193 - Summer Rental

    An overworked air traffic controller goes on a vacation to Florida with his family.
    I remember the box art for this movie.  It wasn’t the content of the art, but it was the layout that made it stand out.  I never rented it, but I was always a little curious.  I’ve grown up to really love 80’s comedies; particularly sex comedies.  They’re formulaic, but there’s always a little something interesting or bizarre about them.
    This is probably one of the worst 80’s comedies I’ve seen.  It’s a real puzzle though, since Carl Reiner directed it, it has some of his sensibilities all over it, and the script actually has some very good jokes in it.  So what went wrong?
    There are two core problems, and in a way, they’re the same.  John Candy is the lead, and he’s just not very likable.  He doesn’t quite have a save-the-cat moment.  When the movie opens, we’re introduced to him leaving for work.  He takes two eggs with him to eat in the car.  One of them turns out to not peel easily, and the other one isn’t cooked at all.  The good thing is that he doesn’t get outrageously angry because of this.  The bad thing is that he still gets annoyed.  This reminded me of seeing the original pilot that became The Dick Van Dyke Show; it was a story that got reworked later, but they had Carl Reiner playing the lead.  The story wound up playing terribly.  There were funny gags, but the whole thing seemed like the lead was such a jerk, there was no reason to want him to do well.  The same thing is repeated here.
    At first, I wondered if this was the first feature Carl Reiner directed.  Then I checked his credits, and this is actually a late period one.  Prior to this, he directed The Jerk!  All of Me!  The Man with Two Brains!  He knows what he’s doing, and yet, this movie seemed sloppy.
    There isn’t much of a plot until pretty late in the movie, when a boat race becomes the big finish event.  Even this is shot in a way that seems to be the most dull way possible.
    Seeing this also made me wonder what makes John Candy likable.  He isn’t a bad presence, but he isn’t especially funny.  I don’t think there were any deliveries he had that stood out.
    Maybe it’s just a sign of the times, but this didn’t seem funny.  It was clearly intended to be a comedy, but the laughs just aren’t there.

192 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

    Four mutated turtles and their mutated rat master fight a crime wave run by the mysterious Foot organization.
    I would have been nine years old when this came out, but I never cared that much about the turtles.  I was aware that the movies came out, but they weren’t even ones that I wanted to see, unlike Masters of the Universe.  That’s a long way of saying that this is the first time I’ve watched this movie.
    This movie is firmly aimed at kids.  There are very few lines that might appeal to adults, and the story seems focused on delivering what kids want to see - the turtles goofing off, and the turtles fighting.  For what it is, it’s fairly successful.  It moves along, it delivers enough laughs.  They don’t skimp on the action.
    That’s the most remarkable thing about the movie.  There’s action all over the place, and they aren’t shooting it poorly.  Most of the sequences are built from modest-length shots that show a clear action.  There aren’t these tight-closeup shots of a swinging arm and weapon, or a connecting hit.  These are choreographed fight sequences.  They’re made more impressive by knowing that these are four guys in layered costumes having to jump around.
    The story is pretty weak, but it seems appropriate for the audience.  There’s just about nothing for adults, maybe one or two jokes.  But I did find the costumes interesting.  Logistically, they were a difficult thing to pull off smoothly, but they managed to do it.
    The weirdest thing is how unbalanced the characters are.  Through most of the movie, Raphael is angry for some reason.  The other turtles aren’t developed in any meaningful way.  April and Casey Jones are developed more than the other turtles.  It isn’t a terrible thing, but it’s a little puzzling.  Seeing most of the turtles pal around, they came across more like Bill & Ted than anything else.

191 - How to Train Your Dragon

    An inept young viking befriends a disabled dragon, counter to his culture’s habit of killing them.
    I just… don’t know.  It’s not a bad movie.  It’s not a good movie either.  I have a hard time dealing with these ones.  Disney, Pixar… these movies are so calculated to manipulate the viewer, that even as I have an emotional reaction, I’m acutely aware of a voice in the back of my head reminding me that I’m being forced into this.
    There are some very fun elements to the story.  The handling of the dragon’s playful behavior is really well done.  There’s a good amount of energy to the story.  But then the script seems annoying.  I think this is just me, but I’m really sick of scripts that are written to appeal to young audiences.  This has been a problem for a long time, but I’ve started to realize that there is good scriptwriting available.  It’s just very rare.  One of the things that really made me love The Hole was that it was aimed squarely at kids.  It was an introductory horror movie.  But it didn’t rely on annoying kid-speak to sell it.  It worked well for adults watching it as well.
    I felt like there were a few more things that bothered me.  It felt too clearly manipulative as far as the color schemes went.  We open on a dark night, lots of fire.  The goal is to make the dragons as scary as possible.  For each sequence, the surrounding day or night and location informs how the viewer is supposed to feel about the dragons.  By the end, I was thinking that the dragons looked like they were left over from Monsters, Inc.
    I would never watch this again, but I feel this way about most Disney/Pixar movies.  Even ones like Aladdin, which I really loved, I have no interest in returning to.
     One possible good influence this movie might have is that it might make young viewers less scared of dogs.

    Also, I really hated the love interest in this movie.  The hero likes her, but she's a jerk until she finds out how she can use him.  It actually felt kind of bad to see her kiss him at the end.

