My Picks for the top 30 movies 2000-2012 day 4

Well since I'd done my top 15 movies of the past year, I decided I would give my picks for the 30 best movies spanning from 2000-2012. Picks # 15-11.

15. Taken-(2008)- Action thriller starring Liam Neeson as a retired CIA operative whose daughter is kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers while on vacation with her friend in Paris.   Neeson, hears his daughter being kidnapped while on the phone with her.   He immediately tells her to hide under the bed, and as soon as she's capture to leave the phone on and shout out every detail she can about the kidnappers.  In a great scene,the kidnapper finds the phone on the floor and hears Liam Neeson on the other end telling him if he lets her go, he will not follow him.  If not, he will hunt him down and kill him.   The kidnapper tells him, "Good luck" and hangs up.  Needless to say for the rest of the movie, you see Liam Neeson kick all forms of ass trying to save his daughter.  I've always liked Liam Neeson, ever since I'd seen him as Patrick's Swayze's hillbilly(?!?!?!) cousin in 1989's Next of Kin, and as the title character in Sam Raimi's, Darkman.   He does a great job here as a frantic father desperately trying to find his daughter before she's taken out of the country by some slimeball and never seen again.    I will tell you two bits of advice, although the theatrical version was pretty violent for PG-13, search out the unrated version; it changes one major scene especially, and I think it's the superior version.   Secondly, they made a sequel to this in 2012, avoid it at all costs, it is bad, bad, bad inferior piece of crap.


14. Watchmen-(2009) Based on the 1987 comic by perennially annoyed comicbook icon, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.  Watchmen was a comic that I was a huge fan of growing up and I still pull out my old copy and read it every few years.   The story is about "forcibly retired" superheroes that takes place in an alternate universe in the year 1985, where Nixon is still president after the United States win the Vietnam War.   The superheroes have been ordered decommissioned in 1977.  One former hero, The Comedian, who still works for the government, is murdered at the beginning of the movie.   Another hero, Rorschach, who is still operating on his own as a vigilante after the superheroes have been banned, initially thinks the Watchmen, the former superhero group that The Comedian and Rorschach were members of, are being targeted for termination.  So he tries to enlist the help of former members of the Watchmen to find out who murdered The Comedian.  They end up finding a more diabolical plot is at hand.  

The story is very complicated and clever one.   Director Zack Snyder (300, Man of Steel) does a great job of faithfully recreating the comic, aside from the ending which really pissed off a lot of fans of the comic.   I didn't find it that bad at all and I really enjoyed a lot of the scenes in the rest of the movie faithfully recreated visually from the comics.   Jackie Earle Haley was great as Rorschach also.
There are several versions of this, I believe the Watchmen Ultimate Cut is the one you should seek out.


13. Memento-(2000) Christopher Nolan's film about a man with a condition where he can't create any new memories after an attack where his wife was killed and he was hit in the head.  Using notes, polaroid pictures and tattoos he keeps information to help solve the mystery of his wife's murder.  The movie shows the story from two different timelines.   Color footage is the story told in reverse and the Black and white footage is the story told in chronological order.   The beginning of the film starts with the ending of the story, and when the movie ends, you see both stories connect.    This movie blew me away when I saw it.  This was really an ingenious script, adapted from a story written by Christopher's brother Jonathan.

Guy Pearce is really great in this film and the ending I did not see coming, and it changes your perception of the entire movie, making you want to see it all over again.  It's funny, I just realized that Christopher Nolan has directed 3 of the movies in this list. (the other two are coming in another installment)   I think he's a very talented director and writer, along with his brother who he's written a lot of his scripts with.  Jonathan also created the show, Person of Interest, which in my opinion is the best show on network TV the 3 years its been on.   I will pretty much see anything these two work on, with their track record.



12. ARGO (2012) The 2012 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, directed and starring Ben Affleck, is a great movie, detailing the escape of six U.S. diplomats from Iran during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis by CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck).    They are being hidden by the Canadian Embassy after the U.S. Embassy is taken over and over 50 Americans are taken hostage after the Shah of Iran is given asylum by Jimmy Carter during the Iranian revolution.

Mendez is at a loss to figure out a way to get them out of Iran safely until he comes up with the idea to portray the 6 as members of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a film, a space epic in the vein of a B-movie version of Star Wars called, ARGO.   So he has to come up with identities, jobs, a screenplay and details like Argo merchandise to fool the Iranians, so they are allowed to leave.

The movie has been criticized for how accurate some of the details are.  My response is, it's not a documentary, it's a dramatization.   I loved this movie and I was VERY happy it won last year, over Zero Dark Thirty, which I didn't care for. (already mentioned in one of my other reviews).  Great performances by Affleck, Alan Arkin and John Goodman, who play a Hollywood producer and Makeup artist to help Affleck with his ruse, so the movie, ARGO, seems believable to the Iranians.



