Maybe it's just me, but is there ever a time where you're watching a movie, and you're on the edge of your seat to see what happens next? I'm not talking about suspense movies like Silence of the Lambs or Porky's. You're just completely fascinated by what you're watching. That is Slumdog Millionaire.
A guy from the streets of Bombay, India gets on their version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and knows all the answers because of his past life experiences. It uses flashbacks to show how he knows the answers to all the questions. Also, he's searching for the girl he's loved his entire life.
It's funny, sad, inspirational, dramatic, shocking, foreign, awesome and fantastic. Watch it.
5 out of 5 musketeers.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Network
Wow. You really need to see this movie. I wish I could write stuff like this.
Basically, a network news anchor looses his mind and starts ranting during his live newscast. Cursing and what-not. At first, the network yanks him, but then they realize that the show is getting awesome ratings, so they keep him on. That pretty much sums up the plot.
The best thing about this movie? There are like 12 different 5 minute monologues. FANTASTIC writing on these and some pretty damn good acting. For some of them, I was just sitting there like an idiot with my mouth hanging open. It's very difficult to describe because there are A LOT of subjects covered during these scenes. You really just have to watch it.
I know there are people who don't like some older movies because they get dated. This movie was made in 1976 so, since it's about television of that time, you would think that a good portion of the scenarios wouldn't be applicable today, but that's really not the case. It validates the idea that people will watch anything, and we're all a bunch of retards. Not a very inspiring movie, but very potent and incisive.
The acting was exceptional in this one. Faye Dunaway, William Holden (wow), Peter Finch, Robert Duval and Ned Beatty all should have been nominated for Oscars in my opinion.
Overall, a great movie if you're in the mood for a thinking, dramatic type flick. The ending is a little over the top, but it goes well with the idea of the movie.
Final ranking: 4 out of 5 "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"'s
Basically, a network news anchor looses his mind and starts ranting during his live newscast. Cursing and what-not. At first, the network yanks him, but then they realize that the show is getting awesome ratings, so they keep him on. That pretty much sums up the plot.
The best thing about this movie? There are like 12 different 5 minute monologues. FANTASTIC writing on these and some pretty damn good acting. For some of them, I was just sitting there like an idiot with my mouth hanging open. It's very difficult to describe because there are A LOT of subjects covered during these scenes. You really just have to watch it.
I know there are people who don't like some older movies because they get dated. This movie was made in 1976 so, since it's about television of that time, you would think that a good portion of the scenarios wouldn't be applicable today, but that's really not the case. It validates the idea that people will watch anything, and we're all a bunch of retards. Not a very inspiring movie, but very potent and incisive.
The acting was exceptional in this one. Faye Dunaway, William Holden (wow), Peter Finch, Robert Duval and Ned Beatty all should have been nominated for Oscars in my opinion.
Overall, a great movie if you're in the mood for a thinking, dramatic type flick. The ending is a little over the top, but it goes well with the idea of the movie.
Final ranking: 4 out of 5 "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"'s
Monday, March 2, 2009
Listing to the extreme
Wow. I haven't written on this blog in a minute. I suck. I guess it's hard for me to actually write a real review of a movie since you kind of have to do a synopsis as well as say how much you liked the film or not. I'd rather have a 2-way (or 3-way) discussion of the movie, or just say it was awesome or it sucked. So, until I see the movie that muses me into a full-on review, I'm just gonna make an obscure list for now.
Top 10 Movies to Watch When You Need Inspiration (topical, huh?!?):
Disclaimer: A semi-majority of these are sports movies. They just show that whole "Overcoming the odds" thing more than any other genre in my opinion.
10. Amadeus - This is a bit of a strange pick. It's mostly a movie about vengeance. But, for some reason, the music scenes in this always give me the goose pimples and make me want to create something as moving as Mozart's concertos. I never listen to opera or classical music, but if this is on, I'll crank it til the rafters are shaking.
- "Forgive me majesty, I am a vulgar man. But I assure you my music is not."
9. Stand and Deliver/Lean on Me - Had to group these together because of their proximity of time and plot. Morgan Freeman and Eddie James Almos are the kind of teachers we always wanted in school.
