#99 Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 (first watch)

★★★½

I didn't find it as gloriously paced as the first one, and it definitely has some plot incoherency issues in the first half concerning mind control, but it's still pretty fun and worth seeing on the big screen, if possible. I particularly liked the romantic angle involving two of the Avengers.

73/99 first watches (74%)

#100 Touch of Evil 1958 (first watch)

★★★★

Note: This is about the Reconstructed version

A wonderful, sleazy, dynamic, cacophonic medley of characters pitted against each other, with Welles's sweaty, unhealthy detective being the sleaziest and most interesting, finding a worthy adversary in Heston's most unmexican Mexican ever committed to film.

A joy, but an uncomfortable joy.

Also, Hitchcock must have seen this before he cast Leigh in Psycho, and I wonder if he had Dennis Weaver in mind when he was considering who would make a Norman Bates.

74/100 first watches (74%)

Touch of Evil has a epic opening shot though. Hestons casting in it was a car crash.

The film was massively energetic all the way through, and Welles in particular was terrific. Heston cannot play anything but all-American though.

#101 Big Fish 2003 (first watch)

★★★★

Very charming tale about tall tales and how sometimes the story is the truth, even if you don't think it is. It took me the first act to settle in, but once settled, I was thoroughly absorbed and engaged, with a few moments here and there jarred out of it by Billy Crudup's performance (which seemed a little too intense for the light, whimsical material)

75/101 first watches

#102 John Wick 2014 (first watch)

★★★★

There's a lesson in this movie. The lesson is do not kill the puppy of the biggest badass on the planet a few days after his wife dies. It will not end well.

76/102 first watches (74%)

#103 The Blob 1958 (first watch)

★★★

Fun, throwaway scifi that is notable for two reasons: Steve McQueen's debut, and one of the great theme songs of all time.

77/103 first watches

#104 Donovan’s Brain 1953 (first watch)

★★★

Basic little mad scientist horror, which would have worked better with a bitter twist at the end.

#105 The Black Cat 1934

★★★★

Bafflingly insane movie, that's glorious to watch, even though the music is constant and quite overpowered. Don't any of these people believe in knocking before entering a room?

#106 Cujo 1983 (first watch)

★★★

Surprisingly decent movie adaptation, and among King's favourites of adaptations of his own work, maybe for the reason I kind of liked it, it resolved an unhappy ending in the book into a happier ending in the movie.

The director did well to make a cute, cuddly breed like a St Bernard into a bloody, snarling threat though, and the sequence early on where his owner realises he's rabid is pretty effective.

79/106 first watches (75%)

#107 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948

★★★★

Excellent movie about greed and how it can corrupt some men, but leave others untouched. Fine performances all round, but in particular Bogart gives a good turn as a made being driven mad by his obsession with money and suspicions of others thinking the same way as he does.

80/107 first watches (75%)

#108 Without Warning 1980 (first watch)

★★½


Cheap and cheerful scifi slasher movie, almost like a cut-price dry run for Predator in the backwoods of North America, with some decent turns by Martin Landau and Jack Palance (but no other decent acting in the cast) as they deal with an alien that hunts with flying pizza monsters with ice-pick tentacles.

81/108 first watches (75%)

#109 Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack 2001 (first watch)

★★★½

Ignoring the quite poor lip synching and translation (but decent enough voice work), the movie is pretty decent and doesn't take as long as some to get to the action. Rather fun and more spectacular than many of the Godzilla series, this one has Godzilla taking out individuals in almost comical moments as well as razing entire districts. I also really liked the Ghidorah design in this - so much like what you'd consider an Eastern dragon design that is usual with this.

Fun.

82/109 first watches (75%)

#110 Operation Crossbow 1965

★★★½

solid world war 2 thriller, with the allies trying to work out what's going on in the nazi rocket program, and spies infiltrating and ultimately sabotaging the efforts. Stirring and engrossing.

83/110 first watches (75%)

#111 Life.Die.Repeat. 2014

★★★★

Add a good portion of Groundhog Day, a decent dollop of Starship Troopers and a touch of The Animatrix, and when you bake it up, you get a fun, original, well plottted and taut story where Tom Cruise keeps dying and coming back. Very fun, an the intelligent end of the dumb fun spectrum.

