Ponyo: A Cliff by the Sea

I love this movie.  I first saw it in theaters, and then again on Netflix.  The animation is stunning, and the story is simple, sweet, and moving. It's by Hayao Miyazaki, who also made Spirited Away and  Princess Monoke (and a bunch of other stuff you've probably never heard of).  It's a little heavy-handed with the environmentalism (a flaw in several Ghibli films), but it really is an amazing movie.  Ghibli movies are one of the delightful things my live-in-animator has introduced me to.  While Ponyo isn't my favorite (that's a tie between Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service), it's the only one I've seen in theaters. A strong A.


http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Ponyo/70106454?trkid=2361637#height2018

Batman: Under the Red Hood

I'm not usually a huge fan of super hero animation.  However, I live with an animator, and that means I see a lot of animation.  I really liked this one.  The animation is beautiful, and the characters have some depth to them.  The plot is interesting, although the "twist" was a little predictable.  It was a little action-heavy for me, and there were times when I sort of tuned out on the 5-6 minute long fight scenes.  All that being said, this is a good story, well told.  A solid B.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Batman-Under-The-Red-Hood/70135479?trkid=438403#height1591

Worst Movie Ever

Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever
I saw this movie at the dollar theater, and I paid WAY WAY too much to see it.  It's nearly 2 hours of Lucy Lui and Antonio Banderas in skin-tight black leather, and it still manages to be awful.  I would, honestly, consider staring at a still picture of the two of them for two hours before I would watch this movie again. It's confusing and stupid.  It's directed by someone billed only as Kaos, whose previous directing experience is some Youtube music videos. This movie somehow manages to be exactly bad enough to not be funny, but still be hideous.  F-
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Ballistic_Ecks_vs._Sever/60023649?trkid=2361637#height1738

Documentaries

Jesus Camp
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Jesus_Camp/70054721?trkid=2361637#height1624
This movie is disturbing, and it makes me scared for our country. Also, it makes me hate evangelical Christians (which, to be fair, doesn't take much).  A+

Exit Through the Gift Shop
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Jesus_Camp/70054721?trkid=2361637#height1624
This is an art documentary about art.  I loved this documentary, but it's hard to know what to say about it.  I still don't really know what to think of it.  Is it all a hoax?  Just watch it. A

Becoming Human
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Becoming_Human_Nova/70128376?trkid=2361637
You all know I'm very into early human archeology, so my love of this comes as no surprise.  It's interesting, in particular, because it talks about the people who made the discoveries, as well as the actual discoveries themselves.  It's archeology and history of archeology both.  It's in three parts, so it's about 3 hours all told.  Because it was intended to air separately, there's a lot of repetition between the episodes, when you watch them back-to-back. A-

Supernatural Teen Soap Opera

Now, as you all know, this is my favorite of all genres.  Here are some of the best (and not so good)


Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 

This is the gold standard of teen supernatural soap opera ("Now every girl with a henna tattoo and a spice rack thinks she's kin to the dark ones...").  I watched this show as it came out (Buffy was a year behind me in high school); Willow Rosenberg was the first character I ever saw on TV who I really identified with. Turns out, in the unaired pilot, she was supposed to be fat (not actually fat, but TV fat).  Apparently, the network told Joss she had to be pretty. Now, it seems, my students love it as much as I did.  I hear they call me Giles behind my back! (but we all know I'm actually still in my Ripper phase).

Although,  the production values are crap (especially in early seasons) and the metaphor of adolescence as hell is sometimes ridiculous, Joss Whedon's amazing writing always carries it through, and frequently makes it among the best shows on television.  Personally, my favorite seasons are 4 and 6 (but I understand I'm in the minority here).  A+ for seasons 1-6, B+ for season 7.

Avalon High: This is a surprisingly non-awful Disney Chanel TV movie. Best for 10-15 year olds, this is the story of a high school aged girl whose parents are Arthurian scholars. She moves to Avalon, a town with an Arthurian connection, and wacky high-jinks ensue. It's quite predictable, and the characters are awfully one-dimensional, but it's entertaining fluff, and I expect kids will like it. It's no Buffy, but it's not bad. It's based on a book (or maybe a series of books?) of which I have no knowledge.  Solid B.

