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It's not a bad movie, per se, but it is kind of a hollow and ungainly interpretation of Jon Krakauer's superior written of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, "Into Thin Air". It never succeeds in finding, and I'm so sorry for this, the right footing between being a man-vs.-nature melodrama and a sobering real-life of one of Earth's most perilous locales. There's also a sizably star-studded cast that feels largely wasted on the underdeveloped characters and strangely-paced narrative. Inexplicably, Sam Worthington and Jason Clarke are great here. But big names aside, there's not much of a reason to watch this.

Mass hysteria and moral panics are foundational aspects of the human experience. Our primate brains are wired to indulge selfishness, to never it fault, to double-down when pushed on a question. Our primate brains are also very, very bad at keeping track of memories; save for an anomalous few, most of us are stuck with vague recollections of people, places, and events that only splinter, distort, and meld with the advance of time. That's why it doesn't take a whole lot, ultimately, for something like the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare of the 1940s and 1950s, the anti-Catholic panic in America during mid-19th century, or today's panics about QAnon or LGBT "grooming" or what have you, to occur and spread like a wildfire, causing untold damage on a broad scale.

We will, in one form or another, always be facing this kind of nonsense. What I appreciate about this documentary is that, instead of serving as a Wikipedia-page-in-motion about the entirety of the Satanic Panic, it focuses in on the story behind the at-the-time wildly popular book "Michelle Re", which introduced the world to Michelle Smith, her psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, and the term "Satanic ritual abuse", which was allegedly what Michelle underwent as a child. Naturally, everything to do with the Satanic Panic would all get immensely out-of-hand for over a decade before rational voices began to prevail, but perhaps nothing seems more fascinating and salacious than Michelle and Lawrence's collaboration, which also snowballed into an exceptionally boundary-breaking, unprofessional intimate relationship and eventual marriage.

Because Lawrence is long-since deceased, and Michelle has no interest in speaking about her experience, nobody is quite sure what to think or how to feel. To the film's credit, we are given a variety of differing perspectives about both parties' individual personalities and actions, as well as their unusual dynamics together. It's evident that neither party was necessarily 100% right or 100% wrong in what they did, but more so that both of them were deeply lost in their own unique ways and culpable for some amount of what occurred. At the end of the day, I felt the worst for Lawrence's ex-wife and abandoned daughter, and I got an impression that a more sinister through-line may have existed in Lawrence's actions.

A very goopy movie, really swinging for the fences with this one. Gallons of red-colored muck splashing every which way. I found myself laughing a lot at gags that feel designed by a version of Sam Raimi that requires a lot of medication, but doesn't take any. Visually and tonally, it's the grotesque, mutated baby of "Evil Dead 2" and "Re-Animator"—with an unmistakable H.P. Lovecraft influence. A lot of the shot composition is straight out of the pages of splashy pulp comic book. Like much of his work, this film is Peter Jackson's love letter to the films that excited him as a youth, molded his tastes and interests, and inspired his filmmaking career. And Jackson treated this like he was never gonna get another chance to make a film again. He went for every possible thing his budget allowed for. A splendid bevvy of practical effects in every form: minatures, models, make-up, puppets, forced perspective shots with men in costumes, stop-motion animation, by God it's a beautiful, horrible sight to behold.

Pure Kiwi excellence.

Under the shadows of Allied bombers, a little German boy named Dieter Dengler once decided, in a moment of revelatory exhilaration, that he needed to fly, and so he did. From beneath the ashes and rubble of a bombed-out, post-WWII Europe, Dengler forged his path to becoming a pilot. Before long, Dieter was a pilot for the United States Navy. When the world tried to strip him of his ability to command the skies, he wrestled it back with steely Teutonic resolve, time and time again.

Werner Herzog's 1997 documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (the title comes from Dengler recounting his first encounter with an American P-51 Mustang as a child and the inception of what was to be his true calling) is one of several films by the director that are, in some way, a thoughtful, multi-faceted portrait of a man. Dieter Dengler, though, is neither of the same breed as the rabid molester, raving lunatic, & frequent early-Herzog collaborator: German thespian Klaus Kinski, nor is he fully of deceased grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell's stock—though it is interesting to note similarities between Dengler and Treadwell, such as a shared feeling of being bound-by-duty, a sense of justice channelled by trauma, and the early arrival of a life-long ion or calling. I get the impression that when Herzog got to know Dengler, beyond the trappings of a middle-aged European man, he understood that the furnace of Dieter's inner-life was fueled solely by his love of flight. With a genuine tenderness, Herzog facilitates this examination of Dieter Dengler, who himself travels to various locales to reenact moments from his own past with shocking composure and good humor.

Herzog, himself a German man of about the same age, clearly ires Dieter and shares a feeling of kinship with him owed to their similar experiences growing up in post-war with single mothers (Dengler's father was killed during the war on the Eastern Front and Herzog's father abandoned the family early in his life). Herzog appears to be very taken with Dengler's seemingly endless well of determination, as this is really what defines so much of Dengler's worldview and colors his, frankly, fucking insane and seemingly-implausible life experiences. Dieter's childhood growing up hardscrabble appears to have perfectly trained the man to withstand an exceptionally high degree of physical discomfort, including literal Viet Cong "bamboo under the fingernails"-style torture, extended starvation, being hit and kicked innumerable times, being hung upside down in a well shaft, and the extreme conditions of jungle survival and injuries obtained therein. Naturally, an older Dengler himself recounts all of these instances to the audience in this documentary with a twinkle in his eye and a slightly unsettling, exceptionally German enthusiasm. Having borne witness to starving civilians scraping out the insides of trash cans with spoons as a child, it is readily apparent that Dengler was, for at least his lifetime, the final boss of Post Traumstic Stress Disorder. And he didn't just have PTSD: this man was PTSD. In this film, there are sections where he's back in Laos, where he was a prisoner-of-war in the mid-1960s, and Herzog is having him escorted through the jungle by a cadre of baffled Laotian dudes in football jerseys (side-note: would love to hang out with those dudes, drink a fuck-ton of Singha or Chang, go nutso on the BBQ and som tam, fuck around with the football, etc.) wielding Chinese Kalashnikov knock-offs, and Dengler's got his fucking hands bound. He's just big chillin', though, don't worry. I've stopped breathing two full minutes ago in anticipation of Herzog capturing a Vietnam vet meltdown, meanwhile Dengler's just joking with all the little elderly guys, saying shit like "it's just a movie, don't worry" in his strong German accent whenever someone shows any hesitation, and demonstrating how to free oneself from handcuffs or start a jungle fire with a jovial enthusiasm that you'd expect more from your "eccentric" uncle who wants to show you his model train set-up.

