2014 Film List
2012 Film List total 72
2013 Film List total 44
1) Batman Returns - dir: Tim Burton
Whilst another display of how underrated some of the cast is, this is not as good a film as the first one. I think this is mostly because the Penguin is such a ridiculous villain, even if Danny De Vito does a really great job in the role. I also enjoyed Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, even if I find that origin story (reused in the Halle Barry Catwoman movie, but transplanted into a cosmetics factory because obviously it's a film for women so we must play to their interests) utterly ridiculous. I've always liked that Catwoman is just the most normal person in the Batman universe, and is on neither the side of good or bad, but rather on the side of Catwoman. This sort of ~mystical cat-based origin story winds me up.
2) Batman Begins - dir: Christopher Nolan
I enjoyed this the first time I saw it, although I felt it lost the sheen on the previous re-watches I'd had. This time I really enjoyed it again though, I felt like I benefitted from a further knowledge of the Batman mythos that I'd gained from the Arkham games.
3) Dark Knight - dir: Christopher Nolan
Still a great film, Maggie Gyllenhaal so much better than Katie Holmes. It was interesting re-watching with a knowledge of other interpretations of the Joker - I think Heath Ledger did a really great job, clearly taking inspiration from Mark Hamill.
3) Dark Knight Rises - dir: Christopher Nolan
I think this may be the best of the trilogy, and was definitely the role I was waiting for Anne Hathaway to play. And the more I watch it the more I love Tom Hardy's Bane.
4) Batman Forever - dir: Joel Schumacher
Easily the weakest of this bunch I think, it takes itself way too seriously whilst at the same time losing the quirky charm of the original two because of studio direction that it had to appeal to a wider audience. Also Val Kilmer is quite boring.
5) Tremors - dir: Ron Underwood
I had avoided this being neither a fan of Kevin Bacon or Monster Movies, but actually I really enjoyed it. Great characters, a fun plot and it was handled really well. Kevin Bacon has gone up in my estimation.
6) Boys and Girls - dir: Robert Iscove
This was an enjoyable enough film, but really flimsy and lightweight. Had some moments of inspiration, but never really developed them. Interesting in the Freddie Prinz Jr collection as he plays the nerd instead of the cool kid, a sadly under-developed cameo from Alyson Hannigan, and some very 90s moments, including the coordinated dance scene in a club.
7) In Time - dir: Andrew Niccol
This was a really interesting concept that started off in a really promising way, but sadly seemed to get a bit lost and write itself into a corner. Justin Timberlake did the job well, and Amanda Seyfried was the most interesting I've ever seen her (and apparently very good at running in giant shoes), but the ending was a disappointment as they seemed unable to resolve the plot issues they'd created.
8) Anna Karenina - dir: Joe Wright
Man, this film was such a visual spectacle, with an amazing cast and it was so well done. There were so many layers to the staging as well - everything within the city based within a theatre building, making use of the whole building not just the stage, possibly to signify the falseness of Russian High Society, whilst the countryside sequences are actually in the countryside, jarringly real against the creative staging of the city-scenes, and perhaps signifying that the simple, country life is the only real and honest life, whilst the rest is just play-acting. Great movie.
9) Batman and Robin - dir: Joel Schumacher
Whilst academically this is the worst movie of the collection, I feel it pips Batman Forever simply by having a clearer understanding of who it is being aimed at - Kids. This makes it less jarring to watch and more enjoyable. I can see it would have driven canon purists absolutely bananas with the Monosyllabic Bane and Batgirl being not Barbara Gordon (but then Commissioner Gordon in these films had very much the same role as in the TV series, a bumbler who was uninvolved in actual crime fighting, so I suppose it would have made no sense to try and connect him further. Fault of the series). Uma Thurman was great as Ivy, but her terrible wig was the most frustrating thing, especially when you see her in better wigs in the same film. And I can't get over the increasingly awful costumes they put her in as the film went on. I really want a Batman film or something with a proper live-action Ivy.
10) Silver Linings Playbook - David O Russell
Wow, Bradley Cooper was really great in this, I have to say previous films I've seen him in did not do him justice. And actually I really liked Chris Rock in it too, although I find him a bit obnoxious in other films.
11) The Wedding Video - dir: Nigel Cole
I love this film so much. I love Lucy Punch, I love Robert Webb, I love Rufus Hound, I love Miriam Margoyles, I love Matt Berry. I love how the humour is mixed with this gentle and sweet story that is very touching without being cloying and it's just wonderful.
12) Alien 3 - dir: David Fincher
As with basically every installment of the Alien franchise, this seemed to bear little stylistic relation to the previous two, but I did enjoy it. It felt a bit long (but then, I thought Aliens seemed long) but J reckons that's because there isn't much overarching plot. Three great British actors - Charles Dance, Pete Postlethwaite and Paul McGann - with two of them barely used, and Charles Dance whilst used more, still tragically under used, in favour of unrecognisable American actors, which is a crying shame. Sigourney Weaver still utter perfection though. Ripley 4 Queen.
