This is the thread I'm making to list my 2025 movies

[Gendo]

Slow start this year. I think it's unlikely I'm going to surpass last year's total... my unwatched collection list is shifting towards having more TV than movies on it. Recently started Lois and Clark. Starting the year with 165 on the list; although I haven't yet added in the stuff I got since Christmas.

R1. The Illusionist (2006) - Starting with a rewatch. I still really like this film a lot. I know everyone prefers The Prestige, and I get it. But while I'm not going to say this movie is better, I definitely enjoy it at least as much. It has a really unique atmosphere and personality that strongly shines through. I'm a big Norton fan, though I think Giamatti and Sewell stand out more here. Jessica Biel is pretty forgettable, both the performance and the character. I still love the twist though. Sure it's pretty basic and nothing all too groundbreaking, but it really worked on me the first time, and it's still fun when you already know.

1. The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Although mostly well made, it's simply a pale imitation. I think some of the changes that they made were pretty good, such as the addition of the corrupt sheriff. But making it so that Denzel had a personal connection with the villain was terrible. It completely took the "this victory belong to the villagers" message of both the original and the original-original and kills it. Pretty much all the "villagers vs mercenaries" dynamic was removed really.

I enjoyed Peter Sarsgaard's performance, but sadly that was about it for acting. Denzel is always good, but he didn't really put a lot into this. Pratt was Pratt. D'Onofrio though... I don't know what to make of his performance. I loved and hated it at the same time. And then there's the music... this was, sadly, James Horner's last film, my favorite movie composer. Unfortunately his work is way overshadowed by the original iconic theme; which was used in the closing credits. Also, "it was... magnificent" may just be the worst closing line in any movie ever. It's a shame that having another teamup between Antoine Fuqua, Denzel Washington, and Ethan Hawke didn't lead to something excellent.

2. W. (2008) - Oliver Stone does his usual good job; I enjoyed the back and forth between showing his presidency and his pre-presidency. All the performances were very strong; though accurate voices and makeup almost made it seem more like a comedic impersonation than an actual portrayal. Maybe just because we're used to seeing political figured impersonated in comedy sketches. It definitely did a great job at humanizing him; especially regarding his dynamics with Bush Sr and Laura. But the actual story being told wasn't all that interesting; I guess it didn't seem like there was a lot to show there that made his presidency or him as a person unique.

[Gendo]

3. West Side Story (2021) - That's how you do a remake. Actually keep all the things that were great about the original, but still change just enough to justify its existence. I'm not completely sure it fully reached that second requirement; in general one could still just choose to watch the original instead and not be missing a whole lot. But some of the changes were great... my favorite was how they did "Cool" with the gun keep-away scene. It made a lot of sense to put it there. But I wasn't a fan of having "I Feel Pretty" be after the rumble. Just too much of a sudden tone shift. The choreography was still excellent, and I thought the costuming was especially great.

[Gendo]

Scanned in all the new stuff. That 165 just went all the way back to 200 again. Will I ever break out of this 200 cycle?

[Gendo]

4. Shenandoah (1965) - Quite good. James Stewart excellently plays a great character. I only bought this because I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley; it's neat to hear an unknown town like Winchester mentioned by name in a movie. It's a fairly depressing wartime drama; but it also has themes of hope and redemption.

[Gendo]

5. Dream Scenario (2023) - Super weird, I really liked it. People need to make more weird movies. A fun and unique performance from Cage, though not necessarily his best work. It's a little hard to say if the film had anything deep or meaningful to say, but it certainly felt like it wanted to be deep. I do love how over the top everyone around him reacts, it's for sure an interesting concept just to have a movie where Nick Cage is the most normal person in it.

[Gendo]

6. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Pretty much the masterpiece I'd heard it would be. 4 hours long but did not at all feel like it. The music was fantastic; Morricone never disappoints but this might actually be my favorite of his. De Niro was good, but James Woods really stood out. Even so I preferred the childhood sequences as a whole; all those kids were great.

