The first day of the semester traditionally brings an end to the Winter Break Movie Marathon, so that must mean it’s time to post the rundown. This year tilted toward documentaries and musicals, oddly enough.

1. Modern Times: Totally planning on teaching with this. The extras on the Chaplin Collection special editions are wondrous and mind-boggling. Lots of teaching material there too.
2. Moonstruck, which I am compelled to watch every year sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve done this for the past 15 years. I have no idea why.
3. Life After Tomorrow: worth seeing even if you weren’t an Annie-stricken little girl in the late 70s or early 80s.
4. An Ox’s Tale: The John Entwistle Story: Mandatory viewing for Who fans.
5. Natural Born Killers, Director’s Cut: remarkably different from the original. Nice extras, including Oliver Stone’s commentary on deleted scenes.
6. Fargo: Very strange to see this again after having lived here for a few years. Since the Cohen brothers are from here, one would expect the details to be amazingly correct, down to the Old Dutch potato chips. The only mistake we caught was Carl saying “car tags”, which should be “car tabs”. Minnesota Nice, the making-of documentary, is particularly good.
7. Spaceballs: Not the best of Brook’s ouvre, imho, and limited DVD extras. We amused ourselves by playing the Yogurt scenes in Spanish and French. I took two full years of Spanish in high school, followed by nine hours of college credits. I took half a semester of college French. And I understood approximately as much of the Spanish dialogue as I did the French. Either I retain French better, or I really, really, suck at Spanish. (Actually, I’m certain it’s the second part.) Depressing.
8. Last of the Missisippi Jukes: Lovely, lively tribute to the disappearing Mississippi Juke Joint. Seen it before, but can always see it again.
9. William Eggleston In the Real World: I quit watching about 30 minutes in because I was homesick and the southern landscapes in the film were making it worse. Mister Husband watched the whole thing, and says it rocks.
10. You and Me and Everyone We Know: “In 20 years, soup will be computerized.” “Why?” “Because it’s liquid.” Excellent film for teaching digital lives.
11. Terminator 2, Director's Cut. Nearly three hours long, but generally improved.
12. Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box: In 3-D. With 3-D glasses. And now I sort of mostly regret making fun of them before, because the movie is surprisingly fun and touching.
13. Must Love Dogs: Sweet. And good Lord, Diane Lane is aging well.
14. Animal House: Same old.
15. Neil Young: Heart of Gold. Is it wrong that I spent part of the film being mesmerized by the backdrop?
16. De-Lovely: I’d been meaning to see this for a couple of years now, and it surpassed my expectations. Excellent framing, acting, singing, makeup. I knew Kevin Kline could sing (The Pirate Movie!), but apparently he also did all his own piano work here as well. Impressive.
17. The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization II: The Heavy Metal Years. Hilarious.
18. Rocky: Because I had somehow never managed to see it before.
19. When the Levees Broke, I and II: more on this later, if I have the strength.
20. The Aristocrats. Feeeeelthy. I am scarred for life now.
21. The Producers: Nathan Lane really is the closest thing we have to Zero Mostel these days, isn’t he? The new ending goes on about 20 minutes too long, though.
22. The Ice Harvest: dark, dark, bloody Christmas humor.
23. Memoirs of a Geisha: gorgeous. I should have been paying more attention.
24. Bewitched: In which I admire Will Ferrell more all the time. Still, not particularly good.
25. Christmas with the Kranks: Surprisingly good. I expected it to be reasonably funny, but it’s actually very well written, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen make a very believable couple.
26. Nanny McPhee: Sly. Wry. Arch. I have to see it again.
27. The Family Stone: Interesting and well-written, and I’d like to see it again since I missed the first twenty minutes. It’s quite rare to see a decent deaf character. Actually, I can’t remember any, offhand.