Starship Troopers (1997)

IMDb plot summary: Humans in a fascistic, militaristic future do battle with giant alien bugs in a fight for survival.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, and Jake Busey.

While usually I wouldn't be all that into a war movie, even a sci-fi war movie, this is a light, fun, and casual flick that I found really likable. Even though it manages to slip in some interesting commentary on nationalism and the adrenaline of war, for the most part it's fluffy as can be. Heads and limbs get torn off by bugs left and right and the camera barely stops to notice, let alone care. Maybe the violence is gratuitous, but the fact that there was so little blood involved made it feel less realistic and more like a silly video game. (Of course, I have been playing Earth Defense Force recently, so that came to mind more than once when watching this.) I also particularly liked the news networks as a gimmick to set up atmosphere and speed plot along -- it was integrated seamlessly with the tone and world of the movie. Overall, this is a great goofy blockbuster and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Starship Troopers > Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Starship Troopers < Eat Pray Love
Starship Troopers > What Maisie Knew
Starship Troopers < Sergeant York
Starship Troopers > Junebug
Starship Troopers > The Shining
Starship Troopers < The Chorus
Starship Troopers < How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Starship Troopers > After the Wedding
Starship Troopers < Gandhi
Final spot: #769 out of 2362.

It Follows (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after getting involved in a sexual encounter.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell. Starring Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Lili Sepe, and Daniel Zovatto.

I am a big fan of horror films that focus on slow, creeping tension without a lot of jump scares or gore, and this perfectly hit the spot. It's creepy not because things jump out at you every five minutes, but because the situation itself is just scary. The soundtrack is a fascinating throwback to older horror scores, and while it took me a little while to get into the groove of that, by the end I was completely sold on how it helped to create this sort of... retro surreal nightmare. I totally get why this got all the hype it did. It's one of the better horror films that I've seen in awhile.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
It Follows > How to Deal
It Follows > Eat Pray Love
It Follows < Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
It Follows < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
It Follows > Billy Elliot the Musical Live
It Follows > The Basketball Diaries
It Follows > Hawking
It Follows < Repulsion
It Follows > A Streetcar Named Desire
It Follows > Punchline
It Follows < The Goodbye Girl (2004)
Final spot: #453 out of 2360.

Luen oi hang sing (2002)

IMDb plot summary: Fung is a delivery boy who has several chance encounters with Jane. A budding relationship between the two is rapidly established, but when Jane is suddenly killed in a car accident, it seems as if it is all over. But Jane's dying wish, to see the dance competition she would have been in, comes true as she is given seven days to "live" within Fung's body.
Directed by Dante Lam. Starring Nicholas Tse, Kar Yan Lam, Eason Chan, and Candy Lo.

This movie has a sweet premise (though the Netflix reviews compare it a LOT to Ghost, which I have not seen, so I can't say how original it is), but the execution falls very flat. The visuals are muddled and ugly, the tone of the movie is uncertain, and sometimes even the genre of the film is in question. Is this a supernatural romance? A drama about loss? A dance movie with a twist? The movie tries to be all of these and never really succeeds at any of them. Not a great flick by any means.

2 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart (ranked under its English title):
Tiramisu < How to Deal
Tiramisu > Mission: Impossible III
Tiramisu < The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Tiramisu < American Graffiti
Tiramisu < Seasons of the Heart
Tiramisu < Braveheart
Tiramisu > Eagle Eye
Tiramisu > Lawless
Tiramisu > Midnight Cowboy
Tiramisu < Gypsy (1993)
Tiramisu < Avanti!
Final spot: #1739 out of 2361.

The Abyss (1989)

IMDb plot synopsis: A civilian diving team are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and face danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.
Directed by James Cameron. Starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, and Leo Burmester.

Man, James Cameron's epics may be, well, of epic length but, boy, do they look fantastic. This is a movie that I imagine would be great to see on the big screen. Even watching it on my laptop, I was pretty impressed.

It should probably be noted that I watched the theatrical version of this, but having read up on the extended cut, I'm pretty happy with the version I saw. There was already a lot trying to be squeezed into this movie as is, and adding another essential subplot would have made the movie feel thematically stretched, rather than as rich as it was.

