The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects was alright. It was interesting seeing how things played out, and I liked the ending, even if it was a little confusing.

The Usual Suspects came out 20 years ago, but somehow I never saw it. Now it's weird because of Kevin Spacey. It makes you look at things in a different light. His character comes off as pretty weird/creepy, and it turns out that he actually is creepy.

They wore really oversized suits in the 90s. The musical cues were super oldschool and distracting. They really liked doing shots of two characters in profile. Benicio del Toro was practically unrecognizable. I liked Stephen Baldwin's performance, for some reason. I don't think I've ever actually seen him in anything.

My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro is super simple. It's pleasant enough to watch, but I wouldn't exactly call it a must-see.

I've been wanting to see My Neighbor Totoro for a long time, and I finally did it. Out of the five or so Miyazaki movies I've seen, it's definitely the simplest. Totoro himself is kind of creepy. He roars a lot, and his teeth are disturbing. The scene with him standing in the rain with the leaf on his head, holding an umbrella, is pretty iconic, though. The cat bus was creepy, too. And Mei was really weird-looking. That was hard to get past. I liked how there was a musical cue for everything that happened, though, like even a butterfly flying around.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood takes its place in a long line of movies where I'm not really sure what the point of making or watching it was.

I hadn't ever heard of this version of Robin Hood. I'm kind of ambivalent about Russell Crowe, but he is good at playing this sort of character. The characters were the strongest part of the movie. They were all pretty likeable and interesting. The movie did seem to go on forever. But I was watching the director's cut. Although I think most of the scenes that were added actually were beneficial to the movie.

Okja

Okja is definitely a touching movie, but the tone was off, and a lot of the characters were like caricatures. I could never quite get into it.

Okja is a weird movie. It’s about a genetically modified “super pig” that looks like a giant hippo. It gets raised by a little girl in the forest for ten years, and then the company that made it wants it back. The characters are super odd. They’re like caricatures. I didn’t particularly enjoy Tilda’s performance as twin sisters – which by the way, is she typecast into only playing twins now? And Jake was super bizarre as the doctor.

Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph has some funny moments, but there’s nothing “extra” to push it past being a standard kids’ movie.

Wreck-It Ralph is another movie I didn’t really have any interest in seeing. I did like Jane Lynch’s character, though. They incorporated a lot of her personality into the animation. It’s kind of a cool concept, like the secret lives of videogame characters.

The Departed

The Departed is a bit dated, but the acting is good, and I guess it’s interesting enough, if you like that kind of thing.

I had always heard that The Departed was good, but I wasn’t interested in it. Now that I finally got around to seeing it, it seems kind of dated, but I guess that’s what happens when you watch something that’s a decade old.

Man of Steel

We all know Superman’s story already, so I didn’t really get what the point of watching this was, but it was fine.

I never had any interest in seeing Man of Steel; or in fact, any Superman movies, because I’ve never seen one. And this wound up being another one I was only halfway paying attention to. I like Michael Shannon. He was good in Boardwalk Empire, and he did well playing Zod. Henry Cavill is fun to look at, and that’s pretty much my overall opinion of the movie.

Assassin's Creed

I wound up not 100% paying attention to Assassin’s Creed, but the general feeling I got was that it’s not that good. It’s a little hollow, and there are some weird plot and editing choices. It does look pretty good, though.

I’m kind of fond of the Assassin’s Creed games, even though I’ve never played them. But I’ve seen them played through at least partially and they look cool. And I like Michael Fassbender, so I wanted to see this even though the reviews weren’t good. I wound up not really being able to pay attention to it, but I think I can tell it wasn’t good enough to be worth watching again.

It did look cool, for the most part. Not cool enough that I regret not seeing it in the theater, though. I liked the character design for the past. The clothes and tattoos were cool. They did seem to be doing a lot of superhuman stuff for no reason. I was like wow, people’s abilities were a lot different in the past. I kind of missed what they were talking about with how the assassins first got created. That might have been interesting to know.

Dancer

Dancer (aptly titled since that’s all the subject is, having no room in his life for anything additional) is pretty sad, but I guess it’s kind of interesting, and at least it ends on a hopeful note.

I read a review for Dancer and checked out Sergei’s “Take Me to Church” performance, which is pretty amazing, and decided the movie might be interesting to watch. It was kind of interesting. And also kind of boring. And also sad.

Len and Company

Len and Company is kind of interesting, but there's nothing profound about it, and it's one of those movies that leaves you wondering what the point of making or watching it was.

The reviews for Len & Company weren't that great, but I wanted to watch it anyway. There was something weird going on with the audio syncing, and you heard the lines with a significant delay after you saw them being spoken, which was really weird. And this was an especially bad movie for that to happen on since it's almost exclusively people talking. It was probably just a DVD/player issue, but it made it difficult to get a handle on the movie.

Kill Zone 2

Kill Zone 2 had potential, but the plot is pretty atrocious. It looks okay, though, and some of the action is interesting.

The trailer for Kill Zone 2 made it look interesting (I think half of my reviews start this way). IMDb said the plot wasn't good, but the action was, so I went ahead and saw it. IMDb was accurate. The plot is pretty atrocious, but the action is interesting. Tony Jaa is fun to watch, and Jing Wu was good, too. Some of the dialogue probably came across better in the original language.

I'm really starting to hate breaking windows. I haven't seen it done well in so long. Luckily that wasn't a main feature here. There should have been more action. There were some long stretches without it, and they were terrible. I didn't like how it was mostly realistic action, and every now and then someone would do a wire stunt that stood out like a sore thumb.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy has its moments, but the plot is uninspired, the dialogue doesn't always work, and something about the way the character design is executed makes it look like everyone is just playing dress-up.

