7 Days in May | Corky Romano, Covered Wagon, and a cat in a robot suit

Corky Romano (2001)



It's usually cited as a horrible movie (6% on Rotten Tomatoes), but I think it's hilarious and sweet. It's also plenty dumb, but Chris Kattan is totally endearing whether he's belting out "Take On Me" or dressed as a Girl Scout.

Sherlock, Jr. (1924)



Innovative and clever, thanks to the famous sequence where Buster Keaton's projectionist character dreams himself onto a movie screen. Not one of the funniest Keaton movies, but still charming and wonderful. And while Keaton's Sherlock Jr character is only a dream, I would love a whole series of movies about that guy. He's part Philo Vance, part James Bond, and part Colombo.

The Covered Wagon (1924)



An impressive production with a huge cast and a lot of location shooting. It tells the story of a couple of wagon trains going from the Missouri River to Oregon. The two groups set off together, but differing opinions between their leaders (and some romantic drama between one leader and the daughter of the other) eventually split them up.

J Warren Kerrigan is pretty generic as the young hero who leads one of the trains. And Lois Wilson is just as bland as his love interest. But there are a couple of character actors who keep the movie interesting. Alan Hale (who'd go on to co-star in Errol Flynn movies and was also father of the actor who played Gilligan's Skipper) is appropriately loathsome as the other fellow who wants to marry Wilson's character.

But even better is Ernest Torrence, whom I knew as the heavy in movies like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Steamboat Bill, Jr. This time, he's playing Kerrigan's friend and guide and it's great fun to see his imposing size and menacing looks used for good. His interactions with Hale are the best parts of the film.

The Navigator (1924)



Possibly my favorite Buster Keaton film. I'm a big fan of nautical stories anyway, but this is also one of Keaton's funniest. The bit with the painting hanging outside his window still never fails to crack me up, but there are several gags like that in it.

Peter Pan (1924)



This isn't just a staging of the play, but it has a real theatrical feel to it. The sets are grand and impressive, but the action takes place only in those certain locations. It's like watching really great children's theater with some lovely visual effects sprinkled in - especially around Tinker Bell. And Ernest Torrence shows up again, this time as Captain Hook. Easily my favorite Peter Pan movie.

reMIND: Volume 1 by Jason Brubaker



It's tough to judge the first of a multi-part story, but I'm eager to read Volume 2 of the series of graphic novels. Brubaker's got a lovely visual style and has created a beautifully mad world to tell his story in. It's got lizard-men, talking cats, robot-suits... lizard-men whose brains have been transplanted into cats wearing robot-suits. And we're introduced to the craziness in a cool, X-Filesy way through a skeptical woman whose deceased father made their village infamous by claiming to see something weird.

Movies I Missed in 2015: Part 2

11. Lost River



Ryan Gosling's debut as a writer and director wasn't well-reviewed, but it has some things going for it that keep me interested: the spooky underwater town and a cast that includes Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, and Matt Smith. Gonna be low on my To Watch List though.

12. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl



Critics were divided on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, mostly around the tone. Some found it charming while others described it as snotty and in love with its own specialness. Only one way to find out where I fall.

13. Big Game



Always in the mood for a movie where Samuel L Jackson plays the President of the United States and has to fight off bad guys in the wilderness alongside a kid with a bow and arrow.

14. The End of the Tour



I like Jason Segel a lot and Jesse Eisenberg some, but I'm especially looking forward to the movie's exploration of the shifting definitions of success. It's tragically fascinating how people are rarely satisfied with whatever level of success they've achieved. We're always reaching for that next rung. Would love to hear what The End of the Tour has to say about that.

15. Cop Car



I'm ready to see Kevin Bacon play a good guy again, but until that day, I'll take him as a crooked sheriff chasing a couple of kids who've stolen his ride.

16. Final Girl



I quit watching Scream Queens about three minutes into the pilot, but the idea intrigues me. And since there was also a 2015 movie with the plural version of this exact title, I'm thinking a double-feature might be in order.

17. Z for Zachariah



I like all these people and the trailer intrigued me. Looks like a twist on the traditional romantic triangle with higher stakes due to the post-apocalyptic survival angle.

18. The Intern



I'll pretty much see anything with Anne Hathaway in it these days.

19. The Keeping Room



Likewise Hailee Steinfeld, but especially a Western with a bunch of tough women.

20. Pan



I know it's supposed to be the worst movie of the year, but I like Hugh Jackman and the Peter Pan story enough that I can't ignore it. Besides, it can't be worse than Hook.

LXB | My Ten Favorite Movies

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment is simple, but difficult. Inspired by summer blockbuster season, Brian asks, "What are your Top Ten Movies?"

I'm always nervous about making these kinds of lists. My Top Two rarely change (though I do swap them back and forth and I've recently redefined how I think of one of them), but the rest of the list is hugely dependent on a) my ability to remember all the movies I love and b) my feelings about those movies at the exact moment I'm making the list.

