Current mood:	contemplative
Entry tags:	meme, movies

100 Movies Meme: MADE IT!
Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 15

HA! Made it!

I'm positive there's a half-dozen or so films I watched this year that I forgot to include. Anyway:

95. Internal Affairs. Purchased for five bucks as part of a 3-pack containing Serpico and Narc. Kind of dated, but not a bad police/corruption procedural.

96. Narc. Seriously grimy, relentlessly bleak cop film. Any movie that starts with a strung out, drug addicted cop shooting a suspect and accidentally killing a bystander's unborn child? Not a comedy.

97. Guess Who. Watched this a few weeks back with my wife. The continuing careers of Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher continues to mystify. Completely unnecessary remake, and completely unfunny.

98. Last Holiday. Another one I watched with Gab. I like Queen Latifah's screen presence, but I'm rarely a fan of her films. This is probably the funniest one I've seen; an inoffensive, genial little flick.

99. King of California. Another one I forgot to list a while back; Michael Douglas playing a burned out, borderline crazy freak, dragging his teenage daughter on a quest for missing gold. Interesting film, with a really bleak ending. Similar indie film to Smart People. Seems like a lot of indie directors are trying to do the whole Royal Tennenbaums thing, with none of the charm and half the wit.

100. Lord of War. Not what I expected. Marketed as a dark comedy, this one is actually just pretty dark. Also? Jared Leto has really weird eyes. Not as weird as Nic Cage's hair, but still.



1. Rambo. I actually found this entertaining, though it’s not for everyone. Incredibly violent, but surprisingly effective.

2. I Am Legend. Divorcing my thin recollections of the book, the movie was okay. Some genuinely creepy sequences added to “Not Being Funny” Will Smith made it effective, though the ending felt rushed. The whole movie felt short, really. Entertaining enough, but not great.

3. 28 Days Later. Finally got around to watching this, and am now fully convinced that an HBO or Showtime miniseries based on World War Z would be awesome. The film is surprisingly effective, though not quite as cool as I'd been led to believe, and the majority of the film has the visual quality of something shot for TV. (Also, I am not as interested in seeing Cillian Murphy's junk as the filmmakers apparently believe.)

4. Freeway. Holy crap. Picked it up for 3 bucks, and still felt horribly cheated. Great cast turning in absolutely terrible performances (except Reese Witherspoon, whom I generally dislike) in a shoddy student film gone horribly awry. Absolute garbage.

5. American Psycho. I am clearly a sick man, as I thought this was hysterical.

---

6. 3:10 to Yuma. Meh. Entertaining, I guess, but didn’t really make me go “wow.” Good actors chewing scenery, but overall, just kind of ... enh.

7. Angel Heart (Special Edition). Not even sure how it ended up in my collection, as I’m not really a huge Mickey Roarke fan, but this was a rather creepy film. It’s dated, and very much of its period, but I always like the “Supernatural Detective” and found myself quite enjoying it. Predictable ending, of course.

8. Blood Simple. FINALLY got around to watching this recently. Not really sure what all the fuss is about. Didn’t really dig it.

9. Brick. See above. Stylishly directed, and I’m really enjoying Joseph Gordon-Levitt defying child-star tradition and turning into a first-rate actor (go see The Lookout. Right Now.). But the dialogue left me cold – it was too affected, trying too hard to sound like ‘40s film noir. Too artificial.

10. Blade Runner: The Final Cut. HOLY CRAP AWESOME GREAT WONDERFUL.

11. Sunshine. Back in the bad old Microsoft days, when it looked like there would be a Perfect Dark movie, CAA sent us several scripts to look at, to find potential writer candidates for a PD film. Among those were the original script for Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Sunshine. The Smith script was subtle, funny, action packed, sexy. Sunshine was the complete opposite, so I avoided the movie like the plague when it came out in theaters. Watched it based on some strong recommendations, which makes me wonder what it says about me that people would think I would enjoy it. (And apologies to Frank, whom I blamed for this selection originally, until I realized, no, it was Larry. Larry clearly hates me.) The movie is like a high school sci-fi nerd who later in life is desperate to prove he's cool. "Look at me! Check out my stylish camera movements and slick CGI! WOOOO!" Deeply flawed and deeply stupid movie.

