The Mark of Zorro (1940)

IMDb plot summary: A young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone.

The Mark of Zorro stars Tyrone Power as the foppish son of the former mayor of a Californian town by day, the folk hero Zorro fighting corrupt officials by night. This version of the story really relies on the contrast between the two alter egos, and there is a delightful thrill in watching him play his sensitive nobleman act knowing that he is smarter, stronger, and more ruthless than he's letting on at any point. Power is very charismatic here and is a lot of fun to watch. I do wish there was a stronger emphasis on either the political aspect of it or the adventure scenes -- so much of this story is just watching Power flit about from group to group, and while that's enjoyable, it feels incomplete. It was a fun contrast to The Mask of Zorro, which I watched for the first time earlier this month, and comparing two different approaches to the character almost 60 years apart is kind of fascinating. This one was less exciting, both narratively and visually, but I enjoyed seeing a more debonair approach to the character.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Mark of Zorro > Hairspray (1988)

The Mark of Zorro < Kuroneko

The Mark of Zorro > A Scanner Darkly

The Mark of Zorro > Whisky Galore!

The Mark of Zorro > 1917

The Mark of Zorro < Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

The Mark of Zorro < The Ten Commandments (1956)

The Mark of Zorro > Hoodwinked!

The Mark of Zorro < Call Me Madam

The Mark of Zorro < Borat

The Mark of Zorro > Gone Girl

The Mark of Zorro < A Clockwork Orange

Final spot: #1029 out of 3719, or 72%.

Love, Life and Goldfish (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Makoto Kashiba is an elite bank clerk and works for a big bank at its Tokyo HQ. Due to a minor mistake, he is demoted to a small branch office in a country town. He is devastated by his situation. There, he meets beautiful Yoshino Ikoma, who runs a goldfish scooping store. Makoto falls in love with her at first sight.

Directed by Yukinori Makabe. Starring Nicole Ishida, Hayato Kakizawa, and Naoki Kawano.

Love, Life and Goldfish is a Japanese musical film about a young man settling in a new town after a work demotion and perhaps finding love in the process. I really wanted to love this film but something about it sat just outside my periphery. I am often drawn to stories about nerdy outcasts trying to figure out love, especially if there are musical numbers to highlight their journey, but I just had such a tough time tracking this character's motivations and interests. The music does most of the emotional heavy liting here, with these big sentimental ballads that tug at the heartstrings (but that I'm sure would be much improved by seeing their thematic connection to the actual narrative at hand -- something that doesn't always happen). The "goldfish" of the title refers to the fact that the main potential love interest works in a store where people can compete to scoop goldfish out of a larger pool into a smaller one, and the goldfish metaphor is definitely visually arresting but, again, doesn't always land narratively. There may very well be some cultural differences keeping me at a distance here, so this is one I want to go back and retry, because when it works, it REALLY works. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Love, Life and Goldfish > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Love, Life and Goldfish < Kuroneko

Love, Life and Goldfish > Incendies

Love, Life and Goldfish < Ghost World

Love, Life and Goldfish < Man on Wire

Love, Life and Goldfish < Panic Room

Love, Life and Goldfish < Family Business

Love, Life and Goldfish < Nobody's Fool

Love, Life and Goldfish > Cafe Society

Love, Life and Goldfish < The Family Man

Love, Life and Goldfish < The Count of Monte Cristo

Love, Life and Goldfish > Juno and the Paycock

Final spot: #1386 out of 3720, or 63%.

The Expendables (2010)

IMDb plot summary: A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.

Directed by Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Jet Li.

