100 Film Facts About Me (Inspired by Cinematic Paradox)

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts that could be considered simply as movie rants about different things. One of my favorites is definitely Love and Squalor’s 100 film facts which was not only a long read but I can just imagine how much time it took to write all those facts down on paper. Her post was inspired by Cinematic Paradox (also an awesome read) and it didn’t take me long to make a decision to create my own list of random things related to movies. Just the thought of putting down 100 facts is a bit scary in the beginning, but I hope I can manage as well as the ladies before me and make it to the end with a smile on my face. It also serves as an apology for my lack of presence here, big post because of a big break.

So… let’s get started!

1. Can’t really pin-point the time I fell in love with movies, I guess I’ve always been glued to the TV.

2. Since I watched TV with my parents, I probably started off with genres like drama, crime and thriller.

3. Because I watched so many movies when I was little, I still come across movies I’ve seen but don’t actually remember, except for their ending (irony really loves my company).

4. Remembering the end is something that prevented me of loving Memento when I was old enough to understand it.. I still like it a lot though.

5. Then I got into that whole teen-flick period with a hint of Disney things and lost track of good movies.

6. I remember being terrified of Jim Carrey’s Mask when I was little. My parents made it into a punishment for my bad behavior (“If you don’t stop, we’re going to watch Mask!”) and I stopped whining right away.

7. After 10 years or so, I watched the Mask again – what was I scared of? I have no idea!

8. I always have a hard time explaining my taste in movies because honestly, I like everything. I can even like the most awful movies because I treat them as comedies which makes me laugh.

9. On the contrary, offensive comedies don’t usually make me laugh. That’s why I never got the hype of Hangover and Bridesmaids nor liked the latest American Pie.

10. Also, I don’t watch horror movies but I wouldn’t say that I hate them. I actually like the idea of seeing one in the cinema with somebody who isn’t going to be scared shitless. One screaming person (that will be me) is enough.

11. I strongly believe that the 90’s created the best romantic comedies to date!

12. But I still watch the rom-com’s they make now, even though I hate them I tend to turn towards them way too often.

13. I also have a habit of watching stupid movies over and over again because they are so easy to enjoy.

14. She’s The Man is one of those idiotic teen rom-com’s I’ve watched over 20 times. Funny enough, the shirtless Channing Tatum is not the only reason I like the movie.

15. When I was 14-15, I went through a phase of Hilary Duff – I watched every single movie of hers and I own the original DVD of A Cinderella Story from which I can quote the not so profound line of Hilary’s character: “Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought, useless and disappointing!”

16. A much better quote from the movie is: “Have no fear, Zorro is here!” – I know, this is making me look very silly right now but sometimes the truth hurts.

17. Talking about things that hurt, the most painful movie I’ve ever seen is A Walk to Remember. When Landon says his last line (“Our love is like the wind, I can’t see it but I can feel it”) waterworks start and mascara pours down like crazy. Every. Time.

18. Titanic is pretty sad too but I have watched it only one time from start to finish. Seeing DiCaprio drown in cold water once is enough for me, thank you.

19. I went to see Titanic in the cinema with my parents. The Lord of the Rings was the second movie I saw with them. Then there was one Estonian movie and that’s it for my cinema experience with my mom and dad.

20. I love the fact that it was actually my grandma who took me to the cinema the first time in my life, we saw 101 Dalmatians.

21. Favorite cartoon from my childhood is actually Lion King which I watched, according to my mom, in an amount that could be considered as unhealthy.

22. But now I find it difficult to name one favorite of all the movies or cartoons, it is just impossible for me to choose.

23. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have favorites, some of them actually are in my DVD collection: Inception, (500) Days of Summer, Ocean 11, The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love, The Notebook, Pride and Prejudice, Brothers Grimm etc.

24. Nolan, Tarantino, Ritchie, Burton, Aronofsky are among directors I like to call my kind of men.

25. I appreciate Woody Allen too but I’m not a huge fan for some unknown reason.

26. Still, I think Match Point is underrated and awesome. Even Scarlett does some of her best work as (surprise-surprise) a mistress.

27. Polanski is another name I don’t necessarily love but I remember The Ghost Writer like I saw it yesterday – perfection!

28. Sometimes I like the story of the movie, sometimes the visuals – I really go for various elements when it comes to films but it is rarely the soundtrack I enjoy.

29. Juno is the only soundtrack I actually listened to for weeks. I listened to it so much that it became annoying and if I watched Juno now, I’d probably mute the songs because I dislike them.

30. One of my favorite scene + music sequence is from (500) Days of Summer. You Make My Dreams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – it can’t get better than that.

