The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Man, I'd last seen a Hobbit movie before I started this blog more than a decade ago. The threequel was reputed to be the weakest link in a pale imitation of The Lord of the Rings, hence my lack of hurry to see it. Nonetheless, it looked like the most promising DVD I hadn't watched in my local library, having better ratings from general audiences than from critics.

The Desolation of Smaug ends with halfling Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) accidentally inspiring the titular event. Not long into TBotFA, human archer Bard (Luke Evans) slays the rampaging Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), but that's not the end of the dragon's evil influence. One of Bilbo's dwarven companions, King Thorin (Richard Armitage), finds Smaug's trove almost as corruptive as the One Ring and refuses to share any of it with the humans of newly burned Lake-town, despite his prior oath and their obvious need. When elven King Thranduil (Lee Pace) comes with an army to claim a family treasure, Thorin is undaunted, and the other dwarves obediently prepare to fight. Perhaps fortunately, before the first casualty, the arrival of two armies of darkness induces the other three to team up.

The Hunger Games (2012)

After all the post-apocalyptic horror movies I watched in October, I thought it'd be a while before I tried another dystopia. But when YouTube suggested this one to me, I thought it was a pretty big hole in my cultural education. Besides, at least the dystopia is legalistic and orderly for a change.

In the future nation of Panem, an annual televised competition has two 12- to 18-year-olds from each of 12 districts live in a rigged woodland until only one survives, with an expectation that some deaths will be at each other's hands. They're usually drafted by lottery, having greater odds of being picked the more they accept government rations, but Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), 16, volunteers to replace her younger sister (Willow Shields). The other "tribute" from her district is her friend Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who has wanted to be more than a friend to her, but the rules have erased his hope. Katniss, however, does not adopt a loner attitude....

Daughters (2024)

I don't remember reading about this documentary before. Most likely, I added it to my list because it's set in my long-time hometown. And unlike most DC pics, it has nothing to do with the federal government. It's all residential Washington, albeit nowhere I recognize.

The Date With Dad program assembles girls whose fathers are all in the same jail and buses them there. Then they have something of a fancy ball for a few hours. This doc focuses on four dads and four daughters, the latter ranging from age five to the teens. We also get epilogues one and three years later.

I'm Still Here (2024)

Not to be confused with the 2010 Joaquin Phoenix flick of the same title. I've been dragging my heels about watching the latest Academy Best Picture nominees, because few of them look like my type. I finally decided to go ahead with another when it came up on Netflix, not knowing much about it.

In 1970, military-run Brazil faces a lot of unrest. The Paiva family in Rio de Janeiro gets a taste of it when officers thoroughly search motorists for suspects. More importantly, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) has been supporting expats, which his wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres), and their five kids don't seem to know -- until plainclothesmen arrest him. Asking about him yields incomplete answers at best and follow-up punishment at worst.

The Book of Eli (2010)

As I worried about not having enough creepy movies for the month, I happened to find this DVD on a giveaway shelf. Sure, the movie's not a horror or thriller, and even "sci-fi" would be a stretch despite the future setting, but it certainly depicts a world we would not prefer to the present.

Nobody says directly, but evidence suggests that the ruins across America are due to nuclear war. It must have been religious in nature, because people subsequently destroyed every Abrahamic tract they could find. After 31 years, some regret that decision, even if literacy has become as scarce as soap or fresh water. Loner Eli (Denzel Washington) has found the only copy of the KJV to his knowledge, and he believes that a voice has told him to take it westward, where it will be duly appreciated. Gang leader/de facto mayor Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman) will stop at nothing to get his hands on it, up to and including threatening his mistress's daughter, Solara (Mila Kunis), who wants to run away with Eli.

Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

I chose this largely because it was the shortest movie on my Netflix list, at 89 minutes, and I got a late start that evening. But there were other good reasons to watch. For one, I hadn't seen a documentary in nearly half a year. For another, DJID sounded singular.

Seventh Day Adventist documentarian Kirsten Johnson (whom I knew best as the director of cinematography for This Film Is Not Yet Rated) believes that her father, Dick, in the early stages of dementia, is not long for this world. Her way of coping with this is to have him and a bunch of professionals fake his death by several means, stage a funeral, and depict him in heaven.

Ne Zha (2019)

I had heard of this year's sequel only when looking up box office records, and then I saw that the original broke some too. I'm sure the vast majority of ticket sales for each were in their native land. Still, their ratings are strong, so I got curious how well they might appeal to an American animation fan. NZ1 is less popular, but I like to start at the beginning.