The Expendables is a big silly action movie following a team of mercenaries trying to overthrow a Latin American dictator. It features a variety of action stars in both prominent and small roles, including Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more. So hear me out -- the movie that I ended up comparing this to in my mind the most was Tick, Tick, Boom. When I finished that movie, I thought to myself, "That was one of the most amazing love letters to musical theater I've ever seen, and I have no idea if people who don't love musicals will get anything out of it." This movie feels 100% like a love letter to the big action blockbusters of the 80s and 90s, and as such it almost completely passed me by. I didn't recognize about half the action stars who showed up, the action sequences don't have interesting fight choreography or unique set pieces so much as just a lot of explosions, and there's not really even any half-hearted character development. But every so often I'd get a glimpse of the film paying tribute to its past favorites. So with this, I'm in this weird space of appreciating what it's doing while having absolutely no interest in watching it myself. It'll rank low on my Flickchart personally but that's mostly just because it's not *for* me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Expendables < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Expendables < The Man with One Red Shoe

The Expendables > Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

The Expendables > 101 Dalmatians (1996)

The Expendables < Mother (2009)

The Expendables > Party Girl

The Expendables > Danger: Diabolik

The Expendables < Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The Expendables < On the Town

The Expendables < Bad Moms

The Expendables < The Italian Job (2003)

The Expendables < Sleeper

Final spot: #2934 out of 3718, or 21%.

Forever Young (1992)

IMDb plot summary: During a cryogenics test, a pilot frozen in 1939 awakes in 1992 but time is running out, as his body starts to age rapidly.

Directed by Steve Miner. Starring Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Elijah Wood.

Forever Young stars Mel Gibson as a test pilot in the 1930s who agrees to be part of his friend's top-secret cryogenics research. He expects to be woken up in one year, but something goes wrong and he wakes up in 1992 after young Elijah Wood stumbles upon his abandoned cryotube. I often really connect to sci fi or fantasy fish-out-of-water stories, body swap stories or accidental time travel, all that kind of thing, but this one never quite sticks the landing, always wanting to go in for the cheap sentimentality rather than genuine humanity. Gibson just kind of wanders around here as a general confused nice guy and doesn't get much depth of character. Wood is much better -- at this point in his career he'd picked up some technique and outshines Gibson in most scenes. Jamie Lee Curtis as Wood's mother works very hard to bring something interesting to her thankless role as "nurturing woman who helps everyone else out" but there's only so much you can do with material this thin. It's a fun concept but this is a pretty flat, schmaltzy interpretation of it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Forever Young < Hairspray (1988)

Forever Young > The Man with One Red Shoe

Forever Young < Kuroneko

Forever Young < Incendies

Forever Young < Lucky Number Slevin

Forever Young < Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Forever Young < Gothika

Forever Young < Arthur Christmas

Forever Young < Camp Rock

Forever Young < The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Forever Young > Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)

Forever Young > Vampyr

Final spot: #1853 out of 3717, or 50%.

The Pirate Movie (1982)

IMDb plot summary: The crew of a large ship sail the high seas encountering other pirates from other ships. The boy from the ship ends up having to save his girlfriend who is kidnapped by a bunch of other pirates.

Directed by Ken Annakin. Starring Kristy McNichol, Christopher Atkins, and Ted Hamilton.

The Pirate Movie is a very loose adaptation of the Pirates of Penzance operetta, incorporating some of the original songs and the general outline of the plot and interspersing it with original 80s rock tunes. When I went to look this movie up, I learned that people HATED it when it came out. It's got something like a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and got a bunch of Razzie nominations. It's definitely cheesy and silly, but I had a good enough time with it! I was pleased that at least some pieces of the original Penzance tunes showed up, and although none of the rock replacements were much good aside from the final number, they worked just fine if I thought of them as generic background soundtrack tunes. The jokes and one-liners come fast here, and like with any film with large quantities of jokes, some land and some don't, but the ones that don't aren't belabored, just quietly scooted past. I was particularly impressed with a long farcical sword-fighting scene that could easily have gotten boring but instead kept finding new ways to play with the concept. Will I watch it again? Well, maybe not, not when the filmed version of the original starring Kevin Kline is right there, but I'm glad I got to see this weird little movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Pirate Movie > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Pirate Movie < Anna Karenina

The Pirate Movie > The Romantics

The Pirate Movie < Show Me Love

The Pirate Movie > Man on Wire

The Pirate Movie > Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

The Pirate Movie < Death by Hanging

The Pirate Movie < Evita

The Pirate Movie > Monsters vs. Aliens

The Pirate Movie > Carefree

The Pirate Movie < Wolf

Final spot: #1207 out of 3714, or 68%.

