2012 Movies That I'll Watch In Cinemas

There are hundreds of movies being shown in cinemas a year but only a few of them that really invite you to go to cinemas to watch them. Most of them are just good for your own couch and TV Set at home while others are good for both, others probably just in HBO or local channel or not at all. There are movies that even deserve a second watching (in cinema) which happened to me with Marvel: The Avengers this year. I watched it in IMAX 3D then watched it again with friends in regular screen a week after and I can't wait to get a copy of it in video. Then there is this re-release and 3D conversion of your favorite classic movies which has become the trend for Hollywood films lately like Toy Story/Toy Story 2, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars and the Phantom Menace, and Titanic and expect a lot more to come. I was able to watch Titanic 3D this year though I'd seen it like over 20 times since 1998 and it was still worth it. 

I just arrived home from watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which is just the third film that I've seen this year so far. It wasn't crowded inside the cinema and there were hardly no people reacting to the scenes because most of the viewers were lining up for The Amazing Spiderman, I don't have anything against the new spidey movie and I love Emma Stone in it but I think I feel like it's not anymore for me to watch. Maybe because I've adored Sam Raimi's trilogy too much and  I wanted the film to stop from there. It's not that I don't like watching films in cinemas that much, I just would like to make sure that they deserve to be watched in cinemas to start with because they are clearly a lot ways to catch them so make your money worth it. 

It's just July and a lot of great movies are coming up that are worth the admission tickets. Here are the list of movies that I'll for sure catch in cinemas. 

1. The Dark Knight Rises (July 19) - I just literally purchased a ticket online for IMAX screening. There is no way that I'll miss this final film from the Batman Trilogy. I have never liked any superhero movie before like Christopher Nolan's version and I despise the old Batman films. The film starred by Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Liam Neeson. 

2. Total Recall (August) - A remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1990 sci-fi action movie of the same title. This time will be starred by Colin Farrell (SWAT, Phone Booth). But my primary reason of watching the film is Jessica Biel which I last seen in her last film A-Team last 2010. She has been my favorite actress since 7th Heaven tv series. Kate Beckinsale also starred in the movie and her husband Len Wiseman directed the film who also directed Underworld 1 & 2 and Die Hard 4. 

3. The Bourne Legacy (August 8) - the fourth movie from Robert Lodlum's Bourne Series. Jeremy Renner has become one of favorite actors since the Oscar Best Picture The Hurt Locker. I admire him for always choosing the right roles and working with great directors. His movies are critically praised and box-office hits which include The Town, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers. The latest spy-film also starred Oscar Nominees Edward Norton (American History X, The Incredible Hulk) and an  Oscar winner Rachel Wiezs (The Mummy, Constantine). Directed by another Oscar nominee Tony Gilroy who has written the first Bourne Trilogy and directed similar films like Duplicity and Michael Clayton. Above all reasons, the film was partially shot here in the Philippines and I couldn't get more excited than seeing our own country featured in a Hollywood film.

4. The Expendables 2 (August) - Whether Sly has not recruited other action veterans successfully or not I'm still going to watch this action film. I enjoyed watching the action scenes of the first movie and was one of my favorite film of 2010. All original casts are back plus Van Damme, Chuck Norris and extended role for Bruce Willis and Schwarzenegger. Sly didn't direct return in director seat for the sequel and has passed on to Con Air director Simon West. 

5. Resident Evil: Retribution (September)  - The fourth and maybe the final film from the series, still starred by Mila Jovovich still fighting zombies and the Umrella Corporation. I have become a fan not because I play the games it's because I have this crazy obsession about zombies and the last film which I watched in 3D kept me hanging all this time so I want to see how everything ends I guess. Still directed by Jovovich husband Paul W.S. Anderson who directed the first film in 2002 and the last film in 2010.  Michelle Rodriguez is also back on the fourth film after her character died on the first film which will add twist to the whole story.  

6. Flight (November) - Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington starred in this Robert Zemeckis drama which might receive Oscar nominations because of the release schedule. Washington is the obvious reason why I wanna watch this film but Zemeckis comeback as the director is also one of the reasons why I look forward for the film. This is his first live-action movie after directing three animated films since 2004 (Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol). Zemeckis is an Oscar Best Director winner for Forrest Gump and also directed the Back to the Future Trilogy. 

7. Skyfall (November) - this 23rd James Bond film is probably the most anticipated action movie of the year. I haven't watched any of the Bond films in cinema so I'll make sure that I won't miss this one. Skyfall is Daniel Craig's third film as Agent Bond. 

8. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December) - Peter Jackson relives the LOTR with another adventure film this time focusing on a Hobbit of the Shrine, Bilbo Baggins. The film is the prequel of the LOTR films which is adapted from another J.R.R. Tolkien novel. Several actors will reprise their roles Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchet, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The film is going to be released in IMAX 3D.

