Monday, December 31, 2012

Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#56)

2012 will be finished in less than two hours. I’ve been frantically watching films all day to get my movie list total for this year up to 150. I’m going to make it, but barely.

Sunday Showdown: continuing my comparison of the American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films.  #56: Jaws (AFI) vs. The Lives of Others (IMDb)

I saw The Lives of Others last year for the first time and really enjoyed it.  It’s a foreign film that won multiple awards in 2006, but somehow I had missed it. I immediately told all my film buddies – and history buff friends – about it.  The East German secret police was not a common subject matter (at least for me) in films, and I was intrigued.

Basically, it comes down to this: if you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s not perfect – it sometimes drags, but I’m not sure if that is due to the nature of subtitled films, or the pacing of the movie itself. Either way, well worth watching.

Zoom in, dolly out. I can see it now.
But against Jaws….

To be honest, I had forgotten how truly great a film Jaws is. It’s about a shark, sure. But it’s so much more than that: storytelling at its finest. Perhaps Spielberg at his finest. 

And some of the individual shots in Jaws? Just as wonderful today as when Jaws became the first-ever blockbuster film in 1975. I was amazed at how many of those great shots there were in the movie. It’s one of the mistakes people make when they forget that Jaws is much more than just a film about a shark.

Roger Ebert once called Jaws “One of the most effective thrillers ever made.” No argument here.

So, as we finish out 2012, AFI leads by a slim margin: 24 to IMDb's 21. 



AFI’s Top 100
IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)

24
21
#56
Jaws (1975)
The Lives of Others (2006)
#57
Rocky (1976)
The Departed (2006)
#58
The Gold Rush (1925)
Memento (2000)
#59
Nashville (1975)
City Lights (1931)
#60
Duck Soup (1933)
Aliens (1986)
#61
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
#62
American Graffiti (1973)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
#63
Cabaret (1972)
Das Boot (1981)
#64
Network (1976)
The Third Man (1949)
#65
The African Queen (1951)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
#66
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#67
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Chinatown (1974)
#68
Unforgiven (1992)
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69
Tootsie (1982)
Modern Times (1936)
#70
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
#71
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
#72
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Back to the Future (1985)
#73
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Prestige (2006)
#74
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Raging Bull (1980)
#76
Forrest Gump (1994)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77
All the President’s Men  (1976)
Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78
Modern Times (1936)
Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80
The Apartment (1960)
Rashomon (1950)
#81
Spartacus (1960)
All About Eve (1950)
#82
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Amadeus (1984)
#83
Titanic (1997)
Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84
Easy Rider (1969)
The Green Mile (1999)
#85
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86
Platoon (1986)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87
12 Angry Men (1957)
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Great Dictator (1940)
#89
Sixth Sense (1999)
Braveheart (1995)
#90
Swing Time (1936)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
The Apartment (1960)
#92
Up (2009)
Goodfellas (1990)
#93
The French Connection (1971)
Downfall (2004)
#94
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Gran Torino (2008)
#95
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Metropolis (1927)
#96
Do The Right Thing (1989)
The Sting (1973)
#97
Blade Runner (1982)
Gladiator (2000)
#98
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99
Toy Story (1995)
Unforgiven (1992)
#100
Ben Hur (1959)
The Elephant Man (1980)

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 3 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 3 weeks (Dec 19-25):

Miles ran:  24 (4mi, 4mi, 16 miles)

Miles scheduled: 31

Cross training:  Misc cross training

Total miles run since training began: 461

General Notes: I knew this would be a light week since it was Christmas - I was glad I got in 20 miles while I was traveling. Juggling training around all the Christmas activities was a little tough, but I managed. This weekend will mark my last long training run (somewhere around 20 miles). I'll then have two weeks of tapering, with no long runs to "minimize accumulated fatigue". Hmmm... I wonder if I could taper from my kids during that time too. That would really help minimize accumulated fatigue.

I saw a card over the holidays, that I absolutely loved, and being in the heart of my marathon training, it fit me perfectly. Every single thing on the list.

You know you're a runner if:
1. You rotate your running shoes more often than your tires.
2. Running for less than an hour seems pointless.
3. You feel guilty because you only ran three times last week.
4. You have at least one black toenail.
5. Your social calendar is planned around race dates.
6. The majority of your wardrobe is running attire.
7. Your iPod has at least one running playlist.
8. You've run more of your local roads than you've driven.
9. When you hear "PR" you don't think "Public Relations."
10. Energy gels are an essential part of your diet.


 I guess it's official. I'm a runner. :-)