The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A young martial artist is caught between respecting his pacifist father's wishes or stopping a group of disrespectful foreigners from stealing precious artifacts.

Directed by Chia-Liang Liu. Starring Jackie Chan, Ho-Sung Pank, Lung Ti, and Anita Mui.

The plot isn't really the point of this, any more than it was in the original. We're just here to watch some goofy antics and enjoy some great martial arts stunts, and while it's heavier on the former than the latter, we get a good amount of both. Like the original film, I had a good time with it but couldn't for the life of me tell you anything about it once it was over. Trying to remember the film to name the plot here was certainly a challenge, and I can really only recall one or two prominent sequences before the rest just mushes together into a vaguely enjoyable blur. Definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of Chan or the genre, but not the best of either.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Legend of Drunken Master < Fahrenheit 451

The Legend of Drunken Master < The Professional

The Legend of Drunken Master > Madagascar

The Legend of Drunken Master > 10 Items or Less

The Legend of Drunken Master > Annie Get Your Gun

The Legend of Drunken Master > The Hunt (2012)

The Legend of Drunken Master > The Cocoanuts

The Legend of Drunken Master > Rango

The Legend of Drunken Master > Treasure Planet

The Legend of Drunken Master > Deliverance

The Legend of Drunken Master > Hercules

Final spot: #2558 out of 3406, or 25%. That is definitely a little low, but I barely remember it a week after watching it.

Fear of a Black Hat (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of NWH, a not particularly talented--or particularly bright but always controversial--hip-hop group.

Directed by Rusty Cundieff. Starring Larry B. Scott, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Rusty Cundieff, and Kasi Lemmons.

One review I read said that what Spinal Tap did for metal music, this does for hip-hop, and I think that's a pretty accurate comparison. The low-key mockumentary style of humor means that not every moment is hilarious, but the characters and the scenarios they're in are entertaining, with occasional bursts of hilarious genius. While I definitely don't have enough knowledge or experience in this scene to know if the satire always hits, so I could be reading it wrong, to me it seems to do a pretty good job of satirizing the push for visible violence to maintain "street cred," whether that's artists openly flaunting their actual violent acts or non-violent artists pretending they have a past so they'll be respected. The music in this is also pretty enjoyable, if definitely very tongue-in-cheek. I knew nothing about this film going in, but I had a pretty good time with it, and I'm glad I got the push to seek it out as part of my "100 movies from 1994" project.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Fear of a Black Hat > The Misfits

Fear of a Black Hat < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Fear of a Black Hat > Fantasia 2000

Fear of a Black Hat > The Artist

Fear of a Black Hat > Being There

Fear of a Black Hat < Muriel's Wedding

Fear of a Black Hat > The Ten Commandments (1956)

Fear of a Black Hat > V for Vendetta

Fear of a Black Hat > The Dark Knight

Fear of a Black Hat > Brazil

Fear of a Black Hat > Gremlins

Fear of a Black Hat < Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

Final spot: #906 out of 3405, or 73%.

Chaos Walking (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Two unlikely companions embark on a perilous adventure through the badlands of an unexplored planet as they try to escape a dangerous and disorienting reality where all thoughts are seen and heard by everyone.

Directed by Doug Liman. Starring Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Demián Bichir, and David Oyelowo.

I absolutely LOVED the book series -- I found it engaging and thrilling and the characters wonderful. This does a pretty good job of making the characters work. Tom Holland in particular is charismatic enough to still be likable even as we hear his every thought spoken out loud, including his infatuation with and fantasies about Viola. But the movie falls extremely flat in its exposition, which is never doled out at the audience's pace, either re-hashing things we've been told multiple times or taking extraordinary leaps to reveal new truths we weren't anywhere near. That small detail ends up taking this world that was so fascinating in its original incarnation and making it strange and confusing and ugly. Read the books, but skip this.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Chaos Walking < Fahrenheit 451

Chaos Walking < The Way We Were

Chaos Walking > Madagascar

Chaos Walking < It Could Happen to You

Chaos Walking > Bohemian Rhapsody

Chaos Walking < Mulan (1998)

Chaos Walking > Animal House

Chaos Walking < Fame (2009)

Chaos Walking > Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Chaos Walking > The Yellow Birds

Chaos Walking > Dark of the Sun

Chaos Walking > Running With Scissors

Final spot: #2833 out of 3404, or 17%.

