Top 5 Thursday: Movies I Watched for My Challenge (September 2016)

I watched some great classic movies this month and not a lot of really bad ones, at least not for this challenge. Here is my top five of movies I watched for my challenge for the month of September.

5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
I can’t believe I never saw this before. Okay, parts of it, but never from beginning ‘til end. It’s a great film, and this is a film that proves you don’t need jump scares or big special effects. Just sound effects, lights and stuff. Spielberg knows how to captivate you.

4. City Lights
Such an endearing and adorable film, very funny and touching at the same time. Charlie Chaplin is fantastic.

3. The General
Another silent movie that I really love. Buster Keaton is great and this movie is action packed and hilarious. I really enjoyed “The General”.

2. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Sadly this is one of those movies that many people will never see, so I’m shouting out to the world that everyone should see it if you have the chance. “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is a fantastic film.

1. The Apartment
Another great classic that I never saw before and now I’m glad I did. This is a perfect comedy, Jack Lemmon at his best. “The Apartment” even made it into my list of favorites of all time.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Evil Dead 2, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Cinderella

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 123: The General

Director: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Genre: Comedy/ Action/ Romance
Runtime: 75 minutes
Year: 1926
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Charles Smith, Frank Barnes, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley, Frederick Vroom, Joe Keaton, Mike Donlin, Tom Nawn

Description: When Union spies steal an engineer's (Buster Keaton) beloved locomotive, he pursues it single-handedly and straight through enemy lines.

Review: Who would have thought that I would love “The General” as much as I did? The dry humor, a beautiful love story and a clumbsy leading character. All together works. And the film has amazing stunts and action too, somethine I didn’t expect at all.
Buster Keaton is one of the masters of the silent movie. He plays Johnny Gray, an engineer with two loves in his life: his locomotive (the General) and Annabelle Lee. The story is set around 1862, at the start of the American Civil War. Annabelle brother and father sign up for the army, but Johnny is rejected. They don’t tell him why, but this makes his motivation bigger to proof himself to Annabelle. Because she thinks Johnny is a coward. When spies steal the train with Annabelle on board, Johnny doesn’t’think twice and follows them.
What follows is a chase over a railroad, ending in one of the biggest stunts in silent movie history. It’s hard to imagaine how a railroad chase can be interesting for an entire movie, but it is so much fun to watch. Because there are so many creative solutions and the humor is genius. And you would think that there is overacting involved, because of the physical humor. But it’s not. Buster Keaton’s facial expressions are very subtle.
The musical score is great and the love story starring an anti-hero is just perfect to identify with.
“The General” is one of the most fun comedies of all time and definitely a classic.

Rating: 5/ 5