The Resident Bitch Prepares for... the Most Recent MoFo Countdown

I think that I empathized more with his character because I watched a few friends go through something similar. There's this sense that you have to "make it", and that becomes a consuming urgency.

It felt like the movie was able to recognize the absurdity of his behavior while also being sympathetic to his drive to succeed.

I think that the reminders of his age are also a bit of dramatic irony, because, of course, .

Right. I think it's important to note that tick tick BOOM was written by the protagonist himself! You sort of have to filter in the fact that this is from his own point of view about how he behaved, how the people around him acted, etc.

I also think that one of the revelations of the film is that he is surrounded by people who are supportive, but he's been too self-involved to really process that fact.

Leap of Faith
(Richard Pearce, 1992)

I debated on including this write-up here since I've decided that this tale of what faith can do to and for the desperate doesn't really fit for the purposes of the countdown (there are characters that do a lot of singing of some very lively and uplifting gospel music, but they are minor characters that exist only to sing), but f*** it, this is my thread and I'll do what I want.

Although I've never considered myself a fan of Steve Martin (and having recently suffered through Little Shop of Horrors and Pennies From Heaven hasn't changed that for the better at all), I've always thought he was amazing in this performance as evangelical preacher Jonas Nightengale. He is funny, charismatic, and completely believable as a con man whose truck breaks down in a poor small town and he decides to make his money where he can. He's absolutely mesmerizing.

The remaining cast - including Debra Winger, Lolita Davidovich, Liam Neeson, Lukas Haas, Meat Loaf, and Philip Seymour Hoffman - are good, but their talents are wasted here in underdeveloped and largely forgettable characters. The story, too is kind of weak and it fumbles the ending with too much schmaltz and preachiness, but that central performance and the music are so good that I've always been able to forgive it its shortcomings.

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Been soooo long since I have watched Leap Of Faith. You would think it would be a movie that sticks with you, but besides its conceit I remember nothing.

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Letterboxd

Grease 2
(Patricia Birch, 1982)

Things I liked about this movie: Maxwell Caulfield looked pretty good as "Michael" - not Johnny Depp in Cry-Baby good, but pretty good.

Things I didn't like about this movie: Pretty much everything else.

I thought the songs were pretty terrible. The dancing was cringey. The characters' over-exaggerated accents and repeated mispronunciations were irritating ("albumens," ugh). The "tough guy" biker T-Birds were about the least intimidating tough guys I've ever seen - and could someone explain to me what is cool about a biker who doesn't have his own bike and instead rides in his buddy's sidecar? Also for being the "cool guys" the T Birds were pretty fugly and Goose in particular looked like he was pushing 35 (I know it's standard practice for adult actors to be cast as teenagers, but come on). I was bothered by the rapey overtones of the "Do It For Our Country" scene, which is played for laughs. I didn't for one second buy that a guy who looks like Michael would be othered and ignored as a "nerd" no matter how good he is at writing essays or what he knows about history and Shakespeare. And speaking of Michael, what the hell was that ending? I'm expected to be happy that the decent and smart guy is falling in with the loser T Bird squad? Yeah, no. About the only thing I liked about the ending was that it meant the movie was over.

What a mess.

Enchanted
(Kevin Lima, 2007)

Disney satirizes itself.

Enchanted is an, uh, enchanting send up of the classic Disney Princess movies and features an absolutely perfect cast. Amy Adams and James Marsden are basically human cartoon characters who absolutely excel at being both ridiculous and adorable. They also boast some pretty impressive singing chops, even if I'm not overly fond of the type of music in this movie. Patrick Dempsey excels at being the uh, (not Mc)dreamy love interest. Timothy Spall excels at being the evil henchman in love with the far more evil queen Susan Sarandon - who also excels. Rachel Covey is kind of the picture perfect cute kid. About the only larger role that is forgettable is Idina Menzel in the non-singing role of Dempsey's girlfriend Nancy.

The movie does a wonderful job of poking fun at itself and its predecessors while still oozing with charm, romance, and fantasy. It's also offers some beautiful costumes and set pieces, very good CGI, and a lot of humor. If I have a complaint, it's that the movie is almost sickeningly wholesome, but it's just so fun (and Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden look so good) that I can pretty easily forgive that. It's also definitely not a favorite movie of mine, but as musicals go I think it's pretty great.

Once
(John Carney, 2007)

Not a lot to say about this one. The story and its characters are fine. It’s simple and sweet. I did like some of the music. "Falling Slowly" is obviously a very pretty song and there were some others I can't name that I thought were good too. But there is one major problem: I really don’t like Glen Hansard’s singing voice. I find it very grating. It was fine when he was singing with someone else, especially if it was a softer song, but just about anytime he sang alone I wanted to turn off the movie. This is especially a problem in the first few minutes of the film when we are subjected to his screeching on two different songs.

Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good movie but I don't think it's one that will stick with me and I won't be voting for it.

I really enjoyed Once when it first came out (and of course it had a ton of buzz). But I've never felt any particular desire to revisit it.

Of course not, that's why it's called Once.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

BOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
(Jake Kasdan, 2007)

As is typical of Judd Apatow's creations, the comedy in this movie didn't work for me. Not one joke or site gag ever got so much as a chuckle from me. I found it painfully unfunny and the repetition of the same jokes over and over ("The wrong kid died!" ) was incredibly tedious. I also didn't care at all for the characters so I couldn't even enjoy it from that angle.

