Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Gypsy


IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Mum

Ok, you're right I do like this version more that the '63 one. But I've never been that into Bette Midler (except for maybe Hocus Pocus, that film is genius). Seeing Elisabeth Moss and Lacey Chabert as the two young girls at the start was fun though. Umm, apart from that it obviously plays out exactly the same as the '63 so I don't know how much more I was going to enjoy it anyway. There's bits of score I like though.

Why are there so many musicals about show business? It kinda seems superfluous to me.

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Squid and the Whale


IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

Still my favourite Noah Baumbach film, although I have not seen Kicking and Screaming. Must fix that. Love this cast sooooo much. Jesse Eisenberg is great, I must go see Social Network again before it finishes on Wednesday.

This film is rather bitter and hilarious. Also it is short and sweet, which makes it the perfect late night follow up film to Life During Wartime. Noah Baumbach really seems to like to write characters that are, just, assholes. I like that though. Greenburg and Margot probably more so than in this film, but Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels especially get to go at it. And it's something to behold. So check it out!

Life During Wartime


IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

Yay! This was great and I can't believe it's already the 3rd and this is the first time I've been to a cinema. But honestly there is crap all out right now.

So the recasting issue is not so bad. I don't know how this film would play to someone who hasn't seen Happiness first, there were a lot of allusions to events from that film. And the dead character from the first film, well, he's still dead and just appears in ghost like visions so that's that cleared up.

Now, while nowhere near as painful (in the good way) as Happiness was to sit through this film still has it's fair share of hilarious and awkward moments. Allison Janney is of course wonderful, especially her first scenes talking to her son about getting wet.

All in all I think I like Happiness more, that film has a hell of a kick at the end, this one is much more contemplative, nevertheless the chance to spend some more time with these characters is a treat. A definite for Solondez fans and for anyone else, well, I'd like to know what you make of it!

Down To The Bone


IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

You really have to be in the right mood to watch one of these slow paced indi character pieces and I don't think I am. Nothing much happens in this one, a single mum trying to cope with addiction. Very realistic, Vera Farmiga is fine, I just didn't enjoy this much. I keep hearing about how her career kickstarted because of this role but, similar to Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, I don't see what the fuss is about. They are fine and all but I have liked other characters she played more. The mother in Joshua and romantic interest in Up in the Air. Hell, even in Orphan she is amazing to behold. (highly underrated IMO)

It's one of those meandering films that doesn't seem to have much structure and just when they give me a relationship conflict to grab hold of the film abruptly ends. I guess character pieces don't need closure or resolution but still, that was kind of annoying.

These, I hesitate to use the term "mumblecore," films are always hit and miss. They walk a fine line. Sometimes I love them and sometimes I loath them and it's frustratingly hard to pinpoint just why some work and others don't. I wasn't really in the mood for this so I'm probably doing the film a disservice but It just didn't interest me at all.

Happiness


IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

Another kinda misleading trailer.

I do like Todd Solondz films. I think you either find them upsetting or hilarious. Or possibly both. I happen to find them hilarious. Happiness contains what must be the most squirm inducingly awkward dramatic scene ever put to film. Bloody fantastic actors, an amazing cast he assembled. Then of course he chucked a Palindromes and recast them all for Life During Wartime. That film is playing in Perth for one week only at an Outdoor cinema and I am desperate to see it, hence this brush-up. Apparently Philip Seymour Hoffman is now Omar from The Wire. And the Jon Lovitz character is still alive? no? Continuity?

Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps that's entire point of his recasting. Or it's the same thing as in Palindromes and I just am too stupid to understand. It seems that the Mark Wiener character from Welcome to the Dollhouse and Palindromes is in Life During Wartime as well. Someones been making their own little film universe. Probably won't have time to re-watch them all, if everything goes to plan I'll be watching his latest tomorrow night. Looking forward to it as well. There were a few forgotten favourite moments from the re-watch tonight. Pretty much everything with Hoffman and also I had forgotten about the old couples divorce storyline. When Mona is looking to buy a new house. Ahhh classic.

I love films where you don't know if it's ok to laugh, or if you do you feel bad for doing so but just can't help yourself. Fantastic writing and brilliantly acted.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Lady In White


IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

All this talk of great 80's kids horror films made me thirsty for more. I recently saw the article on Aint It Cool about them and I loved the other two but had never heard of this one.

First off, Lucas Haas you are great. Recently in Inception and Brick but for some reason I remember him most from Mars Attacks. I love it when you see someone well know pop up as a kid in an old movie, like last year when I saw Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane or Kurt Russell in Follow Me, Boys! I completely forgot that Haas was the kid in Witness. Well he sees a lot more than he should in this one too.