11. The Lord of the Rings Series (2001-2003)- (I realize this is a bit of a cheat and are actually 3 movies, but there's no way to take them as one single movie so I chose to include all of them.  My list, my rules =) )  Peter Jackson's epic trilogy of J.R.R Tolkien's literary masterpiece.  The fact that these movies, thought by many for YEARS to be unfilmable, were made simultaneously in New Zealand, and that they ended up being as great as they were is amazing to me to this day, 11 years after the last movie. 

Peter Jackson did an amazing job with these 3 movies.  The sets, special effects and all the acting was just phenomenal.   Viggo Mortensen was a personal favorite, Ian McKellen also, but for me, Sean Astin, stole the movie in my opinion.   Andy Serkis as Gollum was also an amazing performance of acting AND CGI.  Absolutely groundbreaking.

With WETA Workshop doing the special effects.  I think that Industrial Light and Magic, may have some serious competition.   I cannot praise the work done on this film enough.   It is just mind blowing to me how 3 movies could be filmed at the same time, have to be edited, released, then reedited to release the directors cuts each year on DVD before the next installment came out.  My ADHD brain would have exploded.  Overall the entire production lasted 8 years. I would have been insane by the end I think.   I commend Peter Jackson's vision and talent, it's a hell of an achievement.

The last film, Return of the King, won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, and I believe it deserved every one of them.  If not for that movie alone, just for the overall achievement in cinema that all three of those movies are.   They will last forever. 


Ok There you go, those are my picks for #15-11.   Stay tuned for #10-6 coming soon.

My Picks for the top 30 movies 2000-2012 day 3

Well since I'd done my top 15 movies of the past year, I decided I would give my picks for the 30 best movies spanning from 2000-2012. Picks # 20-16.

20.  Shaun Of The Dead-(2004). Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's first big screen team up after their classic British television comedy, Spaced.  This is their homage to Zombie movies.  I love Edgar's Wright's visual style and his and Simon Pegg's writing is just flat out hilarious.   It's the story of a shiftless guy who really has no motivation to make anything of himself and just walks through life being content in his rut (in essence a "zombie" himself).  His girlfriend breaks up with him after tiring of his lack of doing anything with his life.   He goes out drinking with his best friend, Ed (played by Nick Frost, also from Spaced, and every other Wright/Pegg collaboration since) trying to get over his depression. Before he goes to bed/passes out, he decides to really start changing his life around and win back his girlfriend.  Unfortunately the next morning when he wakes up, the world has been taken over by zombies.  However, even after a walk to the grocery store, oblivious to all the carnage that is all around him, he doesn't notice until Ed notices a girl in the garden, that they initially believe is just drunk.   Quickly they find out, she is, in fact, NOT so drunk as much as she is dead.  As it ends up turning out, the zombie apocalypse ends up being the very thing that gives his life purpose.   Very, very funny movie, one of my all-time favorites.   All three of the movies that Edgar Wright, Pegg and Frost have been hilarious, and if you can catch Spaced, it's great too, but this is my favorite collaboration..



19. WALL-E (2008)- Pixar's movies are all amazingly well written movies filled with awe-inspiring animation.  WALL-E is probably my favorite out of all the ones released in this 12 year span, although Ratatouille is a VERY close second.  The fact that a good portion of WALL-E has no dialogue, is a testament of how well of storytellers the folks at Pixar actually are.  The movie is a  love story between two robots.  One is the last functioning robot given the task of cleaning up Earth after years of human abuse of it have forced them off of the planet to live in a Space Station. And another robot named EVE who is dropped off on Earth looking for signs of life.  She comes across WALL-E and they end up falling in love..

WALL-E was part of a groups of robots sent to clean up the Earth so humans could finally return home.  But the planet was so bad that the government shut down the program and decommissioned all the robots, aside from WALL-E, who every time he has a mechanical issue, he just fixes himself from parts from all the other decommissioned robots and keeps just doing his job.   He has a pretty happy life living off the little scraps of trash that he's kept and taken to where he stays at night and powers down . Using an Ipod and Magnifier to watch Hello Dolly as if it's a television.   It's fun catching all the little trinkets that Pixar have put in the background of WALL-E's "home".  I'm a sucker for a love story (don't tell anyone) and I have to admit, robots or no, I got choked up in parts of this.   And don't even get me started at the beginning of their movie UP.  Amazing special effects/animation.  Pixar is just a brilliant studio filled with amazing talent, and even as a 43 year old man with no children, I will pretty much see anything they do and don't feel ashamed one bit.



