The Shop Around the Croner (1940)

MIMDB score: 7.0
Current IMDB score: 8.1
Director: Ernest Lubitsch
Main Actors you care about: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan

Why I liked it: I've seen You've Got Mail a few dozen times and knew of this movie from that movie but never sat down and watched it.  I like this much better than You've Got Mail.  This movie gives a slightly different perspective on love.  In college I came up with the statement "People find the similarities in the people they like and the differences in the people they don't like."  This is a form of bias which is wonderfully displayed in this movie.  At first meeting (in person) the girl and the guy don't care for each other.  They find small things that they bother them about each other and make up their minds that this just not a great person.  The in real life relationship they find things that that make them prejudice to each other so they look for differences they have.  The pen-pal relationship they don't have the prejudice and are able find the similarities in each other.  Maybe love is just a bias and "true love" is being in love with that bias when you realize it.

What stands out: It gave me something to think about and is pretty fantastic for a movie made in 1940.  I don't even remember if it was in black and white or not which is pretty good for a movie.  (Hint: (After checking) It is in black and white.)

Thing(s) I would change: I would want to hear more about what's in their letters.  You've Got Mail read us what they wrote in there "secret" correspondence and I think this movie would have benefited from that.  I would want the "secret" relationship to make us somehow fall in love with their "secret" relationship before making us know that it's really both them.  Maybe just show the whole time from her point of view or something.  I think that would made it go up to an 8 because you'd want to rewatch it with the knowledege that he knew by the cafe scene.  It would be slightly more interesting I feel like.

There is a scene where she says something like "in first few weeks you could have swept me off my feet".  I didn't feel that.  That was either poorly acted or put in after they filmed those scenes.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:

I just found it funny:
Woman Customer: How much is that belt in the window, the one that says "2.95?"
Alfred Kralik: $2.95
Woman Customer: Oh, no!

Alfred Kralik: Pirovitch, did you ever get a bonus?
Pirovitch: Yes, once.
Alfred Kralik: Yeah. The boss hands you the envelope. You wonder how much is in it, and you don't want to open it. As long as the envelope's closed, you're a millionaire.
Whenever I used to get letters/messages from girls I loved I would think much like this.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually?, It's a Wonderful Life?

"Side" note:
Apparently all the scenes were shot in sequence.

Donnie Darko (2001)

MIMDB score: 9
Current IMDB score: 8.1
Director: Richard Kelly
Main Actors you care about: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, probably a few others.

Why I liked it: This was like a precursor to understanding movies on a deeper level.  At the time this came out it was like the gateway movie into better movies.  I found this movie randomly and had no idea what it was about when I started watching.  After I watched it the first time I felt different.  This movie made me think about free will, time traveling, sacrifice, society, and many other things.  This movie is filled with thoughts if you haven't already had them.  It's a good like freshman year of college movie.  If you watch it after that then you've probably already explored a lot of the thoughts this movie can produce.

What stands out: I think the style is what stands out the most.  The weird parts could have been a big turn off.  I think the style was of being thought provoking made the weird parts seem not so weird.

Thing(s) I would change: I don't know.  The only thing that sticks out to me was the "Go back to China, bitch" line was so harsh.  I'd say it wasn't needed but kids were that harsh in high school when I was there at times so I guess it's okay.  Maybe it just seens out of character for his friends to say that.  They don't do anything else that mean.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion" -> hilarious line.  This line is so funny because it's coming from such a crazy person.  If you keep going though this line is rather interesting.  It's showing the ridiculous of caring so much about something that matters so little.  But life is mainly about figuring out what matters and then doing the crap out of that thing that matters.  So maybe this ridiculous woman is crazy for caring about her daughter's dance troupe so much but also maybe she's living life to the fullest with full passion?  It's hard for me to get upset with people that care about such stupid and mundane things (to me) when life is all about finding this "stupid and mundane" things.  One woman's Sparkle Motion is another person's Cellar Door.

The bubble out of his chest scene was pretty crazy.  Mostly because I didn't fully understand it later until I remembered the scene that said "Not if you travel within God's channel."  It's really a scene about free will and he's seeing other people's free will through God's channel and then starts seeing his own.  Really interesting scene.  It's during a party scene so you could just take it as Darko being on drugs or drunk if you wanted to though.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: The Fountain, Mr. Nobody, Back to the Future? Predenstation

"Side" note: This youtube article explains most of the movie.

