The movie project
This blog is all about movies. If you are not a freak like me, you might want to skip it...
About a year ago Michael and I decided we would re watch all of our movies. OK, I decided to and Michael agreed. You see, we are movie freaks and have an extensive collection. However, there are still quite a few movies he owns that I have not seen and vice versa. Those of you who know my movie taste know that I am certainly not a girlie girl when it comes to movies. Here is when growing up with a father who loved TV and movies, and two brothers comes into play. My mom could go through life without watching TV or going to the movies, so her influence here is null. When it comes to movies, I admit it, I am a guy. I'd rather watch anything by Quentin Tarantino than a romantic comedy any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I have seen the holy trilogies of Start Wars and The Godfather more than I can reasonably count. There are days when nothing but a scary, or violent movie will do. I ♥ every gangster movie I have even seen. You get the picture.
But I must draw the line somewhere. I sat through Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" once, all three hours or so...AND the American interpretation "The Magnificent Seven" more than once. I have not however sat through "Yojimbo"... lucky for me our movies are alphabetized. Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to Kurosawa. I love "Dreams". I recognize he was a genius in his time and all that good stuff. I'm just not that much of a guy.
Anyway... just how many movies do we have? I am not sure...somewhere in the neighborhood of 400? You see I am a freak and there is a librarian named Enid who lives inside of me, so my movies have all been cataloged in an Excel spreadsheet and alphabetized accordingly. However, when Michael and I married and moved in together there was work to be done. He had a good amount of movies, in no particular order. I alphabetized his movies once when we will still dating. What happened was as he decided to re watch one he'd pull it out and put it back wherever. (he does the same thing with his books btw- mine are generally in some rational order). I alphabetized all our movies when I purchased these cool racks for them with a wedding gift card that I believe came from Brian and Jess (congratulations on the engagement again!), but I never got around to updating the database. When I decided we would re watch them all again, I started updating the database as we reached a new letter of the alphabet. I estimate that by 2012 we will be done. Especially since we continue to buy more.
We are currently re watching "The Departed". Not Martin Scorsese's best work but as is the case for many greats it is the one that earned him the Oscar for Best Director. Anyway, I love the cast, Michael loves the soundtrack, you get the idea. This means that we are in the beginning of the "d" section. ( I would have put it in the "t" section, but that is a subject for another blog). I know what you are thinking. "It's been a year and you are still in the ds?!" I know.
*In my best Iñigo Montoya accent* "Let me explain. There's no time. Let me sum up"
We have A LOT of movies! And, Tammy gave us a year subscription to Netflix as a wedding present (by far the best gift as far as originality goes). Every once in a while we buy a movie and have to watch it then and there. Like "Inglorious Basterds". Or Michael needs some horror and we watch Rob Zombie's "Halloween" again. Has anyone seen this? Disturbing, right? But as far as horror movies goes... it is awesome! When we watched "Casino Royale" Michael had to skip to "Dr. No" because he was in a "Bond mood". At this point we had to create a new rule. Since I am keeping a database of when we watch each movie, if it's less than a year before we reach it in it's appropriate slot we have the right to skip it at that point. This has not happened yet but we watched Dr. No in March and I guess we will get there again in October, maybe? I suspect Michael will make me watch it again. He loves that movie. Oh! "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". When we got that one we not only watched it, we went back and watch the two previous ones to really get in the "Potter mood". We have read all the books too, they are just so good. I plan to re read them all again once I have seen all the movies. Then, I'll re watch all the movies again. Tee hee!
Then there are TV dvds mixed in here too. For instance, "Band of Brothers". For those of you who do not know, it was an HBO mini series about a company in World War II and it is fantastic. It is ten episodes though, so it took some time, you know? We run a business you know, and there is laundry and cooking and reading and the stuff that real life is made of. For Valentine's Day Michael bought me "The West Wing". The complete series! God I love that show. I am a book worm, a movie freak, and a politics junkie. The writing on this show is superb. It won a gazillion Emmys. The guest stars, the acting, the intelligent witty conversation...Did I mention it went on for 7 seasons? We took an extensive break from the movie project to watch all 7 seasons and when we were done Michael wanted to start over but we didn't.