The man casually describes enduring unimaginable circumstances and never shies away from acknowledging the extreme difficulty, but remains impossibly composed all the same. If I crashed my plane and I ended up as a POW in Laos for an extended period of time, I would never be in a second plane crash, because the good Lord Himself could attest to the fact that I would never again step foot on any type of aeroplane, gyrocopter, dirigible, zeppelin, hot air balloon, or hypothetical spaceship. Sky Captain Dieter Dengler, survivor of his first plane crash (caused by losing a wing to anti-aircraft weapon damage), survivor of his subsequent capture, imprisonment, and escape, opted to pursue a career as a test pilot after an early retirement from the United States Navy. Because Dengler was incapable of doing anything "the easy way", he would go on to crash a plane FOUR more times as a test pilot and walk away each time, unscathed. He flew commercial planes for a period as well, before retiring. Of course, he would never stop flying, and so he continued to fly recreationally, allegedly taking part in air shows purely for the love of the game, like a 78-year-old VP of Operations at a mid-level supermarket corporation who simply cannot and will not retire.

Herzog's 1997 film ends sometime in that post-employment period of Dengler's life; a pretty upbeat and cheerful ending for the film, where Dengler finds himself surrounded by airplanes as far as the eye can see in this little dreamlike moment. I appreciate that they captured that moment, and that it's preserved on film—because the actual ending to Dieter's story is slightly less happy.

In 2001, Dieter Dengler was sixty-two years old, living next to a German restaurant he had once owned, just a handful of miles north of San Francisco. Early in the year, Dieter would be diagnosed with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gherig's disease), a terminal neurodegenerative disorder that immediately disqualified Dengler from piloting an aircraft ever again; inevitably, the disorder would have erased Dengler's ability to speak about flying and tell his stories, prevented him from eating (something that comes up a few times in the film is how the horrible eating conditions and starvation caused Dengler to love eating and making food, but also causes him to hoard it), and wiped out all his memories and knowledge of flight, airplanes, of his life experiences, and his family, all before his brain forgot how to breathe. Death did not want Dieter Dengler in 1965 or any subsequent year when he surely reasonably should have died. Death was here for Dieter when he wasn't expecting it.

In his typically defiant, unusually principled way, Dieter Dengler, confined to a wheelchair, wheeled himself from his home, down a highway, and into the driveway of a fire station on the morning of February 07, 2001. He killed himself with a single shot, and, thus, Dieter Dengler flew no more.

My only real gripe with this movie is that Herzog recorded his voice-over on what sounds like two tin cans on a wire.

Watched this absolutely geeked off the white wine and 100mg of THC, which is a pretty ideal way to consume this very goofy, by-the-numbers "group of loser friends in their 20s realize that friendship is valuable" type of comedy. The whole thing is very much propped up with a litany of inside jokes, absurd hyper-specific references (there's a very inspired Soulja Boy through-line), and a handful of familiar and amusing comedic actors. Sometimes a film being made this way is a recipe for disaster, but here it succeeds because the three main leads (also the film's writers) are very, very funny and their actual friendship, dynamics, and inside jokes are genuinely compelling.

Tradítsiya, poslushániya, udovletvoreniye, i takzhe khoroshaya sobaka.

No words for this one yet. I have so many things to write about this that I think it's going to turn into a larger writing project. What a picture this is though, my God.

Positively fucking awful dreck. Unmistakable "first year of film school" vibes radiating from every single moment of this horribly-written-and-directed "action movie", wherein all of the "action" is carelessly choreographed and is so digitally manipulated that these guys should have just made a goddamn animated movie. There are, like, forty named characters in the film and they all suck. I think every single person here might be completely and hopelessly miscast; I know some of these actors aren't terrible, but they've got absolutely naught to work with.

Avoid at all costs. One of the Property Brothers plays a realtor in this.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Miss Liza is an icon, to be sure, but this was exceptionally formless and meandering for a feature about someone who's still alive. It does kind of feel like everyone around her is just waiting for her to die, which is kind of an uncomfortable vibe.

Watched on Monday May 5, 2025.

Quite possibly Brosnan's best Bond film of the '90s (and probably his most '90s film), with the only real competition being "GoldenEye"—which, while largely overrated, is still head-and-shoulders above "The World is Not Enough" and the unforgivable stretch of boring nothingness that extends from its second act through until the climax.

"Tomorrow Never Dies" lacks some of the panache and ferocity found in Martin Campbell's "GoldenEye", but director Roger Spottiswoode's journeyman approach to the material allows for the characters and action sequences to shine. Brosnan has settled comfortably in the role, no longer the brand-new face, and I could even make the argument that this is his strongest portrayal of the character across his four-film tenure. Decisively playing off of Brosnan's cool and collected demeanor, Johnathan Pryce is practically glowing from how much fun he's having as one of the more openly-unstable Bond villains (and, alarmingly, one of the most realistic villains in the series—whose relevance has only increased into the 21st century). Bond's backstory with Teri Hatcher's Paris Carver is compelling and their chemistry is dynamite, though, of course, Michelle Yeoh eventually steals the show as a Chinese agent who has no problem keeping up with Bond. She is, in no small part, responsible for some of the most kinetic, exciting fight choreography and stunt work in any of Brosnan's Bond films.

The ing cast and bit players are rife with a number of actors who would go on to become bigger names in the late '90s and into the 2000s, or, at least, more recognizable ones. Rolf Saxon, perhaps best known as CIA analyst Donloe (the one who takes the fall for a security breach in the first "Mission: Impossible" film and is, funnily enough, returning as the same character in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" later this month), has a small role in the film. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it early appearance from a fresh-faced Gerard Butler as a sailor. Future "Downton Abbey" creator and "Godford Park" writer Julian Fellowes plays the Minister of Defence, while Hugh Bonneville, who would later star in "Downton Abbey", has a bit part as a military officer. Of course, I would be remiss not to mention two of the stronger ing parts, Henry Gupta and Dr. Kaufman, played by famous sleight-of-hand magician Ricky Jay and, one of my favorite character actors of all time, the ineffably talented Vincent Schiavelli, respectively.

This was composer David Arnold's first foray into the Bond world and the man made sure he came in swinging, just in case he never got the chance again. It's a perfectly balanced score: equal parts brassy, bombastic, "classic" (with nods to Monty Norman, but mostly John Barry), and modern, with a sleek, Euro-cool techno soundscape that occasionally brings in select elements from k.d. lang's alt-rock end title song. It's certainly a substantial re-adjustment from Éric Serra's eclectic "GoldenEye" score (which, for all its quirkiness, I actually really like), but the more deliberate balance of tone serves to strengthen the rest of the films that Arnold would go on to score. Ironically, the producers ended up doing the exact same thing to David Arnold after a decisive stylistic redirect post-"Quantum of Solace", when they hired Sam Mendes and, subsequently, Thomas Newman to offer his interpretation of the Bond sound—though I really dislike the new direction that they ultimately settled on.

