A Year of Movies

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

Darn spring break. I was hoping to get current with my weeks before the end of March but spring break happened and the kids have been keeping me busy. The little guy recently got PS2 Lego Indiana Jones so at least he wanted to watch the early Indy trilogy and that helped with my Year of Movies quest.

Also--a belated Happy Birthday to Quentin Tarantino. I'm a fan (as you'll note from this weeks movies) of his movies and his storytelling style. I'll be adding even more of his films to this years quest since I'm eager to watch Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bills (among others) again soon.

Let's get to the list.

106. Inglourious Basterds -- Revisionist history made fun. I really enjoyed this wild ride of a movie. Great performances by Brad Pitt and especially by Christoph Waltz. No wonder he won so many awards for this role. He played that part to perfection. And when he orders milk for Shoshana....(I know, if you haven't seen the movie you'll probably think, what? What's so scary about ordering milk?). This is one of those movies where I'll have to try and find the time to watch it again this year. A great movie--and one of my new all-time favorites.

107. Death Proof -- I watched Quentin Taratino's extended and unrated half of the Grindhouse movie. I've seen both it and Planet Terror before (separately, I didn't get a chance to see them while they were in the theater) and each time I've seen this one, I'm still stunned by the car stunts. Some of the dialogue scenes with the girls just sitting around chatting seems as if QT is just showing off his ability to write snappy dialogue, but since he's so capable of it, I don't find anything wrong with it. For what the movie was supposed to be--it works for me.

108. The Shadow -- A good, early super-hero movie. I wish they would make a sequel to this. I've heard rumors and read old stories online claiming a sequel is in the works, but I haven't seen or heard anything serious as of yet. While I really liked this movie, I think it came out just a few years too early. If it came out now, with all the other superhero movies doing well, I think more people would have noticed it. Bad timing.

109. Wall-E -- The kids wanted to see this so the whole family sat down and watched it. I'd tried to watch it last year one day when I was really tired and fell asleep. I chalked it up as just being tired and came to this viewing less tired, and hopeful that the movie was good and not the reason I fell asleep before. The movie was good. I'm still amazed that a movie with so little dialogue from its main character could still make you care so much for him. The kids loved the movie too.

110. Flawless -- This was the Demi Moore and Michael Caine British heist movie that came out a couple of years ago. I'd never heard of it before, knew nothing about it prior to watching it, but was impressed with the story and the acting. I'm a fan of heist movies and this was an enjoyable one to watch.

111. Unforgiven -- Superb movie. One of my favorites of all time. Clint Eastwood's character's turn near the end of the movie was quite the payoff. But prior to that, just great, great performances by him, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman--but then, that's not surprising either. I remember the first time I watched this movie, shortly after it came out, and I was just stunned by what Eastwood had done with this movie. One of only a few westerns I've watched over and over through the years.

112. Big Trouble -- A goofy, humorous movie with oddball characters and a silly story set in Miami. Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Jason Lee....only a few of the actors in this comedy. A fun movie.

113. Fanboys -- A friend recommended this movie to me. Good recommendation. If you love Star Wars, you'll probably love this movie too. And if you love Star Trek....well....if you have a sense of humor, you'll probably still love this movie. It was just a funny movie with a lot of good cameos.

114. Enemy of the State -- I'll have to add this one to my list of non-traditional Christmas movies since it's set during the Christmas season. I've always liked this movie--I thought Will Smith and Gene Hackman both do a great job in it. And hey, as long as you don't think too hard on the actual story--at least the part about how the govt can follow you etc....but then, as long as you're good, and don't do anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about, right? Right. Good action movie.

115. Cape Fear -- A taut Scorsese suspense thriller. De Niro was flat out scary (and scary good) in this movie. I remember vaguely watching this years ago and if I recall, I didn't like it very much. I'm trying to remember why. I thought it was a good movie now. Perhaps I didn't like the scene with De Niro at the school--if I recall, I think he won over the girl rather easily and I felt it wasn't very realistic. Sadly, I understand now from reading various reports in the newspaper, online or watching stories on the news that this kind of behavior does happen all the time, so perhaps my previous naivety has given way to a darker cynicism and understanding of this movie.

A single favorite--c'mon! I've got Unforgiven AND Inglourious Basterds in the same week. How could I pick a single favorite?

Have a great week, all, and keep watching movies!