Where was I? "162"?

162. (699.) Double Wedding (1937)
More William Powell and Myrna Loy romantic comedy. A good one, too. (As if there are any that aren't.) I will see them all, oh yes, I will.

163. (700.) Ziegfeld Follies (1945)
More William Powell as Florenz Ziefeld. Ok, so he only played the role twice, but now I've seen both. Frankly, the standout scene in this vaudeville-style movie isn't the dance with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, although that is pretty good, but a comedy routine by Red Skelton, which is just amazing. (Keenan Wynn and Fanny Brice have comedy skits in the movie as well, but they both fall far short of the bar that Skelton sets.)

164. (701.) The Lego Movie (2014)
Maybe I expected too much, but this movie bored me. I never forgot that I was watching a 2-hour toy commercial. (And I'm hardly one to criticize someone else for being misogynistic, but ouch. Cringe-worthy. I hadn't realized Legos were only for boys.)

166. (703.) Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Now this was the movie I was hoping Lego was. I kicked myself for not figuring the Big Bad earlier than the reveal, but I didn't mind a bit. Lots of fun visual and vocal gags in this great animated Disney movie. (How could Disney go from this to Frozen a year-and-a-half later? Blech!)

167. (704.) Detective Story (1951)
Maybe I watch too much noir, but this story was on rails. Too obvious at every turn, the only thing that made this worth watching was Kirk Douglas' powerful on-screen charisma.

168. (705.) Dinner at Eight (1933)
I watched this entire comedy of manners feeling that everything was exposition for the titular dinner. "When will the dinner start?" I kept wondering. The dinner starts just before the closing credits roll! If there was a settlement to any of the story's many, many conflicts, I missed them. (As everyone goes to dinner, there is a sensation of detente, but not resolution.)

169. (706.) Battleship (2012)
Oh, this is a Big, Stupid Action Movie. But it knows its place. It never strives to be anything other than a Big, Stupid Action Movie. The writers and director competently put all the pieces and place and hit all the necessary character notes to achieve the desired outcome. (Yeah! Take that, aliens!) I was very surprisingly entertained throughout. You should take notes, Micheal Bay. (I think this has all the makings of a cult classic.)

170. (707.) Love in the Afternoon (1957)
The rising action was a little slow for my tastes, and the age difference between the male lead, Gary Cooper (playing a 60-year-old man), and the female lead, Audrey Hepburn (playing a college student), was too disparate for me to tolerate. I guess it's a rule that if you want to make a movie focusing on inappropriate March-December sexual relationships, you have to cast Chevalier? (Fun fact: GiGi turns my stomach!)

And that's all my movies watched in September.

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