My Movie Challenge 2014: The Wrap-Up! (Part 2)

Yesterday we covered spots #46-24 on my movie challenge list from 2014. Today we cover those who managed to land in the top half!

#23: Aaron's week

Aaron and I took theater classes together, so he went theater-heavy with his week -- not a bad policy for getting into the top 23! He gave me Revengers Tragedy, About Last Night (the original 1986 version), Cannibal!: The Musical, My Name Is Bruce, and Love's Labour's Lost. While there were a couple I really liked and a couple I was meh on, the big surprise was that my favorite of the week wasn't a theater-centric one at all!

Best movie of his week: My Name Is Bruce
Worst movie of his week: About Last Night
Movie that made me laugh the hardest: Cannibal!: The Musical

Biggest letdown: Love's Labour's Lost

#22: Bethany-my-sister's week

Bethany inadvertently gave me all movies that began with B or C, and it was definitely a fun mix of classics and goofy: Born Yesterday, Ben-Hur, The Blind Side, Camp Rock, and Camp Rock 2. The Camp Rocks are not that odd a choice if you remember how thoroughly I enjoy all the High School Musicals. This was a very in-the-middle week for me, though. All her movies ended up within 300 spots of each other, ranging from #904 to #1178.

Best movie of her week: The Blind Side

Worst movie of her week: Ben-Hur

Movie I should have seen by now: Ben-Hur

Worst singing that was constantly praised in-movie as being perfect: Camp Rock

Sequel that was better than the original because everybody got better at singing: Camp Rock 2

#21: Erika's week

Erika didn't focus so much on giving me movies she thought I'd love or hate. She's said before that she respects my movie opinions pretty seriously, so she gave me a bunch of movies she wasn't sure how she felt about, jokingly tell me that I was going to tell her how to feel about them. Her choices were Swing Kids, Adam, Away We Go, Albert Nobbs, and I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK. I didn't fall in love with any of these, but they were all interesting to watch, definitely!

Best movie of her week: Away We Go

Worst movie of her week: Albert Nobbs

Weirdest movie of her week in mostly a good way: I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK

Best acting in a not-great movie: Albert Nobbs

#20: Elizabeth not-my-sister's week

At first, Elizabeth chose almost all westerns for my week. But after a few weeks of watching me not like westerns, she ended up swapping out a lot of her choices and left me with only two westerns. Her final choices were Cool Runnings, Quigley Down Under, The Joy Luck Club, Oscar, and Paint Your Wagon. I was frankly not sure how this week would go down, but there were a couple I really loved and the only ones that were really low on the list were, unsurprisingly, the westerns.

Best movie of her week: The Joy Luck Club

Worst movie of her week: Quigley Down Under

Most abrupt change in plot: Paint Your Wagon

Most enjoyable surprise: Oscar

#19: Naomi's week

All but one of Naomi's choices were about infidelity or perceived infidelity, which seems like an odd theme to pick, but she assures me that it was entirely accidental. She also sprinkled in a few pre-1960s movies, which were a nice change to the more recent selections I got so frequently. She assigned me Spanglish, Waitress, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, To Be or Not to Be, and The Barkleys of Broadway. None of them jump out at me now thinking back on them, but I enjoyed most of them at the time, and I'd probably enjoy most of them on a rewatch as well.

Best movie of her week: Waitress

Worst movie of her week: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

Movies I keep getting mixed up because the main character are awfully similar: To Be or Not to Be and The Barkleys of Broadway

Movie I liked aside from Adam Sandler: Spanglish

#18: Elizabeth-my-sister's week

My sister Elizabeth is just as crazy into movies as I am, and she'll watch anything and everything. I was really intrigued to see what she would pick... and she gave me one Hitchcock movie I hadn't seen and then four romantic comedies from 2010: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, Knight and Day, How Do You Know, The Switch, and Suspicion. That being said, I liked them all okay. She's a much bigger fan of rom coms than I am, but she did choose some pretty good ones for my week, even if the one she liked best was the one I liked least.

Best movie of her week: Knight and Day

Worst movie of her week: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

Movies that landed within one spot of each other on my Flickchart: How Do You Know and The Switch

Most unsettling Cary Grant: Suspicion

#17: Dad's week

My dad's week didn't come right after Elizabeth-my-sister's in the challenge, but it would have been crazy if it had. While her week was light and fluffy, his was anything but. He gave me Inland Empire, Mulholland Dr., Flypaper, Hannah Arendt, and Koyaanisqatsi. Aside from Flypaper, which was a fluffy heist movie, he gave me two David Lynch films, a wordless documentary consisting of still images, and a thoughtful drama about a philosopher. So that's the kind of thought-provoking week I had thanks to my philosophy professor dad :-) But it was a good week, and he's a good person to discuss movies with, so I liked having some that really gave me an opportunity for that.

Best movie of his week: Hannah Arendt

Worst movie of his week; Mulholland Dr.

Movie that should have been harder for me to figure out than Mulholland but somehow wasn't: Inland Empire

Best score: Koyaanisqatsi

#16: Matt's week

My college friend Matt loaded me up with I-should-have-seen-this-by-now movies... and also very long movies. The majority of them were close to three hours long. But it was clearly a good week, because, look, here he is at #16! He chose Black Snake Moan, JFK, Watchmen, Muppet Treasure Island, and Gandhi. Incidentally, this was the first time I'd ever seen a Muppets movie. So that was a fun "never have I ever" to rectify.