Everybody said Guardians of the Galaxy was good, but I didn't see the point, and I kind of feel the same way now that I've seen it. It was okay. I always have a rough time with different-colored people (like pink, green, or blue) for some reason. They just don't seem natural. Maybe because they're weird colors. So I was kind of turned off by Zoe being green, and I never got past that or the other weird-colored people.

I forgot that Rocket was Bradley Cooper. I knew he was "somebody," but I couldn't remember who, and I didn't recognize his voice. I saw Vin Diesel's name in the opening credits, and I spent about a third of the movie looking at Drax and going, "I don't think that's Vin Diesel." I had no idea that Nebula was Amy from Doctor Who, so I guess she did a good job with that. All of the makeup was so crazy and over the top, it just looked like everyone was playing dress-up.

I'm glad I didn't see it in a theater. People would've been laughing so much and ruining everything. Yondu's arrow weapon thing was cool. I'd be interested to know more about how it works. The Ravagers didn't seem very scary. Everybody acted like they were intimidated by them or something, but then they all had this "comedic/stupid" thing going on, so it was confusing.

Interstellar

Some cool stuff happens in Interstellar, but I didn't find it to be that engaging.

A lot of people seem to be into Intestellar. And Christopher Nolan. I don't know how I feel about him. I liked Inception at least. The plot of Interstellar didn't seem interesting to me when I saw the trailer. I was super distracted when I watched the movie, and it wasn't engaging enough to pull me in. Some cool stuff happens, but overall it's still just your basic plot of "the world is dying, this guy is humanity's last hope," which I'm apparently not into.

The Nice Guys

I probably would have enjoyed The Nice Guys more if I had understood what they were going for when I watched it. It was consistently funny, but some of the characters were annoying, a lot of the scenes didn't work, and the ending was strangely unsatisfying.

The trailer for The Nice Guys looked funny, and Roeper liked it, so I guess I had unreasonably high expectations. It was kind of disappointing. Russel Crowe's character was cool I guess, but March kind of got on my nerves. Ryan Gosling did look good at least.

Captain America: Civil War

There wasn't a lot of substance to Captain America: Civil War. It basically left me feeling like, "Was that a movie? Did I just watch something?" Some of the action was cool, and I guess the question it raises is interesting, but it's less than memorable.

I didn't see the first two Captain America movies, so I guess I was missing out on a bit of backstory here (and apparently the second Avengers movie would have been relevant as well, which I also didn't see). But I think I get the idea – the Avengers are destroying stuff, and Cap and Bucky were friends when they were growing up. I think I read a review that said it's an interesting dilemma, the fact that so many innocent people die in these things, and that this movie doesn't really provide any answers.

I think it sort of does. Cap's logic seems pretty sound. I guess it's just like in any war. Ultimately you're saving more lives. It's not like they're out there *trying* to kill innocent people. And putting the government in charge of them wouldn't be good. Although there probably should be some sort of system of checks and balances in case one of them is ever less than altruistic. Maybe it works if they're just self-policing.

The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is kind of interesting. I like the premise, and parts of it are cool, but the ending feels like a cop-out.

When my friend said he wanted to watch this, I thought it was Cabin Fever, and I was like, "Why would I want to watch that?" But it turns out it wasn't. I do vaguely remember that people liked The Cabin in the Woods, but it wasn't ever anything I wanted to see. The first thing I noticed was that Kristen Connolly's hair looked super weird. And I had to look up where I knew her from (it turned out to be House of Cards).

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass was cool to see in the theater, but I wouldn’t recommend it outside of that. It could’ve been a lot better. Aesthetically it alternates between gorgeous and freakish; the plot’s largely contradictory and uncompelling; the dialgoue is trite; and Mia doesn’t quite have the presence to pull off the Alice they’re trying to portray.

Roeper warned me that Alice Through the Looking Glass wasn’t going to be any good, but I didn’t listen. It looked pretty, so I wanted to see it. It was pretty. Although the Hatter and the Red Queen looked really freaky and screwed with the aesthetic appeal for a lot of the movie. Alice’s outfits were really cool, though. I loved that crazy thing that she wore to the ball.

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters is a classic. It's probably worth watching just as a point of reference, and it does have its funny moments, but it's pretty simple.

Somehow I've never seen Ghostbusters. I feel like I must have seen it at some point, I just didn't remember it. I'm surprised nobody ever made me watch it. Bill Murray's performance was interesting. I haven't really ever appreciated him in anything, but I heard right before I watched this that he ad libbed a lot of the stuff. He was pretty charismatic. Really the center of the movie.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight has some interesting characters and scenes, but it's not exactly iconic.

I wasn't interested in The Hateful Eight from the trailer,  and the reviews didn't make it sound like something worth watching. I've never been a fan of Tarantino's dialogue, but it actually wasn't so bad this time. The characters were pretty interesting. I sort of missed about 10 minutes when they first got to the Haberdashery, but it probably wasn't important.

Not just for that reason, but it's one of the few movies I think I'd like to watch again, knowing all the secrets now. Bob's accent was weird. I didn't really buy him as Mexican. The British guy brought a lot of life to things. Domergue was intriguing, too. And you can't go wrong with Walter Goggins.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is apparently about how pointless the Cold War was, or what a drag it is to be a spy, which doesn't exactly make for an enjoyable movie. It was interesting about half the time, though, and Gary Oldman's performance was great.

I wasn't interested in this when it came out; or before I watched it, frankly. I heard it was supposed to be good, but it just seemed boring. It did turn out to be about 50% boring. There were some parts where the suspense or storyline kicked in and it got interesting, mostly because of Tom Hardy or Gary Oldman.