acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people

I have made a couple of determinations, with the help of this set of movies. First, I do not ever need to see another Robert De Niro comedy, or likely anything by Ben Stiller that I have not already seen and approved. It just was not meant to be, you know? Same with Neil Simon's writing, which I always think I ought to like and then when I sit through it, it ends up feeling like I am a cat whose fur is being rubbed in the wrong direction: uncomfortable and bordering on the need to bite someone, hard. Life lessons! And people think watching movies teaches you nothing....

Meet the Parents (2000) - "Male nurse Greg Focker meets his girlfriend's parents before proposing, but her suspicious father is every date's worst nightmare."
Source: I owned the DVD
I watched it because: I was in the mood for a comedy
IMDB: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 84% Audience: 79%
story: 5/10
visuals: 5/10
costumes, hair & makeup: 7/10
acting: 5/10
intangibles: 3/10
Academy Award nominee: Best Music, Original Song
overall: 5/10--this is not "my kind of movie." There are some funny moments, but in essence it is mean and insulting. I wanted to like it, to get into the spirit of it, but it left me shaking my head.

The Out of Towners (1970) - "An Ohio sales executive accepts a higher position within the company and travels to New York City with his wife for his job interview but things go wrong from the start."
Source: I owned the DVD
I watched it because: it was the shortest movie I could find, to do a really quick workout
IMDB: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 60% Audience: 68%
story: 2/10
visuals: 4/10
costumes, hair & makeup: 3/10
acting: 1/10--whiny, grating stereotypes. Jack Lemmon at his absolute worst.
intangibles: 1/10--it looked bad, it sounded bad, it was unbelievable, there are no sympathetic or interesting characters, and the (literally) final seconds perfect-bow resolution is insultingly pat
overall: 2.2/10--I hated it

Dunkirk (2017) - "Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II."
Source: I own the DVD, a preview in something else that I watched recently
I watched it because: it was the anniversary of the event itself.
IMDB: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 93% Audience: 81%
story: 6.5/10--it is essentially three stories running parallel, albeit with a rather miraculous conclusion
visuals: 8.5/10--there is some seriously first-rate cinematography here. The sets, if they can even be called that, were phenomenal. The aerial photography is nauseatingly evocative.
costumes, hair & makeup: 7/10--seemingly accurate enough, but not distinctive enough to help to tell the characters apart all the time. This is a movie featuring about 1500 young, floppy-haired men in brownish uniforms.
acting: 6.5/10--Unfortunately, the main character (on land) was a clueless twerp with the all the charisma of a stump. Still, there were standouts: the brilliant Mark Rylance (Mr. Dawson) and Jack Lowden (as the pilot Collins).
intangibles: 8/10
Academy Award winner:
• Best Film Editing
• Best Sound Editing
• Best Sound Mixing
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Best Cinematography
• Best Music--Original Score
• Best Production Design
overall: 7.3/10--I was emotionally captivated at times. Compared to the unfortunate 1917 - which forever shall be notorious in war-or-historical-movie-watching lore - this is a magnificent barnburner. Compared to the theoretical ideal film, this is ... a 7.3.

Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) - "Bishop's most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life in order to make him complete three impossible assassinations and make them look like accidents."
Source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: Hey, look at that cover art. Fun, right?
IMDB: 5.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 31% Audience: 40%
story: 6/10--silly, but in a so-dumb-I-liked-it way
visuals: 8.5/10--have I mentioned my extreme fear of heights? The swimming pool scenes were disgustingly well done. The Thai scenes were also quite gorgeous.
costumes, hair & makeup: 7/10--as I was watching the last few minutes I was thinking, "they must not spend too much money on costumes and hair for his movies," because Jason Statham is bald - and shirtless for about 85% of the film. And more power to him.
acting: 6.5/10--Statham (Arthur Bishop) is fine, as always. Tommy Lee Jones makes a gloriously loopy, wackadoodle baddie.
intangibles: 5/10--there is a lot of backstory to buy to make this work, and it is super hard to believe that Statham's Bishop and Jessica Alba's Gina Thornton Fall.In.Forever.Love. in the 45 seconds they are given to do so in order to make the rest of the movie fall into place. Also, there is no logical way a yacht could float with like 198 bad guys firing machine guns all over creation.
overall: 6.6/10--quibble, quibble. It was fun, action-packed, and I just enjoyed it! (Now I need to go back and get the first one in the series!)

The Lonely Guy (1984) - "A writer for a greeting card company discovers the struggles and tribulations of living alone after breaking up with his unfaithful girlfriend."
Source: it was included in my box set of Steve Martin movies
I watched it because: I wanted to watch 2 movies in an evening, and I picked this one for its brevity
IMDB: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 48% Audience: 47%
story: 3/10
visuals: 5/10
costumes, hair & makeup: 4/10
acting: 4/10
intangibles: 3/10--at least he didn't do the "wild & crazy guy" bit, like usual
overall: 3.8/10

The Sum of All Fears (2002) - "C.I.A. analyst Jack Ryan must stop the plans of a Neo-Nazi faction that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia's newly elected President by detonating a nuclear weapon at a football game in Baltimore, Maryland."
Source: my "Jack Ryan movies" DVD box set
I watched it because: it was a 2-movie night
IMDB: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 59% Audience: 49%
story: 7/10--typical Tom Clancy outlandish, but entertaining
visuals: 8.5/10
costumes, hair & makeup: 8/10--I particularly liked Liev Schreiber (John Clark) in the adorable white snowsuit.
acting: 7.5/10--standouts: Schreiber is among my favorite actors of all time, thoughtful and capable of disappearing into a character - and Ciarán Hinds (one of the most recognizable actors ever) becomes Russian in every way, as President Alexander Nemerov. It is an extraordinary performance.
intangibles: 7.5/10--this is a delirious story (surviving the mushroom cloud - are you kidding me?!) with some hackneyed special effects, but it is undeniably entertaining, and I enjoyed it from start to finish
overall: 7.7/10

[the title quotation is by Adam Driver]