Best movie of his week: Watchmen

Worst movie of his week: JFK

Movies I should have seen by now: ...all of them except Black Snake Moan

Most surprisingly soul-healing movie: Gandhi

#15: Jacob's week

While Jacob had an advantage in knowing my taste in movies really well, especially how well it works with his, he had a disadvantage in that I've already seen a lot of the movies he likes with him. So his list was a combination of favorites from his childhood he thought I probably wouldn't like, a couple he thought I might, and he even chanced an Adam Sandler movie. His final list was Bubba Ho-tep, Pom Poko, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Highlander, and The Wedding Singer. The ones he thought I wouldn't like, I didn't, and the ones he thought I would, I did, and The Wedding Singer is the second movie in this wrap-up post to get a very specific award.

Best movie of his week: Pom Poko

Worst movie of his week: Little Nemo

Movie I liked aside from Adam Sandler: The Wedding Singer

Most awesomely ridiculous: Bubba Ho-tep

#14: Andrew's week

My uncle Andy is definitely a film fan. He likes a lot of older and foreign movies and pays less attention to loud blockbusters, so I knew I'd be getting different kinds of movies than I had before. His choices were Monsoon Wedding, Jean de Florette, Holy Motors, Frances Ha, and A Separation. Those five movies came from four different countries and, while most of them were pretty story-driven, he also went ahead and gave me one that was... definitely not. Unfortunately, that one ended up being one of my least favorites of the whole challenge. Something about the visuals were just really unpleasant for me. I really enjoyed the other four, though, and they scooted his average way up to #14.

Best movie of his week: Jean de Florette

Worst movie of his week: Holy Motors

Most ambivalent beforehand about whether I would like it or not: Frances Ha

#13: Andy's week

I'm, frankly, a little surprised that this is so high, as I only loved one of these and was not blown away by the rest. But as I look at the rankings, none of them dipped very low, and most of them were above average. So go for it, Andy, take your #13 win! He went with a theme: Tom Hanks movies I hadn't seen. I got Punchline, The Polar Express, Splash, Nothing in Common, and The 'Burbs. Most of these I knew very, very little about, so it was great to get to see them. My two favorites, actually, were two I'm not even sure I'd ever heard of.

Best movie of his week: Punchline

Worst movie of his week: The Polar Express

Most unexpected tone shift (that totally worked): Nothing in Common

Silliest ending: Splash

#12: Megan's week

Megan and I went to school together and though we never talked much about movies as much as we did about our education classes and student teaching experiences, turns out we might be closer in movie taste than I knew. Her choices were Kiki's Delivery Service, Om Shanti Om, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Now You See Me. These were definitely all fun, and there weren't any I really disliked. Whoo!

Best movie of her week: Om Shanti Om

Worst movie of her week: Fantastic Mr. Fox

My very first Bollywood movie: Om Shanti Om

Movie my sister Elizabeth got most excited about me watching: Now You See Me

#11: Jandy's week

I knew I'd get a lot of older movies in Jandy's week, as that's the type of movie she really loves. She chose almost all her movies by looking for movies I might like in genres I didn't love: The Women, Girl Shy, The Killing, The Double Life of Veronique, and Nights of Cabiria. Given that she landed at #11, it worked out pretty well -- though the one I liked most was one she chose just because she thought I'd like it.

Best movie of her week: Nights of Cabiria

Worst movie of her week: The Double Life of Veronique

Best comedy chase: Girl Shy

#10: Henry's week

Henry's a musical theater nerd like me, so, not surprisingly, I got three musicals. He assigned me Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Whisper of the Heart, Shaolin Soccer, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Reefer Madness: The Musical. Since I watched his movies, I've become much more interested in the music for Hedwig and the Angry Inch (especially from the Broadway cast with Neil Patrick Harris), and I'm not sure if that would've happened without watching the movie. So thank you!

Best movie of his week: Reefer Madness

Worst movie of his week: Whisper of the Heart

Most surprisingly hilarious: Shaolin Soccer

Movie with most ridiculous lyrics but awesome music: Jesus Christ Superstar

#9: Joseph's week

This was a really fun week. The line up was as follows: Phantom of the Paradise, You Can Count on Me, Nativity!, Nashville, and Laurence Anyways. Two thoughtful dramas, two ridiculous musicals, and one comedy/drama/ensemble/musical that didn't work so much for me. All but one of this movies landed above #1000 on my chart, making for a really solid week.

Best movie of his week: Nativity!

Worst movie of his week: Nashville

Most satisfying ending: Laurence Anyways

Movie where I realized Mark Ruffalo can act and be interesting: You Can Count On Me

#8: Nick's week

Like Andy's week, this one also seems a little higher than I expected, but it's almost certainly due to my favorite of his week, which landed at an impressive #246 on my chart. It was really, really, really good. The rest hover between #700 and #1100, which made them all enjoyable but not particularly memorable. But I didn't think Silent Hill was going to be memorable either, so who knows what will stick with me a year from now? His movies were Welcome to Dongmakgol, True Romance, Like Crazy, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, and Stage Fright (the 2014 musical)

Best movie of his week: Welcome to Dongmakgol

Worst movie of his week: True Romance

Best documentary I saw this year: Resurrect Dead

#7: Emil's week

Emil was one of the very earliest participants in my challenge -- the second, in fact, if I remember correctly, and for the first half of the year, he was one of only two in my top ten to not have a musical in their lineup. Now he's one of four, but that's still pretty impressive. He gave me Do the Right Thing, Crank, He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not, Show Me Love, and Repulsion.

