Film 49 - There's Something About Mary

Goofy romantic comedy with Ben Stiller, not a bad film but not going to get into the top films of the year. It seems like it punched below its weight, it seems like it could have been better but was still a decent film.

The story is, Ted gets a prom date with Mary in high school but an accident involving his flies and a certain dangly appendage kills that. Fourteen years later he's still obsessed with her, problem is everyone else who runs into her seems to fall in love with her too.

The annoying thing for me was that it wasn't as funny as it was billed to be, it's often rated in top comedy films lists and although it was funny, it wasn't hilarious, and that's annoying.

Film 48 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

The blackest of comedies, but also one of the funniest. An unhinged US General launches a unilateral nuclear strike against the USSR during the middle of the Cold War, and the rest of the film deals with the president and his men trying to clear up the mess along with the men of a B-52 bomber carrying out the strike.

This maybe wouldn't seem like it would have the makings of a great comedy, but it really delivers, the brilliance of it being in the absurdity of it all and the satire on the Cold War period. There are many great lines but if I had to pick one out to end this blogpost on it would be:

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

Film 47 - Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Before I launch into a long blog extolling the virtues of something I've watched many times I'd like to add a disclaimer: Yes I know this isn't a feature film, but I consider it a short film as although it was originally released as a mini-series on the internet, it's now on DVD, and I've always watched it as one thing, not three parts.

With that out the way I can get on to the brilliance of the show, a musical tragicomedy about a super-villain, his arch nemesis and the girl he loves.

There are just so many great things about Dr. Horrible, the characters are all brilliantly acted, we have a superhero and a super-villain and somehow we all empathise with the villain. The plot line is great and the songs all brilliant, the ending is just gut-wrenchingly sad and the comedy permeates everything from Captain Hammer: "These are not the hammer.... the hammer is my penis" to Neil Patrick Harris's exquisite comic timing.

One of my favourite things ever, not just films... things.

EDIT: This isn't really Film 47, it should have been either 6 or 7 as I saw it around that time first, but it's easier putting it at 47 than re jigging the whole order.

Film 46 - Zack and Miri Make a Porno

In two words: Unexpectedly good. Sure there were things wrong, things I would have done differently and the overall concept was shaky at best.

The scenes when they were actually making the porno weren't the best, but Zack and Miri's love scene showed why sex in the movies is better than sex in porn... insinuating what's happening rather than showing it outright (and better acting than some of the half-arsed attempts in the rest of the shooting of their porno).

So, it was one of those films that was greater than the sum of its parts, even the things done badly didn't ruin it, and the things done well (like the ending and some really brilliant comic timing throughout) made up for it.

Film 45 - Zombieland

This definitely ranks in my top two zombie comedies of all time, and it's very difficult to seperate it from the equally brilliant Shaun of the Dead.

The two films are very different though, Zombieland puts more of a focus on action than Shaun ever did, but in their very different ways they are equally funny. As well as being funny the film does have an emotional core to it and the developing friendship and comradeship between the four wanderers is a nice touch.

All the dialogue is razor sharp and the almost insane violence of Tallahassee is just great, making this a simply brilliant film.

Film 44 - Groundhog Day

A real contender for film of the year, because it just shows how much can go on in a day, and in doing so dealt with one of my pet obsessions, the idea of eternity; a personal eternity.

There's a theory of films that I once read that stated that every film could have one 'gimme' where anything is allowed, and after that things would have to make sense. This film's gimme is the idea that Phil Connors is stuck in one day that he must have relived thousands of times. He tries to kill himself, he spends months depressed, months seeking Rita's love, tricking people and learning to play the piano.

He had his own personal eternity, I always thought I would love that. The difference is that when I always imagined it, I could stop it and return to reality any time I want, he couldn't and that was the crucial difference.

Maybe another difference is the fact I know what I'd do with my own personal eternity, and he didn't.

Would you?

Film 43 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Another brilliant comedy by the Python collective who literally cannot be unfunny, whereas Life of Brian had more of a satirical edge to it, the Holy Grail is just pure comedy, tempered with some satire but less defined by it.

If I have to explain why it's funny you shouldn't be reading this, you should be watching it. Explaining such a great comedy film is like dissecting a frog...

Film 42 - Driving Miss Daisy

From a blood and guts gore-fest, to a touching comedy-drama starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman. Driving Miss Daisy does have several similarities to another film with Tandy in that I've seen (Fried Green Tomatoes) in that it explores the racial issues in the south of America and does it in a thought-provoking and really touching way.

Everything is just really well done on the film, Tandy and Freeman play their roles with aplomb and special praise has to go to Hans Zimmer for creating a distinctive and stylish soundtrack.

The story just has a great flow to it, and gradually with the help of Hoke we start to see the cold shell retreat from Daisy and a great friendship is established. One of those truly heart-warming films

Film 41 - Saw VI

Well, to be completely honest, I've got no idea what happened in this film. I didn't think it would have much of a storyline and the copious amounts of alcohol I consumed before watching it with my flatmates kinda took the shock factor away.

The film only just gets onto this blog, because despite the fact that I was sitting watching it, my attention span was so limited I can never remember watching it for more than five minutes at a time without me or someone else interrupting.

Film 40 - All the President's Men

If Ace in the Hole was an exposure of the very worst in journalism, All the President's Men was a celebration of all the very best.

Woodward and Bernstein's investigation may have been one of the finest works of investigative journalism of all time, and the two hours plus of this film seems to just scratch the surface of the monumental effort that must have been put in by the two reporters. Still, it was a marvellous piece of entertaining cinema, and told expertly the story of the first part of the investigation, the hard work before the conspiracy began to unravel.

