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The Year of the 365 Movies


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Day 1: Citizen Kane, Office Space, Lawrence of Arabia

God damnit. I wait for two months to start this on the first, and what do I do? I totally forget about the whole thing until two days late, at two in the morning.

Damnit all.

And so, like a madman, I scrambled to the internet, and went to watch Citizen Kane.

And you know what? That was a damn good film. That last shot? That made the film. Even if the rest of it was pure crap - that last shot made it legendary.

But now I will need to watch Office Space and Lawrence of Arabia later today to make up for lost time.

Damn it all to hell. What a way to start.

4 PM Update: Got around to watching Office Space. Very quirky humor. I appreciate that it wasn't funny in the outrageous sense, but it is more quiet...and subtle.

Now, I am off to find Lawrence of Arabia in the deepest, darkest places of the internet. Mainly, MegaUpload.

4:30 AM Update: I remember another online correspondent of movies who, upon being told that the movie adaptation of Watchman, said that no movie should ever be four hours long.

At three and a half hours, Lawrence of Arabia certainly isn’t four hours, but it is certainly a few cuts in the editing room away from it. I need to make a mental note to never start any movie longer than two hours at midnight. Never. Ever.

I was quite split on Lawrence of Arabia. On one hand, the acting was marvelous, particularly by Peter O’Toole, the cinematography was beautiful in the same ways that watching sand being blown off of the sand hills of the desert are beautiful.

And it told a pretty good story, in a pretty good way too! All of the elements of the film – the landscapes, the acting, the marvelous scope, the use of crowds in the background – they all came together to make a damn good film.

So, why was it that I was constantly checking the time, so I would know just how much longer I would be watching it on my computer?

It’s quite simple – I was damned tired. God forbid a man chooses between his bed and a movie.
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[quote name='Kinetix']This is a very interesting agenda that you've created for yourself. Do you have a list of movies already devised or are you winging it from day to day?[/QUOTE]

[url]http://otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=59818[/url]

So, in accordance with this evidence, I must say that the only plausible answer is YES.
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[b]Citizen Kane[/b] is an excellent movie. The thing that surprised me the most about it is how lively, energetic and friggin' [i]entertaining[/i] it is. I've seen some backlash against it charging that the movie is just a "film for film lovers," and I really don't get that. It's revolutionary and important to film history, yes, but aside from that it's also a hell of a story that anyone could enjoy.

[b]Office Space[/b] is of course hilarious. The slow motion montage of destruction always cracks me up the most, especially when David Herman's character just obliterates the printer.

Can't wait to see your thoughts on the rest of the movies throughout the year! Hope it goes well! :)
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January 4th, 2009 ? Day 4: Blood Simple

BEFORE: Well, now that I am finally on track with this whole ?watch a different move every day for one year? thing, I might as well write about the way things will work. The idea of this is that I get to watch a bunch of movies I either have very vague memories of, or haven?t seen at all. Thus, I will instantly become movie savvy, and I can then join the great club of ?movie savvy? people that everyone wishes to join, but no one knows how.

Each journal entry will consist of a BEFORE or AFTER portion. The BEFORE will consists of my thoughts on matters concerning the film. Mayhaps it will consist of talking about the director, or the plot, or something. Basically, it will involve me speaking my thoughts on what little I know of whatever movie I will see.

And as your brainbox is probably telling you, the AFTER deals with my thoughts of after I have seen the movie. So, with that said, let?s get on with the show!

I know a little bit of the Coen Brothers. I know that they directed ?No County for Old Men?, as well as that comedy ?My Brother, Where Art Thou??, some weird comedy that my dad absolutely adores but makes as much sense to me as brain surgery. They also made that movie ?Burn After Reading?, the one show I swore to my family that I most certainly would see, but never got to, and had to pay for it with jabs and jokes and criticisms that are all in good fun.