The rape scene was uncomfortable and terrible and I could have done without it. It made me question whether we were supposed find him redeemable at all. And that could have been the point, but it didn't really feel like it, it felt more like just a random act of violence that was given no more commentary than any of his other mobster activities. Any maybe it's just movies in general, but they have kind of taught us to still be on the side of gangsters who are murderers or worse then they're the protagonists of the story.

But that aside, loved it. Not sure how I feel about the theory that the 1960's sequences are an opium-induced dream. It makes sense, but I don't think it gave enough to make that kind of conclusion. I liked the 1960's sequences as a whole a lot, though I didn't much care for the very end with the whole Mr. Bailey stuff; it kind of felt like it came out of nowhere.

7. The Jesus Rolls (2019) - Ugh, I was expecting it to be pretty bad, but it was still worse than I expected. I've always really liked John Turturro, and this legitimately makes me lose some respect for him as an actor but definitely as a filmmaker. It just had nothing redeeming; the first 30 minutes is just filled with cringy "see, you remember that line from The Big Lebowski!" moments, there's no plot at all worth caring about, and the characters are all really dumb. The only positive I can give is the music from the Gipsy Kings.

[Gendo]

8. Session 9 (2001) - Really good psychological thriller. Fits in the horror genre in many ways, but also not in many other ways. Great filmmaking all around, from the performances to the sets to the sound design. I didn't know until after watching it that it was so old; I first heard of it just a few years ago. Also, I didn't realize it was directed by Brad Anderson, who also happened to make one of my top 2 films of all time, The Machinist. I wouldn't say it was quite as good as that, but you can definitely see some of the same ideas going on. I was hoping for a little more from the end... there was a moment where I thought they were starting to reveal a twist, which I would have loved, but it wasn't actually that. But still, nitpicks aside, it was just a really great movie.

[Gendo]

9. The Equalizer (2014) - Yet another Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington teamup. This one was definitely better than The Magnificent Seven, but not as good as Training Day. Then again Training Day is a really high bar. This was quite a good movie; although it's a formula that we're now seeing all the time ever since Taken, it was still a good version of that formula. Denzel plays a more likeable and down-to-earth protagonist than John Wick or Nobody had. The action was all well done, but really it was the characters that made it enjoyable.

10. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) - IMDB and Wikipedia say this is the correct name of the movie despite it always showing up as "101 Dalmatians". That will be an interesting decision when I go to alphabetize it (once I'm finally moved into my new house). Anyway, it's pretty good. I did prefer the first act and last act; the actual rescue with all the different animals coming together just wasn't as interesting to me. The beginning was just solid storytelling about the dogs and people meetings, starting a family, etc. Also that fake-out about the stillbirth was quite dark and suspenseful. The final trek home through the snow was beautiful. And all around great music.

[Gendo]

11. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) - Pretty good. A few really funny moments, and it's always fun when a film is about writing the film itself, as with Adaptation and Seven Psychopaths. Other than the various film references mentioned throughout, it didn't feel particularly "Nic Cage"; it seems like it could have been mostly the same with any actor, or even just a fully fictional character. So I would have liked it to somehow have connected more with Nic Cage himself. But the chemistry between him and Pedro Pascal was very good. And I do like how more and more insane the film got as it went on.

[Gendo]

12. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) - It's fair to say by this point that I'm generally a Robert Rodriguez fan. This was great! I do really wish I could have gone in knowing nothing at all about it. The moment when the first vampire makes an appearance would have been just so amazing. Kind of like the sudden genre shift in The World's End. Even with knowing that it was a vampire movie (and having heard that it switches genres halfway through), the complete suddenness of it still caught me off guard. I had assumed that all the people in the bar were going to be working together to fight off vampires trying to get in from outside. Never would have suspected Danny Trejo. Both halves of the film were fun in their own way. Clooney plays a pretty different character than I'm used to, but Harvey Keitel really stood out as not what I expect from him. Everyone makes fun of Tarantino's acting, and yeah it's not great, but it still had a neat unique personality to the performance. The effects in the second half were top-notch, so much better than what we'd get from a lot of similar stuff today.