So, with the major caveat that this is my list for right this very second, here we go. I'll look forward to reading the rest of the League's answers so that I can kick myself for not thinking of some of their movies. I'm already trying to figure out if Breakfast Club or The Lost Boys should depose any of the films on this list.

10. Dr. No



It's really tough to pick a favorite James Bond movie. I narrowed it down to this one and Casino Royale, but From Russia With Love, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only, and The Living Daylights were also tempting. In the end, I went with Dr. No because it's the first. When I watch it, I'm not just thrilling to Sean Connery, Jack Lord (my favorite Felix), and Ursula Andress in the tropics; I'm thrilling to the knowledge that I'm going to watch the rest of the series as soon as I finish it.

9. Night of the Demon



For my full thoughts on this horror masterpiece, check out the guest post I wrote on That F'ing Monkey. The short version is that it's an awesome mash-up between horror (both supernatural and psychological) and film noir by one of the masters of both genres.

8. Atlantis: The Lost Empire



Contains just about everything I want in an adventure movie. Undersea adventure, a lost civilization, weird technology, an eccentric billionaire, a stunning femme fatale, a jungle girl, Mike Mignola designs, a giant submarine, a diverse ensemble of complicated adventurers, and humor that works no matter how many times I watch it.

7. Pirates of the Caribbean (the initial trilogy)



I'm cheating by cramming three movies into one entry. I know that. I'm going to do it again later in the list, but that trilogy was at least always a trilogy and it stopped when the story was complete. I can't say that about the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films. The Curse of the Black Pearl is a standalone film that became part of a trilogy when it turned out to be successful. And when the trilogy ended, the series continued. It feels haphazard to just pick the first three movies in a four (so far) movie series and try to make one entry out of them.

And yet, those three movies are undeniably a complete story. The fourth one starts something new and doesn't get to hold onto the coattails of the first three, but I'm counting the saga of Elizabeth Swann and Jack Turner as a single tale.

6. Raiders of the Lost Ark



Much like what happened with another popular series from my childhood, I've recently accepted that I'm not an Indiana Jones fan; I'm a Raiders of the Lost Ark fan. I do like those other movies, even Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, but I don't love them like I do Raiders. All of them have one element or another that I don't care for, but I love pretty much everything about that first one.

5. Love Actually



It really is just about perfect. The only stories that don't completely work for me are Laura Linney's and Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson's, but only because they're painful. They're also completely honest and vital to exploring the film's central theme, so I'm really not dinging it for including them. And otherwise, it has some of my favorite actors playing my favorite kinds of characters that they play in a funny, heart-warming, Christmas movie with a great soundtrack. And it makes me cry. That, it turns out, is an easy way to get on my Top Five.

4. Finding Neverland



Another movie that makes me cry. I explained why a couple of years ago and why at one point I had this in my Number One spot. It could easily be there again. It probably wouldn't take anything more than my watching it more recently than some of these others. Most of these rankings are dependent on how recently I've seen or thought about each individual film.

3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy



I haven't written much about The Lord of the Rings, either the novels or the films. I don't know why that is; the films are some of my favorites because of how well they communicate the novels' most powerful themes. Much more than just Good vs Evil, Lord of the Rings is about faithfulness, redemption, friendship, loyalty, overcoming prejudice, fighting for justice, and seeing the value of the unvalued. It's that last theme - particularly in the scene where the entire nation of Gondor bows before four, small, humble Hobbits - that makes me blubber every time I watch it.

2. Casablanca



I've written about this a couple of times: once in trying to pick a favorite character and again just gushing about the whole movie. It's a heart-wrenching, exciting, hilarioius, absolutely captivating film.

1. Star Wars



I've written about this one most recently, which may explain why it's at Number One for now. It's been slowly moving down the list over the years, but that's because - similar to Pirates and Lord of the Rings - I insisted on making one entry of the entire saga. Now that I've pruned my affection down to just the first film, Star Wars zooms back to the top again. Though it doesn't make me cry, there really is no other movie I love more or is as influential on my life.

The Awesome List: What do Captain Hook and Albus Dumbledore have in common?

Schooner or later...



Gary and Elaine at Catalog Living have a room that's too nautical for even me.

The Secret History of Captain Hook



Brian Till uncovers a speech by JM Barrie that further explores Cpt. Jas. Hook's connection to Eton, "the world's most esteemed high school" and makes a comparison to JK Rowling's outing of Dumbledore. It's an interesting study of how the lives of fictional characters extend beyond the printed page. Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for pointing it out.

Digital pirate comics



Red 5 (the company who brought us Atomic Robo) has started a new line of digital-debut comic series through Comixology, iVerse, and other digital comics platforms. The first of them is a steampunk pirate comic about a young woman who seeks to come out of the shadow of her famous pirate dad by finding the one treasure he could never get his hands on.