190 - The Taking of Deborah Logan

    While filming a documentary on the deterioration of an Alzheimer’s patient, the crew finds that weirder, more supernatural things are going on.
    I didn’t expect this to be a found-footage movie, but it was.  It plays like most of them.  The typical scares, the shaky camera, the occasional steady shot, the running-in-the-dark sequences.  I’m tired of that.  The story itself is decent, and it sets up some interesting backstory, and a few interesting visuals for the finale.  But there are still things - like the teleportation bits - that are never explained, and they’re only there to make things strange.
    The characters are mostly irrelevant, although the cameraman that leaves before the end is probably the best drawn of them.  And actually, the lead, playing Deborah Logan, is actually pretty good, since she plays her symptoms very well.
    I know this sounds like I didn’t like it, but it’s an alright movie.  For what it is, it kept my attention, and there’s something to be said for that.
    I wish that Blair Witch hadn’t established so much of an influence on all of these found-footage movies.  I think it helped to sell the idea that people are especially scary when they stand motionless, looking away from the camera.  It was the most effective portion of Blair Witch, but shouldn’t these movies strive for more?

     Mild spoiler - the highlight of the movie is some of the effects work during the last few minutes, as the possessed Deborah Logan somehow attempts to swallow a young girl whole.  It's much stranger to see it in motion.
     There are odd ideas in the movie that are never explained to satisfaction.  She's possessed by the spirit or of a dead serial killer, who was trying to achieve immortality, but was killed before the last victim could be killed.  His rituals had a lot to do with snakes and things like that.  Somehow, as the possession of her grows, she takes on a few snake-like qualities.  Scaly skin on her back, spitting venom, and finally, being able to try to swallow people whole.  Strange stuff.

189 - Good Will Hunting

    Will Hunting is a blue-collar janitor who solves a publicly posted math problem, making his mathematical genius known to MIT.  As the professor tries to take him under his wing, he finds that Will has some personal issues to work through.
    I have no idea why this is 129 on IMDB’s top 250.  It’s an enjoyable movie, but it feels like something’s missing.
    I felt like the movie was opening with a caricature of Boston.  I lived there for four years.  I didn’t grow up there, and I wasn’t nearly the blue-collar type that is focused on, but I felt like this was a strangely dated picture of Boston.  It was released in 1997, but something feels like a relic from the 80s.
    The good things are out there.  Matt Damon is a pleasure to watch, although he isn’t as charming as some of his later roles.  The script is fun, but it also feels a bit padded.  There are scenes that are there solely to add flavor, and they become a little conspicuous.  Sometimes I can like these kinds of things, but when they show up around the middle of the movie, they tend to drag the pacing down a little.
    After the setup has gone through, it seemed like a pleasant movie… something inoffensively good.  Like Shawshank Redemption, which also has a strangely high ranking.
    It’s hard for me to point to specific problems, but I guess it might be that I expect really good movies to be a little conflicting.  There should be a sense of mystery to the proceedings, something that would reward multiple viewings and cause you to recognize genius.  I just don’t get that with this one.

188 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

    Katniss and Peeta go on tour for some reason, which stirs up the oppressed people.  They get roped into a big event for the 75th annual Hunger Games, which results in them being put back in the arena with a bunch of past victors.
    I came out of this movie feeling much more conflicted.  The first chunk of the story has the couple going on tour, inadvertently stirring up dissent.  The story started to feel a little more complicated, placing the characters and their oppressors in a situation where neither would be able to gain a clear advantage.  Then the bad guys make their move and… decide to repeat the first movie.
    As a sequel, there’s an effort to push everything to an extreme.  The other kids in the tournament are prior winners, meaning that they’re all driven, tough, and generally, willing to kill.  The game designer is a bit more ruthless, using poison fog (?!) aggressive apes, and a lack of fresh water as a means of making a more punishing game.  These seem like things that should make for a more exciting movie, but they aren’t.
    The problem is that they removed the central conflict that made the original more interesting.  How do you win the games while being hunted, and still remain a hero?
    The story ends on a cliffhanger, but it isn’t especially interesting.

    There’s a larger problem with this story, and it becomes clearer the longer I’m exposed to it.  The premise simply doesn’t make sense.  This isn’t an effective means of the government showing its might.  This wouldn’t prevent the districts from rebelling.  For all the discussion of symbolism, it ignores that this kind of event would encourage revolution, not prevent it.

187 - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks

    A trio of evil girls arrive at Canterlot High, and their magic turns students against each other.  Twilight Sparkle is called in from Equestria to help the girls save the day at a battle of the bands.
    I was pleased with the first Equestria Girls movie, far more than I expected to be.  It’s a real shame, this one feels half-baked.  The writing is sub-par.  The jokes are rarely worthwhile, and the songs are pretty bad.  While I didn’t feel like any of the songs in the first movie were really good, they were decent.  In this one, there’s too much of an effort to make everything seem cool and cutting edge.  This really hurts it.  I especially dislike when they switch to a different person to voice the singing.  Part of what makes Apple Bloom and Apple Jack’s singing enjoyable is that they remain in character.  I hate hearing Twilight sing, since she loses most of her character.
    There’s a repeated theme of referencing the last movie, talking about how monstrous Sunset Shimmer was.  These aren’t enjoyable jokes.  They don’t even seem like jokes.
    Honestly, even the messages about friendship seem to be forced.  It would help if we saw the main characters actually getting along well before we see them go through hard times.

     Even though the subtitle for My Little Pony is "Friendship is Magic" - an idea to be taken literally - I wish that these features would try avoiding magical aspects in favor of a stronger script.  Maybe that wouldn't be as appealing to kids though.

     The highlight of it - Pinkie Pie playing the theremin.  It should have gone on longer, and I didn't care for the punchline, but it was nice to see that animated.