September 2013 Recap and Other News (Including Final FRIGHTFEST films!)

For the curious, I've been away from the blog for a few days due to a couple of tough work days and the fact that, for the past twenty-four hours, I've been working on "Satantango" - the 7 1/2 hour epic from Bela Tarr. Now then...let's get to it...

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in September 2013
1) Gabbeh (1996 - Mohsen Makhmalbaf) 3/10
2) Back to the Future (1985 - Robert Zemeckis) 7.5/10 - Still a personal favorite of mine, but very willing to admit that there's better stuff out there.
3) Breaking the Waves (1996 - Lars von Trier) 7/10 - Feelings haven't changed much here.
4) Lone Star (1996 - John Sayles) 4/10 - Totally forgettable flick here. Didn't care much for it at all, except for Cooper's performance...and maybe the end.
5) Taxi Driver (1976 - Martin Scorsese) 10/10 - So far, this is the #1 spot of the next TOP 20.
6) Raging Bull (1980 - Martin Scorsese) 10/10 - Decided to jack it up to the full monty. Who am I trying to fool, this is brilliant filmmaking.
7) Mean Streets (1973 - Martin Scorsese) 7/10 - It's grown on me a little bit, for sure. It's not nearly as good as TD or RB, but if you accept that it's a much smaller scale Scorsese piece, then it's really good.
8) The King of Comedy (1983 - Martin Scorsese) 8/10
9) The Usual Suspects (1995 - Bryan Singer) 7/10 - BARELY a '7', but '6.5' seems too low.
10) Shine (1996 - Scott Hicks) 6/10 - Rush's performance is a '10', but the rest of the movie falls flat.
11) Casino (1995 - Martin Scorsese) 5.5/10
12) Goodfellas (1990 - Martin Scorsese) 9/10 - Probably, technically a '10', but it's not as good as TD and RB, so I can't go quite that high. Still great though.
13) Heat (1995 - Michael Mann) 8/10
14) Smoke (1995 - Wayne Wang) 7.5/10 - I had such a good time with this. Keitel's ending monologue is the scene of the film.
15) Clueless (1995 - Amy Heckerling) 4/10 - The 90s nostalgia was nice to re-live, but I was kidding myself when I called this average.
16) Babe (1995 - Chris Noonan) 7.5/10 - Went a LITTLE too high, but still, I'm fully prepared to consider this a guilty pleasure. Loved Cromwell.
17) Three Lives and Only One Death (1996 - Raul Ruiz) 6/10

NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in September 2013

Quick words this month, because I have a lot of ground to cover with this recap. Keep scrolling...

1) Stir of Echoes (1999 - David Koepp) 4/10 - My wife and I continuing to go through our massive DVD collection and restructure it. This was just awful this time around and somehow, this is a movie I used to be bat crap crazy for. This is a poor man's "The Sixth Sense", with way worse performances and worse execution. To the "sell" pile.

2) The Machinist (2004 - Brad Anderson) 8.5/10 - Man, if you haven't seen this gem, you are in for a real treat someday when you finally get around to checking it out. Bale proves why he was given the bat suit with a performance that comes complete with a physical transformation. This film is one giant puzzle and will surely have you guessing down to the final scene. Great stuff!

3) Amour (2012 - Michael Haneke) 10/10 - Yep, it's that good and while I haven't seen the other contenders for Best Picture of 2012, I can't imagine any of them being better than this. At times, it's really difficult to watch and one of the saddest flicks I've ever seen, but ultimately it's a masterpiece in movie making as Haneke continues to cement his legacy as one of the greats.

TOP 20 TRACKER
1) Open Your Eyes (20)
2) Happy Together (20)
3) Winchester '73 (10)
4) Back to the Future (20)
5) Breaking the Waves (20)
6) Taxi Driver (20)
7) Raging Bull (20)
8) Mean Streets (10)
9) The King of Comedy (20)
10) The Usual Suspects (10)
11) Goodfellas (20)
12) Heat (20)
13) Smoke (20)
14) Babe (10)

ME vs. TV

My wife and I have been checking out TONS of the new fall shows that have premiered in the past week or so and I decided to share some of my thoughts on what the big three networks came up with for the 2013-2014 season.

