2007 is half over now

Well I have been keeping track of the movies I watched for the first time this year, just as I have been keeping track of the books I read (I'm aware that the book goal is not going as well as planned but I am reading a really long book right now and dealing with about 600 magazines).

Since we're at the halfway point of the year, here are the movies I have seen so far, only counting movies watched for the first time. I have watched 43 movies in 26 weeks, which is about 1.65 new movies in a week. That seems kind of high, like that's too much time to be inside watching movies, but you have to remember that some of those months were winter, and some of those months I had a sprained knee and just getting from the bed to the couch was kind of a big ordeal.

I would like to thank the Seattle Public Library for subsidizing my movie habit so that I can spend disposable income on things like Kettle Chips and Gatorade.

1. Basic Instinct
Morally questionable Michael Douglas...just the way we like him.

2. Cool Hand Luke
George Kennedy kind of creeped me out in this movie.

3. Father of the Bride (1950)
It's hard to pick between the original and the remake. I like Spencer Tracy an awful lot, but I like Steve Martin and Martin Short a lot too. I call it a draw.

4. Boys Don't Cry
Sad movie.

5. American Dreamz
I don't watch American Idol, but it seems like that just based on what clips I've seen of the actual show, that a parody of it should have been a lot funnier.

6. The Breakfast Club
I just really don't like Molly Ringwald, and this movie did not change my mind. It did make me kind of wonder what Ally Sheedy is up to these days.

7. Memoirs of a Geisha
I read this book a few years ago and liked the book a lot better. I don't know how you would have understood this movie if you hadn't read the book.

8. Breaking the Waves
This movie stuck with me for awhile. Bess is a disturbed young woman with an unusual relationship with God. When her husband is injured, he tells her to sleep with other men. She does so, thinking it helps him get better. Interesting concepts regarding the power of belief and faith.

9. Sex, Lies, and Videotape
I realize it's not 1989 anymore, so I can't judge it against the time period in which it was released, but I didn't really see what the big deal was.

10. Melinda and Melinda
I liked it.

11. Thank You for Smoking
Good but not memorable.

12. Cache (Hidden)
This is one of those movies that immediately after you watch it, you should get on the IMDB message boards and just read people arguing about it.

13. Nacho Libre
Sometimes it's hard for me to watch Jack Black movies because there are moments when he looks exactly like my brother. Creepily so, and I get distracted. This one was okay though, because he had a mustache and an accent. Here's the best part of the movie:
When the fantasy has ended and all the children are gone
Something good inside me helps me to carry on
I ate some bugs I ate some grass
I used my hand to wipe my tears, to kiss your mouth
I break my vows
No no no no no no way Jose
Unless you want to
Then we break our vows together
Encarnacion!

14. Die Hard
Let's just say I'm not rushing out to the theater to see Die Hard: Live Free or Die.

15. Witness
I wish for Harrison Ford's sake that it was always the 1980's.

16. Wordplay
I gasped while watching this movie, there was that much suspense involved.

17. The Fugitive
I watched this movie all hopped up on cold medicine and don't remember a lot of it.

18. Blue Velvet
If I ever see Kyle MacLachlan walking my way, I am going to turn around and run very fast.

19. Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby
There's not too much that's funnier to me than small kids with redneck accents:
Chip: I can't hold my tongue. These kids are my grandchildren and you are raising them wrong. They are *terrible* boys!
Walker: Shut up, Chip, or I'll go ape-shit on your ass!
Texas Ranger: I'm gonna scissor-kick you in the back of the head!
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Yeah!
Ricky Bobby: Yeah! Now turn up the heat!
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Go on and get some, boys!
Ricky Bobby: Come on!
Walker: I'm ten years old, but I'll beat your ass!
Texas Ranger: Chip, I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Like a spider monkey! Go on!
Ricky Bobby: Chip, you brought this on, man.
Walker: Greatest Generation my ass. Tom Brokaw's a punk!
Chip: What is wrong with you?
Texas Ranger: Chip, I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew!

