Moviebob/Films Discussed By Moviebob

The following is a list of all of the movies that "Z-list internet personality" Moviebob has reviewed or otherwise discussed.

And the list

2012: (Paraphrased) "Sorry, guys, but I loved it. You want this kind of stupid stuff in a movie like this, and Roland Emmerich can really do it. It knows what kind of movie it is, and it delivers in spades."
21 Jump Street: An extremely funny movie. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his Casa de Mi Padre review, noting that the reason why he reviewed that film instead of this one was because Casa was trying something unique.
9: Bob found this one to be So Okay It's Average despite the breathtaking animation, filling the otherwise short review with a explanation of the difficulty of producing commercial adult-oriented animation films and a vent against hardcore Anime fans who insist only Japan is capable of doing this.
The a Team: Called it a fun action flick, made even better by the character's marked enjoyment at all the cool stuff they get to do, i.e. 'not every character needs to be Batman'.
Act of Valor: The action scenes are amazing, thanks in no small part to the fact that the US Navy was directly involved in its production, ensuring realism and authenticity instead of phony Hollywood machismo. Unfortunately, the talkier, non-action bits aren't nearly as good, with a number of "movie-like" moments that break the film's sense of realism and some mediocre acting from the active-duty Navy SEALs in the lead roles. Military buffs will love it, but most others would probably have been better served by a straight Documentary. In addition, both within the review and in the following week's "Intermission" column, he rebuked the widespread concern that the film was a jingoistic, pro-war propaganda piece/recruitment tool, saying that it was no worse in that regard than any number of recent Hollywood action films, and that people on both sides read too much politics into popular culture.^[1]
The Adventures of Tintin: Great directing, great action, and the best (though still not perfect) use of performance capture technology in filmmaking history make a very worthwhile watch. Bob also comments on how the mere fact of the film's production, what with it being a big-budget adaptation of a property that's never been big in America, showcases Hollywood's growing recognition of the power of non-American moviegoers.
Akira: Feels that it's a perfectly serviceable Cyberpunk action film, nothing more, nothing less, and that most of its popularity comes from it being most Americans' first "real" experience with Anime rather than its own merits. In one of his "Intermission" columns, he offered some tips on how to do the American remake properly.
Alice in Wonderland: While it works in bits and pieces, and the art design, special effects and score are amazing, ultimately it fails spectacularly to come together as a whole movie. Bob felt that, story-wise, it was a mess that tried to shoehorn the Random Events Plot of Lewis Carroll's novel into a "good vs. evil" narrative reminiscent of a Merchandise-Driven cartoon from The Eighties—something that someone like Terry Gilliam or Alan Moore might have done as a spoof of the Hollywood system.
An American Carol
American Pie: He hates the series with a violent passion, feeling that it isn't anywhere near as funny, edgy or insightful as people proclaimed it to be, then or now. Didn't review any of the films, but he mentioned them in his review of The Raid: Redemption, discussing why he chose not to review the fourth film, American Reunion, which had come out that week. (He did see Reunion, mentioning at the end of said Raid review that he thought it terribly generic and overly reliant on cameos from the old films and '90s pop culture references.)
Anonymous: He used one of his weekly "Intermission" editorials to examine the conspiracy theory that the film was based on. He didn't review the film itself, but he did devote the opening paragraph to his (mainly positive) thoughts on it.
Appaloosa
The Artist: He liked it on a superficial level, but he didn't love it like so many other critics and moviegoers did (though he understands why many of them loved it). He found the story and characters to be rather shallow and overly reliant on its gimmick, and the film as a whole to be deeply rooted in rom-com conventions and not quite as intelligent as it thinks it is. He felt its Academy Award for Best Picture to be wholly undeserved.
Atlas Shrugged Part I: Takes a book full of deep political philosophy and genre-bending sci-fi, and only covers the dull introduction while Bowdlerising many of the edgier parts of Ayn Rand's belief system. The result: a boring film that feels like it was made for TV, and which could've been a lot better, especially given its production history.
Attack the Block: Loved it. While he hasn't reviewed it yet, he has recommended it on several occasions in his reviews, comparing it to old-school "John Carpenter high-grade B-Movie asskicking" during his episode on films not getting screened for critics, and noting that it was incredibly deep for what is essentially a B-grade monster flick. At the end of 2011, he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Avatar: Ultimately very positive. He notes that while the plot itself isn't original, it helped in keeping the audience immersed in the fantastic world-building and theme-driven story. He also lampshades the Fetish Fuel potential behind it, noting that Deviant ART will probably go nuts with the movie and compares Neytiri to Jessica Rabbit as potential Fetish Fuel Station Attendant material.
The Avengers: He's hotly anticipating it, and has been hyping up the very idea of it ever since The Stinger at the end of Iron Man. In particular, as explained in the Big Picture episode "Future Assembly", he's excited about the possibility of shared continuity becoming part of the DNA of moviemaking, just as it is for comics and, to a lesser extent, television, though he recognizes that it could easily have some serious pitfalls.

When it finally came time to review it, he loved the hell out of it, saying that it was a great film on its own merits and a downright miracle given what it took to make the film possible, and that it was the new standard against which all future comic book movies will be judged. It marked the first time that a movie of its kind had managed to bring the full "comic book" experience—the sprawling storylines, the disregard for genre, the massive cast—to life on the screen without being too timid or serious. Much of the credit goes to writer/director Joss Whedon, who is an expert at handling these kinds of large casts and group dynamics thanks to his experience with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, and who takes a fairly simple and straightforward main plot and manages to elevate it head and shoulders above nearly anything like it.

Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans: It's certainly not a forgettable film for its Refuge in Audacity, noting that Werner Herzog made good use of Nicolas Cage's Large Ham nature as the Villain Protagonist.
Battle: Los Angeles: He praises it for its realistic depiction of what a war between the Marines and alien invaders would actually look like, but felt that its underwritten plot and characters made it hard for him to care. It's worth a matinee if you're in the mood for a gritty war movie, but overall, it doesn't get his recommendation. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his Paul review.
Battleship: "Pretty much every bit as bad as everyone kind of assumed it was going to be all along." Bob was actually rooting for this one to be at least decent, just so that it could surprise those who felt it was a bad idea to adapt a board game into a movie (he's of the school that there's no such thing as bad ideas, just bad execution). Its big problem is that it's got a director who is far smarter than the material (having made films like Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom) trying to dumb himself down and make a Michael Bay-esque, empty-calorie popcorn blockbuster, and failing because he and the movie keep out-thinking themselves, comparing it to the Urban Legend about the elite chef who couldn't make a Big Mac. He did like the last twenty minutes and some of the cheekier nods to the board game (even if nobody utters "the line"), and was surprised by how good an actress Rihanna turned out to be, but it's not enough to save a crappy movie.
Black Swan: "Bottom line: do not miss out." Bob was absolutely blown away, with Natalie Portman in particular deserving the Oscar that she received for her performance. He starts off the review speaking in a faux-stuffy-Brit accent listing off all the reasons why he liked it, then drops it for the second half, in which he talks about the Les Yay and how enjoying such scenes isn't necessarily shameful or objectifying.
The Book of Eli: Found the plot to be silly and overly reliant on literal Deus Ex Machina—after all, if Eli is on a Mission from God, then there's no way he can lose, thus sucking out all the tension. Ultimately, the rest of the film is no different than any other After the End movie, though he thinks the actors did a good job with their roles.
Born to be Wild: "Monkeys and baby elephants in 3D? That works for me." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Your Highness review.
Buried: A tight, suspenseful thriller with a great performance from Ryan Reynolds that, for some reason, is being treated by its distributors like a high-minded arthouse film (limited release, promotion to match) rather than the low-budget B-Movie that it is.
The Cabin in the Woods: "Don't let anyone tell you anything about this movie. Just mark your calendar and make damn sure you do not miss it. Believe the hype." It's a triumph of horror and comedy that succeeds where others have failed by going whole-hog with its meta-narrative ideas, and it's the best film Bob's seen all year up to that point. He first mentioned it at the end of his The Hunger Games review, then did a proper review two weeks later, opening it with a ninety-second warning that his review was going to spoil the film's big twist (even if it happens at the very beginning of the film and was partially given away by the trailers). A few weeks after he reviewed it, he did an Intermission editorial, "Re-Take The Cabin" (warning: huge spoilers for the movie), in which he discussed the film's Take That at moviegoers (specifically horror fans) who demand cliche and formula rather than anything new.
