I watched most of these in the Before Times, so my memory of them may be skewed by the fact that was back before the world ended and I could afford to be selective about what I watched.

36. (1690.) Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Oh, so close to being a great movie! It has many of the same elements that would make Rocky Horror Picture Show a success a few years later: good music, literary underpinnings, a pop culture-infused storyline about good and evil and free will and rock and roll... but somehow it all fails to gel here. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, it just feels under baked. (I much appreciated the homages to German Expressionism cinema. Too bad it didn't stick the landing.)

37. (1691.) The House (2017)
Rewatching Zoolander recently, I was reminded of how much more enjoyable Will Ferrell's antics are when in a supporting instead of a leading role. For example, having Amy Pohler and a great stock of comic actors really helps here, injecting a lot of welcome silliness into a light dark comedy.

39. (1693.) The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
The obvious inspiration for most of Disney's Aladdin. It's a lot of fun, including the badly outdated special effects for the genie.

40. (1694.) Mechanic: Resurrection (2016)
Awful, just awful. If this is what Jason Statham has been reduced to, someone please put him out of his misery.

41. (1695.) Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
Not the strongest entry in this series, but that plays into the film's theme of the comfort of old friends in need of moving on to new horizons. Lean in!

42. (1696.) White Lightning (1973)
The 1970s sure were obsessed with hillbilly action films.

More to come.

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Time to finish up August movies:

150. (1379.) The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
Movie continuing the adventures of the British television show that is every bit as irreverent and uncomfortable and funny as the source material.

151. (1380.) Out of Time (2003)
More Denzel Washington in a mediocre noir-ish suspense film.

152. (1381.) The Mad Miss Manton (1938)
A fun, light screwball comedy / romance / mystery film that's at least as entertaining as anything on network television these days.

153. (1382.) Be Cool (2005)
The derivative sequel to Get Shorty isn't nearly as good as its predecessor. The highlight is Cedric the Entertainer's rant about race relations, but the rest is probably best avoided.

154. (1383.) Moonlight (2016)
White guilt stole La La Land's best picture Oscar! Ok, I admit that this film isn't bad. It's just that while I can relate to La La Land's story of heterosexual, rich young white creative people in love, I have a much harder time relating to Moonlight's story of homosexual, poor younger black oppressed people struggling to get by. Your mileage may vary.

155. (1384.) Gringo (2018)
Naive but enjoyable thriller about an honest man pushed to his breaking point faking an international kidnapping.

156. (1385.) The Mechanic (1972)
This is the Charles Bronson original, not the Jason Statham remake. Personally, I preferred the latter as it has a better defined narrative structure.

157. (1386.) The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Fictional tale of a German plot to assassinate Churchill in the waning days of World War II. Michael Caine is the best part by far.

158. (1387.) What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Mockumentary about a bunch of vampires in New Zealand ad libbed by the Flight of the Conchords cast. If you like that sort of thing.

More to come.

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More movies from May:

92. (1321.) Spy (2017)
From trailers, I was expecting this Melissa McCarthy movie to be a gender-swapped The Man Who Knew Too Little, but it manages to treat everyone (except Jason Statham) with at least some modicum of sympathy and respect. I enjoyed it.

93. (1322.) Baywatch (2017)
I can't say this film was exactly respectful of its characters (truly, the villains were all so paper thin, their names didn't even matter), but it wasn't nearly as ruthlessly deconstructive or lunkheaded as so many dramatic-television-shows-turned-comedic-movies tend to be. I enjoyed this, too.

94. (1323.) It (1927)
No, this isn't the killer clown movie but the silent film that made Clara Bow a household name as The "It" Girl. I didn't care for the predatory aspect of the gold-digging shop girl trying to land her rich boss, or the complication that he'd turn his back on her after a misunderstanding over what may be her child, but it has held up well enough that it wouldn't be too out of place in, say, Jennifer Lopez's filmography.

95. (1324.) Lady Bird (2017)
Every bit as good as advertised. (I admit I'm an utter sap for a good coming-of-age yarn.)

