Blah blah blah, one more reminder of To Kill a Mockingbird tonight. Be there, people!
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): I first saw this movie about four or five years ago, so a lot of it was fuzzy when we sat down to watch it last Tuesday, it kind of amazed me how quickly everything flooded back. "Oh yeah, I remember that!" or "Oh, now this is going to happen ..." It's the kind of movie where every scene seems to be iconic and memorable in some way, which is one reason why it's so popular (it swept the five major Oscar categories in its year) and has endured for so long. It's kind of crazy seeing Jack Nicholson so young again ... or, at least, appearing youthful (in reality, he was almost 40 when he filmed this movie, but he's the kind of guy who always seems about 20 years younger than he actually is).
The Natural (1984): It's kind of weird to watch this, given how baseball's reputation has taken so many hits in the past 16 years (the strike, performance-enhancing drugs, the wealth disparity among teams, games getting longer, etc.); in a way, it's almost like a baseball version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where the hero does his thing in that idealized, quintessentially American way. Roy Hobbs is someone you want to believe in, someone who reminds you of a time when things were better. (I'd say the big elephant in the room is that there's always been a seedy element to baseball, but the movie doesn't really avoid that.) Maybe my only real complaint is that the ending is a tad corny ... the final home run and the sparks and whatnot I can deal with, because that's a cool image, but Hobbs playing catch with his kid as the Perfect Family strikes me as false since the whole stomach injury bit is just swept away.
Bungaku Shoujo (2010): Wasn't a huge fan, myself, but what makes it more frustrating is that there is a good movie buried in here. I liked the relationship between Touko and Konoha and how Touko both inspires and holds back Konoha in different ways. Problem is, that relationship is touched on in the first 10 minutes and crammed into the final 15 minutes, and everything in between deals with the redemption of a crazy, manipulative girl whom I spent the entire movie actively despising. I don't mind an unsympathetic character getting redemption if the character and his or her problems are well written, but everything is just so basic and false in this story. Unfortunately, none of the other characters could carry the movie, either, because they're just bland sketches. Blah. Really wanted to love this, but nope.
The Book of Eli (2010): An entertaining movie, for the most part, but the ending is so utterly ridiculous that it makes the rest of the movie laughable. There are hints along the way, so it's not as if it comes out of nowhere, but the story turn does absolutely nothing for me. Ah well. Watch it and enjoy Denzel Washington kicking ass, and pretend the final 10 minutes doesn't exist.
On the queue for this week: Aim for the Ace! (1979), Animal House (1978), The Princess and the Frog (2009), Char's Counterattack (1988), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Total Movies: 124 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer, Re-Animator, Summer Wars, The Changeling, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ponyo, Eden of the East: The King of Eden, Porco Rosso, Something Something Something Dark Side, Castle in the Sky, Robot Carnival, Halloweentown, Whisper of the Heart, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiki's Delivery Service, Genius Party, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, The Sky Crawlers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Neighbors the Yamadas, THX 1138, The Stepfather, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Tremors, Horror of Dracula, The Brood, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Rabid, Inglourious Basterds, Them!, The Yakuza, Alphaville, Ghost in the Shell, Priceless, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, Whip It, A Boy and His Dog, Fletch, The Blind Side, Speed, June 17, 1994, Nobel Son, Invictus, Toy Story 3, The Two Escobars, Soylent Green, Up in the Air, Tyson, This Is Spinal Tap, The Proposition, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Informant!, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Coco Before Chanel, The Vanishing, Inception, Mind Game, Pale Rider, The Hurt Locker, Roujin Z, Broken Blade, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Christmas, Crazy Heart, The Man with Two Brains, Ninja Assassin, Panic Room, Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, Casablanca, Stray Dog, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, Memories, The Gold Rush, Paprika, Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness, An Education, Eden of the East: Paradise Lost, Dr. Strangelove, Doomsday, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Natural, Bungaku Shoujo, The Book of Eli)