Your Name. (2016)

(Yea it's Anime. Usually I don't like Anime either.)

MIMDB score: 7.5
Current IMDB score: 8.6
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Main Actors you care about: none

Why I liked it: This is an anime movie meaning it's a Japanese animation movie.  That means it's going to be weird to people that don't understand Japanese culture or movies.  Even if you do it's still weird usually.  I think that's the defining characteristic to anime in my opinion.  It's weird.  I used to like the Spirit Away but when I re-watched it I can't stop cringing at how weird it is.

Your Name. (with the period) is a decent story.  It might even be a good story but the what stands out is the music.  The music really adds a layer to the movie like music should.  I found myself wanting to have the movie on just to hear the music in the background.  Then I found a lot of the songs have been redone in English and started listening to those.  Even the music without English lyrics are very catchy.  They seem like pop songs but really meaningful pop songs.  You can kind of tell it from the Japanese version that it's meaningful without even hearing or seeing the English lyrics.  Violin + soft piano + meaningful lyrics = magic in my book.

If you can get past the weirdness though this movie is quite a gem for science fiction, romantic comedy, violin-piano music lover like myself.  Time traveling or multi-verse is a really popular idea right now.  I think it's a very easily coping way of looking at the your life.  If you believe that there is another version of your life out there where another you is doing the things you wish you were doing it kind of makes not being able to do those things ok.  Like I might not be an astronaut in this life but there is a version of me out there in another universe doing that.  It kind of lets you imagine that some version of you can do anything so you can do anything.  This movie doesn't get too much into multi-verse thoughts but the same thing for time traveling.  The thought is a little different but same thing kind of holds.  If I could go back in time I could teach myself how to be at the right place at the right time with the right skills to be an astronaut.

What stands out: Music as stated earlier.  This is a science-fiction romantic comedy amine movie.  Probably all those genre's in one movie is what makes it stand out as well.

Thing(s) I would change: Pretty easy.  Don't be so freaking weird in the beginning.  I know a lot people will turn this off before it gets interesting because the movie does some weird stuff in the beginning.  This girl is rubbing her boobs? which turns into a montage of random city-life and country life shots while really fast electric Japanese music plays?  Just watch the first ten minutes and tell me what the heck is happening.  That's normally good but with the backdrop of anime it makes for people that don't get the culture to give up on it.  I don't like a lot of anime because of things like that.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene: "I Love You" "I can't remember your name with this!"

Similar Movies/TV Shows: The Secret, any body switching movie, Back to the Future, probably any other good anime but only if you can handle weirdness. This is probably the least weird anime I've seen.

"Side" note: Mitsuha's name means "three leaves" and follows a family trait. Her grandmother's name, Hitoha, means "one leaf," her mother's name Futaba, means "two leaves," and her little sister's name Yotsuha, means "four leaves.

Serendipity (2001)

(This is an awful poster but I couldn't find a better one.  I think a poster with the elevator buttons and 23 is lit would have been a better poster)

MIMDB score: 7.1
Current IMDB score: 6.9
Director: Peter Chelsom
Main Actors you care about: John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven

Why I liked it: I'm about to head to New York and I was going back through all the New York movies and I when I saw this movie I thought well I surely have reviewed this movie.  I hadn't apparently.  This movie is quite good.  I think it captures a lot of about life and love very well.  When a movie can put into "life" what you are feeling but haven't fully figured out I think it easily makes the movie good.  It kind of questions if fate exists but I guess concludes that it does.

Unfortunately I don't think it's amazing movie which is why I'm only giving it a 7.1.  I just really like it for bias reasons I'm sure.

What stands out: John Cusack might be the best romantic comedy comedian lead in my lifetime.  Sorry if you were born in the 90s and don't understand that.  Between this and like High Fidelity and Say Anything and Sixteen Candles and Better off Dead . . . .

Thing(s) I would change:  I don't know if they really had a strong enough connection to warrant doubting there love for there fiances.  They met once (maybe twice if you count having to go back to the restaurant) and didn't show as having all that much in common.  They didn't really get to know each other and kind of just thought each other were good looking I assume.  I think I might like it better if they spent more time there to establish a better starting connection and not just a one day (and brief) meeting.  Like the movie Before Sunrise spent the whole move on their day they met and wanted to come back to met each other.  It's much more believable in Before Sunset that they think about each other based on that one day meeting.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"Maybe we're lying here because you don't wanna be standing somewhere else."  I love this line.  Hopefully it's self explanatory.

