Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Princess Bride and Jurassic Park

Hello once more Internet dwellers! Firstly, apologies for my neglect of this blog. I would promise to update more often from now on, but that would likely be a blatant lie.

Anywho, I thought it was about time I filled you all in on the progress of my list! Hooray! I've now watched 3 moves, out of 100. I know, I know. I'm more than aware that this is a terrible effort. Dismal. My excuses are not even worth the keystokes needed to produce them, however, so for now you are spared. Instead, I shall focus my energy on telling you my thoughts on the 3 I have seen!

The first film I watched from the list was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and it was most excellent. A fun, entertaining film, that required virtually no effort to watch, and provided plenty of payoff by way of jokes and one-liners. This one was watched with my friends from The Cauldron, and fitted the mood of a lightly boozy weekend quite well. I believe we watched it after dinner, and prior to staying up until 6am.

While I did very much enjoy this film for its pop culture relevance, I'm not sure at this point how much replay value it will have. If I ever re-watch it, I'll let you guys know what my second round thoughts are.

Now, onto The Princess Bride. Why had I never seen The Princess Bride. This film had everything I love from the family genre. Drama. Intrigue. Romance. Witty Quotes. Deplorable Villains. Believable Romance. And of course, exploitable lines.

Seriously. "I will always come for you". What do you want from me.

Yet again, this was watched with accompaniment from The Cauldron. A sign of quality, I'm quite sure very little conversation was attempted during this screening. Rather, we all watched in rapturous silence (excepting the occasional cry of "Yeah he did!").

Moving along once more, we come to Jurassic Park. To be completely honest, this was one of the films that made it onto the list mainly due to public response*. I'm sorry. I was a girly girl of a child. Giant CG dinosaurs eating everyone was not something that appealed to me. That being said, I did enjoy this.

This one I watched with my neighbours. Despite the years, the dinosaurs still looked believable and the CG didn't break the immersion. The story was predictable in the way that should be expected from a PG rated thriller, but not annoyingly so.

In all honesty, I liked it less than the fan culture it has spawned. Perhaps I expected too much. Perhaps the background chatter distracted from the suspense. Perhaps I drank a tiny bit too much mulled wine throughout the evening and thus lost focus. Whatever it was, this was more of a meh from me. However, the Velociraptors were fantastic. 

So thats my progress so far! 97 films remaining.

*My public may or may not be 3 people commenting on facebook. Hi guys!

The List

Here it is, in true corporeal form. Films are in no particular order, as I realized organizing them in terms of relevance would be nearly impossible, as that relies on personal opinion. Although I said 50 films in the previous post, as I went through I realized it would be quite difficult to split, and 100 sounds better anyway.

My goal is to have watched all of these by the fifteenth of May 2013. That gives me exactly one year, and means at the least I need to watch one film every 3 days. If I achieve this goal, one year from now, I will have caught up to my generation.

So, without any further ado, may I present The List!

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. Star Wars
5. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
6. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
7. Fight Club
8. The Godfather
9. The Matrix
10. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
11. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 
12. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 
13. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 
14. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
15. Gladiator 
16. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
17. Jurassic Park
18. The Terminator 
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark 
20. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 
21. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 
22. Batman 
23. Batman Returns
24. Batman Forever
25. Batman & Robin 
26. Alien 
27. Aliens 
28. Ghost Busters 
29. Transformers 
30. The Mummy 
31. The Shining 
32. Schindler's List
33. Requiem for a Dream
34. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 
35. Little Miss Sunshine
36. Psycho 
37. Scarface 
38. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
39. 2001: A Space Odyssey
40. Blade Runner 
41. The Bourne Identity 
42. Life of Brian 
43. Casper 
44. The Princess Bride 
45. Zombieland 
46. Click 
47. Kick-Ass 
48. The Ring 
49. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb
50. Ferris Bueller's Day Off 
51. The Breakfast Club
52. Fame 
53. Flashdance 
54. How to Train Your Dragon
55. Almost Famous 
56. Minority Report 
57. Memento 
58. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 
59. Snatch. 
60. Pee-wee's Big Adventure 
61. Amélie
62. Jumanji
63. Girl, Interrupted
64. Hard Candy
65. Role Models
66. The Karate Kid
67. All About Eve
68. The Incredible Hulk
69. Hulk 
70. Groundhog Day 
71. Elf 
72. Ed Wood
73. Planet of the Apes
74. Dances with Wolves 
75. This Is Spinal Tap 
76. Clerks. 
77. Taken
78. Cabaret 
79. Gilda 
80. Lolita 
81. The Producers 
82. Sense and Sensibility
83. Saw
84. Who Framed Roger Rabbit 
85. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 
86. Mad Max 
87. Cast Away 
88. Billy Elliot 
89. Little Shop of Horrors 
90. Catch Me If You Can 
91. The Pianist 
92. Brother Bear 
93. The Aviator 
94. Finding Neverland
95. Sleepy Hollow 
96. Troy
97. Dreamgirls 
98. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 
99. Driving Miss Daisy 
100. Metropolis

