Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): next to unforgiven, the best western i've ever seen. newman and redford bring their characters to such realism that they steal the show completely. story is good as well as cinematography. this is one of the rare movies that if released today would probably still do very well. in fact, i was so surprised to see how old the movie was. you'll have no idea that it was made 35 years ago. buy it.
Cocktail (1988): i'm usually not a fan of many 80's movies, especially tom cruise ones. however this one is the exception. it is very entertaining for probably anyone who sees it and is just a feel good type of movie. it doesn't get too cheesy with the 80's culture, however there are some songs that i could have done without. tom is as good as always. elisabeth shue isn't that great. you can tell that sometime between this movie and leaving las vegas she got some acting lessons. worth seeing probably only with a significant other. not that its a chick flick, but company will make it even better.
American Graffiti (1973): not that great. i'd probably rather see john travolta prancing around singing grease lightening than this this. i can see why people thought this movie was so great. for instance, probably one of the first movies where story lines intertwine so much, and its about teenagers leaving high school and moving from one stage of life to another, blah, blah, blah. all sounds familiar these days. especially if you went to high school in the 90's and every movie that came out had that same premise. very influential, but not worth seeing. music is good, but just go buy the beach boys greatest hits. you end up not really feeling a strong connection with any of the characters. moral of this story is lucas should stick with jedi's and coppola should stick with the mafia. teens in the 50's is not their thing. end of story.
some of you may wonder how i pick and choose my movies. well a number of factors are involved. almost two years ago i started watching the american film institute's top 100 movies of all time, which i am still working on. i've seen a little over half of them. for example, butch cassidy was #50 and american graffiti was #77. then i made a list of movies that i've always wanted to see. for example, i'll soon be starting the man with no name clint eastwood series. these are just movies that you have to see once in your life, which i've never seen. next are academy award best picture movies. trying to find out what made those particular movies so good when they came out. this would be the reason i wasted 3 hours on the english patient. next are suggestions from peeps i know. like it was tom who told me to see cocktail. lastly are movies that are new in theaters that strike my fancy when i see trailers or read about them online. the list is always going up and down, but mostly down. i currently have 131 movies on the list. so i'll be doing this awhile.
speaking of, this movie watching business is killing into my family law time. that class is gonna destroy me come exam time. jessie and i are going to die studying next week for our first exam. well kim is home and i gotta get ready to class tonight. we are taking a field trip to BYU's law library. this should be nice and embarrassing.
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