Episode Two (12 Monkeys / 1408)

12 Monkeys (1995)

Director: Terry Gilliam

Writers: Chris Marker (film La Jetée), David Webb Peoples (screenplay), and Janet Peoples (screenplay)

Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt

Great performances by Willis and Pitt, combined with unsettling, surreal direction from Gilliam carry a solid story to a point where it can at least flirt with greatness. The first half is far more enthralling than the second, as you are consistently questioning whether Cole is truly crazy or not (and you get more of Pitt's insanity). I feel that the second half of the film suffers as more and more evidence mounts to support the time travel story and the ending becomes clear too soon. It would have been a bit more entertaining and exciting if they had toned down the foreshadowing a bit and maybe kept it a touch more ambiguous as to whether the time travel was real or not. Still a pretty awesome ride.

Score: 8 / 10


1408 (2007)

Director: Mikael Håfström

Writers: Matt Greenberg (screenplay), Scott Alexander (screenplay), Larry Karaszewski (screenplay) and Stephen King (short story)

Stars: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson and Mary McCormack

Cusack is solid and the movie starts out strong with a nice bit of ominous exposition about the room delivered by Samuel L. Jackson. The atmosphere and early scares are pretty good; however, the intensity never quite ramps up to a point where you feel sure the the room should utterly break the main character. After a strong start, the back half is just a bit disappointing in this regard. Still, nothing is particularly "bad" - so, at worst, this still remains a perfectly serviceable psychological horror/thriller.


Score: 4 / 10

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

Rediscovery

Jack squinted, straining to make out his surroundings in the darkness. He extended an arm, groping blindly for a wall or, at the very least, something solid to guide his steps.

"Hey, Chris! Bring that light over here - I can't see squat."

"Alright, alright" Chris grumbled, rounding a corner and briefly blinding Jack with the beam of his flashlight.

"What the hell is this place anyway?" Jack asked, raising an arm to shield his eyes. The dazzling effect of the light was enhanced by the thick cloud of dust that hung in the air around them.

"Don't you know? Haven't you ever seen an abandoned blog before, Jack?"

"I have - but never up close. How long do you think this one's been left empty?"

"Oh, I dunno," Chris replied while glancing around. "Gotta be about a year, I'd suspect. Maybe more."

"A year!" Jack spun around, wide-eyed. He kicked at the thick layer of dust on the floor. "No way this has only been empty for a year!"

Chris grinned. "A year in real time - but you've got to remember that blogs work on internet time. A year in real life is basically a couple of decades in a place like this."

"Huh." Jack paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. "Any way to tell what kind of a blog it was? Or maybe who it belonged to?"

"Well, from what I can see of the content it looks like it was a review blog. Music, a couple movies. Let's see, unh." Chris grunted as he peeled an old, wrinkled post off of a wall. "Looks like they were in the middle of some kind of list when the boss went missing."

"Weird, any name on that or anything?"

"Yeah, there is - looks like 'S - c - h...'"

"What? What is it? What's wrong Chris?"

"This. This is my blog."

I'm back.


******

Content will resume as of Monday. By resume, I don't mean that the "Quarter Century" list will continue. No, that ran out of steam quickly and I'd prefer to just start fresh here. So, what's coming?

Here's the deal. I've had it pointed out to me that I tend to collect movies on my shelf faster than I can watch them (damn you, bargain bins!). A shameful number still sit on my shelf in their factory sealed packaging. I've made something of a New Year's resolution to change that. Therefore, the journey that we will take is one of bite-size reviews of everything from the front of my personal library straight through to the end; A to Z. Or rather, '(' to Y in my case. I'll also document any theatrical releases or Netflix viewings that will temporarily sidetrack us.

With that said, see you Monday!

P.S. Betting on how long this series will last closes on Sunday at 9 PM Eastern. Good luck!