18. Safe House-(2012) A fast paced action movie starring Denzel Washington.
Denzel plays a former CIA agent turned criminal, who after a turn of events in South Africa has to turn himself into the American Consulate to escape people trying to kill him for receiving sensitive files from an MI-6 operative.   He is transported to a Safe House populated solely by a newly promoted CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds), dying to do ANYTHING to escape the boredom that this uneventful location presents day after day.   His wish to have something exciting to do will pretty much start from about the moment he meets Denzel.   Once a group attacks the safe house to kill Denzel the movie does not let up.   Denzel and Reynolds have a great chemistry together and this movie was very good at not letting up with the action until the very end.   This was a tough choice for me between this and Deja Vu, another Denzel movie.   That movie also had a time travel element that I am almost always a sucker for.   I ended up picking this one in the end, I think mainly because the action is pretty much a constant, but it's a hard choice.  My suggestion is to watch them both as a double feature. =)



17. Gran Torino-(2008) Clint Eastwood masterpiece about a Walt Kowalski, a racist, Korean war veteran, who's wife has recently passed away.   He spends most days drinking beer on his porch lamenting how his neighborhood, formerly filled with blue collar, middle-class white people, is now populated by a poor Asian community and now filled with gangs.  He feels no connection to his family and feels as if they are just waiting for him to die to get his possessions.   He also has lung cancer and is seen coughing up blood and tells no one.      His next door neighbors are a Hmong family who have a son who coerced into attempting to steal Walt's prize possession, his Gran Torino.  Walt catches him, and the boy's family, as a penance, talk Walt into making him work off the debt he owes him for shaming his family.   Walt originally objects profusely and verbally mistreats him (along with everyone else in the movie, pretty much) but eventually becomes friends with him and the whole family by the end.   He becomes very protective of the kid and his sister against the street gang that perpetrates some horrific violence against the family. 
This is an excellent movie.  Clint Eastwood has always been one of my favorite actors growing up, and he has turned out to be a hell of a director over the years, just getting better and better.  I cannot believe the Academy Awards completely snubbed this film when it was out.
 

16. Stranger Than Fiction-(2006) Starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Glyllenhaal, and Emma Thompson is a part comedy, part drama and part fantasy.  Ferrell stars at Harold Crick-a by the book(no pun intended) auditor for the IRS who has a daily routine that he never breaks.  Suddenly he wakes one day and hears a female voice (Emma Thompson) narrating his life and events in his head.  That day, on his way home, Harold's watch stops working and he resets it using the time given by a bystander; then the narrator says, "little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death".   Panicked, he tries to find out if he's going crazy, a psychiatrist tells him it could be schizophrenia, but also says if someone actually IS narrating, maybe he should go see a literary expert.      The literary professor (played by Dustin Hoffman) tells him, if he IS,  in fact, in a story, that he needs to find out if it's a "tragedy" or a "comedy"

Harold meets Glyllenhaal's character, Ana Pascal, through his job, as he is supposed to audit her small business.    He insults her inadvertently and is kicked out of her shop.  However, they do eventually begin to fall for each other.   Meanwhile, Harold hears the narrator's voice in an old interview playing on the TV in the literary professor's office.  The professor tells Harold, the narrator is actually Karen Eiffel (Thompson) who apparently only writes stories where the main character dies a tragic death.   I won't spoil the rest of the movie, but it's a very creative, sad story, very smart.

I really liked the chemistry between Ferrell and Glyllenhaal.  Ferrell is not everyone's cup of tea, I realize that, but I really thought he did a great job playing a dramatic role and not being as "abrasive" as his detractors always fault him for.   I highly recommend this for even non-fans of Will Ferrell.
 

There you go, the next five.   Tune in tomorrow for #15-11!

Election Night 2008

This was something I typed up on the eve of the 4 year anniversary of my Mom's death.

 

 

November 5, 2012 at 6:37pm

 

 

4 years ago on election night, my Mom was in hospice for her second night.   I remember going up to hospice around 10pm after most of the polls were in, the nurse calling me, telling me that I  needed to get up there, because she thought she would be gone by morning.   I called my Dad and my brothers I think and told them (it's  kind of a blur), and sat with her and talked a little bit.  I remember  trying to make conversation and telling her the election was tonight. She was weak and for the last 4 or 5 months of her life, she could only talk in  a whisper. I could barely hear her asking me something, but made out something  along the lines of "Who won?"  I thought it an odd question coming from  her, because she never mentioned the election prior to that, and our family was  never really into politics, but I thought she was just making  conversation.  I told her, "Obama." and she kind of gave me a look I didn't understand and drifted off without responding.  I don't remember if we talked much more that night or she fell asleep.  The next two days, I never heard her speak again, just her breathing. until she passed away on Nov. 6th, 2008.    That damn question she asked me for some reason bothered me for two days afterwards, until it finally hit me like a ton of bricks.

