Month: August 2008

my 100 movies: the second 50

So, a couple of nights ago, I posted a list of my favorite movies. (Inspired by lists from Webs of Significance and Falling Stones are Not Heavy) The lists that inspired me were of 100 movies, but in order that I might get to sleep that night, I focused on my favorite 50. Tonight I’m posting the next 50.

Here’s the thing. It was pretty easy to make a list of my real all-time favorite movies. The movies I have watched over and over. The ones I can quote from easily. The ones I will reach for as audio-visual comfort food.

The trouble is, that list was only about 40 or so long with my initial braindump. A bit more poking around (in my brain, DVD cabinet, and Amazon ratings) filled out another 30 or 40 pretty easily. It’s been harder deciding which others should fill out the rest of the 100.

It’s funny to realize that I’m choosing a few movies that I consider quite cheezy, and even some that I’m slightly embarrassed about. Meanwhile, I’m leaving off most of the greatest films ever made. (If I were to make a list of the best films I’ve ever seen, my list would be quite different.)

  1. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
  2. 101 Dalmatians (1961)
  3. The Addams Family (1991)
  4. Addams Family Values (1993)
  5. Amélie (Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain) (2001)
  6. Back to the Future (1985)
  7. Batman Returns (1992)
  8. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  9. A Bug’s Life (1998)
  10. Charlie’s Angels (2000)
  11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
  12. Conspiracy Theory (1997)
  13. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
  14. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
  15. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, But Came Down a Mountain (1995)
  16. Ever After (1998)
  17. The Fisher King (1991)
  18. Gone with the Wind (1939)
  19. Heathers (1989)
  20. Iron Monkey (1993)
  21. Jurassic Park (1993)
  22. L.A. Story (1991)
  23. Ladyhawke (1985)
  24. Little Voice (1998)
  25. The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
  26. The Matchmaker (1997)
  27. Memento (2000)
  28. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
  29. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  30. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
  31. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
  32. Peking Opera Blues (1986)
  33. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
  34. Pleasantville (1998)
  35. The Replacement Killers (1998)
  36. Roger and Me (1989)
  37. Roman Holiday (1953)
  38. Say Anything… (1989)
  39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  40. Splash (1984)
  41. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
  42. Strange Days (1995)
  43. Strictly Ballroom (1992)
  44. Tank Girl (1995)
  45. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
  46. To Catch a Thief (1955)
  47. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
  48. The Truman Show (1998)
  49. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
  50. Wing Chun (1994)

my 100 movies: the first 50

A few weeks back, I saw a post by YTSL of Webs of Significance listing 100 movies “which have particularly impacted and/or impressed [her] over the years.” Not too surprisingly, this list inspired me to think about listing my own personal favorite movies. (YTSL had, in turn, been inspired by a list of movies at Falling Stones are Not Heavy of that author’s own 100 movies to which he felt a particularly strong connection.)

Seeing as it’s late at night, I will start by posting only 50 movies. This first half of my 100 movies includes my all-time favorite movies, though I have not ranked them here. I have instead followed YTSL’s lead and simply listed them alphabetically.

These movies are not necessarily all good movies (though many are great ones) but I have connected with them in some way. It amuses me to see the recurring themes in the movies I list: dark humor and paranoia, time distortion and surrealism, silliness and whimsy, as well as women kicking some ass. My weaknesses for costume dramas and musically-oriented movies are also revealed. Anyone notice any other trends?

  1. 12 Monkeys (1995)
  2. Amadeus (1984)
  3. Beetle Juice (1988)
  4. Best in Show (2000)
  5. The Big Lebowski (1998)
  6. Bob Roberts (1992)
  7. Brazil (1985)
  8. The Cable Guy (1996)
  9. Chasing Amy (1997)
  10. Clueless (1995)
  11. Cold Comfort Farm (1995)
  12. The Commitments (1991)
  13. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
  14. Dead Again (1991)
  15. Fargo (1996)
  16. The Fugitive (1993)
  17. The Full Monty (1997)
  18. Gosford Park (2001)
  19. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
  20. Groundhog Day (1993)
  21. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
  22. Lone Star (1996)
  23. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
  24. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
  25. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
  26. Mystery Men (1999)
  27. Office Space (1999)
  28. The Princess Bride (1987)
  29. The Professional/Léon (1994)
  30. The Remains of the Day (1993)
  31. Run, Lola, Run (1998)
  32. The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
  33. Serenity (2005)
  34. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  35. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  36. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
  37. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
  38. The Sound of Music (1965)
  39. Supercop (Police Story 3: Supercop) (1992)
  40. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
  41. Tremors (1990)
  42. Truly Madly Deeply (1990)
  43. The Truth About Cats and Dogs (1996)
  44. Unbreakable (2000)
  45. West Side Story (1961)
  46. Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
  47. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
  48. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  49. Wolf (1994)
  50. Zero Effect (1998)

juggling acts

It’s been one of those weeks. Nothing major has happened, just a lot of little things that make me realize I can’t quite keep all of my balls up in the air.

I’ve had a lot of demands from work this week that I wasn’t expecting. There’s another deadline at the end of the month, and seeing as I don’t expect to be terribly available then, I feel particularly compelled to contribute as much as I can now. It turned out that a lot of the new data we were adding to the pool for this particular study needed a lot of cleaning up (as well as some of the old data), and I was the one in the best position to clean it up. So I’ve been putting in a lot of hours, including late night hours, this week. I’ve been quite productive, and yet since it was work I hadn’t anticipated, I don’t get the satisfaction of feeling that I’ve made progress. (Especially since this has left me virtually no time to work on my own research projects, and every time I have a pause in the progress there, it takes me a while to get my momentum back.)

Then Phoebe came down with a stomach bug that had been looming at daycare. I had toyed with the idea of keeping Phoebe home, but for one thing, I needed the work time. And for another, it was probable that Phoebe had already been exposed to the bug by the time we learned of the menace. So keeping her home wouldn’t have likely made much difference.

Phoebe is largely okay, though there have been some rough stretches. (This was actually the first time she’d ever vomited, aside from one flukey time when she was a very young baby. She was pretty freaked out by it. And can I just say that I’m lucky I didn’t lose my laptop to the inaugural event, which happened on the couch?) She was pretty chipper by this evening, so hopefully we can put this behind us. (And can I also say that I really, really don’t want to catch a stomach bug right now?)

I am so, so not ready for the new kid to arrive. The guest room still needs to be readied for my mother’s arrival (or for the contingency plan), the infant carseat installed, and there’s some form I’m supposed to send to the hospital that I haven’t even looked at. I haven’t even visited the hospital to find out where to go, where to park, etc., when the time comes. I’m told I’m supposed to have packed a bag by now, but that feels too much like admitting that I may need to use such a bag soon.

When people ask about “decorating the nursery,” I can only laugh. As far as nesting goes, I’ll be lucky if I can find the time and energy to clear out whatever lifeforms are currently nesting in my fridge.

So if you’ll excuse me, I have a few balls to chase around.