2 – The Godfather (1972)

Now i know how Amy Winehouses husband felt.

Set in 1945 The Godfather is about a mafia family boss who happens to be the godfather to around a dozen kids.It must sting the wallet at Christmas time.This Mafia boss,Don Corleone, is hot shit and can make virtually anything happen with his spectacular offers that no one can refuse.Anyway this guy wants Don Corleone to back him in this new drug venture he’s trying to get off the ground.The Don declines and ends up getting shot.Then there’s a war.The Godfather has a pretty good cast with Brando, Pacino, Duvall and Caan to name a few. I’m sure a few other ones will pop up in part II.The Dons favourite son,Micheal,takes the reigns after the shooting.The Godfather is by no means a fast paced film,its miles apart from Goodfellas or Casino but i guess that’s one of the aspects that appeals to people. I’ve never seen a Godfather film before and it’s seems okay,but just okay.There was a couple of lines that made me laugh,one in particular is when they shoot the guy the car and the guy says “leave the gun,take the canolli”.Right,now to watch the  part II.

IMDB RATING      –     9.2
MY RATING     –    7.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  IT’S GOT A GOOD NARRATIVE.

8 – Schindler’s List (1993)

If there’s tits in a film I’ll find them.

Schindler’s List is a romantic comedy in which Liam Neeson plays Schindler,a man who loses his memory every night when he falls asleep.He relies on a complex series of notes and lists to function in modern day Miami.Rob Schneider plays the love interest. Actually nothing could be further from the truth.Here we have movie 6 i think that’s about the Holocaust .Schindler is a businessman who runs a pots and pans factory with a Jewish workforce.This is all during world war 2 and as you may or not know the Germans weren’t the Jews biggest fans.So Neeson tries to help them by giving them a job.If you’re a skilled worker then you won’t be shipped off to the camps or Auschwitz. There’s a lot of bribery going on and Neeson spends all his money/valuables in order to try and help them. Ralph Fiennes plays a sadistic Nazi guy in this who takes pleasure in killing Jews for no reason.Bad fucker.When Neeson show s a bit of compassion for the Jews and treats them like humans Fiennes has him taken in for questioning to see if he’s a sympathizer. The movie has quite a lot of people getting killed and the brutality of the Nazi is fucking depressing and keep in mind this is all a true story.I got a bit teary eyed at one point during the film,i had bug spray on my finger and itched my eye.

IMDB RATING      –     8.9
MY RATING     –    8.2
SEEN BEFORE     –    YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     – VERY DEPRESSING

17 – Seven Samurai (1954)

I’m not sure why this samurai went to battle with his bare ass out.

Here’s an old one,1954,you wouldn’t think it from the dialogue.There’s some good insults in it that are still used frequently these days.The wipes are pretty good from scene to scene,they look quite animated.In 50’s films they all have a dissolve but in this it’s all Left-to-right fade thing.The earliest ones I’ve ever seen.The plot sees a crap village that regularly gets ambushed by bandits,hard asses,and they decide to hire some Samurai’s to kill the buggers.They rationalize that they need 5 so they get 7,and some are pretty shite.The Samurai train the farmers to fight,build fences and moats and instill a team spirit in them.As the farmers finish harvest they get ready for a big battle.Some the Samurai seem pretty Calais when they’re picking them off and counting numbers.I didn’t like this film,man was it a hard watch,i kept getting sleepy or bored and had to pause it.It’s not for me then.

IMDB RATING      –     8.7
MY RATING     –    6.7
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  WAY TOO LONG.

20 – City of God (2002)

12mm ? More like the 12 incher.

