A Year of Movies

Week 6: Feb 5, 2010 to Feb 11, 2010
Total number of movies watched: 10

59. Rope -- Another Hitchcock movie. A friend suggested this one to me. Hitchcock filmed this one to look as if the movie was done in one continuous shot. If you watch closely, you do see the 'cuts', however, it still is impressive what he (and the actors) did here. The story was an interesting one too--a couple of men kill a third man, stuff his body in a chest out in the open, and invite his family and friends over for a dinner party--with the food served off the chest.

60. Notorious -- Can you tell I enjoy Hitchcock? What is this, my sixth this year? I think so. A suspenseful movie starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Snappy dialogue between those two. You just don't get a lot of that in movies nowadays. I'd seen the ending of this movie a number of times on TV, but this was a first seeing the entire movie from start-to-finish. Great movie.

61. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou -- A friend suggested this movie to me. I didn't know what to expect--I didn't know what the movie was about. What a truly bizarre and funny movie. I told my friend after watching it that I thought I got all the humor--maybe--but that it was just an odd, funny movie. Bill Murray does those roles so well. (Actually, I like his more serious roles too--so maybe he's just a good actor. Hmmm.....)

62. L.A. Confidential -- What a great, great movie. Excellent cast. Entertaining story line. Just a great viewing pleasure. I'll have to check out the book sometime.

63. Valkyrie -- I know the critics didn't particularly like this movie, but I really didn't have that much of a problem with it. I think the biggest complaint was Cruise (an American) was playing the main German character and a whole slew of great British actors played the secondary German characters and they weren't trying to do a German accent (at least, I don't really remember accents being used or not). Perhaps some people are picky when it comes to actors and accents. I appreciate an actor trying, and succeeding when he/she does an accent, but I'm not (generally) put off too much if an actor doesn't use an accent or if the accent isn't 'perfect'. I'd rather focus my attention on the story and primarily if I'm being entertained (or not). For this movie, I was entertained.

64. The Musketeer -- I'm kinda split on this movie. The action junkie in me enjoyed the swordplay (even though it seemed misplaced in this kind of 'time-period' movie) and the action sequences--but the rest of the movie seemed only so-so. I'm a big fan of Tim Roth--he plays bad guys so well, but it almost seemed like he was TOO good at being bad in this movie while the rest of the characters seemed rather bland in comparison.

65. Zombieland -- Was it a horror movie looking for laughs? Was it a comedy looking for frights? Who cares? It was just a fun, fun movie with some funny lines-- 'It's time to nut up, or shut up.' As I've said before, (I think even on this blog somewhere...right?) sometimes you just need a good, silly movie--pure entertainment. I'd love to see a sequel to this.

66. Training Day -- A dark, action-packed, intense movie with Denzel Washington as the bad guy. Prior to this movie, I don't think he played the villain before...at least, I don't remember him in such a role. (I know he's played the villain in at least one other movie since...). Anyway, I liked this movie a lot.

67. Entrapment -- Sean Connery is just so smooth in this movie. And Catherine Zeta-Jones looked so good while she was trying so hard to be 'bad'. A good heist movie overall.

68. The Chase -- Who knew a car chase could make for an entire movie? There's a song that plays near the end of the movie that I want to track down--it plays at the point when he's deciding whether to get out of the car or not. Hmmm...I don't know what that says about a movie when I'm more interested in the music....Hey, the movie was okay.

A short list this week. Don't worry, I make up for it next week! A single favorite? Well...I'd say it's a toss-up between Zombieland and L.A. Confidential. Two very different movies, liked for two very different reasons. L.A. Confidential is the better movie overall but Zombieland was just loads of fun to watch. Training Day is up near the top too.