186 - The Hole (2009)

    After moving to a small town, a teenage boy and his younger brother find a strange gated hole in their basement, which doesn't seem to have a bottom.  They build a friendship with the girl next door, as they all experience creepy things - a spooky dead girl wandering around, a marionette clown doll moving around and attacking, and assorted other creepiness.
    I saw this back in 2011, and I finally got the Blu-ray for Christmas.  I've been wanting to show this to Cathy, since it's a horror movie, but it's not scary enough to keep her awake at night or anything like that.
    It plays like an extended Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, but it respects the audience.  It starts off with some genuinely creepy stuff, and then as the plot takes shape, it gets less scary.  The last act isn't scary as much as is a cathartic finish.
    If I saw this as a kid, it would be one of my favorite horror movies.  The characters are really handled well.  None of them are idiots.  They don't make ridiculous decisions (with a minor exception, that I would expect them to be more scared by some of the things they see).  They aren't needlessly flawed.  The brothers quarrel and pick on each other, but it comes across as a natural thing.
    The picture is excellent on Blu-ray.  I love seeing the outdoor shots.  The colors are just amazing.  The dark shots didn't have the tint that I remembered seeing before.  The one bad thing I noticed was that in one shot, there were some flecks on the lens.  And some of the effects shots are a little off.  But for Joe Dante's style, it seems right.
    There are a few disappointments, and those are two mistakes.  When the electricity goes out, an iPod loses power.  And a water pipe is broken in one scene, and is fine when we see it again.

185 - Fletch

      An undercover investigative reporter is commissioned to kill a man.  After looking into the man, he finds a much larger conspiracy at hand, involving drugs, the beach, the police, plane tickets, bigamy, and a plot of land in Utah.
    I remember seeing the case for Fletch in the local video store when I was growing up, and the box was always memorable.  But I never wanted to watch it.  Even after hearing rumors about a forthcoming third Fletch movie, I never was compelled.  Maybe it's just that I haven't cared for Chevy Chase much.
    But I decided that I should see this, and I'm glad I did.  It's an unusual movie.  It's a comedy, but I never felt like laughing out loud.  There are some funny lines, and Chase is entertaining.
    What stood out about this movie was that the plot was much stronger than I expected.  It's an investigation, and it's hard to piece everything together, even as we learn things at the same pace.  I'm not sure how the story would hold up to repeated viewings, but as it is, it would be a fantastic movie if someone like Leslie Nielsen were cast as the lead.
    Also of note - Harold Faltermeyer did the soundtrack.  He's best known for doing the soundtrack for Beverly Hills Cop, specifically the piece Axel F.  This means that the whole soundtrack sounds like that.

184 - The Seven Year Itch

    Prior to widespread air conditioning, wives and children vacation in cooler climates for the Summer, leaving men in NYC to continue working in the heat.  A man working in publishing finds himself tempted by a girl who has moved in upstairs for the season, played by Marilyn Monroe.
    This movie is famous primarily for the image of Marilyn's skirt billowing from the subway grate.  That shot exists, but not like it appears in any of the stills.  She's usually shown from around the thigh down.  That isn't the most memorable aspect of the movie either.
    This was directed by Billy Wilder, who also handled Some Like It Hot, which really love.  Both of these movies have similar scripts, in a strange way.  They have a sense of humor, and a style of writing that is very firmly Wilder's work.  What this movie doesn't have is Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis doing spectacular work to carry the whole thing.  Most of this movie is Tom Ewell talking to himself.  He's good, but he's not fantastic.
    What makes this movie interesting is the use of fantasy sequences.  There are a lot of cutaway scenes where we see him playing out a fantasy.  Most of these reach into absurd, or surreal areas.  I wonder how much influence this movie had on the use of this technique.

    There are clear parallels between this and The Apartment, which I think I watched earlier this year.  Both are mostly about infidelity, and they have an ethical lead.  Here, there's something strange about Marilyn's role.  She's almost like a pixie or something.  I can't explain it, but she exists only to force the guy to learn something about himself.
    There's one gag in it that really floored me, and it's near the end.  The guy is trying to distract someone else from the kitchen, since the girl is in there.

"….What blonde in the kitchen?"
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know! Maybe it's Marilyn Monroe!"

Brilliant!

183 - Hope Springs

     An older couple attends a couples therapist in hopes of rejuvenating their failing marriage.
     I have no idea if this is supposed to be a comedy or a drama, or what.  Regardless of what it is, it sort of failed.  It's not a funny movie.  There are a few moments that have a tiny undercurrent of humor, but most of it wouldn't qualify.  However, it could be a comedy, if you think that what therapists do is funny.  Like, asking the couple to describe their sex life.
     It's dramatic, but not in an interesting way.  Like many romances, the movie pretty firmly blames the male for the couple's problems.  And he's an abrasive character.  However, there are a few hints in the movie, none of which get as much exploration as they require, which suggest that the problem isn't just his behavior.  It's that she's been sending him the message that he isn't doing anything wrong.
     I haven't paid much attention to Meryl Streep, and she's never stood out to me.  She's actually very annoying in this movie.  She doesn't break the fourth wall directly, but there's something about the performance that bothers me - like she's playing to the camera too much.
     Are there many movies that address the empty nest syndrome?  I'm not sure if I can think of any, but this certainly doesn't do it any services.
     Also, Tommy Lee Jones looks like he's gotten really old, really fast.

182 - Love Actually

     A collection of characters are involved in a variety of love stories, exploring a wide range of situations.
A very difficult movie to summarize. I think this is either the third or fourth time I've seen it, and I still have a hard time explaining how the movie works. I could explain a particular characters story, but the sum is greater than the pieces.
     I have one particular favorite moment in this movie, and it's when the American president is stood up to. We never learn anything in particular about what the issue is, but there is something appealing about the situation. I think I like it in a patriotic way. Moreso than the idea that the scene develops his romance.
     I wonder what I would have thought of this movie when I was younger.  I'm sure I would have identified with different characters.  While I currently like Hugh Grant's Prime Minister, if I were in college or high school, I probably would identify with the guy who longs for his recently-married friend's wife.
      This is a very good movie, but I still have a big problem with the big ending All I Want for Christmas is You.  It's not just the tasteless singing, it's the level of production.  Within the context of the movie, it doesn't make sense.

