6u532b

Straw is one of Tyler Perry's better movies, short-changed a little by some of his overkill flaws. Dudeman needs a cowriter or someone to pull him back from his worst instincts. But when you look past some of the clunk, it's a pretty solid, well acted pressure cooker.

Taraji P. Henson stars as as a woman having a very bad day. You might even say too bad of a day (people break for far less). She's a single mother and social services are sniffing around. She's also being threatened with eviction, her boss wants to fire her, there's a guy with road rage, her car gets towed, etc. She winds up taking a bank hostage and the cops are brought in.

It's a lot for one day. It's overkills. But it's also well directed, I felt for the character, and the thematic messages work. The film nails a certain over-the-edge fundamentally-the-system-is-broken tension.

It's possible during the height of her mental crisis, Henson overdoes it a bit... but I suspect different people will take her manic performance differently. She eventually quells the overload and turns in a generally sympathetic but unbalanced performance.

Teyana Taylor plays a sympathetic cop on the outside. Her acting is fine but her makeup and costuming were too coifed. As a working detective, she always looks like she's on the runway instead... even a dozen hours into this hostage standoff. This isn't on the actress, it's on costuming, makeup, and Tyler Perry choices (presumably).

There's also some clunky stuff in the writing and in the the over-the-top bad guy cops. You can have them be the bad guys without making them twirl their mustaches... but Tyler Perry goes maximal because that's just how he writes and directs nuance (that is to say: none. No nuance at all).

But for one of these pressure cooker films, I looked past a lot of Perry's clunk and enjoyed what he got right. And the acting job from Henson. This is one of Mr. Perry's better efforts in my book, even if it smells a little of his worst habits.

Tyler Perry Films - Ranked

Today somewhere in Hollywood a pyromaniac is pleased. He saw the incendiary shotguns from John Wick 4 and said Yes. More of that please. And Hollywood answered. And the pyromaniac was pleased.

Ballerina is a side quest in the John Wick universe starring the lovely Ana de Armas... and I hope her stunt doubles (otherwise, damn girl!). She is on a mission to <checks notes and realizes there was no need> to avenge her father's death. Generic action plots for 100, Alex.

But we didn't come for the drama, we came for the state-of-the-art bang bang. And even with Chad Stahelski stepping down and Len Wiseman stepping up, there aren't many action beats missed. They're just done in sexy dresses.

Len Wiseman as director worried me since he's up an down as a super stylish action director. Ballerina is his best work and lands right in the middle of the Wick films... and on top of his own ranked list. On the other hand, word on the street is that a second director was called in for reshoots. So... it's still his name on the title card.

Ana de Armas pulls her weight... but she doesn't exude enough personality. Not like when she was in the Bond film or even that mediocre Netflix action film (you know the one, it starred a Chris). I adore her but she wasn't asked to do enough with her personality. But she punched, aimed, and shot well so I guess it averages out.

From a story and character standpoint, it's weird the film is called Ballerina. de Armas plays a ballerina/protector/hit woman but the ballerina part is such an afterthought they might as well have called it Jane Wick. Something other than a title that might make big strong tough manly men avoid it.

Ballerina is a very solid, very energetic action flick that's almost wall-to-wall exactly what it is. de Armas does a fine job but I hope if she gets a sequel, they'll let more of her personality radiate through. And I would not mind at all a sequel... which is high praise. Also, the pyromaniac said he wants even more fire next time. Thank you.

John Wick Franchise Films Ranked
Len Wiseman Films - Ranked

I wasn't too enthused at the idea of an animated anthology Predator film... though having Dan Trachtenberg back as director after his fantastic work on Prey gave me hope. And yet I watched it as soon as it popped up on Hulu/Disney+ so I guess I was a little enthused!

Predator: Killer of Killers is an anthology of predators stalking various warriors throughout history. A Viking out for revenge, a ninja... out for revenge, and a WW2 fighter pilot just kind of out here killing Fascists.

The animation style is great but mainly what makes it kick a lot of ass are its carefully crafted action scenes that are all about posing for kick ass moments. Tons of gore as these warriors go up against each other and then the stalking predator. It's a lot of very cool stuff.

And maybe a little too much "for the cool" though since the actual characters don't have a lot of depth to them within their individual stories. Prey and Predator both got it right but they also had a full film to flesh out their heroes where this film has about twenty minutes each.

The first story is my favorite of the three. I'd give it four stars just for having such a badass single "take" tracking shot. The second story didn't interest me as much and I'd give it three stars (your results may vary depending on how much you love samurai vs. ninja action). The third story is the most innovative since, instead of doing what all Predator movies do, its set in the air as a predator ship takes on WW2 airplanes. It gets a little far-fetched at times though. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

There's also a wrap-around story of sorts that turns into somethin great. Imaginative, brutal, and kind of funny, it goes in some cool directions and promises a sequel which I want NAOW!! Bring it, sirs. Don't let it go. I'd give this sequence a 4.5.

This is a cool action/adventure sci-fi animated film that will absolutely be up your alley if you just Predator carnage, cool stances, and blood. It's not much more than that, but what it does, it does top flight.

Predator Films Ranked

This review may contain spoilers.

I didn't particularly like Until Dawn the first time I saw it, but in discussions about it, I realized I'd missed what might have been a key scene due to a trip to the restroom. So I figured I'd give it another shot.

My main issue with the film is that everything felt arbitrary. Random. Just a bunch of horror movie ideas smashed together. One of which were the wendigos... and identifying them as such is what I missed the first time around. So maybe, I'd figured, that key piece of information might have been linked to other details that would satisfy my desire for any of the film to make cohesive sense.

And, no, not at all. The wendigo thing was even less explained when explained that it was as just a thing people were turning into. From the perspective of a guy who played the video game, it made it worse. In the game, the Wendigo storyline had a point to make about the tragic fate of some of the characters. It had rules and a reason the creatures existed. In this adaptation, it's just a hand waving bit of unexplained and arbitrary detail.

And arbitrary details continues to be the shoddy foundation the whole film is based on. It's trying to be a horror that unites a whole host of horror standards. A kind of me-too attempt at a Cabin in the Woods (which nailed it the first time). A horror that is in conversation with the history of horror, bringing in references to things like The Descent, Silent Hill, any of dozens of madhouse films, creature features, and the like.

At least its thematically in line with the video game. The video game is basically an homage to multiple sub-genres of horror too... slashers, creature features, asylums, etc. It did it better by telling a logical story that explains why these various ideas fuse into one complete story. The adaptation is content to just reference a bunch of random tropes but never found a satisfying way to make them cohere.

One specific thing that annoyed me on first watch was their attempt at suggesting all of these events were a psychological manifestation of the main character. Which is a decent idea if we knew much more about her character and mental state. How does one mind manifest all these random nightmares?

But on this watch, I realized the psychiatrist was himself just another manifestation of this hand-waving mental state gimmick. He's no more a real person running an experiment than the witch was actually a real thing.

Not sure how that helps though... it's just another layer of uned, hand-waving nonsense. Lacking any connectivity or story logic than anything else.

And that continues to be why I give the film two stars. When there are no rules, then there's nothing for me to care about. Its just a bunch of bits and bobs for the filmmakers to glue together into what they hoped was a complete story. It was not.

Not that I'm giving it a low score JUST for being random. I'm still not a fan of the characters and the suspense and attempts at horror didn't work either. It's mostly just another boring spook show, showing no real skill at understanding what's truly scary. At least to me.

On the other hand, my movie theater experience must have suffered from some darkness issues since, watching it at home, I was better able to appreciate the gore. Mainly the exploding bodies which were gnarlier when I could see the effects better. So that's a plus for a rewatch (and yet another indictment of movie theaters).

So, yeah, still don't like this film. Partly for being a badly made film and partly for squandering the idea of being a meta commentary on horror that unites horror tropes. That's a good idea... wish it had worked on any level. Just chucking a bunch of monsters into a blender is not enough.

Video Game Movies - Ranked

If it weren't for the abundance of moribund, depressing, gloomy soul searching and overcast skies, this film would rate lower. But in that it has a mood that made me want to hide in a dumpster, at least that's something. But otherwise this is one weird, slack revenge thriller.

Tornado is the daughter of a samurai from Japan making a living as a puppeteer in England. That's a whole sentence of random words but here we are. When papa is killed by some nogoodniks (Tim Roth being their leader), Tornado must take her badass name and slowly enact revenge.

As a pure action/revenge flick, it isn't that at all. Some revenge is taken but almost in a casual, half-handed way. I wanted more bloody revenge and less "eh... maybe I'll get around to it. Maybe when the sun comes out. The sun isn't goin to come out ever? Sigh. I think I'll just be over here on this rock being sad."

Part of me appreciates the lack of overkill samurai slaughter and kind of sorta letting things slide when the inevitable occurs. I "enjoyed" this flick, I guess. It's pretty straight-forward but also very slow and gloomy. It's a weird combo for a revenge flick.

So, yeah, not really a lot to say since not a whole lot happens. I was satisfied by the ending... that counts for something. I left the theater feeling dejected... so I ordered a pizza. Net positive. Yay movie.

I apologize in advance for this review of Sneaks. Not because I had a hand in making the film and not because of the raw text of this review. But for implanting the mind virus that this film exists at all. You'd have been better off having already wiped it from your memory. My apologies. I've incepted you... please watch Toy Story immediately to erase it. Hell, watch Cars. And I hate Cars.

So Sneaks posits a world where shoes are alive... and, on top that, the left and right shoe each has a distinct personality. That's just wrong. A teenage kid wins a pair of superfly sneaks in a contest and an evil collector / sneakerhead wants to steal them.

This film is bad... not just because its a bad story but because its ugly and cheaply animated. And not just because the models are simplistic and ugly and not because talking shoes are hard to personify, especially when they open their toes and talk, making me think they have are warn down and ratty. It's poorly animated since sometimes it feels like they are animating similar to the Spiderverse films, and other times they aren't. I'd say it was a style choice but the film looks like it was made with 50 bucks and hope so I doubt it was intentional.

It's possible sneakerheads might get something out of its jokes, themes, and references. That I find it abundantly unfunny and dull because I don't love sneakers. But I kind of doubt it... I think it's just a bad movie with corny, unfunny jokes. The only thing I find amusing is that there's a trio of sneakers hanging from powerlines who act like a Greek chorus. That's kind of clever. Also, I confess to smiling slightly at a couple of the jokes.

But everything else was borderline unwatchable and terribly paced. It's bad enough to rue the day Toy Story was released. And Cars. And even The Emoji Movie. And, randomly, Norm of the North. But, hey, maybe sneakerheads will appreciate it... if they've ever even heard of it. I have doubts.

This documentary proves its title bona fides in an early scene where Keanu Reeves drops trow to show off all the abrasions, bruises, and cuts on his legs he's received during filming. Wick IS Pain and these lunatics are doing it for their own amusement... and ours.

Wick is Pain is a documentary about the John Wick films, made primarily by a documentarian with official access to the set. So we get a lot of interviews with Keanu and director Chad Stahelski. It's about as warts and all as you can get for an official doc... which is to say a little bit warty.

The film isn't a beat-by-beat(ing) retrospective on every single fight scene in all four films. From the production angle, it focuses more on the first film which was the hardest to make and then hops and skips through themes, casting, stunt work, etc. across all the movies.

Plus watching Good Guy Keanu in interviews and also Lunatic Keanu doing a lot of his own stunts (and cus a storm when he messes up). My favorite bit is when he muses over how slow he is compared to the stuntmen he's working with. That's some good guy humility right there.