12. 28 Weeks Later. More like what I hoped 28 Days Later would be. Not bad--nothing too Earth-shattering, but tense and a bit more accessible to me.

13. The Brave One. What should be a by-the-numbers revenge thriller, but it worked, most likely because of the stellar cast and direction by Neil Jordan. These days, I think I'd pay to watch Jodie Foster pay her taxes.

14. What Lies Beneath. Picked it up in a cheap video 3-pack of Harrison Ford flicks (mostly purchased to get a copy of Witness), and I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. Michelle Pfeiffer is kind of irritatingly brittle, but it was a warmer performance from Harrison Ford than I've seen in most of his recent outings. Some generally creepy haunted house stuff mixed in.

15. Kickin' It Old Skool. Watched this as part of a ritual "bad movie" night; consistently amusing, shockingly enough. Not a good movie by any stretch, but falls comfortably into the "so bad it's good" category.

16. Premonition. God, what an awful movie.

17. American Gangster. Marvelous cast and a great crime film. It's interesting to se the weird directions Scott takes in his career. Masterfully directed, truly evocative of its era and place, and a quite staggeringly elegant technique for showing the violence as fast and brutal, where the character moments are almost languid.

18. Talk To Me. Realized I forgot a few I caught on video shortly after New Years' Day. Talk To Me, the tale of Petey Green (played by Don Cheadle), an ex-con who becomes a top-rated disc jockey in D.C. during the height of the Civil Rights era. Cheadle and co-star Chiwitel Ejiofor are amazing; great film, great music; beautiful acting.

19. Superbad. Not as funny as I'd hoped, but amusingly crude.

20. The Kingdom. Surprisingly watchable. Great opening montage, and a good head fake with the initial terrorist attacks in the film. Somewhat hokey, in terms of placing the FBI team on the ground inside Saudi Arabia, but made convincingly frustrating and difficult. Great cinematography—it really looks like a Michael Mann film, despite his not directing it (he's the producer). I even enjoyed Jennifer Garner and Jamie Foxx, whom I typically loathe.

21. Silver City. Chris Cooper in a John Sayles film. Not Sayles' finest hour, but entertaining and watchable, if'n you like Sayles and good ensemble casts.

22. Invasion. Actually not so bad; a good cast elevating, albeit barely, a by-the-numbers Invasion of the Body Snatchers homage/ripoff/remake.

23. Murderball. Documentary about Wheelchair Rugby. Fascinating stuff, well-filmed.

24. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. HILARIOUS, which is doubly amusing as this really isn't my kind of film. Really surprising is how well John C. Reilly sings. Great music, great skewering of music biopics.


25. Perfect Stranger. Also selected as a candidate for "bad movie night." Massive piece of crap, so, an appropriate choice. But still. Jesus.

26. Art School Confidential. Very funny, very scathing, well acted, well scripted. I'm not the world's biggest Dan Clowes fan (case in point, Ghost World, which I hatehatehate), but the Clowes script here is fantastic. Painful and hilarious.

27. Why We Fight. Documentary on American military build up and "empire expansion" in the post Eisenhower period, with emphasis on the current Iraq conflict. Not bad; clearly a polemic of sorts, and overlooks Afghanistan, but gripping.

28. The Hunting of the President. A less well-made documentary, focusing on the "Right Wing Conspiracy" to topple President Clinton. More interesting are the extra scenes of Clinton himself addressing an audience at a screening of the film.

