8.2 ~ #12

"Braveheart" (1995)

From Netflix: "Enraged at the slaughter of Murron (Catherine McCormack) -- his new bride and childhood love -- legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace (Mel Gibson, who also directed the film) slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule. With vivid battle scenes and a heaping portion of legend, Gibson's epic won five Oscars, including Best Picture."

I REALLY didn't want to watch this film. I remember being nine years old when my dad took my sister and me to the theater to watch this, and my elementary school aged ass walked out of the theater and waiting outside for 2.5 hours because I couldn't stand how ridiculously bloody and horribly sad the movie was...and now here it is on this list, so I can no longer escape it...

Not even fifteen minutes, there's shacks full of hung corpses, the child being called in to check out how his dad's heart was cut out, and then that theme song...which made me actually pause the movie just so I could look this up...(LOL I HAD to! That song was the JAM back in the day...and I've just successfully dated myself LMAO)

Seriously though, this is not a movie to watch at work (which I did) because the movie is a very emotional one to watch...it makes you desperately sad, uncontrollably angry, and you can't unleash your emotions just anywhere. If you are going to watch this movie, make sure you do it in a space where people won't think you're crazy for changing your mood 37 times in the span of three hours.

Oh...I hadn't mentioned this movie is 3 hours long? Well, it is. (Good thing I love all things medieval.)

It's also remarkably violent and gory, which is cool if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not.

The movie is also sad, but in a way that makes you feel grateful for your lot in life. There's a lot of wisdom to be taken away from this movie, if you let it hit you...One to watch at least once, perhaps more often if the violence doesn't bother you...Really a beautiful film...

8.1 ~ Documentary of the Week

"Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State" (2005)

From Netflix: "This BBC documentary series tackles one of World War II's -- and history's -- most disquieting and repugnant subjects: the Holocaust and its infamous killing factory, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The location, set up by Nazis and specializing in the atrocious, industrialized extermination of more than one million Jews, is explored in this six-part program, from "Surprising Beginnings" to "Liberation & Revenge.""

300 minutes long. That's 5 hours. WOW.

Needless to say, I watched this in shifts. LONGEST FILM YET.

Oh, another important note, I didn't watch the whole thing.

The "film" is divided in 6 "episodes", and the first one deals with how Auschwitz even came to be, why that site was chosen, etc. Rather boring. Then of course, there's interviews with former nazis that STILL do not see anything wrong with their actions throughout the war. That's enough to make me want to kick an old man in the face, to say the least. Piece of shit humans.

It's a PBS documentary, and it plays out as such. Maybe one day when I'm VERY bored and in the mood to get angry to the point of tears, I'll dig this up again and watch the next episode. Otherwise, don't count on a much more detailed review of this film.

:gives up on this movie:

7.3 ~ #11

"Back to the Future" (1985)

From Netflix: "In this classic sci-fi adventure from director Robert Zemeckis, eccentric inventor Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) turns a DeLorean into a time machine that inadvertently sends his young friend, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), 30 years into the past. While stuck in the 1950s, Marty disrupts his parents' destiny and risks throwing the time-space continuum completely out of whack. The only way back to 1985 now is to get mom and dad to pucker up."

so, I'm finally back! I was met with apprehension when I told my family I'd be doing this project, everyone told me I wouldn't have time..."it's just three movies a week!" said I. "Who doesn't have time to watch three movies in a week?!"

Well, apparently I don't.

Between birthdays, funerals, a full time job, a husband, a room remodel, and running my own business...three movies a week is hard work! Especially considering that most of them are over 2 hours long, or even double-disc sets!

In any case, I am armed with a list of ten movies I need to watch ASAP in order to get back on schedule, and here I go, aiming to watch at least one a day till I'm on track again.

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Back to the Future is a classic. I don't think I know ANYONE that hasn't seen the original at least once. Even the now defunct ride at Universal Studios kicked ass! We own it on VHS, I remember buying it at Burger King when I was a kid, some sort of promotion I guess...

This is movie is all sorts of funny, the soundtrack kicks ass (I love Huey Lewis and the News, and I LOVE that Huey has a cameo early in the film), and the movie really makes you think about and appreciate all the things that had to fall into place just so that your life would be at the place it is now...

Christopher Lloyd is always brilliant, but I think this might have been his best role yet, and Micheal J. Fox could pretty much do no wrong in my eyes (up until Spin City) so he, of course, is awesome in this as well.

Definitely one of those movies that you can watch over and over again, to the point of being able to recite the movie word-for-word (like I and a lot of people I know can) and still be totally cool with watching it again!

NOTE: Tomorrow would be the 54th anniversary of the date Doc Brown discovered the secret of time-travel, the flux-capacitor.

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So, here's the list of movies I have to watch in order to get up to speed...

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Braveheart
Casablanca
Maxed Out
Chocolat
Citizen Kane
Indie Sex
Clerks
Clockwork Orange

PLUS I'm still waiting on Netflix to send me Apocalypse Now, which has been available for a couple of weeks, yet for some reason they keep skipping it in my queue and sending me the rest of the movies on my list...

Thanks for being patient with me, and I'll be back VERY soon!