Best movie of his week: Repulsion

Worst movie of his week: Crank

Most thought-provoking: Do the Right Thing

Most "don't read anything about this movie, just watch it": He Loves Me... He Loves Me NOt

#6: Paul's week

My friend Paul's movies, for the most part, focused on the LGBT community: Transamerica, Connie and Carla, Were the World Mine, Auntie Mame, and Milk. These movies had a pretty wide spread, going all the way from #335 down to #1263, but I really enjoyed nearly all of them. The one I liked least was actually the one most critically acclaimed, while I really liked a couple that were critically panned. So... I'm not sure what that says about me. But it was a good week.

Best movie of his week: Transamerica

Worst movie of his week: Milk

Most fun surprise: Connie and Carla

#5: Derek's week

I really didn't know Derek very well at all before watching his movie, but, man, he gave me some great choices. Three of them I'd just never heard of at all, which was always a fun occurrence. His week included What Maisie Knew, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Bound, and Agora. With the exception of Bound, which I just couldn't ever get into, I really liked the rest of these and would happily recommend and rewatch them.

Best movie of his week: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Worst movie of his week: Bound

Most fascinating protagonist: Agora

Most surprised to learn it was based on an old book because it felt like a modern story: What Maisie Knew

#4: Ross' week

Ross gave me one of the most interesting combinations of movies, and I'm not surprise he ended up in the top 5, as there's not a single one of these I didn't like: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Ikiru, The Thief of Bagdad, The Red Violin, and The Return of Captain Invincible. He even managed to give me one of the most bizarre and entertaining musicals of the challenge. (Really, if you've never seen Christopher Lee sing a song full of ridiculous alcohol-related jokes, you're missing out.)

Best of his week: The Red Violin

Worst of his week: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

Movie I should have seen by now: Ikiru

Best silent adventure I've ever seen: The Thief of Bagdad

#3: Ethan's week

Ethan found some more great choices for "movies I should have also seen," as well as giving me one of my new favorite movies. He selected Planet of the Apes (the original), Lost in America, Heathers, Don't Drink the Water, and Titanic, which made everyone on the group start saying, "WAIT, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TITANIC?" No, I had not. But now I have. I'd just become completely obsessed with into the musical version of Heathers, and the original movie was almost as much fun. Overall, a really, really fun week.

Best movie of his week: Heathers

Worst movie of his week: Lost in America

Movies I should have seen by now: Planet of the Apes and Titanic

#2: Travis' week

Travis put in some serious effort to reach #1 for this challenge, and he did... until the very end of the year, when he was unseated. He quizzed me about what kinds of movies I liked, took note every time I said something like "I really love stories about dystopian futures," and eventually delivered a really solid collection of movies: The Matador, Lagaan, The Minus Man, Dick Tracy, and 9. His work paid off!

Best movie of his week: Dick Tracy

Worst movie of his week: The Matador

Best Owen Wilson: The Minus Man

Most interesting animated visuals: 9

#1: Nathan-not-my-brother's week

Toward the end of the year, Nathan's list came along and scooted everyone down one. He had a quasi-theme of love stories, but they were all interesting and unusual takes on love stories, and all but one of them really gelled with me. His list was So I Married an Axe Murderer, Secretary, Atonement, About Time, and Bicentennial Man. About Time got an initial ranking of #171, making it not only my top movie for the challenge, but my top movie for all of 2014, even above Frozen, which was my #1 up until that point. Really great selection of movies, and it totally worked for me. Congrats!

Best movie of his week: About Time

Worst movie of his week: So I Married an Axe Murderer

Movie that was better than the crowd told me: Bicentennial Man

Most unusual but somehow very sweet love story: Secretary

A few final stats:

Earliest movie of the challenge: Girl Shy and The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

2014 movies I watched: Stage Fright, Coriolanus, and Lust for Love

Jackie Chan movies watched: 4

Studio Ghibli movies watched: 4

Sequels watched: 4

Average score of Flickcharters: 747.35

In comparison, average score of everyone else: 1194.4

Top 10 for the entire challenge:

1. About Time (#172, Nathan-not-my-brother)

2. Reefer Madness (#245, Henry)

3. Welcome to Dongmakgol (#246, Nick)

4. Dick Tracy (#277, Travis)

5. Jean de Florette (#288, Andrew)

6. Heathers (#295, Ethan)

7. Transamerica (#335, Paul)

8. Agora (#355, Derek)

9. The Joy Luck Club (#384, Elizabeth-not-my-sister)

10. The Great Gatsby (#393, Abbie)

Bottom 10 for the entire challenge:

1. Gridiron Gang (#2165, Carolyn)

2. Courageous (#2155, Carolyn)

3. The Cowboys (#2084, Abbie)

4. Holy Motors (#2062, Andrew)

5. The Black Camel (#2058, Mom)

6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (#2057, Stephen)

7. The Last Airbender (#2046, Nathan-my-brother)

8. The Art of War (#1987, Rita)

9. The Good Son (#1984, LaToya)

10. Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers (#1983, Ebenezer)

To everyone who participated, thank you so much! It was an adventurous year but an amazing one, and who knows? Maybe some day I'll do it again.