29. Grindhouse presents Death Proof Hm. Violent, misogynist, and paced in a rather stately way, but I actually found myself enjoying it. Most people who recommended Grindhouse to me indicated that Planet Terror was the winner of the two films, citing Death Proof's slower pace. Haven't seen PT yet, but I really enjoyed the way Death Proof builds; it's also fascinating to me how Tarantino can so completely recreate the look of bad '70s cinema. Plus, fast cars and smoking hot women. So, there's that.

30. The Number 23 scores a zero. What started as an interesting, almost Lovecraftian concept has a muddled, cop-out ending. Jim Carrey is annoying in the lead role, though his dual role in the film as the lead character of the book that is driving its reader insane is actually the better of the two.

31. Vantage Point. Interesting notion, but the Rashomon-style flashbacks and retellings is more style than substance, and started drawing unintentional chuckles from the audience. Cute, but not anything to write home about.

32. The Mothman Prophecies. Purchased on the cheap, on a whim. Weak first act, and horrible sound balance (virtually everyone whispers through the film). Surprisingly, the second and final acts tighten up quite nicely, and I fell for a couple of the red herrings. Pleasantly creepy supernatural suspense film. Laura Linney is added to my dream-team of actors. She's watchable and good in EVERYTHING, even disposable fare like this.

33. Glory. Wonderful movie, despite Matthew Broderick's rather poor attempt at an accent.

34. Gone Baby Gone. Not bad, though, like Mystic River, it builds slowly, and seems impossibly squalid in many spots. Not enamored of Casey Affleck, either, who just really doesn't work through most of the film (though he seems to find his legs by the final half-hour). Solid.

35. No Country For Old Men. Okay, David. You can relax now. I've seen it. Pretty strong start, good middle act, sagging final act, carried mostly by performances, not script. Surprisingly conventional for the Coen Brothers, though Javier Bardem's crazed hitman is mesmerizing.

36. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. On the plus side, an interesting study in fan worship gone wrong, and a surprising performance from Casey Affleck. On the down side: Slooooooow. Very slow and meandering. Some really weird casting, as well. James Carville? Really?

37. Dan In Real Life. Weird niche that funnyman Steve Carell has built for himself – the sad clown. He plays sad with such a gentleness it's heartbreaking. Fortunately, this film also includes Dane Cook, so it can be safely ignored. (Also: is Cook's fifteen minutes almost up yet?) Not a bad movie, by any stretch, but nowhere near as good as Little Miss Sunshine.

38. Children of Men. A movie I put off watching since I loathe Clive Owen in general. Big mistake. Breathtaking, beautifully acted and exquisitely filmed. Terribly bleak peace in many ways, but also surprisingly human.

39. The Fog of War. Documentary film, a candid interview with Robert McNamarra, former SecDef under Kennedy and Johnson, and – in many ways – an architect of the Viet Nam war. Very strange film, about a very strange man. It seemed to me that, when the issue of Viet Nam was broached, he avoided it rather oddly (when the questioning began, he spent several minutes talking about his post-war career and his presidency of Ford Motors, which were completely unrelated to the question), where in other instances, he's very frank. Either he's not very forthcoming, or it's poorly edited. Very interesting film, that also fails to stick to the ribs.

40. Cutthroat Island. After setting up my new flatscreen TV, I went on a fairly prolonged jag of Nautical Adventure movies – the A&E Hornblowers, most especially, though Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, as well as the underrated Master & Commander. I've had Cutthroat Island in my collection for a while, and realized I hadn't actually ever seen it. So, having exhausted most of my other options, I popped it in. It's a stupid movie, but good-stupid not make-my-head-asplode-stupid, so there's that, at least.

41. Millions. A surprisingly sweet film from Danny Boyle (though I'm already sick to my eyeteeth of his camera trick of blurring a figure out completely, to heighten perceived threat). Weird and quirky, but absolutely charming young cast.

42. Fear. Early vehicle for Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. Not a bad film per se; it's conventional in the extreme, and not exactly Oscar material, but it's reasonably entertaining and stylishly directed. Supporting performances by Alyssa Milano, William Petersen, and Amy Brenneman elevate the production. Worth the four bucks I paid for it.

