Thursday, November 18, 2010

Best of the Decade


As a movie nerd, I can't help myself. I have to copy everyone else and list my top 10 movies of the past decade. Let it be clear that these are on here because they balance artistic validity with appeal; they appeal to me. Their order is none in particular.

Following are all of the honorable mentions I couldn't fit in 1 through 10.

Top 10 Movies- 2000-2009

1. Gladiator (2000)
2. Road to Perdition (2002)
3. Children of Men (2006)
4. Sunshine (2007)
5. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
6. Watchmen (2009)
7. Moon (2009)
8. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
9. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
10. No Country for Old Men (2007)

Best Western
Open Range (2003)

Best Sci-Fi Movie
Pandorum (2009)

Best Sports Movie
Miracle (2004)

Best Horror
28 Days Later (2002)

Best Comedy
who cares???

Best Action
The Bourne Identity (2002)

Most Unforgettable Movie of the Decade
The Road (2009)




Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Smurfs Look Even Cartoon-ier in 2-D


My search for reference-quality blu-rays had a close call last month, as I narrowly avoided buying one of the Transformer films just to have them. Instead, I went with a movie I can actually stand, Avatar.

This movie was like a gosh darn roller coaster in 3-D, and the computer animation was the most convincing I'd ever seen. However, even though the blu-ray is probably the best ever made, it can't make the Na'Vi look like they're anything other than cartoons. So half the movie looks like a cartoon. The 3-dimensional effect is the only thing that made Cameron's movie look like the greatest achievement in visual effects ever. And the other half looks like it was shot on home video. The whole movie might just as well have been made in a computer.

If I had wanted to buy a cartoon on blu-ray, I would have bought Toy Story.




Friday, September 17, 2010

Sorry

Sorry it's been three months. I have never-ending internet issues, but I won't tell you that they are the fault of my landlord and Verizon FIOS.

More blogging coming soon.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks won game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final in overtime last night, beating the Philadelphia Flyers at home, 4-3. This win clinched the Blackhawk's first Cup since 1961.

Patrick Kane scored the game winner. The best part was watching everyone look around, wondering if the game was actually over.



Aww, man. No more hockey until mid-October.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Shia LaBeouf is Kind of Dumb


Most people go to Cannes to watch new films, meet celebrities, and avoid American authorities, but Shia LaBeouf goes to get attention.


I don't mind that, but the guy went and very publicly bashed his last two blockbuster films. The writers and directors weren't there to defend their works, and LaBeouf betrayed his total lack of class by insulting movies he fully promoted when he was paid to.


One of them was his second Transformers film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He admitted that it wasn't any good; it's a good thing Shia is here to tell us these things. "It became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie," he said, referring to the first film's characters and heart. This missing, enigmatic anchor of the movie could also very well be the script.


Then he bashed in the head of a once-sacred cow. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth film in that series, was an embarrassment, and LaBeouf classily put some of the blame on his performance. The rest of it, according to him, fell on director Steven Spielberg. "When you drop the ball you drop the ball," LaBeouf said of Spielberg. I hated that LaBeouf, the most overrated actor currently in Hollywood, was in the movie, but his acting had nothing to do with its failure. The film had weak special effects, laughable characters, and the tone of a Wayans brothers comedy. As I've been known to say, Nathan Drake has taken the fedora right off Indy's head as America's adventurer. If Spielberg makes Indy 5, he has to win back people's respect.


Naughty Dog 2 / Steven Spielberg 0.

LaBeouf is toast without Megan Fox to make his acting look good in the next Transformers film, anyway. Maybe Michael Bay can put Fox in the film by creating her entirely out of CG... And he can ditch all of those pesky sets and locations and just shoot it all on blue screen.

Hey Shia, you're a moron. Those films were both painful, but that's why we read scripts before we accept the $15 million to do a picture.



Monday, June 7, 2010

Transformers, Rest In Peace


As everyone who cares already knows, Transformers 3 is filming and will be released next year.


The main problem with this, other than the fact that the first two films sucked and that Michael Bay keeps wavering back and forth on the subject of 3D, is that Megan Fox won't be in it.


Fox never got along with director Bay, and now it's cost Bay the only thing going for his hyperbolic franchise. You suck, Mike.


Bay has replaced Fox with a Victoria's Secret model. I'm not paying to watch this in theaters. Her name is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, if anybody cares.

If Time Warner Cable was a Girl, I'd Stick My Tongue Down Her Throat


So I know both of you who read this have been bumming about my hiatus from blogging. It wasn't my fault. Time Warner Cable did it.


Their modem at my house went bad, and they took over two weeks to replace it. So the title of this post is, indeed, sarcastic because I'm not actually excited to have something back that my roomate and I have been paying for all along.


They'd better not charge us for those long, hard, Youtube-less weeks.


ValkyrieSDF1