9. Django Unchained (December) - Western-drama film from writer/director Quentin Tarantino. A promising cast lining up for the film including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, and Seth Rogen. Tarantino's last film was with Brad Pitt's Inglorious Basterds in 2009 which is one of my favorite movies along with Kill Bill 1 & 2.

10. Les Mesirables (December) - A potential Oscar winner next year from an Oscar winner Best Director Tom Hooper (The Kings Speech). This musical drama starred one of my favorite actors Russel Crowe with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

Other movies that most likely won't be granted a local release but still worth watching in the big screen are Lawless, Robot and Frank, Gangster Squad and Liberal Arts.

The Quest for '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2011 Edition)' - Part 1

            I started sorting out the list of 1001 films along with additional 88 titles (click here for the list of the 1001 films) and only 99 of them I have actually watched and most of them are from the years 90s and 2000s. I have started looking for these titles before but I didn't know what happened and I just completely lost track. So I visited my list again and so far I found 38 titles more which are saved on my hard drive and a couple of them in DVDs that I got on sale a few months ago.  Here are the movies that I have watched from the list so far. (descriptions for the rest of the titles will come soon)

1. A Trip To The Moon (1902) -  a black-and-white short film which can probably be considered as the father of all sci-fi movies. The film running time was just less then 15-mins but it felt like watching a full-length 90-min movie. The film was adapted from Jules Verne's Novel who also wrote Around The World in 80 Days and Journey To The Center Of The Earth. The film was directed by Georges Méliès whose life story was featured in Martin Scorcese's Oscar-nominated film Hugo. (Rating: 5/5)

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - this Walt Disney's classic film doesn't need any description as no kids haven't heard or watched this all-time favorite animated film which I just recently found out as Adolf Hitler's favorite film. (Rating: 5/5)

3 Gone With the Wind (1939)
4 From Here to Eternity (1953)
5 The Godfather (1972)
6 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
7 Annie Hall (1977)
8 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
9 E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
10 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
11 The Terminator (1984)
12 The Breakfast Club (1985)
13 Back to the Future (1985)
14 Aliens (1986)
15 Top Gun (1986)
16 Rain Man (1988)
17 Batman (1989)
18 Goodfellas (1990)
19 Edward Scissorhands (1990)
20 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
21 Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
22 Jurassic Park (1993)
23 Schindler's List (1993)
24 Forrest Gump (1994)
25 The Lion King (1994)
26 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
27 Casino (1995)
28 Toy Story (1995)
29 Braveheart (1995)
30 Seven (1995)
31 Independence Day (1996)
32 Scream (1996)
33 L.A. Confidential (1997)
34 Titanic (1997)
35 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
36 Ring (1998)
37 There's Something About Mary (1998)
38 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
39 Three Kings (1999)
40 Fight Club (1999)
41 Being John Malkovich (1999)
42 American Beauty (1999)
43 The Sixth Sense (1999)
44 The Matrix (1999)
45 Gladiator (2000)
46 Meet the Parents (2000)
47 Memento (2000)
48 Amelie (2001)
49 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
52 Gangs of New York (2002)
53 The Pianist (2002)
54 Chicago (2002)
55 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
56 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
57 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
58 Lost in Translation (2003)
59 The Passion of the Christ (2004)
60 Collateral (2004)
61 The Aviator (2004)
62 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
63 A Very Long Engagement (2004)
64 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
65 Crash (2005)
66 Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
67 The Prestige (2006)
68 United 93 (2006)
69 Children of Men (2006)
70 Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
71 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
72 Babel (2006)
73 The Queen (2006)
74 Apocalypto (2006)
75 The Departed (2006)
76 No Country for Old Men (2007)
77 Into the Wild (2007)
78 There Will Be Blood (2007)
79 Atonement (2007)
80 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
81 Paranormal Activity (2007)
82 Wall-E (2008)
83 The Dark Knight (2008)
84 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
85 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
86 Let the Right One In (2008)
87 The Hurt Locker (2008)
88 The Hangover (2009)
89 Precious (2009)
90 Avatar (2009)
91 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
92 District 9 (2009)
93 Monsters (2010)
94 Black Swan (2010)
95 Four Lions (2010)
96 The Social Network (2010)
97 Inception (2010)
98 The King's Speech (2010)
99 True Grit (2010)

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I heard about this book a few years back and at first I thought it's impossible to watch all of these films listed because most of them are now hard to find until I read some sites and blogs online that there are actual people who were able to complete the list and some are almost done watching them so I thought I can just do the same. I can start this little quest of mine finishing all these films before dying. It may sound silly but I think it's a good motivation for me to hope to live for couple of years more, I guess. 

To those who haven't heard of it here is the little description of the book from Wikipedia.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a London-based company, and published in English language versions by Cassell Illustrated (UK), ABC Books (the publishing division of Australian Broadcasting Corporation), and Barron's (USA). The first edition was published in 2003; the most recent edition was published in 2011. Contributors include Adrian Martin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Pena, David Stratton, and Margaret Pomeranz. 

The book is now on its 7th edition which includes latest films like The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and King's Speech. I don't have the actual list on this post but you can go to the website by clicking here to check it out.

The following are the cover of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Janet Leigh of 1960's Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho was featured on the book's first edition released in 2003.The film was nominated for four Oscars including Best Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. The Apartment won the Best Film that year which is also included on this list and its director Billy Wilder named as Best Director. 

   Samuel L. Jackson featured in 2nd edition based from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in 1994. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars and went home with one for  Tarantino and Roger Avary for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Tarantino was also nominated for directing the film and three acting nomination for lead actor John Travolta, supporting actress Uma Thurman and Jackson for supporting actor. Forrest Gump which won the Best Film that year is also included on the list for this edition including the three other Best Picture nominees,The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Pulp Fiction. 

Jack Nicholson from the 1980's Stephen King Shining featured on 2006 edition. The film was not an Oscar-nominee but rather a Razzie finalist for director Stanley Kubrick and actress for Shelley Duval. However the film is certified fresh from Rottentomatoes.com with 88% approval rating from critics and rated as one of the top movies on imdb.com with 8.5 user rating. 

George Lucas' 1977 Star Wars character Darth Vader featured on the 2007 edition. The film was a major world-wide box office hit and was nominated for 11 Oscar and took home 5 awards including Best Visual Effects. Lucas was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. After focusing on just writing two films from the first trilogy, Lucas returned to director seat after 22 years and completed the saga with another trilogy but only his first film and 1983 Return of the Jedi were included on the list.

Harrison Ford's alter ego Indiana Jones was featured in 2008 edition but the film can be no longer be found on the latest edition. 

One of the latest addition on the list is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight for the 2009 edition. The film shattered tons of box-office records and ended up with $1 billion for world-wide box office gross. Heath Ledger's Joker character  was highly praised by critics and the fans of the film and won an acting award posthumously for the film, as Best Supporting Actor. 

James Cameron's 3D film Avatar was featured on 2010 edition. Cameron broke his record as being the highest grossing film which earned more $2.8 billion and took over Titanic's record. The film was nominated for 9 Oscar awards and won 3 including Visual Effects and Cinematography. The Hurt Locker which won the Best Film that year is one of the ten films added on the list for this edition along with surprised hits like The Hangover and District 9.

Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan that earned her an Oscar trophy as Best Actress also landed her as the last year's edition cover for the book. The film was not just a box-office success but a critic's favorite as well and earned 5 Oscar nods including Best Director for Darren Aronofsky.

"All Is Well" in 3 Idiots Movie

Just watched the film again for the nth time, and every time I watched it the more I feel guilty about not writing how great the movie is. So here I am finding all the great words that will amount to best described this gem. To those who know what I'm talking about will for sure agree with what I'm saying or about to say here and for those who couldn't relate will probably find themselves looking for the film after reading this. 

To begin with, 3 Idiots is a rare film because it's not one of those Hollywood films that you can catch in cinemas, it's a Hindi movie (or Bollywood) that was released in 2009 and I came to hear about it a year after it was released and since then it easily became one of my favorite movies. The film is about three friends, Rancho, Raju and Farhan who have been through the best and worst of their college years. While studying  one of the hardest professions there is, Engineering, the three friends learned a lot more than building machines to simplify life. 

The film started from the present time where the two buddies, Raju and Farhan went on to searching for their friend Rancho whom they haven't heard from since their graduation ten years ago. During the course of searching the film slowly flashed back to several years ago that showed the adventures of the three. The film presented beautifully with wit, humor and full of heart. The score and theme songs played on the background made the film more meaningful because of its great lyrics and melody, making your heart cry and laugh out loud at the same time. What I admire most about the film are those little things which I found it smart and funny like the astronaut pen, the invention of Virus Inverter, throwing of the duplicate keys, the price-tag boyfriend, these things and a couple more are sure-laugh. The film got some twists too that made the film ended extraordinarily. 

The phrase "Aal izz Well" (all is well), the most famous line from the film and probably one of those movie lines that you'll always remember. As Rancho explained in the film, our hearts get scared so easily when thing are not turning out the way it should be so we have to trick our heart a little bit by tapping it and saying "All is well, All is well". It doesn't solve our problems but it gives us courage to face them.