100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2009.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Still way off my pace from last year; I've spent more time watching TV series on DVD lately.


14. Stephen King's The Shining. Not the Kubrick version, but the King-scripted TV miniseries starring Rebecca DeMornay and Steven Weber. The five- or six-hour length doesn't help it much, though for TV it's reasonably well done. Some inexplicable new scenes added, and others deleted. Much more literal than the Kubrick version -- and in fact, more literal than the book as well. I thought Weber's casting as Jack would work better than it did, and it was clear that the real "actor" in the film was DeMornay, who ran rings around everyone else in the cast (despite her being fundamentally miscast as Wendy). Builds too slowly to fill the miniseries length, but the last act is pretty good.

15. Fantastic 4. Hadn't bothered to see it when it came out, and it was marginally less stupid than I thought it would be. Doctor Doom was AWFUL, as was the Thing makeup. Some moments were pretty cool, though, especially the first time Johnny manages to fly. "Don't even think about it." "I never do." Cute.

16. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Better. Not great, but better. I still think Julian McMahon makes a terrible Victor Von Doom, but the character dynamic is pretty good, especially between Reed and Sue. Special effects are better, as well, and the Thing costume is considerably better (though with modern CGI, a Thing that doesn't look like foam rubber seems like a better option). The Surfer looks magnificent throughout, of course. Deeply silly but inoffensively so.

17. The Aviator. I'm not generally a fan of Leonardo Di Caprio, though his more recent works -- The Departed, Blood Diamond,, Gangs of New York -- are infinitely better than his "teen heartthrob" nonsense. The Aviator is a surprisingly vast film, covering a lot of time, and a lot of larger-than-life scenarios. At it's best, the film really soars -- specifically in the moments where we see Howard Hughes in the air. The attempts to depict Howard Hughes' obsessive-compulsive disorder fall rather spectacularly flat, unfortunately, but overall a grand, epic biopic, beautifully staged and shot. Very good.

18. Gangs of New York. Possibly my least favorite Scorsese film. Meandering, self-indulgent, shot rather strangely. Interesting cast turning in interesting performances, in service to an over-obvious and at once over-sentimentalized yet relentless grimy and grim tale. The contemporary feel to the soundtrack kicked me right out, as well. Daniel Day Lewis is, as always, riveting to watch, but something about the whole exercise is labored and pedantic, two words I never thought I'd say about a Scorsese picture.

19. Solaris. Surprisingly sedate film, very measured in its pacing, and a bit of a surprise for me in regards to George Clooney. Very somber science fiction, but with quite subtle and lush visuals.

20. The Blues Brothers. I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never seen this, save for the odd scene or two on TV. I was never a huge Belushi fan (another sacrilege), and after the couple of Blues Brothers appearances I'd seen on SNL, I tend to think of them as the Rhythm & Blues Brothers. The film is occasionally amusing, the music is decent, and is clearly intentionally kind of brain-dead. I have a bit more appreciation of Belushi these days, but overall I thought it was kind of, well, enh.

21. Deep Impact. Kind of interesting in a "the world is ending" / On The Beach way. Pretty, generally well-acted, and the science was certainly less objectionable than the appalling Armageddon, which soundly trounced Deep Impact in the box office. Not bad background movie to play while doing dishes. :)

22. Gran Torino. Reportedly Clint Eastwood's last starring role, and pretty much what you'd expect: Dirty Harry, retired, yelling at the pesky neighbor kids to get off his lawn. While brandishing a big goddamn gun. Smart, well-acted, and typical of Eastwood's late-period oeuvre. The Asian cast, a Hmong family that has moved next door to former soldier/unrepentant bigot ("I used to stack f---s like you five feet high in Korea, used 'em as sandbags.") and recent widower Walt Kowalsky, is stellar. A couple of minor plot complications dilute a powerful ending unnecessarily, but overall, a fine swan song to Clint's acting career.

---

( (Older entries below cut) )

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 15

HA! Made it!