My Movie Challenge 2014: The Wrap-Up! (Part 1)

Holy cow, guys. I made it through. I MADE IT. With some alterations and a little bit late, but I made it.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I spent 2014 doing a really intense movie challenge where every week I invited one of my friends to pick five new-to-me movies that I would watch that week. I watched them all, ranked them all on Flickchart, and then ended up figuring out their "average" Flickchart score from the five movies they gave me.

So whether you were following along with me in the Facebook group devoted to the challenge or whether this is the first you're hearing of it, here's how the year went down, from the worst-scoring week to the best-scoring week. There were a LOT of weeks so I'm posting half of this today and half of this tomorrow, replacing my regular Tune In Tuesday post.

#46: Billy's week

Billy assigned me Arlington Road, the original Dawn of the Dead, The Howling, Tombstone, and the Christian movie No Greater Love. Every movie but one scored below 1500 on my Flickchart in the end (out of 2300+ movies), and that one movie was Dawn of the Dead, which I liked OK (#870). When I announced that he'd placed at the bottom of my chart, he made some comments that hinted that maybe that was his goal. I told people they were welcome to just choose movies they thought I'd hate. His average Flickchart ranking was 1612, which is... yeah, really low.

Best movie of his week: Dawn of the Dead

Worst movie of his week: No Greater Love

Best special effects: The Howling

Movie I should have seen before now: Tombstone

#45: Ebenezer's week

I knew Eb's week was going to be tough, as it was all kung fu movies and that's not really my genre, though I was open to watching more and seeing if my mind changed. Until I recalculated the Flickchart scores based on what they were at the end of 2014, Ebenezer was at the bottom of the list. His movies were Ip Man, Fist of Legend, Muscle Heat, Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers, and Bunraku, none of which made much of an impression on me. His final score was 1608.8.

Best movie of his week: Bunraku

Worst movie of his week: Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers

Coolest visuals: Bunraku

#44: Carolyn's week

Carolyn was one of the very first people to jump into my challenge. She gave me Courageous, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Silent Movie, the original True Grit, and Gridiron Gang... and then I disliked most of them. A LOT. My favorite movie of the whole week was one she didn't like herself. For the rest of the challenge, we joked that if she liked a movie, I'd probably hate it, and vice versa -- and that turned out to be mostly accurate. Her final score was 1599.8.

Best movie of her week: Silent Movie

Worst movie of her week: Gridiron Gang, though Courageous was only 10 spots behind

Movie I should have seen before now: True Grit

Most fun live-tweet: All Dogs Go to Heaven

Most weirdly message-free Christian movie ever: Courageous

#43: LaToya's week

I haven't known LaToya very long, so I didn't know what kinds of movies she liked. Turns out she has a fondness for psychological thrillers, which I do sometimes too, but the only one I liked this week was the one that wasn't a psychological thriller. Her choices: The Lodger, Hush, Imitation of Life, The Good Son, and Premonition, and she got a final score of 1555.4.

Best movie of her week: Imitation of Life

Worst movie of her week: The Good Son

Most disappointing movie: Premonition

#42: Jennie's week

Jennie and I are very good friends, but as we learned this year, our movie tastes are very different. She gave me Mr. Nice Guy, 17 Miracles, The Watcher in the Woods, Enough, and War of the Buttons. Quite a few of them were from her childhood, but without the nostalgia factor they didn't do much for me. Her final score was 1532.6.

Best movie of her week: War of the Buttons

Worst movie of her week: Enough

Most confusing movie: Watcher in the Woods

The first of four Jackie Chan movies I watched this year: Mr. Nice Guy

#41: Timothy's week

Timothy's week was big on the modern blockbusters I'd missed out on: The Lone Ranger, Rambo, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Man of Steel, and Tears of the Sun. Turns out, most of them I hadn't missed much by skipping before. I did really like one of them, though, and that ended up raising his total score up to 1503.8.

Best movie of his week: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Worst movie of his week: Tears of the Sun

Most "whaaaaat?!" movie: The Lone Ranger

Most depressing visuals: Man of Steel

#40: Bruce's week

Bruce had been joking all year that he would push everybody out of the lowest spot, and while it's true I didn't love any of his picks, I only really disliked one of them. He went with a lot of B-movies and silly action flicks: Green Lantern, 2012, Metal Tornado, The Spy Next Door, and Shanghai Knights, and he ended up with a final score of 1471.4.

Best movie of his week: Shanghai Knights

Worst movie of his week: The Spy Next Door

Most pleasant surprise: 2012

#39: Mom's week

My mom gave me five movies she watched as a child and then, at the last minute, she swapped one of them out for a movie she watched randomly on a trip to Hawaii a month before. Turns out that was my favorite movie of the week, though, so that was a good plan. Her picks were Thermae Romae (the recent one), Stand Up and Cheer, The Black Camel, King of the Zombies, and Beach Party. This week certainly had a wide range, with the top-ranked landing at #530 and the lowest-ranked landing at #2058. She ended up with a final score of 1416.6.

Best movie of her week: Thermae Romae
Worst movie of her week: The Black Camel
Most surprising Oscar nominee: King of the Zombies, for music
Most confusing comedic routines: Stand Up and Cheer

#38: Alisha's week

Alisha went for nostalgic favorites and guilty pleasures, so I knew this could go anywhere. Her choices were Drive Me Crazy, The Cutting Edge, Deep Blue Sea, Center Stage, and Mannequin. This was another one with a huge range in how the movies fared on my Flickchart, ranging from #457 all the way down to #1915, so I think she did pretty OK for herself here!

