#1 movie buff on GetGlue

All glory (if you can call it that) is fleeting.  But this morning, I saw that I'm GetGlue's top ranking movie buff.  probably won't be tommorow, and I'm still not sure what the point of the freaking site is.  But it's nice to get some... I've no idea what.

Favoritest Movies of 1997

Creating these lists is like taking a personality test.  We know who we are, but we can still learn from self examination.  To that end, I was a little shocked when I sorted the results, and Contact came away on top.  I saw Titanic 17 times in the theater, no exageration.  My father and I would go to the movies every week in these years of the nineties and for the end of 97 and first few months of 1998 it was Titanic.  I remember us standing, looking at the movies at the box office of Des Peres 14, probably in February of '98, and couldn't see a reason to not see Titanic.  Eventually, my father and I one weekend, Titanic was on such a small screen, and was so scratchy and dirty it just couldn't hit VHS soon enough.  Thinking back on a thought that honestly didn't occur to me the whole time looking at all of these movies; I didn't buy Titanic on Laser Disc, I did buy Contact.

This might be a good moment to say that These are not "best" lists.  I'm going to be making a page explaining how these lists are made, but the simple explanation is I look at two titles, and ask myself which one do I [presently] enjoy more?  With such a question there's no way to filter out guilty pleasures.  1997 required making 4,278 title to title comparisons.  Spice World came to a rank of .7258  compared to Good Will Hunting getting a .6398.  I know Spice World isn't "good", it's pop stars running around in mini skirts.  I just don't know a definition of 'good'.  I think "good" when syntactically modifying the noun 'movie' means that is of a quality approaching Oscar worthiness.  I'll contemplate that further the next time we take the family to an Annie Hall Celebration  with the kids doing some Diane Keaton cosplay, or when I stand in front of the Wii to play Lego Chariots of Fire.

Here's the list...

1. Contact
2. Titanic
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
4. Starship Troopers
5. The Devil's Advocate
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. The Fifth Element
8. Gattaca
9. Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
10. The Saint
11. L.A. Confidential
12. Men in Black
13. Hercules
14. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
15. Grosse Pointe Blank
16. Air Force One
17. MouseHunt
18. Cube
19. Clockwatchers
20. Private Parts
21. Out to Sea
22. The Game
23. Perfect Blue
24. Kull the Conqueror
25. A Life Less Ordinary
26. Spice World
27. Boogie Nights
28. Fools Rush In
29. Face/Off
30. Flubber
31. Wag the Dog
32. Good Will Hunting
33. The End of Evangelion
34. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
35. Scream 2
36. Absolute Power
37. The Postman
38. In & Out
39. Event Horizon
40. Alien Resurrection
41. George of the Jungle
42. Murder at 1600
43. Chasing Amy
44. Jackie Brown
45. Addicted to Love
46. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
47. Dante's Peak
48. Anaconda
49. As Good as It Gets
50. Mimic
51. The Full Monty
52. Picture Perfect
53. Seven Years in Tibet
54. Volcano
55. My Best Friend's Wedding
56. Spawn
57. The Relic
58. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
59. Conspiracy Theory
60. Liar Liar
61. Batman & Robin
62. The Edge
63. Fierce Creatures
64. Warriors of Virtue
65. Anastasia
66. Con Air
67. I Know What You Did Last Summer
68. Selena
69. Kundun
70. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
71. The Peacemaker
72. Home Alone 3
73. The Jackal
74. Breakdown
75. Donnie Brasco
76. Red Corner
77. Kiss the Girls
78. Turbulence
79. Metro
80. U Turn
81. Vegas Vacation
82. Playing God
83. Speed 2: Cruise Control
84. The Devil's Own
85. Bean
86. The Apostle
87. Steel
88. Air Bud
89. Good Burger
90. City of Industry
91. Gone Fishin'
92. One Night Stand
93. Fathers' Day

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. I do NOT enjoy.

Special Honorable Mention:

Picture Perfect! At 52nd on my list, this movie did something for me I will eternally be grateful for.  On the soundtrack, was the song "Say What You Want" by Texas.  I enjoyed the song quite a bit, so I bought the album, not the movie soundtrack, but Texas White on Blonde.  

If I were to do these lists for musical album, it just might win... yeah, over Achtung Baby (doubtful there...) or more definitely The Joshua Tree.  Thank you for my (probably) 2nd favorite album of all time.*

Favoritest Movies of 2010 (So far!)

My wife didn't think much of Tron.  Okay, she derided it in it's entirety.  Why would I be fond of a sequel that was so derivative of the original, that it was little more than an almost an exact rehash of the original plus jets?
Here is the plot outlines of both movies: Spoilers in italics

Our protagonist sneaks into a place in the middle of the night and sits in front of a laser and goes into the computer world.  He is given a disc, and put into the games.  The first game his opponent falls through the floor, subsequently this is followed by a Light Cycle scene which ends with going off the grid. Here we regroup, consume sustenance, and share exposition establishing on how to resolve the plot. We'll wind up on a vessel sailing on a beam of light, towards a larger perpendicular beam of light, through canyons and encounter the enemy battleship. There will be a final confrontation of good and bad guys, a big explosion and traveling home up that big beam of light to a sunny and happy ending.

This describes both Tron movies. If I deleted a few dozen words, it'd be almost every Final Fantasy game from the '80's and '90's. The less words you use to describe any story the more it sounds like another.

