The Journey Begins: Episode One ((500) Days of Summer / 12 Angry Men)

And so begins the quest to watch every movie on the shelf and put a dent in that Instant Queue (working in a few trips to the theater as well). Just two quick notes before we get started.

1) The titles of the movies reviewed will be links to trailers where available, otherwise I will try to throw a clip in there.
2) I'm basically grading these on something of a curve. So keep in mind that an "average" score of 5/10 is still a movie that I enjoyed, given the fact that I don't seek out movies that I would expect to hate. So, take a 7 or higher as a definite recommendation, 4 through 6 are situational (depending on your genre preferences), and anything below... well, seek out at your own risk.

Let's go!

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Director: Marc Webb
Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Geoffrey Arend

Might be a tough pill to swallow for people who are turned off by indie 'quirkiness,' but I for one truly enjoyed the style of the film. The odometer tracking the story's chronology, the random musical number in the middle, the narration - it all worked for me. Zooey and JGL are great together and the side characters, while totally one-dimensional, are 'knowingly' one-dimensional. The film is obviously aware of the cliches it falls into as well as the ones that it sidesteps. This is another thing that people could find a bit grating; potentially making the movie come across as thinking itself a bit too clever for its own good. But, once again, I found the story was just genuine enough that none of these touches negatively affected my enjoyment of the film but rather enhanced the fun. Upper-tier romcom.

Score: 8 / 10


12 Angry Men (1957)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writer: Reginald Rose (story)

Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and Martin Balsam

One room, twelve men. Keeping this drama enthralling for an hour and a half is no small feat - it is well acted, tightly scripted and paced to perfection. Some of the men in that room are painfully slow on the uptake when it comes to a few of the plot points and the characters are necessarily fairly one-dimensional - but the acting and forward momentum save it in those rare places where the script slightly stumbles. Overall, a fantastic film and one that proves that you don't need 'action' to be exciting.

Score: 9 / 10