109 - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

    Picking up at the end of the third season, Twilight Sparkle's crown is stolen on the night before her coronation, and she is sent into another reality to reclaim the crown from Sunset Shimmer.  Upon traveling to the other reality, she finds herself in a human form, and navigating a high school in her quest.
    The trailer for this was a real source of argument among the brony community.  There were a lot of things to be worried about.  It looked like they were transplanting the core characters into a high school setting, and giving them a normal teen comedy/romance story to work with.  There was the implied romantic interest between Twilight and some guy.  The re-design of the characters was also a bit annoying.  They looked like the Bratz equivalent of the ponies.
    Despite these problems, I'm pleased to say that it's actually a pretty good movie.  For a tie-in to a children's cartoon, it's well written, well animated, and it tells a satisfying story that is rewarding for fans of the show.  It's long enough that it doesn't skip over needed points, and short enough that it doesn't feel like they're just padding things out.
    I should address some of the points that fans were worried about.
    The high school style plot is fit over a normal MLP-style story.
    The character designs look much worse outside of the context of the movie.  They do look like they have absurdly skinny arms and legs, but it seems that everyone has them.  The lankiness of their design actually serves a purpose.  Also, the bizarre quality of the color schemes that the movie uses is amazing.  It actually makes it clear that this story does not take place in the real world.  There are people with green skin wandering the hallways.  Twilight's purple skin isn't out of place.
    The romantic subplot was pretty restrained.  It's mostly just clear that Twilight is attracted to this guy, and he seems a little into her.  There's no kiss.  This seems to be a way to introduce the guy into the pony universe.
    The songs are a little interesting.  They're more electronic, which I don't care for.  There are some interesting moments, particularly in the Equestria Girls song.  There's a tempo change that seemed like it would be pretty difficult, and the chord changes go in a direction I wasn't expecting.
    Cathy had felt pretty convinced that this wouldn't be good.  I was a little wary, but I still held out hope that the people working on the show know what makes it work.  She was pleased, and I was too.

108 - Super 8

    A group of young kids (middle school?) are shooting a movie when a nearby train is derailed.  The train is carrying a bizarre secret that affects the whole town, and brings the government in to contain the situation.
    That's as spoiler-free as I can get it.  But I can't maintain that level of secrecy.
    I was very happy with this movie at first.  The relationships between the kids, the brewing romance, the film they're working on, all of that was wonderful.  Once the plot kicks in, I felt a little disappointed.  The story involves an alien that the government has been holding and experimenting on, which is otherwise peaceable, but years of being held captive and being tortured has made it resent mankind.  It's been creeping around town, stealing electronics in an effort to build a ship to return home.  There's something vaguely Star Trek-like about the story.  The second half of the picture seems to be a homage to classic monster movies, wrapped up in a Twilight Zone/Star Trek ending.  This isn't terrible, and it didn't make me dislike the movie, but it just couldn't hold a candle to the strong opening.
    I found myself thinking of some comparisons to Stand By Me, which handles relationships in a similar fashion.  The romantic angle of this is a nice, but pushes a little too far.  The heartfelt conversation doesn't ring true.  Maybe if the content of it had been placed into a different context.
    There's one other thing that I wanted to point out.  Abrams has handled movies with some massive destruction before.  He produced Cloverfield, directed Mission: Impossible 3, and did both of the modern Star Trek movies.  He even wrote Armageddon!  He has a certain technique that I've gotten a little tired of.  He loves his lens flares, and I don't mind them most of the time.  But he combines those with handheld shots, in an effort to insert the viewer into the action.  I actually like this technique, but the problem is that he tends to do it way too often.
    His interest in spectacle destruction is a lot of fun.  What stood out in this movie was a sequence near the end.  The military is working on combing the evacuated town in an effort to recapture the alien.  The alien's influence over electrical parts has caused a lot of the heavy weapons to fire and target randomly.  This type of destruction is really wild.  I haven't seen anything like it.  It's one thing to see a skyscraper, or a large building crumble, or get knocked by a monster's tail.  This is a suburban town, and it looks like a neighborhood I would know.

