SUPPOSEDLY, if you've seen over 100 films from this list, you have no life. (It's obvious which side of 100 I'm in ...)
Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog/Facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put X's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.
() Rocky Horror Picture Show
() Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
() Boondock Saints
() Fight Club
(X) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
() Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
Total: 5
() The Princess Bride
(X) AnchorMan
(X) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
() Saw
() Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
() Anger Management
() 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
() The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 9
() Scream
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
(X) Scary Movie 2
(X) Scary Movie 3
(X) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 16
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
(X) Little Black Book
(X) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 24
(X) Finding Nemo
(X) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
() The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
() Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
() Robots
Total so far: 29
(X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
() Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
() KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
() KING KONG - only the original
Total so far: 35
() A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
() Final Destination
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
() Halloween
() The Ring
() The Ring 2
(X) Surviving X-MAS
(X) Flubber
Total so far: 39
(X) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
() Ghost Ship
() From Hell
() Hellboy
() Secret Window
() I Am Sam
() The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 41
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
(X) Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
() Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
() Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
() Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 46
() Bad Boys
() Bad Boys 2
() Joy Ride
() Lucky Number Slevin
(X) Ocean's Eleven
() Ocean's Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
() Lone Star
(X) Bedazzled
(X) Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(X) Ice Age
() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total so far: 52
(X) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
() Christine
(X) ET
() Children of the Corn
() My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 58
() Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She's All That
() Calendar Girls
() Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
(X) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
() Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 67
(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X-3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
() The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
Total so far: 78
() Swimfan
() Miracle on 34th street - only the original
() Old School
(X) The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
(X) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 81
(X) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 87
() Baseketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
() Elf
() Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
() American History X
() Three
Total so Far: 87
() The Jacket
(X) Kung Fu Hustle
(X) Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
() Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(X) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 92
() High Tension
() Club Dread
(X) Hulk
() Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
(X) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
Total so far: 97
(X) Kill Bill vol 1
(X) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
() the Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
() Army of Darkness
Total so far: 100
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 106
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix Reloaded
(X) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
() Evil Dead
() Evil Dead 2
(X) Team America: World Police
() Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal
Total: 111
Thoughts On A Wasted Young Adulthood
Saturday, November 01, 2008
at
6:16 pm
There is no longer any more need for memoirs, except for the most famous or controversial of figures, since so many within the proportion of the global population that would have any reason to write memoirs (that is, excluding the poor majority of the world unfortunate enough to never be blessed by inspirational miracles and thus rise above their class) are now doing so in blogs.
Still, for many years now, vanity that I am, it has occasionally crept into my mind the question of - what would I have written of this period or that period of my life should I ever write one. You know, the thing about how eventful one's childhood is (or uneventful, in which case it would be summarily glazed over in a few paragraphs).
Well, the thing has been in my mind a lot more often lately for this reason: what would the legacy of my young adult years be? I have always thought it important, as one is wont to think of the period of life in which he or she lives in. I personally thought it important because in my late adolescent years I have always imagined young adulthood to be the most fruitful of one's lives. It is when one is most active, most healthy, and thus with the correct balance between sufficient wisdom and good physical health to pull off whatever one desires to do.
But then when I think about it, how many people who reminisced about their past ever talk about their young adult years as one that is important, beyond certain significant accomplishments or tragedies that visited them?
Still, it does not lessen by much that thing which has been in my mind - that I have wasted my young adulthood. What is left of it? This, at the end of it, as I approach the middle of my third decade in this life, what have I done? It has impressed some, that I have been to a few prominent parts of the world, that I have had an agreeable enough tertiary education, that I have indeed gone to film school in Hollywood. And yet I look at that and all I can say is that it is nothing.
Am I so wise as Solomon now? I'm hardly that vain or narcissistic to think that to be the case.
What brought about this whining lamentation? But for one reason: I had not generated a single exciting story idea, nor written another screenplay, in two years. These couple of years will be remembered as a period of searching in the fog for something to grab hold on. Occasionally I grab on a branch, thinking I would find a great big tree - only to find it to be an outgrowth of a stump. What I mean is, I have had not a few seemingly promising ideas, but they lead nowhere. It has caused me to wonder whether the two good ideas I had which eventually became complete screenplays were just flukes. And by the way, one is still not good enough, and the other, a crippled baby that few people give a hoot about though I love it so.
