-29

29 more films and I'll have FCed the best pictures. A few of them seem hard to come by, but I'm sure that I can acquire them somehow. Quick reviews of some of the latest I watched:

West Side Story was a decent movie that could have been terrific if they cut about an hour out of it. It was only too long because some of the songs kinda sucked, but it had at least three quality numbers and was a neat take on Romeo and Juliet. I was annoyed a lot by the accents. Imagine watching White Men Can't Jump if half of the characters sounded like the annoying Puerto Rican girlfriend.

The Sound Of Music was excellent, and the only song I'd cut is when the old nun bursts into song. That seemed too ridiculous. Plummer and Andrews did fantastic jobs, and most of the kids did very well too. I'm wondering if there will ever be a musical that does not involve singing. I suppose it's difficult to tell a story with an instrument, but someone should take that as a challenge and make something phenomenal. It's easy to see expression in dance or song, but to get it from an instrument is something that only a few are able to do. I remember an old forum post somewhere describing Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner as "angels making love." Two hours of that would be a good story, methinks, but I guess we need another Jimi.

Annie Hall was just a great movie all around. It made me laugh my ass off a few times ("granny Hall would say that you're a real Jew"), and was also pretty damn sad at a couple spots. Reiner definitely took ideas and some scenes from that movie when he made When Harry Met Sally, and I like that movie a lot too.

OK, so things are picking up. I need to knock off The English Patient and I'll have comboed through 1969. For some reason I keep avoiding that one, and I don't know why.