96. (1325.) There Goes My Heart (1938)
This romantic comedy starts with some really snappy dialogue. It needs this early good will when it struggles to get over the inevitable third act "will they or won't they" hump on its way to the inevitable "yes."

More to come.

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Since September is almost here, let's knock out movies from July. This should be pretty easy; there's not a lot of good to say about most of this bunch.

133. (880.) Vigilante (1983)
This movie didn't leave much of an impression on me. I just looked it up to refresh my memory. My refreshed memory advised you not to waste your time.

134. (881.) Argo (2012)
This film is not as good as it's press, but congratulations to Ben Affleck for finally learning how to make a watchable movie.

135. (882.) Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Cleopatra Jones is the female Shaft. Except that Shaft didn't need a man to come save him at the climax. Sorry, Cleo.

136. (883.) Zotz! (1962)
Watched this one with Mom because the lead was Tom Poston of Newhart fame. It's a light-weight fantasy in the style of Disney's The Shaggy Dog. We liked it.

137. (884.) Brainstorm (1983)
This is only half of a good science-fiction movie, but I knew what I was in for. The female lead is Natalie Wood (in her last film). I really don't care for Natalie Wood.

138. (885.) Get Carter (1971)
This movie is the best of today's bunch. Some of the punch was sapped because I watched Hit Man last year, and apparently both films are based on the same source material. Michael Caine plays a mob enforcer, a role that today would go to Jason Statham. (How is Gnomeo and Juliet the only film those two have been in together?)

139. (886.) My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)
Ugh, why was this movie made? For a romantic comedy, it's weirdly misogynistic. Heck, even the men come out looking like idiots. Just not good.

More to come.

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The front page of the Atlanta newspaper warns us that we have entered End Times:

In November, a white-tailed buck's chief occupation is to make more deer. He'll stop at nothing, not even your Honda, because he has lost his mind....

The problem, of course, is that deer are now everywhere.... [T]hey are prey that have no predator.

The horror movies are coming true! Mankind is being stalked by an omnipresent alien force we are powerless to defeat! I've been warning you for years: deer are unstoppable killing machines.

Fortunately, not all hope is lost. Hondas may not make effective weapons, but scientists have found a machine that might be humanity's last, best hope to turn the tide.

"Basically, the front end of a Ford is the only factor helping to control the species," [UGA Deer Laboratory head Karl] Miller said.

Save us, science!

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Movies from August, part 2 of 2:

140. (447.) Safe (2012)
I do not remember this movie by title. Maybe if the title had been "Jason Statham Saves Little Girl from Mob (Again. In New York)," then maybe. It's not a bad movie, it's just not very differentiable from most of Jason Statham's other action movies.

141. (448.) Heat (1986)
The first of two Burt Reynolds movies I watched back-to-back. In this one, he's a mercenary who teaches Peter MacNicol to be a real man. If it wasn't for the foul language, I'd've thought this was a made-for-TV movie. I think William Goldman was trying to write a story about a relatively simple man who becomes victim to his own unique successes. As directed it is little more than a long episode of The Equalizer.

142. (449.) Stick (1985)
Burt part two. This is a better movie, partly because Burt's first sidekick is wearing a vintage Miami Dolphins' t-shirt. If I tell you it's based on an Elmore Leonard crime story (he died 6 days after I watched this), you can probably imagine what this is like.

143. (450.) The Brothers Solomon (2007)
Far funnier than anything this stupid has any right to be. When Mom found out that this movie was about two unwed brothers trying to have children to make their dying parent happy, she insisted on watching with me. I think she was trying to discover if I had any similar goal as the movie's protagonists. For the record, I do not.

144. (451.) Callaway Went Thataway (1951)
Fred MacMurray shines in this cynical poke at the Hopalong Cassidy phenomenon. As a fan of television history, I found it very entertaining.

145. (452.) The Falcon's Adventure (1946)
I know that I said last month that I watched 3 Falcon movies, but I really just watched two and saved this one for later. This one was probably the best, though it was just as needlessly complicated as the others.

146. (453.) A Cat in Paris (2010)
The cat isn't really the protagonist of this French animated caper film (the cat's little girl is). Did I enjoy the movie in spite of because of this fact?