Satantango (1994)

IMDb plot summary: On the eve of a large payment, residents of a collapsing collective farm see their plans turn into desolation when they discover that Irimiás, a former co-worker who they thought was dead, is returning to the community.

Directed by Béla Tarr. Starring Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, László feLugossy, and Éva Almássy Albert.

This is absolutely not my style of filmmaking. I struggle with Tarkovsky's work and I struggled with this, though there are definitely moments that worked for me. There were some very striking sequences, particularly the first time we see the doctor. Tarr insists on capturing every possible moment of someone's actions, with very few cuts to a new scene, and with the doctor in particular I find that it effectively highlights how slow and mundane his day is. He hardly ever leaves his home, just sitting around watching other people, and watching him slowly sort through his notebooks and the like gives us a stronger sense of his life than we would get in a film more traditionally shot. That being said, it is A Task to undertake this one, and I definitely was uninterested more than I was interested during the runtime, but every so often I'd get a flash of, "Oh, THAT'S why people like this!" and I loved that.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Satantango < Fahrenheit 451

Satantango > The Professional

Satantango > The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Satantango < Enemy of the State

Satantango < Red (2018)

Satantango > Iron Eagle

Satantango < Quigley Down Under

Satantango < For Your Consideration

Satantango < John Dies at the End

Satantango > The Hangover

Satantango < The Apostle

Final spot: #2069 out of 3403, or 39%.

A Star Is Born (1937)

IMDb plot summary: A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.

Directed by William A. Wellman. Starring Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, and May Robson.

There have been four movie versions of A Star Is Born so far. I've seen the versions from 1954 and 2017, and now this one from 1937. This is the only one of the four versions that isn't a musical, so no big musical numbers here, but it does an amazing job of showing the characters themselves. Sometimes it's hard to see why this couple loves each other, but it's so obvious here. There are so many scenes where they joke back and forth with each other and it's clear that they "get" each other on some wavelength and enjoy each other's company. I have seen Gaynor in very little, but she's the epitome of the girl next door here, sweet and charming and likable, but hardier and more ambitious than you might at first suspect. The scenes where paparazzi harass her even in the midst of tragedy hit hard, and you just want these characters to be all right. For the first time I can see why this story spawned so many subsequent adaptations.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Star Is Born > Fahrenheit 451

A Star Is Born < Dark Passage

A Star Is Born > Charlie St. Cloud

A Star Is Born < L'atalante

A Star Is Born > Meet Joe Black

A Star Is Born < The Birds

A Star Is Born > 2012

A Star Is Born > The Outsiders

A Star Is Born > La jetee

A Star Is Born < 49 Up

A Star Is Born > Porco Rosso

Final spot: #1119 out of 3402, or 67%.

The Pawnbroker (1964)

IMDb plot summary: A Jewish pawnbroker, victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, and Jaime Sánchez.

I really love when Sidney Lumet does these narrowly focused character-centric stories. He manages to get inside his character's heads and convey a great deal about them with very little. That absolutely happens here. Even while Nazerman treats everyone around him poorly, the film brings out such empathy for him by showing how absolutely miserably trapped he is, how he can't escape what's happened to him in the past, and how he doesn't know how to move forward from seeing the worst of humanity. It's not just his show, though -- the side characters, particularly Nazerman's eager assistant and the friendly-but-naive charity worker who just opened up down the street, also make every moment they're on screen interesting. And then we have the wide array of characters who come into the shop to pawn their items -- such a rich tapestry of characters, any of whom I could have spent more time with. I haven't even had time to talk about the cinematography or the use of sound in this film -- I'll just have to close by saying I was deeply moved by this.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Pawnbroker > The Misfits

The Pawnbroker > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Pawnbroker < Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

The Pawnbroker < The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Pawnbroker > Hidden Figures

The Pawnbroker > Witness

The Pawnbroker > The Bumblebee Flies Anyway

The Pawnbroker < The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Pawnbroker < Stowaway

The Pawnbroker > The Farewell

The Pawnbroker > Onward

The Pawnbroker < Booksmart

Final spot: #658 out of 3401, or 81%.

Inherent Vice (2014)

IMDb plot summary: In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, and Katherine Waterston.