This movie felt kinda long, all the stuff with the ghosts and general halloween creepyness that goes through the first two thrids of the film had me thinking that yeah this would have been kinka spooky for kids. But then the last act came where you kind of forget about the ghosts once he realises that an adult figure he has long trusted is a pedophile and child murderer and goes chases after him at night through a haunted forest with a bow and arrow. The danger then becomes much more real and immediate and the climax was pretty spectacular.

One thing I noticed on the parental guide is, while it talks a lot about the spooky ghosts and briefly mentions that there is a murderer and child endangerment, it doesn't mention the fact that the mother of one of the victims goes to apologies to a wrongly accused old black school janitor, just after the town court found him not guilty and all charges had been dropped, but instead shoot him in the face with a revolver splattering his brains on a car window while his wife looks on from the other side. That was a rather huge shock. Points for.

Also I think it is impossible to see that "small american town square" backlot and not immediately think of Back to the Future. All that was missing was the clock.

All in all, a great film to terrorise children, I felt it was a bit long and don't have the nostalgia factor working for me, but still enjoyable for the last act.

The Black Cauldron



IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly

Disney, what were you doing? This came out the year I was born and apparently almost bankrupt the company. It's not hard to see why. I believe this is the first PG rated animation from Disney and it had to be cut to get even that. There's a bit of animated blood which is unusual for Disney. It's a very dark and creepy film that is rather awkwardly and perhaps inappropriately punctuated by horrendous cartoony comedy relief. As such the tone of this one is a bit of a mess. It's just very hard to know what to make of this film.

Some good things:
•John Hurt is evil as the Horned King. Scary evil. Awesome.
•Cinemascope! Yes! Bring it back! First time since Sleeping Beauty! But for god's sake frame your shots appropriately if you're going for the widescreen approach.
•The Annoying dog/gollum comedy relief thing dies. Yep, they kill him off. Brutal Disney. Brutal.

Some not so good things:
•Elmer Bernstein I love your score, but your instrumentation is just bizarre. I don't think anyone has taken Theremins seriously since the 50's sci-fi b-movies made them such a cliche.
•Story structure/character/plot. These elements must have been in the original novel or you probably wouldn't have spent 15 years to make a film from it. Perhaps they cut that out too. It's a rather short runtime at 77 mins. Actually maybe that's a good thing.
•The Annoying dog/gollum comedy relief thing comes back to life at the end. Thus the film looses any credibility it had earned killing him off in the first place.

I'm all for Disney making more "boys adventure" animations instead of the broadway musical princess stories. I happen to love Atlantis: The Lost Empire and quite a few bits of Treasure Planet too. I'm also all for going dark and spooky with their tone and adding a sense of genuine danger. Just as long as it's consistent.

This is a fascinating film when seen in the context of the rest of the disney cannon, and knowing the context in which it was made and the transition that lead to the so called "Golden Age" of disney I grew up watching. But if you aren't as into animation history as me, I would probably avoid this one, or treat is as a strange curiosity.

The Fifth Element


IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly

Wow that trailer is useless.

This film takes me back. Apparently it is ALWAYS on TV and I ALWAYS seem to miss it. Watching it for the first time on bluray was a treat though. I just love this movie, I think I holds up really well too. But perhaps that's just the nostalgia talking. Showing it to someone who's never seen it before I did think, man this is a pretty strange movie with a lot of far out elements (no pun intended). But I loved all that about it when I watched it growing up and I still do.

One of my favourite things about it are the rapid cross-cutting scenes between the various characters and plots threads that are either similar or opposing and the juxtapositions and dialogues created by these parallel edits. That sounded wanky but I mean it. Scenes like Ruby having sex with a flight attendant cut with the shuttle taking off cut with Zorg wasting away one of his underlings.

I also love the setting up of all these different group trying to get the same goal but in opposition of one another, the film juggles them all incredibly well. Although if a few of them, e.g. the military, the priests and Korben all talked to one another they would probably realise they were trying to do the same thing and help each other out instead of trying to stop each other, which always frustrated me when I was younger. I guess you could take that as a social comment on communicative skills. Also there would be a really boring film.

Costume design by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Okay!

Check out all the peeps on the youtubes doing a rendition of the diva dance song. heh, I must admit I used to sing along to that too..

P.S. When I watched Gothika and Babylon A.D. I spent most of the runtime giggiling to myself thinking about the "gimmie the cashhhhhhh" guy directing it. It's a pretty funny image.

Monster House


IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly

One of the few recent children's films that has that awesome 80's kids only adventure vibe about it. Where the kids act like kids, adults don't figure into the story and there is a real sense of danger and consequences. It's a pity I'll probably never get to see this in 3D on the big screen again because I recall it being spectacular.

I have a huge fondness for "Kids Horror Films" and they are hard to come by nowdays but this fits the bill nicely. Fantastic actors used for the motion capture and I think it's mainly because of them the humour works so well. I forgot how funny this was and all the lines we used to quote from it.