Captain America the First Avenger: He loved it. Video description was "Pretty much perfect in every way!". In the video itself, he elaborates "...it's basically perfect, at least to the degree that it's the most perfect Captain America (comics) movie I can conceive anyone having made." At the end of 2011, he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Cars: While he agrees that it's Pixar's worst movie, he claims that it's not as terrible as most people make it out to be, feeling that the reason why geeks hate it is because it's about NASCAR, with all that entails, rather than the geeky subject matter that Pixar films tend to embrace. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to mention it in his review of its sequel...
- Cars 2: Despite being the first Pixar film to be a blatant cash grab, it's a better film than the original, ironically because it seemed as though Pixar wasn't trying as hard. While the first film stumbled due to failed attempts at sentimentality, the sequel simply didn't bother with that and instead focused on being funny while sidelining the (in his opinion) bland character of Lightning McQueen to focus on Mater.
Casa de Mi Padre: "One of the funniest damn things I've seen in years." It manages to somehow mine astounding levels of hilarity out of just two real jokes -- Will Ferrell playing a Mexican, and the cheesy production values of Latin American telenovelas—without ever coming off as offensive or insulting to the shows it's parodying (or their fans). It's also a film that could only have been made at the precise moment when telenovelas and Latino pop culture in general were just on the cusp of the American mainstream, not quite part of it but not quite obscure either.
Centurion: "Proof that making an action-oriented B-Movie doesn't mean you also have to suck at it."^[2]
Chloe: If watching Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore having hot lesbian sex is your idea of a good time, then you're probably already in line to see this, and you won't be disappointed. Bob compared it to Mulholland Drive in terms of inappropriately-purchased art films. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it during his Hot Tub Time Machine review.
A Christmas Carol: Hyper-literal adaptation + wacky slapstick and 3D antics = confused and unsatisfied Bob.
Chronicle: It didn't really need to be a Found Footage Films movie, and it doesn't take many narrative risks, but otherwise it's far better than its February release date suggests. Bob calls it "X-Men for a post-Columbine world" with its combination of Teen Drama and Superhero action, and it comes with a third act that stands as one of the best action sequences he's seen in terms of both its inventiveness and its emotional investment. He thinks that director Josh Trank will be getting a lot of offers to make big-budget superhero movies after this.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: A reasonably good fantasy movie, though not as good as the last two entries, mainly due to the fact that the book it's based on wasn't exactly the Hollywood-ready blockbuster adventure that the films thus far (including this one) have been. He spends much of his review discussing the giant elephant in the room that comes up in nearly every discussion of Narnia—specifically, CS Lewis' religious beliefs and the way that they are presented in the books.
Clash of the Titans: Discussed both the original and the remake in his review of the latter. He felt that both films were So Okay It's Average, though the original is slightly better, describing the remake as "a C+ remake of a B- film". Both films have cool action and effects, but suffer from cheesy human drama (or in the remake's case, a total lack of human drama) that keeps them from the upper ranks of their respective eras' great blockbusters. The remake's Rage Against the Heavens plot, however, did solve the Deus Ex Machina problem often faced by adaptations of Classical Mythology.
- Wrath of the Titans: A slightly better film than the last one, but not by much, with the Jittercam ruining several of the action scenes and not meshing well with the film's ancient Greek setting. He also notes how the Clash remake was one of those blockbusters that made a ton of money but was quickly forgotten (seemingly justifying the sequel's Character Derailment to the filmmakers), and gushes about how awesome The Raid: Redemption was and how much Mirror Mirror sucked.
Conan the Barbarian 2011: On the remake: "By Krom, is this piece of shit awful." The original, on the other hand, still holds up today, and remains John Milius' best movie. Didn't review them, but he mentioned them in his Fright Night (2011 film) review.
Cowboys and Aliens: Called it "dull and lifeless," two adjectives that he felt should not apply to a movie with such a premise. He felt that the characters were little more than Western movie caricatures, and that it could've gone a lot deeper with the historical irony of people in The Wild West being exterminated and driven from their land by a foreign, technologically-superior invader—especially given that Native Americans characters featured into the plot. He ended the review by telling viewers to seek out Attack the Block, another just-released alien invasion movie, instead.
The Dark Knight: Enthusiastically positive, to a point where he compares most movies to it. He counts it as one of the three greatest superhero movies ever made, the others being Superman: The Movie and Spider-Man 2. Flaws that would cripple lesser films (Christian Bale's gravelly Batman voice, one of the worst-looking Batman suits ever) become only minor quibbles due to how amazing the rest of the movie is.
Dark Shadows: It's far from Tim Burton's return to form, but it's better than his last couple of movies by a long shot. Despite being a structural mess, the film still somehow works thanks to how game the cast (particularly Johnny Depp) is for the material.
The Darkest Hour: Spent the opening of his Final Destination 5 review mocking the premise of it, saying that he didn't know whether to be offended or impressed by the fact that "somebody pitched, greenlit and produced an entire movie of guys shooting guns at, running away from, and getting grabbed up by nothing."
Daybreakers: Absolutely loved it. Compared it to "Godzilla vs. Voltron". Also dubbed it the "Anti-Twilight".
Demon Seed: Said that it was the only good film adapted from a Dean Koontz book (as well as the weirdest), and laments that it got lost in the mid-'70s shuffle of demon possession flicks and sci-fi movies. He also longs for the time in film history between The Twilight Zone and Star Wars when you could take a fantastic Speculative Fiction premise and play it with a completely straight face. Didn't review it for Escape to the Movies, but he covered it in his "Schlocktober" special for The Big Picture.
Detention: "... an awful poster, but the movie is kind of amazing. Not on your radar? Fix that." It's an entertaining meta take on The Breakfast Club that doesn't fully succeed in its satire of teenage life, but was still highly enjoyed by Bob, being a lot smarter and more coherent than it appears on the surface. It also gets points for accurately reflecting contemporary high school life rather than feeling Two Decades Behind. If only it hadn't had the misfortune of opening in limited release the same weekend that The Cabin in the Woods came out. He discussed it in his Intermission editorial "Kids Today", then did a proper review of it two weeks later (it was a slow week).
Devil: "Devil should not be booed and maligned because of the tangential connection to M. Night Shyamalan. No, Devil should be booed and maligned on its own merits, because it's awful." Bob calls it one of the dumbest movies he's ever seen in theaters, with an Idiot Plot that makes no sense if you think about it for more than five seconds, as well as cheap scares and a total lack of suspense.
District 9: Next to Up, Bob said this was possibly the best movie of summer 2009, finding it to do everything that the previous blockbusters of the season (most notably the Star Trek reboot) didn't -- namely, combining kick-ass action sequences with the sort of "big idea" sci-fi storylines that the old Star Trek movies excelled in.
Drag Me to Hell: The best horror film in years, with Raimi keeping on form by using his trademark tone (that of a horror/humor mix seen in carnival ghost trains) and his love of '30s and '40s film.
Drive: Great movie, with Bob calling it a Better by a Different Name, arthouse version of The Transporter, and proof that so-called "guy movies" can be intelligent without sacrificing their coolness. However, he recommends seeing it "before it's ruined by douchebags claiming Ryan Gosling as their new god." He first mentioned it at the end of his Straw Dogs remake review, then did a proper review of it two weeks later (he felt that none of the movies that came out that week were worth his time), and at the end of 2011 he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Dungeons and Dragons: The only redeeming factor is Jeremy Irons' supremely hammy performance as the villain. The fact that the sequel premiered on Syfy says all that needs to be said about this film's quality. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his discussion of Dungeons & Dragons adaptations.
The Eagle: Bob was "bored stupid" by it, to the point of snoozing off during the review. While there's nothing truly bad about it, nothing stands out either, with one-dimensional characters, bland action scenes, and a story that's been done a hundred times before and better. As for claims that professional critics like him are out of touch with the average moviegoer, having seen so many movies that they become jaded, he responds by saying that "it's good if you don't know any better" shouldn't be a mark in a film's favor.
Edge of Darkness: While he notes that it follows the Mel Gibson "you killed my family" revenge movie formula to a tee, it's still a very good, grown-up thriller that doesn't go too over the top, feeling like a modernized Mickey Spillane movie. Plus, despite what one may think of him as a person, Gibson is still a good actor, and he did his role well.