I loved all the on-set video of the actors and stuntmen doing their own fights, including some sequences I'd have sworn were CGI assisted. Like a stunt of a guy falling off a roof, onto a fire escape, and then an awning. The stunt was real but the backgrounds and final street splat were CGI assisted. My eyes popped and I became annoyed at how the Academy has dragged its fee over the Best Stunts category.

This is a pretty cool doc. Not the best "making of" doc I've seen but a very solid, very blunt and honest one. It gives me new (and continued) respect for Keanu bending and breaking his body in unhealthy ways. He muses near the end how he's spent his 50s doing this gig... while I'm having trouble getting out of my recliner without my knees creaking. Cheers to Keanu... and also be careful, dude. One of these days you won't so easily fall out of your suit of armor.

Implosion is National Geographics / HBO Max's stab at an OceanGate submersible implosion documentary... and not, say, Netflix's stab at the same story (coming out in a couple weeks as of this writing). Not sure we need two but this one had interesting points of access I'll be curious if the other film will have.

Lest you forget, the story is some billionaire built a submersible that didn't have any pesky permits or government oversight. It imploded on one of its trips to ogle the Titanic debris field.

This doc is highlighted by footage of the Naval inquest about the disaster and, as such, has plenty of interviews with the people being deposed and the themselves. It's a nice angle that's better than any quick YouTube video I've seen on the same subject.

Plus, they get interviews and documentary footage from one of the cable survival shows. The host was allowed on board the sub during a test run and, he says that he pulled the episode instead of airing it and driving business to the dangerous sub. That footage is very interesting.

So, yeah, this is a pretty good documentary. Worth a watch if the idea of a billionaire dying aboard a Tylenol-shaped allegory while trying to explore a much, much bigger allegory not bothering anyone at the bottom of the ocean.

Mountainhead is an absurdist comedy with one basic joke... uber rich tech bros are heartless aholes, but in a funny horrific kind of way. And that joke is told and retold enough to overstay its welcome.

Specifically, four billionaires who run tech and social media companies hang out at a stupid expensive mountain lodge while the world falls apart due to their tech. The structure is, a country has riots or collapses, cut to them making a heartless joke about it... wash, rinse, repeat.

Yeah, the jokes can sometimes work but mainly I was stone-faced as they made the same observation over and over again. Big tech and social media billionaires don't have any regard for the damage their product causes. News at eleven.

Did I laugh? On occasion. And at about half the runtime, I think I'd have enjoyed the film. Instead, the premise gets dragged on and on until I was just hoping it'd end. And the sick, sad thing is, the way the camera lingers on some of the characters at the end, I think I was meant to wonder at their own pondering on ethics and mortality This ain't that movie, bro.

So, yeah, it's a message that will appeal to the masses... a message that most of us have thought about already. It's a weird lecture against billionaires as told on HBO Max. Is the absurdity funny? Sometimes. You might laugh.

Well, on the positive side, the long national Netflix nightmare is over. Godzilla: The Planet Eater is the last of these "Godzilla" animated films that limps to a conclusion by once again babbling its way through "action" scenes where very little ever actually happens. And somehow I think this is the best of the three? Which ain't sayin' much.

So Godzilla is dormant from the last film. And now the nebulous, hand-waving aliens who - surprise - were the bad guys all along want to <hand waves> fulfill their crackpot religious fixation of bringing God in to kill Godzilla and end the world. Or something.

This mainly means heavy doses of philosophy 101 (again) while humans stand around and repetitively narrate the big monster fights. Except the big monster fight this time is even more immobile than before.

On the plus side, Godzilla is actually on screen for a long time... on the negative side, he doesn't move much or do anything at all. Mainly he becomes the chew toy of Ghidorah, the three headed monster who isn't really there but is there but isn't there because the humans are confused and keep telling us they don't know what's going on but have sudden flashes of brilliance where they do and yet they continue to narrate over and over again what they see but don't understand. They don't understand, y'all.

The only reason I'm alleging this is the best of these terrible animated Godzilla movies is simply because it has a tone and it sticks to it. It has some almost scary moments that would have been scarier without the constant narration. And I guess kinda sorta it has an end point it's saunters toward.

Once again, I get the feeling Godzilla was incidental in his own movie. This is clearly a screenwriters unrelated philosophical sci-fi story that they crammed the Big G into. How this mumblecore nonsense got OKed and animated is baffling.

But at least it's over.

Godzilla - Reiwa Era Films - Ranked
Anime Films - Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 35 of 35
--> Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Toss Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz into a meat grinder and you get the aptly titled Carnage. A film that uses its claws to verbally mangle everyone in the room.

I should lower the rating on this one because 70 minutes of festering anger should have annoyed me more. But it didn't... because the writing and the actors were great at digging their nails in and getting under the skin.

Its a film about two couples pretending to exist in polite society after one of their kids whacks the other. They have to calmy sit down and decide how to deal with this childhood trauma... while exposing themselves as terrible people themselves.

I was rooting for the visiting couple to just leave. Get away from this toxic nonsense... but its a movie that needs to keep everyone in the same pressure cooker for our enjoyment. The acting is fantastic as factions come together, break apart, and merge in different shapes. So much ive aggressive - and outright aggressive - needling and pestering and vomiting.

I kind of loved it... even though real humans would have walked out within five minutes.

Roman Polanski Films Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 34 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 2020s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Corner Office is an absurdist, surreal workplace comedy where the comedy is dry, abstract, and insular. Only Jon Hamm's voiceover is the comedy... I think? I'm not sure... the flick is so dry that it's equally possible the screenwriter didn't know he was writing a funny.

It stars Hamm as a new hire at monolithic office building working for a company with an abstract purpose. We don't know what they do nor what Hamm's job is either. But he works with people he feels superior to and he feels he's owed something in the form of a hidden wood-ed corner office that only he can see.

I dig the dry, bland monotonous office chic... it makes me say 'I know he can get the job, but can he DO the job?". It's a bit of deserved corporate satire in physical form. Hamm playing a corporate drone who doesn't understand these humans surrounding him is great casting, calling back ironically to the debonair character that made him famous.

And I love the abstract concept of the office only he can see. I love what this film is trying to do. But it only half-way gets there... mainly because it's way too long for its concept. This flick has enough content for a good hour, if that. But since it feels the need to extend itself, it gets a little tiresome along the way.

I wish I could give it a higher rating since it does so much so well... but it just doesn't have enough story or ideas for an hour forty minutes of screentime. But, hey, I still enjoyed the bits I enjoyed.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 33 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 1950s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

I added The Quiet Man to my watchlist after figuring out what that movie E.T. was watching that caused Elliot to smooch his crush in class. I figured if it was a grandiose enough love story that Spielberg added it to his kid sci-fi film, there must be something to it.

Color me agog then when that scene comes early in the film, consisting of John Wayne manhandling Maureen O’Hara into a kiss after having only met her once before. But that's this weird-ass film that turns John Friggin' Wayne into a romantic lead. John Wayne!! So not too surprising he pushes, shoves, and drags O'Hara throughout the movie. But, hey, I guess that's the 50s and this exaggerated hyper-glow version of Ireland for ya.

It makes even less sense John Ford made a rom-com than it does John Wayne starred in one. But, you know, despite brute John Wayne, it's a fun - and very green - film. Almost cartoonishly Irish... I'm pretty sure someone stole someone's Lucky Charms in between getting slobbering drunk at the bar. Because; Ireland.

Gorgeous film though... all that emerald isles green contrasted against O'Hara's red hair... it's a stunning flick. And also a pretty fun and goofy one. I had fun with it when trying to ignore how incongruous Wayne was in a goofy romantic comedy.

Also... John Wayne wasn't a particularly quiet man. Weird.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Watched as part of an early Mystery Movie/Screen Unseen.

The Life of Chuck is based on a Stephen King novella... only I didn't know that going in. It quickly scrambled some brain cells and I went, "Oh yeah, that odd disted story from one of his recent books." And I didn't realize until credits rolled that it's a Mike Flanagan movie. Leave it to him to turn such an odd story into something magical.

The Life of Chuck tells its story backwards, hanging the concept of "what's it about" on a wire. It's like King contained a multitude of short story ideas that he glued into one three part novella... and Flanagan walked in and said "perfect. no notes". Honestly, what he made worked better visually than as a King novella (Sorry, Uncle Stevie).

Without going into too much detail, it begins with a slowpocalypse. The world seems like it's falling apart, the internet is down, suicide rates are up. What exactly is going on is a mystery and, to make matters worse, thank-you signs to Chuck for 39 great years appear on billboards. Who is Chuck? No one knows.

The second act is my favorite... it contains a long dance sequence of transcendent wonder. I actively marveled at how much time the film devotes to it. This isn't a film that's going to connect with everyone and this segment and the smile on my face made me not care. I hope everyone can let this very odd story structure roll over them and appreciate the beauty and wonder of great moments.

The final act continued to surprise but might feel the most disted. But, again, I didn't care since it has such a unique set of ideas... things you wouldn't expect from a Hollywood movie that's constantly tricking you into trying to guess what's its all about.

The cast is full of great actors, many of whom we haven't seen on screen in a while. I kept going, "who's this now?" as I dredged the names up from the past. It's an odd ensemble consisting of current stars like Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Karen Gillan but also folks like Mia Sara, Mark Hamill, and Mathew Lillard. Nick Offerman plays the narrator and we have a number of familiar actors from Mike Flannagan's repertoire.

I love this film and I hope other people can feel the melody and magic I felt. The fact that there mustn't have been studio notes for such an abstract and oddly constructed film makes it amazing all by itself. I just hope people don't see it as a mess... Uncle Stevie wrote a challenging story to adapt and I'm surprised they did it. Surprised and pleased.

Mike Flanagan Films Ranked
Stephen King Films Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 32 of 35
--> Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

The Death of Stalin is basically one joke told many ways... and while it gets a little redundant, at least some of those jokes land.

It's about the Soviet Union at the time of the death of Joseph Stalin. All of his aids and agents and politicians run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out what to do next and who has the power. It's basically an office politics comedy writ large and absurd.

The joke is that these guys all act like average schmos you might have to deal with at the office. Evil Socialist commissars... they're just just like us! And that's the one joke they repeat over and over again. I hope you like that glib joke.

And, yeah, sometimes that glib joke works and I'd bark out a quick laugh. A decent amount it wouldn't and I might smile knowingly. Good laugh on the behalf of the banality of evil.

And then I'd move on... and the movie would keep chugging along. It works more often than it doesn't but it stretched my attention and interest.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 31 of 35
--> Watchlist Shuffle

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

The Kite Runner is a pretty solid story told well. I wasn't sure what I was getting into other than knowing it was a life story set in Afghanistan. And there were kites.

Kites plus trauma, actually. And that it's based on a book that probably handled the trauma better, getting more into the minds and decisions of the character better than the adaptation. I don't know that for sure, but the film kind of feels truncated and unexplained. I can put on my thinking cap and come up with a reason certain things were kept hidden, but it feels like a book reader would have a big advantage.

The story moved from the Middle East to America and I'm happy they didn't (as far as I know) gloss over the material here as our protagonist grows up and finds himself a girl. I was enjoying this part of the story before he gets a call from the old country. I'm not sure what I think of the story structure from there on. It feels a little too action movie lite even as it tells a solid story with its own emotional heft.

I'm a little uneven on the film in the long run but I felt its humanity and strength in the very last scene enough to be moved. It's a good film, though I bet book readers will feel cheated. I'm not in that boat so I was content with what the film provided.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 30 of 35
--> Watch the movie that is the most popular

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

As a fan of The Coen Brothers, it says a lot about how uninterested I was in Inside Llewyn Davis that it's taken me this long to get around to it. And only because it came up on the "most popular" film in my Watchlist. But I sat down with it in hopes my bias against a 60s fake folk singer would be proven wrong. It was not.

