#84 Braveheart

1995

Director and Star Mel Gibson

So Im sure almost everyone on the planet has seen this movie, so that means this Blog will be pretty easy to write, and pretty short. A little note to add though, as an Englishman I think we are portrayed in a bad light, I mean its not like Scotland are still trying to get Independence from us is it? In all fairness though, the English were a pretty ruthless lot back back. For a tiny little country we managed to, at one point in time or another, rule half of the world, now though we have given most of it back (because we are nice like that) and unfortunately we now have to help out America to win their wars for them, anyway I digress....

The story...

William Wallace is a wee Scottish boy at the start of this movie, He experiences his dad and other close family and friends be killed at the hands of the English, trying to fight for the freedom of Scotland. When he is older he secretly marries a girl, who is then killed for not letting an English guard rape her, this (as it would be for any man) was the last straw. William Wallace starts to build an army, firstly seeking revenge on anyone who has done him or his close friends harm. As word spreads about this army, he gets more and more recruits, eventually he has enough to start to take down the English, firstly starting with the outposts in Scotland and then moving through to York in England. Unfortunately Wallace is betrayed by a Scott who is offered land to give Wallace up.

I have seen this movie before maybe 10 years ago now, and I remembered it with fond memories, a great movie with a real passion behind it, telling a story that was essentially true, of how the Scottish wanted to rule their own land. Unfortunately watching it again slightly tainted it. I sure didn't remember how long it was, 3 hours it is, and I didn't quite remember the comedy deaths (and there are plenty) while in battle, But the parts that mattered, the emotion, the meaning behind it was still as brilliant as it was the first time I saw it. 


The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Great battle scenes, some gore and good costumes.

Sound
7/10 - This makes the movie what it is, big classical scores tell you what emotions you should be feeling.

Acting
7/10 - Good, by everyone, good.

Plot
8/10 - Bit crazy how the Scotts wanted to bite the hand that fed them ;)

Ending 
8/10 - Good ending, emotional!

Final Score

38/50

If you haven't seen it, where have you been? Get it watched.....

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2093 (That's almost 35 hours by the way)

Next up is Chinatown (1974)

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#85 Oldboy (Oldeuboi)

2003

Min-sik Choi 

Hye-Jeong Kang (right)

Looking at the list so far this was the most modern movie,and  was looking forward to it, until I found out its a bloody Korean movie. I am no expert on Korean movies, nor do I think ive ever seen one, or even heard of one, but who knew Korea could make such a good movie like Oldboy. The movie is gripping, gritty and god damn brilliant! so good in fact, it is being remade this year by the Americans, Spike Lee as director and Samuel L Jackson as the lead. Ill be very interested to see how their adaptation of the move comes out, because the original has a very bizarre storyline.

The movie starts with Dae-su oh (Min-sik Choi) drunk in a police station, it shows him being loud and brash, constantly talking, and holding a present for his 3 year old daughter. His friend comes to bail him out and they set off home, on the way the use a payphone to call home and tell his family he will be home soon, while his friend is on the phone Dae-su oh disappears in to thin air, leaving the present he has bought laying in the rain. 

Cut to the next scene and Dae-su oh is imprisoned in a room, he has been there for 2 months already and is pleading with the person serving him food through a small hatch in the door to let him go, or tell him why he is there and how long he is there for. We get taken in to Dae-su oh's room and its a small "hotel room" with a shower, TV, bed, clock and a picture on the wall that says "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone".

Dae-su ho is gasses every night to make him sleep, while he is in a gas induced coma, they would cut his hair, change his clothes etc... while he is in the cell he is watching the news when he see's that his wife and child have been murdered and he was framed as the man who did it. After this Dae-su oh goes a bit crazy, he starts to train to fight, punching the walls until his knuckles are burst open and bleeding. He is also slowly cutting away at the wall to escape to freedom.