This has 3 names, 2 of them good ones!

84/111 first watches (76%)

112. Possession 1981 (First watch)

★★★

A pretentious, hyperdramatic mess. It does have some wild and memorable moments though, and I can't fault Isabel Adjani in this - she seems to get what's needed, and delivers. Sam Neill doesn't do as well, even though I do think he's a solid actor, and often the direction he's given makes the whole thing seem like a pretentious, vacuous student movie where the symbolism and bigger themes are more important to the director than any sort of emotional reality.

Tiresome ultimately, as descends into a weird mess.

Feels like some sort of poor spawn of Repulsion and Hellraiser (even though Hellraiser came after).

113 Werewolf of London 1935 (first watch)

★½

Disappointing first mainstream werewolf movie, that plays more like a stunted version of Jeckyll and Hyde than a proper werewolf movie. The male cast are virtually all terrible, as is the vast majority of the script. The only standout acting turn is Valerie Hobson as the young wife of ole Wolfie. There's also a couple of iconic shots.

Script had some good ideas, but this particular version of it, and its production, was quite woeful.

I can see why Universal ditched the word 'werewolf' when they redid the story in the far superior 'The Wolfman'

114 Son of Frankenstein 1939

★★★★

A fine entry to the Universal Frankenstein franchise, a little let down by some pacing issues and overlong scenes (especially the ones with the annoying kid), but it roars along whenever Lugosi is on screen, and Rathbone and Atwill aren't far behind.

Has one of the greatest houses in cinema.

86/114 first watches (75%)

115 Lady Snowblood II: Love Song of Vengeance 1974 (first watch)

★★½

Nowhere near as much fun as the first one, with long dry spells and an incomprehensible and tedious plot about blackmailing officials, it has just a few scenes that entertain. I like how she hold her sword in a different way to the men, such that she only kills on the counter.

116 Piranha 1978 (first watch)

★★★

A fun b-movie, with many sly jokes at the expense of both jaws, and the general zeitgeist (the girl reading Moby Dick on the beach; the use of pollution to kill the piranhas), with two leads we remain interested in, and enough energy to keep it chugging along nicely. Very enjoyable.

117 The Sorcerers 1967 (first watch)

★★★

If you ignore the plodding script and obvious morality tale that the script engenders, there's a lot of fun to be had. The mad 60s vibe, the dynamic camera style and the crashing music that builds the excitement (and, to be honest, silliness) makes it very enjoyable. Ian Ogilvy and Karloff gives solid performances.

89/117 first watches (76%)

118. The Wolf Man 1941

★★★

Whilst it's iconic and creates an interesting mythos, this movie is kind of slow and boring. Chaney veers between very good and so-so, and the apparent setting of Wales seems ridiculous to anyone from Britain (there's not one single Welsh accent). I liked the makeup, though I have my doubts that is Chaney running around under it (he looks too small and lithe for Chaney).

Some nice touches with the movement and sound design of the werewolf, this is a more polished affair than earlier Universal classics, but does foresake some of the fun nuttiness of those for the (more boring) polish.



119. The Prestige 2006 (first watch)

★★★½

Decent thriller that seems to get more and more implausible and confusing until the reveal of what's really been happening, and then it all falls into place. Clever, but might test your patience around the end of the second act.

120. Gran Torino (2008) (first watch)

★★★★

Excellent drama from Eastwood, with fine writing, plotting and nuanced performances from the three main leads and the priest.


121. The Fault in Our Stars 2014 (first watch)

★★★½

Sweet, well-acted movie that veers to far into manipulation of the heartstrings in the third act (and it didn't need to, its first acts balanced the sad material nicely).

Glad I watched, but I don't think I was the intended audience.

122. Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman 2003 (first watch)

★★★

There's some clear pacing issues, and too many scenes that don't really go anywhere, but worse of all is how the fake CGI blood consistently takes you out of the action by waving at you at every opportunity and saying YOOHOO, I'M CGI BLOOD.

There's some fun fights and scenes though, and a rather excellent dance number that's more Bollywood than Samurai.