The flick follows the life of a folk singer in the 60s... hold me back, please. Best I can do is a Bob Dylan biopic and even that was a stretch. This flick did little for me...

Except for the actors. Nice actors, nice faces. Kudos to Oscar Isaac for playing the guitar and singing. And double kudos to Carrey Mulligan and her sailor's mouth and Hulk-like anger. I actually quite liked her character and dialog. Too bad the film was only half interested in her and her pretty important subplot.

Mostly the film kind of bored me. It's well acted, shot, and has a number of cats. These are three good things to stuff into a meandering film full of a events that didn't interest me. Some good or amusing moments, but not many.

So, yeah, my prediction came true and I was hoping they wouldn't. At least we have nearly twenty better Coen Brothers films.

Coen Brothers Films - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 29 of 35
--> Watch a movie recommended to you by someone

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Johnny Guitar is a technicolor Western with a number of interesting characters and factions. I rather enjoyed it, even if its titular character was one of the least interesting characters. Call it Joan Crawford is a Bad Bitch and you'd have more of my attention.

It's about Vienna, a saloon owner who wears the pants and the pistols in this here establishment. She hires Johnny Guitar, a singing cowboy to help her out. The local gang and a town full of people just itchin' to form a posse fill out the cast. And now half of them are on the lam and the other half want to hang someone... most anyone will do.

I quite enjoyed the first half of this film with its factions and angry mobs. Joan Crawford outshines everyone and I wonder what kind of grumbling there was about her wearin' the pants in the film back in the 50s. I suspect Johnny Guitar only really exists as a beard to hide the fact its a female run film.

I ultimately thought though that the film goes on too long once the posse forms. There seems to be a natural end point involving Crawford's saloon... and the yet the film kept going. A slight trim to have the necessary shootouts outside the saloon would have nipped and tucked the flick to a proper, timely The End.

But, hey, it's a pretty slick film and the bright technicolor was shot quite well. Not too garish and just enough to show off some bright patterns and interiors. I enjoyed this one, with some reservations.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

I'm old enough to have lived through the events of this documentary... but young enough that it was just a pervasive news story on tv. Which is why I hopped on this doc when it showed up on Netflix. I only the basics... that a number of people died after swallowing cyanide-laced Tylenol. I was looking forward to the details after all these years. I it being scary but I wasn't quite only enough to realize it was an actual existential threat. Something happening on tv, not in regular medicine cabinets in regular homes.

But, yeah, scary story and every time I'm fussing with a medicine bottle, I'm reminded of why. Some crazy person (probably) tampered with Extra Strength Tylenol and seven people died. Tylenol was pulled off the market and it was a great big thing for, in my kid brain where time was always distorted, months if not years.

This documentary is in three parts and really only the first one I felt you could trust. It's a mostly just-the-facts series of interviews about what went down with the drug in 1982. It's pretty chilling for sure and is very interesting, especially if you don't know anything about the case at all.

The second episode introduces a creepazoid James Lewis who is credited as "Tylenol Murder Suspect". Which is true but the doc almost seems to want to let him off the hook... while hoisting him back up on the hook for a bunch of other crimes. HIs interview will probably give you the heebie-jeebies... but it also feels far out of left field for the actual doc.

The third episode lays the blame on Johnson & Johnson to such an extent that I began thinking the doc was just a hit piece. Is J&J innocent? Maybe... but it's in that lack of impartiality that caused me to sour on the doc. Sure, easy to blame the huge multinational corporation... it's what's expected. Might also be true. But it also comes around to putting suspicion on Prince of Creepiness James Lewis too. Roll the dice.

Lost in Starlight is a Netflix South Korean anime sci-fi/romance that moved me deeply. It's one of my favorite films of the year so far. A lovely, romantic, big-hearted, thoughtful, and sweeping film that's also among my favorite anime (is it anime if it's South Korean? Surely so).

It's about a young woman who is on a list of potential astronauts for the next Mars mission. One day she meets cute a musician who she begins to fall for. He doesn't know what a big deal she is as a scientist and potential astronaut. When she gets picked, romance and worry and hope unfurl.

This is a lovely film from the start. Good art and animation weds excellent voice acting and dialog. It's grounded and romantic in a way that made me want to hug the film for getting the thrill and fun of new love right. And it's also a big idea sci-fi film whose grand plans for a Mars expedition run into the reality of leaving your loved ones behind.

It spends a lot of its ninety minutes on Earth exploring this romance. And it doesn't feel belabored, even when it gets to the actual launch and mission in its final act. If there's any one problem with the story is that it has to inject some melodrama in that final act to make the mission more exciting... and to tug harder at the heart-strings.

There's a wonder and existential uplift that swells with hope and transcendence. Beautiful music that may, if you have a cold heart, go a little too far. But my icy heart was melted and I couldn't help feel pulled along by the uplift. Maybe it's not the most scientific believable finale, but it's one of the more artistically heartfelt instead. I loved it.

Highly recommended as one of my favorite anime and (so far) films of the year. Assuming I'm not just in an irrational buzz causing me to oversell it. I hope you all agree, if you give it a chance.

Anime Films - Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 28 of 35
--> Watch a movie from your least favorite genre

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Often considered the worst Best Picture Oscar winner, I was not looking forward to Cimarron. These early winners have been a bit of a chore, much less a Western one. And while it's not a good movie, it's not as bad as I was lead to believe. Still, I won't be hosting a watch party any time soon.

It's a 40 year epic about the founding of Oklahoma as told through a particular family lead by one <checks notes to be sure> Yancy Cravat. Besides having a chortle-worthy name, Yancy is a lawyer, frontiersman, settler, and newspaperman (and possibly a kender, what with all the wanderlust). The flick hops, skips, and jumps from the 1880s to the late 1920s, touching on historical moments and Western cliches on its way to Model Ts and cities.

And omg the first half of this flick is deadly. I didn't think it would ever have the pep to get me over the hump with how poorly paced it was. But then an occasional good scene would occur, leaving me wondering why it had to be a soul-crushing two hours. Just give me the shootout, the courtroom scene, and a few other solid scenes and you'd have a good enough movie.

One of the reasons the film is hated is for its racist stereotypes. And these are ugly stereotypes, though given some dialog and film choices, I think it's the characters being racist, not the filmmakers. The dia defense of the Osage, the way the camera lingers on the black child in one action scene, and the progressive win for the female lead tell me the film may sound and look ugly, but it was probably 1931 progressive.

By the end of the flick, I had a little fondness for what these lives had become. Even if some of the ponderous plodding had me struggling to keep watching... it's a bad movie, but it has heart.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 27 of 35
--> Watchlist Shuffle

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

For a movie with such a transgressive reputation, I found the original Hairspray to be a rather wholesome film, even when it got weird in the final act. But, then again, maybe the transgression was for John Waters himself and maybe Hairspray was meant to be a film for the normies?

If so, probably still enough "controversial" things like race mixing and dancing to the "Negro music"... though I'd like to think better of 1988 than that. But also what's that pie doing in the sky? I suppose it could also have been the very existence of Divine (which at least explained to me why Travolta was in drag in the 2007 remake).

I enjoyed a lot of this film, even if I got a little tired of the dancing (and Star Wars has too many spaceships! Pew pew!). I eventually got into its stick-it-to-the-man vibes... and then I just got confused by the sudden left turn into camp. Or maybe it was camp all along? I dunno. Maybe you had to be there or just be really into John Waters' weird eye.

Overall, I enjoyed it but it didn't hook and keep me hooked. I liked its take on thumbing its nose at convention, its school charm, and all the recognizable actors running around. Plus Ric Ocasek?!? And Sonny Bono?!?!!

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 26 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 1970s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

I was pretty lukewarm on The Guns of Navarone, a film that has a higher average rating on LB than this, its sequel. But I liked Force 10 more, probably due to a 17 year difference in action film making, editing, and style... but also due to a more familiar cast.

Force 10 posits a WW2 special ops team sent in to blow up a bridge... and the number of teams blowing up bridges during WW2 kept Hollywood in plots for years. In this case, Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford lead the team which also includes Carl Weathers as they plot and scheme against those darn Nazis.

I had no idea Harrison Ford was in this film and I thought I'd seen all his major releases. It was wild to see a young him in between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back (and Raiders of the Lost Ark). He's absolutely doing his Harrison Ford thing which looks a lot like his Indiana Jones thing and his Han Solo thing. But that's why we love him.

Otherwise, I simply found this a much more direct action/adventure war film than the earlier Navaronian adventure. Perhaps it's too basic and doesn't try to be anything more than it is... and that's why I enjoyed it. Me and my low forehead... and every dad who ever lived.

So, yeah, good sequel that I liked more. Was great to see Harrison Ford young again. I recommend everyone watch this movie if they were a little bummed by his cranky old man performance in the last Indiana Jones.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

As a guy who elevates the first Karate Kid to iconic status, Karate Kid: Legends ain't much more than pure fun. It's a bit of puff that may blow away in the wind but, while it lingers, it's enjoyable and charming.

It begins in Beijing where a new kid is promptly whisked away to New York where he meets a cute girl, gets into some tussles, and a familiar multi-generational training montage. The big difference being this kid is 90% there to Daniel LaRusso's 10%. Eventually Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio show up to help with that final 10%.

To answer my main question: for the most part, this film ignores the Cobra Kai tv show. It gets away with that by being set in NYC... but there's evidence the events of that goofy fun show still exists off in California. In case that matters to you.

Half of this film does not contain Chan or Macchio... it's largely the new kid (Ben Wang), his crush (the charming Sadie Stanley), and her dad... Pacey? Is that really you? Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek!?! Damn... time is the crucible in which we burn. They are a strong trio of leads and their spin on the Karate Kid formula was a lot of fun.

And then Chan and Macchio show up. They bring some fun and not as much nostalgia bait as you might think. And, yes, they distinguish between Chan's kung-fu and Macchio/Miagi's karate (in case you are still burning mad about that from Jackie Chan's film).

The final showdown is a little too perfunctory and weightless. That's partly because the villains are barely characters but also because it's simply shot unenthusiastically. That said, the actual kung-fu/karate scenes are pretty great to look at... if maybe a little exaggerated.

I'd say casually this is the second best Karate Kid, fighting tooth and nail against Part 2 and the perfectly fine Jackie Chan remake. I'd have preferred it tell its own story but bringing in Jackie Chan and Ralph Maccio was a choice that mostly paid off. Both guys - especially Chan - bring the charm and the funny.

Karata Kid Films - Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 25 of 35
--> Watch a documentary

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

QT8 is a documentary in praise of Quentin Tarantino. Which is ok since there's a lot to praise... but also comes across like someone licking his toes. In a good way, I suppose.

It's a 2019 movie so it doesn't include much material Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Instead, it goes through his 8 films (with brief stops on True Romance and other films he wrote), interviewing cast and crew who have nothing but good things to say. Nothing. It peppers in themes along with details of each film so its not only about the movies in question. Which is a good thing because this film gets a little long in the tooth hitting each movie. I started to get a little tired of it around the 5th or 6th flick.

It does talk about Harvey Weinstein. Which is an important topic but not a Tarantino thing in any way that might matter for a doc. Also seems a little unfair to cover it when Tarantino wasn't available (or willing) to defend himself.

But it's still a good watch for film and Tarantino fans. Might be better to wait for QT10 if they (and Tarantino) get around to it.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

While I certainly acknowledge Friendship is a comedy of some merit based on the consistent laughter from my audience, it was, for me, only an observational effect not based on any subjective measurement of humor.