181 - Resident Evil

    Alice (I'm not sure if she's ever called this in the movie) wakes up in a deserted mansion, not remembering anything.  She runs into a military force that takes her into an underground research station, run by the Umbrella Corporation.  There's been a virus that has escaped, and the station has been locked down.  They go in to find out what happened, and hopefully recover a cure.
    I've already explained my strange fascination with the Resident Evil movies.  It doesn't make sense.  I don't like the games.  I don't even think these qualify as zombie movies.  I don't like the plot especially.  This movie is more in the middle of the spectrum.  I liked the last two movies much more than I liked the first two.  But this one is better than the second one.
    For a movie that came out in 2002, the effects are remarkably bad, at least when it comes to the Licker.  Every shot of it looks abysmal.  Most of the other effects fall into a fun, acceptable quality.
    It's strange that the most memorable sequence of this movie happens pretty early on.  When they're in the hallway with the laser line that goes around.
    There's one thing that I found very distracting though.  Michelle Rodriguez.  Her lips are huge!  Whenever they did a close up of her, I couldn't look at anything else!  I just tried to find an image, but she usually looks normal, except for when she purses her lips.

180 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

    A musical focusing on two cabaret singers who take a cruise to France, and their respective relationships with men, money, and diamonds in particular.
    Noteworthy for starring Marilyn Monroe, I really didn't know much about this movie going in.  And it's fun.  But it's not… right.  The musical side of it seems restrained.  Very few songs.  There's a certain campiness to most of the movie as well, especially one musical number that takes place at a gym on the cruise ship.
    I also felt like the message of the movie seemed to be distorted.  There was one clear message near the end, but most of the time, it didn't seem like I was getting a consistent message.

    It's still a fun movie.  There are some inspired gags, notably the recurring jokes surrounding Henry Spofford III.  Some of the songs are fun, but none of them stood out as being memorable.  Despite the classic status of this, I'd like to see the material handled a little differently.

179 - Scarecrow

    Peculiar nerd Lester is bullied by a lot of different people.  After he dies, his consciousness (or something) goes into a nearby scarecrow, which kills a variety of people off.
    For a revenge from beyond the grave movie, this one has a whole lot of problems.
    First, and foremost.  The guy playing Lester looks like he's in his mid-to-late 30s, and is just wearing jeans to look young.  His hairline is receding.  He doesn't look like he's in high school.  This is a common problem in the movie.  Making things even more awkward is the problem that his mother looks like she's younger than he is.
    The guy playing the Sheriff looks like he's within 10 years of his daughter's age.
    The guy playing the farmer seems to be a pretty young guy that they put some dated glasses on to make him look older.
    This goes on.

    Characters don't really make sense.  This is a hard thing to explain, but there are many instances where characters make decisions that are counter to logic.  Some jock is picking on Lester while he's working at his job.  A girl comes over to defend him, and tells the jock to leave him alone.  Lester's boss shows up, and throws the girl out, with the explanation that Lester can handle it.
    There are bizarre lines, and at least two mentions of the word "cock."  This is really pretty rare, and it seems especially strange for a movie that has an absence of nudity.

(The corn rustles)
"Did you hear something?"
"Just the beating of my heart for ya, baby!"
"I'm serious, I think I heard something."
"Ah, it's probably just Chad and Morgan rummaging around."
"Look, Greg, I don't feel good about this."
"Oh, come on.  I'm feeling all crazy and hot and sticky!"
…
"Look, come on, just give me a little."
"Stop it, Greg."
"Oh, I can't stop now, look at my huge cock!"

    There's a fantastic newspaper headline that appears in the movie-

"Emerald Grove You Take His Own Life- Graduation Procceds as Planned"

    (Yes, it was spelled Procceds in the movie.)
    Most revenge movies have the killer going around killing those who wronged him.  In this case, he seems to target a wide variety of people.  Some good, some bad, and then there are some people that are just puzzling; like we have no idea who they are.  The person who actually killed Lester is not a victim of the scarecrow.

    This is a bad movie, but it was enjoyable for how strange it was.

178 - The Prestige

    The rivalry between two magicians around the 1900s escalates, and centers around a trick called The Transported Man.
    I don't think I fully appreciated this the first time I saw it.  But this time through, I grasped most of it.  Like a lot of Nolan's work, he likes to jump around in time.  He flashes back to prior occurrences to tie themes together.  There are lots of themes at work in the movie, and almost everything in it moves in parallel stories.  Most of the story seems to be built on an eye for an eye, but it doesn't actually play out exactly the way we see it.
    By the time the ending comes along, it seems like there isn't a way for things to end well.  And that's sort of true.  It's a bleak movie.
    I have a hard time writing about it.  It's a complicated movie, and it's hard to talk about without giving too much away.

177 - V/H/S

    An anthology of horror stories framed as being "found footage" VHS tapes.
    Like all anthologies, it's a mixed bag.  While I started off being a little disappointed by this one, by the end, I liked it much more.
    What I liked is also a weakness that will frustrate many viewers.  Most of the stories don't resolve everything you would like.  There needs to be a certain amount of interpretation to finish off the stories.  I feel this way when I read short stories.  Usually the author likes to pack a punch into a single paragraph, and I need to read it several times to decipher what exactly has been revealed - or implied.
    In the case of this movie, I actually liked this effect, and it may have been because the format made that approach make sense.  We only see what the person shooting it created.  We don't get to rely on third parties to offer explanations, or exposition to fill in the backstory.
    I'll probably give plenty of spoilers, since these stories are very short, and most of the plot points are either obvious, or things that develop in the first couple minutes of a story.
    The framing story is called Tape 56.  A handful of thuggish meatheads are commissioned to break into someone's house, and steal a particular VHS tape.  They don't know anything about the content, but the house seems to be mostly empty, except for a single room with a bunch of TVs, VCRs, and a dead guy sitting in a recliner.  There's an ending to this frame, much like most anthologies.  It isn't especially satisfying, but it's appropriate.
    The first story is called Amateur Night.  Three guys go out to a bar to pick up some girls, with the intention of filming their encounter.  One of the girls passes out after they get to a motel room, the other one is really bizarre.  I found the ending a little confusing, but there seems to be some speculation that the story involves a succubus.  I don't think that's right.  This story is decent, but it seems a little too obvious.  There's a similar story in Trick 'R Treat, which was handled much better.
    The second story is directed by Ti West, who also did The Innkeepers, which I obviously really love.  This one is called Second Honeymoon.  Like most of his work, it moves very slowly, and deliberately.  The story is good, and I could imagine it being an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something like that.  The ending isn't the spectacular twist that some have played it out to be, but it's certainly appropriate, and doesn't seem like a stretch.
    The third story has a poor reputation, but there was something I really liked about it.  Titled Tuesday the 17th, it starts off like most "dead teens in the woods" movies.  There's a reasonable twist about halfway through, and I actually like the idea of expanding that premise into an entire movie.  We're left with a lot of questions about the killer in this.  IMDB lists that part as being "The Glitch" and the wiki page for the movie describes him as "a red-faced silhouette obscured by tracking errors."  The killer seems strangely invincible, which isn't an approach that I like.
    The next one is The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger.  This one is an excellent story, which somehow makes me think of Richard Matheson's short stories.  The story has much more enjoyable photography, since it's portrayed as a series of Skype chats.  The girl thinks that her apartment is haunted.  I can't explain a lot of this story without detailing the entire thing, but I watched this segment twice, once in the movie, and once with Cathy.  It's creepy, it's got a touch of gore, and the effect is fantastic.  When the story ends, we are left with more questions.  My one complaint is that this story doesn't make sense to appear on a VHS tape.  Why would someone transfer a collection of Skype chats to a VHS tape?
    The last story is titled 10/31/98.  This one is a good, energetic one to end the movie on.  A group of friends attend a Halloween party, but they find that no one seems to be in the house.  After searching around for awhile, they find an exorcism - or something - being done in the attic.  They decide to try to rescue the girl, and as they try to escape, the house seems to come to life.  The effects in this sequence are fantastic.  The arms coming out of the wall are seamless, and the audience is left just as confused as the main characters.  The ending is a bit bleak, but it seems appropriate.