107 - X-Men: First Class

    Set against the Cuban missile crisis, Sebastian Shaw tries to instigate a nuclear war in hopes of bringing mutants in control of the Earth.  Meanwhile, Professor X and Magneto recruit other young mutants in hopes of stopping his plot.
    I think I was a little more dissatisfied with this one than I was before.  The weaknesses have jumped out, even though there are still some very enjoyable aspects that I can enjoy.
    The rewriting of X-Men cannon in an effort to make this story compatible with the X-Men world of the previous three movies.  The original X-Men lineup had Iceman, Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, and Angel.  In the three previous X-Men movies, Cyclops is part of the older guard, same with Marvel Girl.  Beast is even older (which fits nicely) but Angel and Iceman are both pretty young.  Cyclops is also the older brother of Havok, who appears in First Class as a late teen (I think).
    The inclusion of Darwin really bugs me, especially after reading up on him.  His abilities make him nearly invulnerable, but they kill him off far too easily.  The villainous henchmen - Riptide and Azazel - seem to be filler.  They don't contribute to the plot, but they contribute to the action.  This was part of the problem with X3.
    I found the music distracting this time.  In particular, Magneto's theme.  There was a lot of effort to fit some electric guitar work into this soundtrack, but it seems to work against the time period.  I looked up who did the score for it… and he does good work.  He's done a lot of recent movies, and most of them have excellent soundtracks.

106 - Reefer Madness

    A 30s propaganda film that warns of the dangers of marijuana use.
    This is a legendary title that I've had plenty of opportunity to see, but never had the motivation.  I've never been into pot, but occasional stoner comedies can be enjoyable.  In this case, most of the fun comes from how ridiculous the movie is.  There's an effort to make pot seem as dangerous as possible, at the expense of being believable.
    I wonder about the reception that the movie would have from a person who didn't have any knowledge of the actual effects of pot.  The portrayal here involves manslaughter, running over a pedestrian, a suicide, and insanity.  There's no indication of the actual effects of smoking pot - mostly laziness and hunger.  But without the broad knowledge that our culture has, I wonder how believable it would be.
    The acting and direction is hard to evaluate, given the propaganda angle.  It's not the sort of thing that was intended to make an artistic statement.  When people are directed to do things that are over-the-top, it's hard to say if they're a good actor or not.
    It's an interesting relic, but it's not for me.

105 - Bloody Birthday

    A trio of kids, born during the same eclipse, celebrate their birthday weekend by going on a murder spree.
    I read something a long time ago that was posted on the AV Club about this movie.  While it sounded like my kind of movie, I didn't search it out.  I happened across it on Netflix, and the title and summary sounded like fun.
    It's a bit silly, but still fun.  There isn't much motivation given for why the children kill.  We get a little bit of an explanation, mostly just that because they were born during the eclipse, Saturn was obscured, so somehow they should be missing a part of their personality.  This isn't a satisfying explanation.  The murders are actually handled pretty well.  I've seen plenty of "evil children" movies, and most of them are darker than this.  When I watched this, there was still a strange sense of happiness to it.  I'm not sure why.
    There are a few noteworthy cast choices.  We get to see a youngish Julie Brown dancing around topless as she gets changed.  One of the evil kids is played by Billy Jayne, who I know I as Mikey on Parker Lewis.  He's wearing glasses in this, which reminds me a lot of Christian Slater in Twisted.  Man, that one's obscure.
    One thing that makes this movie especially funny is how breakneck the pace is.  After class, the kids mention to their teacher that their birthday party is next Monday.  After coming home from school, the kids kill off one of their parents.  Then we're at the funeral for him.  Then we still have a few more days before their birthday.  This wouldn't be much of an issue, except that I thought the story was starting on a Friday.  Nevermind - this is trivial.
    This isn't quite as creepy as The Children, but it was still fun.  Maybe a little closer to the level of creepiness of The Bad Seed, where most of the violence is implied.

104 - The Transporter

    A man who works as a courier for a variety of shady characters winds up running afoul of a client when the client uses him to transport a girl.
    I saw this last year, I think, and this time, I showed it to Cathy.  This is a very unusual action movie.  It starts out with a fun driving chase, which seems to be reasonably serious.  The action keeps on getting a little more silly each time through.  By the time we reach the last twenty minutes, it's much more funny.
    Besides the opening chase, there's one scene in particular that I latch onto.  There's an oil fight.  In a garage, Statham fights a handful of henchmen, and this involves tipping over a few oil troughs.  There's something so hilarious about this.
    One of the other touches I noticed was about the way that Statham moves when he's in an action sequence.  He has this robotic look to him, but it may be a way of trying to make it look like his movements are especially precise.
    I've also read up on Statham in the meantime, and found that he did his own stunts for this one.  I like that.  Part of the thrill of Jackie Chan's pictures is the knowledge of the effort that went into it.

103 - Rites of Spring

    In two intersecting plots, a group of people working on holding a girl ransom crosses with a guy who kidnaps women and passes them on as a sacrifice.
    I sort of gave a spoiler there.  Sorry.  But I can't anticipate anyone actually watching this who wants to be surprised.
    Part of what attracted me to this movie was the poster/box art.  It looks remarkably 70s or early 80s.  Unfortunately, it's a completely modern style story.
    There's something about the plot that seems off to me.  These types of stories - ones that mix more than one type of story - can be very disorienting.  Like the first time you see From Dusk Til Dawn, and the movie drastically changes direction about halfway through.  I wonder if I should attribute that to Psycho.
    Both of the stories seem a little under-done.  The ransom storyline seems more fleshed out, but it also plays out exactly as you expect it to.  Everyone turns on each other, since no one can trust one another.  The sacrifice thing is less detailed.  We get the sacrifices crucified in a field, wearing an animal mask.  The background for this story is less clear, but lots of hints are dropped.
    I can't really claim this is memorable.  For an independent horror, it's pretty decent.  It's easy enough to follow what's happening, and it's technically pretty good.  No annoying editing.

102 - Blitz

    A cop killer is on the loose, and Jason Statham is a detective with anger issues who is on the trail.
    For a pretty standard police hunt movie, it's got a few unusual twists.  First, there's a plot line involving a cop who has nothing to do with the main story.  Her role is interesting, but there's something misleading about her part in the movie.  I might have to give it more thought, since there's probably some meaning behind the inclusion.  The other noteworthy twist is that the ending is completely unexpected.  We actually only figure it out at the same time the antagonist does.  This is surprisingly effective.
    The pacing is a little slow, but there's a certain atmosphere to the production.  There's a mildly dreary color palate, and it places the weather and the locale very well.
    The action is fairly minimal, but the violence is tough, and without a sense of levity.  This gives it a better sense of being grounded in reality.
    This isn't a great movie, but it's entirely watchable, and pretty engaging.

101 - Starcrash

    A smuggler named Stella Star is recruited for a mission to find the Emperor of the Galaxy's son.  They also confront Count Zarth Arn, who threatens the stability of the universe with his massive, planet-sized weapon.
    I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover this.  This was released in December of 1978, and it clearly borrows freely from Star Wars.  But it borrows from a variety of sources, and for an Italian knockoff, it's really pretty fun.
    Everyone over-acts.  It's spectacular, and it really makes everything move faster.  In fact, things feel like they slow down during the action.  While everyone does a great job of delivery, the really amazing work is done by Joe Spinell, as the villainous Count Zarth Arn.  I can't do his work justice.
    The story hops along briskly, with some massively strange plot developments aided by technobabble.  This isn't run-of-the-mill Star Trek variety stuff, but it's so massively outdated that none of it makes any sense.  Incredulous delivery of the line "These are pre-programmed computers!" or "We'll scan it with our computer waves."
    The effects work is very cheap, but it never seems annoying.  Obvious miniatures are ok.  The shots in space are nice, but I have a weird little thing I've been focused on.  There are too many stars in space in Star Wars.  There are too many in Star Trek.  But in both of those cases, I don't mind it, since the stars actually provide a certain orientation in the shot.  In this movie, there are so many stars that it's overwhelming.
    Is it good?  Not exactly, but it's really worth watching.

