Movies I've Recently Seen and Didn't Hate

When you dive headfirst into a Gasper Noe film, you have to expect to be brutalized. I Stand Alone (1994) is as tough as the other two--the devastating and backwards Irreversible and the free-floating ultra-experimental Enter the Void. It's not as flashy but just as bleak. A guy named Phillipe Nahon plays the protagonist, and I'm surprised to see him smiling in a picture on his imdb page. He boils in this one, boils with this palpable anger. Loved a scene where a prospective boss tries to get him to smile, and he just scowls. Most of this movie is internal monologue, and it gets to be a little redundant after a while. It's boringly bleak at times. Noe throws a few tricks in. There's a repeated sound effect accompanied by quick zooms at Nahon's frowning face. There's a miserable dream sequence. The most obvious gimmick is when the film stops and gives the viewer a warning that he has "30 seconds to leave the screening of this film." Yes, what follows that is very difficult, but I didn't hesitate when using "gimmick" up there to describe it. A pretty good first movie. 15/20

Bad Movie Club member Fred recommended this pirate comedy from 1983. It definitely lacks consistency, but there are a lot of funny line. And take a look at that cast! Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Peter Cook, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Cheech and Chong (who are thrown together in the credits almost like they're siamese twins), Spike Milligan, Madeline Kahn! That's a lot of funny people! Seems like this would have been a lot of fun to make, but some parts seem surprisingly flat. I'm glad I watched it, but it could have been a lot better. 13/20

I guess a movie like this is going to seem a lot better if you don't watch any movies for a couple months. I'm not even sure why I watched it because it seems like something Will Ferrell would have been in--he only produced, by the way--and although it's not based on a Saturday Night Live sketch (that I know of), it's got a lot of Saturday Night Live people in it. I laughed a few times, and I actually liked how predictable the movie was. You didn't even have to worry about thinking about any plot because you knew exactly where it would end up. You could just concentrate on the slightly off-kilter humor. No, it's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but the equal parts Napoleon Dynamite and Freddy Got Fingered worked for me. 12/20

This 2012 movie is pretty terrific and recommended for fans of The Shining--which is the subject of the documentary--or people who might be guilty of analyzing movies a little too deeply. Yes, like I did with Up. Although I'm still right about that one. Or anybody who has played Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz, I guess. I've always liked The Shining, but this movie instantly made me want to watch the movie again and managed to deepen my appreciation for Kubrick and specifically that movie. Lots of this is downright wacky, but some of the theories about the hidden meanings of Kubrick's film are intriguing. And some of the stuff in this is just really creepy. This is a highly recommended 16/20. Lots of "Wow" moments here. 

Television shows: 

I don't usually write about them here. I don't watch a lot of television because I like movies better. Also, I don't have cable or anything. But I've been catching up on some television viewing during my break from movies. 

Parks and Recreation: Jen and I watched the 2012-2013 season of what is one of our favorite shows. I don't know if I always like where the storylines take these characters, but this show makes us laugh and laugh. We started watching it from the beginning, mostly, I think, because it takes place in our beloved Indiana. What seemed like a cheap Office imitation really started growing on us during season two, and I think it just keeps getting better. 

The Office: We were also a season behind on The Office. I'm talking about the superior American version. I'm really glad I spent 9 years or however long it was with these characters. The last season introduced actual real-life problems into Jim and Pam's fairy tale relationship, and it made me a little uncomfortable at times. However, I loved the finale, especially how Michael Scott was used. I also thought it was clever how they tied in the documentary. This show took a bit of a dip during it's middle/late years, but I never stopped wanting to watch it. 

Prison Break: This was a guilty pleasure for me when I watched it during its first season which, arguably, was actually pretty good. It became more and more of a guilty pleasure as it went on, but when I watch a television show, I'm a faithful fan. Still, Fox jerked it to a new time slot with a few episodes to go during its final season, and I never got around to watching how things finished up. I revisited recently and was as disappointed as I should have expected to be. The final season really turned into characters just pointing guns at each other. I kind of liked the ending although that may have been just because it had ended and I didn't have to spend any more time with it. I did find out that they made a t.v. movie that helped explain the ending, but I decided to read a plot synopsis rather than watch it. 

Breaking Bad: T.V. shows are getting more and more like movies. This drama will go down as one of my favorites that I've ever seen. It's wonderfully tense in all the right places, uses music and sound effects better than any television show I've ever seen, has terrific actors who just nail the characters they're playing, and manages to surprise for the duration. Jen and I liked the first season fine, but we were never in a hurry to watch the rest of them. But when we finally got back to it and started season two, we couldn't get enough. What a rush! I'm really glad we caught all the way up so that we could watch the last 1/2 season with everybody else. Well, almost. We had to watch illegally the next day. 

I have rewatched a lot of movies that are already on the blog and have nothing else to say. Pulp Fiction's still great. The Back to the Futures are still both a lot of fun and extremely frustrating. Buster Keaton is still wonderful. My little Buster's taken to the Star Wars movies, and it's been fun to watch bits and pieces of those with her. 

I can't think of anything else I've watched the last couple months.