    So, obviously I'm very happy with this anthology.  I'm not sure if I'll buy it yet.  It isn't as artistically pleasing as Trick 'R Treat is, but I wonder if my fondness for this one will grow over time.  My enthusiasm for anthologies usually grows.

176 - We Need to Talk About Kevin

    Told in both the present, and flashbacks, the mother of a cruel and violent child wonders about both her relationship with him, as well as her responsibility.
    I don't know if I can have enough to say about this movie, because it avoids taking any clear positions.  In some instances, it's easy to think that the mother isn't being strict enough, and sometimes, she seems to be too mean.  Kevin isn't a good child.  He's outwardly hostile, in particular, to his mother.  To everyone else, he's sullen, but not actually bad.
    I think I understand what Kevin is doing.  He puts on a certain facade with most people.  Despite his cruelty to his mother, he does it mostly because he's comfortable doing it.  He's not having to hide himself.
    There is one scene where we see a glimpse of why Kevin is the way he is.  He's out playing miniature golf with his mother, and his mother says something fairly cruel about fat people.  Kevin points out that she's fairly harsh.  He also points out that it's where he got it from.
    The movie culminates (sort of, it's flashed back to throughout the movie) in a Columbine-like scenario.  Except that he's shooting people in the gym with arrows.  While we saw this coming, there's one more reveal.  After his mother goes home at the end of the day, she finds that both her husband and her daughter have been shot by her son.  Their bodies are out in the backyard, arrows still sticking out of them.
    While I had been curious about what happened to those characters, I assumed that a divorce had happened.  This is a much darker twist.
    It's silly to think that we can understand exactly what motivates killers.  Especially ones like Kevin, who have no primary motivation.  He spells this out on more than one occasion.  "The point is that there is no point."

    I'm not sure I could recommend this to anyone who has children.  Or anyone who is thinking of having them.

175 - The Woman

    A man finds a feral woman living in the wilderness.  He captures her, and imprisons her on his property, involving his family in the project of "civilizing" her.
    I read a few reviews of this over the last year, talking about how intense the movie was, as well as defending it as specifically not being misogynistic.  Of course, since I'm looking for horror, it seemed only natural that I should want to put it on my queue.  The prospect of this movie was a toss-up.  I like Lucky McKee, but I never have felt like watching any of his work more than once.  I enjoyed May, and I'm a fan of Sick Girl, but I've never wanted to revisit those.  The story was put together by Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum, I was enthusiastic to see Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, but I actually couldn't stomach the cruelty in it.
    So, I'm glad to say that I think this is easily the best thing that either of them did.
    I've read a lot of criticism of this movie on IMDB, and I found that the vast majority of the complaints were from people who thought that it was a wildly feminist movie, that focused on males being evil.  This is only true if you have the narrowest view of the movie.
    It's actually about an unsustainable power structure.  The father has built up a very secluded life, and most of his actions are built around asserting authority over others.  He also takes a few actions to conceal his failings.
    The Woman is just a catalyst, more of a harbinger of the end of his rule.

    There's a surprising amount that is left unsaid in this movie.  It's strongly suggested that his older daughter, Peggy, is pregnant by him.  People suspect this.  Her actions suggest it.  Some of his actions suggest it.  But the movie never makes it crystal clear.  This isn't a weakness at all, but it's peculiar.  There's a child that is kept with the dogs, with some sort of a strange condition, who has been raised to think that she's a dog.  We don't get much information about this either.  It's implied that the father blames his wife for this deformity, and that he holds the shame of her existence over his wife.
    It's easy to think that the son, Brian, is just as evil as his father.  This is hard to tell.  Since we only saw this part of their lives, we can gather that the father thinks that his son is the only worthwhile person in his household.  So he's probably raised his son to carry on his work.  This includes learning to dominate in order to assert authority.
    The movie is a little disappointing at the end.  Not the last shot, which actually feels nice, in a strange way.  I think I'd have liked it if the father weren't killed.  What would make the ending cathartic would be if we see him confronted with his crimes, and questioned by a higher authority.
    On the other hand, who's to say that would provide any relief?

174 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    The morning that Arthur Dent's house is demolished to make room for a bypass, the Earth is destroyed to make room for another bypass.  Dent finds that one of his friends is not from Earth, and they make a wild trek into space, accompanying Zaphod Beeblebrox and a handful of odd characters.
    I saw this when it reached theaters, and I remember being charmed by it.  The sensibilities brought to the production remind me of Terry Gilliam, not just in the sense of humor, but the scale of everything we see.  The design of the Vogons looks a lot like Gilliam's imagination.
    There are a few surprises for me this time through.  The plot seems far less random, and comes across much more linear than I remembered.  I liked hearing the "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" theme reprised a little throughout.  The only thing that seemed out of place was the insertion of the romance between Dent and Trillium.  While the movie doesn't dwell on it most of the time, it shows up during a few scenes, and seems most conspicuous during the mice scene.
    Still… like Watchmen, it's a movie that will never satisfy the most ardent fans.  But, also like Watchmen, I like it quite a bit.  Within the context of making a movie, it's hard to blame them for making a movie that adjusts a few things that won't translate well.

173 - Wet Hot American Summer

    The last day of the Summer at Camp Firewood, in 1981.  There are romances, action, personal development, musical numbers, and Skylab falling on the camp.  It defies a traditional summary.
    I have no idea how many times I've watched this.  I remember that when I first saw it, I didn't have the same enthusiasm for it that I now have.  It was a confusing movie at first.  It was surreal, but I didn't always get the joke in the same way.  And the jokes sometimes move into really strange areas.  There's a gay romance that seems to come out of nowhere.  Some of the scenes - like Coop and Katie by the stable - seem unusually long.
    But as I got used to the movie, I found that it's like a lot of my favorite comedies.  The performances are great.  The direction is just strange enough to keep my interest.  And the script is weird, but very memorable.
    It's a bit annoying that the movie isn't available on Blu-ray.  According to the wiki article on it, David Wain has tried to get Universal to release it, but they aren't interested.

