I almost thought I wasn't going to get from 17 to 34, but self high five, I did... even got to 35 titles. It's pretty much been a week, and I ticked off another 18 movies off of the IMDb Top 250, but movies I all own/seen already. Which to me wasn't the point... I wanted to see movies I'd never seen before off the Top 250 list, but its surprising me how many I've already seen.
Lets check out what I checked off...
Last week included a not so very special day, the day that is Groundhog Day. Woopy shit, right? But with that shitfest of a holiday? is the awesome sauce of a movie... Groundhog Day. To quote Zombieland.. Bill Murray has a direct line to my funnybone. (and anyone following me on twitter will know I watched this already and how much I was creasing at it.)
The dude is hilarious. Bill Murray, marry me?
Can we just officially change Groundhog day to Bill Murray day?
Next, cause I was in that comedy mood I watched an old favourite of mine...
The Princess Bride
I remember when I first saw this, I was a wee lassy staying with my grandparents and we went to the video store and we picked up 3 movies in that one visit (movies I don't think we took back) and they were 'A Christmas Story', 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and 'The Princess Bride'. Not a bad haul right, thank you Grandad. (Ah frak I miss video rental store days.)
I am ashamed, however, to admit I've never read the book. It is on my kindle (which I called Yossarian, electronic gizmos should have names, they just should)
Anywhoballs, I love this movie. Honest to blog, I love this movie. I love it more now than I did when I was a child.
Got a 'The Princess Bride' T-shirt and everything...
Then I rattled off some classics, check my movies list over to the side there for what I watched, The Deer Hunter, Cool Hand Luke, Goodfellas, Casino...
And what I'm finding out here is it's better to watch awesome movies, but it makes it more awesome when you throw in some doozies... cause then the good movies stand out more. And also it's easier to write about bad movies. Something I've noticed from podcasts I listen to... the funnier reviews are for bad movies... theres just more to say.
So fellow bloggers and movie fans, which do you like to write/discuss... the good movies or the bad movies?
Hasta Luego
I find it a lot more difficult to write about movies I don't like. Texas Chainsaw 3D was a prime example recently. I was so thoroughly disappointed by it that I just didn't want to expend any more time or effort to review it. I actually chewed on it for several days and ultimately just made a joke of it by acknowledging that I couldn't bring myself to write about it because I was going through the five stages of grief. I suppose that was still a review in a round about way, but still . . .
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I have no difficulty at all writing about why I like a movie. I want to share what I love about it and hopefully encourage others to see it. The fact that I'm primarily focused on genre movies probably helps my cause, because most of my friends aren't. I see it as challenge to coerce non-genre fans to see the movies I think are actually worth their time.
I've been on a life long crusade to make everyone I know see Suspiria. It still stuns me how many people have never seen it. More recently I've browbeat a number of people into watching Pontypool. I've yet to force it on anyone who didn't love it.
I figure if my friends who aren't genre fans are only occasionally going to watch a genre movie, then I can at least try to point them toward the good ones. I've actually made a few into genre fans, because they've only seen the good stuff and not had to sit through the dreck. I suppose it's my lot in life to sit through the dreck so others don't have to. :)
I loved your stages of grief post over TCM3D. I like that outlook, you sit through the dreck so others don't have to. I've gotta say I'm similar, only pushing friends to see good horrors, which in the case of Leslie Vernon hasn't always worked. I guess you have to be a genre nut to get why its amazeballs.
DeleteAlso I would rather use the internet to spread love of good movies, but I find myself reading about bad ones, and listening to lots of podcasts that deal with the bad movies. Its not quite so "just bad" movies but those "guilty pleasures", yeah i like Rocky IV... i love watching videos such as AVGN or nostalgia critic, which deal with crappy movies/games... I just don't find it as entertaining to read/watch reviews on good movies than it is for the bad.
I need to get into the habit of writing up reviews for the good movies I watch, spread the love for good movies, not the love for bad ones. (Tho with good movies I'm mostly along the lines of... "its a good movie, I don't want to spoil it for you... go watch it now.")
Thank you for the compliment on the TCM3D post. I'll be posting a write-up on TCM2 on Tuesday - a movie of which I've always been a vocal supporter. My admiration of TCM2 as the "real" continuation of the narrative from Hooper's original only got kicked up a notch by the shameful alteration of canon presented by TCM3D.
DeleteI actually got a pretty good response to Behind The Mask from a roomful of straights I subjected to it. You're absolutely right. It undoubtedly appeals more to genre fans, but it's still a movie worth championing. It breaks my heart we haven't gotten a sequel yet.
It's easier, and often funnier, to tear down the bad ones, but I always just feel a bit churlish when I do. I don't think anyone ever sets out with the intent of making a bad movie. By that logic, it just seems more charitable to me to politely ignore the gorked up movies and assume they can't really help being like that.
When I write up the good ones, I find it helps to try to find something about the movie that makes it worthwhile that might not be readily apparent to the casual genre fan. It is hard to write up the good ones without spoiling them, though. I really struggled with Pontypool because I was so envious of those who were able to see the movie cold with no idea of what they were getting into. I definitely didn't want to ruin that for them.
"The Princess Bride" novel is a trip. It's really meta with the author claiming that he didn't write the story, just translated it from a fictional country's language, and cut out the boring bits. And there's some awesome stuff that didn't make it into the movie like the Zoo of Death. Honestly, I wish they would do the remake, because as great as the original movie was, it could have been much better.
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