R2. Serenity (2005) - Holds up as a great sci fi movie. The world-building and the characters are all great. I do think it's better if you've seen the show (I've seen several times, but not in a very long time, so it stood out to me as feeling like some context I was supposed to have that wasn't as strong in my memory as it should be).

[Gendo]

R3. Whiplash (2014) - Masterpiece. This time I went in with the idea of Fletcher as a straight-up antagonist/villain; it works best that way. I think it's easy to fall into the trap to think "oh sure his methods were extreme, but he just wanted to push musicians to be the best they could be, and he drove Neiman to become better because of it". But no. Thanos in Infinity War had "high level good intentions" also, and he also drove the heroes to become better in order to defeat him. Plenty of well-written villains do. This time, I viewed the overall struggle as actually the villain's goal to discourage the hero, and the ending when Neiman plays through the final set is him defeating the villain once and for all.

13. The French Connection (1971) - I struggled with this one. Went in with very high expectations because of all the acclaim it received. It did have some really great sequences, especially the car chase. Really the entire second half was pretty thrilling and engaging. But the first half was just so slow for me; a lot of things happening that I didn't quite get why I should care.

[Gendo]

14. El Camino (2019) - Good, but not as good as either of the shows from the same universe. Part of my problem is that I just preferred my own headcanon for what became of Jessie after he drives away at the end of Breaking Bad... even if it's far more unrealistic, I always imagined him just getting to Alaska without any real problems or issues. He'd gone through enough, and the character just didn't need a new set of things to overcome.

15. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) - Quite the ambitious spectacle. I appreciated the scope of what was done and the the quality with which it was done, but as a whole I found myself bored in some parts. I would have liked more of the runtime to be focused on the overall plan, both Fogg's and Fix's, rather than specific unrelated sequences of the antics in each country. The cameos were a lot of fun, though.

[Raxivace]

14. El Camino (2019) - Good, but not as good as either of the shows from the same universe. Part of my problem is that I just preferred my own headcanon for what became of Jessie after he drives away at the end of Breaking Bad... even if it's far more unrealistic, I always imagined him just getting to Alaska without any real problems or issues. He'd gone through enough, and the character just didn't need a new set of things to overcome.

I used to think it was unnecessary but I decided later on that the movie does actually give Jesse the ending to his arc that Breaking Bad really didn't give him. Sure the actual question of "Lol how did Jesse get out of Alburque?" isn't that interesting in of itself, but I think it was actually kinda important to see Jesse actually be able to save himself without Walt or Mike or even Saul to bail him out which is pretty much what constantly was happening in the series.

Like I now believe he could handle anything that came his way in the future assuming something goes wrong or whatever in Alaska in a way I didn't before El Camino.

15. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) - Quite the ambitious spectacle. I appreciated the scope of what was done and the the quality with which it was done, but as a whole I found myself bored in some parts. I would have liked more of the runtime to be focused on the overall plan, both Fogg's and Fix's, rather than specific unrelated sequences of the antics in each country. The cameos were a lot of fun, though.

Yeah this is not one of the stronger Best Picture winners tbh.

[Gendo]

16. Around the World in 80 Days (1989) - Pretty good. I really liked Brosnan's performance as Fogg, he had a bit more humanity while still being over-the-top stoic. The places where the story was changed were worse off for the most part, I think. Like the addition of random real-life people which really broke immersion.

R4. Stand by Me (1986) - So good. The performances, the music, the story, the themes. Top notch.

[Derived Absurdity]

14. El Camino (2019) - Good, but not as good as either of the shows from the same universe. Part of my problem is that I just preferred my own headcanon for what became of Jessie after he drives away at the end of Breaking Bad... even if it's far more unrealistic, I always imagined him just getting to Alaska without any real problems or issues. He'd gone through enough, and the character just didn't need a new set of things to overcome.

