It sounds like the How to Train Your Dragon movies were victims of over-inflated expectations. I agree that both movies have an aura of familiarity, but they tell that familiar story incredibly well. They're two of my favorite animated films from recent years. Gorgeous animation, spot-on voice casting, good characterization for a "children's film," effective humor, thrills and excitement galore. I find both movies incredibly joyous, which is the emotion that I most hope to achieve when I sit down to watch an animated film.
The voice casting was distracting because for some reason two of the characters have Scottish accents while the rest just have American-sounding accents. I know that Butler and Ferguson are actually Scottish but it feels weirdly inconsistent. I do worry that I'm becoming one of those people who shrugs off computer-animated films for whatever reason, but I'll take either
Dragon film over
Frozen, alright.
I've become a big fan of Mr. Peckinpah over the last couple of years. The Wild Bunch, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Straw Dogs, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid are all favorites of mine. So far, though, Convoy is easily the weakest of his films that I've seen, although I found more enjoyment in it than you did. From what I've read, Peckinpah spent more time getting drunk during production than he did actually filming the movie. You mentioned that you had "very mixed feelings" on Peckinpah. Care to elaborate a little? (Something tells me part of your misgivings is going to be his treatment of women.)
Eh, with the exception of
The Wild Bunch, none of them have ever really amazed me. Maybe that's because they all come across as variations on that particular film and thus I'm inclined to think of them as "lesser" by default. I remember
Pat Garrett and
Cross of Iron being rather good (if not great) but it's been so long and I've forgotten so much that I think I could use repeat viewings of both of them just to make sure. The same applies to
Straw Dogs, though unlike those other two it was a bit too basic for my liking so I doubt a second viewing would do much good. I have seen
Alfredo Garcia twice, and it is a frustrating movie above all else because it seems like I'd be into it but it's horribly nihilistic at times, and while I do appreciate that in movies, here it just leaves me really cold. Why should I care?
The Getaway, well, it's a fairly disposable for-hire gig but at least it's a fairly entertaining one. In this context,
Convoy is probably the lightest film I've seen him do, but it also comes across as self-parody at times (case in point - the fact that multiple Peckinpah films have that whole "blaze of glory" kind of ending, which is gutted in
Convoy). That's without mentioning the treatment of women, mind.
Inception is my second favorite Nolan. (The Prestige is number one.)
I did like
The Prestige at first, but I think one viewing was enough. Last I checked, I had it at
, which puts it on par with most of the Batman films and
Insomnia (at the moment, anyway).