Movie #148: Oldboy

Movie #: 148
Movie Title: Oldboy
Year Released: 2003

Director: Chan-wook Park
Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Ji Dae-han, Kim Byeong-ok

Short Description: After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #86
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #64
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/23/2016

Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Rationale: While the first three quarters of the movie are excellent with an awesome martial arts scene in a hallway and an intriguing story that keeps you constantly engaged, the last quarter completely messes with your mind and leaves you saying “damn” in a good way. The big reveal is extremely intense and worth all the buildup. Don’t get tricked into watching the Americanized version from 2013 that Spike Lee directed. Stick with the masterpiece that is the Korean version from 2003 and you can’t go wrong.

Movie #149: Evil Dead 2

Movie #: 149
Movie Title: Evil Dead 2
Year Released: 1987

Director: Sam Raimi
Notable Cast: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, Richard Domeier, Ted Raimi

Short Description: The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #49
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/22/2016

Grade: 3 out of 5 (Good)

Rationale: Knowing that Evil Dead 2 is part of a trilogy and having seen all three movies I can’t help but compare this one to the others. The Evil Dead was excessive on the gore and demons were non-stop while both seemed scaled back a tad in Evil Dead 2. In Army of Darkness, Bruce Campbell’s Ash is brash, cocky, and a complete badass with many quotable one liners (“Hail to the king, baby”, “This... is my boomstick!”) while you only see him start to transform into that character late in the Evil Dead 2 when he acquires the chainsaw hand and utters his first “groovy”. Ultimately I believe Evil Dead 2 is a nice blend of the The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness even though those films do their parts individual better.

Movie #150: Intolerance

Movie #: 150
Movie Title: Intolerance
Year Released: 1916

Director: D.W. Griffith
Notable Cast: Lillian Gish

Short Description: The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #49
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/22/2016

Grade: 1 out of 5 (Poor)

Rationale: Although I had no issue with the premise of Intolerance or the use and choice of classical music accompanying the film, I admit I only watched 25 minutes before turning it off because it’s physically difficult to watch. Literally made 100 years ago with a shaky, grainy, black and white camera, I’d say maybe a third of the scenes look like they were shot by candlelight and when you do see words on the screen since this is a silent film, maybe half of those appear as white text on a light colored background making it near impossible to read. Rather than wasting another 2+ hours struggling to watch I gave up so I could move on to the next movie.

Recap of Movies #151-175

Adjustments

Movie #: 162
Movie Title: Touch of Evil
Original Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)
Adjusted Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)




My Best to Worst of #151-175

Movie #	Movie Title	My Grade
158	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)	4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)
164	Amadeus (1984)	4 out of 5 (Excellent)
166	Finding Nemo (2003)	4 out of 5 (Excellent)
159	Casino Royale (2006)	4 out of 5 (Excellent)
157	L.A. Confidential (1997)	3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
169	Pan's Labyrinth (2006)	3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
173	Sullivan's Travels (1941)	3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
165	Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)	3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
168	The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)	3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
161	His Girl Friday (1940)	3 out of 5 (Good)
172	Casino (1995)	3 out of 5 (Good)
174	The Lives of Others (2006)	3 out of 5 (Good)
154	The Deer Hunter (1978)	2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)
167	Nashville (1975)	2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)
155	MASH (1970)	2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)
160	Spartacus (1960)	2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)
153	Donnie Darko (2001)	2 out of 5 (Fair)
175	American Graffiti (1973)	2 out of 5 (Fair)
151	La Dolce Vita (1960)	2 out of 5 (Fair)
152	West Side Story (1961)	2 out of 5 (Fair)
170	Come and See (1985)	2 out of 5 (Fair)
162	Touch of Evil (1958)	1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
156	Notorious (1946)	1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
163	Duck Soup (1933)	1 out of 5 (Poor)
171	The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)	1 out of 5 (Poor)

Movie #151: La Dolce Vita

Movie #: 151
Movie Title: La Dolce Vita
Year Released: 1960

Director: Federico Fellini
Notable Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noël, Alain Cuny, Nadia Gray, Walter Santesso

Short Description: A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo journalist living in Rome. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #55
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #96



Date Watched: 3/20/2016

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)

Rationale: La Dolce Vita didn’t receive the grade it did because it’s bad; rather, I found large chunks of the movie to be dull and the triple threat curse of being 1) old 2) black and white and 3) foreign didn’t help keep me interested at times either. There were three short scenes that stand out as pretty good though, all of which having to deal with Marcello coming to grips with aspects of his life that make him a tortured soul (regrets about not having family as the father he barely knows leaves against his wishes him to return home, regrets about not being able to love as he breaks it off with his girlfriend because he can’t stand her, and regrets about not having friends as the closest person he has to a friend commits suicide and he’s unable to help police with basic questions a friend should know). The potential was definitely there but the execution was blah.