13) Life of Pi - dir: Ang Lee
Wow this is an amazing film. SO pretty and so very well acted and directed, it's very special. The ending messed with my head a bit, but it's a wonderful amazing film.
14) Now You See Me - dir: Louis Leterrier
This was not a good film. It was really disappointing because with THAT CAST it should have been incredible, but it spent too much time trying to be eerie and mysterious when the plot was way too weak for it. And the magic tricks stopped being impressive when you stopped believing they could be pulled off in real life and instead just became massive CGI displays instead, which then made them really really boring. I also cannot believe they're apparently planning a sequel.
15) She's All That - dir: Robert Iscove
Ahh, nostalgia. When Freddie Prinz Jr was cool, and every teen film had a choreographed group-dance scene.
16) Starsky and Hutch - dir: Todd Phillips
I actually missed a chunk of this because my Mum called, but I appreciated the humour a lot more this time around than I did the first time I saw it! That first scene in Huggy Bear's office is amazing.
17) Thor: The Dark World - dir: Alan Taylor
This was WAY better than the first movie. How much of the first movie's suckage was to do with it being a movie to set it all up and thus more boring, and how much of it was to do with the fact that Kenneth Branagh directed it and as much as I want to like him as a director I really really don't.
18) Warm Bodies - dir: Jonathan Levine
I TOTALLY FORGOT I WATCHED THIS MOVIE. Which is ridiculous because I really really enjoyed it. The narration just was absolutely perfect and really made it a great film. Just. Yeah.
19) The Incredible Burt Wonderstone - dir: Don Scardino
This was much better than Now You See Me, and although it wasn't Steve Carell's best film by a long shot, it was decent, enjoyable and good fun. And had Steve Buscemi in it too, which is always a bonus in my book. My two favourite film Steves.
20) Secretary - dir: Steven Shainberg
This is one of those films I've been meaning to watch for literally YEARS and I am SO GLAD I finally did. This is amazing, and amazing film! I've been thinking of it basically every five minutes since I watched it, and basically could quite happily have watched it again the day after seeing it. There is just so much in this movie, but all played wonderfully subtly and it just works so well. I was dubious at first, particularly given the vulnerability of Lee in the beginning, and the situation she was in, but they got the power balance down really well and made it clear that they were both vulnerable people, and then quickly put the power into Lee's hands. Maggie Gyllenhaal I've always thought was great, but man the nuance in this role? Brilliant. It's gone right into my top 5 films I think.
21) Moonrise Kingdom - dir: Wes Anderson
I've never seen a Wes Anderson film before but I'm definitely going to have to look out for more of them because this was wonderful. It was really funny, moving, clever, beautifully staged and shot and just super. The only awkward bit was the 12-year-old makeout sesh where I didn't really know where to look or what to do with myself, but it worked as part of the story, so. I'm definitely looking to get this for myself I think.
22) The World's End - dir: Edgar Wright
I really really enjoyed this. It was a very unexpected movie, but it worked really well. There was much more poignancy in this one than in Hot Fuzz (still haven't seen Shaun of the Dead), it seemed more bittersweet and adult, and realistic than Hot Fuzz. A great way to round off the trilogy.
23) The Great Outdoors - dir: Howard Deutch
This was a fun movie, but sadly a little dated. There wasn't anything wrong with it, it just didn't really hold up to a modern viewing. It was a bit galling though as the only two bits of plot development which happened in the film we didn't get to see because the disk was scratched so it jumped through them!
24) Monte Carlo - dir: Thomas Bezucha
Not as tragic as I thought it was going to be, although it did show a flagrant amount of ignorance for the amount of time it would take to climb down the steps of the Eiffel Tower (like 30 seconds. Nope, not gonna happen). It wasn't anything special, but it was fluffy good fun and had Catherine Tate in it, which was a surprising and actually rather delightful cameo.
25) The Swan Princess - dir: Richard Rich
I was pretty obsessed with this movie as a kid, so rewatched for the nostalgia. It's even more terrible than I remembered it. My modern TV couldn't cope with the super-90s animation, so it kept putting neon green patches over things, which was fun. But yeah it was so cheesy and awful. I think I was mainly interested in the character designs but it is definitely not a film that stands up to rewatches as an adult. Which is sad, because Child!Odette has a lot of personality and spark and potential, and adult!Odette is just super beige.
HOWEVER I did discovered that aside from the one sequel that I knew about, they did two more. FOUR FILMS. This chick gets turned into a swan in FOUR FILMS. That is way beyond just bad luck. And also the last one is CG animated and glorious in how terrible it looks:
26) Edward Scissorhands - dir: Tim Burton
Back when Tim Burton used to make good films, rather than films that were Burtonesque for the sake of being Burtonesque. This is the first time I've ever seen this movie - when I was younger my mum said I wouldn't like it, and as I got older the chance just never presented itself sooner. It's a great film, brilliantly stylised, wonderful in the simplicity of staging, and very poignant and appropriately understated.
27) His Girl Friday - dir: Howard Hawks
Eeeh I didn't really enjoy this movie. It was adapted from a play, and that came across very clearly in the staging, but none of the characters was particularly sympathetic or endearing, and I just didn't really click with any of them.