I used to think it was unnecessary but I decided later on that the movie does actually give Jesse the ending to his arc that Breaking Bad really didn't give him. Sure the actual question of "Lol how did Jesse get out of Alburque?" isn't that interesting in of itself, but I think it was actually kinda important to see Jesse actually be able to save himself without Walt or Mike or even Saul to bail him out which is pretty much what constantly was happening in the series.

Like I now believe he could handle anything that came his way in the future assuming something goes wrong or whatever in Alaska in a way I didn't before El Camino.

Agreed. Even all these years later the ending of BB partly leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for not letting Jesse escape by himself and having to have Walt, his abuser and the guy who put him in that situation to begin with, bail him out. Granted this was part of Walt's arc but it screwed Jesse's ending over. The show even went out of his its way to show an extended failed escape attempt. It was nice to see him finally be able to do shit by himself.

[Gendo]

17. Heretic (2024) - Loved it! Hugh Grant plays just a wonderful creep. The dialogue was all so sharp and the suspense pretty much never let up. I think some of the twists and turns in plot were a bit over-the-top; it's one thing to keep you not knowing what might happen next, but this felt like a few different times it was awkwardly shifting tone and even genre a bit too suddenly. For sure the first half was better when it was pure psychological thriller. Some of the dialogue reminded me of that weird The Ledge movie from 2011 that I wrote about a few years ago, but it was much better done here.

[Gendo]

No, I haven't been forgetting to post movies I've seen. I have in fact seen zero films since Heretic. Could this be the first time since 2016 that I went a full month without watching a single movie? Maybe. Funny how moving can do that to you.

[Gendo]

Oh, but I did watch all of The Good Place, and WOW. Amazing show. Jumped immediately into my list of all-time favorite TV shows.

[Gendo]

18. Luca (2021) - With my new house and its new theater finally done, I actually watched a movie! I didn't think much of it though. It wasn't bad; but it was just a very straight forward kids' movie without much of the usual Pixar magic. The story didn't have much to offer, and the themes were quite obvious and tired. Of course you aren't going to get bad animation with Pixar, but it didn't stand out as all that amazing to look at, either.

[Gendo]

R5. Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Great stuff. The music specifically takes it from good to great. Overall a lot of fun, and non-stop energy. Some great performances, but Jude Law seems to stand out here for me. I do wish it had a bit more detective work in it; I think some of the extended action sequences could have been shortened to make room for that.

[Gendo]

19. Ready Player One (2018) - I really liked this. Maybe it's because it was originally hyped up and then generally received as a dissapointment, but I was expecting worse. I think I got around the disappointment by not caring about seeing it for many years. Overall it was just fun action adventure, with lots of good sounds and visuals. A great showcase for my new home theater. The story and characters were just ok; nothing all that special but not bad either.

[Gendo]

20. VeggieTales: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler (2006) - As with most VeggieTales stuff; pretty good. Catchy music, some funny even though stupid jokes, and a good lesson for kids.

21. We Bought a Zoo (2011) - Good movie, though not perfect. It was an interesting story, with some strong performances and an excellent soundtrack provided by Sigur Rós. But sometimes it comes off as trying a little too hard to force emotion, and there's a few plot elements that just didn't work for me. Especially Lilly as a character, and her relationship with Dylan. She feels completely out of place, and she has no character at all; she's just a plot device to give Dylan a way to be happy.

[Gendo]

22. Puss in Boots (2011) - Surprisingly good. Shrek is good, but I only care for the original, and spin-offs of sequels generally don't offer much. The animation was just beautiful; both in the actual art quality and the cinematography. A lot of jokes were quite funny, and the overall story was entertaining. The pacing seemed off, with it kind of just jumping from one act to the next without a lot of connectivity or room to breath.

