1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in June 2012
1) Into the Wild (2007 - Sean Penn) 8/10 - I underrated this one a little bit when I watched it early last month, but it's grown on me with time and has a good shot at, at least, making a "Ten Worth Mentioning" spot.
2) Paradise Now (2005 - Hany Abu-Assad) 3/10
3) Rushmore (1998 - Wes Anderson) 8.5/10 - Another top contender for a TOP 20 slot.
4) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001 - Wes Anderson) 10/10 - Forget TOP 20, this is a TOP 10 contender.
5) Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966 - George Kuchar) -- - Still no rating on this one, just because affixing a rating on this would be generic, in my view.
6) Gaslight (1944 - George Cukor) 7.5/10 - Another one that COULD receive a "Ten Worth Mentioning" nod.
7) The Best of Youth (2003 - Marco Tullio Giordana) 7.5/10 - I'm struggling with this one. I was, ultimately, disappointed with this one. But on the surface, it was a success. Have no idea yet if it will impact the TOP 20 or not.
8) The Mortal Storm (1940 - Frank Borzage) 4.5/10
9) Deep End (1970 - Jerzy Skolimowski) 7/10 - If there's room, I wouldn't mind seeing this pop up on the "Ten Worth Mentioning" section.
10) Seconds (1966 - John Frankenheimer) 7/10 - Another one that just really disappointed me. I don't know what it's chances of making the list are, but we'll find out shortly.
11) Pan's Labyrinth (2006 - Guillermo del Toro) 5/10
12) The Seventh Victim (1943 - Mark Robson) 6.5/10 - Good, but is it good enough to make the list? Doubtful.
13) Sergeant York (1941 - Howard Hawks) 7/10 - I went a little bit overboard on this one originally, but it was still really good.
14) To Have and Have Not (1944 - Howard Hawks) 4/10
15) The Big Sleep (1946 - Howard Hawks) 5/10
16) Red River (1948 - Howard Hawks) 2/10
17) The Big Sky (1952 - Howard Hawks) 2/10
18) Meshes of the Afternoon (1943 - Deren, Hammid) 1/10
19) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 - Howard Hawks) 5/10 - Needless to say, "Hawks Week" was a major disappointment!
20) Rio Bravo (1959 - Howard Hawks) 6/10 - I went overboard on this one too.
21) Kandahar (2001 - Mohsen Makhmalbaf) 5.5/10
22) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943 - William A. Wellman) 9/10 - '10/10' was a little too high, but make no mistake, this is a hell of a film.
NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in June 2012
1) The Descendants (2011 - Alexander Payne) 6.5/10 - If there was one movie that I would have made it out to the theater to see last year, it would have been “Midnight in Paris”. However, if there were two movies, then I would’ve added “The Descendants” to that short list. So, you can imagine how disappointed I was when I realized that there was nothing unique or classic about Alexander Payne’s newest offering and that it was really just a fluffy, overly sentimental, piece of Hollywood Oscar bait. I’ve been a big fan of Alexander Payne, ever since I saw “About Schmidt”. Later, “Sideways” became one of my all-time favorite films and I would even call “Election” a must see movie. I’m getting so sick of these cliché stories, that are designed to pull tears from our faces and make us all weepy. In “The Descendants”, George Clooney plays a man, living in Hawaii, who tries to reconnect with his two daughters, after his wife slips into a coma after a boating accident. It’s almost as sappy a storyline as the “two parents try to cope with life after the death of their child” storyline (one that I personally can’t stand). I think it was a pretty cheap movie, the laughs were cheap, the tearjerking moments were cheap and the acting, while not cheap, just wasn’t that good. I’d still give it a ‘6.5’ because it was, at least, okay, but it was a huge disappointment.
July 6, 2012 1:03pm
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