I wouldn't call this an ugly-looking movie, but it isn't one of the more visually exciting Bond films. Where Spottiswoode's journeyman instincts allow for other aspects of the film to shine, his collaboration with cinematographer Robert Elswit (who shot this in-between DPing "Boogie Nights" for Paul Thomas Anderson and "8MM" for Joel Schumacher) feels like the weakest link. Elswit, for better or worse, seems to gravitate towards a staid naturalism—something that better serves a character-driven thriller like "The River Wild" or a contemplative drama like "Waterland", but makes "Tomorrow Never Dies" feel stodgy and flat. In the hands of an auteur like PTA, Elswit's naturalism is driven into a beautifully lush, almost-dreamlike-but-always-real space ("Magnolia", "Punch Drunk Love", "Inherent Vice"); Joel & Ethan Coen used Elswit's photographical instincts to turn "There Will Be Blood" into a film that feels more like a living, breathing gelatin silver print in motion; Tony Gilroy and George Clooney have both collaborated on multiple films with Elswit, with both directors intentionally leaning on Elswit's formal, naturalistic way of composing shots, and his history as a television director, to elevate films like "Nightcrawler", "Good Night and Good Luck", "Michael Clayton", and "Syriana" by lending them an almost-documentary-like quality at times. But, in the hands of a director who may not have as strong a vision, Elswit is left to his own devices and will likely shoot whatever the project may be as safely and competently as possible (see: "Gigli", "Runaway Jury", "Salt", "Skyscraper", et al.)—such is also the case with "Tomorrow Never Dies". It never looks BAD, per se, but it often looks like a television movie from the mid-1990s, captured in all of its uncomfortably beige-brown-and-off-white glory.

While I understand EON's desire to maintain the tradition of hiring journeyman directors (especially after the massive success of "GoldenEye"), this one could have transcended being merely "good" to being truly great in the hands of a filmmaker with a strong, singular vision for how the film should have looked and felt. It's, like, 65% of the way there as-is, and while that does the job, I will always be stuck ruminating on how this one could be even better.

Potentially the single most overrated Bond film in the entire franchise—right up there with the mind-numbingly dull "Skyfall"—although it doesn't hit the same cataclysmic lows as "Thunderball" (an overly-simplistic narrative combined with the interminable underwater sequences) or "You Only Live Twice" (Connery in yellow-face). I'll be honest: I've never really been a big fan of this film, as revered as it is 'supposed to' be. The direction is meandering and unfocused; the performances are all weirdly subdued; Auric Goldfinger, as re-written by the filmmakers, is goofy and not especially threatening and his plan is utterly ridiculous. I've always wanted this film to be better than it is, and it makes me feel like a crazy person that it's so widely beloved. I've never understood the draw!

Everything about this film pales in comparison to Connery's first two entries and is the beginning of the end for Connery's tenure as Bond. If he hadn't had the chance to return for the far superior "Diamonds Are Forever" in '71, I don't think his time in the role would be considered as 'untouchable' as it is these days (I also don't agree that Connery was offering the greatest portrayal of the character).

Someday the world will agree me.

I would call this a marginal improvement over the first "Johnny English" misadventure, if only because they've actually managed to fit in some jokes and satirical elements—a few of which are even mildly humorous! Instead of being an objectively bad time, this one is mostly dull and interminable. Rowan Atkinson seems like he's only funny on accident.

I think it's important to allow puppeteers to let loose every once and a while. Gotta make a movie about puppets cumming fountains of silly string and shooting one another to release the pressure from working almost exclusively on children's media. They're odd, but gentle creatures who are totally harmless as long as you keep them from snapping, like postal workers or civil engineers.

Ah. Le temps est un cercle plat.

So preoccupied with Making A Point and Sending a Message that it forgets to be an entertaining movie. Most of the writing is just pretty bland and uninspired, but some of it is really, really obnoxious (most of Kristen Stewart's lines) and dumb as hell (whatever the 'science' is behind the silly plot device technology). The whole movie has an awful visual flatness to it, combined with being consistently overlit, so everything looks fake. The Ariana Grande-produced soundtrack almost feels like parody.

Immediately forgettable film, with incredibly poor direction, a dumb script, and awful editing. There's really not a whole lot I like here—even the costuming and set design is uninspired. I guess Naomi Scott is, like, stunning, but she's stuck playing the "wide-eyed, inexperienced newcomer who is also a hacker" role, which is insanely lame.

Even as a ten-year-old, I knew this was dreadfully unfunny and I hadn't even seen a Bond film yet, or many other spy movies, for that matter. But I had seen the first two "Austin Powers" films, which aren't any less stupid than this film is, but do a considerably better job of being actual parodies. More importantly, they are enjoyable to watch. Most of "Johnny English" is just a very boring, very generic spy movie in a way that the Bond films never have been. It's playing things so literal, in fact, that Tim Pigott-Smith, playing a high-ranking government official here, ended up in "Skyfall" not even a decade later as the high-ranking government official who is leading the charge of pushing Judi Dench's M into disgraced retirement.

Takes itself too seriously to be a parody, the humor is comprised of low-brow physical gags and toilet humor (i.e. Johnny English gets covered in poop), and it doesn't even have the courtesy to offer any impressive stunts or well-choreographed fights. Instead, we get Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, and English Conner O'Malley bumbling around like morons. It may have been a good idea to write one single joke, but they settled on filming Rowan Atkinson dancing or doing karate or singing in the bathroom and called it good.

Only granted one star for the Robbie Williams title song, which isn't even that good, and John Malkovich being the only guy who gets what movie he's in as the ludicrous-looking-and-sounding French villain, Pascal Sauvage.

How the FUCK did two more of these get made?

A magnificently kinetic, exceptionally French film that takes inspiration from the actual 18th century deaths attributed to La Bête du Gévaudan in provincial and absolutely runs wild with it. Absolute cock-rocker of a movie, marred only by some extremely dated CGI that is at least mostly confined to two sequences.

Zack Snyder wishes he understood how to utilize slow-motion and speed-ramping like Christophe Gans and David Wu.

Dawn shawty okay! Lotta boys out here talking about Ms. Hailee Steinfeld and that's fine and all, but the men are preoccupied with Wunmi Mosaku, thank you very much.

Incredible use of genre flourishes to tell a hard-hitting, enthralling story. Lots of lines about eating pussy, which you always love to see. Michael B. Jordan finally delivers his best performance(s). Jack O'Connell is borderline unrecognizable and also terrifying. Phenomenal score; don't even have the right words to express how cool it sounds.

This is the first film my wife and I have seen in a theater since our daughter was born, and it was also the most packed theater we've been in since March 2020, when we saw Bong Joon-Ho's "Parasite" mere days before COVID starting shutting everything down. Kinda nuts to see so many people flock to the theaters for an original film—let alone a genre-bending historical film about the Black experience and the testy dynamics of racial culture in America.

It's nice to be reminded by a new movie, every once and a while, that film is an art form, and not just a way for Israeli guys to pump out 450 direct-to-streaming action movies per year.

Video game-ass movie (non-pejorative). A dingy, grotesque, hyper-unreal vision of a nondescript, modern-day urban America from an external lens, in which every dispute is solved with a hail of gunfire or a severely brutal ass-beating. Every day citizens are desperate, the cops and politicians are crooked to their core, and the criminals are unhinged psychopaths. It's definitely imbued with a Hong Kong essence; both earnest and wildly over-the-top, with plenty of obvious winks and nods to the likes of John Woo, Tsui Hark, and Ringo Lam (though "Havoc" never hits the kind of extreme highs those directors were able to achieve in their work). There's also some clear influence from Western action directors, such as Paul Verhoeven and Robert Rodriguez.

