now i am free and the world's at my feet
You know, my main problem all of my life (imo) has been my indecisiveness. I can hardly make a decision and then carry it out. Today has not been that day nor do I think tomorrow or the day after but one day I will make a big decision and carry it though.
As it stands I'm going to finish something I started in 2009 :X
Part one and two of that statement did not happen. I think under the "movies" tag you might find my feeble attempts but generally both were failures. Oh well. I think this is an effort to exorcise this from my mind and move on. Stars (*) for stuff I recommend.
1. Funny Girl*- amazing fantastic wonderful etc. I finally saw the to-do about Streisand. Omar Sharif was a babe.
2. The Ruling Class- hmm. I didn't quite get it. I think I had to understand what it was satirizing better.
3. Doctor Zhivago*- oh my godddddd. Omar Sharif was perfect, Julie Christie was perfect, shaking and crying, etc.
4. Belle et la Bete*- the 1930s version by Renoir. Dreamy, it really did feel like a fairy tale. The acting was great.
5. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner*- Tom Courtenay was perfect. It might be a bit rich for me to be all "lol idk" about #2 when I hardly know how it felt like to be an ~angry young man~ in post-war Yorkshire but I felt this movie deeply. It was a good short story (novella?) but the movie stands on its own quite well.
6. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- Still very striking to look at even after it's been diffused through movie culture. But it was supposed to be a horror movie and I was not ~horrified~. The twist was good though.
7. The Seventh Seal*- This was great. Ingmar Bergman was a director I had no experience with before this and idk what to expect but it was good. Usually I roll my eyes when I see something described as a "meditation on life and death~~" but it was a meditation on life and death, so there.
8. A Taste of Honey- :( if you want to feel like shit, check this out.
9. What Have I Done to Deserve This- I think I'm approaching Almodovar stan-dom? I mean if I have to ask then no, but I'm getting there because I looooove his work but this one. Eh. It has his hallmarks but it also definitely feels like an early work. Too unfocused to be a 'classic' but that's unfair of me to demand.
10. Throne of Blood*- Holy shit!!! Ok so I think this was only apparent in SRC but I adore Toshiro Mifune. Homeboy could ACT. And this is totally his movie. I mean it's a Kurosawa movie but it's the only one he's directed that I would describe as a Mifune movie first. It's Macbeth retold through feudal Japan. So good. See it!
11. Victor/Victoria- Meh.
12. High Noon*- Very good western starring Cary Grant. It's in real-time, which is a very difficult thing to do well imo but it worked here. The soundtrack is spot-on.
13. The Virgin Spring- Another Bergman. It looks very beautiful even with the violence going on. I didn't know what to make of the ending.
14. A Very British Sex Scandal- ok documentary but very basic, imo. A book would've helped as much or more.
15. Take Me Out to the Ballgame- Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly musical. It was good for that. tbh I expected more because Busby Berkeley directed it but it didn't have that choreography he did. Still a pleasant little thing to watch.
16. Jeux d'enfants (love me if you dare)- Oh dear. Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard were fine as fuq but. tbh I found both characters so unlikable I found it hard to care what happened to them.
17. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?*- Wow. This movie was brutal. It's set during one of those marathon dance competitions from the 1930s. Everyone's so desperate just to survive. Jane Fonda killed it.
18. Apocalypse Now- ...I fell asleep by the end. Welp.
19. The Best Years of Our Lives
20. Flying Down to Rio
21. La Ronde
22. 400 Blows*- ok so sometimes a movie gets a really big reputation so you have a lot of expectations for it. Well I can say I can file this away with Breathless and Citizen Kane in that it totally surpassed them. Wonderful movie. I have a lot of respect for directors that can get that type of performance from a child. The ending...perfect.
