Quickfire Reviews #1

Just a few movies I've seen recently that I think you should see/avoid. Going to do a reviews of the Marvel movies that came out this summer as soon as I get my hands on Thor next month.


The Resident - Below average thriller in which the cameraman worships practically every single part of Hilary Swank's body. Oh, and there's a bad guy too. Not worth anyone's time. 3/10

Hanna - A great performance from Saoirse Ronan. The score by The Chemical Brothers kicks ass. Story isn't the best, but extra points for the "internationality". It feels very global, I don't think much if any of it was actually filmed in the US. 8/10

The Town - Well directed, if a bit sloppy crime drama. Rebecca Hall's character is severely underwritten and she and Affleck don't really have chemistry. Jeremy Renner is very good in the movie though and the movie comes a bit more alive whenever he's on screen. 6/10

Animal Kingdom - Strong debut from director David Michod. Gritty has been overused a lot describing recent movies, but this really is gritty. No big action, but brilliant acting, old story well told. Not for the faint of heart though. 9/10

Cop Out - I don't usually review movies I've not seen all the way through, but I had to switch this off after 15 minutes. Based on that, 1/10. Just don't.

Movies and Parenting

I think it's safe to say that with the arrival of our daughter Josephine approximately ten months ago, my movie watching habits have changed dramatically. Where in the past I would be watching almost a movie a night, with more on the weekends, now it's a lot less.

I don't write this to say that I miss watching movies. I'm writing this to point out a few things that happen when you have kids in your house. Granted Josie is only ten months old at the moment, so I'm sure additions to this list will appear in the future. But so far, these are the things that I have noticed.

1. Parental Discretion

There might not be more room in hell, but the dead can't walk the earth just yet and the Terminator will have to be back after 8pm. While your baby is awake, it's going to be something kid friendly on TV. Doesn't explain why we watch reality TV though.

2. Attention

You finally got that movie you really wanted to see? And it is suitable for kids? You won't be able to watch that during the day either. You'll be playing peekaboo and have people crawling on you too much to pay attention to the movie. Rewind will be your friend. For a while anyway. Before you give up and decide to wait till baby's asleep.

3. How Long Is This Movie Anyway?

So now the baby is asleep and it's time to watch the movie. And also when you realise that the length of the movie is not the same as the time it takes to watch the movie. A movie that has a running time of 1h 30min might very well take closer to three hours to finish. With this pace Frodo's trip to Mt. Doom might very well take a week.

4. Volume

Also, when baby is asleep, you can't really have the TV blaring too loud. (Unless you live in a huge mansion where the baby sleeps in his/her own wing, then blare away.) Which can hinder your enjoyment of the movie somewhat. That Inception BRAAM! doesn't sound as impressive with the TV turned down. Which brings me to...

5. Movie-Watching Parent's Best Friend

Subtitles. That's right, kiddies. Less confusion during the movie. Everyone wins. Especially if you're watching the movie with the other parent. "What did he say?" "Something about the woman." "What about the woman, was it important?" "I don't know, I'm trying to watch the movie!" "Me too, that's why I'm asking!" Trust me, subtitles save relationships. If your movie doesn't have subtitles, save it for a time when you're alone. Which will probably be in about 18-20 years.

But these are just my observations, maybe some families are different. And as I said, I'm sure there will be things added here. I'm getting the feeling that in about five years, I'll be able to recite all of Lion King in my sleep.

Paul

What happens when geeks make a movie for geeks? It's should have everything a geek would want. And when it comes to Greg Mottola's Paul, it does have a lot of geekery in it. Written by and starring geek gods Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Paul is a road trip comedy, that pays tribute to almost everything that geeks hold dear. There's references to Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg and a lot of other things that don't start with the letter S.

Pegg and Frost star as two English guys, who are visiting the US for the San Diego Comic Con and then go on a road trip to see all the famous UFO sites in the country. Not too much later, they end up meeting Paul(voiced by Seth Rogen), an alien who has escaped captivity after 60 years and now wants to go home. The guys agree to help Paul and end up being chased by the FBI, rednecks and a weird religious guy.

The movie has a lot of credit to it. Pegg and Frost are familiar for having done Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Greg Mottola struck it big with Superbad and Seth Rogen voicing Paul was a perfect fit for the character. Adding to that, some of the funniest comedians currently working, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader et al. Sounds like the makings of a very funny movie, right?

Wrong. Well, mostly wrong anyway. There's a lot of things going for the movie. Main one of these is Paul himself. Arguably the best CGI character since Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul is not a particularly fresh take on aliens, but a very fun one. Which is good, because there's not a lot to the main characters. Neither Pegg or Frost have much to do in the movie and even during the climax of the movie, they're handing the fight to the supporting actors.

Which is where the movie shines the most. Wiig, Bateman and friends bring their best to their roles. To be fair, the supporting characters are written better than the leads, especially Wiig's character, who actually has something resembling a story arc. Bateman does his FBI agent role very well and enjoys playing something a bit against his typical role.

The main problem of the movie is that it's so much geared towards the geek community. It feels like Pegg and Frost took a bunch of classic sci-fi movie lines and built a movie around them. This comes off the most at the last half an hour of the movie, which seems to be littered with said lines. What's more, they don't do anything new with them, they just use the lines as they are and expect people to laugh just for recognizing the line.

Another problem is the tone of the movie. Going from a heartfelt scene to the easy swearing and piss jokes is kind of jarring. It feels the movie has an identity crisis at times due to this. But I have to say, the swearing in this movie is the most colourful I've heard in a while.

There's a classic alien comedy buried somewhere in Paul. It's too bad the script seems to have every idea Pegg and Frost came up thrown in there and the movie itself gets buried after tons of geek references. Added to this very lackluster main characters, and your movie is in trouble. Luckily Paul and the supporting characters save the movie somewhat and make the movie watchable. My rating for Paul: 5/10

L.A. Confidential

So back in the mid 90's, we had Entertainment Tonight playing in Finland for a while for some reason. I don't know why as most of the movies they showed on it wouldn't be coming to Finland for a while and some wouldn't make it there at all. But I remember once they had a promo for a horror movie that from the clips they showed, made me think that it would be the next Texas Chain Saw Massacre and probably the best movie ever! And then they showed another promo for some lame 50's cop movie that just couldn't be good. Made by some guy who hasn't really made a name for himself and well, it had the guy from The Usual Suspects and Seven, but that's it. Wrote it off instantly.

Well, eventually the movies came out in Finland. The horror movie ended up being I Know What You Did Last Summer, memorable only for...I forget, but it probably had something good in it. And the 50's cop movie? One of the best movies of the 90's. I have no idea how I could have been so very wrong.