The motion picture is about a middle aged male whose wife tells him he needs a buddy. So he hangs out with Paul Rudd's character and measured, observation comedy ensues.

You may have the perception that I did not enjoy myself watching this film. This would be a fair observation, proving your skill at literary observation and analysis. One would assume that a more amused person would write a more amused review of an allegedly hilarious film. And one might also assume such a film with such a high average rating on Letterboxd would, indeed, be hilarious.

But, alas, I did not laugh nor chuckle a single time during this comedic cinematic experience. Not a single time. In fact, I only grant unto it an extra half star due to the fact that I acknowledge and recognize that it has a meaningful theme, one that aught appeal to me as an adult male of
a certain age who could serve to have additional flesh and blood friends. In that it is about something of observational credibility gives the film a measure of merit.

But everything else? I could write a few more paragraphs of dry, measured commentary as though I were an academic or a droid but I think you get the point. This film was not my sense of humor nor was I drawn to its characters or situations.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 24 of 35
--> Watchlist Shuffle

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

The Man Who Would Be King could be reviewed just by saying Sean Connery and Michael Caine in a movie by John Huston, based on a Rudyard Kipling story. Probably be an easier review too since it wouldn't have colonialist white supremacy stank on it.

The flick is about two former British soldiers in India who decide to screw around and become king of the savages. Happily they wind up in a fictional country Kafiristan... wait? What? It was a real country that's now part of Afghanistan? Sigh. Anyhow they run around being asshole racists and eventually one of them becomes king.

This is one of those older films where I'm not sure if the filmmakers were enlightened and knew how bad this all looked or if they were just content to give the comeuppance to one of the characters for having an ego the size of Jupiter. Probably a little of both... but at least there's catharsis for modern sensibilities.

I did like (by which I mean hate) Connery and Caine as these rascals who just wanted to subjugate a foreign land and steal all their jewels. Afterall, they don't want to rape the women so, you know, progress!

And absolutely John Huston was on his spectacle A game. The sheer volume of extras on actual location was impressive. Epics like this had to have been on their way out in the '70s so it was nice to see how much effort they put into it.

It's a good film. Kind of wish it was paced a little faster but that's more my personal '80s film speed infestation talking. They told a complete story with two solid actors and that's good, complete storytelling.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

High Plains Drifter surprised me. Jot down the basics, and it's like a BUNCH of other Westerns. Look closer (and listen to the banshee wails on the soundtrack) and it's eerier than the average Western. And that was enough to intrigue me.

Clint Eastwood plays another one of them there men with no names as he rides into an Old West town. He has a disagreement with the local gunslingers and now the town needs to hire him to take down the villains the first set of villains were hired to kill. Only he's not sure why he'd bother... unless the price is right.

One man stands alone as the dirtbags ride into town? Very familiar concept (even with the film's twists). A haggard, rugged loner who proves you can be the protagonist without being the hero? That's very Eastwood of them... very familiar. But as they layer on the plot and the characters, it gets progressively more interesting.

In that I'm only theorizing what actually happens by the end is a testament to a different kind of Western. Assuming there IS anything mysterious happening... pretty sure there is. Quite confident. <scratches head>

On the surface, it's like any other Clint Eastwood revisionist Western from back in the day, but it goes weird places and I dig it. If there's a problem, I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how enlightened the film was... plus its lead-up to the shoot-out could have quickened its paces.

And the idea of painting the town red? I know I've seen that iconography before but I can't place it. Grr. Argh.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 23 of 35
--> Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Well.. achievement unlocked... definitely the first movie I've seen from North Korea. Though I'm not sure if North Korea has any other movies <statement neither analyzed nor confirmed>.

The film is set in the feudal era where the government is forcing its people to turn over their metal to make weapons. Enter Pulgasari the monster who begins as a cute li'l guy that reminds me of the rash of 80s creature movies like Gremlins, Critters, and Munchies (with a dash of Baby Godzilla). He eats enough metal to grow into a proper kaiju and stomps armies flat.

It exists in the juxtaposition of international politics, '80s creature movies, Kurosawa period pieces, and Japanese kaiju. Mix into a goulash complete with a development full of spies and kidnappings and you certainly have a movie.

It's big goofy fun and I didn't see that coming. I was expecting dreck since I knew the only "good" thing about it was it's production. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il kidnapped a S. Korean director and forced him to make movies for him. Yes, this happened... and the end result was a Kaiju film (before he escaped with his wife).

It's pretty funny since the plot is all about the people fighting back against their government. I'm unsure if the N. Korean government realized they were promoting citizen revolt or if the subtext went right over their heads. Though I suspect the plot point where Pulgasari had to stop eating or he'd explode might have been a metaphor for the N. Korean people to live within their (limited) means.

Anyhow, it IS a better backstory than it a movie and I hope someone has documented that. It's a charmingly dopey kaiju film that made me smile. It's not a particularly GOOD movie, but it works for what it is.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 22 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 1990s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

If My Neighbors the Yamadas was about a half hour shorter, I'd have given it a slightly better rating. But it overstays its charming little welcome and lost me.

I mainly found this film a charming and slightly amusing as it tells a simple series of stories about this family. It's episodic storytelling reminded me of old Peanuts cartoons... which is to say, probably based on a comic stripe and formed into a united whole. Or is that a manga strip? Or just manga? Who knows.

And the problem that left me at a 2.5 is that the episodic nature never amounted to much for me. It was amusing for awhile, and then I just lost interest by the final act. It needed to be shorter or have more building blocks between anecdotes to keep my attention..

I'm not giving it a low score for its pencil scratchy, watercolor, half-finished art style. I'm assuming there's a story there for going simplified and half-formed... maybe it's supposed to represent half-ed memories of youth or something. Or maybe it was just cheaper to produce that way... but I doubt it.

I don't hate it, I was just left out in the rain (or maybe they never hung me out to dry in the first place?).

Studio Ghibli Films - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 21 of 35
--> Watch a movie from your favorite genre

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

It takes real effort to get me to dislike a sci-fi film centered around radio telescopes and first . But Cosmos did it and it did it a lot. It's not that I don't respect the low budget hustle, but the actual implementation and script were such a drag.

Cosmos is about a trio of physicists who drive out into the middle of the woods to scan the sky and test some new hardware. Then they receive a signal from outer space and have to struggle to maintain and store it.

This film is about 130 minutes long and does not contain enough story to justify it. Plus it has so little faith in its science and scientific curiosity that it bloats that runtime with needless and wildly overlong suspense and action scenes.

Making with an alien radio source does not require thirty minutes of high octane running around the forest to set up equipment. It doesn't need 30 more minutes of driving super fast in order to save your data. It needs the awe and wonder of what it's about, not all the hand waving, high impact music to insert fake drama. This would be a perfectly good hour long film... at two plus hours, it's bloated and tiresome.

So, yeah, good intentions but bad execution. Probably someone with money asked them to insert more excitement and they ruined the scrappy little low budget first sci-fi flick they'd planned. It's too bad.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Watched on Sunday April 21, 1996.

Watched on Thursday April 20, 1995.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 20 of 35
--> Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

After watching this, Spike Lee's directorial debut, I'm not surprised I found the streaming show adaptation more often then the film while searching for it online. As a first film, it shows many of the traits that Lee would go on to master in his later films.

But as a look a the 90s from a black and female perspective (as written by a dude) it's not a disaster or even a mess. It's just a little low budget when it comes to the actors and suffers a bit from finding a voice and dialog that is interesting for the run of the film.

I enjoyed the fourth wall breaking introductions and explanations and I enjoyed Spike Lee doing his little rat terrier with coke bottle glasses thing. And I realized I'd heard the name Nola Darling a few times in ing without realizing it was referring to the lead of this film. So nice to check off a bit of pop culture.

Spike Lee went onto bigger and better things. Not bad, but it struggles.

Spike Lee ts - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 19 of 35
--> Watch the movie that was added first

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Look... I'm giving it a low score because I didn't get it. I'm sure, objectively, it's a better film than that but I'm not gonna pretend it wasn't obtuse, cryptic, and not my tempo. And if that gets me kicked out of the Happy Funtime Avant Garde Italian Movies Club, then so be it.

Debated tossing a higher score on it to avoid the sneers of people who think I just want more Michael Bay Transformers instead. I do not. But I would prefer to "get" a movie instead of stare inscrutably at the screen wondering why I should care for this addled film maker making a film about his own addled film making.

I kind of enjoyed some of the surrealism... wasn't always fond of not knowing where we were in time, space, or thought. I'm absolutely sure I'd get more out of it were I in film school or listening to Ben Mankiewicz rattle on about it. And maybe I'd "get" it more if I rewatched it... but lets not be silly. That's probably not gonna happen and more than I'd watch Transformers 2 again.

Moving on in peace and harmony.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 18 of 35
--> Watch the movie that was added last

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

If a Watchlist is sometimes used to dump movies that made you say, "Oh, yeah... I kind of hearing about that one", then Nighthawks is the alpha and omega of that idea. A Sylvester Stallone movie that surprised me in that existed somewhere between Rocky II and First Blood. Like I was amazed at all Stallone had a career outside those franchises in the early 80s.

Turns out its a forgotten film that should have remained so. A painfully generic early 80s action flick with a pretty solid cast. Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, and Rutger Hauer? I'm all for any film with Rutger Hauer's steely-eyed gaze. Too bad Stallone seems to be in his "trying to figure out my career outside of Rocky" mode where he puts on his smart guy glasses and a beard. First Blood couldn't come soon enough.

Yeah, not impressed by this plodding whatever of a film. Most memorable as a bygone relic.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

I took an unusual amount of time to go see The Final Reckoning. I was a little unenthused and figured I'd wait 'til after the holiday weekend. Avoid the crowds and not deal with three hours of explosions. But that risked some YouTuber posting a spoiler-filled thumbnail so I put on my bigboy pants and went. And was surprised by A) how much I loved it and B) good grief what a weird first hour.

So The Final Reckoning picks up shortly after the events of Dead Reckoning which almost no one saw so they have to A) remind us how teh awesome this whole franchise has been and B) what they hell even happened in the previous movie. And that extended recap must sound like 50 pounds of nonsense to the uninitiated since it was kind of 40 pounds of nonsense for folks who did see it.

But, yeah, basically 45 minutes of recap and about an hour combined to get the engines revving. It was entertaining but also mystifying so much time was spent like that. But once the film finally hits its stride, it's a pretty taut thriller... that takes even longer get to its action set pieces.

But wowzers does it kick in hard in its middle and final acts. There's an unlikely (need I say impossible?) sequence aboard a sub that starts out familiar but then... New Fear Unlocked! It's a great sequence as you sit back and remind yourself Ethan Hunt has survived seven increasingly unbelievable movies and I should shut my physics and biology brain off.

The marketing has been all about the crazy biplane stunt show... it's impressive and I wonder how much of it was real. I mean, certainly they CGI'd out Cruise's safety wires but how much was over these landscapes? It's an impressive sequence that kinda went on too long. <checks watch> Yup... Tom is still hanging off that strut.

Also... total failure. Nobody fights a Poiar bear? Shocking. I was promised a polar bear.

When I got home and checked my ratings for the other films, I was surprised to realize this is actually my favorite of the bunch. I've never been a HUGE fan of the franchise - most all the films are good to great - but something about the second half of this one and its emotional ending hooked me. Maybe all that navel gazing at clips from older films actually worked on me.

So, yeah, if this is the Final film, I'm saying it went out on an all-time high (the secretary will disavow any 007 references in the previous sentence).

Mission: Impossible Films - Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 17 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 2000s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

As the third and final film in Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy, there were some neat visual flairs in a film that is unnecessary convoluted in its structure. I had a hard time trying to figure out when in the timeline we were in at any given time... much less piecing together the backstory.

