I know this won’t be relevant to most of the readers here, but anyone who lives in the southern part of Minnesota need to head over to Minnesota State University campus at Mankato to check out their oldies, but goodies 12 hour film festival. A dontaion of just $20 gets you in… and just check out the lineup up films you get to see on the BIG SCREEN for your twenty bucks!…

NOON - This Is Spinal Tap
One of the funniest and most quotable films of all time. Easily in my top ten comedies and the original mockumentary.

1:40- Dr. Strangelove
In my top 5 films of all time. Kubrick rules all.

3:30 - Gimme Shelter
Haven’t seen this yet, but funny enough this is the topic of discussion for next week’s Movie Club Podcast. So this is a great opportunity to see it the way it was meant to be seen and know what the hell we’re talking about on the show next week!

5:00 - One Hour Break
Grab some food, stretch your legs, or enjoy the trailers and film shorts running.

6:10 - Animal House
Amazingly enough, I have not seen this. Good time and place to finally see it though eh?

8:15 - Shaun Of The Dead
Also in my top 50, one of the most original and funny movies of the last decade. Pegg and Frost are dynamite together. Zombies and comedy. How can you go wrong?

10:00 - Blue Velvet
Not my favorite in the Lynch series, but certainly a must see. Dennis Hopper is ridiculous in this. It’ll be fun late at night too.

     You can visit the KMSU Film Fest Official Page for all the details on where to go and how to get tickets. They also have embedded trailers for all the above films. So it’s worth stopping by just for the Spinal Tap trailer.

     Here are some pictures from The Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Once I finally got my luggage from the airline, everything has gone fairly smooth and it’s been a real blast. I have tons of pics to post over the next few days, but here are a few from the first couple screenings. Remember I didn’t have my luggage, hence the same clothing in several pics.

By the way, you can see our review for each of the films at our After Dark headquarters if you are so inclined.

With festival director Adam Lopez (awesome host).

Two of the programmers, Todd Brown from Twitch and Peter Kuplowski (short films).

Hanging with legendary film maker Uwe Boll.

Jay Cheel from FilmJunk.com and the documentary blog.

The CN Tower in Toronto.

My wife preparing for the midnight screening.

     More updates and picture to follow over the next few days. For more info on the festival, check out our full spread of titles, reviews and trailers at our headquarters, or visit the official TAD site

     While bored at work, I spent most of the afternoon revamping my Top 100 films list of all time. You can see the list at any time by clicking on the “Top 100″ button near the top of any page on MoviePatron. But I’m posting it on the blog today for commentary. As written on the Top 100 page, there are some preliminaries regarding this list:

     These are my personal favorite top 100 films of all time. Now first of all, I do not necessarily consider these to be the “best” films of all time. They are simply my favorites. Recently MP contributor, John, made a list of 100 films he’d want with him on a desert island. A good idea I thought. This is sort of my version of that list.
     The list was put together fairly simply. In the fall of 1999, I created a list of all the films that I could remember seeing in my lifetime using “Videohound’s Golden Movie Retriever” book. By going through that list (of about 2000 films at the time), I created a sublist of possible contenders for the all time 100 list. I came up with about 160 films, I then weeded out the extra sixty films (which included “Sixth Sense,” “E.T.,” “Blade Runner,” “Wall Street,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” “Blazing Saddles,” “The Game” and many others), and proceeded to rank the remaining 100, which is the list you see here. I try to update the list about every year and a half or so to account for new films I’ve seen and older ones that I’ve lost some interest in.
     Lastly, realize that these are my favorites of all time; therefore, there may be some films that are included in this list simply for nostalgic reasons or because they remind me of my childhood. Also realize that aside from maybe the top 20 films, the others could move up or down a few spots on any given day, depending on my mood.
     Lastly, lastly, this list does not include the Star Wars saga; which is automatic, as the greatest story ever put to film. And no, I did not forget The Godfather, I just don’t see the greatness in it; or Taxi Driver for that matter.

So, without any further ado….I give you…Andrew’s favorite 100 films…see them all!!!!