L.A. Confidential is more than a sum of its parts. Directed by Curtis Hanson, whose movies before this one included A River Wild and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. Cast had Kevin Spacey, who was quite hot in Hollywood thanks to his recent Oscar win, but other than that, who were those guys? Guy Pearce? Russell Crowe? Australians playing Americans? Inconceivable!

But it all works out beautifully. Adapting from a novel by James Ellroy, Hanson and co-writer Brian Helgeland have streamlined a book that many considered unfilmable into a modern classic. From frame one you can see the movie is a labour of love for everyone involved. Everything about the movie feels authentic. And the best thing is that everyone in the movie feels like a real character. It really is a testament to the enourmous talent around this movie, from Ellroy to the screenwriters to the cast for making the movie feel like we're actually watching something happening in the 50's.

Well, except for that one exception. Kim Basinger's Lynn Bracken. For a role that won her an Oscar, she doesn't really do that much with it. I suppose you could argue that her performance is elevated by how stellar everyone else is, but that just makes her stand out like Ronald McDonald at a goth club. Could be that the award was given as a consolation prize to LA Confidential in a year where Titanic took home 11 statues. And she doesn't look anything like Veronica Lake.

Other than Kim Basinger, I can't find a single thing wrong with this movie. I keep praising the screenplay, which justifiably won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, but it is just that good. I'm sure they're reading this script at screenwriting schools on a textbook how to adapt a book into a screenplay. Jerry Goldsmith's score fits the movie like a glove, as it should, as he's a veteran of noir music, having done Chinatown's music back in the 70's.

L.A. Confidential didn't make a lot of money when it opened. In fact, I Know What You Did Last Summer ended up overgrossing it. There was a pilot for a TV show based on the movie, with Kiefer Sutherland in the Kevin Spacey role, but it was never picked up. The pilot is available on the collector's edition DVD/Blu-ray and to be honest, it's rather horrible.

Curtis Hanson followed L.A. Confidential with Wonder Boys, a brilliant and underseen comedy starring Michael Douglas and Eminem's 8 Mile, never really reaching the highs of L.A. Confidential. Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for the overrated American Beauty and seems to enjoy smaller movies and roles these days. Guy Pearce isn't as big of a name as one would hope considering his brilliant work here and in Memento, but he was last seen in The King's Speech, so things are good for him as well. Russell Crowe has become a huge name since this one and will probably be seen as the main character, the love interest and the antagonist in the next Ridley Scott movie.

L.A. Confidential is one of the smartest movies to come out Hollywood in the last 20 years. So if you haven't seen it yet, put it on your rental queue. And if you're playing L.A. Noire currently, see this movie and you'll see how much the game owes to the movie. My score for L.A. Confidential: 10/10

Interesting Movies in 2011: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

This movie kind of sneaked up on me, which in retrospect is stupid. Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson should be enough to get anyone's attention, never mind the fact that the comic itself is extremely famous around here. At least in Finland almost everyone knows who Tintin is.

But Spielberg hasn't really made a movie that I really liked in almost ten years and Peter Jackson has fumbled a lot since the Lord of the Rings movies. Added to that, doing the movie in motion capture à la Beowulf and A Christmas Carol didn't really get my hopes too high up.

But then I saw who is writing this thing. Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, each of whom have proven to be extremely skilled and faithful writers. Steven Moffat runs Sherlock and Doctor Who for BBC at the moment, Edgar Wright made the best movie of 2010 with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Joe Cornish's Attack The Block is in cinemas now! (Go see it!)

Added to that, the newly released poster and trailer make the movie look like a...well, a real Tintin movie. I'm still apprehensive about the motion capture part, but damn if this doesn't look like a lot of fun. Possibly The Adventure Movie of the Year. Too bad we have to wait until November to see if that's true.

The Greatest Movie Trilogy of All-Time (At Least Up Until Now)

There's the Godfather trilogy. Two of the greatest movies of all time and then, the third movie. Back to the Future. First movie's a classic, the second is still good, while the third has some good moments, it's mediocre at best. Indiana Jones had a trilogy until recently, so it doesn't count as a trilogy. But there's a trilogy that's better than all of these. Two absolute masterpieces and a third movie, while being the worst of the series, is still a lot of fun, and is easily one of the most quotable movies I've seen. I'm talking about The Evil Dead trilogy, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell.

Me and The Evil Dead series go back a long time. The first two movies were banned in Finland before they changed the video laws in 2001. I had the original Evil Dead on a Swedish VHS, with Swedish subtitles, and Evil Dead 2 on a Dutch tape. It gave these classic movies something extra to enjoy. Not that I'm one for languages, but the taste of the forbidden fruit tasted even better, since you knew these weren't "allowed". Army of Darkness I had on a Finnish Ex-rental tape, one that been watched almost through, but that didn't stop me watching it over and over again. But let's go through the movies one by one, starting with:

The Evil Dead

The plot is very simple. Five students drive up to an abandoned cabin in the woods, where they find The Book of the Dead, and that's obviously not very good. Gore and horror ensues.

The Evil Dead is my favourite horror movie. It's not as scary as The Exorcist or Alien, nor as epic as Dawn of the Dead, but it's not trying to beat those movies anyway. It's a small horror tale, packed with more energy than a squirrel after a 12-pack of Red Bull, especially in the latter half of the movie. The camera seems to have a life of it's own and it definitely helps to create the movie a very unique atmosphere.

This atmosphere is held perfectly throughout the movie. The characters are never fully safe. They can't go outside the cabin and while there are quieter moments in the cabin, that sense of dread never leaves you. The gore is also very inventive, probably to do with the small budget. Aside from the usual movie blood, there's milk used and I'm betting a lot of the stuff you see on screen, you'll be able to buy from your local supermarket.

There's a lot I could pick on in the movie. The acting is hardly Oscar-worthy, some of the effects are sub-par and I know a lot of people laugh at the stop-motion effects at the end of the movie, but for me all this works for the movie.

It could be the homemade feel of the movie that makes it for me. The fact that these people had only done some home movies before this and mostly were doing things with trial and error and managed to craft this brilliant horror classic. This is my desert island movie. It's not perfect, but, man, do I love every second of it. My score for The Evil Dead: 10/10

Evil Dead II

The sequel sees Bruce Campbell's Ash returning to the cabin, this time alone with his girlfriend, Linda. They find the same Book of the Dead, and the gore and horror make a return, this time with added comedy.

The movie starts with what it basically a recap of the first movie, remade with just Ash and Linda. Since they didn't have the rights to use footage from the original movie, they had to do it all over again. Which works for the movie, giving it it's own life, and not being so tied to the original.