28) Alien - dir: Ridley Scott
Having slept through most of this the first time J asked me to watch it with him, I did not remember much/any of this at all. Although structurally it is pretty similar to Prometheus, and there's a definite... template that the films work on.
29) What's Your Number? - dir: Mark Mylod
Up until this point I had never seen an Anna Faris movie that I had thought worth my time, but as this had Chris Evans in it I thought I would check it out. And actually it's a good, fun, charming movie. It's nothing stellar, but it really is nice and fun to watch, and handily steers clear of basically all the really crass humour I usually associate with Faris.
30) Monsters Inc. - dir: Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman
Always a classic, although it's the first time I've watched it in a while, and actually I was kind of surprised how much the animation had dated. Like, it's not bad, but there are certain finishes, and things which seem pretty of-the-time. I'd like to check out Monsters University to see how that compares.
31) Down Periscope - dir: David S. Ward
This movie basically hit every single trope for a 90s comedy film (including the casting of Rob Schneider), and it probably would have been unbearable had it not been for Kelsey Grammar in the lead role. There's something very watchable about him, and he managed to steer his way through scenes which would have been trite or farcical and make them not so. Hurrah Kelsey Grammar!
32) Captain America: Winter Soldier - dir: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
So the first Captain America was one of my favourite pre-Avengers films, although it had all the flaws which came with being a first movie. This one managed to leave those behind and was absolutely wonderful to watch. Captain America is by definition a very jingoistic and cheesy hero, and the movies have adapted him so perfectly, and Chris Evans is fantastically well-cast. I'm looking forward to the next one/next Avengers, and seeing the cast continue to widen. Black Widow was great in it (although what was with that terrible hair change I don't even know), and Falcon was amazing. Woooo!
33) Maleficent - dir: Robert Stromberg
I came out of this feeling much the way I did after seeing Alice in Wonderland when the live action of that came out - that if they had committed fully to the theme they'd tried to establish (slightly darker, slightly eerier, more consistent), then it could have been an amazing film, but it kept slipping into triteness and getting a bit twee. Child!Maleficent was irritating, but nothing compared to those creepy-ass fairies. I'm getting annoyed by Disney's insistence on renaming characters in their live action films to make them sound more ~fantastical~. You had things like Mallyumpkin in the Alice in Wonderland new film, and in this one they renamed the fairies from Flora, Fauna and Merriweather to some daft stuff like Knotweed and Thistlewit. Wholly unnecessary. Angelina Jolie did convince me though, which I had not expected - I was dubious when they cast her, but she got it bang on. Unfortunately the film just strayed a little too close to pantomime for me to really love it.
34) The Way Way Back - dir: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
This was a really really good film. An unusual one for Steve Carell, since he plays a thoroughly unlikeable character, but everything about it was so pitch-perfect and the cast was amazing. Sam Rockwell was naturally great, and frankly I could have just watched a whole film about that water park because all the characters there were so brilliantly sketched and realised. It was written and directed by Jim Rash, amongst others, which utterly delighted me. Definitely give it a watch, definitely!
35) The Amazing Spider Man - dir: Marc Webb
The problem with any reimagined film is that it will naturally tread the same ground as its predecessors. The Amazing Spider Man handled that really well to begin with - the first hour or so was great and really enjoyable, I liked the sassier Peter, and I LOVED Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben (I love Martin Sheen as anything TBH), but... I felt they didn't play to those strengths enough. The story then took a turn for nearly identical to the original, even with the scientist guy talking to himself the same way green goblin did and they didn't emphasise or make the most of Sassy Spiderman for as long as I would have liked. I suspect that's just because it's a first movie of a new sequence, but still. I hope we see more of this in the second movie, but I'm not going to rush out to go and see it based on this one.
36) Admission - dir: Paul Weitz
This was an odd film. I think it was kind of marketed as a romcom, which I was all sorts of down for with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, but it wasn't really? It wasn't super clear what the message was really, there were a few all sort of scattered around the place. I enjoyed it, but I can see why it wasn't received super well critically.
37) The Sons of Katie Elder - dir: Henry Hathaway
J and I caught like ten minutes of this on the TV a while back and thought it looked like a fun romp about estranged brothers reconnecting with each other in a gentle comic way. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT. That is like for ten minutes of the film. It takes about an hour to get going and is a bit ploddy, and then those nice ten minutes happen, and then it takes a turn for the distressing and heads straight for bummer town. Totally not what we expected.
38) 10 Things I Hate About You - dir: Gil Junger
We watched this to cheer up after The Sons of Katie Elder. A total classic, from when teen movies were a ~thing~ in a way they don't seem to be any more. It's either big blockbusters or aimed at tweens with terrible production values. Farewell to the long summer of clever teen movies. We'll miss you.
39) Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall - dir: Jeff Wadlow
I really wanted to like this film, but ugghhh. It laboured the point so much that being a superhero wasn't good and wasn't real life and was BAD, and every character had a revelatory moment where they realised this; and then they totally went back on it at the end like god what did I just watch all that for then? Also there was nowhere near enough Hit Girl in this film (LBR, only reason we watched it anyway), and frankly I could have just watched Hit Girl Does High School for the whole 103 minutes and felt more satisfied at the end of it.
40) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - dir: Steve Barron
Surprisingly, this holds up okay to rewatching. I mean yeah you can see the strings, but the humour in it is such that actually it just adds to the charm. It knows it's silly, it knows it's stupid. Also surprise young Sam Rockwell in it!
41) Aliens - dir: James Cameron
I've not seen this since I watched the 3-hour long Director's Cut at University, and that wound me up. This was much better, seeing the cinematic version, and having seen more within the series as well it fits very neatly.
42) Sister Act - dir: Emile Ardolino
We went to see the musical for this and just... it left me wanting to watch the movie, because it was just so lacking. The movie is so good. Whoopie Goldberg and Maggie Smith really bring a lot of nuance to their roles which is totally totally lost in the stage show. I wouldn't bother with the musical at all if I were you, just watch the movie.
43) When Harry Met Sally - dir: Rob Reiner
I think this might be one of my new favourite movies. I'd never seen it before, but it's just such a lovely film. I wish I'd seen it sooner! I'd never imagined Billy Crystal in a role like that, but he's absolutely perfect.
44) Drive Me Crazy - dir: John Schultz
I have a number of teen films I remember from high school on my netflix. This was basically a nothing-film, on re-watching. Like, nothing happens really at all. But it's from the height of the 'Teen Film' age, so it all ends happily at prom you see. But yeah, it doesn't have any of the character of the real classics, like 10 Things I Hate About You.
45) House Bunny - dir: Fred Wolf
This is a re-watch because the first time I saw it I didn't realise Kat Dennings and Emma Stone were in it. But it's still not a great film. So wishy-washy and the message is pretty laboured and ugh. But it passed the time.
46) The Addams Family - dir: Barry Sonnenfeld
I'd not seen this in years, it's totally pitch-perfect. Pretty sure it's the best incarnation of the Addams Family.
47) Guardians of the Galaxy - dir: James Gunn
I feel like maybe I need to rewatch this to make my mind up about it. I was in a bit of a weird, manic mood when I saw it, and had to deal with kids talking through it which made me angry. There were bits of it I liked - Groot and Drax are great, and some nice moments with Star Lord, but yeah. I feel like there were very heavy-handed moments where everyone told everyone else about how traumatic their lives had been, presumably because the script writers couldn't think of another way to do it than emotional info-dump, and I just felt it only really scratched the surface with everything else, like you never really got your teeth into the characters or the plot. But I don't know if that was just because I struggled to get absorbed into it for external reasons.
48) Bounty Killer - dir: Henry Saine
This is apparently a kickstarter film based on some kickstarter graphic novels and man. MAN. It's clearly done on a low budget, but it is done to such high quality on that budget. The sets, the costumes, the cinematography, the animation. Man. It's a thoroughly ridiculous film, but I highly highly recommend it.
49) The Princess Diaries - dir: Garry Marshall
It'd been years since I'd seen this and for ages they only had the sequel on Netflix and Lovefilm, so I leapt on the opportunity when it appeared on Netflix. A silly film, but very good fun. Kinda makes me want to read the books even though I am well well out of the target age range. I did enjoy Meg Cabot's other work, so I bet I'd enjoy them.
50) Ernest and Celestine - dir: Stéphane Aubier, Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar
This film is adorable on par with most Ghibli I've watched. It is just super sweet and really well made and I thoroughly recommend watching it in French with subtitles because little French Celestine's voice is so cute.
51) Machete Kills - dir: Robert Rodriguez
Oh man this was just as amazing as the first one, it was superb. I really really really hope they make the trailed sequel "Machete Kills Again: In Space" because oh my.
52) Grabbers - dir: Jon Wright
This is such a fun film. A tiny Irish island finds themselves under attack from aliens, and the only way to avoid being eaten is to get as drunk as possible. It's great fun with a great cast - I love Richard Coyle in anything and he is just marvellous in this.
53) Mulan: Rise of a Warrior - dir: Jingle Ma, Wei Dong
This was a long film, which didn't follow a traditional narrative structure, it was hard to tell what the focus of the story was so judging where the film was going to end was tricky. It also spanned about a decade, which was unexpected. It was beautifully shot though, stunning to watch, quite moving and very Chinese.
54) Populaire - dir: Régis Roinsard
Ah this is the loveliest film. It was so heartwarming and fun and funny and beautifully staged and ugh gave me the warm fuzzies. We had some crappy subtitles though which subtitled EVERYTHING. Like "(door opening)" well yes, we can see that. But I still loved it. Loved it loved it loved it.
55) Mean Girls - dir: Mark Waters
Mean Girls had become a bit of an in-joke for J and I - I had put it on our lovefilm list months and months ago. And set it to high priority. Then removed all our other films from high priority. And I still hadn't got it, they still sent us everything else. I'd taken to scanning shelves in supermarkets to see if I could get a copy for like £5 or something, but no, it was like a Mean Girls desert. So he got me it for Christmas. And it was good fun. I appreciated it way more this time around from when I first saw it. Yaaaay!
