BASEketball (1998)

IMDb plot summary: Two childhood friends are pro athletes of a national sport called BASEketball, a hybrid of baseball and basketball, and must deal with a greedy businessman scheming against their team.
Directed by David Zucker. Starring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, and Yasmine Bleeth.

My expectations going into this were exceedingly low... but it ended up being not as bad as I expected. Now, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of gross humor in here that does nooooot land with me. Like, a lot of it. But I expected there to be a higher quantity of it. I'd say the silly-to-gross humor ratio is a solid 2:1, which left plenty for me to enjoy. If the movie had cut the more tasteless (not to mention homophobic and transphobic) jokes, there'd still be plenty of content and it'd have worked just fine for me as a goofy comedy. As it is, it's going to have to sit moderately low, but there's some entertaining bits in here, and I had a surprisingly okay time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
BASEketball < The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
BASEketball > Transformers
BASEketball > As Good As It Gets
BASEketball < Dead Man Walking
BASEketball < Hello, Dolly!
BASEketball < Planes, Trains & Automobiles
BASEketball > The Lost Skeleton Returns Again
BASEketball < Birdman of Alcatraz
BASEketball > Our Idiot Brother
BASEketball > Nashville
BASEketball > Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Final spot: #1791 out of 2918.

Carefree (1938)

IMDb plot summary: A psychiatrist agrees to hypnotize his friend's girlfriend in order to convince her to accept his proposals of marriage, but she ends up falling for the psychiatrist instead.
Directed by Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, and Luella Gear.

This is certainly one of the more ridiculous plots of a Fred and Ginger movie, especially in the final third when "oh, no, I've hypnotized her to love the wrong person and kill someone else" becomes a plot point. But there are some really enjoyable musical sequences, especially two (the golf number and the ending hypnotism dance) that have some fun and creative gimmicks that make for an entertaining watch. I often feel like 1930s musicals have long sections where they get bogged down in boring subplots, but this stayed entertaining the whole time. It's definitely my favorite of the Astaire/Rogers pairings I've seen.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Carefree > 12 Monkeys

Carefree < Evil Dead II

Carefree > The Happening

Carefree > The Princess and the Frog

Carefree < Night Must Fall

Carefree > Hannah Arendt

Carefree < Panic Room

Carefree > Mrs. Brown

Carefree > The Death of Stalin

Carefree < Laurence Anyways

Final spot: #848 out of 2917.

Focus (2015)

IMDb plot summary: In the midst of veteran con man Nicky's latest scheme, a woman from his past - now an accomplished femme fatale - shows up and throws his plans for a loop.
Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adrian Martinez, and Gerald McRaney.

So... it took me probably half an hour into the movie for me to realize this wasn't the 2015 movie about Will Smith being a football player with a concussion. (Turns out that movie is called Concussion.) I kept waiting for that twist to happen. That threw me off a bit from the beginning, but eventually I settled into this. I had trouble buying Will Smith and Margot Robbie's chemistry, though -- which is strange, because they're both very charismatic people individually. But the film feels more like it relies on the "ooh, fun" twists and turns than on the relationships built between characters, so all the drama feels a bit forced and the twists aren't quite big enough to make the payoff worth it. I like the vibe they're trying to go for here, I'm just not convinced they fully made it there.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Focus > 12 Monkeys
Focus < Doctor Strange
Focus < The Happening
Focus > The Kids Are All Right
Focus < The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
Focus < Irma La Douce
Focus < Aliens
Focus > Kung Fury
Focus > The Good Dinosaur
Focus < Silent Movie

Final spot: #1258 out of 2916.

The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)

IMDb plot summary: In the tiny town of Milagro, New Mexico, where the local water is a premium resource, shady developer Ladd Devine has conceived a glitzy resort that will ultimately siphon off all the water from the neighboring crop-fields. When handyman and farmer Joe Mondragon accidentally breaks a water valve reserved for major companies, he inadvertently sets off a small-scale water-rights war between the farmers and the developers.
Directed by Robert Redford. Starring Rubén Blades, Chick Vennera, Carlos Riquelme, and Sônia Braga.