Just in case you still can't grasp the picture of what an enormous project this is here is the list of what we have watched so far:
About a year ago Michael and I decided we would re watch all of our movies. OK, I decided to and Michael agreed. You see, we are movie freaks and have an extensive collection. However, there are still quite a few movies he owns that I have not seen and vice versa. Those of you who know my movie taste know that I am certainly not a girlie girl when it comes to movies. Here is when growing up with a father who loved TV and movies, and two brothers comes into play. My mom could go through life without watching TV or going to the movies, so her influence here is null. When it comes to movies, I admit it, I am a guy. I'd rather watch anything by Quentin Tarantino than a romantic comedy any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I have seen the holy trilogies of Start Wars and The Godfather more than I can reasonably count. There are days when nothing but a scary, or violent movie will do. I ♥ every gangster movie I have even seen. You get the picture.
But I must draw the line somewhere. I sat through Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" once, all three hours or so...AND the American interpretation "The Magnificent Seven" more than once. I have not however sat through "Yojimbo"... lucky for me our movies are alphabetized. Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to Kurosawa. I love "Dreams". I recognize he was a genius in his time and all that good stuff. I'm just not that much of a guy.
Anyway... just how many movies do we have? I am not sure...somewhere in the neighborhood of 400? You see I am a freak and there is a librarian named Enid who lives inside of me, so my movies have all been cataloged in an Excel spreadsheet and alphabetized accordingly. However, when Michael and I married and moved in together there was work to be done. He had a good amount of movies, in no particular order. I alphabetized his movies once when we will still dating. What happened was as he decided to re watch one he'd pull it out and put it back wherever. (he does the same thing with his books btw- mine are generally in some rational order). I alphabetized all our movies when I purchased these cool racks for them with a wedding gift card that I believe came from Brian and Jess (congratulations on the engagement again!), but I never got around to updating the database. When I decided we would re watch them all again, I started updating the database as we reached a new letter of the alphabet. I estimate that by 2012 we will be done. Especially since we continue to buy more.
We are currently re watching "The Departed". Not Martin Scorsese's best work but as is the case for many greats it is the one that earned him the Oscar for Best Director. Anyway, I love the cast, Michael loves the soundtrack, you get the idea. This means that we are in the beginning of the "d" section. ( I would have put it in the "t" section, but that is a subject for another blog). I know what you are thinking. "It's been a year and you are still in the ds?!" I know.
*In my best Iñigo Montoya accent* "Let me explain. There's no time. Let me sum up"
We have A LOT of movies! And, Tammy gave us a year subscription to Netflix as a wedding present (by far the best gift as far as originality goes). Every once in a while we buy a movie and have to watch it then and there. Like "Inglorious Basterds". Or Michael needs some horror and we watch Rob Zombie's "Halloween" again. Has anyone seen this? Disturbing, right? But as far as horror movies goes... it is awesome! When we watched "Casino Royale" Michael had to skip to "Dr. No" because he was in a "Bond mood". At this point we had to create a new rule. Since I am keeping a database of when we watch each movie, if it's less than a year before we reach it in it's appropriate slot we have the right to skip it at that point. This has not happened yet but we watched Dr. No in March and I guess we will get there again in October, maybe? I suspect Michael will make me watch it again. He loves that movie. Oh! "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". When we got that one we not only watched it, we went back and watch the two previous ones to really get in the "Potter mood". We have read all the books too, they are just so good. I plan to re read them all again once I have seen all the movies. Then, I'll re watch all the movies again. Tee hee!