- "Hey Kimo, you proud of me? I'm the first dude here! What's calcoolus?"
8. Rocky - If you go to Philly and don't run up those steps, you're either lazy, or in a wheelchair. or both.
- "You stop this fight, I'll kill ya'!"
7. Miracle - Probably the least "well-made" movie on this list. It's about the greatest upset in the history of sports in one of the most exciting sports in the world.
- "Do you believe in miracles!?!? YES!!"
6. Field of Dreams - One of 3 movies that makes me cry every single time I watch the stupid thing.
- "Hey Dad! Wanna have a catch?" (I'll be back in a second. Lemme get some tissue.)
5. Cool Hand Luke - Paul Newman was my all time favorite actor and I think this was my favorite character he ever played.
- "Yeah, well, sometimes nothin can be a real cool hand."
4. Lawrence of Arabia - If you have nothing to do for 4 hours, you won't be disappointed. How Peter O'Toole didn't win an Oscar for this, I'll never know.
- "Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are."
3. Hoosiers - Maybe the ultimate David/Goliath movie. Based in the intense world of Indiana small-town basketball.
- "You have special talent, a gift. Not the school's, not the townspeople, not the team's, not Myra Fleener's, not mine. It's yours, to do with what you choose. Because that's what I believe, I can tell you this: I don't care if you play on the team or not.?
2. Gladiator/Braveheart - Wow. Some people are gonna be really pissed that I lumped these together like this (Cat). I don't want this to come off as dismissive of one verses the other, but it's hard for me to decide which is better. Both guys had their families murdered, both rose above what anyone thought they could achieve, both had Australian leading men (one playing a Scotsman and one playing a Spaniard), both were total badasses and if you watched both movies back-to-back, it would take 54 hours. I might give Gladiator the edge because of the hindsight of Mel Gibson being insane. But that crazy guy in Braveheart was Irish, so I don't know.
- "At my signal, unleash Hell."
- "In order to converse with his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God."
1. Shawshank Redemption - This isn't even up for debate in my book. Anyone who's seen this and isn't smiling or crying at the end is not allowed to have a soul anymore.
- "Get busy livin or get busy dyin.....that's goddamn right."
Top 10 Movies to Watch When You Need Inspiration (topical, huh?!?):
Disclaimer: A semi-majority of these are sports movies. They just show that whole "Overcoming the odds" thing more than any other genre in my opinion.
10. Amadeus - This is a bit of a strange pick. It's mostly a movie about vengeance. But, for some reason, the music scenes in this always give me the goose pimples and make me want to create something as moving as Mozart's concertos. I never listen to opera or classical music, but if this is on, I'll crank it til the rafters are shaking.
- "Forgive me majesty, I am a vulgar man. But I assure you my music is not."
9. Stand and Deliver/Lean on Me - Had to group these together because of their proximity of time and plot. Morgan Freeman and Eddie James Almos are the kind of teachers we always wanted in school.
- "Hey Kimo, you proud of me? I'm the first dude here! What's calcoolus?"
8. Rocky - If you go to Philly and don't run up those steps, you're either lazy, or in a wheelchair. or both.
- "You stop this fight, I'll kill ya'!"
7. Miracle - Probably the least "well-made" movie on this list. It's about the greatest upset in the history of sports in one of the most exciting sports in the world.
- "Do you believe in miracles!?!? YES!!"
6. Field of Dreams - One of 3 movies that makes me cry every single time I watch the stupid thing.
- "Hey Dad! Wanna have a catch?" (I'll be back in a second. Lemme get some tissue.)
5. Cool Hand Luke - Paul Newman was my all time favorite actor and I think this was my favorite character he ever played.
- "Yeah, well, sometimes nothin can be a real cool hand."
4. Lawrence of Arabia - If you have nothing to do for 4 hours, you won't be disappointed. How Peter O'Toole didn't win an Oscar for this, I'll never know.
- "Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are."
