My Movie To-Do List

I'm pretty certain I'm not the only one who does this; your friend, coworker or family member brings up a movie that's near and dear to their heart so instead of telling them you missed that one when it was in theaters you simply nod in agreement while trying to change the subject fast enough that they never notice.

I consider myself somewhat of a film buff and have seen an average of 50 movies a year for the last 15 years but that doesn't mean I've seen everything. In fact, in looking over the list of the top 100 film at the domestic box office all-time, I've missed 36 of them. There are many, many of those movies I don't like to admit I've never seen and some which are more embarrassing omissions than others. I decided to compile a list of the films on the AFI Top 100 and the IMDb Top 250 that I've never seen. I will make it my goal to see at least one of these movies a week for the next year and I will update the list to cross off the movie I've seen.

AFI Top 100:
Singin' in the Rain*
Gone With The Wind*
Lawrence of Arabia*
City Lights*
The Searchers
Sunset Blvd.*
The Graduate
The General*
On The Waterfront*
The Grapes of Wrath*
High Noon*
All About Eve*
Annie Hall*
The Bride on the River Kwai*
The Best Years of Our Lives*
The Sound of Music
Midnight Cowboy
The Philadelphia Story
Shane
It Happened One Night*
A Streetcar Named Desire
Intolerance
M*A*S*H
The Gold Rush*
Nashville
Sullivan's Travels
Cabaret
The African Queen
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid*
In The Heat of the Night
All the President's Men
Modern Times*
The Wild Bunch*
The Apartment*
Spartacus
Sunrise*
A Night at the Opera
12 Angry Men*
Bringing Up Baby
Swingtime
Sophie's Choice
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Ben-Hur*

IMDb Top 250:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Seven Samurai
Once Upon a Time in the West
M
Paths of Glory
The Pianist
Amelie
The Lives of Others
Aliens
Das Boot
A Separation
Cinema Paradiso
The Great Dictator
Bicycle Thieves
Amadeus
Metropolis
Old Boy
Unforgiven
The Sting
The Untouchables
Downfall
Die Hard
Grave of the Fireflies
The Seventh Seal
The Elephant Man
The Great Escape
Yojimbo
Rebecca
Witness for the Prosecution
For a Few Dollars More
Ran
Wild Strawberries
Ikiru
Cool Hand Luke
Strangers on a Train
The Kid
The Wages of Fear
The Secret in Their Eyes
Donnie Darko
The Thing
Notorious
Diabolique
Life of Brian
My Neighbor Totoro
Amores Perros
How to Train Your Dragon
The Terminator
Judgement at Nuremberg
The Manchurian Candidate
The 400 Blows
The Night of the Hunter
Mary and Max
Harakiri
Gandhi
Persona
The Battle of Algiers
The Killing
8½
La Strada
The Hustler
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Howl's Moving Castle
Sherlock Jr.
Ratatouille
Fanny and Alexander
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Stalag 17
Barry Lyndon
Night of Cabiria
All Quiet on the Western Front
Infernal Affairs
Rope
Roman Holiday
Tokyo Story
Ip Man
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
High and Low
Come and See
Stalker
Rosemary's Baby
The Celebration
Let the Right One In
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Anatomy of a Murder
Throne of Blood
In the Mood for Love
La Haine
3 Idiots


(* means the film appears on both the AFI Top 100 and the IMDb Top 250)

Most Anticipated Films of 2012

We're four months in the year so I'm probably a bit behind schedule in posting the movies I'm most looking forward to but let's be honest; There's generally not much released early in the year that any true movie fans await with baited breath. That's not to say there haven't been any good movies. Friends With Kids, The Grey and Jeff, Who Lives At Home were all very good with a chance of making my list for the best of the year and 21 Jump Street was very funny. During the last two weeks, I saw both The Cabin in the Woods and The Raid: Redemption which were both great. However, my other trips to the theater (The Hunger Games, Chronicle, John Carter, The Lorax) haven't been nearly as enjoyable.

This year has potential to be a very good year for movies considering that I had to leave off The Dictator, Lawless, Looper and few others that could be very good.


10) The Avengers
Release date: May 4
To be honest, I had a bad feeling this movie was going to be less like Iron Man and more like Captain America but the early reviews are fantastic. It won't be the first blockbuster of 2012 because of the nearly $400 million that The Hunger Games has pulled in but it has a chance to be much better and even bigger.

9) The Bourne Legacy
Release date: August 3
Written and directed by Tony Gilroy who wrote the first three films in the Bourne saga and whose directoral debut was the criminally overlooked Michael Clayton is enough for me to get excited. The trailer looks phenomenal and I believe Jeremy Renner will be great as the lead in this film.

8) Lincoln
Release date: December
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg. Need I say more?

7) Skyfall
Release date: November 9
Don't yell at me when I tell you I've never seen a Bond film that didn't star either Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig. Hey! I said don't yell. I was thirteen years old when Brosnan took over as 007 and haven't gotten around to watching the Roger Moore or Sean Connery versions. That being said, I prefer Daniel Craig to Pierce and am quite excited about Skyfall.

6) Moonrise Kingdom
Release date: May 16
When watching the trailer for Moonrise Kingdom, there's no mistaking that it's a Wes Anderson film. He's back with old favorites Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray alongside Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand. It's a great cast and could be Wes Anderson's best work since The Royal Tenebaums.

5) The Campaign
Release date: August 10
You could make the argument that there are no better comedic actors working today than Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis and many people would probably agree. So the idea of them playing rival politicians in a film directed by Jay Roach should make for great entertainment.

4) Prometheus
Release date: June 8
After attending a world premiere of the trailer with director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Damon Lindelof, Prometheus has quickly become one of my most anticipated science-fiction adventure movies ever. Terrific cast and great pedigree of writer and director make this an almost can't miss film.

3) The Master
Release date: October 12
Two of the top three spots are reserved for writer-directors who have made some of the most interesting and compelling films of the last twenty years. The Master is reportedly Paul Thomas Anderson's loose interpretation of the start of Scientology staring Phillip Seymour Hoffman as an L. Ron Hubbard type character. I can't wait.

2) Django Unchained
Release date: December 25
Quentin Tarantino's latest effort about a slave turned bounty hunter rescuing his wife from a Mississippi plantation sounds extremely promising. The cast includes Tarantino veterans Kurt Russell and Christoph Waltz along side Walton Goggins, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx as the titular character. Those who have read the script say it might be the best script Tarantino has ever written which is very high praise.

1) The Dark Knight Rises
Release date: July 20
Although I have some concerns about the catwoman character being played by Anne Hathaway, I'm willing to give director Christopher Nolan the benefit of the doubt. After watching the riveting opening scene on IMAX last December, I was already chomping at the bit to see Tom Hardy's full performance as the new villain Bane. However, after the new trailer was released earlier today it has now become my most anticipated movie of the year.