Well it was short sighted (and I am that) of me to think I could watch the entire IMDb Top 250 in a year. Yeah sure you could but when I was working off one list (a snap shot I took from January 1st 2013) the list was ever changing.
So I've not abandoned the list... but it seems more like a lifelong goal to keep up with the movers and shakers of the list. I mean right now "Let the Right One In" (2008) is not on the list, but was when I started this. To be fair I'd already seen that when it first came out but I was going to revisit it solely for the purpose of it crept up on the list.
Now its off the List I've put my plans to revisit it to the back of my mind, even though its a fantastic movie.
Another case in point, "Perks of Being a Wallflower" has disappeared and been replaced by "Arsenic and Old Lace". This happens all the time, but luckily I found sites which notes these changes.
(I'm preferring the latter as it has a more similar layout to that of the IMBd site and you can see clearly what new movies are in, and a nice feature of what past movies have been in the list for one day, but the Informer site lets you track what you've seen on that site if you register, so either or both is good. Though you can check-in to what you watch on IMDb itself so there's that...)
Where before I was trying to watch all movies, including those I'd seen before, now I'm concentrating on those I never have. (And not just those from the IMDb Top 250, just movies I've generally never seen... re- my last "List of Shame" post)
So in closing, no I've not given up, I've just changed the rules on myself.
We go into a movie with prior knowledge, from trailers and stills and on-set reports and interviews and posters and reading the book or comic it's based on or having seen the original, all this information and expectations.
I try to keep my expectations low in the words of Otis B. Driftwood "So I'm never disappointed." But movies are hyped or a friend tells you its the most awesome thing and this only sets us up for a fall, for expectations to be dashed.
I often try to go into seeing a movie on gut instinct alone, with as little information as possible. Take 'The Conjuring' coming out here tomorrow, I've only seen two posters for it and literally sat in the cinema with headphones in during the trailers and eyes closed to avoid some trailers, this being one on them. I want to go in knowing nothing. All I need is, "Its a horror" and I like Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. That sold me on it. Nothing more. I did the same for the Evil Dead remake, and after I saw the movie I went and watched the trailer to see if I was justified in my strange behaviour of avoiding trailers... yes, yes I was. The trailer shows you all the "money shots".
Remember folks, the film-makers do not cut the trailer, that's the studio, they don't care if they spoil the movie for you, they don't care if the final shot is in the trailer (That Rec remake Quarantine... I'm looking at you.) Their goal is bums in seats.
But these thoughts made me realize something...
Its now August, yeah already huh? (Not long now til Second Christmas aka Halloween and then actually Christmas, of which I do already have technically two presents for, tickets to see Less Than Jake/Reel Big Fish co-head-liner tour) And I haven't changed my calendar yet... I wonder what beautiful bus it will be this month! (Yeah my mom bought me a calendar of Buses, its a thing we do, try to find the shittest calendar for each other possible, mine to her? I got her 'goats in trees'... check out Miss. December if you can... truly terrifying.)
You, gentle (or not so) reader, may have noticed I sorta kinda gave up on the IMDB Top 250, sort of... well yeah. And here's a little of why...
Y'see I have a problem with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 being in the IMDB Top 250, you can only enjoy it with a hell of a lot of prior knowledge.
I did not want to watch the last in a long series just to tick it off the list, me being me, would have to watch the whole series.
If one is in the list, the lot should be, like Peter Jackson's LOTR's and now the Hobbit, or none at all.
I'm not giving up on the list entirely, it is a fine list, for the most part. I have found it odd that where music is concerned I care nothing for the Top 40 or Billboard Chart, what's popular in music does not always seem to be good.
The difference I noticed with the "Top" lists of movies is they generally do tend to be good. Box Office numbers and "Best Of" lists do not coincide, but somewhere in the middle are lots of people out there with good taste. People going out in droves to see a new Transformers movie does not make it good... an example of box office and "good" not intersecting, but the success of Avengers is warranted, a good movie doing good business.
And case in point, the Avengers... can you see it without seeing all the movies leading up to it? I do not honestly know as I've came at it from a comic geek perspective and all the prior knowledge that entails.
If I remember correctly, and I do, a friend went to see The Avengers without seeing most of the previous movies, and him and his boys enjoyed the movie, I'm pretty sure his kids knew the other movies but he was oblivious when I asked about which previous movie he liked and he had only seen the first Iron Man.
Recently I saw the Wolverine, and I go in with my geek brain and it all makes sense, but does everyone?
I heard people and read people be confused by Prof. X rolling up at the end during the mid-credits scene... was I the only one that made it to the end of The Last Stand? (Yeah and I like that movie. Surprised? David Hine was too when I met him.)