Oh and someone needs to tell Robert Zemeckis that, while motion capture is cool, using characatured humans rather than trying to get perfectly lifelike people from cg characters works much better. None of that uncanny valley nonsense here.

Director Gil Kenan does a great job and I hope his next film City of Ember hasn't destroyed his career, because I actually really liked that film too and would love to see more from him, animated or live action.

Yatterman


IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release Yes
Watched With: Myself

Ok, interesting way to start of the new year and the new blog. Takashi Miike is one of my favourite directors. Even when he makes stuff I don't enjoy you cannot argue that it isn't interesting. The man makes about 2 features a year so he's bound to have some crap but I'm always curious as to what he has up his sleeves and he somehow always manages to surprise me.

So they have given him the task of adapting some beloved manga franchise to the big screen, a franchise I know NOTHING about so I'm sure most of the references went over my head. When you get the man who made such hardcore graphic and violent cinema (like Audition, Visitor Q, Gozu, Dead or Alive and of course the infamous Ichi the Killer) to make an anime adaptation primarily for children, who know what you are going to get. I have seen his adaptation of Zebraman which, in typical Miike fashion, was throughly self referential and post-modern and one of my favourites, The Great Yokai War which has some fabulously subversive elements in it that make it just too unsuitable for the littler kids.

With Yatterman I wasn't disappointed, the subversive elements were even more gratuitous than his other "kids" films. But not with violence this time, although the demon possessed father giving a hard beating to his crying daughter could cause some upset. This time it was more to do with mindboggilingly inappropriate (perhaps only in western eyes) sexual innuendo. There is quite literally a sex scene between two giant robot mecha things that starts off as a fight and then gets all kinds of creepy naughty. The fact that one is a giant woman with huge breasts that fire missiles and the other is a big red dog only adds to the confusion. Perhaps more hilarious/disturbing is one of the baddies fantasies involving "every high school girl." Nuff said.

But apart from these few undeniably Miike touches the rest of the film plays like a big budget power rangers episode shot entirely on greenscreen. If you can enjoy those goofy power ranges costumes and acting then you'll eat this up. I enjoyed those few unexpected moments but didn't care much for the rest. Still I'll be interested to see what he might come up with for a sequel.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2010 Film List

561 Movies in 2010. I got the cinema 130 times, both down quite a bit from previous years, a disappointing effort but to be fair this was my first year with a full time job and I wrote and directed musical and performed in another, so free time was somewhat lacking.
However, I did manage to see 404 new films this year which is way up from last year. 212 of them were current releases and the rest were older films that I felt I should give a go.

So, Here are the current release films I watched for the first time in 2010 in a very vague order of Best to Worst in my bizarre and not to be recognized in any way opinion. (I would like to point out now that Positions vary WIDLEY depending on what mood I’m in or how the crowd reacted, stuff like that. And chances are I’d change the order next week if I were to do it again.)