Evil Dead: Feels that, while the films themselves are horror masterpieces (particularly the first one), the series' success did lasting damage to the horror genre, causing a wave of gore-soaked comedies that put slapstick and FX gags above actual scares and paving the way for the generation of moviegoers that laughs during legitimate horror films because they think they're supposed to. Didn't review them, but he mentioned them in his Intermission editorial "Consequences".
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Called it the low point in the history of exorcism movies (a genre that he doesn't like to begin with), saying that it "plays out like a drunken game of Clue where the solution is 'God, in the barn, with a Plan." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his review of The Rite.
The Exorcist: He feels that it's the only film ever that managed to pull off the task of making the exorcism ritual look compelling on screen... and its success meant that audiences had to spend several decades watching lesser filmmakers trying (and invariably failing) to recapture that magic. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his review of The Rite.
The Expendables: Hated it, calling it one of the worst action films in recent memory, and saying that it was pandering to nostalgia for its stars' prior, better films. The fact that this film was a hit while Scott Pilgrim flopped became a major Berserk Button for him for weeks after the fact. Also, he strongly rejects the idea that the era of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, et al. was a golden age for the action genre, feeling instead that action movies got better as choreographed fight scenes and gunplay replaced big dudes in muscle shirts beating and blasting the snot out of mooks.
- The Expendables 2: At the end of his review of The Grey, Bob summed up his views on this film thusly: "[It] might be rated PG-13 because Chuck Norris doesn't like to make movies with swear words in them. What joke could I tell that would be funnier than that?"
The Fast and the Furious: Never liked the series, feeling that the first film was So Okay It's Average and only successful because of macho, gangsta-wannabe teenage boys who idolized Vin Diesel.
- Fast Five: Felt that it was a couple of cool (but not spectacular) car chases bookending an overly long and boring story. He also expressed surprise at how the franchise has still been going strong for a whole decade.
The Fighter: The world didn't really need another inspirational boxing movie in the vein of Rocky, but when it's this good, one can forgive it. Christian Bale steals the show with the best performance of his career, and Bob (who is from the Boston area) was totally convinced by the film's portrayal of working-class Massachusetts. He also discusses why so many Oscar Bait movies get released during the holiday season when nobody's in the mood for those kinds of films.
Final Destination: Found the first movie to be an amazingly imaginative and original change of pace for the horror genre... so of course, they had to run that idea into the ground with sequels.
- Final Destination 5: "If you're trying to watch this for any reason other than to see what kind of crazy crap they'll use to kill people this time... well, in that case you shouldn't be watching Final Destination 5 to begin with." Overall, if you're looking for a decent movie to see in the doldrums of August, you could do a lot worse, but don't expect any real changes to the series' formula (though he did find the ending to be a hell of a twist).
Four Lions: An audacious and hilarious satire in the vein of Mel Brooks that works best in the contrast between its bumbling main characters and the horror of what they are planning to do, while giving viewers a surprisingly deep look into the mindset of a terrorist. However, some of the British pop culture jokes might be lost on American viewers, and director Chris Morris' background in TV comedy is obvious.
Fright Night (2011 film): "One vampire, no sparkling, great summer movie." Even though it's just cashing in on Twilight and the nostalgia appeal of the original film, it's still a pretty good movie that holds up well compared to the original, with great performances, lots of humor and everything that one could want from a vampire horror flick. In particular, he praised it for being the first "modernized" horror remake that he'd seen that actually feels modern, updating the original plot for the present day.
Gamer: Nice to see a movie about videogames that doesn't demonise games and gamers, but still a waste of your time and money. Don't bother.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: This movie was enjoyable, surprising even Bob himself. He lays the praise singularly on the fact that the movie acknowledges its roots (unlike Transformers: ROTF or Star Trek) and does its best to keep things mostly within that territory.
Ginger Snaps: "Have you ever looked at a bad movie [Jennifer's Body] and thought, 'man, I wish I could see a good movie version of this'? Well, in this particular case, you can!" Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the end of his Surrogates review.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the remake): The directing and filmmaking quality are as great as one would expect from a David Fincher film, and he feels that Rooney Mara's version of the title character is more fleshed out than Noomi Rapace's "Terminator who shops at Hot Topic" (though he did enjoy that version of Lisbeth too). Ultimately, though, its story has several major weaknesses, all of which trace back to the source material, which Bob (admittedly removed from the book's Swedish context) regards as overrated and comparable to "a late '90s Ashley Judd vehicle written by Dan Brown." It's still a good movie, and recommended by Bob, as long as you don't go in expecting a great one.
God Bless America: It's a bit of a mess, coming off as overly preachy, awkwardly plotted and having more ideas than its tiny budget can provide for, though Bob still liked it due to its passion and how brutally honest it was. Didn't review it, but he discussed it in his Intermission editorial "Bless This Mess", where he interviewed the film's writer and director, Bobcat Goldthwait.
Green Zone: Gets points for being audacious enough to try and make a left-wing version of Rambo, but loses those points for being boring while delivering a very simplistic version of the events leading up to the Iraq War. Bob also goes off on a tangent about America's sense of importance in the world, and how, whether it's as the hero or the villain, it's always portrayed as a direct cause of whatever's going on in the world (and never a minor player).
The Green Hornet: Its laid-back tone and sense of humor prevent it from being a bad movie, but overall it's forgettable, with crappy 3-D and none of its elements coming together into a cohesive whole.
Green Lantern: He despises it, saying it's as bad as Batman and Robin, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four movies, Steel, and the first Transformers movie in terms of "mishandled geeky sci-fi properties". It angered Bob so much that he completely dropped the usual opening so that he could skip straight to ripping it apart. Months later, he came back to it to discuss the extended Blu-Ray version (and, by extension, the trend of "extended cuts" of films on home video), saying that, while it corrected one of the film's problems, in doing so it only spotlighted the film's Unfortunate Implications regarding its portrayal of alpha-male culture vs. intellectualism.
The Grey: Bob called it "the first great movie of 2012", a hard-nosed "man movie" that provides crowd-pleasing thrills without giving viewers an easy ride or insulting their intelligence. He argues that director Joe Carnahan has the potential to be the next great action director a la Ridley Scott or Michael Mann, and that one scene in particular involving heights was the first time in years where he had to close his eyes in fear during a movie.
Halloween (the remake): The first half was an excellent film that did a great job exploring the series' mythology and its characters' backstories. Unfortunately, the second half, an abbreviated remake of the original film, completely fell apart, perhaps making this the first example of a horror remake that sucked due to it hewing too closely to the original. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to discuss it in his review of its sequel...
- Halloween II: It's Halloween In Name Only and has an incoherent tone that's all over the place, but damn if it's not a fresh and original take on the series, combining Slasher Movie tropes with real-world Serial Killer mythos while examining the media's role in such crimes. It doesn't work all the way through, but it's easily the best film in the series since the 1978 original (though that may be damning it with faint praise), and much better than most other horror remakes thanks to Rob Zombie's singular, if flawed, vision.
Halo Legends: Bob makes it clear he's contemptuous at best about the Halo franchise as a whole, though he finds that a few of the shorts rather interesting, particularly the ones that deviate the most from the normal Rated "M" for Manly tone of the series.
The Hangover: Loved it, despite it being the kind of "dude-bro" movie that he usually hates, saying that it was worth owning on DVD to watch over and over again. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to mention it in his review of its sequel...
- The Hangover Part II: On the other hand, he hated the sequel, calling it a cash grab that lazily rehashed the original's story and jokes while throwing in a ton of Unfortunate Implications and failing to understand what made the first film work.
Hanna: "Proof that the Bourne movies probably would've been a lot better if you simply replaced Matt Damon with a little girl." Its premise sounds like a parody of Bourne (a teenage girl caught up in a morally ambiguous spy game?), but it pulls it off with a straight face, a great cast, and awesome music. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Your Highness review, and at the end of 2011 he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
The Happening: The spot is mostly about M. Night Shyamalan and the increased egocentricity in his films. Bob found this to have the trappings of a good film, and felt it to be Shyamalan's best since Signs, but that it was too heavy-handed and narmful while cribbing too much off of Shyamalan's previous works.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Regards the film itself as a bit anticlimatic, and containing a couple of Adaptation Induced Plot Holes, but feels it works a lot better as an extended climax to the entire series, and that, if you've seen all the previous movies, you're practically obligated to see this. On that note, he regards the Harry Potter film series as one of the grandest accomplishments in cinematic history, and quite possibly the defining film franchise of the Turn of the Millennium.
