It's old, but it's a classic for a reason. The movie that made Leslie Nielsen a comedy star. It's dumb and funny as heck. Even if you don't laugh at one particular joke, you'll get five more in the next minute: visual gags, dad jokes, the works. Comedy is a genre that becomes dated easily, but this kind of silly nonsense is timeless.

Representative quote:
Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?

The quintessential Balkan movie. And as all Balkan comedies I've seen, it's pretty sad. How do you get out of poverty in a land of gangsters, crooks and con men? How do you pull yourself out of the money pit without gambling or selling away your dignity? But enough about the United States, ha-ha.

The movie laughs at the state of the world, because it's better than crying about it. At least in a movie you can have the good guys take a win every once in a while. The comedy can sometimes be low-brow, but the characters feel real and touching and curse like sailors every other line. It's beautiful.

Representative quote:
Dadan: You know what the Bulgarians say, "Brother, if you can't solve a problem with money, you can solve it with lots of money!"

The oldest movie in my library. In 1965, movies were a bit slower-paced, but it's a real fun ride if you can take it. I once watched this movie with a friend who requested we run it at 1.1 speed, though I feel like it's fine as it is.

It's cheerful and fun, but it's hard for me to tell how dated it really feels, since I watched it as a kid, so I'm biased by nostalgia. There's a Hollywood-level romantic story that's pretty flat, but I can recommend it for the the jokes and gags, and a fantastic soundtrack by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole.

Representative quote:
Clay Boone: We can't hold up the train.
Cat Ballou: Why not?
Clay Boone: Lots of reasons.
Cat Ballou: Name 'em.
Clay Boone: We're rustlers, not train robbers.
Cat Ballou: Well, if people didn't try something new, there wouldn't be hardly any progress at all.

A group of charming rogues and ne'er-do-wells has to pull off a heist for a noble goal, to stop a villain, rescue a kid, and maybe get paid in the process. Think Ocean's 11, but in a fantasy world. Heists get a bit easier when one of your party members can transform into a fly.

There have been many attempts to make a D&D movie, but this one might be the best. Online discussions have suggested that the characters seem to be perhaps too high-leveled and have an unrealistic amount of abilities, but leaving the technical accuracy aside, people say it feels like a D&D session with players failing rolls, improvising solutions, being led by sidequests by higher-leveled characters etc.

In terms of its qualities as a movie, it's pretty great! The main story can be a bit predictable (e.g. you will not be surprised to see the main character's wife be killed for plot reasons in the first 10 minutes), but the characters are really charming and have fantastic chemistry. The comedy has great timing, the action sequences are really fun and easy to follow (no shaky cam!) and the writing definitely has its cool moments.

Representative quotes:
Xenk: You may have forsworn your oath, but your oath hasn't forsworn you.
Edgin: Just because that sentence is symmetrical doesn't make it not nonsense.

Officer Nicholas Angel is a professional cop and he's very good at it. Too good, so he gets reassigned to a quiet little village, because it makes all the other London cops look bad. But the quiet village might not be as peaceful after all. Or is that just officer Angel being too obsessed with his job? He's going to have to figure out how to loosen up a bit, and kick some criminal butt.

Hot Fuzz is my favorite "Cornetto Trilogy" movie, mostly because it has a very straightforward story with a satisfying ending that plays homage to good old 90s action flicks. Director Edgar Wright is fantastic at visual comedy and snippy dialogue and IMO, this is is his best work.

Representative quote:
Nicholas Angel: I don't remember a time when I didn't want to be a police officer... apart from the summer of 1979 when I wanted to be Kermit the Frog. It all started with my Uncle Derek. He was a Sergeant in the Met. He bought me a police pedal car when I was five. I rode around in it every second I was awake - arresting kids twice my size for littering and spitting. I got beaten up a lot when I was young, but it didn't stop me. I wanted to be like Uncle Derek.
Danny Butterman: He sounds like a good bloke.
Nicholas Angel: Actually, he was arrested for selling drugs to students.
Danny Butterman: What a cunt...
Nicholas Angel: Probably bought the pedal car with the proceeds. Needless to say, I never went near it again. I just let it rust. But I never lost the profound sense of right and wrong I felt at the wheel of that pedal car. I had to prove to myself that the Law could be proper and righteous and for the good of humankind. It was from that moment that I was destined to be a police officer.
Danny Butterman: Shame...
Nicholas Angel: How so?
Danny Butterman: I think you would have made a great Muppet...