43. Iron Man. Stellar popcorn action flick. Smart performances, a strong script, great special effects. This ranks up there with The Rocketeer as “best comic book film adaptation EVAR.”

44. The Public Enemy. Watched as part of a boxed set of Warner Bros. gangster pictures—classic crime film. I particularly enjoy how, for films like this, Warner Bros. includes a “Night at the Movies” feature—an introduction by Leonard Maltin, newsreels, trailers for films of the period, animated shorts, comedy shorts, plus a stellar print of the original film. I swear, someone could make a serious living running a theater that does modern iterations of this kind of thing.

45. White Heat. More gangster movie fun, with the tour de force, definitive Jimmy Cagney performance. I've never paid much attention to Cagney before, mostly because of the amount of parody he's been the target of. His Cody Jarrett is a terrifying psychopath, and the weird dynamic between Cody and Ma Jarrett makes for a surprisingly sophisticated film, well ahead of its time.

46. Angels With Dirty Faces. Not as wild about this one—it seemed to flit back and forth between comedy, romance, and gangster noir, and seems to be forced in all of them. That said, the Cagney performance is fabulous—his Rocky Sullivan is incredibly likable, at least until his final reel shootout with the police. Not as good as Public Enemy or White Heat, but watchable. The opening sequence in particular, with young Rocky living in a claustrophobic tenement neighborhood, is very effective.

47. Juno. Didn't like it. Subject matter left me pretty raw, frankly.

48. We Are Marshall. By-the-numbers sports flick. Nothing spectacular, nothing awful.

49. Charlie Wilson's War. Surprisingly entertaining; great performances by Hanks, who masters a sort of crinkly likability, and the always excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's sort of a human incarnation of a hurricane (with profanity and rage as it's “calm” eye). Worth a look; not a terrific film, but watchable and generally pretty smart.

50. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Fun adaptation, but suffers from the same problem as the Potter films: there's nothing the films can do that I didn't do better in my head when I read the book. Well made and entertaining, and worth a look.

51. Hitman. Okay, so, I'm freakin' obsessed with the HITMAN videogame franchise. The games are generally mediocre at best, but there's something very compelling about the visual of Number 47, the titular hitman. So, on a whim, I rented the flick and was surprised that it's not a bad film. It's also not a GOOD film, but it's entertaining in the same way as THE BEASTMASTER was, i.e. BEST MOVIE EVAR when you're ten years old. Hitman does some goofy stuff, but eschews dumb bullet cam CGI and wire-fu for a moody and well-conceived visual style, good use of some of the visual design for the game's signature mechanics, some fairly smart gun battles, and pretty decent casting. Timothy Olyphant, in particular, works pretty well as 47. (Also, note to filmmakers: INTERPOL does not do what you think it does. It's not nearly as sexy, guys. Really. Knock it off.)

52. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it. It's visually stunning, but in service to a creaky, overlabored plot that just kind of ... lies there. All the snap is really gone, and it was just kind of boring, and also committed the cardinal sin of making Indy a passive spectator by the end. Kind of sad, really.

53. Cloverfield. A lot of fun, actually; the shaky-cam was a bit much, but some of the effects sequences are great; I especially love the bit in the subway tunnel. I found myself laughing aloud during the scary bits -- not because I thought they were funny, but because I was just LOVING those scenes. The monster was kinda not as cool as I'd hoped. Looked a bit too much like the Alien hybrid in Alien: Resurrection, but still neat.

54. National Treasure 2. Affable as the first film, but not as entertaining. Decent brainless popcorn flick. Someone desperately needs to pull Nic Cage aside and have a long talk about his hair.