31. The latter reminds me of 10 Things I Hate About You and Heath Ledger’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which makes me sad. I miss Heath so much it hurts.

32. I started a Heath Ledger original DVD collection after his death but I already owned some of them before so I’m not one of those people who becomes a fan after the actor dies. I already loved Heath when he was alive!

33. Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Fassbender, Robert Downey Jr, Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Eisenberg, Anthony Hopkins, Colin Firth are just some of the men I can’t imagine my life without.

34. Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston, Sandra Bullock, Diane Keaton, Kristen Dunst, Helena Bonham Carter, Mila Kunis, Helen Mirren are the first ladies that come to mind when I think about movies.

35. I have a strong tendency to hate the movie that has an actor or an actress who I don’t like in the lead.

36. Have been having strong hate feelings towards Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Jack Black and Russell Brand for quite some time now.

37. Despite her lack of control in real life, drug addiction and breaking the law numerous times, I still can’t force myself to hate Lindsay Lohan. I actually think she is a great actress. She just happens to make bad decisions in her life.

38. To be fair, no actor nor actress could make me NOT watch a movie – there is hope for everybody and everything in the movie world.

39. If I’d ever hated a movie, I can’t remember it but the last movie I disliked to the core was You May Not Kiss the Bride which I never finished watching.

40. I’m more likely to go for the newer movies, the 90’s or some bits and bobs from the 80’s. Not really a classic type of girl.

41. Judging someone based on their taste of movies (either it’s A-category, classics or foreign) is silly. Just because I watch a lot of Hollywood blockbusters doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate movies on a level of profound knowledge. That’s an opinion I’d like to advertize.

42. Since I received my BA in Semiotics and Cultural Studies I have discovered that I watch a wider spectrum of details in movies. I tend to add context and depth that a regular viewer might not even consider.

43. Not saying that I’m a professional because of that, just mentioning it because I don’t consider myself just an enthusiast of movies, I like to think that I’m a bit of a copy-writer for the movie world if that makes any sense.

44.  If I had to choose only one movie to watch for the rest of my life, it would be the new Star Trek.

45. Despite its controversy (being copied from another story etc) I thought Avatar was genius. It was exactly what a typical American hero story is all about!

46. I have Avatar’s poster among many many posters I own but the only one I have up on my wall is (500) Days of Summer.

47. Most of the posters I have in my possession I got from my workplace. I was a clerk in a video store for half a year before it was closed.

48. Had another movie related job in a cinema for two days. I had to say no to the job because it was full-time and I was studying at that point. Besides, working there wasn’t half as fun as actually going to the movies.

49. I absolutely love, love, LOVE going to the movies! I would go every day if I had the money and if I was living in a near vicinity to one.

50. The closest actual cinema for me is about 80 km. Trust me, it pains me to think about it and it is even harder to wait for such a long time to see some of the movies running.

51. In the cinema I like to watch action and sci-fi movies because the audio and visual effects add so much to the experience.

52. Getting used to going to the cinema alone is something that took a while but now I actually prefer being there alone.

53. I secretly went to see the G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra in the States when I was supposed to be working. I regret nothing!

54. After that, I saw 2 other movies in the cinema in the States but I can’t recall their titles. One for sure was a horror movie but the fact that I don’t remember says a lot about my choices that night, it’s a shame.

55. I avoid 3D movies and cartoons that have Estonian audio – I think both of those things are overrated and desperately want back the good old times.

56. It has been years since I watched a movie on TV that I hadn’t seen before.

57. When VHS was still popular, my dad and I rented 20 movies at a time to watch over the weekend numerous times. Imagine, 20 movies in 3 days – and I’m still relatively sane, I think.

58. When I was little, I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger had cool movies. To be fair, he did have his moments in Kindergarten Cop and True Lies.

59. Somehow big masculine men like The Rock don’t excite me as much as the baby face action men like Matt Demon in Bourne.

60. Still, the nerdy sidekick is by far my favorite type of character in most of the movies. I just love the underdogs!

61. Just like I love my sports movies based on real life events where the underdog team almost wins but instead of that they get fame and people like them because they did the impossible.

62. There are two movie traditions in our family, during Christmas Home Alone and Love Actually are watched and New Years first day is filled with Ocean’s marathon.

63. Once I had a Tarantino marathon with a friend, final minutes of Four Rooms were rather difficult after Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill I, II and Inglourious Basterds. But I loved every minute of it!

64. I appreciate directors who write their own screenplays – there is something special about the movie when the story is delivered by the same man who created it.