Movie #153: Donnie Darko

Movie #: 153
Movie Title: Donnie Darko
Year Released: 2001

Director: Richard Kelly
Notable Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle

Short Description: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #53
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/16/2016

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)

Rationale: If I were basing my grade on the first and only time I had previously watched this movie I would have given it the lowest grade possible. Luckily for Donnie Darko’s sake I had to watch it again and came away not flat out despising it. All I can say is this is one heck of a bizarre movie that needs multiple viewings to fully grasp the concept of a schizophrenic kid obsessing about time travel and seeing a demonic looking bunny that tells him to commit crimes like vandalism, arson, and murder.

Movie #154: The Deer Hunter

Movie #: 154
Movie Title: The Deer Hunter
Year Released: 1978

Director: Michael Cimino
Notable Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza, Chuck Aspegren

Short Description: An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam war impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #53
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/15/2016

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)

Rationale: My big issue with The Deer Hunter is many of the actions of the characters are left to interpretation because little was explained in depth, almost like someone was trying to cut down the long runtime and didn’t want to lose other parts they somehow felt were more important than character analysis. It’s not that I need everything spoon fed to me, but it would be nice to know exactly why, for example, Christopher Walken’s character Nick joins a seedy underworld of gambling on Russian roulette considering that’s what partially contributed to him losing his mind after being forced to play it for entertainment by his captors in Vietnam. Overall the basic story was good, it just needed more clarity.

Movie #162: Touch of Evil

Movie #: 162
Movie Title: Touch of Evil
Year Released: 1958

Director: Orson Welles
Notable Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff

Short Description: A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #58



Date Watched: 2/27/2016

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)
Adjusted Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)

Rationale: When a movie is anchored by legends in the industry like Charlton Heston and Orson Welles and has a plot (per IMDB) that sounds as interesting as Touch of Evil’s does, one should have high expectations going in. Unfortunately, mine might have been too high. Touch of Evil wasn’t necessarily bad, just boring. It took until the last scene of the movie for me to get into it and really care about what happening. Also, in a movie with Hispanic people cast in minor roles, I didn’t care for Heston playing a Mexican character. He didn’t look the part, even with heavy makeup and a fake mustache, and he definitely didn’t sound the part with absolutely no attempt at an accent. I get wanting to have a strong lead in your film, but he was badly miscast.

Movie #176: Cabaret

Movie #: 176
Movie Title: Cabaret
Year Released: 1972

Director: Bob Fosse
Notable Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson

Short Description: A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #63
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 1/28/2016

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)
Adjusted Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Rationale: Believe it or not, I’m a big fan of some movie musicals, the most prominent being Chicago, Rent, and The Wizard of Oz. Cabaret can be added to that list as well. I thought the musical sequences were both catchy and entertaining. The interaction between characters was compelling and a good job was done of incorporating events around the characters as outside influences from a pre-Nazi Germany. Also, I was childishly amused whenever Michael York was on screen because my first thought of him is from Austin Powers. I did feel the last 30 minutes dragged a bit, but that doesn’t take away from how good Cabaret was overall. In the end the grade could have easily been a 4 out of 5, but I settled for 3.5 out of 5, which is still very good, only because I don’t think it’s quite as memorable as the other musicals I have high regard for.

Movie #183: Tokyo Story

Movie #: 183
Movie Title: Tokyo Story
Year Released: 1953

Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Notable Cast: Chishū Ryū, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara

Short Description: An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for them. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #67
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 1/8/2015

What I Liked: N/A

What I Disliked: N/A

Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
Adjusted Grade: 1 out of 5 (Poor)
Rationale: It’s been just over a year since I’ve seen this movie so I don’t feel like it’s fair to try and remember exactly what I liked or disliked. My grade was how I felt at the time of seeing it and I recall not particularly caring for this movie. While it wasn’t among the worst movies I’ve seen, it’s not far off from it. I actually started watching it and stopped because I just wasn’t into it. Somehow I made it through on a second attempt.