Tron is about a guy needing... a piece of paper. While for the whole time I've known my friend Matt, a fellow fan of the original movie we've used "Greetings program!" as a greeting. Yes, we are huge dorks.  But, in all the times I've ever been looking for a piece of paper, I've never felt or even thought of Flynn.

Tron Legacy is a father and son movie.  "You're messing with my Zen thing man."  No movie, that I've ever seen, has put all the internal contradictions of being a parent into one line so efficiently just so it can get to megalomaniacs trying to do their Ming the Merciless impersonations, only to have the heroes escape (with a shot riffing the departure in Jaws) and do a cover rendition of the Falcon escaping the Death Star; kicked off with the female character saying "Here they come!"

If a movie is going to be a hack rip off, it tries to hide it more.  This movie was nostalgia squared, cubed... Hell, nostalgia ad infinitum!  When I look at my kids, I see little derivative copies of us.  And this movie, better than any other of these ill thought out movies, born out of our childhoods, gave us (nerds at least) one to share with our kids.  I love that my kids love the Transformers movies, I loved Transformers and still do.  But I look at these movies of the past few years, and while the Blu-rays of them make my TV look prettier, and remind my how loud my sound system can get... I'd rather watch Springer and Arcee push that launcher into place against Devastator.  Well, maybe Dark of the Moon will top the post this time next year!  This year was about Tron...  other than that, it was kind of meh.

Now, there are a number of movies I'm really looking forward to seeing that I haven't yet; The Social Network, Tangled, Megamind, The Other Guys and plenty more.

1. Tron: Legacy
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
3. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
4. Salt
5. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
6. Toy Story 3
7. Iron Man 2
8. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
9. Inception
10. Kick-Ass
11. Hot Tub Time Machine
12. The A-Team
13. Despicable Me
14. Batman: Under The Red Hood
15. Predators
16. Planet Hulk
17. Clash of the Titans
18. The Special Relationship
19. Killers
20. Knight and Day
21. Sherlock Holmes (Asylum)
22. True Grit
23. The Spy Next Door
24. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
25. Valentine's Day
26. The Wolfman
27. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
28. The Last Airbender
29. Resident Evil: Afterlife
30. Skyline
31. Océans
32. The Losers
33. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
34. Centurion
35. The Karate Kid
36. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
37. Dante's Inferno
38. How to Train Your Dragon
39. The Expendables
40. Letters to Juliet
41. Jonah Hex
42. Paranormal Activity
43. Date Night
44. Alice in Wonderland
45. Furry Vengeance
46. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
47. Cop Out
48. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
49. Vampires Suck
50. When in Rome
51. The Runaways
52. Repo Men
53. Dinoshark
54. The Bounty Hunter
55. The Crazies
56. Grown Ups
57. Legion
58. Tooth Fairy
59. Altitude
60. Sex and the City 2
61. A Nightmare on Elm Street
62. The Book of Eli
63. Robin Hood
64. Shutter Island
65. Black Swan
66. Dear John

Oh heck, one more nice visual never hurt anyone...

Legend: Onto the next Round! (Scored at or above the 80th percentile.)  In the middle. I do NOT enjoy (below the 20th percentile).

Favoritest Movies of 1998

My father and I used to go to a movie every weekend.  I remember, having just seen Shakespeare in Love at the AMC in Crestwood Mall (The mall is defunct, but the movie theater is still there, and pretty much unchanged since the year I'm writing about) and we were walking to The Pasta House to have dinner, debating which movie would be more deserving of an Oscar win, Saving Private Ryan or Love. But, I find out, my father really couldn't care all that much about William Shakespeare.  However, on January 17th, 1980, my father gave me...

Now, I only know the date because he wrote it inside the book, with no other words except "For Paul" and "From Dad".  This book comes up in our post movie conversation since, he gave me such a volume when I'm only four yours old.  He replies that it seemed like the type of thing I would like. 

I read every word.

Only in hindsight is it apparent that my father, for all of our problems did occasionally pay attention.  Heck, by the time I was six, I was fairly regularly afforded copies of Starlog magazine.  As I do these lists, I can't hide my affection for genre films, they're to me, the reason for movies.  I'd rather see feats of, and playgrounds for the imagination than an engaging portrayal of typical peoples doing typical things, but I don't think anyone likes boring movies.

1. TIE: Shakespeare in Love
2. TIE: Mulan
3. Armageddon
4. The Man in the Iron Mask
5. Meet Joe Black
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. The Prince of Egypt
8. Star Trek: Insurrection
9. Dark City
10. Soldier
11. Lethal Weapon 4
12. The Big Lebowski
13. Lost in Space
14. Rush Hour
15. The Mask of Zorro
16. Dangerous Beauty
17. The Truman Show
18. Great Expectations
19. City of Angels
20. The Avengers
21. What Dreams May Come
22. Mighty Joe Young
23. There's Something About Mary
24. Godzilla
25. Wild Things
26. Deep Impact
27. Vampires
28. Sliding Doors
29. The Big Hit
30. Blade
31. The X-Files
32. Six Days Seven Nights
33. Elizabeth
34. Bulworth
35. Small Soldiers
36. Fallen
37. Everest
38. The Faculty
39. The Rugrats Movie
40. A Bug's Life
41. Antz
42. Primary Colors
43. Les Miserables
44. Deep Rising
45. Phantoms
46. Tarzan and the Lost City
47. A Civil Action
48. Pleasantville
49. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
50. Ring (Ringu)
51. The Negotiator
52. Rounders
53. A Perfect Murder
54. Enemy of the State
55. Can't Hardly Wait
56. The Newton Boys
57. Sphere
58. Out of Sight
59. You've Got Mail
60. Species II
61. Urban Legend
62. The Wedding Singer
63. Practical Magic
64. Dr. Dolittle
65. Ronin
66. The Object of My Affection
67. Psycho
68. Babe: Pig in the City
69. Ever After
70. Krippendorf's Tribe
71. Hard Rain
72. The Horse Whisperer
73. Stepmom
74. Knock Off
75. The Waterboy
76. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
77. Blues Brothers 2000
78. The Siege
79. The Last Days of Disco
80. BASEketball
81. Madeline
82. Snake Eyes
83. Major League: Back to the Minors
84. Mercury Rising
85. Gods and Monsters
86. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
87. A Night at the Roxbury
88. The Replacement Killers
89. Bride of Chucky
90. 54
91. Jack Frost
92. Apt Pupil
93. U.S. Marshals
94. Rushmore
95. My Giant
96. Pi

