A decent premise pulled down by cliches, bad child acting, and a strange desire to turn a simple horror story into some kind of new action franchise. The ending kind of hilariously misses the tone of the entire rest of the movie.
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Female Leopard 1985
Sophisticated, vibrant, and creative pink film. The ambivalence of Yuko's and Takuya's relationship is powerful, and the rest of the film is constructed intelligently. The butterfly motif seems lifted from The Collector; here it reflects not so much Takuya's obsession (as it did for Freddie in The Collector) but more Yuko's youth, innocence, and impending transformation. Very well written and directed, and driven home by Kozue Tanaka's great performance as Yuko (some of the most emotional eyes in cinema).
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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 2011
Sherlock is somehow a martial arts master who repeatedly does insane kung fu. They turned him into any other blockbuster action hero and it's pretty silly
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All Ladies Do It 1992
All Ladies Do It is a beautiful movie. I can't pretend to be objective, because I watched it during the last days of my own failing long-term relationship. But Claudia Koll imbues Diana with an innocent joy that is, in some weird way, heart warming and life affirming. Yes she's cheating on her husband. But sometimes relationships are meant to end. When you see how unfulfilled her life is with her husband and how happy she is with others, you…
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Oppenheimer 2023
Brilliant editing that evokes with such power the force and importance of what could easily become a mundane story about scientific lab work. That's some good shit!
Also Gary Oldman as Truman
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Daimajin 1966
I know it sounds hard to be believe, but this is a masterpiece. If Daimajin counts as a monster movie, it is unquestionably one of the greatest ever made, and one of the clearest illustrations of how effective it can be to wait until the very end to reveal the monster/hero.
In feudal Japan, the chamberlain to the local lord stages a coup d'état, storming the palace and killing everyone inside. Only the lord's two children escape the slaughter, aided…
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Jaws 3-D 1983
This movie has some of the wildest swings I've ever seen, from pretty damn good to literally the worst garbage ever committed to celluloid. The premise is solid: JAWS at Sea World. There are some great set pieces that take advantage of this. But then there are the special effects... Just picture a dollar store foam pool shark with the worst 1980s chroma key you can imagine.
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The Trouble with Harry 1955
A delightful comedy with an eccentric cast of characters and a light, heartwarming atmosphere. It does have a Hitchcockian premise, but never feels truly thrilling or suspenseful, and I think this is to its benefit. It's definitely one of Hitchcock's lesser known films, probably for this reason. (SPOILER) Even many of the darker elements turn out to have been false by the end of the movie. Harry wasn't murdered, he died of a heart attack. And the Captain's gruesome war stories are all lies; he was only the timid captain of a river tugboat, and never fought in any war.
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Captain Phillips 2013
Garbage! Amateurish, wooden dialogue. Torturous pacing; 30-40 minutes too long. More embarrassing accent work from Tom Hanks, the most overrated actor in history. Horribly misused, ineffective, and silly handheld camerawork. The movie just sucks.
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The Kid Stays in the Picture 2002
Great documentary about longtime Paramount film producer Robert Evans. Told entirely through scripted voice-over narration by Evans himself (likely culled from the text of his autobiography), set to eclectically edited footage from his life and films.
Co-directed by Brett Morgen; we can see a lot of the brilliant creativity and energy that would explode in his Bowie doc MOONAGE DAYDREAM 20 years later.
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A Panicky Picnic 1909
Nice example of unhinged early silent films. Delightful special effects, gorgeous matte painted backdrops, bizarre switches between live action and animation.