Sunday, January 26, 2014
Fetal Pig - In Your Head- live last November
Live performance of "In Your Head" from our Autopia album available on ITunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting. This song has always been my favorite to play.
For followers who don't know me personally, I'm on the drums.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/autopia/id500717397
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B0076ZG09C?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Fetal%20Pig&index=digital-music&search-type=ss
http://fetalpig.bandcamp.com/
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
My Picks for the top 30 movies 2000-2012 day 6. THE END.
Well this is it, the last of my picks for the 30 best movies spanning from 2000-2012. Picks # 5-1. I hope you've enjoyed it, and you want to check some out you may not have seen.
5. The Harry Potter Series-(2001-2011) J.K. Rowling's fantasy novels brought to life in 8 great films. The fact that all 8 movies were all outstanding with no dip in quality, is no small feat. One of the most popular children's/young adult book series ever, brought to life by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, respectfully. This was also the first movie that any of them had been in. It's funny going back and watching the early movies after the later movies and seeing how young they all were.
Other actors involved are Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris (as Professor Dumbledore in the first two movies, until he passed away), Dame Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, wonderful as Professor Snape, and Ralph Fiennes as the main antagonist, Voldemort.
I'm not going to summarize each and every film. I enjoyed every one of them but I will say that the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is my personal favorite, followed closely by the second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I also believe that these movies are every bit as classic as the Lord of The Rings films are. It has a great epic story as well, and the achievement in film that the quality of the 8 films never diminished, and that is to be commended.
Of all the great actors in this movie, Emma Watson's performance of Hermione Granger was always one of my favorites, and of course, Alan Rickman, who will always hold a place dear in my heart after his performance in Die Hard, was brilliant.
4. Shutter Island-(2010) Martin Scorsese's noir-ish psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Taking place in 1954, DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshall Edward "Teddy" Daniels, investigating the disappearance of a woman from a psychiatric facility for the criminally insane located on Shutter Island, located in Boston Harbor. This is a movie that has a very intricate plot, it messes with your head, which I always enjoy. lol . Once you've seen it and put all the pieces together, I suggest going back and watching it again and you will catch little looks that meant one thing the first time you saw it and something else the second time. I loved this movie, it had a great look, a great story and great performances. It may be my favorite Scorsese/DiCaprio matchup out of the five pictures they've done together to date.
3. Inception-(2010) Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller about a group of thieves able to interact in other people's dreams and steal corporate secrets from a subject, for a price. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dominick Cobb, a man who has been on the run from a murder charge in the United States of his wife. While Cobb is working in other people's dreams, his subconscious places his dead wife in many of them, which usually endangers the job he is on. He takes a job from a Japanese businessman who says he can get Cobb's murder charge to disappear so he can return to the states and see his children again. The job is for them to place an idea in a subject's dream and make him think it is his OWN idea. This is called Inception, which is said to be impossible by the other members of Cobb's team. Desperately wanting to return home, Cobb agrees to the job.
This movie was one I absolutely loved, it had a complicated, yet interesting plot. It makes you really pay attention to the story, you have to keep track of dreams within dreams within dreams. Ground breaking special effects. Two highlights are a city landscape that rolls up like a carpet, and a zero-gravity fight sequence with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A movie that encourages multiple viewings so you can catch little things you didn't the first time. Very, very, cool movie. With this and Shutter Island, DiCaprio starred in both of my favorite picks of 2010. Both of these films, really made me take notice of him as a great actor.
2.The Dark Knight-(2008) Christopher Nolan's 3rd movie on this list. This is the sequel to Batman Begins, which was another great movie by Nolan. This movie, however, is miles above it, for one simple reason: Heath Ledger's absofreakinglutely BRILLIANT, portrayal of The Joker. I will be the first to admit, the second I heard Heath Ledger was going to play The Joker, one of the greatest villains of ALL-TIME, I thought everyone was nuts. The guy from a Knight's Tale?? You've got to be shitting me, this movie is going to suck.