Looking back, I remember thinking 1999 was such a good year for movies. After doing 1999's list, I was wondering why I felt that way at the time. Looking over 1998, it could have been a lot better of a year. Next back, 1997...

Or

Titanic vs Contact vs Starship Troopers!

and 91 other movies... 

 

Wow, that reads cheesy.

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. I do NOT enjoy.

Favoritest Movies of 1999

We used to make Top 5 or Top 10 lists talking about the "Best" movies of the year.  I can't figure out what "Best" means anymore.  I've heard to many critics say things along the line of 'while not my favorite, it's one of the best..."  Well, if it wasn't your favorite, it must have done something wrong.  And then I see the poster above.  I was not a foregone conclusion that this would be my favorite movie of 1999.  But in every match up, it would win or split points with its competition.  I saw it 21 times in the theater.  I'd pop it in the VCR every Sunday when I worked at Comics Universe.  For all of its flaws, it's still got a bit of that Star Wars magic: rewatchability.  A tiny bit.  Okay the 1983, 1980, and 1977 lists are a race for second place at this point.

1. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2. Princess Mononoke
3. Galaxy Quest
4. The Thomas Crown Affair
5. The Mummy
6. Bicentennial Man
7. The Matrix
8. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
9. Office Space
10. The Iron Giant
11. Pokemon: The First Movie
12. Sleepy Hollow
13. Tarzan
14. The Thirteenth Floor
15. Fight Club
16. Deep Blue Sea
17. The 13th Warrior
18. Entrapment
19. She's All That
20. The World Is Not Enough
21. Muppets From Space
22. Pushing Tin
23. The Boondock Saints
24. Godzilla 2000: Millennium
25. Cruel Intentions
26. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
27. Toy Story 2
28. The Insider
29. October Sky
30. Payback
31. Three Kings
32. The Talented Mr. Ripley
33. My Favorite Martian
34. The Muse
35. Run Lola Run
36. Election
37. The Green Mile
38. The General's Daughter
39. Trekkies
40. A Midsummer Night's Dream
41. Lake Placid
42. Liberty Heights
43. Mystery, Alaska
44. Mystery Men
45. Runaway Bride
46. The Haunting
47. Fantasia 2000
48. Three To Tango
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. Notting Hill
51. Wing Commander
52. Stuart Little
53. Virus
54. Wild Wild West
55. American Pie
56. Analyze This
57. Dogma
58. Anna and the King
59. American Beauty
60. The Corruptor
61. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
62. Blast from the Past
63. Inspector Gadget
64. End Of Days
65. Any Given Sunday
66. Magnolia
67. Big Daddy
68. Stigmata
69. Anywhere But Here
70. The Astronaut's Wife
71. Girl, Interrupted
72. The Mod Squad
73. The Omega Code
74. Being John Malkovich
75. The Sixth Sense
76. Go
77. Black Mask
78. House on Haunted Hill
79. Boys Don't Cry
80. Jawbreaker
81. Romance
82. Brokedown Palace
83. Man on the Moon
84. Open Your Eyes
85. The Blair Witch Project
86. 8MM
87. Baby Geniuses

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. I do NOT enjoy.

Anticipation of Movies in 2011

As I do with my Favoritest movies of the year, I decided to rank; "How much am I looking forward to each of these movies?" Or, asking; which movie am I looking forward to more? And the numbers rolled out thusly...

Cowboys & Aliens	100%
Harry Potter and...	94%
Thor	85%
Green Lantern	84%
Transformers: Dark...	84%
Captain America:...	84%
Rise of the Apes	81%
Sherlock Holmes 2	79%
The Muppets	77%
Pirates of the...	73%
Sucker Punch	66%
X-Men: First Class	66%
Conan	63%
Immortals	61%
Super 8	60%
Rango	47%
Fright Night	42%
The Three Musketeers	37%
The Thing	37%
Kung Fu Panda 2	37%
Priest	35%
Cars 2	35%
Battle: Los Angeles	34%
Mars Needs Moms!	29%
The Green Hornet	24%
The Twilight Saga:...	23%
The Adjustment Bureau	21%
I Am Number Four	15%
Red Riding Hood	13%
Diary of a Wimpy...	6%
The Dark Fields	5%
The Eagle	3%

Favoritest 40 Movies of the '0 Decade!!!