172 - Sheltered

    A handful of people on a vacation stop by a bar when a huge storm comes.  The bartender offers that they can come ride out the storm at his place.  They go there, where people behave strangely, eventually leading to some deaths.
    Usually, if a movie is bad - legitimately bad - I find myself more angry at the movie.  This means that it made blatant missteps, ones that I was upset that they took.  There are seriously bad movies, ones that I can't actually sit through.  But usually that requires being technically deficient in at least one way.  In this case, the movie is bad, but I have a hard time mustering any strong feelings about it.
    In a weird way, the movie is a ripoff of Psycho.  The politeness, the mannerisms of the killer, all scream that they wanted him to be a Norman Bates-like character.  He's got issues with his parents, although it seems to be more of a relationship with the house, and cleanliness.  But that never seems to matter too much.
    The movie suffers from problems with having very little plot, combined with very little tension, and it's all compounded by a script that seems irrelevant.  None of the characters take any actions that make sense.  They get invited to a stranger's house?  Why not go?  Instead of staying in a public establishment that they also know is safe.  When they enter a stranger's house - as a guest - the first thing someone does is find some alcohol and start drinking it.  These people aren't teens.  They decide that they should just party their way through the storm.  All of this is made without the consent or blessing of their host.  Of course, he doesn't seem to care, which doesn't make much sense either.
    At one point, the killer has killed a token character who showed up to add to the body count.  When the other people discover her, they freak out a bit, which makes sense.  They believe the idea that she slit her own wrists.  No one seems to notice that she seems to have left a lot of blood around the place.  The concern about her seems to disappear pretty fast as well.
    The sound on the movie is pretty badly mixed.  There are some fairly fun original songs used, which is nice.  But then there are plenty of storm sounds.  And then characters alternate between screaming, and whispering dialogue.  I missed plenty of lines because of the poor mixing.
    Near the end, the killer shoots his brother.  It looks like he's been shot in the heart (although this could just be the upper chest, on the heart side).  He collapses.  After some other stuff happens, the killer's brother returns in the last moments to save the girl.  He stabs the killer in the back.  He seems to be doing pretty well for having just been shot.
    After he yells at the girl to get out of the house, while he holds his dying brother, the girl exits, into the storm.  She washes herself in the rain in slow motion.  This is taking place about… 10 feet away from where the killer is being held.
    Huh?

    I can't pretend to understand a message to the movie.  Most of the scenes that tried to explain some sort of motivation for the killer were told in whispers.  I think I followed some of it, but it still didn't seem to explain anything.
    Still - this was one of 8 movies that I got for $5!  How could I go wrong?

171 - The Wrong Guy

    A man discovers his boss, murdered.  After covering himself in blood, the man is convinced that the police are looking for him, and he has to prove his innocence.  Except, the police have surveillance footage, proving the main character innocent.  Instead, the man winds up inadvertently tracking the actual killer.
    This was mentioned in an A/V Club article about "Wrong-man movies."  It stars Dave Foley, one of the team behind Kids In The Hall.  It doesn't have quite the same sensibilities as Kids In The Hall did, but it's still very funny.  I kept thinking that it was like a toned-down version of the Naked Gun movies.
    There's a lot of strange stuff in the movie, gags that don't seem like they're needed, but they still contribute a little to the overall feeling of the whole thing.  There's a great cameo by Barenaked Ladies, and they contributed a nice short song for the soundtrack.
    This could develop a nice cult following, particularly if people got to see it when they were young.  But as it is, it's not available on DVD, and it seems to only be available on Netflix streaming.
    I liked it, and I'd suggest that anyone get to see it at least once.  The opening isn't great, but it gets better as it goes along.  And many of the jokes feel like very Simpsons-like gags.
    I also wonder if the main character's name was borrowed - "Nelson Hibbert."

170 - The Avengers

    I've summarized this twice so far this year, so I don't think I should bother.
    After a nice Thanksgiving meal, Cathy and I were kind of tired, and really full.  So we sat back, and watched this.
    I don't have many new observations.  I noticed that some more of the dialogue was more comic-book-like than I had remembered.  I also felt like more of the effects work was more fluffy looking than I had remembered.
    Still, it hits all the right spots.  Although I did feel a little like Captain America got the short shrift in this movie.  Maybe it's just that Iron Man is a more aggressive character.

169 - The Innkeepers

    A pair of hotel employees are working the last weekend that their hotel is open.  There are very few guests, and they use the opportunity to investigate the ghost they think haunts the place.
    Obviously, this is the second time I watched this.  This time, it was on Blu-ray, and I showed it to Cathy.  There were chunks of the movie that I remembered very well, but I was a little surprised that some of the parts completely slipped from my memory.
    It remains very creepy.  And I still really enjoyed the character building between the leads.  I found myself much more engrossed in certain details, and picked up on much more that I missed the first time through.
    In particular, I actually noticed two scenes that gave enough background to establish what the end result of the movie is.  There's much more foreshadowing than I had noticed before.
    I still feel the connections to The Shining.  But the question of the evilness of that hotel is never in question.  In this movie, I realized that it's possible to interpret it as having a non-threatening ghostly atmosphere.
    Anyway, the pacing is still slow, but it never feels like nothing is happening.

168 - The Traveler

    On Christmas Eve, a small crew of six at the police station are confronted by a man who walks in wanting to confess.  He acts very mysteriously.  It's gradually revealed that all of the crew working at the station that evening were involved in the beating/torture of a man who was left in a coma.  Now the police officers are being picked off.
    I'm dreading writing this up.  It's not a horrible movie.  It had a lot of potential to be really good.  It reminded me a lot of Identity.  But the acting isn't quite up to snuff.  Of course, the acting isn't terrible, just not as interesting.  What hurts the movie is the ending of it.
    We get a message that the stranger who comes in is obviously connected to the drifter that the cops beat.  The exact nature of that connection remains to be revealed.  However, the reveal - that the drifter actually did commit the crime they accused him of - isn't expected.  It doesn't add more depth to the movie, and it actually hurts our perception of it.  It turns from a justified revenge movie to being an unjustified revenge.
    From that point on, the movie gets even weirder.  Somehow, the power of this manifestation of the drifter is cancelled out if they call him by his name?
    I don't know what to say about the movie.  I admire that they were a bit willing to try a direction they normally wouldn't, but… I suppose that the message is just that sometimes the path less taken is less taken because it sucks.