And I often wonder whether I am ready to direct. It is common wisdom that most good directors only begin to produce their first good work in their 30s, if not later. And yet the few filmmaking friends I have about me seem to already be making their mark, and one is glaring at me with contemptuous eyes - why have you not made your move, he asks. The answer is simple, my friend. I know not which direction to go. All I can do is sit and wait in the fog. Uncertainty is a most paralysing affliction.
And then, there's the portion of time that I have wasted feeling guilty over my privileged life - why should I have deserved such a peaceful life untouched by any tragedy at all? - and worse, the feeling that someone up there is just waiting for the right opportunity to get me, when I least expect it, so I must be on my guard. 居安思危, taken too far. And why should I suspect God of trying to to destroy my life? No reason other than that seems to be what happen to the most innocent of people, and always when everything seems to be going well for them. I feel like the American economy - after more than a decade of non-turbulent finance and economics, something's bound to happen one day, an unknown soon. And of course it did for the American economy - it started last year.
Which leads me to the next thing I'm feeling guilty over. All those times worrying over nothing are wasted. I could have done so much. In fact, there is more time that has been wasted. Those days in university spent in deep ennui, deep depression even, such that I am capable only of staring into the ceiling in bed, having lost all will to do not just the things I don't want to do but even the things that I want to do (to sleep, to watch movies, to eat). Those days spent pining over others when it would not have worked out. Those days of summer break spent doing nothing more than to play computer games. What amount of time is that? The answer could be - I'm ashamed to take a better guess at it - one full year.
Oh, what one could have done in one year. Everything. As an aspiring Renaissance man, I could have indulged in books about the subjects I would love to learn more about, if not to the level of master. Which, I realise now, is as diverse as science fiction, to history, to political thought, to science. Take Economics. These days, reading about the history of economic thought, I realised that I was so wrong in my perception of what I was to study when I first stepped into the University of Warwick. I realise now, that modern Economics is necessarily mathematical, when I had wanted to shun the mathematics and erroneously thought Economics was about systems - capitalism vs. communism, to use a very crude example - and how to find a better one. I was studying the wrong degree as far as an effort to better my understanding of the world goes.
I could have used a portion of that year to go cycling around the world, and be perhaps the first and youngest Malaysian to do so - instead of conceding that glory to that smart and skinny fellow from Taiping. If not cycling, then something else. See the world - or rather, to be away from home and feel the world at large.
So many what ifs, which my Dad would have immediately told me to discard immediately. No use, no use at all, in thinking about what could have been, he has been telling me since the last couple of years. And no use planning too far ahead into the future. All you have is now.
All I have is now.
The problem is this - so much inertia. I fear I cannot move, as much as I sometimes wish I could just will myself to move. Move where? Write a script. Direct a film. Go travel. All those things I mentioned just now that I wished I had done. But why am I so paralysed? To be paralysed, is not feeling that you can't move, but having no feeling at all so that you forget how to move.
And in inertia, it takes an external force to make that object move. And, as I relayed in earlier paragraphs, I fear what that external force might mean. Unless it's something good - some unanticipated opportunity that arrives that carries with it enough force to shoot me out of the cannon. Life's been so good to me, it might still happen.
Until that day arrives, I am but another useless young Malaysian not doing anything worthwhile.
The difference between me and other young Malaysians: I am actually unhappy about it.
Still, for many years now, vanity that I am, it has occasionally crept into my mind the question of - what would I have written of this period or that period of my life should I ever write one. You know, the thing about how eventful one's childhood is (or uneventful, in which case it would be summarily glazed over in a few paragraphs).
Well, the thing has been in my mind a lot more often lately for this reason: what would the legacy of my young adult years be? I have always thought it important, as one is wont to think of the period of life in which he or she lives in. I personally thought it important because in my late adolescent years I have always imagined young adulthood to be the most fruitful of one's lives. It is when one is most active, most healthy, and thus with the correct balance between sufficient wisdom and good physical health to pull off whatever one desires to do.
But then when I think about it, how many people who reminisced about their past ever talk about their young adult years as one that is important, beyond certain significant accomplishments or tragedies that visited them?
