"Titanic", New/#83, 1997
Well hello there. To say it's been a while would be an extreme understatement. It's been over a year since I've posted. And, in 2012, I only managed to watch three of these movies. But, good news is I'm feeling a little fired up about it, so I'll start to watch them again. And I'll get the write-ups about those few done soon!
Also, I'm going to be using the public library to help me! Though, my discovery of the joys of the public library may have contributed to the lack of movie watching in general. But alas, now I'm going to use it help my movie watching endeavor.
So Titanic, one of those movies I've seen a few times previously. In fact, I saw it in theaters when it was released. Little 8 year-old-Paula out for an evening with the family.
I'm sure I'm not the only one with some sentimental attachment to Titanic. It was a huge movie at it's release, and huge for years after that. Also, literally huge, as it took two VHS tapes to contain the awesomeness of the movie. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" was played non-stop on the radio (every radio station) for an entire summer. And it continued on in my house for long after that once the piano sheet music was purchased (bless you Mom & Dad).
I will admit, that I usually would only watch the first tape. Right up to where they hit the iceberg. Because it just gets so sad. And it continually gets worse and worse. And I can't stand it.
But, it needed to be watched in its entirety! And, lucky me, I got to do that in a theater again. Since 3D is the big sweeping trend, Titanic in 3D was re-released. [[Side-note, I kind of hate this digital 3D thing, and it really needs to stop]]
But to the theater I went, to see Titanic in 3D for the first time ever, and for the first time in it's entirety for several years.
And guess what. It was spectacular. There's no denying that it is an awesome movie. In storyline, dialogue, cinematography, special effects... I really could go on.
If you haven't seen it, please crawl out from under rock and get that taken care of ASAP. Just be aware you are in store for a long, emotional ride.
And I don't at all feel bad for any spoilers I've just given away, because you seriously had 16 years and two theatrical releases to get your act together.
For now, I leave you with a link for Titanic vs. Aladdin : http://themetapicture.com/aladdin-vs-titanic/
Click on it... it's funny.
"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.
"Tootsie", #62/69, 1982
This is a funny movie! I mean, come on... it's Dustin Hoffman in drag. He plays the role of a struggling actor, who dresses up as a women to get a role. Then (standard dressing up as the opposite gender storyline), he befriends a girl and than falls in love with a her, and a man falls in love with him, and it all falls apart in the end.
The funniest part of this movie surrounds what role Hoffman's character plays as a women. It's for a soap opera. And the movie makes fun of soap operas so, so much.
It's hilarious.
Watch it!
"Do the Right Thing" New/#96, 1989
Interesting tidbit... this is the first movie from the 1980's that I've watched on the list so far. There are others on the list, but it's the first one I've watched so far.
I actually really liked this movie. It takes place during one ubber-hot-summer day in Brooklyn. And it follows Mookie, a pizza delivery guy and all the characters along the street and those at Sal's pizza place. One of the best things about this was all the character names: Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Buggin Out, Mookie, Radio Raheem, Pino, Coconut Sid, Sweet Dick Willie, Smiley, Mister Senor Love Daddy.
And the other notable thing about it, is it has a ton of black actors in it (and a couple noteworthy non-black actors): Martin Lawrence, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn (the cop in "Sister Act"), John Turturro (the Sector 7 Special Agent in "Transformers" and a bunch of Adam Sandler movies, like "Mr. Deeds"). It just seemed like every new character that was introduced was an actor I recognized.
Anyways, the movie has a ton of swearing, specifically using the f-word about once every two minutes. And it's about racism and violence, specifically one big violent mob at the movie's climax.
But, I like that the movie showcased one day of this neighborhood. And it really showed how violence was not a way to fight racism. So, I did like it, and I would recommend it in certain contexts. But it's not exactly a family- or kid-friendly movie.
At the very end of the movie, two great quotes, one from Martin Luther King, Jr., and one from Malcom X that finish out the film. They are:
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral brecause it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys communinities and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violoence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self defense, I call it intelligence." - Malcom X
"North by Northwest" #40/55, 1959
This was kind of a funny movie. A New York executive gets mistaken for a government agent by some baddies and they hunt him down. It's funny to see Cary Grant so bewildered by all the spy stuff. And of course there is a pretty young love interest that forces him to keep up with the spy stuff.
At the end, there is this epic, though intensely unrealistic, chase scene on the top of Mount Rushmore. It really was just so fake and unrealistic, but oh well.
I liked the movie, and of course, as he does in most of his movies, Alfred Hitchcock has a nice cameo at the beginning of the movie, where he runs into the door of a bus as he is attempting to board. And I'm not quite sure why, but it really made me laugh.
Here's a video of the opening credits, and his cameo takes place at the very end, around 1:45. Ah... makes me laugh every time.
This movie is not really all that great or bad. I give it a shoulder shrug and an "eh."
"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.
"The Birth of a Nation", #44/Removed, 1915
Via the trivia available on imdb.com, I found out that after director D.W. Griffith made this film (which has some racial overtones-I'll get to that), he was criticized as being racist, and he was very hurt by this. So, he then made "Intolerance", which is also on the top movie list.
Now, this movie really is rather racist. It shows the American Civil War from the point of the South. And it shows the start of the KKK as a way to protect the southerns from the horrible new black-supremists that were terrorizing the place. In true 1910's style, this is a three hour long silent film, and D.W. Griffith didn't write a script or screen play at all. He came up with all the shots in his head, and simply explained to all the actors prior to each shot what was going on. I'm sure it really helped that it was a silent film, since he could then shout to the actors in the middle of scenes what he wanted them to do.
One of the things I liked the most about this was the soundtrack/score. Each character had their own theme music that would come on when a scene focused on them. So, it was probably the same eight songs played over and over again, with maybe a couple extra songs thrown in.
The first part of the movie shows two families who are long time friends - the Northern Stonemans and the South Camerons. They show them visiting each other prior to the war, and how much the two families care for each other. [[Major spoiler alert... but really, you probably won't be watching this movie ever, so who cares if I spoil it]] Then there is a really interesting scene where two men of the families (close friends) meet up on the battle field (fighting each other). One man is wounded on the ground, and the other man is approaching and about to stab him with the bayonet attached to his musket, and then he realizes who he is about to stab, and then embraces him as a brother and attempts to help him, but then they are both shot down, and die in each others' arms.
It was a very interesting scene that contrasted how much the North hated the South in general terms, but there was still a brotherhood love between individuals who were friends.
Good film, but a long, racist movie. I won't be watching it again, nor would I suggest it to anyone.
