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NathanBates

nathanbates
Celluloid Junkie
# Film Ratings: 2828
Member Since: 09 Jul 2017
Location: Virginia, USA
Bio: My personal web site is at
https://sites.google.com/site/nathanbatesfilms/index
(I keep a "Greatest Films" list there, as I'm trying to watch most -- if not all -- of the 1001+ Movies You Must See Before You Die and the Criterion Collection)

I generally rate movies 1-5, so I just multiply that out on the 100 scale:
5/100: Excellent, well worth watching again and again
4/80: Pretty good
3/60: Average [general rating]
2/40: Pretty bad, maybe some redeeming characteristics
1/20: Terrible; not worth watching ever again

Top 10 Movies:
1. Citizen Kane
2. Throne of Blood
3. Star Wars: A New Hope
4. Le Samourai
5. The Magicians
6. Stagecoach
7. Los Olvidados
8. Rear Window
9. The Third Man
10. North by Northwest

Comfort Movies:
1. Camp Nowhere
2. Midnight Madness
3. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
4. Tremors
5. Rat Race

Worst Movies I've Seen:
1. The Five (2010)
2. Percy Jackson II: Sea of Monsters
3. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief
4. Radioland Murders
5. Into the Storm

Recent Ratings

60 36%
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) - Rated 03 Sep 2025
"I loved the setting of the film; people just do what they have to do no matter where they live. I felt I was missing something, though, as the main story never seemed to move, although the side stories were still interesting (yes, that is likely the moral). I just didn't want to have to remember this as "back in my day, we had to drive three miles up a hill to get cell service." Or for the turtle scene."
60 36%
Bugsy Malone (1976) - Rated 02 Sep 2025
"As this started, I thought: gangster film played by children -- this could have potential. But few of the kids could act, and it seemed senseless to have kid actors if you're just going to dub them through the songs (and a few other times). And then those songs only had one verse on repeat. And the ending is ... unusual. If I had watched this as a kid, though, I'd probably most remember (fondly) the engine-removed bicycle cars."
60 36%
Shadows and Fog (1991) - Rated 01 Sep 2025
"The highlights here are the ensemble cast and the beautiful photography, a nice homage to early German Expressionist films. Not so good is Allen's well-worn shtick, some not-quite-fitting music, and a real flop of an ending. I found it a bit trying to get through. Favorite line: "Get out and die!""
60 36%
Sexy Beast (2001) - Rated 30 Aug 2025
"Time to get the old crew together for one last heist, which generally breaks from the traditional formula by making one of the crew a guy with whom you wouldn't ever want to work. Kingsley brings some intensity, but that falters at the end. This is surprisingly talky for a gangster flick with the actual crime feeling a bit like an afterthought. Oddest bit: Spain apparently has a Take Your Pool Boy Out Rabbit Hunting Day."
60 36%
White Mane (1953) - Rated 29 Aug 2025
"[French version] Having just watched Circus Angel, I was thinking of how that movie didn't follow all of the usual Hollywood conventions (not a surprise for a French film). This, too, felt like something Hollywood would *want* to do (a la Black Beauty) but studio heads would require quite a bit more action -- and most definitely a different ending. It's a very quiet movie, feeling like a fable, but it is painfully slow."
80 79%
Fifi la plume (1965) - Rated 29 Aug 2025
"This felt like something that could have been played on the Disney Movie of the Week. It is a little adult(-ish)-themed in a few places, yet there are quite a few offsetting slapstick routines. Since I'm so used to Hollywood endings, it seemed odd that the angel wasn't a bit more contrite in the end. It's imaginative, but it seems a little slow for modern kids."
60 36%
Two Girls on the Street (1939) - Rated 28 Aug 2025
"The first few minutes have some powerful sequences, including a broken-up wedding and a young new-in-the-big-city girl constantly being harassed by men. Then it drops into a long melodrama where that young girl thinks there's only one man for her; unfortunately, we've already met him. There are a few neat camera tricks and scene transitions that I liked as a film history buff, but that storyline has not aged well at all."
60 36%
Le Voyage en ballon (1960) - Rated 27 Aug 2025
"[Original French] The aerial shots are still impressive, but there's really no plot here: grandpa and grandson fly all over Europe in a balloon. (It would have been nice if they had identified a few more places, especially for us foreigners.) At times it feels like a silent film (there's a bit of slapstick thrown in as well). Hard to believe kids in that day would sit still long enough to watch this."
40 5%
Huevos de oro (1993) - Rated 26 Aug 2025
"Since I had seen films one and three in the "Iberian trilogy," my completionist tendencies required me to watch the middle one. I spent much of this film looking at the backgrounds, since the characters meant nothing to me -- well, until the end, as I cried a little when (last year) my bathroom flooded too. But I think we were coming from different places."
60 36%
Redline (2009) - Rated 23 Aug 2025
"I wish I could comment on the animation here, but my retinas were fried pretty early on. It's a hyperkinetic tour-de-force where none of the known laws of physics apply, although every conceivable anime trope seems to be thrown in for good measure. Since I'm a plot-first person, there were a lot of "wait, what?" moments, but I'll concede this is worth watching once (don't think, just experience)."