123. Mad Max: Fury Road 2015 (first watch)

★★★★½

Solid entry into the Mad Max Franchise, with lots of absolutely spectacular stunts and some very nice composition of striking imagery in the quiet moments, and lots of callbacks to the earlier movies. There's also a little changing of Max's history implied, and it's clear that this Max is still traumatised by the past.

Try and see it on a big screen, while you can.

124. Dracula's Daughter 1936 (first watch)

★★★

Dull in places, but has some merit. Dracula's Daughter looks the part, though doesn't have the charisma of Lugosi. We get some comedy policemen as in Invisible Man, and the evil dooom-speaking sidekick Sandor is fun (and rocks some funky hats), and there's a few decent scenes - where she is burying/exorcising Dracula's body, where they return to Castle Dracula, for example.

125. Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla 2002 (first watch)

★★★★

Very good entry into the Godzilla Millenium series. They've cut down on the talking heads of the humans, and jump straight into the action. And it's good action. Mechagodzilla looks excellent, and the CGI works very well throughout, and the fight choreography is a lot of fun.

A keeper.

126. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. 2003 (first watch)

★★★½

Fun kaiju with some dull stretches, but also some excellent monster fighting. Highlight is mechagodzilla drilling Godzilla with A rotating fist drill

97/126 first watches (77%)

127 It Follows 2014 (first watch)

★★★★

Fine indie horror, that thankfully relies on uneasiness and tension rather than annoying jump scares, blaring sound or graphic violence. A solid musical score harking back to the synth of the 80s makes this feel like a good Carpenter movie in spots, and I'm also grateful that no real explanation was offered for 'it'.

One scene it didn't get cos it didn't pay off as expected, avoiding spoilers...where she wades out into the sea. I thought I understood it, but it didn't feed into the plot, I think. Minor quibble though.


128 The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 (first watch)

★★★★

A roister-doister, rollicking-bollicking yarn that's so green it'll make your eyes ache. Flynn is a lot of fun, and the jaunty nonsense never lets up at all.

Claude Rains' wig has to be seen to be believed.


129 WolfCop 2014 (first watch)

★★★

Fun genre movie which, in the grand tradition of memorable genre b-movies, has a definite 'the one where...' scene or two. I won't spoil some of the others, but for me, this stands out as 'the one where someone literally gets their face ripped off'. You laugh with it, at it, and about it, but whatever, it's a fun, fast movie with little pretension, and is a jolly old time.

The tagline should definitely have been "Dirty. Hairy."


130 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 2014 (first watch)

★★★

Oh dear, this is a film that felt like the maker had watched Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, and decided to use much of the same iconography, character development and plotting. Max was just a modern updating of Edward Nigma in Batman Forever, for example.

Large stretches seemed to be devoted to non-story for reasons that weren't apparent (mostly around some sort of Parker Parent backstory).

However, it finally started getting entertaining in act 3, which was mostly pretty solid and exciting. Plus, Garfield was excellent, Stone was good, and they both did pretty well with quite ropey romance dialogue.

101/130 first watches (78%)

131 The Running Man 1987

★★★½

Extremely 80s and fun given the usual issues that raises (silly fashions, 80s fads as major elements as part of the future (like aerobics, baggy suits and shoulder pads)), it's reasonably fun and diverting. Killian is great in this.


101/131 first watches (77%)

132 The Terminator 1984

★★★★★

Terrific, lean action movie with pretty much no fat on it. Moves like a cheetah, delivers perfectly throughout. Should be the termplate for any movie where a couple have to fall in love under dire circumstances.


133 Jurassic World 2015 (first watch)

★★★½

Passable popcorn actioner with some pointless character story, some bad CGI in places, and massive plot holes, but enjoyable, with an especially pleasing turn by Chris Pratt. Very exciting in places, but check your brain in at the door to get the most enjoyment out of it.


134 Pacific Rim (2013)

★★★½

Fun actioner, that gets a little repetitive in places, but is actually even more impressive on the second watch because the kaiju and jaegers have heft. Lots of fun, but would have been better by being shorter and even punchier.