I got my knowledge and love for pop  culture/TV, Movies...etc. from my mom, so it suddenly made sense why she had given me that look, It was the look of "That's not the question I was asking when I asked, "Who won, but I'm too tired to ask again and be  clearer."   All of the previous conversations we'd had on the phone recently and basically since I'd moved out of the house always started, "Did you see, "such and such the other night?" and then we'd have a conversation for what  seemed like an hour over what we'd both watched for the past week or  two.
So at this time, she was REALLY into "Dancing  With The Stars"...  I felt horrible that i didn't know what she meant  when she asked, "Who won?"    She couldn't have given a crap about who won the election....all she wanted to know was, who got voted off on  Dancing with the Stars.
Well I couldn't have told her anyway, because  since the elections were that Tuesday, the results show wasn't on until Wednesday and by then it was too late.   So, Mom, I had to do some research, but in answer to that question 4 years ago..."Susan Lucci got voted  off."   I love you, mom.


...and fuck you, Cancer.

The "Siskel" to my "Ebert".

The "Siskel" to my "Ebert"

April 5, 2013 at 8:16pm

 

This was a tribute to my movie buddy Shannon, written shortly after Roger Ebert's passing last year:

 

 

Just a few days ago, my friend Shannon asked me, who i would consider myself, Siskel or Ebert?    Shannon asked me this of course, because we have been fellow movie lovers since we met back in 1998.   I, of course, sarcastic, pitch black/dark humored/shock value A-hole that i am, asked: "Are we talking about pre-brain tumor Siskel or post surgery Siskel?" My reasoning I said was, because before the tumor, Siskel,... in my eyes, was known for not liking many movies unless they were art house, serious films.  I know that wasn't necessarily true, but as a preteen, teen and early 20s, that's what it seemed to me easier to classify his tastes in film as.  Post-brain tumor, I saw Siskel say that "Babe, Pig in the City" was the best movie of 1998 at their Best of the Year program they did annually in Dec or Jan.   I knew Gene was probably not long for this world after that comment, his speech was slower, and, and he did actually die in Feb, 1999.  

I know as callous as that sounds, I loved Gene Siskel and still mourn the man to this day, and I also equally loved Roger Ebert as well and will tremendously miss him the rest of my days.   I have spent the last few years feeling so sorry for Roger Ebert and what he'd had to overcome, but equally feel so proud of what he did after his bout with cancer and never once letting it stop him from doing what he loved to do, talking about and reviewing movies.   Between the both of them they shaped many things about me and my love of film.

I remember watching them on Sneak Previews on public television as a young kid, then "At the Movies", then "Siskel & Ebert At the Movies" and then just "Siskel & Ebert".   I loved the bazillion times I watched them on Letterman together, each time they were on, alternating who would sit next to Dave.  EVERY time they were on, talking over one another, insulting one another, picking at each other, but knowing deep down these two loved one another and if the other wasn't there, their lives would be empty.

My friend Shannon and I go see movies regularly, sometimes once a week, sometimes 2 times a week, sometimes we won't go for a few weeks if we can't find anything we're remotely interested in. But regardless, there's no one I go see movies with more in a year.   My friend Shannon and I went and saw The Matrix in 1999 and came out of the theater, talked about it a few minutes and without any arm-twisting on either side, promptly walked back in, plopped down our money and watched it all over again.

There have been several times when we've went to one movie and gone back in for another.  There was a time last year, when i was really down about something, and we went and saw some movie I can't seem to recall, in the early afternoon.   We went home, talked on the phone later and hearing the deep depression i was still in, asked me if I wanted to go see Safe House with Denzel Washington, because I'd been talking earlier in the day about wanting to see it.   So that night we drove all the way across town to "our" theater and watched ANOTHER movie, because that's how we fuckin' roll.   =)   There are few people who are that nuts about movies like I am.   I didn't know Shannon in 1988, but I'm thinking in that summer I could have probably talked her into a few of my 11 theatrical viewings of Die Hard.   Her seemingly undying hatred now of everything Bruce Willis, notwithstanding.

I'm a little less picky than she is about movies that I want to see, I am pretty much up for anything.  Which would explain how she got me talked into seeing Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters a few months ago.

So in answer to her question, I said without a doubt, I would consider myself Ebert.  In my mind, Ebert seemed like he could almost find something he liked in any movie no matter if he didn't like the movie, itself.  Which is what I do when I come out of a movie, which seems to frustrate Shannon.  She asks me after every movie, what did you think?   Jokingly asking, because she knows 98.99 % of the time I'm going to say "I liked it"  Eh, I like movies.   There have been a few that we've agreed on sucked, but overall It always feels i like everything and that she's picked the movie to death like a buzzard on a bloated prospector's corpse in the middle of the desert.

To me it felt Ebert went into a movie optimistic that the movie would be good, and then adjusted his opinions after the movie if it disappointed him overall.   Siskel seemed like he was pessimistic he was going to like the film and then if it surprised him, he's adjust his opinions afterwards.  These are all my unfounded opinions and I'm sure couldn't be farther from the truth, but in my mind growing up it's how I perceived it.  Roger Ebert and I didn't always agree on movies, (his scathing review and hatred for the movie Blue Velvet is one I would debate him) but i always felt more like him than Siskel.