147. (454.) Defendor (2009)
Covers the same ground as Kick-Ass, probably more realistically. I'm quite satisfied that my superheroes are just fantasy. I do not want to meet any real supervillains.

148. (455.) Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)
This movie marries pre-war espionage, military sabotage, and private detectives. That should be a formula for gangbusters entertainment. Too bad this film fumbles it.

149. (456.) The Wendell Baker Story (2005)
I think that Luke Wilson knows exactly how likable he is. Wherever you find Luke, brother Owen won't be too far behind. But what is Kris Kristofferson doing slumming in an indie comedy like this?

150. (457.) Heaven Can Wait (1943)
I started watching this expecting it to be the precursor to the Warren Beatty film of the same name. Sadly, this film has nothing to do with that one. The protagonist starts the film explaining to Satan that he is destined to spend eternity in Hell, then spends the next 2 hours giving not even a shred of evidence to support that assumption. The Devil takes that discovery far better than I did.

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My last batch of movies from July.

119. (426.) The Rains Came (1939)
This movie is kind of a weird, unhappy romance with massive social inequality, death, and the destruction of India as the backdrop. Myrna Loy is the highlight, but the special effects of the earthquake and flood are spectacular even by modern CGI standards.

120. (427.) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Imdb.com tells me that the 4th, 5th, and 6th installments in the Fast and Furious franchise all take place before this movie. That doesn't make a lot of sense, but then, none of these movies do.

122. (429.) The Bank Job (2008)
Caper films are always fun. Jason Statham films are always fun. Jason Statham robs a bank films are practically a cottage industry.

123. (430.) The Explosive Generation (1961)
William Shatner opens a dialogue about sex with *cough* 30-year-old high school students and it nearly destroys a small town. The sexual discussion in the isn't any more risque than you'd find in a "Dear Abby" column. The best part of the film is discovering that high school was exactly the same in 1961 as it was when I went 30 years later. Unfortunately, I did not have William Shatner for a social studies teacher.

126. (433.) The Falcon's Alibi (1946)
Another Falcon movie, this time involving murderous bootleggers. The more I see of these Falcon films, the more clear it becomes that this sort of thing was the Magnum P.I. of the 1940s.

127. (434.) The Twelve Chairs (1970)
Of the many films Mel Brooks has made, this is reportedly his favorite. It's a little less wacky or slapstick than his more familiar films, but just as good.

128. (435.) The Wolverine (2013)
I watched this in a theater (my first theater experience in 2013) just because it started with the word "the." I'd say it was the stupidest of all the films I watched in July, but I did also watch The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

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Driving home from my father's house today, I was pulled over at the intersection of Atlanta Highway and Bethlehem Road by Sgt. Hinson of the Statham, Georgia police department. I think it is the very first time that I have ever peen pulled over that I wasn't nervous. I knew exactly what he pulled me over for: I wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

This marks the second time that I've ever been pulled over for a "Seat Belt" violation and the third time that I've been pulled over in Statham GA. The other 2 times I've been stopped in Statham (pronounced STATE-um by the locals for reasons that I don't understand) were for speeding. Neither resulted in a ticket, just a verbal chiding. (I was told that I could exceed the speed limit by as much as 14 mph and get away with it by decree of the Statham mayor.) Amusingly enough, neither of the times that I was pulled over for speeding was I wearing a seat belt.

In the state of Georgia, the fine for not wearing a seat belt (GA State Law code violation 40.8.76.1) is $15.00. I don't yet know if the city of Atlanta charges more, as they haven't much seemed to care if I'm endangering myself on the few times that I have encountered them. Sgt. Hinson was very kind to remind me that the violation doesn't count points off of my driver's license, so clearly I can repeat this violation as many times as I wish without putting my ability to drive in question.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the lawmakers who drafted and passed the law that encourages police officers to ticket otherwise compliant and safe drivers on lazy Sunday afternoons for a violation that threatened no one's life but my own. (Certainly, Superman never stopped traffic to make sure that Jimmy buckled up.) I'm pleased to start April off with a bang, dashing Statham's hope of achieving a 100% rating for seat belt use for the month.

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