Should Gareth Evans have let a better writer at least polish his script and his absolutely godawful dialogue? Yeah, probably, but it's also worth pointing out that the story is always more of a means to an end in these kinds of films, with the end being "getting to the damn action that we came here for". Still, not great, but the actors are all doing what they can with simplistic, exposition-laden writing. When Luis Guzman showed up, I threw my arms up and cheered.

Additionally, I have nothing but respect for filmmakers who are unwilling to allow for the risks associated with blank-firing firearms or explosive squibs, BUT I don't think it's too much to ask filmmakers to spend more than the bare minimum amount of time and effort ensuring that the digital squibs and digital muzzle flashes don't look like unwashed farm animal ass. And, unfortunately, this movie has some really fucking ugly, cheap-looking muzzle flashes and digital blood and it really detracted from the experience for me. I can accept a certain level of low-quality compositing, blurry green screen work, etc., but big, cartoon-style muzzle flashes that fill the screen and don't light up the environment just yank me right outta the movie.

I liked this, but if the action sequences hadn't been good, it would have been a big ol' flop.

Very frustrating movie with an awful script and a bunch of very talented, attractive people. Unclear what the marketing department for this movie was thinking.

In this essential Cannon Films release from 1985, an early Ryan Gosling protoype, Michael Dudikoff, stars as the spectacularly-named Joe Armstrong, an amnesiac army grunt of few words on a new assignment in the Phillipines, who also happens to be trained in the mystical and deadly art of ninjitsu. What does this make him? Well, an American Ninja, of course.

As completely earnest, entirely un-self-conscious schlock, "American Ninja" sets a high watermark. Naturally, the story veers completely off the rails before too long and all sorts of wacky, incongruous stuff keeps happening , but this really doesn't matter for a few key reasons:

1. Everybody involved with the picture is giving 100% effort, or whatever their version of 100% looks like. For an obvious B-movie, it's clear that the filmmakers are super locked in and ionate.

2. The action, the stunts, the combat, the explosions, and gunfights—they're all pretty spectacular, even when they're conceptually basic.

3. The movie avoids some of the most egregious issues that plagued (and continue to plague today) so many other B-grade, or lower, films: it has consistently solid sound, the vocal dubbing is high-effort, the sound effects are totally fine, and it's also well-lit and well-framed, so fight scenes are sold effectively but remain readable, and there's a level of professional quality to the camera work that is hard to find in some other similar films, even ones from the Cannon Group.

Dudikoff is honestly pretty great here for how limited his range can be as a performer and his physical performance is even more impressive considering he had no martial arts knowledge before the film (trained quickly by karate champion Mike Stone, once one of Phil Spector's bodyguards and the man who broke up Elvis and Priscilla Presley's marriage by seducing Priscilla [!!!!!]), though the real stand-out performance of the film is Steve James as the reliable buff Army guy sidekick to Dudikoff's titular ninja warrior. It's a damn shame he was taken from us so early in his life and career; his natural charisma is effortlessly pouring forth in all his scenes.

Can't wait to devour the rest of this "series", which eventually replaced Dudikoff with David Bradley, which is just *chef's kiss*. I'm hopeful for more unexplained mystical ninja laser techniques.

A genuinely interesting topic explored by a handful of clueless, self-aggrandizing, schlubby, middle-aged dorks who claim true VHS-head status, but can't even recognize prominent releases from Nu Image—a massive red flag.

A good third of this documentary is dedicated to co-director and writer Thomas Edward Seymour's fruitless search for a DVD copy of his then-newly-released film for sale at outlets like Best Buy or Barnes and Noble, which is supposed to be a commentary on how hard it is for independent filmmakers to have their work discovered organically on physical media. However, it is a completely pointless exercise, because of course a corporate retailer like Best Buy isn't stocking some random, independently-produced 70-something-minute-long film based on a work in the public domain that amounts to three people fucking around in the woods. In fact, those films weren't ever a mass commodity flying off the shelves of big box stores—the documentary even outlines how the video industry boomed because of the prevalence of video rental businesses that would stock pretty much any and all titles. The whole thing, frankly, just makes Seymour, and the rest of the decision-makers behind this film, come across as ignorant and maybe a little jealous.

Not only is this unfocused and poorly structured, but it's all sloppy HD camcorder footage of talking heads (no color grading, no white balance, nothing particularly artful or clever or even visually interesting) and the sound quality varies so wildly that it defies explanation. The editing is also not great, to be generous, with way too many awkward, hard cuts that act as poor transitions.

A shame. Get me in the next one, I actually know stuff about tapes.

Christian Bale is so, so good here as Dieter Dengler, a real German-born United States airman who crash landed in Laos in 1966 during a combat operation and was subsequently held and tortured at a prisoner-of-war camp for 6 months before he ultimately escapes into the harsh Southeast Asian jungle. There's not only a physical transformation during Dieter's ordeal, but also a mental one which Bale conveys with stunning subtlety as he slowly, but surely begins to stele his mind, plot his escape, and adapt to unexpected complications along the way.

Director Werner Herzog, who previously had chronicled Dengler's astonishing story in the 1990s in the form of the documentary "Little Dieter Wants to Fly", approached the same narrative from an angle that is less explanatory, less focused on process or specific facts or even strictly authentic characterization, in favor of an angle that serves to demonstrate the conception of an inner torment that never left Dengler until he took his own life in 2000 and that is more about Dengler's emotional journey than anything else. Resultingly, the film has received some flack for inaccurate portrayals of fellow POWs or perceived tonal incongruities (which personally makes me question if people know what to expect from Herzog or not), which are ultimately besides the greater point of the film.

Maybe it's a result of when the film released or how general audiences may have perceived Christian Bale at the time, but I distinctly a lot of disdain for this film when it released—I'm sure plenty of naysayers rented this with the expectation that was another "Platoon"-style 'Nam-drama/war film, starring Mr. Batman himself as a Rambo type, but instead got emaciated, dirty Christian Bale losing his mind in the jungle after six months of eating maggots and playing with scraps of metal. I my Dad renting this from our local RedBox kiosk in 2007 and his only being that "it was weird", which, at the time, I thought was a confusing critique from the guy who introduced me to "Full Metal Jacket" and "The Matrix" as a child, but I was also 14 in 2007, so I had no barometer for how a very normal guy in his late-30s was going to interpret a Herzog film. His reaction makes perfect sense to me now, even though I think this might be the most readily accessible, easiest-to-parse, and least-'artsy' of Herzog's non-documentary films.

Anyways, I probably shouldn't have let that one off-hand critique keep me from watching this until I was almost 32, but what can you do? I liked it a lot.

John Singleton, the man that he was, prevailed through what sounds like an absolute shitstorm of blatantly racist studio fuckery and managed to still turn out this absolute heater, with Samuel L. Jackson absolutely locked-in as the titular John "It's my duty to please that booty" Shaft and a just-pre-"American Psycho" Christian Bale doing a delightfully evil, spiteful performance as Donald Trump, Jr.—wait, no, I'm sorry, that's Walter Wade, Jr.—the openly-racist son of a big-time real estate developer who beats an uncredited Mekhi Pfeiffer to death with a metal pole and walks free. Jeffrey Wright plays the most Dominican man of all time, a baby-faced Toni Collette (fresh off of "The Sixth Sense") has a pivotal role as a witness, Vanessa Williams plays Shaft's reliable cop partner, and a number of other recognizable names flit on and off the screen in various ing parts. It's kind of a wildly stacked cast!