23. Terrifier 3 (2024) - I broke my usual rule and watched a Christmas movie when it's not Christmas time. I'm not quite sure why I like these movies; they're not really my type of movie and they aren't all that great. But they're creative I guess. I'd say this was almost as good as the second one; definitely not as good as the original. But it had various good parts. I liked how they focused on the psychological aftermath of part 2; a lot of horror movies don't do that well. But it introduced several characters that I couldn't begin to care about, and just spent too much time not trying to be scary. It had a great climax though.

[Gendo]

24. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - As I'd heard, this was excellent. The story and characters were done so well, with a lot more maturity than the first. The animation was great, and super creative. The style used for the action scenes was really cool and well done, though I did sometimes find the switch back and forth a little distracting.

[Gendo]

25. Last Night in Soho (2021) - Absolutely loved it! I didn't know anything about it going in; though I'd heard it was horror and not as well received as Edgar Wright's other stuff. Although it horror elements, it's pretty solidly more a psychological thriller than a horror, which happens to be my favorite genre. It gave me some serious Perfect Blue vibes. The music was obviously excellent, given who made it. It had a few different scenes of just really cool cinemetography also. The story as a whole was good, though the weakest part of the film. I really had no idea where it was going each step, and it was fun to not know. It had a few different twists, which to me seemed to come out of no where. I just read a few complaints from people saying the twist was completely predictable, but I can't imagine how. If anything, to me it's the opposite problem, where the twist felt as arbitrary and random as any other type of twist they came up with. So assuming that these people were talking about the twist that the landlady was Sandie... they thought that was too predictable? To me it was just as likely/random as if it had turned out that Sandie was Ellie's mom, or that Sandie never existed at all at was just Ellie's psychosis, etc. The landlady was barely a character until closer to the end of the movie. Anyway, it was great.

[Gendo]

26. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) - Meh, not very good. The stuff in the past just didn't have an interesting story to tell; as I've said before I don't like prequels as a storytelling device in general. I don't need to know any details about how they met, etc. The stuff in the present was generally better. But it was missing the fun that made the first one at least mostly entertaining even if not good. The only part I really liked was the guests arriving on the boat scene. It would have worked as a great finale, but unfortunately it kept going for too long after that. I would have liked if the last 25 minutes were just replaced with a 5 minute epilogue.

[Gendo]

27. Dune (2021) - Visually stunning. You could just feel the quality and care dripping from every scene. Music and overall sound design was impressive as well. The pacing didn't bother me; though I could see how it would for some people. I did find the story fairly difficult to follow; some things just felt like they could have used a bit more explanation. But still, very good.

28. Dune: Part Two (2024) - Still blown away by the visual and auditory experience. At least as good as the first. The story still sometimes feels a bit like they expect you to know what it's about before going in. This one was much more character driven, though I'm not sure I quite like Paul as a character. The action scenes were top notch though, and there was pleanty of that.

[Gendo]

R6. Primer (2004) - Man do I love this film. Maybe more each time I watch it. I love how the themes of the movie are mostly detached from the tone of the movie. That is to say, it’s a movie about 2 really greedy and awful people who stumble into something that could greatly benefit mankind but instead both only care about using it to benefit themselves. Yet you wouldn’t think that from the tone/feel. I love how they never say “time travel” in the movie (I think). The time travel aspect is barely important; it could have been any invention.

[Gendo]

R7. Mad Max (1979) - I didn't remember much about this, but I think I liked it more this time around. As with the later films, the villains were the most interesting part. But I liked how the aciton was shot, with everything feeling like it was moving so fast. The pacing was weird, with it giving this feel of being a revenge story, yet the act for which he seeks revenge doesn't happen until more than halfway through the film. I'd definitely forgotten how much of the movie was just his family life, as well as the fact that it's not even in a postapocalyptic setting. But I do like how you can see the seeds of that world beginning; It does a good job of worldbuilding without a lot of dialogue. Rewatched as part of finally getting around to the couple films in the franchise I haven't yet seen.

