zwolanerd

I mentioned on Tuesday that when I was feeling better maybe I’d come back and comment on the list, so in the interests of working on following through on stuff, I thought I’d actually do that.

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – This is how you do a sequel.
2. Airplane! – Is this the best spoof movie of all time? Most likely. The only real competition it has is This Is Spinal Tap. I hadn’t seen this movie in a long time and I bought the Blu-Ray a while back so I needed to get to it.
3. Top Secret! – I recently recommended this movie so hard to a friend that I forced him to borrow my copy. When he returned it I got the idea in my head that I needed to see it again. Some of Val Kilmer’s best work, and I’m not even lying.
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – I talked about the good things in this movie a long time ago. I recently got the Blu-Ray box set of the Indy movies and had watched the other ones, so I needed to finish it up. I know it’s not good, but (barring a few specific things) I don’t hate this movie like I once did.
5. Argo – Very good.
6. Killing Them Softly – I wanted to like this movie, but I just didn’t. Frankly, it was muddled and boring.
7. The Last Starfighter – What a great idea for a movie, right? It’s 1984 and the kids like videogames, let’s give them a movie that shows playing all those games might be important. I really do love this movie.
8. Psycho – My wife had never seen this before, so that needed rectifying. makes me want to watch a whole bunch of Hitchcock movies.
9. 10 Things I Hate About You – Finally got around to replacing my awful DVD with a Blu-Ray, so I had to check it out. It’s still a good movie, and it’s fun to see future-Joker and (maybe)future-Robin in it together.
10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Once I finally got around to understanding that it was Douglas Adams himself’s idea that each iteration of HGttG be unique/different in some way, this movie got a whole lot more enjoyable for me.  The Guide animations are particularly wonderful, and I’d really love to see the whole series (well… the first four books, anyway) get made. I know it won’t happen, but hey.  (Side note: When I see this movie, I like to imagine the following conversation took place: “Q: Hey, should we cast a black actor in the part of Ford Prefect? A: Mos Def!”)
11. Father of the Bride – This was a result of the ol’ “Honey, you pick a movie for us to watch” gamble. I really do like Steve Martin in this, but I know I’m in the minority for admitting I don’t much care for the Franck character.
12. Little Shop of Horrors (Director’s Cut) – I’ve been wanting the Blu-Ray of this ever since I heard it was coming, and my wife bought it for me as a recovery present on the condition that I watch it when she wasn’t around. I made her watch it a while back and it wasn’t really her thing. It’s one of my Top 20 favorite movies ever, and I really enjoyed seeing the restored original ending for the first time. (Side note: This movie’s “Suddenly Seymour” is in my regular song rotation, and I love belting out both parts to it… but not when I’m around anyone.)
13. Flight – Denzel was fantastic in this movie, though a study in addiction is always a difficult movie to watch, I think.
14. Lock Up – Not Stallone’s best movie, but certainly not his worst. Tom Sizemore is perfectly cast, but I think the remake of this movie five years later is vastly superior.

Written by: Mark