An actually good original Hollywood movie is rare these days. The corpos love doing remakes and sequels to established movies. Why take a risk when you can just slap together a few big movie stars and make a new Star Wars or MCU thing?

Well, the director Ryan Johnson did a Star Wars thing with the specific request to be allowed to just do whatever he wants next and he pulled out all the stops in this one. This is a wild detective mystery that's built up carefully and with a lot of attention to detail. It's the kind of movie you watch multiple times just to be delighted at all the early hints and foreshadowing. It is a perfect movie.

Representative quote:
Benoit Blanc: I feel a noose tightening. The family is truly desperate. Desperate motives, with the mystery of who hired me, the impossibility of the crime, and yet a doughnut. One central piece, and if it reveals itself, the fog would lift, the arc would resolve, the Slinky become unkinked.

The second Knives Out movie is a COVID-era one, so there's a bunch of references to masking, Zoom calls... Nostalgic, in a way. There's still a mystery to be solved and detective Benoit Blanc is on the case, but the movie leans more on the comedy, particularly making fun of billionaires, and I love that. Fuck 'em.

The movie is less liked than the first or third one, probably because there's no more cozy sweaters and the murder mystery is less interesting. It's still a really satisfying watch.

Representative quotes:
Birdie Jay: Like Miles said, I'm a truth teller. Some people can't handle it.
Benoit Blanc: It's a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for speaking the truth. Don't you think?

The third Knives Out movie leans back into suspenseful mystery. A bit darker, more gothic, the plotline follows a priest who's trying to figure out how to do religion while being a good guy. Benoit Blanc is not keen on the Catholic church, but he likes figuring out a good murder and the two of them have fantastic chemistry together.

As with all Knives Out movies, the best thing about this one is the attention to detail and the care in building up all these characters. It's just a really good movie made by passionate people who don't give a damn about making a blockbuster, just about telling a good story. That's how you do it.

Representative quotes:
Bp. Langstrom: [talking about Cy's YouTube video] His video with you is still trending.
Benoit Blanc: Yes. 'Benoit Blanc PWNED'. Owned with a 'P', whatever that means.

Essentially Robinson Crusoe in space. Poor Mark Watney has been abandoned on Mars by accident and now has to survive long enough for a ship to be sent back to save him, which will take literally years. He's definitely dead... unless he comes up with a plan, and then another plan, and then a whole lot more plans. Mars is a pretty harsh environment and he's gonna have to pull off a lot of miracles to survive.

The movie is beautiful, funny and charming, though the book is still better. Some of the science goes through Hollywood shortcuts and a few of Watney's adventures have been truncated, but as long as you can swallow some scientific hand-waving, it's an amazing watch.

Representative quotes:
Mark Watney: In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option. I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this!

You know The Onion news? Clips and articles of a satirical nature? Well, imagine 1h26m of The Onion skits with a connecting storyline in the shape of a movie.

Some of the jokes are pretty dated, 2008 comedy is mostly about terrorism, for instance. Some of them are kind of mean-spirited and/or low-brow and some are just kind of boring. But when the comedy hits, it hits really hard. The "Cockpuncher" movie trailers, the Melissa Cherry (Britney Spears parody) songs, the occasional meta skit where reviewers sit back and review the movie as it's happening... The flawless deadpan delivery of the phrase "a hot bitch poster".

It's a fun watch and a good reminder that the world has always been at least a little bit insane.

Representative quote:
Norm Archer: In this crazy world, The Onion may be the only news source that people can truly trust.

The totally true story of Weird Al and his rise to fame. Well, mostly true. More of it is true than you might expect, let's put it like that. Did he actually date Madonna? Who can really say.

Even if you don't know much about Weird Al, this is a fantastic comedy, but if you've heard a few of his greatest hits, you'll love the references. The movie goes through all the standard stages of "rockstar biopic", and it parodies every one perfectly: The unsupportive parents, the bad relationships, the alcoholism, and of course the awards show when the star finally makes it big in the category of "Perhaps Not Technically The Best, but Arguably the Most Famous Accordion Player in an Extremely Specific Genre of Music".

Biopics are boring, but this fake one is perfect.

Representative quotes:
Mary: Honey, I know it's hard to hear this, but your dad and I had a long talk and we agreed it would be best for all of us if you would just stop being who you are and doing the things you love.