So, with that said, what do I know of Blood Simple? It was made by the Coen Brothers, it involves some rich man who hires some other guys to murder his wife and her lover ? probably to gather insurance, I gather. Now, I have a feeling that it is a love it or hate it type of film. On one hand, it is universally acclaimed by the majority of those ?official? reviewers ? and by official, I do mean they get paid to write stuff about films that, unless they are Roger Ebert, no one gives a flying rat?s *** about. On the other hand, when I googled it, the very first comments were ?Like watching grass grow, 1/10? and ?I didn?t like it?.

Well, I?d have best buckle my seat belts. It should be a hell of a ride.

AFTER: And that was a hell of a ride, although not one I was suspecting. It is certainly a diamond, but it has quite a few rough edges. There were quite a few things that didn?t make sense to me ? essentially, after the murder. And I think you all know which murder I am talking about.

But this movie certainly had alot of style. Right from the first shot, when we see those long shots of the landscape of Texas, and especially those first ten minutes of the film, you could tell that the Coen Brothers were doing a grand balancing act between showing the same thing but in different ways and making it all make sense. Now, some shots would of had been better if they weren?t trying to be so dog darn experimental ? I recall a moving shot where they doing an ?Over the Shoulder? view of a dog, but overall, I could make sense of it all, so those behind the camera did their job.

The story was somewhat nonsensical past the halfway point. Why did the detective kill Marty? Why did Ray attempt to clean up the crime scene, when he didn?t even kill Marty? Why did Ray BURY Marty?

One thing I noticed near the end of the film is that pretty much everyone was linked to Abbey. They were all related to her in some way or form. Perhaps that was a way of the Coens to say that, for better or for worse, women are the missing link us guys lack.

Overall, it was pretty good! I liked it. Wouldn?t see it the next day, but maybe in a year or two I?ll pop in the DVD and see how differently the perceive all of the events.

[COLOR=Blue][b]Edit:[/b][/COLOR]
January 5th, 2009 ? Day 5: Click

BEFORE: I remember watching this the summer had came out. I was spending the night over my grandparent?s house, and like all normal teenagers of the Generation X, I was wasting my days away playing some marvelous videogame. Back to the point, my grandparents drag me to the movie theater to see this movie, despite my protests that it was a horrible film, regardless of the fact that I had never seen, nor heard of it before, all based off of the fact that it was an Adam Sandler film.

The film, despite its faults ? of which, there are several ? had a certain charm to it. It was funny, in its own, retarded way. I wonder if it will have the same charm, all these years later?

AFTER: I really am wondering what type of game I was playing that really made me enjoy Click so many years ago. It must of had been Paper Mario, because how else was I supposed to remember Click as fondly as I did?

That movie was, to be very kind, meh. :/ . Average, run of the mill, not too bad but not too good either. Just, plain and simply, ?okay?.

There were very few points that actually had me chuckle, and most of them involved some of the pets humping something. Beyond those, I watched the movie with an angled frown on my face.

Maybe the humor that involves Adam Sandler farting in his boss? face just doesn?t appeal to me. But, Click was just an okay film. Wouldn?t see it again unless I absolutely had to.

And why the hell is it that I just can't cry when I watch this? Everyone else I know always gets teary eyed whenever they see this, and I am just going all "WTF guys! This isn't sad! Citizen Kane is sad! Gladiator is said! But this ain't said!"

It must be college. That's the only explanation.
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Double posting is not allowed. Please edit your previous post when you need to say more and there have been no further replies. If you'd like your edit to reflect as a new post, simply delete the old post and re-post it along with the new one.
-Petie[/COLOR]
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What did you think of [b]Blood Simple[/b]? I have to admit, your comment about people other than movie critics not liking it surprised me, since I believe it's a damn good movie (and I am far from a professional critic lol). It's not completely original, but it's tense, has a solid story and is interesting the whole way through. I think any director would be happy to have [b]Blood Simple[/b] as his or her debut.
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Looks like I totally forgot to update that post. I added it in, so you can all know how I felt about it.

