The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The Riders of Rohan are the best. Loved’em in the book. Love’em in the movies. I think they nailed the melodrama in this one. And the build-up to the spider set-piece is pretty great. I still think the song during the closing credits is a huge misfire. Should have gone instrumental!
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Appreciated the soundtrack more this time around. Pretty sure it’s borrowing from Dvorak. Also reminded me of The Last of the Mohicans in mood. Great work with the suspense and setting the sense, and such a great ending. Not a teaser, but a promise of adventure.
Stormy Monday. I like its stylishness, the moody, cynical, compact story. Also enjoyed Mike Figgis’ Internal Affairs.
The Martian. What’s most refreshing here is that it’s a fairly gentle, nice movie. Perfectly pleasant, always positive. I don’t think there’s anythig here for me to come back to, but it was really fun to watch. I didn’t finish the book.
Ronin. You know how, according to me, Haywire is a smart dumb action movie? This is kind of a dumb dumb action movie. But it’s still got fun. Was this really only 14 years ago? Ebert’s review sums it up well.
Mark Larson 