Poor man’s Fast Times At Ridgemont High: I don’t love Fast Times. I like Better Off Dead even less. I can’t figure out why this movie exists. ★★☆☆☆ I understand why Josh assigned me this movie. It’s the same reason that I assigned Animal House. He thinks it’s a really funny movie. Unfortunately, Animal House […]

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Rich Man’s One Fine Day – as far as rom-coms go, this one actually has characters with some sort of personality. ★★★★☆ The rom-com is a vexing genre of movie. On one hand, its comedic movies about people who fall in love, and that sounds like a really good time. On the other hand, it […]

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  Intro from the Editor: I didn’t so much assign this movie to David as text him and Josh rapturously about it: Holy shit have you guys seen M? It’s amazing. I’d wanted to see M for a long time. I knew its plot: criminal underbelly begins hunt for a child-killer. I knew its marquee […]

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Poor Man’s Sophie’s Choice — stories of a women who have suffered tragedy, but Sophie comes away with more of your heart than Philomena can, despite Judi Dench’s best efforts. ★★★★☆ Some movies are just made to win awards, and Philomena is one of them. It has a phenomenal cast led by Steve Coogan and […]

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Poor man’s Trading Places: It’s really tough to beat Trading Places, but Flirting With Disaster made a real strong go at it. It’s missing a few more laugh-out-loud lowbrow comedy moments, but otherwise it hits all the right places for a comedy. ★★★★☆ Josh and I convinced another friend to watch Flirting With Disaster before […]

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Poor Man’s Braveheart — I know I am supposed to like Spartacus more, but I just found it a little less fun ★★★★☆ Everyone knows the quote, “I am Spartacus!” However, fewer know the other 3 hours and 14 minutes of film that surround that scene. Spartacus is Stanley Kubrick’s story of the titular character […]

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Poor Man’s Ferngully: Both movies have environmentalism at their core. However, I found Ferngully to be more fun and satisfying. ★★★☆☆ As you may remember, I did not look kindly upon The Wind Rises, but Josh is nothing if not persistent. Princess Mononoke is an animated film centered around Ashitaka, a prince from a small […]

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Poor Man’s Aladdin — no need for a clever comparison here. It just is. ★★☆☆☆ This week David assigned me an animated film. I’ve been dragging him to our local theatre’s showings of Studio Ghibli movies and I think he wanted to return the favor. This movie is about a poor orphan boy growing up […]

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Rich Man’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: I don’t love Kubrick and I find most of 2001 pretty slow. Moon’s by no means a perfect movie, but it’s got thrills and is definitely a more fun movie. ★★★★☆ This week I watched a 90 minute Twilight Zone-esque movie called Moon. The opening monologue tells you that […]

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Rich Man’s Carnage: both movies are strong limited storytelling and excellent adaptations of stage plays. Honestly, it’s hard to choose between these two as they are both exceptional but Rope gets the edge for being filled to the brim with wordplay. ★★★★★ I have always secretly dreaded Alfred Hitchcock movies. I was afraid that I […]

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