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.