David Arnold offers up a banging score that fuses the Isaac Hayes-styled funk of the 1971 original film with pounding drum-and-bass, breakbeat, and other similar new-millennium-techno stylings—and every once and a while, you can absolutely hear little bits and pieces of his James Bond score work bleed through. It's a highlight of the film, to be sure.

Shame about the follow-up that was about 15 years late; I heard that one wasn't very good.

A great-looking (thanks, ILM!) animated movie that probably hits like hard drugs for those who grew up on the first iteration of Hasbro's toy line (and the resulting ments ed off as a children's cartoon) in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Aside from some stand-out vocal performances (Chris Hemsworth, who slowly builds up to a Peter Cullen-esque timbre over the course of the film, as well as Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm) and the well-rendered, stylistic visuals, there's not a whole lot else here for someone who isn't about 10 years old or a 40-something-year-old mega-fan; the writing is pointedly simplistic and laden with references, as well as with a number of grating quips and recurring gags. I'm also exceptionally tired of hearing Scarlett Johansson's and Keegan Michael-Key's voices in seemingly every-goddamn-thing, delivering the same performances with the same cadences over and over again. Hire some real voice actors, or at least make the actor you hire, y'know, PERFORM!

The underpaid animators, visual artists, and programmers are the real heroes here.

Peter Hyams' critical miscalculation here was trying to off "The Relic" as something heady or complex instead of what it really is: a 1950s-style B-movie about a monster running amuck.

Perhaps a less self-conscious director would have managed to include scares or tension, or would have allowed the audience to actually see the monster—Hyams went out of his way to hire Stan Winston's special effects shop in order to design and painstakingly create multiple creature suits which allowed for all manner of ways to shoot the monster and for performers to wear the suits to create convincing creature movement. In spite of this, the audience doesn't have a clue what this monster looks like until there are about 20 minutes left in the two hour film, and, even then, a majority of the shots that offer a clear look at the beast are instead utilizing very dated computer-generated effects. To that point, why even bother wasting Stan Winston's time? It doesn't reflect very well on Hyams, or, at least, with how he communicates his vision with the effects teams.

It's also incontrovertible proof that Hyams, who also served as his own Director of Photography, is no Gordon Willis when it comes to shooting in dark spaces. This is one literally dark movie—there are times where whole scenes occur in total pitch darkness—and it was not pulled off in a particularly interesting or effective way. It just meant I couldn't see shit.

There's not much else going on here that impresses aside from the work that Winston and his team of artists achieved. Even Tom Sizemore at the peak of his career or Linda Hunt and James Whitmore in ing roles have little to work with—Sizemore appears to be visibly bored for the entire film (though maybe he was just fuckin' zooted to the Moon for all his takes).

Unfortunately very skippable. Would be a lot more fun to see the monster and also it would be way better if this was just called, like, "It Came for Chicago" or "The Field Museum Brainstem Massacre" or "The Lakeshore Lizard-Man". People being afraid of 'genre' conventions has always been a net negative for movies. Peter Hyams, you're not better than '50s B-movies, no matter what you say!

An enthusiastically stupid movie that so desperately wants to be Meaningful, but does not succeed because the whole film is constructed from so many derivative elements and gimmicks. Tries to do a hacky "no/minimal dialogue" thing that just doesn't make any sense. Not only that, but it looks like absolute Hell: ultra-saturated, but flatly composed digital cinematography streaked with obnoxious, intentional lens flares and boldly low-quality CGI aliens being the primary culprits. Kaitlyn Dever is fine here as the lead, I suppose, but she really does not have much to work with in the underbaked script.

: if you have trauma from doing something that makes everyone hate you, only aliens can save you by infecting everyone around and forcing them to make eye and smile at you.

Campsterpiece. Come for the Frank Stallone, stay for the Frank Stallone.

"fire in the sky" by way of "poltergeist". Spooky movie about the average moronically uncommunicative, dysfunctional American family succumbing to extraterrestrial-induced madness and crippling credit card debt. now, make a sequel about how aliens are behind 5G or havana syndrome

A very respectable effort from Ron Howard, rooted in authenticity and further reinforced by dependably solid performances from leads Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, but also Joel Edgerton, Teerapat Sajakul, and Teeradon Supapunpinyo in ing roles. This is, inarguably, Howard's highest-quality film in years; his direction is top-notch and all of the technical aspects are dialed in to spectacular effect.

The primary weakness here, ultimately, is the script, which keeps a bit too much distance between the audience and the emotional aspects of the Tham Luang cave rescue and of the parents, military , politicians, and volunteer divers alike. It's not as if there is no attempt to bridge the gap; it's just too few and far between to truly be effective.

Regardless of what it could have been, "Thirteen Lives" is still a well-made and authentic, if clinical and a bit broad, film about middle-aged cave-diving dorks operating at peak performance—as volunteers—simply because it's the right thing to do. Competence porn for an era of deeply entrenched and visible incompetence.

It's both a curse and a blessing that Elon Musk's involvement with this whole thing wasn't depicted.

Peak Dad-core movie. A well-crafted machine from a respected journeyman; it's elevated not just by the likes of ol' reliable Matt Damon and a delightful Christian Bale, but also by a barnstorming ing cast with real stand-out performances from Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, and Ray McKinnon. The sound mixing and editing is also nothing short of astonishing; before this, the high watermark was Ron Howard's F1 blockbuster "Rush", but "Ford vs. Ferrari" puts the engines inside the room with you and sets a leaden foot on the gas.

A strong contender for director James Mangold's best work. In contrast to his yawn-inducing entry into the Indiana Jones series, the two-and-a-half-hour runtime hardly feels its length and Mangold's less personal directorial touch is far more accommodating to adapting real-world events. Splendid movie.

This has a great opening act and a perfectly fine second act, but it becomes dreadfully dull once Bond and Honey Ryder end up in Dr. No's lair. Still, Terence Young's directorial choices wisely elevate the material, in conjunction with high-quality production design by Ken Adam (who was able to pull off some fairly astonishing stuff for 1962 with a minuscule budget). Connery as Bond has never been my personal favorite, but I'd be a damn ignoramus to deny his immeasurable screen presence and ability to literally wear anything and make it look great (special shout-out to his blue terry-cloth polo and matching cotton tros, which make a lasting impression). Great calypso music in the mix too.

Insane. John Woo was cooking. Peter Stormare plays an American gunnery sergeant. That's art, baby.

Tiresome, cowardly filmmaking.

Starts off strong and relatively interesting, but really loses steam over the course of a sagging middle act. By the end, I was completely uninterested in how everything would conclude, but I stuck it out regardless. Sly seems especially elderly and disinterested here, as if they captured his takes inbetween scenes of "Tulsa King"; Jason Patric and the guy who played Benvolio in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" do the hard carrying, which ultimately amounts to very little.