23. In Bruges*- lulz everywhere. "Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham."
24. Videodrome- what the fuck. I really wouldn't recommend seeing this whilst ~under the influence~.
25. Blazing Saddles- Eh. Chuckle funny, but the only part I really el-oh-eled over was the I'm Tired song.
26. Twilight- nope.
27. Watchmen- A cautionary tale in "when faithfulness to the text goes horribly wrong". I hate it when a movie tries to be exactly like the book. They are two different mediums, you have to approach them differently. When Snyder started making noise about he was going to stay ~faithful I got worried and I was right. It did not work out. I mean, I can tell he loved the comic but that does not make it a good movie. The Dr. Manhattan on Mars sequence was stunning, though.
28. Sword of Doom- pretty good, samurai with a sword of doom (duh!)
29. My Favorite Year
30. Married to the Mob- eh. Michelle Pfeiffer was qt but that didn't help.
31. A Star is Born*- There is no point getting mad about things that happened in Hollywood over fifty years ago but let me tell you, as I see it, Grace Kelly must've threatened to kill someone's family because she ripped the Oscar for Best Actress right out of Judy Garland's hands. Daylight robbery!!! Judy was amazing, my queen, etc. I don't know if it would be possible for anyone to watch this and then deny that she was one of the most talented performers of the 20th century.
32. Fauberg 36- ok...nothing to write home about.
33. Doubt- holy lord I hated the ending.
34. Coffy*- I was dying during this movie, omg. Amazing. Pam Grier <333 Razors in the afro <333 Shooting the guy in the dick <333
35. Foxy Brown- Not as good as Coffy. I didn't have as many AW SHIT reactions. However Death is too easy for you, bitch. I want you to SUFFER. is still classic.
36. I've Loved You So Long- sad! Kristin Scott-Thomas was great. The end was a little over the top, imo.
37. Deathwatch- s.h.i.t. Which is a shame because a horror set in the trenches of World War I ought to have been amazing but no.
38. Ballad of a Soldier*- Oh my word. Seriously one of the most heart-breaking movies ever. This and Cranes are Flying make the two best Soviet anti-war statements. It's about a soldier who tries to get back to see his mother after being rewarded with a few days leave, and the people he meets on the way.
39. Star Trek- pew pew. Saw it twice in theaters to see Karl Urban and Chris Pine real big. pew pew pew.
40. Up- everyone liked it, I liked it, blah blah blah.
41. The Women*- the 30s version. Hilarious. Very witty!
42. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*- Man, when I get down about the state of politics (which is all the fucking time) I think about this movie. I really do like Frank Capra and this was a major reason why. Jimmy Stewart is a guy trying to do the ~right thing~ and it's straight-forward and great.
43. The Thief of Bagdad- blah.
44. Summer Stock- Judy Garland and Gene Kelly! Worth it for that but tbh the plot was flimsy and just an excuse for their big scenes. But the big scenes were wonderful so no1curr.
45. I Could Go On Singing- Sad. Judy is great!
46. From Here to Eternity- eh. Frank Sinatra was quite good, and Montgomery Clift was mesmerizing (as usual) but I didn't care for the story much. Seriously though, Clift was lovely.
47. Annie Hall*- Another one of those reputation preceding movies. It's like Woody Allen has this weird place in culture where you can reference him and get an idea of what a person means without ever reading/watching any of his stuff. That's where I was. Then I saw this! Lovely movie. Not quite up there with what I was talking about re: 400 Blows, because I saw where the "idea" of Woody Allen was getting created but better than I expected, for sure.
48. Inglorious Basterds*- Ok I'm a full-on Tarantino stan, I can't be objective about this, lol.
49. Drag Me To Hell- It was supposed to be a goofy horror movie and it was. The ending was great, everything was kinda mediocre.
50. Come and See- a fever dream war movie. Eh.
51. Atomic Cafe- Funny.
52. 300- meh.
53. The Proposal- mehhhhh.
54. Volver*- Beautiful wonderful fantastic, etc. I want Penelope Cruz and Almodovar to work together forever!!!
55. Princess and the Frog- ok.
56. Hellboy 2- felt half-done. I was underwhelmed.
well that wasn't so hard.
