Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Volunteers 1985

  ★★ Watched 22 Feb 2025

  There are a bunch of movies that are bad except that John Candy is in them.

  This is one. The movie is mostly dull—lots of unfunny lines played as if they were funny—except for Candy playing a proto-Del Griffith. His scenes singlehandedly make the movie worth considering watching, particularly his ridiculously hilarious (and hilariously ridiculous) brainwashing by the Communists.

  Pity that Candy disappears from vast portions of the picture, which is instead taken up by Tom Hanks failing to be funny while apparently gargling with marbles in a bizarre attempt to sound like George Plimpton.

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  Watchmen: Chapter II 2024

  ★★½ Watched 19 Feb 2025

  Not as good as the first half, unfortunately. The pace is more plodding, the voice acting is worse (several line readings needed several more takes), and the animation looks even shoddier.

  One scene, with the scientists on the island looking out over a balcony, is so bad as to be almost unbelievable. The voices don’t even match with the lips.

  The plot is still good, still Watchmen, of course, and the adaptation itself is still better than the Zack Snyder live-action film.

  But this is a big disappointment after the first chapter—especially as HBO Max released the two so far apart.

Popular reviews

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  Tower of Terror 1997

  ★★★★ Rewatched 28 Oct 2023

  I loved this Disney Channel movie when I was a kid, and I still think it’s pretty great for a TV kids’ movie that so easily could have been a feature-length advertisement for the (wonderful) Disney World ride it’s based on.

  It has its flaws and cheesy moments, certainly, but no more than (say) Hocus Pocus, which I actually think isn’t as good.

  The opening sequence here is, as several reviewers here have noted, remarkable by TV movie standards—it’s comparable…

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  The Avengers 1998

  ★★ Watched 04 Aug 2024

  Pseudo-Steed is able to weather the storm,
  Pseudo-Emma, alas, is not on good form.

  This is an infamously bad adaptation of the wonderful TV show (nothing to do with the superheroes), which delighted in bizarrerie and Britishness and ’60s pop surrealism.

  The show is one of my favorite things in the world—see “The Town of No Return,” “Too Many Christmas Trees,” or “A Surfeit of H₂O” for an introduction to how brilliant and bonkers it was—and one of its great…

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