167 - The Onion Movie

    There isn't too much of a plot to this movie.  It's a collection of sketches, and gags, loosely following a story about two fictional nations nearing war, a terrorist cell plotting an attack, and the Onion's news anchor being annoyed that his program has ads for the parent company's forthcoming movie interrupting the news.
    I would say that this is similar to Kentucky Fried Movie or The Groove Tube.  Except both of those have less of a plot.  But this has a similar vibe to it.  If you don't care for the joke, it will be over soon.  And some of the jokes that don't seem worthwhile actually pay off much better down the road.
    This is actually the real benefit of the movie.  Most of the sequences have a layered reality to them.  We see references to gags in unrelated stories.  In some cases, it's something trivial, like seeing an ad on a TV in the background.  But this approach gives a peculiar sense of an alternate reality.
    You see, in Kentucky Fried Movie or The Groove Tube, each sequence is mostly self-contained.  We never see an ad for Catholic High School Girls In Trouble later in the movie.  The only thing I can think of that repeats in Kentucky Fried Movie is the director's name that is attached to every project.  Since everything ties together in this picture, the world building gives everything an extra sheen of being strange.
    I also have a deeper appreciation for Steven Seagal's role in this movie.
    I'll leave you with some enjoyable Melissa Cherry.

166 - Deadfall Trail

    Three guys go into the wilderness on an extreme camping trip - very few supplies, and no directions.  Two of the guys have done this before.  It's the first trip for the third guy.  After an accident happens in the woods, it's down to two of them to try to care for the other.
    This is another of the cheap movies I got on one of the 8-movie DVDs.  And this one has a 4.1 on IMDB.  But I'm glad to say that it's pretty decent.  It's shot fairly well.  It's technically competent, except that the dialogue has a hard time competing with the soundtrack.  It would also help if the disc had subtitles.
    Part of what made this movie interesting was the structure.  It actually took a long time for the first major event to happen - a bit over half an hour.  Then it still didn't move forward until a bit past an hour.  This could be trimmed down without losing anything important, but the unusual pacing actually helps make the movie less predictable.  It's unclear how anything is going to work out, making the whole picture much more compelling.
    I wish I could say that the movie had something interesting to say, but it didn't seem to break any new ground.  There wasn't much of a sense of horror to it.  Most of it was mild drama, but maybe a touch of thriller to it.
    Still, for a movie that cost me about $0.63, I'd say it was pretty good.

165 - Ed Wood

    A slightly fictionalized biography of Ed Wood, covering his time making movies from Glen or Glenda through Plan 9 From Outer Space.  We see a variety of his friends, and developments in his personal life, with a special focus on his relationship with Bela Lugosi.
    I don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but it gets better every time.  And this is pretty clearly the best work that Tim Burton has done.  Some of his earlier work was really good - Pee Wee, Beetlejuice, Batman… those were very good, but have some distinct weaknesses.  This movie has Burton's style all over it, but it feels much more restrained.
    But the direction isn't the highlight of this movie, it's the script.  Everything about this movie feels a little cartoonish, but it doesn't feel fake at all.  It's created by Ed Wood's optimism, and his perseverance in the face of every possible problem that comes with making a movie.  As well as his difficulties in his relationships.
    There's a wonderful scene, when he goes out on a date, and takes the opportunity to explain to the girl that he's a transvestite.  He's not confident in telling her about it, but it's one of the best decisions that he makes.
    I associate this movie with Bowfinger.  They're both comedies, and they take a very different approach, but they're both about the love of making movies.  Maybe Cinema Paradiso falls into the same category.  It's hard to blame Ed Wood for making bad movies.  He just loved movies so much, it would be hard to cancel the project just because he wasn't talented enough.

164 - Tenebre (also titled Tenebrae)

    A writer takes a trip to Rome, and is followed by a series of murders, at least some partly based on his book, titled Tenebre.  He works with police to try to solve the mystery.
    This is a movie I had heard about for about fifteen years at least.  And I never brought myself to watch it.  I don't think I ever saw it for rental anywhere, and I wasn't about to blind buy it.  It's a giallo, and I haven't cared for many of those.  I usually find the pacing to be intolerably slow, and the acting to be overdone.
    This one wasn't nearly as good as it had been made out to be, but it is interesting.  There is some very clever camerawork, and some very nicely staged shots.
    However, this is offset by the awkward script, which would be better if the actors weren't trying so hard.  The pacing is acceptable, although it could use some more tightening.
    There is a decent twist to the story, but all of it seems to be stated outright at the end.  This doesn't quite work.
    The one thing that I'll really remember from this is a strange part where a girl is chased by a dog.  The dog barks at her from behind a fence.  She decides to provoke it for some reason, then walks off.  The dog jumps the fence and chases her.  We see this dog jump fences more than once, and it's an incredible jumper.

    Also, I found the music by Goblin to be really distracting.  I have no idea why their work was so popular.

163 - The Gingerdead Man

    A criminal holds up some family's bakery.  After they lead to his arrest, prosecution, and execution, his ashes are disguised as gingerbread seasoning.  He is brought back to life as a gingerbread man, and goes after the surviving bakers.
    I know that a good movie can't be expected from that synopsis.  This was another one on one of those multiple movie DVDs that I picked up from Best Buy.  Since I can compare this to Doll Graveyard, I'd have to say that they're on around the same level.
    This movie suffers from a few problems in direction.  I noticed that the director seems to like using tilted shots.  This isn't horrible, but it was conspicuous.  There were some strange problems with lighting.  The shot would be fairly well lit, and then the characters would be complaining about the lights being out.  Near the end, there were several shots that didn't match the lighting or the clarity of other shots, and since all of the action seems to take place in about two or three rooms, this is really noticeable.
    Most egregious though, is that there's a shot where a guy steps out to get something from his car, and we see a crew member standing at the side of the shot.  The crew member isn't only partly in the shot - his entire body makes it into the shot.  And this shot doesn't just show up during the movie - they reuse it at the end, when they go through the credits.
    I can't complain about the plot.  It isn't intended to be taken seriously.  There are plenty of problems with it, mostly that the characters seem to be interested in staying around, or they feel like they're trapped there, even though if they really wanted to leave, there are several options for that.
    Meh.  If I saw this in high school, with my friends, I think we'd be entertained.