Haywire: Gina Carano makes for a great action heroine (and is Bob's pick to play Wonder Woman), and the high-caliber supporting cast is a treat to see in a movie like this. Overall, recommended. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his Red Tails review.
Heavy Metal: Doesn't see why it's become a pop-culture icon, outside of the fact that it came out before the Internet was huge and bare boobs were tough to find back in those days. Still worth checking it out if only to get the references in that one episode of South Park.
The Help: While it's not a bad movie (he feels that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer deserve Oscar nods for their performances), he sharply criticized it for inserting a White Man's Burden plot into the Civil Rights Movement. "Rosa who? Martin Luther what? Nah, it was that chick from Zombieland who really got the freedom ball rollin'!" Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Fright Night review, then thoroughly dissected the Unfortunate Implications in his weekly editorial.
Hercules: Discussed how the old Italian movies rested chiefly on their Testosterone Brigade for their popularity and appeal. On the 1983 movie by Cannon starring Lou Ferrigno, he described it as "so bad, yet bad in such a completely, uniquely, one-of-a-kind, what-the-hell-were-they-thinking way" that it took him two Big Picture episodes to describe it. It's chock full of Non Sequitur Scenes that must be seen to be believed, does a very poor job of explaining its plot and makes mincemeat of Classical Mythology, yet it's strangely watchable.
Hobo with a Shotgun: An incredibly faithful Homage to the not-so-classic output of Cannon Films and Troma that rises above its inspiration thanks to its dark humor, its sense of humanity, and one of Rutger Hauer's best performances. He opens the review by examining the trend of George Lucas Throwbacks throughout the last several decades, and shudders at the thought of some of the horrifying directions that this can take in the coming years.
Hot Tub Time Machine: Described it as "really, really, really funny", though couldn't really go into detail without ruining the movie and the jokes. He then talks about how awesome Chloe is for the Les Yay and how a new Back to The Future movie would suck.
How to Train Your Dragon: Only a few brief thoughts, was okay compared to other Dreamworks movies, human character designs could have been better in traditional animation, great ending.
Hugo: A very good film that has some of the best use of 3D in history, and should definitely be seen, but which ultimately falls short of greatness for reasons that Bob couldn't explain without spoiling the whole movie. About halfway through, the film changes from a Dickensian children's fantasy film into a biopic of visionary French filmmaker Georges Melies, told from a child's point of view. It's a good twist, but it's clear that this part of the film is where Martin Scorsese was focusing most of his attention, and once it reaches that point the scenes with Hugo feel tacked on, given that his story is wrapped up by this point.
The Hunger Games: A "cheap, generic and lifeless" film with a plot that's been done better before, ridiculous stupidity on the part of its villains (who really shouldn't be keeping their underclasses perpetually trained for combat), an inability to mine the social commentary it sets up, and production values and action scenes more in line with a '90s Nickelodeon pilot than a big-budget feature film. Only worth watching for fans of the book or the actors involved. He also makes fun of the characters' funny-sounding names throughout the review.
I Am Legend: Didn't review it, but in his Game Overthinker episode "AfterMass", he used it as an example of the kind of negative effect that the "Retake Mass Effect" movement could have on gaming. To wit: what was a pretty good survival-horror film for most of its runtime was completely ruined by a Focus Group Ending that was put in because the original Downer Ending—which fit the film's themes and tone a whole lot better—was loudly criticized by test audiences as too depressing.
I Am Number Four: Bob found the first hour to be torture, with a woefully miscast protagonist and a horribly generic Teen Drama storyline, but felt that a killer third act saved it from being a waste of his time. Overall, it's worth watching if you're in the target audience, with Bob comparing it to the '80s live-action Masters of the Universe movie in terms of teenage Wish Fulfillment fantasies.
Immortals: A "crowd-pleasing, gonzo action movie" that, while lacking in narrative depth, more than makes up for it with its over-the-top, fetishized style and ridiculous violence. Bob wishes that more mainstream action flicks took stylistic chances like this rather than embracing the same cookie-cutter macho fantasies.
In Time: Highly recommended. It's more interested in ideas than plot, and it's not quite as good as the director's previous film Gattaca, but it's still well-made and extremely relevant.
Inglourious Basterds: The marketing campaign is highly misleading as to what the film is actually about, painting it as a typical Quentin Tarantino bloodbath instead of the spy thriller that it actually is, but it's still a great film on its own merits. It's the culmination of Tarantino's movie geekery, an exploration of the power that cinema has over people for both good and ill. And for those complaining about the Moral Dissonance of the heroes' actions: "Nazi uniform makes anything the good guys do to you 'okay.' It's an ironclad rule of filmmaking."
Inception: Overwhelmingly positive, calling it the best non-Pixar movie of the summer and the best movie of Christopher Nolan's career, though he noted that the plot may come off as rather emotionally cold due to its focus on story over Character Development. Coined the description "James Bond meets Freddy Krueger". As for fears that the Lowest Common Denominator wouldn't "get it", he cites The Matrix and District 9 in that, if there's enough fireworks, you'll be too busy having fun.
Insidious: "Proof that the Saw guys weren't one-trick ponies after all." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Your Highness review.
The Iron Lady: Meryl Streep is great as usual, but the film suffers from a refusal to examine its subject matter in any real depth, instead taking a by-the-numbers "greatest hits" approach to Margaret Thatcher's government that leaves those who don't know much about the time period out in the cold. Bob ultimately found it to be a mediocre Oscar Bait Biopic that will only appeal to fans of Thatcher—her Hatedom will likely leave the theater with steam coming out of their ears, and those who don't know or care about her won't be impressed by the film.
Iron Man: Loved it. It's a kick-ass movie on its own, but what truly made it great was that it was a property that had never been adapted before, meaning that it didn't have the weight of previous adaptations on its shoulders. That, and Nick Fury. The only real issues it had were a rather uninteresting villain and a disappointing final action scene. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to mention it in his review of its sequel...
- Iron Man 2: Liked it even more than the original. It doesn't change the winning formula of the first film, instead fixing only the parts that needed fixing, allowing it to bear the weight of the much higher expectations that it has.
Jennifer's Body: Completely hated it, devoting most of the review specifically to bashing Megan Fox, while claiming that Diablo Cody's Signature Style of "hip" slang was almost unbearable. He later came back to it (at the end of his Surrogates review) to say that Ginger Snaps did the same story much better.
John Carter: It's alright, but given the revolutionary legacy and long shadow of the books it was based on, it should've been a lot better. Great action scenes and what should be a star-making performance by Lynn Collins as the Action Girl female lead are undermined by a miscast Taylor Kitsch as the protagonist and a seeming desperation by the filmmakers to avoid the novels' pulpy roots, often mangling the story in the process.
Kick-Ass: It greatly simplifies and sanitizes the story of the original comic, but in doing so it injects it with a degree of humanity that allows it to hold together much better as a story. The casting and characters are perfect, the extreme, Troma-esque violence is shocking to see in a movie like this, and it's hilarious. Bottom line -- it kicks ass.
Kill List: "You should see this movie... but I can't tell you why." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his double-review of Detention and Lockout.
The King's Speech: Bob found it to be little more than pandering (though admittedly well-made) Oscar Bait, even going so far as to make his review of it into a "How To Make Oscar Bait" instruction video.
Knight and Day: Nothing objectively wrong with it—it's got good actors with good chemistry, a breezy pace, and fun action and stuntwork—and if you're looking for ninety minutes of escapism, it'll fit the bill admirably enough. Bob, on the other hand, felt that it was bland and formulaic, having seen more movies like this than he can count, and uses that as a launch pad to explore the disconnect between professional critics who see tons of movies and "normal" moviegoers who don't. Since there's not much more he can talk about regarding the movie, he decides to spend the second half of the review talking about The Smurfs movie.
Lakeview Terrace
Legion: Unimpressed, seeing the whole "Our Angels Are Different because they're Badasses" concept as incredibly overdone.
Leprechaun: Bob did an overview of the series for his St. Patrick's Day special "Intermission" editorial. He found that the films got progressively better from the first (which was So Bad It's Good) through the fourth (Leprechaun In Space), that the fifth film (Leprechaun In the Hood) was pretty average and couldn't live up to the fun of its premise due to its low budget, and that the sixth film (Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood) did everything that the previous one didn't.