And for those who haven't...
Even seeing Magneto floating shit in the airport answered the question that hung at the end of The Last Stand... did that chess piece move? Or no?
...and an aside, Hugh Jackman looks the most like a comic book Logan than he ever has before, supposedly he didn't consume any water for 36 hours prior to filming his shirtless scenes to make himself lose the "water weight" and look more "cut" and "trim" on camera, dude the headaches were worth it, he looks fierce.
So has anyone went into these movies without seeing the previous movies? Can you and enjoy them? I guess that's why by Saw V there was so much flashbacks and intertwining of timeline throughout the entire Saw series... they were made that way for the people that saw the previous movies once, the previous year in the cinema. Or perhaps the Rocky movies that start with the finale of the previous movie due to the audience not expected to have seen it just before going into the new movie, forget VHS the audience needed to be caught up again as they wouldn't have seen the previous movie since they first saw it. And forget what us Movie Geeks do now or what the cinemas provide, a marathon before the new movie. Before The Hobbit I went to a Lord of the Rings-a-thon, before The World's End coming out, fans could see Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and then The World's End in some cinemas.
(If you're a movie geek you know you do it too... before seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I re-watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight... you know you did too.) But now movies don't need to do that, cause we have all the prior knowledge... we no longer need the recaps, the Sunset Beach effect.
I also started to pick up a lot of Eureka! releases (which do include some Billy Wilder, F.W Murnau, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles) and I generally like to explore movies that are on the more obscure side of things. Sure it's good to say you've watched a lot of the Top movies of all time but I started to feel like I was just watching what other people said were good and not finding my own good movies. I got through a fair few and have generally seen most of them now, just not all in this year like I had planned to.
I'd roughly say out of the current list (not the one I was working from... remember it changes all the time) that there's about 30 that I haven't seen. Which ain't too bad I reckon. There's a few out of them that have been on my "To Watch" list for a while and for the effort I put in earlier in the year I'll try to get round to watching new entries on the list that were not there on my list from the start of the year.
The lives of George Valentin and Peppy Miller cross, as one descends into obscurity from stardom and the other embraces the new technology of talkies to become a star.
I believe this deserves its spot on the Top 250. The Artist is beautifully made, the score by Ludovic Bource is authentic, light in places, playful but also deep and emotional. I will admit I had not came across any of his work prior to this movie, but I hope he goes on to a great many movies, as he was awarded Breakout Composer of the Year 2011.
There is some controversy about his use of the Vertigo score, but the Director Michel Hazanavicius has stated in defence of the use of the Vertigo score,
"'The Artist' was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew's) admiration and respect for movies throughout history," Hazanavicius responded in a statement. "It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, (Fritz) Lang, (John) Ford, (Ernst) Lubitsch, (F.W.) Murnau and (Billy) Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I'm very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly, and I'm sorry to hear she disagrees."
I guess its like how you borrow from family, you never steal. (Unless you are some inbred on the Jeremy Kyle Show with little to no teeth...) The music is used with respect and love of film, it's a compliment to it.
On my first viewing of this, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I had somehow convinced my sister to go along to see it, without giving her any details, knowing she would have said no if she knew it was 1. Black and White. and 2. A silent movie.
But big surprise, she loved it. As did I.
Paraphrasing her... she loved it because its an old style movie but made today, so the actors actually know how to act. When he's "mugging" to the camera in the movies within movie, its self aware, Jean Dujardin is aware that he is overacting as George Valentin within the movie in the movie.
I simply fell for George Valentin in much the same way I love Gene Kelly.
Yes, I went through a phase as a teen when I watched a lot of 1930s/40s/50s Hollywood musicals. Yeah I'm so uncool and I'm cool with that.
Both men have a gracefulness to them, especially in the way they dance. I find it very masculine, very athletic and that's partly down to even the clothing Gene Kelly chose to wear. He would dress like a regular guy but smart. Agree or disagree, I think he's a mighty fine man.
George Valentin is also such a masculine figure to me, yet he is his own tragic downfall. His stubbornness, his inability to see the new technology of "talkies" as a way to expand cinema. His unwillingness to embrace change. All factors in his descent, which is rather beautifully shown around 36 minutes into the movie in a scene where George Valentin runs into Peppy Miller. This scene is pure show don't tell, heck the whole film is show don't tell. this staircase is in the central atrium of the Bradbury Building located at 304 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California. Dozens of movies, TV shows, and music videos have been filmed there. Most notably, the interior and exterior were featured prominently in 'Blade Runner'. So even the use of this location has Hollywood engrained into it.
But boy that dance scene which is said to have taken 5 months of rehearsal in the same studio Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds used for 'Singin' in the Rain'. "It was really hard," remembers Bérénice Bejo, "and even now when I look at the movie I can't believe how fast we're doing it. Sometimes it's like my feet still hurt."
It's authenticity is down to how the movie is shot in 1.33:1 ratio because as the director Michel Hazanavicius states it gives the actors "a presence, a power, a strength. They occupy all the space of the screen.", using only shots that could have been used back between 1927-1932 so there is no zoom shots and the wipes used between scenes are also authentic.
The Artist was shot with 22 FPS, so when it is played at the standard 24 FPS, the actors movement becomes faster, not so noticeable but it's effective. This was used to mirror how most silent films were shot with 14 to 24 FPS, which makes many of these films appear "faster" in motion when played on modern projection equipment at 24 FPS.
The titles and credits being fashioned after movies in the 20s and 30s also add to its reallness of being a silent movie.
There's a scene where George Valentin is watching on a home projector one of his movies, where he plays a swashbuckler. The movie is in fact 'The Mark of Zorro' but instead of Douglas Fairbanks, our protagonist is substituted for him.
In short, heh, this is made with love for it's subject, and is an emotional character study and romantic piece. Please if you let the black and whiteness or the silentness of this put you off in any way...don't, recommended hewl yeah! :D
I should be watching 20 of the Top 250 movies a month to make it, right? So that makes me, currently at 35, and watching my 36th as I write this ahead of schedule... or very much on it. Splendid.
I almost thought I wasn't going to get from 17 to 34, but self high five, I did... even got to 35 titles. It's pretty much been a week, and I ticked off another 18 movies off of the IMDb Top 250, but movies I all own/seen already. Which to me wasn't the point... I wanted to see movies I'd never seen before off the Top 250 list, but its surprising me how many I've already seen.
Lets check out what I checked off...
Last week included a not so very special day, the day that is Groundhog Day. Woopy shit, right? But with that shitfest of a holiday? is the awesome sauce of a movie... Groundhog Day. To quote Zombieland.. Bill Murray has a direct line to my funnybone. (and anyone following me on twitter will know I watched this already and how much I was creasing at it.)
The dude is hilarious. Bill Murray, marry me?
Can we just officially change Groundhog day to Bill Murray day?
Next, cause I was in that comedy mood I watched an old favourite of mine...
The Princess Bride
I remember when I first saw this, I was a wee lassy staying with my grandparents and we went to the video store and we picked up 3 movies in that one visit (movies I don't think we took back) and they were 'A Christmas Story', 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and 'The Princess Bride'. Not a bad haul right, thank you Grandad. (Ah frak I miss video rental store days.)
I am ashamed, however, to admit I've never read the book. It is on my kindle (which I called Yossarian, electronic gizmos should have names, they just should)
Anywhoballs, I love this movie. Honest to blog, I love this movie. I love it more now than I did when I was a child.
Got a 'The Princess Bride' T-shirt and everything...
Then I rattled off some classics, check my movies list over to the side there for what I watched, The Deer Hunter, Cool Hand Luke, Goodfellas, Casino...
And what I'm finding out here is it's better to watch awesome movies, but it makes it more awesome when you throw in some doozies... cause then the good movies stand out more. And also it's easier to write about bad movies. Something I've noticed from podcasts I listen to... the funnier reviews are for bad movies... theres just more to say.
So fellow bloggers and movie fans, which do you like to write/discuss... the good movies or the bad movies?
This meant more to the adults that grew up with the Toy Story movies, than it did to their children who they took to have an excuse to see it in theatres.
I feel I have been lax on my quest for the holysmokes Batman! the IMDb Top 250. We, yes you and me, are almost at the end of January and I've gotten hardly no where.
I have other marathons akin to the QT/RR-athon that covers some of the IMDB Top 250, so don't mistake my laziness and slowness of watching the IMDb Top 250 as actual laziness and slowness.
Upcoming a-thon-s
-Martin Scorsese Movies
-Pixar
-Disney
-Star Trek Movies
-Star Wars
-Clint Eastwood Movies
-Stanley Kubrick
-Comic book movies (split into smaller categories . re- movies leading into avengers, Nolan Batman trilogy, batman movies of the mostly 90s, Spidermans...)
-Speilberg
-Coens
-Carpenter
-Studio Ghibli
-Scott brothers
-Tim Burton
-Rocky movies (I reckon I have to marathon them at least once a year... I have a stupid crush on Rocky Balboa... *shhh* it's a guilty secret...)
Who wouldn't love that face?