I'm positive there's a half-dozen or so films I watched this year that I forgot to include. Anyway:

95. Internal Affairs. Purchased for five bucks as part of a 3-pack containing Serpico and Narc. Kind of dated, but not a bad police/corruption procedural.

96. Narc. Seriously grimy, relentlessly bleak cop film. Any movie that starts with a strung out, drug addicted cop shooting a suspect and accidentally killing a bystander's unborn child? Not a comedy.

97. Guess Who. Watched this a few weeks back with my wife. The continuing careers of Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher continues to mystify. Completely unnecessary remake, and completely unfunny.

98. Last Holiday. Another one I watched with Gab. I like Queen Latifah's screen presence, but I'm rarely a fan of her films. This is probably the funniest one I've seen; an inoffensive, genial little flick.

99. King of California. Another one I forgot to list a while back; Michael Douglas playing a burned out, borderline crazy freak, dragging his teenage daughter on a quest for missing gold. Interesting film, with a really bleak ending. Similar indie film to Smart People. Seems like a lot of indie directors are trying to do the whole Royal Tennenbaums thing, with none of the charm and half the wit.

100. Lord of War. Not what I expected. Marketed as a dark comedy, this one is actually just pretty dark. Also? Jared Leto has really weird eyes. Not as weird as Nic Cage's hair, but still.

( Read more... )

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 6

42. Fear. Early vehicle for Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. Not a bad film per se; it's conventional in the extreme, and not exactly Oscar material, but it's reasonably entertaining and stylishly directed. Supporting performances by Alyssa Milano, William Petersen, and Amy Brenneman elevate the production. Worth the four bucks I paid for it.

43. Iron Man. Stellar popcorn action flick. Smart performances, a strong script, great special effects. This ranks up there with The Rocketeer as “best comic book film adaptation EVAR.”

44. The Public Enemy. Watched as part of a boxed set of Warner Bros. gangster pictures—classic crime film. I particularly enjoy how, for films like this, Warner Bros. includes a “Night at the Movies” feature—an introduction by Leonard Maltin, newsreels, trailers for films of the period, animated shorts, comedy shorts, plus a stellar print of the original film. I swear, someone could make a serious living running a theater that does modern iterations of this kind of thing.

45. White Heat. More gangster movie fun, with the tour de force, definitive Jimmy Cagney performance. I've never paid much attention to Cagney before, mostly because of the amount of parody he's been the target of. His Cody Jarrett is a terrifying psychopath, and the weird dynamic between Cody and Ma Jarrett makes for a surprisingly sophisticated film, well ahead of its time.

46. Angels With Dirty Faces. Not as wild about this one—it seemed to flit back and forth between comedy, romance, and gangster noir, and seems to be forced in all of them. That said, the Cagney performance is fabulous—his Rocky Sullivan is incredibly likable, at least until his final reel shootout with the police. Not as good as Public Enemy or White Heat, but watchable. The opening sequence in particular, with young Rocky living in a claustrophobic tenement neighborhood, is very effective.

47. Juno. Didn't like it. Subject matter left me pretty raw, frankly.

48. We Are Marshall. By-the-numbers sports flick. Nothing spectacular, nothing awful.

49. Charlie Wilson's War. Surprisingly entertaining; great performances by Hanks, who masters a sort of crinkly likability, and the always excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's sort of a human incarnation of a hurricane (with profanity and rage as it's “calm” eye). Worth a look; not a terrific film, but watchable and generally pretty smart.

50. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Fun adaptation, but suffers from the same problem as the Potter films: there's nothing the films can do that I didn't do better in my head when I read the book. Well made and entertaining, and worth a look.

