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!

6.3 ~ #9

"Babe" (1995)

From Netflix: "Director Chris Noonan's tale of precocious piglet Babe's (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) struggle to fit in and become a champion sheepherder won the hearts of audiences and critics. Nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture), Babe won the Visual Effects Oscar, and everything from farmer Arthur Hoggett (James Cromwell) to the multitude of farm animals to the humble, edgy script is remarkably appealing for kids and adults alike."

I actually own this movie in VHS, and from this you can deduce that I've seen it a zillion times, but could probably stand watching it once more. :)

I learned while researching this movie that apparently it was made in Australia (I :heart: all things Australian, BTW) but it was dubbed in "American" accents before it's US release to make it more consumer friendly. Ridiculous, that we Americans need everything spoon-fed to us, but then again, who knows if the movie would have done poorly if it hadn't been dubbed? This movie was only an hour and half, just the second movie on the list of ten that have gone by that is under 2 hours long.

Random fact: Babe is voiced by the same lady that voiced Chuckie on Rugrats.

This movie totally makes me want to be a vegetarian again. I guess that's what happens when you anthropomorphize animals. It's so sad though, to imagine from an animal's perspective what it must be like to be raised with the sole purpose of being someone else's food. While in that respect, I don't think this movie should be labeled family friendly (I'd find that traumatizing!), I do think this movie has a couple of great messages, besides just being fun to watch: the first is that just because things have always been a certain way doesn't mean that there's not a better way. The other moral I found to this story is that aggression is not the answer, and you can get a lot more accomplished when you work together with other people instead of being a bully.

So yeah. In less than 24 hours I'll be 24 years old, and I still love "Babe".

:)

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For next week, I'll be watching:
#10: "Back to the Future"
#11: "The Batman Superman Movie"
DOTW: "Stripped"

I hope you'll watch along and comment! :)

5.2 ~ #7

"Amistad" (1997)

From Netflix: "Steven Spielberg directed this story about the 1839 revolt aboard Spanish slave ship La Amistad and the uprising's tragic aftermath. An African-born slave (Djimon Hounsou) leads a mutiny against his brutal captors. Because the ship is in American waters, a U.S. court must decide the slaves' fate. In an eloquent courtroom speech, ex-president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) argues for the Africans' freedom."

To be completely honest, I've been avoided watching this movie. I am very passionate about civil rights and have very strong feelings watching anything having to do with slavery, the civil rights movement, etc. and I was told this is the kind of movie that stirs emotion and makes the most stoic person cry. Well, I have a confession...I am a crier. So I was not looking forward to watching this film at ALL.

It's remarkable to hear how the characters address the slaves that the movie revolves around..."savages", "beasts of burden", "creatures of prey"..they are compared to livestock and heirlooms in one scene. It is so shameful to think that this country was founded in order to escape persecution, and yet every new group of people that has come to this land for exactly that purpose has been met with just that...persecution. Disgusting. Slights like this, I believe, are the reason that though I was born here, I do not consider myself an American but a child of Cubans. I don't wish to identify myself with a country that treats it's immigrants in such a manner just because I had the serendipity to be born here. I appreciate very many things about the liberties I'm given in this country, but as a result I appreciate more the struggles of the people that had to fight to make it this way. And we still have a LONG way to go...

But I digress...

The acting in this film is phenomal...Matthew McConaughey plays probably his best role ever, Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman...well, they never disappoint, do they? And Djimon Hounsou is so beautiful and haunting in his role...he really makes you feel his desperation and his strength without words, just through his eyes. Amazing.

Wow. Saying I cried watching this movie would be an understatement. Sobbed intermitently through the last hour and a half is more like it. There was a full 8 minutes about an hour and 15 minutes in where I couldn't breathe because the sobs were coming so hard...

I don't know if I would watch this movie again. It was very hard to watch and remarkably sad to imagine that people had to go through exactly this. That being said, it is a beautifully made and remarkably acted movie that everyone should watch at least once, if only to appreciate it cinematically, but ideally to take away the story with you and let it be a part of you...because the fact is that if you live in America, this story, regardless of whether you've heard it or seen it, IS a part of you.

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The other movie for this week, "Apocalypse Now", had a "short wait" indicator on Netflix, so I will be watching it and reporting on it as soon as it's available...

For week 6:
#8: "As Good As It Gets"
#9: "Babe"
DOTW: "High: The True Tale of American Marijuana"

4.3 ~ #6

"Amadeus" (1984)

From Netflix: "F. Murray Abraham earned a Best Actor Oscar for his imperious performance as Antonio Salieri, a mediocre composer whose churlish young rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce), wins immortality with his musical genius. Not happy to see his talent eclipsed, Salieri dons a disguise and deviously plots revenge, obsessed with muffling Mozart's maddening laughter. Milos Forman's masterful drama also won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director."

