Sunday, August 8, 2010

150 Movies in 4 Years

According to my records, I have watched exactly 150 movies since I started keeping track four years ago (September 2006). Most of these I watched lounging around at home, with or without my mom, but a few I saw in local movie theaters, and others I watched in class, or in my dorm, or traveling (I saw The Dark Knight in Ithaca, NY, Alice in Wonderland in LA, Scary Movie 4 on my friend's portable DVD player in Italy, and a few others on airplanes and buses). They are a mix of Golden-Age Hollywood movies, silent black-and-white films, animated movies, chick flicks, comedies, romantic comedies, Oscar winners, cult classics, children's movies, movies in French (but none in Spanish, oddly enough), and some other random ones thrown in. Note that there are almost no horror/thriller movies on the list. I don't do scary movies. I really really wish I could watch The Silence of the Lambs, Rear Window, and Psycho, but I'm too scared as of now. Maybe later. I also learned that I can't do action movies with complicated storylines like Snatch; I didn't really understand Ocean's Eleven until the middle of the movie (but that's probably because I wasn't paying enough attention in the first half). Multiple storylines I can handle, as long as they're somewhat related (Love Actually, Babel, Crash). I also don't tend to repeat movies; I think I only saw four movies twice during these four years (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Iron Man, Rent and Up). However, although I watched most of these movies for the first time in the past four years, some were repeats from before I started the list (Pirates of the Caribbean, a few of the Harry Potters). Some notable ones (and not-so-notable ones) are not even on this list because I didn't watch them in the last four years (Finding Nemo, Amadeus, The Phantom of the Opera, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Inspector Gadget, Spy Kids).

I saw a lot of these movies because my mom checked them out from the library. She's not really a big movie buff, but she likes Dustin Hoffman and Audrey Hepburn. She also believes in Oscar Best Picture winners (when I was small, any book I was reading would automatically get bonus points if it had a Newbery Medal on it).

I actually did not finish Blade Runner due to a technical difficulties, but I put it on the list because I watched it 95% of the way through and I rather don't want to watch the end. But I think I left out a few movies during the first half year because I kept forgetting to write them down. I thought I watched the first two Shrek movies in the past 4 years...but maybe it was earlier. I also added The Magic Flute, which is an opera that I watched in video form.

I'm actually rather surprised I watched so many, because I'm not a huge movie fan (I prefer books), and sometimes I consider them as cultural homework (or actual homework, in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey). I think it's because I have a short attention span and I forget things easily, and it's harder to go back and remind myself of something in a movie than it is in a book. Plus in a book you just have to read all the words, but in a movie you have to watch everything. Which also makes them more interesting, I suppose.

So (drummroll please), without further ado, here is the nearly-complete List of Movies I Watched in the Past Four Years, alphabetized:

(500) Days of Summer (2009)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
13 Going On 30 (2004)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
27 Dresses (2008)
50 First Dates (2004)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Walk To Remember (2002)
Accepted (2006)
Aladdin (1992)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
American Beauty (1999)
An American in Paris (1951)
Analyze This (1999)
Atonement (2007)
Avatar (2009)
Babel (2006)
Batman Begins (2005)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Being There (1979)
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Blade Runner (1982)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Broken Arrow (1996)
Bruce Almighty (2003)
C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Cars (2006)
Casablanca (1942)
Charade (1963)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Chicago (2002)
Chocolat (2000)
A Christmas Carol (1951)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Clueless (1995)
The Corpse Bride (2005)
Crash (2004)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Die Zauberflöte (2000)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Ella Enchanted (2004)
Emma (1996)
Enchanted (2007)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Family Stone (2005)
Fight Club (1999)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Funny Face (1957)
Funny Girl (1968)
The General (1926)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Graduate (1967)
Grease (1978)
Hairspray (2007)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Hercules (1997)
High School Musical (2006)
The Hot Chick (2002)
The Hours (2002)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
I Love You, Man (2009)
Iron Man (2008)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Julie & Julia (2009)
The Jungle Book (1994)
Juno (2007)
The Kid (1921)
La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep) (2006)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Les Choristes (2004)
Liar Liar (1997)
The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King 1 ½ (2004)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Love Actually (2003)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Ma Vie en Rose (1997)
Mean Girls (2004)
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
My Fair Lady (1964)
The Notebook (2004)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Office Space (1999)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
The Parent Trap (1998)
Persuasion (2007)
Peter Pan (1953)
The Pianist (2002)
The Pink Panther (2006)
Pinocchio (1940)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Ratatouille (2007)
Red Eye (2005)
Rent (2005)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Sabrina (1954)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
She’s the Man (2006)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Shrek the Third (2007)
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2002)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Snatch (2000)
Star Trek (2009)
Superbad (2007)
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Tootsie (1982)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Underworld (2003)
Up (2009)
WALL-E (2008)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Yes Man (2008)

My favorite movies would probably have to be:
(500) Days of Summer
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Chicago
Chocolat
Finding Nemo (not on this list, but who cares)
The Hours
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rent
Shawshank Redemption
The Science of Sleep
Tootsie
Up

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