2013 Film List total 44
1) Batman Returns - dir: Tim Burton
Whilst another display of how underrated some of the cast is, this is not as good a film as the first one. I think this is mostly because the Penguin is such a ridiculous villain, even if Danny De Vito does a really great job in the role. I also enjoyed Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, even if I find that origin story (reused in the Halle Barry Catwoman movie, but transplanted into a cosmetics factory because obviously it's a film for women so we must play to their interests) utterly ridiculous. I've always liked that Catwoman is just the most normal person in the Batman universe, and is on neither the side of good or bad, but rather on the side of Catwoman. This sort of ~mystical cat-based origin story winds me up.
2) Batman Begins - dir: Christopher Nolan
I enjoyed this the first time I saw it, although I felt it lost the sheen on the previous re-watches I'd had. This time I really enjoyed it again though, I felt like I benefitted from a further knowledge of the Batman mythos that I'd gained from the Arkham games.
3) Dark Knight - dir: Christopher Nolan
Still a great film, Maggie Gyllenhaal so much better than Katie Holmes. It was interesting re-watching with a knowledge of other interpretations of the Joker - I think Heath Ledger did a really great job, clearly taking inspiration from Mark Hamill.
3) Dark Knight Rises - dir: Christopher Nolan
I think this may be the best of the trilogy, and was definitely the role I was waiting for Anne Hathaway to play. And the more I watch it the more I love Tom Hardy's Bane.
4) Batman Forever - dir: Joel Schumacher
Easily the weakest of this bunch I think, it takes itself way too seriously whilst at the same time losing the quirky charm of the original two because of studio direction that it had to appeal to a wider audience. Also Val Kilmer is quite boring.
5) Tremors - dir: Ron Underwood
I had avoided this being neither a fan of Kevin Bacon or Monster Movies, but actually I really enjoyed it. Great characters, a fun plot and it was handled really well. Kevin Bacon has gone up in my estimation.
6) Boys and Girls - dir: Robert Iscove
This was an enjoyable enough film, but really flimsy and lightweight. Had some moments of inspiration, but never really developed them. Interesting in the Freddie Prinz Jr collection as he plays the nerd instead of the cool kid, a sadly under-developed cameo from Alyson Hannigan, and some very 90s moments, including the coordinated dance scene in a club.
7) In Time - dir: Andrew Niccol
This was a really interesting concept that started off in a really promising way, but sadly seemed to get a bit lost and write itself into a corner. Justin Timberlake did the job well, and Amanda Seyfried was the most interesting I've ever seen her (and apparently very good at running in giant shoes), but the ending was a disappointment as they seemed unable to resolve the plot issues they'd created.
8) Anna Karenina - dir: Joe Wright
Man, this film was such a visual spectacle, with an amazing cast and it was so well done. There were so many layers to the staging as well - everything within the city based within a theatre building, making use of the whole building not just the stage, possibly to signify the falseness of Russian High Society, whilst the countryside sequences are actually in the countryside, jarringly real against the creative staging of the city-scenes, and perhaps signifying that the simple, country life is the only real and honest life, whilst the rest is just play-acting. Great movie.
9) Batman and Robin - dir: Joel Schumacher
Whilst academically this is the worst movie of the collection, I feel it pips Batman Forever simply by having a clearer understanding of who it is being aimed at - Kids. This makes it less jarring to watch and more enjoyable. I can see it would have driven canon purists absolutely bananas with the Monosyllabic Bane and Batgirl being not Barbara Gordon (but then Commissioner Gordon in these films had very much the same role as in the TV series, a bumbler who was uninvolved in actual crime fighting, so I suppose it would have made no sense to try and connect him further. Fault of the series). Uma Thurman was great as Ivy, but her terrible wig was the most frustrating thing, especially when you see her in better wigs in the same film. And I can't get over the increasingly awful costumes they put her in as the film went on. I really want a Batman film or something with a proper live-action Ivy.
10) Silver Linings Playbook - David O Russell
Wow, Bradley Cooper was really great in this, I have to say previous films I've seen him in did not do him justice. And actually I really liked Chris Rock in it too, although I find him a bit obnoxious in other films.
11) The Wedding Video - dir: Nigel Cole
I love this film so much. I love Lucy Punch, I love Robert Webb, I love Rufus Hound, I love Miriam Margoyles, I love Matt Berry. I love how the humour is mixed with this gentle and sweet story that is very touching without being cloying and it's just wonderful.
12) Alien 3 - dir: David Fincher
As with basically every installment of the Alien franchise, this seemed to bear little stylistic relation to the previous two, but I did enjoy it. It felt a bit long (but then, I thought Aliens seemed long) but J reckons that's because there isn't much overarching plot. Three great British actors - Charles Dance, Pete Postlethwaite and Paul McGann - with two of them barely used, and Charles Dance whilst used more, still tragically under used, in favour of unrecognisable American actors, which is a crying shame. Sigourney Weaver still utter perfection though. Ripley 4 Queen.
13) Life of Pi - dir: Ang Lee
Wow this is an amazing film. SO pretty and so very well acted and directed, it's very special. The ending messed with my head a bit, but it's a wonderful amazing film.
