New decade; new movies (2020)

[Derived Absurdity]

If I remember right I made a review of Vivarium that went kind of like this:

Vivarium - this sucked ass. It was excessively boring and stupid. Literally nothing here to recommend at all.

It wouldn't even have worked as a half-hour Twilight Zone episode. Twilight Zone episodes at least usually give you something to chew on. This gave nothing. If the idea here is "suburbia is bad", that's been done to death for decades. And that idea doesn't work anyway because of course suburbia would be bad if you had zero neighbors, zero entertainment, no job, and a weird alien for a kid for years and years.

[Gendo]

If I remember right I made a review of Vivarium that went kind of like this:

Vivarium - this sucked ass. It was excessively boring and stupid. Literally nothing here to recommend at all.

It wouldn't even have worked as a half-hour Twilight Zone episode. Twilight Zone episodes at least usually give you something to chew on. This gave nothing. If the idea here is "suburbia is bad", that's been done to death for decades. And that idea doesn't work anyway because of course suburbia would be bad if you had zero neighbors, zero entertainment, no job, and a weird alien for a kid for years and years.

The fact that you hated it makes me think that it might be better than I gave it credit for.

[Gendo]

81. Juno and the Paycock - Well between the strong Irish accents and the poor film quality, it was difficulty to follow the dialogue. And the entire movie basically is dialogue; it's obvious that it was adapted from a play. There were some interesting moments, and good acting. But it was really depressing, and I feel like I would have had to live in Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s to really understand what the movie was trying to say.

[Raxivace]

Yeah some of the talkies in that DVD set really suffer from poor audio like that, unfortunately. I'm not sure Juno and the Paycock would be all that much more engaging of a movie with a better restoration to be fair, but still it would be nice to have.

[Gendo]

Yeah I've learned my lesson about buying any "bunch of old movies for cheap" sets. At least Hitchock has given me some insight into older filmmaking as a whole, but still it mostly feels like movies that I would never watch except that I have a goal to watch every movie I own. Along with the collector in me not even considering getting rid of a DVD once I own it. The 50 Classical Musicals Set is worse.

[Raxivace]

What other Hitchcocks do you have left to watch in that set? I can point out the better ones if you want some curation.

[Gendo]

Farmer's Wife
Manxman
Cheney Vase
Sorcerer's Apprentice
East of Shanghai
39 Steps
Secret Agent
Champagne
Blackmail
Sabotage
Skin Game
Number 17
The Man Who Knew Too Much

So yeah only seen 7 of 20. Of course I know The Man Who Knew Too Much is known for being good. The Cheney Vase and Sorcerer's Apprentice are just episodes of Presents; not movies.

[Raxivace]

39 Steps
Secret Agent
Blackmail
Sabotage
Number 17
The Man Who Knew Too Much

I'd say these ones are all worth a watch at least, though Secret Agent and Number 17 still have that audio problem.

I never did actually ever watch those Presents episodes, might have to get on that myself at some point.

[Gendo]

R32. Paycheck - Interesting but ultimately not very good. I still like it a lot for some reason. The premise is just really neat. One thing that has always really bugged me though... when you look at things really far away through a telescope, you are seeing those things as they were a long time ago, because of the time it take the light to travel from there to here. If you had a telescope so powerful as to look around the entire curvature of the universe back to where you started, you would be seeing the distant past, not the future.

82. The X Files - The first movie; a.k.a. "Fight the Future". It's pretty good. I actually saw it in theaters, but that was so long ago that it counts as having not seen it since I didn't remember anything. I'm not sure it necessarily works differently than a 2-part episode. But it gets bonus points for having Terry O'Quinn in it, even if only briefly. I suppose the effects were as a whole better than the average episode of the show.

R33. Inception - The specifics of the plot really make no sense and aren't self-consistent if you really try to think about it. But that doesn't matter, this movie is still great. The score is excellent. The visuals are well-done and interesting. And the plot is unique and clever. Also some great performances and real emotion.