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
2. Kick-Ass
3. Inception
4. How to Train Your Dragon
5. The Social Network
6. Boy A
7. In The Loop
8. Shutter Island
9. Monsters
10. A Single Man
11. Toy Story 3
12. The Loved Ones
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
14. Iron Man 2
15. Piranha 3D
16. Up in the Air
17. A Serbian Film
18. Frozen
19. Rec 2
20. Splice
21. Easy A
22. Fantastic Mr Fox
23. Animal Kingdom
24. Buried
25. The Road
26. The American
27. Nowhere Boy
28. Let Me In
29. The Secret of the Kells
30. Daybreakers
31. Fair Game
32. Agora
33. Pandorum
34. Peacock
35. The Last Exercism
36. Youth In Revolt
37. Tron: Legacy
38. Green Zone
39. Ninja Assassin
40. Humpday
41. The Book of Eli
42. Cyrus
43. Gentleman Broncos
44. Wasted On The Young
45. Symbol
46. Machete
47. The Men Who Stare At Goats
48. Predators
49. Redline
50. The Jonses
51. Bad Lietenant, Port of Call: New Orleans
52. The Human Centipede
53. The Crazies
54. Dorian Gray
55. 9
56. Triangle
57. Robogeisha
58. Red Hill
59. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
60. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
61. Red Cliff Part 1 & 2
62. Whiteout
63. Edge Of Darkness
64. Big Fan
65. Boy
66. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
67. Law Abiding Citizen
68. Wild Target
69. The Killer Inside Me
70. Defender
71. Black Dynamite
72. The A Team
73. Greenburg
74. The Losers
75. The Hurt Locker
76. Evangellion 1.0 You are (not) alone
77. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
78. Precious
79. The Ghost Writer
80. I Love You Phillip Morris
81. Harry Brown
82. Made in Dagenham
83. Salt
84. The Slammin’ Salmon
85. Chloe
86. Knight and Day
87. The King’s Speech
88. Me and Orsen Welles
89. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
90. Paper Man
91. Micmacs
92. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
93. Centurian
94. Heartless
95. The Disappearance of Alice Creed
96. Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time
97. Brothers
98. The Oxford Murders
99. Metropia
100. Due Date
101. The White Ribbon
102. Dead Snow
103. Leaves of Grass
104. Megamind
105. The Last Station
106. New York, I love you
107. Under the Mountain
108. Fish Tank
109. Soloman Kane
110. Creation
111. The Rebound
112. Stepfather
113. Clash of the Titans
114. Paranormal Activity 2
115. The Baader Meinof Complex
116. Bright Star
117. Hot Tub Time Machine
118. A Perfect Getaway
119. The Fourth Kind
120. Accidents Happen
121. Repo Men
122. Winter’s Bone
123. Unthinkable
124. Winged Creatures
125. City Island
126. Grey Gardens
127. Armoured
128. The Kids Are Alright
129. Blood: The Last Vampire
130. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
131. Leap Year
132. Invictus
133. Operation: Endgame
134. Tomorrow When the War Began
135. Bunny and the Bull
136. The Wolfman
137. Dinner for Shmucks
138. The Tourist
139. Get Him to the Greek
140. Women in Trouble
141. King of Thorn
142. The Poughkeepsie Tapes
143. The Runaways
144. La Horde
145. The Tree
146. Crazy Heart
147. The Other Guys
148. Visioneers
149. The Horseman
150. Planet 51
151. Van Diemans Land
152. Halloween 2
153. Macgruber
154. Despicable Me
155. Robin Hood
156. Brooklyn’s Finest
157. Eat Pray Love
158. Beneath Hill 60
159. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
160. The Princess and the Frog
161. From Paris With Love
162. Mystery Team
163. Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
164. Bran Nue Dae
165. The Killers
166. The Decent Part 2
167. Survival of the Dead
168. After.Life
169. Shrek Forever After
170. Resident Evil: Afterlife
171. Devil
172. She’s Out Of My League
173. A Nightmare On Elm St
174. The Blind Side
175. Holly Rollers
176. Charlie St. Cloud
177. The Expendables
178. Altitude
179. $9.99
180. Date Night
181. Cemetery Junction
182. Saw 3D
183. Twilight: Eclipse
184. Ink
185. I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
186. Dante’s Inferno
187. The Bounty Hunter
188. The Sinking Of Japan
189. Love and Other Drugs
190. Letters To Juliette
191. Alice In Wonderland
192. Life As We Know It
193. Spread
194. Love Happens
195. The Tooth Fairy
196. Coffin Rock
197. It’s Complicated
198. Cop Out
199. Nine
200. Remember Me
201. S. Darko
202. Jonah Hex
203. Valentine’s Day
204. Did you hear about the Morgans?
205. The Backup Plan
206. Skyline
207. The Last Airbender
208. Sex and the City 2
209. When In Rome

Dang I forgot to put I Am Love on there. it's go in the middle somewhere...
Oh man, I'm looking of this list that I haphazzardly threw together and already i disagree with most of the middle section, but eh, gives you some idea.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

2009 Film List

580 Movies in 2009. 89 less than last year, but I got the cinema 176 times, which was 4 more times than last year, so I hope that makes up for it.
I saw 350 films for the first time this year including 127 older films that I had never got around to seeing.

So, Here are the remaining 223 films in a very vague order of Best to Worst in my bizarre and not to be recognised in any way opinion. (I would like to point out now that Positions vary WIDLEY depending on what mood I’m in or how the crowd reacted, stuff like that. And chances are I’d change the order next week if I were to do it again.)


My Top Ten:
1. District 9
2. Mayters
3. Drag Me To Hell
4. Moon
5. Star Trek
6. Up
7. Where the Wild Things Are
8. Watchmen
9. The Birthday
10. Observe and Report

Films I really loved:
11. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
11. Orphen
12. 500 Days of Summer
13. My Bloody Valentine 3D
14. Away We Go
15. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
16. Avatar
17. Rachel Getting Married
18. Phoebe in Wonderland
19. Adam
20. Fired Up
21. Crank 2: High Voltage
22. Zombieland
23. The Foot Fist Way
24. The Land of the Lost
25. Inglorious Bastards
26. An Education
27. Thirst
28. Revolutionary Road
29. Dean Spanley
30. Rocket Science
31. Trick 'r Treat
32. G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra
33. The Brothers Bloom
34. Baghead
35. A Serious Man

