Mettel Ray recently did a post to celebrate her 400th Blog post and for it created a movie alphabet. She decided to turn it in a blogathon anyone can join, so I decided to jump in and creat my own. Find out after the jump what my movie ABC’s look like!

Alien

 
It took me a long while before I finally watched this movie (even though I had the complete quadrilogy for years) and once I did I was amazed by it. It’s scary, thrilling and packs lots of surprises. I know there are a lot of people who prefer the action packed sequel, but this one is the best to me. Nothing can beat it’s suspense, the great acting and effects and the extremely memorable experience.

Black Swan

 
It takes a lot for a movie to really move me, so when I first saw this I knew this was a very special film. The last sentence which is spoken in this movie sums it all up for me “It was perfect.”, that’s exactly how it made me feel. The second time I saw the movie at the cinema it still gave me chills and made me tear up a bit. It’s my all time favorite film.

Collapse

 
Some might not know this documentary, but this one is scarier than any horror film. It’s just one guy talking about his predictions of what will happen to society once we run out of oil, which possibly might be in our lifetime. This documentary could work as an audiobook, because visually it might be nothing special, but it will make you think about the way you live for a long time and worry about the future as you might start doubting if it’s really all going to be alright.

Donnie Darko

 
If you talk about “mind fuck” movies than this probably is the definition of one. It was recommended to me by a friend and it had me thinking for days, trying to make sense of it all. The imagery of the man with the rabbit suit is haunting, Donnie Darko an interesting teenager. When it all ends you want to watch it again or go online to speculate what really happened in this film. See it if you haven’t yet.

E.T.

 
My favorite Spielberg movie and the first movie I remember crying about when I was a kid. You can relate to the kids as the movie is shot from their perspective. E.T. is charming and once he uses his powers you can’t help but root for the little guy. If you watch it, always choose the original one, not the one with the digital E.T. and removed guns.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

 
The thing with making this alphabet is that you have to make decisions of what to include and what you won’t. There are a couple of comedies I would have loved to put on this list, but couldn’t because I’d rather pick another title instead, so this means no Dumb and Dumber or Kung Pow. I did feel I needed to put in a comedy and this Apatow one is a great one. Favorite bit: “Are you from London?”.

Goodfellas

 
Godfather or Goodfellas was the obvious choice for this one, but it was an easy pick. I think Goodfellas is far more entertaining than the Godfather (which is more epic). With amazing performances by De Niro, Liotta and Pesci this is an unforgettable film. “Funny how?”

Hitchcock

 
The master of suspense has been responsible for some of my favorite movies, including Vertigo, The Birds and Psycho. Instead of adding those movies I thought to include the man behind them. With so many great movies there are still enough of them I have yet to see and I’m looking forward to that.

Intouchables

 
This will probably be my favorite movie this year, which I first saw during the festival. The opening scene makes you wonder what’s going on and as the movie progresses you are treated to a riveting story about two different cultures meeting and teaching each other great things about life. One of the best feel good movies there is.

JFK

 
Now I have to admit that I had a hard time picking a movie for this letter and finally settled for this one. It has probably been more than 10 years ago since I last seen this, but it was one I think I saw twice at the cinema. Even though it might not be accurate when it comes to the events it sure made it all sound very convincing.

Korean cinema

 
One of my biggest joys since I started blogging is exploring Korean cinema. I read about some of them on another blog which made start watching Korean movies and I still have not stopped. Their movies are different, often not predictable and a lot of them of high quality. Favorites are My Sassy Girl, Old Boy, No Mercy, A Dirty Carnival and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. Worth exploring if you haven’t yet.

Life is Beautiful

 
I’ll have to admit that I have not seen too many Italian movies, but this is a very good one. A very moving story about the experiences of a family during a world war. It starts out as a romantic movies, but as time progresses and the effects of war are felt the father makes sure that his little son experiences it as a game.

