This capsule review has been replaced with a full review.
I hadn’t seen this since I was a kid, but I watched with my daughters last night.
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Babe (1995) – Capsule
Author: Dan Stalcup
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Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
Film serials peaked in the mid-to-late-1910s, but their epic-yet-episodic storytelling mode didn’t completely vanish.
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Psycho (1960)
Calling a film “perfect” is tossed around a bit freely by movie fans (myself included), but the first half of Psycho really is perfect.
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Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Howl’s Moving Castle is a bit discombobulated, but charming and lovely.
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There’s Something About Mary (1998)
The Farrelly brothers default filmmaking mode is gross-out humor
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Boogie Nights (1997)
Perhaps a bit too generous towards its characters and indulgent in its runtime, but goddamn what a movie. The acting, the extended flowing shots, the use of sound (firecrackers!), the sprawling ensemble… this is cinema at its most robust and vibrant, and I’m here for it.
When I was in high school, the Flash game called Quest for the Crown was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. (You can see a full playthrough here.)
“I’ve never seen such a thing in all my life”
Officially my third time watching this in 2021, but I actually watched it about 5 other times in April to prep for a podcast discussing it.
I think the only thing I’d consider changing about this is that Dave and Dawn (aged 20 and 13, respectively, yet seen kissing) appear so early. It sets up viewers to be judgmental and scandalized, as opposed to celebratory, of this group of joyful, excited, inebriated, deranged people.
(A fun fact about that segment is that the filmmakers and crowd egged them on for a kiss, which was edited out, presumably to increase shock value.)
Everything else though? *chef’s kiss*
I love Zebraman, and “Hell Yeah” girl, and the group from Reston, and the people there to honor their dead friend Timmy, and the parking attendant, and the guy drinking from a beaker who does air guitar, and everyone else.
To quote John Blyth Barrymore in LasagnaCat’s legendary 7/27/78 review…
“Do I find perfection in many things? Some things, I would say. Some things are perfect. and this is one of them.”
The mythic settings, the outlaw showdown, John Wayne (dat intro zoom!), the cowboys-and-Indians shootout, the saloons, the individualism and post-Civil War politics: This is a quintessential classic western film, one of the greats.
I would watch the crap out of a full length version of this. Somebody start a Change.org petition or a Kickstarter or something.