Tyrone Power makes for a splendidly foppish and effete Don Diego, but kind of a middling Zorro—as nimble and good at fencing as he may have been. Unfortunately, the guy wouldn't have been able to carve a good-looking 'Z' into my bare, fat ass if I bent over in front of him and gave him sixty seconds.

Now Basil Rathbone as the antagonistic Captain Enrique? That was a true blue swashbuckling type right there. I would have loved to see his take on the Fox. There's just something about his imposingly tall, but lean presence and his perfectly mannered elocution that makes me wanna see him win it all.

Straight-up one of the funniest movies I've ever seen; I don't think I stopped belly-laughing for the entire runtime. Legitimately a better Bond film than, like, half of the EON-produced ones. Anyone who says they can't follow this or that it's all "random" has the mind and attention-span of an infant.

Extraordinarily bad on many levels. Two huge thumbs up

Inexplicably rich with melancholy, but also deeply funny in wholly unexpected ways. Led by a steadfastly earnest and Teutonic Cate Blanchett and the most handsome Quebequois man of all time, Roy Dupuis, "Rumours" plays like Bueñuel by way of Ed Wood—circular, winding conversations between world leaders with an improvisational rhythm, but with squishy Iron Age bog zombies, giant brains, A.I. chatbots, and a very specific kind of dry humor that feels like elevated Quentin Dupieux. I'm unfamiliar with Guy Maddin's other work, though I am aware of his influence; I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Dupieux's work is actually informed by Maddin.

Really, really good stuff here.

Takes an interesting and surprisingly complex premise and a dynamite ing cast and proceeds to slowly unravel in such a way that makes 92 minutes feel twice as long. Still, it's impossible to look away from Doris Day, who effortlessly charms with her voice, wit, and radiant presence. There are certainly better Warner Bros musicals, but there are also many worse that also don't have Doris, so...

Doris Day is pure effervescent charm, always. What a dame!

Watched on Saturday April 12, 2025.

In 2000, I was actually living twenty-five minutes east of Holland, MI, so you could say I'm something of an expert. The prominent featuring of Little Caesers? Spot on. The racism? Very real. However, not enough Perkins, Meijer, or Menards locations or ridiculous accents on display for my tastes.

This is like an 85 minute movie stretched painfully thin over two hours. Very dull and does not manage to garner a sense of mystery, which is integral to the film working on a basic level. Oops.

I'll be taking over for the sequels: "Zeeland" and "Jenison"

Hilariously awful. Every single shot is overexposed.

It's got stuff that works, but it's mostly pretty rote and kind of underbaked. Kyle Mooney's appearances in the film are a highlight, but his direction is one of the fundamental issues holding the film back from congealing into something more than it is. Not enough slurs.

Not just pointless and boring, but the action looks like shit! Dreadful movie. 1.5 stars granted for production design.

The platonic ideal of what an "Expendables" movie should be. It works so well because it leans into the silliness maybe 15-20% more than the first film. More jokes, more blood, and the best overall cast (I won't lie, seeing a sharp and committed Bruce Willis in action had me feeling a certain type of melancholy that I wasn't expecting).

1. Sinners

   First 2025 release seen in a theater

2. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera
3. Havoc
4. You're Cordially Invited

   First new release watch of 2025

5. The Gorge
6. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
7. Holland
8. G20
9. Love Hurts
10. The Electric State

Movies releasing in 2025 that I'd like to see eventually

• Freaky Tales
• Hell of a Summer
• Magazine Dreams
• Brave the Dark
• Love Me
• The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
• My Dead Friend Zoe
• On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
• The Damned
• Shelby Oaks

...plus 122 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

10 favorite movies about guys being fellas, pals, and comrades.

• Lethal Weapon

  Sergeant Martin Riggs (Vice), LAPD, & Sergeant Roger Murtagh (Homicide), LAPD.

• Cool Hand Luke

  "Cool Hand" Luke Jackson, Clarence "Dragline" Slidell, "Society Red", "Koko", "Loudmouth Steve", "Rabbitt", "Blind Dick", "Tattoo", "Babalugats", "Gambler", "Tramp", "Alibi", and "Fixer".

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

  Captain James T. Kirk and First Officer Spock

• Casablanca

  Rick Blaine and Captain Louis Renault

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

  Robert LeRoy "Butch Cassidy" Parker and Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid".

• The Frisco Kid

  Rabbi Avram Belinski and Tommy Lillard

• A Hard Day's Night

  The lads

• Point Break

  FBI Agent Johnny Utah and Bodhi "Bodhisattva"

• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

  Bill S. Preston, Esq. & Ted "Theodore" Logan

• 3 Men and a Baby

  Peter Mitchell, Michael Kellam, and Jack Holden (and a baby!)

To see:
- Signs of Life
- The Flying Doctors of East Africa
- Even Dwarfs Started Small
- Handicapped Future
- Land of Silence and Darkness
- Fata Morgana
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God
- The Enigma of Kaspar Ha
- The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
- Heart of Glass
- How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
- Stroszek
- Nosferatu the Vampyre
- Woyzeck
- Huie's Sermon
- God's Angry Man
- Fitzcarraldo
- Ballad of the Little Soldier
- Where the Green Ants Dream
- The Dark Glow of the Mountains
- Cobra Verde
- Herdsmen of the Sun
- Echoes from a Sombre Empire
- Scream of Stone
- Jag Mandir
- Lessons of Darkness
- Bells from the Deep
- The Transformation of the World into Music
- Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices
- Wings of Hope
- My Best Fiend
- Invincible
- Wheel of Time
- The White Diamond
- The Wild Blue Yonder
- Encounters at the End of the World
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams
- Queen of the Desert
- Into the Inferno
- Salt and Fire
- Meeting Gorbachev
- Family Romance, LLC
- Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
- Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
- The Fire Within:
Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft
- Theatre of Thought

1. Grizzly Man
2. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans
3. Little Dieter Needs to Fly
4. Into the Abyss
5. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
6. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
7. Rescue Dawn
8. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Movies that I've borrowed from my local library, a place that I cherish and one that is currently in danger of being all but eliminated from existence.

• The African Queen

  DVD

• After the Fox

  Blu-ray

• All the Money in the World

  DVD

• Animal Crackers

  Blu-ray

• Anna

  DVD

• Back to Black

  DVD

• Being There

  DVD (Criterion Collection)

• Braindead

  "Dead-Alive"
  DVD

• Bread and Chocolate

  DVD

• Brotherhood of the Wolf

  DVD

...plus 56 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Star Wars
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
5. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
9. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
10. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Count 'em up; that's four whole Ks!

• Alien

  Ultimate Collector's Edition

• American Gangster
• Apollo 13
• Barbie
• The Batman
• Beverly Hills Cop
• The Big Lebowski
• Blade Runner 2049
• Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Bride of Frankenstein

...plus 63 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 12 Angry Men
• 1900
• 1917
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 42
• Above the Law
• The Age of Innocence

  Criterion Collection

• Alien
• The Alien Anthology Archives
• Alien Resurrection

...plus 329 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

James Bond, ranked. I revisit these every few years for a total series reassessment.

1. Quantum of Solace

   The most underrated Bond film as of 2025 and my personal favorite.

