"A Clockwork Orange" #46/70, 1971
I wasn't done... more cleaning turned up more drafts. They were just so far down the list, I didn't see them.
Okay, here we go...
This movie was super interesting. I often try to guess what the ending of a movie is going to be, or even what's going to happen within any given scene. Well, couldn't do that with this one. I don't think I could have predicted anything that happened in this movie. Maybe that's because I new nothing about it beforehand? But, even then, it's got some strange events in it.
It's about this guy, Alex Delarge. He lives in futurist Britain. But not what someone would invent as futurist Britain now. What someone would have invented as futurist Britain in 1970's. So the lack of modern technology that is so prevelent now, kind of gave it a post-apocalyptic feel for me, but that's not what they were going for.
Alex is played by a young Malcolm McDowell, who does a really awesome job in the role.
Well, Alex is our main guy, but he's not exactly our protagonist. He's kind of terrible. And does a couple terrible things with his droogs. The term in all the plot summaries is "ultra-violence."
He ends up in jail. And gets rehabbed with this experimental therapy. So instead of being a delinquent, he's supposed to be an upright citizen. And that doesn't totally work out for the government. But it doesn't totally work out for Alex either.
Not the happy ending movie. Or the feel good movie. But it was super interesting.
I would consider watching it again. But, it's not one that I would watch all that often. The ultra-violence and all.
"MASH" #56/54, 1970
Oh Mash. The movie.
I am much more familiar with the TV show. This show was on during many dinners at my house growing up. I gave most of the seasons' DVDs to my dad for Christmas. (I should check to see if there are any he still needs... notes for next December...)
So, I was pretty familiar with the characters - Hawkeye, Trapper, Houlihan, Frank Burns, Henry Blake, Father Mulcahy, Radar. It's just that I didn't recognize any of them except Radar. I think he was the only actor in the film that continued on in the TV series.
There were some well know actors in this, but they were much younger versions of Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall than I am used to seeing.
This movie is worth watching if you have any love for the TV show. I would guess that if you don't like the show, you wouldn't like this movie.
For me, and my dad who watched it with me, it was entertaining.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", #20/33, 1975
This movie is about McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, who is a criminal who moves from prison to an insane assylum. And he makes friends with the other patients there, and makes enemies with one particular nurse (with a fitting name), Nurse Ratched.
As you can image, there are great antics that arise from McMurphy stirring up trouble. The actors that make up the wide variety of insane patients are brilliant, and the character dynamics really are tremendous.
Shout outs specifically to Christopher Lloyd (Taber), Will Sampson (Cheif), Josip Elic (Bancini), Vincent Schiavelli (Fredrckson), and especially Danny DeVito (Martini) who I didn't recognize until well into the movie, and even then, it was only with the help of imdb.
So... I liked this movie until probably the last 10-15 minutes. Then I did not like it. At all. And I don't really appreciate a movie with a bad ending.
Watch it if you want to, because the majority of the movie is good, but just know that the end of the movie is not the main character against all odds triumph that you really hope happens.
"The Godfather: Part II", #32/32, 1974
This movie posed an interesting problem. I hadn't seen the first Godfather movie, so how could I watch the sequel before the original? But, I couldn't watch the original because it's in the Top 10, and I was saving those for the end. In the end, I decided to watch part one, then watch part two, and I'll re-watch part one as I'm going through the Top 10.
I figured that was the best way to go about it considering I've already seen some of the movies, but am rewatching them in this process.
So... The Godfather: Part II...
This movie was a really interesting overlap of two stories... current Godfather Michael Corleone going about his mafia business, and a flashback to Vito Corleone's childhood and how he got into the family business back before (and slightly after) Michael was born.
I really enjoyed the overlapping stories. I think it was handeled really well, and I liked the movie as a whole. There was a terrible moment at the end, when Michael could have redeemed and fixed two close relationships, but instead he did not, and he really did the opposite of what I wanted. So, that sucked, but still, a good movie.
"Jaws" #48/56, 1975
Again, this is a movie that is on TV frequently, but I haven't seen it. I kind of enjoyed it. Before I watched it, my roommate informed me that it is incredibly predictable. Which, I agree with, to a point. The music, patterns in dialog, and other things would very clearly lead up to each shark attack. So, I did know that it was coming, but... I jumped every single time.
I could go on quite a few rants about how unrealistic the movie was (especially the ending), bad script, bad acting, just a lot of problems.
But... I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Seriously. I loved watching it.
I don't think I'll go out of my way to watch it again, but, if I'm flipping through the channels and I come across this, I will most likely stop and watch it. You should do the same.
"Apocalypse Now", #24/#30, 1979
This movie has a few big names in it. A lot of the stars that I know, were very young in this movie, like Martin Sheen, Harrison Ford, and Robert Duvall, and some of the big movie stars in these movies from the 40's were old in this movie, like Marlon Brando. It takes place during the Vietnam War in Vietnam. Pretty much all of the main characters are in the US Army. The big set up is Martin Sheen is trying to find Marlon Brando. So you follow his adventure through Vietnam. It's alright, kind of weird and all over the place. I wouldn't watch this movie again, but it wasn't an awful one to sit through. I actually spent a lot of the time noticing how much the young Martin Sheen looks like his son, Emilio Estevez. (By the way, Martin Sheen is the father of Emilio Estevez, the guy from Mighty Ducks, and Charlie Sheen, the guy from Two and A Half Men. There's a whole story about the name change and things, kind of interesting, you should read up on it.)
So, back to the movie... I didn't really get the whole movie. I just didn't quite understand what happened in the end. But, I didn't care enough to try and figure it out. So, like I said, it's not horrible, but I won't watch it again. So if someone is begging you to watch it with them, go ahead, and watch it. But, since they most likely won't, you probably won't ever see it.
"Rocky", #78/#57, 1976
This movie is another one that is shown on television all the time. Then again, since there are about eight-five sequels, who knows what movie is actually on TV when I flip through it. And, I've never really been interested in this movie, so I've never made a point to watch it. There's probably not a lot to recap, other than to say it is a boxing movie where Rocky is the underdog everyone is rooting for. The one thing that surprised me is I didn't realize there was a love story in the movie. And I'd have to say that the diologue was amazing. Some lines were repeated- not a word for word thing, but like one character repeats the same thing on a couple occasions. It was great since that how people generally act. And of course, the absolute best part was when "Eye of the Tiger" came on.
So, if you haven't seen the movie, you should watch it. It's actually a pretty good movie, and since it's got the boxing thing and the love story, most poeple could find something they enjoy about it. And anyways, "Eye of the Tiger" is a lot better stuck in your head that "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
"Cabaret", New/#63, 1972
Cabaret is probably the worst movie I've watched so far. I think the major of the film was spent with a look of shock or surprise or "what the flip is going on?" Maybe if I had any clue what the movie was about beforehand, it would not have been so horrible. Instead, I was shocked by the Nazi Germany film about a club singer who is dating this guy then both of them start sleeping with this rich millionaire, name Maximilian, which I have always considered kind of a ridiculous name. I mean really, Maximilian?