Then there are TV dvds mixed in here too. For instance, "Band of Brothers". For those of you who do not know, it was an HBO mini series about a company in World War II and it is fantastic. It is ten episodes though, so it took some time, you know? We run a business you know, and there is laundry and cooking and reading and the stuff that real life is made of. For Valentine's Day Michael bought me "The West Wing". The complete series! God I love that show. I am a book worm, a movie freak, and a politics junkie. The writing on this show is superb. It won a gazillion Emmys. The guest stars, the acting, the intelligent witty conversation...Did I mention it went on for 7 seasons? We took an extensive break from the movie project to watch all 7 seasons and when we were done Michael wanted to start over but we didn't.
Just in case you still can't grasp the picture of what an enormous project this is here is the list of what we have watched so far:
- 3:10 to Yuma
- 8 Mile
- 12 angry men
- 21 Grams
- 28 Days Later
- 300
- A Beautiful Mind
- A Bug's Life
- A Fistful of Dollars
- A Midsummer Nights Dream
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Airplane!
- All About Eve
- Alladin
- Almost Famous
- Amadeus
- Amelie
- America's Sweethearts
- American Beauty
- American History X
- Amores Perros
- Anotomy of a Murder
- Animal House
- The Aviator
- Back to the future
- Back to the future II
- Back to the future III
- Band of Brothers
- Bandidas
- Basic Instinct
- Batman Begins
- Beaches
- The Big Chill
- Black Christmas
- Black Hawk Down
- Blade
- Blade II
- The Blues Brothers
- The Boondock Saints
- The Bourne Identity
- Boyz N The Hood
- Braveheart
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
- Bridge to Teribethia
- Bull Durham
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- Carlito's Way
- Casablanca
- Casino
- Casino Royal
- The Cell
- Chasing Amy
- Children of a Lesser God
- Cinema Paradiso
- Citizen Kane
- City of Angels
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Contact
- Cool Hand Luke
- Cop Land
- Courage Under Fire
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- Dances with Wolves
- Dangerous Liaisons
- The Dark Knight
- Dead Poets Society
- The Departed
Before I say a little something about the movies per se, that is 67 movies. We get at least one movie a week through Netflix so in one year that is approximately 52 more, and there are breaks for the Dr. Nos and The West Wings and Inglorious Basterds and Harry Potters. This is why we are still in the D's people! We have been watching 2-4 movies a week minimum. I don't think we can do any better. I mean, unless we give up reading or something... I will like to point out that I religiously watch at least 10 tv shows as well. Thank God for the DVR!
"Bandidas" is by far the worse of this list. It is Michael's movie. He was blinded by Salma and Penelope on the cover. I forgive him for this major infraction of movie ethics because they are after all beautiful Latin women. Michael is still complaining about "Beaches" but at least this is a good movie. I understand it is not his cup of tea, but it is still good. He will soon have to sit through "Dirty Dancing" which I view as my revenge for the fact that I will have to sit through a few seasons of "Highlander". I have to say it: "Nobody puts baby in a corner".
All the westerns are Michael's. I don't have anything against them, but my dad loved them and I figure I paid my western dues a long time ago. I respect Clint Eastwood though. And look forward to re watching "Unforgiven". Truth be told, other than "Bandidas" none of these has been too painful for me. We'll see what I have to say when we reach the "South Park" section. Sigh, there is only so much of Cartman a girl can take... In case you are wondering, I am a girl. Michael will have to watch "The Little Mermaid", "Pretty Woman", and ah yes: six seasons of "Sex in the city" baby!
In my defense, how many girls do you know own the following movies: "The Godfather trilogy", "Scarface", "Fight Club" and everything Quentin Tarantino touched? I could watch Pulp Fiction once a month. So before you men out there pity Michael for having to watch "Mulan" and "How Stella got her Groove Back" think about the fact that I will be ready to make some pop corn and sit down through Scarface with him with gusto. This is not easy by the way, because he says all the lines with Tony and Manny.
"I kill a communist for fun, but for a green card, I gonna carve him up real nice."
Departed is hohum, Copland yes and Bloodwork recommended - Just watched the Australian movie 'Beneath Clouds' check it!
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