On this Veterans Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day

I originally posted this video back near the U.S. Memorial Day because it honors the sacrifices made by the families of military veterans.  It shows the families being surprised by the return of their parent, spouse, or child that is serving in the military.  It is also a good tribute to the veterans themselves and it feels like a far more fitting post for today from me than a movie review.

As I wrote back when I originally posted it: “I don’t care what you may think of the military; this is about human beings.  I try not to judge people I haven’t met, but if you are completely unmoved by this video then you must be dead inside.”

Movie – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Thor: The Dark World does not really fit into the spirit of this Evil Doctors and Mad Scientists category that I am currently doing, but it was so entertaining that I wanted to write about it now instead of weeks from now.  And it does literally have a “mad scientist” in it: Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) is much the worse for wear after the events of The Avengers (2012).  Having had Loki in his head for so long has left him a little bonkers.  He’s raving about “convergences” and such.  But is he mad, really?

This film is a worthy successor to The Avengers.  It is definitely better than the first Thor film and I would rank it just below The Avengers and equal to Iron Man (2008) in regards to the best Avengers-related films.  Joss Whedon’s hand is definitely on display. No, he didn’t write or direct this film, but Marvel has placed him in charge of all of their Phase 2 films, which are the post-Avengers ones.  I detected some definite “Whedonisms” in this film and it is the better for them.

Movie – The Skin I Live In (2011)

The Skin I Live In is a very interesting film from Pedro Almodovar.  It’s sure to surprise many, upset some, and maybe even traumatize a few.  It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe and won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, beating, among others, A Separation (2011).  It was nominated for 16 Goyas (the “Spanish Oscar”), winning four of them.  It’s a film that may challenge you with the moral and ethical questions it raises, but it is definitely worth your time.

Movies with Evil Doctors and Mad Scientists

“She’s the Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic, the Dr. Octopus to my Spider-Man, the Dr. Sivana to my Captain Marvel.  [pause as realization hits]  You know, it’s amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees.  You’d think the Masters programs would do a better job of filtering them out.” – Dr. Sheldon Leonard, The Big Bang Theory

I’m doing this category only after a little bit of hesitation, and partially because I just really like the quote above.  I hesitated because as someone with an interest in science and knowledge it often bothers me in films when a similar character almost inevitably ends up being evil, or at least led astray and harmed by his/her thirst for knowledge.  The evil scientist is as much a stock character as the bad guy with a foreign accent.  Unlike the latter archetype, nobody is out there protesting when smart people turn out to be evil.  It’s apparently okay to dump on them because, well, they’re smart.  Beat them up in school, see them suffer in movies; it’s all connected. 

One of the reasons I like the film Contact (1997) so much is that it is the rare film that treats science and scientists with respect.  It’s also a rare film that treats faith with respect.  To have both together in one movie is nothing short of remarkable.  You can read my review of it here.

Films have used these kinds of evil characters almost from the first days of the invention of the movie camera and they have continued right up to the films that are still being released today.  That doesn’t mean that all movies that use it are bad, though; far from it.  I will be reviewing some of the classics of the genre.  And the fact that the mad scientist is such a cliché makes it ripe for parody and reinvention.  I will review a couple of those kinds of films, too.  In all, I will be posting ten new reviews.

I won’t be including any James Bond movies since almost all of them would qualify and this category would end up being one on Bond instead.  I also won’t be including Bond parodies like Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) – starring Vincent Price and Frankie Avalon, no less!  I do like the title, though.

You will not find any torture porn horror movies such as The Human Centipede here.  I haven’t seen it, but I know what happens and you couldn’t pay me to watch that.

Finally, you may be expecting me to include the film Dr. Strangelove (1964), but Peter Sellers’ mugging for the camera as the title character is actually my least favorite part of that movie.  I will be including a film which references that character, though.

As I review the films I will come back and add the links for them here.

The Skin I Live In (2011)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Burke and Hare (2010)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Iron Sky (2012)
Spy Kids (2001)

The City of Lost Children (1995) – posted January 11, 2011

X-Men: First Class (2011) – posted June 11, 2011

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – posted July 26, 2011

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) – posted August 21, 2011

Iron Man 3 (2013) – posted May 3, 2013

Young Frankenstein (1974) – posted September 5, 2013

On to the reviews…

October Movie Status – And Can You Help Me Locate Some Films?

