Thanks to a couple weekend movie marathons, this was a pretty stacked month.
In order of viewing:
1) Brave [2012]
![Brave [2012]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/brave-2012.jpg "Brave [2012]")
2) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]
![Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/sherlock-holmes-game-of-shadows.jpg "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]")
3) Hoosiers [1986]
![Hoosiers [1986]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/hoosiers-19861.jpg "Hoosiers [1986]")
4) Aguirre: The Wrath of God [1972]
![Aguirre: The Wrath of God [1972]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/aguirre-wrath-of-god.jpg "Aguirre: The Wrath of God [1972]")
5) The Do-Deca-Pentathlon [2012]
![The Do-Deca-Pentathlon [2012]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/do-deca-pentathlon.jpg "The Do-Deca-Pentathlon [2012]")
6) Raising Arizona [1987]
![Raising Arizona [1987]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/raising-arizona-1987.jpg "Raising Arizona [1987]")
7) The Puffy Chair [2005]
![The Puffy Chair [2005]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-puffy-chair1.jpg "The Puffy Chair [2005]")
8) Ringu [1998]
![Ringu [1998]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ringu-eye.jpg "Ringu [1998]")
9) RoboCop [1987]*
![RoboCop [1987]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/robocop.png "RoboCop [1987]")
10) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [2011]
![Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [2011]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.jpg "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [2011]")
11) Rampart [2011]
![Rampart [2011]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/rampart-2011.jpg "Rampart [2011]")
12) Cave of Forgotten Dreams [2010]
![Cave of Forgotten Dreams [2010]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/cave-of-forgotten-dreams.jpg "Cave of Forgotten Dreams [2010]")
13) The Grey [2011]
![The Grey [2011]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-grey-2011.jpg "The Grey [2011]")
14) Foxy Brown [1974]
![Foxy Brown [1974]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/foxy-brown-1974.jpg "Foxy Brown [1974]")
15) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [1989]
16) Bronson [2009]
![Bronson [2009]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bronson-tom-hardy.jpg "Bronson [2009]")
17) Valhalla Rising [2010]
![Valhalla Rising [2010]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/valhalla-rising.jpg "Valhalla Rising [2010]")
18) Switchblade Sisters [1975]
![Switchblade Sisters [1975]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/switchblade-sisters.jpg "Switchblade Sisters [1975]")
19) Drugstore Cowboy [1989]
20) Ip Man [2010]
![Ip Man [2010]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ip-man.jpg "Ip Man [2010]")
21) Lost in Translation [2003]*
![Lost in Translation [2003]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/lost-in-translation.jpg "Lost in Translation [2003]")
22) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]*
![Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind.jpg "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]")
23) Batman Begins [2005]*
![Batman Begins [2005]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/batman-begins.jpg "Batman Begins [2005]")
24) The Dark Knight [2008]*
![The Dark Knight [2008]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-dark-knight-joker.jpg "The Dark Knight [2008]")
25) The Blues Brothers [1980]
![The Blues Brothers [1980]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/blues-brothers-ray-charles.jpg "The Blues Brothers [1980]")
26) The Dark Knight Rises [2012]
![The Dark Knight Rises [2012]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-dark-knight-rises-bane.jpg "The Dark Knight Rises [2012]")
27) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm [1993]
![Batman: Mask of the Phantasm [1993]](http://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/batman-mask-of-the-phantasm.png "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm [1993]")
Movie of the Month: For “new to me” movies, it’s gotta be The Dark Knight Rises. Way better than I anticipated, and it may even be my new favorite from the trilogy. As far as rewatches go, Lost in Translation is my clear #1 choice. Even better on a second viewing, and a straight-up 10/10 for me.
Dud of the Month: The Puffy Chair. The only Duplass brothers film that I didn’t enjoy in some fashion. There were plenty of other contenders (i.e. Sherlock Holmes, Rampart and Valhalla Rising), but this one was a chore to sit through.
What do you guys think? What’s your favorite from this group? Least favorite? See anything good on your end?
I saw Drugstore Cowboy for the first time this month, as well. I also saw The Dark Knight, Following, F for Fake (twice), The Godfather, Network, and a few Woody Allens this month. Successful, I’d say.
Wow, yeah I would say that is a successful month indeed. Nice ones!
puffy chair? really? cos cyrus was pretty bad.
