Movies & TV Seen

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I have suspended this, at least for now, as keeping track has become annoying and I find it's not that important to me.

Ratings Guide: 0 to 5 ★s reflects how much I liked it (worst to best); 0 to 3 ☢s represents a content advisory (mildest to strongest).




2011

    January

  1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ★★★



Previous Years


2010

    January

  1. Reilly: The Ace of Spies ★★★ ☢☢☢ Deserves a review; I hope to get to it later.
  2. Food, Inc. ★★★★
  3. Rick Steves: Germany, Benelux and More 2000-2009 ★★★★★ I love Rick Steves' travel programs.
  4. Rick Steves: Austria and the Alps 2000-2009 ★★★★★
  5. Hercule Poirot's Christmas ★★★ Just for fun.
  6. Munyurangabo ★★ Rwanda post-genocide, but too slow, confusing, and artsy for me.
  7. The Merchant of Venice ★★★★★ ☢
  8. Les Triplettes de Belleville ★★★ ☢
  9. Rick Steves: Italy's Countryside 2000-2009 ★★★★★
  10. February

  11. Rick Steves: Italy's Cities 2000-2009 ★★★★★
  12. Jamie Oliver Eat to Save Your Life ★★ ☢ Eight parts, less than 10 min. each. The link is to Part 1; you can find the rest from there. Mild language warning. Stripped of the reality TV show trappings, it has about 20 minutes of really good stuff. It would be easy to spend too much time on his videos; there are many.
  13. Jamie's Fowl Dinners ★★★ ☢ Nine parts, oddly numbered 1-7, 9-10, between 2 and 10 min. each. The link is to Part 1. Factory farmed vs. free-range chickens in the UK. Mild language warning.
  14. Coriolanus ★★★ Hard to rate, since this BBC production of Shakespeare's final tragedy is the only one I've seen, but the acting could have been better.
  15. NOVA: Lord of the Ants ★★★★ Naturalist E. O. Wilson. Excellent show, and I'm even more struck by his resemblance, in appearance, speech, and manners to my father, and even more to my grandfather.
  16. National Treasure ★★★
  17. March

  18. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ★★★★ It's PG-13, mostly I think for violence, but I wouldn't rate it worse than PG myself.
  19. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ★★★★ Also PG-13, more deservedly so, as it's a bit more intense and scary. Still a lot of fun, however.
  20. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 ★★★
  21. Ken Burns' America: The Statue of Liberty ★★★★ I've yet to be disappointed by either Ken Burns or David McCullough, and this features both.
  22. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 2 ★★★★
  23. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ★★ Definitely PG-13 now, and the least interesting of the three. Still funny, but the only reason it's worth watching is if you've already come to like the characters through the first two. The first is clearly the best.
  24. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 3 ★★★★
  25. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 1 ★★★★ ☢ (language)
  26. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 2 ★★★★ ☢ (language) Elementary school students who don't know how to use a knife and fork? And school officials who think it's reasonable that they don't?
  27. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 4 ★★★★ My favorite so far.
  28. April

  29. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 3 ★★★★ ☢ (language) Best so far; we SO underestimate our kids.
  30. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 5 ★★★★ Got to see Gary Boyd Roberts briefly in this one.
  31. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 4 ★★★★ ☢ (language) I'm learning to appreciate his style and see the value of his crazy stunt. I wish healthy eating gave everyone his energy!
  32. Passport to Europe: Germany, Switzerland, and Austria ★★ We watched the parts about Switzerland (Zurich, Interlake, and St. Moritz), plus Salzburg. Interesting, but not nearly as good as Rick Steves. She spends too much time shopping and in fancy hotels.
  33. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 5 ★★★ ☢ (language) Not bad, but less interesting than previous episodes.
  34. May

  35. The Inn of the Sixth Happiness ★★★
  36. Monk The television show, all eight seasons, completed in May. ★★★★ ☢ mild language and violence—it's a murder mystery show.
  37. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 6 ★★ ☢ (language) The wrap-up. Unfortunately, Jamie nearly lost me on this one. It's one thing to change the food served by the schools, but his idea that all children should eat the school's lunch, and that the school should regulate any meal brought from home, is offensive.
  38. Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale This 1981 BBC production started mediocre but ended better. ★★★
  39. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 6 ★★★★★
  40. Super Size Me ★★ ☢☢☢
  41. Shakespeare: The Tempest Another BBC production, not stunning but it was good to see; I'd only seen snippets before. ★★★
  42. Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 7 ★★★★★ They get better and better. I'm looking forward to next season.
  43. Ken Burns' America: The Empire of the Air ★★★★ No, it's not a war film, but the fascinating story of the early days of radio and television.
  44. Shakespeare: Cymbeline I'm not really impressed with the BBC series, but this was better. It's a play I knew nothing about until our Teaching Company Shakespeare course. There are recycled plot elements, but it was still enjoyable. ★★★★
  45. The Dark Ages (The History Channel) ★★★
  46. In the Realms of the Unreal ★★★ We have absolutely no idea how this one got in our Netflix queue. Neither of us remembers putting it there. A little odd, but effectively told documentary about reclusive folk artist Henry Darger.
  47. Get Smart ★★★ ☢ ☢ It's a funny movie, but I'd rate it worse than its PG-13 for language and sexual content.
  48. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ("best of") ★★ and
  49. The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour ("best of") ★★★ Two comedy shows from 40 years ago; much of it is as funny as ever, but some is sad, in light of future trends.
  50. June/July

