I haven’t yet written about this- but I’m sad to announce that my dear friend Pip passed away last month. It has been tough without him, but I have felt an outpouring of love from all his friends! I’m so glad that many of his friends are now my friends.

Tonight I’m finally in a movie-watching mood. This used to happen much more often, but I haven’t been in the right frame of mind since Pip’s passing. This is something that we wanted to do together. I have decided to pick up right where we left off: 1954.

Having just watched it, it’s time to give it a rank. The options are- “loved it”, “liked it”, “meh”, and “hated it”.

LIKED IT

Me: Meh

Pip: Meh

I’m a sucker for classic Disney films! For some reason, this wasn’t doing it for me. Pip was so bored that he couldn’t even finish it.

Me: Liked it

Pip: Meh

I said I wasn’t going to add a description, but, alas, here is a description: In 1952, the film industry started to use a new technology, which, I’m guessing, was the IMAX of that time. It was tough getting through the 2+ hours of footage. This is mainly because it’s just a collection of “high-def” scenes so that they could show off what their cameras can do (I use the term ‘high-def’ loosely, as it comes nowhere close to what filmmakers can do nowadays).

The only reason I voted for a “Liked it” and not a “Meh” is because I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who may be experiencing this for the first time, in 1952. They obviously loved it enough to tell their friends and family to go see it- otherwise, it wouldn’t have been the highest-grossing film of the year.

Me: Meh

Pip: Meh

I see what they were trying to do, but what ruined it for me was the portrayal of early Christianity, and frankly, the bad acting by Peter Ustinov. It seems that horrible actors were a-dime-a-dozen back then.

I felt that last night was a good night to start toward the new goal. The goal: To watch each and every top-grossing film from 1950 forward. Since I like movies, I don’t see this as a difficult thing to accomplish. It will take time, but I’m willing to waste weeks of my life making it happen.

Rather than giving you a whole write-up explaining why I loved or hated it, I’m going to simply say give one of four reactions: Loved it, Liked it, Meh, or Hated it. I may or may not explain myself. If Pip, or anyone else watches it with me, I’ll have them give their reaction too.

1950: Cinderella

Me: Liked it!

Pip: Liked it!

Sad fact: I have never seen the movie, Gone With The Wind. I know it’s a classic and that so many people love it, but I’ve never gotten around to watching it. Perhaps it is because I added it to my movie library years ago and knew that I’d eventually get around to watching it. 

Tonight is the night! Pip told me it‘a almost four hours long, and I hope I have a long enough attention span. Lately, I’ve been falling asleep soon after my head hits the pillow, so it will be interesting to see if I can keep myself focussed that long.

Speaking of movies- here is a new goal that I just came up with: I will watch the top-grossing film from each year from 1950 forward. Pip told me he’d join me in this adventure, so this means that we most likely will be popping tons of popcorn. If I go all the way to the year 2030, that’s only 80 movies, and I don’t really see this as a problem. I am totally adding this to my bucket list!