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A man suffering a family loss enrolls in a class about care-giving that changes his perspective on life.

Directed by Rob Burnett. Starring Craig Roberts, Paul Rudd, and Selena Gomez.

The Fundamentals of Caring stars Paul Rudd as a caregiver for a teenager with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, played by Craig Roberts. The story focuses on the relationship between the two as they navigate their own demons. I never quite know how to feel about these "once I got to know someone with a disability" stories. While I approve of more disabled characters in film, most of those movies end up feeling patronizing. I give this film credit for trying to sidestep the more problematic tropes (there's even a sequence where the teenager accuses Rudd of using him for inspiration) but it doesn't seem to bring much to the table in its place. It's like it spends more time trying to avoid the "wrong" thing than doing anything interesting. And at the end of the day it's still primarily Rudd's story even when it tries to be Roberts'. It's not an awful film -- this kind of story has been done much more thoughtlessly -- but it feels unimaginative and halfhearted and I know I'm going to forget it within a week of having seen it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Fundamentals of Caring < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Fundamentals of Caring > The Man with One Red Shoe

The Fundamentals of Caring < The Hangover

The Fundamentals of Caring < *batteries not included

The Fundamentals of Caring < My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The Fundamentals of Caring > Sex Tape

The Fundamentals of Caring < Baby Boom

The Fundamentals of Caring > The Da Vinci Code

The Fundamentals of Caring > My Darling Clementine

The Fundamentals of Caring > Reminiscence

The Fundamentals of Caring < About Last Night...

Final spot: #2703 out of 3716, or 27%.

Liliom (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Liliom, a merry-go-round barker at a Budapest amusement park, becomes enamored of Julie, a servant girl, and though under the influence of Madame Muskat, a sideshow entrepreneur, he marries the girl. 

Directed by Frank Borzage. Starring Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, and Estelle Taylor.

Liliom is a 1930 movie that I recognized partway through as being based on the same story as the musical Carousel. A young naive woman marries a carnival barker who is abusive and irresponsible, and when he dies committing a crime he asks to come back to earth to see the daughter he never met. Carousel at least has some pretty tunes, but this plot is just straight up garbage, happily defending physical violence as some sort of misappropriated form of affection, and it's horrifying. You can't garner any sympathy for these characters at all. The most interesting part of this was the strange afterlife section in the final twenty minutes, which has some suddenly creative cinematic choices, from the visualization of the train to the afterlife to the introduction of the various characters and how they passed away. I'd much rather have seen a whole movie of that than the domestic abuse apologetics taking up most of the film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Liliom < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Liliom < The Man with One Red Shoe

Liliom < Table 19

Liliom > Agent Cody Banks

Liliom < Maurice

Liliom > Made of Honor

Liliom < Insomnia (2002)

Liliom > Get Carter

Liliom < Titane

Liliom < Flywheel

Liliom < The Ant Bully

Liliom < Stand Up and Cheer!

Final spot: #3410 out of 3715, or 8%.

The Lost City (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.

Directed by Aaron and Adam Nee. Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe.

The Lost City is a rom com adventure starring Sandra Bullock as a romance novelist and Channing Tatum as the cover model for her most popular series. When Bullock's research for her latest novel turns out to be a little too thorough and potentially uncovers a clue to a lost treasure, she is kidnapped to help complete the puzzle and Tatum has to rescue her. This movie isn't incredible, isn't groundbreaking, but it felt a little bit like a warm fuzzy hug. It reminded me why Sandra Bullock rose to fame in the first place, as she is so quietly funny in this while still feeling like a fully grounded character, and Channing Tatum is absolutely charming as her well-intentioned but completely clueless romantic lead. There are definitely jokes that don't land here, but more do than I expected, and despite the big lavish location and plot points, the humor itself is actually relatively quiet and rooted in character traits. It's certainly a stronger, funnier, more interesting action comedy than recent efforts like Jungle Cruise or Red Notice, and I had a good time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Lost City > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Lost City < Safe

The Lost City > Incendies

The Lost City > Show Me Love

The Lost City < The Last Seduction

The Lost City < Suspicion

The Lost City > Undercover Blues

The Lost City < Finder's Fee

The Lost City < Zootopia

The Lost City > New York Stories

The Lost City > Wonder Man

The Lost City < Le samourai

Final spot: #1124 out of 3710, or 70%.

