films to watch Archives - 24 Hour Movie Marathon!

Movie Marathon 2014 Planning Kickoff!

I’m kicking off planning for Movie Marathon 2014! This will be the sixth movie marathon my wife and I have hosted at our house (since 2009) and the tenth I’ve co-hosted in my lifetime (since 1999!). The working title is: Movie Marathon VI: The Undiscovered Country.

First order of business – potential movies! I think I have a good starter list, but I need your help in getting more ideas! I’ve had great success in the past from suggestions from friends and family. The movies below are just what I’ve come up with on my own. Please comment in this post with your ideas!

We’ll be bringing back kid-friendly zones, so I’ve divided up the potential movie list into movies aimed at adults and those aimed at the kids. Enjoy!

Movies for the Adults

The Wicker Man (1973)

Horror | Mystery | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%

A police sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the townsfolk claim never existed. Stranger still are the rites that take place there.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Comedy | Romance – Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard “Baby.”

The French Connection (1971)

Action | Crime | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

Notorious (1946)

Drama | Film-Noir | Romance – Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

Hannah and her Sisters (1986)

Comedy | Drama – Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%

Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah’s husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Drama | Film-Noir – Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

The Crow (1994)

Action | Fantasy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%

A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée’s murder.

Kid Friendly Zone

Bolt (2008)

Animation | Adventure | Comedy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

The canine star of a fictional sci-fi/action show that believes his powers are real embarks on a cross country trek to save his co-star from a threat he believes is just as real.

Tarzan (1999)

Animation | Adventure | Drama – Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

A man raised by gorillas must decide where he really belongs when he discovers he is a human.

Mulan (1998)

Animation | Adventure | Family – Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%

To save her father from death in the army, a young maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China’s greatest heroines in the process.

Lilo and Stitch (2002)

Animation | Adventure | Comedy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%

A Hawaiian girl adopts an unusual pet who is actually a notorious extra-terrestrial fugitive from the law.

Ella Enchanted (2004)

Comedy | Family | Fantasy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 50%

Ella is under a spell to be constantly obedient, a fact she must hide from her new step-family in order to protect the prince of the land, her friend for whom she’s falling.

Ideas for Movie Marathon 2014

After listening to podcasts, reading weblogs, doing research, and otherwise just thinking about movies I haven’t seen yet, here’s my list of movie ideas for my next movie marathon. Do you have any more good suggestions?

Really Interested

Interested

Movie Podcast: 101 Films You Should Have Seen

With two kids, a job, a house, and other boring adult responsibilities, I don’t have much time to read these days. Instead, I usually occupy my time doing chores with podcasts. I’m always looking for good movie ideas for my next marathon, so I thought I’d survey iTunes for some good movie podcasts.

I’m a bit picky with my podcasts. I start to get testy if they go long, especially if the hosts start rambling and go off topic. I’m also looking for a good blend of information and entertainment – so the hosts have to give me some facts, but they also have to have a bit of charisma and chemistry together.

Given my personal criteria, my favorite podcast so far is 101 Films You Should Have Seen. Ian and Lewis are two guys from the UK that don’t take themselves too seriously, but are on a similar mission as me to see great movies they otherwise wouldn’t have seen. Their About Page says as much:

In a nutshell, ’101 Films…’ is a podcast dedicated to the films you probably should have seen, but for some reason never quite got round to watching… plus a few obscure ones that you’ve probably never heard of but should watch anyway.

They have a good list of movies – some I’ve seen and some I’ve not – so I’m looking forward to listening to their older episodes. Bonus: their episodes typically run a half hour each, which is right at my sweet spot.

I listened to some other podcasts as well, but none of them really clicked for me. For completeness sake, here’s what I found:

Best Movies by Farr – 2 minute long episodes that go over one specific movie. Great idea, but publishing seems to have stopped in 2012.
Doug Loves Movies – A hour traveling comedy routine. Its a long podcast and I didn’t get it.
Movies You Should See – A diverse group of people talking about movie topics. This sounds like it should be right up my alley. However, I just couldn’t get into an entire hour of witty banter about A Christmas Story. This is probably because there isn’t that much more to say about “A Christmas Story” that hasn’t been said. A lot of this episode sounded like filler.
The Film Vault – A couple of guys talking about movies – typically about lists of interesting things from movies (e.g. “top 5 taglines”). This podcast was ok, but was long (an hour and a half) and this episode and many episodes were about film buff sort of stuff (e.g. actor debuts) instead of discussions of specific movies.

To be fair to the also-rans, they are very popular and well-reviewed on iTunes, so perhaps I just caught them at the wrong episode for me.

Best Movies We Missed In 2012

As the parent of two young kids, owner of a house, worker of a full time job, and husband of a worker of a full time job – I don’t see a lot of movies in the theater. I’m thinking about doing something a little different this year and making the theme “The Best Movies We Missed from 2012”.

There are a few opinions on the Internet on which movies these are (shocking, no?). Me, I’m thinking this list:

Any other good ideas?

(Yes – I did see “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Hobbit” in theaters)