3. Hoosiers - Maybe the ultimate David/Goliath movie. Based in the intense world of Indiana small-town basketball.
- "You have special talent, a gift. Not the school's, not the townspeople, not the team's, not Myra Fleener's, not mine. It's yours, to do with what you choose. Because that's what I believe, I can tell you this: I don't care if you play on the team or not.?
2. Gladiator/Braveheart - Wow. Some people are gonna be really pissed that I lumped these together like this (Cat). I don't want this to come off as dismissive of one verses the other, but it's hard for me to decide which is better. Both guys had their families murdered, both rose above what anyone thought they could achieve, both had Australian leading men (one playing a Scotsman and one playing a Spaniard), both were total badasses and if you watched both movies back-to-back, it would take 54 hours. I might give Gladiator the edge because of the hindsight of Mel Gibson being insane. But that crazy guy in Braveheart was Irish, so I don't know.
- "At my signal, unleash Hell."
- "In order to converse with his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God."
1. Shawshank Redemption - This isn't even up for debate in my book. Anyone who's seen this and isn't smiling or crying at the end is not allowed to have a soul anymore.
- "Get busy livin or get busy dyin.....that's goddamn right."
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Greatest movie year ever?
We were having a talk at work and somehow we got onto the subject of Police Academy. Don't as me how. Anyway, we were all sitting around trying to think of the names of all the characters in the movie, so I did what I always do in those situations, I went to Wikipedia. It turns out, Police Academy was the 6th highest grossing movie of 1984 behind: 1. Beverly Hills Cop, 2. Ghostbusters, 3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 4. Gremlins, and 5. The Karate Kid. Now THAT'S a stout lineup of movies to come out in just one year. I did a little bit of digging and found some other classics that came out that year. Check this:
Amadeus won the Oscar for best picture. This is a fantastic film and probly in my top20 all time.
Bachelor Party and Splash came out. This is where Tom Hanks really hit his stride.
Apparently, and this isn't just from wikipedia, both Breakin' AND Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo came out this year. Has a movie and it's sequel ever been released in the same year?!? This is crazy!!
I can't even describe the rest in detail, the list is just to long. Here you go:
Children of the Corn, Footloose, Hot Dog...The Movie, Johnny Dangerously (under-rated), The Last Starfighter, Missing in Action, The Natural (top 5 all-time sports movie), The Neverending Story, Nightmare on Elm Street, Purple Rain, Red Dawn, Revenge of the Nerds, Romancing the Stone, Sixteen Candles, Starman, The Terminator, This is Spinal Tap and Top Secret!
Good Lord, that is one helluva list. I don't think I would have left the theaters in 1984 if I hadn't been learning to break graham crackers along the dotted line in kindergarten. Add to this the fact that actors like James Mason and Richard Burton, considered 2 of the Best. Actors. Ever. by basically everyone, died that year, and you have quite a historic time in film.
I have to do a bit more research before I proclaim 1984 as the greatest year ever in film history, but there better be some serious competition if it's gonna beat this list.
Amadeus won the Oscar for best picture. This is a fantastic film and probly in my top20 all time.
Bachelor Party and Splash came out. This is where Tom Hanks really hit his stride.
Apparently, and this isn't just from wikipedia, both Breakin' AND Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo came out this year. Has a movie and it's sequel ever been released in the same year?!? This is crazy!!
I can't even describe the rest in detail, the list is just to long. Here you go:
Children of the Corn, Footloose, Hot Dog...The Movie, Johnny Dangerously (under-rated), The Last Starfighter, Missing in Action, The Natural (top 5 all-time sports movie), The Neverending Story, Nightmare on Elm Street, Purple Rain, Red Dawn, Revenge of the Nerds, Romancing the Stone, Sixteen Candles, Starman, The Terminator, This is Spinal Tap and Top Secret!
Good Lord, that is one helluva list. I don't think I would have left the theaters in 1984 if I hadn't been learning to break graham crackers along the dotted line in kindergarten. Add to this the fact that actors like James Mason and Richard Burton, considered 2 of the Best. Actors. Ever. by basically everyone, died that year, and you have quite a historic time in film.