Longest movie yet, clocking in at 2 hrs, 40 min. Good thing it was interesting, otherwise that would have sucked. It was actually a very enjoyable movie.. I watched it with my little brother and my father, both of whom had seen it before (I told you I was doing this project for a reason LOL).

The story is told in flashbacks by a character by the name of Salieri, a colleague of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The character of Mozart is a braggart, arrogant, dirty-minded and selfish...an eternal child in the worst sense. He has a grating laugh and a sense of entitlement that is understandable from a child star, but irritating nonetheless. He is forward with his thoughts, salacious with his words, and thinks only of himself and his music. After watching this movie, I'd love to read a biography of him, just to see which of his traits were exaggerated, if any.

Salieri grows up wanting nothing more than to have the musical talent to praise God through music, and to be known by the people around him for his talent. He lives a chaste and humble life, so that God may reward him with the gift he craves. He is obsessed with Mozart's talent, and thinks God sings through his compositions. So when he meets Mozart and discovers he is a vulgar brat, he wonders why God would "choose such an obscene child to be his instrument". He takes this, among many other happenings, as personal slights against him from God himself, and decides he must do drastic things to have even half the glory of Mozart, whom he considers an enemy.

Mozart is admirable in that he lives as pure ID in a time where everyone else ran on pure superego. He just lives his passion and ignores any societal responsibility that interferes with his good time. Salieri seems to suffer from severe delusions of grandeur, as he seems to look at everything that happens in the world around him, from deaths to the failures of his colleagues, as something that God is doing directly as a favor to him or in order to spite him. This movie also shows the amazing things that people are capable of doing and thinking of when they allow themselves to truly be overcome by something.

Very good movie, overall :)

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For next week:

DOTW: "Modify"
#7: "Amistad"
#8: "Apocalypse Now"

Watch along! Discuss! Tell your friends! And thanks for reading! :)

3.3 ~ #4

"Aliens" (1986)


From Netflix: "In this acclaimed sequel, the only survivor from the first film, Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), finds her horrific account of her crew's fate is met with skepticism -- until the disappearance of colonists on LV-426 prompts a team of high-tech Marines to investigate. This release features an introduction by director James Cameron, commentary by cast and crew members and both the theatrical and special edition versions of the film."

This was the first movie on the list that I was COMPLETELY blown away by! What a badass movie! I hate Sci-Fi (as I've mentioned before) and I haven't been a fan of horror movies since I was in high school, though admittedly this was a pretty tame version of a horror film...it still managed to elicit SCREAMS from me and even more jumps...which reminds me, a special thanks to my husband for letting me crush his hand for over 2 hours! LOL

Yes, this movie was over 2 hours as well. I think they've all been so far except for "12 Angry Men"...this one didn't feel that long though, probably because I was so into it.

I was wondering why the creator of the list would make me watch a sequel instead of the original (this is the second movie in a quadrilogy), but at least according to my husband, this was the best of the series. I think that might have been the reason why I was so into it; as a sequel, the movie didn't bog down the first hour with backstory and character setup, it just dives right into the story assuming you've seen the first film and you already KNOW these people. That could be a bad thing, but this film does such a good job at getting you up to speed in a concise way that even not having seen the first film, I never felt lost or confused by what was going on.

Seriously, AMAZING movie. BADASS, even. highly recommended, and from someone that isn't even a fan of the genre.

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ok, well obviously I'm a little late with this one, and I only have 4 days left in this week to receive, watch, and write about week 4's movies to catch up. In case you'd like to watch along, these are this week's films:

#5: "American Beauty"

#6: "Amadeus"

DOTW: "Chain Camera"

Thanks for reading guys! and tell your friends! I'd love to get more people involved in the film discussions!

And feel free to follow me on Twitter!

-D

1.3 ~ A Look Forward...

I'm bored at work, and what better reason is there, really, to make a list of the first few movies on my list?

Week 1 (August 31 - September 6) : Introduction (a.k.a. giving Netflix time to arrive)

Week 2 (September 7 - September 13) : 12 Angry Men, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Week 3 (September 14 - September 20) : Akira, Aliens

Week 4 (September 21 - September 27) : Amadeus, American Beauty

Week 5 (September 28 - October 4) : Amistad, Apocalypse Now


Thoughts? Opinions? No spoilers, please! I've only seen American Beauty from this whole month's worth of films...