Gattaca (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
Directed by Andrew Niccol. Starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and Gore Vidal.

I do enjoy slightly philosophical sci-fi quite a lot. Although parts of this movie felt a little rushed and underdeveloped (particularly the romance angle), I enjoyed the general premise and found myself really rooting for Ethan Hawke's character. The final few moments of the movie were a truly satisfying series of shots - and the soundtrack was truly superb, bringing out the emotion of the moment. I've been a fan of Andrew Niccol's writing for some time now in movies, and this is another solid effort from him. It may not blow me away like The Truman Show, but I did enjoy it. 3.5 stars.

Flickchart: #802 out of 1972, below School of Rock and above Clueless.

The Right Stuff (1983)

IMDb plot summary: The story of the original US Mercury 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program.
Directed by Philip Kaufman. Starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, and Fred Ward.

This movie is three hours long and, boy, I felt just about every minute of it. With the exception of one or two of the flight scenes near the end, this movie plodded along. Most of it wasn't all that *uninteresting*, but I was ready for it to be over an hour and fifteen minutes earlier. It's one of those movies that is hard to review because while I can see the artistic merit of it, I just couldn't get into it and I *know* that six months from now, I'll struggle to remember I've seen it at all. So we'll just rank it relatively low on my Flickchart and let it settle amidst other movies that were similarly uninspiring for me. 2 stars.

Flickchart: #1511 out of 1971, which is probably unfairly low, but that's where it landed for now.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

IMDb plot summary: A New York City doctor, who is married to an art curator, pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Sydney Pollack.

(Warning: Major spoilers ahead for this one.)

Stanley Kubrick and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. I really love two of his movies (Lolita and A Clockwork Orange), really hate a third (Barry Lyndon), and then all his others I love half of and hate half of. (Cut out the second half of Full Metal Jacket and you have an amazing movie.)

This one falls into that last category. Kubrick does an incredible job showing the dark path of jealousy and where it leads, and I found the first hour or so of the film incredibly compelling... and then there's this bizarre plot with a secret cultish orgy farm that may or may not have actually happened and may or may not be murdering people. For me, the deliberate ambiguity about how much of this is reality or not seriously hurt the underlying message of the story. Every time the subject of this weird orgy cult came up, I found myself rolling my eyes. It was so outlandish and yet set in such a realistic setting that I could accept it neither as an actual plot nor as pure fantastic symbolism.

Also, I have to mention how much I hated the soundtrack. Its repetitiveness and its melodramatic nature worked against it, and by the end of the film I got aggressively annoyed every time that stupid tune started playing.

What could have been a powerful psychological drama about human nature falls apart for me. 2.5 stars for what I loved about it, but overall, very disappointing.

Flickchart: #1401 out of 1970, below Rebecca and above Stuart Little.

Stalag 17 (1953)

IMDb plot summary: When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck.

I've seen a lot of Billy Wilder movies, but somehow kept missing this one. It strikes a more deliberate balance between comedy and drama than a lot of his movies, but it works well. The ensemble cast is interesting and engrossing, though I did especially enjoy William Holden as the lead character. Overall, while it didn't wow me like some of Wilder's other flicks have done, it's extremely solid and well worth the watch. 3.5 stars.

Flickchart: #754 out of 1969, below Wreck-It Ralph and above The Wrath of Khan.

In Cold Blood (1967)

IMDb plot summary: After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
Directed by Richard Brooks. Starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson.

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from this movie, but I was hoping for... more. I'm fascinating by psychological stories of dark minds, but something in this never caught my attention. The story and the details plodded on, but at no point did I feel invested, either from the killer's point of view or their pursuers. I will mention, however, that I absolutely loved the soundtrack. There wasn't a lot of music, but when there was, it suddenly enhanced the atmosphere of whatever scene it was in. But all in all it was a disappointment. 2 stars.

Flickchart: #1474 out of 1968, below Silver Streak and above The Cocoanuts.

Wonder Man (1945)

IMDb plot summary: Boisterous nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew was the witness to a murder committed by gangster Ten Grand Jackson. One night, two of Jackson's thugs kill Buzzy and dump his body in the lake at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Buzzy comes back as a ghost and summons his bookworm twin, Edwin Dingle, to Prospect Park so that he can help the police nail Jackson.
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. Starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Vera-Ellen.

Well, this was one of the silliest movies I've seen in awhile. The gimmick is ridiculous, the plot is thin, and the characterization is all over the place. And yet there's something very likable and charming about it. Danny Kaye has some hilarious line deliveries as the timid bookworm Edwin - I especially liked the scene in the park, where he calmly converses with his dead brother with seemingly no idea that those around him think he's crazy. (I giggled multiple times during that.) It's hardly a *great* Kaye vehicle like The Court Jester, but very easy to watch and enjoy, once you take it for what it's supposed to be. 3 stars.

Flickchart: #776 out of 1967, below Cinderella and above 17 Again.

The Age of the Medici (1972)

IMDb plot summary: This is a lengthy exposition of the social and political history of renaissance Florentine history, told through dramatised conversations between the main participants, particularly Cosimo de Medici and Brunelleschi.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Starring Marcello Di Falco, Virgilio Gazzolo, and Adriano Amidei Migliano.

I've started a not-at-all-focused-or-likely-to-get-far quest to watch through the Criterion Collection on Hulu alphabetically, so this was the first one I got. I enjoyed parts of this very much, in kind of an odd way. I am all about movies where people just philosophize about God and art and humanity, and there were big chunks of this that did exactly that. When it got into actual narratives, I was oddly disinterested and just wanted people to talk more about the connection between God and architecture. As a result, it's getting a middle-of-the-road rating from me. 2.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1260 out of 1966, below On the Town and above The Spanish Prisoner.