Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in November.
Stats
- Movies watched – 11
- Movies that were new to me – 6
- Animated movies – 3
- Monthly Masterpieces – Umberto D
November 29
- The Good Dinosaur (2015) – A dinosaur western that works well enough even if the plot doesn’t really go much further than a few storms and joining up with some T-Rex cattle drivers for a day. Also, can kids movies really not find any better inciting incident than to just kill off a parent?
November 27
- American Pie (1999) – Still one of the better teen comedies…somehow. And I can’t for the life of me figure out if the whole glee club thing is something the viewer is supposed to take seriously.
November 26
- Baby Mama (2008) – Some of the jokes are more miss than hit, but the winning performances help carry the film. Also, the decision to never stray far from formula works in its favor.
- Borat (2006) – Ridiculously crude (and verging on mean) this is also pretty staggeringly hilarious too. It’s very impressive to see Borat’s improvisational skills, and the storyline framework upon which they hang the set piece verite confrontations isn’t too bad either.
November 22
- Madagascar 2 (2008) – Plotting on these animated movies is always pretty paint by numbers, and this series suffers from it more than normal. Once again King Julian steals the show in what is otherwise perfectly average film making.
November 21
- Cast Away (2000) – Excellent desert island film that takes place largely in silence. Though, as affecting as the ending stuff is, I really would have preferred to have the focus of the movie to be more on a The Martian style m”aking the best of his situation” rather than all the feelz upon returning home.
November 18
- Madagascar (2005) – Standard animated fare with surprisingly little actually happening on Madagascar itself. Ali G’s lemur king is probably the highlight–I can see why the character got a spin-off tv show.
November 17
- Umberto D (1952) – No denying that this is a masterpiece of film making by just about any account. Unfortunately, it’s about a suicidal old man and his cute dog, neither of which are my cup of tea when it comes to plot.
November 16
- Turtles Can Fly (2004) – If watching SERIOUS films about REAL LIFE atrocities sounds like your cup of tea, then you are going to love this one. Myself, I’d stick with fantasy any day over wallowing in this kind of socially conscious “hey, guess what, bad things happen in war” shit any day.
November 10
- Excalibur (1981) – If you can cut through the ridiculous dialog (not that I see it as a negative) and convoluted plot, this is one hell of a swords and sorcery film. In fact, it’s the greatest swords and sorcery film of all time…not that there is a lot of competition in that category.
November 3
- The Verdict (1982) – Rather perfect movie, if anything, a bit too perfect, but that would just be nitpicking. Just a standard courtroom drama behind all the earnest performances, but a good one for sure.
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