Movie #217: Easy Rider

Movie #: 217
Movie Title: Easy Rider
Year Released: 1969

Director: Dennis Hopper
Notable Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson

Short Description: Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists

AFI.com: #84
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 5/23/2013

What I Liked: The scenes with Jack Nicholson, specifically in the jail and by the campfire at night, were the most interesting because he was in those scenes.

What I Disliked: All other scenes that didn’t have Jack Nicholson in it. At least Nicholson’s character brought life to the screen. Whoever decided that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s characters should do little talking had no clue what they were doing. I was bored for the majority of the movie because I never got a sense of them being rebels exploring the country other than they rode motorcycles and hung out with hippies, which Fonda’s character didn’t even look like he was enjoying.

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)
Adjusted Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
Rationale: Organizations, like the American Film Institute (AFI), tend to look better upon older movies likely because their membership core is of an older generation and "things were better back then." Easy Rider is a perfect example of a movie that may have been considered to be good at one point, but did not survive the test of time.

Movie #228: The Conversation

Movie #: 228
Movie Title: The Conversation
Year Released: 1974

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Notable Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall

Short Description: A paranoid and personally-secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #89



Date Watched: 3/30/2013

What I Liked: I had never seen a movie with Harrison Ford that was made before the first original Star Wars movie so it was a pleasant surprise to see he was in this, even though his screen time was limited. The movie started out with a bit of suspense as Hackman and his team were already in the middle of their spy job.

What I Disliked: What’s fun is as I’m typing my thought that the movie was super slow, in my head I’m consciously saying it as slow as I can. By the time I found out what the demons were that haunted Gene Hackman’s character, I had already lost interest and just wanted the movie to be over.

Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
Adjusted Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)
Rationale: Too slow for me which I felt hurt the strong potential the premise had.

Movie #155: MASH

Movie #: 155
Movie Title: MASH
Year Released: 1970

Director: Robert Altman
Notable Cast: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff

Short Description: The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #54
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/8/2016

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)

Rationale: Maybe it was a case of poor expectations, but I didn’t find MASH to be as funny as I’ve heard read it is. Not to say there weren’t amusing parts, but I don’t recall my mild chuckle ever turning into distinguishable laughter. I did enjoy what felt like a buddy comedy between Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, particularly the scene where they were sent to Japan to perform surgery on a congressman’s son. I’d say everything was going about average until a football game broke out. What? A professional looking football game in a war movie seemed out of place and didn’t jive with the rest of the movie. I would have rather spent that 25 minutes watching more of Sutherland’ Hawkeye Pierce and Gould’s Trapper John McIntyre causing mischief.

Movie #156: Notorious

Movie #: 156
Movie Title: Notorious
Year Released: 1946

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Notable Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin

Short Description: A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #55



Date Watched: 3/7/2016

Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)

Rationale: If it weren’t for a sudden second wind with a half an hour to go I don’t know if I would have been able to stay awake to finish Notorious. Not that I was tired; on the contrary, I was fairly alert when I started the movie. Unfortunately boredom set in fast and nearly lulled me to sleep. I’m honestly not sure what was even going on and that’s not for a lack of paying attention. Truly uninteresting and uninspiring up until the last half an hour when the movie became mildly entertaining with a race to get Ingrid Bergman’s poisoned character away from her new Nazi husband because he discovered she was an American spy. I’d say better should expected of greats in the industry like director Alfred Hitchcock and actors Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, but sadly this was probably the best they could have done with a sub-mediocre script. Don’t bother with Notorious.

Movie #157: L.A. Confidential

Movie #: 157
Movie Title: L.A. Confidential
Year Released: 1997

Director: Curtis Hanson
Notable Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin

Short Description: As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #81
Ranker.com: #93
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #84
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A

Note: This is the first movie on my list to appear on three of the top 100 lists I used to compile the 251 movies I’m watching.



Date Watched: 3/6/2016

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 (Very Good)

Rationale: While I disagree with anti-Titanic fans that L.A. Confidential should have instead won the Oscar for Best Picture, L.A. Confidential was a good movie that got better and better as the pieces started fitting together. By no means was this an episode of Law and Order with a twist at the end; the bad guy is well implied and no surprise is revealed, but that doesn’t affect the suspense and build up to the showdown between the law and corruption in the L.A. police force. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce all hold their own well as lead characters and I would expect nothing less from a fine group of actors.

