It wasn’t a bad month, but I didn’t see a movie that really stood out. For a more detailed and current version of my movie journal, check out Tumblr.

01st

#0075 Tangled (DVD)

It really is one of the best Disney animated movies in years. It feels like a classic Disney movie, while being also modern enough, to satisfy the more cynical SHREK crowd. Even the funny animal sidekicks are downright hilarious this time and Rapunzel’s “mother” is one of the greatest Disney villains ever. Just because of how realistic she is.
8/10

#0076 Brave (TV recording/1st viewing)

It was more light hearted than the trailer made it look, but it also felt kinda bla. The story feels like a 30 minutes shortfilm, that was unnecessary stretched out to 90 minutes. If the most memorable moment in your Pixar movie is a joke about a group of men with naked asses, you might have a problem.
6,5/10

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05th

#0077 Adventures In Babysitting (DVD/1st viewing)

A very entertaining entry in one of my favourite subgenres. Yeah, it’s full of stereotypes, but well…80s comedies, y’know?
7,5/10

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06th

#0078 Magnum Force (TV recording/1st viewing)

I would say that this DIRTY HARRY sequel is a little bit better than the original, although I still have issues with its structure. We see for example the vigilantes commit three murders, before the police even notice that something is wrong and the story kicks in, so pretty much the first 40 minutes are just a bunch of random scenes. Then while it is cool to see Harry doing some real detective work, he needs an awful lot of time to find out things and explain them to the audience, although we already knew about them. But it’s an entertaining movie and has a badass finale.
7/10

#0079 In The Name Of The King: Two Worlds (TV/1st viewing)

I don’t hate Uwe Boll’s movies as much as most people do, because while they aren’t exactly good, they are weird enough to entertain, but this one is really boring and a huge step down from part 1, which not just ahd a great cast, but also at least SOME production value. This one here looks like a bunch of LARPers made it. I just wonder why Dolph seemed to have such a good time. I saw him giving worse performances in much better movies.
2,5/10

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08th

#0080 Battleship (TV recording/1st viewing)

I’m surprised how boring this was. Say what you want about Michael Bay and specifically his TRANSFORMERS movies, but at least they are very entertaining on a relelntess spectacle level. BATTLESHIP has lots of concepts and subplots that sound entertaining on paper, but don’t work at all on film for any reason. Peter Berg has always been hit or miss, but this is definitely his biggest miss so far!
4/10

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11th

#0081 Timecop (TV)

It hasn’t aged THAT well. It’s still an entertaining, little time travel movie (with time travel mechanics that don’t make any sense at all), but what was in 1994 considered as cool action, feels today like a TV pilot.
7/10

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13th

#0082 Wreck-It Ralph (DVD)

I think I enjoyed it more this time, which I attribute to not sitting next to some annoying 10 year old, popcorn throwing, seat kicking, constantly talking pieces of shit. It’s still not a GREAT movie, but has a lot to like, is well crafted and damn entertaining.
8/10

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15th

#0083 Double Team (TV/1st viewing)

I always thought the other JCVD/Tsui Hark collaboration KNOCK OFF was weird, but this one totally tops it! It’s storywise all over the place and sometimes feels like a parody and shouldn’t work at all. And to be honest, I don’t think that it works. But damn, that movie had me smiling from the beginning to the end. It really is a seriously creative piece of late 90s action cinema.
7,5/10

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16th

#0084 Mirrors (TV/1st viewing)

Alexandre Aja tries this time a more atmospheric and creepier approach, but without completely abandoning his trademark gore. It works pretty well and especially the first act has some scary moments, but just like all of Aja’s other movies so far, It doesn’t live up to its potential.
6,5/10

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19th

#0085 Cool Hand Luke (TV/1st viewing)

One of these very entertaining movies, that make prision look like a fun place to stay. Well, until the guards start torturing you. Anyway, I miss the days when you could make a drama and inject lots of humor in it, without turning it into a comedy. This kind of filmmaking got somehow lost over the last decades.
8,5/10

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20th

#0086 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (DVD)

Entertains a lot even the 2nd time around. Who would have guessed, that a movie from the LOTR universe would be so much fun? (Face it. As much as I love the LOTR movies, they aren’t exactly “fun”.)
8,5/10

#0087 The Monster Squad (DVD/1st viewing)

*sigh* Burned by another cult favourite that doesn’t live up to its potential. It has some cool moments and interesting ideas, but it never adds up to anything good. The kids lack any character, the monsters, as good as they look, are most of the time just there without doing anything interesting or cool. On the plus side, it has some great make up effects, surprisingly atmospheric cinematography and soem good in-jokes (like the armadillos in Dracula’s castle). And hearing people speak gibberish that’s supposed to be German, is always fun in a movie.
5,5/10

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22nd

#0088 Rocketman (TV/1st viewing)

Not an outstanding movie by any means, but exactly the kind of silly but unoffensive slapstick comedy, that I needed today.
7/10

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25th

#0089 Bad Boys 2 (DVD)

This is without a doubt Michael Bay’s most stupid, random, offensive and violent celebration of low-brow entertainment to date (And yes, I saw all TRANSFORMERS movies, which are actually damn violent if you consider how graphic many of the robots robots die!). Unfortunately this time around it wasn’t as fun for me as when I saw it for the first time, which I blame on its way too long runtime. But to be honest, I still got a kick out of it.
7/10

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27th

#0090 The Haunting (1963 version) (TV recording)

Still surprisingly spooky for a movie of its age, although its bumps-in-the-night approach really is the most simple of all simple tricks to scare somebody. But the movie also works very well as psychological drama, thanks to Julie Harris’ brillant performance.
8/10

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29th

#0091 Total Recall (2012 version) (TV recording/1st viewing)

Well, let’s just say that the remake isn’t awful. But even as a stand alone movie, it wouldn’t be more than a slick, but bland major studio action film. They made the mistake of removing the two most awesome things about the original: The crazy violence and the what-is-real-and-what-not angle. At least Kate Beckinsale seems to have a lot of fun here.
5/10

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30th

#0092 A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (TV recording/1st viewing)

For a British movie, it feels surprisingly French. Simon Pegg delivers maybe his best performance so far and seeing how the script pushes him further and further, is a lot of fun. What drags the movie down a little, is unfortunately the last act, which feels like the result of a reshoot, after test audiences demanded a more streamlined ending.
8/10

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