14) Now You See Me - dir: Louis Leterrier
This was not a good film. It was really disappointing because with THAT CAST it should have been incredible, but it spent too much time trying to be eerie and mysterious when the plot was way too weak for it. And the magic tricks stopped being impressive when you stopped believing they could be pulled off in real life and instead just became massive CGI displays instead, which then made them really really boring. I also cannot believe they're apparently planning a sequel.
15) She's All That - dir: Robert Iscove
Ahh, nostalgia. When Freddie Prinz Jr was cool, and every teen film had a choreographed group-dance scene.
16) Starsky and Hutch - dir: Todd Phillips
I actually missed a chunk of this because my Mum called, but I appreciated the humour a lot more this time around than I did the first time I saw it! That first scene in Huggy Bear's office is amazing.
17) Thor: The Dark World - dir: Alan Taylor
This was WAY better than the first movie. How much of the first movie's suckage was to do with it being a movie to set it all up and thus more boring, and how much of it was to do with the fact that Kenneth Branagh directed it and as much as I want to like him as a director I really really don't.
18) Warm Bodies - dir: Jonathan Levine
I TOTALLY FORGOT I WATCHED THIS MOVIE. Which is ridiculous because I really really enjoyed it. The narration just was absolutely perfect and really made it a great film. Just. Yeah.
19) The Incredible Burt Wonderstone - dir: Don Scardino
This was much better than Now You See Me, and although it wasn't Steve Carell's best film by a long shot, it was decent, enjoyable and good fun. And had Steve Buscemi in it too, which is always a bonus in my book. My two favourite film Steves.
20) Secretary - dir: Steven Shainberg
This is one of those films I've been meaning to watch for literally YEARS and I am SO GLAD I finally did. This is amazing, and amazing film! I've been thinking of it basically every five minutes since I watched it, and basically could quite happily have watched it again the day after seeing it. There is just so much in this movie, but all played wonderfully subtly and it just works so well. I was dubious at first, particularly given the vulnerability of Lee in the beginning, and the situation she was in, but they got the power balance down really well and made it clear that they were both vulnerable people, and then quickly put the power into Lee's hands. Maggie Gyllenhaal I've always thought was great, but man the nuance in this role? Brilliant. It's gone right into my top 5 films I think.
21) Moonrise Kingdom - dir: Wes Anderson
I've never seen a Wes Anderson film before but I'm definitely going to have to look out for more of them because this was wonderful. It was really funny, moving, clever, beautifully staged and shot and just super. The only awkward bit was the 12-year-old makeout sesh where I didn't really know where to look or what to do with myself, but it worked as part of the story, so. I'm definitely looking to get this for myself I think.
22) The World's End - dir: Edgar Wright
I really really enjoyed this. It was a very unexpected movie, but it worked really well. There was much more poignancy in this one than in Hot Fuzz (still haven't seen Shaun of the Dead), it seemed more bittersweet and adult, and realistic than Hot Fuzz. A great way to round off the trilogy.
23) The Great Outdoors - dir: Howard Deutch
This was a fun movie, but sadly a little dated. There wasn't anything wrong with it, it just didn't really hold up to a modern viewing. It was a bit galling though as the only two bits of plot development which happened in the film we didn't get to see because the disk was scratched so it jumped through them!
24) Monte Carlo - dir: Thomas Bezucha
Not as tragic as I thought it was going to be, although it did show a flagrant amount of ignorance for the amount of time it would take to climb down the steps of the Eiffel Tower (like 30 seconds. Nope, not gonna happen). It wasn't anything special, but it was fluffy good fun and had Catherine Tate in it, which was a surprising and actually rather delightful cameo.
25) The Swan Princess - dir: Richard Rich
I was pretty obsessed with this movie as a kid, so rewatched for the nostalgia. It's even more terrible than I remembered it. My modern TV couldn't cope with the super-90s animation, so it kept putting neon green patches over things, which was fun. But yeah it was so cheesy and awful. I think I was mainly interested in the character designs but it is definitely not a film that stands up to rewatches as an adult. Which is sad, because Child!Odette has a lot of personality and spark and potential, and adult!Odette is just super beige.
HOWEVER I did discovered that aside from the one sequel that I knew about, they did two more. FOUR FILMS. This chick gets turned into a swan in FOUR FILMS. That is way beyond just bad luck. And also the last one is CG animated and glorious in how terrible it looks:
Click to view26) Edward Scissorhands - dir: Tim Burton
Back when Tim Burton used to make good films, rather than films that were Burtonesque for the sake of being Burtonesque. This is the first time I've ever seen this movie - when I was younger my mum said I wouldn't like it, and as I got older the chance just never presented itself sooner. It's a great film, brilliantly stylised, wonderful in the simplicity of staging, and very poignant and appropriately understated.
27) His Girl Friday - dir: Howard Hawks
Eeeh I didn't really enjoy this movie. It was adapted from a play, and that came across very clearly in the staging, but none of the characters was particularly sympathetic or endearing, and I just didn't really click with any of them.