2. Casino Royale

   Legitimately better than many of the EON-produced films.

3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

   Lazenby underrated

4. Casino Royale

   The Bond film that got me into James Bond

5. Tomorrow Never Dies

   Great side characters & action sequences. Johnathan Pryce might be having the most fun out of anyone here.

6. Dr. No

   Might actually have more yellow-face than in "You Only Live Twice", but Connery is in peak form here. Struggles w/ a boring third act.

7. Goldfinger

   Meandering and tedious film, weirdly dull and ugly-looking, as overrated, or more overrated, than "Skyfall"

8. You Only Live Twice

   Squandered source material, boring for the first two-thirds, AND it's racist; ends up being re-done better twice-over in the Moore era.

9. Skyfall

   Boring, moronic writing, tired performance from Craig, bad action, horrible digital compositing, dreadful music.

To see:
- Fruitvale Station
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

1. Sinners
2. Creed
3. Black Panther

It was a weird year.

1. A Real Pain
2. Better Man
3. Conclave
4. Gladiator II
5. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
6. Longlegs
7. Rebel Ridge
8. Road House
9. Beatles '64
10. The Beekeeper

...plus 53 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Gaze upon the plains of despair

• High Rollers
• Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
• The Alto Knights
• McVeigh
• Popeye the Slayer Man
• Baby Invasion
• A Working Man
• Screamboat
• A Minecraft Movie
• G20

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Still need to see:
- Footsteps
- Merantau
- The Raid 2

1. The Raid
2. Havoc
3. Apostle
4. V/H/S/2

Still need to watch:
- Heavy
- Kate & Leopold
- A Complete Unknown

1. Cop Land
2. Ford v Ferrari
3. 3:10 to Yuma
4. Walk the Line
5. Logan
6. Girl, Interrupted
7. The Wolverine
8. Identity
9. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
10. Knight and Day

Ten favorite sci-fi and/or fantasy films released during or before 1980.

1. The Phantom Carriage

   Fantasy

2. King Kong

   Fantasy

3. The Invisible Man

   Sci-Fi

4. Carnival of Souls

   Fantasy

5. Planet of the Apes

   Sci-Fi

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

   Sci-Fi

7. Eraserhead

   Fantasy

8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

   Sci-Fi

9. Alien

   Sci-Fi

10. Somewhere in Time

    Fantasy

Ten favorite instances of one performer playing different characters in the same film (trying not to name the really obvious ones, aside from 'Adaptation').

• King Kong

  Andy Serkis as Kong & Lumpy the Cook

• Adaptation.

  Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman & Donald Kaufman

• Nocturnal Animals

  Jake Gyllenhaal as Tony Hastings & Edward Sheffield

• The Devil's Double

  Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein & Latif Yahia

• Lost Highway

  Patricia Arquette as Renee Madison & Alice Wakefield

• Hail, Caesar!

  Tilda Swinton as Thora Thacker & Thessaly Thacker

• Sisters

  Margot Kidder as Danielle Breton & Dominique Blanchion

• The King's Man

  Tom Hollander as King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, & Tsar Nicholas II

• Pan's Labyrinth

  Doug Jones as the Faun & The Pale Man

• Last Days in the Desert

  Ewan McGregor as Jesus & Satan

• Dracula
• Shanghai Express
• The Mummy
• She Done Him Wrong
• King Kong
• The Invisible Man
• The Wizard of Oz
• Casablanca
• Shadow of a Doubt
• The Big Sleep

...plus 251 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Licence to Kill
2. Quantum of Solace
3. Casino Royale
4. Casino Royale
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Thunderball
7. Live and Let Die
8. Octopussy
9. The Living Daylights
10. Tomorrow Never Dies

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranking all films produced by the following companies, spearheaded by Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Boaz Davidson, and Trevor Short

Nu Metro Entertainment Group (1984 - 1992)
Nu Image, Inc. (1992 -2017)
Millennium Films (1996 - 2017)
Millennium Entertainment, LLC (2010 - 2014)
Millennium Media (2017 - present)

1. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans
2. 16 Blocks
3. Olympus Has Fallen
4. Trust
5. The Expendables 2
6. Hellboy: The Crooked Man
7. Rambo
8. Brooklyn's Finest
9. Red Lights
10. The Wicker Man

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Wick-Lite. Wick-Offs. Action films released since 2014 that are clearly influenced by, made in the same mold as, or are openly derivative of "John Wick" or the "John Wick" sequels.

• The Equalizer
• Kingsman: The Secret Service
• The ant
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
• Atomic Blonde
• Kingsman: The Golden Circle
• The Foreigner
• Hotel Artemis
• The Equalizer 2
• Polar

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Bad Santa
• Burn After Reading
• The Comedy
• Gummo
• Happiness
• The Informant!
• Observe and Report
• Poor Things
• Rubber
• Sexy Beast

Best films with location titles. Ten films named after a landmark, a neighborhood, a city, a state, a country, even a continent.

• Beverly Hills Cop
• Brokeback Mountain
• Casablanca
• Casino Royale
• The Florida Project
• Kansas City Confidential
• The New World
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• The Rock
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona

To watch:
- It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books
- Slacker
- SubUrbia
- Waking Life
- Tape
- Fast Food Nation
- A Scanner Darkly
- Me & Orson Welles
- Bernie
- Last Flag Flying
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette
- Hit Man
- Blue Moon
- Nouvelle Vague

1. Everybody Wants Some!!
2. Before Midnight
3. Dazed and Confused
4. School of Rock
5. Before Sunset
6. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
7. Before Sunrise
8. The Newton Boys
9. Bad News Bears
10. Boyhood

Still need to watch:
- Killer's Kiss
- Paths of Glory
- Lolita

1. Barry Lyndon
2. Eyes Wide Shut
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. The Shining
6. The Killing
7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
8. A Clockwork Orange
9. Spartacus

Still need to see:
- The Roost
- Trigger Man
- Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever
- MaXXXIne

• In a Valley of Violence
• The Innkeepers
• The House of the Devil
• The Sacrament
• X
• Pearl

Still need to watch:
- A Life Less Ordinary
- 28 Years Later

1. Trainspotting
2. Steve Jobs
3. Shallow Grave
4. 127 Hours
5. 28 Days Later
6. Yesterday
7. T2 Trainspotting
8. Trance
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. Millions

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

To watch:
- Swept Away
- Fountain of Youth
- In the Gray
- Wife & Dog
- Road House 2

1. RocknRolla
2. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
3. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. The Gentlemen
6. Snatch
7. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
8. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
9. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
10. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

To watch:
- Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen)
- Drive Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
- Honey Don't! (Ethan Coen)

1. Burn After Reading
2. A Serious Man
3. The Man Who Wasn't There
4. Fargo
5. No Country for Old Men
6. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
7. Inside Llewyn Davis
8. Hail, Caesar!
9. The Big Lebowski
10. Blood Simple

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Still need to see:
- The Sight
- In the Lost Lands

1. Monster Hunter
2. Resident Evil
3. Resident Evil: Retribution
4. The Three Musketeers
5. Death Race
6. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
7. Event Horizon
8. Shopping
9. AVP: Alien vs. Predator
10. Pompeii

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

To watch:
- Following
- The Odyssey

1. Oppenheimer
2. Dunkirk
3. Tenet
4. Interstellar
5. Batman Begins
6. Memento
7. The Prestige
8. Insomnia
9. The Dark Knight
10. Inception

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Sly tha god.