Films that were I thought were pretty great
36. Vicky Christina Barcelona
37. Role Models
38. Valkyrie
39. Synecdoche New York
40. The Informant!
41. Cheri
42. The Box
43. Paper Heart
44. 12 Rounds
45. The Reader
46. Antichrist
47. Splinter
48. Milk
49. The Wrestler
50. Pontypool
51. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
52. Duplicity
53. The International
54. Doubt
55. World's Greatest Dad
56. Lake Mungo
57. Mary and Max
58. Adventureland
59. Repo: The Genetic Opera
60. The Tale of Dexpereaux
61. Blindness
62. Balibo

Films that I would be happy to watch again
63. Monsters Vs Aliens
64. Easy Virtue
65. I Love You Man
66. Sunshine Cleaning
67. Paranormal Activity
68. Pride and Glory
69. Eden Log
70. Sherlock Holmes
71. Mao's Last Dancer
72. The Good, The Bad, The Weird
73. Fierce People
74. Surrogates
75. Taking Woodstock
76. 9
77. Is Anybody There?
78. Knowing
79. The Assassination of a High School President
80. Bottle Shock
81. Extract
82. The Square
83. The Lovely Bones
84. Franklyn
85. The Boys are Back
86. Redbelt
87. Coroline
88. Whip It
89. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
90. 17 Again
91. Seven Pounds
92. Dante 01
93. Outlander
94. Frozen River
95. Push
96. Samson and Delilah
97. A Christmas Carol
98. Last House on the Left
99. Case 39
100. The Promotion
101. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
102. Special
103. Tenderness
104. Managment
105. Lesbian Vampire Killers
106. Angels And Demons
107. Ponyo
108. The Hoax
109. Transsiberia
110. Jennifer's Body
111. 2012

Films that were alright (or had awesomeness mixed with a lot of boring.)
112. The Sky Crawlers
113. Mindgame
114. Good
115. War Inc.
116. Tokyo Zombie
117. Gamer
118. Bangkok Dangerous
119. Dance of the Dead
120. The Unborn
121. Appaloosa
122. Waltz With Bashir
123. Gegege No Kitaro
124. Bruno
125. The Final Destination
126. Friday the 13th
127. Grace
128. Transporter 3
129. Wendy and Lucy
130. Bandslam
131. Fast and Furious
132. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
133. I Sell The Dead
134. Couples Retreat
135. The Changeling
136. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
137. The Secret Life of Bees
138. While She Was Out
139. Lakeview Terrace
140. State Of Play
141. Carriers
142. The Taking of Perlham 1 2 3
143. Tokyo Gore Police
144. Whatever Works
145. Cold Souls
146. Hansel and Gretel
147. I Love You Beth Cooper
148. Shorts
149. My Sisters Keeper
150. W.
151. Yes Man
152. Che Part 1
153. The Great Buck Howard
154. Astro Boy
155. The Boat That Rocked
156. Youth Without Youth
157. Fanboys
158. The Soloist
159. What Just Happened
160. Hunger
161. Midnight Meat Train
162. Public Enemies
163. Exte: Hair Extensions
164. Find Me Guilty
165. The Time Traveller's Wife
166. Julie and Julia
167. The Onion Movie
168. The Informers
169. First Snow
170. Ice Age 3D
171. Che Part 2
172. Donkey Punch
173. The Girlfriend Experience
174. Terminator: Salvation
175. The Girl Next Door
176. Two Fists One Heart
177. Funny People
178. Good Dick
179. Grand Torino
180. Last Chance Harvey
181. The Ugly Truth
182. Fighting
183. Hotel For Dogs
184. Defiance
185. Amelia
186. Elegy
187. The Proposal
188. Sorority Row
189. Race to Witch Mountain
190. The Haunting in Conneticut
191. My Name is Bruce
192. Night at the Museum 2
193. The Uninvited
194. Punisher: War Zone

Films that mainly just annoyed me
195. Bride Wars
196. Miracle at St. Anna
197. All About Steve
198. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
199. A Film With Me In It
200. Year One
201. He's Just Not That Into You
202. Inkheart
203. The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas
204. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
205. End of the Line
206. Henry Poole Was Here
207. The Invention of Lying
208. Dragonball: Evolution
209. G-Force
210. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
211. Saw 6
212. Marly and Me
213. The Spirit
214. Acolytes
215. New In Town
216. Twilight: New Moon
217. Igor
218. Strange Wilderness
219. Fame
220. Miss March

Up to date as of next week!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

2008 Film List

This year I watched 669 movies.
367 for the first time, 302 i must have felt good enough to watch again.
347 films were recent and 322 were old (well, not released at the movies or on dvd this year)
172 Movies at the Cinema
430 Dvds
14 Movies broadcast on Television
I was naughty and downloaded 53 Movies. Most of them are older movies that just seem to be unavailable in Australia but a few a new movies that I'm not sure will come out here too.

