In some post traumatic shock type incident from the blogging world collapsing on her head over the lack of viewing of The Shawshank Redemption, Blackbird created a list of 250 movies she had seen. It was really just open season from then on and as I started to compile my own list I found what was more interesting was how my brain worked in terms of which movie came into my head next as opposed to what was on the list.
Here’s the first 101.
It’s addictive.
- Gigi
I started with this movie because that opening sequence of whatshisname in the horse drawn carriage singing Thank Heaven For Little Girls pops into my head every other day. No I’m not kdding. I also thought it starred Audrey Hepburn but that my be a complete fabrication in my brain and some poor French actress is missing her moment to shine in blogging oblivion. - A Roman Holiday
- Sabrina which I just adore and you know, I even like the one with Harrison Ford
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s which I didn’t think was as good as the book
- and The Nun Story, which I watched as a young teenager and found intoxicating as religion can do to young minds but then I quickly moved to Katherine Hepburn because I love her and always wanted to be her when I was a teenager. Even in
- On Golden Pond
- The Philadelphia Story is one of my all time favourites
and then - Little Women – the old one – popped into my head and I do believe watching this at a young age was one of the reasons I wanted to become an writer, along with
- My Brilliant Career because I do adore Judy Davis, but back to
- Little Women – because the one with Winona Ryder I didn’t care for very much
But from Katherine I moved headlong into a love affair with The Barbra and I thought of - Barefoot in the Park but don’t worry, I know this was Jane Fonda and Robert Redford
But I did and do love Babs and was just getting the whole street scenes in New York confused because it was more - The Way We Were that I was thinking of
- Funny Girl is a movie I often find myself watching just for the hideous yet at the same time glamorous costumes
- What’s Up Doc
Which made me think of Jerry Lewis but I don’t really know why - The Bellboy
And I know I saw reams of Jerry Lewis movies on Saturday afternoons as a child but now can not remember any others - The Glass Menagerie was one of the first black and white movies I saw I think and it spooked me, as did
- To Kill A Mockingbird but oh how I love that movie even today and for further inexplicable reasons into my head popped
- and there was that movie about growing up in the mining town and mining disasters and the son going off to become a doctor – How Green Was My Valley? It was in black and white and dripping with hardship and looming disaster – just my cup of tea as an angst laden/prone teen when I used to wail that I hadn’t suffered enough to become a truly great actor or writer. Idiot.
- The Odd Couple – which I loved nearly as much as I loved the series, with Tony Randall and I could pretty much watch any movie with him in it, which naturally led me to Doris Day
- Pillow Talk
- The Pajama Game which I tried to re-watch a few weeks back and just found unbearable
- Calamity Jane and all that calamity made me think of Lucille and I believe
- Yours, Mine and Ours – with Lucille Ball – had a lot to answer for in terms of my lifelong desire for a large family.
- Yours, Mine and Ours – with Rene Russo was disappointing, because I also really like Dennis Quaid and really liked
- that movie with Dennis Quaid, Topher whatshisname and that strumpet with the lips – whatshername – in the new Bolyn movie – g’ah – how annoying. The girl in
- Lost in Translation – a movie I enjoyed but only just as it was teetering on the brink of being a Magnolia in terms of the ‘what the???’ factor but was redeemed by Bill Murray and that understated humour he does so well and Scarlett! Johansen! I knew if I just blathered on it would come back to me.
- She also was in The Girl with the Pearl Earing which I thoroughly enjoyed
- And speaking of Bill, Groundhog Day is still a firm favourite of mine. But back to Lucille in
- The Long, Long Trailer which I found delicious as a young teenager as I did anything with Marilyn Monroe such as
- Some Like It Hot which is worth it just for the overnight train scene
- The Seven Year Itch
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and
- How to Marry a Millionaire, which is a favourite
- When Harry Met Sally was the start of my love affair with anything involving Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan so you go into that roll of
- You’ve Got Mail is a movie I just love love love as is
- Sleepless in Seattle
- The one where Meg Ryan is an alcoholic – When a Man Loves a Woman? and my heart breaks for those gorgeous little girls (one of which is in Napoleon Dynamite but I’m getting ahead of myself)
- The one where Meg Ryan is a jilted lover and she and – is it John Cusack? – set up in the unit across the road from their respective partners and go crazy – Crazy in Love? Addicted to Love? something like that
- That one with her and Hugh Jackman which switches between eras – it’s two names but all I can think of is Tristan and Isolde and it’s not that…
but that was getting annoying in terms of all the movie names I could remember so I switched to Billy and really, what’s not to love with - City Slickers I say ‘helloooo’ as much as I say ‘Beuller’ in this house when the children have blocked me from their hearing capacity
- City Slickers II that’s what – awful – but it was redeemed by
- Analyse This