[Gendo]

29. The Road Warrior (1981) - Great followup. As with Fury Road, it tells a lot wtih very little actual plot. The characters weren't quite as memorable as the frist one, though I did really like Gyro Captain. Action was very well filmed, and you can see a lot of ideas which would go on to be taken to their best in Fury Road. Also for a movie with very little plot, it does have a fun twist at the end.

[Gendo]

R8. Minority Report (2002) - Watched this because we started watching Person of Interest and I figured my wife needs to see it. Pretty good, and it holds up. I like how the future technology still feels within the realm of possible within the next 20 years. The philosophical questions of guilt for future crimes is an interesting one, although the movie doesn't really go deep enough into that aspect. I like how the actual minority report ends up being just a red herring and the one being searched for at first doesn't even exist; that's clever.

R9. Soul (2000) - Even better than I remember, and I remembered it being really good. And absolutely gorgeous movie, with really interesting and creative designs. The music is excellent; Trent Raznor nails it. Also probably Pixar's most mature film; not only dealing with some adult ideas as they often do, but focusing heavily on them.

[Gendo]

R10. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) - Starts of quite strong, but then falls off pretty hard. Everything within Bartertown is great, although it does go just a bit too much into convoluted plot compared to the nice simplicity of the other films. The actual Thunderdome fight was excellent. But then it just gets boring for a while. And I don't just mean a lack of action, but a lack of seeing interesting things. Then suddenly there's a bit of Road Warrior making a return, but it doesn't feel up to the same quality.

[Gendo]

R11. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - I love how this builds on all the other films. Last time I saw it, I hadn't seen 2 or 3 yet, and not sure when I first watched the original. But watching them all together like this, this feels like a very natural sequel to the others. And of course it's amazing from a storytelling and filmmaking stance. Nicholas Hoult stands out as excellent among several great performances.

[Gendo]

30. Twisters (2024) - Not bad, as far as nostalgia-driven sequels go. The effects and overal visuals were good, and I liked what they did with Glen Powell's character, subverting the exectation of the cocky jerk actually being a decent guy. But it was too long; why can't they make 90-100 minute movies anymore? And too repetitive; with a silly number of scenes that are all basically the same "characters in danger from being next to a tornado".

31. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) - Pretty good, though no where near as good as Fury Road. It does have some really amazing long tracking shots, and the first attack on the war rig scene was absolutely top-notch; as good as any of the action scenes from Fury Road. Every minute of it was pure excitement, with very clear action choriography showing everything that was going on while keeping a clear sense of overall location and who's where, etc. As well as the subdued but intense soundtrack going along with it.

32. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - Interesting... difficult to understand what's really going on; a weird story that I'm not sure how deep it really is or not. But it's carried by great acting and scenery. McDonagh is known for his dark comedy in general, but the comedy here was a lot more subtle; to the point where you almost have to decide if you want to interpret something as intending to be funny or not.

33. Insomnia (1997) - Dark and disturbing; nothing like Nolan's version really. Similar with Banshees, I'm not quite sure how much I liked it. Skarsgård was excellent, kind of weird to actually hear him speaking Swedish. But he plays such a creepy character, one who is not much better than the murderer he is chasing. The plot was more difficult to follow than the remake; a lot of things require careful attention to detail, which I'm not great at with movies.

[Gendo]

34. Around the World in 80 Days (2004) - Awful, terrible, bad. The worst part was the name; had they not called it Around the World in 80 Days then at least it wouldn't have been claiming to be something it wasn't. 30 seconds into Fogg's first scene (a few minutes into the movie), my wife and I looked at each other and both said "that's not Phileas Fogg", and we knew we were in for a rough time. I suppose you could call it a "reimagining" of Around the World in 80 Days rather than an adaptation, but it bore so little resemblence. Aside from the main characers being nothing like they should be, I was downright angry at the terrible CG beign used to show each country. One of the points of watching a film adaptation of Around the World should be to see interesting scenes of different countries, and it feels like the movie robs you of that.