100) Natural Born killers
99) The Abyss
98) Face/Off
97) Dazed and Confused
96) Glory
95) Silence of the Lambs
94) Starship Troopers
93) Snatch
92) Desperado
91) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
90) Breakfast Club
89) Back to the Future
88) Terminator 2
87) Weird Science
86) Black Hawk Down
85) Titanic
84) Multiplicity
83) Mr. Mom
82) Fantasia 2000
81) Braveheart
80) Forrest Gump

see the rest of the list by unwrapping the text…
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     I went to something similar to this a few years ago where they had the actual filming models of various ships: Star Destroyers, Millenium Falcon, X-Wings and TIE Fighters. I also saw the real Boba-Fett costume. This one though sounds to be much grander.

From the Star Trib article:

     The 12,000-square-foot exhibit features more than 80 costumes, models, and props from all six Star Wars films, including Princess Leia’s famous white dress, Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder from episode IV, a full-size R2-D2, Han Solo’s rogue outfit, and a Yoda puppet.

     Exhibit visitors will be able to climb aboard a full-size replica of the cockpit from Episode IV’s Millennium Falcon and “journey” to a land far away. Guests also can sit inside a real-world hovercraft similar to Saga’s landspeeders and step into a lab where they can build and program robots and engineer droids.

     Apparently this tour has been going on for quite some time already and will have travelled through 8 US cities before heading overseas. Kicking off in Oregon over two years ago, it is actually nearing the end of its journey. Currently in Chicago until Decmeber, it has two more stops: Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, Fort Worth, TX, (February - April 2008) and the The Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, (June - October 2008).

     Admission will be $17 for adults and $14.50 for ages 4 to 12 and 60 and older. Personally, climbing aboard The Falcon will be worth the price of admission alone

related links:
Official release from StarWars.com
Wikipedia profile

     Probably my favorite mini-series of all time was “V”. For all you kids out there, a mini-series was a multi-evening movie that was usually a pretty special thing back when we only had 4 or 5 channels to choose from.

     Anyway, “V” was a 4 or 5 night event in which aliens show up over planet earth and look remarkably like us. They promise us technology and medicine and a better way of life. But we soon find out that they’re really carnivorous reptilians and their real goal is to enslave humans and steal all of the water from our planet. A small band of resistance fighters catch on to the aliens’ plan and decide to strike back. Marc Singer (i.e. The Beastmaster) leads the pack. Along with Robert Englund, Faye Grant and the full awesomeness of Michael Ironside. It’s very similar to 1996 Independence Day (ID4)… or more accurately ID4 is similar to V. Since “V” was so awesome and was such a phenomenon, this is maybe partly why I like ID4 so much.

     After the mini-series finale, there was a short lived TV series based on the same idea that totally reaked ass. The show was cancelled and the phenom died off. Over the years though, ideas and propositions for TV and films have bubbled up here and there, then die off just as quickly as they were conceived.

     So now, almost 25 years later, Vic over at ScreenRant is reporting that a book is due to hit shelves in a couple of months entitled “V:The Second Generation” and is based off the ideas and scripts that sprang up from the aforementioned spin-off.

from ScreenRant:

The most interesting part? It remains listed as “currently being developed for TV” and, after contacting Kenneth Johnson, it appears there’s some truth in this. When asked whether a big-screen production or perhaps a straight-to-DVD release may be on the cards, Johnson confirmed “all options are open and we are pursuing them” but that straight-to-DVD is “unlikely” due to “the high production cost”.

     Now first off, I am all about this. I’ve been waiting for V to return for many years and it sort of did in the way of ID4. But that was that. I have heard rumors of a sequel to ID4, but nothing has ever come to fruition. As much as I look foreward to this though, it won’t be as cool as it was when I was 8 and without badass Marc Singer and Michael Ironside, it just won’t be the same. Still, I’m itching to see how it works out. And on the other hand, who’s to say Singer and Ironside couldn’t return. They’re not that old. Of course, it will all depend on the substance and story arc of the novel I guess. I’ll be reading when this thing hits shelves on Nov. 7.

links:
Wikipedia article on V
IMDb profile for “V”
IMDb profile for “V: The Final Battle”
DVD available at Amazon
V: The Second Generation (novel)

     For the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, Movie Patron contributed by hosting our very own blog-a-thon; which actually turned out to be quite a success. Well, the folks at Southwest Airlines and NASA were thinking a little more grander than myself (of course, they also have the funding for something like this). They’ve managed to secure a spot on the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-120 for Luke Skywalker’s “original” lightsaber.

