Movie Log
So my friends at work inform me that I have deprived myself of good movies for the last 24 years or so. To remedy the travesty, I have signed up for Blockbuster’s online rental thing. I’m on the trial for now, but I’m pretty sure I’ll buy one of the plans so I can finish the IMDB top 250 within a couple years.
The plan is this: watch all the movies in the IMDB top 250 that I have not seen since I acquired good movie taste (circa 2000).
I think it’s a swell idea to keep track of what I’ve seen. Therefore, here is a table that expands when we see more.
“Viewed” means “the day I watched it”, “Written” means “the day I wrote these comments”, and “Rank” means “imdb rank at the time I wrote the comments.”
| Title | Viewed | Comments | Written | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pan’s Labyrinth | 2007-02-01 | Saw this at Midtown Art Cinema. A good show. If you’re into fairy tales, an awesome show. Quite bloody. I think there are scenarios where I disagree with the message of the film. I’m not convinced that the actions of the “good” guys were terribly different from the actions of the “bad” guys. Maybe that was part of the point, or a concession to opposing political points of view. | 2007-02-06 | 65 |
| Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | 2007-02-02 | This film just tugs at me the whole way through. So sad, yet leaves the viewer with hope. Jim Carrey is a real actor. I thought a little bit more about my priorities after this film, I think. Or was that a different film? | 2007-02-04 | 38 |
| The Godfather | 2007-02-03 | Good film, I’ll need to watch again. Not my #1. The music was not memorable for me. I don’t remember there even being much music in the film. I followed most of the plot, but will need to see it again to get a handle on it that I’m comfortable with. | 2007-02-04 | 1 |
| The Godfather Part 2 | 2007-02-03 | We watched the second half first, and the first half second. I’d like to watch it in order. Again, I followed most of what was going on, but will need another viewing someday. I disagree with people who say this one is better than the first. | 2007-02-04 | 3 |
| The Good the Bad and the Ugly | 2007-02-03 | The music. It’s no wonder the music is recycled everywhere. The music made this film amazing. That and the cinemetography. That and the acting. That and the fact that I never knew five straight minutes of three men standing in a cemetary could be so tense. I’ll have to watch some more of the spaghetti westerns when the rest of the 250 is done. | 2007-02-04 | 5 |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest | 2007-02-04 | Good performance by Nicholson. Crazy story. Who’s crazy? Good film, was it worth 8 academy awards? Perhaps. It’s late. | 2007-02-04 | 11 |
| Casablanca | 2007-02-05 | This movie had more adultery, sex, and violence than I expected. Very good movie, but hard to take the love interest seriously. I wish I were as quick witted as the dudes in this film. | 2007-02-06 | 6 |
| Twelve Angry Men | 2007-02-06 | A charicature of a few different types of people. This one seems to be about how people influence one another. Most people, this film points out, change their minds because a bunch of other people did. I think it’s a good story, but it wouldn’t make my top 50 list if I had one. | 2007-02-06 | 15 |
| Rear Window | 2007-02-07* | Brilliant. Having seen this film, I recall seeing it some other time. Whether or not there’s actually a murder makes not a lot of difference. The intrigue generated by people watching is enough. | 2007-02-07* | 13 |
| City of God | 2007-02-07 | Disturbing. Similar to the Godfather, City of God immerses the viewer in the culture of the characters. Not so similar to the Godfather is the complete hopelessness of the situation presented by this film. We watched the special feature (on the DVD) about the very real problem in Rio de Janeiro. When talking about something like this it boils down to the purpose of the law. What’s right butts up against what’s practical. This one will have a lasting impression on me. | 2007-02-08* | 18 |
| Goodfellas | 2007-02-08 | It was pretty good, but not as good as Godfather, not as good as Departed. This was another one of those that started to look familiar as I saw more of it so I must have seen parts before. | 2007-02-11 | 20 |
| Psycho | 2007-02-11 | This one was good. It wasn’t as captivating as Rear Window. As far as whodunit, I thought it was one of five folks, which means Hitchcock definitely did his job, and the end was solid. | 2007-02-12 | 21 |