Lockout: A decent throwback to mid-late '90s sci-fi/action thrillers like Soldier and Escape From LA. It would've been a lot better if Americans didn't get a butchered PG-13 cut that takes out all the brutal violence, which, in a film like this, is really the only selling point.
The Lorax: Bowdlerising one of Dr. Seuss' darkest stories a bit was probably necessary in order to sell it to kids and avoid "Old Yeller conversations" on the way home, but not when it completely misses the point of the book, chickening out on its socially conscious message and refusing to criticize its viewers. The fact that it featured Product Placement for an SUV was particularly insulting. Didn't review it, but he discussed it in his "Intermission" editorial "Unless".
The Losers: A safe, generic actioner that's been done better many times before, and plays the cheeseball, '80s and '90s action movie formula so straight that one would think it was a parody, but it sadly isn't. The only reason to see it is so you can sneak into a better, R-rated movie.
Love and Other Drugs: Proof that the Hollywood Romantic Comedy formula doesn't have to suck. Unlike many films of its ilk, this one is completely frank and honest about the sexual urges that drive many relationships, giving audiences a visceral connection to its two sexy romantic leads that the average PG-13 "Chick Flick" doesn't have.
The Love Guru: Liked the character of Guru Pitka, and felt that the film was at its best when lampooning New Age pseudo-Eastern spiritualism, but felt that the rest of the film (apart from Justin Timberlake, whom he grudgingly admits that he's a fan of) was a dud, and that it's the worst film of Mike Myers' career.
Machete: Even without its underlying message, it's one of the best action movies of the year. However, its angry, un-subtle righteousness regarding its subject matter makes it that much better.
Machine Gun Preacher: "Whatever the real Sam Childers may or may not be, we can now add 'deserving of a better movie' to the list." While the true story it's based on is admirable and inspiring, overall Bob found the film itself to be a mess that was too in awe of its subject matter to be able to tell a good story.
Mamma Mia!: "Bottom line -- bad, bad, bad!" Calls it "shallow, base and hinged on meaningless spectacle" and "suitable only for use as an interrogation technique," while opening his review with a rant against jukebox musicals in general.
Mazes and Monsters: A terrible attempt to cash in on the anti-Dungeons & Dragons moral panic of the '80s that feels like what would result from Jack Thompson writing and directing The Wizard (film). Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his discussion of Dungeons and Dragons adaptations.
Men in Black: The first film was a very good movie, combining a clever premise with a witty script that parodied the sci-fi blockbusters of the late '90s. Unfortunately, the second film ruined what could've been a promising franchise by recycling the first film's plot in a failed attempt to recapture its character dynamic rather than building upon its foundation. Didn't review them, but he discussed them in his review of the third film...
- Men in Black III: "You'll come out looking for the neuralizer." Josh Brolin's impeccable performance can't save a film that makes all the same mistakes the second one did, while at the same time doing nothing with the ideas it brings up and clashing with plot points and character beats from previous films.
Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen's best film in a long time, one of the best comedies of the year, and a great exploration of our current nostalgia-obsessed pop culture. Didn't review it, but at the end of 2011 he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Mirror Mirror: "Probably gonna top a lot of 'year's worst' lists." Specifically singles out Julia Roberts' inability to carry the film as one of his biggest criticisms. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it during his Wrath of the Titans review.
Mission: Impossible: Felt that none of the films ever rose above average. Regarding the fourth film, Ghost Protocol, he feels that it "kinda sucks", and was let down by shallow writing and characters, but that it was saved by Brad Bird's eye for action. While he hasn't done video reviews of any of the movies, he did mention them in his "The Look Ahead" special on Escape to the Movies while discussing Ghost Protocol, and he later compared Ghost Protocol to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in his weekly Intermission editorial.
Monsters (2010 film): Hugely disappointed, feeling that the unlikable lead characters made it an utter slog to sit through.
The Muppets: Bob compares it to the recent reboots of The Smurfs and Alvinandthe Chipmunks in terms of human focused adaptations of classic kids' shows, with one key difference: it doesn't suck. Instead, it's one of the funniest family films in a long while, and although it's not as good as the original Muppet Movie, it's still a worthy comeback for Jim Henson's classic characters. At the end of 2011, he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Night of the Lepus: Calls it So Bad It's Good and a masterpiece of misleading advertising. He said that no joke he could make about it could be funnier than the film itself, so he just spent a third of his time showing clips of it. Didn't review it for Escape to the Movies, but he covered it in his "Schlocktober" special for The Big Picture.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010: Casting Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger was the only thing this film did right, and his great performance is put to waste by a total mess of cop-outs and cheap scares. It's a disgrace to its namesake, and it's down there with Freddys Revenge The Final Nightmare as one of the worst films in the franchise.
Ninja Assassin: The action scenes were awesome, but it's overall a Cliché Storm not worth caring too much about.
No Strings Attached: While the rom-com formula prevented it from examining its themes in any real depth, Bob still found it to be a good movie, with a funny script, likable leads and a very welcome (given the subject matter) R rating.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?: One of the greatest films that The Coen Brothers ever made, even if it's to blame for digital color-correction and, with it, the annoying trend of the Orange-Blue Contrast. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in his Intermission editorial "Consequences".
The Other Guys: Pretty funny, but it never really adds up to anything, and it's been done better before. He also goes into an analysis of the roots of the "buddy cop" genre.
Paranormal Activity: Despite the fact that he usually hates found-footage movies, he loved this one, for one simple reason: "tripod." In other words, rather than using the "handheld camera" setup as an excuse to cover up a lack of talent and budget, this film used it to make sure that the audience saw everything that was happening, while avoiding the "shaky-cam" pitfall of so many other found-footage films.
- Paranormal Activity 2: Not impressed. He felt that the larger scale and the greater explanation of the backstory, combined with the fact that it's a sequel to a film that relied on surprise for its scares, all diluted the tension compared to the original.
Paul: The movie that Fanboys should've been but wasn't, a love letter to American nerddom and Comic-Con culture that's still gut-bustingly hilarious even if you're not a geek. The team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is great as usual, the material is still funny if you take out the sci-fi references, and it gives a much-deserved Take That to religious fundamentalists and creationists. He opened his review with a little mini-review of Battle: Los Angeles.
Piranha 3D: "Just about the best pure fun, R-rated movie to come out this summer."
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: Calls it a lazy cash grab and declares the franchise to be in zombie mode.
Ponyo: "It's good! Go see it, so you too can spend weeks on end trying to figure out what the hell this guy's deal is. Weird dude." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the end of his Surrogates review.
Predators: A great throwback to The Eighties that feels like the kind of sequel that Alien S was to Alien. It's the best Predator movie since the original, and a testament to producer Robert "Mr. One-Man Studio" Rodriguez's work ethic.
Prince of Persia the Sands of Time: While he does call this perhaps the first genuinely good film based on a video game, Bob is ultimately underwhelmed that it doesn't mean so much a successful translation of videogame conventions, but merely a decent Arabian Nights-themed action film.
Prometheus: Called it a smart and well-made (if not great) sci-fi/horror film without any serious flaws beyond some clunky transitions between the three acts, with the lead actors all turning in great performances and the Abusive Precursors Ancient Astronauts idea being a rather scary thought (if hardly original by this point). However, he couldn't help but feel underwhelmed, which he attributes to how the internet has created a movie-geek culture where everybody knows everything about the behind-the-scenes details of a film (a subject he had discussed in the prior week's Intermission editorial). He went in knowing that the film was a Prequel to Alien, which colored his expectations of the project and prevented him from enjoying it on its own merits.
Public Enemies: A return to form for Michael Mann which went a great way towards improving the otherwise limp output of summer '09. It's suspenseful and action-packed (Mann knows how to do shootouts) without requiring you to leave your brain at the door, and its application of an ultra-modern aesthetic to a Period Piece makes it a thrill to watch. The worst he could say about it was that it ran a bit too quickly and there wasn't enough of it, which in his opinion, is a sign of a damn good movie.
Pulgasari: Bob devoted an entire Big Picture episode, "Monster's Movie", to the film and, by extension, the crazy world of the North Korean film industry that produced it. To put it bluntly, the circumstances behind the production of this film (a surprisingly good Godzilla clone) may just be more interesting/bizarre than the film itself.