1. Cop Land
2. First Blood
3. Rocky
4. Rocky II
5. Tango & Cash
6. Demolition Man
7. Rocky Balboa
8. Creed
9. The Expendables 2
10. Assassins

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. Home Alone
3. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
4. Mr. Mom
5. The Breakfast Club
6. Flubber
7. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
8. Weird Science
9. Miracle on 34th Street
10. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Still need to see:
- She's Having a Baby
- Uncle Buck
- Curly Sue

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. The Breakfast Club
3. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
4. Weird Science
5. Sixteen Candles

Still need to see:
- The Jabberwocky
- Time Bandits
- Brazil
- The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen
- The Fisher King
- Tideland
- The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

1. The Zero Theorem
2. Twelve Monkeys
3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
6. The Brothers Grimm

Still need to see:
- Monsters
- Jurassic World Rebirth

1. The Creator
2. Godzilla
3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Still need to see:
- Solo (2008)
- War Machine
- Wizards!
- Christy Martin Biopic

1. Animal Kingdom
2. The Rover
3. The King

Still need to see:
- Doomsday
- The Reckoning
- The Lair
- Compulsion
- Duchess

1. Dog Soldiers
2. Centurion
3. Hellboy
4. The Descent

Still need to see:
- The Last Great Wilderness
- Young Adam
- Asylum
- Hallam Foe
- Spread
- Perfect Sense
- Tonight You're Mine
- Relay

1. Starred Up
2. Hell or High Water
3. Outlaw King

Still need to see:
- Getting In
- Go
- Fair Game
- The Wall
- Lockedown
- Justice
- The Instigators

1. American Made
2. Swingers
3. Road House
4. Edge of Tomorrow
5. The Bourne Identity
6. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
7. Jumper
8. Chaos Walking

Still need to see:
- Crazy Heart
- Antlers
- Deliver Me from Nowhere

1. Out of the Furnace
2. Hostiles
3. The Pale Blue Eye
4. Black Mass

1. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Jackie Brown
4. The Hateful Eight
5. Django Unchained
6. Reservoir Dogs
7. Pulp Fiction
8. Death Proof
9. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
10. Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Artless dorks

• Captain America: Civil War
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• The Gray Man
• You, Me and Dupree
• The Electric State

Have not seen:
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Thunderbolts*
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps

1. Iron Man 3
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Captain Marvel
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Ant-Man
7. Iron Man
8. Spider-Man: Far From Home
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Doctor Strange

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Terminator
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. Terminator Salvation
4. Terminator: Dark Fate
5. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
6. Terminator Genisys

lazy ass filmmaking. The worst of the found footage that I've seen.

• V/H/S: Viral
• Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
• Blair Witch
• Willow Creek
• Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel
• Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
• Paranormal Activity 4
• Amber Alert
• The Lazarus Effect
• The Quiet Ones

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Still need to see:
- Double Dragon
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
- Wing Commander
- House of the Dead
- House of the Dead 2 [made-for-TV]
- Alone in the Dark II
- Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist
- Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge
- BloodRayne: The Third Reich
- In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds
- In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission
- Gordon Chan's The King of Fighters
- Red Faction: Origins [made-for-TV]
- Mirai Ninja: Keigumo Kinin Gaiden (AKA "Cyber Ninja" AKA "Warlord" AKA "Robo Ninja")
- Ace Attorney
- Zombie Massacre (2013)
- Fatal Frame
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3
- Tokimeki Memorial (1997)
- Ryū ga Gotoku: Joshō (AKA "Like a Dragon: Prologue") (2006)
- Dead Rising: Watchtower
- Dead Rising: Endgame
- Company of Heroes
- Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn [web series]
- Halo: Nightfall [web series]
- OneChanbara: The Movie – Vortex
- Dead Trigger
- It Came from the Desert
- Werewolves Within
- A Minecraft Movie (2025)
- Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025)
- Until Dawn (2025)
- Mortal Kombat II (2025)
- Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" (2026)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2027)
- Genki Kawamura's "Exit 8" (TBD)
- Mark Fischbach's "Iron Lung" (TBD)
- Kitao Sakurai's "Street Fighter" (TBD)
- Mathieu Turi's "Watch Dogs" (TBD)
- Christophe Gans' "Return to Silent Hill" (TBD)
- André Øvredal's "Bendy and the Ink Machine" (TBD)
- Chad Stahelski's "Ghosts of Tsushima" (TBD)
- Anna Mastro's "Gravity Rush" (TBD)
- Ruben Fleischer's "Jak and Daxter" (TBD)
- Ángel Manuel Soto's "Just Cause" (TBD)
- Wes Ball's "The Legend of Zelda" (TBD)
- Wes Ball's "Ruiner" (TBD)
- Jonathan Krisel's "Detective Pikachu 2" (TBD)
- J. J. Abrams' "Portal" (TBD)
- Todd Strauss-Schulson's "Rabbids" (TBD)
- F. Gary Gray's "Saint's Row" (TBD)
- Sam Hargrave's "Shinobi" (TBD)
- Paul W. S. Anderson's "The House of the Dead" (TBD)
- Michael Bay's "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" (TBD)
- Rob Letterman's "Beyond Good and Evil" (TBD)
- Francis Lawrence's "BioShock" (TBD)
- Kate Herron's "The Sims" (TBD)
- Rawson Marshall Thurber's "Tom Clancy's The Division" (TBD)

1. Monster Hunter
2. Resident Evil
3. Street Fighter
4. Resident Evil: Retribution
5. Doom
6. Mortal Kombat
7. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
8. Pokémon Detective Pikachu
9. Resident Evil: Afterlife
10. Need for Speed

...plus 31 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

we love going to the cinema, don't we folks? we're doing cinema and we're watching movies, really like no one ever before, it's tremendous and it's going so well, I mean, they're saying 2024 is the best year in history for movies and it's all because we're seeing them. And they're making them- they're made so well, and they're crazy. I mean, you've never seen cinema like these.

• Borderlands
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Red One
• Kraven the Hunter
• The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
• Venom: The Last Dance
• Boneyard
• Flight Risk
• The Union
• The Crow

...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are the non-canon, live-action DC films made in the Snyder and Gunn eras

1. The Suicide Squad
2. Joker: Folie à Deux
3. The Batman
4. Blue Beetle
5. Joker

Still need to watch:
- Death Becomes Her
-
- Flight
- The Walk
- The Witches

1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
2. Beowulf
3. Back to the Future
4. Cast Away
5. Allied
6. Romancing the Stone
7. Back to the Future Part II
8. Back to the Future Part III
9. Here
10. What Lies Beneath

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Spider-Man
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Far From Home
4. Spider-Man 3
5. Spider-Man: Homecoming
6. Spider-Man: No Way Home
7. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
8. The Amazing Spider-Man