1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in June 2011
1) All That Heaven Allows (1956 - Douglas Sirk) 6/10
2) Suspiria (1977 - Dario Argento) 4.5/10 - I still recommend this if you're in the market for a scary movie-thon, but in my opinion, it had no place in this book.
3) Clerks (1994 - Kevin Smith) 10/10
4) Riget (1994 - Lars von Trier) 7.5/10 - This is just so hard to peg with a rating because it IS a mini-series, that more resembles a TV show than a film. Really good though.
5) The Palm Beach Story (1942 - Preston Sturges) 7/10
6) Blazing Saddles (1974 - Mel Brooks) 3/10
7) Videodrome (1983 - David Cronenberg) 4/10 - Good story, but it took a strange turn for the worse. Some people are going to/do love this, but it isn't my cup of tea.
8) The Fly (1986 - David Cronenberg) 7/10 - I went a little overboard the other day and overrated this one...but just a tad.
9) Little Miss Sunshine (2006 - Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris) 9/10
NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in June 2011
1) The Other Woman (2009 - Don Roos)4.5/10 - Man and wife break-up, new wife enters the picture, child of man and new wife don’t get along. Hmmm, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before and while I can’t put my finger on an example, the whole story just seems very cliché. I like Natalie Portman just fine, as she usually turns in at least a good performance, but I think this was a case where she was just too good for the material and I just didn’t care for her here. Oh and just as a little FYI, I really despise Lisa Kudrow, especially in films. I can stand her if I stumble across an episode of “Friends”, while looking for something to watch on T.V., but I draw the line there and when she shows up in movies, it’s almost an immediate indicator that I’m going to hate said movie.
2) Somewhere (2010 - Sofia Coppola) 6.5/10 - I had been eagerly anticipating this one since I saw the trailer late last year and while I liked it, it did remind me a whole lot of “Lost In Translation” (a film I still can’t believe was omitted from the “1001” book). Both films have a celebrity as their main character, both celebrities are seemingly lonely men, looking for some type of companionship. Both celebrity characters meet up with someone, who seems to take the edge off their lonliness, but in both situations, the companionship is temporary. Stephen Dorff did a fantastic job, I thought and for a twelve year old, even Elle Fanning did a damn fine job. I couldn’t help but scratch my head at the inclusion to the cast of Chris Pontius (of Jackass fame), but he had a minor role, so all is well. Good film, somber mood, but a little too similar to “Lost in Translation”.
3) The Hole (2001 - Nick Hamm) 3.5/10 - Does the title refer to the huge plot hole that comes at the end of the film? This was a fun I guess. My wife and I were in the mood for a horror film last night, so we decided to check out “The Hole” via the streaming portion of Netflix. Little did we know, that It really wasn’t horror, but more of a thriller, which in turn, may have lead to our ultimate dislike. I, for one, kept expecting big monsters to pop out and eat our teenage main characters alive, but they never came. Instead the story follows a group of four teenagers, who contract a fifth teenager to help them gain entry into a bunker (or “hole” , if you will) so that they can skip their class field trip. The fifth teenager, Martyn, helps them out and the four teens spend three nights in the hole. On the last day, however, Martyn never shows up to let them out and they soon realize they’re stuck, sans food and water. There’s a big plot hole at the end involving a key and a dead body, but I’ll let you discover that for yourself…unless you don’t want to, which is fine, because I don’t recommend this film.
EDIT: After putting a little more thought into this one, I dropped it to a 3.5/10, instead of my original 5.5/10. It's really forgettable and just seems really cheap and stupid when some more thought is put to it.
4) 12 Monkeys (1995 - Terry Gilliam) 6/10 - You can read my "12 Monkeys" DVD review by clicking here.
5) 200 Cigarettes (1999 - Risa Bramon Garcia) 7/10 - You can read my "200 Cigarettes" DVD review by clicking here.
6) 21 Grams (2003 - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) 10/10 - You can read my "21 Grams" DVD review by clicking here.
7) The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005 - Judd Apatow) 7.5/10 - You can read my "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" DVD review by clicking here.
8) 50 First Dates (2004 - Peter Segal) 7/10 - You can read my "50 First Dates" DVD review by clicking here.
July 2, 2011 1.27am
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