1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in January 2013
1) Double Indemnity (1944 - Billy Wilder) 7/10 - Good movie, but I'm not sure it'll have enough steam to make it all the way from #1 to the TOP 20 at the end of the season.
2) The Lost Weekend (1945 - Billy Wilder) 6.5/10 - Kind of the same situation. Not quite as good as the first Wilder offering, but still really good. I actually think this one has more potential to grow on me.
3) Buffalo '66 (1998 - Vincent Gallo) 10/10 - An early contender for one of the top spots of the TOP 20.
4) The Apartment (1960 - Billy Wilder) 10/10 - And another
NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in January 2013
1) Catfish (2010 - Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman) 8/10 - This was actually the first movie I watched after my movie break. The wife and I spotted this one somewhere and on a whim, decided to check it out. My wife and I actually met online and prior to meeting her, I was actually "catfished" myself...or at least I had heavy reason to believe so, without ever proving it. So, needless to say, this one hit close to home and was personally powerful for me. Nev Schulman was made to be filmed, as he has an incredibly likable personality. Someone needs to get together with someone else and do a fictional film based on an online "catfishing" experience. Big thumbs up here.
2) True Grit (2010 - Joel Coen) 5.5/10 - I own all of the Coen brothers films (actually I didn't intentionally set out to buy them all. I liked so many of them, that when I was done buying the ones I wanted, it was a no brainer to just buy the rest and complete the set), so when "True Grit" came out on DVD last year, I went and bought it and there it sat on my shelf, until earlier this month. I finally got the notion to stick it into the DVD player and what a freaking disappointment. It was as if Joel Coen (and Ethan, I guess) turned of his signature originality and flare to make a true Coen brothers film. The strangled attempt at humor was just cheap and the film followed basic movie standards, lacking the originality that I'm speaking of. Usually when I watch a Coen brothers flick, I know it's a Coen brothers flick because it doesn't look or feel like any other movie. Even if it's a basic story (take "Fargo" for instance - a simple murder/kidnapping investigation), it has SOMETHING that makes it stand out and feel like something special. This didn't have that and I was utterly and completely disappointed.
3) Superbad (2007 - Greg Mottola) 6.5/10 - A little too crude and lewd for my liking, but "Superbad" is good for at least a few laughs. The plot is simple, which I like - two teenagers on a "Lord of the Rings" like quest to obtain alcohol and get to one big senior party, before splitting up to go to college - and Jonah Hill & Michael Cera have good chemistry. People like to rag on Michael Cera for being a poor man's Jesse Eisenberg, but I happen to really like the kid and if his whole gimmick is that he's doing the "Jesse Eisenberg", then he's mastered it well enough to get by on it.
4) Misery (1990 - Rob Reiner) 10/10 - THE BOOK had four chances to include a really great and memorable Rob Reiner film and blew it all four times with it's failure to include "Misery", a modern classic adapted from a Stephen King novel. I don't really want to get into a whole spiel on this one, so lets just suffice it to say that I absolutely love this film. Keep your eyes peeled and your pacemaker checked for the scene where Paul sneaks out of his bedroom, only to have Annie return home, leading to one of, if not THE MOST suspenseful scene in all of cinema. James Caan and Kathy Bates (especially Bates) turn in career making performances, at a time when their careers were already made. Big Big Big Thumbs up and a definite MUST SEE!!
Well that about wraps 'er all up for January. Not a very eventful month, but February should be more fruitful, as I take on a full-time schedule as far as THE BOOK goes. Stay tuned...
February 5, 2012 8:31pm
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