51. Hitman. Okay, so, I'm freakin' obsessed with the HITMAN videogame franchise. The games are generally mediocre at best, but there's something very compelling about the visual of Number 47, the titular hitman. So, on a whim, I rented the flick and was surprised that it's not a bad film. It's also not a GOOD film, but it's entertaining in the same way as THE BEASTMASTER was, i.e. BEST MOVIE EVAR when you're ten years old. Hitman does some goofy stuff, but eschews dumb bullet cam CGI and wire-fu for a moody and well-conceived visual style, good use of some of the visual design for the game's signature mechanics, some fairly smart gun battles, and pretty decent casting. Timothy Olyphant, in particular, works pretty well as 47. (Also, note to filmmakers: INTERPOL does not do what you think it does. It's not nearly as sexy, guys. Really. Knock it off.)


Older entries below the cut.

( Read more... )

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.



Update 4


25. Perfect Stranger. Also selected as a candidate for "bad movie night." Massive piece of crap, so, an appropriate choice. But still. Jesus.

26. Art School Confidential. Very funny, very scathing, well acted, well scripted. I'm not the world's biggest Dan Clowes fan (case in point, Ghost World, which I hatehatehate), but the Clowes script here is fantastic. Painful and hilarious.

27. Why We Fight. Documentary on American military build up and "empire expansion" in the post Eisenhower period, with emphasis on the current Iraq conflict. Not bad; clearly a polemic of sorts, and overlooks Afghanistan, but gripping.

28. The Hunting of the President. A less well-made documentary, focusing on the "Right Wing Conspiracy" to topple President Clinton. More interesting are the extra scenes of Clinton himself addressing an audience at a screening of the film.

29. Grindhouse presents Death Proof Hm. Violent, misogynist, and paced in a rather stately way, but I actually found myself enjoying it. Most people who recommended Grindhouse to me indicated that Planet Terror was the winner of the two films, citing Death Proof's slower pace. Haven't seen PT yet, but I really enjoyed the way Death Proof builds; it's also fascinating to me how Tarantino can so completely recreate the look of bad '70s cinema. Plus, fast cars and smoking hot women. So, there's that.

30. The Number 23 scores a zero. What started as an interesting, almost Lovecraftian concept has a muddled, cop-out ending. Jim Carrey is annoying in the lead role, though his dual role in the film as the lead character of the book that is driving its reader insane is actually the better of the two.

Older entries below the cut.

( Read more... )

As, clearly, I am bereft of anything interesting or insightful to post here... MEME!

Gakked from Aaron.

BASICS
1. Name:
2. [Edit] Astrological sign:
3. Where do you live:
4: What are you studying/What are you working as:
5. What makes you happy:
6. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
7. What is particularly good/bad about my LJ:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. Favorite place to be:
11. Favorite lyric:
12. Best time of the year:
13. Weirdest food you like:

RECOMMEND
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A song:
4: A band:

PLUS
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you.

Because, really, you can't get enough insight into the wonder that is me, right? :)

(Click here to post your own answers for this meme.)

✓ I miss somebody right now.	✓ I don't watch much TV these days.	✓ I own lots of books.
✓ I wear glasses or contact lenses.	✓ I love to play video games.	× I've tried marijuana.
✓ I've watched porn movies.	× I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.	✓ I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
✓ I curse sometimes.  (And by sometimes, that would be "days of the week.")	✓ I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.	× I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.

( it goes on... )

Belatedly realized I owed one of these, courtesy of Michelle.

So, here's the skinny:

If you comment...

1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people.

Note: I'm in schedule hell. Responses will be slow for another few days. It doesn't (necessarily) mean I hate you if I'm not quick to respond.

BANDWAGON! JUMPING ON! NEXT STOP: CONFORMITY!

So, here's how this particular meme works:

Enter your date of birth (sans year) into Wikipedia and list three Events, Births, and Deaths that occur throughout history on the day of your birth.

Or, you know, don’t.

I’m easy.

Events

* 694 - Hispano-Visigothic king Egica accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery. (Also wins Ancient Culture Prize for Extreme Irony.) (I made that last part up.)

* 1923 - In Munich, Germany, police and government troops crush the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The failed coup is the work of the Nazis. (Because you KNEW there’d be Nazis in mine. You just KNEW it, didn’t you. Yes, you did, you rascal, you.)