Hand Rolled Cigarette (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A story of how a retired British-Chinese soldier and a marginalized young South Asian man face the plight of being abandoned by society.

Directed by Kin Long Chan. Starring Ka-Tung Lam, Bipin Karma, and Singh Hartihan Bitto.

Hand Rolled Cigarette tells the story of a retired soldier who finds himself sheltering a young man on the run from some vengeful drug dealers, and the two form a reluctant bond. The introduction of this movie focuses on a group of soldiers needing to find new paths in life after the Hong Kong Military Service Corps is dissolved, and that was an interesting intro, as it was something I had very little knowledge of and was interested to learn about. But the movie doesn't explore that aspect very much and just turns the story into a typical neo-noir crime thriller, which was a disappointing downturn. The movie leans heavily into the grungy neo-noir visuals I find not only unappealing but difficult to parse, and I had trouble tracking the many different characters crossing paths in the story. The beginning and the end hold together as individually strong moments, but I was less than enthused with most of the middle. May be worth a watch for those inclined to enjoy the genre, but otherwise you can skip it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Hand Rolled Cigarette < The Man with One Red Shoe

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > 101 Dalmatians (1996)

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Mother (2009)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > The Final Countdown

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Passion

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Hand Rolled Cigarette > The Jazz Singer (1927)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Copying Beethoven

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Morocco

Final spot: #2914 out of 3709, or 21%.

Robbery (1967)

IMDb plot summary: A group of British criminals plans the robbery of the Royal Mail train on the Glasgow-London route.

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, and James Booth.

Robbery is a pretty straightforward crime drama that follows both a set of criminals planning a bank robbery and the law enforcement officers who are trying to bring them down. This is the third film directed by Peter Yates, and, wow, he wanted to try out all the genres, didn't he? From the sentimental musical Summer Holiday to the absurdist comedy One Way Pendulum to this realistic crime story, he didn't seem to want to tie himself down to one style. While that's interesting to me, this movie isn't particularly. There's one scene that stands out, where the leader planning the robbery has a confrontation with his wife, and that scene snaps into focus, with some really captivating use of color and staging, but all the rest is very typical of everyday crime dramas without much of a unique stamp on it. For some folks, that's going to draw them right into it. For me, it's going to push me away. I continue to be intrigued by Yates as a director, but this is my least favorite of his films thus far.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Robbery < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Robbery > The Man with One Red Shoe

Robbery < Satantango

Robbery > Crumb

Robbery < Rigoletto

Robbery > A Week Away

Robbery < Ghost

Robbery < Bedtime for Bonzo

Robbery < Rebecca

Robbery > Mud

Robbery < The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Robbery < Suspiria (1977)

Final spot: #2491 out of 3713, or 33%.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

IMDb plot summary: A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and Christopher Adamson.

The Count of Monte Cristo stars Jim Caviezel as Edmond Dantes, the poor but ambitious sailor who finds himself betrayed by his best friend, played here by Guy Pierce. Dantes spends over a decade locked away in prison for a crime he didn't commit before managing to escape and vowing revenge on the people who put him there in the first place. While there is a lot I enjoy about this movie, there are two rather gaping flaws that keep it from rising too high on my chart. One is that Caviezel is a tremendously bland actor, and even while playing three distinct characters here -- the naive innocent, the jaded inmate, and the dashing cavalier -- he remains very uncompelling. The second is that the movie is uncertain what it's actually about. It keeps throwing in these halfhearted attempts at an anti-vengeance message, including at the very end, but that's undercut by the fact that, according to what actually happens in this movie, vengeance fricking rules and gets you everything you want. The conflicting messages keep the film from ever landing on a deeper level and keep it pretty shallow. It is a fun shallow, and the side characters in particular shine even if our lead does not, but it all feels a little disappointing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Count of Monte Cristo > Pi

