2013 Movies
Jan. 2nd, 2014 01:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdIt's 68 movies long
1) The Witches of Oz.
2)Operation Burma. Dull WWII propaganda piece, full of period racism. Sorry, not even Errol could save this sleeping pill.
3) Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. Hilarious! Low budget but funny as can be.
4) Party Monster. Gay classic. Fascinating, in a trainwreck sort of way. Love the line: "Oh, James. I'm getting away with murder and you're just jealous."
5) Les Miserables. Three hours of Christian propaganda with no memorable songs at all, an unforgiveable flaw in a movie with all sung dialogue.
6) Four's a Crowd. Classic Rom-com. Why don't they write dialogue like this now?
7) Abraham Lincoln, Vampire hunter. Entertaining.
8) Pippin. Ha Visigoths!
9) The Dark Knight Rises. Anti-Occupy propaganda disguised as a superhero movie. On one hand a warning against mob rule, on the other, a condemnation of populism, and a treatise for why the elite should stay in charge.
10) MIB3. A fine end to the series.
11) Firewall. Workmanlike Harrison Ford Thriller.
12) ParaNorman. Surprisingly creepy kid's movie about a boy who can see ghosts.
13) The Court Jester. Danny Kaye classic. Showed it to Oli.
14) Saludos Amigos. South American Disney Weirdness from the 50s.
15) The Three Caballeros. Donald Duck gets a birthday gift from Latin America (his birthday is Friday the 13th) and is taken on a tour of Brazil by Jose Carioca and Mexico by Panchito the rooster. This was pretty standard fare until the animators from Alice in Wonderland took over.
16) Green Light 1937--Early role. You can tell he's not the star he will become after Robin Hood in 38. This is a dull little drama about a doctor who takes the fall when a patient dies on the operating table. He does it to protect an older colleague from complete poverty. There are two women who love him as well, a surgery nurse, and the daughter of the dead woman. Sir Cedric Hardewick is Dean Harcourt, a local preacher and radio sermonizer, and he plays a major role. I can respect preaching, but this was extremely wishy-washy preaching that never mentions God at all.
17) Edge of Darkness 1943--Powerful war picture. He's at his peak in this, and it shows. But then, he was always at his easiest to work with doing movies for the war effort, since every branch of the service turned him down, repeatedly.
The Nazis are occupying the Norwegian fishing village of Trollness. Ann Sheridan is beautiful and icy as Karen, one of the leaders, and Walter Huston turns in a fine performance as her father, the town doctor. Judith Anderson (before she became a Dame) is heartbreaking as the village innkeeper who is in love with one of the Nazi soldiers.
18) Never Say Good-bye 1946--Comedy. This is the movie Mrs. Doubtfire wants to grow up to be. Little girl works to get her divorced parents back together. This uses some of the classic cartoon gags, including the "Mistaking a Doorway for a Mirror" number. But again, you saw the livetweets. They also make him sing in this one.
19) Cry Wolf 1947--Gothic. Flynn's decline has set in. The bottle is clearly holding him, instead of the other way around. He sleepwalks through this Barbara Stanwyck vehicle as the sinister Uncle Mark, giving an inconsistent performance to her square-shouldered, square-jawed doctor of geology. Annoying personal aside: I knew it was only a gothic/noir thriller. But I couldn't help thinking it would be better if they were all werewolves. I had a Wakko Warner moment, the one where he's checking the air sickness bag after being told it's a barf bag. "No fair. Mine's empty." "No fair, there weren't any (were)wolves at all." Geraldine Brooks would have made a terrific werewolf too...
20) A Princess of Mars. Traci Lords and Antonio Sabato Jr. take a whack at Burroughs. Surprisingly watchable.
21) Merry Andrew. Danny Kaye as a professor who ends up joining the circus.
22) Escape me Never Drama about confused identity. Ida Lupino fairly brilliant.
23) Ghostbusters. My kids had never seen the whole thing. This was remedied.
24) The Case of the Curious Bride Perry Mason mystery.
25) Ice Age rewatch for no readily apparent reason.
26) Island at the Top of the World Steampunk before there was steampunk. Airship journey to the Artic finds lost viking tribe.
27) Hans Christian Andersen. Rewatch. Slashier than I remember and sadder.
28) Wreck It Ralph. Loved this one. "I'm a bad guy, and that's good. i'll never be a good guy, and that's not bad."