R34. Deadpool - Still hilarious and fun.

[Raxivace]

And the plot is unique and clever.

Why do you gotta make Satoshi Kon roll over in his grave like that?

Also whoever wrote that Donald Duck comic from like the 70's or whatever that had the same premise.

[Derived Absurdity]

I mean, to be fair, he said it was just unique, not original.

[Raxivace]

I mean, to be fair, he said it was just unique, not original.

If we ignore the differences between those words, we can pretend they mean the same thing.

[Gendo]

Interesting, I've heard people talk about the similarities between Inception and Paprika before, but didn't know the name Satoshi Kon... and looking him up, I see he's the same guy that did Perfect Blue, which I'm a big fan of. So that's cool.

And yeah, just because an idea gets inspiration from existing ideas doesn't make it not unique. I recently saw a good video talking about various sci-fi stories and how they all build upon each other. It talks about Paprika as well.

[Raxivace]

And yeah, just because an idea gets inspiration from existing ideas doesn't make it not unique.

Of course not, but then what is actually left that makes Inception's plot unique then?

[Gendo]

Well I haven't actually seen Paprika so I have no idea. In this case, by "unique" I meant "not a plot that is overdone and you see all the time in lots of movies".

[Eva Yojimbo]

Interesting, I've heard people talk about the similarities between Inception and Paprika before, but didn't know the name Satoshi Kon... and looking him up, I see he's the same guy that did Perfect Blue, which I'm a big fan of. So that's cool.

And yeah, just because an idea gets inspiration from existing ideas doesn't make it not unique. I recently saw a good video talking about various sci-fi stories and how they all build upon each other. It talks about Paprika as well.

Kon's a great director. Shame he died so young, but pretty much everything he did is worth seeing. Paranoia Agent is his masterpiece, though. It's a mini-series, but contains several of the most memorable stand-a-lone episodes I've ever seen in a TV show, especially Happy Family Planning. There is definitely some similarities between Paprika and Inception, though I'd say the most original thing about the latter is that it basically combined the heist genre with the surreal/dream genre. My biggest problem with the film is that none of the dreams really feel like dreams. I wrote a lengthy review of it back in the day: https://fpscinema.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/inception/

[Raxivace]

Is combining the heist genre with the dream genre even all that original though? Like that's just another stock noir plotline from a dude that had largely done neo-noir up until that point, and well its not like "Dream plotline + Noir plotline" hadn't been done several times before in film (Lynch movies etc. Even Paranoia Agent has similar elements).

[Eva Yojimbo]

Is combining the heist genre with the dream genre even all that original though? Like that's just another stock noir plotline from a dude that had largely done neo-noir up until that point, and well its not like "Dream plotline + Noir plotline" hadn't been done several times before in film (Lynch movies etc. Even Paranoia Agent has similar elements).

I'm pretty firmly in the camp that actual, genuine originality in art is incredibly rare, and almost never attributable to the works we think it is (it's almost always possible to find some obscure predecessor that did something before something else). When we talk originality or uniqueness it's really about a unique combination of unoriginal elements, like a new recipe made from old ingredients.

If we ask if Inception is indeed a new recipe from old ingredients, I'd be inclined to say yes, about as much as anything can be. Sure, you can say that it's basically a noir+dreams, which Blade Runner already did, but I think Inception leans much harder into the heist/plot aspect than the noir/atmosphere aspect. The film doesn't really look or feel much like Blade Runner, or any Lynch, or Alphaville, or Paranoia Agent, etc. If anything, it's more like Ocean's 11 meets rule-laden surrealism (which is almost an oxymoron). Plus, I do think the "rules" for the dream world are pretty original and can't quite think of another film that's done that, and that element did lead to some interesting cinematic ideas in terms of cross-editing between the "levels." As I said in my review, I think there's plenty of valid negative critiques against the film--too much exposition, paper-thin characters, no real thematic substance, a completely shallow view on its subject matter, etc.--but I don't think trying to argue against its originality/uniqueness is the way to go even if one can point out key influences/predecessors.