Before we get to the Movie list, something new this year! The Movie FRIENDS list. Who went to the cinema with me this year? This list also determines who I love the more!

Myself 53
Domini 48
Naomi 36
Michael 14
Kim 14
Ali 11
Simon 10
Nicola 10
Froud 8
Daev 7
Leith 6
Mum 6
Brett 5
Dan K 4
Ichina 4
Nicole 3
Alex 2
Christan 2
Aden 2
Siobhan 2
Dad 1
Matt 1
Carlie 1
Bindi 1
Becky G 1
Dan P 1
Will 1
Jess 1
Caitlen 1
Steve 1
Steve (Handsom Dave) 1
James 1
Andrew 1
Ben 1
Sara (christians girlfriend?) 1
Troy The Tattoo Guy 1

Well there you have it. I love myself the most. And now my top 10 movies! Followed by all the other movies!

1) There Will Be Blood
2) Cloverfield
3) [Rec]
4) The Dark Knight
5) Speed Racer
6) Wall-E
7) The Fall
8) Iron Man
9) The Mist
10) Towelhead

11) Let The Right One In
12) The Orphanage
13) Shoot 'Em Up
14) Lars and the Real Girl
15) Aachi and Ssipak
16) The Ten
17) Day Night Day Night
18) Spiral
19) I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK
20) Kung Fu Panda
21) Tropic Thunder
22) Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
23) The Ruins
24) The Signal
25) Timecrimes
26) Gone Baby Gone
27) Sweeny Todd
28) Inside
29) Hamlet 2
30) The Incredible Hulk
31) Burn After Reading
32) Funny Games
33) Joshua
34) The Spiderwick Chronicles
35) Quarantine
36) Big Man Japan
37) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
38) Into The Wild
39) Horton Hears a Who
40) The Forbidden Kingdom
41) Night of the Living Dorks
42) In Bruges
43) I Am Legend
44) Snow Cake
45) Juno
46) Teeth
47) Death Note & Death Note: The Last Name
48) Island Of Lost Souls
49) Slumdog Millionare
50) Wet Hot American Summer
51) The Bank Job
52) Choke
53) Pineapple Express
54) Taken
55) The Cottage
56) Snow Angels
57) Son of Rambow
58) Get Smart
59) Mrs Pettigrew Lives for a Day
60) Frost/Nixon
61) The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
62) Stuck
63) Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
64) Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
65) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
66) Traitor
67) Lust, Caution
68) 3:10 to Yuma
69) St. Trinians
70) Not Quite Hollywood
71) Vexille
72) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
73) JCVD
74) Children Of The Silk Road
75) Sex Drive
76) Across The Universe
77) Talk To Me
78) Black Christmas
79) Eagle Vs Shark
80) The Wackness
81) King of Kong
82) The Nines
83) Starters for 10
84) The Girl Who Lept Through Time
85) What Happens In Vegas
86) The Tracy Fragments
87) Shrooms
88) Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
89) Charlie Wilson's War
90) The Counterfeiters
91) Sydney White
92) Defiantly, Maybe
93) City Of Ember
94) Sukiyaki Western Django
95) Leatherheads
96) Year of the Dog
97) Sluth
98) CJ7
99) 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days
100) Mongol
101) Hatchet
102) Charlie Bartlet
103) August Rush
104) Brideshead Revisited
105) Margot At the Wedding
106) I'm Not There
107) American Gangster
108) 2 Days in Paris
109) The Painted Viel
110) Persepolis
111) Eagle Eye
112) Wanted
113) Mushishi
114) Body of Lies
115) Drillbit Taylor
116) The Savages
117) P2
118) The Visitor
119) Rocknrolla
120) Pathology
121) You Kill Me
122) A Mighty Heart
123) We Own The Night
124) Fear[s] Of The Dark
125) Street Kings
126) Rendition
127) The Strangers
128) House Bunny
129) Driving Lessons
130) Frontier(s)
131) Happy-Go-Lucky
132) Death Race
133) Fools Gold
134) Batman: Gotham Knight
135) Be Kind Rewind
136) Bolt
137) Redacted
138) Retribution
139) The Kite Runner
140) Dororo
141) All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
142) Baby Mamma
143) Hancock
144) The Kingdom
145) Fur
146) The Lookout
147) Death Defying Acts
148) Penelope
149) Madagascar 2
150) Rambo
151) Monkey Magic
152) Twilight
153) The Invasion
154) Bubble
155) Wristcutters: A Love Story
156) The Last Winter
157) Mirrors
158) Sex and the City
159) Quantum of Solace
160) This is England
161) Appleseed: Ex Machina
162) The Water Horse
163) Noise
164) Ghost Town
165) How To Loose Friends And Alienate People
166) 21
167) Diary Of The Dead
168) The Women
169) Paranoid Park
170) Black Water
171) Big Bang Love: Juvenile, A
172) Run Fat Boy Run
173) Like Minds
174) The Day The Earth Stood Still
175) In the Valley of Elah
176) Surfer Dude
177) Then She Found Me
178) In the Land of Women
179) Walk Hard
180) Vantage Point
181) Australia
182) Wild Child
183) Return To Sleepaway Camp
184) Evening
185) Beneath
186) Babylon A.D.
187) The Tripper
188) The Walker
189) Awake
190) Shutter
191) The Dutchess
192) The Jane Austin Book Club
193) Untraceable
194) Superman: Doomsday
195) Four Holidays
196) Passengers
197) The Invisible
198) Chapter 27
199) Sex and Death 101
200) La Vie En Rose
201) Nim's Island
202) The Eye
203) The Promise
204) Tin Can Man
205) 10,000 BC
206) Slipstream
207) Pathfinder
208) Step Brothers
209) Max Payne
210) Bedtime Stories
211) Journey To the Center of the Earth 3D
212) Jumper
213) Mother of Tears
214) Semi-pro
215) Deception
216) Awake
217) Cthulhu
218) My Best Friend's Girl
219) The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
220) Dying Breed
221) Made of Honor
222) Hunting and Gathering
223) Never Back Down
224) Feast Of Love
225) Dan in Real Life
226) The Machine Girl
227) Saw 5
228) Smart People
229) After
230) Make It Happen
231) The X-Files: I Want To Believe
232) Star Wars: Clone Wars
233) Prom Night
234) Man with the Screaming Brain
235) Superhero Movie
236) The Happening
237) Good Luck Chuck