162 - Skyfall

    A hard drive containing a list of all field agents has fallen into the wrong hands.  Bond has been shot, and is presumed dead.  An explosion puts MI6's headquarters at risk.  Bond reappears to go back to work, to hopefully put things back in place.  The villain is an ex-agent who is going after M.
    I had read plenty of good reviews.  I was actually pretty excited to see this.  And it lived up to my expectations.  I still have a few complaints, but they are things that will probably go away with repeated viewings.
    The action is excellent.  The opening chase and fight is perfectly executed.  Every step of the sequence ramps up the tension wonderfully.  And it's shot well!  I never felt confused about what was happening.  Bond isn't on his own, either.  He works co-operatively very well.
    I didn't care for Adele's theme.  I don't like her voice very much.  But the credit sequence was very interesting, and had darker imagery than I'm used to.
    The themes of the movie are laid out in clever ways.  Bond's relationship with his parents, his childhood.  His relationship with MI6, and his relationship with M in particular.  The entire organization's relationship with England as a whole.
    Bond is a little closer to the traditional Bond model here, since he's more of a smooth operator, seducing several women over the course of the picture.  But he's a little more distant in his relationship with them.  When one of them is shot, he never seems to dwell on it.
    The sequences of the movie all feel very disconnected.  There is a plot that ties everything together, but when Bond is fighting a guy on a tower in Shanghai, there are lots of neon lights and things swirling around.  It's nothing like any of the other parts of the movie.
    I actually liked the last act of the movie quite a bit.  It reminded me a little of the farm in the first Bourne, in that it isn't a massive showdown, but it feels like… a home invasion battle.
    I'm very happy with this movie, and I look forward to seeing it a few more times.

161 - Casino Royale

    Having just achieved his 00 status, Bond uncovers a peculiar plot, which involves shorting the stock of an airline, and a man who acts as an investment banker for organized crime and terrorists.  Bond has to beat him at poker to force him to lose his client's money.
    I've never been a big Bond fan.  I saw Goldeneye when that came out.  I enjoyed it.  Then I tried to watch it a second time, and I found it intolerable.  I think I saw the next one (The World is Not Enough?) and didn't remember anything about it.  When Casino Royale came out, I didn't really give it any attention.  I saw it sometime after it came out on DVD, and I really liked it.  I was enthusiastic enough that I went to see Quantum of Solace in theaters, and I really liked that as well.
    Casino Royale is balanced very well.  There's some great action, but there's a lot of Bond fumbling and figuring out what he can do.  He doesn't make perfect decisions.  In contrast though, there are also plenty of sequences of Bond doing very clever things, and acting like a superb agent.
    What makes the movie noteworthy is the emotional depth that Bond gets to enjoy.  He has a romance, one that he feels involved in.  He's willing to leave his work for her.  And he never gets the resolution he would like from it.  This makes Bond more fleshed out than prior movies let him get.
    Like the Bourne movies, I like to revisit Casino Royale now and then.  It's such a satisfying watch.

160 - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

    Some religious group is trying to prevent the evil entity (actually a fallen angel, who seems to be filling in for the devil) from getting the means of utilizing it's power by using a young boy as a vessel (or something like this).  They approach Johnny Blaze with the offer that if he helps out, they'll lift the Ghost Rider curse from him.
    This movie isn't especially good.  It was mostly inoffensively fun, but I found that as the story wore on, and especially by the time the movie ended, I felt like there were some really big problems.
    This type of story has been done several times.  Protecting the "chosen one" to prevent some massive supernatural power change from happening.  In this movie, there's a really huge hurdle to jump.  They made Ghost Rider way too powerful.  He incinerates those that touch his chain.  His chain also seems to have no particular length to it - it changes as needed.
    There's also a big change in how his penance stare works.  In the comics, it's a little more torturous, and it serves as a punishment.  He looks at the victim, and they are forced to experience the pain they have inflicted on others.  In this, the stare seems to be a method of extracting the victim's soul, killing them.  All of this is to say that they have a hard time giving him any meaningful opposition.
    The direction is really strange.  Much of it is competent, but now and then there are really bizarre bits.  Like the strange shot of Ghost Rider in the air, spinning around.
    And this is also the weirdest, most over-the-top performance Nicolas Cage has ever given.  There's a scene, around 32 minutes in, which I really wanted to post with this review.  Cage goes completely crazy, and changes his type of delivery with every line.  Luckily, I found it.

    So…it's not a great movie.  But it's watchable.

159 - Doll Graveyard

    A kid unearths a spot where a girl was buried, along with her dolls.  The dolls resurrect, and the girl's spirit inhabits the kid who found the dolls.  His older sister is having a party while their father is out.  The girl's spirit wants to kill off the people attending the party.
    This was a cheap movie.  I wish I could find the budget, but it's clearly made very cheaply.  But they didn't skimp where they needed it.  The sound is clear.  The picture is decent.  And the editing doesn't annoy.  You can always tell what's happening.
    The script isn't great, but the acting is entirely appropriate for this level of material.  I never felt like the movie was trying to reach beyond what it should be.
    There was one moment in this that I thought was hilarious.  A doll is about to bite the cheek of a girl.  At the start of the shot, it's clear that the girl already has the makeup on her face for the wound.
    I picked up three DVD sets at Best Buy today, so now I have 24 horror movies across six DVDs.  All for the low, low price of about $15.  Normally I don't like these types of compilations.  They usually rely on public domain material to flesh things out, and many of those are nearly unwatchable.  These all seem to be reasonably modern, and not public domain.  So I expect more horror to fill up my time.

158 - Paycheck

    A guy makes a living by reverse-engineering projects, followed by having his memory wiped so that he can never give the secrets away.  He works on a long-term project, and finds that when he's done, there's an effort made to kill him.  To continue explaining things would ruin some of the surprise of the movie.
    This was based on a story by Philip K. Dick, which was part of why I wanted to see it.  The plot is excellent, and would make a remarkable movie.  Except that this was directed by John Woo, and starred Ben Affleck.  And it suffers so badly under this direction.
    The problems with this movie are really difficult to explain.  The script isn't terrible, but it's not great.  The movie is very brightly lit.  There aren't many parts that are in shadow.  But the editing and the framing of the shots are really confusing.  We often get poor views of people or things, and it just makes things confusing.
    The action is lackluster.  It alternated between being absurdly gimmicky, or intolerably predictable.  And like everything Woo does, there are some birds mixed in there.
    I actually figured most of the story out pretty quickly.  I did make one bad prediction later on.  While the story played out as I expected it to, I can credit most of that to another directorial choice.  The foreshadowing is ridiculous!  Every single thing we see pays off in an obvious way.
    I would like to see this story told with a more polished script, and with a more visionary director.  In the meantime, this is a very sad disappointment.
    And one other observation.  The guy is a reverse engineer.  And he gets his memory wiped after each project.  Wouldn't he become obsolete really fast?  He wouldn't learn anything.