     Launching October 23rd, the saber will be in its rightful spot aboard the international space station. Once the mission has been completed and the saber has traveled 6 million miles, it will return home to be on display at Houston International before going back to Skywalker Ranch.

     You can see video of the announcement over at CNN.com. It appears Vader, R2-D2, Boba-Fett, R5-D4 and a host of other Star Wars characters were on hand for the event.

     Although the story claims it is Luke’s “original” lightsaber, it technically isn’t. The one in the presentation anyway, is the saber from Return of the Jedi. Luke’s original lightsaber was given to him by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode IV: A New Hope; which he loses when his hand is cut off. Anyway, that saber is not the one going into orbit. Just thought I should clear that up.

     I don’t know if this is old news but since I just came across it I thought I would mention it here. Through people doing it on FaceBook I went over to The Simpsons official website and created my very own character. It’s a fun, probably useless way to spend some of your precious time. Head on over to The Simpsons Official Website to create your own character and if possible post them here. Here is mine:

.

     The Online Film Community’s Top 100 project is finally complete and ready for viewing! Check it out and make sure you see them all.

What:
The OFC Top 100 was the brain child of Jonathan Burdick of CinemaFusion and was meant to be a nie alternative to other top 100 lists out there. We weren’t trying to show anyone up or make a “definitive” list. It was mostly just something fun that the online movie community could get together on and see what comes out. It was loads of fun and we’re happy it worked out so well and we’re thrilled on the turnout on the number of voters and sites participating.

How:
It started with just a nominations list by each writer of 100 titles that they’d like to nominate for the list; using whatever criteria they so choose. All titles that were nominated at least three times were then put on one large list of over 500 titles. From this larger nominations list, each writer chose 100 films, ranked them in order from 100-1 and then a point system was applied to each list (#100 = 1 point, #99 = 2 points, #98 = 3 points and so on). The film with the highest number of points after the tallying was completed became our #1 movie of all time, and the next largest point getter became #2 and so on and so on.

     So thanks again to Jonathan on getting this all put together. It was loads of work and we all appreciate it and it seems to have turned out quite nicely. I’m pretty happy with the list as I scan the titles. A few titles left off that I’d like to have seen and some that shouldn’t be there, but it’s a nice alternative list with lots of great entries. Kurt and I will discuss the list a bit on this week’s Cinecast (episode 57).

The List:
100 Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
99 Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1988)
98 On the Waterfront (Kazan, 1954)
97 Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
96 Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)
95 His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)
94 Lord of the Rings, The: The Return of the King (Jackson, 2003)
93 Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995)
92 Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
91 400 Blows, The (Truffaut, 1959)
90 Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)

to see the full list and names and sites of contriutors, just unwrap the text…
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

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     Here’s a site I used to travel to way back in the day (at least 10 years ago). It’s been around forever and is a cool site. I completely forgot about it until I remembered it in a dream I had last night…

MovieQuote.net

     There are nine genres. Within each genre are ten movie quotes. Guess the quote correctly and you get to put in your own quote. Each quote has commentary and hints built in. It’s a fun time waster. Check it out.

     Time for another random, pointless post.

     Have you ever been watching a film and then half way through you realise that the character you have been watching is played by an actor you know and they look so different that you didn’t even notice it was them? In other words what actors have been in a film where they look so different that you didn’t recognise them straight away? Or even if you do recognise them but they just look so different than they normally do. Here is a bunch that I could think of:

Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich

 John Hurt in The Elephant Man

 Gary Oldman in Hannibal

 Charlize Theron in Monster

Christian Bale in The Machinist

     That’s all that really come to mind. I’m sure there are tons more, feel free to point any out.

