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“Do You Ever Rate A Movie 9 or 10?”

Yes! Yes I do! And here they are. Keep in mind some of these were rated decades ago and my tastes change:

9/10:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Roman Holiday (1953)
The Apartment (1960)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Seppuku/Hara Kiri (1962)
The Train {1964}
The Graduate (1967)
Joi-uchi/Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Harold and Maude (1971)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Life of Brian (1979)
Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
The Princess Bride (1987)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Grave of Fireflies (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Army of Darkness (1992)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Leon/The Professional (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Casino (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Fargo (1996)
Schizopolis (1996)
The Impostors (1998)
The Big Kahuna (1999)
Magnolia (1999)
City of Lost Children (1999)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
The Cider House Rules (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
Amelie (2001)
Monsters Inc (2001)
Metropolis/Metoroporisu (2001)
Noqoyqatsi (2002)
Spellbound (2002)
American Splendor (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Moon (2009)
Locke (2013)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Annihilation (2018)
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Soul (2020)
Everything Everywhere All At Once 2022

10/10:

Casablanca (1942)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Alien (1979)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Thing (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Nausicaa (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Rushmore (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
the Iron Giant (1999)
The Incredibles (2004)
WALL-E (2008)
Roma (2018)

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Post-Apocalyptic Movie Review: Mother/Android

Mother/Android' First Look: A Pregnant Woman vs. the Robopocalypse | Vanity Fair

Android butlers rise up against humankind. Nine months later a very pregnant Georgia and her screw-up boyfriend trek through the wilderness to Boston. There they hope to take themselves and their soon-to-be-born baby on a boat bound for Asia. On the way they deal with a military camp and a ‘no mans land’ filled with robots who are trying to find a way into the city to disable the EMP device that keeps them at bay, plus a mysterious stranger.

Fine performances by our heroine, and some (few and far between) genuinely compelling moments, but the plot doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. We’ve seen all this before in other films, and done better.

Tropes: bad guy monologues before delivering coup de grace; a Sophie’s choice; flesh ripped off robot metal skull; flashback prompted by photograph; robots have glowing eyes.

Toren’s rating: 5/10

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Post-Apocalyptic Movie Review: Virus: Day of Resurrection

IMCDb.org: 1971 Nissan Gloria Keisatsu [230] in "Fukkatsu no hi, 1980"

Virus AKA Fukkatsu no hi AKA Day of Resurrection. Both an apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic film, a genetically engineered virus is unleashed accidentally on the world. The 855 men and 8 women in Antarctica are spared the deadly human extinction thanks to the cold. An isolated nuclear submarine and crew join and they begin repopulating the species. Years later the automated nuclear response system in Washington is in danger of being triggered by an earthquake predicted by one of the scientists, so a suicide mission is begun to dismantle it.

A large and international cast, but a box office failure in the Japan homeland. The 93 minute USA TV cut removed much of the Japanese characters’ plotline, which is a shame but at the same time the Japanese segments were the most melodramatic. In this film, mobs riot, demanding an effective vaccine, rather than gathering to protest lockdowns like in the real world pandemic. The movie is quite dark from beginning to end.

Tropes: Dead pets foreshadow human fate; manly men fighting eachother to see who will sacrifice himself; insane trigger-happy military general; love interest was pregnant when she died; food and fuel scarcity is not acknowledged

Toren’s Rating: 7/10

More about the film: https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2021/04/10/virus-1980/

Now back to Toren’s Post-Apocalyptic Movie Guide