Movie #158: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Movie #: 158
Movie Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Year Released: 2003

Director: Gore Verbinski
Notable Cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Kevin McNally

Short Description: Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor's daughter, from Jack's former pirate allies, who are now undead. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: #100
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #57
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/5/2016

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)

Rationale: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has all of the elements that turn not just a good movie into a great movie but a great movie into an epic movie. Lead by Johnny Depp in what I believe is one of the best acting performances there is as Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates has a fun and adventurous story with bits of humor and intrigue while being innovative with its special effects (turning humans into skeletons right before your eyes) and captivating with a gorgeous score co-written by Hans Zimmer (my favorite film composer). While no movie is flawless, little could be asked of to make Pirates better.

On a side note, it’s well documented that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was not expected to fare well because the pirate genre hadn’t had a successful movie in decades and the concept of the movie was based on a theme park ride. The movie was released in theaters on 7/9/2003 and I still have my ticket stub from seeing it on 7/10/2003. I’m proud that I've been on the Pirates bandwagon from essentially day one, earlier than the vast majority of Pirates of the Caribbean fans.

Movie #159: Casino Royale

Movie #: 159
Movie Title: Casino Royale
Year Released: 2006

Director: Martin Campbell
Notable Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright, Jesper Christensen

Short Description: Armed with a licence to kill, Secret Agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007 and must defeat a weapons dealer in a high stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, but things are not what they seem. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #56
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/4/2016

Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Rationale: Debates can be had as to which Bond movie is Daniel Craig’s best (I’m partial to Skyfall myself), but there’s no debate that Daniel Craig was the perfect choice to succeed Pierce Brosnan as 007. Reinventing James Bond was a necessity after the character and movies themselves had jumped the shark in Brosnan’s last attempt, Die Another Day. Thankfully Craig’s wit, charm, and emotional depth shine when he’s not getting physical and taking out the bad guys for queen and country. The reason Casino Royale only garners a 4 out of 5 is because the first half is kind of forgettable other than an awesome chase sequence in Madagascar. The second half, beginning with the poker tournament in Montenegro and culminating with sinking a building in Venice, is what makes Casino Royale special.

Movie #160: Spartacus

Movie #: 160
Movie Title: Spartacus
Year Released: 1960

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Notable Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Tony Curtis

Short Description: The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #81
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #77
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/3/2016

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)

Rationale: My big issue with Spartacus is that other period movies with similar stories or themes, such as Ben-Hur and Gladiator, got their message across in a more exciting way and, in the case of Gladiator, a lot less time. Many a times Spartacus seemed like it was meandering about which contributed to a 3 hours 17 minutes runtime that easily could have been cut down without losing any of its effectiveness. It probably didn’t help with holding my attention during dull scenes that every interaction between Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus and his love interest, Jean Simmons’ Varinia, felt wooden and forced as if the two had no on screen chemistry. Ultimately I didn’t hate anything about Spartacus, there are simply better comparable movies I’d rather spend my time watching.

Movie #225: Kill Bill: Volume 1

Movie #: 225
Movie Title: Kill Bill: Volume 1
Year Released: 2003

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Notable Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox

Short Description: The Bride wakens from a four-year coma. The child she carried in her womb is gone. Now she must wreak vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her – a team she was once part of. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: #97
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #92
FlickChart.com: N/A

Note: This is the first movie on my list to appear on two of the top 100 lists I used to compile the 251 movies I’m watching.



Date Watched: 4/5/2013

What I Liked: The fight against Lucy Liu’s character and all of her minions was by far the most entertaining part of the movie. The scene sort of reminded me of Neo’s fight verses the Agent Smith clones on the basketball court in The Matrix Reloaded.

What I Disliked: Quentin Tarantino. At this point I don’t think I’ll ever like his movies, which doesn’t bode well for me since I can think of at least 3 others on my list that I still have to watch. I can’t place my finger on it, but there’s just something about his directing and writing style that I don’t care for.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)
Rationale: Entertaining enough that I’ll watch Kill Bill: Volume 2 just to see how it all ends but I’m not really excited about it.