Reel Culture: The ones I've seen, Part III

The last 10 of the 50 Reel Culture movies that I've seen. These range from 1977 to 1991.

1. Saturday Night Fever. What I remember most is John Travolta swinging those paint cans down the street.

2. Superman. Honestly, I'm not sure I've watched this all the way through, but I'm sure I've seen most of it. I've ordered it from netflix so I can make sure I've seen the whole thing. I want to be able to prove I'm American.

3. Animal House. I might have never seen this if Epstein hadn't put it on my Must See Movies list in high school. That, and Caddy Shack.

4. Apocalypse Now. I don't think my husband would have ever married me if I hadn't watched this with him first.

5. Airplane! Totally corny. Unfortunately, corn makes me laugh.

6. The Shining. One of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. There are a few scenes when I have to cover my eyes.

7. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Speaking of covering my eyes, I always cover my eyes when Indy says to, just before the Nazis' faces start melting. Just in case. Anyway, Indiana Jones is awesome. Harrison Ford is awesome! Just how cool can one man be? Indiana Jones and Han Solo??

8. Blade Runner. My husband likes this movie a lot more than I do. Not that I don't like it. But I do want to read the novel it came from (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick).

9. The Breakfast Club. One of the best "high school" movies ever. I love it! It is hilarious without being gross. Sure, my mom would not approve, but that's part of the fun.

10. Silence of the Lambs. I actually saw this in the theater when I was in high school. Freaked me out so bad that I promised myself I would never, ever watch it again. Though I suppose it does bring new meaning to the phrase, "eat it or wear it" . . .

Cinematic Espionage

Bride of the Screen God's newest post about The Illusionist reminded me of something. Have you ever noticed that some movies seem to come out in near duplicate? I've always wondered if there is such a thing as a studio spy. When one producer gets wind of a movie idea that's in the works, he scurries back and forth with information so that whichever studio he's loyal to can "scoop" the other studio.

Here are some movie combinations that I remember thinking were awfully similar:

The Prestige and The Illusionist

Antz and A Bug's Life

Babe and Gordy

Deep Impact and Armageddon

Dante's Peak and Volcano

The Truman Show and EDtv

Rob Roy and Braveheart

Have I missed any?

Reel Culture: The ones I've seen, Part II

Here are the next ten movies I've seen from the 50 listed in Reel Culture. These range from 1961 to 1977.

1. Breakfast at Tiffany's. I love Audrey Hepburn. This may be my least favorite of her movies, though.

2. The Graduate. I really don't remember much from this movie. I guess my clearest memory is of the wedding interruption scene.

3. Bonnie and Clyde. Don't remember much from this either. Gosh, this makes me wish I had started my movie blog years ago.

4. Easy Rider. I actually watched this during the past year, so I blogged about it here. My main reaction was, "what was the point of that?"

5. A Clockwork Orange. Rather a disturbing movie. Unfortunately the scene that most sticks in my mind is the rape.

6. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I am probably the only person my age on the face of the planet who first saw this as an adult.

7. The Exorcist. In high school once I went to a Scary Movie Sleepover and we watched this. I can't remember which other movie (or movies?) we watched--maybe Poltergeist?

8. Rocky Horror Picture Show. I've never had the full experience, though. Not sure I want to.

9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I love this movie. So many quotable quotes. I've seen a couple (but not all) of their other movies and this one's my favorite.

10. Annie Hall. Typical Woody Allen. Is he an acquired taste, or do those who like his work like it the first time they try it?

Reel Culture: The ones I've seen, Part I

Here are ten of the "influential and classic movies" I've seen that are listed in that Reel Culture book. These movies range from 1938 to 1960.

1. Bringing Up Baby. I was just sure I saw this recently enough to have blogged about it, but I guess it's been more than a year. Without a blog post, I don't remember enough about it to say anything here, so I'll add a tidbit from the Reel Culture book: The dog in this movie also played Asta in the Thin Man movies.

2. The Wizard of Oz. Of course this is a classic, but it's a classic on the level of Star Wars. Everyone knows it well enough to practically have it memorized. The reason I bring up Star Wars is because it is not in this book, but in the author's foreword she explains her reason behind leaving that one out: "Everyone already knows it." I defy you to show me an American over the age of three who does not know The Wizard of Oz.

3. Gone With the Wind. Definitely a great movie. I would totally watch it more often if it wasn't so freaking long.

4. Citizen Kane. This movie kind of bored me. Of course, someone had already told me the meaning of "Rosebud" before I watched it; I wonder if it would have made a difference in my viewing pleasure if I hadn't known that ahead of time. Just so you know, if you read Reel Culture, you too will know about Rosebud.

5. Casablanca. One of those movies I really loved but can barely remember. I own a copy. Maybe it's time to watch it again.

6. It's a Wonderful Life. OK, I put this on the list of ones I've seen even though I'm not absolutely sure I've actually watched the entire thing in sequence from beginning to end. However, I'm sure I've seen every single part of it multiple times. Put them all together and I bet there's more than one full viewing.

7. Rear Window. See #5, except I don't own a copy. But here is an interesting tidbit from Reel Culture: "All of the audio in the movie is diagetic, meaning that the film does not include any sound that is not to be heard by the characters."

8. Rebel Without a Cause. What I most remember about this movie is how immature James Dean acted at the beginning. It seemed false to me.

9. Some Like it Hot. Another one I barely remember, although I don't remember especially loving it. I haven't been very impressed with most of the Marilyn Monroe movies I've seen. Did she always play such a complete airhead?

10. Psycho. I remember this one a little better than usual. Here's what interested me from the book: "Hitchcock wanted Psycho to look like a cheap horror movie, so he shot it in black and white (color was available, so it was an intentional choice) and used his lower-budget television show crew as opposed to the staff that worked on his more expensively made films." I never would have known that--I just chalked those details up to being a 50-year-old movie. (Well, it was probably more like 40, or even 30, when I saw it, but you get the idea.)