Randomly (so it seems to Dae-su oh) after 15 years he is released. He has a suit on and a mobile phone. The first place he goes is for some food and decides he wants to eat something alive, so he eats a live squid. Once eaten his phone rings, and he collapses on the table, the girl serving him takes him home and nurses him back to health.


When he awakes he tells the girl his story and that he is seeking revenge, the girl offers to help and so they set off on trying to find who did this to him and why. The whole film is a big game to Dae-su oh's captor, they are constantly following him and predicting his movements. Unknown to Dae-su oh he was hypnotized in his cell, and everything that he has been doing has been pre programmed into his head, the have also hypnotized the girl at the restaurant    Dae-su oh falls in love with the girl who he has been helping him, and they finally have sex after many days of dae-su oh trying. 

Now here's the crazy twist (spoiler alert) as you find out in the end, The girl who has been helping Dae-su oh is actually his daughter, she was never murdered. So essentially the captor of Dae-su oh did all of this just to make him have sex with his daughter. He did this because, back in school Dae-su oh saw his captor have sex with his sister, the captor then killed his sister to hide the fact that he got her pregnant. 

This crazy story is entwined with gory violence  for some reason Dae-su oh's weapon of choice is a hammer, he likes to pull peoples teeth out with it! Dae-su oh also decides to cut his tongue out, to show his captor he will never tell anyone about what he did with his sister, in return his captor will not tell the daughter that she has slept with her dad.

The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Good action and fighting scenes

Sound
5/10 - Well as the talking was in Korean I don't know how it sounded, but im pretty sure the sub titles didn't say everything that was being said by the actor.

Acting
7/10 - Good acting by the man character.

Plot
8/10 - Brilliant plot, pretty twisted, but I like that!

Ending 
7/10 - Now, the actual ending is a bit "meh" but the build up towards the end is great, so it gets a good score.

Final Score

35/50

Great movie, I couldn't believe how good it actually was. I would recommend everyone who reads this to give it a watch. If you don't want to watch the Korean version watch the American version, although I think they will change the story too much and make it less gritty, So my recommendation is watch this one!!!

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1916

Next up is Braveheart (1995)

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#86 Monty Python And The Holy Grail

1975

John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

This movie is only the second movie so far from the list I have seen before, and what a classic it is. If you like mental humor, total randomness and not really knowing whats going on, this is for you. Im not a 100% sure people outside of the UK will fully get the humor, but it is written by the same zany bunch who wrote A Fish Called Wanda and  The Life Of Brian.

Straight from the first minute you know what kind of movie you are in for, as the credits roll they start off correct, and as they progress they start to get a bit silly, until they are stopped and a message says they have sacked the person who has done this. The movie begins with the sound of a man riding a horse through a field, what we actually get is King Arthur prancing around like a horse, while his servant claps to coconut shells together to make him sound like a horse.

To go in to the story of this movie will take me forever, as there are about 10 different stories all culminating towards the same end goal, to find the holy grail. So instead I thought id just point out a few of my favorite parts and the more mental aspects of the movie. As I said before, for some reason the knights of the round table are all walking around like horses rather than riding them, on their quest for the grail the encounter many challenges. One of the challenges they come across is the dark knight who is protecting a bridge, he tells king Arthur he will kill him rather than let him across the bridge. A sword fight ensues and king Arthur cuts off the mans right arm, to which the the conversation goes:

Arthur: Ha I win

Knight: Tis just a scratch

Arthur: Your arm is off

Knight: no it isnt

Arthur: yes it is.. look..

They then continue to fight until he cuts the knights other arm off, to which the Knight says "its nothing but a flesh wound". The Knight then decided he can try and win by headbutting Arthur, this is until the knight gets cut in half. Other things that are awesome and strange at the same time include a killer bunny rabbit, some knights who need a shrubbery to allow you past, a 3 headed knight and a village that is desperate to burn a woman they suspect is a witch, and use the logic that if she weighs the same as a duck shes a witch.