The Raid: If you haven't seen it yet, and you're a fan of action movies, look up where it's playing near you and go seek it out, because it's awesome. It's thin on plot and not that different from most other martial arts movies, but it more than makes up for that by having more kickass action scenes per minute than any other film you'll see this year. Even its occasional use of Jittercam is forgivable, as said action scenes are still coherent and easy to follow even with the camera moving about. He first mentioned it at the end of his Wrath of the Titans review, then did a proper review of it the following week.
Rango: Called it the best-looking animated film he's ever seen, even beating out movies from Pixar, but felt the storyline was lacking and that it didn't do much with its metanarrative ideas.
The Raven (the 2012 film): "A complete wash. An utter waste of time and money." Bob specifically points to John Cusack's performance as one of the bigger problems, with him being too plain and unable to convincingly play the manic and unhinged Edgar Allan Poe—a role that someone like Nicolas Cage, Gary Oldman or even Johnny Depp would've pulled off much better. In addition, the central murder mystery is poorly put together, the film has nothing interesting or new to say about Poe or his writing, the allusions to his poems are shallow and surface-level at best, and the entire thing just feels cheap. He had so little to say about the film that he finished the review with a minute to spare, so he went off on a weird tangent about Star Trek and the future just to fill time.
Real Steel: A movie that Bob was spending all year preparing to rip to shreds, but which surprised and humbled him by actually being a solid film with a lot of heart. If you have a young son who's into Legos or robots, he is going to think it's the bestest movie ever!!!, and you'll probably love it too.
RED (film): Great cast and action scenes, and just the kind of movie to ease the transition from Summer Blockbuster season to Oscar Bait season, especially if you've got an older relative who still likes to have fun.
Red Riding Hood: Found it gloriously campy and silly to the point of awesomeness, with great directing and a refreshing, anti-Twilight feminist message, though he felt that the plot was too convoluted and that the Love Triangle was unnecessary. He also bemoaned how the rampant success of Twilight has lowered the standards for female-focused genre fiction.
Red State: "What. The. F*** did I just watch?" Called it "one of the most god-awful films of the year", saying that it was even worse than Green Lantern^[3] and comparing it to The Room and Birdemic in terms of sheer inept filmmaking. The only bright spot is Michael Parks' great performance as the Fred Phelps-esque villain, and that's not nearly enough to save the film from its mess of plot, writing and character problems. Bob devotes a good chunk of the review to exploring Kevin Smith's career and his fall from grace in the last several years, and hopes that he's gotten over whatever compelled him to make this movie.
Red Tails: Not quite a great film (it's got some dodgy CGI and a script that's a bit too reliant on war movie clichés), but a fun, solid and well-made one that hearkens back to the "golden age" of World War II movies, and gets points for finally giving the Tuskegee Airmen the recognition they they didn't get during that time. He also takes time to vent at jaded Star Wars fanboys who will likely rag on the film just because George Lucas produced it.
Repo Men: While it cribs liberally from many other dystopian sci-fi films,^[4] it's good nonetheless, with some of the Gorn scenes alone making it worth a watch. However, he did note that there may just be a case of Rooting for the Empire.
Repo! The Genetic Opera: Called it a "third-rate Rocky Horror knockoff", and didn't understand why it had such a large cult following. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Hot Tub Time Machine review, noting that he hadn't heard of it until after he did his Repo Men review and got messages wondering why he didn't mention the similarities between the two.
Resident Evil: A bad movie that doesn't know whether to be a Romero ripoff or an Aliens ripoff, and doesn't have any connection to the games other than some background details. However, Milla Jovovich (who Bob describes as "the female Jason Statham" in terms of being a B-Movie action star) was a bright spot, making for a surprisingly convincing Action Girl given her background as a supermodel. He didn't devote a full review to it, but he discussed it (along with the second and third films, Apocalypse and Extinction) during his review of the fourth Resident Evil movie, Afterlife.
- Resident Evil Apocalypse: "... A laughably awful mess, but at least it was so consistently terrible that it was kind of compelling and watchable." He also notices that, from this point forward, Jovovich was married to producer Paul W. S. Anderson, which makes the sequels feel like they should all just be called "Resident Evil: Check Out My Ridiculously Hot Wife".
- Resident Evil Extinction: Sure, it rips off Mad Max, but it's still a surprisingly competent action film given the trash that came before it. To Bob, this was the point where the films stopped even pretending to have anything to do with the games, which he feels is for the better—after all, Resident Evil 4's departure from series tradition produced, in his opinion, the best game in the series.
- Resident Evil: Afterlife: It's a Cliché Storm of every zombie movie trope around, but if you're in an action mood, you could do worse. If possible, see it in 3-D for some awesome effects. The series seems to be getting better with each installment, so he's hopeful that they eventually make one that's unquestionably good.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: While not perfect (the human side of the story was a mixed bag), Bob still loved the hell out of it, feeling that it succeeded where the previous week's Cowboys and Aliens failed, taking a ridiculous sci-fi premise and making it serious and believable, but not to the point where the fun is sucked out of it. At the end of 2011, he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
The Rite: Falls into the same trap as countless other retreads of The Exorcist, due to the fact that it's difficult to present a staged exorcism ritual without making it look silly (Bob compares it to "Gandalf versus the Balrog with all the effects taken out"). In addition, the "believer vs. skeptic" dynamic doesn't work, due to the fact that Religious Horror movies, by their very nature, rely on the believer being vindicated in his or her beliefs, thus removing any chance that the skeptic could be right. It's not a terrible movie, and is quite well-acted and well-shot, but it is a dull one that would've been livened up by some cheesiness and Narm.
The Road: What worked great as a novel fails in the transition to the screen, as the book's lengthy chapters of atmosphere building are something that can be done with just a few minutes of film. The result is an emotionally empty movie with a threadbare plot and no reason to care about the characters. It would've worked great as a short film or a Twilight Zone episode, but there's just not enough material to build a feature film out of.
Robin Hood (2010 film): All of the technical aspects (acting, directing, cinematography, even the writing) are very good, but they can't save a plodding, unfocused, overly-long snoozer of a story that has almost nothing to do with the Robin Hood legend. Whatever good ideas were in the original Nottingham script are buried under the weight of its many rewrites.
Salt: Casting Angelina Jolie in a role originally written for a male action star turned out to be a brilliant decision. Plus, the plot works a lot better than it should, and the action scenes are slickly done—and unlike the Bourne movies, you can actually tell what's going on in said action scenes.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: One of the best films of the year. He noted that, if you're seeing it just for the action, you'll probably be disappointed, but you'll appreciate it a lot more if you go in knowing that it's also a Romantic Comedy—not unlike Edgar Wright's previous genre film, Shaun of the Dead. He also praised it for having a much better grasp on love, romance and relationships that any number of formula rom-coms, particularly the concurrent Eat Pray Love.
Scream: Bob has hated the series for a very long time, feeling that its "insightful satire" of slasher movies was nothing more than Jamie Kennedy making lazy wisecracks about the genre he was in, and that the suspense was undone by the winking, self-aware nature of the films. He says that the hip, trendy attitude that the series popularized has ruined mainstream American horror, and views it as one more reason why "the '90s sucked." He also has personal reasons for hating the series—namely, he feels that it made his movie geekery into "just another douchebag party trick".^[5]
- Scre4m: All of the above criticisms apply, and it doesn't even have any good, original kills to smoothen the ride. Bottom line: if you want a great, insightful horror-comedy, watch Shaun of the Dead instead. He also mocks the film's numerical title by referring to it as "Scre-Four-m" throughout the review.
Sex and the City: With quite a bit of "WTF?". He felt that the plot was incomprehensible and a wee bit misandrist, and that it felt like several episodes of the series strung together and then labeled a movie, though he noted that he was as far from the film's target audience as one could get. He also wondered what kind of black magic Kim Cattrall was using to keep looking that good into her 50s.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: "Really sucks." The plot rips off the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, the action scenes are awful, and Noomi Rapace is wasted. While Bob didn't do a video review of it, he did discuss it in his weekly Intermission editorial, where he compared it to Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Shrek: The first movie was great, a refreshing, character-focused parody of the overblown, corporatized Disney Animated Canon with a great cast. Sadly, the sequels wound up turning the film into everything that the original had mocked, while Disney itself managed to turn itself around from its Dork Age. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to mention it in his review of...
- Shrek Forever After: A pointless retread of the last movie that proves that the series has completely run out of ideas, while highlighting all of the biggest problems with the Dreamworks Animation formula.