Evil Dead II sees Raimi and company planting their tongues firmly in cheek and making a movie that has you laughing your asses off and then scaring you right after. The effects are much better this time and Evil Ed is one of coolest horror movie monsters ever created. This is not to take away from all the other great effects in the movie, created by a very young effects company at that time, KNB EFX Group, who have since grown immensely and create special effects to things like The Walking Dead and Inglourious Basterds.

It also seems that Bruce Campbell is playing a wildly different character. While it's still recognizably Ash, this time he's more arrogant and cocky, more of an action hero than he ever was in the first one. And considering the first half of the movie is basically Ash alone in the cabin, fighting the deadites, this works perfectly. Sheepy Ash from the first one wouldn't have worked and this G.I. Ash is the perfect substitute.

The movie also features the best "tool-up" scene in movie history, ending it the coolest line ever. I know this sounds like overselling it, but see for yourself, it just doesn't get better than this:

Evil Dead II has a bigger budget, though not a huge one by any standards. Everyone has upped their game this time, even the score kicks a huge amount of ass. Horror/comedies are very hard to do, and next to An American Werewolf in London(and I supposed, Ghostbusters, to a certain extent), this is the perfect example on how to do one. My rating for Evil Dead 2: 10/10

Army of Darkness

This time backed by a biggest movie studio, Universal, Army of Darkness continues directly from the end of Evil Dead II and  takes Ash into the Middle Ages to continue his fight against the Book of the Dead. Not so much gore this time, and less horror as well. But the comedy is definitely amped up, for your viewing pleasure!

Like I said before, Army of Darkness is a step down from the original two movies. This doesn't make it a bad movie at all. It just feels like a watered down version of Evil Dead II. If Evil Dead II took place in Camelot. I suspect this is due to the studio not really wanting tree-rape and flying eyeballs in their movie, and who can blame them. As brilliant as the Evil Dead movies were before, they hardly brought in tens of millions of dollars.

Wanting to bring in a new crowd for the movie, there's a definite lack of Evil Dead in the title and there's a short recap of Evil Dead II at the start(using actual footage of the movie this time). After that it's straight to the story.

And the story is a bit muddled this time. It could be because now Ash isn't stuck in a cabin for the movie and actually has stuff to do, but the plot isn't exactly the tightest of the series. Many of the setpieces work perfectly, it's just the way to them is at times a little bit off.

I don't mean to be that harsh of the movie, it's one of the most fun action/adventures I've ever seen. In fact, this is the first movie I ever watched when I got my Blu-ray player. And it's easily one of the most quotable movies ever. Even more so in for the theatrical release. If you only have seen the director's cut, then you're missing out on "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun." which is changed to "I ain't that good.". And since it has a different ending, "Hail to the King, Baby" is lost completely.

Bruce Campbell is having the time of his life as a rare lead to a major motion picture. All of Ash's tendencies have been turned up to 11 and he really goes all out to being the "loud-mouth braggart" he's said to be in the movie. Kudos to Campbell though, for still making the character sympathetic.

Army of Darkness is Evil Dead by the way of those Hercules and Xena series from the 90's, which isn't surprising since those shows were produced by Raimi and Tapert. It's a fun ride, but ultimately falls a bit short from the highs of The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. A good ending for the trilogy that could've been much better though. My rating for Army of Darkness: 8/10

Tron Legacy

So the Tron sequel finally came out on DVD and Blu-ray here in Ireland couple of weeks ago and having missed it at the theater, due to mixed reviews, I sought it out and well, it was kind of worth it.

Tron Legacy continues the story of Kevin Flynn, played again by Jeff Bridges. The movie starts in 1989 where poor Flynn looks like a living action figure, talking to his son and goes off to work and is not heard again in 20 years. Then in our present, the son now all grown up and Garrett Hedlund-shaped gets a page from his dad's old arcade. He goes to investigate and ends up in the same world that his dad was in the 80's. Although now it's all changed and is ruled by another Flynn action figure, CLU! Son Flynn must find his dad and get out before it's too late. Or something.

Tron Legacy isn't a good movie. It looks pretty. It sounds pretty. But don't let that fool you. The director, Joseph Kosinski, doesn't really know what to do with the movie and plays it rather safe. Once we get to The Grid, it's more or less Tron - The Greatest Hits with better graphics. There's the identity disc game, lightcycles and all. But what struck me as odd about this is that the otherworldly feeling of the original movie's Grid was gone. What they had done with this one is they changed the Grid into a sort of Flourescent Sin City version of our world. The lightcycles no longer do those 90 degree angle turns and everything just feels a bit off. But still very enjoyable.

Until we get to the scene where Father and Son meet again. Then the movie just stops and try as they might, it never really gets going again. There's a nice action scene in the bar afterwards, but otherwise the movie is just painfully dull and extremely obvious from then on. Garrett Hedlund just looks confused most of the movie, Jeff Bridges seems to be playing The Dude again. At least Olivia Wilde is trying to do something in a role that's woefully underwritten for a character that's supposed to be something very special in the Tron universe.

Speaking of Tron, I have to wonder if the people doing this movie actually realized why the original was called Tron. What happens to Tron in this movie definitely seems like an afterthought and is handled quite poorly, but then again, what about this movie isn't. The filmmakers had a chance here to update Tron to the modern times and audiences, but instead decided to play it safe and make a movie that plays to the Tron fanboys and doesn't have much life to it and lacks any kind of punch. Best way to enjoy Tron Legacy is just listening to the soundtrack and imagining your own Tron movie. It's bound to be better than this mess. My score for Tron Legacy: 4/10

PS: Why can I only buy the original Tron in a dualpack with Tron Legacy? That's just mean, Disney.

Three Amigos

As you know from my criminally neglected IMDb Top 250 movie challenge, there are a lot of movies I haven't seen that I maybe should have. This movie isn't on the list, but I really should've seen it ages ago. It's very 80's, it's funny as hell and is just a lot of fun.

Three Amigos is a story of three actors, who are fired from the studio they're working for and after receiving a telegram from Mexico for help, they leave for their mission, though what they think is just an acting gig, is very real.

While my plot synopsis is making the movie sound a bit different than it is, this is a very funny movie. It feels weird to have a movie from 1986 to feel refreshing, but this is a very different kind of comedy that I see these days. There's a certain innocence to these guys, which probably comes from their lack of intelligence. I also appreciated the fact that there was no forced break-up between the amigos, but that they stayed friends all through out the movie.

It's an extremely quotable movie, which makes me wonder why I haven't heard any of the jokes before. The plethora scene, the plane joke, and well, all the Amigo stuff is near legendary. I know it wasn't a box office hit, but I would've bet that all those Princess Bride and Monty Python quoters would know this one as well.

