The Taste of Others (Le Goût Des Autres)

This French comedy was a nice film about an industrialist who falls in love with a stage actress/English teacher and sets about entering into her world. Simultaneously, the stories of people adjunct to the primary protagonist and their respective romantic pursuits.
Overall, a touching and funny film, but because it was made by the French, I am taking off half a point- Just kidding.
Actually, it was slow at times and sometimes depressing, which detracted from what is otherwise an excellent film worth seeing.

My Rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Bagheads

Bagheads is an indie film where a group of 4 people with unrequited relationships go into a cabin to write a film that will propel them to stardom. What follows is a long period of awkward and boring film with a conclusion as disappointing as the character development. Don't waste your time.

My Rating:

1 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Election

Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick star in the tale of an ambitious high school students, a washed-up high school civics teacher, and the class president election. Funny movie with each character performing their roles well, the movie flows nicely, and the ending resolves well.
It is for these reasons that I am giving this movie my first five rating. Please note, however, that I find it necessary to use different standards for evaluating comedies and dramas, and so you may find that while this movie would not be called great in the classical sense, it has all the ingredients of a great comedy.

My Rating:

5 Arbitrary Shapes

Inglourious Basterds

If you haven't seen Inglourious Basterds, then you are not any of the following: a Quentin Tarantino fan, someone who enjoys excessively violent movies, or someone who likes the idea of Brad Pitt in a f'awesome mustache. Funny, but slow at parts, and too much protagonist death for my tastes.

If I were to describe this movie in two words, they would be "Godwin's Law".

My Rating:

4 Arbitrary Shapes

The Assassination Bureau

A charming and delightful picture in which a female, feminist, aspiring reporter hires a company that assassinates people to kill their own leader. What follows is a series of escapades in which many people die in the most amusing of fashions during the period preceding WW1.

See it or get assassinated.

My rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

John Krasinski's directoral debut is much like John Krasinski's acting- muted. Krasinki gained fame for his role on The Office where he basically plays the straight man to the wackiness of many of the other characters in the show. Signature to this is where some other character says something crazy and Krasinkski looks at the camera as though to tell the viewing audience that he's aware how crazy it all is.

While this technique works for Krasinski in the Office and in his film Away We Go, Brief Interviews suffers from it. While the movie is not devoid of funny moments, all the characters are straight men, so to speak, and without the existence of wacky characters to counterbalance them, the characters fail to inspire the humor for which the movie clearly strives and ends up dull and non-conclusive.

My Rating:

2 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Julie And Julia

A delightful picture with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams that parallels the story of Julia Styles writing the Joy of Cooking and a bureaucrat in 2002 blogging about cooking every recipe in the Joy of Cooking in one year. Overall, a very light and enjoyable movie, punctuated by some strife, some unnecessary scenes, and a little too much talk about blogging.

My Rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

All Night Long

This film is something odd. In some respects, this is a satire on suburbia and the job of a night manager at a Walmart type store. In other respects, it's a strange sort of love story between Barbra Streisand and some guy. In still other respects, this is the story of Gene Hackman being angry. A lot.

That's why I'm hesitant to recommend this movie- it is a good movie, but it's really multiple movies put into one, where each is only dealt upon with insufficient depth and time.

Highlight: Since this movie was made in 1981, Gene Hackman drives by a vintage KFC that looked a lot like this:


My rating:

3 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

The Crimson Pirate

If I could describe this movie in no more than two words, those words would be "flamboyant pants."


Unfortunately, this was the only picture I could find, but rest assured that the variety and bizarreness of pants in The Crimson Pirate rival even some movies based around pants.

Also of note was the realistic physics(Dropping a wooden blackjack/dildo on someone's head will in fact knock them out), the absurd acrobatics (Did you know that all pirates can do back flips?), and the chance to look at Burt Lancaster's chest for 105 minutes straight.

Predictable, but still entertaining.

My Rating:

3 Arbitrary Shapes.

Stalag 17

Stalag 17 is a 1950s film with William Holden about American prisoners in a Nazi POW camp and the spy among them. I'd seen this before and watching it again was almost as enjoyable as I remember it. Definitely worth seeing.
My Rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes.

The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying is a Ricky Gervais movie with Jennifer Garner set in an alternate universe where the human race has never evolved the ability to lie. Then a local loser spontaneously evolves the ability to lie and uses this to amass personal gain and become Jesus.