Paul Thomas Anderson and I have an... interesting director/audience relationship. I frequently find his movies baffling, not because they're so outrageous, but because they seem so almost-normal, until it gets to the end and I realize I was never able to put all the pieces together. There Will Be Blood and Magnolia work for me. The Master and Phantom Thread don't. And this one lands in the latter half. It takes my least favorite part of crime noirs (the exhaustingly windy threads connecting the plot) and my least favorite part of Anderson's work (a bunch of possible themes all fighting each other) and combines them together. Its one saving grace for me was that it has much more humor scattered throughout than I expected, from the hilariously unlikely character names, to Joaquin's great "straight man" reactions to the wild scenarios going on around him, to truly funny lines of dialogue that felt like they were pulled from a different movie. This feels like it has the makings of a cult classic, and like most cult classics, it's not going to be beloved by all, and it certainly isn't by me. But it feels like something someone else could REALLY love.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Inherent Vice < Fahrenheit 451

Inherent Vice > The Professional

Inherent Vice < Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Inherent Vice < Annie (2014)

Inherent Vice > Don't Look Now

Inherent Vice > Our Paradise

Inherent Vice < So I Married an Axe Murderer

Inherent Vice < After the Thin Man

Inherent Vice < Before I Fall

Inherent Vice < A Mighty Wind

Inherent Vice > Fracture

Inherent Vice > Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Final spot: #2387 out of 3400, or 30%.

Ouija House (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A girl takes her friends to a house with a dark past for a research project. They unwittingly summon an evil entity with plans of its own who makes the house part of its sinister game.

Directed by Ben Demaree. Starring Mischa Barton, Tara Reid, Carly Schroeder, and Dee Wallace.

This genre can occasionally be fun, but very often it follows the same pattern to the point where there's nothing genuinely scary happening in it. This is more the latter, particularly because the characters are such a letdown here. They don't have personalities, even caricatured ones, and they're forced into making illogical decisions to extend the tension when really it deflates it because I then get distracted thinking, "Wait, why are they going back inside the house, why aren't they trying to get to a hospital right now?" There's also the problem that since so much of this story revolves around Ouija board readings, a LOT of the "scary" scenes are just spelling out a potential threat one letter at a time. That works early on, and the film does its best to speed up these revelations later, but it still makes it difficult to raise the stakes as the story goes on. There's nothing to recommend this one over other similar stories.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Ouija House < Fahrenheit 451

Ouija House < The Professional

Ouija House < Madagascar

Ouija House > The Notebook

Ouija House > Hollywoodland

Ouija House < Shrek the Third

Ouija House > How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

Ouija House > The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Ouija House > It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Ouija House > Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

Ouija House < A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Final spot: #3031 out of 3399, or 11%.

Oxygen (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A woman wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of how she got there. As she's running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

Directed by Alexandre Aja. Starring Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi, and Laura Boujenah.

This film draws an immediate comparison to the Ryan Reynolds film Buried from 2010, but while Buried felt like it was primarily leaning on the horror/thriller part of its genre, here it feels about equal parts mystery and thriller. There's obviously a pressing danger throughout the story, but the mystery of who this woman is and how she got here takes up just as much bandwidth, and ultimately, it's the unraveling of that mystery that really made this film work for me most. She's a good protagonist for this genre in that she makes smart, logical decisions while also clearly portraying how this traumatic situation is affecting her. Overall, definitely one I'd recommend.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Oxygen > Fahrenheit 451

Oxygen > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Oxygen < Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Oxygen < Contagion

Oxygen < Beetlejuice

Oxygen < Whale Rider

Oxygen > Mister Roberts

Oxygen > Rounders

Oxygen > Mr. Brooks

Oxygen > The Paper

Oxygen > The African Queen

Oxygen > This Boy's Life

Final spot: #796 out of 3398, or 77%.

The Last Laugh (1924)

IMDb plot summary: An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.

Directed by F.W. Murnau. Starring Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, and Emilie Kurz.

It's hard to talk about the film without somewhat spoiling the ending, but I'll try to keep it vague enough to not give away the details. I had a mixed reaction to this one. This film is not only silent in terms of no audible character voices, but it has only a single title card in the third act and the rest is told solely in visuals. As someone who responds VERY strongly to dialogue, I had a tough time getting into it because of that. I kept getting bored and tuning out and having to rewind. That's a "me" problem, though, not a movie problem, and I have to say I came around to it in the third act. Again, I'm attempting no spoilers here, but the movie culminates with a fascinating combination of hope and hopelessness that suddenly captured my imagination and my emotions much more strongly. I wouldn't be surprised if rewatching the whole film in light of its ending would be a new experience. I'll have to try and do that sometime.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Last Laugh < Fahrenheit 451

The Last Laugh > The Professional

The Last Laugh < Wes Craven's New Nightmare

The Last Laugh > Annie (2014)

The Last Laugh < A Week Away

The Last Laugh < *batteries not included

The Last Laugh > Hiroshima mon amour

The Last Laugh > Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The Last Laugh > How to Irritate People

The Last Laugh > V/H/S/2

The Last Laugh > Those Who Wish Me Dead

Final spot: #2285 out of 3397, or 33%.