And yet I found the film quite watchable even with my confusion. I'd catch on to where and when we were and enjoy it... and then it'd slip from my grasp and I'd have to reorient. This wasn't fun for me as I kept having to restart.

All of which caused me to be quite underwhelmed by the pacing and sturcture of the final act. Yeah, this is vengeance but they'd kind of lost me along the way.

I liked the movie... I was just not entertained by the storytelling choices. I suspect this is a me-thing since it's liked by most as much as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Oh well.

Park Chan-Wook Films - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

I expected a very different, far more generic film based on its description. I figured it would be about a dark ritual followed by the standard issue haunted house "what did we accidentally summon?" film. The kind with generic jump scares as something rattles its chains in the attic. But, no, this flick goes in some weird, disturbing, and creative directions.

It's about a daughter who comes home to help with end-of-life care for her father. Her mother has gone around the logic bend and has fallen in deep with some weird mumbo jumbo. And in comes the piercing eyes of a black magic practitioner.

The first half of the film is a grounded, slow-paced family drama. The lead as played by Colby Minifie (from The Boys) tries to deal with her mother who has drank the Kool-aid. It's a familial horror based around the idea that you may no longer agree with your parents on what's real... something many of us have experienced with recent politics (no, this isn't a political movie, just musing on the realization).

But the film eventually drops its slow burn when it introduces its dark rituals that get stranger and stranger, horrific and more horrific. I genuinely didn't know where it was going and I appreciated where it went. It makes inventive use of its limited budget with darkness, disturbing "what am I even looking at" makeup, and limited CGI.

This flick is disturbing but maybe takes a bit too long to get to the real horror. It worked for me, but fair warning. It takes patience but it eventually gets to some skin-crawling, hide-your-eyes moments. I'm giving it a fairly high score partially for just being a different kind of horror... and more points for being good at it.

Fear Street: Prom Queen is a throwback slasher that leans too much on its throw-back and not enough on originality. Great needle drops to all the standard issue 80s pop/rock songs are great... but so too is a random shuffle on your 80s Mix. And cool gory kills don't make up for a lot of tiresome prom drama.

Taking place years after vaguely defined murders, a host of girls are running for prom queen. Insert all that teen drama llama and then a prom where a masked killer hunts down the nominees.

I'm not sure, but I think I was supposed to the events of Fear Street: 1978? The movie has an ill-defined backstory that it would have been nice to know... but, then again, maybe that'd have made the identity of the killer even more obvious? I'm unsure. If it is a sequel, I doubt the timeline... but also big fail for not calling it Fear Street: 1988.

The cast is fine... though a lot of the girls kind of looked alike to me. The lead herself looked like what would happen if Rory Gilmore and Joey King had a baby. Really, there's only two or maybe three girls worth following and their mid-film drama got super tedious. Really? Where did this dance off come from and can it end, please?

The kills were at least quite good. Definitely gory though not as inventive as some of the ones in the previous Fear Street films. Still, nice they don't cut away for the PG-13 and the final slaughter during the prom showed a lot of promise. It didn't quite go as far as I've had liked... but the far more campy finale was fun. .

The actual masked killer? Someone in a generic red slicker and a cryptic black mask. Very boring and replaceable (I hear the Gorton Fisherman from I Know What You Did Last Summer might want a crack at the slicker killer gimmick again).

There's nothing particularly scary about this flick and I was often left a little bored by the tedious drama. But the kills were fun and the overall third act pulled it out of the fire, at least a little bit. It's not particularly great but it did leave me hoping for Fear Street: 2005 or whatever.

Fountain of Youth on Apple TV+ is what happens when a Dan Brown book falls down a well, catches on fire, and bounces off Indiana Jones ledges all the way down. It's a stupid movie that probably wouldn't argue the accusation... but it pretends to be a dumb kind of smart.

The flick stars John Krasinski as a treasure hunter and Natalie Portman as his stick-in-the-mud sister as they work together to find the Fountain of Youth. Which mainly involves finding and stealing ancient art that has secret codes that lead them to the next clue. Meanwhile a perplexing number of bad guy factions are on their trail.

This is, somehow, a Guy Ritchie movie that feels like Guy Ritchie saw an Indiana Jones movie and said "I'll make one of those with none of my style". He also saw the modern technique of flipping the camera during fight scenes and imitating that too, poorly. Almost mechanically. While saying, "This looks right, right? Someone?" It's so not a Guy Ritchie film that I almost liked it (since he and I don't always agree on his style).

The whole movie teeters on the edge of bad... sometimes actually bad, and sometimes with just enough ancient temples, hidden codes, and deadly traps that I was entertained.

It has many flaws but a big one is John Krasinski... and I like John Krasinski! We know he can play serious and we know he can play funny... but he should never play funny guy in a film that is asking for crazy, sexy, cool guy. He has an ongoing flirtation with a sexy/cool villainess that demands a LOT more suave from him that he can deliver in goofy guy mode. She nails her side of the deal but I never once saw any actual chemistry between them.

And that's emblematic of the whole film... you can tell what they are going for, but the writing and directing is only half convincing at the delivery. It so wants to be a better, slyer, sexier fun film but it just isn't.

But I still had just enough fun in between the cracks to get it to a positive review. It's teetering on the edge, Indiana Jones holding it by the belt lest it fall into complete mediocrity. But I'm not gonna in if someone challenges to drink me under the table with how bad they think it is.

Guy Ritchie Films - Ranked

I'm not particularly precious about the original animated Lilo & Stich. It's fine, it's cute, and it has some heart. So a live action remake seemed fine by me. The idea didn't offend me or make me shake my tiny fists at the Disney Gods. It might even make sense as a way to get the franchise back in the limelight.

And... yeah... it's fine. I'm rating it lower than the animated film for some big mistakes in adaptation though. Again, I'm not in love with the original so cutting some scenes and even having less Stitch didn't bug me. And adding character growth for helped.

What bugged me right out the gate was the sci-fi angle. It opens in the same way as the original with the galactic federation and the "trial" of Stitch. If there's any point to a live action remake, is to be live action... and these creatures are all CGI of course, but they LOOK like cartoons. There was no effort to make them photoreal. So is this "live action" or not?

On top of that, the pacing of their scenes feels very animated... the original film is so short, they quick cut their way through these scenes and the new one does too. It doesn't FEEL like a live action film when they are involved.

But what about Earth? Well, I think the Lilo and Nani stuff is so good they might as well just have made them the movie. Cut out the weird looking "dog" and all that. Especially because A) they cut or change a lot of Stitch, and B) they gave Nani a character arc outside of her love for her little sis. Yeah, I actually was rooting for Nani... all while finding the little girl playing Lilo adorable.

But we still have to stitch (ha! I kill me) the alien stuff into the movie. Stitch and the little girl are fine. Sure. The two alien scientists are smartly turned into humans since there's no way a live action film could work if they just wore sunhats. I'm not sure they add anything to the movie though, probably even less than in the animated film.

I'm kind of mixed... and think it'd have been a better movie about two native Hawaiian sisters just trying to make a life on their own. But, sure, add the marketing opportunities with Stitch... he's what people came for, I suppose.

Disney Live Action Remakes - Ranked

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 16 of 35
--> Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Lemonade Mouth is a Disney Channel movie that wound up on my Watchlist because I kept hearing about it in ing references. Granted, those references were from much younger people and in the same lost-at-sea way some of the earlier Disney Channel movies were to me. I knew I'd be about a zillion years past the sell-by date for the movie, but I decided to give it a shot. I mean, what even is a Lemonade Mouth... and why? The world must know.

In case you also weren't a hyper kinetic 12 year old in 2011, it's about a bunch of teens in detention who form a band named Lemonade Mouth. They hit it big, but not without teenage romance, drama, and trouble with the parental units.

Yeah, the film has the usual overlit, hyper-colorful, toothless, fangless feel of most Disney Channel originals... but I enjoyed it anyway. Yes, it's ideas of teenage rebellion have no claws and nobody goes on a cocaine bender or blows up corporate art to demonstrate their alleged anarchist tendencies. About as fight-the-system it gets is speaking truth to power if power is the principal who places sportsball above the arts. And, hey, I like that message... as tame as it is.

Also dig some of the pop/rock songs for what they are. I can see how they earwormed their way into young brains back in the day and became a thing they talk about when they talk about Lemonade Mouth.

Also appreciated the cheesy, schmaltz at the end of the big Battle of the Bands type thing. It didn't go as expected and, as corny as it was, it made me smile. Because I'm a chump, I guess.

So, yeah, I can't say I was impressed by the movie, but I didn't cover my eyes in shame. Sometimes randomly adding movies outside your demo can work out. Mostly.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 15 of 35
-->Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Not as bonkers as I thought... and a lot more thoughtful and philosophical. It's a pretty short runtime that doesn't quite justify the length... but it is interesting and introspective.

It's about a disembodied hand trying to make its way across Paris to its body. In flashbacks (can a hand flashback?) it re its full self as a a boy and later young man as he lives his life and tries to romance a girl.

This is an odd film for sure... you gotta take it on its disembodied merits and just go with it. I don't think its odd hand on an adventure story really matters and feels more like an excuse to get people to watch it. The real story are the flashbacks and I guess they didn't think that was enough of a hook. Maybe they had a point.

It's a good movie as a story about a life and its a curious story about a wandering hand. I had enough of a good time with its thoughtful reflection and ultimate message.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 14 of 35
--> Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Wow. Hot Take McGee on the prowl. Given its hugely positive ratings, I probably shouldn't even write a review for this flick. I totally bounced off of it... couldn't get into any of it. The art, animation, story, or screenplay. It's like I watched the Kirkland Brand version of the movie.

I shouldn't be too surprised. I bounced off quickly to the team's Secret of Kells a few years ago. But when I watched and loved Wolfriders recently, I figured maybe I'd gotten over my sourpuss diagnosis and would love this one too.

But, yeah, a fail on a big scale... and I still plan to finish Secret of Kells too. Argh.

Not sure what it was about the movie... I have no problem with stories of selkies and Irish folklore. I just didn't connect with these characters in this story.

Oh well.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 13 of 35
--> Watch the movie that is rated highest

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Paper Moon is a lovely piece of blunt force impact from li'l Tatum O'Neal. I can see why the Oscar went to a ten year old that year. That said, the actual impact of her tough girl act might have been lessened by all the little girls wise and tough beyond their years that have been written and performed in her shadow ever since. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this film but I bet the performance had a HUGE impact (and shocked pearl-clutching) in 1973.

Casting such a button of a little girl as a cigarette smokin' doll who knows what she wants (mostly 200 bucks) and has no moral qualms about scamming the chumps was great. A road film about father/daughter con artists was so charming and enjoyable.

And the idea that both Papa O'Neal and his daughter Tatum played together in the same film was a masterstroke in casting. Even if he wasn't <wink wink> her actual film dad. I bet unrelated actors could have pulled it off too, but the idea these two already knew how to be father/daughter was terrific and sweet.

Part of me wishes there'd been an overarching story instead of a series of chapters. Sure, there's the overall story of them getting to know each other but a less serialized set of incidents might have been better. Not that I'm not giving it 4.5 stars or anything. It's still a terrific film.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Bring Her Back is the new movie from the apparent goofballs who made Talk to Me. Their pre-movie intro does not, in fact, represent the grimness of their productions. They also merrily spoiled aspects of the film while heaping praise on their cast. And maybe that spoilage might be needed for this rather unconventional flick that doesn't go out of the way to explain itself.