Ignoring the obvious scientific inaccuracies and the fact that the inability to lie makes a world with no religion and no normative statements, the movie was on a whole a disappointment. I've never been a fan of Ricky Gervais's work, and now that I've actually seen one of his movies, my dislike has been justified. Even the idea behind the movie is childish and its execution left me feeling that the more interesting aspects were covered only briefly while I had to sit through watching Gervais act like a loser.
Still, it was mildly entertaining at points.

My Rating:

2 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Theme- The Romantic Comedy Formula #1

The protagonist is romantically interested in the super popular (and likewise super attractive) member of the opposite sex, usually in a longing, sort of "(s)he'll never notice me" sort of way. At the same time, the protagonist has a close friend of the opposite sex who is romantically interested in the protagonist, but for some reason that is never fully explained, never deigns to express those feelings until immediately before or after the protagonist has managed to go on a date with his or her super popular crush. Eventually, the protagonist figures out that the popular crush is actually a jerk and realizes that he or she actually loves the friend who has been there all along.

Examples: The Princess Diaries, Starter for 10, Observe and Report
Notable Exception: My Best Friend's Wedding
Parody: Not Another Teen Movie (Please note: This is neither an endorsement nor suggestion that you actually watch this movie.)

Starter For 10

Starter For 10 is a romantic comedy/coming-of-age film that looks into the life of a new college student from a nowhere town in Britain's first year in college and centers around a competition he is a part of, called the "Challenge", basically a televised equivalent of Quiz Bowl.

When I picked this movie out, I didn't expect anything like what I got, and it was truly an emotionally true and funny story with competent acting on all parts. For a large part in the beginning, I expected it to fall into the Rom Com formula, and for a while, it looked like it was going to avoid that, but then it fell right back into it. Still, even with the predictable romance ending, the movie still had plot fluctuations and a satisfying ending.

My Rating:


4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Doctor Detroit

Doctor Detroit is a comedy starring Dan Aykroyd as a geeky comparative literature associate professor who finds himself battling a mob boss to protect prostitutes by assuming the guise of Dr. Detroit. I laughed aloud many times, and Akykroyd gives a wonderful performance. See it.

My Rating:


4.5 Arbitrary Shapes

Being There

Being There is a comedy based on a popular (and personal favorite) novel of the same name written by Jerzy Kosinski.

The movie, though it took a few cosmetic changes and slight plot tweaks, was largely loyal to the book, going so far as to lift several lines verbatim. That being said, the movie was less than I expected. My expectations were likely too high because of how much I like the book, but despite Peter Sellers's wonderfully convincing performance, I felt some important themes of the book just didn’t translate onto the screen, while entire new themes were introduced that were nowhere in the book. Additionally, multiple points in the book where the omniscient third person perspective (read: narrator) was describing the protagonist's thoughts (or lack thereof) were transposed into film as long periods of character silence and TV background.

My Rating:


4 Arbitrary Shapes

The Magic Christian

The Magic Christian is a comedy starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr with several Monty Python guest appearances.

The movie basically asks: what won’t people do for money? And answers, as anyone who has watched reality television might assume, is absolutely nothing. Entertaining, but slow and repetitive. Judged by the play count (3), the movie was filmed as a vehicle for the song “Come And Get It” by Badfinger, which isn’t a bad song the first time you hear it, but when it's played excessively and as a substitute for dialogue and action, it has been known to cause homicidal thoughts. Worth watching if you love anything British without regard to quality, or if your only other option is a Kevin Costner film. Otherwise, use it only as background noise at your next party.

My Rating:


2 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

The Experiment

Welcome to my mlog (pronounced how it’s spelled), an experiment in movie review blogging. After watching too many movies and having them never again benefit me in any way and lay forgotten in the cavernous wastelands of my mind, I made the decision to document and review every single movie or film I see, if not so just I can go back and remember what is and what isn’t worth watching. In addition, I will occasionally explore some themes and meta-themes to help the further appreciation and comprehension of what is not individually obvious to the casual viewer.

I can't imagine what use this will be to any reader, but feel free to poke around and you might just discover a movie to occupy your otherwise pointless and banal life.

Regards,
Ben Miller