SUMMARY:

I saw 85 new movies in the month of October, plus re-watches of 5 TV show seasons.  After completing the original 1,001 Movies list last summer I mentioned I might work on some “low hanging fruit” – lists where I had only a few entries to go to complete them.  After a couple months of hardly watching any movies, the month of September got me re-energized with watching all the new additions to the 1,001 Movies list.  In October I took aim at the Time Magazine All-Time Top 100 Films, as well as the Sight & Sound Directors (SSD) Top 100 Films.  I completed both of them. 

In the course of doing this I found a good source for a number of the foreign films I had not yet seen.  This carried over to the Sight & Sound Critics (SSC) Top 250 Films list, every one of which is also in the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They (TSPDT) list, so even though I had more than 300 left to go on that one, things snowballed from there.  Since some of these also crossed over with the 101 Genre films lists put out by the same folks who do the 1,001 Movies list, I also knocked off some of those.

Readers of prior monthly statuses may be wondering about my ongoing quest to see all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees.  While I only saw a couple in October, I did check off Trader Horn (1931), which was the last one for which I had not been able to track down a source.  It aired on TCM during the month.  While there is still one film presumed to be lost, and one or two others that only exist as single copies in the UCLA film vaults, I should be able to watch all of the others I have remaining.

All of these different lists can be seen by clicking on the names of them.  They link to my Lists from Chip posts on them.

THE FILMS I CAN’T FIND:

Now, I mentioned in the post title that you may be able to help me.  Just like the 1,001 Movies list, critics like to name films that are difficult, if not impossible, to find.  It’s especially difficult to find the TV miniseries that they can’t seem to help placing on top MOVIES lists.  The apparent rule of thumb is that if it is long, then critics put it on the list, whether it is a 9 hour Chinese documentary on industry or a 1979 Portuguese six hour TV remake of Romeo and Juliet. 

Here are the films that I simply cannot track down, but need to in order to complete these various lists.  Note – the only pay service I have looked at so far is Netflix since I am already a member.  I suppose if enough show up on another pay service it might be worthwhile to join to see them.  I’m hoping to keep costs as low as possible, though.  If you have a good source for them, but do not want to tell the world by leaving a comment here, then please email me at golf04330@yahoo.com with your suggestions.

101 Genre Films:

City Streets (1931) – a gangster film with Gary Cooper, directed by Rouben Mamoulian

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) – a war film directed by John Huston

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) – a gangster film directed by Fritz Lang

Sight & Sound Critics Top 250: (I only have 7 films left, but 4 of them are trouble.)

Out 1, noli me tangere (1971) – a 12 hour “film” on the 1968 uprisings in Europe from director Jacques Rivette.  (See also the TSPDT list for another Rivette film).  I’ve actually found a downloadable version, but it is 30 freaking gigabytes.  I just want to see it, not burn DVDs of it.  I’m hoping someone might know of a reasonably sized version.

Kings of the Road aka Im Lauf der Zeit (1976) – an early Wim Wenders film.  (See also the TSPDT list for another Wenders film.)

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003) – a nine hour documentary on the falling industry in a region of China from director Bing Wang.

Flowers of Shanghai aka Hai shang hua (1998) – a period film from director Hsiao-hsien Hou.  (See also the TSPDT list below for another film from him.)

They Shoot Pictures Don’t They:

Alice in the Cities aka Alice in den Stadten (1974) – an early Wim Wenders film.  (See also the SSC list above for another film from him.)

Empire (1964) – Andy Warhol’s experiment to see if he could do anything and still get film critics to fawn over him.  It worked.  This is an 8 hour shot of the Empire State Building from dusk to 3:00 AM.

Anatahan aka Ana-ta-han (1953) – a Japanese film from Josef von Sternberg

Minamata aka Minamata: The Victims and Their World aka Minamata: Kanja-san to sono sekai (1971) – a Japanese documentary on industrial chemical poisoning.  I swear that this exists only on the TSPDT list and on IMDB and nowhere else on the internet.  Even IMDB has little information on it.

