ugh you know that thing where when you read a word too many times and it becomes not a word, yeah, that happened to the word movie for me.
I suppose I ought to start out by explaining my review/rating scale.
It goes from 1-10 + an exceptions catagory. Refer to the ascii art for more info, table even more below for more explaination.
Dropped before completion, see table below
| Bad, i.e. Bee Movie
| | Average, i.e. modern pixar
| | | Great, must see.
| | | | 8-10 are mostly the same
1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8---9---10 just a video quality thing, see table.
| | | |________|_________|
| | Getting good, would recommend.
| Special kind of bad
Terribad, usually won't watch again.
As you can see from the ascii art, some of my ratings need a little extra explaination.
1 - These usually break some sort of cinema taboo for shock value, explained in the linked document. Either that or they're just that bad. Many modern comedies fall under this for me.
4 - These are those awful movies from your childhood, typically the live action TV movies made by Nickelodeon or Disney. Usually I'll rewatch these either for nostalgia or because I'm in the mood for a bad movie. Though this rating isn't strictly limited to these.
8 - Excellent movies, but the visuals don't require 1080p. I'm fine with DVD for these.
9 - Also excellent, but requires 720p for live action or 1080p for animation. Bluray quality is a must. Better audio is more better, won't watch on phone.
10 - These are the movies I'd consider to be just about perfect. 1080p@~10Mbps, must be ripped from Bluray if available so that it can go through my video processing pipeline (MPC-HC -> SVP -> MadVR). I also consider these to require either _good_ headphones or studio monitors. Theater viewing also works well.
Generally speaking, I recommend bluray quality wherever you can get it, but for 8-10 (excluding cases where it wasn't released in HD) the quality is a requirement.
So, that's my scale, let the reviews begin! Sometimes there will be links if I have more to say.
Snow Dogs (2002) [4] - Disney live action, where a dentist becomes a musher. This movie doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.
John Wick (2014) [6] - Don't kill John Wick's Dog. Similar vibe to Kill Bill, in a way.
Cube (1997) [5] - An interesting psych thriller. Low budget and takes place in a _tiny_ set. Very artsy.
Primer (2003) [6] - Confusing, but very well thought out time travel. I recommend watching at least once.
Kimi no Na wa. (2016) [10] - AKA "your name.". Probably my favorite movie to date. Highly recommended.
Tenki no Ko (2019) [10] - AKA "Weathering with You". I was lucky enough to see this one in theaters (twice!), also highly recommended.
Spirited Away (2001) [7] - This was my intro to Japanese films. Sub encouraged as the EN dub is a bit whiny. Story can be a bit hard to follow.
The Room (2003) [2] - Yikes this one was bad. Like one of those movies you show to people _because_ it's bad.
Matilda (1996) [6] - A Danny DeVito film based on a Roald Dahl book. Really good, though the story isn't very engaging.
Pulp Fiction (1994) [5] - A Tarantino film that is often refrenced and meme'd. Didn't hold my attention as well as Tarantino's other works.
Rabbits (2002) [5] - This David Lynch short made me really uneasy, but like in a good way. Recommended for anyone who's into that.
Cube^2: Hypercube (2002) [4] - Second installment of the Cu3e series. Still artsy but didn't quite engage me like the first.
Cube Zero (2004) [6] - Not as artsy as the previous two movies, but so much more engaging. If you didn't like the first, you won't like the last two.