Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost

1999

★★★★★ Liked Watched

As a kid, this was the first time I heard of Tim Curry, and my god I loved him. I rewatched this movie so many times growing up, as one of the first dvds we got (the very first was the first five episodes of Scooby-Doo) It's a good, classic mystery with the Scooby gang, with an iconic villain and a great soundtrack. I also didn't realize how fast the movie went until I rewatched it now, it felt like we got to the unmasking really quick.

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

1996

★★ Watched

Watched with MST3K. Alright special effects, but the editing is very confusing, and very obvious that the Merlin bits were made up afterwards to make this a longer movie.

#9 on my Anti-Criterion Challenge 2025: 1990s

Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell

1988

Watched

Only watchable with MST3K. Insufferable characters, a nothing plot, and the sword fights recycle the same three moves or so, in every fight.

The Selling Wizard

1954

½ Watched

Watched with MST3K. I hope the woman here got paid well to model those freezers. The way they had her pose, gesture, and smile feels so uncanny.

A Midsummer's Night Dream

1959

★★★½ Watched

Midsummer’s is a good choice for a stopmotion animated movie, and the character models are gorgeous. I was losing interest near the end, I took a break before Bottom & Co. perform at the tri-wedding.

Ruddigore

1967

★★★★ Watched

Took time to grow on me, if only because I didn't know I was getting a mini, animated opera when I found this one. But it was fun, it's both gothic and goofy, and the animation style suits it well.

Ran

1985

★★★★ Watched

It's a good Shakespeare adaptation, given the Kurosawa period epic treatment. Also, I didn't know Peter was in this! I last saw him as the titular Devil Woman Doctor in one of the later Guinea Pig movies. Feels like a strange crossover between the film Canon and trash sov horror.

#16 on my Criterion Challenge 2025: Watch a film that is currently out of print from the physical collection

A Daughter Of Destiny

1928

★★★½ Watched

Before we got Poor Things, we had Alraune. A mad scientist creates a morally void, seductive woman by impregnating a prostitute with a mandrake that grew from underneath a gallows. Though she is generally causing mischief all the time, she really kicks it into high gear when she learns how she was born, and decides to get revenge on her creator. The beginning kinda goes slow after the creation of Alraune, as we get lengthy scenes of her being socialized…

King Lear

1987

★★ Watched

I don't understand a goddamn thing, and I don't like that. Though I do find it funny how Goddard managed to piss off Shakespeare scholars with this one. I have nothing else to say about it, though.

#52 on my Criterion Challenge 2025: Watch any Criterion film from your watchlist

Forbidden Planet

1956

★★★★ Watched

I doubted that this was a loose adaptation of The Tempest, but I'll be damned. It sure is The Tempest, in space. I'm not usually enthusiastic about Shakespeare, but this was fun. The costuming, the working practical props, and the animation on the monster really made this stand out.

Nashville

1975

★★★½ Watched

As well crafted as it was, this movie isn't for me. Not because of the good/bad country music, I don't mind the genre. I just found the movie too busy for me. It is a good exploration of the American social/political landscape: our obsession with celebrity; how possessive we are of certain public figures, yet only enjoying them on a superficial level that renders them half a person, ready to be abandoned if they reveal too much of themselves.

#3 on my Criterion Challenge 2025: Directed by Robert Altman

Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey

2010

Watched

The story around this movie is so interesting. This is the educational half of a larger movie funded by NASA, incorporating photos and footage from actual space missions, even having to rewrite and recast parts because of new discoveries from the Cassini-Huyguns mission. The full, feature-length movie couldn't be completed due to budget cuts. Besides the billions of dollars spent on the space missions themselves, they went with a star-studded cast, with Chris Pines, Samuel Jackson, Mark Hamill, William Shatner,…