Still, it does not lessen by much that thing which has been in my mind - that I have wasted my young adulthood. What is left of it? This, at the end of it, as I approach the middle of my third decade in this life, what have I done? It has impressed some, that I have been to a few prominent parts of the world, that I have had an agreeable enough tertiary education, that I have indeed gone to film school in Hollywood. And yet I look at that and all I can say is that it is nothing.
Am I so wise as Solomon now? I'm hardly that vain or narcissistic to think that to be the case.
What brought about this whining lamentation? But for one reason: I had not generated a single exciting story idea, nor written another screenplay, in two years. These couple of years will be remembered as a period of searching in the fog for something to grab hold on. Occasionally I grab on a branch, thinking I would find a great big tree - only to find it to be an outgrowth of a stump. What I mean is, I have had not a few seemingly promising ideas, but they lead nowhere. It has caused me to wonder whether the two good ideas I had which eventually became complete screenplays were just flukes. And by the way, one is still not good enough, and the other, a crippled baby that few people give a hoot about though I love it so.
And I often wonder whether I am ready to direct. It is common wisdom that most good directors only begin to produce their first good work in their 30s, if not later. And yet the few filmmaking friends I have about me seem to already be making their mark, and one is glaring at me with contemptuous eyes - why have you not made your move, he asks. The answer is simple, my friend. I know not which direction to go. All I can do is sit and wait in the fog. Uncertainty is a most paralysing affliction.
And then, there's the portion of time that I have wasted feeling guilty over my privileged life - why should I have deserved such a peaceful life untouched by any tragedy at all? - and worse, the feeling that someone up there is just waiting for the right opportunity to get me, when I least expect it, so I must be on my guard. 居安思危, taken too far. And why should I suspect God of trying to to destroy my life? No reason other than that seems to be what happen to the most innocent of people, and always when everything seems to be going well for them. I feel like the American economy - after more than a decade of non-turbulent finance and economics, something's bound to happen one day, an unknown soon. And of course it did for the American economy - it started last year.
Which leads me to the next thing I'm feeling guilty over. All those times worrying over nothing are wasted. I could have done so much. In fact, there is more time that has been wasted. Those days in university spent in deep ennui, deep depression even, such that I am capable only of staring into the ceiling in bed, having lost all will to do not just the things I don't want to do but even the things that I want to do (to sleep, to watch movies, to eat). Those days spent pining over others when it would not have worked out. Those days of summer break spent doing nothing more than to play computer games. What amount of time is that? The answer could be - I'm ashamed to take a better guess at it - one full year.
Oh, what one could have done in one year. Everything. As an aspiring Renaissance man, I could have indulged in books about the subjects I would love to learn more about, if not to the level of master. Which, I realise now, is as diverse as science fiction, to history, to political thought, to science. Take Economics. These days, reading about the history of economic thought, I realised that I was so wrong in my perception of what I was to study when I first stepped into the University of Warwick. I realise now, that modern Economics is necessarily mathematical, when I had wanted to shun the mathematics and erroneously thought Economics was about systems - capitalism vs. communism, to use a very crude example - and how to find a better one. I was studying the wrong degree as far as an effort to better my understanding of the world goes.
I could have used a portion of that year to go cycling around the world, and be perhaps the first and youngest Malaysian to do so - instead of conceding that glory to that smart and skinny fellow from Taiping. If not cycling, then something else. See the world - or rather, to be away from home and feel the world at large.
So many what ifs, which my Dad would have immediately told me to discard immediately. No use, no use at all, in thinking about what could have been, he has been telling me since the last couple of years. And no use planning too far ahead into the future. All you have is now.
All I have is now.
The problem is this - so much inertia. I fear I cannot move, as much as I sometimes wish I could just will myself to move. Move where? Write a script. Direct a film. Go travel. All those things I mentioned just now that I wished I had done. But why am I so paralysed? To be paralysed, is not feeling that you can't move, but having no feeling at all so that you forget how to move.
And in inertia, it takes an external force to make that object move. And, as I relayed in earlier paragraphs, I fear what that external force might mean. Unless it's something good - some unanticipated opportunity that arrives that carries with it enough force to shoot me out of the cannon. Life's been so good to me, it might still happen.
Until that day arrives, I am but another useless young Malaysian not doing anything worthwhile.
The difference between me and other young Malaysians: I am actually unhappy about it.
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