In old China, Taoist god Yuanshi Tianzun sees fit to split the Chaos Pearl, a powerful monster, into the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb, the latter of which he curses to celestial destruction in three years. He tells apprentice Taiyi Zhenren to infuse Ne Zha, the soon-to-be-born royal son of Li Jing and Lady Yin, with the Spirit Pearl. Jealous co-apprentice Shen Gongbao swipes that pearl for new dragon prince Ao Bing, leaving the Demon Orb for the other baby. Although Ne Zha is widely feared and apparently doomed to early death, his parents insist on raising him with Taiyi's training, albeit in isolation. They hope that shielding their son from the whole truth will make him better and happier, but lies rarely form an effective long-term solution, especially in the face of Shen's unorthodox approach to pursuing godhood....

Man on Fire (2004)

Not to be confused with Man on Wire, this title had turned me off for a long time. When I saw that I could watch it free on Hulu, I looked it up and found that it was much better received by the general audience than by critics. That gets me curious.

Since holding rich kids for ransom is rampant in Mexico, troubled ex-Marine John Creasy (Denzel Washington), at the advice of a buddy (Christopher Walken), becomes a bodyguard to Lupita or "Pita" (Dakota Fanning), preteen daughter of automaker Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony). At first he is highly standoffish, but as she urges him to be as sociable as others, he learns to like her. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a story if he never failed at his job....

Udaan (2010)

This is about the same length as my previous viewing, which makes it quite short as Indian movies go. It's also about as dramatic as my previous Indian viewing. Only afterward did I learn that the title means "Flight" in Hindi.

Upon expulsion from a boarding school, Rohan (Rajar Barmecha), 17, returns to widowed father Bhairav (Ronit Roy), whom he hasn't seen in eight years. Bhairav's minimalist annual letters had failed to mention his second marriage, the subsequent divorce, or Rohan's six-year-old half-brother, Arjun (Aayan Boradia). Rohan is jealously hostile to Arjun at first, but they bond in the shared crisis of their father's nastiness.

Brothers After War (2025)

This is the first documentary sequel I've ever seen. Brothers at War (2009) escaped my notice, but this one has a much higher IMDb rating, albeit with few votes yet. When I happened to be very close to the theater, I picked this viewing partly for a convenient start time and partly because someone I trust had endorsed it.

Director Jake Rademacher has surprisingly many literal brothers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here he pays visits to them and some veteran friends, including women, to see how they're doing. (None of my sources name them all.) Some are doing quite well; others are struggling on at least one front. They all know soldiers who died either in battle or later by suicide.

The Whale (2022)

Even before seeing the A24 logo, I knew that this would not be a fun feature. Having Darren Aronofsky at the helm wouldn't help. But it looked like one of the more intriguing offerings on my list, different enough from my recent viewings, and short enough (117 minutes) that I might not see fit to split it over two nights.

In modern Idaho, Charlie (Brendan Fraser) teaches online college literature courses with his camera off, because he'd rather hide his Class III obesity. In the first scene, he gets a heart attack but refuses to go to the hospital for financial reasons, even tho he can well afford it. The screen indicates each new day of the week, hinting that he really doesn't have long to live. Will he make peace with himself and his few acquaintances in time?

A Star Is Born (2018)

I had watched the first two movies by this title and skipped the third, so this was one of my last priorities among Best Picture nominees for the year. At my harshest, I declared that a re-re-remake shouldn't even exist. But the United menu was running low on promising options I hadn't seen.

Ally (Lady Gaga) is an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Her career gets a boost from established country rock star Jack Maine (Bradley Cooper). The two eventually marry, but it's a rocky marriage as Jack's success flounders amid alcoholism and he grows jealous of his own wife. Other notable actors include Sam Elliott as Jack's brother and manager, Dave Chapelle as Jack's friend, and Andrew Dice Clay as Ally's father.

Robot Dreams (2023)

This was probably the least noted Best Animated Feature nominee of the year, at least for the U.S. Going in, I knew little more than the what the poster presented. It hardly mattered, because I've never really hated an animated feature.

In a parallel world of anthropomorphic animals, a New York dog named Dog Varon (after the graphic novel writer, Sara Varon) buys a companion robot, who seems masculine but is never assigned a name to our knowledge. Despite some obstacles, they have a lot of fun together -- until the robot rusts to immobility at the beach. Dog can't move his friend with raw strength, and by the time he gets tools handy, the beach is closed for the next three seasons. Planning to try again later, Dog makes other efforts to combat loneliness, while the robot literally dreams of different futures for them both.

Drishyam (2015)

Can this really have been the first Indian production I've seen in two years? Guess I'd finished most of the promising ones I knew of. Anyway, I had a lot of time to kill, so I chose the longest feature on my Netflix list, at 163 minutes. It's a Hindi remake of a 2013 Malayalam pic by the same title, so be careful if you go looking for it. Then again, the two have nearly equal IMDb ratings.