157 - Against the Dark

    In some kind of apocalyptic scenario, a few groups of survivors run into each other in a hospital.  They try to find their way out of the building, dealing with some kind of strange vampire/zombies.
    This stars Steven Seagal.  When I started the movie, I wasn't sure what was going on in it.  The introduction only establishes the world that it takes place in.  None of the characters are introduced, and their motivation is not explained. They go into the building, because it's too dangerous to be out in the open during the night.  Their difficulty in getting out doesn't make sense either.  Most of the routes out through lower levels have been blocked off.  So why don't they leave the way they came in?  This is mentioned, but it isn't addressed.
    (I found an explanation for why the characters are in this hospital.  One of the groups is looking for penicillin to treat pneumonia, the other group is hiding there because one of them is familiar with the building.  Not much of a reason.  Also, their incentive for getting out soon is that the power is failing in the building, and if the emergency power runs out, the main exit will be permanently locked.  We'll ignore that it doesn't make sense.)
    The movie does create a ticking clock scenario, by making it so that the military will be bombing the building at dawn.  The reason that the building has to be bombed at that point in time is unclear.  Wouldn't they have all day to do that?
    Even though most of the population seems to be vampire/zombies, there's still a functioning government?  They refer to one of the characters as being from the State department.
    The direction is borderline.  There are slow motion shots that are sloppily done, and don't seem to even focus on something of interest.  The editing is awkward, and makes the action hard to follow.  The action isn't exciting, either.  I don't think I expected much from this, but the action seemed dull, and usually nonsensical.  Sometimes, a single bullet would be enough to kill of the infected.  Other times, a dozen hits were needed.
    The movie was brave in one regard - there are two instances of infected children being killed.  These are both done off-screen, but it's nice to see them being willing to go that route.  Plus, there's a scene where one of the heroes gets bit, and Seagal expresses some sadness and regret, but quickly kills that person off, and moves on.  This is a stereotypical scene in any of these types of movies, and it was nice to see it handled in the most matter-of-fact way possible.
    None of that is to say that this is a good movie.
    You know, The Room had a budget of around 6M.  This had a budget of around 9M.  And this one used plenty of footage appropriated from other sources.  Despite the technical problems of The Room, I'd say that they made a better use of their money.  This movie was hard to watch, only because it wasn't engaging at all.  None of the characters are worth remembering.  The tension in the movie feels forced.  The script is scattershot, with scenes and dialogue having no particular connection to everything else that happens.
    There are plenty of recycled sets in this movie.  We see the same hallway many times, but at least they were willing to change the decoration.

    It isn't clear how long the infection has been going around.  When they raid the cafeteria, they make mention of the food being a couple months old.  I'll assume they were talking about the prepared food.  None of it was moldy.
    Despite the infection only being about "a couple months old" they make several references to the infected "evolving."  They aren't reproducing.  There has only been one generation of the infected.
    I'm sure I'm nitpicking that one.  For an action movie to feel this dull...

156 - Night of the Living Dead (1990)

    Something is making the recently deceased re-animate, and attack the living.  A handful of survivors hole up in a farmhouse, where they argue with each other, and try to figure out how to survive the evening, and find help.
    This was a remake that was directed by Tom Savini.  The story is effectively the same as the original, but the characters have been changed a bit, and the arguments play out differently.  Some people really have a lot of contempt for this version, but I've always thought that it was an important companion piece to the original version.
    As I've gotten more discerning about movies, I've felt a little more disappointed with this version.  The ideas are still great.  Some of the performances are strong, and are over-the-top in just the right way.  There are two roles that are the exception.  Tom, and Judy Rose are both just horrible.  She spends most of her time screaming.  They have some stilted dialogue, but otherwise, they only exist in order to get killed off.

    I have a collection of other thoughts about watching this movie though.  This disc was released by Twilight Time, which put out a limited run of 3000 copies.  They price at a premium, and after shipping, it was about $34 and change.  It's usually worth it though - if you think you'll want a copy of the movie, the prices shoot right up.  They released a Blu-ray of Fright Night, which usually commands about $100 on the secondary market.
    So I preordered this disc.  I was happy to get it.  Then I started reading a bit more about it online.  It has a blue tint, making most of the movie really, really dark.  Then I saw some other reviews claiming it wasn't so bad.  Now that I've seen it, I can say that they're both right.
    The movie starts off looking fine.  Then once the first dead appears, the blue tint kicks in.  By the time Barbara is trying to get away in the car, it's not right.  There's too much muddy black on the screen.
    So I make a bunch of adjustments to my picture settings.  I pick the brightest, most vivid mode possible.  Then I bring up the brightness.  It makes the picture a bit better, and most of the rest of the movie still has the blue tint, but it isn't as powerful.  The strength of it varies, and it's hard to tell if I was just getting used to it.
    Regardless, the print used in this, despite any approval from anyone in authority, is not right.  The darkness of shots doesn't make it more scary, or somehow more mysterious.  It just makes it hard to tell what I'm seeing.

155 - The King's Speech

    The younger son of the king has a strong stutter, and since public speaking is a big part of his duties, he tries a variety of speech therapists, before landing with an "unorthodox" one.  As his father dies, and his brother ascends to the throne, George VI realizes that he will likely have to take the throne.  Along with the throne comes duties of making speeches on the radio.
    I had a few reservations on my way to seeing this.  I had heard that it was very good.  And it is very good.  But I also had read some praise of it on Conservapedia.
    Of course, Andrew Schlafly made a bizarre jump.  There isn't much political about this movie.  If anything, the reluctance to go to war is made palpable.

    This is much more just a movie about two things.  The effect that an impediment can have on even the very rich and powerful, and the friendship between a man of royalty and a working-class Joe.  Both of these ideas are handled well.
    I did feel like something wasn't complete about the movie.  We never learn as much as we should about the psychological elements that contribute to the stutter.  There are several instances where they bring it up, but it doesn't get addressed as fully as it should be.  I suppose that just speaks to the privacy that George feels the need to maintain.
    There was one other scene that felt forced.  When Lionel is confronted over his lack of credentials, that wasn't earned.  It was never an issue before, and it isn't an issue afterward.  It simply existed to create a conflict at the appropriate moment in the story.

    Despite these complaints, it is a very engaging movie.

    And to tie back to what Conservapedia had to say about it, The Social Network was actually more interesting, and not because of the Facebook angle.  It was a more complex, and more flawed character that was being dealt with.