I've never been more wrong in my life. This was one of the best acting performances I'd seen in years. He knocked it out of the park, and unfortunately as everyone knows, he died before the movie ever came out, which was just horrible. He ended up winning the Academy Award posthumously that year, which was definitely deserved. I would have liked to seen what else his career would have brought after this.
This is Christian Bale's 2nd portrayal as Batman, and this was by far the best Batman movie out of any of the previously filmed Batman movies. It's flat out one of the best action movies ever. Great action sequences, set pieces and even story are all at the top of their form in this movie. I just watched this again last night, (yes it was already on the list before that), and it still held my attention just as much as it did 5 and a half years ago. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the following sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, near as much. There were things that were really good in that one, but things that also bothered me, and in the end it just wasn't as good as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-(2004) So here it is, finally, my favorite movie of the last 13 years. Michael Gondry's science fiction love story, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a couple who have had a horrible break up after a 2 year relationship. The movie starts out on a train, with what looks like their first meeting, they strike up a conversation and you think you've seen how they first got together. It turns out, they've already met before and neither of them remember one another.
Carrey's character, Joel, finds out Winslet's character, Clementine, has had a procedure done at a company called Lacuna, Inc. that has erased Joel from her memory, after a horrible fight because it was too painful to keep remembering. Joel finds this out and is devastated and pissed and decides to have it done too. The doctors tell them they will come to his home after he has taken a sedative that night and erase every trace of Clementine from his mind. His home, already having any reminder of her or their relationship removed previously, per their instructions.
The majority of the movie takes place in Joel's mind. The technicians from Lacuna, Inc. show up at Joel's house, connect a computer up to his brain, and begin erasing his memories of Clementine in reverse. So it starts with the end of their relationship where they were yelling and fighting constantly, which Joel doesn't mind losing those memories. However, when he gets to a nice memory of the relationship when they were happy, he realizes how much he did love her, he immediately regrets his decision and tries to figure out a way to keep the memories and remember the girl he did love. He tries putting memories of her in other memories of his life that she was never a part of, like in his childhood before he had ever met her. Which does initially confuse the technicians doing the memory wipe, however, they are able to find the moved memories and continue.
Joel ends up having conversations in his mind with Clementine, letting her know what is happening and telling her things he always wanted to, desperately trying to keep her in his memory.
There are other parts of the plot I'm not going to ruin, but you should really see for yourself.
The special effects are very original, such as, watching things erase and disappear, buildings crumble in the background of scenes as Carrey's character is reliving them and they are being wiped as he's in them. This is an awesome piece of acting by Jim Carrey and I wish he would do some more dramatic parts once in awhile. I know he is grating as hell to some people, but his character is subdued and nothing like any of his other characters. Kate Winslet's portrayal is great too, she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination and the film won the Best Original Screenplay that year.
I love the cinematography. The story is clever, and I can connect with the characters. I love the fact that the two main characters seemed like real people; damaged and sad, looking for something they each lacked in their life...each other. Also it has a GREAT haunting soundtrack by Jon Brion. Sometimes a movie connects with you on every level, and for me it was this film.. I sometimes saw parts of myself in Jim Carrey's character in this film, sad and sometimes withdrawn, not knowing how to relate, which is probably why this hits me as hard as it does.
Well, there's the list. I hope you enjoyed it, those who stuck around for the full list, and maybe will seek out some of these films you haven't seen. Feel free to comment on any of the lists if you are so inclined with thoughts, arguments or the like. =).
See you at the movies,
Jeff.
5. The Harry Potter Series-(2001-2011) J.K. Rowling's fantasy novels brought to life in 8 great films. The fact that all 8 movies were all outstanding with no dip in quality, is no small feat. One of the most popular children's/young adult book series ever, brought to life by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, respectfully. This was also the first movie that any of them had been in. It's funny going back and watching the early movies after the later movies and seeing how young they all were.