It's about a brother and sister who lose their pa and get put into the foster care system. The younger sister is mostly blind and the elder brother might have a history of violence. Their foster mom (Sally Hawkins) is slightly off kilter and already has an even more off-kilter foster child. Something is clearly up.

I was on the fence at first... undecided if I was going to go with a perfectly ok 3 until the film convinced me it was better than I was thinking. The issue is that something bizarre is going on and the film has no interest in explaining anything. So I was soft on it... until the weirdness and violence and gore coalesced into something unique, unexpected, and unsettling.

This is not the world's happiest fun time horror movie... I came away a little disturbed and fairly unhappy. It's a brutal, mean film that constantly puts its innocent foster kids into some bad situations. It had me genuinely wondering how they were going to survive each scenario, especially as it rammed its way into the third act.

The directors in their intro heaped praise on Hawkins (who deserves it) and toss out kudos to their actually vision impaired lead actress. Plus the rest of the young cast too. Everyone does a good if disturbing job... these kids might need therapy.

And the Philippou brothers prove their writing/directing bona fides by one-upping Talk to Me. Both films have a unique take on some classic horror tropes. I look forward to their twisty Aussie takes on more horror in the future.

I'm not gonna say this is an easy watch or a happy go-lucky horror comedy. Its dark and miserable and unpredictable in a way similar to - but quite different from - Talk To Me. I very much enjoyed it, even if I felt a little antsy about its pace and limited reveals in the first half.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 12 of 35
--> Watch a movie from the 1980s

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

While The Year of Living Dangerously wasn't the lost slick 80s flick I thought it was, it's still a pretty good film. At least it succeeded in giving early Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver in the same flick.

It stars Gibson as a reporter in an Indonesia on the edge of political and military meltdown. He works with a local photographer (Linda Hunt) while meeting and falling for Weaver (not a bad job if you can get it).

The film is a little scattershot but when it hits, it hits pretty well. I just wish it moved a little faster and had more of Weaver in it. Linda Hunt is curious as a woman playing a man... I kept waiting for the dramatic reveal that he was a she. But this ain't that movie... I guess they were just going for acting chops and diminutive height, both of which she had.

I wasn't super engaged with a lot of the film and kind of kept watching out of duty. Happily there's enough good scenes peppered throughout that I can happily give it three stars and move on. Maybe Tequila Sunrise will be the 80s tinged Gibson film I thought this was gonna be.

Peter Weir Films - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 11 of 35
--> Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

Sleepers is one of those movies I've been aware of since its release but I had no particular interest in it. That said, a flick starring Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Brad Pitt exactly matches the "movie that stars one of your favorite actors" Watchlist challenge prompt. Hell, if it were still the '90s, toss in Jason Patric, Brad Renfro, and Bully Crudup too (plus Minnie Driver). Everyone in this flick is great.

In case you don't know, it's half a coming of age story about four teenage tough guys in Hell's Kitchen in the '60s. They wind up going to reform school where the guards take advantage of them (ahem). Years later, they stumble across the worst of the worst guards and revenge is on the table.

I knew the rough outline and was genuinely surprised De Niro as a Catholic Priest wasn't the problem. That perked my interest for not going stereotypical... this was well before he took his career into comedy so my default assumption is he's a bad guy. I was pleasantly surprised.

Instead, we had to contend with Kevin Bacon in ick mode instead. I guess he'd played scumbags before and since then so I wasn't as surprised when he broke bad. Very bad.

So the movie was already surprising me and, when the revenge plot kicked in, it was not at all what I expected. I didn't see a twisty courtroom drama... i was expecting an elaborate murder plot. Turns out the murder was the easy part.

So I enjoyed the twists and turns and was a little surprised by the dirty ethics in the long run. Yes, violent lives lead to violent deaths but I was surprised at how casually amoral the film was about its characters in the long run.

So, yeah, years and years and years later, I'm glad I caught up with the movie. I was never opposed to it. It was just a flick that fell through the cracks. I guess you could say... I slept on it. Ba-DUM!

Barry Levinson Films - Ranked

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist (Round 4)!... 10 of 35
--> Watch the movie that was released the earliest

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

The Lost World gets all the kudos for first timing a lot of stop motion dinosaurs, but it's a case confirming that modern FX films were not the first out of the gate as pure spectacle. There's so little to this movie beyond the visual FX that I was left pretty bored.

Though I'll also it to preferring these stop motion critters to the lizards with fins glued to them in the 1960s remake. These dinos really are neat and must have been gobsmacking one hundred years ago.

But there's so little actual meat on this film that I started to miss the cheesy 60s version with its cheesy technicolor 60s vibes.

I was surprised by the ending and how much Spielberg borrowed for his Lost World: Jurassic Park (which isn't based on this film or its original novel). I was much less impressed by the shrug of how it concluded its London adventure though. Did it even really have a conclusion?

Oh well... it's nice to get it off my plate.

👀👀🎬📽️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️👀👀

My Updated Shrunken Watchlist List (Round 4)
Full Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Rules from Nina.

Not exactly an all-encoming view of Tyler Perry's films... a noticeable lack of Madea/comedies and some of his earliest efforts. I should do something about that maybe someday... <glances at watch> Maybe not now.

1. STRAW
2. Good Deeds
3. The Six Triple Eight
4. Acrimony
5. Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
6. Nobody's Fool
7. Tyler Perry's Duplicity
8. Mea Culpa
9. Tyler Perry's Divorce in the Black
10. A Madea Family Funeral

1. Ballerina
2. Live Free or Die Hard
3. Underworld
4. Total Recall
5. Underworld: Evolution

1. John Wick: Chapter 4
2. John Wick: Chapter 2
3. Ballerina
4. John Wick
5. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Updated 2/5/23 - after completing a rewatch of the franchise (including the two AvP films)

The Predator franchise is curious in how almost none of the movies have much connection to one another and only one has been a direct sequel (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem). Obviously each film is about an alien hunter stalking armed men and women, but other than that, each film gives us a different slate of characters to murder. I doubt this was intentional... I'm sure if they could have gotten Arnold (or even Danny) back, they would have. But sadly the films offer sequel baiting but are otherwise a dead-end.

The wild shifts in tone are more indicative of a franchise desperately trying to find something that works. But I appreciate how they can build on each other even if the previous film didn't do so well. They are usually trying, even if sometimes they are going far off the rails (hi The Predator... and one, maybe both, AVP movies).

Prey - the final film - is so good that I hope they give us a direct sequel to it. They bring back elements from Predator 2 but not in a way that yet connects properly to that earlier film.

But if they go in yet another direction, I hope they do it with Prey's (or Predator's) assured filmmaking and give us something new but familiar.

• Predator
• Prey
• Predator: Killer of Killers
• Predators
• Predator 2
• Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
• AVP: Alien vs. Predator
• The Predator

1. Your Name.
2. Grave of the Fireflies
3. The Colors Within
4. A Silent Voice: The Movie
5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
6. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
7. Whisper of the Heart
8. Lost in Starlight
9. In This Corner of the World
10. The Garden of Words

...plus 80 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My ranking of the Reiwa Era Godzilla films I've seen so far. This era starting in 2016 and (as of this writing) is ongoing.

1. Godzilla Minus One
2. Shin Godzilla
3. Godzilla: The Planet Eater
4. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle
5. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Challenge 2025... Round 5! Round 4 dropped me below 200 films on my Watchlist... gonna build round 5 off the current list and then I'm gonna blow the watchlist up with a ton of new entries (which is gonna be more fun than building the new list).

I'm modifying the challenge prompts by removing some of the prompts since I keep having to add movies in order to have something that fits. Replacing with films from earlier decades.

Challenge Rules as devised by Nina

Progress: ## of 35
Started: 6/3/25

1. The Magnificent Ambersons - Watch the movie that was added first
2. Barefoot Gen - Watch the movie that was added last
3. A Bridge Too Far - Watch the movie that is the longest
4. My Life as a Zucchini - Watch the movie that is the shortest
5. All That Jazz - Watch the movie that is rated highest
6. A Good Marriage - Watch the movie that is rated lowest
7. How Green Was My Valley - Watch a movie from the 1940s
8. All That Heaven Allows - Watch a movie from the 1950s
9. The Virgin Spring - Watch a movie from the 1960s
10. Nashville - Watch a movie from the 1970s
11. Tequila Sunrise - Watch a movie from the 1980s
12. Pompoko - Watch a movie from the 1990s
13. The Secret of Kells - Watch a movie from the 2000s
14. Between Two Ferns - Watch a movie from the 2010s
15. Whisper of the Heart - Watch a movie from the 2020s
16. The Out-of-Towners (1970) - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
17. The Life of Emile Zola - Watch a movie from a director you haven’t watched anything from
18. 99 Homes - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors
19. Body Heat - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses
20. Synecdoche, New York - Watch the movie that is the most popular
21. Alien Code - Watch the movie that is the least popular
22. Steamboat Bill Jr. - Watch the movie that was released the earliest
23. Going My Way - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
24. Trouble Every Day - Watch a movie from your favorite genre
25. My Darling Clementine - Watch a movie from your least favorite genre
26. Only God Forgives - Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster
27. Up in Smoke - Watch the movie you have been anticipating watching most
28. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - Watch a movie from before you were born
29. Young Mr. Lincoln - Watch a movie recommended to you by someone
30. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness - Watch a documentary
31. The Medium - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears

Bonus
32. Palo Alto - Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman
33. Lady Terminator - Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers
34. Cosmopolis - Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite directors that you haven't seen yet
35. National Velvet - Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.
👀 35. Pulgasari - Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

1. The Magnificent Ambersons

   Added First

2. Barefoot Gen

   Added Last

3. A Bridge Too Far

   Longest

4. My Life as a Zucchini

   Shortest

5. All That Jazz

   Highest Rated

6. A Good Marriage

   Lowest Rated

7. How Green Was My Valley

   1940s

8. All That Heaven Allows

   1950s

9. The Virgin Spring

   1960s

10. Nashville

    1970s

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Challenge 2025... Round 4! Success! Watchlist went below 200... down to 177, in fact. It's the small, insignificant victories. Now to reload that watchlist with dozens more films! Woohoo!

Challenge Rules as devised by Nina

Progress: 35 of 35
Started: 5/7/25
Completed 6/3/25
Covers ranked from best to worst.

Other Completed Watchlist Rounds in 2025
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3

Original List (unranked)

👀 1. 8 1/2 - Watch the movie that was added first
👀 2. Nighthawks - Watch the movie that was added last
👀 3. Grand Prix - Watch the movie that is the longest
👀 4. Victory Through Air Power - Watch the movie that is the shortest
👀 5. Paper Moon - Watch the movie that is rated highest
👀 6. Endless Love - Watch the movie that is rated lowest
👀 7. The Quiet Man - Watch a movie from the 1950s
👀 8. Oliver! - Watch a movie from the 1960s
👀 9. Force 10 from Navarone - Watch a movie from the 1970s
👀 10. The Year of Living Dangerously - Watch a movie from the 1980s
👀 11. My Neighbors the Yamadas - Watch a movie from the 1990s
👀 12. Lady Vengeance - Watch a movie from the 2000s
👀 13. The Red Turtle - Watch a movie from the 2010s
👀 14. Corner Office - Watch a movie from the 2020s
👀 15. Hairspray - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 16. Cavalcade - Watch a movie from a director you haven’t watched anything from
👀 17. Sleepers - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors
👀 18. Carnage - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses
👀 19. Inside Llewyn Davis - Watch the movie that is the most popular
👀 20. Panda! Go Panda! - Watch the movie that is the least popular
👀 21. The Lost World - Watch the movie that was released the earliest
👀 22. The Kite Runner - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 23. Cosmos - Watch a movie from your favorite genre
👀 24. Cimarron - Watch a movie from your least favorite genre
👀 25. Song of the Sea - Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster
👀 26. The Born Losers - Watch the movie you have been anticipating watching most
👀 27. The Wizard of Oz (1925) - Watch a movie from before you were born
👀 28. Johnny Guitar - Watch a movie recommended to you by someone
👀 29. QT8: The First 8 - Watch a documentary
👀 30. The Man Who Would Be King - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears

Bonus
👀 31. Lemonade Mouth - Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman
👀 32. I Lost My Body - Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers
👀 33. She's Gotta Have It - Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen yet
👀 34. The Death of Stalin - Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.
👀 35. Pulgasari - Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

Ranked List:

1. Paper Moon

   Rated Highest

2. Carnage

   Favorite Actress

3. Sleepers

   Favorite Actor

4. The Kite Runner

   Watchlist Shuffle

5. The Born Losers

   Most Anticipated

6. Grand Prix

   Longest

7. Johnny Guitar

   Recommended

8. Force 10 from Navarone

   1970s

9. The Quiet Man

   1950s

10. The Man Who Would Be King

    Watchlist Shuffle

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Challenge 2025... Round 2! Got through the list the first time in mid March so might as well go another round!