     Well since it’s kind of a slow day (Around these parts anyway *Said in best “Sam Elliott from The Big Lebowski voice”*) I thought I would do a random, kind of fun post to get discussion and opinions going. You could call it a “game” but it isn’t really. I just thought it would be fun if you could come up up with a list of the most original films you have ever seen. Now these are films that (in your eyes anyway) can’t be compared to any other film (that you know of). In other words; films that stand totally on there own as being totally original. Whether it be in the ideas within it, the way it is executed direction-wise, the style of writing; anything. Now I know that no matter what film you name there is always going to be someone who can compare another film to it. So if it helps just use the criteria of the angles I just mentioned. Now this is just for fun so remember keep the comments friendly. (The list doesn’t have to be of a certain length or necessarily in order). Here is my list:

Requiem for a Dream - It is the first film that pops into my head when I hear the word “original”. I honestly cannot think of any other film like it (with the exception of comparing others simply because they are weird).

Being John Malkovich - How in the hell did someone come up with the idea behind this film? It’s crazy…but brilliant.

Donnie Darko - Have you ever seen a film about a 6-foot tall bunny rabbit from the future telling someone the world is going to end? ‘Nuff said.

Brazil - To my knowledge there has never and probably will never be a film like this again. And that’s part of the reason I love the film so damn much.

Napoleon Dynamite- A strange one to have on the list considering it is set in every day life and nothing discernibly weird or out of the ordinary happens in it. And yet the film seems alien and different than other comedies and films in general.

Waking Life - The film before A Scanner Darkly. If I am not mistaken this was the very first film to have the Roto-scoping technique employed in it. After this film I thought my head was going to explode with all the information I had just received and yet I was better off from the experience.

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - One of the very few films that would make much more sense ondrugs than watching it normally. Weirdness and originality is where Gilliam excels in and this might just be the most original film of his to date.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Only Michel Gondry could make the casual erasing of a person’s memory perfectly plausible. Stands firmly in a sub-genre of it’s own within the romantic/comedy genre.

Memento - The first (and I believe) only film to use the back-to-front storytelling. Confusion as never been this interesting.

2001: A Space Odyssey- Probably the most original films of the sci-fi genre that I can think of. It doesn’t feel the need to have epic space battles (although I’m not saying there’s anything wrongwith that, of course) or outlandish CGI. Sci-fi at it’s most silent.

Amelie - Goes just that bit further and pushes the boundaries as far as romantic comedies. This is very odd and different to many other film I have seen.

A Clockwork Orange - With regards to mostly the script more than anything (although everything else is pretty unique too). I would be very impressed if someone could decipher the dialogue of this film and translate it into English. Something tells me it would not have been as good if spoken normally.

Blue Velvet - I guess you could compare this to any other of Lynch’s films (of course) but apart from that this unique but brilliant film-making.

Pi- Independent with a capital “I”. And with the exception of Aronofsky’s next film (the previously mentioned Requiem for a Dream) I don’t think there is another film like this. It is definitely an acquired taste but it simply needs to appreciated for it uniqueness.

     At the moment those are all I can think of so feel free to post your list and by all means comment on mine; telling me how right or how wrong I am. And most of all have fun!

     With the net being alive with Cloverfield rumors, puzzles and links, it seems to have given studios and fans new ideas on how to market a film. The latest for The Bourne Ultimatum sounds kind of intriguing; albeit a little too much work for me.

     Movieweb is reporting that starting Monday, July 16th, Google and Universal pictures have set up a system that allows you to log onto the intrawebs and “track” Bourne utilizing Google Search, Maps, Earth, Images, Translate and YouTube. According to the story,

     …players will track Bourne online, in the hopes that what he knows will prove helpful in their own quests. With new clues and active game play provided to site visitors each weekday — 15 in total — the game concludes on the film’s opening day. Along the way, registered users will have the chance to win amazing prizes, including the grand prize: a 2008 Volkswagen Touareg 2, designed to the specifications of the car seen in the film, as well as a four-city trip to international destinations featured in the movie and $25,000.

     Starting Monday, you’ll be able to sign up for free and gain access to exclusive clips as you prgress through the game. It sounds like too much work for me to care (especially since I think the whole franchise is a bit over-rated anyway). But I’ll definitely at least check it out on Monday and see how it starts.

     You too can play by signing up over at http://www.google.com/bourne. If you’re not in USA or Canada, there’s an alternate version of the game for you too. Just make sure to use the drop down menu on the main page to select your country.

     Once this thing takes off, I’d love to hear people’s findings and experiences as they play this game. If it turns out to be kind of cool and if I can keep the boss off my back long enough, I may decide to go ahead and track Bourne if it seems worth it. Anyone else have any interest in playing this “game”?