[Raxivace]

That's fair- admittedly the closest thing I can even think to compare the cross-cutting to off the top of my head is Intolerance and well few people go to rip off that anymore (I think that was Armond White's big argument against Nolan's cross-cutting though). FWIW whether its original or not isn't something that's even my biggest issue with the movie (I agree that characters/theme/exposition are much, much larger issues), but sometimes I do think the originality of Inception is overstated a bit (Part of me wonders how much of the championing of the movie by fanboys is in response to Avatar being released like six months before and being derided as "Dances With Wolves in Space", but that's another conversation).

EDIT: I'll also add I think the "rules" nature of Inception is actively a flaw in the film that leads to a lot of its other issues like the exposition and the dreams feeling more like video games than dreams, but that's also separate from whether its original/unique or not.

[Raxivace]

You listed Alphaville twice though, which means I win the discussion anyways. I await my trophy to be mailed in.

[Gendo]

(Part of me wonders how much of the championing of the movie by fanboys is in response to Avatar being released like six months before and being derided as "Dances With Wolves in Space", but that's another conversation).

Definitely not in my case, as I'm on record stating that I really like Avatar, even for the story itself and not only for the visuals.

[Gendo]

83. A Star is Born (2018) - Much better than I was expecting. I haven't seen any of the other 3 versions so I didn't know what to expect in terms of story. Bradly Cooper was great, and so was the music.

84. Sabotage - Pretty good. Slow in some parts, but the time bomb sequence was fantastic. I don't feel like I really got to understand the main character enough; like at the beginning it seems like he is only reluctantly working with this group for money, and doesn't want anyone to get hurt. But then he shows no concern whatsoever when he directly causes the death of his wife's little brother, like he's just pure evil all of the sudden.

R35. The Breakfast Club - An old favorite. I really like the dialog; Judd Nelson is great.

R36. Frailty - Good stuff. Bill Paxton is great both in his acting and directing here. The story is dark and creepy, and the twist / twists at the end are good.

[Raxivace]

(Part of me wonders how much of the championing of the movie by fanboys is in response to Avatar being released like six months before and being derided as "Dances With Wolves in Space", but that's another conversation).

Definitely not in my case, as I'm on record stating that I really like Avatar, even for the story itself and not only for the visuals.

Yeah I don't mean to say that everyone who liked Inception was like that, but it's something I've been wondering for a while about now. It would be interesting to see the venn diagram between between people that complained about Avatar's plot and people that thought Inception's was complicated and smart or whatever.

[Raxivace]

83. A Star is Born (2018) - Much better than I was expecting. I haven't seen any of the other 3 versions so I didn't know what to expect in terms of story. Bradly Cooper was great, and so was the music.

Star is Born 2018 takes the most from the 70's version, but honestly it still changes a lot.

All four are worth taking a look at tbh. What Price Hollywood? is also probably worth a watch since its the prototype more or less for the original 1937 Star is Born.

84. Sabotage - Pretty good. Slow in some parts, but the time bomb sequence was fantastic. I don't feel like I really got to understand the main character enough; like at the beginning it seems like he is only reluctantly working with this group for money, and doesn't want anyone to get hurt. But then he shows no concern whatsoever when he directly causes the death of his wife's little brother, like he's just pure evil all of the sudden.

I'd have to rewatch to see what you're talking about but I don't remember anything very dissonant like that.

R35. The Breakfast Club - An old favorite. I really like the dialog; Judd Nelson is great.

This one has grown on me a bit over the years.

Did you ever see the deleted scenes for this? Some of them are pretty strange- the janitor is practically a different character altogether in the final movie.

[Gendo]

84. Sabotage - Pretty good. Slow in some parts, but the time bomb sequence was fantastic. I don't feel like I really got to understand the main character enough; like at the beginning it seems like he is only reluctantly working with this group for money, and doesn't want anyone to get hurt. But then he shows no concern whatsoever when he directly causes the death of his wife's little brother, like he's just pure evil all of the sudden.