Best movie of her week: Center Stage
Worst movie of her week: Deep Blue Sea
Most hilarious death scene: Deep Blue Sea
Weirdest James Spader: Mannequin

#37: Sarah's week

Sarah decided she should assign me movies I should have seen by now, and she correctly did just that -- and almost all of them happened to be from the 1980s: Flight of the Navigator, The Color Purple, The Searchers, Moonstruck, and Beaches. I don't really love any of them, and most of them clustered down in the lower half of my chart, but at least I finally watched them all! And that was partly the point of this challenge in the first place.

Best movie of her week: Flight of the Navigator
Worst movie of her week: The Searchers
Weirdest script by a writer who I usually like: Moonstruck

#36: Nathan-my-brother's week

The only duplicate names we had in the challenge were names of my siblings. We had two Nathans, two Bethanys, and two Elizabeths. My brother Nathan gave me Tekkonkinkreet, Rurouni Kenshin, Redline, Dragonball Evolution, and The Last Airbender -- all anime or anime/manga-inspired movies, including two of the worst adaptations of all time, knowing I'd hate them. Well, I did hate them, and I had a tough time with one of his other anime movies, but there were two others I liked a LOT, and that was a delightful surprise. And it didn't hurt his score either.

Best movie of his week: Tekkonkinkreet
Worst movie of his week: The Last Airbender
Most surprising: Rurouni Kenshin
Hardest movie to follow visually: Redline

#35: Randy's week

Frankly, I was not looking forward to Randy's week as soon as I saw his lineup: Smokin' Aces, The Boondock Saints, Swingers, Legend, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I didn't really anticipate liking any of them. But it wasn't so bad after all -- there were a couple I turned out to kind of like and none that I really loathed. So he did all right! Whoo!

Best movie of his week: The Boondock Saints
Worst movie of his week: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Movie that made the least sense: Legend

#34: Stephen's week

Stephen is Jennie's brother, and when she was talking about this movie challenge, he expressed an interest in joining in. So he did, and he assigned me the following movies: The Fall, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, V for Vendetta, and Waking Ned Devine. It was definitely a mixed bag, with two I liked a lot, two I just didn't care for, and one that sat right in the middle. I mostly just felt bad that the one he was most excited about showing off was the one that I liked the least.

Best movie of his week: Waking Ned Devine
Worst movie of his week: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Most fascinating: The Fall
On my should-have-seen-it-by-now list: V for Vendetta

#33: Paige's week

Paige and I talked only occasionally before this, but she gave me a really fascinating selection of movies: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Willow, Blue Velvet, Where the Wild Things Are, and They Live. Nearly all of these were on my watchlist before this. In the end, though, only one of them really wowed me, but I'm really glad I saw them all.

Best movie of her week: They Live
Worst movie of her week: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
On my should-have-seen-it-by-now list: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
First movie I'd seen by a famous director: Blue Velvet

#32: Lisa's week

Lisa's one of my very best friends, and for this week she elected to give me some movies she herself had not seen, mixed in with some she had: Lust for Love, 10 Items or Less, Live-In Maid, Silent Hill, and Junebug. I believe the intention was to watch the unseen ones and discuss them with me, although that didn't really happen, but it was a cool idea. This group has the honor of having a movie that only made a mild impression on me when I watched it, but has stuck with me all the way up until now. And Lisa's week was pretty earlier in the year, so it was a good chunk of time. That movie was Silent Hill. Sitting on it for awhile helped fuzz away my concerns with the plot, leaving only the powerful atmosphere it created. Nice.

Best movie of her week: Junebug (even though I remember Silent Hill more)
Worst movie of her week: 10 Items or Less
Most Joss Whedon people in it: Lust for Love

#31: Rita's week

Rita's week was very evenly spread out. There were two I really liked, two I really disliked, and one that was somewhere in the middle. She assigned me The Crying Game, Eve's Bayou, Inkheart, The Art of War, and Vantage Point. Rita's week was also the first week where I got really far behind on my viewing, because when her week hit I was starting a road trip with my sisters and was gone for two weeks. I never quite caught up from that one.

Best movie of her week: Eve's Bayou
Worst movie of her week: The Art of War
Movie I should have seen before now: The Crying Game

#30: Abbie's week

Abbie was my very first participant in the challenge, and it was a great collection of movies: The Cowboys, The Librarian: Quest of the Spear, Dakota Skye, Crazy Heart, and The Great Gatsby. A nice blend of silly and serious, well-known and obscure. She stayed almost exactly in the middle of the challenge participants throughout the year, and then fell a little further once I retallied scores based on current Flickchart positions.

Best movie of her week: The Great Gatsby
Worst movie of her week: The Cowboys
First of many attempts to find a western I'd like: The Cowboys
Silliest movie of her week: The Librarian

#29: Josh's week

Josh is Lisa's husband, but they have pretty different tastes. He gave me Lucky Number Slevin, V/H/S, V/H/S/2, Star Wars Uncut, and Cropsey. I liked most of these a little bit only one of them a lot. I'm glad I got some horror movies assigned to me, though. I didn't get many of those throughout the challenge, and I'm not opposed to horror or anything. He was also one of VERY few people to assign me a documentary, and even though I ended up being disappointed by Cropsey, I'm glad he gave me that movie.

