Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

IMDb plot summary: Ron Burgundy is San Diego's top rated newsman in the male dominated broadcasting of the 1970's, but that's all about to change when a new female employee with ambition to burn arrives in his office.
Directed by Adam McKay. Stars Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner.


Oh, I resisted this movie. I resisted watching it at all because it was popular and everyone told me I had to see it, so I told myself I would never enjoy it or find it funny. Then I finally decided I should watch it, and it turned out to be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a LONG time. It hit exactly all the right spots for me, just the right balance between absurdity and story-based context. I can only imagine that large portions of this were heavily improvised - most of the lines just don't FEEL scripted, and they take me by surprise, producing a long series of unexpected giggles and guffaws. It's been awhile since I found something that meshed so *well* with my sense of humor, and it was wonderful to watch. Pure delight for me all the way through. I suspect this is going to become one of my favorites. 4.5 stars.

Best Part: Steve Carell. Almost every single thing he said or did made me laugh.
Worst Part: I was next-to-not-at-all interested in the romance, but Will Ferrell was always funny enough to override any boredom with the plot.
Flickchart: #125, below Sleepless in Seattle and above Catch Me If You Can.

Bernie (2012)

IMDb plot summary (which I have truncated because they give away a MAJOR PLOT POINT which you're clearly not supposed to know about until halfway through): In small-town Texas, the local mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow.
Directed by Richard Linklater. Stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConnaughey.

Richard Linklater, you've done it again. This is a wonderful, compelling drama that focuses on an unusual topic with a great deal of heart. A lot of this is due to Jack Black's wonderful performance. Let's add him to the list of actors I'd like to see do more serious work, or at the very least quieter comedies. This isn't an overly dramatic role, but when he just plays a normal person instead of a crazy comedy caricature, I think he's one of the most likeable actors ever. (The Holiday is also a great example of that - he was clearly the best part of the entire movie, and he was just kind of a normal, friendly person there.) The movie tells a story that's fascinating to watch and easy to care about. One of the more solid dramas I've seen lately. 4 stars.

Best Part: Jack Black and the incredible character he created.
Worst Part: I don't know. It was pretty solid.
Flickchart: #446, below Spirited Away and above Ordet.

The Dictator (2012)

IMDb plot summary: The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
Directed by Larry Charles. Stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzoukas.

I'm on a Sacha Baron Cohen kick right now. I just watched Borat last week and then went out and found all of Da Ali G Show (the US version) on YouTube, so I've been watching that. When it comes down to it, I just think his characters are hilarious and his jokes often take me by surprise with how funny they are. The Dictator got several out-loud laughs out of me, while usually I just chuckle quietly during comedies. It is silly, ridiculous, often crude, but, for the most part, genuinely funny. I was worried he might not be funny on his own, without the fake reporter gimmick he's done for so long. I am glad I was wrong. 4 stars.

Best Part: "My name is... Max." "Max what?" "Imumoccupancyonehundredandtwenty." "Your name has a number in it? That is a made-up name."
Worst Part: The scene with the woman giving birth. Somehow every single joke in that entire segment fell flat for me.
Flickchart: #432, below Primer and above Bridesmaids.

Spellbound (1945)

***Major spoilers in this review***

IMDb plot summary: A female psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Stars Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.

While I loved the psychological aspect of this movie, I was thoroughly frustrated by Ingrid Bergman's character. I am not one to complain about weak female characters, but *really*? She was an interesting character up until she fell in love, and then she went completely stupid. There were moments in the middle where I thought it was going to go a sort of Bonnie and Clyde route, a devoted couple committing crimes together... but, no, it turns out in the end that she was right all along to assume that this man she just met and knows nothing about was completely innocent of his crime. This is not romantic or interesting to me, and is a thoroughly disappointing answer to the mystery. It certainly messed with my enjoyment of the movie overall, leaving me frustrated with her character most of the time. 2.5 stars.

Best Part: Constance at the beginning.
Worst Part: Constance at the end.

Flickchart: #984, below The Wicker Man (the 1970s version) and above Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

IMDb plot summary: A successful publisher finds his life taking a turn for the surreal after a car accident with a jaded lover.
Directed by Cameron Crowe. Stars Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, and a rather impressive ensemble.