There is a deleted scene on the DVD version in the Serendipity restaurant called "cubing".  She walks John Cusack through a sort of Rorschach thought experiment that is suppose to tell you about the person.  It's rather interesting.  Also in that deleted scene you can see that the devil that later pushes all the elevator buttons is at the restaurant as well.  Makes me wonder if they really needed to take that scene out.

Lars! He's a funny character.  He's like the perfect OK boyfriend.  Girls stereotypically love musicians right.  Oh, he's a flutist though (shehnai to be exact)? His ring doesn't fit. His box proposal.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: A Lot Like Love, When Harry Met Sally, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Forrest Gump but only a little, 500 days of Summer.

"Side" note: "Oh my GAWD this frozen hot chocolate is so good."  Bullcrap!  If you go to Serendipity's in New York DO NOT GET THE HOT CHOCOLATE!  It's rubbish!  The sundae's are where it's at for desserts.  The frozen hot chocolates tastes like a Frosty which you can get from Wendy's at anytime.  The sundae's have a piece of pie stuck in them.  They are amazing compared to the frozen hot chocolate.  Humble pie sundae is my favorite.  Also the High heel pump is my favorite thing to eat there for non-desserts.

Back to the Future 1-3 (1985-1990)

MIMDB score: 8.8, 8.0, 7.1
Current IMDB score: 8.5, 7.8, 7.4
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Main Actors you care about: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

Why I liked it: Maybe one of the most entertaining portrayals of time travel.  I think if backwards time travel existed it wouldn't exactly work like this but I think it's one of if not the most entertaining portrayals of it.  I think all the movies in the "similar" section besides Time Machine needed Back to the Future to exist for people to think of there plot.  A future movie has yet to provide the amount of entertainment for me that these movies gave me.  John Williams's theme is way too good.  On par with the feeling you get from the Star Wars theme.

What stands out: The plot for sure.  The music for sure.  The acting is good enough.  The small jokes like "heavy" are awesome.  The recurrent events like manure on the Biff character is great.  I guess if you didn't like the movies they would seem repetitive but I think it gets at the underlying message about change maybe.  Maybe it's the movie's way of saying you can only change so many things when time traveling.  Maybe it's the movie's way of saying you can only change so many things in your own life and that some things don't change no matter what you do.


Thing(s) I would change: I don't get the chicken thing.  It's like Marty gets called a chicken and then all hell breaks loose in his mind and he can't think correctly.  In real life that probably be his down fall.  In the last one the address it and he changes which I guess is his character growth but I think it's lame.  I think there is a better way of showing character growth in Marty.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
Younger Dr. Emmett Brown: [running out of the room] 1.21 gigawatts! 1.21 gigawatts. Great Scott!
(Of course)

Marty McFly: Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Precisely.
Marty McFly: Whoa. This is heavy.
Dr. Emmett Brown: There's that word again. "Heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?

Marty McFly: [to Uncle Joey as a baby, playing in his playpen] So you're my Uncle Joey. Better get used to these bars, kid.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, future boy, who's President of the United States in 1985?
Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?

Stella Baines: You know, Marty, you look so familiar to me. Do I know your mother?
Marty McFly: [turning to look at Lorraine, his mother in the future] Yeah, I think maybe you do...

Dr. Emmett Brown: It's gonna be really hard waiting 30 years before I can talk to you about everything that's happened in the past few days. I'm really gonna miss you, Marty.
I didn't notice this but I guess that's hopefully how Doc choice Marty to be the one to go back in time.  It's not like they ever really explain there relationship besides he just kind hangs out with some old science guy.

Doc: The time-traveling is just too dangerous. Better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe: women!
True Dat!

Young Biff: Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?
Old Biff: It's *leave*, you idiot! "Make like a tree, and leave." You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.
I feel like without this joke the Boondock Saints wouldn't have made its joke.

Doc: Marty, you're going to have to do something about those clothes. You walk around town dressed like that, you're liable to get shot.
Marty McFly: [gesturing a rope around his neck, weakly] Or hanged.
Doc: What idiot dressed you in that outfit?
Marty McFly: [smiles weakly] You did.

