I have long been interested in exploring the narrative, artistic, cultural, economic, and political implications of le cinéma. While I can not say that it is genetic, my granddaughter (who turns thirty today) has a degree in film studies. However, mostly, I just like to be entertained. In The Before Time I watched about 85 movies a year. In the first year of the pandemic I watched 108.
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| Ferrari: photo by Cliff Hutson |
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| Cast Away: photo by Cliff Hutson |
- A Thief of Time
- Bullitt
- My Cousin Vinny
- North by Northwest
- Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
- A Mighty Wind
- Sherlock Holmes (2009)
- Sweet Country
- Jurassic Park
- Hell on the Border
- Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague
- Outbreak (1995)
- Contagion
- World War Z
- Ford v Ferrari
- The Big Sleep
- A Bridge Too Far
- The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)
- Support Your Local Gunfighter
- The Vikings (1958)
- The Last Stand
- The Lone Ranger (2013)
- Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
- Jumanji: The Next Level
- The Phantom (1996)
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers (2012)
- The Siege
- Jurassic World
- Licence to Kill (1989)
- Hudson Hawk
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
- Star Trek: Insurrection
- Terminator: Dark Fate
- Bad Boys
- Evolution (2001)
- The Andromeda Strain (1971)
- It Came from Beneath the Sea
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Waiting for Guffman
- Best in Show
- Rouge
- Jaws
- The African Queen
- Humanoids from the Deep
- Gemini Man (2019)
- Twister
- Sideways
- Commando (1985)
- The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- The Producers (1967)
- Cast Away
- Atomic Blonde
- Shooter
- Predator (1987)
- Alien
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Airplane!
- Ocean’s Eleven
- Back to the Future
- The Maltese Falcon
- West Bank Story
- The Gauntlet
- Dirty Harry
- Magnum Force
- The Enforcer
- Sudden Impact
- The Dead Pool
- Casablanca
- The Right Stuff
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- To Have and Have Not
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- Silverado
- The Italian Job (2003)
- The Italian Job (1969)
- Wild Wild West (1999)
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
- Lone Survivor
- Fargo
- The Blues Brothers
- Barbarella
- Romancing the Stone
- Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- Greyhound
- Six Days, Seven Nights
- Pit Stop (1969)
- Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
- Casino Royale (2006)
- Young Frankenstein
- Adaptation
- All That Jazz
- Alien
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- Independence Day
- Beetlejuice
- Hondo (1953)
- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
- 20 Things to Do in Midsomer Before You Die
- On the Rocks (Apple TV+)
- Deadpool
- Silverado
- Raising Arizona
- John Wick
- Wolfwalkers
- Trading Places
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| Film Class: photo by Cliff Hutson |
The Old and the New
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| A Bridge Too Far: photo by Cliff Hutson |
Looking back at my list it is abundantly clear that the majority of my viewing falls in the "old" category. As I have written elsewhere there are some movies that I make it a point watch every year, mostly from my rather large DVD collection. Among these are "Casablanca", "Jaws", "Silverado", and "Trading Places."
Our current situation led me to search out films about pandemics. While there are several well known movies in this pantheon, the one I found most gripping was "Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague". One of the worst was "World War Z". Some say that it was a "bona-fide box office hit", but the plot had nothing to do with the novel that it was based on and should have been given another title.
Of the truly "new" films I found only that is truly worth mentioning, "Greyhound", a fictionalized summation of the Battle of the Atlantic,
Note:
While I titled this post "At the Movies" (stolen from the program of the same name), all of these movies were watched in the privacy and safety of my home. This is not only due to the restrictions imposed by the prevalence of COVID-19, but also the fact that I just do not want to go to a theater. As beat as I can recall the last movie I went out to see was Sherlock Holmes (2009).
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