About a year ago, I graduated college. I went home, considered the utter lack of other important things to do in Huntington, New York, and made the decision to make an exerted effort to catch up on the ridiculous number of important (or, uh, relevant) movies that I hadn’t seen. Now, 380-something days later, I present the fruits of Netflix’s labor and the laundry list of movies I’ve now seen for the first time. With, of course, a few of my own notes sprinkled here and there.
- Edward Scissorhands
- The Natural
- Swingers – Terrific. This could be me were the movie, say, 15 years newer.
- Dr. Strangelove – I mean, the guy’s name is Peter Sellers. I should totally be a buff. Ah, well.
- Bull Durham
- Hoosiers – Overrated? Maybe. The whole thing felt overdone, but then again, this was among the first classic sports movies, and I’d already seen all these tricks played out a hundred times before. Probably just a case of me getting to it in the wrong order, sort of like how I don’t enjoy playing Mario 64.
- Hancock – I heard this was really, really bad, and it managed to exceed expectations. That was impressive.
- Se7en
- Being John Malkovich
- Rudy – Also terrific. Running theme for young Vince Vaughn movies? Maybe.
- Young Frankenstein
- 12 Monkeys
- Seven Pounds
- Earth Girls are Easy
- The Wrestler
- Kill Bill Vol. 1
- Snatch
- Groundhog Day – Now that I’ve seen it, shows up on TV all the time. Not that I’m complaining.
- Big Fish and What Dreams May Come – I’ve seen a few times before, but I showed it to Alyssa for the first time. I don’t know that either movie is really that technically proficient, but I really like both of them.
- Life of Brian
- The Warriors – Awesome. This would have been great to watch with Eric and Brian.
- Almost Famous
- A Boy and his Dog – Just go read the description on Netflix. It’s not good, but once you’ve read that far, you’re kind of obligated to see it out.
- The Butterfly Effect – I like the concept, was told this was really bad, went in with low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.
- Godfather II
- Godfather III – what a disaster. I hate that they’re going to do the same thing to Wall Street with Wall Street 2.
- Raging Bull
- The Departed
- Dazed and Confused
- The Usual Suspects – For all the Bill Simmons I read, I’m shocked that this one wasn’t somehow spoiled for me.
- Army of Darkness
- The Iron Giant
- Motorcycle Diaries – Full Disclosure: I’ve technically seen this before in high school Spanish class…but then again, by senior year, I got into the habit of sleeping through a lot of that.
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- Rain Man
- Into the Wild – If you take anything from this list, make it this one. Go see it.
- Schindler’s List
- Citizen Kane
- American History X
- Synechdoche, NY
- Inglourious Basterds – has everything. Great.
- Spirited Away – I don’t remember how I found this. Some website recommended it maybe. Fair warning, it’s animated (Japan style, not Disney style).
- Gangs of New York
- Scarface
- Primer
- Where the Wild Things Are
- V for Vendetta
- Benjamin Button – Tried to be Forrest Gump, and failed pretty bad.
- There’s Something About Mary
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- The Scout
- Youth in Revolt
- Revenge of the Nerds
- Cube 2: Hypercube
- MallRats
Phew. 55 movies. I feel a lot more cultured. What’d you do, watch the entire series of Lost?
Anything else come to mind that I’m probably-to-definitely missing out on?
Almost forgot, Here’s a few I’m looking forward to next:
– Teen Wolf
– The Shining
– Reservoir Dogs
– White Men Can’t Jump
– The Karate Kid
– One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest