19 - The Collection

    In this sequel to The Collector (2009), the survivor from the first one helps a team of mercenaries track down The Collector to rescue a girl.
    I remembered watching The Collector, but I keep getting it mixed up with Laid to Rest/Chromeskull.  Both involve masked killers, elaborate, brutal traps, and are based loosely on Halloween/Friday the 13th, and to a lesser extent, Saw.  We don't learn much of anything about the villain's motivations.  This wouldn't be much of an issue, since most horror movies handle that material by letting the audience fill in the blanks by showing some creepy habits.  Here, the problem is that his creepy habits are all over the place.  He's dressing one captive up like a little girl, he's assembling bizarre mutilated mannequins, he removes some body parts.  Some people, he's drugging up and turning into strange manic zombies.  Sometimes it seems like he might be making an effort to assemble a perfect being (a la Frankenstein or May) but sometimes he just seems to want to cut people.
    This movie did start with a sequence at a rave, which I now consider to be one of the tackiest ways of trying to identify with the youth market.  Sometimes, these types of scenes have a place, but this seemed a little silly.  At least this sequence comes to a pretty abrupt closing by killing nearly everyone there.
    The violence, and the traps, are really over the top.  At first, it seemed like it was a little interesting, like it was showing a killer who had a specific plan in mind.  As the movie wears on, it doesn't play as well, only because it starts seeming like too much of a plot convenience.
    They used a very Halloween-like ending, which seemed appropriate.  Unmasking the villain wouldn't work, because we don't have a supporting cast that he can be tied to.
    Still, this was reasonably good for a modern horror movie.  I can't complain.

18 - Premium Rush

    A bike messenger is given an envelope to deliver, but he is waylaid by a crooked cop who is trying to steal it.
    A fun movie, but not especially memorable.  It's a little ridiculous, and not in a way that is entirely endearing.  I have this feeling that it was probably  much stronger script at first, and that it got diluted into something more complicated by the time it was shot.  Some of the subplots seem a little more forced, like his competitive relationship with the black guy.
    What stood out to me was the villain.  He seemed more scary to me than a movie of this caliber should have.  I think I was expecting a level of evilness that was probably more akin to the "evil dean" in a college movie.  This seemed more like a toned down version of Philip Seymour Hoffman's Mission: Impossible 3 villain.
    And the script created a very strange, uneven balance between the hero and the villain.  The hero only has the means of thwarting the villain, but not keeping himself safe from retribution.  This gives the whole movie a tension that isn't very pleasant.  It gets resolved neatly, but it adds to the dark touch that this movie uses, which doesn't feel right for a movie that feels like a live-action cartoon.

17 - Sinister

    A writer and his family move into a house where the prior occupants had been killed in the backyard.  His plan is to write a book about the one person whose body wasn't found - the youngest girl.  After finding some home movies in the attic, he finds that the footage is both of the family having a good time, followed by their murder.  And it seems that there are a handful of other, similar videos.
    I had been looking forward to this, since it seemed to be made in a similar way to Insidious, which I remember liking, and probably should revisit.
    This is a good movie.  It covers some dark material, and while much of it isn't explicit, it's obvious exactly what's happening.  The methods of death are interesting, in that they're mostly unique, but just clever enough that it's clear that some thought went into it.  Do we have a reason why the deaths are this fancy?  Not really, but they do play out well, with some appropriate tension.
    The main story, of the man discovering all of this, is good, but it doesn't reach the same heights reached by The Ring.
    The other thing to watch out for with this movie is that it has a dark ending.  In a certain way, it isn't satisfying, but it seemed like it was coming.  How can you fight a Pagan god?

16 - Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony

    A documentary that focuses on the Brony phenomenon, centered around a handful of specific people, and their trips to assorted My Little Pony conventions.  Hosted by John de Lancie.
    While I never sponsored this documentary, I was aware of it.  And I'm pleased with how it turned out.
    The content is very positive, although it does make reference to cloppers at one point.  What made the movie work was the variety of people the story follows.  We meet a German couple who came together from their mutual interest in MLP.  We meet a musician, a laser-light show person, a guy who lives in North Carolina…
    We get a handful of people who are a little strange, but everyone is treated with respect.  There's a guy with Asbergers who seems like a very likable guy, and he mostly just needs someone to help him gather confidence to deal with certain situations.  Not to sound bad at all.
    The one person that I actually came out of this feeling worse about was a young kid from Maine.  His father seems like a caricature of what a conservative father would be like.  In fact, he reminded me of Fred Willard.  What bothered me about him was how poorly he was handling his relationship with his son.  His son was clearly afraid of him, which isn't a good start.  Then after his father finds out that his son is into this show, and wants to go to a convention, his reaction just reinforces that his son was right to be wary.  They give the person a happy ending, since they include in the credits that he watched an episode, and enjoyed it.  I don't think that's quite enough.  Even his wife seemed kind of subservient to him.
    It was a pleasure to see the German couple get together.
    The one scene that felt a little out of place was the Gala.  It's a nice dance, but the problem is that there weren't enough girls.  So there are a handful of girls dancing with guys, but there are far too many guys hanging around waiting for their chance.
    It's a pleasure to see this movie, and to know that it might eventually persuade some people to understand what's appealing about My Little Pony.

15 - North by Northwest

    An organized crime outfit mistakes an advertising man for a secret agent.  After refusing to believe that he isn't with the FBI, the man tracks both the real FBI agent and the criminals across the country.
    I've heard lots of good things about this movie, but I had an impossible time bringing myself to watch it.  I was aware of the crop duster scene, and the climax on Mount Rushmore.  But this is one of Hitchcock's best films.  It's funny, it's tense, there's no sense of how everything is going to resolve.
    In fact, the only thing I can think of that doesn't work is that it might not stand up to repeated viewings well.  And I think if I had seen this as a kid, I wouldn't have liked it as much.  It doesn't have the emotional resonance that Vertigo had.  There are a few points that are a little too slow, but I believe they were used because of Cary Grant's machismo.
    This is the first time I've seen Cary Grant in a movie, and he's hilarious.  It might be because I'm so familiar with Some Like it Hot that I associate his voice with being… comical.
    I have more reservations about Hitchcock's work as I get older.  I see some of his awkward editing, his issues with focus, and some of the effects he used haven't aged well.  Usually I can ignore these, but they seemed a little more glaring in this picture, especially since there are so many real locations.

14 - Frankenstein

    Dr. Frankenstein assembles a creature from a variety of parts of deceased people.  After mistreating the monster for awhile, the town turns against the creature.
    I didn't like this as much as Dracula, but it still was interesting.  The direction is better, although the pacing is still strange.  It's a much more talk-heavy production.
    I think what bothers me more about the story is how many opportunities they missed.  There doesn't seem to be any contemplation about how they should treat it. 

13 - The Man Who Laughs

    A surgically disfigured boy grows up to become a famous clown, and discovers this royal heritage.
    This was the 1928 version of the story, which seems to have been filmed many times.  It's based on a story by Victor Hugo.  I wish I could say that I got this, but I really didn't.
    The story seemed reasonably straightforward.  My bigger problem was a common issue with silent films - there's so much dialogue that's being spoken, but we're left to our imagination to fill in the blanks.  But there's an obvious political subtext that I have a hard time understanding.  I also have a hard time with some of the broad ideas in the movie.  Like what it is that Gwnplaine actually does in his act.  It seems to be based around the idea of just letting his face be seen.
    I wanted to see this because his appearance influenced the way that the Joker was designed.  I can see this.  But it's not as dark - or dramatic - as it should be.