Marty McFly: Mr. Strickland! Mr. Strickland. It- it- it's me, sir. It's Marty!
S. S. Strickland: Who?
Marty McFly: [terrified] Marty McFly! Marty McFly! Don't you know me, sir? From school, sir!
S. S. Strickland: I've never seen you before in my life, but you look to me like a slacker!
See, these jokes never get old. . . .

Doc: Sometime today, old Biff will show up to give young Biff the Almanac. Above all, you must not interfere with that event. We must let Old Biff believe he succeeded, so that he'll leave 1955 and bring the DeLorean back to the future.
Good time thinking.

Doc: And in the future, we don't need horses. We have motorized carriages called automobiles.
Saloon Old Timer #3: If everybody's got one of these auto-whatsits, does anybody walk or run anymore?
Doc: Of course we run. But for recreation. For fun.
Saloon Old Timer #3: Run for fun? What the hell kind of fun is that?
Amen Saloon Old Timer #3

Man the hover board scene.  I'm not talking about the first one in the future but the second one in the past in the tunnel.  That amazed me when I first watched it.  I feel like this is amazing.  This type of scene where the protagonist needs something in the car happens in a bunch of movies and this one does it near perfectly.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Donnie Darko, any time traveling movie really, so Time Machine, Looper, Predestination, Terminator 1 and 2, Butterfly Effect, Interstellar, and even Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  There's a bunch more but those were entertaining to me.  I feel like Back to the Future was a time travel genre staple which is why I'm reviewing it.

"Side" note:
Marty McFly: [showing the two boys how to play the shoot 'em up video game] I'll show you, kid. I'm a crack shot at this.
[shoots a perfect score with the electronic gun]
Video Game Boy #1: You mean you have to use your hands?
Video Game Boy #2: That's like a baby's toy!
Video Game Boy #1 is Elijah Wood

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

MIMDB score: 8.7
Current IMDB score: 9.3
Director: Frank Darabont
Main Actors you care about: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Why I liked it: Why does everyone like this movie?  Is it really the best movie ever rated?  Is it overrated?  I kind of think not.  It's one of the few movies I'm at least ok watching at any time.  There some movies you have to be in the mood for but this I don't think is one. It's just good and not in a mood way.  I think that's what makes it rated so highly.  Other movies that require a mood to be in because the genre is only when you feel happy, sad, nostalgic, Christmasy, comedy time, scary time, etc.  It's just an amazing drama that you could watch in near any mood because it's so appealing to the mind.  It has a loner main character who isn't really a loner which I feel a lot of people are like that or think they are like that.

I think this movie is about how life is better when you have hope.  Most of the movie aligns with that except kind of the kid who wants to get his high school diploma.  I guess as with Brooks who killed himself he didn't fully have hope in his test taking skills?   Just like Brooks he didn't have hope?  I guess the old guy didn't have as much hope as Freeman did about life outside of prison even though Freeman seems to be the advocate of not having hope.  So I don't know about the consistency of the theme of hope but never the less it's the main theme.

Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins do amazingly.  Everyone does really well really.  That probably adds to the success.  This movie also seals Freeman's success as a narrator.  There no part where I think "oh this is a movie" instead of oh this is a documentary about Andy Dufresne.

Another thing that shows up in universally well-liked movies is the position the movie places you.  Being in prison is something foreign yet everyone can put themsleves in the position of a prisoner and think through what they would do in the that position.  Titanic does the same thing.  The movie asks you to be in the place of one of the actors and what would you do in that position.  This type of feeling you can get from that is universal in my opinion and what makes movies like Shawshank and Titanic universally appealing.

Thing(s) I would change: Escape from prison was awesome.  I love that stuff for some reason.  What I don't get is I feel like it would taken a lot longer than it took him to dig that far.  As well as he would have broken that stone sharpener a few times I feel like digging that much.  He also would have been way more tired than the movie made him out to be if he spent most nights digging.  It's a movie though I don't think it's a big deal that these were overlooked.  Some of them are nit picky as well.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"Get busy livin or get busy dyin'"  I don't know if this movie coined the phrase but definitely not the idea.  It much like "Carpe Diem" but has more impact I feel like.  This quote can apply to many different parts of your life than just your overall direction.

"I've been known to locate certain things from time to time"  I think that makes people smile in a sly way but not too sly way.  It's a Goldie-locks amount of sly.  I think it makes them smile in a good way which leads to this movie success.  That's the type of smile you should get from this movie and should really be what all good movies try to achieve.

"Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side."  Same kind of smile.

"Sometimes it makes me sad, though... Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend."  Different kind of smile but on the same general idea.

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."
"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."  I don't know who is more right but I like to think Andy was when it comes to hope.  I understand Red's point and it's a cynical point.  It's better though to still have hope and be hopeful all those years and not get something good near the end of life than be miserable throughout life and then get nothing at the end of life.  Right?  It's nice to realize that but that doesn't effect whether you or I really have hope in anything though.

Warden Samuel Norton: [as he hands Andy's bible back to him] "Salvation lies within."  These lines are so good.   These type of lines are in other movies but then don't have ALL the other things this movie has going for it.  It takes a whole lot to make a whole movie good.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Last Castle, The Counte of Monte Cristo, Prison Break season 1 but that's not that great of a show.

"Side" note: This movie makes me want to spend time in jail despite a lot of the negative things it points out about jail.

Matilda (1996)

MIMDB score: 7.2
Current IMDB score: 6.8
Director: Daney DeVito
Main Actors you care about: Danny DeVito, Mara Wilson, Rhea Perlman

Why I liked it: For some reason most people believe kids have nothing of value when it comes to thinking.   I kind of understand it but movies like this should open the mind to thinking that all people (including children) have valid idea/thoughts that should be thought about just like if the thought/idea is coming from a more experienced adult.

Thing(s) I would change: There's a few slow motion scenes that don't need to be slow motion.  I don't get why they are there?  Maybe it's just the TV version I keep watching that has it in there.

The movie puts books on a pedestal.  Yea books can be helpful but book reading is outdated I think.  I understand that's were knowledge used to come from and imagination use to excel with the weapon of books but I think we moved past them.  They are currently a slow way of learning things and things can be learned faster I think now with the internet.  Also some people are visual learners and not textbook learners.  Just because they are visual learners doesn't mean they are any less intelligent I would think.  I understand it's not a popular statement about books not being great but I'm making it.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene: The Trunchbull actress was spot on to her character. She did quite well.  Matilda (Mara Wilson) did well enough but I don't know if she did outstanding by any means.  I think Danny Devito did as well as Trunchbull as well.  He probably really enjoyed the book considering he directed the movie as well as acted in it.

Harry Wormwood/Trunchbull: "I'm smart, you're dumb; I'm big, you're little; I'm right, you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it."  This is the stuff I'm talking about.  Too many people believe they are better than children.

Trunchbull: "I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. I think they do it deliberately, just to annoy me."  Piggybacking on the last quote this is how people think and I don't get it.  Kids get a bad wrap.  People really don't understand that they were just as annoying or time consuming when they were kids and yet they can not get past that kids have a less time to experience the world and will be slightly slower for a little bit.  They can't get over that time that they will need help learning and thinking.  It's just an inconvenience for them to deal with the younger person.  I wonder if they that kind of person would be friends with themselves in five years.  Five years ago they were probably in a different thought place and probably couldn't deal with how slow at thought they used to be.  It just doesn't make sense to treat people worse or complain about someone who is at the same place in their own thoughts.

Agatha Trunchbull: "They're all mistakes, children! Filthy, nasty things. Glad I never was one."  Like that.

Harry Wormwood: "To read? Why would you want to read when you got the television set sitting right in front of you? There's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster."  I understand this sort of contradicts my statements but there is good TV out there that will challenge you just as much as books.   There are some books that will be a harmful to your mind just like some TV.  TV doesn't rot your mind.  You rot your mind.

This scene always makes me smile:
Harry Wormwood: SHUT UP AND LEAVE US ALONE!
Matilda: Yell at me again!
Harry Wormwood: [in a rage] Yell at ya?
[storming towards her]
Harry Wormwood: I'll come in there and pound your miserable hide! What do I have to do to gain respect around here? I'm gonna give you a tanning like you never had in your life! My word is my law!

The cake eating scene always makes me smile as well.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: All the Roald Dahl movies: Witches, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, James and the Giant Peach, the BFG.

"Side" note: Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman are actually married in real life.  At least they were married in real life at one time.  They are divorced now unfortunately.

Eating that much cake like that boy did is so impossible.  I tried eating a whole batch of brownies one time and got sick 3/4's of the way through and that was equivalent to 3-4 slices of that cake probably.

I feel like this plot was the precursor for Harry Potter.  I'm just guessing though.