Another classic scene is when Arthur comes across some peasants working in a field, only for the peasant to have a conversation  with Arthur about the economic structure and democracy. Its that kind of randomness that makes this film what it is, some of the stuff is just so daft you have to just laugh at it. It is really nice to see a 35 year old English comedy still up there with the cinema greats.I do recon this is a movie that you either love or hate, there is no middle ground, you either get the humor, or you just think its stupid which probably makes you stupid, but who am I to judge :)

The ending is the most random part of all, I want you to watch it if you haven't already, so ill leave that bit a mystery.

The Scores

Visual
6/10 - Difficult one this, because its not trying to be serious, so the sets etc.. are not fully how you thought they would be.

Sound
5/10 - Not a great deal of sounds, some funny songs throughout 

Acting
7/10 - again the acting is hard to judge, because its a movie about a book of a movie and the craziness of it all means they act it really well, but really poorly at the same time.

Plot
5/10 - Plot is simple, all the different stories all come together in the end.

Ending 
7/10 - Ending gets a decent score as its just crazy, if you were sat in the cinema, you would be saying "huh, has it ended? Like that? really?"

Final Score

30/50

Brilliant comedy by some brilliant English comedy minds.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1796

Next up is Oldboy (2003)

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#87 Singin' In The Rain

1952

Jean Hagen

Gene Kelly

Donald Oconnor

Debbie Reynolds (Center)

So this is it, the last of the terrible run of movies I had no interest in, Some of them threw up surprises and I actually liked them, others were not so enjoyable. Singin' in the rain is a musical, and to be honest, I cant stand musicals, so I wasn't looking forward to watching this at all. The first half isn't that musical like but the second half is one big sing song.

The Storyline

The movie is set in 1927, Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a famous on screen silent movie couple, the only problem is, Don knows this has only been set up for the media, but Lina doesn't understand that and thinks he really does love her. This is set around the time movies with sound were being invented, unfortunately for this pair, Lina has a shrill voice, she cant sing and she cant act. The movie company make their first ever movie with sound, and it is laughed out of the cinema due to Lina's incredibly bad performance . Don comes up with an idea to change the movie in to a musical and use Kathy Sleden (Reynolds) to voice over the parts played by Lina. In return for doing the voice over Kathy is promised a bigger role in the next movie, Lina has other ideas for Kathy's fate.

All in all its a story of a love triangle, and it all ends happily for 2 points of the triangle, the other point is left humiliated after she tries to screw over Kathy and the whole movie company. For a musical I didn't hate it,the first half of the movie had little singing in it and im glad it was only 103 minutes as the second half was all singing practically.

The Scores

Visual
6/10 - Some good singing and dancing as you would expect

Sound
5/10 - lots of musical singing, not really my cup of tea

Acting
6/10 - Very well acted, think that's what made it watchable for me.

Plot
5/10 - Nothing too brain taxing

Ending 
6/10 - Nice to see the stupid Lina get what she deserved.

Final Score

28/50

For a Sunday, hung over, It was ok just to lay an watch.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1705

Next up is Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)

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#88 Some Like It Hot

1959

Director Billy Wilder (The Apartment)

Marilyn Monroe

Jack Lemmon ( The Apartment)

Wilder and Lemmon team up again in another movie on the top 100. The Apartment (also featuring these two) came out a year after this, but I can see why the Director would choose him as his leading man. Lemmon is charismatic, funny an a brilliant actor for that era. I had to watch this at the second time of asking due to technical difficulties....

The storyline...

The year is 1929, Jerry (Lemmon) and Joe (Tony Curtis) are two guys playing in a band, the venue they are playing is in a Chicago mortuary, which has been slightly modified to hold a nightclub, equipped with band, dancers and illegal booze. The club is ran by some mobsters, and we see the bar being raided in the early part of the movie. Jerry and Joe manage to escape, and with no wages coming to them are desperate for a job. After they get caught being witnesses to a murder by the same mob, they flee to Florida, disguised as women in an all women band. The movie really gets going when Sugar (Monroe) comes in. She is a slightly dim, off the rails kinda woman, and shes pretty gullible too, but saying that Monroe is sexiness personified, the whole film is set to revolve around her, and why the hell not!