Liebelei (1933) – an early Max Ophuls film

Carnival in Flanders aka La kermesse heroique (1935) – a film from director Jacques Feyder

Doomed Love aka Ill-Fated Love aka Amor de perdicao (1979) – a six episode Portuguese TV mini-series from Manoel de Oliveira retelling Romeo and Juliet.  Believe it or not, I tracked down the video.  Unfortunately it has Portuguese audio and hardcoded Italian subtitles only.  I’ve searched and English subtitles do not exist, but I found one comment that said that someone had done a rough translation of the Italian ones embedded in the video and had posted them at karagarga.net.  Unfortunately, that site appears to require that you be invited by someone else to even view the forums.  I don’t need an invite, but if you have access to it, could you please save the English subtitles to someplace where they are available?  Or you could email them to me since the files should be small.

Dust in the Wind aka Lian lian feng chen (1987) – another period film from director Hsiao-hsien Hou.  (See also the SSC list above for another film from him.)

Out 1: Spectre (1974) – Jacques Rivette’s shorter companion to Out 1: noli me tangere (1971) (see the SSC list above for the other.)  This follow-up is “only” 4 hours long.  Unlike the other one, I have not found any source for this.

Under the Bridges aka Unter den Brucken (1946) – a film from Helmut Kautner

Variety aka Variete aka Jealousy (1925) – a film from E.A. Dupont

The Italian Straw Hat aka The Horse Ate the Hat aka Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (1928) – a film from Rene Clair

Any help you can provide in tracking these down will be most appreciated.

THE FILMS I SAW IN OCTOBER:

Here are the 85 new movies and TV show seasons I saw in October.  Highlighted movies are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.  I will single out the four and five star films, as well as the worst films, in the paragraphs below the lists.

Oscar Nominees (2): San Francisco (1936), Trader Horn (1931),

101 Genre (4): Army of Shadows (1969), Chelsea Girls (1966), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

Time (12): Band of Outsiders (1964), Nayakan (1987), Ulysses’ Gaze (1995), Mon oncle d’Amerique (1980), Leolo (1992), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), Mouchette (1967), Pyaasa (1957), The Last Command (1928), TV – Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), Baby Face (1933), TV – The Singing Detective (1986)

SSD (3): Opening Night (1977), Husbands (1970), I Am Cuba (1964)

SSC (23): Tropical Malady (2004), Death in Venice (1971), The Turin Horse (2011), The Devil, Probably (1977), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), A Moment of Innocence (1996), Day of Wrath (1943), I Was Born, But… (1932), Blissfully Yours (2002), Touki Bouki (1973), The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), By the Bluest of Seas (1936), Histoire(s) du Cinema (1998), Sicily! (1999), Floating Clouds (1955), Stromboli (1950), The River (1951), The Life of Oharu (1952), Love Streams (1984), Where is the Friend’s Home? (1987), Imitation of Life (1959), The Passenger (1975), Germany Year Zero (1948)

TSPDT (33): Tale of Tales (1979) (short), Rose Hobart (1936) (short), Le sang des betes (1949) (short), Un chant d’amour (1950) (short), The Seasons (1975) (short), Not Reconciled (1965), Numero Deux (1975), The Green Ray (1986), El (1953), India: Matri Bhumi (1959), Charulata (1964), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Man of Aran (1934), French Cancan (1954), The Wind (1928), Teorema (1968), My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1986), Passion (1982), Accattone (1961), El Sur (1983), Que Viva Mexico (1979), Late Autumn (1960), Placido (1961), Vive L’Amour (1994), The 47 Ronin (1941), Wild River (1960), Antonio das Mortes (1969), Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954), Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), The Executioner (1963), From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979), La Region Centrale (1971), The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)

Other Movies (8): The Revisionaries (2012), Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 (2012), The Whale (2011), Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome (1996), This is the End (2013), Your Sister’s Sister (2011), Jack Reacher (2012), Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

Re-watches (0):

TV Series (5):  All re-watches: The Big Bang Theory Seasons 2-6

I had no five star movies in October.  Here are the four star films I saw:

The Last Command (1928) is a very clever “meta” film from more than 80 years ago.  It is loosely based on the true story of a Russian general who after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ended up in Hollywood as a film extra.  This movie stars Emil Jannings and he justifiably won the first Best Actor Oscar ever handed out.  I was expecting nothing and got a very moving film.