This is a movie that uses its length well, with little filler and very few scenes of waiting around for something to happen. It's a very solid film, and one I'm glad I finally got to see.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Abyss > Bunraku
The Abyss > Argo
The Abyss < Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Abyss < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
The Abyss < Billy Elliot the Musical Live
The Abyss < Bubba Ho-tep
The Abyss > The Reader
The Abyss < Hannah Arendt
The Abyss < Tropic Thunder
The Abyss < The Impossible
The Abyss > Educating Rita
Final spot: #569 out of 2359.

Jumper (2008)

IMDb plot synopsis: A teenager with teleportation abilities suddenly finds himself in the middle of an ancient war between those like him and their sworn annihilators.
Directed by Doug Liman. Starring  Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Well, this was pretty disappointing. I was a big fan of the book as a teenager (in fact, I just got it so I can read it again and compare the two) but that was less wild sci-fi over-the-top action and more interesting coming-of-age drama with some sci-fi elements mixed in. I remember being fascinated by how it explored all the things he would and could do with this power, and while the movie does touch on that, it spends a lot more time building up a ridiculous villain that just exists and is accepted with zero explanation. Combine that with an extremely rushed second half (especially compared to the leisurely first half) and a bizarre ending, and this movie is ambitious but falls very flat.

There are a few good moments, though -- I'm thinking particularly of the chase scene all over the globe, which is delicious to watch. Hayden Christensen is likable, if a little dumb, as our hero, and Jamie Bell is (far more) interesting as his sidekick. There was a lot of potential with this movie, and seeing it fall apart is disappointing, but every so often I can catch glimpses of what it could've been.

1.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Jumper < Red Eye
Jumper > Ray
Jumper < The Invention of Lying
Jumper < Camelot
Jumper > Apocalypse Now
Jumper < Hello, Dolly!
Jumper < JFK
Jumper > The Misfits
Jumper > Blue Valentine
Jumper > About Last Night...
Jumper > Drive Me Crazy
Final spot: #1677 out of 2358.

Heat (1995)

IMDb plot summary: A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.
Directed by Michael Mann. Starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, and Jon Voight.

Crime movies are such a tough sell for me, but this one has a few very, very interesting scenes -- the diner, the interactions with Pacino and his wife, De Niro running from the car, and the final minute or so. The problem here is that they're hidden in the middle and the end of a 3-hour movie, and 2 1/2 hours of that are filled the kind of typical tedious cop-and-robber action that make me tune out most crime movies. I completely admit that's a personal bias rather than a problem with the genre itself, but there have been some great films that forced my interest in spite of the genre. This wasn't one of them. There wasn't nearly enough payoff to make the rest of it worth it. If this movie had been about 45 minutes shorter, it would have evened out a bit, but as it stands, there were only a few bright spots for me.

2 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Heat < Red Eye
Heat > Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Heat < Water for Elephants
Heat > Camelot
Heat > Rust and Bone
Heat < Fargo
Heat < Legally Blonde
Heat < Blue's Big Musical Movie
Heat > Last of the Red Hot Lovers
Heat < The Muppet Christmas Carol
Final spot: #1541 out of 2357.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.
Directed by Ben Affleck. Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris.

This is a pretty impressive movie, and quite a debut for Ben Affleck. Everything about this movie just *works*, from the dialogue to the acting to how the plot unfolds. A lot of crime movies feel like they're all retelling the same basic story, and there's nothing compelling about them at all. This is not that. This story is human to the core, and it's really well done. I don't have a lot else to say about this one because I'm still thinking about it, but it's more than a little surprising to me that the only Oscar nom this got was for Amy Ryan (though she certainly deserved it). I'm glad it's gained the recognition it has.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Gone Baby Gone > Red Eye
Gone Baby Gone < Eat Pray Love
Gone Baby Gone > Crazy Heart
Gone Baby Gone > New York, New York
Gone Baby Gone > Auntie Mame
Gone Baby Gone > Zoolander
Gone Baby Gone > Atonement
Gone Baby Gone > Brazil
Gone Baby Gone < A Clockwork Orange
Gone Baby Gone > Sleeping Beauty
Final spot: #595 out of 2356.