Day 11: Your favorite science fiction film.
My Choice: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A lot of people tell me that they think 2001 looks cool, but it is plotless and boring. I can kind of understand these points of view, but I wholeheartedly disagree with them. 2001 grips me from beginning to end, even in the parts I don't fully understand. On top of that, 2001 is gorgeous. The space scenes are amazing, especially considering we hadn't even sent a man to the moon at this point in history. 2001 also gave us one of the greatest movie characters of all time with HAL. And the ending, although I doubt I'll ever really know what it means, is still awesome.
Day 12: A movie that you hate.
My Choice: Spider-Man 3 (2007)
It's not that Spider-Man 3 is the worst film of all time or anything. It's more-so that Spider-Man 2 was so wonderful that the heap of garbage that the filmmakers threw together for the third installment looked so much worse. Spider-Man 2 had one of the greatest supervillains of all time in Doctor Octopus, and it actually managed to turn Parker into a interesting and relatable character. In Spider-Man 3, both of these crucial elements are missing. None of the endless sea of villains are interesting, unless you count the fact that Sandman looked kind of cool. And Parker? Well, he fully regressed into one of the lamest, whiniest characters I've ever seen. And don't even get me started on that dance sequence.
Day 13: A movie that is a guilty pleasure.
My Choice: The Room (2003)
The Room is the ultimate guilty pleasure movie. There is absolutely nothing in this film that is noteworthy in a positive way except the fact that the movie is such a catastrophe. It is this sheer amount of ineptitude that makes The Room infinitely rewatchable. I honestly don't think there is one scene in the entire film that doesn't end up as a complete disaster. From football tossing to reused sex scenes, from unnecessary cancers to Wiseau's weird laugh, from the terrible CGI rooftop to the random shots of San Francisco, this film is a total mess, and I absolutely love it.
Day 14: A movie that no one would expect you to love.
My Choice: Titanic (1997)
My choice for this entry stems mainly from the stigma about Titanic when I was growing up. The film came out right around my 11th birthday, or that middle phase of childhood where the boys hate stuff simply because the girls like it. As should be obvious to anyone who can remember when Titanic came out, it was the biggest film of all time, and all the girls loved it at my school. Because of this, the boys hated it. In fact, although the Titanic hatred died down after a few years, a lot of my friends held on to their dislike of Leonardo DiCaprio for a very long time afterwards simply because he was in Titanic. Not that I was immune to the distaste. I remember hating Titanic when I saw it as a kid, especially that stupid Celine Dion song. And while that song is still horrible, Titanic is actually a great movie. DiCaprio and Winslet are wonderful in it, and the final hour (when the ship actually sinks) makes for some of the best disaster scenes in film history. I urge anyone who dislikes the movie simply because of childhood memories to give it another chance.
Day 15: The movie character who you can relate to the most.
My Choice: The Dude from The Big Lebowski (1998)
I actually thought of quite a few for this one (Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate, Alvy Singer from Annie Hall, Robert Dupea from Five Easy Pieces, and Joel Barish from Eternal Sunshine, to name a few), but in the end I had to go with The Dude. He's very laid back, but he's also willing to take charge if he needs to. He has a definite lack of motivation. He seems to possess a wide vocabulary, but he readily falls back on slang terms like "dude" and "man". He also has extremely vivid dreams. I can relate to all of these things.
Day 16: The first movie you saw in theaters.
My Choice: Twister (1996)
I'm not actually sure if this is the first movie I saw in theaters. I was tempted to put Aladdin (because I remember seeing it when I was really young) or Jurassic Park (because I was obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid), but the first one I can truly recall seeing in theaters was Twister. The movie spawned an interest in tornadoes in me that continues to this day. I am fascinated by them; their destructive power, their shapes, their colors, their unpredictability. The actual twisters that Twister gives us are amazing. I recently bought the film on Blu-Ray and still found myself gripped by those tornado scenes. Twister was actually my favorite movie of all time for quite a chunk of my childhood. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it's a flawless movie or anything, but Twister holds a special place in my heart, and I'll always love it.
Day 17: The last movie you saw in theaters.
My Choice: Bad Teacher (2011)
Well, Bad Teacher wasn't a very impressing movie. Because of that, I'm not going to waste much space talking about it. Instead, I'll direct you to my review of it, if you're really interested in what I thought about it.
Day 18: A movie that you wish more people would've seen.
My Choice: Barton Fink (1991)
When I posted this entry, I wasn't aware of anyone I was friends with who had seen Barton Fink. After posting it, I know of two people. That isn't enough. Barton Fink is the Coen brothers' most underrated film. While Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou are great movies and deserve their recognition, Fink is simply more original and more interesting. It stars two of the Coens' favorite supporting actors, John Turturro and John Goodman. This is actually the film that made me realize how great of an actor Goodman can be. I won't turn this into a full-fledged review of the film, but I love basically everything about Barton Fink, from the silly side-plots to the out-of-nowhere metaphorical ending. Please check it out.
Day 19: Your favorite western.
My Choice: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Do I really need to justify choosing The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as my favorite western? Well, okay. I know it's a popular choice for favorite western, especially among those who aren't well-versed in the genre. Personally, a lot of westerns blend together because they are so thematically and aesthetically similar, but when I find a good western, it's usually one of the best films I've ever seen. Some of my other favorites are Stagecoach, Unforgiven, High Noon, and even High Plains Drifter. None of them really come close to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, though. This is Eastwood in his most badass form. Without even giving him a name, Leone created one of the most iconic characters in film. I love everything about this movie, from Leone's repetitive musical themes to the Civil War battle to that last showdown between the three main characters in what is one of the greatest scenes of all time.
Day 20: Favorite movie by your favorite actor/actress.
My Choice: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kate Winslet) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Jack Nicholson)
I'm not sure if I was supposed to pick one for either an actor or an actress, but I did both, and it wasn't hard for me to choose either one. Kate Winslet has only been around for 15 years or so, but those 15 years are filled with wonderful performances in lots of great films. A few of her standout films include Titanic, Quills, Finding Neverland, and Little Children, but none of those great movies come close to Eternal Sunshine. ES is a film unlike any other thanks to Gondry's unique perspective and Kaufman's fantastical script. Winslet's performance in the film is quite different from most of her other work, but she gives Clementine a personality and life that no other actress could.
Jack Nicholson needs no introduction, but I'll list some of his other great films anyways: Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, Chinatown, The Shining, Batman, As Good As It Gets. And even with this superb list of films, nothing compares to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Cuckoo rightfully deserves its claim as one of only three films to ever win all of the Big Five awards at the Oscars (along with It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs). Nicholson turns McMurphy into a well-rounded, sympathetic criminal that anybody can root for. Nicholson also proved here his unique ability to portray characters who are a bit on the crazy side. Cuckoo is one of the few films I consider flawless.
Part III coming soon.
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