th-century monastery. The monks are twisted and disfigured and seem borderline mentally unstable. Sean Connery stands out as one who at least... [More]

1. Jewel of the Nile (1985) — 5/10
2. Snakes on a Plane (2006) — 4/10
3. Devil (2010) — 4/10
4. Veep (2012/13) — 10/10
5. Freaks and Geeks (1999) — 9/10
6. Escape from New York (1981) — 7/10
7. Under the Dome (2013) — 6/10
8. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012/2013) — 8/10
9. The International (2009) — 7/10
10. Raging Bull (1980) — 7/10
11. Red (2010) — 8/10
12. The Mechanic (2011) — 8/10
13. Apocalypse Now (1979) — 9/10
14. Natural Born Killers (1994) — 9/10
15. Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) — 3/10
16. Sunshine... [More]

Argo (2012) — 6/10

Ben Affleck directs and stars alongside John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and Zeljko Ivanek in this movie about the CIA pretending to make a movie in order to smuggle US-embassy employees out of Iran during the hostage crisis. The cast is good and the idea isn’t bad but the execution is a bit slow, especially in the second act, where I felt that they didn’t sustain the suspense well at all. The direction and cinematography were quite good, but not exceptional for... [More]

Alien (1979) — 9/10

The classic film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), John Hurt and Tom Skerritt. It documents the journey of a commercial deep-space mining ship on its way to investigate an S.O.S. call from a distant planet. The ship lands and sends out a landing party, which discovers an even larger, alien craft that seems for all intents and purposes to have crashed long ago. Something survived, though and it wants to breed again. And for that, it needs a... [More]

X-Men: First Class (2004) — 9/10

Possibly the best of all of the X-Men movies so far, with Jean Grey coming from the dead as Phoenix and fighting with Professor X himself for supremacy. They took out Magneto—made him human—and man was I rooting for the Phoenix to make a clean slate of things at the end. Mainstream movies always cop out when it comes to destroying the world, though. Still recommended, though, and highly recommended for fans of comic-book movies.

Kill Bill Vol. I (2003)... [More]

Blade: Trinity (2004) — 7/10

Wesley Snipes stars as the daywalker in the third film of the trilogy. Instead of just Kris Kristofferson’s Whistler, he’s aided by the Nightstalkers, a band of vampire hunters comprising Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel and Patton Oswalt (Oswalt was clearly thrown in for balance because Biel and Reynolds were apparently way too much eye candy). Parker Posey (Louie’s girlfriend in the TV show Louie) is off the rails as the leader of the vampire gang, which comes up... [More]

Tangled (2010) — 5/10

Disney’s take on the story of Rapunzel, done in modern, 3d-animated style. The characters are unsurprising: there’s a beautiful virginal girl who sings, a young handsome rogue who sings and an evil old witch. The story is only tangentially related to the original Grimm’s fairy tale: in the original, the witch was initially the wronged party; in the Disney version, there’s no gray area and the witch is evil from the start. There were no real star voices and only a... [More]