154 - Beauty and the Beast

    I'm sure no one needs a summary of the story of Beauty and the Beast.  This was the 1946 French version by Jean Cocteau.
    There are some really amazing touches to this version.  The effects are really well done, especially for the time period.  The photography is usually very enjoyable.  The design for the Beast is excellent.
    But there are some weaknesses.  I don't care for the dialogue too much.  Some of it seems more hammy than it should be.  And I had a big problem with the way that the ending works.  Beauty's brother attempts to break in to the house that holds the Beast's treasure, as the Beast lay dying.  A statue near the treasure shoots the brother with an arrow, turning him into a Beast.  Suddenly, the original Beast is perfectly fine, and is back to being his human self.  The implication is that there is only one Beast at a time.  So… Beauty's love has nothing to do with turning Beast back.  Even though this is talked about in the dialogue, it seems that the message is that greed turns people into being a Beast, and only letting go of that greed allows them to regain their humanity.  Love has little, or nothing, to do with it.

153 - Looper

    In the near future, an unusual assassin runs into the older version of himself, who wants to prevent his wife from getting killed.  From there, things get more complicated, and more difficult to talk about without spelling too much of the movie out.
    The plot of the movie is nowhere near as complicated as I thought it would be.  It does involve time travel, and the effects that events in the present have on the future, or on future versions of specific people.  But there's some dialogue near the middle of the movie that addresses this, when Bruce Willis tells his younger counterpart not to talk about it.  It's just a big distraction from getting things done.
    There are a few interesting things to consider about this movie.  First, it involves the murder of a child.  Second, because of that murder, the audience is put into an unusual situation regarding who they are supposed to root for.  I found this to be an interesting ambiguity.  Every character has reasonable motivations, so their conflicts make perfect sense.  And since no one seems to have a broader plan than achieving their immediate goal, it's hard to say that any character achieving their goal would fix things.
    It's rare that movies write conflicts this well.  If it doesn't seem like anyone is being unreasonable, everything plays naturally.

    The world building of the movie is handled really well.  It's much more familiar than a movie like Blade Runner is, but it's also got just enough small twists and details to suggest that a lot of things happened in the meantime.  I noticed a detail late in the movie, that a truck has a hose connected to the gas tank, which runs around the back bumper.  It isn't clear what this does, but it implies that there was some innovation.
    I was very happy with this movie, but I also wonder how well it holds up to repeated viewings.  I think I might like to see it every now and then, as I forget about how it plays out.

152 - Downfall (Der Untergang)

    The last several days of World War II, told primarily from Hitler's bunker.
    I didn't see the extended version, but this was still a massively long movie.  I only saw one that was about 2:40.  The longer version is about 20 minutes longer.  It's a good movie.  It's well made, but the adherence to chronology and the facts of the event make this movie an unusual structure.
    We follow several different characters, and not just in the bunker.  In some cases, paths cross, but never in a very meaningful way.  The huge cast, combined with a lot of characters not being named in an explicit way, makes following every story a difficult task.
    But the real reason to watch this movie is Hitler.  A clip of this circulates heavily online, with altered subtitles to show Hitler flipping out about a variety of things.  But the portrayal, and handling of Hitler here is fascinating.
    He's erratic.  He's prone to ignoring bad news.  He tends to blame other people for not being able to carry out orders.   Most of his actions could be taken as him just being in too deep of a situation to get out.  But he doesn't try to get out of the situation.
    Throughout the movie, he gets constant advise to leave Berlin.  He refuses to do this.  He contemplates a variety of other actions, all of which are absurd.  He acts as though armies that no longer exist are under his control.  He considers that he can make the Allied attack more difficult by destroying Germany's resources.
    While he's completely irresponsible as a leader, he's not as cold and calculating as he tries to be.  There are a few instances of him showing genuine appreciation for a few people, and being surprisingly gentle and easygoing with some people.
    But Goebbels is the one who comes out looking really nuts.  He's devoted to Hitler beyond question, to the point where he refuses to recognize facts.  After Hitler dies, he and his wife poison their children, then leave the bunker, where he shoots her, then himself.
    Prideful suicide is all over the last forty-five minutes of this movie.  And it always seems a little puzzling.  Their conviction in feeling that they were right would normally preclude this kind of thing, and suicide seems like more of an admission of guilt.

    It's a fascinating movie, and it's well made, but it needs a little more of a focus to make the jump to greatness.
    And I leave you with my favorite Hitler video.  Enjoy.

151 - The Avengers

    Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Hulk are brought together by Nick Fury, to address the threat caused by Loki stealing the Tesseract.
    I didn't want this movie to be the one that I matched last year's record with, especially since I've been trying to watch more movies for the first time.  But Downfall, which will probably be next on my list, Cathy wants to watch as well.  So I substituted this.
    And man, it's better than I remember.  For a movie of this scale, there are usually some parts where it's easy to just tune out, and not actually pay attention.  On a second viewing, I found that this was still packed very tightly.  There's no fat on this one.  At least, no fat that isn't delicious.
    I also watched the gag reel, the deleted scenes, and listened to the commentary on this.  All of those are worthwhile.  Stan Lee had a different cameo that was trimmed, but I really loved that one.  I found the commentary smoothed over some of my doubts about the movie.  Whedon is a nerdy guy, but he's also remarkably clear about how little responsibility he has for the quality of the movie.  He tosses out a lot of praise for a bunch of editors for handling the story, and making it come together in a way that made sense.  He doesn't take credit for things that other people did that he kept.  He also reiterated how awkward the process for making the movie was - that they had to start filming before they finished a script.
    I'll probably see this again before the year is out.  It's so much fun.

150 - Tourist Trap

    A bunch of teens are driving to some touristy spot, and they get a flat tire.  They wind up finding the destination, and a run down gas station.  They're greeted by the resident.  Gradually the teens are being dispatched by a masked, telekinetic killer, who uses mannequins to do his bidding.
    I wasn't expecting too much from this, but I've been pleasantly surprised.  It's not bad.  In fact, it's kind of interesting.  That isn't to say that it's especially good, but it is memorable.
    This movie has a 6.1 on IMDB.  That's very good for a horror movie - especially for a horror movie from 1979!  Even better for a cheap horror movie from 1979!
    The performances from the teens are generally fine.  No one stands out.  The villain is handled very well, and he seems just creepy enough for most of the movie, before cranking things up for the last reel.
    The telekinetic angle is very interesting.  They don't try to explain it at all, but it provides a great explanation for mannequins moving on their own.  And mannequins are creepy enough without moving.  There are plenty of really creepy bits, where the mannequins have jointed mouths, and they drop open and scream.
    Most of the movie has this very strange feeling, like the whole thing is a nightmare.  It's a very detailed nightmare, and it's the sort of thing that would have a really powerful impact on younger viewers.
    And another peculiar detail about the movie - it's rated PG!  There's a fair amount of blood.  No real gore.  There's an asphyxiation, as well as a death by knife to the back of the head, as well as another with an axe.