29) The Stand. Rewatch
30) Addams Family Values. In the throes of writing Zara, I went on an Anjelica Huston kick.
31) Buffalo Girls. See above. This is even better because it has Gabriel Byrne in it.
32) Some like it Hot. Oli wanted to watch a Marilyn Monroe movie.
33) Man in the Iron Mask. Pretty pretty men. See also 31.
34) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Beginning of HP rewatch.
35) Merchant of Venice. Excellent adaptation of this one.
36) Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I didn't realize this was third in a series.
37)Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkhaban
38) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
39) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
40) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
41) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1
42) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2
43) The Prince of Egypt. Animated tale of Moses. Lost interest about half way through.
44) Hillbillies in a Haunted House. Basil Rathbone and Merle Haggard in the same movie. How was I going to pass that up?
45) 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Classic Sinbad movie with all the best Harryhausen effects: the cyclops, the two-headed roc, the dancing naga, and, of course, a sword-fighting skeleton.
46) The Three Musketeers. Disney version with Kiefer Sutherland as Athos. Tim Curry steals every scene.
47) Bad Girls. Hard-edged female-oriented western. Very good.
48) Mutiny on the Bounty. Historical movie about the mutiny after Tahiti. Great acting, more fun than I expected.
49) Clue. Murder-comedy that compares favorably to Murder By Death. the peerless Tim Curry is our host at Mr. Boddy's mansion for an evening of murder and blackmail.
50) Carnival of Souls. A dark little thriller. Talky, with awkward heterosexual interaction. It's not comfortable watching.
51) Cabin in the Woods. Darkly hilarious slasher movie. There is no Joss but Joss, and this is classic Joss unfettered by the standards and practices of TV.
52) Much ado about Nothing. Joss Whedon's Home Movie version of Much Ado. Funny, well shot and bitterly dated by the script.
53) Barbarella. I remember this as being much more fun. It's all kind of embarrassing now, with the 60s psychedelia and music. I was bored with it about halfway through. It was a LOT better when I was 16.
54) I sell the Dead. Dominic Monaghan holds his own against Ron Perlman in this entertaining and rather funny take on a pair of grave robbers sentenced to death. The sheer nonplussed attitude they have when confronted with the undead is brilliant.
55) The Dunwich Horror. A watchable AIP adaptation of Lovecraft. Dean Stockwell is amazing and intense as Wilbur Whately. Not terribly true to the book, but they get the best lines right and hey, it's AIP, what do you expect from Roger Corman?
56) The Adventures of Robin Hood. Entertaining rewatch.
57) Cowboys and Aliens. Not as good as it was the first time. This is not well suited for a 7 inch screen. Too dark
58) Epic. I didn't expect much from this. but it was really good.
59) The Croods. My family laughed clear through this prehistoric romp. Cloris Leachman, is as always, awesome.
60) Jack the Giant Slayer. CGI is awesome for fantasy movies. And this effects-heavy Jack and the Beanstalk benefits from it. Script is pretty predictable, and as my Dad said when he saw Ian McShane "Oh, hey, a real actor."
61) Frozen. The Snow Queen is my favorite of Andersen's fairy tales, and I had no hope at all for this movie. But in the end, the message is still the same: frozen hearts can only be thawed by love. Thoroughly enjoyable
62) Rebel Without a Cause. 1955 classic about an alienated boy looking for love and belonging. Great talent, but a little dated
63) Love Actually. Romantic Comedy about several couples. Liam Neeson and stepson Thomas Sangster steal the show. Martin Freeman naked is a side benefit. Andrew Lincoln (from The Walking Dead) is also in it, using his real accent.
64) Galaxy Quest. Best Star Trek Movie. Ever.
65) Monsters University. Good college movie about Sully and Mike. Usual Loser Frat Takes on Joicks, but with some twists and turns.
66) The Black Cauldron. Mediocre adaptation of Lloyd Alexander. First movie Disney used computer animation on, and creepier than most. However, usual happy ending undermining kills it.
67) Star Trek: Into Darkness Not as bad as I had feared. But homo superior will always win because homo sapiens is burdened by compassion
68) Night of the Living Dead It really does still hold up.
11 animated movies, which is a lot
13 non animated fantasy, kinda
6 SF
2 musicals
7 Errol Flynn pictures
2 Harrison Ford movies
9 with Alan Rickman
It's a mixed bag