Li'l Abner (1959)

IMDb plot summary: As Sadie Hawkins Day approaches, Daisy Mae hopes to win the hand of Li'l Abner by catching him in the traditional race.

Directed by Melvin Frank. Starring Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, and Howard St. John.

This movie is... a wild, weird ride, and it absolutely makes sense that it was modeled after a comic strip, because it brings all those elements directly into the film. The sets are mostly large flat painted backgrounds which, yes, is definitely paying tribute to the stage show, but also very much gives it a two-dimensional feel throughout, and the acting is... well, it's NOT subtle. These are the most hammed up performances I've seen in awhile. Sometimes it becomes way too much, sometimes it's just sort of endearingly ridiculous. The songs are pretty good, if a little forgettable, with solid character performances. (The film apparently just transplanted a lot of the Broadway cast, so the singing is on-point, not always the case with musicals.) It's almost impossible to know whether to recommend this or not. Or even whether I liked it. But I guess I always have to admire a film so determined to just... be itself.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Li'l Abner < Frank

Li'l Abner > The Professional

Li'l Abner < Run Lola Run

Li'l Abner > Annie (2014)

Li'l Abner < Dear Frankie

Li'l Abner > *batteries not included

Li'l Abner < Master Harold and the Boys

Li'l Abner > The Conjuring

Li'l Abner < The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Li'l Abner < Frida

Li'l Abner > Bandidas

Li'l Abner > Paint Your Wagon

Final spot: #2264 out of 3396, or 33%.

Wrath of Man (2021)

IMDb plot summary: The plot follows H, a cold and mysterious character working at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week.

Directed by Guy Ritchie. Starring Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Josh Hartnett, and Rocci Williams.

The back story serves almost no useful purpose here. We spend a lot of time on it, and I think it's supposed to add emotional resonance to the film's third act, but it's mostly just unnecessarily complicated and redirects the story in kind of a strange place. The action sequences here are competent. I guess in the simplest terms, this is exactly what you'd expect from a Guy Ritchie/Jason Statham action thriller, so if that's something you already really love, this one will probably work for you. If that's not a particularly engaging combo (as it isn't for me), this isn't going to change your mind about it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Wrath of Man < Frank

Wrath of Man > Firewall

Wrath of Man < Run Lola Run

Wrath of Man < Annie (2014)

Wrath of Man < Don't Look Now

Wrath of Man < CQ

Wrath of Man > Big Fat Liar

Wrath of Man > Love in the Afternoon

Wrath of Man < Ivan the Terrible, Part One

Wrath of Man < Queen Margot

Wrath of Man > How to Deal

Wrath of Man < Christmas on the Square

Final spot: #2504 out of 3395, or 26%.

Palmer (2021)

IMDb plot summary: An ex-convict strikes up a friendship with a boy from a troubled home.

Directed by Fisher Stevens. Starring Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Alisha Wainwright, and Ryder Allen.

There are some good scenes, characters, and themes in here, although it's all overshadowed a little bit by how VERY hard it seems to be working for a Best Actor nomination for Justin Timberlake. His dramatic monologue in the courthouse (which ultimately serves little narrative purpose) was such an obviously forced "Best Actor" moment that I found it distracting. There are a lot of pieces of this that feel forced, particularly toward the end, when the film scrambles to get everything in order for the conclusion. But so many of the little pieces actually ARE well done -- I like many individual scenes, and I like how the trope of "falling back in with an old crowd" takes on different meanings than in most crime movies. Not a bad watch, but it's got its flaws.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Palmer > Frank

Palmer < Dark Passage

Palmer < Being John Malkovich

Palmer > Natural Born Killers

Palmer < Police Story

Palmer < The Tourist

Palmer > You Can Count on Me

Palmer < The Trouble With Harry

Palmer > State and Main

Palmer > Sweet Charity

Palmer < The Help

Final spot: #1447 out of 3394, or 57%.