I’ve seen City of God only once before.Nine and a half years ago i rented it from Lazer on George Street in Dublin.They had an extensive art house and international films section and we were working our way through them.Excellent film.There’s not much to fault here in this film.It’s got a great story,setting and delivery.It introduces you to interesting characters in one scene and then you have to hold out to find out what’s the beef with them.Camera work and the overall aesthetic of the film is spot on for a film set in the 60’s-70’s.The chicken sequence at the very beginning is bloody hilarious i think.The films set in the favelas of Rio De Janera,City of God,and boy is it a rough place.Kids running around with guns shooting the fuck out of people for no reason other that the fact that they have a gun so why not.The film’s told through quite a few intertwining flashbacks with a narrative over some bits.Good soundtrack too,some great Brazilian music and then more recognisable stuff for the disco scenes in the 70’s.Based on a true story too,you can see the photos and footage of some of the real characters over the credits. I’m just after having a look over the IMDB and it was nominated for 4 Oscars,didn’t win any of them but got a load form other festivals.

IMDB RATING      –     8.7
MY RATING     –    8.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  SPECTACULAR.BUT THERE’S A RAPE SCENE AT 82 MINUTES,BOO.

42 – City Lights (1931)

Fuck you kid,now piss off before i break your face.

Sweet Jesus another silent movie. They’ve made me appreciate ‘talkies’ so much more.I’ll give you the low down on the Chaplin flick.He meets a drunk millionaire who’s trying to kill himself.The tramp saves him and goes back to his.When the millionaire comes to he can’t remember the tramp so kicks him out.The next day the millionaire is pissed drunk again and recognises the tramp and they hang out again until he sobers up and throws him out again.This happens a few times.The love interest in a blind girl that sells flowers in the street.The is courting her and wants to send her to Europe for eye surgery.The rich guy gives him $1000 for her,but there’s a mix up and the police are called and things look very bad.He gets picked up by the cops and sent down but when he gets out guess what?The chick has her eyesight back.There’s some good gags in this film,even the intro piece with the statues is well done.But by this stage i’m getting sick of silent films,i guess it’s mainly the music that’s getting to me.

IMDB RATING      –     8.5
MY RATING     –    6.6
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  SOME VIEWERS WHO’VE PLAYED GHOSTS & GHOULS MIGHT RECOGNISE SOME MUSIC IN IT.

43 – Spirited Away (2001)

Flying dog/dragons and shit.

Spirited Away is another whim-sickle film from Studio Ghibli. It follows the same sort of genre as many of their others,it has spirits, ghosts, monsters, spells, dragons and curses.And like the others it features a young child,a girl called Chitiro or Sia,as the lead.The girl gets transported off to some spirit work by mistake while out on a walk with her parents.Throughout the course of the films she’s trying to save her parents and get home but there’s loads of obstacles in her way.Visually there are some interesting looking characters knocking around the bath house in the spirit place and the story’s not too bad either.There are a few bits where the plot seems to be moving a little slow,a few scenes running just a few seconds longer,but if keep noticing them then it seems to add up.I watched the dubbed version with the subs just to see which was better and i think the dubbed is better.The text with the subs isn’t as accurate as what they’re saying.A good Ghibli film,i did prefer Howls Moving Castle myself.

IMDB RATING      –     8.5
MY RATING     –    7.6
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  WORTH A WATCH,ONCE.

45 – Modern Times (1936)

A drug search in jail for coke.

Modern Times is about the little tramp and how he has a nervous breakdown from working on an assembly line.On his release from hospital he accidentally joins a protest and is arrested for being the leader.In jail he managed to ingest a shit load of coke and in his daze he foils a jail break.For this he’s given a comfortable cell and doesn’t want to leave.But because he stopped the crooks he gets a full pardon and is let go.For the rest of the film he gets involved with a teenage orphan runaway.The try and sort out their lives and get jobs,but as always the law catches up with them and they have to flee their place of work cause the cops showed up to lift her.The films a strange one,it’s not quite a talking film nor is it 100% a silent film.There are bits a the beginning where there’s dialogue from characters but as the film goes on they use more and more title cards.That is until Chaplins big song. I’m not sure if it’s him really singing or even a real language,but it was entertaining.I did notice that his wooden shack he was living looked awfully familiar,maybe identical to the wooden cabin in his first film about the gold rush.

IMDB RATING      –     8.5
MY RATING     –    7.1
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  THE TEEN GIRL LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS ABOUT 27.JUST GOOGLED,SHE WAS 26.

