01-22-2005

60) Earthquake. Lee had this DVD and I always kind of wondered about it, plus I've always been a fan of Chuck Heston. I got his autobiography for Christmas about ten years ago and I got about half way through it before going back to school and having to put it down, and I never picked it up again. I wish I had though, it was pretty interesting and what I got through I truly enjoyed. Anyway, what really drew me to it was noticing that the script was done by Mario Puzo so for curiosity's sake I popped it in. It wasn't anything special, but it ended on a really big down note and was more depressing than the usual disaster movie.

61) Lone Star. I've started to really look forward to Saturday mornings because TCM always shows a good western at 9. This one was kind of weird though. So far they've usually been shoot-em-up B westerns, but this one was a little different. There were the usual gunfights and brawling, but the whole political intrigue element seemed so out of place in a western. Anyway, there were horses and indians and people getting shot, so good enough for me.

62) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. So it's come to this. A French musical. Other than Elvis pictures or the occasional Martin & Lewis I don't usually cotton to musical interludes in movies, but this was such a different approach that it sort of worked. All of the dialogue (and I mean ALL) was sung so it wasn't like they were breaking into song (and thankfully the only dancing took place naturally on the dance floor), so the singing was just part of the story. Due to the whole story being told through song and the constraints that it placed on the script the story was pretty simplistic and there wasn't a lot of character development, but I could have almost hit mute and just read the subtitles and it would have still been a passable romantic drama. Plus it was all vibrant colors and elegantly understated direction so it was also very pretty to look at. Surprisingly, I'm down with this. I even liked it so much that, at least until she got knocked up, I forgot that Catherine Deneuve is a dirty whore.

63) Van Helsing. Kate, I hear you've moved on and gotten married. And after I watched Pearl Harbor AND The Last Days of Disco for you. At least we'll always have Underworld.

64) Only Angels Have Wings. I was really surprised by this one. It started out really uneven, but settled into the story at about the 20 minute mark and turned out to be pretty good. One note though; if your pilots sit around in a bar drinking all day long, how do you expect them to fly?

65) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I probably would have liked this a lot if it had been my first Charlie Kaufman, but he's starting to become old hat. There's nothing wrong with the movie, it's pretty good, but it's just not fresh anymore. Whatever.

65 down, 935 to go.

It's going to be rough the next few days. Tomorrow afternoon is pretty much a wash with the playoffs on, so hopefully I can get at least three in in the morning and only be two off.

01-21-2005

59) Anchorman. Brilliant. Just Brilliant. I could for real just devote the rest of the year to watching this 1000 times. Paul Rudd and the weatherman stole the entire show. "I'm a very important man. I have many leatherbound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany." Brilliant.

It's late, I'm tired, I'm behind schedule and I'll be even more off after this weekend because of the playoffs. Oh well.

59 down, 941 to go.

01-20-2005

It's happened. The first day without a movie. Yeah, so yesterday was a really weird day. My sinuses were going crazy when I got to work and I was going to run home and get some Tylenol Cold & Flu (unpaid plug: that junk is awesome), but my mom said she had some so I took them and it worked like a charm, but they were the nighttime caplets so even though I could breathe easy again I couldn't focus my eyes. I even wound up having to take a quick twenty at about 11 o'clock and that got me feeling much better but I was still groggy all day long. So last night I spent a few hours at the hospital with Sarah. She was supposed to go home after her surgery but she was so nauseous from the drugs that they decided to keep her for the night so Charity and I went to visit it with her for awhile. The poor thing was absolutely miserable, I felt so bad for her. Hopefully she'll be feeling better tonight. I'm going to go to her parents so we can watch The OC and maybe Van Helsing or Anchorman, but we'll just have to see how she feels. I fully intended to watch Earthquake last night, but naturally Robin called and wouldn't shut up for a good half hour (that's five!) and by then I couldn't even keep my eyes open through Point Pleasant so I just turned the TV off and went to bed. Oh well, I'm still on schedule.

01-19-2005

58) Wolfen. So a long time ago I watched a really terrible movie called The Dream Team. In it, Michael Keaton and the most normal group of mental ward escapees you've ever met run loose through New York. It was just awful and I almost didn't forgive Keaton, but who can stay mad at Batman? Anyway, in one scene he starts telling the other nuts about Wolfen to freak them out and I remembered thinking that I would have to see Wolfen and hope it's good so I can say that I at least got a good movie recommendation out of it. Well I've seen Wolfen, and I now know that there is nothing at all good about having seen The Dream Team. The only thing that could have made the whole mess even more boring would have to be either an extended and gripping paint drying scene or maybe ANOTHER soliloquy on the evil of the paleskin and his murderous ways. I also started wondering if maybe Albert Finney and Brian Cox are secretly brothers and, if so, how Albert feels about not being the talented one. Utter garbage. I couldn't wait for it to end and at times it seemed like it never would.

