92. A Place in the Sun (1951)

I'm pretty sure that this was my first Elizabeth Taylor movie. I'm not sure. Either way, I enjoyed it. I actually liked Montgomery Clift better than Lizzie. This movie was definitely not what I expected, since it turned out to be kind of creepy. It was nominated for a whole bunch of Oscars, including Best Actor for Monty.

This is what I learned about Montgomery Clift after watching the movie:

1. He was not married to Elizabeth Taylor

2. This is because he was gay.

3. ET saved his life one day after a car accident by pulling two teeth out of his throat

4. He died of pills

5. He turned down the lead role in Sunset Boulevard (which was originally written for him)

6. He was tortured over being gay

So this movie was pretty creeps. There were a lot of topics that seemed inappropriate for the era. Such as: premarital sex, abortion, murder, cheating on your pregnant girlfriend, having a baby out of wedlock, being in love with a convicted murderer, and social climbing. Crazy. Definitely not what I was expecting from #92 on the list.

93. The Apartment (1960)

I learned two things about Shirley MacLaine after watching this movie. I learned them both by watching Oprah. (Who says you can't learn anything by watching day-time television?)

1. Shirley MacLaine was incredibly promiscuous in her day.

2. Shirley MacLaine is a little bit nuts.

However, neither one of these facts have anything to do with how cute a movie "The Apartment" was. In an effort to make this blog better, I'm researching each movie from here on out to find out why each was selected to be in the top 100. This movie was directed by Billy Wilder, who also directed "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won 5. It won Best Picture in 1960. I'm guessing that is why it is on the list.

Jack Lemmon was the main character, and at times I felt like I was watching Mad Men, with the outfits, and the men cheating on their wives, and the office decor. Jack Lemmon was this wimpy guy who kept letting the men in his office use his apartment to bring their mistresses back to. All is well and good until he falls in love with the elevator operator and wants to use his own apartment.

Cute, cute, cute, I gave it 4 stars.

94. Goodfellas (1990)

It's hard not to like this movie. It's almost like 3 movies in one, and it's pretty long. I'd seen it before, but I didn't really remember it. I must have mixed it up with Casino, because I kept feeling like they were going to go to Vegas. Oh well.

Sometimes it's funny watching gangster movies, because there always seems to be the same Italian actors in them... what, are there only 20 Italian guys in all of Hollywood?

This movie was good, it was directed by Martin Scorsese, and starred Ray Liotta, Robert DiNero, Joe Pesci, and Paul Sorvino. Every scene felt well thought-out and nicely done. There was this really great scene that is famous for being one long take, which is hardly ever done, and it's the scene when he goes on his first real date with Lorraine Bracco. The scene goes from when they get out of the car, go into the club, through the kitchen, down to the stage of the club, and to the concert - it's a great shot.

This is one movie where I definitely agree with it being on the list!

95. Pulp Fiction (1994)

This post will be done by a guest blogger - Jaime Avendaño - and will be updated when he watches the movie.

96. The Searchers (1956)

Well, I finally watched this movie. It's not that I was avoiding it, it's just that I've been busy. And baseball is on now, so it's harder to find time to dedicate to watching a whole movie. Last weekend Dermot told me that this was one of his favorite movies of all time, so that definitely gave me some more motivation to watch it.

The Searchers was my first John Wayne movie. It was pretty good, I didn't fall asleep at all (which I have in quite a few of the movies on this list so far...). The AFI named it the "Greatest Western of All Time" in 2008, which is a pretty high distinction. It didn't get any Academy Award nominations, though.

It's a movie about a semi-retired Civil War Veteran who's whole family is killed by the "Comanch". They kidnap the two younger girls, and John Wayne finds out that one of the girls is still alive. He spends something like the next 8 years looking for them. There are moments where it gets sort of racist, but John Wayne's character actually speaks a bunch of different languages in the movie, including Spanish and the Comanche dialect. It even has Natalie Wood in it at the end.

I liked this movie, and so I give it 5 stars. John Wayne wasn't that bad...

97. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

This movie was too cute! I'm not sure that I've ever seen a movie with Katharine Hepburn. She's hilarious! Great comedic timing, and amazing ability at physical humor. I'm starting to notice a trend with the older movies (even though there's only been two... there's much more physical humor.

Bringing Up Baby was about a paleontologist (Cary Grant) and a socialite (Hepburn). Hepburn somehow gets a leopard as a pet, and the hijinks ensue. I was amazed at how they were able to use a real leopard in the movie, it was so well behaved! I thought leopards were dangerous and hard to control?

I'm not entirely sure why this is in the top 100, but it was pretty cute, and I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars.

98. Unforgiven (1992)

Every once in a while, a girl just wants to watch a cowboy movie. This one was my favorite out of the 100 so far... Although I guess it's not fair to have a favorite after just 3 movies.

I'd seen "Unforgiven" before, when I was younger, but I didn't really remember much of it. When I was watching it today, I remembered the beginning, how dark it was in the saloon, but that was about it. The beginning of this movie showcases Clint's comedic timing. He actually had some pretty funny parts in this movie, like when he was farming pigs, and with his kids.

Unforgiven had great music, great scenery, and great acting. Gene Hackman (Little Bill) really makes you hate him by the end of the movie.

My favorite line in the movie was by Will Munny, near the end: "Well, you sure killed the hell outta that fella today."

All in all, 5 stars.

99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

I loved this movie! It was really well done, incredibly well thought-out, and a pretty cool movie for it's time. The beginning reminded me of watching an episode of Mad Men, with the cars, outfits, and setting.

There were lots of great lines, but I thought it was really interesting to hear the vocabulary. In movies today, you would hardly ever hear black people referred to as "negro" or "colored". However, in this movie, those were the only words that were used to describe black people.

It reminded me, in part, of how Obama's family must have felt when his mother brought home his future father.

I gave this movie 5 stars for it's humor, topic, and I also loved the ending.

100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

I'm going to be honest, I'm not quite sure why this movie was on the top 100. I actually fell asleep a couple times. Maybe it was on there for historical purposes? The film was about George M. Cohan, who was a playwright, author, musician, and actor from the early 1910's to 1930's. Black and white, kind of corny, but just okay. I only gave it 3 stars on Netflix.

The Storyline

Last weekend I realized that there are tons of movies that I've never seen, so I decided to challenge myself to watch the top 100 films of all time. There's lots of different lists out there, so I am going to work off of the American Film Institute list.

Here's a link to the list

I'm starting from the bottom, and I'll work my way to the top. I'm blogging about it so that I can remember each movie once I'm done.

Let's get started!