My Life in Film (Movie meme over my 44 years)

My life in film. The idea is to pick out a movie of personal note for each year of your life from the year they were released. You don't need to have seen it in that particular year. 

1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: I was born the year one of the greatest family musical comedies was constructed. "Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted."

1972 Monty Python's Flying Circus: When I was one years old the English discovered that you didn't need a punchline.

1973 The Exorcist: There have been very few completely awesome demon possession movies since. It was already kinda nailed. The only time I saw vomit used so well in a movie was 'Stand by me', and Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life'.

1974 Young Frankenstein: Goddam, Gene Wilder was awesome.

1975 Jaws: Some movie about a shark whose name 'Jaws' never gets mentioned.

1976 Bugsy Malone: Jody Foster's name was Talula and she lived til she died. Wasn't Chachi in this movie?

1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind: As a kid I was so confused by this movie title. Was this the third in a trilogy? Where were the other two?

1978 Superman: What can I say. I just remember going to Hungry Jacks (Burger King) afterwards and staring into my Coke in awe of what just happened.

1979 Breaking Away: I honestly spent that year of school trying to speak Italian. Drove family and friends absolutely bonkers. Belissimo!

1980 Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Imagine nine year olds arguing about the soap opera aspects of Darth being Luke's dad etc... long conversations from memory.

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark: I wouldn't let my little brother see this because of the 'graphic' scenes. I was a douchey big brother.

1982 E.T. The book had m&ms while the movie used Reece's Pieces. That's one of my strongest memories.

1983 Star Wars Return of the Jedi: Man, I loved the original Ewok celebration song at the end. Nub nub nibbidy boo, or something close to that.

1984 Ghostbusters -Nightmare on Elm Street, Beverly Hills Cop, The karate kid. This was a big year for movies, but for absolute brilliance, who ya gonna call? No, honestly? Who?

1985 The Breakfast Club: I just always thought they would have made a good Superhero Team up, Teen Titans, or Power Ranger style. Power of a princess. Power of a Geek... Jock... Emo kid... and etc.

1986 Aliens: The ultimate false ending. Two climaxes!

1987 The Princess Bride: There are people who haven't seen this movie. Worse yet, there are people who have seen it but didn't love it. Go away.

1988 Roger Rabbit: Wow. Nowadays you could make this sort of movie in the tenth of the time with our new fangled CG, but they'd never come close to this level of amazement.

1989 Batman: I almost cried from disappointment that there weren't enough Batman money shots. I learned to love it after I got some more perspective. More of my thoughts on Burton's Batman here.

1990 Ghost: I liked it.

1991 Terminator 2: Shiny melty man. Yeah, I'm getting bored now. Read on.

1992 Unforgiven: When I went to see this movie with some of my douche Christian friends, some of them did a 'walk out'. I was uncomfortable too. God I love this movie.

1993 Groundhog Day: If I was stuck in a time-loop repeating day I would... umm... you know what? Groundhog Day covered EVERYTHING

1994 The Lion King: Elton John was a big deal to me back then. We saw it a few times in the cinema, and it was animated! A new era was dawning.

1996 Braveheart: Soundtrack, battle scenes, script. GUSH

1997 Independence Day: Fun

1998 Titanic: I saw this in the cinema four times, as did everyone else I knew. I was a very gay man, I'm now thinking.

1999 The Prince of Egypt: Yeah, I was still a Christian at that point. This was 'way' cool for my types.

2000 Gladiator: See notes for Braveheart

2001 A.I. - Don't hate on me. I fell in love with this film and I completely loved and teared up at the ending.

2002 Spider-man: Cool. I just kept on rewinding that last city swing scene.

2003 Finding Nemo: Freaking awesome eye candy, and Ellen was perfect as Dora the fishy explorer.

2004 Before Sunset: The most fulfilling and beautiful romantic film of all time. It's one long chat, but we love it and its sequel to bits. Ethan Hawke gets a free ticket for life from me, for this.

2005 Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith: Nooooooooo!

2006 Borat: So funny. So freaking funny. As was Bruno.

2007 The Brave One: I like vigilantes and Jodie Foster, from Bugsy Malone to this.

2008 The dark knight: OMG OMG OMG (See Dark Knight blog post)

2009 Avatar: 3D done damn right. Remember 12 months earlier we were promised this would be 'F*cking' our eyeballs. It did.

2010 127 hrs: Yeah, go humans! We can do it! Inspiring stuff. Oh yeah, and I love it when Jo nestles her head in my arms and can't watch gory bits.

2011 X-Men: First Class - Because it truly was 'first class'.

2012 The Avengers: It's the golden age of Superhero movies and I'm feeling spoilt. Sorry Batman... Marvel wins this round.

2013 Man of Steel: It was so flawed and annoying in parts, but Goddam it was good to see Superman punching things.

2014 Captain America - The Winter Soldier: This movie made you believe a man could throw a shield.

2015 Star Wars - The Force Awakens AND Avengers - Age of Ultron: Why should I have to decide between the two (although notice Star Wars got top billing).

2 comments:

@sweetboudica said...

Great movies, mostly. :) Well done, sir.

Colleen said...

Oh, I kinda of want to do this now, only I'm missing out on some great movies. I've heard such amazing things about "Before Sunset" that I must bump it up on my list.