I'm going to start in on Earthquake tonight, but I doubt I'll finish it.

58 down, 942 to go.

Point Pleasant Inspired Ethical Dilemma Update: If loving the Spawn of Satan is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

01-19-2005 **Special Mid-Morning Update Edition**

So I realized that I'm enough ahead of schedule that I can skip tonight, which is probably a good thing. I'm starting to feel the burnout setting in after hitting so hard the past few days. I'll probably still watch one, but I'm looking forward to just watching Point Pleasant and doing nothing. Other observations for the day:

1) Why isn't Shelley Fabares still my age, and also my wife?

2) I saw at least four totally beautiful women on the way to work today, all with "W The President" stickers on their back windshields. Ah, Jesusland. Where even the conservative girls are smoking hot.

3) I realized that my crotchety old man routine isn't really a routine anymore. I really am that mean and short tempered. I flew off the handle earlier over a simple question, and I don't feel bad about it at all. I also made the remark that "I've got the miserys in my knees" from the cold weather. And I wasn't trying to use a jokey old man kind of term. That's really the way I talk now.

01-18-2005

55) Come September. Ironically enough, Rock Hudson plays the straight man in this delightful farce. Get it? Straight man? HAHAHA! Yeah, so anyway, his homosexuality was certainly hard earned; if La Lollobrigida couldn't turn him straight, no one could. She was absolutely gorgeous and sexy as hell in this. Couldn't have enjoyed it more.

56) The Nevadan. Good solid B Western. The fourth Randolph Scott western I've seen this year and now the second where he goes undercover as an outlaw. Interesting. So I was thinking about my plan to make a western if I were a Hollywood bigshot and this would probably a good story to remake. Mel Gibson would do well, I think, in the Scott role. Or possibly Tom Selleck. You'd have to find a pretty creepy guy to play Galt though, and not obviously creepy like Walken, but someone that can seem normal but totally give you the chills.

57) Girl Happy. Remember when chasing skirts by the pool and the blatant and total objectification of pretty girls was such wild, kooky fun? Me either, but as Robin would be more than happy to tell you I belong in that era far more than this one. Anyway, I was really excited to see Shelley Fabares. I used to love The Donna Reed Show when it would come on Nick at Nite and I had a total crush on Mary. I remember finding out she was Coach's girlfriend and it completely crushed me, not that she would date Craig Nelson, but that somehow the cruel hands of time had conspired to keep us apart. I remember seeing her on a talk show one time and she was telling the story of how she was required to record Johnny Angel as part of her contract with the show but she didn't know how to sing so they pulled all kinds of recording tricks to make it sound decent and then they made her go on all these variety shows to promote it, but back then lip syncing was standard procedure and so the needle on the record got stuck so she was completely embarassed when it kept skipping but on the plus side she never had to sing again. Anyway, this was pretty standard Elvis fare, he's a singer (gasp!) that scams a trip to Ft. Lauderdale to keep an eye on his boss's smoking hot daughter (the aforementioned Fabares) during spring break. They sing, they dance, they chase girls, Eurotrash scum takes Shelley to a strip club and then we all learn an important lesson about life and love. So, you want to know how big of a guitar nerd I am? Elvis was playing a blonde tele with a bigsby unit on it and it got me to thinking about how, other than the Martin from the early days and the Danelectro from the picture of him in his army uniform, I've only really seen him play various Gibson acoustic and semi-hollow models and it was just really weird seeing him play that tele. I'm a loser. I know. Other random observation; during the whole "do the clam" dance number the guys that take over playing the band's instruments while they danced both looked like Buddy Holly.

57 down, 943 to go.