I'd have to rewatch to see what you're talking about but I don't remember anything very dissonant like that.

Well part of it could be my lack of skill at following all the plot and dialog of older movies in general; but I never fully understood why Verloc was doing the things he was doing. As far as I know, he was not necessarily on board with the unknown-to-us goals of the terrorist organisation. But it does make it clear that he's paid for what he's doing, and that he's also not comfortable with carrying out an act that would involve killing. But then after the bomb goes off, rather than show any remorse at all the people on the bus that were killed, including his own kid brother-in-law; he basically tells his wife to get over it, and excuses it as not his fault. His general behavior at this point is frightening; to the point that his wife fears for her life.

Did you ever see the deleted scenes for this? Some of them are pretty strange- the janitor is practically a different character altogether in the final movie.

I have not. I'll check them out; pretty sure my DVD has some.

[Gendo]

As it turns out, my DVD did not have any. I looked around YouTube but didn't find much; just a couple brief scenes and some info about how apparently there was originally a much longer version that was edited way down by the studio, and most of the original footage is lost.

[Raxivace]

The scenes might be exclusive to the Criterion release then, which is how I last watched the movie.

[Gendo]

R37. St. Elmo's Fire - One of my all-time favorites; I've seen this a lot. It's like a sequel to the Breakfast Club; except that Anthony Michael Hall took over Judd Nelson's body, and Judd Nelson took over Rob Lowe's body. I think this movie works so well for me because of my own feelings about my college days, and what it means to move on. It's basically the ultimate nostalgia movie for me. There's some really uncomfortable stuff, like sexual assault being played off as "the guy was just being a jerk", and super creepy stalking played off as "isn't it cute how determined he is". But sadly that seems really common for films from that era. Also it contains one of my favorite songs; the Love Theme.

[Gendo]

85. Brightburn - Ok I guess; it had a few interesting moments. Really it just makes me want to re-watch Smallville, though. There were a few scenes of excessive gore that seemed to serve no purpose at all other than an attempt to gross the audience out; rather than to add to the horror. Seems like James Gunn's influence. My favorite part was probably the brief nod at the end to the Crimson Bolt from Gunn's "Super", along with having Michael Rooker in that scene.

86. Midnight Cowboy - I had no idea what this was about going into it. I still don't know completely what it was about. Jon Voight was fantastic; as was Hoffman. But other than the great performances, I'm not sure what to get out of the movie. The story just mostly confused me. While I enjoyed the growing friendship between the two guys, I was never really sure why they were doing most of the things they were doing.

[Raxivace]

What confused you about what the two dudes were doing in Midnight Cowboy?

Like I seem to remember most of the movie just being them trying to make money so they don't starve to death.

[Gendo]

Well I mean the main guy started off with a job, and presumably a place to live. He's homeless not out of bad luck or tough circumstances in his life; but because he chose to quit his job and move to a new city with no money and nothing lined up. I guess it was an issue of him being over-confidence as a ladies man; thinking that he'd be hot stuff that all the women would want. I guess what I mean is that you never really see either of them trying to get a better life; or at least having a lack of understanding on what types of things will lead to a better life (like thinking that going to Miami will somehow make everything better). It just made it a bit hard to sympathize with the bad situation they were in.

[Gendo]

87. Frozen II - I really liked it. I'm generally a fan of the first one. There was some really beautiful animation here. The story was predictable, but still had a nice sense of seriousness to it. There was some really great humor; moreso than I seem to remember from the first. Olaf had some lines that just landed perfectly. The music was fine; but not nearly as memorable as the first.

88. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - Pretty good; but probably my least favorite of the 3 films. There were a few different jokes and scenes that were really laugh-out-loud funny; but other stretches of the film that I didn't find funny. It was more of a series of sketches than a regular movie; compared to Grail or Brian, but there was at least still a connecting theme.

