Memorial Day 2022: Movie Marathon Continued

 I know I am a bit delayed in writing up the last of the movies from the weekend movie marathon. Saturday I watched 4 movies, but I only managed to watch 1 more the rest of the weekend for a total of 7 over 3 days. Here are the last 5 from the bucket list in the order viewed.

Up:  The last of the animated films on the bucket list. I'll admit to liking this one more than its predecessors. However, it was still a bit too long for my taste (for an animated film) and I found my attention fading a little over halfway through. I'm not sure how kids with short attention spans managed to watch the entire movie. Overall rating: B

Memento:  It seems the further I progress through the list the more bizarre some of the films are. I kind of thought of this as a very dark, revenge oriented version of 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler. Odd would be something of an understatement. To be honest, I'm not sure I even remembered the end of the movie. Overall rating: C-

Blade Runner:  Here's another film that had a very futuristic view of Los Angeles (if I recall it is set in about 2017 or 2018). Interesting how filmmakers of the 80s and 90s thought L.A. in the 21st century would appear. Premise was somewhat intriguing, but still the movie was at times very hard to follow. Harrison Ford was, as always, a good leading man here. Overall rating: C

Reservoir Dogs: Ah, my old friend Quentin Tarantino (sarcasm). If I have learned one thing from all of the Tarantino films I have subjected myself to over the years it is that one should expect over-the-top violence and gore that is not entirely necessary to the telling of the story. However, I will say that this movie is one of his better ones in my humble opinion. Given the subject matter of the movie, the violence (while somewhat exaggerated) was at least logical. Overall rating: B- (very high for a Tarantino flick).

The Prestige:  The first plus to this film is that it stars Hugh Jackman. It was all about two magicians who were friends/partners turned bitter rivals. The other leading man was played by Christian Bale (who personally I do not much care for). Over all the story was engaging and at least kept my attention for the better majority. The surprise casting was David Bowie as Nikola Tesla and he did a phenomenal job (nearly unrecognizable). Of these last five movies, this was far and away my favorite. Overall rating: A- (still a bit too long for a solid A).