remember, this was all just a bad dream, fat boy!

Once again, it breaks down nicely between the girl movies and the boy movies. It would make one wonder—except that I grew up watching at my daddy's elbow, John Wayne and To Kill a Mockingbird and Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone. My cinematic hunger is for meals, not snacks.

Happy Feet (2006) - "Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!"
Source: I borrowed the DVD from a friend's collection
I watched it because: i needed distraction
IMDB: 6.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 76% Audience: 70%

notable quote: "Watch the beak. Watch the beak!"
story: some animated features break ground with the stories they tell and the way they tell them. Others are drawn in mind-blowing ways, voiced or imbued with special effects that are noteworthy, or for some other reason shake up the viewer and give them a new way of thinking.

    This is a movie about a penguin who doesn't act like a penguin, who wants acceptance despite (and for) his differences. Sigh.
visuals: "cool"

intangibles: compared to some of the others that have been released in the last 20 years, this is not rocket surgery, just a mindless way to spend a couple of hours
Academy Award winner: Best Animated Feature Film
overall: recommended for marginal entertainment value

Full Metal Jacket (1987) - "A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from a friend's collection
I watched it because: it is a classic of my generation
AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Thrills (2001) #95

IMDB: 8.3/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 92% Audience: 94%

notable quote: "What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn't Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?"
story: profoundly intense recollection of the way that Marine boot camp and battle in Vietnam affected soldiers
visuals: incredibly well done. Very realistic, both in the training elements and in the street scenes at Hue.
costumes, hair & makeup: likewise realistic, from the initial head-shaving scene through obstacle course sweat and mud, through the scene before graduation, and on to the blood and gore of war
acting: Vincent D'Onofrio's best performance (so far), as Pvt. Gomer Pyle/Leonard Lawrence. An outstanding, iconic performance by R. Lee Ermey, as Gny. Sgt. Hartman. In an amazing cast, those two were extraordinary.

intangibles: one of the best films I have ever seen
Academy Award nominee: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
overall: most highly recommended

Cool Hand Luke (1967) - "A laid back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection
I watched it because: it's another classic that I've never seen
AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Cheers (2006) #71

IMDB: 8.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 100% Audience: 95%

notable quote: "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
visuals: beautifully shot and lit, on the magnificent level of Hud
costumes, hair & makeup: despite the film's location (98% of it takes place in prison), the costuming and makeup is fantastic
acting: Paul Newman (Luke Jackson) was a master of understated, graceful nuance. He was also gorgeous, but that's beside the point. 

intangibles: This is a different sort of movie, with a 'vintage' sort of ending. I absolutely loved it.
Academy Award winner: Best Supporting Actor—George Kennedy (Dragline)
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actor—Newman 

• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

• Best Music, Original Score
overall: highly recommended

Frozen (2013) - "When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister Anna  teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from a friend's collection
I watched it because: it's one of those cultural phenomena...  
IMDB: 7.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 90% Audience: 85%

notable quote: "Why have a ballroom with no balls?"
story: there is a whole lot going on here, with a surprising degree of incidental adult-level content (see above), weirdly shrieky voices, and early Warner Brothers-style animation in some areas. And it was clearly written for sequels.
visuals: An odd mix of old school and new tech

intangibles: I expected to really like it. Midway through, I dialed that back to 'kinda like it.' By the time I was done, I was pretty much glad to have it over with, and to be able to say I didn't actively dislike it.
Academy Award winner:
• Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
• Best Original Song
overall: not recommended

When Trumpets Fade (1998) - "Set in Germany during the closing days of the war, the film uses a little-known episode of U.S. military history—the bloody battle of the Hürtgen Forest—as the backdrop for the story of a battle-weary private who is the only surviving member of his platoon. Despite his request for dismissal on the grounds of mental disability and shell-shock, he is considered a promising soldier by his superiors, promoted to sergeant, and assigned to command a fresh platoon of young, inexperienced soldiers."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from a friend's collection
I watched it because: I would watch almost any WWII film
IMDB: 7.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 75%

notable quote: "'There isn't anything sacred with you, is there?'

    'Warm, dry feet.'"
story: Hürtgen Forest (pronounced YERT-ghen), is a hard story to tell, not because it's so complex but from the propaganda standpoint. War movies are supposed to be inspiring, and this one is just hard and sad. That's all the more reason to see it.
visuals: horrific, bloody, depressing, and realistic
costumes, hair & makeup: see above
acting: Ron Eldard shows some depth as the main character, Private Manning, who makes an unexpected and not fortuitous rise through the ranks in short order. The performance of Zak Orth (Sanderson) was admirable as well. I had a hard time with Martin Donovan as Captain Pritchett, because everything else I've seen him in has been either very artsy indie films where he plays metrosexual intellectuals, or historicals where he's a tights-wearing fop. He just strikes me as too ... clean, I guess, for this role.  

intangibles: not the best WWII film I've ever seen, but certainly the best about this battle and about an unwinnable mess. 
overall: recommended

[the title quotation is from Full Metal Jacket]