Meanwhile, Scott Christian Sava's (The Dreamland Chronicles) pirate comic is free for any Facebook users willing to click the Like button on Wowio's page. [Thanks to my Robot 6 colleague Brigid Alverson for that news.]

Commander X Adventures



Here's another online sea comic. It's not about pirates, but Commander X, the time-traveling hero from Nemo's The Undersea Adventures of Cap'n Eli. I'll have a review of the Cap'n Eli comic (and it's Sea Ghost spin-off) soonish, but in the meantime enjoy the Commander's adventure as he teams with the Sea Raider to stop the evil Baron Hydro. Fun stuff.

Nemo's also created a Mego-style action figure of Commander X as "The Undersea Knight" that you can get for a special price if you order today or tomorrow.

What the Helmet?



My pal Ken from That F'ing Monkey sent me a link to this Super Friends animation cel that - free of its context, especially - is too awesome for words.

My New Favorite Movie: Finding Neverland

The title of this post sort of implies that I've only recently seen Finding Neverland for the first time. What's actually the case is that I just watched it again (my wife's a big Kate Winslet fan and we're working our way chronologically through her filmography) and was reminded of how much I like it. More than Casablanca even, for reasons I'll mention in a minute.

But Casablanca has been My Favorite Movie for a very long time and I'm not a ship whose course is easy to change once it's set. I still love the movie for all the reasons I mentioned before, but Finding Neverland hits me on a much deeper, more personal level and that's why it gets the top spot. I can more clearly illustrate why that is by re-posting my review of the film (lost in the unsearchable world of LiveJournal) from right after I'd seen it for the first time.

Which I'll do right after the break:

An Epic Battle of Wits and Blades

Your Marvel Classics Comics Cover of the Day



Flint and Silver



Adding this to my wish list. Thanks to Bookgasm for pointing it out.

Captain Hook



By Kent Culotta.

Your 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Picture of the Day



By Alphonse de Neuville.

The Mysterious Island



By N. C. Wyeth.

Top Ten Pirate Movies

As promised.

10. Dodgeball (2004)

I know, I know. I'm starting off with a cheat. But the only reason that Dodgeball is this low on the list is that it isn't really about pirates. It's just about one, awesome pirate named Steve played by Wash from Firefly. That's good enough to bump it above most "real" pirate flicks. Garrr!

9. Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)

I've got no objectivity when it comes to Peter Ustinov's Blackbeard trying to help Dean Jones and a bunch of old ladies save an ancient, pirate-themed inn from being destroyed by crooked landlords. This was one of my favorite childhood movies, but it does hold up fairly well. There's lots of goofy slapstick and Ustinov is thoroughly charming. And Disney doesn't spare any expense on the awesome, old, pirate inn.

8. Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)

Dude, it's Abbott and Costello. That's all you really need to know. And Charles Laughton is surprisingly hilarious reprising his role from the much less fun Captain Kidd. Anyone who can hold his own against Lou Costello deserves some recognition. It's too bad it's not available on DVD.

7. Tie: Disney's Peter Pan (1953)/Peter Pan (2003)

If I really had to pick between the two I'd choose Disney's version because it's awesome and it defines Peter Pan for so many people. But man, you can't ignore Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. You just can't.



6. Treasure Planet (2002)

I don't care what everyone says about this being the movie that killed traditional animation at Disney for a while. It wasn't because Treasure Planet was bad, it was because Disney had been releasing too much stuff and folks were just getting tired of it. Treasure Planet is actually an awesome, well-designed, faithful adaptation of Treasure Island. Or as faithful as it can be and still be set in outer space. It got a raw deal is all I'm saying.

5. The Phantom (1996)

This might be another cheat, but the Singh Brotherhood are undeniably pirates - and very piratey pirates at that - so I'm counting it (even if it is impossible to find pictures of the pirates online). This is another movie that gets a bum rap by people who have no souls. It's better than every Indiana Jones movie except Raiders of the Lost Ark. I seriously don't get the negative reputation.

4. The Princess Bride (1987)

At last one we can all agree on. Cary Elwes held onto the title of World's Coolest Pirate for a nice, long time and there's no dishonor in having it taken away by Johnny Freakin Depp.

3. Treasure Island (1950)

Classic. Robert Newton's Long John Silver defined the word "pirate" for everyone who came after him.

2. Captain Blood (1935)

Of course, Errol Flynn defined "pirate" for everyone who came before Newton. Newton may be more influential over the popular perception of pirates, but Flynn's a lot more fun (and that's saying something, because Newton is fun). Plus, Flynn gets to smooch Olivia de Haviland.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (2003-2007)

They took everything I ever loved about pirates and sea adventures and rolled it all into three awesome films. Sure, it would've been cool if they'd added another hour to At World's End and shown some other stuff I wanted to see, but they more than made up for it, all things considered.