Best movie of his week: Lucky Number Slevin
Worst movie of his week: V/H/S
Most uneven movie: Star Wars Uncut

#28: Hayley's week

I'm, frankly, a little surprised to see this so high on the list, since there were quite a few this week I was just unenthused by. But the one movie I loved, I loved a LOT and it pulled up her average a bunch. So that's cool! Her movies for me were Keith, How to Deal, Take This Waltz, Double Jeopardy, and Ender's Game. I'd been meaning to watch Ender's Game since it came out, so that was a fun addition to the list.

Best movie of her week: Take This Waltz
Worst movie of her week: Keith
Most just-okay movie of her week: Ender's Game

#27: Christian's week

Three out of Christian's five movies were animated, and two of them topped my list! His choices were Princess Mononoke, Madagascar 3, The Forbidden Kingdom, Summer Wars, and Snatch. Snatch was one of those acclaimed movies I was pretty sure I wouldn't like (I was right), so I'd never gotten around to making myself watching. This challenge was good for that. :-) I'd also been meaning to watch Princess Mononoke for a long time and just somehow never did.

Best movie of his week: Summer Wars
Worst movie of his week: Snatch and Madagascar 3 landed within one spot of each other on my Flickchart, so they can duke it out.
First non-Ghibli anime movie I'd ever seen: Summer Wars

#26: Bethany not-my-sister's week

In my challenge, I had decided I'd refer to the people who shared names with my siblings with their last initials (Nathan C., Elizabeth S.) but then Bethany not-my-sister's last name also begins with M, so that is quite unhelpful. Anyway, Bethany gave me a really interesting group of movies; The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Coriolanus (the National Theater Live version from 2014 with Tom Hiddleston), The Last Unicorn, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and Baby Mama. There were definitely a couple pleasant surprises this week.

Best movie of her week: Coriolanus
Worst movie of her week: Baby Mama
Biggest surprise: The Last Unicorn
Movie that I had the toughest time deciding whether I liked or disliked but eventually settled on liked: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

#25: Jenneh's week

I knew very, very little of any of the movies Jenneh assigned me: The Ramen Girl, Killing Season, Syrup, American Outlaws, and Neverwas. While all year I was guessing my favorite and least favorite, I had zero idea what I was going to think of any of these. Overall, it was a pretty solid week though, with a few dips above the average and a few dips below but no extremes. It was also an interesting mix of genres, with a fantasy, a western, a satirical rom com, a psychological thriller, and a heartwarming comedy/drama.

Best movie of her week: American Outlaws
Worst movie of her week: Syrup
Best surprise: Killing Season
Western I liked but felt guilty about because it wasn't actually that good but I just liked it: American Outlaws
Most wasted potential: Neverwas

#24: John's week

John had to make a last-minute substitution when I couldn't find his movies, but his list ended up being full of movies I'd wanted to see for quite some time: Eat Pray Love, Running With Scissors, Burlesque, Memoirs of a Geisha, and August: Osage County. My favorite and least favorite, if I recall correctly, were the exact opposite of what I guessed they would be. Overall, this was a good spread of movies. Even the ones I didn't love were movies I very well could have loved.

Best movie of his week: Eat Pray Love
Worst movie of his week: Burlesque
Movie that featured Benedict Cumberbatch speaking and singing with a southern accent which was very strange to get used to: August: Osage County
Movie that I really needed to see exactly when I saw it because it made me feel better about everything: Eat Pray Love

Continuing with 23-1 tomorrow!

My 28 Days of Romance Movie Challenge

Throughout the month of February, I decided I wanted to take on a movie challenge. Every day, I would use Flickchart to figure out my #1 unseen romance movie and watch it. Some of them were tragic romances, some were cheerful rom coms, one got unclassified as a romance after I pointed out to the Flickchart kings that there wasn't much romance actually in it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this challenge. I watched a lot of movies I wouldn't have watched otherwise, and some of them turned out to really be worth it. I will probably do this again next year.

So here are all the movies I watched for this challenge in February:

The Ones I Loved

Better Off Dead. It's been a long time since I laughed this consistently at a movie. A bizarre, surreal rom com. So good.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Not spectacular as a romance specifically, but it's just a really good movie. And that's saying a lot, because I really hate westerns.

The Ones I Liked

In a Lonely Place. A fantastic noir looking at the dark side of relationships. I want to give this one another watch in a couple years and see if I like it even more.

La Strada. Oh, this was sad. A heartbreaking tragedy with some excellent acting for both central characters.

Moonrise Kingdom. My fourth Wes Anderson flick, and probably my second favorite, after Tenenbaums. it's just a lot of fun.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. A very moving story of redemption and rekindled love.

The Lady Vanishes. A nice light-hearted mystery and I did love the romance in this one. They make for a fun couple.

The Red Shoes. A pretty traditional love story, but filled with some gorgeous dancing.

Red. Fascinating little drama, though I've been told I should see the other two in the trilogy to really understand the ending.

Ninotchka. Sweet and ridiculous 1930s rom com. Not substantial, but it sure makes for a fun viewing experiences.

Ugetsu. While not quite as sad as La Strada, I reacted to it in a very similar way. This one has a very dark beauty to it.

La Jetée. One of the few experimental films I actually really enjoy, this is a great science fiction story told in a very unique way.

A Matter of Life and Death. Pretty charming, even if it does get extremely cheesy at times.

The Ones I Thought Were Okay

Badlands. Martin Sheen was the most interesting part about this Bonnie and Clyde-esque movie.

