169 – The Terminator (1984)

The Terminator,polite as fuck.

The Terminator is an eighties movie that seems like it was filmed at the tail end of the 70’s.The plot of a time travelling machine sent back to kill the mother of a future Resistance leader is pretty original.But there’s some shots that look pretty good then there’s the special effects that let it down majorly. In scenes where arnie is poking around his eye of looking at something up and down we clearly see he’s made of play-doh or something.I find it hard to believe that in the future the dogs are the only things that can spot them.Anyone who can see 6 inches in front of their face would pick a terminator out of a line up.Another thing i noticed near the end was all the stop motion bits of the terminator model,why the hell was that in the film?Did they just build the head and shoulders terminator prop ?

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     7
SEEN BEFORE     –   YES
RECOMMEND?     –    YES
OVERALL     –  ORIGINAL.SOME SFX LET IT DOWN.LINDA HAMILTON GETS HER TITS OUT TOO.

170 – Black Swan (2010)

Natalie Portman trying to have a wank in peace

The second Darren Aronofsky film on the list,the  other being The Wrestler.The story of Black Swan,as i see it,is about Nina trying to crack one off but can’t seem to manage it.All joking aside it’s more like one-part Fight Club and one-part Grease.If you haven’t seen this already you’ll think you have it sussed out half way through but the story does seem that simple and there’s spanners thrown in the works in the final 15 minutes and it gets a little confusing. Nina’s mother seems like a right old bitch too,she’s like the mother from Carrie.It’s got the ballet for the girls and the steamy lesbian stuff for the guys.The perfect date film.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     8.1
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  NOT ONE TO WATCH WITH THE PARENTS.

171 – Million Dollar Baby (2004)

The IRA,now making pie as well as car bombs

I had a bootleg of this when it first came out and turned it off after an hour.I asked a guy in my class at college how it ended and he told me.I said he was chatting bullshit and never finished watching the film.This was from the same guy who said at the end of Leon the girl starts a big massive dope farm with the potted plant.Trick me once shame on you and all that.Anyways,Million Dollar Baby is an al-right film.Eastwood is good in it.Freeman and his forced raspy voice is bad.And Swank is swanky.The ‘Danger’ guy has this annoying thing where he adds ‘s’ to every word in a sentence.The story of MDB is a 32 year old waitress wants to become a boxer.She hounds an old trainer to trainer her.He does.They bond and she becomes a champ.And then….    i won’t spoil it.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     7.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GOOD.STRONG STORY.GOOD CAST.THE GAELIC IS TERRIBLE THOUGH.

172 – The Night of the Hunter (1955)

silhouette shot

This film’s pretty strange and by strange i mean terrible.It’s one of the stinkers on the list,how it got on it is anyone’s guess.I tried to watch this about 3 times and kept falling asleep and had to put it back a bit and do it again.The basic plot is,a guy steals $10,000 and gives it to his kids.He then goes to jail and tells his roomy,a fanatical religious buck,about it.Thief gets hung and the other dude tries to find the cash.There’s a chase between the kids and the pastor.It’s all rabbit Vs the tortoise with all these long meandering shots of a slow moving boat intercut with clips of animals and the guy chasing them on horse back.Full of religious shit,loads of singing and some really bad audio gaffs like looping screams 3 times back-to-back and other simple stuff a director would never allow in the final cut.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     4.4
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  RUBBISH.A COUPLE OF NICE SHOTS BUT DOESN’T SAVE IT.

173 – Stand by Me (1986)

group puking scene

Stand By Me is an 80’s movie set in 1959 about a group of boys and their coming of age adventure thing.You have all the sides represented here in the group:the smart one,the fat kid,the crazy one and the one from the wrong side of the tracks.The foursome hear about a kids dead body about 30 miles away beside the train tracks and all decide to sneak off and go find it.A couple little things happen along the way,there’s some male bonding and other stuff but it when it ends it feels like something was missing.What wasn’t missing was a shit load of old 50’s songs.At every opportunity there’s one popped in.The whole film is targeted at nostalgic people from that era who start gushing over the  ‘simpler’ times.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     6.7
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  MEH.A STEPHEN KING ADAPTATION,NOT HIS BEST.