This is a pretty clever movie as it wants you to think the movie is about the mobsters and the chase, but really its just about sex. Initially Jerry and Joe are both fighting for the attention of Sugar, until Joe gets the upper hand. As Jerry and Joe are both pretending to be women they can get in close and find out what Sugar likes,

Joe, acting as an oil tycoon to lure Sugar in.

then Joe uses this to lure her in, when later that day he is dressed as a rich man pretending to be one of the owners of the oil company, Shell. Now while this is going off Jerry is being stalked by a rich man who owns a boat that is docked there, Joe makes Jerry take the man out dancing while he takes Sugar on his boat.

I enjoyed this movie just the same as I enjoyed The Apartment, it was an easy watch, plenty of funny parts and plenty of shots of Sugar exposing her self just enough to make it classy and sexy. As the theme continues with old black and white movies I could have easily knocked 20 mins off this, im not sure if it was just because I was very tired when watching it or because it really was just padded out in places. The overall story of two blatant men dressed as women was quite unbelievable but that added to the comedy of it all. There are a couple of things that annoyed me in this like the two of them talking like men to each other, yet someone behind a curtain couldn't hear them and a guy who had 5 men shooting at him, still managed to be alive to use a telephone, but hey, lets just say back in the 50's they just wanted a funny movie, not necessarily a true to life one.

The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Cant complain with looking at a scantily clad Monroe for a few hours

Sound
4/10 They are in a band, thats most of the music we get.

Acting
8/10 Lemmon, Monroe and Curtis all play brilliant parts.

Plot
5/10 - pretty stupid, and near on possible to pull off in real life, but that added to the comedy.

Ending 
4/10 - I couldn't believe how it ended, it just...ended...

Final Score

28/50

I enjoyed watching this movie, an easy watch if you have 2 hours to burn.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1602

Next up Singing In The Rain....... Kill me now!

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#89 Metropolis

1927

Director: Fritz Lang

Here it is folks, the one you have all been waiting for, Fritz Langs Classic 1920's German made silent movie, Please try and contain your excitement. In all fairness, I do have some German readers of this blog so maybe they will enjoy a review of the only German (I think) made movie on the list.

This movie is the first full length silent movie I have ever watched, and if it wasn't for this challenge I probably would never have watched one in full. I do have to admit tho, as its silent i did watch it a little faster than normal speed, partly to ease the pain of having to sit through 2 hours of this and partly because I watched it at the gym and didn't want to be on the exercise bike for 2 hours.

So this movie actually has a pretty interesting history, and I think that partly attributed to its cult success, and it being remastered in 2001. The original was made in 1925 costing a massive $5 million dollars, that is about the equivalent to 60-70 million dollars now. So to put that in to perspective, The Host which is out now in the cinema, had a budget of just $40 million. 

When the movie was first shown, it was a 50/50 split between people who loved it and people who thought it was too simplistic in its idea and presentation, and far too long. I have to say tho, the effects for a movie back in the day were spectacular, From a robot woman (pictured below) to different graphics on the screen, to the transformation of the robot to a human being. The reason it got remastered was because of the reaction it got from critics, after the first screening the movie was cut down considerably, and it continued to do so a few more times. Unfortunately due to this cutting, a large portion of the film was lost, so the remastered version had bits added to it to make the story have some kind of continuity. 