Shutter Island: You'll see the twist coming from a mile away, but Martin Scorsese still knew how to make it work, and work extremely well.
The Sitter: Very well-written on the character and story side of things, but it was supposed to be a comedy, and on that front it just falls flat.
The Smurfs: He didn't review it, but during the second half of his Knight and Day review, he talked about his opinion of it going by the trailer. He felt that moving the setting to New York sucked out the magic of the original cartoon and replaced it with Product Placement and the sort of Gen-X humor that's only funny in brief snippets, and also insulted the source material (which is Belgian) by Americanizing it.
Snow White and the Huntsman: "It only sort of makes sense if you force yourself to never, ever ask the question 'why?'" It's a cynical attempt by Hollywood to cash in on the fact that female-focused genre films have proven themselves to be box office titans just as grand as your average superhero movie. The script jumps all over the place and feels like it went through several rewrites, the main characters are underwritten and are often just "there", and the love triangle is especially jarring. Charlize Theron's Large Ham performance as the evil queen is the only thing that stands out—and she feels like she belongs in a much better movie. Overall: not worth your time. At the start of the review, he also discusses how the Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs story can be read as a metaphor for female puberty and our culture's obsession with beauty, and how this may explain why the story has been so popular with women for such a long time.
The Social Network: One of the most exciting, watchable and well-made movies of the year even if, like Bob, you're not a fan of Facebook, and proof that you can make a great movie out of any subject matter.
Source Code: Very good, though a bit too long. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Your Highness review.
Spider-Man 2: One of the three films that he counts in his "canon" of the greatest superhero movies of all time, the other two being Superman: The Movie and The Dark Knight Saga.
Splice: Loved it on all levels, comparing it to The Fly and District 9 as both an intelligent sci-fi film and a character-focused drama, and appreciating how it didn't sink into the anti-intellectualism that often characterizes movies of this ilk. He also noted that Dren was "likely to keep Deviant ART busy for the rest of the year."
Star Trek: Bob went in with the lowest of expectations, since the film had been written by the writers of Transformers (which he hated) and seemed to be marketed towards the Lowest Common Denominator, almost to the point of insulting fans of the franchise. While the end result didn't suck like he had feared, it never rises above strictly average either, with Chris Pine giving a wooden performance as Kirk and the screenplay being too reliant on coincidences moving the plot forward. He never understood why so many other critics were gushing over the film.
Star Wars: A big fan, but that's to be expected. Didn't review it, but in his Intermission editorial "Consequences", he discussed how chaste and masculine the movies were compared to prior bodice-ripping Space Opera stories.
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace: Did a retrospective review of the film for its rerelease in 2012. For a very long time, Bob counted himself among the Star Wars fanboys who felt that The Phantom Menace had raped their childhood memories, though he's since changed his mind, coming to regard it as So Okay It's Average rather than the total disaster that the more vocal parts of the fandom proclaim it to be (and yes, he's seen the famous Plinkett review^{[dead link]} ). In fact, he feels that it's not even the worst Star Wars movie, that "honor" belonging to Attack of the Clones. The reason why he feels so many people hate it is because it had the weight of sixteen years of anticipation on its shoulders, which turned a mediocre film into an awful experience for many old-school fans.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "It keeps coming back; corrupted, evil, and out to harm us."
Straw Dogs (the remake): Totally missed the point of the original film, turning a bleak, nihilistic thriller about the breakdown of morality into a preachy, redneck-baiting, values-affirming Wish Fulfillment power fantasy, though he couldn't go into further detail without spoiling both the original and the remake. In the original film, the "rape" scene makes it ambiguous whether the main character's wife is actually being raped by her ex, or if she's having sex with him willingly. The remake, on the other hand, makes it very clear that she was raped, which not only removes the moral ambiguity of the original film, but leaves a ton of Fridge Logic in its wake. He admits that the ending is awesomely cathartic, but it's not worth sitting through the rest of the film to get to.
Sucker Punch: Seems to be fanboy-bait, and is probably going to be polarizing, but is deeper than that. "Do not miss this movie ("This I command!")."
Super: "As awesome as you've heard." It's dark and brutal, but also hilarious and strangely uplifting, with Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page knocking it out of the park. Didn't review it, but he mentioned it at the beginning of his Your Highness review, and at the end of 2011 he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Super Mario Bros (rough cut of the reboot): A great way for Nintendo to kick off its new film studio project, with a hip, gritty sense of realism to its story, as well as some surprisingly inspired casting. Only none of it was real. The entire review was an April Fools' Day joke parodying just about every trend in modern Hollywood moviemaking, such as overuse of green-screen and computer animation, exorbitant budgets and ticket prices, 3-D post-conversion, Stunt Casting, the focus on sequels and franchises, and the attempt to shoehorn properties into the Darker and Edgier template popularized by The Dark Knight.
Superman: The Movie: One of the three films that he counts in his "canon" of the greatest superhero movies of all time, the other two being Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight Saga.
Surrogates: "Pretty Damn Good". A bit more than So Okay It's Average. Sets out some reasonably ambitious goals and hits them; Bruce Willis really carries the emotional core of the movie; an interesting exploration of its premise... and there's not much more you can say. "Pretty Damn Good". He ended the review by mentioning Ginger Snaps and Ponyo (he liked both of them).
Team America: World Police: Mentioned in the Big Picture episode "Monster's Movie". He regards its parodies of celebrity activism as Shallow Parody and rather dated, though its hammy portrayal of Kim Jong-il wasn't far off from what the man was like in Real Life.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original live-action trilogy): The first two were decent, but the third MUST NEVER BE MENTIONED AGAIN. Didn't review them, but he mentioned them in the Big Picture episode "Shell Shock", during his discussion of...
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the upcoming live-action reboot): Likely to suck by virtue of its production company Platinum Dunes' track record, though he thinks that the Internet Backdraft over the turtles being aliens is overblown, noting that the animated series that most of Generation X remembers was itself very different from the dark, gritty, satirical comics that they displaced—but then again, to many fans, the cartoon was the defining version of the franchise, so they do have a right to demand it stay faithful. Hasn't reviewed it yet (since there is no film to review yet), but he mentioned it in two consecutive Big Picture episodes, "Mutants and Masses" and "Shell Shock" (the latter because, with the former episode, all any of his viewers wanted to talk about was the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy that he had also discussed).
The Thing: Finds the original to be one of the best monster movies ever made. The remake/prequel, on the other hand, he felt to be boring and dull, with obvious CGI and bland characters and directing. He ended the review by telling people to watch the original instead. He first mentioned both films in his "The Look Ahead" special on Escape to the Movies, then reviewed the remake/prequel.
This Means War: "Not cute. Not funny. Not worth it." Yet another steaming turd trying to copy the success of Mr. and Mrs. Smith's action/rom-com hybrid, with a misogynistic premise, no chemistry between the leads, and protagonists that act like stalkers. Bob wishes that it hadn't been screened for critics just so that he wouldn't have had to suffer through it.
Thor: Very positive review. He appreciates the more subtle nods to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and notes that it's the most kid-friendly superhero movie since the first Spider Man film.
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie: Bob's a huge fan of Tim and Eric, mainly due to the way that their parodying of corporatized middle America actually understands what it's like to grow up there (unlike Hollywood's frequent condescension), though he acknowledges that their humor is definitely an acquired taste. Regarding their first feature film, it's quite funny, particularly with the huge supporting cast, and is recommended for fans of both Tim and Eric and of surreal comedy in general, though it falls into much the same trap that many TV comics turned first-time filmmakers fall into—namely, switching from a 15-minute TV show to a 90-minute, R-rated feature film causes them to rely too much on Refuge in Vulgarity and lose the rapid-fire comedy that made them famous.
Tower Heist: Bob found it to be utterly forgettable, lifeless and a symbol of all of the worst features of the studio system, with the only thing memorable about it being its role in the controversy that surrounded Universal's on-demand release plans. Making it worse was that there was a lot in it that he felt could've made for a great movie if it had a competent writer and director.
Toy Story 3: Couldn't have been made at a better time (the kids who grew up with the first two movies are now high school- and college-age, much like Andy), and an emotional rollercoaster that's both hilarious and heartbreaking. Part of the strength of the whole series, in Bob's opinion, is that it has never shied away from themes of mortality and obsolescence the way that other kids' movies do, and now, it's hitting those themes head-on. At the very least, the discomfort caused by the 3-D glasses will make a handy excuse for why you're crying crocodile tears during the last 15 minutes.