20. Akeelah and the Bee
I didn't expect to like this movie because it was over-promoted by Starbucks. But then it warmed my heart like a mocha on a cold day.

21. Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
Sasquatch, we know your love is real. Sasquatch, you and Tenacious D are...real

22. Edward Scissorhands
I am a little late in seeing a lot of Johnny Depp movies.

23. Kids
I think this is the scariest movie ever made.

24. Sherrybaby
I think Maggie Gyllenhaal is a great actress and I wouldn't mind being friends with her, particularly if I were to be dating her brother at the time.

25. Alice's Restaurant
I have been an Arlo Guthrie fan since I saw him in concert when I was in high school, and it was interesting to see young Arlo tooling around New England. Alice was kind of creepy. Having an actor playing the dying Woody was kind of creepy also. But having Pete Seeger show up to sing a few songs was AWESOME.

26. What's Eating Gilbert Grape
I am a little late in seeing a lot of Johnny Depp movies.

27. The Last Kiss
It's pretty hard to sympathize or care about any character in this movie.

28. Babel
One of my coworkers saw this in the theater and said the message that she took from it was that having kids was a disaster. I would go a step further and say that this mvoie just made me think that life as a whole is a disaster.

29. For Your Consideration
This was the latest Christopher Guest movie. It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

30. Holiday
Not "The Holiday" with Kate Winslet but the Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant movie. It was kind of bizarre how fast all the characters decided to be in love or not be in love with other characters but I guess that's how it was in the olden days. Cause they didn't live as long.

31. Strangers with Candy
I watched this movie twice in a row, once by itself and once with the commentary. There are not many movies that I would do that for.

32. The Great New Wonderful
I was having a Stephen Colbert marathon day (see #31), and he gets off the best line in the movie: "He's actually a selfish, incorrigible monster, with a heart made out of shit and splinters." It's a pretty remarkable cast with a sort of weird story to tell, of New Yorkers in the year after 9/11. Some of these people though...and I don't want to say anything too controversial or offensive...but wouldn't a lot of these people still have been as messed up if 9/11 hadn't happened?

33. Shut Up and Sing
This is the documentary about the Dixie Chicks. It was kind of interesting to watch this movie with a communications background, because they needed a little more help there then they got. On the one hand, I wanted to side with them, because I believe in free speech, but on the other hand, they didn't seem to understand why they were right, and they let an awful lot of kinda dumb things come out of their mouths in the aftermath.

34. The Queen
I didn't realize Tony Blair was such a big part of the movie. It was interesting. I like monarchies.

35. Half Nelson
Man watch this movie if you want to be depressed for an hour and a half.

36. Because I Said So
I didn't know whether to be more embarrassed for Diane Keaton or for Mandy Moore.

37. The Science of Sleep
I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did. There was this quote I really liked in the movie, but I can't find it on the internet, and it'll be awhile before I'll sit down to watch this movie again. So it's forever lost, kind of like some dreams.

38. The Departed
I liked it.

39. You Me and Dupree
For being a comedy, this movie got really dark and disturbing.

40. Catch and Release
I think this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I felt bad for Jennifer Garner; my dad knows a guy who saw her naked once, because the guy went to Denison, and so did Jennifer Garner, and the guy's roommate was dating Jennifer, and so the guy saw her once getting out of the shower. So, you know, because of this connection I'd like her movies to do well.

41. Cars
It was cute but also a statement on how the highway might have ruined America.

42. Music and Lyrics
My archnemesis Drew Barrymore managed not to embarrass herself too badly, except, you know, when she actually had to act. The best part was the music video that was in the trailer.

43. Notes on a Scandal
I read this book back in January so I could see the movie. I read the book imagining Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench in the roles they played, so the movie was about what I expected. I don't know if it would have been different if I'd read the book without knowing who was going to play the parts.