Saturday, December 11, 2010

2007 Film List

Ok 2007 at the movies. The Disclaimer from last post applies.

1. The Fountain - 3 times
2. Pan's Labyrinth - 3 times
3. The Assasination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Apocalypto - 2 times
5. Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer - 2 times
6. Hostel Part 2
7. Disturbia - 2 times
8. Zodiac - 2 times
9. Eastern Promises - 2 times
10. 28 Weeks Later - 3 times

11. Transformers - 3 times
12. 300 - 3 times
13. Stardust - 2 times
14. Knocked Up
15. The Bourne Ultimatum - 2 times
16. Hot Fuzz
17. Bridge To Teribithia - 2 times
18. Ratatouille - 2 times
19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 2 times
20. Razzle Dazzle
21. Enchanted - 2 times
22. Meet the Robinsons - 3 times
23. Sunshine
24. Little Children
25. Waitress
26. Flushed Away
27. Deja Vu
28. Black Book
29. Atonement
30. Beowulf
31. The Science of Sleep
32. Breach
33. Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End - 2 times
34. The Good Shepherd
35. Black Snake Moan
36. Rogue
37. No Country For Old Men
38. Superbad
39. Mr. Brooks
40. Nightwatch
41. Daywatch
42. Black Sheep
43. Stranger Than Fiction - 2 times
44. The Last King of Scotland
45. Man of the Year
46. Hairspray
47. Smokin' Aces
48. Die Hard 4.0
49. Notes On A Scandal
50. Running With Scissors
51. Ocean's 13
52. Michael Clayton
53. The Illusionist
54. National Treasure:Book Of Secrets - 2 times
55. Pink Flamingos
56. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
57. Surf's Up
58. The Darjeeling Limited
59. Rescue Dawn
60. Spiderman 3 - 2 times
61. Dr. Plonk
62. Curse of the Golden Flower
63. Noise
64. The Golden Compass
65. Amazing Grace
66. 1408
67. Breaking and Entering
68. Nanny Diaries
69. Letters From Iwo Jima
70. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
71. Bee Movie
72. Pursuit of Happyness
73. The Good German
74. Inland Empire
75. Hollywoodland
76. Next
77. The Dead Girl
78. Fracture
79. Scoop
80. The Queen
81. The Reaping
82. Tales from Earthsea
83. The Number 23
84. Blood Diamond
85. The Simpsons Movie
86. Hitman
87. Shooter
88. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer - 2 times
89. The Hitcher
90. Death At A Funeral
91. Venus
92. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
93. Mr. Bean's Holiday
94. Perfect Stranger
95. Dreamgirls
96. The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
97. Tenacious D: The Pick of Desitny
98. Premonition
99. The Brave One
100. Saw IV
101. Bobby
102. Arthur and the Invisibles
103. Halloween
104. Rocky Balboa
105. Miss Potter
106. Shrek the Third
107. Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem
108. The Holiday
109. Music and Lyrics
110. 30 Days Of Night
111. Evan Almighty
112. Ghost Rider - 2 times
113. Night at the Museum
114. Blades of Glory
115. Hannibal Rising
116. Gabrial
117. Norbit
118. License To Wed
119. The Game Plan
120. Wild Hogs
121. Epic Movie


This year I went to the movies 146 times. 4 more times than last year! I saw 121 movies and a double episode of Star Trek. I went to 2 Movie Marathons. I went to 12 Preview Screenings, 1 Free screening and snuck into 1 screening, Saw 4. I also saw 1 film, Pink Flamingos in a festival, an older film but one I had always intended to see and I'm glad I got to see it for the first time on the big screen.