Placido (1961) is my best surprise so far from the TSPDT list.  It’s a screwball comedy from Spain.  It may have the fastest dialogue I have ever encountered in a foreign film.  I had never heard of director Luis Garcia Berlanga, but he also did another dark comedy in the list that I liked – The Executioner (1963).

Your Sister’s Sister (2011) is a far better than average comedy/drama about complicated relationships and it works despite the somewhat out there concept.  Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed) scores again, and this film also features the best performance I’ve seen from Emily Blunt.

Jack Reacher (2012) features one of my favorite characters that Tom Cruise has ever played.  I don’t know if there will ever be another movie, but it’s made me interested to check out the book series that the character comes from.

I just reviewed Much Ado About Nothing (2013).  You can read it here.

I had several one star films in October, but I will only mention one of them.  La Region Centrale (1971) is from Michael Snow – the man who brought us Wavelength, a 45 minute zoom at a wall, which is the 206th best movie ever made according to a critics' consensus.  Now comes this film.  Forget about a puny 45 minutes of wasting our time. This features THREE HOURS of nothing but a camera rotating in place and sometimes spinning. And it's the 425th best movie ever made, according to a critics' consensus. And they wonder why people think they are out of touch.

Movie – Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

As I promised in my last post, here is my review of Joss Whedon’s film Much Ado About Nothing.  (And if you like movies at all but haven’t seen my last post you should really check it out.)  I’ve done reviews of most everything Whedon has had a hand in, so if you want to reference those you can find my parent post for them here.

Back in late 2011 or early 2012 there was a surprise announcement that Joss Whedon had adapted and already completed filming Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing – all while in the midst of post-production on the biggest film in Hollywood: The Avengers (2012). Reactions ran the gamut from “are you serious?” to “that’s Joss Whedon”.  The film was held back for a while, making its debut at some festivals, and was finally released to the public in the summer of 2013.  Despite his success with The Avengers, movie theaters wanted nothing to do with a Shakespeare adaptation that had no big name stars in it.  It played the arthouse circuit then was released to DVD/BD where I finally got a chance to see it.  I enjoyed myself.  I had also seen the 1993 Branagh version way back in the day and comparisons between the two are impossible to ignore.  I will include some of those thoughts in this review.

Video – A Very Impressive Performance of Famous Movie Themes and Re-creations of Images from the Films by the Ohio State Marching Band

I was going to be posting my review of the Joss Whedon film Much Ado About Nothing today, but I ran across this video and it’s just too good not to share with folks who like movies.  I will review Whedon’s film in my next post.

In this video the Ohio State marching band performs the themes of, and re-creates images from, both old and new Superman, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and The Pirates of the Caribbean – and all in less than nine minutes.

For those folks unfamiliar with American college football here are a few things you should know to understand why this performance is happening:

1. Like soccer (football to you) there is a halftime break for the athletes.
2. For college football that halftime usually includes performances by the marching bands from the two colleges that are competing.
3. Marching bands are orchestras composed of horns, woodwinds, drums, cymbals – basically all the instruments you do not sit down to play – and they are conducted by someone standing on the sideline on a platform so that he/she can see and be seen.
4. These halftime shows for the larger colleges are basically major competitions between the marching bands for bragging rights.
5. Ohio State’s main rival is Michigan and you see the two colleges’ banners during the Pirates of the Caribbean re-creation.

Enjoy.

Video – Two Videos of the Castle Cast at the Paley Center

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

The first video is a twelve minute clip from the longer March 9, 2012 session.  It concerns the instant classic film noir episode The Blue Butterfly from Season 4.  They have the cast talk about it then recreate some of the lines in the accents they used in the show.

The second video is the entire one hour session that was just held September 30, 2013.  Please note that the first episode of Season 6, and by extension the cliffhanger from the end of Season 5, are discussed in this video, so if you have not seen them then this will contain spoilers.  This was captured from a web stream so the video is pretty choppy in places.  The audio is fine through the entire thing, though.