     Lists. They are always fun. And that is because all films are subjective; one person’s absolutely favourite film might be detested by another viewer; that’s the beauty of it. So I thought for some fun I would make lists for what I think are the most overrated and underrated films of all time. Now someone pointed out the last time I did a list post (I think it was with the “Best of the Genres” list) that you can’t say that about all time as obviously you haven’t seen every film ever made. So from now on, this and any other list I do I will be referring to the one’s I have seen personally. And you do the same if you would like to share your list. Anyway have fun!

My Top 10 Most Overrated Films:

10. The Green Mile - Not a film I completely hate or anything but just very overrated. The praise it gets from everyone isn’t comprehensible to me.

9. Blade Runner- Again not a film I hate but it’s one of the most boring sci-fi films I have ever had to sit through. Now some people may say that that’s short sighted of  me to judge a film on how well paced it is and no appreciating any other aspects. I do appreciate those other aspects but a film can’t hold up (with very few exceptions of course) if it’s that slow paced and boring that it becomes almost unwatchable.

8. Braveheart- One of my most hated films of all time. And if you asked me why I couldn’t give you an answer. I have absolutely no clue why I hate this film but I do. And that is the reason I find it drastically overrated. C’Mon we all have a film we hate for reasons unknown, right?

7. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - It really pains me to put this on my list as I absolutely frickin’ love the first part of it. But after seeing that I’d had it really. I honestly don’t see what everyone else does (especially with the latter part of the trilogy). To use a quote from Clerks II, “All it was was a bunch of people walking. THREE movies of people walking to a fucking volcano!” Perfectly sums it up.

6. The Exorcist- I am one of the few who hadn’t seen this film years ago. I just recently watched it not one month ago and it is honestly the single most boring horror film I have ever seen. One thing a horror film should NOT be.

5. The New World - To borrow a quote from a Flixster friend of mine, “How slow-paced does a film have to be before it turns into a painting?” ‘Nuff said.

4. Trainspotting -Officially my most hated film of all time. And like with Braveheart I have no idea why. I remember the last time I watched it I felt like taking a shower afterwards - what a disgusting film.

3. The Deer Hunter- In my eyes the single most boring film of any film I have ever seen. The only merit the films holds is the cinematography. Christ we have to sit through a wedding with people dancing for almost the first hour! “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

2. The Godfather Part II - I absolutely love the first one and yet somehow find this extremely and totally overrated. I think I fell asleep a few times.

1. Apocalypse Now- Yip - THE most overrated film I have ever seen. Every top war film list this is always near - and more often than not - number 1. It’s just so depressing and unpleasant to watch (and not in a good way if you know what I mean).The plus side is if you are having trouble sleeping put this in the DVD player and you’ll be out cold!

 My Top 10 Most Underrated Films:

10. Multiplicity - Probably the most underrated and under appreciated comedies I have ever seen. I mean Keaton playing 4 different people and yet still somehow making it fresh and funny? Now that’s talent.

9. National Treasure - Kind of the modern day Indiana Jones. Although not quite up to that standard obviously this is still one of the films I have the most fun watching.

8.  Swordfish - Have no idea why this either gets panned or overlooked. It’s so frickin’ cool it’s unbelievable.

7. Brick - My favourite film of 2006 and one hell of a film it is. And yet it just seemed to come and go from theatres and even when it arrived on DVD it didn’t get much attention - and unjustly so.

6. Carlito’s Way - One of Pacino’s best films in my opinion. So much better than Scarface I think, at least this had  a point.

5. Vanilla Sky - Have absolutely no idea why people say this is terrible. One of my favourite Tom Cruise performances and films. I guess I just have a thing for weird films. The twist was genius.

4. Casino - Next to Goodfellas this is my favourite gangster film (as in mob gangster aka Goodfellas-esque). Joe Pesci in an even more psycho role than Tommy from Goodfellas. And THAT’S saying something.

3. Catch Me If You Can - Although not his best it is 100% my favourite Spielberg flick. So much fun watching DiCaprio at work in his finest performance to date.