100 - V/HS 2

    Another found-footage horror anthology.
    My feelings about the first V/H/S have improved over time, and I find myself looking forward to getting the Blu-ray of that one eventually.  I wonder if my perception of this one will improve.
    The framing device is a little more interesting this time around.  A pair of private investigators are looking for a missing student.  They look around his apartment, which looks like it's in similar condition to the house in the framing from the first movie.  In fact, we hear a snippet of that framing, which is a nice touch.
    The first story, titled Phase I Clinical Trials, is actually a pretty nice premise, even though it's been done a few different ways.  A man who was in a car accident winds up getting a bionic eye, which is recording everything, in the interest of clinical trials.  He finds that he can see ghosts - or something like that - around his house.  A girl arrives, who plans on giving him some direction about how to deal with them.
    A Ride in the Park was a little aimless, but it's still pretty enjoyable, since it offers a nice variation on a stock zombie story.  The story is told from the POV of a cyclist, who gets infected by a girl he encounters on some bike trails.  He turns into a zombie, and we follow him on his journey, where he infects others, and so forth.  It moves along nicely, but there isn't much substance to this.
    The third segment is Safe Haven, which was really bizarre, but probably the most fascinating of the movie.  A news crew persuades a cult leader to let them interview him at his compound.  The crew wears hidden cameras, along with their obvious camera setup.  It's sort of impossible to explain this story, since it has a wide range of strange, and bloody events.  It's just connected enough that it feels like there's a larger plot to figure out.  There are some fantastic images in it, like a roomful of identically dressed men all committing suicide together.
    Slumber Party Alien Abduction is another strange one.  It started off well, with some sexy sibling shenanigans (which I won't' bother to detail).  Then it gets into some strange territory, as the house, and all the kids, are attacked by aliens.  They look like pretty standard Grey aliens.  This segment would probably work better in theaters.  When the aliens attack, there's a massive loud noise, which would have been much more startling in a theater.  At home, it's just annoying.  Of course, we never learn too much about what the aliens are abducting for, and the story ends with a dog's death (or serious injury) which is not a nice way to end things.
    Then we come back to the framing device, which was suitably weird, but at least it was more satisfying than the first movie's closing.
    The thing that I found more charming in the first movie - that the found footage format lent itself to unresolved stories - doesn't seem to have applied here.  There are a few conclusions, but the stories without an ending (A Ride in the Park and Slumber Party) have serious weaknesses without them.
    Maybe I'd buy this if it were packaged in a two-for-one deal with the first movie.  But I can't say this is especially worthwhile.  Sort of a shame.

99 - Crowsnest

    A found-footage horror that focuses on a group of people heading for a vacation cabin, when their plans are ruined by some people in an RV attacking them.
    The summary of this - provided by Netflix, but also appearing on IMDB - "In late summer of 2011, five young friends on a road trip went missing after being attacked by nomadic cannibals in a huge RV. Video was recorded by the victims & recovered by police as evidence in their still-unsolved murders."