Vijay (Ajay Devgn) runs a cable installation service in Goa. He tends to stay late at the office watching movies rather than spending time with wife Nandini (Shriya Saran), teen daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta), and single-digit daughter Anu (Mrunal Jadhav). But when Anju accidentally kills Sam (Rishab Chadha), a peer trying to blackmail her or Nanditi into sex, Vijay gets off his duff to obscure all evidence. Alas, Sam's mother, Meera (Tabu), is a hardened inspector general who will stop at nothing to find her son, and Vijay has been antagonizing the rather corrupt Sub-Inspector Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) lately....

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)

It appears that most of the features left on my Netflix list are upwards of two hours long. That's one reason I chose this, at 101 minutes. Another is that it's set in cold areas, in contrast to the present weather where I live. Finally, it seemed the closest thing to another Free Solo.

Nirmal Purja, who's also an executive producer, is a high-altitude mountaineer (HAM?). In April 2019, he launches Project Possible, which entails scaling all 14 Asian peaks that exceed 8,000 meters above sea level -- by winter, dramatically breaking several records along the way. At one point, he and his team have to rally to persuade the federal government of China to let them proceed, but that may be the least of their troubles.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The only Godzilla movie I'd seen before was the 1954 original, which my dad and I found surprisingly serious. Most of the rest sounded schlocky, and Pacific Rim confirmed that I had little interest in kaiju. But GMO (heh, appropriate initials) got such a warm reception that I had planned to see it in a theater, only to discover that I'd waited too long. Once I saw that it was on Netflix, I pounced.

The story is really about Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a World War II pilot who first cheats his way out of a kamikaze mission and then is too scared to shoot the titular mutant dinosaur during an island rampage. He goes home to face poverty in a bombed Tokyo neighborhood where neighbors tend to blame his cowardice, tho one Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and an orphan in her care, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), shack up with him to improve their chances. He gets a job sweeping for naval mines -- and then sees that Godzilla has gotten even larger in the wake of Bikini Atoll experiments. As further devastation ensues, Shikishima and his compatriots (among them Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Yuki Yamada, and Munetaka Aoki) can see that the world's governments aren't helping, so they take it upon themselves to try to kill the beast.

Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024)

I was just short of eight years old when Jim Henson died. To me, the Muppets have never been the same since. I already knew a fair bit about him before this documentary arrived, but after seeing enough hype, I decided it would make a nice palate cleanser.

The 108 minutes consist largely of relatives and co-workers talking about the life of Henson, peppered with brief clips of his works. Like Won't You Be My Neighbor?, it has a few supplementary simple animations. Unlike WYBMN?, it holds pretty strongly to chronological order. There's little focus on Henson's later efforts such as Fraggle Rock.

First Man (2018)

I finally decided to give Damien Chazelle another shot. Perhaps the lack of jazz would help my appreciation. And the fact that he only directed and produced rather than wrote this time. Of course, even if he were the writer, he could do only so much to a famous true story.

The pic follows Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) from a 1961 spaceplane flight to shortly after returning from the moon. (I didn't know about the quarantine then; contagious lunar pathogens would be the least of my worries.) Quite a few obstacles occur in between: Cosmonauts have been winning every match in the Space Race, some tests end in disaster, and public opposition to this use of tax dollars is increasing. On a more personal level, Neil mourns a daughter recently lost to cancer but refuses to take time off, and his wife (Claire Foy), while supportive of his career, frets that she'll be the next astronaut widow.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

A preview had intrigued me ahead of this documentary's release, but then I forgot. Seems nobody in my circles was talking about it, despite Peter Jackson directing (not that my circles frequently discuss documentaries). Only when Netflix announced that it would stop streaming did I jump at the chance. A 99-minute runtime for the theatrical cut helped.

There is no main narrator herein. Instead, we get recorded recollections from various British World War I veterans (who, ironically, sound like they did grow old) overlaying video, photos, and editorial cartoons. We don't learn any names before the end credits, so it manages to be generally anonymous yet decidedly personal.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023)

This is typically deemed the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to come out since Spider-Man: No Way Home. So why did I wait this long? Perhaps I wanted a break after recent underwhelming entries. Perhaps I feared that I had to watch Thor: Love and Thunder to understand enough. Thankfully, as I later learned, Thor parted ways with the gang early on.

Rocket (Bradley Cooper) has never told the other Guardians about his past, but it catches up with him when the forces of his "creator," Orgocorp, attempt to recapture him for neurological study. The Guardians fend off powerful emissary Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) for the nonce, but Rocket is left comatose and fading. Standard medical procedures won't work, thanks to Orgocorp's nasty bio-programming. The heroes' best bet is to swipe an override sequence right from the heart of Orgocorp. Hey, it matches their skillset.