104 in 2009 Weeks 37-39: Clearing the Board

It's been a while since my last update, which is mostly because I haven't watched much in the way of movies over the last few weeks. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I was on vacation part of the time.

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

3. I've been making my way through the first four seasons of The Office, which I needed to complete before October 1st, when they will no longer be available on Watch-it-now (as of last Thursday, this task is complete).

Don't worry, though, I'm about to make up for all of it. You see, Thursday is the first of October. As you probably already know, October is a very special time for me. Things are going to be a bit different around here for the next month or so. Here's what's going to happen.

1. I'm going to watch a lot of horror movies. And, whether they count for the 104 or not, I'm going to be commenting on all of them. I intend to do this on a daily or near-daily basis. These may be extremely brief comments, but every movie will be touched on.

2. I'll still post my weekly 104 update, but it will just be a list of the movies that count for the list and won't contain any new content.

3. Haunted house reviews!

4. Pie.

5. That's a lie. There won't actually be pie.

Now, here are the reviews for the last three weeks. All very brief, as none of them excited me very much and I'm busy getting ready for OCTOBER!

Badlands
Terrence Malick, 1973

Solid but uninspiring. There are some wonderful moments (the burning of the house, the subsequent period of wild living in the treehouse), but it kept feeling like it was about to take off without ever actually doing so. Still absolutely worth watching.
7/10

Monkey Business
Norman Z McLeod, 1931

I didn’t much like the first Marx Bros. movie I saw, but I figured I’d give them another shot. It didn’t go well. There’s really no movie here – just a procession of jokes. This is not necessarily a problem, but they’re only sporadically funny – and if there’s nothing but jokes, then there’s nothing left when the jokes fail.

2.5/10

Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks, 1974

I don’t generally like Mel Brooks movies that much, but people at work were so aghast that I had never seen Blazing Saddles that I kind of had to give it a shot. Sadly, it didn’t pay off – we’re just not on the same comedic page, I suppose. That said, I did think the climactic metatextual meltdown was kind of fun, and it was Hi-larious when Mongo punched out the horse.
3.5/10

Progress: 87 (Par +9)

104 in 2009 Week 36: Nothing!

Took a week off after last week's 7-movie madness, although I did rewatch Alfred Hitchcock's terrific Rebecca. So I guess that's something.

Progress: 84 (Par +12)