Thursday, April 7, 2011

My Cinematic Alphabet

The great and mighty Rupert Pupkin and Citizen Robot hath decreed an order, and who am I but a lowly denizen to not follow?

The rules are simple: Pick your favorite film for every letter of the alphabet. Easy as ABCs, right?


Sigh.

Though I don't have children, I do have two cats, and allow me to say that choosing the representative for some of these letters is pretty much akin to me being Sophie only not in the Holocaust and not winning an Oscar. In other words, it's kind of insane luck that my third favorite film OF ALL TIME happens to begin with the same letter as my second favorite film OF ALL TIME, but sadly, that explains why you won't find Christopher Lee talking about snail sex on this list. I won't even mentions how I had to choose between TWO Paul Verhoeven films once I reached S, a challenge so ridiculous I decided to give up and defer his letter as T.

As a result, some of my most loved movies didn't make the grade, while lesser adored ones did (options for X was so hard that I fully acknowledge cheating). At the really tough spots, I decided to use a rough deserted island style system to decide which film would make the cut when I am inevitably sent to live on one.

Onto the alphabet!

A is for Airplane

B is for Battle Royale

C is for Child's Play

D is for Dawn of the Dead


E is for The Empire Strikes Back


F is for Field of Dreams


G is for Goodfellas

H is for Heathers


I is for Inglourious Basterds

J  is for Jacob's Ladder



K is for Killer Klowns From Outer Space

L is for Labyrinth


M is for The Muppets Take Manhattan


N is for The Naked Gun

O is for Once

P is for Parenthood

Q is for The Quiet Earth


R is for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

S is for Stand By Me
T is for Total Recall

U is for UHF

V is for A Very Long Engagement

W is for The Wizard of Oz

X is for eXistenZ (it's not cheating if the X is the first capital letter, right?)

Y is for Young@Heart

Z is for Zombi


1. I really hope I proved that I actually know my ABCs.
2. It is the next time and thusly do I ask, now won't you play with me?

17 comments:

  1. Why did I not think of UHF???? I SO STUPID!!!!

    Good stuff ma'am!

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  2. Ahh! Robin Hood Prince of Thieves! Yay!
    And Once... love that film :)

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  3. UHF was definitely that lightbulb above the head moment. And Christine, for my R, there is simply no other choice. I adore every messy frame of Robin Hood!

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  4. So why is everybody doing these film alphabets?

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  5. It was a great idea started by bloggers Citizen Robot and Rupert Pupkin and dangit, it's really fun to do! Frustrating and sometimes REALLY hard (I still love you, Wicker Man) but a really fun game to play with yourself.

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  6. The Muppets Take Manhattan instead of The Muppet Movie . . . A bold choice!

    (I'm so stealing this idea to do on my own blog this weekend!)

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  7. It's a tough choice. The Muppet Movie is probably a better film and the music is positively wonderful. Plus, my Muppet crush Rowlf gets an amazing song and Steve Martin wears shorts. HOWEVER, I grew up with The Muppets Take Manhattan playing on loop and even living in NYC now for quite a few years, my first instincts with almost anything Central Park, Broadway, salesmen, amnesia, dog kennels, and Liza Minnelli is to say "You know, it's been wayyyyyyyyyyy too long since I last watched The Muppets Take Manhattan." It's just pure fun all the way throughout. I still vow, should I ever get married, to walk down the aisle to "He Makes Me Happy" and play "Somebody's Getting Married" in the waiting room. If weddings have that sort of thing.

    Looking forward to seeing your list! I imagine you might actually be able to make one entirely of straight to DVD zombie films at this point.

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  8. This is a fun list Emily. I'm gonna do one too!

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  9. Loved yours John! Join the club Ashlee!

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  10. great list: very you, though yes, the Wicker Man's absence is noted. I'm trying to build my own list and keep coming across these issues: do I allow a director to be there twice? Realizing I've got a shortlist of 3 or 4 films for one letter, but nothing for others... a fun and frustrating game.

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  11. I found that the deserted island trick helped a lot. Think that you can take 26 movies with you, so yes, I limited similarities (hence, ONLY Total Recall and not also Starship Troopers). And when it comes to the tricky letters, there's only so much you can do (unless you cheat like I did to squeeze some Cronenberg in there..)

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  12. OMG Marry me!
    For M, F, T, S, N, U, L, W, A

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  13. Anytime Christine. So long as we can play the Hokey Pokey at the wedding, it is DONE.

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  14. So here we go . . . I went and posted my own here! http://tinyurl.com/3qcgf46

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