Other actors involved are Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris (as Professor Dumbledore in the first two movies, until he passed away), Dame Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, wonderful as Professor Snape, and Ralph Fiennes as the main antagonist, Voldemort.
I'm not going to summarize each and every film. I enjoyed every one of them but I will say that the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is my personal favorite, followed closely by the second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I also believe that these movies are every bit as classic as the Lord of The Rings films are. It has a great epic story as well, and the achievement in film that the quality of the 8 films never diminished, and that is to be commended.
Of all the great actors in this movie, Emma Watson's performance of Hermione Granger was always one of my favorites, and of course, Alan Rickman, who will always hold a place dear in my heart after his performance in Die Hard, was brilliant.
4. Shutter Island-(2010) Martin Scorsese's noir-ish psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Taking place in 1954, DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshall Edward "Teddy" Daniels, investigating the disappearance of a woman from a psychiatric facility for the criminally insane located on Shutter Island, located in Boston Harbor. This is a movie that has a very intricate plot, it messes with your head, which I always enjoy. lol . Once you've seen it and put all the pieces together, I suggest going back and watching it again and you will catch little looks that meant one thing the first time you saw it and something else the second time. I loved this movie, it had a great look, a great story and great performances. It may be my favorite Scorsese/DiCaprio matchup out of the five pictures they've done together to date.
3. Inception-(2010) Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller about a group of thieves able to interact in other people's dreams and steal corporate secrets from a subject, for a price. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dominick Cobb, a man who has been on the run from a murder charge in the United States of his wife. While Cobb is working in other people's dreams, his subconscious places his dead wife in many of them, which usually endangers the job he is on. He takes a job from a Japanese businessman who says he can get Cobb's murder charge to disappear so he can return to the states and see his children again. The job is for them to place an idea in a subject's dream and make him think it is his OWN idea. This is called Inception, which is said to be impossible by the other members of Cobb's team. Desperately wanting to return home, Cobb agrees to the job.
This movie was one I absolutely loved, it had a complicated, yet interesting plot. It makes you really pay attention to the story, you have to keep track of dreams within dreams within dreams. Ground breaking special effects. Two highlights are a city landscape that rolls up like a carpet, and a zero-gravity fight sequence with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A movie that encourages multiple viewings so you can catch little things you didn't the first time. Very, very, cool movie. With this and Shutter Island, DiCaprio starred in both of my favorite picks of 2010. Both of these films, really made me take notice of him as a great actor.
2.The Dark Knight-(2008) Christopher Nolan's 3rd movie on this list. This is the sequel to Batman Begins, which was another great movie by Nolan. This movie, however, is miles above it, for one simple reason: Heath Ledger's absofreakinglutely BRILLIANT, portrayal of The Joker. I will be the first to admit, the second I heard Heath Ledger was going to play The Joker, one of the greatest villains of ALL-TIME, I thought everyone was nuts. The guy from a Knight's Tale?? You've got to be shitting me, this movie is going to suck.
I've never been more wrong in my life. This was one of the best acting performances I'd seen in years. He knocked it out of the park, and unfortunately as everyone knows, he died before the movie ever came out, which was just horrible. He ended up winning the Academy Award posthumously that year, which was definitely deserved. I would have liked to seen what else his career would have brought after this.
This is Christian Bale's 2nd portrayal as Batman, and this was by far the best Batman movie out of any of the previously filmed Batman movies. It's flat out one of the best action movies ever. Great action sequences, set pieces and even story are all at the top of their form in this movie. I just watched this again last night, (yes it was already on the list before that), and it still held my attention just as much as it did 5 and a half years ago. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the following sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, near as much. There were things that were really good in that one, but things that also bothered me, and in the end it just wasn't as good as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-(2004) So here it is, finally, my favorite movie of the last 13 years. Michael Gondry's science fiction love story, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a couple who have had a horrible break up after a 2 year relationship. The movie starts out on a train, with what looks like their first meeting, they strike up a conversation and you think you've seen how they first got together. It turns out, they've already met before and neither of them remember one another.
