OMG!: Oh My God (2012)

IMDb plot summary: A shopkeeper takes God to court when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake.

Directed by Umesh Shukla. Starring Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, and Mithun Chakraborty.

OMG: Oh My God is an Indian movie about an atheist storekeeper who loudly denounces his faith in God, only for his shop to be destroyed in an earthquake. The insurance company won't pay out since it's considered an act of God, so he goes to court to argue that either the insurance company or God himself should pay to replace his shop. (And along the way, God actually shows up.) This is actually kind of a fascinating look at a very religious society that is not the one I grew up in but certainly shares some similarities, and it examines how easy it is for those in power to use religion as a way to take advantage of people in need. It's easy to root for our main character as he fights against the greedy leaders, and every win he gets *feels* like a win. Even when the supernatural actually makes its way into the story, it's very much reinforcing the idea that the best aspects of religious groups are about helping those in need, which is very close to my own personal faith beliefs. I say all this as if the movie is some kind of deep treatise on faith and religion, when mostly it's just a fun lighthearted courtroom comedy -- which it does pretty well. But there's also some deeper food for thought in here.

How it entered my Flickchart:

OMG: Oh My God > The Gray Man

OMG: Oh My God < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

OMG: Oh My God > Dan in Real Life

OMG: Oh My God < Batman Returns

OMG: Oh My God > Logan

OMG: Oh My God > Joe Versus the Volcano

OMG: Oh My God < Up in the Air

OMG: Oh My God < Under the Skin

OMG: Oh My God < Evita

OMG: Oh My God < The Pirate Movie

OMG: Oh My God < There Will Be Blood

OMG: Oh My God < Nine to Five

Final spot: #1259 out of 3837, or 67%.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

IMDb plot summary: In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Dornan.

A Haunting in Venice is the newest Hercule Poirot story from Kenneth Branagh. In this one, he's invited to a palazzo to observe a famous medium attempt to speak with the owner's deceased daughter. Poirot attends to debunk the medium's performance but finds himself doubting his skepticism when a murderer strikes and he begins seeing strange visions. I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express and was deeply disappointed with Death on the Nile in comparison, but this is a fun return to form. And by form, I mean "not worrying too much about the story, just pouring all the energy into the atmosphere." It does do that irritating thing Branagh likes where it insists on shoehorning in a Poirot tragic back story, when really a Christie mystery is all about the one-off side characters and Poirot's just there to tie them together. (Benoit Blanc gets this right in modern times, by the way.) But the eerie supernatural undertones and moody haunted castle imagery works for me almost entirely, even when the plot falls short.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Haunting in Venice > Arthur Christmas

A Haunting in Venice > Dark Passage

A Haunting in Venice < Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

A Haunting in Venice < Spencer

A Haunting in Venice > Kismet

A Haunting in Venice < Judgment at Nuremberg

A Haunting in Venice > Flee

A Haunting in Venice < The Red Shoes

A Haunting in Venice > Holiday (1930)

A Haunting in Venice < Roxanne

A Haunting in Venice > Last Night in Soho

Final spot: #800 out of 3842, or 79%.

A Jazzman's Blues (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Follows an investigation into an unsolved murder unveiling a story full of forbidden love, deceit and a secret.

Directed by Tyler Perry. Starring Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann, and Solea Pfeiffer.

A Jazzman's Blues tells the story of an African American man in the South in the 40s who flees the vengeful white lawmen of his town and ends up becoming an acclaimed jazz performer in a nightclub. I'm pretty sure this is my first Tyler Perry movie, and it's definitely got a distinctive feel that reminds me of a cross between presentational theater and schlocky CW dramas. While I love my fair share of those, I couldn't quite settle into this vibe, though. I kept being put off by the soap opera-style dramatic revelations and how expository all the dialogue was. It does have some really enjoyable musical numbers, though, and I kept feeling myself *just* on the edge of enjoying it for real in its own unique flavor. It definitely makes me want to watch more Perry films and see if a little more exposure can help me settle into it and have a good time with it, even if this one didn't quite do the trick for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Jazzman's Blues < Arthur Christmas

A Jazzman's Blues < Goldfinger

A Jazzman's Blues > Cocktail

A Jazzman's Blues > The Blue Dahlia

A Jazzman's Blues > The Cocoanuts

A Jazzman's Blues < BASEketball

A Jazzman's Blues > Find Me Guilty

A Jazzman's Blues < The Shaggy Dog (1959)

A Jazzman's Blues > The Lorax (1972)

A Jazzman's Blues > Man of the Year

A Jazzman's Blues > Jane Eyre (1996)

A Jazzman's Blues < Gladiator

Final spot: #2960 out of 3843, or 23%.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

IMDb plot summary: Alexander's day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. However, he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him.

Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, and Ed Oxenbould.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day is a full length children's feature film based extremely loosely on the picture book of the same name. To expand this story out to an hour and a half, we tell the story of how Alexander is having struggles and is irritated with his family's optimism, so he makes a birthday wish that they all have terrible days. Then the whole family has a terrible day, and he has to be the one to be optimistic for them. I just watched a string of pretty decent kids films that were entertaining even if clearly not made for me. This is not one of those. This one is for kids and only for kids. The jokes are juvenile and the relationships are unrelatable for adults. It does have a nice message about balancing positivity with acknowledging that sometimes things are just difficult, and that's a good message to send to children. But it's absolutely not made with anyone beyond its target audience in mind and never really reaches beyond that. So since I'm not a child and do not have children, all I can say is it's not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Goldfinger

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > Cocktail

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > The Blue Dahlia

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < The Westing Game

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Toys

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Robots

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > Life With Father

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Predator

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > X-Men: The Last Stand

Final spot: #3115 out of 3846, or 19%.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

IMDb plot summary: A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

Directed by Luc Besson. Starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, and Clive Owen.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a sci-fi story set centuries in the future when interstellar travel is common. We follow law enforcement officer Valerian and his partner as they try to track down a smuggled artifact that may belong to a mysterious world Valerian's been dreaming about with no official record. Watching this made me want to go back and give The Fifth Element another shot, because this is what I wanted Fifth Element to be -- big and silly and a world that feels so chock full of characters and worlds that I'll never possibly get a chance to see all of them in this film. Its sense of humor every so often gets perhaps a bit *too* silly, but it doesn't feel too disparate against these bright, fun visuals. I would happily watch an entire series set in this world. Sci-fi and fantasy too often portray the same kinds of alien creatures over and over again, and I loved how fresh and creative a lot of these characters felt, especially in combination with each other. A big bold fun attempt even when its big risks don't quite land.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets < Key Largo

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > Nobody’s Fool

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets < Waking Ned Devine

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > A Tale of Two Sisters

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > Nine to Five

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets < What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > The Polka King

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > Death By Hanging

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets > The French Dispatch

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets < The Shoes of the Fisherman

Final spot: #1234 out of 3840, or 68%.

Henry V (1944)

IMDb plot summary: In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

Directed by Laurence Olivier. Starring Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, and Leslie Banks.

Henry V is a 1940s adaptation of the Shakespeare play of the same name, starring Laurence Olivier as King Henry. The plot is a pretty straightforward war story, but it's the set design and technical details that set this one apart. The first act is set up as if it is a filmed live performance within Shakespeare's Globe Theater itself, complete with audience reactions to the jokes and occasional glimpses of backstage shenanigans. However as the story goes on, the sets become more and more realistic and leave that gimmick behind. I almost wish that it had spent the entire movie in that gimmick because it was by far the most interesting piece of it. Granted, I'll admit that I really don't like this play very much to begin with; I find it tedious and with nothing for me to grab onto narratively. Because of that, it was exciting for me to initially see a unique take on it. And the entire film is steeped in these gorgeous Technicolor designs and Hughes that absolutely makes it beautiful to look at. It's probably just my own fault that this is not the show to win me over, but I did love looking at those sets and costumes.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Henry V < The Blues Brothers

Henry V > Beauty and the Bestie

Henry V < No Highway in the Sky

Henry V > Follow Thru

Henry V > Rancho Notorious

Henry V < Adventures in Babysitting

Henry V < Hal King (what an interesting combo there)

Henry V > Double Jeopardy

Henry V > Nowhere Boy

Henry V < Mud

Henry V < Buffalo Soldiers

Henry V < Marry Me

Final spot: #2492 out of 3832, or 35%.

Memories of Murder (2003)

IMDb plot summary: In a small Korean province in 1986, two detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.

Directed by Bong Joon Ho. Starring Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, and Kim Roe-ha.

Memories of Murder is a Bong Joon Ho movie from South Korea, based on loosely an actual string of murders committed in the country that went for years without being solved. (Interestingly, the killer confessed to the murders after this movie came out, and I believe I even read that he had indeed seen the movie, so that's a weird fact.) The story centers primarily on the police who are trying to track down this killer, and how easy they find it to do terrible things like torture suspects and plant evidence that will lead to a conviction even if they know that it's not accurate. Like many of Bong’s movies I found myself having to go look this one up after I was finished with it to help me process how it ended. It's in many ways a typical crime procedural, but the casualness of the police cruelty really builds to a an unsettling climax in the final scenes. It's not the kind of story that I typically seek out but I think it is well told and I think Bong Joon Ho is a master at his craft, so it's no surprise that this is a really well crafted film. I wonder if I return to it after a little time if it will have a stronger impact on me, because even after just one viewing I can feel the weight that this story can carry with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Memories of Murder > The Blues Brothers

Memories of Murder < Dark Passage

Memories of Murder > The Tragedy of Macbeth

Memories of Murder > Corrina, Corrina

Memories of Murder < Nerve

Memories of Murder < The Faculty

Memories of Murder < Wonder Man

Memories of Murder < A Bug’s Life

Memories of Murder < The Vanishing

Memories of Murder < Seven Chances

Memories of Murder < The Country Girl

Memories of Murder < Waking Ned Devine

Final spot: #1203 out of 3848, or 69%.