Movie Viewing List 2009
Updated October 12, 2009 - HORRORWATCH 2009!
I keep saying I'm going to keep a list of movies I watch, and so... voila! The second list is the long-awaited HORRORWATCH 2009 list, born from recommendations and top 100 lists discussed in this post and this post.
* Twilight
- Someone has pointed out to me that there needs to be more commentary here than "ugh". I assume "Blech" won't do either. How's this? A beautifully shot stinker of a tween movie starring a creepy, emotionally abusive stalker blood-drinking undead weirdo (in my reality, vampires need fangs, or they're more like zombies, kthxbai) who falls in love with a TSTL (too stupid to live) mopey, clutzy, spineless doormat of a teenaged chick who has no purpose in life or personality outside aforementioned weirdo. Oh, and there's another vampire who wants to eat her. The end.
* Growing Op - a cute coming of age sort of story about a guy whose family runs a suburban weed growing operation.
* Iron Man
* Bedtime Stories
* Beverly Hills Chihuahua
* The Shrek Trilogy
(had only seen the first one to date)
* *says with deep shame* High School Musical
* *only slightly less shame* 17 Again
* Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
* Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
* Caprica - Definitely want to see the show now!
* Star Trek 2009 - WHEEE!
* Hancock - This should have been a MUCH better movie! I mean... the pieces were all there, and yet it still didn't work. I still love Will Smith with all my heart, nonetheless. And it wasn't even close to the worst superhero movie ever made.
* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - SO much better than the BBC series, the former should just be taken off the market so the new one isn't embarrassed. Alan Rickman as the depressed Robot Marvin is well worth the price of admission alone.
* The Great Raid - Okay, I am a pacifist, and I enjoy war movies like I enjoy root canals as a rule. But it was father's day, and this is my dad's thing, so I watched a few with him, and wow. This was a really enthralling WWII story that I had never heard before about he most successful rescue of POW's in American History. It also examines a little bit of the Philippino Resistance against the Japanese, which was also interesting. Plus, it had a hopeful, if not exactly happy, ending, where not everybody dies.
* Letters From Iwo Jima - I found this other movie WAY outside my usual comfort zone to be one of the best movies I've seen of late. It's fascinating as an examination of a culture that may seem utterly alien to most modern Americans, as well as a side of a pretty common story (about the battle at Iwo Jima) told from the *opposite* point of view. It really lends an interesting new perspective, and frankly, only bolsters my complete abhorrence of war.
* Mama Mia - Another one that really SHOULD have been good, or at least fun and campy, but... wow, did it suck. I can't believe how much it sucked. I mean... has Meryl Streep ever made a suckier movie? And Pierce Brosnan should be banned from singing EVER. AGAIN.
* Thirteen - Wow. I was left kind of shell-shocked after this movie. I saw SO much of my own delinquent adolescence in this story, it freaked me out a little bit. Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter were both absolutely AMAZING.
* Little Ashes - Fascinating story about the love affair/friendship between Salvador Dali and poet/revolutionary Federico García Lorca, who was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. RPatz is excellent in his role as young Dali, and really should stick to this kind of film. Maybe with his billions from the Twilight series, he can.
* Catch and Release - You know, romantic comedy has been a guilty pleasure of mine my whole life. It's sad that in recent years, they've been leaving me kind of uninspired for the most part. Well, this one was different. I enjoyed all the secondary stories, and Jennifer Garner is the cutest thing ever. I even cried. A lot.* Ten Inch Hero - Another really adorable movie where everybody struggles to find true love. Happy happy happy ending with naked hippies that made me go "Awwwww." Jensen Ackles is too cute for his own good. Even full of piercings, weird facial hair and a grass green fauxhawk.
* Kill Your Darlings - ANOTHER sweet movie! This one stars Alexander Skarsgard as a suicidal transvestite, and Julie Benz as a suicidal... er... blonde lady. Sort of strange, but in a sweet way -- a cross between a road trip movie, a mind screw movie, and a love story.
