The Mask of Zorro (1998)

IMDb plot summary: A young thief seeking revenge for his brother's death is trained by the once-great, aging Zorro, who is pursuing his own vengeance.

Directed by Martin Campbell. Starring Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The Mask of Zorro is a 90s reimagining of the pulp story of Zorro, the vigilante Mexican hero who fought against against oppression and for the people. This iteration of the story features one aging Zorro (Anthony Hopkins) passing off the mantel to a younger potential hero (Antonio Banderas). As a kid, I watched the Disney Zorro series, but I've never seen any of the other versions of the story, so this was a lot of fun. This leaned completely into the swashbuckling adventure style I hoped it would, with big lush set pieces and often-silly choreographed fights. While Hopkins was never terribly convincing to me as Zorro, Banderas takes it and runs with it, giving one of my favorite performances I've seen from him, with a good mix of drama and humor. In fact, the humor works throughout nearly the whole film -- I particularly enjoyed the moment when Banderas attempts to steal a horse, only for the horse to freak out and wreak havoc. What a fun and chaotic action sequence that was. This does tread that very awkward late-90s line with its female lead where, sure, she is a man's equal because she can sword fight, but also we WILL take every opportunity we have to objectify her, but overall Zeta-Jones holds her own and is a great foil for Banderas. Overall, a really fun watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Mask of Zorro > Hairspray (1988)

The Mask of Zorro > Safe

The Mask of Zorro < Secretary

The Mask of Zorro < Nope

The Mask of Zorro > Judas and the Black Messiah

The Mask of Zorro > Anomalisa

The Mask of Zorro > Rise of the Guardians

The Mask of Zorro > Demetri Martin. Person.

The Mask of Zorro < Big

The Mask of Zorro < Labyrinth

The Mask of Zorro > Brooklyn

The Mask of Zorro > Role Models

Final spot: #705 out of 3703, or 81%.

BigBug (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A group of bickering suburbanites find themselves stuck together when an android uprising causes their well intentioned household robots to lock them in for their own safety.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Starring Isabelle Nanty, Elsa Zylberstein, and Claude Perron.

BigBug is a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film set in a near future in which the robots are starting to rise up and declare war against the humans. The androids working at one particular house decide to help save their humans, and so they trap an eclectic group together in that home and work to persuade the humans they're on their side. This is a VERY Jeunet film, with creative use of color and startling close-ups and a darkly quirky sense of humor. Sometimes that really works for me, other times it's a harder sell, but this is pretty much a slam dunk. I absolutely adore the robot design, especially the villainous Yonyx, and I lve how seamlessly futuristic technology is integrated into this world. The humor is definitely broad and cartoonish at times, but what else could it be with this kind of visual aesthetic? These themes of what it means to be human and how tech interacts with that have been explored before, and Bigbug doesn't break any new ground in terms of what it has to say on these topics, but I so thoroughly enjoyed myself that I didn't mind at all. This movie isn't for everyone, but I had a great time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

BigBug > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

BigBug > Safe

BigBug < Secretary

BigBug < Nope

BigBug < City Lights

BigBug > The Paper

BigBug < A Boy and His Dog

BigBug > Big Man Japan

BigBug > Mirage

BigBug > The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

BigBug > Madam Satan

BigBug > Sisters

Final spot: #833 out of 3705, or 77%.

The Gray Man (2022)

IMDb plot summary: When the CIA's most skilled operative-whose true identity is known to none-accidentally uncovers dark agency secrets, a psychopathic former colleague puts a bounty on his head, setting off a global manhunt by international assassins.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas.

The Gray Man stars Ryan Gosling as a prisoner who is released in exchange for wiping his identity and serving the CIA as an undercover hitman. But suddenly Gosling finds himself in the possession of something the Agency wants, and he begins to doubt that he's on the good guys' side. While on its face this is a typical crime thriller about someone being hunted down by former friends, there's a surprising amount of humor to be found in it, largely coming out of Chris Evans' villainous character. (And can I just say, Evans as a villain continues to be ten times more interesting than Evans as a hero?) Evans and Gosling have some fun snarky back-and-forth scenes that set a fun lighter tone for the movie than I'd have expected. The action scenes are a bit more coherent here than has been common these days, so I can actually follow and enjoy all the things going on. But on the whole this is definitely a film elevated to a more enjoyable level by talented actors, as that's what I'm likely to remember about this movie going forward.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Gray Man > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Gray Man < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Gray Man < Incendies

The Gray Man < Lucky Number Slevin

The Gray Man < Summer of Soul

The Gray Man < Lilies of the Field

The Gray Man < Sinbad of the Seven Seas

The Gray Man > Neighbors (2014)

The Gray Man > The Fear of 13

The Gray Man > Sherlock Holmes (2009)

The Gray Man < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Final spot: #1827 out of 3704, or 51%.

Moby Dick (1930)

IMDb plot summary: In this extremely loose adaptation of Melville's classic novel, Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and vengeful madman, but as a bit of a lovable scamp.

Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Starring John Barrymore, Joan Bennett, and Lloyd Hughes.

