100 Days....

So I've just completed 100 days straight of movie watching. At first the task seemed pretty daunting but once you start getting into a rhythm it becomes much easier. I think I could watch a movie a day indefinitely, but the hardest part by far is the writing. In the beginning it took me almost as long to write my blog entries as watching the movie itself, so I'd have to devote like four hours of my day to this project. It's just really hard to think up of interesting things to write sometimes especially for a lot of these classics. I have to try to find something to say that hasn't been said a billion times by people much smarter than me. I have found that in the past month or so I've been able knock out these entries much faster than before. I guess it becomes a little easier once you're used to it.

Looking back at some entries, I noticed I've definitely followed into a habit of saying stuff like, "This movie is really well shot" and "The music was great." These seem like terribly unoriginal things to say yet I say them for nearly every movie. I'm still not even sure I understand what a good looking shot really is.

I've really enjoyed watching all these movies I haven't seen before, even the ones I thought kind of sucked. It has taught me a lot about movies and exposed me to stuff that I would have never watched or thought about before. Netflix and Hulu have been invaluable and I'd never be able to do this without them. I think I've watched about 20 movies from my own DVD collection and 23 in theaters.

So here are is a brief statistical breakdown on what I've been watching (including two bonus movies).

By decade:
2010: 26
2000: 10
1990: 6
1980: 5
1970: 11
1960: 19
1950: 11
1940: 7
1930: 6
1920: 1

No surprise that the 2010's are winning as I watch like two movies a week in theaters so this decade will win by default. I've watched a lot of movies from the 1960's. It seems to me that a lot of the Criterion Collection films are from this decade. It's kind of surprising I haven't watched more films from the 1940's as when I think of "classics" I sort of imagine 1940's Hollywood. I'll try to make a conscious effort to watch more films from the 20's which means more silent movies. I will have to expand beyond Chaplin to get an overall feel for them.

Now breaking down by grade. I think some of the movies I've watched have been A+ worthy, but I didn't want to really deal with that right so an A is the highest score I am going to give for the purpose of this blog. I may retroactively change some scores around or eventually include an A+ rating.

By grade:
A     21
A-   15
B+  20
B    14
B-   11
C+  13
C      4
C-     1
D+    1
D      2
D-     0
F       0

It shouldn't be that big of a surprise that I've given pretty high scores. I have been purposely picking well regarded movies. I also tend to like a lot of stuff so a movie has got to really rub me the wrong way for me to hate it. Hopefully I won't be watching any F movies anytime soon...

I think it is noteworthy to list out the movies I've given A's to. If you had to pick a movie of the ones I've watched so far, obviously I would recommend one of these, in alphabetical order:

Adaptation, All About Eve, Casino, Charade, City Lights, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Double Indemnity, Le Doulos, Dr. Strangelove, Fallen Angels, High Noon, The Killing, Lady Snowblood, Modern Times, The Red Shoes, Samurai Rebellion, Scarface, Throne of Blood, Twilight Samurai, Vengeance, 13 Assassins

Just looking at this list of great movies it's impossible to decide which one I think is best or even like the most, though I can clearly see that some are not on the same level as others. That doesn't mean they don't deserve A's, but that not all A's are created equally.

Right now in my hearts of hearts I'd say it's a toss up between Double Indemnity, Samurai Rebellion, City Lights and All About Eve.