#2,430: Legends of the Hidden Temple

Chris Rock: Tamborine - ★★★☆☆
I found myself getting more interested in hearing about Chris Rock's life than in the jokes.

Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers - ★★☆☆☆
Anti-comedy you don't need to leave the house for!

Do you guys ever have that thing happen to you where you have an idea for a couple of youtube videos or maybe a podcast, but you're so famous that you end up making a special for Netflix or HBO?

Legends of the Hidden Temple - ★★★★☆
I was very surprised at how well done this is. I didn't really watch the game show, so it's sort of weird that I watched this, and I was probably a little bit surprised by times the script bent over backwards to set up a scenario from the show that a fan would have seen coming immediately. Even the VFX were pretty solid - I'm just really happy for whoever got to make this.

If it was something I or anyone else believed in, I would say this is firmly a movie for the New Sincerity movement.

#2,427: Black Panther

Justice League vs. Teen Titans - ★★☆☆☆
Movie contains:
• 40% - punching
• 25% - plot
• 20% - oogling Starfire
• 10% - DDR
• 5% - Justice League

Fruitvale Station - ★★★☆☆
I think I liked everything about this movie but the movie. I loved the look, the acting is great, everyone did a good job. And while it's totally not the point of this movie, I can't help but watch through my fingers as we see this guy having a nigh-saintly last day when we know what's coming for him and start wondering about the real circumstances of his life.

This feels tricky. Is the movie less compelling if he's not such a nice guy, or an outright creep? Or if it changes so many details that the film might as well not even use the name of the real person? A couple scenes lay it on so thick that it felt like the movie might be insecure about whether or not I cared about Oscar.

Black Panther - ★★★½☆
This movie reminds me a little bit of when short-lived TV shows of the '70s would package two episodes together into a movie. I wish we could have seen the whole series so that there would be time to dig into the fridge logic stuff of how life inside Wakanda makes sense.

Plus, everyone would be happy to get to spend more time with Killmonger! He's the Boba Fett of the MCU!

#2,424: The Cloverfield Paradox

Ingrid Goes West - ★★★★☆
This is the most realistic depiction of living in Los Angeles I've ever seen.

It Might Get Loud - ★★☆☆☆
I would like to see more documentaries with such a narrow interest, preferably on subjects that I care about.  It’s fun that Jack White thinks he’s into minimalism.

Dealt - ★★★☆☆
Richard Turner is a man who spent his life wanting to be known as a card sharp first and as a blind guy not-at-all. So it seems almost cruel that the documentary about him is a movie about a blind guy who is blind and developed fantastic skills with cards and also he's blind.

Still, I love seeing people with that bit for obsession flipped.

The Cloverfield Paradox - ★★★☆☆
The Cloverfield movies are so loosely connected to one another that if not for their titles it would just be a fun fan theory. Watch them in any order.

Appearing out of nowhere was a delightful trick. More than either of the others this movie is a mixed bag, but I still had a big smile on my face all through the first half. The B-plot is super thin. The effects are solid. Good actors smooth over some rough lines. It's better than a Syfy original or the typical Netflix sci-fi feature. This movie is like if one of those movies' uncle died and left it some real money.

#2,420: The Shape of Water

The New 8-bit Heroes - ★½☆☆☆
I stumbled a kickstarter campaign for a software toolkit for creating NES games. The creators said they came up with it in the making of their own game, and this movie is the story of how that went. Like most video game documentaries, it's deeply unsatisfying.

I think this movie is badly written, too long, and jammed too far up the director/producer/writer/star’s dream of being a reality tv star to focus on the interesting parts of his own story, but by the end of it I guess I can kind of admire his grit.

I, Tonya - ★★☆☆☆
I can respect the craftsmanship on display in this movie, but it is simply not for me. Give Allison Janney her prize, keep working on the computers to do that creepy face swap thing, throw in all of the cues to being a piece of scrappy, down-in-the-dirt filmmaking (with huge name actors and award season aspirations) you want.

I'm not saying you shouldn't see this, I'm saying I shouldn't.

The Shape of Water - ★★★★★
Do you want deep one hybrids? Because this is how you get deep one hybrids.

The Shape of Water is this year’s La La Land insomuch as all of the hype made going to see it feel like homework. Even more so because I don’t think of myself as being a fan of Guillermo Del Toro (or any movie Sally Hawkins has ever made), but he deserves that Golden Globe for directing and any other prize he can win. I liked The Post just fine, mostly because it looks like a Spielberg movie, but the shape of water looks like cinema. It’s a beautifully done adventure. And it had more in common with La La Land than I was expecting!

Octavia Spencer is getting to be as typecast as Jessica Chastain or Matthew Goode, but maybe not in as fun of a role. I guess if you have the opportunity to be in a good movie you take it, even if you have already played that character a few times. In fact, maybe she’s exactly the same character she is in Hidden Figures, just 10 years earlier. If that’s the case then it’s great to know everything works out for her. Maybe she receives a nice settlement so she doesn't tell everyone about her creepy boss and it puts her on the career path to middle management.

#2,417: All the Money in the World

The Post - ★★★☆☆
You know how in between Avengers movies, Joss Whedon ran off and made a little movie in his backyard? He got his friends together and they shot a Shakespeare play? This is that movie for Steven Spielberg. It’s timely, and interesting, and still looks for all the world like a Steven Spielberg movie, but it’s one he bashed out with his friends in between their day jobs of making huge blockbusters. You know, to relax.

All the President's Men - ★★★☆☆
The Post is like the Rogue One of Washington Post movies. So naturally we had to go home and put this on. Ed Bradlee really aged in those couple of years.

All the Money in the World - ★★★☆☆
I am wrong all the time about what movies awards show voters like, but I think I’d give this a nomination for cinematography in addition to the spite-noms for Christopher Plummer.

It would be so interesting for the original version of the movie to leak one day and do some comparisons.

Also, the movie sells itself short with that weird last chunk pasted in from a Taken movie.