I’m not quite sure this movie realizes that it’s a neo-noir.
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Training Day (2001)
Series: Top 100 (2009 List)
In 2009, I made a list of my 100 favorite films. I am rewatching all 100 to see how I feel more than a decade later.
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Hercules (1997)
Hercules has a bit of a reputation as a minor Disney Renaissance work, mostly because it has a light comic tone while still adhering to a fairy tale-esque hero’s journey story arc, perhaps lending it an air of excessive breeziness where dramatic punch is expected.
I’m fairly tolerant of the Chris Columbus outings, but watching Prisoner of Azkaban right on the tails of the first two films is like wandering the desert and then having a big glass of water.
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Watchmen (2009)
Rarely has a numeric rating felt so insufficient in capturing the totality of my opinion towards a film than what you see below.
The first hour of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is one of the most entertaining blockbusters of 2000s. Gore Verbinski captures all of his budget on screen, with huge swashbuckling set pieces and chases and outstanding period production values. The action comes at a furious clip. You can almost taste the popcorn as you watch.
Shrek is almost impossible to evaluate at face value. You can mark it lower for creating the lazy “celebrity voice cast + pop culture reference” formula of animated comedy; you can mark it higher for millennial nostalgia (this was the default movie substitute teachers turned on when I was in high school); you can mark it lower OR higher for its over-saturation in memes and pop culture.
Up is among the most uneven films from Pixar’s imperial phase, but still pretty close to a masterpiece.
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12 Angry Men (1957)
Few movies have endured with such a sterling — even ascendant — reputation as 12 Angry Men.
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The Truman Show (1998)
I recently read Ed Sikov’s Film Studies: An Introduction, and one early point he makes is that everything we see in cinema, even the most vérité and naturalistic scenario, is, to some extent, constructed. Everything seen and heard is placed in front of us for a specific reason.
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Casablanca (1942)
“Is it really that good?” I wondered as I hit play for the first time in a decade.