Book – Storm Front

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

This is the sixth novel to be published under the author’s name of Richard Castle – the fictional character on the TV show Castle.  When the show opened Richard Castle was the popular author of a series of thrillers that all had the main character of Derrick Storm.  He was just publishing his final Storm book, though.  He had killed off the character since he was bored with him.  He soon got an inspiration for a new character of Nikki Heat, an NYPD detective based on the Detective Beckett character he was working with on the TV show.  During the course of the show we have seen the Castle character write five Nikki Heat novels. 

This fall a new Derrick Storm book was also published.  It is not a graphic novel “adaptation” like the ones done for the first three non-existent Derrick Storm novels.  This is a new story that picks up four years after Richard Castle killed off the character.  The first thing he’s got to do is explain how Storm is still alive.  It turns out that the CIA faked his death because things were just too hot for Storm and he needed to lie low for a long time.  He’s now been tapped to once again help the CIA because there has been a reappearance of Storm’s old adversary Gregor Volkov.

Book – Richard Castle’s A Calm Before Storm

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here. 

To date there have been six novels published under the author’s name of Richard Castle – the fictional character on the TV show Castle.  When the show opened Richard Castle was the popular author of a series of thrillers that all had the main character of Derrick Storm.  During the course of the show we have seen the Castle character write the five Nikki Heat novels, which are based on the Detective Beckett character, and a new Derrick Storm novel.  What about all those old Derrick Storm novels that are supposed to already exist?  The people involved with the show decided to do “adaptations” of these books in the graphic novel format.

Book – Deadly Heat

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

Deadly Heat is the fifth book by “Richard Castle”, the fictional writer on the TV show Castle.  The actual author of these books is speculated to be one of the real authors who have appeared on the show (i.e. Michael Connelly, James Patterson) or one of the show’s creators (i.e. Andrew Marlowe).  Like the first four books, this one has events or plot points similar to things that have happened on the Castle TV show in the prior season.  This book addresses the revelations and open plotlines from the fourth book.

TV – Castle Season 5

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.  In the coming days I will post reviews of the three newest books.

Note 2: There are spoilers for Season 4 in this post, especially the final episode of that season since it directly relates to the events of Season 5.

This season picks up the morning after Season 4 ended.  Beckett had finally admitted her desire for Castle and had shown up at his apartment.  As the season opens Castle wakes up alone in bed.  Was it all a dream?  Nope.  Beckett comes in with a couple cups of coffee.  Castle quizzes her.  Does she regret it?  Was it a one time thing caused by the trauma of almost dying and then quitting the police force?  Nope and nope. 

Movie – Mary Poppins (1964)

Mary Poppins is the well known live action Disney film that stars Julie Andrews.  It was not only the biggest box office hit of the year when it was released, but it was nominated for an astounding 13 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  Only the films All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997) ever received more – both with 14.  Mary Poppins won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews in her big screen debut.  She was only the second woman to achieve this (after Shirley Booth for 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba.)  So what made this film so popular with both audiences and filmmakers?  For the former it was simple: this is a heartwarming family film that presents a happy message for kids.  For the latter it can be summed up in two words: Julie Andrews.

Movie – The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982)

If you have never heard of this film before today, I can completely understand.  I never heard of it myself before it was added to the most recent edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.  It is from writer/director Peter Greenaway (The Pillow Book, Drowning by Numbers) and might be the most normal of the four films of his that I have seen.  Of course, “normal” is a relative term.  For instance, this film has a naked man who is some sort of moving statue that most people cannot see.  He might represent the Green Man from Anglo mythology.  And if you have a penis aversion (would that be “phallophobia”?) then you should know that you see everything.  This is just a small touch of Greenaway’s typical strangeness, though.  The main part of the film involves a slow realization that what we think is going on may be completely wrong.  And it all involves a murder.

Movie – The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Writer/director Luis Bunuel’s film The Exterminating Angel (not to be confused with the 2006 film The Exterminating Angels which actually has angels in it) has a title that really doesn’t have much to do with the movie.  That has not stopped people from generating wild theories on what it really means.  The simple answer is that Bunuel had a colleague who was going to write a play with that name and Bunuel liked the title because he felt people would see “The Exterminating Angel” on a sign and buy a ticket.  It was all about commercial success, not artistic pretensions.  That’s not to say that this film doesn’t contain any number of patented Bunuel surreal moments, like a bear and some sheep being kept inside the house in which the film takes place.  I liked this film, but it will not be for everybody.  I will explain.

