My year of movie Wednesdays, featuring best picks and shockers

RK -


I mentioned the other day that this year, Wednesdays are movie watching days. And not just any movies, but movies from a list I compiled last New Year's. 52 films, one per week, to be watched throughout the year.

Now, obviously I'm not done yet - it's only August - but I've seen a good chunk of the list and can now recommend some of them. Here are the ones I've seen, in random order, and my thoughts on them:

  • Singin' in the Rain (1952): not my cup of tea at all. I strongly dislike musicals where the music numbers don't move the plot forward. It's just wasted screen time. Also the main characters had no chemistry, and the acting was over the top.
  • Ben-Hur (1959): brilliant! Well acted, high production value, a good script.
  • Wizard of Oz (1939): here the musical numbers brought depth to the characters, so they weren't as much of a waste as in the musical mentioned above. Still didn't enjoy it much, though.  
  • Psycho (1960): it's hard to give an objective opinion since I knew the twist beforehand. Anthony Perkins is a terrific actor, though.
  • North by Northwest (1959): good and entertaining! Not as good as Vertigo, but still a lot of fun.
  • Metropolis (1927): I'd like to like it more than I did. Also I think the male lead was miscast (Gustav Fröhlich).
  • Modern Times (1936): started well, then turned a little lackluster.
  • Mulholland Drive (2001): weird, in a good way.
  • The Lion King (1994): excellent. Psychological. Not a kids' movie.
  • The Sting (1973): good, entertaining. Robert Redford runs funnily.
  • The Big Lebowski (1998): black comedy! I love black comedies, and the Coen brothers are probably the best at it. Not as good as Fargo, but still good. It really tied the room together.
  • Sophie’s Choice (1982): the Holocaust scenes were so effective that the later time scenes couldn't live up to them.
  • Star Wars IV-V-VI (1997-1980-1983): fun and entertaining, though they didn't turn me into a hardcore SW fan yet.  
  • City of God (2002): excellent! A masterpiece!
  • The Intouchables (2011): funny, heartfelt, entertaining.
  • Goodfellas (1990): I've seen better mafia movies than this.
  • Braveheart (1995): nice, though Gibson's accent is a little on the nose.
  • 1917 (2019): don't remember much about this. Pseudo one shot.
  • Princess Mononoke (1997): excellent! Not surprising though, coming from Miyazaki.
  • M (1931): so good, Peter Lorre is magnificent.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975): funny. Enjoyed.
  • Before Sunrise - Before Sunset (1995-2004): meh. Didn't really buy the dialogue.
  • Green Book (2018): it's difficult to make movies based on true stories without distorting the events, so taking that into account, it was a good movie.
  • The Pianist (2002): excellent, masterpiece, nothing you didn't aready know.
  • Mad Max (1979): the plot didn't start until 20 minutes before the end.
  • Romeo + Juliet (1996): an interesting adaptation, taking the language and the dialogue as-is from the original text, while setting the whole thing in modern day (90's) Florida.
  • Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): a brilliant movie, one of my favorites from the list!
  • Dial M for Murder (1954): entertaining, witty, a clever ending.

And that's it so far! Stay tuned for an update about the rest.

RK out.