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After months of vainly trying to think of movies to put on my Netflix queue, I've decided to do what everyone else does these days--consult the Internet. Or, in this case, my LJ friends. :-)

I'm looking for recommendations for movies, preferably in the following categories (since stuff that falls in these catalogs esrblog will likely be willing to watch with me):

Action/thriller;
Science fiction;
Fantasy;
Historical drama (i.e., costume epics);
Western;
Cartoon/animation;
Comedy OTHER than romantic comedy (I'll use esrblog's definition of "romantic comedy" here, namely, "pretty people behaving stupidly.").

It's cool if you happen to suggest something we've seen, but I'm hoping to get a sizable number of recommendations for films I hadn't heard of out of this meme, so I will provide a few guidelines:

We have seen:

* All the Star Trek movies;
* Both Star Wars trilogies;
* The Lord of the Rings trilogy;
* All 5 seasons of Babylon 5, including the pilot movie;
* The entire FIRST season of the new "Dr. Who"

You may assume that we've seen all of the science fiction, fantasy, and animated feature full-length movies that have come out in the last 5 years. But DON'T assume we've seen anything else--you may be surprised at what we've missed, since we're not really regular moviegoers and have never been. Also, as the above list suggests, feel free to suggest TV series that are out on DVD--it's a cinch we *won't* have seen them, since I haven't watched TV since the 2004 Winter Olympics, and for esrblog it's been a lot longer.

Any suggestions are deeply appreciated, whether I end up taking them or not. Thanks!

Remember my review of the science fiction convention Confluence? Well, while I was at that con, back in late July, I finally got to see a movie my friends had been telling me about for a while--"Shaun of the Dead." Never mind that it's been nearly two months since I've seen it. I'm not yet ready to write about Sword Camp (only a month ago!) and I want to write about this movie before I've completely forgotten it, so heeeeere we go!

Those of my friends (and you know who you are) who urged me to see "Shaun" characterized it as "a romantic comedy, with zombies." That's sort of true, but I think it's misleading. It gives the impression that the emphasis of the film is very different than what it is. "Shaun of the Dead" isn't really a romantic comedy with zombies; it's more like a comic horror film with a secondary romance subplot.

That should have made the movie more fun, for me, since I much prefer comedy to romance, but somehow it didn't. Probably because I found it so easy to imagine someone like Shaun, who's clearly sleepwalking through his life when the story opens, not noticing that his fellow pedestrians are acting like zombies because...they've actually *become* zombies.

Maybe my problem is that I didn't really like any of the characters. Oh, I sympathized with Shaun, all right, just as the filmmakers intended. But I don't think I'm capable of true fellow feeling for a character whose idea of a great time is spending the evening sitting and drinking at the corner bar (all, right, the neighborhood pub; same difference) or playing video games with his roommate Ed, who has to be one of the most repulsive minor characters in recent movie fiction. Liz was *right* to dump Shaun, and probably right to take him back after he proved himself by doing his best, after all those years of going with the flow, to try to lead his little band of friends/loved ones to safety from the zombies. And just when I had worked up some warm fuzzies for the main characters, the movie whisks in a government task force to save our hero, and segues abruptly into a satirical final scene that I found morally revolting. (No, I'm not going to describe it; if you really need to know what I'm talking about, rent it and find out).

esrblog likes to put down romantic comedies as films about "pretty people behaving stupidly." If you're inclined to accept that definition (and I don't know that I am), it suggests that maybe "Shaun of the Dead" is sort of a romantic comedy after all. Because the best way to describe the movie is "ordinary-looking people behaving stupidly."

Yuck.

Why I didn't post anything about "Batman Begins" or "Fantastic Four", it's because I enjoyed both movies. Neither of them had any feature that was awful enough to make me want to complain (wittily) about it, and neither was great enough to be worth raving about.

Though I will say I enjoyed watching Christian Bale take on the entire world from his Bat Cave. And I could watch Ioan Gruffudd on screen all day no matter how awful the rest of the movie was. Mmmmm.