174 – There Will Be Blood (2007)

I fucking hate mass       :{(

There Will Be Blood,or as it’s known in our house ‘No Country For Old Men’,is a pretty amazing film. I’ve seen this one maybe 3 times now and it’s remained pretty good with repeat watching.The story starts with an ambitious young man digging for minerals by hand down a hole.Daniel soon strikes oil and prospers and is always on the lookout for new places to drill.He gets a tip off and goes in search of it buying all the land around so no one else can drill.It’s a slow enough burner but visually i think it looks great and with the accompanying score the 2.5 hours flys in.Day-Lewis deserved the Oscar for this.His scenes with the young preacher are totes-amazeballs.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     8.7
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  EXCELLENT.THE RISE AND FALL OF AN OIL TYCOON.

P.S. i just read that the Jonny Greenwood,the guitarist for Radiohead,did the music.That’s mad.

175 – Donnie Darko (2001)

Tila Tequila before all the coke

Donnie Darko is a hard one to  call.It does have a cult following and it’s one of them indie film that crossed into mainstream.When i watch it i go from “this is a shit film” to “this is a pretty good film”.I think it’s mainly to do with the special effects.The SFX are really really shit in this.It looks like they got the alien out of  The  Abyss to do a massive cameo for the film.But then you have the plot or story which seems alright and a bit original.If you haven’t seen it then it’s about a teenager who has a mental breakdown and believes he gets told the date when the world ends.Mad innit?I hate a film that has to rely heavily on the soundtrack to engage the viewer.Tarantino does it All the time.A musical score is way better.Makes it less an MTV music video and into something more.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     8.2
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  OK.WORTH A WATCH.ORIGINAL FOR IT’S TIME.

176 – Groundhog Day (1993)

the dogging hot spot

For those who haven’t seen Groundhog Day,it’s about a t.v.v weather man reliving the same day over and over again,February 2nd Groundhog day.That pretty much sums it up.Some times when he relives the day he’ll be a do gooder others he might be depressed and kill himself or on some he might try and seduce his producer played my Andie Mc Dowell all the while remembering what she likes and hates and changing what he says or does the next day to try and better the outcome.The film has a very 1980’s feel but i guess that has to do with writer/director/producer Harold Ramis,who wrote Ghostbusters and Caddyshack among others.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     7.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  NOT BAD.WATCH IT ONCE.

177 – Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

… I’m fucked …

Dog Day Afternoon is about a heist that goes all wrong.There’s a disclaimer thing at the beginning that this all happened on day back in 1972.It would be better if they left this until the end so you’re taken aback that the whole story was real.Al Pacino plays Sonny,a normal enough guy,who with two others decide to rob a bank.One of the other guys gets spooked at the start and bails out. Now there’s only two,Sonny and Sal,the robbery seems to be going perfect until they find out there’s no money and then the cops get wind of the whole thing.The weird twist is that as bold and macho Sonny seems he’s really gay and doing this to fund his lovers (wife) sex change operation.I won’t spoil it for you,but i did read on Sonny Wikipedia page that he sold the rights to the film for a few thousand and 1% of the net profit.Dog Day Afternoon has made $50,000,000 at the box office alone.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     8.3
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GOOD ACTING.INTERESTING STORY.TRUE TOO.

178 – Twelve Monkeys (1995)

these board games are so crazy they have to be kept in a cage

Twelve Monkeys is another gem by Terry Gilliam. I do have some major gripes with time travel films but this is the only one that gets it right in my opinion.Can’t change the past or the future it’s already set out,the complete opposite of Back to The Future. That’s not to say i don’t enjoys the exploits of Marty McFly. I’ve seen 12 monkeys about half a dozen times and i think maybe that’s too much.Maybe twice is okay.The plot is; in a future (around 2035) where a virus has nearly wiped out mankind people have taken to living underground.A group of scientists have developed a time machine and send ‘volunteers’ back to find out how and where the virus broke out.So they can find a cure in their present time ,2035.

IMDB RATING      –     8.1
MY RATING     –     8.7
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GREAT.EXCELLENT ACCORDION SCORE,VERY 1900’S PARISIAN.