Quick Sports Aside: Everyone that knows me knows that I don't really care much about basketball. I'll keep up with Bama and UAB, but rarely do I actually start watching the games until conference championship time rolls around. But I watched the Bame/Mississippi State game tonight knowing it was an important game for Bama and also thinking it would surely be a good one. But crap, dude. I know it's tough to beat Bama at home, but are you kidding me? That was just embarassing to watch. Mississippi State, we need to talk. Basketball is all you have. Lord knows football isn't your strong suit. I mean, you lost to Maine. Maine! And yes, I know you beat Florida. I remember, I was watching. And I know it was fun for you, but you're starting to sound like a high school winner that went nowhere and can't stop talking about your senior year state championship. Basketball is your strong suit. You know it, I know it, everyone else knows it. So what went wrong? Exams weighing on your mind? Did you stay up too late playing PS2 again? You can tell me. I know, I'm a Bama fan and it's none of my business and all my laughing and pointing probably hurt your feelings. But I'm something else, too. Do you know what that is? You don't? Well I'll tell you. I'm a good listener. If you need me, I'll be here. Know that.

01-17-2005

I had this crazy dream last night, where half of it is one that I've had before and the other half is totally new. The totally new part had something to do with secret agents or something, I don't really remember, and the other half had to do with a concert by some legendary punk band (like a fictional/dream Sex Pistols or something) where they are playing in what looks a lot like Samford's auditorium and there is this really weird, hypnotic song that they open with and it's all tribal drum rhythm and droning lyrics but the lyrics are really stupid punk lyrics about anarchy and wankers and stupid crap like that, but anyway there is some sort of accident on the dock (I know, right?) outside the auditorium and all these people are drowning but the drummer used to work as a crane operator so he runs out and is using this crane to rescue people but that part of the dream never actually happens, I'm just watching the show and waiting on that part to come because I've had the dream before and I knew after the song there would be a big crash and the drummer would be out there working the crane and everything and I think maybe this whole watching movies non-stop is starting to get to me because I totally knew it was going to happen just like I know what is going to happen in a movie I've already seen and it's not like I'm really in my dreams or taking part in them but rather I'm just an observer, like with watching movies. I'm kind of freaked out by it.

52) The Tango Lesson. So watching this I had two thoughts. Thought the first: the politics of the tango? You've got to be kidding me. It's interesting that I read that review the same day as I read this from Ace of Spades. There's nothing political at all about this movie. It's about her falling in love with a vain dancer and the problems that ensue. That's it! Get a life. Thought the second: does my (now formerly) secret love of ballroom dancing make me gay? I wish I could tango! I so need to find a girl that will take ballroom lessons with me. You know, next year.

53) Spartan. I like the Mamet and Val Kilmer grew on me with The Salton Sea, so I was looking forward to this. I'm glad I didn't make it to the theater like I had wanted to when it was still out so I could watch it now. Mamet can be very talky, but this moved right along and the requisite plot twists were always enjoyable, if expected. Plus, Al Bundy! Anyway, Van called while I was watching it and suggested I take care of the entire Joe Don Baker ouevre in one clip, but I really don't see that happening. I've been pretty fortunate to pick movies that I've either always meant to see or at least look like something I would normally like without running into too many duds, so for the time being I'm going to try to stick with that lofty ideal without having to take a bullet and start watching movies just to watch them. Ye olde Netflix queue is full up and I keep finding more that look good every time they ship something and a few spaces open, so I'm hoping I'm going to be okay. But hey, January isn't even over yet so who knows what November will bring.

54) The Good Thief. I was going to quit after Spartan tonight, but nothing else was on and I figured I might as well get another one in to jump to 2+ on the count. I've never seen Bob le Flambeur, though I've always meant to (it's been on my Netflix queue for at least two years now and just keeps getting bumped), and I had decided I would see it before I saw the remake but it was either this or The Fall of the Roman Empire and I decided to play the time management game. I'd be tempted to make a "and in the role of Nick Nolte...Nick Nolte!" joke, but I guess heroin really isn't something to joke about. Anyway, what a great movie. Excellent performances all around and the direction kept the movie at a good pace without sacrificing anything from the story. I'm putting this on my list of DVDs to pick up once the year is over.

54 down, 946 to go.

01-16-2005

48) Breakout. Looks like whoever wrote Proof of Life might be a Bronson fan. Instead of Duvall being a kidnap victim he's stuck in prison and Bronson isn't a professional recovery man but he does fall in love with the guy he's trying to rescue's wife. They never really say why Duvall get's framed, just that he's causing trouble for some fruit company and the CIA (?). Not very well thought out, but a young Randy Quaid is in it so I guess that makes up for it.

49) In Good Company. I took advantage of my movie passes from Steve and Donna (thanks guys!) to get out to the theater today. Charity and Sarah wanted to see this and it looked pretty good from the previews so I figured what the heck. I like Dennis Quaid a lot (two Quaids in one day!), but I hate Topher Grace, so Johannsen had to be the tie breaker. Decent enough. Sarah says I'm getting desensitized to watching movies now so I'm just kind of liking everything I see and not really paying attention, but it's not really that. I can find things that I dislike about most any movie I watch, but I've always tried to to keep in mind that so long as I'm entertained and don't feel cheated out of my time and/or money by them then they've served their purpose. A lot of people get all snotty about film as art and they should have meaning and blah blah blah, but movies were made for diversions and entertainment. It's very rare that I can take seriously a movie that is supposed to be art (see Fandy y Lis) and rarer still that I find one that actually delivers something so profound and beautiful that I think it deserves the label (see The Seventh Seal). I mean, why not try to find reasons to like a movie instead of reasons not to? It's not like you'll get the time back you spent watching it, and unless there is nothing at all likeable about it (I'm talking to you Haiku Tunnel) you might as well focus on the good. Was this the best movie I've ever seen? Nope. But it was good enough to keep me watching for two hours without wishing it would hurry up and be over already. Can I really ask for more?

Quick Sports Aside: I think it's funny that Indy just can't seem to beat New England, but now I'm a little nervous that the Steelers have to play them since they'll have Dillon back and Pittsburgh didn't really look good against The Jets. I still think the Super Bowl is going to be Pittsburgh and Philly, but a Patriots/Falcons match up wouldn't surprise me at all.

Desperate Housewives Update: Bree is in the NRA?! I love her so!

50) Troy. The only thing I knew about the Trojan War before watching this was from a brief overview in 7th grade history and that's only that Helen was taken from Sparta and there was a big wooden horse involved. I did manage to read The Odyssey three times in high school, but I never got to The Iliad so I was ignorant of all the historical innacuracies and changes that everyone complained about. I take it the moral of the story is that Orlando Bloom and his silly little teenstache are no good for anyone. Also, the French chose to name their capital after a cowardly philanderer and libertine that goes around making trouble and then expects better men to take care of it? Shock! Of course, despite all his failings he still managed to slay the greatest warrior in the world, so maybe they figured his luck would rub off on them. Still waiting... Anyway, it was fun to watch and didn't feel like a three hour epic so me and Troy are straight.

51) Basic. I would have to watch this after that whole accentuate the positive tirade. Good performances throughout, but ultimately the story outclevered itself.

51 down, 949 to go.

01-15-2005

After a good night's rest I'm back in the movie mood. Thinking about The Heiress now, I really did enjoy it. It's definetely one of those Golden Age of Hollywood period dramas that no actor or director would be able to match today. The Lady Eve was just okay. It was strange seeing Henry Fonda all clean shaven and naive when I'm used to seeing him as a grizzled tough guy in westerns. Railroaded was a pretty standard issue noir, nothing special but still watchable. So on to today's specials:

42) Return of the Badmen. Robert Ryan is a true badass as The Sundance Kid (take that Redford) and Randolph Scott and Gabby Hayes are their usual solid western selves. The perfect thing to get me back in the right frame of mind.

43) Random Harvest. Another classic like The Heiress that would be impossible to pull off today. Definetely a weepy soap opera, but a well done one. Greer Garson, I think I love you.

44) Oxygen. Just in time to make me reconsider the whole being in a mood to watch movies again. Just awful. Why Maura Tierney? Why? The money? It looked like straight to video crap so I doubt that was it. You just couldn't turn down the excellent script and chance to play such an original and intriguing character? Unless they shot a whole different movie and left it on the cutting room floor and released this incredibly poor take on a tired theme I doubt that too. I can at least say Adam Brody did succeed in creating a villain that was completely and utterly repugnant in every way, and his shirt gave me more proof that only the completely and utterly repugnant listen to Husker Du. After watching this I was very happy to take a break and watch the Steelers/Jets game. That's right Jets. You could have won. TWICE. But you didn't. Even when the Steelers screw up and play like crap they can't be beat!

45) Without a Paddle. Robin's in town so we went to see this. She'd seen it before and has a crush on Seth Green so of course she wanted to see it again. Stupid, but worth a few laughs.

46) Saw. Robin is a sissy cause she was scared of the stupid ventriloquist dummy. Sissy! Yeah, the film's makers definetely thought they were more clever than it turned out. Stylish direction but the story was kind of weak.

47) Soul Plane. I should have just bought this instead of renting it. So stupid but so funny. New favorite quote: "I've got a lot of strength in my slap a bitch arm."

47 down, 953 to go.