Magic. Motherfucker!

Your Highness (2011)

Chosen by me as I like to go to the cinema a lot.

A better Dungeons and Dragons movie than the DnD films themselves. This is a well made and for the most part straight fantasy story.
With lots and lots of swearing.
Which I found funny every time. There's a trend for fantasy to be very middle class and conservative which this both subverts and reinforces.
However it really needed to be funnier, not just relying on (a huge amount) of gay panic jokes and overt sexual gags but is occasionally quite clever and had they paid as much attention to the humour as they do the tropes and cliches it could have been The Princess Bride for the stoner crowd. As it is it's a bit more like a big budget Flesh Gordon.
The cast are mostly game (Deschanel doesn't really get to do much), with Justin Theroux and Toby Jones being particularly good.

Shouldn't everybody care about everybody else?

On the Waterfront (1954)

Chosen by Victoria Charvill who had this to say: 'An amazing cast with Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint... I think Karl Malden pretty much made the film for me, particularly his crucifixion speech. Acting, scripting, cinematography; everything is perfect.'

Every bit as good as it's reputation would suggest.
Brilliant performances fuel a slightly preachy take on Union and Mafia politics but it's Brando's Terry Malloy that makes the whole thing work. A compelling punch drunk heavy who is too dumb to quite understand the corruption around him but too noble to just ignore it.
Martin Balsam pops up in a small role but is as excellent as ever.
I love films who's climaxes basically involves someone walking purposefully (see also Hitchcock's amazing Notorious which racks up tension from someone simply stepping down some stairs) and the end to Waterfront is rousing and powerful stuff. The fight isn't the important bit, it's standing for something that counts.

Oh well, there's nothing wrong with G-rated movies, as long as there's lots of sex and violence.

Elvira (1988)

Chosen by Matt McGowan who had this to say: 'What started out as a job hosting late night reruns of bad horror movies on cable tv turned into a cult phenomenon for Cassandra Peterson, or as she's better known Elvira. This movie being the logical milking of the cash cow she'd created. It's perfect 80's trash, within the first 5 minutes it's sets the tone for it humour and never deviates from what you'd expect of it. In that regards it's perfect, perfectly awful, but that good awful you can help to love. A guilty pleasure.'

Elvira is a horridly smug, condescending rather annoying character with a dreadful sense of humour.
But it's hard to completely hate on the film. It's too slight and silly to really offend but, dear god, the jokes are bad. Which is obviously part of the appeal for some.
The plot never coheres into anything past excuses for Elvira and her generous cleavage to bounce a lot. Seriously, a lot. Which is obviously part of the appeal for some.
For all it's talk of the stuffy town's morality council the film is strangely chaste, aiming itself at horny 13 year old boys rather than having any genuine sexiness or controversy to it(though a inadvertent roofie does come close to offering a subversive orgy scene).

Ah love! Such a powerful and stupid thing.

Rio (2011)

Chosen by me as I like to go to the cinema a lot.

Pleasant for the most part. Fast paced and silly enough to not get too dull, with at least one fun song (from Flight of the Conchords Jermaine Clement).
It feels a bit too contrived by committee (the monkeys seem set up for Penguins from Madagascar style spin offs) and plot is driven by a desire for the two leads to mate which just feels a little odd in a kids film.

War starts at midnight!

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Chosen by me from my pile of unwatched DVDs.

Powell and Pressburger come through again in what may be their best film (though Black Narcissus and Red Shoes offer strong competition).
Opening with a blustery General shocked at the young whipper-snapper cheating at the war game, a buffonish figure in look and protestations of foul play it flashes back 40 years to tell the life of this comic character. And in doing so becomes not the film you might think it would be.
Roger Livesey's brilliant portrayal of Candy is backed up by a witty, occasionally preachy, sometimes melancholic script and superb direction.
Candy is a splendidly complex character, full of flaws but backed by a sense of fair play that far from making him seem a sap makes him a true idealist (even if he is sometimes wrong). The film is played without melodrama (major characters die off screen with only a newspaper note to say so and is much more devastating for it) and when it comes back round to the war game it's genuinely sad that Candy is being beaten turning the scene on it's head.
The rest of the cast are terrific, Deborah Kerr playing multiple roles always fun and strong. Anton Walbrook is great as a German soldier with conflicting loyalties, though his old age make-up is not strong the playing of those scenes always is.

Very, very happy with this as my 100th filmaday movie.

Black Dynamite, that was the best loving I ever had.

Black Dynamite (2009)

Chosen by Andrew who had this to say: 'Black Dynamite is a spot on spoof of blaxploitation cinema with a solid performance by satr and co-writer Michael Jai White. Recommended just for the nunchuck fight with a certain disgraced United States President.'

Often very, very funny indeed with some spot on gags but it's slightly too long to sustain it's joke which relies on pointing out time and time again that many of these films were badly made.
It's on firmer footing when spoofing script elements (everyone, including his aunt calls him Black Dynamite) than the bits of fluffed filming and when playing fast and loose with plot (it takes time to visit a secret kung fu island and the White House) can be hilarious.
Like Hot Fuzz it has an old lady being kicked, which is just never not funny I guess.

♫le nubi sono già più in là...♫

Arrivederci Amore Ciao (2006)

Chosen by Clarry McDonald who had this to say: 'read the book, bought the movie. Broad subject - crime, political betrayal etc. Semi- operatic.'

Often I choose the movie for the day by the one that is the shortest on the pile (I get back from work late most days and can be quite tired). This one said it was 148 mins so stayed on the pile for a while. It actually meant 1 hour 48 minutes ( I was a little confused when it seemed to be reaching a natural conclusion and still had about 50 minutes to go and then the credits started rolling).
Michele Soavi made the great existential zombie movie Dellamorte Dellamore but doesn't bring much to this tale of murder, betrayal, drugs and money.
The plot is bitty, episodic and lacks any real dramatic tension. Characters come and go before you really get a feel for them (it takes a lot of time setting up a crew for a heist then basically that plot finishes five minutes later).