Laura. As much as I dislike detective-based noirs, this one had some fun twists I didn't see coming, and even though I didn't love it, I didn't hate it either.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High. There are a lot of stories going on here, and a few of the "main" ones are just not interesting at all. The ones that are interesting, though, are entertaining.

Chungking Express. I had great difficulty following the narrative, but what I followed I liked pretty well.

From Russia With Love. Probably my favorite Bond that I've seen so far, though that isn't saying much. And I couldn't for the life of me tell you what actually happened in this movie today, two weeks after I watched it. It had something to do with Russia.

The Ones I Didn't Like

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Some good bits, but far, far too long and sprawling to hold my attention.

Children of Paradise. Thoroughly enjoyed the first half, then the second one came along and was boring, melodramatic, and made all my favorite characters thoroughly unlikable.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Too much raunch for not nearly enough laughs.

Days of Heaven. I just don't get Terrence Malick. I don't. I was so bored through this movie.

Giant. The last half hour is pretty good, but it takes so very, very long to get there...

From Here to Eternity. The only part I cared about was the subplot with Frank Sinatra. Everything else was thoroughly uninteresting.

Out of the Past. A detective-based femme fatale noir. It's not that surprising I didn't get into it.

The Ones I Hated

Jules and Jim. I could not have cared less about the fates of these people. If I spend the entire movie with three people watching them interact, I expect to care about them at some point...

Barry Lyndon. The 3-hour saga of the most unpleasant person ever, who goes around destroying lives everywhere.

Pierrot le Fou. An infuriating mix of narrative and experimental film. The two fight each other all the way through the flick instead of complementing.

If you want to read longer reviews of these movies, you can find most of them at my Letterboxd page.

What are your favorite romance movies?

Blogging Schedule! (I Can Do This!)

So I am going to attempt a semi-regular blogging schedule. It's never a bad thing to try to organize your life a little, right? So I am going to plan to write something, anything, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

(By the way, this totally counts as my Monday post.)

The goal is to write a bunch over the weekends, since the mood rarely really strikes me during the week, and then post-date them so they'll show up on the given days. This also helps since I get so absent-minded - now I can write them whenever and they'll post on the right day, even if I forget until Thursday that yesterday was Wednesday.

(I was about to say, "Oh, hey, yesterday was Wednesday," but then realized that I'm writing this on Thursday but not posting it until Monday, so I would just sound completely insane.)

So there's that info there. I can do it! I can do it!

Movie Challenge (Day 7)

Day 7: Movie that makes you feel guilty.

Hmm. Now, I know there are movies I really feel awful admitting I like. I'm just having trouble thinking of any of them. I promise it's not because I'm avoiding admitting I like them.

Oh, wait. I absolutely know which one I feel most guilty about liking. Because it is not a very good movie. And the ending makes absolutely no sense. And the acting is awkward. But it did to me exactly what it was trying to do. It scared the crap outta me.

And that movie is The Happening.

I am one of three people I know who didn't hate The Happening. Like I said, it ended up being a very effective movie for me. It did for me what good horror movies manage to do for everyone - it preyed on a specific fear I already had ingrained within me. I am terrified of the idea of losing control of myself. I like being aware and in control of what I'm doing at all times. It creeps me out when I'm extremely tired and stop being able to really rationally control what I'm saying.

Given that, it's not really surprising that this movie left me almost literally paralyzed with fear at some point. Watching these people slowly lose control of themselves was like my worst nightmare. I was so emotionally involved in the movie that seeing the final survivors emerge at the end was an extremely cathartic experience.

It doesn't matter how cheesy the dialogue was, or how awkward the acting of the main characters was... seeing scene after scene of people lose their minds is one of the most horrifying things I can think of. And knowing I myself was safe at the end of that was an amazing sense of release.

It was a very intense, very personal movie-watching experience for me. This movie just happened to tap into something that had terrified and does still terrify me. That's what horror movies try to do on a more universal level. Unfortunately, The Happening seems to really only have been effective for me. But it was so effective for me that I'm thrown off and have trouble articulating to others why I actually really liked this movie.

Movie Challenge (Day 6)

Day 6: Biggest movie character crush.

Oh, boy. There are some pretty amazing movie characters out there, and I have fallen in love with a lot of them. But I'm pretty sure it's always going to have to come back to my very first movie character crush... Han Solo from the original Star Wars trilogy. In fact, I had a crush on Han Solo before I had a crush on anyone I knew in real life, back when I was 11 or so. Not usually a fan of the "supposed mercenary with a heart of gold" type character, but Han's a great character with a nice snarky sense of humor.

Hard to choose my favorite Han Solo moment, too, so here's this one.

Movie Challenge (Day 5)

Day 5: Your favorite movie at this time last year.

My favorite movie hasn't changed much in the past few years. It's been steadily rotating between Casablanca, Love Actually, Annie Hall, and Moulin Rouge! for several years now. Since I've already mentioned Casablanca, let me go ahead and pay tribute to Love Actually with this one.

Love Actually was one of the earlier ensemble rom coms and one of the only good ones. Heck, it's one of the only rom coms ever that I enjoy. Richard Curtis is a funny screenwriter who produces good dialogue and instantly-likable characters. The cheesy mushiness is off the charts on this movie but it's all done with a sort of "yes, we know it's silly but just enjoy it with us!" attitude that I find completely infectious. It's not a deep movie. It's not life-changing in any way. It just always makes me happy whenever I watch it.