I have to do a bit more research before I proclaim 1984 as the greatest year ever in film history, but there better be some serious competition if it's gonna beat this list.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Just One of the Guys
OK, I've been pretty lazy about posting stuff, so I think I came up with a way to keep up with this movie blog thing. Since I go to trivia every Monday night and there are always 2 questions about movies, I'm gonna start doing a review of one of the movies the questions are based on. (Lesley, if you want me to review a movie, make up a question about it) Last nights choices are St. Elmo's Fire and Flight of the Navigator. (Do you feel it? I'm getting warm. I think I've got... 80'S FEVER!!) Since both of these are pretty crappy, but sentimental 80's movies, I figured I'd skip them and do a full-out review of my all-time favorite crappy 80's teen movie, Just One of the Guys.
A few notes about this movie before we start:
1. This was the first movie where I saw bare breasts. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
2. Billy Zabka plays the high school bully. He was Johnny in the Karate Kid. Fantastic 80's bad guy.
3. Billy Jayne plays sex-crazed little brother Buddy. Buddy is quite possibly my all time favorite character in a movie. I'm not kidding. He's up there with Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Christopher Walken as the Archangel Gabriel and Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear. Billy Jayne is a comedy god.
OK, Terry Griffith is a popular high schooler who aspires to be a great writer, but she's not getting the respect she thinks she deserves. Everyone tells her she should think about doing something else, like be a model. She thinks that her writing isn't getting merit because she's a girl. What to do in this situation? Change schools, pretend to be a guy, profit. So she changes schools and becomes friends with Rick, a loner/none-to-popular guy who she sees potential in. Long story short, she begins to like him, makes him over and soon falls in love. At the end of the movie she professes her love, he thinks she's a gay guy, she flashes her boobs to show she's a girl, they live happily ever after. Whoopie!
The real story here is Buddy. Buddy is obsessed with sex, hey he's 15. I can't even begin to list how many Buddy scenes make me laugh out loud. No exageration, I think I laugh every time he's on the screen. Watch this movie for Buddy. If you've been to high school, you won't be disappointed.
Final score: 5 out of 5 sexually confused aspiring writers.
A few notes about this movie before we start:
1. This was the first movie where I saw bare breasts. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
2. Billy Zabka plays the high school bully. He was Johnny in the Karate Kid. Fantastic 80's bad guy.
3. Billy Jayne plays sex-crazed little brother Buddy. Buddy is quite possibly my all time favorite character in a movie. I'm not kidding. He's up there with Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Christopher Walken as the Archangel Gabriel and Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear. Billy Jayne is a comedy god.
OK, Terry Griffith is a popular high schooler who aspires to be a great writer, but she's not getting the respect she thinks she deserves. Everyone tells her she should think about doing something else, like be a model. She thinks that her writing isn't getting merit because she's a girl. What to do in this situation? Change schools, pretend to be a guy, profit. So she changes schools and becomes friends with Rick, a loner/none-to-popular guy who she sees potential in. Long story short, she begins to like him, makes him over and soon falls in love. At the end of the movie she professes her love, he thinks she's a gay guy, she flashes her boobs to show she's a girl, they live happily ever after. Whoopie!
The real story here is Buddy. Buddy is obsessed with sex, hey he's 15. I can't even begin to list how many Buddy scenes make me laugh out loud. No exageration, I think I laugh every time he's on the screen. Watch this movie for Buddy. If you've been to high school, you won't be disappointed.
Final score: 5 out of 5 sexually confused aspiring writers.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Sweeny Todd
OK, prepare for lots of singing.
This flick was twisted, as are all of Tim Burton's movies. However, this was his first foray into musicals. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the movie, but damn, do you have to sing so friggin much?
You know the story. Sweeny Todd was a great barber in England until he got arrested on some trumped up charges so a judge could take his wife. So he decided to kill a lot of people and use their flesh to make meat pies. Same old story, right?
I TRULY liked this movie, but I've seen a lot of musicals. NONE of them had as much singing as this one. There is barely any dialogue. Johnny Depp is great. Helena Bohnam Carter is great. Alan Rickman is great. Ali G is great. But really....do you have to sing so much?