I did a little bit of review comparing after this movie because I couldn't quite figure out how I felt about it. I hit on one review that talked about the mismatch in tone between the characters. The most interesting portions of this are magic realism amid a sort of darkly realistic setting... but then we have these cartoonish over-the-top villains who don't seem to match anywhere. It's also spread pretty thin as far as character development. I knew nothing about this movie going into it but didn't come away super impressed.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Milagro Beanfield War < Drunken Master
The Milagro Beanfield War > King of the Zombies
The Milagro Beanfield War > Annie (1999)
The Milagro Beanfield War > American Hustle
The Milagro Beanfield War < Ghostbusters (1984)
The Milagro Beanfield War < Camp Rock
The Milagro Beanfield War < Ponyo
The Milagro Beanfield War < Blade Runner
The Milagro Beanfield War > The Room
The Milagro Beanfield War > Independence Day
The Milagro Beanfield War > The 400 Blows
The Milagro Beanfield War < Steel Magnolias

Final spot: #1630 out of 2915.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

IMDb plot summary: A man studies kung fu at the Shaolin Temple to fight back against the oppressive Manchu government.
Directed by Chia-Liang Liu. Starring Chia-Hui Liu, Lieh Lo, Chia Yung Liu, and Norman Chu.

I keep remembering scenes from this film to refer to and then realizing I'm thinking of a scene from Drunken Master, which I watched a couple weeks ago. I really have nothing extra to add to this -- it was fine, I liked the creative training scenes more than the fighting, I'm going to forget it immediately.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin < Drunken Master (...Sometimes Flickchart chooses interesting matchups. We'll let Drunken Master take it for the humor.)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin < Cars
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > Did You Hear About the Morgans?
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > The Enemy Below
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > A Mighty Wind
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > Hangman's Curse
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin < The 39 Steps
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin < Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin < Red Cliff
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin > Enter the Void

Final spot: #2217 out of 2914.

Without a Clue (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A drunken Sherlock Holmes is really just a cover for the real detective, Dr. Watson.
Directed by Thom Eberhardt. Starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones, and Lysette Anthony.

Well, this is a fun idea that doesn't ever really transform into laughs. It's all a little too broad and winky at the audience, when it could have fared better with smaller character-centric humor. I like both of the actors involved and I like Holmes mythos stories, but this one was disappointing.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Without a Clue < Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Without a Clue > Cars
Without a Clue < Beverly Hills Cop
Without a Clue < Spider-Man 3
Without a Clue > Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Without a Clue > Kiss Me Kate
Without a Clue > Hush (1998)
Without a Clue > Cracks
Without a Clue > The Witches of Eastwick
Without a Clue > The Machinist
Without a Clue > My Six Loves

Final spot: #2004 out of 2913.

A Foreign Affair (1948)

IMDb plot summary: In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her.
Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, and Millard Mitchell.

I don't know a whole lot about the post-World War II situation in Berlin, and found this kind of fascinating as a look at that, especially since the film doesn't paint the US with a blanket coat of perfection. I'm actually significantly more interested in the pieces of the story focusing on that than I am in the love story, which is dated in a less-than-flattering way, depending on stereotypes I find extremely unpleasant and never really elevated beyond them with the acting or the writing. Billy Wilder was one of my favorite screenwriters, but here the jokes don't land for me and I just want to know more about Marlene Dietrich's back story.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Foreign Affair > Quills
A Foreign Affair < Rock of Ages
A Foreign Affair < The Happening
A Foreign Affair > Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Foreign Affair < The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
A Foreign Affair < The Bishop's Wife
A Foreign Affair < De-Lovely
A Foreign Affair > Steamboat Bill, Jr.
A Foreign Affair > No eres tu, soy yo
A Foreign Affair < Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Final spot: #1257 out of 2912.