Hotel Transylvania (2012)

IMDb plot summary: Dracula, who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter.
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, and Selena Gomez.

Meh. There have been some good animated kids' flicks in the last couple years. This is not one of them. It's generic, cliche, and the jokes really didn't work - I'm not sure if I even smiled once through the whole thing. Adam Sandler is less despicable as a voice than he is in live action anything. (Maybe it's just his face that makes me angry...) This is definitely not worth a watch. 1 star.

Flickchart: #1673 out of 1914, below 101 Dalmatians (1996) and above One For the Money.

Videodrome (1983)

IMDb plot summary: A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station.
Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring James Woods, Deborah Harry, and Sonja Smits.

As fascinating as this concept is, and as much fun as I had watching everything unfold, it never really came together for me, especially in the end. I found the last 10 minutes or so very anticlimactic. I have a feeling when I think back on this movie, it's going to be the first half of the movie that I remember, rather than the second. I loved all the messing around with reality, though, and thought all that was visually fascinating, if frequently rather "icky."

Flickchart: #878 out of 1913, below The Hunger Games and above 13 Going On 30.

Blow Out (1981)

IMDb plot summary: A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring John Travolta, Nancy Allen and John Lithgow.

(Mild spoilers ahead for the ending.)

When I looked up this film on IMDb, I was a little surprised by all the love it was getting. I looked around online to confirm that, nope, it wasn't just there. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't really anything special. It's all a little campy and a little cheesy and has quite a few ridiculous moments and some rather terrible dialogue, but it's a fun idea for a thriller and does a good job of ramping up the suspense at the end. The ending is much darker than I anticipated, and I'm not sure yet if I liked that or not. All in all, I enjoyed it, but I'm still confused by the people gushing about it being a "masterpiece" on the Internet. 3 stars.

Flickchart: #798 out of 1912, below Frankenweenie and above The Dark Knight Rises.

Stalker (1979)

IMDb plot summary: A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy. Starring Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, and Nikolay Grinko.

Well, this was... something.

You know what movie made me feel like this? The Tree of Life. I consistently felt like there was *something* really beautiful and really interesting about that movie beyond my reach, but, like with Tree of Life, I couldn't quite break through the wall of OH MY GOSH NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I'm pretty sure there was a four-minute shot of these men just staring into a tunnel. That's it. No dialogue, no sound, not really any movement. Just tunnel-staring.

I just don't have the patience for a movie that has four minutes of tunnel-staring. 1.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1458 out of 1911, below Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and above The Firm.

Lincoln (2012)

IMDb plot summary: As the Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield and as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and David Strathairn.

Wow. This year's nominees have all been pretty underwhelming for me thus far.

There's nothing really *wrong* with this movie. The writing's good. The acting's good. It's a solid story. But in the end, it felt like a biblical fiction novel. There's a whole genre of books out there that retell Bible stories as novels, so all your favorite Bible characters show up... and then they just calmly walk through the events, without fleshing out their character, creating any real sense of drama, or making me care at all about what's happening. I had the exact same feeling here: I knew I was *supposed* to care, but I never felt like I was watching an actual person, just a historical figure. Given Daniel Day-Lewis' great acting chops, Steven Spielberg's very personal directing style, and Tony Kushner's fantastic writing capabilities, I have no idea what went wrong for me here... but just a few hours after having watched it, I struggle to remember my reaction to it. 3 stars.

Flickchart: #1140 out of 1910, below Hustle & Flow and above Total Recall (1990).

Django Unchained (2012)

IMDb plot summary: With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Meh.

Let me first say, I LOVED Inglourious Basterds and I like Tarantino in general. I heard heard that it was similar in feel to Inglourious Basterds, so I was really excited about it, but what I got was just... lacking.

There are a few great moments. DiCaprio is especially fascinating, and Waltz is always solid. But the Tarantino rambling philosophical dialogue, one of my favorite things about his work, was mostly absent. This made the movie seem much, much longer than it was for me, much less interesting throughout, and the violent climax seemed genuinely gratuitous, with not nearly enough building up to it.

Seriously disappointed by this one. 2.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1212 out of 1909, below Hello, Dolly! and above On the Town.

Diabolique (1955)

IMDb plot summary: The wife of a cruel headmaster and his mistress conspire to kill him, but after the murder is committed, his body disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot.

A fascinating and elegant mystery thriller with a great ending. The atmosphere builds and builds and builds in this movie, and it's thoroughly satisfying when all the answers are revealed. Well, most of them anyway. Definitely one I would recommend to anyone who likes Hitchcock or film noir, as that is very much the feel you get from it. 4 stars.

Flickchart: #571 out of 1908, below The Glass Menagerie and above Steamboat Bill, Jr.