- and a bit by Analyse That
and it really became an interesting journey of actors really good at a particular genre trying to break out and do something different. In this case it was Robert de Niro doing funny when he really had a past doing the downright scary - I mean the ‘come out come out where ever you are’ in Cape Fear still just gives me the creeps
and I know there are plenty of other violent numbers out there I’ve seen with him but this is a stream of consciousness and none of them come to mind because all I can think of is - Meet the Parents and
- Meet the Fockers which did a lot for my love of Babs and my love of Dustin Hoffman who is just such an awesome actor, for example
- Tootsie
- I Heart Huckabees – he is so very very good in this with Lily Tomlin
- Stranger than Fiction where he is so understated I almost want to slow the film down to get more of him
- and of course Rain Man which brings us to the inevitable realm of Tom Cruise
- Yes I loved Risky Business if it was just for my raging teenage hormones and that scene on the train
- and lusted even more in Top Gun
- and thought Days of Thunder was lame
- but enjoyed Born on the Fourth of July and
- A Few Good Men and
- Jerry Maguire even if it featured Renee McCatsBumMouthMcSquintyEyes and really really liked
- The Minority Report and
- War of the Worlds (but that might be because I like Dakota Fanning and am just waiting for her to go the way of every other child starlet because I’m cold and bitter like that) and
- Mission Impossible but have only seen the first one and while
- Interview with a Vampire was a bit tedious it was clearly just a primer for me years down the track to deal with
- Magnolia
the film that tops my worst films of all time ever and don’t worry because - Eyes Wide Shut is also on that list, but look at me, where are my loyalties, I’ve mentioned two films with Our Nic and none of them with her starring, like
- Cold Mountain, which was so predictable and I hate all those suspense movies that involve vulnerable women and packs of sneering men
- and call me uncouth but I just don’t get Dogville and find it hugely difficult to watch
- The Hours was good but that was more because of Julianne Moore than Nicole but
- Dead Calm was awesome
- Bewitched awful
- The Interpreter OK
- The Stepford Wives mediocre
- Birthday Girl plain disturbing and
- Moulin Rouge fabulous but that was mainly for the music, the costumes and Ewan McGregor
- which leads me to the first trilogy of Star Wars – which I love love love almost as much as
- the original trilogy of Star Wars and the only bad thing about it all is just what an appalling actor that guy is who plays Anakin – see I’ve forgotten his name because he’s so awful
- but back up there I mentioned Julianne Moore and was she not just amazing in Boogie Nights?
- and that movie where she has an affair with Raph Fiennes – or is it Colin Farrell – during WWI and the husband has her followed or something
- and of course there’s that movie with Hugh Grant about having a baby – is that called Nine Months? Which came out around the time I was pregnant with Oscar and I wanted my husband to dance around the lounge room with our child because I clearly had NO IDEA what we were really getting ourselves into
- and also back up there I mentioned Bewitched and how disappointing it was because it featured Will Ferrell and well, I have a big girl crush on Will as has already been discussed and love Talladega Nights
- Blades of Glory
- Sidenote – Napoleon Dynamite is also an all.time.favourite.
- Anchorman was disappointing
- but Elf made up for it a hundred times over as did
- Stranger than Fiction which I currently seem to watch at least every other week
- while Kicking and Screaming is also a big favourite for family movie night
- and Wedding Crashers is loved as much for his cameo as it is for the work of whatshisname with the crooked nose who i also have a big girl crush on as I do his brother – Owen Wilson! that’s it
- and his cameo in Zoolander (I keep heading in the direction of Ben Stiller and then moving away, so stay with me, we’ll get there) is also sensational but I’m moving on to Owen because I lurve him and while
- You, Me and Dupree was a bit irritating
- Starsky and Hutch was hilarious (and again with a Will cameo)
- The Life Aquatic and
- The Royal Tenenbaums more than made up for any poor film choice on his part
- But through all this latest installment is Ben Stiller who is nothing if not industrious with the likes of Night at the Museum
- Along Came Polly and
- Dodgeball – which just for the line about the little bit of vomit coming back into her mouth at the thought of going on a date with him makes the movie pure gold
- But if we backtrack slightly to the Royal Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic we come to Coen brothers movies such as The Big Lebowski, which I haven’t seen in ages but really enjoyed
- Raising Arizona
- Barton Fink, which I only saw recently and thought was just plain weird
- The Ladykillers was disappointing
- O Brother Where Art Thou which I think was the moment I realised George Clooney was indeed some sort of God, which was confirmed in
- Oceans 11, 12 and 13 and look, because I’m a chick and a sucker for a romantic comedy, even
- One Fine Day, which made me think of Michelle Pfieffer and how much I like her as an actress and that
- Frankie and Johnnie is another favourite as is
- that one with Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfieffer where he’s a reformed drug seller and they have sex for hours in the spa. Bring your own yeast infection.