It bows to no one (Yet...). The first "My favorite movies ever" list, where I had listed 250 movies I really liked off the top of my head, and figured this out on a large paper graph at the kitchen table, in pencil... Fellowship of the ring was a movie of special notice. Here, it strides a decade like no other movie. Avatar and Wall-E are movies that gave me the kind of movies I've always wanted to see. I've always been a Sci-Fi guy, but, before Fellowship, I wouldn't really like calling Star Wars Sci-Fantasy. After the Mines of Moria, I would allow myself to enjoy fantasy without the name Jim Henson somehow attached to it.

Second place was just a "Nooooooo" out of first.

Eleven of the top forty are based on comic books, and one filmmaker made the top 40 with every outing of the decade... Okay, more than one did, but I was thinking of someone who's made more than one movie that decade.

The decade is also a different field of comparison than the individual year is, so a movie like Black Pearl may come out stronger to pull ahead than Master and Commander does, when faced with movies like Iron Man and Minority Report.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. WALL-E
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
6. Avatar
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
8. Star Trek
9. Watchmen
10. X2: X-Men United
11. Transformers
12. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
13. Thirteen Days
14. "300
15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
16. Casino Royale
17. The Incredibles
18. The Man From Earth
19. Spider-Man 2
20. Minority Report
21. Gladiator
22. Howl's Moving Castle
23. Spirited Away
24. Superman Returns
25. Iron Man
26. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
27. Stardust
28. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
29. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
30. Serenity
31. Titan A.E.
32. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
33. Spider-Man
34. Ponyo
35. Ah! My Goddess: The Movie
36. The Chronicles of Riddick
37. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
38. Die Another Day
39. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
40. Hellboy

How do movies get to advance to the All-time list? Don't know yet. Got other decades to do. Time to go back to the '90's!!!

Favoritest Movies of 2009

I almost forgot I had this blog thing here. I don't twitter, lurk on message boards, and check Facebook maybe once a month. Maybe. Actually I think I forgot to this month. Maybe there's a way to tie my Blogger blog to Facebook. I'll see if there is when I care. At some point, this blog became a refuse dump for my favorite movies lists...

The Goal; Determine my hundred or so favorite movies of all time, but by evaluating every movie I've ever seen. This is done year by year, then decade by decade... you know what, that'll make a post in and of itself.

As for 2009, It was a good year considering that all the good movies were really from other years thanks to the writers strike awhile back, so here's the list!

1. Avatar
2. Star Trek
3. Watchmen
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. Monsters vs. Aliens
6. Green Lantern: First Flight
7. G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra
8. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
9. Angels and Demons
10. Inglorius Basterds
11. Terminator Salvation
12. 2012
13. Night at the Museum 2 Battle of the Smitshonian
14. Astro Boy
15. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
16. Up
17. Pandorum
18. Land of the Lost
19. Earth
20. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
21. Battle For Terra
22. Wonder Woman
23. Dragonball Evolution
24. The Men Who Stare at Goats
25. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
26. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
27. The Girlfriend Experience
28. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
29. Gamer
30. Princess of Mars
31. Knowing
32. District 9
33. Race to Witch Mountain
34. Echelon Conspiracy
35. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
36. Caprica
37. Planet 51
38. Coraline
39. State of Play
40. The Hangover
41. "9
42. Delgo
43. Aliens in the Attic
44. The Final Destination
45. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
46. Whiteout
47. Shorts
48. G-Force
49. Space Buddies
50. Dance Flick
51. Year One
52. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
53. Bride Wars
54. The Princess and the Frog
55. Adventureland

Wy O wy SyFy ?

I'm sorry, but I can't stand it.

The Sci-Fi Channel is changing their name to SyFy.

So, I wrote Sci-Fi channel in regards to their name change...

==============================================================
Hy! Longtyme vyewer, fyrst tyme complayner.

I remember pinning a flyer, of an alien watching TV with a dog, to my wall almost 19 years ago, anxious, eager and psyched about the promise and prospect of the very idea of a network dedicated to Science Fiction. I realize that across almost every bit of the basic cable landscape, stations have sacrificed their specialized uniquity in effort to broaden their audience. For some time now, it has been clear to fans, that Sci-Fi wants to become just another TNT, USA, G4, SPIKE, MTV, TBS, etc. We understand that programming like Galactica is much more expensive than Soth Park and The Daily Show to produce, hence why Comedy Central is one of the few stalwart specialty stations left.

Good luck becoming generic, but, this isn't false posturing of we'll stop watching the network, but this is the truth...

As you become generic, and programming becomes more and more on-demand, I won't need, or want SyFy. I'll have Netflix.

Thank you, and thank you for have been a wonderful network.

You're already missed.

===========================================================================

I had more to say, but it's much better said, when their own NEWS SITE runs this:

Forrest J. Ackerman has a message for you from beyond the grave

Ouch, and that kick to the groin was from YOURSELF! We've NOTHING more to say.

Once again, Thanks Forry!