135 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

★★★

Solid entry into the Universal canon for two of the monsters, with some glaring plot issues (the kindly doctor suddenly wants to see the monster at full strength, for no obvious reason), and a slightly whiney Talbot, but Lugosi does sterling work as the monster.


136 Jurassic Park (1993)

★★★★½

Wonderful, gripping and somewhat timeless. The tension really is well sustained, with enough talky parts to let the audience relax just enough to get the most out of each exciting part. A brilliant movie.


137 Tower of London (1962) (first watch)

★★

Fun to start with, with Price killing people, getting crazier and crazier, monologuing, and then seeing their ghost - rinse, repeat, over and over. Gets old fast, as they try to pad it out to full feature running time. The first half is fun, but gets boring because of the repetition.


138 Alligator 1980 (first watch)

★★★

Fun monster flick, fast paced, with some wit and style, and alligator model and the modelwork around the alligator was pretty decent.

139 Addams Family Values (1993)

★★★★

Wonderful sequel to the first movie, with some excellent jokes and setups, and a nice coherent two-lane story driving it all along nicely. Very fun.



140 The Addams Family (1991)

★★★★

Terrific movie based on the comic strip and TV show, with especially brilliant casting for Morticia, Gomez and Wednesday, that very occasionally descends into sketches rather than narrative, but as this is done with such panache and energy, you have to forgive it.

141 Phantom of the Opera (1943) (first watch)

★★½

It feels so weird to watch a Universal from this era, and it be in technicolor....

A better movie than I expected, though it clearly isn't so much horror as costume drama, so don't expect any scares whatsoever. I kind of colourful melodrama that moves along at a decent pace except when music is involved (then it crawls), but entertaining enough. Not a patch on the true Universal horror classics though.


142 The Host (2006)

★★★½

Quite engrossing and odd monster movie, with uneasy plot structure and character behaviours that sometimes make you unsure whether a scene is comedy or tragedy, but nonetheless remains engaging and watchable. The time flies by.

1 like

143 Silent Hill (2006)

★★★½

Very solid, decent game to movie conversion, with good atmosphere, great cinematography, and very, very striking imagery. It falls down slightly with every scene involving the real world/sean bean strand, which frankly could have been removed, and some plotting difficulties that lead to a massive dull section followed by an info dump at the start of act 3 that would have been better given out more gradually and from a much earlier point, but otherwise a surprisingly solid and memorable movie.


144 Pusher (1996) (first watch)

★★★

Decent thriller about a small-time crook who gets in over his head with a slightly more powerful small-time crook, and gets more and more desperate as time runs out. 4 good performances from the male main characters, with decent narrative drive for most of its time, but a few dead spots here and there.

145 The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

★★★

Lacklustre sequel to Son of Frankenstein, but it nevertheless has a few decent moments - the monster getting hit by lightning and gaining strength, the bit with the little girl and the monster.


146 Rituals (1977) (first watch)

★★★★

Excellent stalker/slasher movie, kind of a cross between Deliverance and Halloween, with excellent, tense performances and writing. This needs a really good release.

147 Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

★★★½

Toho throw everything (almost) into this one - am I the only one that wanted to see Biollante and Jet Jaguar again?), and it's a fun romp. The guy playing Captain Gordon is cool, and the villian is fun in a campy joker kind of way. Very enjoyable, it's cool to see Godzilla take out a planet, and his lame American version in 15 seconds.



148 Dabangg (2010) (first watch)

★★★★

Even though the editing is a mess and the story arc is kind of all over the place, this is a joyful and fun actioner, and my first foray into Bollywood. The sheer energy drives it along nicely, and all of the songs are fun, although the standout is the wonderful title song sequence at the beginning.

149 Wake in Fright (1971) (first watch)

★★★★

Solid, tense drama covering issues of masculinity, paranoia and being alone in a strange world you don't really understand or feel comfortable in. Gary Bonds gives a good performance, giving a similar vibe as Peter O'Toole in his early days, but it's Donald Pleasance who really gives a outstanding performance as the dissolute man who just wants to drink his life away, albeit as slowly as possible.

Whilst clearly a drama, the themes and approach mark it as a psychological horror too.

109/149 first watches (73%)