Check, check, check (61-80)

today's episode of check check check
is dedicated to alfred hitchcock
who shows up a lot on this list
and rightly so
and who would no doubt still be making movies today
on his 108th birthday
if he wasn't
you know
dead

.

61. "Sullivan's Travels," 1941.

I'm so happy to see Preston Sturges represented on this list. No moe shutouts, Mr Sturges!

And this is even my favorite of his movies!

Or would be, I'm pretty sure, if I'd ever seen any of them.

But I'm still pretty sure I'm an awfully big fan....

62. "American Graffiti," 1973.

This is a good movie. But like a lot of movies in the next twenty, I'm surprised to see it on this best-hundred list all the same.

63. "Cabaret," 1972.

Yes, I liked Liza Minnelli in Arrested Development. But that only made me more loathe to see her done up sexy.

64. "Network," 1976.

Sheesh: I;m already mad as hell--why would I want to watch this movie?

And yet....

I do....

65. "The African Queen," 1951.

Bogie and Katie Hepburn jousting on a boat. I;m unsure why we've never watched this....

66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.

Scared me as a kid. Still haven't quite forgiven it. Maybe that's why Lady Steed still hasn't watched the copy I bought her a year or so ago

67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.

Me. I don't want Liz Taylor shouting at me. Not at all. And I think I'ld like my first experience with Albee to be on the stage.

68. "Unforgiven," 1992.

I'm not a huge cowboy-movie kind of guy, but this one's definitely on my list.

69. "Tootsie," 1982.

Another good-enough movie whose top-100 status I find questionable.

Although it's is a zillion times better than crappy ole Mrs. Doubtfire.

70. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.

I don't care how many people warn me against it: I still really want to see this movie.

Just maybe not the eyeball part.

71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.

Hhhhhh.

War movies.

Isn't there ugly enough already?

I don't mean to knock the worth of war movies, but today, now, this year, they're just not for me.

72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994.

I've never seen this except on tv, so I don't know what I'm missing, but what I've seen is terrific.

But how could it not be, when starrin Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman?

73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.

Not since I was a kid. High on my list of mustrewatches.

74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991.

Like Shawshank, never seen this except on tv. But it's awesome.

75. "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.

Someday. I've heard too much compelling stuff to put it off forever.

76. "Forrest Gump," 1994.

Why do people like this movie? I saw it in theaters because it was all the rage, and when I walked out half-a-day later, it was like I had not even seen a movie.

When you see a good movie or a bad movie or fun movie or a hilarious movie or an exciting movie or an embarrassing movie or a lousy movie, you leave at least knowing you have seen a movie. Seeing Forrest Gump was like having 2½ hours of my life just suddenly lost to me. It was like not having seen a movie at all.

Several years later it was on tv and I tried to give it a second chance.

No dice.

It's the most absent work of art ever made.

Suck on that, Zemeckis!

77. "All the President's Men," 1976.

Ummmm. Which all the X's men is this again?

78. "Modern Times," 1936.

Haven't seen this one, but I just read that in it, "Chaplin has two wrenches and he's chasing after a woman with nuts on her nipples".

!!!!!

79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.

Another cowboy movie, yes?

I'll add it to the list.

80. "The Apartment, 1960.

Prety good. I always like Shirley MacLaine. And Jack Lemmon too (with one notable exception). But I like my comedies funny. And this one ain't.

Add it to the good-enough-but-what-the-heck-s-it-doing-here list.