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NathanBates

nathanbates
Celluloid Junkie - 2540 Film Ratings
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, but with 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

more Recent Ratings

80 78% Watermelon Man (1970) - Rated 12 Sep 2024
"Subtle, this ain't. Just when you think they're going to trot out every single stereotype, there's something wildly clever said or done, which made me think, "OK, I'll give this a few more minutes." I'm not sure if the we-made-this-film-for-fifty-bucks look helped it or hurt it; I want to say a little better editing and it would have packed a bigger punch, but maybe the cheap look makes you focus on the message a bit more."
60 35% Red-Headed Woman (1932) - Rated 11 Sep 2024
"Pre-Code films are always interesting to watch to see what the studios tried to include, and this one has a few spicy bits. There's a bit of comedy (fav scene: the phone booth), but not really enough to keep up all those innuendos. And the drama part of it is fairly standard climb-the-ladder plot, so it's a little dull until the ending. It's also a bit tough (years later) knowing the star was the "Blonde Bombshell," so I'm glad they kept reminding me via her name that her hair here was red."
60 35% You and Me (1938) - Rated 09 Sep 2024
"There aren't many films that have as their climax a math lesson, and that isn't even the most unusual thing about this one. (One could add the store for parolees and the singing-but-not-dancing mob.) It careens so wildly that it's just hard to shoehorn this as any specific type of film. It's mostly entertaining if you don't mind suspending your disbelief throughout."
60 35% Runaway Jury (2003) - Rated 08 Sep 2024
"This is no 12 Angry Men jury movie; there were times I thought this was a comedy. The plot is whatever is one step beyond preposterous (frankly, I expected there to be one more twist). It does have a great cast, though, and I love that New Orleans is its own character here as well."
60 35% Philadelphia (1993) - Rated 06 Sep 2024
"If I'm grading this as a legal movie, it's got some serious issues with the order of questioning, even to the fact they called witnesses and only asked a few questions yet it was somehow taking more than a week. If this is a human-interest drama, we're stretched a little thin between Beckett and Miller and the character growth is pretty minimal. Hanks' opera moment and his makeup are compelling, but I don't think the ending was ever in doubt."
60 35% Hallelujah! (1929) - Rated 05 Sep 2024
"A white director tries a movie about "a day in the life" of a black family. Yes, stereotypes abound. For his part, Vidor did try to make some universal themes: family, temptation, religion. Some of the scenes (the final prayer meeting, the swamp) had such great noir-ish lighting, and the soundtrack is quite impressive if you like gospel and early jazz. Best summarized by Zeke's conductor dance: not sure if he's going forward or backwards."
60 35% The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) - Rated 04 Sep 2024
"An awkward biography that attempts to throw in a little more gravitas than may be warranted. Flynt rode his (inverse) popularity by claiming constitutional freedoms, which he believed in as much as religion (which is shown in the film). Unfortunately, those freedoms make for a boring narrative, which is what we get in the third act. My favorite part, though, was Little Larry's Moonshinin' Tales, which sadly felt like a shoe-horned Rosebud moment."
80 78% The Verdict (1982) - Rated 02 Sep 2024
"I'm a little critical of courtroom dramas because many of them aim more for "drama" than for something realistic, and this is no exception; there are a handful of spots that are cringe-worthy. But my whole rating goes to Newman's mesmerizing performance as a man crawling out of the depths even when the whole world's against him."
60 35% The Reverend (2021) - Rated 31 Aug 2024
"Solid documentary about a guy who wasn't cut out for a "normal" church job, but eventually found his calling singing in bars, bringing his (somewhat nebulous) religious fervor to people who may not generally attend religious services. The documentary is about him, of course, but I think I would have liked to see how members of his "flock" had been moved by him, because that's kind of the point of preaching the message."
80 78% Pandora's Box (1929) - Rated 30 Aug 2024
"Well, that's a heck of a Christmas movie. It reminded me a bit of Candide, where more and more ridiculous things kept happening but c'est la vie. I'd watch Brooks watching a candle for two hours, but the plot here wasn't as tight as most silents. Thankfully, it has solid cinematography and a good cast to pull it through the weaker spots. (Was not expecting JtR as a walk-on character.)"