I thought Cyrus had a lot of potential but ended up being pretty mediocre overall. I really enjoyed The Do-Deca-Pentathlon and was in the mood for more Duplass films, so I caught The Puffy Chair on Netflix. Big mistake, it was incredibly bland. At least it was short, I guess.
I’ve not seen Puffy Chair yet but I’ve got it and Jeff, Who Lives at Home waiting to be seen. These brothers don’t seem to be as interesting as Aaron Katz though.
Jeff, Who Lives at Home is pretty solid. A close runner-up to The Do-Deca-Pentathlon as far as Duplass films go, though a lot of people seem to like it best.
I have only seen Cold Weather from Katz, and I enjoyed that one. Will have to look up his other work.
Hey, you watched Brave! Did you enjoy it, Eric? I so love Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, that one just never gets old!
I did enjoy Brave, which was a bit of a surprise for me since I don’t usually go for Pixar films. It was a solid 7/10, I thought.
Totally agree about Indiana Jones. Loved that one, and will have a post on it soon!
Glad to hear you enjoyed BRAVE! I definitely will be buying the Blu-ray. You’re not a fan of Pixar?? What, what??
Haha, well I dig the Toy Story trilogy and Wall-E, but not so much any of the others. Admittedly, there are a few I still need to see, but yeah, not usually my cup of tea. Brave was fun, though.
Hi, Eric and company:
Great, diverse batch of films!
I thought I was the only fan of ‘Mask of the Phantasm’.
‘Foxy Brown’. A compact little Jack Hill film where Pam Grier starts to hit her stride!
‘Switchblade Sisters’ and ‘Drugstore Cowboy’. Two terribly underrated, often passed over gems.
‘Bronson’. Excellent choice! Now see if you can find the ITC’s mini-series, ‘The Take’ from 2009. To compare Tom Hardy’s range as Rikki Tarr, who gets the ball rolling in ‘Tinker. Tailor’ and as Bane in TDKR. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Hi Jack, good to see ya. After finishing off Nolan’s trilogy, I was eager for more Batman films and opted for Mask of the Phantasm. I had never seen one of his animated features, but I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing more, as it seems there are a few others that are critically acclaimed.
Foxy Brown and Switchblade Sisters were both a lot of fun. Between those and Coffy, I have really been digging what I have seen from Jack Hill. Do you have any recommendations as to what I should see next from him? It seems The Big Bird Cage has a bit of a following.
I’ll keep an eye out for The Take. Thanks for the heads up!
Hi, Eric:
Terrence over at ‘Focused Filmorapher’ and I are sharing a Best Of post regarding ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ and its superior episodes from all three seasons.
http://thefocusedfilmographer.com/2012/07/18/animation-appreciation-batman-tas-season-1/
Either ‘The Big Bird Cage’ or ‘The Big Doll House’ are classic, decent Roger Corman inspired and produced, low budget projects that are worth looking up.
Oh, cool! I don’t know how I missed that post, but will definitely be bookmarking it. I noticed that many of the Animated Series episodes are available online, so I have been working my way through season one. Will be fun to compare notes with you guys.
And thanks for the Jack Hill recs! I’ll try to catch them sometime soon.
Some nice ones in there that I haven’t seen for a while… Bronson is the standout for me
Bronson was definitely impressive. What a performance from Tom Hardy.
TDKR is my favorite too, such an incredible movie. The worst one from those for me was the Gray which bored me to tears.
Really? I liked The Grey quite a bit. I think it’s one of this year’s more underrated films so far. A lot better than I expected, that’s for sure.
That’s a mixed group
Haha yep. I try to maintain a good sense of variety.
Good to see more love for Lost in Tr, a favorite of mine. I was thinking of tracking down The Puffy Chair, your verdict has put that idea to rest!
Haven’t seen RoboCop in years, I’m waiting for next year’s reboot, I hope they do a better job than Total Recall (2012) which looks awful from early reviews…18% on RT
Wow, already 18% on RT?? Ouch. I had little to no interest to begin with anyway, but that’s rough.
I was pretty much against the RoboCop remake at first, but the cast is starting to look very impressive. I’m definitely curious about it now.
I’m currently watching Lost In Translation. It’s slow and thick right now, but your rave review is keeping me going
And I loved The Grey as well.
I nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award; you can check more about it here: http://randomfilmbuff.com/2012/08/02/d-7/
Right on, thanks for the award! I’m still trying to decide if I want to get in on that action, but I do appreciate the acknowledgement.
Hope you enjoy Lost In Translation!
Off of that list, Batman Begins, Raising Arizona, and Hoosiers are personal faves. And of course, The Dark Knight and Blues Brothers, which are all-time personal faves.
I caught Raising Arizona on the big screen. So much fun.
Also loved the Blues Brothers. Any movie that involves destroying the Daley Center is awesome in my book.
Love love love the last Indy movie! I really didn’t like TTSS or TDKR though, and for the same reason: they each felt very slow and plodding, with no joy or excitement. Sitting through the whole thing was a chore.
I’m with you on TTSS, but I had a great time with TDKR. I might even see it again in the theater, which is rare for me to do. Bummer to hear you didn’t enjoy it as much!
Well I’ll give a caveat: I did love every scene with Selina Kyle. She gave the movie a little humor and spunk. But other than that it was just Bruce feeling sorry for himself a lot.
I wanted to love Blake but he seemed so pointless.. how did talking to his partner underground make ANY difference? Why didn’t he save ANYONE through the tunnels? He tried to leave with 20 kids, screw the rest of Gotham.
(and don’t get me started on the: “I looked at you and just knew. Because here’s my long rambling backstory that I meant to tie back into how you’re an orphan too but I forgot that part because I’ve been talking so long.”)
So much wasted potential! Nolan needed to pick a plotline or two (or even three, I’m feeling generous) and cut the dead weight/useless characters.
Haha, well I can see your points, no doubt. There were definitely some questionable actions, and I also wondered why the hell Blake was so concerned with only those 20 or so kids. There were some dialogue exchanges that bugged me, too, and some noticeable issues with time disparity.
If this were anything other than a superhero film, I might be inclined to focus heavily on these flaws, but I went into this one expecting to have to suspend my disbelief. It turned out I had to do it quite a bit, but I was entertained the entire time.
Definitely understand where you’re coming from, though.
That was one of the biggest problems I thought: Nolan went SO far into making this feel like the “real world” that he basically sacrificed that standard comic book movie suspension of disbelief. All of a sudden Batman looks weird for wearing a costume, you wonder who built the Batcave, how he got to Gotham, etc…
Those things wouldn’t have been as big a problem if he had toed the line between gritty and comic book a bit better, as he did in Batman Begins.
ROBOCOP!
WOO!
A very good list, no question. I probably would agree with you in terms of the favorite, but I haven’t seen all of them.
It’s nice to see the animated series of Batman make it on your schedule as I found them very enjoyable when I was younger, though a little slow.
I would like to read your thoughts on Bronson and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I haven’t seen the first and I watched the latter a few weeks ago, certainly a stand-out, very satisfying finale and probably THE BEST Gary Oldman performance for me.
Hi Niels, great to hear from you. Bronson was a strong candidate for a favorite of the month. It’s a brutal film, but Tom Hardy’s performance was phenomenal. The best I have seen from him.
Tinker Tailor didn’t do much for me, unfortunately. I was not attached to any of the characters, and I had a hard time maintaining interest. Gary Oldman was a definite highlight, though. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right mood for a methodical spy thriller. Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much — I know I am in the minority with my views on that one.
I haven’t seen all of the movies in your list, but for “worst” i would choose “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”. It was a real low-point in bad acting, quite badly written script and so on. How could they fail so much, after the quite good first Sherlock Holmes movie…? Personally I haven’t seen too many movies lately, due to summer, olympics and so on, but a good one I saw recently is Horrible bosses, a different comedy; maybe not the best in all ways, but sure a good laugh and a bit “different”
Oh man, I’m with you on Sherlock Holmes. What a debacle that was. I really enjoyed the first film as well, but this one was just…ugh. If not for The Puffy Chair, that would have been my “dud”.
Horrible Bosses is good fun. Loved Jamie Foxx in that one.
Nice month here. Hoosiers, Aguirre, Cave and Forgotten Dreams, Drugstore Cowboy, TDKR… all great stuff!
Yep, I’m trying to see more from Herzog. Still feel bad about giving him the boot in that relay race.