* The Muppets (Bobin, 2011)|||||5.5
It only took me sitting through it a second time, but I now like Jason Segel's Muppet movie. But I can't ignore how miserable that first viewing was. I think I could pinpoint my annoyance with the film to two major things: 1) The "faux-musical" schtick. Musical numbers filmed like ironic jokes, and the whole (500) Days of Summer, "half-assed-musical" aesthetic that needs to die slowly and painfully. This said, I now want to own "Life's a Happy Song." And 2), the scope of this thing is just so damn small. It is firmly of the age of the internet video, and the movie just feels like a long, Muppets spin-off Funny or Die video. Has the art of puppetry died, or is the never-ending stream of Muppet-high medium shots an aesthetic choice?
Now that I knew the film had nothing more to offer the Muppets universe in terms of scale other than hipster humor, I was able to sit back and process the jokes, the narrative arcs (that I felt were non-existent the first time around, although of course they're about a man-child, and "fitting in"), and the detail of Segel, Bobin and co.'s loving & comprehensive recreation of the Muppets and allusions to their most endearing bits.
But the scope thing really boils it down. There isn't a real movie around this thing. It's a lip service movie through and through, and you can analogize it to an SNL sketch spin-off movie that fails to make it movie-sized. It's all cute jokes and tribute, no narrative edge, and so it manages to have too much story and too little story at the same time. It's watching the 70s-originating Muppets in this somewhat-acceptable 2000s Muppet movie (with the lamest cameos ever) that really makes one miss the dirty, decrepit 70s.
Hugo (Scorsese, 2011)|||||6.5
The Last Laugh (Murnau, 1924)|||||8
The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg, 2011)|||||5.5
Puss in Boots (Miller, 2011)|||||5
Attack the Block (Cornish, 2011)|||||6.5
Wings of Desire (Wenders, 1987)|||||8
Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972)|||||8
The Sitter (Green, 2011)|||||4.5
'The Sitter' is about the same level of inspirations and idiocies as 'Your Highness,' but while Your Highness at least had the conviction of its homage and production scope, The Sitter is a through-and-through lark and pretty throwaway of a project. Green's thing is throwing things at the screen and hoping it sticks, is funny, and perhaps is even resonant and interesting, and as per usual, it's hit, miss, and "Why are you making this movie???"
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Bird, 2011)|||||7
Rubber (Dupieux, 2010)|||||6.5
Tentacles (Assonitis, 1977)|||||4
1/3 inept/occasionally risible (the movie has an hilariously negative-trajectory moral sense), 1/3 kinda delightful/"Whoa-surprise-graceful-camera-work," and then 1/3 pretty cool creature work. Which I guess makes it two-thirds "I am charmed." over one-third "This is mind-numbing and moronic."
Despite its reputation of simply being a turd (and with the occasional permission to check out of the film when it's being tedious), I'm solidly cataloging this in my "So bad it's good" file.
TrollHunter (Øvredal, 2010)|||||4Hunger (McQueen, 2008)|||||7.5
Winter's Bone (Granik, 2010)|||||5.5
The Muppets (Bobin, 2011)|||||4.5
Recessive (Kibens, 2011) (short)|||||++ / 6.5
The Haircut (Choi, 2009) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
The Call to the Post (Higdon, 2009) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
Sundown (Rentis, 2009) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Renoir, 1936)|||||8
A Day in the Country (Renoir, 1936) (short)|||||7.5
Thompson (Tippet, 2009) (short)|||||+ / 6
Finish Line (Chen, 2010) (short)|||||++ / 7
Andy (Ahn, 2010) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
Dos, Por Favor (Two Please) (Euresti, 2010) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
17 Meters (Schoenbaum, 2011) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
Light Escapes Through the Intervals (Tasaka, 2011) (short)|||||+ / 6
Nancy and the Dapper Toad (Samuels, 2010) (short)|||||++ / 7
Sully (Gupta, 2010) (short)|||||++ / 6.5
Forever's Gonna Start Tonight (Hittman, 2011) (short)|||||+ / 6.5
Storm Tiger Mountain (Cummings, 2009) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
Bygone Behemoth (Chaskin, 2010) (short)|||||+ / 5.5
A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, 2010)|||||5
Scarface (Hawks, 1930)|||||8
Bomb It (Reiss, 2007)|||||6.5
A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief (Reiss, 1988)|||||5