So the plot.... Ill break it down so its easy to understand, it is set in 2027 in a futuristic city called Metropolis. Above the ground are the rich and wealthy, who live in high rise towers and have a lavish life style. Below the ground are the workers, slaving away to keep the upper class happy. The owner of the city has a son, he has been brought up in the lavish world above ground and like many, has no understanding of how poor the working class have to live. This all changes when he sees a woman with many children who are having a tour of the impressive "pleasure garden", he is instantly intrigued by her and tries to find her in the under ground factories of the working class. He sees the terrible conditions the other half of the population have to work in and decided to try and close the gap of equality. At the same time, the workers are starting to go to secret meetings being ran by the same woman, she is a prophet who is sure a mediator between the workers and the rich will arrive, the man character turns out to be that mediator. While this is going on his father, crazed by power, has his friend build a robot to mimic the girl and tries to ruin his son, but this only ends up hurting himself. We are constantly reminded throughout the movie that,

The mediator between the head and hands must be the heart

Scores 

Visual
4/10 shocking for most of the movie, as you would expect for a 1920's movie, the effects give it the 4.

Sound
1/10 this is a silent movie so I cant give it much, there has been some music added but its pretty bad.

Acting
3/10 - I always thought a silent film, the acting told the story rather than the words, Not round here my friend.

Plot
7/10 - I liked the plot, and the ideas behind it

Ending 6/10 cant beat a good burning at the stake to end a movie
Final Score

21/50

Its a bad score, you may think ive been harsh because its an 86 year old movie, but I would like you to sit through it and then give it a rating.

Up next is Some Like It Hot.....

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#91 Amadeus

Add caption

Lead: F Murray Abraham (Scarface)

Director: Milos Forman (One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest)

 Amadeus, the penultimate movie of the 90's, a 3 hour long Directors Cut was in store for me and my guest Jessica Noble. As I mentioned in the last blog, there is a group of about 8 movies which I have not been looking forward to, this one did not let me down. It was watchable, but just far too long. 3 hours, I mean come one, I could have told this story in 1.5 hours and made it much more enjoyable.

The story line is told from the prospective of Antonio Salieri. Salieri is now in a mental hospital, and he is explaining to a priest what happened, and if the story's are true, and he did indeed kill Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.


The whole this is constant flash backs of important moments in the life of Salieri and Mozart, unbeknownst to Mozart, Salieri is his rival, his enemy and he will do anything to defeat Mozart.

Mozart is a childish immature 26 year old, but also utterly brilliant in composing music, on the other hand Salieri is a much more mature man, a god worshiper who wants nothing more than god to choose him to be the best composer rather than Mozart.

As the story progresses we see many attempts by Salieri to derail Mozart who has now been commissioned to write an opera in an nontraditional German language rather than Italian.

The movie is set in 1823, and unlike some (more annoying  period movies, the script was written in modern English, so no irritating random backward speak we see in some movies. The sets and costumes were pretty impressive. Im not sure why back then, the bigger the wig the better, but we saw some brilliant barnets.



Like i said at the beginning, this movie was too long, and that made it for me, tedious and not that enjoyable. Im starting to wonder if IMDB is having a laugh at my expense with this part of the list, by no means was this movie one to remember, and so here are the scores.....

Visual
7/10 Great sets and great costumes, some good looking ladies in it too!

Sound
7/10 As you can expect, this is a movie about Mozart, so the music is all classical but stunning, probably the best part of the movie.

Acting
7/10 - well acted, everyone seemed convincing, just if it was shorter...

Plot
5/10 - good plot but marked down for the length of time it took to play out.

Ending 
4/10 - if you watch this, you will see why I gave it this score.

Final Score

30/50

30 is a decent score for this one. Boosted by its acting and music but let down by its plot and ending.

Guest scores by Jess
Visual
7/10 
Sound
8/10 
Acting
7/10 
Plot
4/10 
Ending 
3/10 

Total Movie Minutes So Far - 1329 
  

Up next should be Bicycle Thieves, but unfortunately I cant find anywhere to get it quickly, so ill have to come back to that one, So the next movie is Matropolis (1927) German made SILENT movie, FFS.

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