Forry Farewell
by dreadcentral

Movie: Watchmen

I was aware of Watchmen as it was coming out, and was curious, but I didn't read it. I'd just gotten into comics heavily that year, so I read it about a year or so later, so still It was 20 years ago. I've reread it once or twice, which, says a LOT, and I liked it, a lot, maybe not Dark Knight Returns, but I don't have a favorite Graphic Novel. I just don't. There's really not a lot of them. I love comics as much as movies, but comics don't come with "Beginning, Middle, End." all that often. So, Dark Knight, Watchmen, Kingdom Come, Marvels, V for Vendetta, Crisis on Infinite Earth, the Dark Phoenix Saga... Well, the Dark Phoenix was part of an ongoing series... I would have loved LOVED to see that one on the big screen, but NOOOOOOoooooooooooooo. Oh well maybe someday. Thinking of Dark Phoenix, and Crisis, especially Crisis... Watchmen was unfilmable? Crisis is much worse, if Unfilmable means that it'd cost a billion dollars to shoot. Here, here's what Crisis would look like as a movie...
That'd cost a couple bucks. Really, Watchmen should shame DC/WB into making a Justice League movie, I'd imagine that at least some exec looks at Watchmen, and sees that if a 3 hr R-rated movie with characters outside the pop-culture mainstream can do a 55 mil opening, then a JLA movie is like printing money. The problem is they'd probably screw it up. JLA would need to be as good of a movie as Watchmen. Oh, yea, I'm blogging about Watchmen.
I can't get it out of my head, I might have a greater liking of Bob Dylan than I did a week ago. I think, think, I may like the movie more than the Graphic Novel.
Yea.
Yea, I do.
This is up there with Blade Runner, and The Hunt For Red October. I hope. Seriously hope this isn't my favorite movie of the year, but it's Watchmen's year now. The rest of the year could be shit, and it'll be fantastic, I love this thing that much. This thing is now the best/greatest Super-hero movie ever made. Thank you for being the complete opposite of Dark Knight. But, the Dark Knight wasn't a comic book movie, not like Watchmen... Watchmen one of few comic-book movies to be like this. Dark Knight, like most comic book movies that we've lapped up are more like Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li than they are Watchmen. Oh, sorry, forgot to blog about Street Fighter....

Movie: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.
This movie cements the Jean Claude Van Dame version as a classic of modern cinema. I swear this was some, unproduced generic action flick script, and they opened it up in Final Draft, named the female lead Chun-Li, named the villian Bison, and dropped in a description of one bounty hunter dressing like Vega oh, and named Michael Clarke Duncan Balrog.

I'll admit most comic book born adaptions have given more effort than this piece.

Favoritest Movies of 2000

While doing the spreadsheet for this year, I was sure Gladiator might win the top slot, I couldn't tell. I like a lot of these movies for very different reasons. Heck, at one point I was wondering just how high Rocky and Bullwinkle were going to be. Wouldn't they look odd at the top spot. But, no this works. I've actually rewatched Thirteen Days more than Gladiator. While I'm not fond of how Kevin Costner's character feels the need to be the chorus of the obvious, a narrator with legs walking through the plot, and you could argue that the movie would be better without his character at all. None of that has anything to do with Costner either, he's just not playing John or Robert. For faults with the movie, it's THE "Major Motion Picture" of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Battlefield Earth isn't red either. I realised while doing the list, I like this movie in a sense. It's not good. It's the ultimate of bad, the textbook case, but, it's fun to make fun of. Battlefield Earth is so bad, it's a shared crappiness, a benchmark, and a collective whipping boy.

The Dune movie here, is the Sci-Fi mini-series. I'm still wrestleing with how TV movies and straight to DVD play out in this. the majority of these movies I see on DVD and not in the theater. While I did see 7 of the top 10 here theatrically, for instance, the Anime titles rarely even come out in a theater in St. Louis. So, later years may be adjusted with the animated Dr. Strange, Iron Man and Superman Doomsday movies. Crap, Stitch the movie might wrangle to vie for the all time list!

1. Thirteen Days
2. Gladiator
3. Ah! My Goddess: The Movie
4. X-Men
5. Titan A.E.
6. The Road to El Dorado
7. Finding Forrester
8. Frank Herbert's Dune
9. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
11. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
12. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
13. Pitch Black
14. What Women Want
15. Shanghai Noon
16. Scream 3
17. Escaflowne: The Movie
18. Pokemon The Movie 2000
19. Meet the Parents
20. Quills
21. The Perfect Storm
22. Pollock
23. Final Destination
24. Unbreakable
25. Dungeons & Dragons
26. U-571
27. Frequency
28. Almost Famous
29. The Whole Nine Yards
30. The Art of War
31. Shaft (2000)
32. Charlie's Angels
33. High Fidelity
34. Chicken Run
35. The Patriot
36. Gone in 60 Seconds
37. Coyote Ugly
38. Dinosaur (Walt Disney)
39. Bedazzled
40. The Next Best Thing
41. Erin Brockovich
42. Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
43. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
44. Digimon: The Movie
45. Boiler Room
46. Mission: Impossible II
47. Snatch
48. The Million Dollar Hotel
49. Traffic
50. The Family Man
51. Battlefield Earth
52. Scary Movie
53. The Emperor's New Groove
54. Return to Me
55. Cast Away
56. Nurse Betty
57. Requiem for a Dream
58. American Psycho
59. Me, Myself, and Irene
60. What Lies Beneath
61. Cruel Intentions 2

One small factor that may have helped Thirteen Days slip by Gladiator. I this poster hanging over my DVD collection.