* 1937 - Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China. (Thereby providing Mike with fodder for one of the better Crimson Skies novellas.)

Edit: Oh, I suppose I should've mentioned that video game thing. The one with the round thing and the green guy with all the guns. What was that?

Oh, right. Oddworld, wuzznt it?

Heh.

Births

* 1913 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (d. 2000)

* 1934 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (d. 1996)

* 1951 - Lou Ferrigno, American bodybuilder and actor

Deaths

* 1911 - Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator (b. 1853)

* 1940 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1869)

* 1970 - Charles de Gaulle, President of France (b. 1890)

Thank you. This has been weird.

I am disappointed at my score.

Must go machine-gun some baby seals now, clearly.

You Are 56% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

...here's the LJ Interests Meme.

Why the hell not?

LJ Interests meme results

1. comic books:
   Well, duh. I read them. Now I write them. My wife and I sell them. I believe that qualifies as an "interest"
2. crimson skies:
   Sigh. A moment of silence for this wonderful property, smothered in its crib by venality and stupidty and incompetence. A wonderful pulp 1930s airwar property, done in by poor follow-through by a myriad of well-intentioned folks who really just didn't "get it". Also, it is my belief that Pulp is Dead, and this makes me sad.
3. espionage fiction:
   I loves me a good spy yarn. A good one, that is. Dan Brown need not apply.
4. films:
   I have over 1000 movies in my collection, and I shudder to think of how many hours of my life have been spent watching a myriad, bizarre assortment of films.
5. handguns:
   I'm an avid shooter and owner of several different hanguns and longarms, and yet, I refuse to join the reactionary ranks of the NRA. I am a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in bacon, and armed to the @%^!ng teeth. Word.
6. music:
   Music has always been a big part of my life -- both as a listener and as a player. I play several instruments (most of them badly), but I must confess I'm starting to experience this thing you call "pleasure" at my guitar playing.
7. photoshop:
   Photoshop is the Best Program Ever. Oh, how I love it.
8. popcorn:
   This should be linked to the "films" interest, for it is my belief that in an early draft of the Constitution, it was mandated that all films must include buttered, heavily salted popcorn and an obscenely large Coke. Kit-Kats or M&Ms are not mandated, but strongly recommended.
9. reading:
   I like books.
10. stand-up comedy:
    I've spent a lot of time studying various stand-up comics, figuring out their bits and why they work, studying their timing. I have no aspirations to BE a comic, but I enjoy understanding the work.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.4
Mind:	6.7
Body:	5.8
Spirit:	9.6
Friends/Family:	5.5
Love:	7.3
Finance:	8.9
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

(So: a good life score, but my blog is only worth a grand and change, apparently, if the last meme to make the rounds is to be believed. Heh.)

...which would explain the pristine nature of my work desktop.

Neat meme swiped from acestatic.

1: Take a screencap* of your desktop.
2: Upload the screencap to your image server.
3: Post cap in your LJ along with these instructions.
3a: (Eric-edit) ...and hide the cap under a cut, so as not to annoy and vex your friends.]

( One of Eric's many desktop pics... )

*To capture your desktop:
a) Press the "Print Screen" (prt sc) button.
b) Open graphics program of your choice.
c) Press CTRL + V.
d) Save image as a jpg.

Given how much I loved high school, how could I not? < \ sarcasm >

(Swiped from the lovely and articulate carabosse.)

( Clicky for dark secrets of Eric's past... )

Gakked from Brannon...

1. Pick 10 movies that you enjoy.
2. Pick a line of dialogue that you like.
3. As people guess the film, strike out that entry.
4. NO cheating!!!

Quotes below the cut...

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Oh, why not? (Gakked from Michelle.)

( Read more... )

You are the nanobot that controls all the other
world-destroying nanobots!


What kind of world-destroying nanobot are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

If you aren't a roleplayer, you should skip this one.

More tomorrow. Lots to report.

( Read more... )