#2,082: Oblivion

The Score - ★★½☆☆
I was surprised to see how recent this movie is. It feels dated the way a genre classic can sometimes feel dated – although it does a lot of what it does well, the films that came after reused and built upon its foundations, leaving modern audiences expecting more layers – except this isn't a genre-defining classic. It feels too easy. Like the last act is missing.

The Most Dangerous Game - ★★★★☆
A classic story told in a way that may feel dated today, but is still pretty fun and effective. Refreshing to see plot points that would be soaked in irony today played with some authenticity.

The Orphanage - ★★★★★
This movie is just full of things that I like.

For one, the trading game they play. I always like when adventure game-like elements turn up in a movie. For another, this movie has a spectacular bus hit.

Best of all, although I don't think of myself as a hardcore skeptic, the skeptic part of me loves that there's a movie like this one, a horror movie, and maybe a ghost story, where there's nothing supernatural going on.

I'd forgotten a lot of the opening to the movie, and how Simon says all these things that seem ominous in a scary movie, but probably aren't that weird for an imaginative kid to say. It's great how often the filmmakers are just screwing around with the audience, using the language of movies to insinuate things that aren't there. We get the benefit of Laura's confused, desperate, maybe drug-addled perspective.

Oblivion - ★★☆☆☆
I don't know what this film was really about. It seems like there were several more interesting stories going on just off-camera at any time. The exposition to plot ratio is enormous. This feels like Cruise's first try at satisfying the sci-fi, video gamey itch that didn't get scratched until Edge of Tomorrow