On the darker side of the sombrero, the movie feels a bit too long and the story could use some tinkering as well, but these are minor points to a laugh out loud movie that I feel is not as widely known as it should. Or maybe it's just me and been in Finland so long where I never saw this movie anywhere. My score for Three Amigos: 8/10

Bonus: My favourite scene of the movie:

Insidious

It seems now that Saw has winded down after seven movies, and they've officially announced that Paranormal Activity will have at least a third movie, it doesn't come as a huge surprise that Lionsgate had the idea to use the people from both series to come up with something more. And that more is Insidious, from the director and writer of Saw with the producers of Paranormal Activity.

James Wan and Leigh Whannell already moved from the gore-filled horror of Saw earlier with a little-seen Dead Silence which is a fun little scare movie. There are a lot of similarities between that movie and Insidious, although Insidious isn't quite as successful.

If you've seen any promos for the movie, you know it's a story about a family that think their house is haunted, but end up realizing that it's actually their comatose son who is the link between this world and the other, letting the ghosts through.

There's a lot to love in Insidious. The film actually creates a creepy atmosphere from the start and has a few quite effective scares. Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson have some chemistry together as wife and husband, and I think it's a shame these people aren't bigger names yet. Both are very good actors. Also, I liked that even though it's sold as a movie from Saw/Paranormal Activity people(and it definitely goes more for the PA audience, no gore in this one), it still has it's own identity.

This is most evident with the camera. Unlike Paranormal Activity, Insidious is a more conventional movie and it shows. James Wan's camera is very rarely still, and does some very interesting moves, sometimes to a distracting degree. It gives a feeling that Wan went for the Raimi School of Camera Tricks, but somehow it just doesn't feel very organic to the movie.

The movie scores big points from doing something audiences have yelled at the screen for every haunted house movie ever. When the hauntings start, the family actually moves out of the house. Even though this ends up being futile, it's nice to see someone out there is paying attention.

For the first two acts, the movie is very good. You care about the characters, the scares are somewhat unique and there's a very creepy atmosphere. But unfortunately the third act is where the movie goes from good to What the hell?

The explanation for the haunting is ludicrous. I realise that this is a ghost story, but suspension of disbelief only works so far. Having Lin Shaye come in and explain the whole thing in a five minute scene where everyone just sits in the living room, stops the movie in it's tracks and it never really recovers. Also, switching the protagonist halfway through the movie doesn't really work in this case. Rose Byrne is clearly the main character for the first half and is then reduced to a crying and yelling wife, while Patrick Wilson takes over the movie.

Is it worth seeing? I'd say yes, the first two acts worked gangbusters for me and even though there's a severe derail after that, it's still worth it for the start of the movie. Also the title card is gorgeous and the opening credits suitably creepy. My score for Insidious: 6/10

Interesting Movies in 2011: Attack The Block

If you follow any movie people on Twitter or Facebook, you will have heard of this movie already. Getting praises from Edgar Wright, Eli Roth et al., Attack The Block looks to be one of the best movies of the year.

Directed by Joe Cornish (of The Adam and Joe Show fame), the movie tells the story of a group of inner city youth who end up fighting invading aliens on the streets of London.

I'm very excited for the movie. It's been shown at numerous movie festivals and the everyone who has seen it is absolutely in love with it.

Attack The Block opens in the UK and Ireland May 13th. Trailer below:

Bonus: Joe Cornish's Bond Theme for Quantum of Solace, which is better than the one they used for the movie:

Movie Event of the Year!

I didn't see this coming. In retrospect, it was bound to happen. And here's the trailer for it! Though I think this is more than enough for me. I'd say enjoy, but it might seem a bit too sadistic.

IMDb Top 250: The Fighter

David O. Russell has been more of an indie movie director, with such movies as I Heart Huckabees and Flirting with Disaster. Even his war movie with George Clooney, Three Kings, wasn't the usual war movie we tend to see from Hollywood. So my hopes for The Fighter were quite high. Russell directing Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in a boxing movie. Should be something unusual and more quirky, right?

Well, it really isn't. The Fighter is a story of Micky Ward, a boxer who isn't doing very well and Dicky Eklund, Micky's brother and trainer. Set in Massachusetts and based on a true story, the movie tells a story of the two brothers inside and mostly outside of the ring.

You know, there's a reason why you hear everyone praising Christian Bale in this movie. He's definitely the main reason to see it. His Dickie is energetic, crazy and absolutely the MVP of the movie. Melissa Leo playing the boys' mother got an Oscar for her role, but I didn't think she was anything that special in the role. But I think Mark Wahlberg should get his share of the kudos given to the acting in the movie, as his portrayal of Micky keeps the movie more grounded than it would be otherwise. Just because he's not as OTT as the other character doesn't mean Wahlberg's acting is any worse than the others.

Like I said before, I'm a big fan of Russell's movies, but this one didn't really work for me. There was nothing new in the story, it's basically a retread of Rocky, but this time based in real people. And Russell's direction was very basic and understated, which I suppose works for the movie, but it doesn't give it any personality of it's own. It just feels like it's going through the motions.

Executive Producer Darren Aronofsky was originally slated to direct The Fighter, but bailed out to do Black Swan. Good choice on his part, but I can't help but wonder how much better this movie could've been if it was by Aronofsky.

For some reason The Oscars seem to love boxing movies. There's Rocky and Raging Bull, both masterpieces, but then there's Million Dollar Baby and now The Fighter as well, all nominated for Best Picture. I know they're not about boxing as such, but that's pretty good odds for boxing movies, considering how rare they are. But The Fighter definitely doesn't deserve to be on that list, no matter how good the acting in the movie is. My score for The Fighter: 6/10

PS. The Fighter isn't on the Top 250 anymore. Must've fallen off since I started doing the list. Good riddance.

IMDb Top 250: The King's Speech

The King's Speech came kind of nowhere. There wasn't huge publicity for before people actually started seeing it. That's when the hype began. Colin Firth being phenomenal, everyone should see this movie etc. Personally I thought it was funny that people were talking about a movie about a guy who couldn't talk.

Everyone knows the story of the stuttering king now, so a plot synopsis isn't really needed. For some reason this movie reminds me of Forrest Gump, except The King's Speech is about a billion times better. Maybe it's the main character's disability thing and the fact that everyone seems to love both movies.

What works for the movie the most is the characters. Colin Firth given an amazing performance as King George VI and gets to number two on my all time favourite movie stutterers list. No. 1 is still Brad Dourif in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Helena Bonham Carter proves that she actually is able to act in movies, no matter how Tim Burton is trying to show us otherwise. Geoffrey Rush also shows us that there's more to him than a pirate. If you want to see Mr. Rush at this absolute best, you should see "Shine". Brilliant movie and an excellent performance by him. Everyone in the movie is excellent, and it's always great to see Guy Pearce making an appearance.