[Raxivace]

Yeah Frozen II was pretty solid. It didn't seem to get talked about nearly as much as the first one, maybe because none of the songs were quite as ear worm-y as Let It Go.

[Gendo]

I haven't touched movies in a bit, mostly because of Celeste. I'm almost done with it, though! I did re-watch a couple because someone hadn't seen them before and we needed to remedy that:

R38. Guardians of the Galaxy - Easily one of the best MCU films; and that's coming from someone who really likes most of them. Even though the plot is super-simple, the writing, acting, music, and directing all make it work really well. Also, really rewards you for paying attention; I noticed a couple little things that I'd never caught before. And, really good 3D.

R39. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Still think it manages to be better than the first, mostly because if the more intense emotional moments. The opening sequence is easily one of the all-time great openings. One criticism I have that never really bothered me in previous viewings; sometimes the tone shifts are a little jarring. It's great that it mixes action, drama, and comedy; but there are a couple times when it jumps from one to another a little too quickly.

[Gendo]

89. The Pink Panther (1963) - I found it mostly boring. Peter Sellers was fun to watch; with some great physical comedy. But the plot and characters just didn't interest me. Excellent theme song; though. I saw the remake a long time ago and don't remember it all that well; but I feel like the plot was pretty different.

90. The Skin Game - It was fine, but I doubt I'll remember it much in the long run. The main characters were interesting, but there just isn't a lot of substance to the actual movie.

91. Pride and Prejudice (1995) - The 5.5 hour miniseries version. Pretty good actually. Good costumes, music, acting, and scenery. The story is a bit hard to follow if you aren't familiar with the source material or early 19th century life in England. A lot of the dialog and plot assumes that the reader would know about that world. Still though, it's a pretty interesting world to look into.

[Raxivace]

Yeah Skin Game is easily one of Hitchcock's most forgettable movies. Another one of the weaker British talkies.

I remember seeing Pink Panther years and years ago but I remember almost nothing about it.

I don't really know the Pride and Prejudice story myself, but I downloaded an audiobook version of it a while back and plan to listen to it eventually. Might check out this miniseries version too since you seem to have given it a positive review.

[Gendo]

R40. The Founder - Yes, again. I'm addicted to this movie for some reason. Granted I watched it in the background while doing other stuff.

[Gendo]

92. Schindler's List - I never know how to write up serious historical movies like this one, because I can't easily separate the real-life events from the film itself. I suppose I can compare it to the other Holocaust film I saw this year, Jakob the Liar, and notice that it's way, way better. This was a really hard film to watch; but one that really needs to be watched. No one aspect really stood out to me; except perhaps the score. It was simply very well-crafted and put together as a whole.

93. The VVitch - Meh, it was fine. Not as good as The Lighthouse. Also not as good as either Ari Aster film, which I had heard it compared to. One problem is that the dialog is basically unintelligible throughout, due to a combination of poor sound mixing and old English. I did like the scary moments when they were there; there just weren't a lot of them.

[Raxivace]

Schindler's List always felt a bit exploitative to me- like it was designed in a way to make the horror of the Holocaust seem palatable or something. Maybe "exploitative" is the wrong word to describe that though because I think Spielberg and co. had the best of intentions but the movie doesn't really sit right with me. I recommend the very difficult to watch documentary "Night and Fog" as an alternative- its only 30 minutes long but one of the hardest 30 minutes in history- do not watch if you're squeamish though because they do not try and hide the barbarous mutilations and atrocities the Nazis performed on their victims.

The VVitch like most of the A24 films just didn't do much for me beyond great production design.

