Palo Alto (2013)

IMDb plot summary: Shy, sensitive April is the class virgin, torn between an illicit flirtation with her soccer coach Mr. B and an unrequited crush on sweet stoner Teddy. Emily, meanwhile, offers sexual favors to every boy to cross her path - including both Teddy and his best friend Fred, a live wire without filters or boundaries. As one high school party bleeds into the next - and April and Teddy struggle to admit their mutual affection - Fred's escalating recklessness starts to spiral into chaos.
Directed by Gia Coppola. Starring Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts, and James Franco.

I have no idea how to respond to this movie, but once I saw it was directed by a Coppola, that made sense. While I generally understand Sofia Coppola's work, Francis Ford Coppola's movies have never made any sense to me at all, feeling like odd rambling narratives that *should* have meaning but just leave me feeling befuddled. That's very much how I feel about this. Consider, for example, that it took me almost a third of the movie to confirm that these kids were in high school. The lack of supervision plus 2/3 of the main characters being hit on/propositioned by authority figure adults with nobody thinking this was particularly abnormal... felt confusing at best. The kids themselves are kind of interesting to watch, but since I couldn't make any sense of the world they're in, I felt a disconnect through the entire movie. It's a strange, depressing, somewhat disturbing story, and I just don't get it.

2 stars.

Flickchart: #1446 out of 2227, below State of the Union and above A Time to Kill.

Milk (2008)

IMDb plot summary: The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.
Directed by Gus Van Sant. Starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, and James Franco.

The best biopics not only describe historical events, but they also bring an emotional component. While the first is absolutely in this movie, the second is missing. It's an oddly cold movie, clinically portraying most events, with only a few moments creating much of an emotional moment.

This is exemplified in the way the story is framed. It's set up as a recording Harvey Milk made to be played in case of his assassination. About halfway through, I found myself wondering if he was really just going to dryly recap his political journey without actually offering anything insight. Sure, it's all interesting and important information, but it felt like reading a Wikipedia page instead of a biography.

There are just a few moments where this is not the case. The strongest are the two phone calls from the kid in the wheelchair. While Harvey says frequently in the movie that this is about people and about lives, that's one of the few instances where we as an audience get a chance to see it's true.

Several of the reviews I saw about this movie compared it to Philadelphia. While Milk is a more historically accurate flick, Philadelphia successfully hits an emotional note that Milk misses entirely. Milk actually kind of feels like the equivalent of those "Biblical fiction" novel that, sure, tell the story, but seem terrified to step outside the exact narrative to elaborate on characters, motivations, and the personal aspect. Disappointing.

2.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1192 out of 2226, below Swing Kids and above Cropsey.

Bunraku (2010)

IMDb plot summary: The story of a young man who has spent his life searching for revenge only to find himself up against a bigger challenge than he originally bargained for.
Directed by Guy Moshe. Starring Josh Hartnett, Gackt, Woody Harrelson, and Ron Perlman.

While I wasn't really into the fighting or the story in this movie, the visuals were fantastic. Beautiful, vivid colors, really entertaining (if a little gimmicky) transitions -- I really enjoyed large chunks of this. It reminded me a bit of Dick Tracy, visually, except obviously Dick Tracy wins out because this one is a much less interesting story and it doesn't have any musical numbers.

2.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1077 out of 2225, below Red Eye and above The Princess and the Frog.

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

IMDb plot summary: While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.
Directed by James Bobin. Starring the Muppets, Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, and Tina Fey.

I watched my very first Muppets movie earlier this year (Muppet Treasure Island) and enjoyed it but wasn't crazy about it. This one, however, I really REALLY liked. For being such a meta-movie from time to time (oh my gosh, all those cameos) much of the humor seems surprisingly not-dated... though we'll see how I feel about it on a rewatch in 20 years. The musical numbers are absolutely delightful, the human characters are funny, and there's a gleeful absurdity running through the whole thing. I am definitely going to have to check out The Muppets now, since it's probably likely to be closest to this in tone, but I'm more convinced now that I eventually do want to watch them all.

4 stars.

Flickchart: #343 out of 2223, below Paths of Glory and above Clue.

Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers (1978)

IMDb plot summary: There was none, which is disappointing because I was more than a little hazy about the movie's plot.
Directed by Shi-hyeon Kim and Yueh-Lin Liu. Starring Dragon Lee, Chi Chu Chin, Hyeong-Kan Choi, and Min Kyu Choi.

While there's something kind of charming about the low-budget feel to this movie, a little of that goes a long way. Worse, I had absolutely no idea what was going on this movie. We get plenty of flashbacks that don't explain anything, LOTS of characters who aren't ever really introduced to us, and a fuzzy plot that just got fuzzier as the movie went on. This may be my least favorite of kung fu week.

1 star.

Flickchart: #1892 out of 2224, below In the Mood for Love and above The Good Son.

Muscle Heat (2002)

IMDb plot summary: In the year 2009, a young policeman must collapse a Yakuza family whose members make a large profit with a new drug.
Directed by Ten Shimoyama. Starring Kane Kosugi, Shô Aikawa, Masaya Katô, Misato Tachibana.

There is a lot going on this movie, and some if the plot points are more interesting than others. I enjoyed the mildly dystopian future, I liked the tiny subplot with the sewer kids, and I thought the drug thing was interesting (though I hoped they'd delve into it much more -- I pretty much kept wanting this movie to be Dredd). However, there's also a LOT going on that I didn't care about, and they never really combined in a satisfactory way. This is maybe my favorite so far of my kung fu theme week, but I didn't love it.

Flickchart: #1482 out of 2221, below *batteries not included and above An Officer and a Gentleman.

Fist of Legend (1994)

IMDb plot summary:  In 1937, a Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai to find his teacher dead and his school harassed by the Japanese.
Directed by Gordon Chan. Starring Jet Li, Shinobu Nakayama, Siu-Ho Chin, Billy Chow.

Disliking a martial arts movie because "there's too much fighting" feels stupid. At the very least, it's an unhelpful assessment, like people complaining that musicals have too much singing. But that's kind of how I felt about this. If I was into fighting scenes, I could maybe see myself getting into this movie, but as it is, there's nothing else helping it along. The characters are bland, the plot is too complicated for me to really get into (I wasn't sure WHO he was fighting half the time)... I just didn't get into this one at all.

1 star.

Flickchart: #1771 out of 2220, below Get Shorty and above Analyze This.