I'd also like to mention some films that, for whatever reason, were not released in Australia but I managed to see them anyway. Films like Southland Tales, The TV Set, Bug, and the Grindhouse Double feature of Planet Terror and Deathproof, which was actually released here but for a very short run and I missed it. They would have all made it high up on my list as well.

I Highly Recommend any films 1 to 41. That's a lot of good films this year. Films 42 to 85 are recommended. 106 to 121 don't bother with. The rest are just Ok.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

2006 Film List

Here is my current list of top 10 films from 2006 and also how many times I saw them if more than once. It seems to change every day although not drastically. Remember these aren't necessarily the best films of 2006, just my personal favorite ones and sometimes a lot of that has to do with the experience of watching the film with a crowd, not just the quality of the film itself.

1. Children of Men – 4 times
2. Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest – 3 times
3. The Decent
4. Hostel
5. Brick
6. Hard Candy
7. The Weather Man
8. Monster House 3D – 3 times
9. V for Vendetta
10. A History of Violence

11. Casino Royale
12. Suburban Mayhem
13. The Prestige – 2 times
14. The Departed
15. Hidden
16. Zathura - 2 times
17. The Squid and the Whale
18. The Black Dahlia
19. Little Miss Sunshine
20. Mission: Impossible 3
21. Babel
22. Flushed Away
23. Silent Hill
24. Slither
25. The Hills Have Eyes
26. A Scanner Darkley
27. Over the Hedge – 3 times
28. Munich – 2 times
29. The Wrong Man (Lucky Number Slevin)
30. Lord of War
31. Marie Antoinette
32. Capote
33. Cry Wolf
34. The New World
35. Swing Girls – Japanese Film Festival
36. Match Point
37. D.O.A. Dead Or Alive
38. Happy Feet
39. 16 Blocks
40. Borat: The Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Kazakhstan
41. Saw 3
42. Posiden
43. Superman Returns
44. Inside Man
45. Lady In The Water
46. Oliver Twist
47. The Family Stone
48. Brokeback Mountain
49. Aeon Flux – 2 times
50. Nightmare Before Christmas 3D ( only rated for the 3d which wasn’t that great)
51. Crank
52. The Matador
53. Stormbreaker
54. Snakes on a Plane
55. She’s The Man
56. The Chumscrubber
57. Nanny McFee
58. Confetti
59. The Aristocrats
60. The Devil Wares Prada
61. X-Men 3: The Last Stand – 2 times
62. Step Up
63. Hoodwinked
64. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
65. North Country
66. Memoirs of a Geisha
67. Flags of Our Fathers
68. Shortbus
69. Underworld: Evolution
70. Charlotte’s Web
71. Thank You For Smoking
72. Mrs Henderson Presents
73. Friends With Money
74. Rent
75. Final Destination 3
76. Keeping Mum
77. The Break Up
78. John Tucker Must Die
79. When a Stranger Calls
80. Stick It – 2 times
81. Hustle and Flow
82. Fearless
83. Chicken Little 3D
84. 8 Below
85. Fast Food Nation
86. Walk The Line
87. Catch A Fire
88. Cars – 2 times
89. Eragon
90. Syriana
91. The Da Vinci Code – 2 times
92. The Producers
93. Wah Wah
94. Separate Lies
95. Fun with Dick and Jane
96. Casanova
97. The Lake House
98. The Omen
99. Get Rich or Die Tryin’
100. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
101. The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift
102. The Guardian
103. Nacho Libre
104. Maimi Vice
105. Trust The Man
106. Failure to Launch
107. The Fog
108. Broken Flowers
109. The Covenant
110. Open Season
111. The Wild
112. Tristram Shandy – A Cock and Bull Story
113. Material Girls
114. A Sound of Thunder
115. My Super X Girlfriend
116. Scary Movie 4
117. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
118. The Grudge 2
119. Castle of Sand – Japanese Film Festival
120. The Glass Rabbit – Japanese Film Festival
121. You, Me and Dupree
122. Just My Luck
123. R.V.
124. The Long Weekend
125. Cremaster Cycle 1 + 2 – Artrage (not really feature films…)



This year I went to the movies 142 times. I saw 126 different movies. I went to 6 free preview screenings. I went to 5 Festival Films. I went to 4 fundraisers. I snuck into 4 films. I saw 2 Art films. I averaged about 2 and a half films per week this year. My new years resolution is to match that or do better.