I had one of those Ebert Video movie companion books from the late 80s, Early 90s, that I absolutely loved and treated almost like my "bible", it was my go to guide for I don't know HOW many years.     I'm sure it's a dog-eared, yellow paged, mess of a book now, but I do still have it packed up somewhere.

I loved you, Roger Ebert, and I will continue to miss you like I have Gene Siskel for almost 15 years now.   You both were two people I wanted to meet and talk about movies for hours, as I'm sure every goofball who's ever sat in a theater, has wanted to do.  I may not have as frequently visited Roger's webpage as much as I've wanted in the last few years, but knowing that he was out there still doing what he loved and getting paid for it, made me happy.   He was an inspiration to many people and will leave a void in more people than he'll probably ever know.

As for my "Siskel", you and I share something that I cherish dearly and wouldn't trade for anything in the world.  I regret the almost 10 years where my life was too busy for us to get together other than maybe 1 movie a year for some of them, for whatever reasons.   I will take the blame for that, and i will do everything in my power to not have that happen again.    I doubt very much that Siskel & Ebert called each other (yes, i realize "Siskel" probably does much of the calling in our relationship ;P ) and talked as much as we do(sometimes 2am in the morning), and/or have the warped conversations that we do, (but in my mind it's fun to pretend they do.)   I appreciate the fact you still want to be my friend, even when i frustrate you to no end. =)   I love you for not only being my "Siskel" but for being there in the times that i needed you to be and will need you to be, hopefully.

I am honored and blessed to have you as my friend and hope for the rest of our days, we'll be in our seats in the darkened theater, you chastising me if I start biting my nails, watching movies and loving every minute of it.

p.s. I think for our next movie, in honor of Ebert's passing, we sit in the "SISKEL AND EBERT" chairs.

p.p.s.  For those not in the know, the "Siskel and Ebert" chairs are those two chairs that separate the stadium seats from the front rows, that let's a handicapped person in a wheelchair sit next to their loved ones.  A loving phrase coined by my friends Jim and Jeff Duede.

My Awkward Video of the Day Collection

Ok, this was something I did on Facebook a few years ago, I'm going to repost them here just so I can keep them, since they are a pain to try to find again on FB, and here they can be all in one place.

November Rain- Guns 'n' Roses- A classic song with the most overproduced melodramatic video ever filmed. Oh Axl, you silly drama queen. Oh Slash you comedic genius, have you misplaced the ring, oh Duff that's so cute, YOU have the ring. Slash are you really w...alking out of the middle of the wedding? Kinda RUDE, don't you think? Although i guess you did wear your HAT to the thing. Who's going to that church Slash solos in front of? There's nothing for miles around. Ugh, who invited that tool Riki Ractman to the reception? It's just RAIN people, who's the ass that felt the need to do the flying body press on the wedding cake? Really? Really? Then the bride's dead? Not enough information, Axl. Thanks.

Estranged-Guns 'n' Roses-  OK another G n'R video for AVD. This one might actually be even MORE ridiculous than November Rain. This is one of my favorite songs on Use Your Illusion, but after seeing this video again, i don't know why. Ok the worst police force ...is showing up for some reason to Axl's mansion, but can't find him sleeping in his hiding place. There's a part where some future Rock of Love rejects are watching monitors of Axl waiting for their rose, or does Bret give them a lock of hair from his bandanawig? The live footage just depresses me, reminding me how that many people at one time DID like G n' R. Axl, just because you wear a shirt that says DEEP, doesn't mean your nonsensical videos ARE. Boy that backstage party where the girls and the band are watching dolphin footage looks off the hook!! Best part... at 8:09 Slash rises from the ocean like the Kraken to do his solo. 2nd best part...Axl saves himself from drowning by riding a freaking dolphin!!!

A World Without Heroes-Kiss-   Ok Kiss, you shaped my childhood, then destroyed my teenage years. This video, falls somewhere in between. Gene's sporting his new 'do from Supercuts, then looks like he's looking around trying to find Bob Ezri...n, for making him do this dumbass song. Oh and Paul Stanley sports a purple headband emulating Mike Reno at about 1:35 and comes off looking like a lady at the mall with that poof he's sporting on top. Gene are you crying at the end?!?!?!!?! There's no crying in rock and roll!!

Holiday Road-Lindsey Buckingham- This might be the most awkward of all the videos I've posted. Never have I seen a more depressing video for one of the most cheerful songs ever recorded. I feel like the song should have been in the beginning of Joe Vs. the Volcano instead of Vacation. Boy Lindsey, you're really confusing me on the message of this song, I feel like taking the family on a vacation and driving us all off a cliff.