It could almost be a documentary such was its commitment to the truth and reality of the discovering of the story, but unlike some documentaries it was constantly engaging, one of the films that you simply can't look away from, can't take your eyes or mind away from it. Simply brilliant.

Film 39 - Heaven Can Wait

Not a bad film, this 40s comedy, but not nearly funny or interesting enough to get towards the top of my list. It's the second film from the 40s that I've watched this year, and Casablanca is hundreds of times better.

There were points that I did like, and the final scene was nicely done, not going on too long as many films seem to these days, instead ending on the right point.

But that's not enough to make it anything more than average.

Film 38 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

This was one of those genre defining movies, it flirted with being an adventure film, at times a comedy and at many other times was just a just indefinably good film.

There was so much on the surface to this film and so many sub-plots, the son who may not be, the oceanographer exacting revenge on the shark that killed his best friend, the estranged wife and the making of an award winning documentary.

It's ironic that as I write this a David Bowie song comes on my Spotify shuffle, as for some reason his songs were used throughout, some great songs used in good places in a truly great film.

Film 37 - Fahrenheit 911

I'm becoming a huge fan of Michael Moore's film-making, he's always incisive and generally manages to irritate everyone he's attacking with his wry line of questioning. There was less of this in Fahrenheit 911 than in the other films of his I've seen, but it was just as good overall as any film he's made.

From exposing the Bush family's business connections with the bin Ladens to the extent Haliburton profited in Iraq, this is a tour de force for Moore, as his incisive commentary is as usual able to simplify even the most complicated concepts and his investigatory zeal is evident to see, as well as his skill in crafting a documentary from this time mostly archive footage

Put simply, Michael Moore is the best documentary film-maker of his generation, and there can be no question about it.

Film 36 - Paranoid Park

Underwhelming is the main opinion I have of this film. The concept works perfectly, a young skateboarders life begins to fall apart after he accidently kills a security guard, and there are some great moments in the film, but the cinematography never really did it for me.

Gus Van Sant the director previously directed Good Will Hunting, a film I loved, partly because he did nothing dramatic with the camerawork, editing and effects, he just let the story flow. This time the flow seemed slow and stilted, the camerawork veering between docu-style and amateurish, and half of the film where nothing happened.

The good moments when they did happen were truly great, and save the film from being a complete dud. The moment the security guard is sliced in half is brilliantly shot and without being gruesome had a great effect on me, and the final scene when Macy tells him to write everything down completes the catharsis of the film brilliantly, and sets up the first person narrative convincingly.

Verdict: concept great, storyline good, execution poor. An average film, with the potential to have been so much more.

Film 35 - Taxi Driver

Well, what a contrast. From the indie hit 500 Days Of Summer to todays film: Taxi Driver, and honestly, writing this the moment after I finished watching it, I'm not quite sure what impression to take. Travis Bickle clearly gets more and more insane as the film goes on, and his moralistic stance is kinda contradicted at the ending. The fact is, the ending is set up to make him look like a nutter on a killing spree, yet he ends up as the hero. This is the first film that I end up making no judgement on, it's up there with Shallow Grave as one of the most disturbing films I've watched this year - and ever - but I cannot seem to work out whether I agree with it, or even like it.

I think Betsy summed it up when she talked about Bickle's "contradictions," everything about his was wrong, yet somehow right.

Or maybe right, but somehow wrong... I really don't know.

EDIT: With further thinking, and a read of the Wikipedia article, I found out that Iris was actually supposed to be 12, something that I missed in the film (I thought the pimp was lying when he said she was 12). After seeing that Bickle's actions seem a lot more heroic, and i think the idea of him as an avenger seems the best way to put it. One thing is for sure though, Taxi Driver is a classic.

Film 34 - 500 Days Of Summer

There was no way I wasn't going to dislike this film, consider my list of things that make a good film: Zooey Deshanel. Check. Adorably indie rom-com. Check. Non-linear narrative sequence. Check. Lovestruck cute guy  (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Check.

But enough with lists, it had all the ingredients and this film mixed them together so well, into one of the biggest indie hits of 2009. It's amazing that it's taken me this long to actually get round to watching it, but it's definately one that I will give another watch, and that's not something I can say about a lot of films.

Film 33 - The Hangover

Me and my flatmates watched this average comedy last night, they all seemed to like it, and I was less sure. Yes, it delivered some good laughs but the storyline was pretty poor and a lot of it seemed very clichéd and hackneyed.

It's one of those films that I neither love or hate, but I can't imagine it placing very highly in my ranking of the films  I've watched this year.

Film 32 - Ace In The Hole

Yesterday the journalism department at my uni (Sheffield) organised  a showing of the film for all the first year students in the department, and I'm very glad I was forced to go.

I don't usually like old films (Casablanca aside) but this story of a journalist willing to do anything for a story really resonated with me and I'd just like to C&P the comment I posted on the blog of the department, as it pretty well sums up my view:

It seems a common view these days that journalism is dying and isn't what it used to be, but if what is portrayed in Ace In The Hole is reasonably accurate; journalism has always had its good and bad side. The case can be argued that Chuck Tatum has a lot in common with the protagonists of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. In both cases the journalist or journalists would do anything they had to, in order to get a story. In many ways the phone-hacking was of a far less serious nature than what Tatum did, blackmailing corrupt officials and getting a man killed, but the general face of journalism hasn't changed, there have always been reporters willing to break the law and act unethically to get a story and there always will be. The only difference seems to be that the methods have changed, and in many ways have got more sophisticated.