So, if you like musicals, this one's right up your alley. If you don't, you'll probably still like it cause Tim Burton is awesome.
Overall score: 4 out of 5 slit throats.
This flick was twisted, as are all of Tim Burton's movies. However, this was his first foray into musicals. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the movie, but damn, do you have to sing so friggin much?
You know the story. Sweeny Todd was a great barber in England until he got arrested on some trumped up charges so a judge could take his wife. So he decided to kill a lot of people and use their flesh to make meat pies. Same old story, right?
I TRULY liked this movie, but I've seen a lot of musicals. NONE of them had as much singing as this one. There is barely any dialogue. Johnny Depp is great. Helena Bohnam Carter is great. Alan Rickman is great. Ali G is great. But really....do you have to sing so much?
So, if you like musicals, this one's right up your alley. If you don't, you'll probably still like it cause Tim Burton is awesome.
Overall score: 4 out of 5 slit throats.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Mystery, Alaska
I'm constantly on all the sports websites reading about how my backup fantasy quarterback tripped in his driveway while getting the paper and is on injured reserve for the next 3 months. One article that pops up about once every 6 months is the topic of sports movies and how the all-time great one's rank. (espn is especially frequent with these articles, since they're owned by Disney and they put out a new sports movie every 11 seconds) So I though my next review would be about a sports movie I really like, but doesn't get much play in these discussions, Mystery, Alaska.
Mystery is a tiny town in northern Alaska that basically has 1 thing going for it. Every Saturday, the entire town gets together and watches the more athletic citizens participate in a pick-up hockey game entitled "The Saturday Game". Catchy, huh? Well, the guys who play in the game are really good. I mean, they've played basically every day for their entire lives. You know, like Canadians. So the town really takes this game seriously, they aren't playing around. One day, a former member of the town (Hank Azaria, the dude who did a bunch of voices on the Simpsons), who wrote an article about The Saturday Game in Sports Illustrated, comes home and informs them that he's set up a scrimmage with none other than the New York Rangers. Of course, the whole town goes nuts. More so than normal.
Russell Crowe turns in a pretty good performance as the town sheriff/passing defenseman. (I do give the guy a bit of a mulligan here. He's from Australia. Don't think they do much ice skating down under). And the legendary Burt Reynolds plays the judge/coach, pretty damn good job by him as well. One of my favorite performances is the cameo by Mike Myers, who plays a crazy Canadian hockey analyst.
Anyway, I'm not putting this up there with Hoosiers or Field of Dreams or anything, but it's a good, solid sports flick. It's funny, dramatic, the sports scenes are pretty good and it's got that whole David vs. Goliath thing going.
Final score: 3 3/4 out of 5 of Steve Yzerman's missing teeth.
Mystery is a tiny town in northern Alaska that basically has 1 thing going for it. Every Saturday, the entire town gets together and watches the more athletic citizens participate in a pick-up hockey game entitled "The Saturday Game". Catchy, huh? Well, the guys who play in the game are really good. I mean, they've played basically every day for their entire lives. You know, like Canadians. So the town really takes this game seriously, they aren't playing around. One day, a former member of the town (Hank Azaria, the dude who did a bunch of voices on the Simpsons), who wrote an article about The Saturday Game in Sports Illustrated, comes home and informs them that he's set up a scrimmage with none other than the New York Rangers. Of course, the whole town goes nuts. More so than normal.
Russell Crowe turns in a pretty good performance as the town sheriff/passing defenseman. (I do give the guy a bit of a mulligan here. He's from Australia. Don't think they do much ice skating down under). And the legendary Burt Reynolds plays the judge/coach, pretty damn good job by him as well. One of my favorite performances is the cameo by Mike Myers, who plays a crazy Canadian hockey analyst.
Anyway, I'm not putting this up there with Hoosiers or Field of Dreams or anything, but it's a good, solid sports flick. It's funny, dramatic, the sports scenes are pretty good and it's got that whole David vs. Goliath thing going.
Final score: 3 3/4 out of 5 of Steve Yzerman's missing teeth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)