This summary is misleading.  There are no police in this movie.  There's no framing device.  We don't know how this footage was recovered.
    One of the biggest problems that found-footage movies have is that they don't have characters we care about.  This hasn't been an issue in the Paranormal Activity movies (at least for me) but I don't remember liking any of the people in Blair Witch, and even Cloverfield seemed to have a dearth of likable people.  This is no different.  There is no one in this movie that is likable.  What's funny is that they seem to know it.  All of their relationships fall apart about halfway through the movie, as soon as some stress is put on them.
    This is a pretty by-the-numbers plot.  They show up in a tiny, abandoned town.  See some weird things, a local warns them of death.  Then they get back on the road, and get hunted down by some backwoods guys in an RV.  There are a few tiny variations.  Specifically, we don't see the person warning them to stay away, we only hear about it secondhand.  There's also a girl, borrowed from Japanese tradition, dressed in white, with long black hair covering her face.  We see her standing spookily, holding a stuffed animal, then she disappears.  Later on, she shows up in the RV, and seems to be one of the cannibals.  It's strongly implied that she is killed, but we never learn anything about who she is, and what her relationship to the two guys running the RV is.

    Despite how simple the plot is, and how annoying all the characters are, I do have some mild praise for this movie.  Once the sequence started with the RV terrorizing the group, I found myself very tense.  The setup reminds me a lot of Duel, but the setting is a bit worse.  The backwoods mountain road, with next to no shoulder, and seemingly only one lane, it's pretty terrible.  It also reminded me a little of the first time I saw Jeepers Creepers.  The first act of that movie is very effective, then it just gets silly.

98 - The Dirk Diggler Story

    A fake documentary about Dirk Diggler, a fictional porn star.
    This was the Paul Thomas Anderson's first short film.  It runs about half an hour long, but it formed the basis for Boogie Nights.
    PTA talks a lot about this on his commentary for Boogie Nights (which is fantastic, and entirely worth listening to).  I never thought I would see it.  Luckily, someone uploaded it to youtube.
    It's fascinating.  It's incredibly cheap looking, and probably was shot over the course of a few weeks.  But it's interesting seeing similar material to Boogie Nights presented in a different format.  I found myself enjoying the voiceover work, and found some of the other material that wasn't used in Boogie Nights, to be very funny.
    There's a different tone to this.  While Boogie Nights runs a wide gamut of moods, it ultimately ends on a hopeful note.  In this case, the movie ends with the death of Dirk, and a variety of his co-workers mourning him.  The relationship between Reed Rothchild and Dirk is different.  It's more intimate, and not just because they shoot some gay porn together in this one.  In Boogie Nights, Reed and Dirk gradually move apart as drugs take over their lives.  Here, they don't.  And Reed seems much more emotionally bonded to him.
    The one scene that disappointed was that The Touch was included here.  But it doesn't play as well, since he actually sings it fairly well.

97 - The Godfather

    Michael, the son of Don Corleone, gradually comes to take control of his father's criminal organization.
    I'm sorry to all of the fans of this picture, but I just didn't love it the way some other people seem to.  I found it engaging, and it kept my attention.  But it didn't speak to me on a personal level.  I wonder about this aspect, especially since my feelings about Goodfellas have changed over time.
    When I was younger, high school and college age, I think I felt more angry.  That anger may have made the mob lifestyle seem more glamorous.  Now, it just seems criminal and cruel.  Childish in certain ways.  Much of it seems to be about jockeying for position and holding grudges and having a strange sense of family pride.
    The characterizations are good.  I sort of wish Michael had been more firmly demonstrated to be a good person prior to his induction into the mob life.  Brando is… I can't evaluate his work.  His performance has become a caricature as time has passed.  I actually found his work to be over-the-top, but I'm not sure what else I could have expected.  I did prefer his scenes as he got older.
    The story is long, and it's full of complex interactions.  Yet, I didn't think much of it matters.
    Cathy liked this one much more.  But I kept thinking about Amadeus, and how a similarly critically acclaimed movie would feel so much more important to me.  The reason is that Amadeus has characters that I like, and that I identify with.  Here… I have a bunch of thugs pushing people around.  The most interesting element of it is Brando's interest in keeping out of the drug business, but that's just played as a plot device, not as a theme, or even a character-building moment.
    I can't say this is a bad movie at all.  the direction is well handled, there's a distinct look to the movie, and there's a style to the framing that is unique, but not annoying.