Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead, 2004
Shaun of the Dead [Blu-ray]



Ugh a zombie stoner Comedy. Gross!

After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)

Sometimes I think my friends put suggestions on the list as a way to get back at me for not going to the movies with them or something just as silly. For the record, I can't stand any of the Cheech and Chong movies, and I don't know how I'm really going to make it through Harol and Kumar. Which, may or may not be why I've yet to sit down and watch it.

When I got this movie from Netflix, I really didn't want to sit down and watch it. I told my Grams I had to watch a movie in order to get it back out in the mail the next day, but that I didn't think it'd be any good. She was kind enough to sit through the movie with me. Surprisingly enough, she sat through the whole thing.

Final thoughts: I don't think this is a matter of hating the movie before I sat down to watch it and then hating it after watching it. Stoner Comedy mixed with zombies never sounded remotely like anything I'd enjoy. If anything, it's made me want to push back the rest of the zombie movies for later.

OFFICIAL COUNT 170 DOWN 195 TO GO

Next up: Lolita

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000, 1988
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (Widescreen)



It wasn't until I started dating The Boyfriend that I had ever heard about Mystery Science Theater 3K. I think the day I told him I had no idea what a Mystery Science Theater was we watch Manos the Hands of Fate episode. After that I was hooked, and it was a no brainer that I had to add this movie to the 365 Movie Challenge.

After having watched the movie:

I loved Manos the Hands of Fate, and I loved this movie just as much. Although I have to say that I don't imagine I could ever really watch the movies featured in the show without the added commentary. It's the kind of commentary that you welcome in bad movies, but not during the Super Bowl or perhaps more important than the game but the Super Bowl Commercials. The movie reminds me of the commentary with Showgirls, which is really the only real way to watch that movie.

Final thoughts: After watching an episode of the TV show and the movie, I kind of want to kick myself for not watching or even knowing about the series before now. I don't know what it is but there's something to be sad for bad movies that are so bad, they're good. This one is great the same way The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is great.

OFFICIAL COUNT: 169 DOWN 196 TO GO

Next up: Shaun of the Dead

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)

I wish I could have watched this movie as a kid, more specifically as an eight year old boy or forty year old man. I guess if you're going to go with the male aspect, you don't really need to specify an age. Either way, it's the perfect adventure movie for a little kid. I'm assuming this isn't big news for the rest of the world as I'm sure I'm the only one who until recently had not seen the movie.

What I hadn't realized about the movie was that it was set in the 1940s and not in a modern day setting, this was probably the biggest surprise in the whole movie for me. Not that I'm complaining, it's one of my favorite eras in American History and a movie set in that era provides era appropriate eye candy, naturally. I'm talking clothes here people! It also explains why Indiana Jones always made such a to-do about his hat, I never understood why his hat was such a big deal until then. It was custom for men to wear hats in the 1940s and slowly faded out around the time President Kennedy took office. I'm typically a big fan of Jackie O., but why she never encouraged her husband to wear a hat is beyond me. The story behind the hat is a little more involved than just men typically wearing hats in 1940s America. The hat is from a famous hat shop in London's Saville Row. It was the shops version of an Australian hat that took both the costume designer and Harrison Ford sitting on the hat and roughing it up a bit to get a "lived in and well-loved" look. A similar procedure was used for the matching leather jacket, of which the production company had to purchase ten jackets for stunt purposes. Both items (the hat and leather jacket) are on display at the Smithsonian.

Another iconic scene from the movie was when Indy has to escape the run away boulder and stumbles as he sprints to safety. There was actually a surprising amount of information about the boulder (and movie for that matter) available online and through the bonus features on the DVD. The boulder interestingly enough was constructed from fiberglass and the sequence required Harrison Ford to outrun the massive fiberglass boulder ten times. It was on his first attempt to outrun the boulder that he stumbled. The stumble made it into the final cut once director Steven Spielberg decided it looked and felt authentic. To achieve the appropriate sound for the boulder, the sound department attempted to roll multiple boulders but were unable to come up with an appropriate sound. It wasn't until they had decided to pack up and leave that they notice the sound of the Honda Civic coasting on a gravel embankment that they found a sound were happy enough with. Additional sounds created for the movie were created by hitting a pile of leather jackets with a baseball bat, and the sound of removing the lid of a toilet cistern.

The film would end up being another massive hit for Lucas, who I'm convinced at this point managed to make a killer deal with the devil for all of his success, as it would go on to be the highest grossing film of the year. Not only was Lucas known for making a killer deal on his Star Wars movies, but landed an amazing deal with the studios who financed the films entire $20 million dollar budget. In exchange, Lucas owns over 40% of the film and collects almost half of the profits once the studio reached a capped amount of money. Again, it's incredible the kind of deals this man makes with studio heads.

Final thoughts: While I'm not ready to make a deal with the devil in the same way Lucas did, I wouldn't mind be able to come up with some of these great epic stories Lucas seems to be full of. And while none of the other Indiana Jones movies are part of the 365 Movie Challenge I look forward to watching them again in the future.

OFFICIAL COUNT: 168 DOWN 197 TO GO

Next up: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Anatomy of a Murder (SPOILER ALERT - I'm not holding back)

Anatomy of a Murder, 1959
Anatomy of a Murder

For 1959 this movie has a lot of things going up against it. The movie was originally banned in Chicago and James Stewart's father took out an ad calling the movie, "a dirty picture" warning people not to see the picture. A lot of the controversy surrounding the movie was because of the language with words like, "bitch," "contraceptive," "panties," "penetration," "rape," "slut," and "sperm" and was one of the first films to challenge the Hayes Code.