28) Alien - dir: Ridley Scott
Having slept through most of this the first time J asked me to watch it with him, I did not remember much/any of this at all. Although structurally it is pretty similar to Prometheus, and there's a definite... template that the films work on.
29) What's Your Number? - dir: Mark Mylod
Up until this point I had never seen an Anna Faris movie that I had thought worth my time, but as this had Chris Evans in it I thought I would check it out. And actually it's a good, fun, charming movie. It's nothing stellar, but it really is nice and fun to watch, and handily steers clear of basically all the really crass humour I usually associate with Faris.
30) Monsters Inc. - dir: Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman
Always a classic, although it's the first time I've watched it in a while, and actually I was kind of surprised how much the animation had dated. Like, it's not bad, but there are certain finishes, and things which seem pretty of-the-time. I'd like to check out Monsters University to see how that compares.
31) Down Periscope - dir: David S. Ward
This movie basically hit every single trope for a 90s comedy film (including the casting of Rob Schneider), and it probably would have been unbearable had it not been for Kelsey Grammar in the lead role. There's something very watchable about him, and he managed to steer his way through scenes which would have been trite or farcical and make them not so. Hurrah Kelsey Grammar!
32) Captain America: Winter Soldier - dir: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
So the first Captain America was one of my favourite pre-Avengers films, although it had all the flaws which came with being a first movie. This one managed to leave those behind and was absolutely wonderful to watch. Captain America is by definition a very jingoistic and cheesy hero, and the movies have adapted him so perfectly, and Chris Evans is fantastically well-cast. I'm looking forward to the next one/next Avengers, and seeing the cast continue to widen. Black Widow was great in it (although what was with that terrible hair change I don't even know), and Falcon was amazing. Woooo!
33) Maleficent - dir: Robert Stromberg
I came out of this feeling much the way I did after seeing Alice in Wonderland when the live action of that came out - that if they had committed fully to the theme they'd tried to establish (slightly darker, slightly eerier, more consistent), then it could have been an amazing film, but it kept slipping into triteness and getting a bit twee. Child!Maleficent was irritating, but nothing compared to those creepy-ass fairies. I'm getting annoyed by Disney's insistence on renaming characters in their live action films to make them sound more ~fantastical~. You had things like Mallyumpkin in the Alice in Wonderland new film, and in this one they renamed the fairies from Flora, Fauna and Merriweather to some daft stuff like Knotweed and Thistlewit. Wholly unnecessary. Angelina Jolie did convince me though, which I had not expected - I was dubious when they cast her, but she got it bang on. Unfortunately the film just strayed a little too close to pantomime for me to really love it.
34) The Way Way Back - dir: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
This was a really really good film. An unusual one for Steve Carell, since he plays a thoroughly unlikeable character, but everything about it was so pitch-perfect and the cast was amazing. Sam Rockwell was naturally great, and frankly I could have just watched a whole film about that water park because all the characters there were so brilliantly sketched and realised. It was written and directed by Jim Rash, amongst others, which utterly delighted me. Definitely give it a watch, definitely!
35) The Amazing Spider Man - dir: Marc Webb
The problem with any reimagined film is that it will naturally tread the same ground as its predecessors. The Amazing Spider Man handled that really well to begin with - the first hour or so was great and really enjoyable, I liked the sassier Peter, and I LOVED Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben (I love Martin Sheen as anything TBH), but... I felt they didn't play to those strengths enough. The story then took a turn for nearly identical to the original, even with the scientist guy talking to himself the same way green goblin did and they didn't emphasise or make the most of Sassy Spiderman for as long as I would have liked. I suspect that's just because it's a first movie of a new sequence, but still. I hope we see more of this in the second movie, but I'm not going to rush out to go and see it based on this one.
36) Admission - dir: Paul Weitz
This was an odd film. I think it was kind of marketed as a romcom, which I was all sorts of down for with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, but it wasn't really? It wasn't super clear what the message was really, there were a few all sort of scattered around the place. I enjoyed it, but I can see why it wasn't received super well critically.
37) The Sons of Katie Elder - dir: Henry Hathaway
J and I caught like ten minutes of this on the TV a while back and thought it looked like a fun romp about estranged brothers reconnecting with each other in a gentle comic way. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT. That is like for ten minutes of the film. It takes about an hour to get going and is a bit ploddy, and then those nice ten minutes happen, and then it takes a turn for the distressing and heads straight for bummer town. Totally not what we expected.
38) 10 Things I Hate About You - dir: Gil Junger
We watched this to cheer up after The Sons of Katie Elder. A total classic, from when teen movies were a ~thing~ in a way they don't seem to be any more. It's either big blockbusters or aimed at tweens with terrible production values. Farewell to the long summer of clever teen movies. We'll miss you.
39) Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall - dir: Jeff Wadlow
I really wanted to like this film, but ugghhh. It laboured the point so much that being a superhero wasn't good and wasn't real life and was BAD, and every character had a revelatory moment where they realised this; and then they totally went back on it at the end like god what did I just watch all that for then? Also there was nowhere near enough Hit Girl in this film (LBR, only reason we watched it anyway), and frankly I could have just watched Hit Girl Does High School for the whole 103 minutes and felt more satisfied at the end of it.
40) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - dir: Steve Barron
Surprisingly, this holds up okay to rewatching. I mean yeah you can see the strings, but the humour in it is such that actually it just adds to the charm. It knows it's silly, it knows it's stupid. Also surprise young Sam Rockwell in it!
41) Aliens - dir: James Cameron
I've not seen this since I watched the 3-hour long Director's Cut at University, and that wound me up. This was much better, seeing the cinematic version, and having seen more within the series as well it fits very neatly.
42) Sister Act - dir: Emile Ardolino
We went to see the musical for this and just... it left me wanting to watch the movie, because it was just so lacking. The movie is so good. Whoopie Goldberg and Maggie Smith really bring a lot of nuance to their roles which is totally totally lost in the stage show. I wouldn't bother with the musical at all if I were you, just watch the movie.
43) When Harry Met Sally - dir: Rob Reiner
I think this might be one of my new favourite movies. I'd never seen it before, but it's just such a lovely film. I wish I'd seen it sooner! I'd never imagined Billy Crystal in a role like that, but he's absolutely perfect.
44) Drive Me Crazy - dir: John Schultz
I have a number of teen films I remember from high school on my netflix. This was basically a nothing-film, on re-watching. Like, nothing happens really at all. But it's from the height of the 'Teen Film' age, so it all ends happily at prom you see. But yeah, it doesn't have any of the character of the real classics, like 10 Things I Hate About You.
45) House Bunny - dir: Fred Wolf
This is a re-watch because the first time I saw it I didn't realise Kat Dennings and Emma Stone were in it. But it's still not a great film. So wishy-washy and the message is pretty laboured and ugh. But it passed the time.
46) The Addams Family - dir: Barry Sonnenfeld
I'd not seen this in years, it's totally pitch-perfect. Pretty sure it's the best incarnation of the Addams Family.
47) Guardians of the Galaxy - dir: James Gunn
I feel like maybe I need to rewatch this to make my mind up about it. I was in a bit of a weird, manic mood when I saw it, and had to deal with kids talking through it which made me angry. There were bits of it I liked - Groot and Drax are great, and some nice moments with Star Lord, but yeah. I feel like there were very heavy-handed moments where everyone told everyone else about how traumatic their lives had been, presumably because the script writers couldn't think of another way to do it than emotional info-dump, and I just felt it only really scratched the surface with everything else, like you never really got your teeth into the characters or the plot. But I don't know if that was just because I struggled to get absorbed into it for external reasons.
48) Bounty Killer - dir: Henry Saine
This is apparently a kickstarter film based on some kickstarter graphic novels and man. MAN. It's clearly done on a low budget, but it is done to such high quality on that budget. The sets, the costumes, the cinematography, the animation. Man. It's a thoroughly ridiculous film, but I highly highly recommend it.
49) The Princess Diaries - dir: Garry Marshall
It'd been years since I'd seen this and for ages they only had the sequel on Netflix and Lovefilm, so I leapt on the opportunity when it appeared on Netflix. A silly film, but very good fun. Kinda makes me want to read the books even though I am well well out of the target age range. I did enjoy Meg Cabot's other work, so I bet I'd enjoy them.
50) Ernest and Celestine - dir: Stéphane Aubier, Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar
This film is adorable on par with most Ghibli I've watched. It is just super sweet and really well made and I thoroughly recommend watching it in French with subtitles because little French Celestine's voice is so cute.
51) Machete Kills - dir: Robert Rodriguez
Oh man this was just as amazing as the first one, it was superb. I really really really hope they make the trailed sequel "Machete Kills Again: In Space" because oh my.
52) Grabbers - dir: Jon Wright
This is such a fun film. A tiny Irish island finds themselves under attack from aliens, and the only way to avoid being eaten is to get as drunk as possible. It's great fun with a great cast - I love Richard Coyle in anything and he is just marvellous in this.
53) Mulan: Rise of a Warrior - dir: Jingle Ma, Wei Dong
This was a long film, which didn't follow a traditional narrative structure, it was hard to tell what the focus of the story was so judging where the film was going to end was tricky. It also spanned about a decade, which was unexpected. It was beautifully shot though, stunning to watch, quite moving and very Chinese.
54) Populaire - dir: Régis Roinsard
Ah this is the loveliest film. It was so heartwarming and fun and funny and beautifully staged and ugh gave me the warm fuzzies. We had some crappy subtitles though which subtitled EVERYTHING. Like "(door opening)" well yes, we can see that. But I still loved it. Loved it loved it loved it.
55) Mean Girls - dir: Mark Waters
Mean Girls had become a bit of an in-joke for J and I - I had put it on our lovefilm list months and months ago. And set it to high priority. Then removed all our other films from high priority. And I still hadn't got it, they still sent us everything else. I'd taken to scanning shelves in supermarkets to see if I could get a copy for like £5 or something, but no, it was like a Mean Girls desert. So he got me it for Christmas. And it was good fun. I appreciated it way more this time around from when I first saw it. Yaaaay!