Reel Culture (*A book, not a movie)

I heard about this book from Melissa at The Avid Reader's Musings. At first I thought I might write about this one on my book blog instead, but it really fits in here much better.

This is a fun little book that lists 50 influential movies from 1938 to 1991. (For all you mathematicians out there who have figured out that's more than 50 years, you're right. This book does not present one movie for each year; some years are skipped, and some years have more than one movie listed.) The movies are found in the book in the order that they were released, from oldest to newest. If you would like to see the Table of Contents for this book so that you can see which 50 movies are included, click here.

This book seems to be geared toward a younger reader--someone who has neither been alive long enough to see all the classics nor was alive when most of them came out. If you can get over the author using the word "hot" on every other page, it's a fun read for any age, but beware--if there are any of these 50 movies that you haven't seen, it will be spoiled for you if you read its synopsis.

As I read, what I made a note of was the number of movies I have not seen.

1. Sunset Boulevard. I added it to my netflix queue today, even though it kind of sucks that the book spoiled the ending for me.

2. The Searchers. It's a Western. I think I can live without seeing it, even if John Wayne was in it.

3. 12 Angry men. It's a courtroom drama. I think I can live without seeing it, too, especially since Henry Fonda is somewhat less compelling a reason than John Wayne.

4. West Side Story. I know, I know. It was already on my netflix queue even before I read this book.

5. Planet of the Apes. I feel like I've seen enough bits and pieces that I don't really need to see the whole thing . . . do I? I already know about the Statue of Liberty. And if I hadn't, I would have after reading this book.

6. Night of the Living Dead. Ugh, zombies? Really? I was forced to sit through Zombieland . . . isn't that enough?

7. 2001: A Space Odyssey. You know, we own this movie, and I don't think I've watched the whole thing all the way through yet. In fact, the only part I remember is when the caveman tosses the bone in the air, and when the lady is walking through the space station . . . and walking . . . and walking . . .

8. Gimme Shelter. No clue about this movie. Is it like This Is Spinal Tap, but real? I'll give it a try.

9. Harold and Maude. It was also already in my netflix queue, though I'm not sure how it got there.

10. The Godfather. My husband told me I don't want to watch it. I still haven't decided if I believe him.

11. Jaws. Well, actually, I'm not sure if I've seen it or not. I've read the book! But I can't remember if I've watched the movie.

12. Taxi Driver. Also already in my queue.

13. Network. Never heard of it. But I added it to my queue today.

14. All the President's Men. Ugh, politics? But--ooh, Robert Redford. OK, fine, I'll watch it.

15. Rocky. Yes, you can believe your eyes. I'm pretty sure I've seen Rocky Four (or was it fourteen, or twenty-four? whichever one he fights the Russian in) but I don't think I've ever seen the original. Although I do know he runs up a lot of steps and then does a silly little victory dance. And I know that people are talking about this movie when they say, "Yo, Adrian."

16. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. I've only seen the original once (unless you count the time I saw part of it while I was babysitting--the part with the motorcycle guy's hand chained to the back of the van--which really freaked me out) and I wasn't especially impressed. I'm not really interested in seeing the sequel. I've already suffered through The Postman and Waterworld, and I've seen the chase scene from The Blues Brothers.

17. Scarface. See #10.

18. This is Spinal Tap. I tried to watch this once and it bored the heck out of me. Yes, it is possible that perhaps something is wrong with me.

19. Do the Right Thing. Sounds really depressing. I think I would rather watch a Western or a war movie.

20. Goodfellas. See #10 and #17.

I've seen the other 30. Maybe I'll post about them some other time.

In reading this book, I added about 50 movies to my netflix queue; only five of these were from the list of 50 featured--the rest were all movies that were mentioned either as influenced by the 50, or as sharing a director or principal actor.

I will never, ever be able to cancel my netflix subscription.

Let the Right One In

I first heard about this movie when my mom told me a remake of it was being filmed in the town where my parents live (which I thought was pretty cool, and unusual--it's not like they live in L.A. or anything). Then Chris of Park Benches & Bookends posted about the book and movie, convincing me that I was interested enough to watch the original. (I'm especially pleased to be able to name Chris without shaming him this time).

It was kind of nice to see a more realistic portrayal of vampires in this movie. This vampire seemed to follow most of the old-fashioned vampire rules. Nobody sparkled, and no animals were harmed in the making of this movie.

Knowing about the vampire factor ahead of time, I was surprised that this movie was more poignant than creepy. Scenes that could have been made creepier with mood music had no soundtrack. The scenes that did have music mostly seemed more sad than scary.

The version I watched was badly dubbed. I wish I could have watched the one that Chris watched, which was in Swedish with English subtitles. Even with the horrible English voiceovers this was a pretty good movie, but I think it would have improved immensely without them.

Tetro

Would you believe Hud picked this movie? It's the kind he would normally make fun of me for choosing. I'm really not even sure what made him think he would like it. He saw a preview for it and made his decision based on that. I haven't seen the preview myself, but I saw absolutely nothing in the movie that might have caught Hud's interest. Wait, I take that back. I suppose I saw a few of pair of things. But Hud usually chooses his movies based on the number of guns and explosions. I only remember one gun in this movie, and no one even shot it.

I really wasn't in the mood for this movie. In fact, I'm probably not in the mood for anything but a nap. But I can think of two things about the movie that interested me. First, the cinematography during the black and white sequences was beautiful. At times it got a little over-the-top artsy-fartsy, but most of the time it was subtly stunning. Second, the actor who played Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich--never heard of him) reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio, except slightly less suave and without an abnormally large head.