I managed to get through a couple of the new movies that I wanted to see, and didn't enjoy them much - Stoker and Cloud Atlas. Both were beautifully shot, but neither clicked with me.
We will see how far I get into the list, but I had the desire to keep hacking away at old movies that I have not seen at all, or in very rare cases saw eons ago and don't remember much. This time I thought about trying a list by year. The 1930s didn't seem to have enough that I wanted to see to do something like this, so I started with 1940. Gonna try for 3 from each year - I already see that this will be pushing it for a couple of years that seem weak. Will try to mix up genres as much as possible too.
Started off with: His Girl Friday and Pinocchio from 1940 and The Maltese Falcon from 41.
One of the things that grates on me a little is the quick paced monotone delivery the actors of the time have in the older movies. There was a few funny scenes in His Girl Friday, but I think what held it back for me was how fast the delivery was compounded by the number of people talking at the same time. Grant as always was great. I could see greatness there, but for me it was slightly above average - 6/10. Pinocchio is a movie I don't think I have seen for at least 25 years. Watched it on bluray and thought some of the scenes/animation looked great and held up - mostly the quiet scenes in the shop. Some of the stuff looked it's age - the whale and scnenes with a lot of movement. Watched it with my 6 year old and he loved it mostly because of the physical humor, for me I think I am too used to modern animated movies. A few of the older Disney movies start to bore me a little, since they really feel like experiments - animated scenes set to music, but plots are a tad thin to hold up for almost 90 mins. Loved the experience still - 7/10. Maltese Falcon was brilliant. Loved the performances, the feel of the movie, and the fact that Spade was such a complicated anti-hero. Easily at the top of the list for movies during this era - 9/10.
Next up I have a movie I have been curious about for awhile (The Wolf Man), and a couple from 1942 that I really know nothing about: To Be Or Not To Be and This Gun for Hire.
From my brief research, 1945 and 47 are going to be a chore.