2. Revolver - Tripe? Awful? Terrible? I think not. People just seemed to say this film was awful just because Ritchie didn’t do another Snatch or Lock, Stock. And yet if he HAD he would have been panned for “just doing the same again”.  applaud the effort and the willingness to try something different more than anything I guess. But I still think it is a great movie.

1. Unbreakable- Overshadowed by Shyamalan’s infinitely inferior The Sixth Sense, he deserved an Oscar for making this film in my opinion. Sam Jackson in his finest role since Jackie Brown and Shymalan at his absolute peak.

     So there you have it folks - my most overrated and underrated films of all time. Now I ask that you don’t just bash my list and say I am crazy for putting a certain film on there if you don’t have the guts to put your own list to compare. Like I said, have fun and happy discussion!

     Tonight on CBS, Morgan Freeman hosted the newest “100 Years . . . 100 Movies” series. It’s been 10 years since AFI released it’s last best 100 films of the last (of which I have a checklist and have seen exactly 55 of - you wouldn’t believe some of the 45 I haven’t seen and I’m not tellin’) and they’ve decided to update that with some new films of the last 10 years. Because I love lists and I love to analyze these lists, this is one of the best for discussions and analyzing.

     Star Wars moved up TWO spots! The two biggest jumps from the 1998 list, were Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 film City Lights jumped from No. 76 to No. 11, while the 1956 John Ford-John Wayne Western The Searchers took the biggest leap, from No. 96 all the way to No. 12. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull bounding upward from No. 24 in 1998 to No. 4 on the new list and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo hurtling from No. 61 to No. 9 this time.

     Films that dropped out of the top-100 this time included 1965’s Doctor Zhivago, which had been No. 39 on the 1998 list; 1984’s Amadeus, which had been No. 53; 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which had been No. 64; 1990’s Dances With Wolves, which had been No. 75; and 1927’s The Jazz Singer, which had been No. 90.

     Close Encounters director Steven Spielberg had the most films on the list with five, while Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Billy Wilder each had four.

Here’s AFI’s Top 100 films of the last 100 years.

To see the rest of the list, click on the “unwrap text” link below:

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     Now this may seem a discussion better suited for the forums but since the day has been slow (with regards to both posts and just in general) I thought I would just post it in the blog. I was just thinking over the past day or so about movies and genres of movies. I was thinking to myself what is the best film from each type of genre. And then I thought it would be fun to see what the Movie Patron users think are the best of each genre. So what I would like you to do is post each genre as a heading and then proceed to put the three best films from that genre under that heading. It would be best just to copy my list below and delete/ammend accordingly. Now keep in mind it is the best films of the genre not your favourite (although they can be the same if that’s the case). So without further ado here is my list:

Action

Die Hard, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Matrix

Adventure

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Comedy

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Big Lebowski, Shaun of the Dead

Crime/Gangster

Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects

Drama

The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, American History X

Epic/Historical

Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, Schindler’s List

Horror

The Shining, Alien, Psycho

Musical

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz

Sci-fi

Alien, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey

War

Saving Private Ryan, Downfall, The Great Escape

Thriller

Memento, Seven, L.A. Confidential

Foreign

Oldboy, City of God, Pan’s Labyrinth

Romance

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Amelie

Animated

Toy Story, The Lion King, Spirited Away

Western

(Sorry, no films for this as I haven’t seen many aka not a fan)

     So there you have it my list of what I consider to be the best films of each genre. Now post yours, feel free to add any genres I have missed and happy discussion!

     As an introduction to my new position as a writer for the Movie Patron blog I thought I would do something similar to a fellow, fairly new, writer John Alison by posting my top 10 films of all time. This will hopefully let you get to know me a little bit, for those of you who don’t already, and I hope that you will all welcome me into this little online community. My list is as follows:

 10. Seven - A fantastic mystery/thriller (and some may negotiate horror) from the equally fantastic David Fincher. I watch this often, when I am feeling in an extremely quizzical kind of mood…

9. Batman Begins - Such a wonderful film, unusually good for how new it is. Christian Bale hit the nail on the head with his portrayal of the Dark Knight in my eyes and hopefully the proceeding sequels will be just as good.

8. The Shawshank Redemption - The film I consider to be the BEST film ever made, but although obviously not my favourite. It’s PERFECT.