Moby Dick is a loose 1930 film adaptation of the famous book by Herman Melville, featuring John Barrymore as Captain Ahab. When I say loose adaptation, I mean that it's kept the premise of Ahab's frenetic search for the white whale, and that's about it. In this version of the story, he was going to marry a woman from back home, only to lose his leg and his chance at love, which drives him in his quest for Moby Dick. Given the fact that I didn't enjoy the original book at all and found it to be mostly a collection of whale facts, I much preferred this narrative-driven version of the story. Barrymore's Ahab is charming in the first half of the movie and believably tortured in the second half, and it's easy to resonate with his struggle. I truly found myself wondering how you adapt Moby Dick to the screen, though I know it's been done several times, but this is one way to do it that works pretty well for me. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Moby Dick > Hairspray (1988)

Moby Dick < Safe

Moby Dick > A Scanner Darkly

Moby Dick < The Mummy (1932)

Moby Dick > Invictus

Moby Dick < A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Moby Dick > Florence Foster Jenkins

Moby Dick > Moonwalker

Moby Dick > The Crying Game

Moby Dick > The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Moby Dick > Trouble in Paradise

Final spot: #1215 out of 3700, or 67%.

Murder! (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring, and Phyllis Konstam.

Murder is an early Alfred Hitchcock mystery in which a juror who helped render an actress guilty in a murder trial wonders if he was wrong after all and sets out to try to prove her innocent. About a third of the way through I wondered if we'd get a 12 Angry Men-style situation where he has to go convince all the other jurors they were wrong, but instead we get a bit of a plodding mystery where the audience is always far ahead of where the characters are. The final scene in particular includes one long, dreary section where the protagonist re-explains to us everything we've already found out. There are definitely some entertaining moments, and the climax centers around the same sort of dramatic set piece that makes films like Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest so memorable, but Hitchcock is clearly still learning his craft here and learning how to pace his films. There haven't been a lot of other 1930 films I've seen so far in a similar vein, though, so it might be more of a standout in that year than is now almost a century later.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Murder! < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Murder! > The Man with One Red Shoe

Murder! < Satantango

Murder! > Crumb

Murder! < Rigoletto

Murder! < Dear Frankie

Murder! < Master Harold and the Boys

Murder! > Burning Annie

Murder! > Brainscan

Murder! > Beach Party

Murder! > Immortal Beloved

Murder! > Paradise

Final spot: #2517 out of 3702, or 32%.

Superlopez (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Juan López, an ordinary and anonymous office worker, decides to expose his superpowers to turn into the first Spanish superhero: Superlópez.

Directed by Jaiver Ruiz Caldera. Starring Dani Rovira, Alexandra Jimenez, and Julian Lopez.

Superlopez is a Spanish-language parody of Superman that follows much the same plot: an alien couple send their infant son to Earth, where he is raised in a human family and eventually has to figure out how to use his powers for good. While I was mostly expecting this to be a lazy, half-hearted attempt at capitalizing on superhero popularity, I found myself actually decently surprised and chuckling quite a few times. The comedy is broad, but generally the script is clever, the line deliveries are funny, and the physical comedy is on point. Our main character is intelligent enough that we can believe him to be a capable hero but just out of his depth enough that his stumbling can be comical. We have a fun cast of supporting characters, too, from our superhero's parents to his best friend to his secret nemesis. Overall, it's not an amazing movie but it was certainly a lot more fun than I expected it to be!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Superlopez > Camp

Superlopez < Safe

Superlopez > A Scanner Darkly

Superlopez > The Mummy (1932)

Superlopez < 13th

Superlopez < Suspicion

Superlopez > Kind Hearts and Coronets

Superlopez > Topsy-Turvy

Superlopez > Friday the 13th

Superlopez < Extremities

Superlopez > Inside Llewyn Davis

Final spot: #1102 out of 3698, or 70%.

Madam Satan (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper-class couple. Unfortunately, Bob is an unfaithful husband, but Angela has a plan to win back her husband's affections. An elaborate masquerade ball is to be held aboard a magnificent dirigible. Angela will attend and disguise herself as a mysterious devil woman.

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Starring Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, and Lillian Roth.

Madam Satan stars Kay Johnson as a woman who learns her husband is cheating on her and she determines to win him back. This is an early Cecil B. DeMille film, and it did make me wish I had a better film version of it, as the one I was able to find was pretty grainy, and DeMille's elaborate visuals are on display here in a way I could admire even through the subpar digital transfer. Johnson is spectacularly likable in this -- even when the film leans had into "decent woman versus indecent woman" slutshaming tropes, her character still comes across as a real woman being devastated and ashamed at the loss of her husband. The second half of the movie gets wild in a truly delightful way, jumping from the tragic melodrama of the first half to a silly mistaken identities farce, to, abruptly, a disaster film. It's not at all the way I would have envisioned this kind of movie playing out, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and the lengths to which the story went. Well worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Madam Satan > Hairspray (1988)

Madam Satan > Anna Karenina

Madam Satan < Secretary

Madam Satan < Onward

Madam Satan < City Lights

Madam Satan > The Blue Angel

Madam Satan < A Boy and His Dog

Madam Satan > Censor

Madam Satan > The Impostors

Madam Satan > Twins

Madam Satan > The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Madam Satan < Sisters

Final spot: #840 out of 3701, or 77%.