Sunrise

This was only 90 minutes and still took me 3 viewings to get all the way thru it. That should tell you how difficult it is to watch. Wikipedia tells me it has innovative use of forced perspective, long takes, and soundtrack recorded to match the film, but honestly the story and acting were just not very interesting. George O'Brien looks like Frankenstein, which is not helped by the fact he was slumped over and hulking the entire film, or that his two reactions were wither to strangle or kiss the women in the film. Janet Gaynor looked all of 12 years old which made this super awkward to watch. The symbolism and archetypes were so blatant, and obvious they actually backfired. About the only enjoyable thing was the 'peasant dance' at the fair.

Duck Soup

The first Marx brothers film I've ever watched and I wish it was the last, but Night at the Opera is also on the list. I can't tell if this was supposed to be a musical or slap stick--it did a pretty poor job of being either. It was intriguing to see the original mimed mirror sequence but the rest of the film was pretty absurd and painful to watch, particularly the scenes with the lemonade vendor.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

The movie literally made me want to vomit with all the Jingoistic display. I realize this movie did come out right after Pearl Harbor was bombed so there was a lot of patriotic fervor, but all the brash flag waving, and celebration of American bullyism was just too much for my post-colonial, post 9/11 stomach. The movie was made to be a tribute to George M. Cohan, 'the man who owns Broadway', whom, I'll admit I've never heard of till now, despite being a Broadway fan, yet the movie was entirely too much of a caricature to be any sort of a meaningful dedication. I don't know if it was Cohan's dance style, the manner in which James Cagney mimicked it, or even Cagney's own style of dance, but it looked ridiculous when compared with the grace and class of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Generally I love movie musicals, but I found myself almost fast-forwarding through all the songs in this. I'm sorry, I just can't say anything positive about this as have no idea why it is even on the list (even if it is #98).