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.
Categories
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.
Categories
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.
Lots of hilarious screaming, practical effects, and horror-comic chaos. I honestly might be underselling it with this rating. The birth of “brains.”
Epochally great, super influential, iconic zombie flick that I somehow missed before the age of 32. I could do without the “radiation from Venus” goofball stuff, but otherwise this is low-budget perfection with some strong social commentary at its core.
I’m not quite calibrated on my Hitchcock yet, especially early-ish Hitchcock, but I was anticipating a bit more mystery than is delivered. I also found the leads a hair stuffy.
But this was still an excellent classic Hollywood thriller, filled with some dazzling Gothic sets and suitably creepy manor vibe. Mrs. Danvers lights up the screen whenever she’s on.
I think I might need to rewatch this one in a couple years.