65. Nancy Meyers is the only female director/writer I can name as somebody who frequently offers me great entertainment.

66. If I’d be a part of a movie, I would more likely be the writer rather than the director. Although, I’m interested in trying out the latter and even try at set design if I could.

67. It’s possible that I was born in a wrong country and if I’d be an American, I will probably the person standing in line for days to get tickets to a movie premier or something.

68. Last and possibly the first premier I went to was Twilight.

69. I laughed at Twilight, apparently so loudly that the woman in front of me had to turn around and shush me because she didn’t find the movie to be funny. But honestly, it was a comedy, right?

70. I don’t get the Pattinson hype. At all!

71. I also kind of hate Kristen Stewart. Not because she is a bad actress (nor is she good) but because she should at least try to be friendly and not roll her eyes on the red carpet.

72. Book into a movie adaptions annoy me because I tend to dislike the movies after I read the books and don’t want to read the book after I watch the movie.

73. The Hunger Games is probably my favorite book into movie adaption because it didn’t re-create the book but it re-invented the story all together. Clever move, Collins!

74. I’m hardly a fan of something. I find it difficult to fan over some certain thing over a long period of time, I get bored of things really easily.

75. But I am a fan of original DVDs. I think they serve a certain “Thank you!” to the movie world, like, I’m honest enough to show my gratitude by purchasing the original DVD.

76. I own 90 original DVDs. 91 to count in the DVD I won in a Facebook competition but haven’t picked up at the store yet.

77. It was actually my second Facebook win related to movies. First time I won two vouchers to the cinema – my movie karma seems to be working!

78. The next DVD purchase is probably going to be The Avengers – how awesome was that movie, right?

79. I think the superhero genre is very clever. It serves a comedic relief together with logical action sequences because the men fighting have superpowers and that is what I call logical action.

80. If I had to pick my favorite superhero, it would probably be Downey’s Iron Man or the new Spider-man or Captain America or.. Okay, I can’t choose, alright!

81. The Academy Awards are, in my eyes, pretty political at times. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes I’m shaking my head in disbelief.

82. I do follow critical reception and IMDb scores but since I want my blog to be honest, I rarely look at the results before I post a review because I might get influenced by them.

83. But if something catches my eye, I tend to take it into account and avoid those awful movies nobody likes.

84. Since there is no promotion tours in Estonia, I don’t really get the hype of the premiers and things. Guess I’m just all about the movie rather than the publicity around it.

85. Got into a habit of avoiding trailers of movies I want to see really badly. Makes the movie much better (The Avengers) or doesn’t create a bubble of excitement around it just so it could burst after (Prometheus).

86. I enjoy watching the interview series of Inside the Actors Studio, I think it gives great insight to the real people behind the characters they portray.

87. The last interview I watched was with Betty White. By the end I was crying and that is why I love that sweet woman so much!

88. One of the coolest things in the movie world is the behind the scenes extras on the DVD releases. I like to watch how things got created and everything actually happened.

89. Those usually make me love the movie even more which is why I am sad I haven’t seen the behind the scenes of Inception because that would have been epic!

90. One of my favorite foreign films (not taking into account that American and British movies are also foreign for me) is Amelié.

91. It just happens that the French films are the only foreign ones I actually like because the language itself is so nice to hear and they tend to  twisting things in an interesting way.

92. I liked the Artist. I didn’t love it.

93. Same goes for The Hurt Locker. I honestly was half asleep during the movie because it was so long and nothing really happened.

94. Bigelow being the first female director to win an Oscar for that, for me, was a political statement. Inglourious Basterds was by far better and more deserving!

95. Though I watch a lot of movies, there aren’t many things I take from them into my real life. I don’t peal my apples like Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle nor do I make scrapbooks like Kirsten Dunst in Elizabeth Town. Both of which I would like to know how to do though.. the scrapbook in particular.

96. If I got to be a character from a movie for one day I would definitely be Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice. I just love the whole idea of that era and rules of conduct. I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in that time either.

97. I hate watching movies with people who ask the following questions: “Who’s that?” “What’s going to happen?” “Is she going to die?”. The whole point of the movie is to find those things out not to form those idiotic questions out loud!

98. There is also a certain rudeness that I don’t like when it comes to criticism. There is constructive criticism and then there is taking down a movie for all the wrong reasons. I prefer the former.

99. I wouldn’t mind if my life was a movie but in that case, there ought to be some musical numbers because otherwise it will be the worst and the most boring movie ever.

100. Years ago, I strongly believed that movies were far better than my life and I pretended to live in one. I don’t do that anymore… except when I try to shoot a web out of my wrist because the bottle of wine is too far.

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