I Know You're Out There Somewhere-The Moody Blues OK Awkward video of the day, suggested by my brother, 1980's Moody Blues is not pretty. First off, does that drummer really need two bass drums? You're in the freaking Moody Blues, not Anthrax. 2nd, how hard is that guy going to hit that tamborine? Psst, we still can't hear it. Nice shot of the woman smacking the kid in the head, call Child Protective Services! This whole video makes me feel awkward.

Hot Rockin'-Judas Priest Ok, here's a video of a band that I actually like, even like the song...the video....W...T...F?!? Ok it starts out with some footage in the gym, which is awkward enough 4 guys with their shirts off but still rocking the leather pants or black jeans, I can't tell from the footage. Then we have them singing the chorus in the shower, well the first two guys are, the bass player in stall number 3 must have forgotten the lyrics to that difficult chorus, understandable. And apparently Rob Halford is shooting that video footage in the shower, which, years later, now makes sense. After Rob somehow makes it to the concert even with some douchebag blinding him in the eyes with a flashlight the entire drive, they play with their instruments on fire....except apparently for that pussy of a bass player. Nice one Ian, man up!!

Lovin' Every Minute Of It-Loverboy- This is one of the worst 80's songs ever to torture a human being. For starters, it was our Senior Prom theme song. Ok, someone tell Robert John "Mutt" Lange that Loverboy is NOT Def Leppard, no matter how hard he wants them to be.  Right off the bat, what the hell is the significance of Mike Reno answering the phone? He doesn't talk to anyone, is it some sort of Manchurian Candidate code word to set him off to be in a shitty 80's video? Why is there one old granny at this party? And why is Mike Reno shoving a tip down Cindy from Three's Company's top? Oh hey, it looks like you just got done painting that guitar, it's dry enough, pick it up and they cruise the hallways of this rathole hotel our manager got us rooms at. Please tell me the capacity is reached in that elevator and we get to see them plummet 30 floors to the lobby. no? damn it.  And lastly Mike Reno, i don't care how much you repeat it ad nauseum, i assure you, no one is "Lovin' Every Minute Of It"!

Sussudio-Phil Collins-

AVD-Awkward video of the day. Ok first off, right off the bat, being a drummer i HATE computer drums used in song but the video shows someone playing an acoustic set. Phil Collins of all people should know better. Like we're not supposed to notice. Ok now that that's out of the way. Pause that video at :56 sec. Hey is that Quentin Tarantino!! Whatever they are using for the rythym track is obnoxious, and is that Grizzly Adams or Father Time playing the bass? I guess it doesn't even matter, I don't hear a bass guitar in this song anyway. The best part of the video is the beginning where Mike Rutherford is letting his dog take a shit in front of the bar after he hears the crap Phil's playing for his solo career.

Sweet Freedom-Michael McDonald-

Here's today's awkward video. Starts off innocently enough, showing clips from the movie Running Scared, mixed with some low key Michael McDonald vocals. At the :58 mark, however, some extras start trying a little too hard to show they're having a good time, one girl about falls off a chair cackling in some old guy's face. At the 2:15 min mark, Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines show up for the video shoot and thus begins the cheesiest, hammiest 2 minutes ever put to video. At 2:20 i even think Melanie Griffith in her Body Double hairdo is there dancing with Billy Crystal. Love the movie, HATE this video.

Dancing In The Street-David Bowie and Mick Jagger-
Ok here's the awkward video of the day, perhaps one of the biggest abominations of the 80s. First of all, how these two didn't get instantly mugged skipping and prancing down that dark alley at the 1 minute mark is a mystery to me. I think a kiss might have happened right after that strategically placed freeze frame at 1:22. Also, did Mick just put some product placement of Pepsi at 1:32 or did he just pick up and drink out of some filthy can he found in that alley? And funniest of all, it took Bowie 2:18 min to give Mick that look? Really? Had you not been paying attention the whole video? oh and at 2:49, no...just no.

Rock Me Tonite-Billy Squier-
Ok this one is really awkward, the "dancing" that begins at the 1:17 mark and continues the rest of the song is bad enough, but Billy, that T-shirt you start off in, why wouldn't you tear the rest of that damn sleeve off before you put it on? It really just looks like laziness on your part. But then, after you tear that shirt off "Hulk Hogan style" you put on a worse shirt that Richard Simmons is probably STILL looking for in his closet. Oh and accessorizing that shirt with the handkerchief in the last third of the song, didn't really "butch" that outfit up. I'm just saying.

You're a Friend of Mine- Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne-

The Video that started the whole AVD thing.  This video starts us off with the immortal question: Will Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne passionately kiss one another in the middle of this video? You'll have to find out for yourself. Oh and don't miss the worst freaking hi-five, handshake, whatever the hell they tried to do in the last shot of the video and failed hilariously.

 
Pac Man Fever-Buckner and Garcia-

Not the official video, because there isn't one, but this performance on Solid Gold will suffice.