Of course building a movie is never an easy feat, but directionwise it felt that Tom Hooper gave the stage to the actors. The movie feels like so many other British costume dramas, it sometimes feels like it's keeping the movie becoming all that it could be. The script was good as well, as it brought the human side to all the characters, and I loved that while he was actually able to give the speech at the end(spoilers!), he wasn't completely cured of the stutter as usually happens in movies.

All in all, The King's Speech is a good movie, that could be a great movie if polished a bit more. I can see why it got it's Oscars and it's definitely not the worst Best Picture winner ever. I want to see The King's Speech 2: The Adventures of Bertie and Lionel, as the movie is at it's finest with the interaction of those two. My score for The King's Speech: 7/10

Top 5 Friday #5: Favourite Remakes

These days a remake is pretty much the worst thing a movie can be. You hear it with almost every other movie, it's a remake, reimagining, retelling, remodelling, rewejustwantyourmoneying, you name it. But they're not all bad. Hell, True Grit just came up and blew the original out of the water. Granted, most of them are quick cash grabs, trying to make money off a familiar name (Looking at you here, Platinum Dunes. Good job of the new Friday the 13th, though.)

Anyway, for this weeks Top 5 Friday, I wanted to list my favourite remakes.

5. Dawn of the Dead

Coming out during the start of the remake craze, Dawn of the Dead actually breathes new life to the zombie genre (28 Days Later helped as well). Making zombies fast makes them a new kind of foe to deal with and James Gunn's script and Zack Snyder's direction made everyone go "Oh, now, it doesn't suck!"

Original is better though. Slow zombies for me, thank you.

4. (Horror of) Dracula

Hammer made it big in the UK with their version of Dracula. Christopher Lee makes for an iconic Count Dracula and Peter Cushing is the best Van Helsing ever on the silver screen. Marketed in the US as Horror of Dracula, because the Lugosi version was still going around in the cinemas at the time of release. Changes made into the story work brilliantly and for my money, this is the best version of Dracula ever made, that isn't called Nosferatu.

Also stars Michael Gough, who passed away this week at the age of 93. RIP.

3. The Fly

The original 50's The Fly is mostly remembered for the ending "Save me!" and for Vincent Price's small role. David Cronenberg's remake tops the original in every aspect. Jeff Goldblum has never been better than here, the story is heartbreaking as you care about the characters and the Best Makeup Oscar was more than well deserved. See if you can spot the director cameo in the movie.

I always thought it was funny that the movie was produced by Mel Brooks's production company. It's a long way from Blazing Saddles to The Fly.

2. A Fistful of Dollars

A remake that started a whole new movie subgenre and gave us a lot of movie legends. Though it's not the first movie for Sergio Leone or Clint Eastwood, it's basically here where their careers took off. Ennio Morricone creates an iconic movie score and everyone falls in love with a different kind of western.

A remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which is a masterpiece as well. Remade later as Last Man Standing, starring Bruce Willis. Not so much in the masterpiece category, that one.

1. The Thing

John Carpenter's masterpiece died in the box office back in 1982, thanks to Spielberg's slightly friendlier extra-terrestrial, but in the recent years The Thing has been recognized as the classic sci-fi horror movie it is. Claustrophobic, paranoia-inducing and just a great fricking movie. Excellent special effects as well, guaranteed to stick with you. A prequel/remake is coming out this year, let's see how that compares to this one. The 1951 The Thing From Another World is worth watching as well.

Ennio Morricone's haunting score was nominated for the Worst Musical Score in the Razzie Awards in 1983. It "lost" to The Pirate Movie.

And so another list comes to a close. Join me next week on the blog as I finally will review The King's Speech and The Fighter. And a new Top 5 on Friday again! What will it be? You'll find out on Friday! It's only a week from now. Now if you excuse me, I'll go and recover from St. Patrick's Day.

Uninteresting movies of 2011: Conan The Barbarian

I thought it would be fun to have a companion thing to the Interesting Movies of 2011 I have going on and go for the complete opposite, so here is Uninteresting Movies of 2011 where I list movies that I have basically no interest in at all.

First up is the new Conan The Barbarian movie. It's not because of I feel the original Schwarzenegger movie is legendary. It's not because of Basil Poledouris's kickass score will most likely stay unheard. It's because there's absolutely nothing interesting in it. Conan is played by Jason Momoa, of Baywatch and Stargate: Atlantis fame. From what I've seen of him I'm highly doubting him being able to carry a movie.

The New Conan is directed by Marcus Nispel, whose previous attempt to this genre was Pathfinder, which is better just forgotten and I'm sure most people involved in it already have.

Only good thing I can think of is Ron Perlman. But he has been in a lot...subpar movies throughout his career (Hello, Mutant Chronicles!), so I don't think he's able to save this movie either. We also have Rachel Nichols and Rose McGowan as eyecandy, but that's hardly a reason enough to go see the movie.

And if you need more convincing to stay away from this Conan, just check the new teaser trailer, laugh and go see the original movie. Trust me, it's much more worth your time.

And you can watch this for some Poledouris love:

Interesting Movies in 2011: Super 8

You remember those cool Steven Spielberg movies that we watched when we kids? E.T. and Jurassic Park? Hell, some of us even thought Hook was fun back then! Haven't had much movies like that since. Joe Dante does what he can with movies like The Hole and Small Soldiers, but there's something that only Spielberg can bring to the table when it comes to capturing a boy's life.

Only time will tell how much of Spielberg is in J.J. Abrams's Super 8, though knowing J.J., I don't think he's releasing much control of his movies to anyone. Still mostly shrouded is secrecy, although not as much as Cloverfield was back in 2009, Super 8 seems to give us that same feeling again, based on the trailer below. Also the  score on the trailer sounds a lot like old school John Williams. Sounds like another winner for Michael Giacchino.

Ps. Does anyone remember the TV show Early Edition? Kyle Chandler kicked ass in that one. When is that coming on DVD?

March Check-Up on IMDb Top 250

So a belated look into what's happening with this list. We're down to 75! I've watched six last month, most to them to catch up on the Best Picture nominees, reviews are coming later for those. Still, need to pick up the pace here. A lot of good movies there waiting for me, or so I've heard. I've got Gone With The Wind and Lawrence of Arabia waiting for me at home, but finding time for those is proving to be a bit of a challenge as well.