The Count of Monte Cristo < Safe

The Count of Monte Cristo > Incendies

The Count of Monte Cristo < Show Me Love

The Count of Monte Cristo < Man on Wire

The Count of Monte Cristo < Panic Room

The Count of Monte Cristo < Family Business

The Count of Monte Cristo < Don't Look Up

The Count of Monte Cristo > Cafe Society

The Count of Monte Cristo < Koyaanisqatsi

The Count of Monte Cristo < The Family Man

The Count of Monte Cristo > Juno and the Paycock

Final spot: #1383 out of 3712, or 63%.

The Dawn Patrol (1938)

IMDb plot summary: British flying aces in World War I contend with the harsh realities of war.

Directed by Edmund Goulding. Starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and David Niven.

The Dawn Patrol stars Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Basil Rathbone as a group of British flying aces very near the front during World War I. Rathbone is the officer in charge while Niven and Flynn are his ace pilots. We watch the group struggle with their relationships with each other while having to bear the weight of sending young men to die in perilous missions. I watched this for my 1930 film project, mistakenly thinking it was the 1930 version instead of the remake, and now I'm hesitant to go back and watch the original because I'm not convinced it will do as well without this stacked cast, as there isn't much to set it apart from other anti-war films of the same era. I do enjoy the sense of playfulness in the first half, which does a lot to bring out the contrasting devastation in the second half. I also enjoyed Rathbone's character, an officer miserable at having to send soldier after soldier on suicide missions while not being able to do any of the work himself, and it makes him bitter and mean. But overall I don't think this one will stick with me, though it was an adequate watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Dawn Patrol > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Dawn Patrol < Safe

The Dawn Patrol < Incendies

The Dawn Patrol > The Ladykillers (1955)

The Dawn Patrol < The Great Gatsby (1974)

The Dawn Patrol > Dot the I

The Dawn Patrol < Lo

The Dawn Patrol < Knight and Day

The Dawn Patrol > Jackie

The Dawn Patrol > Anna and the King

The Dawn Patrol < Exotica

Final spot: #1555 out of 3711, or 58%.

H.M.S. Defiant (1962)

IMDb plot summary: On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary War, fair Captain Crawford is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command Lieutenant Scott-Padget, whose heavy-handed command style pushes the crew to mutiny.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, and Maurice Denham.

H.M.S. Defiant, or Damn the Defiant as it is alternately known, stars Alec Guinness as a Royal Navy captain during the French Revolutionary Wars and Dirk Bogarde as his first lieutenant. The two men have very different views of governing a ship, and they enter into a tense battle of wills that also happens to be bumping up against a planned mutiny from the non-officered soldiers. Guinness and Bogarde are really wonderful to watch here, exuding very different *kinds* of power but seeming very evenly matched, and watching how their ethics play out in their treatment of others is the most engaging part of the movie. I do also appreciate how much time was spent focusing on the pending mutiny -- it humanized the sailors Guinness and Bogarde were fighting over and showcased them and their needs in a compelling way. The ending is a satisfying one that lands exactly where I wanted it to. The only points where my interest flagged were the battle sequences, but even those held my attention a bit more than usual, as the movie did a good job of tying the fate of the battle to the fate of the characters in a way I cared about. A solid watch!

How it entered my Flickchart:

H.M.S. Defiant > Pi

H.M.S. Defiant < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

H.M.S. Defiant > The Romantics

H.M.S. Defiant > Show Me Love

H.M.S. Defiant > The Last Seduction

H.M.S. Defiant > Minority Report

H.M.S. Defiant > Luca

H.M.S. Defiant > Munich

H.M.S. Defiant < Jack Goes Boating

H.M.S. Defiant < Hoop Dreams

H.M.S. Defiant < Till Death

H.M.S. Defiant > The Palm Beach Story

Final spot: #939 out of 3706, or 75%.

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%.