It's hard to pick a favorite clip or favorite moment from this movie, so here's a musical moment from it that always makes me smile whenever I watch it.

Movie Challenge (Day 4)

Day 4 - The most surprising plot twist.

I'm in the unfortunate position of 1) knowing enough about movies to know most major plot twists before I see them because people spoil things everywhere, and 2) knowing enough about movies to guess at the less popular ones. The few that have taken me by surprise are things that are sort of odd choices - for example, the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. had two minor plot twists, neither of which I saw coming, but it's not exactly what you would call a mind-bender of a movie.

So I'm going to go with the one that gives me one of my favorite movie-related stories from my childhood.

(Note: If you don't know the twist in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back, congratulations for having avoided SO MUCH POP CULTURE. But now you should stop reading, go watch the original Star Wars trilogy immediately, and then come back and finish reading this post.)

I was 11 or 12 when I first watched the original Star Wars trilogy. I knew nothing about it, but was really enjoying it and all the characters. Then, in the middle of the second movie, came the twist that was supposed to blow my mind.

For someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of the Star Wars world and characters, this should have been a great twist.

Except it didn't work on me.

Darth Vader's all about trying to get Luke to give in to his anger, trying to manipulate him emotionally to try to get him on his side. So what better way to do that than to tell him that he is Luke's father? It could make Luke feel betrayed by Obi-Wan, disconnected from his purpose. It sounds like a great way to lure him over to the Dark Side.

Clearly Darth Vader was just lying to him to mess with his head. And being the gullible creature he is, Luke falls for it.

And then, for some reason, this obvious lie wasn't corrected in the rest of this movie. I began to wonder if Luke's misconception would keep manipulating him and lead to his ultimate downfall.

And then, partway through Return of the Jedi, the ghost of Obi-Wan casually confirms that this is true.

And I went, "Wait, WHAAAAAAT?"

After having assumed for quite awhile now that it was all a nefarious lie, the news that this was actually true hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't focus for the next 20 minutes of the movie or so because I kept going over everything in between the announcement of the twist and when I actually found out it was true, reframing it all in my head to make sense with this new information.

I still do think it's odd that Luke buys into this so quickly (although the "you know it to be true" line could be part of it - he has some hunch that pushes him to believe it?) because if an 11-year-old thought it was an obvious lie, then someone trained by Yoda should certainly have at least considered that possibility.

Movie Challenge (Day 3)

(Day 3... a few days later. Because I had trouble coming up with an answer to this one.)

Day 3 - A movie you could never watch with your parents.

Well, my father and I are both pretty open in our movie-viewing preferences. There's not a lot that actively bothers us. Mom's a lot more conservative in what she enjoys watching, so there are a lot of movies I'd never watch with her. There are fewer I wouldn't watch with Dad.

Admittedly, it would be awkward to watch something like, say, Black Swan with my father, but in that movie's case, I'm convinced enough of the movie's brilliance (I love Black Swan) that getting to share that with someone else would override the awkwardness of some of the scenes in the middle. I'm a big believer in the idea of the movie as a whole as opposed to the individual parts, and I'm pretty sure my father is as well. So I'm pretty sure the only movies I could never watch with my parents are movies that I loathe myself for sitting all the way through in the first place... and a movie instantly jumps to mind. I have never felt a stronger need to cleanse my brain than I did after I watched Mallrats. I have deliberately avoided other Kevin Smith movies because that one made me feel like such a terrible person for even watching any of that. I'm not even sure what it was about it that disgusted me so much. I watched it long enough ago that I don't remember all the particulars, just the resulting emotions from when it was finally over. Yeah, never watching that one with the parents.

I am not linking a clip of this movie. You know, because I hate it.

The Movie Challenge (Take 2)

Hey, remember when I tried to do the 50 Day Movie Challenge last year? And it failed miserably because I posted one time and then forgot about it? Well, movie blogger Brittany Rivera over at Snap. Crackle. Pop... Culture has started on the Facebook movie challenge as well, and I thought, "Right! That's fun! I should try that again!"

But you know what's happened since that first movie challenge thing started? There are now alternate versions all over the place. So it's no longer 30 or 50 all together... there are at least four different possible lists. Some of them are duplicates, yes, but all four have some unique questions. So I'm going to try this again and work through all four of these lists. I have them all in a list and am going to choose a question at random from it until I'm done with all of them. (Or, well, at least that's the plan.)

So here goes.

The one time I posted, the question was about my favorite movie, and I said Casablanca. So I'm not answering that question again if it comes up.

Day 2 - Favorite book-to-movie adaptation.

Oh, this is an easy one for me. I read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby in high school and loved it, and I was pretty worried to watch the movie adaptation. The book had such vivid, interesting characters, and I was certain that the movie would never be able to measure up to it. Something would be done wrong. Something would be terrible.

But, it turns out, nothing was.

With the sole exception of Ian (and even then not too much), every single character was exactly how I had imagined them to be from the book. I suddenly understood what people meant when they talked about characters they knew coming to life on the screen. It was almost eerie how well it matched. Even when there were changes from the book as far as plot, the characters were so true to the spirit of the book that it didn't really matter.

It's been a little while since I rewatched this one, but even just watching this clip I found on YouTube makes me want to go back and watch it again. I'd do it right now, except I left the copy I got for Christmas at home in Illinois. Whoops.