Favoritest Movies of 2001

If I was only listing first place, I wouldn't have even needed to do a spreadsheet for this year. Some movies, in their own year, are an automatic 100th percentile. Like Star Wars for '77 and Jaws in '75, 2001 ended with a movie that says "You shall not pass!". Coming in 62nd place is a movie my friends and I walked out of. I don't walk out of movies. It was the first and only (willingly Reel breakages don't count). Problem is, the list isn't 62 movies long, it's 66.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
3. Spirited Away
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
5. The Mummy Returns
6. Monsters, Inc.
7. Iron Monkey
8. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
9. Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heavens Door
10. The Affair of the Necklace
11. Rush Hour 2
12. Just Visiting
13. Swordfish
14. Jurassic Park III
15. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
16. Spy Kids
17. Kate & Leopold
18. Spy Game
19. Shaolin Soccer
20. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
21. Amélie
22. The One
23. Moulin Rouge!
24. Evolution
25. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
26. Josie and the Pussycats
27. Black Hawk Down
28. From Hell
29. Cats & Dogs
30. Planet of the Apes
31. Shrek
32. Bandits
33. Pokémon 3: The Movie
34. A Beautiful Mind
35. Rat Race
36. Super Troopers
37. Ocean's Eleven starring George Clooney
38. K-PAX
39. Donnie Darko
40. Hannibal
41. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
42. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
43. Pearl Harbor
44. Driven
45. Metropolis
46. The Tailor of Panama
47. A Knight's Tale
48. Legally Blonde
49. Ghosts of Mars
50. Monkeybone
51. Behind Enemy Lines
52. Blow
53. Osmosis Jones
54. The Royal Tenenbaums
55. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
56. The Fast and the Furious
57. Zoolander
58. CQ
59. Left Behind: The Movie
60. Scary Movie 2
61. The Mexican
62. 3000 Miles to Graceland
63. Memento
64. Rock Star
65. Vanilla Sky
66. Shallow Hal

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. Did NOT enjoy

Redboxed: Mamma Mia and Babylon A.D.

I rented. We watched. I apologized to my family. I still have great affection for Vin Deisel and Abba. No real, lasting harm done.

(Holly)Wooden Logos: G.I. Joe

Why, why in James T. Kirk's name would you spend money, time, meetings and everything else to develop this?


Instead of using this.


The top one means shit to me. It's a cow-pie, it's some generic store-brand knock of... it's a toy from the dollar store!

The bottom one says "Yo Joe!" So Paramount, if you're not Scrooge McDucking your way through the piles of Joe Money you may feel is due you come August. This is going to be one of the reasons why.

But, before you blame Paramount;

This;

Gets upgraded to this;

Favoritest Movies of 2002

Too many four way ties are going to make me look really indecisive. 2002 is ruled by Weakness and the words; "In Space"

Weakness:
The (in some ways) weaker installments of the two mega trilogies, allows for a tie with the LAST good Disney movie ever. Weaker than Atlantis in many respects, the pair was a non-musical sci-fi stride that I wished had some more gas in it. If you'd asked me in '02, it maybe MAYBE would have made the top 10 that year. Hell, I didn't even want to see it in the theater. I saw Treasure Planet, 2 years later. I know there's technically a couple Disney flick after that before they go CG, but I'll take this one as the end of the line. As for Minority Report, Damn, I remember thinking the film might never happen, when they were trying to squeeze Matt Damon into it, I think as the character that Colin Farell plays, it's an awesome, but weaker Blade Runner. A WEAK Blade Runner, can still kick your ass!
As for "In Space"... Could a Jason movie ever score so high without the words "In Space" in the plot description?

1. TIE: Minority Report
2. TIE: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
3. TIE: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
4. TIE: Treasure Planet
5. Die Another Day
6. Lilo & Stitch
7. Spider-Man
8. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
9. Millennium Actress
10. Eight Legged Freaks
11. Jason X
12. Catch Me If You Can
13. Austin Powers in Goldmember
14. The Count of Monte Cristo
15. XXX
16. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
17. Maid in Manhattan
18. Hero (Jet Li)
19. The Time Machine
20. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
21. Ghost Ship
22. Reign of Fire
23. Scooby-Doo
24. Gangs of New York
25. Spy Kids 2: Island Of Lost Dreams
26. The Scorpion King
27. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
28. Pokemon 4Ever
29. Ice Age
30. The Tuxedo
31. Bubba Ho-tep
32. Dragonfly
33. Road to Perdition
34. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
35. Men in Black II
36. Resident Evil
37. Auto Focus
38. K-19: The Widowmaker
39. Panic Room
40. Solaris
41. The Powerpuff Girls Movie
42. Blade II
43. The Sum of All Fears
44. The Mothman Prophecies
45. Star Trek Nemesis
46. The Ring
47. 8 Mile
48. Red Dragon
49. Better Luck Tomorrow
50. Chicago
51. Signs
52. The Master of Disguise
53. Bowling for Columbine*
54. Death to Smoochy

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. Did NOT enjoy!

*Where these Micheal Moore movies have been landing, are in no way a political statement, and I'm not going to comment on that. They're soooo low because; while I'm sure at least a handful, if not more, guys have gotten laid for having the DVD of a Micheal Moore movie sitting on their shelf, I'm equally sure that no one has ever, oh, said, "Hey, I hate to cut this short but, I was really looking forward to going home, kicking back and watching Bowling for Columbine! It's my Wednesday afternoon thing, I like to squeeze it in before Wheel comes on!" That's NEVER been said.

Best Lists are BS! My Favoritest Flicks of 2008 (So Far!)