55. Blades of Glory. Wow. Relentlessly stupid film -- it's a Will Ferrel comedy, after all -- but I laughed.

56. There Will Be Blood. Of all the "you must see this or you're dead inside" recommendations I've gotten, this is possibly the one I've enjoyed the most. It's a bitter, mean-spirited film about bitter, mean-spirited people (Evangelists and Oilmen), but the relentless build is compelling and though it's not my favorite film by any stretch, I sure enjoyed it quite a bit. A little overlong (not a surprise given the, uh, relaxed pace of Magnolia or Boogie Nights), but damn compelling.

57. Lions for Lambs. Totally a left-wing polemic, but a surprisingly gentle one, and -- aside from some fictional conceits that are more than a little contrived -- appeals, simply from it's sincere desire to "say something." Tom Cruise is particularly effective as the "new, young face" of the Republican party, in a performance at times oily and serpentine, and at others, awash in high-wattage likability.

58. In Bruges. Great concept, great cast, surprisingly bloody and dark film. Not what I was hoping for, but mildly entertaining in spots.

59. Death at a Funeral. Another one I wanted to like, a proper British farce in many ways, with a stellar cast (including two of the regulars from the show Spooks/M.I. 5, as well as Alan Tudyk), but the plot moves into surprisingly gross-out slapstick which does not appeal to me. Disappointing for the most part, though Firefly fans who may have an inexplicable desire to see Tudyk's naked ass will find this a cinematic classic.

60. Be Kind Rewind. I'm not a fan of Jack Black when he's doing his "I'm wacky! Look at me be wacky!" shtick; I'm equally unimpressed with Mos Def, who's acting oeuvre seems to consist solely of vacant stares, stammering, and mumbling. And what appeared to be a comedy started out as a fairly dark, bleak film, which left me bored and irritated. And without warning, the final act is almost Capra-esque, and helped elevate the whole exercise. Still not sure what to make of this one; didn't like it, exactly, but didn't dislike it, either. Odd little film.

61. Kung Fu Panda. Complete. Awesome. I have no idea who woke up the art directors at DreamWorks animation, but this film is almost -- not quite, but almost-- Pixar quality. The martial arts sequences are breathtaking, and the aforementioned Jack Black, chained by an actual script, turns out a fantastic vocal performance. The addition of David Cross and Seth Rogan to the cast was also masterful, and though it's a crusty old "be your own person"/uplifting message plot, it's executed with great skill. Real surprise.

62. Hancock. Hm. I'm...rather ambivalent about the film. It's an interesting enough initial premise -- and Will Smith is actually not playing his normal "lookit! I'm SUCH a NICE GUY" role, which is quite refreshing. The effects are okay (not great; Sony Imageworks kinda sucks), the action sequences and character relationships start strong enough. But it's a lot darker film than I suspected, and it's really not a comedy (which is how it is portrayed in trailers), though there are occasional funny bits. The last hour feels very rushed and weird, like there was a LARGE NUMBER of cooks in the kitchen on this one. It sort of makes up its own superhero mythology as it goes along, and doesn't do a good job of explaining it. Decent enough, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Gabi and the friends we saw it with seemed to like it quite a lot, and there ARE things to like, but, yeah. Hmm.

63. Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Quite liked it. Like the first film, it has some slow spots in odd places, but the visuals are outstanding -- Del Toro REALLY cuts loose. The action scenes and one-liners crackle along, and fans of good fight choreography are going to LOOOOOVE Prince Nuada, who comes across as a sort of sword-slingin' crossbreed of Tom Cruise, Edgar Winter and Legolas; oddly, this works REALLY well.

The opening animation is ungodly holy-crap amazing, as well, and of course, Hellboy says "CRAP," and punches monsters a great deal, so all in all quite satisfying.

Far less Lovecraftian than the first film; instead it's more of a dark fairy tale, and I think some of the folks I went with found this jarring, but it worked well for me. Good stuff.