Challenge Rules as devised by Nina

Progress: 35 of 35
Started 3/13/25
Completed 4/11/25
Covers ranked from best to worst.

Other Completed Watchlist Rounds in 2025
Round 1
Round 3
Round 4

Original List (unranked)
👀 1. In the Name of the Father - Watch the movie that was added first
👀 2. Space Battleship Yamato - Watch the movie that was added last
👀 3. Reds - Watch the movie that is the longest
👀 4. The Great Train Robbery - Watch the movie that is the shortest
👀 5. The ion of Joan of Arc - Watch the movie that is rated highest
👀 6. Foodfight - Watch the movie that is rated lowest
👀 7. Throne of Blood - Watch a movie from the 1950s
👀 8. A Man for all Seasons - Watch a movie from the 1960s
👀 9. Silver Streak - Watch a movie from the 1970s
👀 10. Evilspeak - Watch a movie from the 1980s
👀 11. Porco Rosso - Watch a movie from the 1990s
👀 12. Godzilla Against Mechagodizlla - Watch a movie from the 2000s
👀 13. In This Corner of the World - Watch a movie from the 2010s
👀 14. Krazy House - Watch a movie from the 2020s
👀 15. Now, Voyager - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 16. Alice in Wonderland (1915) - Watch a movie from a director you haven’t watched anything from
👀 17. The Shop Around the Corner - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors
👀 18. Margot at the Wedding - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses
👀 19. Life is Beautiful - Watch the movie that is the most popular
👀 20. Get Lamp - Watch the movie that is the least popular
👀 21. Girl Shy - Watch the movie that was released the earliest
👀 22. Holiday - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 23. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931) - Watch a movie from your favorite genre
👀 24. The Outlaw Josey Wales - Watch a movie from your least favorite genre
👀 25. Casino Royale (1967) - Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster
👀 26. Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. - Watch the movie you have been anticipating watching most
👀 27. Criss Cross - Watch a movie from before you were born
👀 28. The Wasp - Watch a movie recommended to you by someone
👀 29. Reel Injun - Watch a documentary
👀 30. Incendies - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears

Bonus
👀 31. The Diary of a Teenage Girl - Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman
👀 32. Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl - Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers
👀 33. Rumble Fish - Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen yet
👀 34. Fitzcarraldo - Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.
👀 35. The Battle of Algiers - Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

Ranked List:

1. The ion of Joan of Arc

   Highest Rated

2. In This Corner of the World

   2010s

3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

   Favorite Genre

4. Incendies

   Watchlist Shuffle

5. Reel Injun

   Documentary

6. Girl Shy

   Released the Earlest

7. Now, Voyager

   Watchlist Shuffle

8. The Diary of a Teenage Girl

   Directed by, written by, and led by a woman

9. The Wasp

   Recommendation

10. Throne of Blood

    1950s

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Challenge 2025... pretty sure this isn't gonna be the only time through this challenge.

Challenge Rules as devised by Nina

Progress: 35 of 35
Started: 1/1/25
Completed 3/13/25
Covers ranked from best to worst.

Other Completed Watchlist Rounds in 2025
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4

Original List (unranked)
👀 1. Bicycle Thieves - Watch the movie that was added first
👀 2. Shin Kamen Rider - Watch the movie that was added last
👀 3. Fanny and Alexander - Watch the movie that is the longest
👀4. Guinea Pig: Devil’s Experiment - Watch the movie that is the shortest
👀 5. Tokyo Story - Watch the movie that is rated highest
👀 6. Mars Needs Mom - Watch the movie that is rated lowest
👀 7. Run Silent, Run Deep - Watch a movie from the 1950s
👀 8. Tom Jones - Watch a movie from the 1960s
👀 9. Aguire, The Wrath of God - Watch a movie from the 1970s
👀 10. Thief - Watch a movie from the 1980s
👀 11. Ocean Waves - Watch a movie from the 1990s
👀 12. Dancer in the Dark - Watch a movie from the 2000s
👀 13. Hold the Dark - Watch a movie from the 2010s
👀 14. Secret Society of Second Born Royals - Watch a movie from the 2020s
👀 15. A Separation - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 16. To Be or Not To Be - Watch a movie from a director you haven’t watched anything from
👀 17. Staying Alive - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors
👀 18. Carol - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses
👀 19. Paris, Texas - Watch the movie that is the most popular
👀 20. Crack in the World - Watch the movie that is the least popular
👀 21. The Thief of Baghdad - Watch the movie that was released the earliest
👀 22. Alucarda - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 23. The Taking of Deborah Logan - Watch a movie from your favorite genre
👀 24. The Ox-Bow Incident - Watch a movie from your least favorite genre
👀 25. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas - Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster
👀 26. Werewolf of London - Watch the movie you have been anticipating watching most
👀 27. Klute - Watch a movie from before you were born
👀 28. Bronson - Watch a movie recommended to you by someone
👀 29. RoboDoc - Watch a documentary
👀 30. Suburbia - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears

Bonus
👀 31. The Breadwinner - Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman
👀 32. Cruel Jaws - Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers
👀 33. Jack - Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen yet
👀 34. Dirty Mary Crazy Larry - Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.
👀 35. The Eagle Huntress - Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

Ranked List:

1. Paris, Texas

   Most Popular

2. A Separation

   Watchlist Shuffle

3. The Eagle Huntress

   From a country you haven't seen a movie from (Mongolia)

4. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

   Beautiful Cover

5. RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop

   Documentary

6. Dancer in the Dark

   2000s

7. The Breadwinner

   Triple F (director, written, starring a woman)

8. Aguirre, the Wrath of God

   1970s

9. Bronson

   Recommended

10. SubUrbia

    Watchlist Shuffle

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Honey, I Shrunk the Watchlist Challenge 2025... Round 3! I was gonna give a couple weeks before launching a new round... but there just aren't enough 2025 films I haven't seen yet to fill the gap. So here we go again!

Challenge Rules as devised by Nina

Progress: 35 of 35
Started: 4/14/25
Completed 5/7/25
Covers ranked from best to worst.

Other Completed Watchlist Rounds in 2025
Round 1
Round 2
Round 4

Original List (unranked)

👀 1. The Circus - Watch the movie that was added first
👀 2. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters - Watch the movie that was added last
👀 3. The Great Ziegfeld - Watch the movie that is the longest
👀 4. Chime - Watch the movie that is the shortest
👀 5. The Red Shoes - Watch the movie that is rated highest
👀 6. Abraxas - Watch the movie that is rated lowest
👀 7. To Please a Lady - Watch a movie from the 1950s
👀 8. The Guns of Navarone - Watch a movie from the 1960s
👀 9. Black Sunday - Watch a movie from the 1970s
👀 10. 52 Pick Up - Watch a movie from the 1980s
👀 11. Only Yesterday - Watch a movie from the 1990s
👀 12. Lust, Caution - Watch a movie from the 2000s
👀 13. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House - Watch a movie from the 2010s
👀 14. Sleep - Watch a movie from the 2020s
👀 15. Tommy - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 16. The Night is Short, Walk On Girl - Watch a movie from a director you haven’t watched anything from
👀 17. You Can't Take It With You - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actors
👀18. Twixt - Watch a movie that stars one of your favorite actresses
👀 19. Roma - Watch the movie that is the most popular
👀 20. Mars Needs Women - Watch the movie that is the least popular
👀 21. The Last Laugh - Watch the movie that was released the earliest
👀 22. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears
👀 23. Ring 0 - Watch a movie from your favorite genre
👀 24. The Wind - Watch a movie from your least favorite genre
👀 25. Under the Silver Lake - Watch the movie with the most beautiful poster
👀 26. Late Phases - Watch the movie you have been anticipating watching most
👀 27. Frankenstein Conquers the World - Watch a movie from before you were born
👀 28. #Manhole - Watch a movie recommended to you by someone
👀 29. The Atomic Cafe - Watch a documentary
👀 30. Blue is the Warmest Color - Shuffle your watchlist and watch the first movie that appears

Bonus
👀 31. Liz and the Blue Bird - Watch a movie directed by, written by, and led by a woman
👀 32. Mystics in Bali - Watch a cult classic/movie that just seems bonkers
👀 33. Knightriders - Watch a movie by (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen yet
👀 34. Old Yeller - Watch the movie at the halfway point of your watchlist.
👀 35. Ivalu - Watch a film from a country you've never seen films from

Ranked List:

1. Lust, Caution

   2000s

2. Roma

   Most Popular

3. Twixt

   Favorite Actress (Elle Fanning)

4. 52 Pick-Up

   1980s

5. Knightriders

   From (one of) your favorite director's that you haven't seen yet

6. The Red Shoes

   Highest Rated

7. Mystics in Bali

   Bonkers

8. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

   Watchlist Shuffle

9. The Atomic Cafe

   Documentary

10. Ivalu

    from a country you've never seen films from

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Chinatown
• Rosemary's Baby
• The Pianist
• Carnage
• Macbeth
• Repulsion
• The Tenant
• Death and the Maiden
• The Ghost Writer
• The Ninth Gate

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranking of Mike Flanagan's movies (and tv shows). I don't rank tv shows but figured I'd include 'em on this list since they are so damn good.

• The Haunting of Hill House
• The Life of Chuck
• Doctor Sleep
• Midnight Mass
• Gerald's Game
• Before I Wake
• Hush
• Absentia
• Oculus
• Ouija: Origin of Evil

Every film, made-for-tv movie, and mini-series adaptation of a King book or short story that I've seen. I did not include sequels that were based on the IP but not on something he actually wrote. So Lawnmower Man yes, technically, but none of its sequels. And only the first Children of the Corn (and its remake).

1. Stand by Me
2. The Shining
3. The Mist
4. The Life of Chuck
5. Misery
6. The Green Mile
7. Doctor Sleep
8. Carrie
9. The Stand
10. The Shawshank Redemption

...plus 56 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Raising Arizona
2. No Country for Old Men
3. True Grit
4. Fargo
5. The Big Lebowski
6. Blood Simple
7. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
8. Burn After Reading
9. Miller's Crossing
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Karate Kid
2. Karate Kid: Legends
3. The Karate Kid Part II
4. The Karate Kid
5. The Karate Kid Part III
6. The Next Karate Kid

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
3. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
4. Whisper of the Heart
5. Spirited Away
6. Howl's Moving Castle
7. Ponyo
8. My Neighbor Totoro
9. From Up on Poppy Hill
10. Porco Rosso

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Malcolm X
3. Chi-Raq
4. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
5. Inside Man
6. Miracle at St. Anna
7. BlacKkKlansman
8. Jungle Fever
9. Oldboy
10. 25th Hour

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
3. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
6. Mission: Impossible III
7. Mission: Impossible
8. Mission: Impossible II

1. t Security Area
2. Thirst
3. Oldboy
4. Decision to Leave
5. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
6. Lady Vengeance
7. Three... Extremes
8. Stoker

My unconvential and possibly barbaric, disregarded, unpopular, and heretical list of Guy Ritchie films. I don't like a lot of his movies that everyone else adores. So prepare yourself for my casual disregard of his best works. They just aren't my pint of ale.

1. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
2. Aladdin
3. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
4. The Gentlemen
5. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
6. Fountain of Youth
7. Wrath of Man
8. Sherlock Holmes
9. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
10. RocknRolla

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Aladdin
2. Cinderella
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. The Jungle Book
5. Maleficent
6. Cruella
7. Lilo & Stitch
8. Alice in Wonderland
9. Snow White
10. Mulan

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Truman Show
2. Dead Poets Society
3. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
4. Picnic at Hanging Rock
5. Witness
6. Fearless
7. The Year of Living Dangerously
8. Gallipoli
9. The Mosquito Coast
10. The Cars That Ate Paris

1. Rain Man
2. Wag the Dog
3. Sleepers
4. The Natural
5. The Bay
6. Avalon
7. You Don't Know Jack
8. Good Morning, Vietnam
9. Diner
10. Tin Men

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Final Destination Bloodlines
2. Final Destination
3. Final Destination 3
4. Final Destination 2
5. Final Destination 5
6. The Final Destination

1. Seconds
2. The Manchurian Candidate
3. 52 Pick-Up
4. Grand Prix
5. Seven Days in May
6. Ronin
7. Against the Wall
8. Black Sunday
9. The Island of Dr. Moreau
10. Andersonville

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Train to Busan
2. The Return of the Living Dead
3. World War Z
4. Re-Animator
5. Day of the Dead
6. Deadgirl
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. One Cut of the Dead
9. Final Cut
10. Pet Sematary

...plus 107 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Steve Jobs
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. 127 Hours
4. Yesterday
5. Millions
6. Sunshine
7. 28 Days Later
8. The Beach
9. A Life Less Ordinary
10. Trainspotting

Both direct adaptations and spiritual/thematic films involving stitching together corpses and creating life through (mad) science. I have a feeling its not quite complete...

1. Edward Scissorhands
2. Re-Animator
3. Poor Things
4. May
5. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
6. Bride of Frankenstein
7. The Bride
8. Frankenstein
9. Gods and Monsters
10. Son of Frankenstein

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Infinity Pool
2. Antiviral
3. Possessor

1. Gravity
2. Children of Men
3. Y Tu Mamá También
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Roma
6. Paris Je T'aime
7. A Little Princess
8. Great Expectations

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula
2. Interview with the Vampire
3. Nosferatu
4. Only Lovers Left Alive
5. Sinners
6. Let the Right One In
7. Blade
8. Thirst
9. The Lost Boys
10. I Am Legend

...plus 147 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. Lust, Caution
4. Ride with the Devil
5. The Ice Storm
6. Life of Pi
7. Sense and Sensibility
8. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
9. Taking Woodstock
10. Gemini Man

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Avengers: Endgame
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home
5. Avengers: Infinity War
6. Thor: Ragnarok
7. Iron Man 3
8. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
9. The Avengers
10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
3. Arsenic and Old Lace
4. It Happened One Night
5. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
6. You Can't Take It with You

Sci-Fi x52 - 2025... a whole lot of more obscure sci-fi since I've seen a lot of the movies the prompts are pointing at. But that's ok... obscure needs love too.

Challenge Rules as devised by Michelle (Guyver Spawn)

Progress: 52 of 52
Completed: 4/25/25
Covers ranked from best to worst.

Original List (unranked)
👀 1. Seconds - Highest rated sci-fi film on your watchlist.
👀 2. Galaxina - Lowest rated sci-fi film on your watchlist.
👀 3. Time of Eve: The Movie - Watchlist Shuffle
👀 4. The World, The Flesh, and the Devil - Watch a sci-fi film before the 1960s.
👀 5. Robinson Crusoe on Mars - Watch a 1960s Sci-Fi film.
👀 6. World on a Wire - Watch a 1970s Sci-Fi film.
👀 7. Without Warning - Watch a 1980s Sci-Fi film.
👀 8. Frankenhooker - Watch a 1990s Sci-Fi film.
👀 9. The Man from Earth - Watch a 2000s Sci-Fi Film.
👀 10. Young Ones - Watch a 2010s Sci-Fi Film.
👀 11. Brian and Charles - Watch a 2020s Sci-Fi Film.
👀 12. Mickey 17 - Watch a Sci-Fi film released in 2025.
👀 13. Space Truckers - Watch a sci-fi film from someone else's challenge from last year.
👀 14. Not of This Earth - Watch a sci-fi film directed by or produced by Roger Corman.
👀 15. Invasion of the Star Creatures - Watch a sci-fi film with "Star" in the title.
👀 16. Paradise Hills - Watch a sci-fi film starring Milla Jovovich.
👀 17. Futureworld - Watch a sci-fi film by or based on Michael Crichton's sci-fi novels.
👀 18. Best Friend - Watch a short sci-fi film.
👀 19. Harbinger Down - Watch a sci-fi film starring Lance Henriksen.
👀 20. 2046 - Watch a sci-fi film from China or Hong Kong.
👀 21. Screamers: The Hunting - Watch a sci-fi film based on a Philip K. Dick novel.
👀 22. Justice League Dark: Apokalips War - Watch a sci-fi movie directed by a woman.
👀 23. Redline - Watch a sci-fi film from Letterboxd’s Top 250 Science Fiction Films.
👀 24. The Phantom Empire - Watch a sci-fi film directed by Fred Olen Ray.
👀 25. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus - Watch a sci-fi film with giant monsters or Japanese kajiu.
👀 26. 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus - Watch a film set in a future now in the past.
👀 27. Woman in the Moon - Watch a sci-fi film from .
👀 28. Shrouds - Watch a sci-fi film directed by David Cronenberg or Brandon Cronenberg.
👀 29. Dirty Computer - Watch a sci-fi movie from the Black Life on Film list.
👀 30. The Lost World (1960) - Watch a sci-fi film with dinosaurs.
👀 31. Delicatessen - Watch a french speaking sci-fi film.
👀 32. Terror Vision - Watch a sci-fi horror film.
👀 33. Mr. Nobody - Watch a sci-fi film with time travel.
👀 34. Making - Watch a sci-fi film directed by Roland Emmerich.
👀 35. First Men in the Moon - Watch a Space Opera.
👀 36. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Watch a sci-fi animated film.
👀 37. Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer - Watch a cyberpunk sci-fi film.
👀 38. Time Traveler: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Watch a sci-fi film from Japan.
👀 39. Tau - Watch a sci-fi film with cyborgs or robots.
👀 40. Good Boy - Watch a killer animal sci-fi film.
👀 41. Salt and Fire - Watch a sci-fi environmental disaster film.
👀 42. The House with a Clock in its Walls - Watch a steampunk sci-fi film.
👀 43. The Day the Sky Exploded - Watch an alien invasion film.
👀 44. Quatermass 2 - Watch a sci-fi film from the UK.
👀 45. Red 11 - Watch a sci-fi film that is under 90 minutes.
👀 46. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) - Watch a sci-fi film with a mad scientist.
👀 47. Jin-Roh - Watch a sci-fi film based off an graphic novel/comic book/manga.
👀 48. Track of the Moon Beast - Watch a sci-fi film that was feature on MST3K.
👀 49. Next Gen - Watch a sci-fi film suitable for children (rated G or PG).
👀 50. Body Melt - Watch a film from the Disturbing, Controversial, Shocking, Bizarre and Messed Up list
👀 51. Never Let Me Go - Watch any sci-fi film of your choice.
👀 52. Komodo - I pick, you watch

Ranked List:

1. The Man from Earth

   2000s

2. Seconds

   Highest rated sci-fi film on your watchlist

3. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

   Directed by a woman

4. Time of EVE: The Movie

   Watchlist Shuffle

5. Woman in the Moon

   German

6. The World, the Flesh and the Devil

   Pre 1960s

7. Next Gen

   For children (G or PG)

8. Space Truckers

   Watch a sci-fi film you haven't seen that someone else watched as part of last year's challenge.

9. The Shrouds

   David Cronenberg

10. Tau

    Robots and Cyborgs

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Fly
2. eXistenZ
3. A History of Violence
4. Eastern Promises
5. The Dead Zone
6. Dead Ringers
7. The Brood
8. The Shrouds
9. Rabid
10. Scanners

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas
2. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
3. Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown
4. Happy New Year, Charlie Brown
5. It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
6. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
7. Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin
8. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
9. Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!)
10. Snoopy, Come Home

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Day of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Knightriders
4. Creepshow
5. The Crazies
6. The Amusement Park
7. Hungry Wives
8. The Dark Half
9. Dawn of the Dead
10. Survival of the Dead

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Movies based on specific video game licenses ranked for their quality as movies, not their accuracy to the source material. Some of the lowest lows in cinema can be found here (but finally some are getting good).

1. Gran Turismo
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
4. Borderlands
5. Resident Evil: Death Island
6. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
7. Sonic the Hedgehog
8. A Minecraft Movie
9. Tomb Raider
10. Silent Hill

...plus 61 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula
2. The Godfather
3. Apocalypse Now
4. The Godfather Part II
5. Twixt
6. The Conversation
7. Tucker: The Man and His Dream
8. The Rainmaker
9. The Outsiders
10. Gardens of Stone

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. An American Werewolf in London
2. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
3. Wolf Man
4. Wolfwalkers
5. The Wolf Man
6. Dog Soldiers
7. The Wolf of Snow Hollow
8. Werewolf by Night
9. Wolf
10. Teen Wolf

...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Blackcoat's Daughter
2. The Monkey
3. Longlegs
4. Gretel & Hansel
5. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

My ranking of the Millennium Era Godzilla films. Millennium being the Japanese films from 1999-2004.

I've seen others, including the recent American Monsterverse ones and a BUNCH of the ones from the Shoah Era (1954-1975) but I'm not ranking them since I was a dumb kid when I saw most of them. Maybe one day I'll marathon them and burn out my last brain cell.

1. Godzilla: Final Wars
2. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
3. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
4. Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla
5. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
6. Godzilla 2000: Millennium

1. The Great Dictator
2. Modern Times
3. The Gold Rush
4. The Circus
5. City Lights
6. The Immigrant
7. The Idle Class
8. A Day's Pleasure
9. The Kid
10. A Dog's Life

1. Annihilation
2. Ex Machina
3. Warfare
4. Men
5. Civil War

1. Grizzly Man
2. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
3. Encounters at the End of the World
4. Fitzcarraldo
5. Rescue Dawn
6. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
7. Nosferatu the Vampyre
8. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
9. Salt and Fire
10. Cave of Forgotten Dreams

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Arrival
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Dune
4. Sicario
5. Incendies
6. Prisoners
7. Polytechnique
8. Blade Runner 2049
9. Enemy

1. Rashomon
2. Ran
3. Dreams
4. Throne of Blood
5. Ikiru
6. Seven Samurai

1. Marriage Story
2. The Squid and the Whale
3. Margot at the Wedding
4. De Palma
5. s Ha
6. White Noise
7. Greenberg
8. While We're Young