31 Days Movie Meme... In 1 Day!

It's Top Tuesday, but it's also the 31st. I had been planning to use today for the Movie Month Meme that Jess over at Insight into Entertainment had been doing all month. I didn't want to put in the daily effort of this, especially right after the TV Meme. So I got the idea from Rachel at Rachel's Reel Reviews, who I believe took the idea from Jason of Invasion of the B-Movies (name-drops galore!), to just do it all on one day at the end of the month.

But because it's also Top Tuesday, I thought about doing a Top 3 for each Day... but I don't have that kind of time. So consider this just a... Top 31 or something.

Day 1 - A Sequel That Shouldn't Have Been Made
There are plenty of movies that shouldn't have gotten sequels. And while I don't necessarily dislike them, I'm going with the Matrix sequels here. They're just so... boring. At least for the most part.

Day 2 - A Movie That More People Should See
Bang Bang You're Dead. Yeah, a Ben Foster movie. Some might knock it off as some kind of after-school special, but it's an excellent movie. I think more people definitely need to see this movie.

Day 3 - Favorite Oscar-Nominated Movie From Most Recent Ballot
Despite only having seen it once (and I own it!), I'm going with Inglourious Basterds. It's really an excellent film with one of the greatest villains ever.

Day 4 - A Movie That Makes You Laugh Every Time
I don't get why people say Shaun of the Dead is the weakest of Edgar Wright's films. I think on a writing level, it's definitely the tightest and the best. In fact, the forerunner--Hot Fuzz--actually has slightly weaker writing to me. He tries to emulate what he did in Shaun but doesn't quite pull it off. They're both great films, but Shaun always makes me laugh.

Day 5 - A Movie You Loathe
Dylan from Blog Cabins, for some reason, has it in his head that I love every movie I see. So not true! There are plenty of movies I loathe... one that I'm pretty vocal about (or used to be, anyway) is Return of the Living Dead. It's the movie that put into people's heads (no pun intended) that zombies only eat brains. Or go "braaaainnnnssss" all the time. Not true. This is the only series they do this in. And I know they're meant to be a comedy series, but they're just so... stupidly awful. They're almost impossible to kill in this series, and all the movies end horribly. But I really can't stand the first one.

Day 6 - A Movie That Makes You Cry Every Time
Movies actually don't make me cry every time. After one or two times, the impact wears off and I won't cry about it anymore in future viewings. Therefore, this was a really hard one to come up with. But I think I'm gonna go with Bang Bang You're Dead. I did tear up the first few times I saw this movie. Hell, even my dad teared up, and he never cries.

Day 7 - Least Favorite Movie By A Favorite Actor/Actress
I'll go out on a limb here and give you a least favorite movie from Ben Foster. Yeah, that's right. And no, I'm not going with X-Men 3. I actually didn't realize he was in this movie... but he's credited in it, so it counts. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is probably the most depressing movie ever made. There is no entertainment value to this movie. There is nothing positive or redeeming about it. It is just purely made to make you feel like crap. It's not poorly made by any means, but I'll never watch it again.

Day 8 - A Movie That Should Be Required High School Viewing
Bang Bang You're Dead. Yeah. Again. I actually found a way to show it last year. I showed it in comparison to To Kill A Mockingbird. It actually shares a lot of themes and character similarities. And it was my students' favorite thing they saw all year.

Day 9 - Best Scene Ever
I'm gonna have to go with the opening to 28 Weeks Later. It had the perfect setup, perfect build-up... it's one of the most suspenseful scenes ever filmed, and the music is just epic. It's pretty much my favorite opening scene to a movie. It's just amazing.

Day 10 - A Movie You Expected To Dislike But Love
I actually thought I was gonna hate Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, but I ended up really liking it. The same goes for Kung Fu Panda. I wouldn't say I love either film, but I *really* like them both. Otherwise, I would have gone with How To Train Your Dragon, which I did love, but I don't think I went in expecting to hate that one.

Day 11 - A Movie That Disappointed You
The Last Airbender. With such a brilliant source material, M. Night totally destroyed what could have been amazing. I was highly anticipating this film, and it was such a huge disappointment.

Day 12 - Best Soundtrack/Background Music In A Scene
Similarly to a previous Day, I'm gonna go with the second opening of 28 Days Later. When Cillian Murphy wakes up and makes his way through the empty London, the beat slowly rises until it's at full blast and totally emerging. It's the same song used in the opening of the sequel, but you get to hear the full buildup in this movie.

