Movies, movies, movies!

I finished watching the last of my ten pre-chosen movies earlier this month (#67), so I thought I'd do a quick run-through of those.

Back in the Fall I watched The Godfather.  Let me just say that this is the longest movie in the history of movies.  Or at least it felt that way.  I rented it on my Kindle, and it comes with a 48-hour time frame to view it.  I had to rent it three times to make it through the whole movie!  It was just painfully slow, and the story didn't have much flow.  It felt more like lots of short vignettes just crammed together in an unending series.  I think it didn't help that this movie is so quoted and I kept waiting for scenes that I already knew about to happen.  Basically, I just didn't enjoy it, and I know some people would probably think I deserve to have a horse head show up in my bed for saying that, but could not wait for it to be over!

Next up was Million Dollar Baby.  This one I watched right after finishing The Godfather, and it was a completely different story.  (literally!  ha-ha.)  I actually found a Clint Eastwood movie that I enjoyed!  It was well acted, and even though I have no interest in boxing and there were some very violent fight scenes and I don't even like Hillary Swank, I enjoyed the story.  The movie kept me interested from beginning to end, and I can see why it won awards.

Vertigo was up next.  I love Jimmy Stewart, but this was definitely not my favorite movie of his.  The action felt a little tedious although the mystery-type storyline was interesting.  The part leading up to the ending confused me a little, although the way the story wrapped up was very good.

I watched Citizen Kane in December, and this one was another pleasant surprise.  Of course, knowing that Rosebud was the sled shown in the very first scene of the movie took away a little of the mystery, but this movie felt very modern in its acting and story even though it was released in 1941.  I went into this expecting to slog through it like The Godfather but ended up enjoying it thoroughly.  Yea!

And finally, there was Rocky.  Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of Sylvester Stallone, although I developed a lot more respect for him after reading on IMDB.com that he actually wrote this movie.  Again, I have no interest in boxing, but the overall storyline was decent and I mostly enjoyed the movie.  I think I might even try watching the next movie in the series just to see how his relationship with Adrian (ADRIAAANNN!!) turns out.

I'm glad I had this in my list.  I finally watched some truly classic movies, and now I'll have a frame of reference when I hear people talking about them or see them quoted in other movies or books.  I somehow feel more educated for having watched these ten movies (which sounds silly, I know).  Of the ten I watched, I am shocked to say that I think Million Dollar Baby was probably my favorite, but less surprised that The Godfather was my least favorite. 

Gone, but not forgotten

Okay, so I obviously have not posted in a really, really long time.  It was, in part, due to a dying (and now dead) laptop, but then when I finally did get a new computer (not all that long ago, and that I haven't really developed an affinity for yet), I have had a hard time wanting to sit down and get caught up.  It's been one of those things that becomes a huge brick wall in your mind, and then it only gets taller and wider the longer you avoid it, so it eventually feels completely impossible to get to the other side.  So, this is me drawing a chalk door on the wall and pushing on through.

This will be the first of quite a few catch-up posts, and then I'll be all current and ready to move forward from a fresh place!  I actually have kept my list, movie, and book pages current, and I really have been making progress on the list (albeit slower than I would have liked).  In checking through things, I have realized that I am less than halfway through, and that includes all the items that are ongoing things that won't get crossed off until the end.  This was an eye-opening moment, and I am going to have to come up with some sort of schedule so I'm not suddenly trying to finish 20 tasks in the last month!  I have already decided that if I do this again, I am definitely not going to have so many items that read something like, "complete this activity for one month, five times"!  Why did I make this so difficult for myself?!?  I guess I thought I was pushing myself past my comfort level, which is supposed to be part of the purpose of this project.  Hmph.  Still not going to do that, or at least think long and hard about what that means about reaching the goal of actually crossing everything off the list, before I make those kinds of statements again.

Another thing I have noticed in going over my list (besides the number of times I thought, "did I actually put that on my list?  I don't remember putting that on my list.  do I have early-onset Alzheimer's?  because I really don't remember putting that on my list.), is that things that seemed really fun or important at the time I wrote out the list over two years ago, don't necessarily rate as that great now.  But they're on the list, so they will get done.  My most recent accomplishment definitely qualifies in this category... sending a postcard to PostSecrets (#6).  I used to hit that site every Sunday to read the new batch of postcards, but I haven't looked at it in over a year at least.  It was such a voyeuristic pleasure!  Now I can safely say that I don't much care.  But I did send in a secret.  And it was the kind of secret that you wouldn't say out loud to anyone.  I have to say that it does kind of feel like a little bit of a release to let it go.  Like I don't have to use all that energy to keep it inside.  So maybe it really was a good thing to have on the list.  I just didn't know how good at the time!  As for the secret?  I'll never tell...