In other news, I worked out some untouched muscle groups yesterday and I totally sore today, so clearly going running today was a clever idea. Now there's sore on top of sore, lol. I like it though!
As it stands I'm going to finish something I started in 2009 :X
Part one and two of that statement did not happen. I think under the "movies" tag you might find my feeble attempts but generally both were failures. Oh well. I think this is an effort to exorcise this from my mind and move on. Stars (*) for stuff I recommend.
1. Funny Girl*- amazing fantastic wonderful etc. I finally saw the to-do about Streisand. Omar Sharif was a babe.
2. The Ruling Class- hmm. I didn't quite get it. I think I had to understand what it was satirizing better.
3. Doctor Zhivago*- oh my godddddd. Omar Sharif was perfect, Julie Christie was perfect, shaking and crying, etc.
4. Belle et la Bete*- the 1930s version by Renoir. Dreamy, it really did feel like a fairy tale. The acting was great.
5. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner*- Tom Courtenay was perfect. It might be a bit rich for me to be all "lol idk" about #2 when I hardly know how it felt like to be an ~angry young man~ in post-war Yorkshire but I felt this movie deeply. It was a good short story (novella?) but the movie stands on its own quite well.
6. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- Still very striking to look at even after it's been diffused through movie culture. But it was supposed to be a horror movie and I was not ~horrified~. The twist was good though.
7. The Seventh Seal*- This was great. Ingmar Bergman was a director I had no experience with before this and idk what to expect but it was good. Usually I roll my eyes when I see something described as a "meditation on life and death~~" but it was a meditation on life and death, so there.
8. A Taste of Honey- :( if you want to feel like shit, check this out.
9. What Have I Done to Deserve This- I think I'm approaching Almodovar stan-dom? I mean if I have to ask then no, but I'm getting there because I looooove his work but this one. Eh. It has his hallmarks but it also definitely feels like an early work. Too unfocused to be a 'classic' but that's unfair of me to demand.
10. Throne of Blood*- Holy shit!!! Ok so I think this was only apparent in SRC but I adore Toshiro Mifune. Homeboy could ACT. And this is totally his movie. I mean it's a Kurosawa movie but it's the only one he's directed that I would describe as a Mifune movie first. It's Macbeth retold through feudal Japan. So good. See it!
11. Victor/Victoria- Meh.
12. High Noon*- Very good western starring Cary Grant. It's in real-time, which is a very difficult thing to do well imo but it worked here. The soundtrack is spot-on.
13. The Virgin Spring- Another Bergman. It looks very beautiful even with the violence going on. I didn't know what to make of the ending.
14. A Very British Sex Scandal- ok documentary but very basic, imo. A book would've helped as much or more.
15. Take Me Out to the Ballgame- Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly musical. It was good for that. tbh I expected more because Busby Berkeley directed it but it didn't have that choreography he did. Still a pleasant little thing to watch.
16. Jeux d'enfants (love me if you dare)- Oh dear. Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard were fine as fuq but. tbh I found both characters so unlikable I found it hard to care what happened to them.
17. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?*- Wow. This movie was brutal. It's set during one of those marathon dance competitions from the 1930s. Everyone's so desperate just to survive. Jane Fonda killed it.
18. Apocalypse Now- ...I fell asleep by the end. Welp.
19. The Best Years of Our Lives
20. Flying Down to Rio
21. La Ronde
22. 400 Blows*- ok so sometimes a movie gets a really big reputation so you have a lot of expectations for it. Well I can say I can file this away with Breathless and Citizen Kane in that it totally surpassed them. Wonderful movie. I have a lot of respect for directors that can get that type of performance from a child. The ending...perfect.
23. In Bruges*- lulz everywhere. "Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham."
24. Videodrome- what the fuck. I really wouldn't recommend seeing this whilst ~under the influence~.
25. Blazing Saddles- Eh. Chuckle funny, but the only part I really el-oh-eled over was the I'm Tired song.
26. Twilight- nope.
27. Watchmen- A cautionary tale in "when faithfulness to the text goes horribly wrong". I hate it when a movie tries to be exactly like the book. They are two different mediums, you have to approach them differently. When Snyder started making noise about he was going to stay ~faithful I got worried and I was right. It did not work out. I mean, I can tell he loved the comic but that does not make it a good movie. The Dr. Manhattan on Mars sequence was stunning, though.
