Films Watched 2008 Part 1
| AFI Top 100 |
| Frankenstein (1931) | 9 | THE classic horror film |
| All About Eve (1950) | 9 | Bette Davis is fantastic as an aging starlet of the stage. A young Marilyn Monroe makes a short appearance. |
| An American in Paris (1951) | 5 | Gene Kelly as a painter in Paris. This film was just an excuse for song and dance. |
| Giant (1956) | 7 | Long film set in Texas spanning across many decades. This is James Dean's last role. |
| Ben-Hur (1959) | 8 | The chariot race is unbelievable. That's all you need to know to make this worth viewing. |
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) | 7 | A bi-racial engagement takes center stage in this one with Sidney Portier. |
| Nashville (1975) | 8 | Kansas City-native Robert Altman's drama about the Nashville country music scene during election time. Lots of characters to keep track of which I love. |
| Network (1976) | 9 | One of the best films you've never heard of. The setting is a TV network looking for ratings. Won 3 of 5 nominations for Best Acting. |
| Unforgiven (1992) | 7 | Clint Eastwood directed western starring himself and Morgan Freeman. |
| Horror |
| Night of the Lepus (1972) | 6 | Giant mutant killer bunnies ransack a small town. Special effects are horrible which makes it even better in my mind. I don't know how they got Janet Leigh to do this film. |
| The Burning (1981) | 5 | Your typical maniac killer plot during the height of slasher films. A young Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter are in this one. |
| Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) | 5 | I love George Romero projects but this film really missed the marked. |
| 28 Weeks Later (2007) | 8 | A solid follow-up to the great zombie flick 28 Days Later. Usually sequels with different directors don't work, but this one did for the most part. |
| >Documentaries |
| Cane Toads (1988) | 8 | Fascinating documentary about Australia's problem with the introduction of the Cane Toad to the continent. |
| The Thin Blue Line (1988) | 9 | Amazing dramatized documentary that actually freed a man from prison after he was falsely convicted of a murder. |
| My Best Friend (1999) | 7 | Werner Herzog documentary about his working relationship with German actor Klaus Kinski. |
| I Like Killing Flies (2004) | 8 | An irritable but introspective man runs a diner in Greenwich Village for decades. His food is amazing but if you come with more than 4 people, he'll throw you out. |
| Jesus Camp (2006) | 7 | A portrait of several young people who are led on a hard-line evangelical path. A woman minister from the suburbs of Kansas City leads kids to a special summer camp in North Dakota. |
| Sexytime Films |
| Jules and Jim (1962) | 9 | Francois Truffaut love triangle film with Jeanne Moreau. This is a near perfect film - funny, quirky, and emotional. |
| Lolita (1962) | 9 | Stanley Kubrick classic of the Nabokov book. |
| Blowup (1966) | 7 | Swinging 60s London photographer photographs something he wasn't expecting. Jane Birkin's first film. The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page also make an appearance. |
| Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) | 7 | Kim Bassinger and Mickey Rourke push the limits of seduction. |
| Henry & June (1990) | 6 | A drama about the affairs of playwright Henry Miller and his wife June. |
| The Dreamers (2003) | 8 | Bernardo Bertolucci's film about a young American who becomes close to a twin brother and sister during the 1968 Paris student riots. |
| Cult Classics |
| The Raven (1963) | 4 | Roger Corman film with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and a young Jack Nicholson very-loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe book. |
| Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) | 9 | One of Werner Herzog's most appreciated films about the search for the lost city of gold - eldorado. |
| Rollerball (1975) | 7 | James Caan in a dystopian film about the sport of Rollerball, which is basically a rollerderby hybrid. I like this film in the same way that I like the 80s film Solarbabies. |
| Star Crash (1978) | 4 | David Hasselhoff in a low-budget sci-fi space film attempting to rip off Star Wars. The acting, writing, and special effects are just terrible. This film is so bad that you can't help but laugh and love it. |
| Misc. |
| Rich & Strange (1931) | 7 | Early Alfred Hitchcock film about a struggling young couple who inherit some money and travel the world, only to find that money can only complicate things. |
| For Your Eyes Only (1981) | 7 | Early 80s Bond film. This isn't one of the best or most original Bond films but is still worth watching. |
| Dead Man (1995) | 5 | Jim Jarmusch film set in the wild west with an all-star cast. I was hoping for so much more out of this film but it turned into a big-time let down. |
| Blow (2001) | 7 | Johnny Depp again as drug lord George Jung. |
| Layer Cake (2004) | 7 | Daniel Craig stars in this Brit action / gangster adventure about illegal drug ring. Very much in the mode of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. |
| Havoc (2005) | 6 | Rich kids from Beverly Hills get mixed up with the wrong crowd in East L.A. It has two of my favorite young actors, Bijou Philips and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The script is just kind of bad and not very believable. |
| The Puffy Chair (2005) | 7 | I watched this movie with my friend Josh and it was a pretty refreshing independent film, for what would normally be a pretty boring plot. Read Josh's January 21, 2008 blog for a better write-up of it. |
| Shopgirl (2005) | 5 | Steve Martin wrote and starred in this romantic comedy with Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman. The characters and plot for this one just kind of annoyed me for some reason. |
| Thumbsucker (2005) | 7 | Mike Mills' directed this film about a digit-obsessed teen and his struggle to find his way in life. The soundtrack is really good and the film feels like Juno without all the laughs. |
| Wassup Rockers (2005) | 8 | Larry Clark (of Kids fame) directed this film about a close-knit group of Latino skater kids growing up in the hood of L.A. This film has a feel of a documentary at times (especially since all of the actors are unknowns and go by their actual names) but there is well-scripted drama throughout. |
| The Fountain (2006) | 8 | Darren Aronofsky of "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream" fame directed this one with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. It seems like a lot of people are really torn on this film. I'm in the camp that loved it. Visually it is amazing and the plot is of the variety that you will run through your head for weeks. |
| Monster House (2006) | 7 | A cute animated film about a mysterious evil house. Sometimes you need a movie like this to remind you of what it's like to be a kid. |
| Old Joy (2006) | 5 | Singer Will Oldham stars in this film about a couple of old friends who take a weekend camping vacation together. In theory this film would be really good but even I got bored with it. |
| Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006) | 7 | I watched this one simply because I'm obsessed with actress Fairuza Balk. It actually turned out to be a pretty solid coming-of-age flick about a young boy's struggle with his own sexuality. |
| Juno (2007) | 8 | I already wrote a bit about this here. This film was very well written, funny and quirky and heart-felt with great music throughout. The world could use more films like this. |
Here are my 2007 lists: list 1, list 2, list 3.
-ick!
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