1) The Blacklist - Probably the best new show this season and definitely the best drama. Kind of has a Silence of the Lambs feel to it and James Spader is magnificent. This has a long shelf life.

2) Hostages - Loving this too. I hear the ratings aren't that great, but I really don't know why because it's a fine show and the surprises and twists just keep on piling up.

3) Ironside - *MEH* This is just "House, MD", except he's a cop and it's a wheelchair instead of a cane. I'm thinking it probably lasts because so many people LOVE cop shows, but I'm not feeling it. I'll give it another try though. Everything I say is based off of only one episode.

4) Betrayal - Could end up being great, but so far I'd just call it pretty decent. There's tons of potential though and hey, it's got James Cromwell.

5) Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Watched three episodes of this and decided to give up. Andy Samberg annoys me so much, for no reason. I just don't find him funny AT ALL.

6) Dads - This is getting awful reviews and ratings and seemingly on the brink of extinction, but I find it hilarious, as does my wife. I'm loving Giovanni Ribisi here and think that Seth MacFarlane does much better with live action tv, as opposed to live action films.

7) Mom - Liking it enough to stick with it, but the ratings are hideous...or so I've heard.

8) We Are Men - Only saw Episode 1 and it was just okay. I'll check out a few more before I pass final judgment, but I could see this one getting axed.

9) The Goldbergs - I could see this one getting axed too and there are far funnier comedies on this year, but this isn't too bad. I'll stick with it for a while anyway.

10) Trophy Wife - This is hilarious! Really hope this sticks around.

11) The Millers - Only one episode in, but I could see this one doing really well. Arnett is always funny.

12) The Crazy Ones - Only one episode in on this too. Didn't care for the pilot that much, but I'll do a few more before I call it quits. Williams will end up irritating me though, I know it.

13) The Michael J. Fox Show - Pilot wasn't good, but episode two redeemed it. I'll probably continue with this.

FRIGHTFEST 2013

Okay, so the post I made got a lot of attention and I've finally narrowed down the field to seven horror films that WILL comprise this years FRIGHTFEST festivities. Just a reminder, these films will be the first seven, NON-BOOK films to receive formal reviews on the blog. The seven films are....

1) Day of the Dead (1985 - George A. Romero)
2) Dawn of the Dead (2004 - Zack Snyder)
3) The Omen (1976 - Richard Donner)
4) Village of the Damned (1960 - Wolf Rilla)
5) Pumpkinhead (1988 - Stan Winston)
6) The Collector (1965 - William Wyler)
7) To Be Announced

Okay, let's talk about #7 there, which will segue me into a new feature that I plan to do monthly here on the blog. The new feature will be called....

SINS OF OMISSION

"Sins of Omission" will be done once a month here at the 1001 Movies I (Apparently) Must See Before I Die blog and I think it's pretty self-explanatory. It will be a feature highlighting THE BOOK's biggest sins of omission and films that I think should've been included in THE BOOK. Each month, I'll formally review one title and that title will then be placed onto my personal list of the 1000 Greatest Films, which can be viewed by clicking here.

The only rules for the Sins of Omission films is that 1) Can't have been in THE BOOK (obviously) and 2) Can't be on my next list of 1000 films that I plan to watch when I'm done with THE BOOK. That means no "Dial M for Murder", no "Scenes from a Marriage", because they're both on that next list.

This month, the Sin of Omission will also be the conclusion to FRIGHTFEST, the seventh film - yep, that's right, my first sin of omission is a horror movie...sort of.

That's all I'm going to say for now, but not only am I within 300 films of finishing THE BOOK, but I'm also cooking up new things so that this blog can continue. We're getting to that stage where this blog will begin to transform into being a countdown of one man's journey in watching all 1001 films in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book to one man's journey to comprise his own BOOK, his personal collection of 1000 (because 1001 is just an odd number to work with) films that have shaped his cinematic tastes, 1000 favorites.

October 4, 2013  12:38am