Month: June 2012

In conjunction with AFI…

I definitely won’t finish all 100 movies by the end of this summer at the pace that I’m going, but at some point, all 100 will be watched. Here’s where I’m at right now:

AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies (2007 updated list):

1)      Citizen Kane

2)      The Godfather

3)      Casablanca

4)      Raging Bull

5)      Singin’ in the Rain

6)      Gone with the Wind

7)      Lawrence of Arabia

8)      Schindler’s List

9)      Vertigo

10)   The Wizard of Oz

11)   City Lights

12)   The Searchers

13)   Star Wars

14)   Psycho

15)   2001: A Space Odyssey

16)   Sunset Boulevard

17)   The Graduate

18)   The General

19)   On the Waterfront

20)   It’s a Wonderful Life

21)   Chinatown

22)   Some Like it Hot

23)   The Grapes of Wrath

24)   ET The Extraterrestrial

25)   To Kill a Mockingbird

26)   Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

27)   High Noon

28)   All About Eve

29)   Double Indemnity

30)   Apocalypse Now

31)   The Maltese Falcon

32)   The Godfather Part II

33)   One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

34)   Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

35)   Annie Hall

36)   The Bridge on the River Kwai

37)   The Best Years of Our Lives

38)   The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

39)   Dr. Strangelove

40)   The Sound of Music

41)   King Kong

42)   Bonnie and Clyde

43)   Midnight Cowboy

44)   The Philadelphia Story

45)   Shane

46)   It Happened One Night

47)   A Streetcar Named Desire

48)   Rear Window

49)   Intolerance

50)   The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

51)   West Side Story

52)   Taxi Driver

53)   The Deer Hunter

54)   MASH

55)   North by Northwest

56)   Jaws

57)   Rocky

58)   The Gold Rush

59)   Nashville

60)   Duck Soup

61)   Sullivan’s Travels

62)   American Graffiti

63)   Cabaret

64)   Network

65)   The African Queen

66)   Raiders of the Lost Ark

67)   Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

68)   Unforgiven

69)   Tootsie

70)   A Clockwork Orange

71)   Saving Private Ryan

72)   The Shawshank Redemption

73)   Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

74)   The Silence of the Lambs

75)   In the Heat of the Night

76)   Forrest Gump

77)   All the President’s Men

78)   Modern Times

79)   The Wild Bunch

80)   The Apartment

81)   Spartacus

82)   Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

83)   Titanic

84)   Easy Rider

85)   A Night at the Opera

86)   Platoon

87)   12 Angry Men

88)   Bringing Up Baby

89)   The Sixth Sense

90)   Swing Time

91)   Sophie’s Choice

92)   Goodfellas

93)   The French Connection

94)   Pulp Fiction

95)   The Last Picture Show

96)   Do the Right Thing

97)   Blade Runner

98)   Yankee Doodle-Dandy

99)   Toy Story

100)           Ben-Hur

Many of the films already crossed out need to be re-watched. Like two of my favorites, Singin’ in the Rain  and Titanic. So far, I’ve been most impressed with Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and most underwhelmed by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which was thrilling and unpredictable, but slightly disappointing. Especially since it’s described as Hitchcock’s masterpiece.

TicketStubsandDVDs presents…

I guess it’s about time that I introduce myself. Hi everybody, I’m M. This summer I’m on a quest to make myself more cultured by reading more books, watching more movies, and keeping up to date with my current events…all in preparation for my two choice careers, screenwriting and journalism.

In terms of literature, I kicked off my summer vacation with some guilty pleasure reading – Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series – and have now moved on to reading my way through the works of two of my favorite authors, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. I wish Austen had written a couple more novels because I could really go for another one of her dashing romances set in a pretty town of named estates, filled with a comprehensive blend of characters innocent and scheming, accomplished and ignorant, strong-willed and subservient, stern and coquettish, and topped off with an apt title often capturing the protagonists’ most significant character flaws in a couple pithy words. (Except for Emma…I would rename that one.) I am currently working my way through Dickens’ Great Expectations. I really want to love that one, but so far it’s hit a bit of a slow point. The characters are intriguing (though I’m sorry to say, the blacksmith Joe, while being a sweet character, annoys me to pieces), but I need the pace to pick up a bit for me to get truly engrossed in the story.

In terms of films, I have so far watched a couple more movies on the AFI 100 best films list, as well as some good ones that didn’t make the cut. I loved some, enjoyed others, and  was underwhelmed by many. Partly because as of now, I’m not the most perceptive of viewers. More on this later.

Since this is getting to be a pretty long post (I’m notorious for being way too verbose…when writing, that is), I’ll end by playing one of my favorite games called “Let’s go around in a circle and name our top five favorite _____” or “Top fives” for short.

TOP FIVE FAVORITE BOOKS

  1. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
  2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  4. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

TOP FIVE FAVORITE MOVIES

  1. The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski
  2. Kramer vs. Kramer directed by Robert Benton
  3. Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg
  4. The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese
  5. Titanic directed by James Cameron

Hopefully, by the end of the summer my lists will change dramatically as I expose myself to a wealth of great books and movies!

My first ever blog post!

This is pathetic. I’ve literally been sitting here for 15 minutes now, tapping away at my computer trying to think of something clever to say for my first ever blog post. And after 15 minutes of typing and deleting a whole lot of “Hello there’s” (lame, I know), I’m now too tired and too impatient to care anymore. Plus, at this point, it’s not like my posts have to be sharp or witty anyways…I’m my only reader as of right now. Even if I continue to talk to myself over the course of the next couple of months through this blog – meaning I don’t gain any readers 😦 – at least I’ll have a record for myself of all the great movies I’ve watched this summer! Oh…have I mentioned that this is going to be a film blog?