January 2015 I did a facebook quiz that showed I had seen 168 of the top IMDB 250 films. I'm going to try and watch the last 82 of them.
From the 1st of January 2012 I was going to watch the TimeOut top 100 British films. That didn't get very far.
On the 1st January 2011 I started watching the IMDB top 100 films.
2008 Andrew Stanton
Several hundred years in the future man has filled earth with trash and has had to move into space leaving behind robots to tidy up the mess. Probes are sent from the mothership back to earth to find life.
The classic Disney money making machine does it again, cute robot characters that will sell loads of toys and a moral story for the parents to nod approvingly at and part with their cash.
There are some funny moments and it moves along at a pace that keeps you watching.
It's a kids film. 6/10
Hi, I'm Clementine, can I have a piece of chicken?
2004 Michel Gondry
Jim Carey, playing the straight guy and not covered in makeup (Joel), meets and falls in love with Clementine (Kate Winslet) with coloured hair. Clementine is a nutter, Joel doesn't know how to cope with her, Clementine has a procedure to remove Joel from her memory, when Joel finds out he gets it done too.
Lots of me wondering what was going on, when it gets to the end, still wasn't sure if the film started at the end or ends at the begining. I did know I wasn't going to get those 2 hours of my life back.
Complete twoddle.
2/10
1985 Robert Zemekis
Marty McFly is a time travelling teenager, transported from 1985 to 1955 in a Flux Capictor fuelled DeLorean car invented by Dr Brown. While in 1955 he has to make sure his mother and father meet and fall love or he won't be able to get back to the future. Full of 'will they - won't they?' 'will he - won't he?' moments and high jinx.
I watched it with the kids, probably the only film they have sat though with me until the end, they were on the edge of their seat at the end, they enjoyed it more that I did. I was 18 when this came out so it wasn't 'cool' for me to watch it or like it. it's watchable enough and moves along at a pace that keeps you interested. Not really my thing, just too American. It made a household name of Micheal J Fox.
7/10
Whoa, that's gonna be like a billion transfers to get back to my house...
2009 Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Animated adventure from the Pixar studios. First we see the you Carl Fredrickson in awe of the famous adventurer Charles Muntz, we then have a quick run through of his life until his wife dies, the main part of the film starts here as he is trying to stay in his house despite the efforts of developers to evict him and send him to a retirement home. Being a balloon seller, the obvious solution is to fly himself and the whole house to Paradise Falls using thousands of balloons, inadvertently taking a young scout along for the ride.
Great production and animation, like most Disney films full to the brim with moral messages that the kids won't get but the parents can nod approvingly at and the occasional funny line. The best is "Squirrel!"
It's a kids film
6/10
On the positive side I am getting close to the end of this challenge, I can see the finishing line. So I'm going to now work up from the bottom of the list and save the top of the list for last, although I think I want to save 'It's a Wonderful Life' as the last film to watch at christmas. I sort of watched it in New York christmas 1997 in a dive hotel room after finding out we were going to be having a baby, it had adverts every ten minutes and the film lasted all day. I can't remember a thing about it, it'll be interesting to see if any of it comes back.
Story of my life. I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop.
1959 Billy Wilder
Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play 2 band musicians who witness a mob killing and have to leave town. They put on ladies clothes and get a job with Sweet Sue's band in Florida. On the train ride down they meet Sugar ( Marilyn Monroe) nipping burbon in the loo and strike up a friendship. Things get tricky when Joe (Tony Curtis) falls for Sugar and a rich elderly gentleman falls for Jerry (Jack Lemmon). Needless to say it all works out in the end.
Full of memorable famous scenes, the best of which has to be Marilyn singing the 'doo boo di doo' song. No wonder so many men wanted to shag her, she was well fit.
I didn't know there were 2 ends to a lollipop.
6/10
2000 Christopher Nolan
Leonard (Guy Pearce from Neighbours) has short term memory loss, the last thing he can remember is his wife being killed. He investigates the murder by keeping notes and tattooing himself. The story is told backwards and forwards, which for me was at first confusing, then I realised what was happening and confusion turned into annoyance, because of the two storylines some of it overlaps and it seems like you're watching the same bits again.
Maybe I'll try it again, probably wont.
6/10
We've just discovered the most wonderful, the most marvelous poisinous gas. It will kill everybody.
1940 Charles Chaplin
A film that for me didn't know if it wanted to be a comedy satire or serious study of the situation in Europe during the Second World War.
As usual Chaplin stars writes directs produces and writes the theme tune, sings the theme tune..., kind of an early Denis Waterman. He plays a Power crazed dictator Hynkel and a poor jewish barber.
You can guess the rest, I did. Where were the funny bits? All the trailers feature this balloon scene, it's a fucking ballon, big deal.
I hope I don't have to watch too many more of his films, I don't like them.
2/10 for no funny dancing.
He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.
1998 Steven Spielberg
Set during the D-Day landings of June 1944. You wouldn't think that thousands of Allied Troups had been fighting a war for the last 5 years, this is all about the Americans, in fact, I don't remember seeing any other soldiers apart from them and Germans.
Anyway, Tom Hanks plays a group captain charged with finding a soldier called Private Ryan and bringing him home alive as all three of his brothers have been killed in action and the Chief Of Staff thinks their mum would like to have at least one of her sons return from war.
Despite the rubbish story and the over-americanisation, I found it quite good. It starts with a bloody great big beach fight, brilliantly filmed and atmospheric and carries you along right to the end.
7.5/10
1950 Akira Kurosawa
Winner of best foreign film Oscar.
I'd never heard of it or read about it. So I like to watch them without finding anything out so I can be surprised and take it in with a clean head as it were.
A murder story is told from the view of three different people involved. It starts with two men sheltering from the worst film rain I have ever seen, the woodcutter says he has witnesed the most horrific thing ever. I think 'this is promising' and starts to tell the story, the same story is retold by the others. Yawn..
One if the characters is a 'bandit' but when it comes to sword fighting he can't even swing it in the direction of his assailant and keeps falling over. This is a feature of 50s and 60s Japaneese film making, lots of running about fast and falling over.
5/10
20 zloty, that's all we have left, 20 zolty. What can I buy with 20 zloty? I am sick of cooking potatoes, potatoes, potatoes
2002 Roman Polanski
A talented Jewish pianist living in Warsaw with his family as the Germans invade and start the process that would become the hollocaust. His family is rounded up but he manages to evade the train and finds himself hiding in the ruins of the city right under the noses of the Nazis.
A hard subject to make an enjoyable film, and I found myself, as usual, holding my breath and being scared of the nasty nazis. But overall a very watchable film.
8/10