"ARE YOU READY FOR SOME PAC-MAN?!?!?" You can put on a baseball cap all you want, Hank Williams Jr. i can see you. What's up with the other guy's facial hair? That might be the world's only 8-bit mustache next to Mario's. Also, is that an Intellivison on top of that keyboard? And those old people in the audience are sure reacting how I expect them to, with them two whippersnappers singing about those newfangled thingamajig veedeo games.

My picks for the top 30 movies 2000-2012 day 2

Well since I'd done my top 15 movies of the past year, I decided I would give my picks for the 30 best movies spanning from 2000-2012. Picks # 25-21.

25. Eagle Eye-(2008) A fast paced action thriller about the information age and a information gathering supercomputer owned by the government that decides that they are a threat to themselves and need to be wiped out.   The computer (voiced by an uncredited Julianne Moore) is always one step ahead of everyone since she can hack into to any phone, security camera, basically anything electronic.  She forces two civilians to help her in her plan.     I really enjoyed the fast pace and the story to this.   It stars Michelle Monaghan and Shia Lebeouf, (who isn't one of my favorite actors, but I have liked him in a few select things) as the two innocent civilians who are forced to help the computer carry through with her plan.   Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson play the FBI agents pursuing them, trying to figure out how these two seemingly ordinary people who have become criminals keep escaping capture.   Very well done, good script and action scenes.



24. Death Sentence-(2007) Kevin Bacon stars in this dark psychological thriller from the director of the original SAW.   Kevin Bacon and his son stop at a gas station in a bad part of town after his son's hockey game.  While his son is inside the store, he is killed as part of a gang member's initiation.  Kevin Bacon tries to stop the killer, but he breaks free, although Kevin sees his face. As the killer runs away, he is left behind by his gang and is hit by another car while standing in the street.  The killer is hospitalized and arrested.
When the case goes to trial, Bacon's character learns the killer is going to only get 3-5 years, which is unacceptable to him, so he decides that he's not going to identify him as the killer and let him walk, so he can get his own revenge.   Bacon plans to kill his son's murderer and get some justice. 

Unfortunately through a turn of events, he causes a chain reaction, making it worse and worse with disastrous results until it makes its way to its Taxi Driver-ish ending.    I really liked this movie, I loved the haunting soundtrack, which was one of the things I noticed right away while watching it.  A lot of times soundtracks are just kind of there for me, unless they're actual songs, of course.   But I really thought this was a very haunting and well done soundtrack for the material.    This is not an easy movie to watch, it's violent, dark, and nearly caused my brother to get divorced when I recommended it to him and his wife.  LOL.  It really was an emotional, gripping movie.   Regardless, one of my favorite Kevin Bacon performances.  Garrett Hedlund is also great as the crazed gang leader.   Very well directed by James Wan.  Great tracking shot through a parking garage as Kevin Bacon is trying to get away from gang members trying to kill him.


23. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang-(2005) Unfortunately I can probably count on one hand the people I know who have seen this movie.   Robert Downey Jr. is everywhere nowadays after his stints in the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes films, but this movie was the beginning of his comeback.
Hilarious movie that is a riff on the film-noir/hard boiled pulp novels of old, complete with noir narration.  Written and directed by probably my favorite screenwriter Shane Black(Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and others), it is a darkly funny, brilliantly written movie with great performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.  Short synopsis as to not ruin anything:  Downey, as a small time criminal in New York who, during a botched robbery, in which his partner is killed, runs inside a building to get away from the cops.   He stumbles upon a casting call for some crime film being made in Hollywood and acts as if he's auditioning.   He gets emotional thinking about his partner, goes off script, the agents think he's acting and is brilliant so they immediately send him to Hollywood, to follow Kilmer's gay private eye character around to prepare for the role.   I will not say any more, but I will say this movie has one of the most clever, darkly humorous scripts with twists and turns galore.   Highly recommended.  


22. Four Brothers-(2005) A modern day urban homage to the John Wayne film, The Sons of Katie Elder.  This film details the story of four adopted brothers, who were unable to find a foster family when they were kids because of their troubled pasts.   They were raised by the woman who originally took them in until they were adopted and instead raised them on her own.   She is murdered at the beginning of the film and the title characters come for the funeral.   They begin to realize something isn't right about the convenience store robbery that their mother was killed during, supposedly as collateral damage.   Beautifully shot by John Singleton in Detroit and Ontario, one sequence featuring a car chase during a blizzard on snowy/icy roads, I especially enjoyed. I also did really enjoy the camaraderie between the 4 actors playing the brothers, however a scene with one actor on the toilet while another is in the shower, is maybe a little too much brotherly closeness for my taste. lol  I really enjoyed Mark Wahlberg in this and the supreme asshole bad guy played by Chiwetel Ejiofor was great too.



21. Cloverfield-(2008)  A found footage film that is basically JJ Abrams' take on Godzilla.  I know that this movie was not everyone's cup of tea, including some of my friends. As is the case with most found footage movies, you either love them or hate them it seems,  but this one grabbed me and didn't let go.  