Day 13 - Favorite Animated Movie
In a world that's given us the likes of WALL-E and Toy Story, etc., I'm gonna have to take it back a little bit. I have a huge soft spot for Aladdin. I really love this movie. I love the characters, the music... everything. I actually had a random quote moment of it the other day. I don't remember the context, but I ended up quoting the Cave of Mysteries Tiger Head. Fun movie.

Day 14 - Favorite Film In Black And White
I'm not sure if this is a surprise to anybody, but I actually really love the movie 12 Angry Men. It's one of my all-time favorite movies, actually. I love the psychology of it all and how the men slowly get angrier and angrier as the one man stands against the others and proves that the defendant could actually be innocent--or at least there's reasonable doubt to his guilt.

Day 15 - Best Musical
This is easy. I was raised with this movie. It's in my Top 5 favorite movies ever. Little Shop of Horrors. No question.

Day 16 - Your Guilty Pleasure Movie
I really need to find this on DVD, but this was one of my favorite 90s movies. It's totally stupid and goofy, but I think it's so great--Surf Ninjas. Fun comedy, fun action... just an all-around fun time.

Day 17 - Favorite Series of Related Movies
Is there any question? Or really a need of explanation? Harry Potter.

Day 18 - Favorite Title Sequence
This was tough. It's probably not my favorite, but I can't think at the moment... so I'm gonna go with the opening to the Dawn of the Dead remake. Johnny Cash set against the end of the world giving a basic news montage of the world going to hell... pretty basic and good. Director Zach Snyder also showed his skill with title sequences with Watchmen, as well...

Day 19 - Best Movie Cast
I'm just gonna cop out and say the entirety of the Harry Potter series... yup.

Day 20 - Favorite Kiss
I'm gonna go unconventional here and say Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant. They were such cartoonishly funny kisses, and actually part of character development. Love that movie.

Day 21 - Favorite Romantic Couple
I'm gonna cheat again and say Ron and Hermione from the entirety of the Harry Potter series.

Day 22 - Favorite Final Scene/Line
I'm pretty partial to the ending of the original SAW. Great ending. And that "Game Over" became an instant classic that it made all the following films end with the same thing.

Day 23 - Best Explosion Or Action Scene
I have to agree with Rachel and say the Hamster Wheel Hallway Fight from Inception. Genius on all counts.

Day 24 - Quote You Use Most Often
Surprisingly, not from something most people have seen. It's actually a low budget movie version of a short story by Hermin Melville (the Moby Dick dude). It stars David Paymer and Crispin Glover... and it's called Bartleby. The quote itself is "I Would Prefer Not To." Though after that, it'd probably be something from Spaceballs or The Princess Bride.

Day 25 - A Movie You Plan On Watching
Seven Samurai. I've liked what I've seen of Kurosawa so far, and I need to see his masterpiece still. It's on my Instant Streaming list, but (as I've said) my Instant Streaming isn't fully functional at the moment.

Day 26 - Freakishly Weird Movie Ending
Feast 3. The whole movie is freakishly weird, but the movie ends with an old man breaking character and going sex-crazed, two women getting crushed to death by a giant robot that comes out of nowhere, and then a Mariachi Elvis singing over the credits a summary of the trilogy.

Day 27 - Best Villain
Probably kind of a cop out answer, but I'll go with Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds.

Day 28 - Most Over-Hyped Movie
Avatar was a victim of its own over-hype... and boy was it over-hyped. I really like the movie, really, but it did suffer from over-hype.

Day 29 - Movie You Have Watched More Than Ten Times
Little Shop of Horrors. Yup.

Day 30 - Saddest Death Scene
Dunno about saddest, but one of the most upsetting deaths of a movie is at the end of Cube. If you've seen the movie, you know what death I'm talking about. Otherwise, I want to avoid the spoilers.

Day 31 - Scene That Made You Stand Up And Cheer
I've never stood up and cheered during any movie, though... despite my dislike of the movie... I do like the moment Hermione punches Draco in Prisoner of Azkaban. However, I might just stand up and cheer if Mrs. Weasley says her now-famous line at the end of Deathly Hallows. They better have kept that in...