Where I do have praise for this though is the songs. They're genuinely good. Being parodies, they are derivative by necessity but they do have a certain authenticity to their sound. They really feel like tunes that could easily have come from that era and I like the sound of them. Hell I even cracked a smile a time or two during the performances.

But really good music isn't enough to make for a good movie experience and I just don't like this movie.

I just rewatched this. It's definitely confirmed that I do like the movie, but it's also definitely too bizarre to be something I think I could ever love. I'm going to keep my rating at .

It's one of a handful of movies currently vying for the #23 and #24 slots so its chances of making it on my ballot aren't looking too good.

I decided to sign up for a month of DisneyPlus. I'll probably cancel it like I did with Netlfix, but for now...



Disenchanted
(Adam Shankman, 2022)

This movie doesn't quite have the charm of the original and I wish Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden had more screen time (mostly because I like looking at them), but it was still pretty fun. The costumes were gorgeous, it was neat to see the original cast together again, and I thought Maya Rudolph made a pretty good villain. Not great, but as sequels go not bad at all.

Grease
(Randal Kleiser, 1978)

Things I liked about this movie:

Things I didn't like about this movie: Everything.

Against my better judgement, I decided to give this a rewatch after there was some discussion of it in the Group Watch thread. Yeah, Danny's a douche. Sandy's an idiot. Their friends are annoying. The songs suck. The dancing sucks. These "kids" all look like they're in their 30s. There were a few super cringey scenes. Overall this movie is just as stupid and problematic as its sequel, but to make things worse it doesn't even have the decency to offer some eye candy.

I like the movie Grease, so I disagree with your rating, but some of your comments are accurate.

Yes, but only because he's trying to look cool in front of his friends. Sandy met him over the summer, when he had the freedom to be himself without his friends watching, and that's why she likes him. And he redeems himself at the end when he shows that he's willing to change for her and be the person she fell in love with again.


Yes, but mainly because she's in love with Danny, and she doesn't want to give up on finding the guy that she fell in love with over the summer. But I agree that she's an idiot for trying to change for him, rather than trying harder to find the guy she knows he can be when he's not trying to look cool.


I can't really argue with this one.


I completely disagree with this. I like most of the songs in the movie, especially "Hopelessly Devoted to You".


Yeah, some of the dancing is pretty bad.


Yes, but that's common for a lot of these high school movies, so I usually try not to let it bother me.


I think the sequel is much worse due to bad acting, bad singing, bad songs, and some very stupid scenes.


Frankie Avalon is handsome when he sings "Beauty School Dropout", and Olivia Newton-John is pretty, but that's about it.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

So he's a spineless douche.

I would've rather seen her show some self respect and find someone else entirely.

Obviously this is all a matter of taste. I thought the songs were exceptionally annoying.

I wasn't impressed with any of the acting, singing, songs, or just about anything else in either movie.

Neither of them do anything for me.

Wish
(Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, 2023)

The animation on this looked great (though it’s Disney, so it would be shocking if it didn’t), but the story, characters, and songs were pretty forgettable. Not terrible, but definitely not good.

The reviews for Wish were pretty bad when it came out, so I haven't been too hyped to see it, and based on your review it sounds like the reviews were right. I'll probably watch it eventually, (when it airs on TV), but I don't have high hopes for it.

I'm pretty sure that this is the movie Allaby was alluding to in his comments in the Group Watch thread, so because I only have a little bit of time left before my Netflix subscription runs out I thought I'd get a jump on this and get it out of the way now.

Here's hoping that a) I'm not wrong about this being what he was referring to and b) he doesn't change his mind and nominate something else when it's his turn again.



A Week Away
(Roman White, 2021)

Being sent away to a week at a Christian Youth Summer Camp sure sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me, but I can't really buy that this would actually be offered as an alternative to juvenile hall to a repeat-offending delinquent who just got caught stealing a police car. But there I was watching this happen in the opening scene and already struggling with suspension of disbelief before we even get to the religious stuff.

Not that the movie takes its time before it starts pelting my ears with songs about how great God is. Though I do have to say these songs were marginally more tolerable than those in the last two "teen romance" live-action musicals I watched (Grease and Grease 2). I mean, at least I didn't have to listen to anyone sing about girls creaming over the guys' pussy wagon or about how a girl should "do it" for her country. But the songs were still not at all pleasant for me to hear. Besides the subject of the songs, I really disliked the singing itself. "Avery," the main character's crush, has a singing voice that was really grating to me to the point of being physically painful to listen to and her awful lip-synching and the weirdly mismatched tone of her singing vs her facial expressions during the "Awesome God"/"God Only Knows" Medley were equally painful to watch. She had tears streaming down her face, but not even a hint of emotion in her voice and her trembling lips certainly didn't match up with the lyrics. Bizarre.

This movie also goes out of its way to be aggressively wholesome to the point of being nauseatingly so. I get that this is a Christian movie and this is sort of par for the course for this kind of thing, but damn they could've toned it down a touch and made some of the characters at least a little interesting. These kids are such a bunch of goody-goody dorks that even the would-be bully among them has a scene where he complains about "freezing his buttocks off" while working to save the narwhals. Ugh.

But obviously as a 40-something, musical-hating atheist I am very much not in this movie's target demographic so my criticisms of it won't and shouldn't mean much to the people who do or might enjoy it. And I will say it's pretty far from being my least favorite musical, but that's about the highest praise I'll give it.

Winnie the Pooh
(Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall, 2011)

Cute, but I've come to the conclusion that although I really like Eeyore, the rest of the characters are pretty annoying.