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.