Over the next few weeks, I think I’ll watch a few movies that I’ve never seen before but that I’ve heard are really, really good, nay, even great movies.
I’m a big movie watcher, and I’ve been in sort of a movie watching mood as of late…
…but even being a movie buff, there are a great many movies that I’ve skipped over in the last decade or two. Why, I don’t know. Just never gotten around to watching them.
Well, no more. I will start tonight.
Tonight’s movie will be a movie I’ve heard about and read about a lot recently: Requiem For a Dream. It looks good, but beyond just seeing two or three clips of it, I have no idea what it’s about.
In the coming weeks, I already have a list planned out of other movies I will watch and I will write down my opinion/thoughts here after each one, if anyone cares.
These will include movies such as Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Rambo, Twelve Monkeys, Donnie Darko, Sin City, The Usual Suspects, Fargo, Inglourious Basterds, L.A. Confidential, Mulholland Drive, Gladiator, 300, The Departed, the Alien movies, the Predator movies, the Star Wars movies, and the Batman movies. More may come as I think of them.
I have not watched/seen any of these movies ever before.
Do you have any particular genres or eras that you don’t mind? I could recommend tons of 70s stuff that I think is the bomb and you’d find interesting, but if it wouldn’t be your cuppa, I don’t want to waste your time.
With regard to Donnie Darko, people may tell you that you “must” check out the bonus content on the DVD to get writer/director Richard Kelly’s explanation for the mysterious events in the movie. Personally, I’d advise against this, as this explanation is so stupid and full of holes that it actually hurt my opinion of a movie that I had enjoyed. IMHO you’re better off making up your own explanation or just thinking of the mysterious events as being things that cannot be explained.
You might also want to consider watching An American Werewolf in London around the same time as Donnie Darko. There’s a specific scene in Donnie Darko that’s borrowed from An American Werewolf in London, and in a more general way I think Donnie Darko owes a lot to the earlier movie.
Are there other movies by the same directors that you’ve also missed? That is, have you seen most of the other movies by the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Terry Gilliam, etc.?
Do you intend to see all the Star Wars movies? If so, in what order will you watch them?
Donnie Darko is I think the best of the list. I agree, watch the standard version. For The Departed, the original Hong Kong - Infernal Affairs - was better. The only movie on your list I didn’t see is Mulholland Drive.
I’ve seen all on your list except for Donnie Darko and the Predator movies. For several of those, I’d be hard-pressed to say which is my favorite. But Gladiator is a seriously bad film undeserving of its Best Picture Oscar. It’s ironic that Russel Crowe was nominated for an Oscar three years in a row, for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind but won only for Gladiator when his performances in the other two films were much better.
I loved Requiem For a Dream, but don’t watch it if you’re depressed.
Requiem for a Dream left me stunned, speechless, stultified. It was so raw, so utterly real, and so much like the stories I have heard from real-life people in recovery. The inhumanity addicts show to each other, and the way they cling together despite the horrific behavior. It’s just all right there.
The stuff gets real, honey. Have a friend on cue to meet for coffee or something afterwards.
