Macgruber (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Former special operative MacGruber is called back into action to take down his arch-enemy, Dieter Von Cunth, who's in possession of a nuclear warhead and bent on destroying Washington, D.C.

Directed by Jorma Taccone. Starring Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, and Val Kilmer.

I should probably start off by saying that I have no connection to the original character at all. I didn't watch a lot of SNL at that point in my life, so I don't have any touchstones. It does seem like a character that would make for a good movie, but the tone of this is a little weird. It's fairly light on the jokes, relying mostly on slightly hyperbolic depictions of 1980s hypermasculinity for its comedy, only to suddenly and abruptly lean really heavy into obvious gags. The whiplash between the two feels a little bit like the film couldn't quite decide whether it wanted to lampoon or playfully honor the 1980s action films, and while you absolutely can walk that line very well, I'm not sure that this captures that. There are one or two moments that made me chuckle, but for the most part most of these jokes don't land, and I don't have enough love for that style of movie to embrace the parody aspect of it. I enjoy that it's trying to do what it's trying to do, but it doesn't really work for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

MacGruber < Le voyage au Groenland

MacGruber > One 2 Ka 4

MacGruber < In & Out

MacGruber < Water for Elephants

MacGruber > The Disappearance of Alice Creed

MacGruber < Treasures of the Snow

MacGruber > State Fair

MacGruber < Shrek Retold

MacGruber > The Rookie

MacGruber > Millions

MacGruber < Dallas Buyers Club

MacGruber > Darkness

Final spot: #2809 out of 3970, or 29%.

Shin Godzilla (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster.

Directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi. Starring Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, and Satomi Ishihara.

Shin Godzilla is a Godzilla movie centered around the endless bureaucracy needed to address a national danger like Godzilla. Not the exciting military decisions being made -- we've had plenty of those stories -- but the exhausting process of having to run your every decision by five other committees, who in turn need to consult with three other interest groups, before you can make a tiny change that may or may not affect anyone. So much of this movie is a bunch of men in suits sitting on comfy couches as they wait for information to come in that will let them act. That could be tedious, but this film manages to make it tense. Add to all that the few moments when we *do* in fact get to see our monster: the character design on this thing is entirely terrifying. Creative and very uncanny valley in a way that I find chilling. It's overall a fascinating take on the story that works for me on a lot of levels, even though I'm not necessarily drawn into the Godzilla mythos on a whole. But this one is well done and held my attention.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shin Godzilla > Love Exposure

Shin Godzilla > Anna Karenina

Shin Godzilla < Network

Shin Godzilla < Onward

Shin Godzilla < Destroy All Neighbors

Shin Godzilla < The Blue Angel

Shin Godzilla < Shallow Grave

Shin Godzilla < Fruitvale Station

Shin Godzilla > My Life as a Dog

Shin Godzilla < Autumn Sonata

Shin Godzilla > Kill Bill Vol. 2

Shin Godzilla > Fresh (2022)

Final spot: #981 out of 3968, or 75%.