Ah-hem, Now on to my "BEST" of the year Bullshit! So I was just reading Massawyrm's "Best of 2008" List on AICN. And the BEST movie of the year on his list is Frost/ Nixon. And that does look to be a kick ass movie, and I can't wait to see it. But... Unlike all these other BEST of whatever year lists, Massawyrm mentions, that his favorite movie of the year is Kung-Fu Panda! Because its fun. Wait, you think Wall-E and Dark Knight and Slumdog millionare are better movies than a movie you like MORE? I suspect all these other listeers are doing the same thing. Why would your favorite movie not be the best one of the year. If Frost-Nixon, is BETTER than Kung-Fu Panda, why don't you enjoy it more? Now, I know we all enjoy some movies that are complete piles of crap. One friend of mine KNOWS Little Nicky is a pile of Crap, and knows that to HIM, it's good! A Best list is from the author's point of view. Such as with my list below, I feel Mongol is a BETTER movie than Wanted, but not by much, I know I like Wanted a little more than Mongol, and Wanted did end up with a higher score than Mongol. Let me try to boil this down some.... If you don't LIKE a movie, it won't make your BEST list. If you LOVE a movie you're likely to argue that it's the best anyway! I do think 2008 is a "One Droid to Rule them all." kind of year. Wall-E is the BEST movie of the year to me, it's also my favorite of the year. Generally you're going to like what you think is good, and not like what you think is bad... Aw Fuck, just pop in the Criterion Armageddon DVD and listen to Ben Affleck go on about "Best"... So, as of 2008, so far, I still need to see Momma Mia, and Eagle Eye, the Best Picture nomoniee's, then I need to HATE any movie on that list Not ending in a hyphenated "E". Just kidding. I grew out of that... I think. Kinda. I broke down in 2008 and finnially watched Annie Hall. I liked it. It's good. But it wasn't better than Star Wars. When I redo my all time list, Wall-E may even threaten Colossus: The Forbin Project. But I've yet to see a movie that beats The Original Trilogy.

But, this is just '08, and with all the movies I've yet to see, I am sure of one thing, the number one slot safely belongs to the droid that gives me bits of;

• I am Legend: He's the Last man on Earth...
  
• Fight Club: He's a lone iconoclast causing people to question their day to day monotony
• Titanic: two young lovers on the best ship in the world.
• Star Wars / Droids with Ben Burtian personality!
• Silent Running: The droid design
• 2001 /2010 / Colossus / Macross Plus: Auto, welcom to the pantheon. Dr. Charles Forbin is in the chamber of Hell reserved for Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk since Colossus didn't have an off switch.
• Phantom of the Opera: Well not in theme, but you do open with Michael Crawford singing!

You're probably a nice number more, you little scamp, so here's your list, it should be your year, next year belongs to a different set of robots... or Captain Kirk, and if not either, I'm going to be pissed. Oh, only one red title so far... why? My hate for Semi-pro is so far from the special Hell deserved by the Happening, relatively, I like every movie but the Happening. Fuck there's the BEST of 2008 list EVERY MOVIE EXCEPT THE HAPPENING! You all get Oscars, leave M Night alone in his seat...

1. WALL-E
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Iron Man
4. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
5. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
6. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
7. Quantum of Solace
8. Kung Fu Panda
9. Wanted
10. Mongol
11. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
12. The Incredible Hulk
13. Hancock
14. Journey to the Center of the Earth
15. The Spiderwick Chronicles
16. Cloverfield
17. Get Smart
18. Speed Racer
19. The Day the Earth Stood Still
20. The Forbidden Kingdom
21. Tropic Thunder
22. The Dark Knight
23. Step Brothers
24. 10,000 B.C.
25. W.
26. The Spirit
27. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
28. The Love Guru
29. Space Chimps
30. Jumper
31. Meet the Spartans
32. Semi-Pro
33. The Happening

The Happening did make $64.5 Million. Maybe he should get the Oscar. I may have bitched that Dark Knight was overrated, but it was good enough to make bank! The Happening should have had the same fate as Extreme Movie, or at most Delgo! It's people staring at TREES! For two FUCKING HOURS, People run from and react to TREES. We all know "Spielberg does the same thing!" No. He does give us bits of seeing a shark or Dinosaur or UFO or Tom Cruise, BUT We're sitting there, looking at those people thinking, YEA, I'd feel that way seeing a shark or dinosaur or UFO or Tom Cruise.... NOT TREES! I'd say M Night needs to be Go-4'd but, if we're so STUPID as to give 64 MILLION to his movies. We might deserve him...

Andrew Stanton makes a movie about robot on robot love, and his movie gets branded as a tree huggin liberal by Fox news, but the Happening, a movie from Fox, about Tree's killing humans in retilation for human development makes 64 million. Fuck.

Favoritest Movies of 2003

I've seen so many movies from this year, Finding Nemo doesn't make the cut to advance to the All-time list, and Matrix revolutions isn't sitting at the bottom! Even Hulk and Matrix 2 manage to stay out of the red, In second place; with nineteen words and two colons between their titles, one compared to... scratch that one WAS Star Wars on water and the other is Star Trek. There must have been something about boats that year. What an awesome pair, and a number of other good movies too, but the TOP spot, was a movie that for some reason, didn't make the list of even having been seen when I first compiled it, then, I'm working on 2002 and I see Two Towers, and think, wait, No! If Two Towers even exists in 2002, then 2003 BELONGED to only one movie, and it bows to NO ONE.