Mr.Nobody

 
A movie a lot of people have not heard of, but should check out. After Black Swan it is my all time favorite movie because of the subject matter it deals with. It explores all the possible effects of split decisions during someones life and mixes that with a little bit of science and science fiction. A must see.

Nicolas Cage

 
Even though Nicolas Cage has very regular output, the quality of that output isn’t always as high as I wish it was. Still he’s one of the few actors I will watch in almost anything he is in. No matter how bad the movie, he’s always entertaining to me.

Ong-Bak

 
If you are a fan of martial arts and you have not seen this yet you should stop reading now and get this movie. Tony Jaa showed the world that he has moves which defy belief. Whether that’s walking on top of the shoulders of his enemies, jumping through a ring of barbed wire of just kicking ass, this movie amazes even if the story isn’t anything special.

Pulp Fiction

 
The movie which closes my all time favorite 3 movies is this crime movie by Quentin Tarantino. With one of the best roles Samuel L. Jackson has played, the movie which made Travolta relevant again for a while and with scenes you’ll never be able to forget, this dark tale is one I can rewatch endlessly and it will never get boring.

Quentin Tarantino

 
This is, without a doubt, my favorite director. There’s not a movie of his I didn’t like and he’s someone with such a different style, often mixing genres that I’m always looking forward to what he’s doing next. So I can’t wait for Django Unchained.

Reservoir Dogs

 
Three Tarantino related letters in a row? Yes, but can you blame me? This movie showed that you can have conversations in movies about anything and it inspired many others. It also shows that not showing something can be a lot more effective than actually doing so. This is the movie which really put Tarantino on the map.

Studio Ghibli

 
When it comes to animation there are essentially three big studios, Dinsey/Pixar, Dreamworks and Studio Ghibli. This studio, based in Japan, has put out amazing works of art and proves that cell animation can be prettier than anything a computer renders. It has also made a movie about a serious subject (Grave of the Fireflies) and proved that animation can be used to tell any story. My Neighbour Totoro is another favorite of mine, but there are many others, all made by this studio.

Time travel movies

 
Whether it is Back to the Future, Timecrimes, Primer, Terminator, 12 Monkeys or Looper, I just can’t get enough of movies which deal with the subject. The concept is very appealing, especially if you have to put the pieces together yourself to find out if it all really made sense.

Up in the Air

 
I probably should have put George Clooney under G, but to me he’s one of the most consistent actors currently working. It seems like there isn’t a year that goes by where he’s not in a movie worth seeing. Up in the Air is one of those movies I really like, but not only because of him. Anna Kendrick did an amazing job playing his coworker trying to find her feet in her new job.

Vertigo

 
One of the Hitchcock movies which I’ve given a 10 for, this one deserves to be mentioned in this ABC as it tells a intriguing and mysterious story and uses perspective and camera tricks with stunning results, a true Hitchcock masterpiece.

Werner Herzog

 
Possibly the most interesting director working today. I came a fan of his work through his documentaries, which are as much about himself as his subjects. He always manages to inject his own personality into his work and with such an interesting life as his and him choosing any subject he’s interested in, it always results in something which will be entertaining and informational. His work on “normal” movies is great too.

X-Men First Class

 
To be honest, when looking at all the movies starting with an X there isn’t that much choice. Now this wasn’t a bad movie (I quite liked it), but I would never name it if you’d ask me about my favorite films.

Young Guns

 
I watched Young Guns when it came out and loved it and I’m not a big fan of westerns. Maybe that’s the reason I really liked this one so much because it really is about this group coming together, fighting a common enemy, in that way kind of like the Avengers now I think of it.

Zombieland

 
Horror is a genre I really don’t like, but if it’s got just the right mix of humor mixed in I will give such movies a chance. Zombieland is such a movie and the relationships between the characters and their common goal make this an entertaining road movie…with zombies.

What are your thoughts on my choices for the movie alphabet?

You can find other entries in this blogathon over here