8/7
Junior High School (Short, 1978, David Wechter & Michael Nankin, Digital Projection) - 9.0
From the genius directors of Midnight Madness, this is a musical about a day in the life of junior high school students starring actual junior high schoolers, including a 15 year old Paula Abdul, done in the style of a tv movie. It’s pretty heartwarming and realistic, and could practically pass for an actual tv movie if it weren’t also a comedy. Supposedly, it will be getting a DVD release someday soon, which will hopefully also include their educational spoofs Gravity and School, Girls, and You.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Prewatch, 1989, Stephen Herek, 35mm, Castro) - 9.0
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter need to pass their history test, because a peaceful future depends on it, so George Carlin shows up with a time machine to help them out. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid, but it holds up well, and is still hilarious. It’s also a great time travel movie, and I really fucking loved the payoff with Keanu’s dad’s missing keys.
Top Secret! (1984, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, 35mm, Castro) - 2.0
Val Kilmer is an American rock star who goes to Germany and ends up involved with the French Resistance. I like Val Kilmer a lot, but not even he could make this shit work, although I did like some of his dancing. I also appreciated the backwards scene and the underwater fight scene, but for the most part, it’s full of the worst kind of slapstick and obvious sight gags, which is not my style of humor at all. I felt like I could predict every single joke or gag that was about to happen. Humor works so much better for me when it catches me by surprise. So with nothing to laugh at, I was left fucking bored, and I hated it.
Get Crazy (1983, Allan Arkush, 35mm, Castro) - 6.0
Allen Garfield has a club that is planning a big New Year’s Eve party, but Ed Begley Jr. wants the property and plans to blow the place up when Garfield refuses to sell it to him. The cast in this movie is pretty amazing, and there’s no opening credits, so it’s kind of exciting as more and more people just keep showing up. But despite the cast, the humor in the movie is fairly retarded, so at first, I didn’t really like it. Although honestly, I don’t think I would have minded nearly as much had I not just been so bombarded with dumb humor throughout Top Secret. The second half of the movie picks up, though, because there are a lot of music performances that were really awesome. There’s a girl group called Nada (led by the lead female singer for Kid Creole), who do a really good song, and then they do another song with Lee Ving, who is fucking great, and then Malcolm fucking McDowell plays a rock star who does three songs that are all totally amazing. The movie could’ve, and should’ve, been a lot better, but I still liked it alright.
8/10
Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki, Projected DVD, Bridge) - 9.5
A young girl wanders into a fantasy bathhouse for gods and spirits, and they all hate humans, but she manages to get a job and win them over. All the different creatures are really amazing, and the animation is fucked up incredible. There’s also some scary shit, and even a fairly bloody sequence. It’s really great.
Kiki's Delivery Service (Prewatch, 1989, Hayao Miyazaki, Projected DVD, Bridge) - 8.0
A young witch takes off from home to find a new life for herself (as is tradition), and once she finds a new town, she sets up a flying delivery service. She meets some nice people, and a nice boy, and everybody laughs a lot, and occasionally shit gets dangerous. It’s really good. Super fucking cute and sweet.
8/13
Ponyo (2009, Hayao Miyazaki, 35mm, Balboa) - 7.5
A young boy finds a goldfish with a human face, who after drinking his blood, starts becoming human, and they love each other. Pretty cute story. Aside from some positions the kids end up in that might seem questionable if you’re dirty-minded enough (which I am NOT, Erin had to point them out to me), it’s exclusively geared toward kids. The animation was kind of interesting in that it’s got a classic style and literally could have been made in any decade, and there’s nothing in the story either to give it away as being modern.












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