28. Sword of Doom- pretty good, samurai with a sword of doom (duh!)
29. My Favorite Year
30. Married to the Mob- eh. Michelle Pfeiffer was qt but that didn't help.
31. A Star is Born*- There is no point getting mad about things that happened in Hollywood over fifty years ago but let me tell you, as I see it, Grace Kelly must've threatened to kill someone's family because she ripped the Oscar for Best Actress right out of Judy Garland's hands. Daylight robbery!!! Judy was amazing, my queen, etc. I don't know if it would be possible for anyone to watch this and then deny that she was one of the most talented performers of the 20th century.
32. Fauberg 36- ok...nothing to write home about.
33. Doubt- holy lord I hated the ending.
34. Coffy*- I was dying during this movie, omg. Amazing. Pam Grier <333 Razors in the afro <333 Shooting the guy in the dick <333
35. Foxy Brown- Not as good as Coffy. I didn't have as many AW SHIT reactions. However Death is too easy for you, bitch. I want you to SUFFER. is still classic.
36. I've Loved You So Long- sad! Kristin Scott-Thomas was great. The end was a little over the top, imo.
37. Deathwatch- s.h.i.t. Which is a shame because a horror set in the trenches of World War I ought to have been amazing but no.
38. Ballad of a Soldier*- Oh my word. Seriously one of the most heart-breaking movies ever. This and Cranes are Flying make the two best Soviet anti-war statements. It's about a soldier who tries to get back to see his mother after being rewarded with a few days leave, and the people he meets on the way.
39. Star Trek- pew pew. Saw it twice in theaters to see Karl Urban and Chris Pine real big. pew pew pew.
40. Up- everyone liked it, I liked it, blah blah blah.
41. The Women*- the 30s version. Hilarious. Very witty!
42. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*- Man, when I get down about the state of politics (which is all the fucking time) I think about this movie. I really do like Frank Capra and this was a major reason why. Jimmy Stewart is a guy trying to do the ~right thing~ and it's straight-forward and great.
43. The Thief of Bagdad- blah.
44. Summer Stock- Judy Garland and Gene Kelly! Worth it for that but tbh the plot was flimsy and just an excuse for their big scenes. But the big scenes were wonderful so no1curr.
45. I Could Go On Singing- Sad. Judy is great!
46. From Here to Eternity- eh. Frank Sinatra was quite good, and Montgomery Clift was mesmerizing (as usual) but I didn't care for the story much. Seriously though, Clift was lovely.
47. Annie Hall*- Another one of those reputation preceding movies. It's like Woody Allen has this weird place in culture where you can reference him and get an idea of what a person means without ever reading/watching any of his stuff. That's where I was. Then I saw this! Lovely movie. Not quite up there with what I was talking about re: 400 Blows, because I saw where the "idea" of Woody Allen was getting created but better than I expected, for sure.
48. Inglorious Basterds*- Ok I'm a full-on Tarantino stan, I can't be objective about this, lol.
49. Drag Me To Hell- It was supposed to be a goofy horror movie and it was. The ending was great, everything was kinda mediocre.
50. Come and See- a fever dream war movie. Eh.
51. Atomic Cafe- Funny.
52. 300- meh.
53. The Proposal- mehhhhh.
54. Volver*- Beautiful wonderful fantastic, etc. I want Penelope Cruz and Almodovar to work together forever!!!
55. Princess and the Frog- ok.
56. Hellboy 2- felt half-done. I was underwhelmed.
well that wasn't so hard.
In other news, I worked out some untouched muscle groups yesterday and I totally sore today, so clearly going running today was a clever idea. Now there's sore on top of sore, lol. I like it though!