Once you can get beyond the 'inappropriate language' of the movie, settle down because you're in for a great movie. Finally, after having watched The Hours and The Wild Bunch a movie that I really liked. As in, this would be an acceptable birthday present. I wasn't trying to figure out the plot and where the movie was going and that's the way to watch this movie. It was great to watch the movie and wonder what was going on with this lady that she didn't seem to understand how important the impression she made on the jury was, or that if things weren't pieced together just right at the end her husband was going to be convicted for murder despite the fact his wife had been rapped. Or had she? Where were the panties she had told the jury she was wearing that night and if she wasn't a bit of a slut why did she keep appearing to come onto her lawyer?

Oh and then the end of the movie! I loved it. It was perfect. I typically am not a big fan of open ended movies, because well sometimes I like for things to be spelled out for me. But this? This was perfect. I loved that the couple fled town in the middle of the night and that their trailers sight looked like maybe her husband did have a bad temper when he was drinking and killed the man out of anger when he found out she was more than willing to have sex with him. After all, that's nothing the deceased would have been opposed to, he had a daughter out of wedlock.

Final thoughts: For those who were interested in this movie, I really hope you've watched it before reading this. I hate spoilers but it's one of those that you can't really talk about with keeping the end of the story a secret for very long.

OFFICIAL COUNT: 167 DOWN 198 TO GO

Next up: Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch, 1969
The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)



My Grams watched almost every Western when she was growing up. It was a thing she did with her Grandpa and even my Grandpa's family made a big to-do about watching and listening to Westerns on the radio. I don't get it, I've never really been interested in the genera. So it makes sense that when I watched the movie she sat down and watched it with me.

After watching the movie though, oh my! If there was any doubt it's all been cleared up, I don't like Westerns. But once I started reading about the movie after I watched it, I can't say the movie doesn't have anything to offer. The original release of the film has about 3,643 cuts which is more than any other Technicolor film according to the film's editor Lou Lombardo. The final show down, which the crew later nick named "Shootout at Bloody Porch" has 325 cuts which make the average shot length just under one second. That's incredible to think about all of the coverage that was necessary as well as the amount of time that went into shooting a five minute scene. I worked on The Whisper Home last January and we had fifteen days to shoot an entire feature length film, the "Shootout at Bloody Porch" took twelve days to shoot and was only a five minute scene.

The "Shootout at Bloody Porch" also required 10,000 squibs, which are small explosive devices attached to the body or costume of an actor and are used to simulated bullet hits. A squib is typically applied by a stuntman or someone hired to handle explosives, and while there are typically no major injuries that occur when using a squib they are potentially very dangerous. Which is why I suggest leaving any kind of squib work to professionals.
Interested in learning more about squibs? click here!

Aside from all the coverage nightmares a twelve days scene has sparked, I couldn't imagine the headache it would have created for the Wardrobe and Makeup Departments. In anticipation of the shoot 'em up scenes seven costumes were made for each lead actor, and quick repairs and clean ups were required for the stunt men and extras in the scene. The total body count for the film reached 145 bodies, and the amount of violence in the movie caused a bit of a fuss even for 1969. The MPAA settled for an R rating but originally wanted to give the movie a doomed X rating.

Final thoughts: The movie had a lot to offer with it's achievements in the greatest number of cuts and a ridiculously scheduled twelve day scene that would only play for five minutes on screen, but it's just not my favorite Western. That titles seems yet to be claimed.

OFFICIAL COUNT: 166 DOWN 199 TO GO

Next up: Anatomy of a Murder

Incorrectly titled: The Hours (because really, it feels like days)

The Hours, 2002
The Hours

I can't remember who recommended this movie to me, but so help me if I ever remember they're going to get an ear full! This was one of the driest movies I've watched throughout the 365 Movie Challenge. Okay, driest might be too extreme, I did watch 8 1/2 earlier this year. Only, The Hours isn't foreign and has Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore so I need to hear from fans of this movie. I have to know what was so great about it, because I missed it completely.

I think it's interesting to hear about actors who go to great lengths to find their characters by taking dance classes, or reading and talking to people who knew the person they're portraying intimately. The work Nicole Kidman put into the role, she read all of Viriginia Woolf's personal letters and wore a fake nose, paid off in form of an Academy Award. Meryl Streep, who is well known for going to great lengths to understand and become her characters, listened to certain music she felt would better help her understand the role she was playing. The films director was so impressed with the choice Streep made that the song was used in the films soundtrack. She did however decided not to reread Mrs. Dalloway, the novel written by Virginia Woolf. Streep felt as though her character wouldn't have really understood the book the same way she had when she first read the book in college.

Despite the cast of the film, I just couldn't be more interested in the movie if I had tried. I think Steven Persall said it perfectly in the review he wrote for the St. Petersburg Times.

It is the most finely crafted film of the past year that I never want to sit through again. The performances are flawless, the screenplay is intelligentyly crafted, and the overall mood is relentlessly bleak. It is a film to be admired, not embraced, and certainly not to be enjoyed for any reason other than its expertise. Glacially paced and somberly presented, The Hours demands that viewers be as impressed with the production as the filmmakers are with themselves. Whatever the reason - too gloomy, too slow, too slanted - it is too highbrow and admireably dull for most moviegoers. It's the kind of film that makes critics feel smarter by recommending it, even at the risk of damaging credibility with mainstream audiences who automatically think any movie starring Kidman, Streep, and Moore is worth viewing. The hours will feel like days to them.

Final thoughts: Dear Steven Persall, Let's do lunch. Your final words on the movie were exactly what my thoughts were when the credits rolled.

OFFICIAL COUNT: 165 DOWN 200 TO GO

Next up: The Wild Bunch