The Craft: Private high school, check! Teen witchcraft, check! Fairuza Balk, check! This movie is goofy, supposedly insulting to Wiccans, preachy, and has a holier-than-thou do-gooder as the protagonist, but I'm embarrassed to say that I love it anyway.  Someone once compared me to the main character (Sarah), and I nearly hit them.   B+





Here are some other great teen (or twenty-year-olds behaving as if they're teens) supernatural soap operas which are sadly unavailable to watch instantly:

Point Pleasant: This is a pretty good show about the antichrist. It's written and produced by Marti Noxon, who used to write Buffy. It's a little slow moving. B

Charmed: This show is not actually very good, but it does have an amazing, sexy, doomed romance with a demon, and you know I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.  Bonus points: the sexy demon is played by the hot guy from Nip/Tuck. B- to B+ depending on the season

Hex: It turns out that private girls school has a lot less sexy witchcraft than movies and TV had led me to believe. This is one of those private school witchcraft TV shows. It's British, and it goes very slowly, but it's not bad. B

Little Witches: This is sort of like a cross between The Craft and Hex.  It takes place at a Catholic girls school, which is closed over Easter break.  It stars someone who looks like Fairuza Balk, but isn't, and a young Clea DuVall.  It's great fun.  Netflix doesn't even have it on disk (or acknowlege it's existence), so it might be hard to find.  However, the Blockbuster I worked at when I was in high school had it, so it can't be too, too rare.  B

Other Post Apocalypse Recommends

Here's some other post apocalypse shows I've loved in the past:

Without a doubt, Battlestar Galactica is the single best post-apocalypse show ever.   One of the very best shows ever on TV (with the exception of the last few episodes).  If you have ever seen the old version, please don't let you turn you off of this.  The show is a sexy, gritty, exciting, emotional ride from start to finish (well, almost to finish).

I usually don't like space-opera, and I took some convincing before I tried this show.  Please don't let that happen to you.  I'm not playing around, this show is AMAZING.  I've been re-watching this show. and  I had forgotten just how fraking awesome it is.  In some ways, it's even better the second time around.  Seasons 1 and 2 are much better than 3 and 4, but it's all great. A+ for season 1, A for seasons 2-4. D for the final episode.

Jeremiah: This TV show opens about 10 years after a plague wiped out all the adults in the world. The two main characters, played by that guy from 90210 and that guy from the Cosby show (who got really hot!) travel around the post-apocalypse world doing good and searching for Valhalla.  The show has high production values, and is especially interesting in the first season.

While not all the episodes are written by him, the show was developed by Michael J. Straczynski (the Babylon 5 guy).

I hear it's based on a graphic novel, which I always intend to read, but haven't yet.  B







Jericho: This show takes place after a nuclear strike, in a small midwestern town.  The first season I like, but after that it gets bogged down in complicated meta plot.  B for the first season, C+ after that.
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Jericho_Season_1/70058426?trkid=2361637

Survivors

Because of all the snow, I've had a lot of time off work lately, with not much to do.  Thus, the spate of post-apocalypse TV marathons in my living room.  Here's what I've watched lately:


Some of you might not know this, but I'm obsessed with thinking about how to survive/rebuild after an apocalypse. Seriosly, I'm one step away from hoarding antibiotics and beef jerky. I mean, I do hoard beef jerky, but I only have, like, 2 courses of antibiotics squirreled away. I in no way have a closet full of veterinary grade antibiotic powder. That would be crazy. :)

Due to this, I'm a huge fan of post-apocalypse fiction, both the sad, gritty kind (The Road) and the goofy kind (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome). I just love the idea of people rebuilding civilization using nothing but their wits. I'm always on the lookout for new post-apocalypse movies and TV.


Survivors is a British TV show about the (few) survivors of a global flu pandemic.  The first season covers the usual post-apocalypse sorts of things....a group of strangers band together to make a place for themselves in the new world.  Each of the characters has an interesting back story, and, although sort of archetypal, they're all believable people with believable motivations.  (Mostly).  I did spend a non-trivial amount of time during the first few seasons yelling at them to be less traumatized and go raid a camping store, but that pretty much happens with all post-apocalyptic fiction and me.

Even though I imagine the show had quite a small budget (it's BBC, afterall), it doesn't have any of the cheesy low production values that you sometimes see on British shows.  It seems to be shot on location in the English countryside, and in London, and there are very few special effects.  The pacing is good, and the show is overall enjoyable. I personally, like the first season better.  In the second season, it starts to get all "big plot" with an evil conspiracy behind the plague.   I always like that less than small, tight stories about individual people surviving.  B+