Movies Seen

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Movies, videos, and shows generally an hour or more in length. Shorter videos are listed under Concerts, Lectures, and More.

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).



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

  10. Rick Steves: Italy's Cities 2000-2009 ★★★★★
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. National Treasure ★★★

    16. March

  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. Ken Burns' America: The Statue of Liberty ★★★★ I've yet to be disappointed by either Ken Burns or David McCullough, and this features both.
  19. 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.

    20. May

  20. The Inn of the Sixth Happiness ★★★
  21. Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale This 1981 BBC production started mediocre but ended better. ★★★
  22. Super Size Me ★★ ☢☢☢
  23. Shakespeare: The Tempest Another BBC production, not stunning but it was good to see; I'd only seen snippets before. ★★★
  24. 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.
  25. 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. ★★★★
  26. 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.
  27. Get Smart ★★★ ☢ ☢ It's a funny movie, but I'd rate it worse than its PG-13 for language and sexual content.

    28. August

  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. 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
  31. 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.
  32. 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.
  33. 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.
  34. 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.
  35. 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.
  36. 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.