If I have to say something good about it, then I can name a couple things... Jackie Chan's fighting coreography is always entertaining and impressive, and that's still true here. And there were a few different jokes which got good laughs out of me and my wife.

[Gendo]

35. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - I really liked it, mostly for the music and the performances. I get the complaints that it's somewhat shallow and doesn't really get into anything important, when compared to something like The Doors or Love and Mercy. But it was still quite entertaining.

36. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)- Excellent. And brutal. Top-notch acting from everyone, and a compelling story that kept me invested even though it's all dialogue. As with Fences, it does feel very much like a play, but that's ok. I only knew at a high level what it was about going in, so I wasn't quite prepared for just how intense and sad it was.

[Gendo]

37. The African Queen (1951) - Pretty good; carried largely by the great performances of both leads and the chemistry between them. I had no idea what this was about going in; it's quite a wild story. Also some dark humor at times, which isn't something I'm used to for the time period. The ending was super contrived. But as a whole, a fun and well-made film.

[Gendo]

R12. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - What a great movie. The music is so iconic; I instantly recognized some of the themes that I hadn't heard in over 20 years without having remembered the music directly. It manages to be both a big epic adventure and a cute children's fairytale all in one. Also, not related to the movie itself, but I watched it in 3D, and man did they go hard on the 3D conversion for this. I had just watched Fury Road in 3D also, and this was so much more in terms of the overall effect. Not that that really made the movie or viewing experience better, necessarily, but it was cool.

38. An American in Paris (1951) - Yes, my third 1951 movie in a row (not counting the rewatch). And I wasn't a big fan, sadly. This won best picture, but I'd pick either of the other two easily. I'm normally a fan of Vincente Minnelli, but this felt like the entire thing was just an excuse to show off an idea for a huge ballet number at the end. And yes, the ballet number was excellently done. Skillful dancing, super creative sets, great chorography... but despite all that, 17 minutes is a LONG time for a single dance number, and after 10 minutes I was just wondering if it was almost over. The story was almost nonexistent, but what was there wasn't great. I couldn't stand the main character; just so unlikeable. And I get all the awards for best costumes, music, cinematography, etc... but how in the world did this get best writing / screenplay? There was no writing to speak of, and definitely nothing that stood out.

[Gendo]

39. On Moonlight Bay (1951) - Continuing the 1951 streak... this was a cute movie with charming characters. Pretty basic plot, but some good comedic moments and good performances.

R13. Rocky (1976) - Man this is good; I think this is only my second time seeing it, maybe third. I like how much it's really not a sports or boxing movie, it's just a movie about a guy who happens to be a boxer. It does a great job at slowing letting us get to know him and eventually root for him. Great writing; great performances.

R14. Philadelphia (1993) - Amazing movie; never gets old. The opera scene still blows me away. Great music, and I never knew before that it was scored by Howard Shore. I like how much the legal aspect really feels like it could go either way, with the firm being given plausible deniability throughout, and Beckett not being portrayed as a saint.

[Gendo]

R15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - I know I'm supposed to be watching new stuff, but sometimes you just gotta watch Eternal Sunshine. of the Spotless Mind. This is one of the all-time greats. I really love how the ending can go either way... I think I had always thought of it as a "true love conquers all" type ending, but this time I got much more of a sense of "those who forget their mistakes are doomed to repeat them" outlook. Obviously it's intended to be either/both.

[Gendo]

R16. Independence Day (1996) - A day early because we won't have a chance to watch it tomorrow. Man is this a great movie; better than I remembered. Emmerich's best work. The pacing and energy is great; no breaks or wasted moments. We watched the theatrical release; I read that the special edition ruins that aspect with a lot of slower scenes. The music is great, the effects hold up, and the rally the troops speech is one of the best.