As usual, the Americans got there after the Europeans, but did it with more scope and spectacle.
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The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Author: Dan Stalcup
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A Trip to the Moon (1902)
As I dive deeper and deeper into film history with The Goods and my expanded set of movie reviews, I’d like to more systematically expand my understanding and coverage of film history.
UNDERRATED!
Once you calibrate your expectations for a simplistic story with very broad strokes, it goes down so easy… Tremendous scenery and natural effects CGI contrasting with cartoony characters but good emotional beats.
Way better than I expected. Storybook-style hand animation, whimsical story, characters we love. Only like 20% of the characters feel anachronistic/annoyingly voiced. We need more kids movies like this.
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Network (1976)
Amazing screenplay. So clever and nasty and evocative, and the satire is more relevant than ever. The “I’m mad as hell” scene is truly an all-timer moment.
Faye Dunaway stole my heart.
A collection of shorts, but one that holds together excellently. Captures the spirit of a great kids book.
The cinematic equivalent of a stuffed-crust meat lovers pizza. Greasy, unhealthy, delicious action. Love the cast, the action, the heavy-handed score.
Somehow I missed this one as a kid, but I’m glad to pass it on to my own kids. Once you get over the racist caricatures, this is really delightful, with some of the best animal animation I’ve seen.
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Step Brothers (2008)
Unnecessarily mean-spirited with shoe-horned emotional development that just doesn’t work. But some of these gags are gut-busters. And they’re all in the 2-minute trailer, so just watch that instead.
It’s corny and episodic, but the jazzy jungle vibe just works. I jam to “Bare Necessities” on the reg.