[Gendo]

I just looked up the full list of A24 to see what all it includes. They've done a lot of stuff I've never heard of. I guess horror has only been a more recent thing for them. I've seen a handful:

Enemy - I remember sort of liking it, I think?
Under the Skin - Didn't like it.
Tusk - Just heard of this from a preview on The VVitch. It will probably suck, but I don't care, I want to see it.
Ex Machina - Great; need to watch again.
Room - Excellent.
The VVitch - See above.
The Lobster - I liked it.
Swiss Army Man - Really want to see this.
Moonlight - Had trouble appreciating it; I'm sure it's better than I was able to give it credit for.
The Disaster Artist - Dissapointing.
Hereditary - Loved it; one of the best horrors I've seen in past few years.
Midsommar - Pretty good.
The Lighthouse - Liked it.

I agree though that The VVitch had great production design.

[Gendo]

94. Hi De Ho (1947) - Not to be confused with the 1934 short film with the same name which also stars Cab Calloway. Fun fact; my DVD-collection app got the two mixed up; and we chose to watch this tonight because it was only 10 minutes long. Eventually, we realized that it had been longer than 10 minutes and looked it up. Anyway, it was good, at least for the music. And movies like this only exist for the music. Cab Calloway is just pure entertainment when he sings and dances. The plot itself was confusing and weird... and also the plot ends halfway through the movie; leaving the second half to be actually just a series of short musical numbers. Disappointed that in a musical about a girl named Minnie, "Minnie the Moocher" was not one of the songs he sings.

Also not-so-fun-fact, when looking through for short musicals to watch; we discovered that the "50 Classic Musicals" set that we own doesn't line up with the "50 Classic Musicals" set as it's listed in the app. The company must have produced different versions of that collection, which use the same barcode as well. I noticed while scanning in my collection that certain barcodes for multi-movie sets were actually re-used for other sets. So there's a handful of movies, I don't know how many yet, which are listed in my app but I don't own; and vice-versa. I have to go through the titles one-by-one to figure out what I own, and manually add them to my collection via the title.

[Raxivace]

Tusk is in a weird spot where I appreciate Kevin Smith trying to do something a little different than his typical comedy but man he is not good at body horror stories. A lot of the plot is just poorly put together too.

I was only thinking of A24's horror movies earlier, but I like some of their dramas like Moonlight, Uncut Gems, Room etc. I have hopes for their upcoming Sir Gawain and the Green Knight adaptation too, though the trailer has me worried they're going to play it a little more esoterically than is maybe called for.

[Gendo]

95. The Universe: 7 Wonders of the Solar System - Does this actually count as a movie? Probably not, I don't care, here it is. A short documentary about cool things that are in our solar system. Presented on Blu-Ray 3D. A lot of neat stuff to learn. The script wasn't the best, the 3D was just ok. But the actual subject matter was really cool to learn about.

[Gendo]

So we own about 6 sets of collections of various cartoons on DVD. When I a scanned them into my collection system, they scanned in as just the title that's listed on the front of the set, even though each set actually contains about 10 different cartoon shorts. So I had to decide how to handle all of these shorts... ultimately, I decided that since each of them is listed in IMDB as its own short film, that I would add the individual films to my collection list. But that means that now I suddenly have about 60 more films on my haven't seen list than I did... but each is about 6-8 minutes.

Watched through half of one collection last night, guess I'll still count them in my list here as well, since they are technically short films. But it will be hard to find much to say about 5 minute children's cartoons.

[Gendo]

96. Case of the Missing Hare (Short) - I never watched much Bugs Bunny as a kid from what I remember. This was your standard cartoon; someone pisses Bugs off and he spends the next 8 minutes exacting his revenge.

97. Any Bonds Today? (Short) - A.K.A. Bugs Bunny Bond Rally. And interesting glimpse into 1940's American war propaganda.

98. Falling Hare (Short) - The entire cartoon exists for one pretty funny joke at the very end.

99. A Corny Concerto (Short) - Some good music with various characters dancing and such.

100. Dancing on the Moon (Short) - This one was really neat... some creative ideas, interesting animation, and good music.

101. Moonbird (Short) - Academy Award winner for best animated short in 1960. I didn't really get it. The backstory is pretty cool... the dialog wasn't written or performed at all; it was literally the director secretly recoding his young sons playing together and the stories that they were making up. Then just put to animation. But the animation style, although unique, was just weird and didn't look that good. And the dialog was as weird and confusing as you would expect.

