During Lent this year my husband came up with a crazy idea–give up movies and TV during the week. At first I was not all that excited about this. 1. I didn’t think I was attached enough to those things. 2. Therefore it wouldn’t be that much of a sacrifice. By the end of Lent I found out I was wrong about both, although more about the movies than the TV shows. For the longest time, going downstairs and crashing on the couch in front of the brain-sucking black box machine was the only way to get the baby to go to sleep in the evenings. So I got used to watching TV and almost looked foward to that zoning-out part of the day. I really hate commercials so I flip through our 3-4 basic channels frequently so never end up watching one show all the way through. Every now and then I’d catch a good one like Undercover Boss, or Blue Bloods and I did really like Parenthood but usually I’d get stuck with one of the crime investigation shows—is that really all we can come up with to make shows about anymore–people dying or killing each other (or worse thank you SVU)? And why do the good shows like Raymond and Office reruns start when it’s time to go to bed? Since there aren’t many great options in TV since the good ol’ Lost days, I prefer to watching movies.
So, back to the point, when we gave all that up during Lent it proved more difficult than I thought. I’d like to tell you that I filled that hole of time with prayer and serious spiritual conversation and discussion but while that would be partially true, I have to admit that I spent more of that time thinking about movies that I’ve enjoyed and would want to watch again after Lent was finally over.
So I wrote down a list of movies—not necessarily favorite movies—just any movie that I could remember watching. Even if I didn’t like it, if I could remember it’s name or even the names of the actors or even the directors/producers, I wrote it down on a piece of paper. I planned on sharing that list but when I sat down to do that tonight the list is no where to be found! 🙁 This made me sad because I put a lot of time and thought into the list. So I’ll attempt to recreate it tonight but it will not be the same. Maybe I’ll find it as I work on this since the chances of me actually publishing this on the same night I start it are slim.
Yes, I’m rambling I’ll stop now and just write down whatever movie comes to mind first and then whatever movie pops up next in my mind after that one until I feel like stopping.
- Return to Me
- Donnie Darko
- Life is Beautiful
- The Goonies
- The Neverending Story
- (this made me think of Fragle Rock but that’s not a movie so it doesn’t count)
- 10 things I Hate About You (gagggg!)
- My Best Friends Wedding (I might not be married to my husband if it weren’t for this movie…)
- Dirty Dancing (makes me think of some friends from high school who were obsessed with this movie)
- hmmmmm
- Eagle Eye
- ok I don’t like this list so I’ll keep going a little longer
- Armageddon
- A Beautiful Mind
- Patch Adams
- Memento
- Fight Club (yes, I watched that)
- Moulin Rouge
- Star Treck (the newest one)
- Lord of the Rings (all)
- Star Wars (all the newest ones mostly)
- Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original I watched for the first time with my cousins in Mexico…in English I think?)
- The Lion King (also watched for the first time in Mexico though that was in Spanish)
- Fools Rush In (loved!)
- Avatar
- Inception
- That one my friend Ryan brought over about the woman dying from ovarian cancer….wow….oh Wit!
- The 6th Sense
- Mission Impossible (I remember the 1st one the best, the second one the worst and the third also was good)
- Bella (I liked the use of light in that movie)
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (yes I watched these after my teenage years)
- This unfortunatley made me think of Mama Mia
- Jurasic Park (“clever girl”)
- October Sky
- Contact
- Panic Room
- What’s that one where she’s on the plane and looses her daughter?
- Far and Away
- Forest Gump
- Up
- Baggar Vance
- Pan’s Labryinth
- Inglorious Bastards (shock!)
- The book of Eli
- Inside John Malkovich (I’d rather not admit I watched this but it came to my mind so there it is.)
- Transformers (the first one)
- Reality Bites (no idea how that thought came from Transformers)
- Little Women
- A River Runs Through It
- and…..The Sound of Music
Interesting. These were in no particular order and maybe I’ll go back through and pick out my top 10 favorites out of that list. Another night I’ll go through our netflix watched movies and pick out my top 10 and hopefully share that by the time my movie-obessed friend asks others to share their favorite movie list. Maybe this year I’ll actually have one to share! For now, I hope the above list will suffice to make up for all the years I didn’t.
(hey I actually am going to publish this on the same day I started it…well with 2 minutes to spare!)
You crack me up. I can’t believe Donnie Darko came to mind, but Smoke Signals didn’t. What’s the quote you and Steve like from that movie? Then there was also The Bridge Over the River Kwai, and my favorite of all the ones we watched at your place: Wait Until Dark. Any others from the bachelor Joel days?
It was interesting to try and guess the thought connection between some of these movies.
Oh, and no. 37 is Flightplan.
So for fun (because I am sitting here vegging after an hour in the ridiculously scorching garden) here is my list of 50 movies I think of when I think of movies.
Return to Me
Waking Ned Devine
Local Hero
Judgment at Nuremburg
Schindler’s List
Life is Beautiful
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Babette’s Feast
Hero
Raise the Red Lantern
Run Lola Run
Fight Club
Forest Gump
Apollo 13
The Right Stuff
Man on the Moon
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Up
WallE
Cars
Cars 2-going to see it tonight!
The Incredibles
Just Like Heaven
Bringing Up Baby
Shane
High Noon
The Searchers
Do the Right Thing
Bella
The Goonies-this transition occured because I just looked up from the computer and saw Gus picking his nose
Muppets Take Manhattan
Swiss Family Robinson
The Dark Knight
Waiting for Superman
Spellbound
Trekkies
Star Trek
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Indiana Jones
Air Force One
What Lies Beneath
Deep End of the Ocean
October Sky
Gladiator
The Godfather
Ghandhi
Minority Report
Sixth Sense
Unbreakable
The Village
Signs
Rear Window
Vertigo
Psycho
Strangers on a Train
Mission Impossible
Magnolia
Mission Impossible 3
I think that’s 60. The scary thing is that took me 10 minutes. My brain is ready and willing when I let it think about movies. I could easily keep going. Like you said “obsessed.”
The randomness of this realllly made me smile.
I, too, watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants well after my teen years.
I actually picked up the sequel (book) that just came out at the library, Sisterhood Everlasting, but couldn’t get into it.
Anyways, thanks for the grin.
Monica-I’m glad to make you grin. Random randomness is the key to sanity from the not so random things of life. 😉
Joel–yes! It worked! I knew I could get you with movies. 🙂 I’m glad you wrote out your list. I was hoping someone might. You have a lot of movies I like and should have thought. It’s funny how one movie leads to another but I have no explanation of why Donnie D came after Return to Me. It baffled me too but I wrote it down anyway. Now that you wrote it down, I remember Smoke Signals was on my original list. “Hey Victor, re-re member when your dad…took me to Denny’s?” Steve and I still say that to each other frequently anytime the word “remember” comes up or “Denny’s” or “Victor”. Ahh yes Flightplan. Thank you. Sorry I can’t remember any other movie besides Smoke Signals that we watched with you. Wait until Dark…i’ll have to look that up to remember what it was. You’ll have to let us know what you think of Cars 2, i’ve heard mixed reviews.