After the totally average Click, I am going to watch My Neighbor Totoro today. Should be pretty sweet.
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January 6th, 2009 ? My Neighbor Totoro

BEFORE ? I can barely remember the first time I saw ?My Neighbor Totoro?. I do know that it was a long time ago, most likely in those short years where you have no collective memory whatsoever. I am fairly certain that it was not on the bigscreen ? probably because ?My Neighbor Totoro? never came to the big screen. I know the box had a lot of yellow on it, and it featured the movie?s namesake was holding some umbrella of sorts.

And yes, I remember the cat bus. I always did love that thing ? despite the fact that I knew that dogs were always meant to be man?s eternal companion, and cats were just the tools of the devil. That weird biomechanical whatshamacallit always seemed to give me a weird feeling in my gut, which is usually identified as tickles.

Yes, a mutant hybrid between cat and vehicle, on an animated film, gave me the tickles in my belly. Moving on.

What I remember most of all is just how much I enjoyed watching this movie. Remember folks, this was a movie that had no explosions, no slapstick humor, no black and white morality, no multimillion dollar marketing scheme attached. This was a movie that had none of those things, and yet I could still go to again and again over the years, and enjoy it just as much ? no, scratch that, even more so ? than all of the times before.

My Neighbor Totoro is just, plain and simply, a good movie. No strings attached. The only way you could not like this film is if you are one of those ignorant people that can?t like an anime film because, well, it is anime.

Satan has a ring of hell reserved for those people, I tell myself.

AFTER ? So, ?My Neighbor Totoro?. Very good. Yes indeed. I was actually shocked at how much I had forgotten since my last viewing. I had totally forgotten about the scene where Mai and Satsuki, along with the forest spirits, grew the magic seeds into a massive tree. The animation in that was, to be brief, mesmerizing. I was almost tempted to rewind to watch it all over again.

Another thing: the 1993 dub was one of the first anime English voiceovers that I actually recall of being excellent quality. Most voiceovers for Japanese products usually fall into the bearable category, and sometimes reach the state of excellence. ?My Neighbor Totoro?, gracefully, falls into the latter.

Usually, whenever I see something that I adored from my childhood, I facepalm myself Patric Stewart style and ask myself what I was thinking. This time, I faceplamed myself and ask myself why I didn?t love it even more when I was a kid.

?My Neighbor Totoro? ? great movie. One of a kind. Brilliant. Gotta make it a mandatory viewing for my kids when I get some. And if they don?t love it...well, that?s one more reason why to have a torture room in my house.

[COLOR=Blue]See above.
-Petie[/COLOR]
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January 7th, 2009 – Day 7: The Godfather Part 1

BEFORE: The Godfather. The name alone brings up images of Italy, of decapitated horses, gangsters, corrupt officers, family values twisted around crime. It is not necessarily a complicated tale, but it is an honest one. You don’t feel like the directors were pulling your chain, forcing you to sympathize with these characters. It was the story itself that made you fall in love with it...that made you believe it.

That is what makes a great story – you believe in it naturally. You are first intrigued, then you learn about the characters. Slow, these individuals’ characteristics and mannerisms are revealed, and you start to form your own thoughts on them. They show you their dreams and hopes, and you start to fall in love with them. Even when these individuals do horrible things – albeit for very good reasons – you understand! You sympathize with them. You understand them.

And that is why The Godfather Part 1 is such a good film. It’s an honest tale that makes you believe in it.

AFTER: You know what I have learned? I need to stop taking all of my good ideas in the BEFORE section, because afterwards, I really don’t know what to write!

Well, there is one thing – it went by very fast! I could hardly believe The Godfather was a three hour movie. With Lawrence of Arabia, despite it being a thrill, I knew it was three hours long. But with The Godfather it just slipped by. One minute I was watching that wondrous first scene – “I love America” – the next the door is closing on Kay’s face. The only times I paused was when I went to the bathroom.

Lots of popcorn and water does that to you. Imagine that.

So, what was I getting at? The Godfather – marvelous film. One of the best. If you haven’t, then you deserve to get attacked by mobsters, so see it today! It’s for your own good.
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