The movie tells the story about a guy getting ready to leave for Japan for a new job, mainly to get away from a girl he's in love with and somehow ruined their relationship. Told from the viewpoint of a guy talked into filming during the going away party, the main character's ex shows up with a guy, he pisses her off and she goes home.   While out on the fire escape talking about it with his friends there's an explosion and the building shakes like there's an earthquake.  They run down to the street and explosions are being heard all over the place, when suddenly, the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty comes flying down the street.   The rest of the movie is the main character trying to get to his ex girlfriend's apartment to rescue her because he hears her in trouble on the phone.  The likeable schlub filming supposedly keeps shooting because "people are going to want to see what happened when it all went down"    I thought the movie was pretty intense showing the chaos going throughout the city, with snippets of the monster here and there, and very creepy scenes in the dark when the characters decide to take a shortcut through the subway tunnel.

Yes, I realize that the camera would have probably quit functioning after the few times it was dropped, the battery would have most definitely died (which I wish, they'd just thrown a line in there about having extra batteries.) and that I'm not sure how realistic it is, if you were running for your life how long you would keep filming.   But hey, it's a movie, get over it.  I was on the edge of my seat through the entire thing.   Which is what these kind of movies are supposed to do.  The movie, despite being shot on a handheld HD camera, looks great and the special effects are amazing for a movie that "only" cost $25 million dollars to make.  It grossed $170 million, so I'm not sure how that long rumored sequel never got made, but in a way, I'm glad it didn't.

p.s. The first time you get a good shot of the monster(which only lasts a few seconds) when they are running down to the subway entrance, gives me chills even to this day.


OK, that's my next 5, tune in tomorrow to see what gems I have in store for #20-16.

My picks for the top 30 movies from 2000-2012

Well since I'd done my top 15 movies of the past year, I decided I would give my picks for the 30 best movies spanning from 2000-2012.  It's going to take me longer than I thought, so I decided to maybe do 5 a day, so I can type up some stuff to go along with it.

So today, picks #30-26.   These are not in an official order.  Enjoy

30. Anchorman-(2004)  A movie I saw in the theater right after seeing Dodgeball (another comedy classic), it was a great day at the movies!.   This was the first of the big screen collaborations of Adam McKay/Will Ferrell, and at the time it was so out of left field hilarious, it quickly became a classic to me.  McKay and Ferrell would team up for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys, all classics to me, but the one that started it off is my favorite.  So many hilarious quotes in this film.  An absolute classic.


29. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?-(2000)  Joel and Ethan Coen's masterpiece. In a career filled with classics, such as Fargo, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, Blood Simple, No Country For Old Men, this retelling of the Homer's "The Odyssey", is my favorite.   Set in the depression era, featuring 3 escaped convicts led by George Clooney.  This movie has great music, great cinematography, and some of my favorite dialogue of any movie.  George Clooney has never been better or funnier than he is in this movie.  Perfect movie to me.



28. There Will Be Blood-(2007)- Paul Thomas Anderson had made two of my all-time favorite movies with Boogie Nights, and Magnolia, when this had come out, I thought it was going to be the dullest movie ever, a period piece about an oil baron? Wth?? I couldn't have been more wrong.  I should have just trusted PTA.  This movie starts off with no dialogue for almost 5 minutes and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.   Daniel Day Lewis blew me away with this performance and definitely deserved to win the Academy Award for his portrayal of a deranged oil tycoon consumed by greed.   Amazing Academy Award winning cinematography by Robert Elswit. great soundtrack, great movie. A running time of 2hr 48min, and I was enthralled the entire time.



27. Snatch-(2000)  Guy Ritchie's crime masterpiece, with it's frenetic pacing and edits, grabbed me from the get-go.  So many interesting camera tricks in the movie, I ABSOLUTELY loved it.  Crazy colorful characters all doing their own thing and a storyline that features an 86 karat diamond, gypsys, bareknuckle brawling, a hitman, a mob boss, and a Russian that just won't die.  Everything seems disconnected until toward the end of the movie when every character intertwines with one another.  Very funny, ingenious, violent script.  Great performances by Jason Statham, Dennis Farina, Vinnie Jones and Brad Pitt as a gypsy bareknuckle fighter.



26. The Royal Tenenbaums-(2001) My favorite Wes Anderson movie.  I really love his visual style and song choices in all of his movies.  The movie is basically about the dysfunctional family to end ALL dysfunctional families.  Gene Hackman plays the patriarch of 3 child prodigies who become damaged adults shortly after their father leaves their mother (played by Angelica Huston) when they are children.   I really enjoyed Gene Hackman's performance in this as Royal Tenenbaum,  and also Luke Wilson's playing of the favorite sibling of Hackman's character, Richie Tenenbaum.   However, everyone in the ensemble cast has their moments to shine as well. 




Stay tuned for the next 5 picks!