The final 8 movies watched in February, making a total of 28! I strongly doubt I will approach one movie a day in any other month this year.

33. (340.) Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
I would've expected a film that featured John Cusack and Chevy Chase to be more accurate in depicting the atmosphere of the 1980s than this. Considering that we are more than 2 decades removed from the era, I should expect modern media to remember only the most caricatured aspects of the decade as found parodied in a modern Nickelodean teen sitcom. I did enjoy watching this film, but its false nostalgia was less satisfying than I think it was meant to be.

34. (341.) The Stunt Man (1980)
Great movie. The opening of the movie, as the criminal runs from the cops through the woods and stumbles into a movie set of a WWI war movie shooting on a beach in modern California, is a tremendously enjoyable entrance into the openly referenced Through the Looking Glass Hollywood fantasy-world in which the movie takes place. I loved it.

35. (342.) Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
For what it's worth, this is superior in all ways to Ocean's Twelve.

36. (343.) Safe House (2012)
An action/thriller spy movie with the genre-standard who-can-you-trust plot twist and entirely unnecessary Bourne Identity-emulating unsteady-cam. It's all right if you're in for that sort of thing, but it's really not very deep.

37. (344.) The Broadway Melody (1929)
Also not deep is this cliche-ridden musical. This, the first talkie to win Best Picture, has one greatly redeeming number, "Wedding of the Painted Doll," which stands up well over time. More amusing is the fact that the more attractive of the two female leads is the one that the movie treats as comparatively ugly (Bessie Love). Go figure.

38. (345.) Drumline (2002)
Shallower and shallower. Stop me if you've heard this one: very talented boy learns what it takes to make it in the cutthroat of competitive college sports. That in this case the sport happens to be "marching band" is the closest that this film deviates from this well-worn movie cliche.

39. (346.) Out Cold (2001)
A comedy of the same sub-genre as Hot Tub Time Machine, which we may as well call "Meatballs on ice." I did much enjoy Lee Majors as the Snidely Whiplash of the picture.

40. (347.) The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
The bio-pic is a genre that I have greatly mixed emotions about. What's the point of learning about someone's life in the most inaccurate way possible? I will say that the film inspired me to look up some more factual history of Ziegfeld and his cast, which I wouldn't have done otherwise. I've come to like William Powell, and his snappy delivery of some clever dialogue — did Flo Ziegfeld really say any of these things? — and his interactions with Frank Morgan gave me plenty to watch between the elaborately staged musical numbers. (Added bonus: Ziegfeld's second wife is played by Myrna Loy!)

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To be continued...

 

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