51 – The Pianist (2002)

The Nazi guy is executing some Jews and runs out of bullets,i’d hate to be the next guy waiting to get shot.

Now here’s a film that gets my goat. I’m not saying it’s a bad film,it’s just when you put a face on an atrocity like genocide it just makes me hate humanity. I mean this was only 70 years ago but the brutality and cold heartedness just sickens me.This film is very close to Life is Beautiful on the list,also about the holocaust,and maybe it’s by watching these two close together that has depressed me a bit.Shit,i bet Schlinders list is till to come too.The Pianist is based on a real person,who died in 2000,who managed to survive some 8-9 years of ducking and diving from the Germans.First he’s put in the ghetto,then he’s getting shipped of to the camps but a friends pulls him from the line,then he’s hiding in an allies house,then moved to another.As Warsaw gets bombed and overrun with Germans he finds himself hiding opposite the Hospital and barracks.He does get into some ropey situations but the main thing that’s going to kill him is starvation.There’s not much piano playing after the first 30 minutes.Near the end when it seems like he’s fucked,a German of all people helps him survive the final weeks of the war.Like the opening shot of Brody playing the piano it ends with him playing us out.Albeit this time to a packed concert hall with a whole symphony behind him.

IMDB RATING      –     8.4
MY RATING     –    7.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     HALF OF IT
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  SOME GOOD CASTING WITH BRODY.HIS BROTHERS CHARACTER WAS A DOUCHE.

53 – M (1931)

Busted.

M is an interesting film.I said before that to be a very old film on this list you have to try to innovative and experimental with your camera shots and effects. M has a few great bits that are bog standard now.I’ll list a few,it’s some cuts that you can’t even notice that blend into the next scene(the beggars bar) or some really good tracking shots and the steady cam wasn’t around for another 50 years.Also the voice over by the detective and the imagery to go with it. M also has some original stuff that caught me off guard,namely the parts that had minimal audio.I thought my speaker had came loose from the laptop more than once.I can imagine watching this in the cinema would have been tense.The story is about a guy in Germany running about and killing loads of kids.It doesn’t mention anything about molestation or rape so i guess it’s just plain vanilla murder.The cops are looking everywhere to no avail.The people start to get hysterical and any guy with a kid is getting a hard time.The Mafia or mob decide to find the guy themselves.But they can’t look everywhere so what do they do?They get ‘the beggars union’ on the case.Beggars union,ha.As they see it no one will notice the beggars watching every where.I won’t spoil the ending but as far as i see it the killer is psychotic and not evil.

IMDB RATING      –     8.4
MY RATING     –    8
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IS SO HARSH.EVEN GERMANS WHISPERING SOUNDS LIKE TWO DRUNKS ARGUING AT FULL VOLUME.AN ENGLISH VERSION WOULD BE BETTER.

56 – Life Is Beautiful (1997)

You wouldn’t away with this now a days.You’d be arrested and signing on the sex offenders list for life.

Life Is Beautiful is a bit of a misleading title for this film.After watching the last last 30 minutes i think a more apt title would be Life Is Shit. I’ve never seen this film before but i bought a copy on DVD for my parents once because it was popular at the time and had gotten a few awards.For anyone who doesn’t know the plot,it’s about a family who gets shipped off to a concentration camp by the Nazis./sounds sad right?The main character,the dad,is called Guido and he is a Jew. His wife is an Italian and they have a young son too that is also shipped off to the camp.The mother pleads to go with her family.Guido is a charming upbeat guy who seems to live in a fantasy,there’s something very whimsical about him.And it’s with his up beat attitude and constant games he’s playing that the whole concentration camp thing doesn’t really effect you on a personal level.Even his final moments i felt distanced from the whole thing.The film came out in 1997 but the whole feel and look of it makes it seem like it’s from the eighties.

IMDB RATING      –     8.4
MY RATING     –    8.1
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GOOD BEGINNING,HUMOUR SEEMS A LITTLE SLAP STICK.