1. City of God (2002)
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
3. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
4. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
5. Black Swan (2010)
6. The Pianist (2002)
7. City Lights (1931)
8. The Lives of Others (2006)
9. Modern Times (1936)
10. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
11. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
12. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
14. All About Eve (1950)
15. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
16. The Great Dictator (1940)
17. Downfall (2004)
18. The Elephant Man (1980)
19. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
20. On the Waterfront (1954)
21. Rebecca (1940)
22. The Seventh Seal (1957)
23. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
24. Touch of Evil (1958)
25. Yojimbo (1961)
26. Ran (1985)
27. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
28. Wild Strawberries (1957)
29. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
30. It Happened One Night (1934)
31. Notorious (1946)
32. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
33. Gone with the Wind (1939)
34. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
35. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
36. Ben-Hur (1959)
37. The King's Speech (2010)
38. The Big Sleep (1946)
39. The Graduate (1967)
40. Amores Perros (2000)
41. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
42. The Kid (1921)
43. Ikiru (1952)
44. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
45. Gandhi (1982)
46. 8½ (1963)
47. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
48. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
49. True Grit (2010)
50. The Killing (1956)
51. La Strada (1954)
52. The 400 Blows (1959)
53. Network (1976)
54. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
55. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
56. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
57. Persona (1966)
58. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
59. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
60. 127 Hours (2010)
61. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
62. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
63. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
64. Mary and Max (2009)
65. Manhattan (1979)
66. Barry Lyndon (1975)
67. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
68. The Celebration (1998)
69. Patton (1970)
70. The Fighter (2010)
71. Roman Holiday (1953)
72. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
73. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
74. In the Mood for Love (2000)
75. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
76. Harvey (1950)
77. Crash (2004)
78. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
79. A Christmas Story (1983)
80. Three Colors: Red (1994)
81. Rope (1948)
82. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

So now it's 75 movies and 292 days. And still approximated four days per movie. Unless I'm counting that wrong. I might very well be, but I'm going by my math.

I'm back!

The blog took a little break, as you might've noticed. But that was mostly due to wedding related stress and then having some time off to actually get married and celebrate and whatnot. But now that that's over and done with(sadly), the blog is back!

There's some reviews to write, movies to look forward to and also need to catch-up on the IMDb Top 250, which will be interesting. I've seen more of them than I did in January, but still think I'm quite far away from my target. Doesn't help that DragonAge 2 just came out either.

The Oscars! They Came! They Saw! They Did Exactly What We Thought They Would!

So this award season got it's grande finale last night with the Oscars. Which means another 9-10 months of none of this award stuff and more just talk about the movies themselves. Since I had to work today, I actually missed watching the award show itself and just checked the results this morning when I woke up.

I think this Oscar season was one of the strongest ones in a while, with great movies like The Social Network, True Grit, Black Swan and Winter's Bone in there. That's not to say The King's Speech didn't deserve it's awards as it's a great movie as well, just not up to the other movies I listed there. But here we go: A list of the wins that I liked and didn't like:

LIKED:

Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in "The Fighter"

Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"

Achievement in Cinematography
"Inception," Wally Pfister

Film Editing
"The Social Network"

Makeup
"The Wolfman," Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)
"The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Sound Editing
"Inception," Richard King

Sound Mixing
"Inception," Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Visual Effects
"Inception," Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
"The Social Network," Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin


Like I thought they would, the Academy treated Inception just to the technical awards. Film Editing going to The Social Network is nice too, but it's an award that should've gone to Inception (or in a just world, to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but that's another story). Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network is one of the best scripts I've seen in years in Hollywood and definitely deserving of this win. Can't wait what he's writing next.

The Social Network's score is brilliant and slightly unusual, still would've preferred to see some How To Train Your Dragon love here as John Powell's score is pure brilliance and will undoubtedly be heard in numerous trailers and TV spots to come.

The reason I'm adding Wally Pfister's win here is because he deserved a win. Above Roger Deakins? No, but Wally's work on Inception is well worth an Academy Award. Poor Roger Deakins though. He's one of the very best in the business and now his total is 10 nominations without any wins. Where's the love, Academy? Must be some kind of a conspiracy, I'm telling you.

No surprises on the acting side of things, all the awards went to those people said they'd go to. Melissa Leo's win for Best Supporting Actress isn't here because I think it should've gone to Hailee Steinfeld. And Rick Baker won his 7th Oscar, this man is a god of makeup, couldn't have gone to a better man.

Wins I didn't like:

Best Picture
"The King's Speech," Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers

Achievement in directing
"The King's Speech," Tom Hooper

Actress in a Supporting Role
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"

Animated Feature Film
"Toy Story 3" Lee Unkrich

Achievement in Art Direction
"Alice in Wonderland"

Costume Design
"Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood

Writing (Original Screenplay)
"The King's Speech," Screenplay by David Seidler

Like I said before, I don't mind The King's Speech winning all these awards, but there were better movies this year. I would've liked to see Academy awarding something more original, like Inception for the Best Original Screenplay. I didn't think Tom Hooper's direction was near the level of all the other nominees this year, maybe for the expection of David O. Russell. And Best Picture of the year for me from these nominees was The Social Network, plain and simple. But I guess Harvey Weinstein still knows how to campaign his movies for Oscars. Still, nowhere near the disaster win of "Crash" or "Shakespeare in Love" proportions.

Alice in Wonderland doesn't deserve anything except to be forgotten. A useless movie if there ever was one. I mentioned the Melissa Leo win earlier. I don't think she was bad in the role, it's just wasn't anything new and Hailee was just magnificent in True Grit. Hopefully she'll be able to find roles that'll work for her as well in the future.

And I think Toy Story 3 won just for being Toy Story 3. It's a fun movie, but it feels like a lesser movie that the previous ones. How To Train Your Dragon, while not being the freshest story in the world, is able to create it's own world, making every child (and most of the parents) want their own dragon. And it really does have a kick-ass score.

The rest of the awards I'm not well enough aware to say anything about. It's nice to see Denmark winning Best Foreign Language movie over Biutiful, which I hear is breath-taking. Will catch both when I get the chance.

So like I said before, the award season is over. But as the cliche goes, it's not the amount of awards your movie gets that makes it worthwhile. It's all about the money, anyway. Or art. Yes, that sounds better. It's all about the art.

IMDb Top 250: 127 Hours

Danny Boyle hasn't been tied down to a specific genre with his movies. Starting with Shallow Grave, there's been comedy, horror, sci-fi and kids movie, leading up to the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. And now he comes out with his best since Trainspotting and maybe even topping it with 127 Hours.

Aron Ralston (James Franco) goes climbing around the canyons in Utah, when an accident gets his arm stuck between a boulder and the canyon wall. The movie shows the time he spent stuck in here, no prizes for guessing how long it was.

Considering everyone talks about this movie as "The One Where He Cuts His Arm Off", it's quite surprising that the movie spends about two minutes of running time on that. So if you were expecting to see Saw 127: Boulder Bash, this isn't for you.

