Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it.

Serenity (2005)

A terrific cap to the shortlived and little, but passionately, loved show Firefly. 

It manages to be a neat introduction to the cast (though some fall a touch by the way side each if given a character moment) whilst also deepening personalities.

The increased budget (though by no means huge in movie terms) allows for some intense exciting action beats, with Whedon taking full advantage of the screen (a lot of his teevee stuff had cinematic qualities anyway) and Fillion and Glau, ostensibly the leads in this ensemble, make for an interesting unusual pairing and radiate charisma. Chiwetal Ejiofor exudes confidence, grace and charm and gives lie to the old trope that villains do not know they are villains brilliantly.

It is exceptionally funny, more so than most comedies, but that does not undo the dramatic stakes and a couple of well positioned (though somewhat controversial depending on who you are talking to) deaths give cost to the stakes and gain the climatic battle a tension fairly unusual for the genre.

Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and don't play well with others.

The Avengers (2012)

Super fun. Playing to the promise given in a post credits sting from Iron Man 4 years earlier The Avengers bundles all the previous Marvel Studios characters together for an exciting, funny couple of hours.

Everyone gets a good bit of business (Hawkeye probably gets the short straw, having little chance to show any kind of personality) though it skews towards Downey Jnr's Stark for sure, giving him the final hero moment in a sequence filled with them.

The ensemble work is great but little bits of pairings bring the most joy, a Stark/Banner 'bromance' has been the source of many an online meme. 

It's a touch long, some (very decent) fights scenes going on a beat too much and the climax is given one twist too many when some people are just happy to blow up New York for...reasons (potentially, though certainly not directly referenced, Captain America Winter Soldier irons this wrinkle out a tad).

Precisely how I want my super hero movies to be. Silly without being slight, it has emotional stakes but never takes it eye off of just being enjoyable.

Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

Ghostbusters (1984)

With a lot of the recent filmaday entries for older movies I'm going by memory (in some cases like Princess Bride i frequently rewatch) but I managed to catch a one day screening of Ghostbusters at the cinema. Had I not, this review would be full of praise, it's a very funny movie, smart, silly, a proto-typical Bill Murray performance, a remembrance of how bits of it scared the hell out of me as a kid. That's still the case. It's a great film.

However, watching it on the big screen, with full attention, certainly presented some problems I never really considered it having in my hazy recollections (last watched about 12 years ago or so).

Nobody in Ghostbusters has an arc. There are no character revelations. Nobody really learns anything beyond "Ghosts are real" (five minutes in). Murray's Venkman comes closest perhaps, he sets a goal of getting with Weaver and achieves it but doesn't particularly do any work to get there. Stuff just kinda happens. And then it stops. All the stuff in between is fun, great quotable gags, cool effects but no one gets a pay off. Ernie Hudson's only point in the film is to show the 'Busters are busy, literally has no other plot mechanic or character beat (there's a vague bit about him being religious and he does get one of the best lines though).

Somehow none of that matters, it's a sloppy mess structurally but zippy and entertaining. That's enough.

I don't know if there is anything wrong because I don't know how other people are

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Beautiful, odd, funny, tense. Paul Thomas Anderson packs more feeling into this 90mins than most manage over a career.

Adam Sandler has never been better than here, all repressed (and not) rage. His Barry is disconnected from the world, he doesn't understand how he should feel, so the standard Sandler style gags (of which there are a few) seem fresh and strange.

The Jon Brion score is terrific, aurally complimenting the sparse offbeat tone, making great use of a song from the generally neglected Robin Williams Popeye movie, but just as importantly knowing when to let silence carry the day (especially as the sound design is great).

Colour literally washes over the screen at points but carries through, Watson's apartment is only ever seen from the long white labyrinthine corridors outside it, Hawaii is lush with pink hue. Reflecting Sandler's state of mind.

Everything is just on top form, the camera is deliberate, unsubtle but graceful, certainly no other rom-com has ever looked or sounded like this.

A true original and as impacting as the day it was made. 

Would you stop rubbing your body up against mine, because I can't concentrate when you do that.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Huge enjoyment abounds. 

A loud, messy love letter to the mystical kung fu movies (such as Zu Warriors of Magic Mountain and The Bride with White Hair) that would have much more impact on Hollywood over a decade later it does a number of clever funny things but was too oddball (there's even reference to a Dungeons and Dragons monster) to be anything other than cult.

Kurt Russell's Jack Burton is a raging asshole, of course, and naturally positioned as the lead character but interestingly the story thinks otherwise ("Who?" says one villain in a pre echo of a similar gag used in this years Guardians of the Galaxy) which makes for fun moments.

The action is exciting and silly but it never loses grip on who and where everybody is, for the most part.

Eminently quotable, pacy and one of the last great John Carpenter films (there are a couple of bright spots later like Mouth of Madness but nothing approaching the brilliance of his early work).

Man, are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon.

Primer (2004)

Most movies about time travel are bullshit. They can't make any sense because literally time travel cannot make any sense. That's ok. Terminator is hugely fun. but it's not really about time travel, that's just a function of the plot to get a cool robot chasing down the heroes.

Primer tries to make sense. 

It's pared down, cheap, wordy science fiction. And absolutely fantastic. 

Thrilling in ways that most action movies are not, it's baffling and complex whilst being clear in purpose. I may have needed a graph to fully grasp the intricate nature of plotting but it felt earned and not like it was cheating at every turn. 

The performances are good, it's crisply filmed and incredibly clever.

And clocks in under 80mins. Superb.

I'm like Pinocchio, a wooden boy. Not a real boy. And it kills me.

The Double (2013)

I once stated on facebook I want to grow up to be Richard Ayoade. I have, by more than one person, been called Moss like - his character from The IT Crowd (a show im not particularly fond of despite liking it's cast a fair bit). Submarine was one of my favourite films of 2010, his book Ayoade on Ayoade is a terrific read, hugely funny, and with The Double he remains a smart, interesting film maker though it's not quite the slam dunk of his first effort.

It certainly plays to the right audience in me though. Concerning itself with a less than dynamic character who doesn't understand the world around him, doesn't exude confidence or charisma. The universe seems a system of rules designed to befuddle him, whilst everyone else follows them with ease. Interactions are painful exercises in saying the wrong thing and Jesse Eisenberg is perfect at capturing this hapless idiot as well as the more brash doppelganger that seems to just get how life works.

The rest of the cast is filled with interesting faces (Wallace Shawn, always a pleasure on screen), though not all get much too do, Mia Wasikowska continues to pick fascinating movies and is a haunting offbeat presence.

The film does carry a lot of echoes, both in it's repetitive narrative and more metatextually - it comes off as a nod to Gilliam's Brazil certainly but is it's own beast. Not nearly as likeable as Submarine, it has a cold, off putting awkward momentum (as it should), mirroring the protagonist and sometimes seems more like an exercise in controlling style and content (very ably) than of delivering entertainment.