The Toxic Avenger: More relevant now than ever, and just as enormously entertaining as it was back in 1984. He also found it funny how they made a Merchandise-Driven Saturday Morning Cartoon (Toxic Crusaders) out of a movie so violent that he couldn't even show that much of it for the episode. Didn't review it for Escape to the Movies, but he covered it in his "Schlocktober" special for The Big Picture, one day after Halloween.^[6]
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: He loathed it more than mere words can describe. Pours searing venom onto Michael Bay, "the biggest hack since Hot Coffee."
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Still sucks, though filming in 3D toned down most of Michael Bay's worst tendencies as a director, leading to more coherent action scenes and a (slightly) better movie than the last one.
The Tree of Life: "Pretentious? Possibly. Strange? Definitely. Compulsively watchable? Absolutely." Bob didn't review it, but at the end of 2011 he named it his favorite film of the year, comparing it to 2001: A Space Odyssey in terms of films that "you don't just watch, you experience."
The Troll Hunter: One of the best monster movies of the year, with great effects and a fun, satirical take on classic Norwegian mythology and the concept of the heroic monster hunter. Plus, it highlights one of the positive effects that CGI has had on modern filmmaking—it has broken Hollywood's monopoly on blockbusters by reducing the budget needed to make them, allowing indie and non-American filmmakers to make such films as well.
Tron: Its visuals were certainly breathtaking by 1982 standards, but it was unevenly paced and didn't really capitalize on its bigger ideas. Didn't review it, but he was compelled to mention it in his review of its sequel...
- Tron: Legacy: Bob gives it a B+ and calls it a fun nostalgia trip, saying it has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as the original—it's got gorgeous visuals, Awesome Music courtesy of Daft Punk, stunning use of 3-D, and proof of God's existence in the form of Olivia Wilde, though it struggles when it's trying to balance the needs of being the start of a new franchise for Disney with those of being a standalone film. Still, if you loved the original, you'll love this one too.
True Grit: Discussed both the 1968 version starring John Wayne and the 2010 remake by The Coen Brothers while reviewing the latter. Bob considers the original to be good, but not a classic, most notable for being the film that Wayne received his long-awaited and much-deserved Oscar for. Regarding the remake, the entire cast (including Josh Brolin, who is officially forgiven for Jonah Hex) all turn in great performances... and there's not much more he can say. Both versions are fairly straightforward Westerns without much in the way of contrivance, and both are good, so go see them. Plus, seeing as how the episode was released on New Year's Eve, Bob opened the review pretending to be drunk.
Twilight: "Having to watch this movie is the most pain I've experienced at the hands of something beloved by preteen girls since I got kicked in the nuts by a pony." Bob is highly critical of both the movies and the books that they are based on, not only for their stilted writing and flat characters, but particularly for the message that they send to impressionable tween girls, which he feels is creating a generation of "Domestic Abuse victims waiting to happen." He views the series as, essentially, conservative Christian abstinence propaganda, and has said as much on multiple occasions.
- New Moon: Just as bad as the first, though he thought some of the plot points could make a good movie, even if they didn't.
- Eclipse: "Two hours of Taylor Lautner standing around not getting the message, briefly interrupted by a sad excuse for a monster battle." Found the rehashing of New Moon's Love Triangle especially painful.
- Breaking Dawn - Part 1: Painfully slow, overly tame, unintentionally hilarious, and carrying an Anvilicious pro-life message that made Bob cringe. By this point, he seemed hopeful that the franchise would finally die already, given that Breaking Dawn was the Black Sheep of the book series, and that the generation of tween girls that turned the books and films into blockbusters was growing up and leaving high school.
The films of Tyler Perry: While he's never done a proper review of any of his movies, Bob has stated on multiple occasions that he regards him as a hack, and a consequence of Hollywood's failure to pay attention to black audiences (and why, in turn, the games industry shouldn't make the same mistake). He feels that black moviegoers had been left so alienated by the crappy, low-budget action movies and crude comedies that Hollywood sent their way that, in desperation, they latched onto Perry in order to have a filmmaker -- any filmmaker—to call their own.
Underworld: He really liked the first three movies, and was disappointed that the fourth one was Not Screened for Critics (the reason why he didn't review it). Didn't review any of the films, but he mentioned them at the end of his Red Tails review.
Unstoppable: It's hardly all that original or meaningful, and Chris Pine is pretty bland, but Tony Scott knows his action, and it's got everything that Bob loves about disaster movies.
Up: This lifted Bob's spirits after an abysmal summer run. The video is less of a review and more or a treatise on the success of Pixar due to their choice of stories.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Positive, in that it's the Woody Allen spin on a well-worn storyline.
Wanted: Neutral. "It's not good, but it's definitely not bad."
War Horse: "It's simple, it's old-fashioned, it's brazenly corny, but in the end it earns the right to be just that." Bob declared it to be one of the best films of the year, saying that it should've sank under the weight of its schmaltz if not for the fact that Steven Spielberg is just that good at making these kinds of movies.
Watchmen: He saw this movie four times and found it shattered all expectations (even if he couldn't remember what his were). It's a brilliant piece as either an adaptation or as a film on its own merits. Years later, he came back to it to say that, while he thinks that the original graphic novel is the superior work, he preferred the film's ending over the comic's.
Where the Wild Things Are: Bob found the film "quietly brilliant, compared its tone to Calvin and Hobbes, and stated that it almost revived his faith in humanity.
Film The Wolfman: He notes that the change in directors ended up making the film a "hodgepodge" of Mood Whiplash, but ultimately decides it's a competent horror movie.
The X-Files: I Want To Believe: "I want to be... blegh, I want my money back!" He called it worse than The Phantom Menace in terms of attempted rejuvenations of classic sci-fi franchises, with a plot that went nowhere, poor production values all around, and a mean-spiritedness that he felt to be offensive and extremely tasteless.
X Men First Class: Not only is it the best X-Men movie yet (Bob called it "the perfect X-Men movie"), but also one of the best superhero movies ever made, with Bob putting it in the same class as The Dark Knight. A welcome return to form after the franchise-killing duo of Film X Men The Last Stand and Film X Men Origins Wolverine, especially given its rushed production schedule. At the end of 2011, he listed it as one of his top ten movies of the year.
Yogi's Ark Lark: "It's been a while since I've watched this all the way through, but... I remember its heart being in the right place, but it's really preachy, and it's weird seeing characters who mainly existed for slapstick suddenly trying to be serious and learn about social responsibility." Didn't review it, but he mentioned it in the Big Picture episode "Smarter Than the Average Bear", a retrospective on the Hanna-Barbera canon (focusing on Yogi Bear).
Your Highness: "How much of a movie can you make out of one joke?" He felt that it will probably be a footnote in the careers of all involved (though it must've been incredibly cathartic for Natalie Portman after the Star Wars prequels and Black Swan), and that your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for stoner humor, but overall, he enjoyed it. He opened the review with little mini-reviews of Hanna, Source Code, Insidious and Super, stating that he didn't have time to review all of the movies that had just come out (he liked all of them, by the way).
Zombieland: Thought that, while predictable, it was still fun as hell and put its cliches to great use. He spends much of the review analyzing why he thinks the zombie genre has become so popular (short answer—we all hate each other and the world we live in). He also insists that you should punch out anyone who tries to tell you about the "best thing in Zombieland" lest they spoil it for you.
- Oh, did he mean the bit whe-
  - *WHACK*

↑ Yvan eht Nioj!
↑ That last comment, for what it's worth, was spoken with a poster for The Expendables in the background.
↑ "Worse than me?? Wow."
↑ And that's not even getting into the comparisons to Repo! The Genetic Opera, which he hadn't heard of until fans started pestering him about it.
↑ Though admittedly, he did enjoy getting compared to Randal Graves.
↑ "As though Moviebob can be constrained by puny dates!"

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[1] Yvan eht Nioj!

[2] That last comment, for what it's worth, was spoken with a poster for The Expendables in the background.

[3] "Worse than me?? Wow."

[4] And that's not even getting into the comparisons to Repo! The Genetic Opera, which he hadn't heard of until fans started pestering him about it.

[5] Though admittedly, he did enjoy getting compared to Randal Graves.

[6] "As though Moviebob can be constrained by puny dates!"