Carrey's character, Joel, finds out Winslet's character, Clementine, has had a procedure done at a company called Lacuna, Inc. that has erased Joel from her memory, after a horrible fight because it was too painful to keep remembering. Joel finds this out and is devastated and pissed and decides to have it done too. The doctors tell them they will come to his home after he has taken a sedative that night and erase every trace of Clementine from his mind. His home, already having any reminder of her or their relationship removed previously, per their instructions.
The majority of the movie takes place in Joel's mind. The technicians from Lacuna, Inc. show up at Joel's house, connect a computer up to his brain, and begin erasing his memories of Clementine in reverse. So it starts with the end of their relationship where they were yelling and fighting constantly, which Joel doesn't mind losing those memories. However, when he gets to a nice memory of the relationship when they were happy, he realizes how much he did love her, he immediately regrets his decision and tries to figure out a way to keep the memories and remember the girl he did love. He tries putting memories of her in other memories of his life that she was never a part of, like in his childhood before he had ever met her. Which does initially confuse the technicians doing the memory wipe, however, they are able to find the moved memories and continue.
Joel ends up having conversations in his mind with Clementine, letting her know what is happening and telling her things he always wanted to, desperately trying to keep her in his memory.
There are other parts of the plot I'm not going to ruin, but you should really see for yourself.
The special effects are very original, such as, watching things erase and disappear, buildings crumble in the background of scenes as Carrey's character is reliving them and they are being wiped as he's in them. This is an awesome piece of acting by Jim Carrey and I wish he would do some more dramatic parts once in awhile. I know he is grating as hell to some people, but his character is subdued and nothing like any of his other characters. Kate Winslet's portrayal is great too, she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination and the film won the Best Original Screenplay that year.
I love the cinematography. The story is clever, and I can connect with the characters. I love the fact that the two main characters seemed like real people; damaged and sad, looking for something they each lacked in their life...each other. Also it has a GREAT haunting soundtrack by Jon Brion. Sometimes a movie connects with you on every level, and for me it was this film.. I sometimes saw parts of myself in Jim Carrey's character in this film, sad and sometimes withdrawn, not knowing how to relate, which is probably why this hits me as hard as it does.
Well, there's the list. I hope you enjoyed it, those who stuck around for the full list, and maybe will seek out some of these films you haven't seen. Feel free to comment on any of the lists if you are so inclined with thoughts, arguments or the like. =).
See you at the movies,
Jeff.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
My Picks for the top 30 movies 2000-2012 day 5
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 # 10-6.
10. Source Code-(2011) Science fiction thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Army helicopter pilot Captain Colter Stevens, last aware of being on a mission in Afghanistan, wakes up on a commuter train to Chicago, at 7:40 am. To the world around him—including his traveling partner Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) and the bathroom mirror—he appears to be Sean Fentress, a school teacher. As he comes to grips with this revelation, the train explodes, killing everyone aboard.
Stevens regains consciousness inside a dingy dim cockpit, leaking oil. Communicating through a video screen, Air Force Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) verifies Stevens' identity, and insists he stay "on mission" to find the bomber before another larger "dirty bomb" hits downtown Chicago in six hours. Inside the "Source Code" experimental device designed by scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), he experiences the last eight minutes of another compatible person's life within an alternative timeline. (I cut and pasted that synopsis from Wikipedia, because it was much easier that trying to figure out how to explain it myself.)
I am a sucker for alternate universe/time travel stories/movies, and I really enjoyed this film. Glylenhaal is really good in this as a soldier trying to prevent something horrible from happening, bus getting frustrated because he has only 8 minutes to find the bomber, before the bomb in the train goes off and kills everyone on the train, then he has to start all over again, like a crazy mini version of Groundhog's Day. After awhile he begins to try to save the people on the train, although he's told that they've already died and cannot be saved.
