So, hey, I haven't done this for a while! After my last post, I realized I was watching too much for numbers at the expense of, you know, actually enjoying the movies I watch to the fullest extent, so I've slowed down a lot in the past month. Also, I've been pretty damn busy with various things all month!
The Muppets (2011): I like it! Suitably Muppety with a good twist of that weird, sort of awkward Jason Segel humor. The short running time gives a few of my favorite Muppets the shaft, unfortunately (needs more Rowlf and Sam the Eagle!), but meh, the movie is probably the perfect length for what it is supposed to be, anyway. Enjoyed all the cameo appearances, too. My favorite is Neil Patrick Harris answering the phone at the telethon with, "Yeah, I don't know why I'm not hosting this." lolololol
Weird Science (1985): Funnier and more enjoyable than I expected. It's definitely a dumb, goofy teenage wish fulfillment comedy, but as far as those go, this is at least a fun movie. And once again, I am a total sucker for anything as '80s as this. When the computer is pulled out and the 1980s Hollywood computer program is switched on, I totally started giggling.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below (2011): The latest from Makoto Shinkai, and quite different from his previous features. It's received a lot of attention -- and derision -- for being similar to many Studio Ghibli flicks, but I think Shinkai pulls off that type of story more capably than most pretenders. There's also enough different to separate the movie from your everyday Ghibli work: The actual world and the lore in the world has a weird twist to it that I don't really see in Ghibli. And it has the usual Shinkai sheen to it, which is to say it's FUCKING GORGEOUS. Definitely does not deserve the hate it's had tossed at it.
Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984): So cheesy. So idealistic. So '80s. So Macross. This movie holds up completely the second time around. This is maybe the seminal anime movie of the 1980s, perhaps even more than Akira.
Wheels on Meals (1984): One of Jackie Chan's many martial arts comedy flicks. This is a weird watch because I saw it in the original Chinese, and while Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung are speaking in their native language, there are a lot of ostensibly Spanish folks in the movie, and they're all dubbed over in Chinese, which is super weird. But to be fair, it's only weird because I don't speak Chinese. It's really no different than everyone in a foreign country speaking English in an American movie. Anyway, this is a fun movie. The action is slick and cool, and the humor is silly. I need to watch more Jackie Chan flicks.
Tokyo Godfathers (2003): Somehow enjoyed this more the second time around. It's such a fun holiday movie, which is sort of weird to think about because there is so much sad content in it. However, the writing is so precise and the humor is so spot on that I can't imagine anyone could watch this and not have a good time. The writing especially is something I appreciated a lot the second time around. Tokyo Godfathers depends so much on coincidence and the idea of miracles that it would be so easy for the movie to take a false step and for everything to tumble apart, but it never does. It never feels saccharine or like drama for the sake of drama.
On the queue for this week: Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven Is a Place on Earth (2011)
Total Movies: 181 (Blazing Saddles, The Descent, Gundam 00 the Movie: Awakening of the Trailblazer, Village of the Damned, Children of the Damned, Trigun: Badlands Rumble, The Night of the Hunter, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st, Dawn of the Dead, Black Swan, Clue, Scarface, Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, True Grit, Perfect Blue, The Quick and the Dead, High Sierra, Shutter Island, A Serious Man, Kite, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Broken Blade 3, Kite Liberator, Machete, The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Heathers, The Prince of Tennis: The Two Samurai, The First Game, Notes on a Scandal, The American, King of Thorn), The Expendables, Sword of the Stranger, The Hangover, Welcome to the Space Show, Broken Blade 4, The Social Network, End of Evangelion, Neo Tokyo, Red, Dreamcatcher, Jason X, Wag the Dog, The Naked Gun, Dirty Work, 8mm, The Wicker Man (2006), Blood: The Last Vampire, Winter's Bone, The Road, Heartcatch Precure! Hana no To de Fashion Show ... Desu ka?!, Broadcast News, Bulletproof, Dead Leaves, Dirty Dancing, Hot Tub Time Machine, Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows, Cloverfield, Best in Show, Play Misty for Me, Paprika, The Cat Returns, Welcome to the Dollhouse, 12 Monkeys, The Killer, Metropolis, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, The Third Man, The King's Speech, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, The Abyss, The Fighter, Mega Piranha, Dumb and Dumber, The Rebirth of Buddha, 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right, The Town, Willow, Akira, Morning Glory, The Verdict, I Love You Phillip Morris, Phantasm II, American Splendor, Broken Blade 5, Tangled, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, The Rock, Wanted, Green Zone, Despicable Me, Waiting for Guffman, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, X-Men: First Class, X-Men, Hereafter, X2, Zatoichi, All About Eve, The Thing, Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight, City of God, Das Boot, Some Like it Hot, Downfall, X-Men: The Last Stand, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Winnie the Pooh, Bullitt, Hard Eight, Memories of Matsuko, Double Indemnity, Freaks, Break Blade 6, Key Largo, The Grand Illusion, The Seven Year Itch, Hermes: Winds of Love, To Catch a Thief, An American in Paris, Ninotchka, Interstella 5555, Hobo with a Shotgun, Dog Day Afternoon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steamboy, Little Norse Prince Valiant, Redline, Beat the Devil, Casablanca, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Easy Rider, Little Caesar, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Band of Outsiders, The Three Faces of Eve, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, Clue, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Cabaret, Spaceballs, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rifftrax), If...., El Topo, Irresponsible Captain Tylor Movie 1+2, Gundress, Barefoot Gen, Santa Sangre, The Toxic Avenger, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, House on Haunted Hill, 3:10 to Yuma, Sexy Beast, Tom Jones, The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist, Time of Eve, ...And Justice for All, Rio Bravo, Kenya Boy, Good Bye, Lenin!, Macross Frontier: The Wings of Goodbye, Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Leprechaun: In the Hood, White Zombie, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, Halloween: H20, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, The Wasp Woman, Hellbound, Mimic, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, The Dagger of Kamui, Pitch Black, Sherlock, Jr., The Muppets, Weird Science, Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Wheels on Meals, Tokyo Godfathers)
