Still playing catch-up with movies, this is the week ending April 14.

85. My Dinner with Andre (1981)
I'd heard a lot about this film, and saying that it isn't for everyone is an understatement. Even knowing what to expect, I had become completely fed up with Andre's pretentious speech throughout the first 1/2 of the film and was about to turn the movie off when Wallace Shawn essentially tells Andre that he was full of shit. That made the third act worth watching. Some people think this film is genius. I thought it was long-winded. Your mileage may vary.

86. The House Bunny (2008)
A stupid Playboy Bunny becomes the house mother of the female equivalent of Revenge of the Nerds' tri-Lambs of Adams College. Sweet, sweet Emma Stone and Anna Faris make this film far more endearing and funny than it ought to be.

87. The Awful Truth (1937)
Is the premise of every Cary Grant screwball comedy that he is essentially a hypocritical asshole? I think the answer is yes.

88. The Great Race (1965)
I think I've mentioned before that I don't like Tony Curtis or Jack Lemmon, which is why I hadn't watched this all the way through earlier. Lemmon is his typically over-the-top self, but that works in this movie. That said, there is no reason this movie needs to be 3 hours long. Made today, it would have a hard time reaching the 90 minute mark.

89. Pineapple Express (2008)
Yes, this film has a lot of drug references in it, and that typically means that I won't watch it. But in my quest for movies in 2012, I'm trying to set aside my film prejudices. In the case of Pineapple Express, I should have kept my mind closed.

90. The Lost Weekend (1945)
This movie is also about drugs, alcoholism, to be precise, but it's far better than Pineapple Express. This film and Marty are the only two movies to win a Best Picture Academy Award and top accolades at the Cannes Film Festival (sometimes called the Palme D'Or and sometimes the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film). It's good, but I never want to see it again.

91. I Am Number Four (2011)
This movie so desperately wants to be the next Twilight, it might as well have borrowed the title. Since it struck me while watching that the movie felt like an overly long Smallville episode, I wasn't particularly surprised when the closing credits told me it was by the same writers. There are 10 seasons of Smallville on DVD, and all 218 of those episodes deserve watching more than this movie.

92. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
There is no way that there was ever a sea captain as ridiculously awesome as Gregory Peck is in this movie. Sea-faring stories typically make me sea-sick, but Gregory Peck makes me want to read C.S. Forester.

93. Adam's Rib (1949)
Both The Awful Truth and this film end somewhat abruptly when the romantic leads overcome their differences and end up in a shared bedroom. It dawns on me that the abruptness and setting is meant to suggest to contemporary audiences that the leads would be having sex. My, how far cinema has come: do any modern romantic comedies not include graphically suggestive sex scenes?

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: 150 in 2012 movies