64. Rendition. Interesting concept, executed in a manner best termed as "plodding."

65. The Dark Knight, or "In which Eric is pilloried by fandom for not thinking it's particularly good." Shrug. Not offensively dumb or anything, and certainly NOT the worst superhero movie ever, but not a particularly smart or engaging film. The performances are (for the most part) superb -- except perhaps Christian Bale, who kind of seems to be phoning this one in a bit -- and it is a visually striking film, but MAN does it need 30 minutes shaved out of it. Didn't hate it, didn't love it, don't really want to watch it again.

66. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Perhaps it's because my expectations were SO low, AND I had been preloaded by just about everyone I know who's seen it with the notion that this Mummy movie is simply the worst movie ever made, but, um, I didn't mind it. The dialogue is terrible, the action sequences are a weird combination of hyperkinetic and yet still not terribly exciting, the performances are frequently wooden. All valid criticisms of the film. But, you know, I wanted to see Brendan Fraser and a bunch of supporting characters killing mummies. Plus, Michelle Yeoh hanging out with a bunch of Yeti? SUPER COOL. Far less irritating to me than the execrable Mummy Returns and it's companion piece The Scorpion King, both of which can cause sepsis in laboratory conditions.

67. Stone Cold. Direct to DVD (or maybe lift from a Showtime original or something) adaptation of Robert P. Parker's "Jesse Stone" novels, featuring Tom Selleck. Selleck gets a lot of slack from me, simply because he was MAGNUM GODDAM P.I., and was The Man Who Would Be Indiana Jones. Apparently, this is the first in a series of telefilms or D2DVD releases featuring a troubled and alcoholic small town sheriff who becomes embroiled in various gritty "big city"-type crimes. Not a great film, frankly, especially the murderers in the mystery -- who are just COMPLETELY laughable -- but Selleck's essaying of the character is really, really good. Makes me want to go read the books.

68. Flawless. This title is not accurate, and, actually is COMPLETELY WRONG. Terrible movie.

69. Justice League: The New Frontier. Animated adaptation of the Darwyn Cooke-penned comic series from DC. Pretty, but kind of unsatisfying. I love the look of Cooke's artwork, but I had some fairly major gripes with the series (particularly the portrayal of Hal Jordan). With the truncated amount of space to tell the story afforded by film adaptation, it just feels kind of thin...if I hadn't read the comics, I probably wouldn't have been able to follow a lot of the film. One big surprise, though: Jeremy Sisto voices Batman quite ably.

70. Thelma & Louise. I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't seen this rather influential film -- more surprising to me given what a Ridley Scott fan I am. Added it to the library recently, and quite enjoyed it, despite the Butch & Sundance ending. Brad Pitt was particularly entertaining.

71. Unleashed. Jet Li as a brutalized-child-somehow-turned-unstoppable-killing-machine-for-no-adequately-explored-reason. Good god, Luc Besson: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?

[Edit: HAH! Remembered one I watched a few months back and forgot to include.]

72. Kinsey. Interesting choice for a biopic, and it makes for some generally uncomfortable moments in the film, but it seems oddly ambivalent about its subject. Again, Laura Linney is excellent, as is the ever-reliable Peter Sarsgaard. John Lithgow needs to stop playing emotionally repressed Puritans, though. That crap is getting old. (Though, in fairness, his role here takes some surprising turns, playing a bit off the old "Footloose" image.)

73. Hard Candy. A deeply uncomfortable film, and one that was clearly shot on virtually no budget, but riveting nonetheless. Not the standard Saw-style Lions Gate kill-porn fare that it was marketed as; witty, clever and extremely dark. Particularly interesting to me was the performance by Ellen Page from Juno, who delivers an outstanding character study here. Not for the faint of heart, and fairly lurid, but a really interesting film.

74. Son of Rambow. Charming little British film, about a schoolboy – in a fairly repressively religious home – and his friendship with one of the more troubled schoolyard ruffians. Not great, but a pleasant little movie.

75. Swordfish. Yup. Just as dumb as I feared. And, for a movie that was all kinds of “startling” for Halle Berry showing off her breasts, um, they really aren't the nicest breasts. Hugh Jackman fans may enjoy the fact that he runs around in a towel for the first, oh, fourteen hours of this interminable, plodding, stupid movie.