Movie – The Great White Silence (1924)

One of the things that older movies do is give us a window into the past.  Sure, we may not think of that while we are watching them, but on some level we appreciate them because they have forever captured something that no longer exists.  It may be the youth and vitality of a performer, how the social mores of the time impacted the stories, or in the case of the documentary The Great White Silence, the real life 1911-1912 Robert Scott expedition to attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.  While watching this it was impossible for me not to marvel over the fact that I was seeing things that happened more than 100 years ago on Antarctica.  Combine that with an absolutely pristine restoration and I enjoyed this film quite a bit.

Movie – The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

I first became aware of the film The Adventures of Prince Achmed after I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 on DVD in 2011.  One of the best parts of the latter film was a three minute long animated sequence that tells the tale of three brothers who encountered Death, and the three items (the Hallows) that they received from him.  The style of the animation was quite unique to me and I looked into it some after I had watched the film.  Even though it was done via cgi, I learned that the silhouette style of it was heavily inspired by the oldest surviving full length animated film – the aforementioned Prince Achmed.  I made a mental note to track it down sometime, but when the latest edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die included The Adventures of Prince Achmed I bumped it up to the top.  I’m very happy that I watched the film.  It’s far more than just a historical curiosity; it actually manages to convey emotions and to generate a feeling of adventure, peril, and wonder in the viewer.

Movie – F for Fake (1973)

Orson Welles made many different kinds of films over his career.  Citizen Kane (1941) is the acknowledged best of the bunch.  After that opinions differ, but Touch of Evil (1958) is probably the one I see most often mentioned next.  I would agree with those two rankings.  After seeing F for Fake, though, I have to say that I would put it very close to, and possibly even with, Touch of Evil in terms of how good it is.  It’s a puzzle box of a movie that may or may not be a documentary, may or may not be Welles stroking his ego, and may or may not be Welles having a tremendous joke on everyone.  I feel it’s quite possibly all three.

Movie – Toy Story 2 (1999)

The tale of how Toy Story 2 came to be is a curious one.  It was only the third film to come from Pixar – Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998) being the first two – and they were already doing a sequel?  What happened is this little animation company got taught a lesson in real life business from the massive Disney Studios.  Pixar had signed a deal with Disney to produce five animated films.  After the success of the original Toy Story, Disney started prepping a cheap, knockoff, direct to video sequel of it.  This horrified Pixar, who offered to do the sequel themselves.  They also figured it would get them one film closer to not having to deal with Disney anymore.  After they released Toy Story 2 Disney said “not so fast, the deal calls for five original films; sequels don’t count.”  This meant that Pixar had to not only get back to Monsters, Inc., which they had set aside to work on Toy Story 2, but they also had to deliver Finding Nemo and The Incredibles to Disney.  After that Disney just bought Pixar outright.

The amazing thing is that despite all of this Toy Story 2 is a fantastic film.  In fact, I considered it the best film that Pixar had ever done until Toy Story 3 eclipsed it eleven years later. 

Three Common Plot Points That Are Just Plain Wrong

There are any number of clichéd plot points that we’ve seen over and over in movies and TV episodes.  Maybe it’s the person who gets shot, sits up, and always rips open their shirt to show the viewer that they have a bullet-proof vest on – who does that in real life?  Maybe it’s the criminal who takes One Last Job or the cop who is One Week from Retirement – either way we know it’s not going to turn out well.  Maybe it’s the random object or person that shows up early on for no reason and then plays a critical role during the climax.

While all of these have been done to death, they are not wrong.  (Note: by “wrong” I mean factually, not morally or ethically.)  Bulletproof vests do stop some kinds of bullets.  Sometimes big cases do come up just as a cop is going to retire.  No, what I mean are plot points that have appeared tons of times, but every time they do they are flat out wrong, and it requires them to be wrong for the plot point to work.

I will count these down to the most common, most incorrect plot point.  Here they are: