Movie Review Summary

I did it! I set out to watch a list of movies at the start of the year and that is exactly what I did. Along the way I was disappointed with some movies and pleasantly surprised by others. I stopped writing reviews quite a few months back so I thought I would do a couple of summary reviews now that I have finished. Sit back and enjoy as I take you through a brief discussion of my journey -

Casablanca
It was so long ago now that I watched this movie. Best to read my original view though in hindsight I may have given it a higher rating than the 6.5/10 I did at the time. Out of all the movies this is the first one I will watch again.
Original Score: 6.5/10
Watch again? Yes I will
My fav scene:


Fight Club
This was one of the movies that disappointed. I had heard so many people rave about this movie so it was a shame to me that I hated it (see my original review for the reasons why)
Original Score: 3/10
Watch again? No

Gone With The Wind
Now this is a long movie and was quite enjoyable. See my original review for this movie.
Original score: 6.5/10
Watch again? probably not - it is too long

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Another classic movie which I enjoyed. It was my favourite of my list for quite a while.
Original Score: 7.5/10
Watch again? Yes

Goodfellas
I had no expectations for this movie and it was ok. I have no more to say than what I said in my original review
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? unlikely

Fargo
I wanted this movie to be better than what it was. It was over the top black humour which is what has made it so popular to the public. It didn't impress me much.
Original score: 5/10
Watch again? I probably will

Citizen Kane
This is an Orson Welles self indulgent bore-fest. I really can't say much more than I wrote in my original review. In hindsight I would give it a lower score.
Original score: 2/10
Watch again? not even if I was paid.

The Godfather
Having previously read the book, I may not have liked this movie as much as I would have.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? if it was on TV

The Godfather: Part 2
I was disappointed with this one but maybe that was because I didn't have subtitles for the Sicilian parts.
Original score: 4/10
Watch again? Yes with the subtitles next time

The Godfather: Part 3
Universally regarded as the worst of the 3 Godfather movies and very different to the other I found. It was ok.
Original score: 4/10
Watch again? no

Jaws
I liked this movie much more than I expected. I did a full review when I watched it.
Original score: 7.5/10
Watch again? yes but not in summer

Some Like It Hot
Not a bad movie. It certainly had it's funny moments. Maybe I rated it a bit too high though.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? yes

The Maltese Falcon
I just didn't get into this movie at all.
Original score: 3/10
Watch again? maybe to see if I was just in a bad mood when I first watched it.

The Usual Suspects
Now this movie I did enjoy.
Original score: 8/10
Watch again? yes

The Revenge of the Nerds
This was a fun movie. I didn't say much about it in my original review and I don't have anything to say about it now. I did enjoy it though.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? probably

Singing in the Rain
This movie is a lot of fun. Lots of singing and dancing and an enjoyable story.
Original score: 8.5/10
Watch again? absolutely
One of my favourite scenes -


To Kill a Mockingbird
A really good movie that deals with racism. I can't remember much about this movie now but I did give it a good score at the time.
Original score: 8.5/10
Watch again? I will

Trainspotting
This is a tough, gritty, dirty movie about drug addiction. i did enjoy it.
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? probably

Schindlers List
This was the movie I put on my list that I really didn't know whether I would be able to handle it. I had read stories about the holocaust and they had made me angry and depressed, so I wasn't sure whether this movie would do the same. Schindlers List is great because it does make you angry and scared and sad and outraged, but it is also uplifiting and gives you hope. it got the highest score of all the movies I reviewed (equal with Ben-Hur)
Original Score: 9/10
Watch again? not in a hurry even though it is great

Silence of the Lambs
Another movie which I had previously read the book. I really enjoyed the movie, particularly the acting by Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? some day

Life of Brian
I'm not really a Monty Python fan so I was never likely to give this movie a high rating. It has it's funny moments but overall it wasn't my cup of tea.
Original score: 5/10
Watch again: not anytime soon

Rambo First Blood
This is probably the movie that surprised me the most. I expected it to be a killfest but the body count for this movie is only 1. The story was much more involved than I anticipated and Stallone was surprisingly good as an actor.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? yes

Rambo First Blood Part II
I expected this to be an implausible let-down after the first, but again I was pleasantly surprised. More killing in this one but the story was still good.
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? yes

Rambo III
Again I expected this to be the weak link in the series and again I was pleasantly surprised. The story is good again, and importantly it is plausible.
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? yes

Raging Bull
About the only thing I remember about this movie is that the characters do a lot of arguing and yelling at each other. I found it a bit boring.
Original score: 4.5/10
Watch again? no

A Streetcar Named Desire
I found this movie to be completely boring and useless. Nothing ever really happens, none of the characters are likable or memorable and as such I was disappointed with it.
Original score: 3/10
Watch again? no way

Aliens
Unbeknown to me at the time, this is the 2nd movie in the series, so I watched them in the wrong order. I spent ages looking for Aliens 2 without any luck. I then realised the first one is called Alien and the 2nd is called Aliens. The movie itself was ok but the horror genre is not favourable to me.
Original score: 5/10
Watch again? not likely

Alien
This was my favourite of the 3 Aliens movies I watched. Again, not a movie genre I like but it was ok nonetheless.
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? probably not

Alien 3
Stayed true to the series and was less scary than the others if I remember correctly. It was ok.
Original score: 5.5/10
Watch again? only if I watched the others again

Casino
Violent movie and an engaging story which is based on a true story.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? yes

The Deer Hunter
I found this movie to be pretty boring. The first hour is just a waste of time. Really the only good bit of this movie is the Russian Roulette scene. It is hard and unnerving to watch. Here is the scene -

Original score: 4/10
Watch again? not likely

Apocalypse Now
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning". I didn't like this movie as much as I hoped I would. Many well known and very good actors appear in this movie (Martin Sheen, Robert DuVal, Marlon Brando) but I just didn't take a shining to it. I did have the redux version which includes many extra scenes which made it longer and a bit more tedious.
Original score: 4.5/10
Watch again? perhaps

Taxi Driver
I did write a full review on this movie, just read it.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? I would but I'm in no hurry to

It's a Wonderful Life
This is the kind of movie I hoped I would come across when I started out. It is an old black & white movie, character based and a feel good story. It did get slightly bogged down at times which is why i didn't rate it higher.
Original score: 8/10
Watch again? yes

The Exorcist
When it came out in the 70's this was regarded as the scariest movie ever. What appealed to me was the storyline. As I have said, horror is not a genre I like to watch so this rated well considering.
This was my favourite scene though it didn't really fit into the rest of the movie because she didn't leave her bedroom at any other stage.


2001: A Space Odyssey
I wrote a review on this movie because it is so incredibly boring. I found a clip for the ending. 9 mins it goes for but don't worry, you can watch it without it giving anything away, it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It is just plain weird. I dare you to watch all of it -

Original score: 0/10
Watch again? only if I find the right drug to accompany it

Scarface
"Say hello to my little friend". I liked Scarface quite a lot. There are no boring bits and I ended up absolutely hating the character played by Pacino.
Original score: 8/10
Watch again? I'm sure I'll watch it many times again

Psycho
Not as good as what I expected. Having said that I knew nothing about the movie before I watched it. I had known about the shower scene but not much else about it. The thing I didn't expect is that the movie starts out in a completely different manner to which it ends up. Suspense is kept up throughout.
Here is the famous scene -

Original score: 5.5/10
Watch again? probably not

The Philadelphia Story
A good character based movie with a few twists and turns. Not the most exciting or enthralling story but it was enjoyable.
Original score: 5.5/10
Watch again? probably not

Lawrence of Arabia
This is another long movie but it was enjoyable. The story kept me interested all the way through which is a good thing for a movie that goes for well over 3 hours.
Original score: 7/10
Watch again? only if I have enough time

Ben-Hur
And yet another looong movie. The effects and stunt work were quite brilliant in this movie. It reminded me of an old version of Gladiator. It was a little bit gay I thought at the time of watching and when I read about it afterwards it was mentioned that the 2 lead characters were supposed to have been gay lovers in their teens. They hadn't mentioned this gay character undertone to Charlton Heston because they figured he wouldn't have agreed to play the part of Ben Hur if they had.
Original score: 9/10
Watch again? maybe in instalments

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I think this is the first movie I have ever seen that stars "The Duke". It is also the first movie that he calls people "pilgrim". The movie was ok, wasn't boring anyway.
Original score: 6/10
Watch again? I probably won't

Great Expectations
To be honest my expectations for this movie weren't all that great. It is a Charles Dickens story, and a good one at that. I enjoyed the posh talk and ye olde language. My 2 big gripes with this movie is that we see the young Pip (the main character) as a kid, then it says 6 years later and he looks like a 40 year old man. That's because the 21 year old Pip is played by the 38 year old John Mills! The other gripe I had was that the movie was flowing along nicely and then it just seems to end really quickly, like in 10 minutes. It's almost as if they ran out of money so just ended the movie as quickly as possible. I literally thought to myself - that can't be the end, it is just getting interesting. It is for these reasons I gave the movie a poorer rating than what it could have received.
Original score 6/10
Watch again? not for a while