* How She Move - Pretty standard "kid from the projects makes good through dance" film. It stars True Blood's Rutina Wesley, a young woman determined to earn enough money to get back into her private boarding school and eventually become a doctor, who has to withdraw after her sister's drug overdose. Not a bad movie as the genre goes, and Rutina is AMAZING!
* The Ugly Truth - Wow, I haven't seen such a ridiculous piece of crap disguised as a romantic comedy in... well, ever. But Gerry Butler is in it, so who cares?
* Zack and Miri Make A Porno - Adorable, quirky love story -- the only kind Kevin Smith knows how to make. And Jay is weirdly hot in this part. Go figure.
* Marie Antoinette - Fashionable portrait of the doomed queen starring Kirsten Dunst. Very pretty film and sad, but also kind of detached in a way I find difficult to describe.
*The Notorious Bettie Page
- I just adore Bettie Page, and this movie was a cute little portrait, but I don't think it was very in-depth or realistic. Gretchen Moll does a great job, though.
* Shrink
- You would think a movie where Kevin Spacey gets burned out as a psychiatrist and decides to become a giant pothead would be right up my alley, right? Yeah, not so much. I turned it off about halfway through or so and then just forgot to watch it. And didn't care.
* Saw I - Actually pretty scary, twisty, and much better than I expected!
* Audition - this movie traumatized me for life. Terrifying, disturbing, absolutely disgusting. Great horror flick!
* Near Dark
* Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula - Actually a long time favorite of mine. Campy and full of non-Wirgins.
* My Bloody Valentine 3D - Oh, Jensen. WHY?
* Cemetery Man (saw it years ago, but just re-watched) - Wry, funny, gross. Rupert Everett + zombies = WIN!
* Dead & Breakfast - AWESOME. Between the hokey ho-down soundtrack and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, made of all kinds of win.
* Shaun of the Dead -- favorite zombie movie EVER
* Otto; or, Up with the Dead -- This movie is almost completely indescribable beyond "Gay Zombie Porn" but it is still much more than that. Not scary, but definitely gory.
* The Strangers (2008) -- Scared the ever livin' FUCK out of me!
* Repo: The Genetic Opera-- LOVED it. Not scary so much as creepy and gory, but man is ASH a sexy mufu! Meow! I adored the whole thing: goth opera meets Rocky Horror meets future techno horror. Very cool.
* Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - I kind of expected more, but it wasn't bad. Johnny Depp actually CAN carry a tune, thus proving him the best actor ever of all time. Plus Alan Rickman doesn't hurt.
* Coraline - I debated about where to place this, because it's kind of YA horror. It's creepy, though, and dark, so I decided to put it here.
* Lesbian Vampire Killers - On one hand, I loved it -- campy, funny, gross, completely inappropriate. On the other hand... it's got some themes about women and lesbians that hit some of my not fun squick buttons. So... I'm not sure whether it will be a favorite.
* Drag Me to Hell
- That scared the SHIT out of me! In a hokey Sam Raimi way, but still. Not necessarily a keeper, but fun to watch.
* Midnight Movie - Mediocre, but not terrible. A serial killer breaks in and out of a horror movie and terrorizes a theater full of various people.
* Hostel (Director's Cut)
- I pretty much wanted to scream through this whole movie. Gross and disturbing. Thumbs... er... off?
* The Skeptic
- Creepy ghost story starring Tim Daley. I suspect it was straight to video or maybe TV. Okay Saturday afternoon fare.
* Zombieland - Very funny take on the zombie genre. Worth it for Woody Harrelson's character alone, but over all, Shaun of the Dead did it better.
* Trick 'r Treat
- LOVED it! Great scares, perfect, good old fashioned Halloween fun!
* Ghost Writer (2007) - Alan Cummings is a narcissistic, batshit musician with a weakness for cute young con men who want to be writers, David Boreanaz is a cute young con man who wants to be a writer. Things get... complicated. Very strange, sort of stunted movie, but both David and Alan are great in their parts.
* Hedwig and the Angry Inch - A wild, weird, tragic, wonderful story of a transgendered rock star and hir struggle for success.