It's story reminded me a little of the movie, Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington, with it's story of time travel and trying to prevent another terrorist attack, and also trying to save someone that's already been killed.
I will not say anything else as not to spoil the movie, but it's definitely worth checking out.
9. Constantine-(2005) A supernatural thriller starring Keanu Reeves based on DC comic character John Constantine. Constantine was born with the powers to see angels and demons, as a teenager he tried to kill himself because he cannot deal with his visions. He is brought back to life but during the two minutes he was dead, he was in hell. Knowing what his future holds for him, he tasks himself with returning demons to hell to get in good with God so he will be allowed into Heaven. He is told by the angel Gabriel, that he'll never be allowed into heaven because his motives are selfish. He is also told by a demon that when he dies, all of Hell is waiting for him, and that his is the only soul that Satan himself would come to get. He also has recently found out he has lung cancer and has very little time left.
Constantine takes on the case of a police officer trying to find out the truth about her twin sister's suicide. It ends up involving the Spear of Destiny, and the son of Satan attempting to take over the Earth. I really enjoyed this movie, I thought the story was very interesting and I enjoyed the special effects as well. It's always a movie I recommend, yet no one I know has ever told me they've seen it. Fans of the comic lamented the casting of Reeves, since the comic portrays Constantine as a blond Brit. Sting was the original model for the character, in fact. Overall, not really having any baggage myself from the comic, having not read any before the movie, I was able to take it as it was.
Notable mention, Tilda Swinton portrays the androgynous angel, Gabriel and did a great job in my opinion. One of my favorite character actors, Peter Stormare, plays Satan, and I love his portrayal, even though it is a tiny part.
8. District 9-(2009) A science fiction/action film about an alien race, who crashes on Earth in South Africa, malnourished and near death, rescued, then forced to live in slums. The story is told in a documentary style at the beginning, following around goofy bureaucrat, Wikus van de Merwe, played by Sharlto Copley-his first time professionally acting in anything. Wikus starts off as a pretty unlikeable character, insulting and degrading the alien race, while trying to relocate them from the slums they live in to an even worse place to live with smaller living quarters. After something happens to Wikus, that I won't spoil, he starts to become more and more sympathetic until you really start to like him. Sharlto Copley was brilliant in this and the fact he'd never acted before, just shows how talented he really is.
The movie cost $30 million to make and it looks EASILY to have cost about 5 times more than that. The special effects, from the weaponry, to the spaceships and lastly the Aliens look absolutely terrific. Great detail on each and every one. I also love how the movie switches from the documentary style it started in and then abandons it seamlessly I thought.
7. Inglourious Basterds-(2009) Quentin Tarantino's epic WWII tale. The movie was promoted as being about a group of Jewish soldiers going into Germany with the sole purpose of killing as many Nazis as they can. While they are a part of the movie, the movie has much more interesting aspects. They involve charismatic yet ruthlessly vicious Nazi Colonel, Hans Linda nicknamed the "Jew Hunter"; a young jewish girl whom is spared by Linda after killing her entire family at the beginning of the movie hiding in the floorboards, a German actress helping the "Basterds" led by Brad Pitt's character, Aldo Raine,in a plan to kill Joseph Goebbels, which ultimately ends up involving in a twist of fate, killing Hitler, himself.
There are so many great scenes in this movie: The opening scene at the farm, a scene with the Jewish girl, now living under an alias, having lunch with Goebbels about having his film shown at the movie theater she now runs, when she is suddenly face to face with the man who murdered her entire family, where she, along with the audience, wonders if he will recognize her or already does and is just fucking with her. A great scene with Michael Fassbender's British lieutenant, posing as a German soldier in a room filled with Nazi officers is probably my favorite. Great dialogue, great scenes, and an absolutely BRILLIANT performance by Austrian-German actor, Christoph Waltz, which he won the Academy Award for, which he definitely deserved.