| Seven Samurai | 2007-02-11 | Three and a half hours well spent. At times it felt like the movie was dragging, but those were parts where it was emphasizing a wait in the story or something grave just happened. The story is simple, the characters are real, and the cinemtography is easy on the eyes. | 2007-02-12 | 21 |
| Citizen Kane | 2007-02-12 | I don’t know what to think about this one. The real film critics love it. It’s definitely all about using some shadows and lights and doing 2 minute takes. Those are the most impressive parts. The story is mildly interesting but not mind-blowing. The guy lived as a child his whole life. So? The acting was pretty swell. I guess I’ll have to read up more on this one or see it a different time. | 2007-02-13* | 24 |
| Amelie | 2007-02-17 | Brilliant! Anybody who’s not a complete fool should appreciate this film. The first 20 minutes is a celebration of the simple, and I think about 99 percent of the population could relate to one of the pleasures enumerated. The strikingest part for me was leading the blind guy. I know that this movie didn’t break as much ground or have as much influence or whatever, but I liked it much better than Citizen Kane. | 2007-02-17 | 31 |
| Sunset Boulevard | 2007-02-20? | Creepy. I never want a sugar mama. An interesting film, wouldn’t be called one of my favorites. | 2007-02-25 | 30 |
| North by Northwest | 2007-02-22 | I thought of Hitchcock as horror for too long, his movies are just suspense or thriller or whatever. This one was pretty good. Running from an airplane would suck. | 2007-02-25 | 25 |
| Silence of the Lambs | 2007-02-24 | Rockin’ movie. This is one film where the buildup to the creepy scary character is not a let-down because the creepy scary character is actually creepy and scary. Counter-examples: The Rock and Con-Air. Such a great creepy character too. | 2007-02-25 | 27 |
| Lawrence of Arabia | 2007-03-17? | Boring. Plus the last couple chapters were scratched so we didn’t get to see the end. I’ll watch it probably never again anyway just because it was … uninteresting considering they couldn’t get Arabs to play Arabs in the film. | 2007-03-27* | 28 |
| Taxi Driver | 2007-03-20? | Creepy. It’s a weird one but then again he’s a weird dude. The dude makes the right decision at the end. | 2007-03-27* | 37 |
| Vertigo | 2007-03-26 | Weird, and I liked it. All the Hitchcock films seem to have an amazing level of curiosity and reality in them. This dude has the worst luck. | 2007-03-27* | 37 |
| Chinatown | 2007-03-26 | Solid story. I wasn’t convinced at all of Jack + Faye, but overall it had me thinking and wondering what’s going on. There were only a couple surprises but this was definitey good. | 2007-03-27* | 44 |
| The Third Man | 2007-03-30 | Okay film. I wonder which film was the first to use the slideshow by the police to show pictures of criminals. Maybe that’s older than 1949. One thing I found interesting was the state of Vienna four years after the war. It looks like the police didn’t have much control, there were plenty of murders, and many buildings had not yet been reconstructed. Of course WWII was just a hair harsher than Iraq, and it was a different kind of crime, but still. Four years isn’t a lot of time. | 2007-03-31 | 45 |
| Se7en | 2007-04-08? | A most excellent show. Between the two main characters, the emotions, reactions, and sentiments of everyone are covered. What I mean is, anyone could relate to either of them. If you couldn’t relate to those two, perhaps you could relate to the criminal they’re after. I didn’t envision the end being quite what it was so I was happy with it. Since everyone had said this was gory it wasn’t as raunchy as anticipated. | 2007-04-16 | 38 |
| Rashomon | 2007-04-19? | Intriguing set of perspectives on one event, and a good discussion of human nature. This one started out slow but got more and more interesting as the movie rolled on. | 2007-04-26 | 68 |
| Apocalypse Now! | 2007-04-22 | Pointless and Horrible, but a good movie. Because its point is the pointlessness and horror. I liked Dennis Hopper. | 2007-04-26 | 37 |
| The Professional | 2007-04-26 | Natalie Portman was a really good actress. This is one of those movies that makes you wonder which of two evils is worse. | 2007-04-29 | 39 |