  51. Various odds and ends on two transatlantic flights. Nothing worth mentioning, except that I no longer feel that I'm missing something important by not getting the Discovery Channel. The two episodes I watched had a dismal content/fluff ratio.
  52. August

  53. Goodbye, Mr. Chips ★★★★ Very enjoyable, and not at all what I was expecting, having gotten it mixed up with Dead Poets Society in my mind.
  54. The Soloist ★★★ ☢ Based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a former Julliard cellist, now schizophrenic and homeless, and his encounters with Steve Lopez, a newspaper reporter. Moving, and sensitively written.
  55. Hollywood's Classic Comedy Teams: Amos & Andy (Check and Double Check) and Wheeler & Woolsey (Half Shot at Sunrise) ★★ I have no problem with political incorrectness in historical context, e.g. white actors in blackface, and racial stereotyping. But what I don't get is why anyone ever thought these movies funny
  56. Various episodes and short clips from Nineteen Kids and Counting on Hulu. ★★★★ I may not agree with them on several issues, but I can't help liking the Duggars.
  57. Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd ★★ ☢ Not the best Miss Marple movie, by far. But the story gets points for being based on a true, tragic event.
  58. Hollywood's Classic Comedy Teams: The Marx Brothers, Olsen & Johnson ★★★ I love the Marx Brothers; the short did not show them at their best, but the brief documentary of the team was worth the whole disk. Otherwise, I'm not finding these old shows very funny.
  59. Hollywood's Classic Comedy Teams: The Ritz Brothers, Clark & McCullough and The Three Stooges. ★★ The Three Stooges were funny, although clearly their best work was not featured here. How the "Niagara Falls" scene was not included is beyond me. As for the rest—I'm still wondering how these could have been called comedies.
  60. Funniest Moments in Comedy: Favorite Moments of the Stars, and Slapstick. ★★★ Historically interesting, and in a few places I did laugh out loud. Better than the other comedy series we've been watching from Netflix.
  61. Hollywood's Classic Comedy Teams: Abbott & Costello and Martin & Lewis. ★★ I've concluded that the only films the producers of this series could get rights to were far from the best. I know Aboott & Costello, and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, can be very funny. Just not here.
  62. The Shop Around the Corner ★★★ Like most Jimmy Stewart movies I've seen (not that I've seen many), I found this delightful, gentle, and in some ways funnier than the comedies we've been seeing lately.
  63. September

  64. Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun ★★★
  65. Toy Story 2 ★★★★ Finally saw this one; can't wait for the next, at least if I have grandkids to watch it with. I doubled over for the "Dont' touch my mustache" line. I also enjoyed the special feature about how someone executed an rm* on the drive with most of the movie on it, and all the backups had failed for a month, but the story was saved because a new mother had made a copy on her home machine so she could work from home and spend time with her baby.
  66. Veggie Tales: Larry Boy and the Fib from Outer Space ★★★ It's been a long time since I saw a Veggie Tales story, and the grandkids are a great age to watch them with.
  67. October

  68. Numb3rs The television show, of which finally finished all six seasons. ★★★★ ☢ ☢ Review to come; it's both fantastic and awful.
  69. Father Brown: Set 1, Disk 1 I love G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown detective stories, and so far this series seems reasonably true to the books. ★★★
  70. Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile (1978 version) ★★ It was okay, but I'll have to re-read the book to see if it is really as lame as the movie makes it out to be.
  71. Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle (2000) ★★★ ☢ Much better than we were expecting—neither of us remembered putting it into the queue!. A good mystery, inspired by the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes-like mentor. A bit gruesome.
  72. Babies ★★★ A visual story of four babies growing up in four cultures: Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Fun and cute, but it would have had more stars from me if it had had verbal commentary as well.
  73. Temple Grandin ★★★★★ Must see! Review to come.
  74. Born into Brothels ★★★★ Hope, heartbreak, and stunning photographs produced by children from Calcutta's red light district.
  75. December

  76. Toy Story 3 ★★★★