NOTE: Some of these films I think I may have seen as a child, but as I don't really remember, I consider them unwatched. Several others I have seen bits of, but never watched in full. As I become aware of these anomalies, I will somehow mark them as different. When I work out in what way, I'll post it here.

Wish me luck!

Confessions

So, I have a confession to make. One that may surprise and shock you. One that may lead you to leave this blog in disgust and never return. I've been hiding this from many of my friends for some time, too ashamed and embarrassed to come right out with it. I do not blame those who think less of me after this post, rather, I understand your shock and confusion. Please dear reader, I must beg you give me a chance to explain.

Okay. Here goes.

I, Sarah Cooper, have never watched Lord of the Rings...
...or Star Wars...
...or Ghostbusters...
...or Fight Club...
...or The Princess Bride...
...or The Godfather...
...or Jurassic Park...
...or Kill Bill...
...or E.T...
...or pretty much half of the other cult classics that everyone else of my generation seems to have seen and be able to quote at will.

Its true. Not only does this make me an awful nerd, it also makes me an awful 20-something. I don't know how this happened - I'm sure I had a normal film-related upbringing! I watched The Lion King on repeat, I went to the cinema with my family on school holidays, the video shop was my favourite place, and I would frequently watch Friday night movies on TV. It baffles me.

I'm not sure at what point I fell behind my classmates in this field. Perhaps I was too spoiled by children's television in the 90's and felt no need to seek further? Perhaps the impact of growing up in a town without a cinema was more profound than I could have ever realized? Perhaps I spent too much time watching and re-watching Disney movies, while normal kids watched classics? Or perhaps somehow World of Warcraft is to blame for yet another of my developmental failures. I really don't know.

But no more! No more shall I be the odd one out every time a conversation turns to cinema. No longer shall I feel confused and bewildered each time a film is referenced. No longer shall I quote movies I have never seen! In acknowledging these gaping holes in my pop-culture knowledge, I find myself ready to step forward and rectify this problem.

Now, for some time, when people have asked me about a film I need to see, I've simply replied that "its on my list". Until now, this list has been a mental compilation of every film that I have yet to see. Well, from now on, the list is changing form. From now on, this list is going to be something I can physically reference, add things to, and check off.

In order to make it more feasible, I'm going to cap this list at 50 films. The list will be ordered in terms of importance to our generation, and if required, once the initial list is complete, I can create a second.

Here's where you come in. In order to compile this list, I'm going to need suggestions. I can only think of so many myself. If there is a movie you feel I must see, leave a comment below telling me about it. I'm going to be using the list function from iCheckMovies, and you can view my account here to see if I've already watched it. Once created, I shall post it here to keep you all up-to-date on my progress.

I must note that this list is for films only. TV shows, games and books all have their own separate lists which I will tackle at a later date.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you don't think too much less of me now.

x Sarah.

Welcome to Profectionist!

Welcome, welcome, one and all, to the official first post of Profectionist! Thank you for being here on this most auspicious of occasions. On this blog I shall be posting opinions, anecdotes, ideas, and inspirations. Before we begin, I am afraid I must give you some warnings as to what to expect.

1. Terrible puns are likely to become commonplace.
2. Updates may be few and far between.
3. As an audience, anticipate alliteration.
4. Frequent references to Harry Potter must be expected.
5. It is quite likely that words will be invented.

Now the formalities are out of the way, it seems prudent that I introduce myself! My name is Sarah, and I am a student of Games Design based in Melbourne, Australia. I am originally from rural Victoria, and still marvel at the differences between city and country lifestyles. I straddle the border between nerdy and "normal", with both groups often viewing me as belonging to the other. To me, this is fantastic, as it affords me the freedom to obsess over make-up looks while playing Skyrim.
I often get told off for talking too much or too little.
I get restless when I'm not creating.
I love to draw.
I have a habit of sleeping all day.
aaaand I can go on and on about myself unless stopped!

Once again, welcome. I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say, as much as I enjoy writing it!

x Sarah