6. Silver Linings Playbook-(2012)-David O. Russell's romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as a man with bipolar disorder and a woman who is still mourning the loss of her husband. Bradley Cooper plays Pat Solitano Jr. who, at the beginning of the movie is being released from a mental health facility into the care of his parents, after catching his wife cheating on him with another man and nearly beating him to death. He goes to his friend's house for dinner and meet his friend's sister-in-law, Tiffany. They end up bonding over their damaged personalities and strike up a friendship. Pat wants Tiffany to deliver a letter to his ex, who has filed a restraining order since his violent outburst and has moved. Tiffany agrees if he will be her dance partner at a dance competition. Pat goes along, because he thinks if his ex she's him at the dance competition she will see he has changed.
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both play their best roles to date in this. Robert DeNiro also plays Bradley Cooper's father, Pat Solitano Sr, who obsession with the Philadephia Eagles is another plot point. DeNiro hasn't been this good in years. I really liked him in this. It is a romantic comedy/drama but it is not done sappy like most of them. Not that there's anything wrong with some of them, if they are done well.
This was a close pick for me for Best Picture last year, but i had chosen Argo over this, by the slightest of margins.
OK, up next. my last 5 picks. hopefully SOMEONE is reading this, this is taking a long time each day to work on this. =)
10. Source Code-(2011) Science fiction thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Army helicopter pilot Captain Colter Stevens, last aware of being on a mission in Afghanistan, wakes up on a commuter train to Chicago, at 7:40 am. To the world around him—including his traveling partner Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) and the bathroom mirror—he appears to be Sean Fentress, a school teacher. As he comes to grips with this revelation, the train explodes, killing everyone aboard.
Stevens regains consciousness inside a dingy dim cockpit, leaking oil. Communicating through a video screen, Air Force Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) verifies Stevens' identity, and insists he stay "on mission" to find the bomber before another larger "dirty bomb" hits downtown Chicago in six hours. Inside the "Source Code" experimental device designed by scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), he experiences the last eight minutes of another compatible person's life within an alternative timeline. (I cut and pasted that synopsis from Wikipedia, because it was much easier that trying to figure out how to explain it myself.)
I am a sucker for alternate universe/time travel stories/movies, and I really enjoyed this film. Glylenhaal is really good in this as a soldier trying to prevent something horrible from happening, bus getting frustrated because he has only 8 minutes to find the bomber, before the bomb in the train goes off and kills everyone on the train, then he has to start all over again, like a crazy mini version of Groundhog's Day. After awhile he begins to try to save the people on the train, although he's told that they've already died and cannot be saved.
It's story reminded me a little of the movie, Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington, with it's story of time travel and trying to prevent another terrorist attack, and also trying to save someone that's already been killed.
I will not say anything else as not to spoil the movie, but it's definitely worth checking out.
9. Constantine-(2005) A supernatural thriller starring Keanu Reeves based on DC comic character John Constantine. Constantine was born with the powers to see angels and demons, as a teenager he tried to kill himself because he cannot deal with his visions. He is brought back to life but during the two minutes he was dead, he was in hell. Knowing what his future holds for him, he tasks himself with returning demons to hell to get in good with God so he will be allowed into Heaven. He is told by the angel Gabriel, that he'll never be allowed into heaven because his motives are selfish. He is also told by a demon that when he dies, all of Hell is waiting for him, and that his is the only soul that Satan himself would come to get. He also has recently found out he has lung cancer and has very little time left.
Constantine takes on the case of a police officer trying to find out the truth about her twin sister's suicide. It ends up involving the Spear of Destiny, and the son of Satan attempting to take over the Earth. I really enjoyed this movie, I thought the story was very interesting and I enjoyed the special effects as well. It's always a movie I recommend, yet no one I know has ever told me they've seen it. Fans of the comic lamented the casting of Reeves, since the comic portrays Constantine as a blond Brit. Sting was the original model for the character, in fact. Overall, not really having any baggage myself from the comic, having not read any before the movie, I was able to take it as it was.