* Waiting for Guffman - rewatch. Hilarious tale of the conceits of community theater.
*Velvet Goldmine - Rewatch, one of my favorite movies of all time, which I always forget until I watch again. A fictionalized account of the rise and fall of 70's Glam Rock.
* But I'm a Cheerleader! - Sweet and funny, campy and still poignant, story of a teen-aged lesbian sent to "straight camp."
* The Celluloid Closet - A fascinating documentary about gays and lesbians in film from its conception to about 1995.
* Party Monster - based on the real life story of "King of the Club Kids," Michael Alig, and the gruesome murder of drug dealer Angel Melendez. Stars a campy and fabulous Seth Green, and Macaulay Culkin as the club kid himself.
* Big Eden - an absolutely adorable love story about a gay artist who returns to his Northern Exposure-eque hometown after years living in New York.
* La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) - Wow, a fantastic, twisty Spanish mystery about a filmmaker who is visted by a man who says he's his childhood sweetheart, but things are not what they seem. There are dirty priests, cross-dressers, murder and blackmail. Fun!
* Desert Hearts - If somebody could explain the inclusion of this excruciatingly boring movie in the top five of every single lesbian film list I found, that would be great. The characters are unsympathetic (and not in a good way), the story is ridiculous, I didn't in any way buy it was supposed to be the 1950's, and the music made me want to slit my throat. The only redeeming value was the lovely sex scene 3/4 of the way through, but that's 5 minutes out of 90. Not a good ratio.
* Better Than Chocolate - Now THIS was a really good movie. Sweetly entertaining and really inclusive, which I'm starting to discover is surprisingly absent in Queer Cinema. Everybody falls in love: the lesbians, the straight woman, the trans-woman, the bisexual, and even the men. Of course, it's Canadian, which is why. Canadians are nice. :)
* The Sweetest Thing - Awww. A really sweet boy meets boy/coming out love story set in working class Britain, with a cast of quirky secondary characters I totally fell in love with. Soundtrack is full of Mama Cass tunes.
I keep saying I'm going to keep a list of movies I watch, and so... voila! The second list is the long-awaited HORRORWATCH 2009 list, born from recommendations and top 100 lists discussed in this post and this post.
* Twilight
- Someone has pointed out to me that there needs to be more commentary here than "ugh". I assume "Blech" won't do either. How's this? A beautifully shot stinker of a tween movie starring a creepy, emotionally abusive stalker blood-drinking undead weirdo (in my reality, vampires need fangs, or they're more like zombies, kthxbai) who falls in love with a TSTL (too stupid to live) mopey, clutzy, spineless doormat of a teenaged chick who has no purpose in life or personality outside aforementioned weirdo. Oh, and there's another vampire who wants to eat her. The end.
* Growing Op - a cute coming of age sort of story about a guy whose family runs a suburban weed growing operation.
* Iron Man
* Bedtime Stories
* Beverly Hills Chihuahua
* The Shrek Trilogy
(had only seen the first one to date)
* *says with deep shame* High School Musical
* *only slightly less shame* 17 Again
* Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
* Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
* Caprica - Definitely want to see the show now!
* Star Trek 2009 - WHEEE!
* Hancock - This should have been a MUCH better movie! I mean... the pieces were all there, and yet it still didn't work. I still love Will Smith with all my heart, nonetheless. And it wasn't even close to the worst superhero movie ever made.
* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - SO much better than the BBC series, the former should just be taken off the market so the new one isn't embarrassed. Alan Rickman as the depressed Robot Marvin is well worth the price of admission alone.
* The Great Raid - Okay, I am a pacifist, and I enjoy war movies like I enjoy root canals as a rule. But it was father's day, and this is my dad's thing, so I watched a few with him, and wow. This was a really enthralling WWII story that I had never heard before about he most successful rescue of POW's in American History. It also examines a little bit of the Philippino Resistance against the Japanese, which was also interesting. Plus, it had a hopeful, if not exactly happy, ending, where not everybody dies.