James Franco is brilliant in the movie as Aron. He's an actor made the excellent Pineapple Express the classic it is and here's he's finally getting to shine as the leading man. The movie spends about 10-15 minutes of running time to get to know Aron before he's stuck, so the audience has an idea who this guy is and is willing to go through this ordeal with him.

What's brilliant about the movie is that it's so life-affirming. Once Aron manages to cut his arm off and he's free, the viewer shares his feeling. There's a rush that one gets from this movie that I can't really describe in a better way than saying it feels like life. I know that's incredibly corny way of putting it, but it definitely gave a boost for me. Kudos to Franco and Boyle and above all to the real Aron Ralston who survived the 127 hours, wrote a book about it and went back to where it all happened to help these guys make the movie. Incredible man. My rating: 9/10

IMDB Top 250: Black Swan

Like many people, I became aware of Darren Aronofsky with Requiem For A Dream, which is still one of the hardest movies to watch that I've ever seen. I've been a fan ever since and after seeing The Fountain, I pretty much worship on the altar of Aronofsky. And while I appreciated The Wrestler for what it is, it didn't get to me the same way his earlier work did, so I was more than a little apprehensive about Black Swan, which was sold to me as "the ballet version of The Wrestler."

There are some definite similarities, most obvious with the camera behind the main character, which started in The Wrestler. Also both movies involve worlds that are not that familiar to the average viewer, the worlds of wrestling and ballet. But whatever the similarities are, Black Swan is definitely better than it's predecessor in every way.

Black Swan is the story of Nina, a ballerina who gets the lead role in Swan Lake" as she's perfect for the role of the White Swan. But when the role requires her to become the Black Swan, Nina's mind starts to play tricks on her.

Make no mistake about it, this is definitely a horror movie. Aronofsky has studied his Polanski, Cronenberg and Argento very well. Building Nina's paranoia and her delusions are brilliantly done and feature some of the more disgusting effects this year (This year already has the eww-factor very high with this and 127 Hours). The way the movie plays with shadows and the constant feel of "there's something not quite right going on" makes the experience much more rewarding as we watch Nina's journey.

Speaking of Nina, Natalie Portman is a definite lock for the Best Actress Oscar. She plays every part of her role perfectly and as she's in every scene of the movie playing one of the more challenging roles I've seen in a while, it's no miracle this has been hailed the performance of the year. Though I have to admit, I'm a bit saddened that all the hype and glory goes to Portman, as I feel Vincent Cassel deserves recognition for his role as well. As the director of the ballet, you're never really quite sure what his aim is and he plays right on the edge of being a sleaze or a brilliant director.

It's great to see a horror movie nominated for Best Picture, which hasn't happened since Silence of the Lambs. While I don't think Black Swan will win that category, at least Natalie Portman will be recognized as Best Actress. Definitely one of the best movies of the year so far. My Rating: 9/10

Top 5 Friday #4: Romantic Movies

It's that time of the year again when we're supposed to buy our significant others roses and cards, because Hallmark doesn't make enough money as it is and the single people will complain how shallow it all is. But a gift that keeps on giving is a movie. At least if it's a good one. And following here are five movies that are perfect for Valentine's Day. I know you all have your favourites, but there's only so many times you can watch Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally. So maybe this year, try one of the following:


5. Brief Encounter

A classic love story from the 40's. David Lean adapts Noel Coward's story perfectly and there's no dry seat in the house at the end of it.

4. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

A modern classic. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have never been better and Charlie Kaufman won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar deservedly. It's a love movie that can mess your mind up a bit. I don't think there's a word for a romantic mindfuck movie. Lovefuck just sounds like something completely different.

3. Once

An Irish love story, with brilliant music. Another deserved Oscar win, for Best Song this time. Also, probably the only movie ever during which I'll be able to say "Oh, I've been there!".

2. The Fountain

Darren Aronofsky's story of love and death which spans over a thousand years. Utterly spellbinding and extremely powerful. Clint Mansell's score fits the movie like a glove and still gives me goosebumps even after having listened to it dozens of times.



1. The Apartment

For a lesser director, this would be their masterpiece. But for Billy Wilder, it's one among his many masterpieces. Even though it's made in the 60's, it has a timeless feel to it and Jack Lemmon is just brilliant in it.


Sure, all these might not be the lovey-doviest (not a real word, I know) romance movies, but they're all brilliant and well worth your time.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day. Well, early Valentine's Day. Can you wish people Happy Valentine's Day early? I know it's bad luck for birthdays. Just to be safe, don't read this last part until Monday. Cheers.

Kiss Kiss Stark Stark?

So this is exciting. According to Hollywood Reporter, Shane Black is in talks to direct Iron Man 3. Jon Favreau said goodbye to the franchise after almost everyone was dissappointed in Iron Man 2(I really like it, though I haven't watched it since the theater).

But Shane Black is very interesting news. His Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the best movie of 2005 and he's written some classic Hollywood action movies such as Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. Plus he's got some acting experience from a little movie called Predator.

This is brilliant news, if Black actually gets the job. Having worked with Robert Downey Jr. before, I'm sure he's able to write Tony Stark to suit Downey perfectly and the action beats should be good as well, definitely better than in the original Iron Man. And as Robert Downey Jr has approval over the new director, I think this has a chance to actually coming to fruition. I, for one, can't wait.

Musical Moment #2: The New Pornographers - Moves

I'm a big fan of The New Pornographers, have been for a few years now, and I wanted to share this with you guys.

There's a new video for The New Pornographers' song Moves that came out recently. See if you can spot all the cameos from comedians in the video. 

Paul Rudd and Bill Hader don't count. Sorry guys. Don't know if I'm happy or sad that that's a fake trailer.

IMDb Top 250: Crash

And here we are again with another movie I've seen from the IMDb Top 250, this time it's Paul Haggis's Crash, the Best Picture Academy Award winner from 2004. It's the second time Paul's work is on this list, as we wrote Million Dollar Baby, for which he was nominated for an Oscar as well. As you might recall, I wasn't the biggest fan of Million Dollar Baby, so let's see if Crash fares any better.

Crash has about everyone from Hollywood acting in it and it has multiple storylines that weave into each other during the movie, all about racism.

But it's just not any good. I know the movie thinks it's good. There's good acting in it. There's a hint of something better in there as well, but it all dies in the script again. None of the characters seem real or relatable and they're all there to serve the story, which is some movies works, but not here where these people are supposed to represent the viewer. Every character is a stereotype and because the movie is spread between 21000 different characters, we don't really care about any of the characters.