Notable mention, Tilda Swinton portrays the androgynous angel, Gabriel and did a great job in my opinion. One of my favorite character actors, Peter Stormare, plays Satan, and I love his portrayal, even though it is a tiny part.
8. District 9-(2009) A science fiction/action film about an alien race, who crashes on Earth in South Africa, malnourished and near death, rescued, then forced to live in slums. The story is told in a documentary style at the beginning, following around goofy bureaucrat, Wikus van de Merwe, played by Sharlto Copley-his first time professionally acting in anything. Wikus starts off as a pretty unlikeable character, insulting and degrading the alien race, while trying to relocate them from the slums they live in to an even worse place to live with smaller living quarters. After something happens to Wikus, that I won't spoil, he starts to become more and more sympathetic until you really start to like him. Sharlto Copley was brilliant in this and the fact he'd never acted before, just shows how talented he really is.
The movie cost $30 million to make and it looks EASILY to have cost about 5 times more than that. The special effects, from the weaponry, to the spaceships and lastly the Aliens look absolutely terrific. Great detail on each and every one. I also love how the movie switches from the documentary style it started in and then abandons it seamlessly I thought.
7. Inglourious Basterds-(2009) Quentin Tarantino's epic WWII tale. The movie was promoted as being about a group of Jewish soldiers going into Germany with the sole purpose of killing as many Nazis as they can. While they are a part of the movie, the movie has much more interesting aspects. They involve charismatic yet ruthlessly vicious Nazi Colonel, Hans Linda nicknamed the "Jew Hunter"; a young jewish girl whom is spared by Linda after killing her entire family at the beginning of the movie hiding in the floorboards, a German actress helping the "Basterds" led by Brad Pitt's character, Aldo Raine,in a plan to kill Joseph Goebbels, which ultimately ends up involving in a twist of fate, killing Hitler, himself.
There are so many great scenes in this movie: The opening scene at the farm, a scene with the Jewish girl, now living under an alias, having lunch with Goebbels about having his film shown at the movie theater she now runs, when she is suddenly face to face with the man who murdered her entire family, where she, along with the audience, wonders if he will recognize her or already does and is just fucking with her. A great scene with Michael Fassbender's British lieutenant, posing as a German soldier in a room filled with Nazi officers is probably my favorite. Great dialogue, great scenes, and an absolutely BRILLIANT performance by Austrian-German actor, Christoph Waltz, which he won the Academy Award for, which he definitely deserved.
6. Silver Linings Playbook-(2012)-David O. Russell's romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as a man with bipolar disorder and a woman who is still mourning the loss of her husband. Bradley Cooper plays Pat Solitano Jr. who, at the beginning of the movie is being released from a mental health facility into the care of his parents, after catching his wife cheating on him with another man and nearly beating him to death. He goes to his friend's house for dinner and meet his friend's sister-in-law, Tiffany. They end up bonding over their damaged personalities and strike up a friendship. Pat wants Tiffany to deliver a letter to his ex, who has filed a restraining order since his violent outburst and has moved. Tiffany agrees if he will be her dance partner at a dance competition. Pat goes along, because he thinks if his ex she's him at the dance competition she will see he has changed.
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both play their best roles to date in this. Robert DeNiro also plays Bradley Cooper's father, Pat Solitano Sr, who obsession with the Philadephia Eagles is another plot point. DeNiro hasn't been this good in years. I really liked him in this. It is a romantic comedy/drama but it is not done sappy like most of them. Not that there's anything wrong with some of them, if they are done well.
This was a close pick for me for Best Picture last year, but i had chosen Argo over this, by the slightest of margins.
OK, up next. my last 5 picks. hopefully SOMEONE is reading this, this is taking a long time each day to work on this. =)
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