* Letters From Iwo Jima - I found this other movie WAY outside my usual comfort zone to be one of the best movies I've seen of late. It's fascinating as an examination of a culture that may seem utterly alien to most modern Americans, as well as a side of a pretty common story (about the battle at Iwo Jima) told from the *opposite* point of view. It really lends an interesting new perspective, and frankly, only bolsters my complete abhorrence of war.
* Mama Mia - Another one that really SHOULD have been good, or at least fun and campy, but... wow, did it suck. I can't believe how much it sucked. I mean... has Meryl Streep ever made a suckier movie? And Pierce Brosnan should be banned from singing EVER. AGAIN.
* Thirteen - Wow. I was left kind of shell-shocked after this movie. I saw SO much of my own delinquent adolescence in this story, it freaked me out a little bit. Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter were both absolutely AMAZING.
* Little Ashes - Fascinating story about the love affair/friendship between Salvador Dali and poet/revolutionary Federico García Lorca, who was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. RPatz is excellent in his role as young Dali, and really should stick to this kind of film. Maybe with his billions from the Twilight series, he can.
* Catch and Release - You know, romantic comedy has been a guilty pleasure of mine my whole life. It's sad that in recent years, they've been leaving me kind of uninspired for the most part. Well, this one was different. I enjoyed all the secondary stories, and Jennifer Garner is the cutest thing ever. I even cried. A lot.* Ten Inch Hero - Another really adorable movie where everybody struggles to find true love. Happy happy happy ending with naked hippies that made me go "Awwwww." Jensen Ackles is too cute for his own good. Even full of piercings, weird facial hair and a grass green fauxhawk.
* Kill Your Darlings - ANOTHER sweet movie! This one stars Alexander Skarsgard as a suicidal transvestite, and Julie Benz as a suicidal... er... blonde lady. Sort of strange, but in a sweet way -- a cross between a road trip movie, a mind screw movie, and a love story.
* How She Move - Pretty standard "kid from the projects makes good through dance" film. It stars True Blood's Rutina Wesley, a young woman determined to earn enough money to get back into her private boarding school and eventually become a doctor, who has to withdraw after her sister's drug overdose. Not a bad movie as the genre goes, and Rutina is AMAZING!
* The Ugly Truth - Wow, I haven't seen such a ridiculous piece of crap disguised as a romantic comedy in... well, ever. But Gerry Butler is in it, so who cares?
* Zack and Miri Make A Porno - Adorable, quirky love story -- the only kind Kevin Smith knows how to make. And Jay is weirdly hot in this part. Go figure.
* Marie Antoinette - Fashionable portrait of the doomed queen starring Kirsten Dunst. Very pretty film and sad, but also kind of detached in a way I find difficult to describe.
*The Notorious Bettie Page
- I just adore Bettie Page, and this movie was a cute little portrait, but I don't think it was very in-depth or realistic. Gretchen Moll does a great job, though.
* Shrink
- You would think a movie where Kevin Spacey gets burned out as a psychiatrist and decides to become a giant pothead would be right up my alley, right? Yeah, not so much. I turned it off about halfway through or so and then just forgot to watch it. And didn't care.
* Saw I - Actually pretty scary, twisty, and much better than I expected!
* Audition - this movie traumatized me for life. Terrifying, disturbing, absolutely disgusting. Great horror flick!
* Near Dark
* Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula - Actually a long time favorite of mine. Campy and full of non-Wirgins.
* My Bloody Valentine 3D - Oh, Jensen. WHY?
* Cemetery Man (saw it years ago, but just re-watched) - Wry, funny, gross. Rupert Everett + zombies = WIN!
* Dead & Breakfast - AWESOME. Between the hokey ho-down soundtrack and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, made of all kinds of win.
* Shaun of the Dead -- favorite zombie movie EVER
* Otto; or, Up with the Dead -- This movie is almost completely indescribable beyond "Gay Zombie Porn" but it is still much more than that. Not scary, but definitely gory.
* The Strangers (2008) -- Scared the ever livin' FUCK out of me!