76. Run, Fatboy, Run. Actually watched this in the theater awhile back, and forgot to record it. Schwimmer's surprisingly funny (albeit occasionally saccharine) directing turn works well with Simon Pegg's outstanding comedic (and occasionally wrenching dramatic) acting. Also? Dylan Moran completely steals the film away from everyone with his performance as “Gordon”—a variation on Moran's Bernard Black character.

77. V: The Final Battle. Actually rewatched the whole damn film/TV series, as I have an Alien Lizards From Beyond The Stars concept I'm toying with. Wow. It does not hold up well. I expect it didn't hold up well in first run. Fun, though.

78. Baby Mama. I love Tina Fey. I like Amy Poehler. I did not like this movie.

79. The Grand. Really uneven poker-caper mockumentary, that's notable for the normal amusing performances from David Cross and Denis Farina, and more, for Werner Freakin' Herzog as, and I quote, “The Scary German.” Mediocre, but not awful.

80. Battlestar Galactica: Razor. Uneven slice of BSG fanservice--which reinforces my opinion that, while I enjoy the "reimagined" series--the Cylon designs from the original show (the Raider starfighters, the Basestars, the Cylon Centurions) all look cooler than the modern counterparts. Something about the visual style, which was just shot differently (with lots of strange zooms and camera movements) than the show, is distracting, and some of the CGI is just appallingly unconvincing, marring some really good ideas for scenes. (Notably, a young Bill Adama battling a Centurion, while both are in freefall toward the surface of an icy planet.) Also: it bugs me that Bill was a "nugget" and only seemed to fight in one major battle of the First Cylon War. Lame. It always seemed that he was pretty active in the war.

81. The Last Kiss. Another one we watched awhile ago, and I forgot to mention. I love Scrubs. I do not begrudge Zach Braff his success. I just wish he made movies that were a good deal less whiny and neurotic. Woody Allen's got it covered, kid. Move on.

82. Grace Is Gone. Really, really sad, uncomfortable movie. Not fun at all. An interesting study in a main character who is just completely dysfunctional, and an unusual role for John Cusack.

83. The Lather Effect. Awful Gen-X version of The Big Chill. Did I mention? AWFUL.

84. The Great Debaters. Denzel Washington vehicle, period history/drama piece about one of the first African-American college debating teams to debate a white college (Harvard) and win. A little over-earnest, to be frank, and a bit overly sentimentalized, but strong performances from a stellar cast help soften that.

85. Mad Max. While playing Fallout 3, I got the bug to watch the Mad Max films -- and realized, I'd never actually seen the first one. I didn't hate it, and it is a product of being low budget, but I actually question the placement of it in the category of "post apocalypse." Fun enough, I guess, but nothing special. I kind of want to see the missing "middle" chapter, where the bombs fell, which clearly happened after society started to break down after the events of Mad Max.

86. Get Smart. Not horrible, actually.

87. Smart People. Awful.

88. Akeelah and the Bee. Watched it ages ago, forgot to include it. Very sweet, charming little film.

89. You Don't Mess With The Zohan. Hard to imagine how this movie could have been made less funny.

90. Tropic Thunder. Relentlessly strange movie, though Robert Downey, Jr. had me howling.

91. Incredible Hulk. Not awful, actually kind of fun. It ends up basically just being a video game cutscene, but hey, monsters fight and break stuff.

92. War, Inc. Wow. I really wanted to like it. I really didn't.

93. X-Files: I Want To Believe. Wasn't sure what to expect, but as a capstone to the franchise, sort of Mulder and Scully's last ride, it worked kinda well. No alien weirdness, and the weirdness they DO encounter is suitably grimy and weird. Not good, not as awful as I feared.

94. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.. Interesting true story of a woman who makes ends meet for her family in the 1950s by winning contests.