(these a-thon-s pretty much explain to you, gentle or not so gentle reader, how my movie collection is ordered, no alphabetical for me!)
I find I enjoy a-thon-s more than randomly picking out a movie from the IMDb Top 250, though I will undoubtedly have to do that too....this week.
My Current Total - 17 (and stupidly hoping to double that in a week... lets crack on!)
How far have I come in 20 days? Lets have a look at my IMDB list and see...
Current Total - 12
12 out of the 49 movies I've watched so far isn't too bad, right?
Could be 13 if 'Django Unchained' was in my list, it's not, but it is now on the ever changing IMDb Top 250.
Movie watching plans for next week is to follow up Tarantino Week with Rodriguez Week.
I hope to cover -
El Mariachi
Desperado
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
The Faculty
Sin City
Machete
From Dusk til Dawn
Grindhouse
Granted only Sin City is in the IMDb Top 250, but I can't not follow up a QT week by nothing other than RR.
What have I been watching TV wise this week?
This week saw the finale of Fringe, I cried. Archer season 4 began, it was so meta, the whole Bob's Burger tie-in was fantastic!
Parks and Recreation/30 Rock/Modern Family/Cougar Town were all hilarious...
New Girl wasn't bad, and 2 Broke Girls went to a new level of subtext, love it!
American Horror Story was all WTFrak? Looking forward to the finale this coming week.
Bones and Castle were the same as usual.
And that's pretty much all I'm caught up on.
Those shows and some sweet Raw and Smackdown. (I really don't have time for any other WWE programming. Sorry dudes at WWE, but as long as you do recaps on Smackdown of Mainevent... I'm good.)
Quick post here folks...It's technically Thursday, something like -5 outside, and I've only watched 3 Tarantino movies so far.
I skipped right over True Romance (I'll get to it at the end of the week if I have time) and went from Reservoir Dogs into Pulp Fiction.
See I had Monday off, thought I had plenty of time so I caught up on other recent movies that I had been wanting to see like Les Miserables, Seven Psychopaths, Zero Dark Thirty and as you already know, Django Unchained.
Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are 2 of my favourite QT movies, I don't think I can put them in order but Inglorious Basterds and Jackie Brown are at the bottom.
(I think I noticed when I double dipped on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and kinda wishing I'd picked up the gascan version of Reservoir Dogs too, to be fair I'd love to have all the Region 1 10th Anniversary covers... instead I own both on DVD and the shot glass version of Reservoir Dogs, and this steelbook of Pulp Fiction)
At first viewing I did not like Death Proof, cause I thought Planet Terror was AMAZEBALLS... almost literally with the ball thing. The more I viewed it the more I fell in love with the movie, and now the whole of Grindhouse is up there for me.
Hmmmm, *pondering trying to put his movies into an actual personal best to worst, well not worst just least best, list.... maybe I can do it by Sunday...*
It was superb! This needs to win 'Best Original Screenplay' (which sounds odd when you take into consideration how QT pulls in his insperation, but there's nobody who writes his unique way)
If anyone can spare $300 I'd like one of these....Spare $600 and let me have Django and Schultz.
Why is it so good?
The script.
Characters are well defined, given lots to do, lots of goals. Django has a clear goal, to get his wife back.
Obstacles are put in his way, and he grows as a character, as a man, learning along the way skills that will help him achieve his goal.
QT's movies can be almost 3 hours and not feel it because with every dialogue heavy scene, tension builds under the surface, tension that hints at major shit about to kick off. As a viewer I'm kept waiting in anticipation and when it comes, when the big gun fight, the deaths are delivered they are more than worth the wait. They are better for the wait.
When you think its over, there's more awesomness to come.
And damn if QT doesn't know how to write instant classic lines.
I'd saw the trailer once online previous to seeing the trailer in the cinema when I was with my sister, she looked to me "Huh? How are you quoting it already?" and by the time I saw the movie, I had more lines memorized.
And then there is the...
Acting.
The actors capture you into their world, the world of "The Southern".
Jamie Foxx as Django grows so much over the course of this movie. He is such a physical actor, his whole demeanour changes as he overcomes obstacles, is given worth and freedom.
Christoph Waltz's portrayal as Schultz makes me want to re-watch this movie immediately, if not sooner. He is so disgusted by slavery that it is him that sets the entire movie in motion. He is so polite, a stranger in a strange land, yet there is something under the surface that tells you he can handle his shit, that he may be polite but it does not mean he is not the most dangerous man in the room.
I think Christoph Waltz is my new love.
Leo DiCaprio is a scene stealer, and stealing it from him is Sam Jackson. The two of them leap out the screen, grab you by the collar and make you take notice.
.png)