* Repo: The Genetic Opera-- LOVED it. Not scary so much as creepy and gory, but man is ASH a sexy mufu! Meow! I adored the whole thing: goth opera meets Rocky Horror meets future techno horror. Very cool.
* Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - I kind of expected more, but it wasn't bad. Johnny Depp actually CAN carry a tune, thus proving him the best actor ever of all time. Plus Alan Rickman doesn't hurt.
* Coraline - I debated about where to place this, because it's kind of YA horror. It's creepy, though, and dark, so I decided to put it here.
* Lesbian Vampire Killers - On one hand, I loved it -- campy, funny, gross, completely inappropriate. On the other hand... it's got some themes about women and lesbians that hit some of my not fun squick buttons. So... I'm not sure whether it will be a favorite.
* Drag Me to Hell
- That scared the SHIT out of me! In a hokey Sam Raimi way, but still. Not necessarily a keeper, but fun to watch.
* Midnight Movie - Mediocre, but not terrible. A serial killer breaks in and out of a horror movie and terrorizes a theater full of various people.
* Hostel (Director's Cut)
- I pretty much wanted to scream through this whole movie. Gross and disturbing. Thumbs... er... off?
* The Skeptic
- Creepy ghost story starring Tim Daley. I suspect it was straight to video or maybe TV. Okay Saturday afternoon fare.
* Zombieland - Very funny take on the zombie genre. Worth it for Woody Harrelson's character alone, but over all, Shaun of the Dead did it better.
* Trick 'r Treat
- LOVED it! Great scares, perfect, good old fashioned Halloween fun!
* Ghost Writer (2007) - Alan Cummings is a narcissistic, batshit musician with a weakness for cute young con men who want to be writers, David Boreanaz is a cute young con man who wants to be a writer. Things get... complicated. Very strange, sort of stunted movie, but both David and Alan are great in their parts.
* Hedwig and the Angry Inch - A wild, weird, tragic, wonderful story of a transgendered rock star and hir struggle for success.
* Waiting for Guffman - rewatch. Hilarious tale of the conceits of community theater.
*Velvet Goldmine - Rewatch, one of my favorite movies of all time, which I always forget until I watch again. A fictionalized account of the rise and fall of 70's Glam Rock.
* But I'm a Cheerleader! - Sweet and funny, campy and still poignant, story of a teen-aged lesbian sent to "straight camp."
* The Celluloid Closet - A fascinating documentary about gays and lesbians in film from its conception to about 1995.
* Party Monster - based on the real life story of "King of the Club Kids," Michael Alig, and the gruesome murder of drug dealer Angel Melendez. Stars a campy and fabulous Seth Green, and Macaulay Culkin as the club kid himself.
* Big Eden - an absolutely adorable love story about a gay artist who returns to his Northern Exposure-eque hometown after years living in New York.
* La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) - Wow, a fantastic, twisty Spanish mystery about a filmmaker who is visted by a man who says he's his childhood sweetheart, but things are not what they seem. There are dirty priests, cross-dressers, murder and blackmail. Fun!
* Desert Hearts - If somebody could explain the inclusion of this excruciatingly boring movie in the top five of every single lesbian film list I found, that would be great. The characters are unsympathetic (and not in a good way), the story is ridiculous, I didn't in any way buy it was supposed to be the 1950's, and the music made me want to slit my throat. The only redeeming value was the lovely sex scene 3/4 of the way through, but that's 5 minutes out of 90. Not a good ratio.
* Better Than Chocolate - Now THIS was a really good movie. Sweetly entertaining and really inclusive, which I'm starting to discover is surprisingly absent in Queer Cinema. Everybody falls in love: the lesbians, the straight woman, the trans-woman, the bisexual, and even the men. Of course, it's Canadian, which is why. Canadians are nice. :)
* The Sweetest Thing - Awww. A really sweet boy meets boy/coming out love story set in working class Britain, with a cast of quirky secondary characters I totally fell in love with. Soundtrack is full of Mama Cass tunes.