Also the movie doesn't have anything else to say than "Racism is bad and we're all a little racist sometimes." Every character in the movie does something bad or says something bad about another race. Oh, except for Michael Pena, who is downright angelic compared to everyone else in the movie. Of course people change in the movie, it wouldn't be a Hollywood movie otherwise, but again, like I said before, none of changes come from the characters themselves, it's just that they're at that point of the script.

So, good acting, mostly anyway, but a bad bad movie. The worst Best Picture winner I have seen. I don't think this movie will be in the IMDb Top 250 for very much longer, and that's a good thing. My Rating for Crash: 4/10

And with that, we've purged the list of Mr. Haggis. Things are looking up already.

Top 5 Friday #3: Reasons to Love Thomas Jane

Have had a bit of a busier week this week, so haven't updated as much as I would've wanted to. But here we are again with this Friday's Top 5. Going to leave the romantic stuff for next Friday. This week we look quickly into the life of Thomas Jane, or more accurately, his career and why he's awesome.


5. Jonah Hex


He wanted to play Jonah Hex in the Justin Hayward movie, but the role went eventually to Josh Brolin. Movie turned out to be total crap, so bullet dodged there (That's not to say Jane hasn't done his share of crappy movies). Thomas Jane got a consolation price when he was cast to do the voice for Jonah Hex in a DC animated short, which is actually quite brilliant. Definitely worth checking out.



4. Scott Pilgrim's Vegan Police


I know, the movie's very recent, but I have to mention it here and spoil the cameo. Jane does a brilliant cameo in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World with Clifton Collins Jr.

3. "I Just Want My Kids Back!"

Well, this one just speaks for itself. Arrested Development should be on your to-watch list.

2. The Mist

Brilliant horror movie from Frank Darabont, based on Stephen King's novella. Definitely in the Top 5 Stephen King adaptations(that gives me an idea...)

1. The Punisher.

A review of this is coming up. My favourite Punisher movie by far, mostly because of Thomas Jane's perfect portayal of the comic book "hero".

Obviously there's tons of other reasons to love him, but these are the first that came to mind. You should also check out Stander, Hung and Deep Blue Sea and you can see him also in Boogie Nights and Face/Off. But please, stay away from Mutant Chronicles and Dreamcatcher(though I kinda have a sweet spot for this one, even though it's very bad).

That's it for this list. I know it's kind of short and there's only three videos, but I'll make it up to you guys next week with a better list and more stuff on the blog, so keep your eyes on this page! It's gonna be brilliant.

February Check-Up on IMDb Top 250

And it's not looking good. We're down to only 81, which means I only watched one of the Top 250 movies I hadn't seen yet! This is bad, need to increase the tempo a little bit. Here's what the list looks like now.

1. City of God (2002)
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
3. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
4. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
5. Black Swan (2010)
6. The Pianist (2002)
7. City Lights (1931)
8. The Lives of Others (2006)
9. Modern Times (1936)
10. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
11. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
12. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
14. All About Eve (1950)
15. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
16. The Great Dictator (1940)
17. Downfall (2004)
18. The Elephant Man (1980)
19. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
20. On the Waterfront (1954)
21. Rebecca (1940)
22. The Seventh Seal (1957)
23. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
24. Touch of Evil (1958)
25. Yojimbo (1961)
26. Ran (1985)
27. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
28. Wild Strawberries (1957)
29. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
30. It Happened One Night (1934)
31. Notorious (1946)
32. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
33. Gone with the Wind (1939)
34. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
35. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
36. Ben-Hur (1959)
37. The King's Speech (2010)
38. The Big Sleep (1946)
39. The Graduate (1967)
40. Amores Perros (2000)
41. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
42. The Kid (1921)
43. Ikiru (1952)
44. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
45. Gandhi (1982)
46. 8½ (1963)
47. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
48. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
49. True Grit (2010)
50. The Killing (1956)
51. La Strada (1954)
52. The 400 Blows (1959)
53. Network (1976)
54. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
55. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
56. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
57. Persona (1966)
58. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
59. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
60. 127 Hours (2010)
61. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
62. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
63. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
64. Mary and Max (2009)
65. Manhattan (1979)
66. Barry Lyndon (1975)
67. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
68. The Celebration (1998)
69. Patton (1970)
70. The Fighter (2010)
71. Roman Holiday (1953)
72. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
73. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
74. In the Mood for Love (2000)
75. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
76. Harvey (1950)
77. Crash (2004)
78. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
79. A Christmas Story (1983)
80. Three Colors: Red (1994)
81. Rope (1948)
82. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

81 movies, 332 days. That's 4 days per movie, so I need to see at least two per week. That can be done. 

Slappin' Da Bass with Rush!

I Love You, Man is one of my feel-good movies, I've seen it more times than I care to admit. So waking up this morning to this was a real treat to me and I couldn't help but share it! You can go to Funny or Die to view to see the clip in question.

Meanwhile, here's some Rush for you guys:

RIP: John Barry 1933-2011

One of the greatest composers has passed away. I don't have the words, so I'm going to be bad and just link you to the Guardian's article on him.

Here's a few of his "greatest hits":

Main Theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service:

Main Theme from The Black Hole:

Rest in peace, John and thanks for the tunes.

The Hole

Joe Dante doesn't get enough credit for what he does. He's brilliant with kids and knows what works for a kid. From Gremlins to the underrated Matinee, he's able to perfectly capture childhood and suburban life. And now he's back with his first feature-length movie since 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action with The Hole.

The Hole is a story of two brothers who find a hole on the floor of the basement of the new house they just moved in. Once they look into the hole, they find out what really scares them.

It's a horror movie for kids and teens, which means no blood and guts, no tits, sex, drugs, etc. But it definitely freaked me out. While the movie suffers from the "wooden lead syndrome"(yeah, that's you, Chris Massoglia, also the lead in The Vampire's Assistant), it does play on fears that are very common and very relatable, especially to us who grew up with Poltergeist and Stephen King's It. Yeah, there's a puppet clown in the movie, which scared the hell out of me at least. Worth mentioning is also that the puppet is the closest thing Dante has gotten to Gremlins since the 1990 movie.

Like I mentioned, the acting isn't this movies strong suit, but it's easy to forgive some bad acting for the scares and the intensity of some of the scenes, especially at the end of the movie. At times the movie feels like an extended episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a show that I loved as a kid or even Eerie, Indiana, Dante's own "weird shit happening around kids" show.

The question is though, if the movie got to me, would I show it to my own child? Yeah, I think I would, at around the age of 11-12. Who knows, maybe she'll be able to calm me down when I start getting scared. My rating for The Hole 7/10.

PS. Joe Dante is involved with one of the best websites available. Go to Trailers From Hell and see great old Sci-Fi and Horror trailers with commentaries from such people as Joe Dante himself, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, John Landis and many many more! You'll be stuck there for hours, but it really is worth it.