After a day or two of watching pretty terrible movies, I then got... this. Sometimes a movie resonates with something deep, deep inside you and you can't quite figure out what exactly it's hitting or why, but it just... fills up your soul. It's very hard to explain the experience I had watching this film.

The film floats from one genre to another. I was never sure whether I was watching a serious relational drama, a sci-fi adventure, an experimental art piece, a murder mystery, a romance, a psychological thriller... and yet somehow it never feels disjointed. The story is fascinating, the dialogue beautifully written, and the visuals of this movie are mind-blowingly gorgeous.

I read an article once that said that the part of our brain which experiences the deepest pleasure is not really connected to the language center, which is why we have so much difficulty expressing the things that touch us the most. We find words that come close, we find words that suffice, but nothing really communicates it fully. And I'm going to use that excuse for why this review is so hard to write. It's the first movie since I saw Scott Pilgrim that I have no problem giving 5 stars to after a single viewing.

Best Part: The final scene. There are no words.
Worst Part: I got nothing.
Flickchart: When I wrote this review, the Flickchart website was down. When it returns, I'll come back and edit this section.

Saw (2004)

IMDb plot summary: With a dead body laying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them.
Directed by James Wan. Starring Leigh Wannell, Cary Elwes and Danny Glover.

From what I'd heard about this movie, I knew there was a possibility I'd love it, as well as a possibility that it'd come too close to "torture porn" for me, but the one thing I never expected was that it would be BORING. It's a psychological thriller with no psychology, a puzzle movie with no real puzzles, a character study with undeveloped characters, and a horror movie with no real scares. The acting is abysmal, even from actors I normally enjoy. The movie tries to paint itself as a "smart" horror movie, but it talks wayyyyy down to its audience, even going so far as to have voice-overs reading aloud notes we can see ourselves and providing wholly unnecessary narration to flashbacks ("I was walking to my car..." Yes, we can see that). Not to mention the endless recaps. How dumb does this movie think their audience is? I PROMISE you I still remember what happened in the flashback like 30 minutes ago.

This could have been a fascinating two-person theatrical-style piece, and I think that's what it was aiming for in the scenes with just the two prisoners, but the characters are so dull that it fails miserably. The *potential* for this movie is what made the final product so disappointing.

When Cary Elwes was on screen, I played "find all the times he drops his American accent." (Answer: A LOT.) When he wasn't, I played FreeCell. 1 star.

Best Part: The very final minute was actually pretty creepy. Too bad there wasn't anything like that in the rest of the movie. Also, the premise really is great. I wish it lived up to it, even a little bit.
Worst Part: Every time the movie would treat me like I had the attention span of a 5-year-old. It recapped and restated so many times that I felt zero worry that I would miss important plot points by playing FreeCell along with it. It'd just re-explain it all for me later anyway.
Flickchart: #1434, below Mamma Mia! and above Kate and Leopold. Now there's a triple feature...

Bye Bye Birdie (1963)

IMDb plot summary: A rock singer travels to a small Ohio town to make his "farewell" television performance and kiss his biggest fan before he is drafted.
Directed by George Sidney. Stars Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, and Ann-Margret.

This movie varies greatly from the play it was based on (the 1995 TV version is much closer). This version is sillier, more outlandish, and much less coherent. However, I wouldn't even have a problem with its idiotic plot (not even the moment where they drug the conductor of the Russian ballet on the Ed Sullivan show in the hopes of getting him to conduct REALLY FAST so the dancers dance REALLY FAST so there's enough time for Conrad Birdie to sing) if the musical numbers were fun and energetic. But despite this musical reprising some of its Broadway cast and being made during the heyday of musicals... the musical numbers in this kind of suck. The singing is off, the sound mixing is terrible, the choreography is bizarre, and most have zero energy. My two favorite songs, "Put On a Happy Face" and "A Lot of Livin' To Do," are great fun, but this version offers me the most lackluster versions of these two I have EVER seen. With a weak plot and weak songs, there's very little I can recommend about Bye Bye Birdie. Believe it or not, the TV version with Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams is far superior. At least that one enjoyed its musical numbers. 1 star.

Best Part: "How Lovely To Be a Woman" is one of my least favorite songs in the show, but it was the highlight of this movie for me.
Worst Part: "Put on a Happy Face" made me sad. That's probably not what that song should do.
Flickchart: #1400, below Sleeper and above Robin Hood: Men in Tights.