1. Return of the King
   
2. TIE: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
3. TIE: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
4. X2: X-Men United
5. Underworld
6. Zatoichi (The Blind Swordsman)
7. Lost in Translation
8. The Corporation
9. Fog of War
10. Big Fish
11. Kill Bill Vol. 1
12. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
13. City of God
14. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
15. Basic
16. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
17. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
18. The Core
19. Bulletproof Monk
20. Kaena: The Prophecy
21. Runaway Jury
22. Timeline
23. Frank Herbert's Children of Dune
24. Finding Nemo
25. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
26. Bend It Like Beckham
27. The Last Samurai
28. The Medallion
29. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
30. Freddy vs. Jason
31. Tokyo Godfathers
32. Peter Pan
33. Scary Movie 3
34. The Triplets of Belleville
35. Final Destination 2
36. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over
37. The Italian Job
38. Wonderful Days
39. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
40. The Recruit
41. Phone Booth
42. Shanghai Knights
43. The Haunted Mansion
44. Down with Love
45. S.W.A.T.
46. School of Rock
47. Daredevil
48. Mystic River
49. Matchstick Men
50. Shattered Glass
51. The Matrix Reloaded
52. Hulk
53. Seabiscuit
54. Anger Management
55. The Dreamers
56. Freaky Friday
57. Ju-on: The Grudge
58. Paycheck
59. 28 Days Later
60. American Splendor
61. Bruce Almighty
62. Cold Mountain
63. Rugrats Go Wild!
64. Old School
65. Elf
66. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
67. The Matrix Revolutions
68. The Cooler
69. Bad Boys II
70. Gigli
71. Thirteen
72. The Cat in the Hat
73. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
74. Cabin Fever
75. Dreamcatcher

Legend: Onto the next Round! In the middle. I do NOT enjoy.

Movie: The Spirit

Everything I was about to say just flew out of my ass when I went to grab a poster of this movie. Look at that thing! The red title and the color scheme are from "300"! The other posters look like Sin City. Impawards has the posters, look at all three movies. The Movie Blog was pretty hard on this movie's marketing, and it becomes only more and more clear as to why.

Anyway, I love Frank Miller, well his work and career at least, I only wish I knew him personally, I've never met him, but I've listened to him speak at conventions several times.

I almost don't want to put my thoughts down. Something did go wrong here, and I'm gonna buy the fattest special edition this movie has to offer to figure out why. Lets move on...

Frank, we've been reading that you're going to do Buck Rogers. Are you going to do Buck in this Sin-City look? Part of me says please don't, but I must admit, I'm curious to see it. It might be fresh. But please... editing... This thing was cut like a power point presentation, it felt like someone was holding my head while reading a book! Oh, and sound. Nothing technical was up to the visuals, and a movie can't just ride on one engine.

Please, hit Buck Rogers out of the park. We're rooting for you!

Movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still

Okay, Peter Jackson remade King Kong, Tim Burton re-imagined Planet of the Apes and Someone monkeyed around to call this movie Day the Earth Stood Still.

• Why is Keanu called Klatuu? He's a MUCH different character (More like Neo, only doing things with his superpowers instead of being a useless lump for two money and time wasting sequels) So, like a `90's Godzilla, he's Klatuu in name only.
  
• Was Prof Barnhart relevant? He's in one scene.
  
• And, I know I was one among many who hated the very idea of Gort being absent from the movie, but... Gort did not belong in this movie. His intro effects scream of being a late stage change in the production. If Klatuu's actual form would only frighten us, why does Gort have the meaty hands of a human, is that all the more alien you guys look? I doubt it. Lots of movies should sometimes cave to the fanboys, but now mistakes are being made by doing this (Gambit in Wolverine's origin of all places.).
• I've been saying Gort this whole time, this pile calls him; G.O.R.T.... It stands for something... (behold my wikiknowledge) Genetically Organized Robotic Technology! Seriously, donate a buck a year to Wikipedia, they're a great resource for all this useless knowledge that keeps us from mass suicide do to culture-wide boredom.
• BUT, In the theater, GORT in the silo thingy... Awesome visual. See I said something nice, but onto flaying this movie.
• The President she works for must be the biggest dick and the dumbest loser in the universe. Aliens land, and he sends the Secretary of Defense. WAIT. You may be thinking, that was the same situation as in Transformers, but it isn't. In Transfomers a helicopter lands at a military base, shoots the hell out of the place, and then in short order goes after Air-Force One. That's safely in the hands of the SECDEF. But Klatuu, he asks to talk, even after having been shot. He ASKS TO TALK, and one of the dumbest character in the history of film says no. Way to kill the human race bitch!
• She has the silliest line of the year. After multiple montages of mass evacuations and stock market crashes, the works. Kathy Bates says; "We don't want to start a panic."

I could go on and on... I'm bored bitching up this shit-fest, and I'll probably on my end of year list, say it's better than the Dark Knight... shit the commandments.. Sorry Dark Knight, can you forgive me Dark Knight? I'll say three Hail Rachel Dawes and pray the Utility Belt before I go to bed.

A few last thoughts on a movie I've been excessively hard on; If we throw out the names of the characters, it bears about as much resemblence to the original movie as E.T. did. The title does fit, and there are some good visuals of Gort.

I'd love this movie, but my wife thinks I hated it. I needed a Tums afterward. I really would love to be able to get past your wretched title, and the meaningless few minutes... minutes of crap and name service... that A) are the only things connecting it to the original, and B) made this movie crap, aside from Jr. I'm not going to bitch about Jaden Smith, he's 10 I'd rather bitch about what the adults were responsible for, like writing the most obnoxious kid since a problem child movie. I wanted Keanu to kick him off that little bridge. It was for the most part... kinda decent until I thought about it. This one just bugged me, especially with so many characters being really boneheaded, all the while it has some weird corporate assigned identity of being a remake of a movie that it's so barely connected to.

So, mostly I'm pissed at the wasted opportunity here. Remaking The Day the Earth Stood still could have been something very special. Whatever this movie was in the heads of the filmmakers, could have been too! But the amalgamation of those two ideas will befuddle me for a long time.