102. A Waif's Welcome (Short) - I barely remember this one.

103. Notes to You (Short) - I wonder why it is such a common plotline in cartoons to have the protagonist constantly attempt to kill another character only to be repeatedly foiled in the attempts? Really dark when you think about it. Anyway, this was just that.

[Gendo]

104. Terminator: Dark Fate - I liked it, mostly. The actual plot was very re-hashed and tired. But some of the action was really cool and creative. The new terminator design was neat. And I do like the concept that even stopping Skynet only serves to pave the way for a different A.I. to take over the world instead.

105. Gabby Goes Fishing (Short) - Kind of cute; Gabby seems like a fun character.

106. Jungle Jitters (Short) - Oh wow so very racist. Apparently this is one of the "Censored Eleven"; a set of cartoons that have been withheld from television distribution since 1968. And very obvious why. Anyway, it was interesting to watch, at the least. I actually liked the story and the salesman character. His voice sounded a lot like Jeff Goldblum.

107. Sinbad the Sailor (Short) - Some neat action-animation; not a lot of story just 2 ships fighting each other on the open seas.

108. King for a Day (Short) - Another Gabby. The whole thing was just leading up to a very predictable twist/joke at the end.

109. A Tale of Two Kitties (Short) - Interesting to see bits that I've seen re-done / parodied in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Another very standard plot.

110. Doggone Tired (Short) - A slightly different take on the murderous intent plotline. Some funny moments.

111. A Dizzy Day (Short) - I really liked this one for some reason. The animation style was very unique and fun to watch.

[Raxivace]

Trying to catch up to my count, eh? Well I'll have you know that I'll start watching a bunch of shorts too then! TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME GENDOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gendo]

Hey now, you've included shorts on your list in the past; all's fair!

[Raxivace]

Its all good lol.

I was actually planning on watching the rest of the shorts I haven't seen from that Animator Expo thing Anno hosted a while back in a few weeks, so I was planning on doing the same thing as you in a way anyways. That'll boost my count up by like 25 or something crazy like that.

[Gendo]

112. Tokyo Godfathers - Holy crap was that good. An excellent blending of comedy, drama, mystery, and action. Just a beautiful story all around. Can't compare it to Perfect Blue; far too different. I might have saved it for after Thanksgiving if I'd known it was basically a Christmas movie.

R41. Ghostbusters - This never really gets old. The music is so good; and so many good one-liners. The effects are horrible in a wonderful way.

113. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown - First time actually sitting down and watching this; despite having definitely been in the room with it on at least once before. It's ok I guess... really doesn't have any of the magic of the Christmas special. It's also pretty depressing given that it's basically a sad ending all around. Still, "I got a rock" is a great line.

R42. The Nightmare Before Christmas - I'm still mad that Henry Selick never gets credit here. I mean yeah it is obviously a Tim Burton story with a lot of input from him. But this is up there with Coraline in terms of a wonderfully dark animated film. The music is really excellent; I'd actually forgotten just how good. Also i never knew before that Danny Elfman actually does the singing voice of Jack.

114. Frankenweenie (1984) - Burton before he did any full-length movie. It was good; I really like the charm of the parents' reaction to the whole thing. Some moments were really hilarious, but really it's the classic Burton world that makes this good. Guess I need to see the remake at some point.

115. Vincent (Short) - Another neat early Burton; this time animated. There's a lot of stuff in there that reminds me of newer Burton things. Vincent Price has the perfect voice for this sort of thing. The story itself is basically Where the Wild Things Are, which is always a win.

116. Ghostbusters II - Meh... basically just a re-hash of the original. Still some good music and a lot of fun effects. Great cast too; a bigger role for Moranis, and I'm Peter MacNicol fan.

R43. Dead Poets Society - Excellent film, and really holds up. Some great performances from the entire cast.