| Paths of Glory | 2007-04-28 | I’d seen this in History of Warfare class but it was good to see again. Such a solid presentation of the message, but I am wondering how much stuff like this really happened. If everything in the movie is close to reality, it’s a convincing argument. | 2007-04-29 | 41 |
| L.A. Confidential | 2007-04-29 | Awesome. Not unlike The Departed but with a different type of resolution. Perhaps it’s worth seeing again or maybe even reading the book. This isn’t one of those that instills faith in the police though. | 2007-04-30* | 56 |
| Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb | 2007-05-01 | Funny and not funny all at the same time. | 2007-05-08* | 20 |
| Downfall | 2007-05-07 | Fascinating actions taken during the circumstances. They seem to be insane but also rational. I am having a difficult time sorting out the insanity from the rationality. | 2007-05-08* | 50 |
| Alien | 2007-05-30 | Video game movie. I felt like I was playing Doom or something. In many ways this was more like Doom than the movie Doom. Not a terrible film but not great. I’m surprised to see it in the top 250. | 2007-06-02 | 54 |
| M | 2007-06-01 | One of the best I’ve seen. I thought it would be a simple movie that laid some ground with its cinematography or something but it was a solid story and a movie that wrestles with so many issues. Timeless issues. Apparently nothing is new. Two messages: everyone is guilty and keep an eye on your kids. | 2007-06-02 | 48 |
| Spirited Away | 2007-07-08? | Imaginative, but I wasn’t captivated by it. It had that element of "is this in the kid’s mind or is it supposed to be real?" going for it, similar to Pan’s Lab. | 2007-07-18 | 55 |
| The Maltese Falcon | 2007-07-10? | Bogart quips are good. I need to learn to be as witty as people in 40s movies. The plot is sort of lame, but the movie was enjoyable because of the talent. | 2007-07-18 | 62 |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | 2007-07-16? | Excellent actors and characters - totally real people in this story and in this adaptation. Classic story but I wonder how often it happened this way. | 2007-07-18 | 45 |
| Requiem for a Dream | 2007-07-19? | Spectacular. A story of four parallel lives told simply and elegantly (not without some disturbing stuff). Most people cringe when I say I watched it twice in two days, but my life is great after watching this film. | 2007-07-31* | 62 |
| The Pianist | 2007-07-22? | If it weren’t for the character introduced toward the end, this would have been yet another “the Nazis were terrible” film. Maybe there’s more than I caught on to. Overall good film. | 2007-07-31* | 52 |
| The Deer Hunter | 2007-07-30 | Real characters. There are some scenes that stick in my mind because they’re disturbing. I appreciated the authenticity of the church choir as well as authenticity of the characters. | 2007-07-31* | 138 |
| Hot Fuzz | 2007-07-30 | Brilliant. So many puns, so much parody, so much awesome packed into so little time. | 2007-07-31* | 140 |
| Double Indemnity | 2007-10? | Pretty good I guess. | 2008-03-01* | 58 |
| No Country for Old Men | 2007-12-12 | This is one you see twice, and it’s more interesting the second time. Either that, or I’m slow and need to see movies twice to understand them. Perhaps a combination of the two. A most excellent movie, definitely deserves the awards it received. | 2008-03-01* | 39 |
| There Will be Blood | 2007-01-31 | People can be pretty bad. Say it louder.. | 2008-03-01* | 28 |
| 3:10 to Yuma | 2008-02-17 | Not the typical Western. It has the typical setup and all the fun elements but slightly more depth. I liked it a lot, watched it again with the roommates the next night. | 2008-03-01* | 220 |
| Treasure of the Sierra Madre | 2008-02-22? | It’s nice to see movies where you don’t predict exactly how it’s going to be. But you still know some of what’s going to happen. And badges? I didn’t see that one coming but it was awesome. | 2008-03-01* | 53 |
| Unforgiven | 2008-03-01* | Clint Eastwood is such a badass. At the moment I liked 3:10 to Yuma better, but they’re slightly different styles. I can’t say one is better than the other. | 2008-03-01* | 115 |
| Heat | 2008-0?-?? | I know I watched this movie and it was pretty good. Don’t know the day but this fits in the proper order. | 2008-05-27 | 144 |
| Iron Man | 2008-05-04 | I was hoping this movie wasn’t on the top 250 but unfortunately it is. I’m not sure what I didn’t like about it, but I’m not sure what everyone else liked about it. | 2008-05-27 | 161 |