7. American History X - Edward Norton ultimately makes this film how good it is but him aside it is still fan-tastic.

6. American Beauty - The role of Kevin Spacey’s life, and THAT’S saying something. Funny, sad, witty, clever and extremely affecting.

5. Memento - A monumental achievement in originality. It could be argued that if this film played out ‘normally’ that it wouldn’t be as engaging but there in lies the brilliance.

4. Reservoir Dogs - Violence? Check. Swearing? Check. Interesting dialogue? Check. Amazing film? Check!

3. Fight Club - One of the few twists of it’s kind that actually seems original rather than cliched and boring. The second Fincher film to feature on my list. I know I am not the only one to have this on my top 10 of all time list…and justly so.

2. Donnie Darko - One of the rare films that I IMMEDIATELY  wanted to watch again as soon as it was done. A film that I still haven’t figured out even after multiple viewings. But that’s a good thing.

1. Pulp Fiction - Anyone who knows me from anywhere WILL know beforehand that this is my all time favourite film. It’s everything I want and expect from a film and much, much more. I have always, and probably will always maintain this as my favourite film ever made.

     So there you have it; my top 10 films of all time. Folks, with the comments - be gentle.

     For some reason this actually reminds me of me and my friends at the bar back in the 90s.

     While there are plenty of great and important awards ceremonies each year praising film, only one has the glitz, glamour and fun factor of The MTV Movie Awards without meaning jack shit. MTV is always fun (in a juvenile, teenie-bopper sort of way) and has unique award categories that are just… fun. Plain and simple. Fake trailers and parodies abound and everyone always has a good time with it; including myself. So here’s a list of the nominees and the winners (in red) from this year’s ceremony. I’m not going to make predictions or mark who I’d like to win, because honestly, I don’t really care.

     So for this year’s Golden Popcorn award ceremony, the hilariously offensive Sarah Silverman hosting the night’s show. It should prove to be a riot.

Best Movie

• “300″
• “Blades of Glory”
• “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
• “Little Miss Sunshine”
• “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”

Best Performance

• Gerard Butler, “300″
• Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
• Keira Knightley, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
• Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
• Beyoncé Knowles, “Dreamgirls”
• Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”

Breakthrough Performance

• Emily Blunt, “The Devil Wears Prada”
• Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
• Lena Headey, “300″
• Columbus Short, “Stomp the Yard”
• Jaden Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”
• Justin Timberlake, “Alpha Dog”

Best Comedic Performance

• Emily Blunt, “The Devil Wears Prada”
• Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
• Will Ferrell, “Blades of Glory”
• Adam Sandler, “Click”
• Ben Stiller, “Night at the Museum”

Best Kiss

• Cameron Diaz & Jude Law, “The Holiday”
• Will Ferrell & Sacha Baron Cohen, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”
• Columbus Short & Meagan Good, “Stomp The Yard”
• Mark Wahlberg & Elizabeth Banks, “Invincible”
• Marlon Wayans & Brittany Daniel, “Little Man”

Best Villain

• Tobin Bell, “Saw III”
• Jack Nicholson, “The Departed”
• Bill Nighy, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
• Rodrigo Santoro, “300″
• Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”

Best Fight

• Jack Black & Héctor Jiménez vs. Los Duendes (Wrestling Match), “Nacho Libre”
• Gerard Butler vs. “The Uber Immortal” (The Spartan/Persian Battle), “300″
• Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian (Naked Wrestle Fight), “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
• Will Ferrell vs. Jon Heder (Ice Rink Fight), “Blades of Glory”
• Uma Thurman vs. Anna Faris (Super Girl Fight), “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”

Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet

• “Evan Almighty” (June 22)
• “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (June 15)
• “Hairspray” (July 20)
• “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (July 13)
• “Rush Hour 3″ (August 10)
• “Transformers” (July 4)

mtvU Best Filmmaker On Campus

• Robert Dastoli, “Southwestern Orange County vs. The Flying Saucers”(University of Central Florida)
• Maria Gigante, “Girls Room” (Columbia College, Chicago)
• Josh Greenbaum, “Border Patrol” (University of Southern California)
• Alexander Poe, “Please Forget I Exist” (Columbia University)
• Andrew Shipsides, “Bottleneck” (Savannah College of Art & Design)

Best Spoof Movie - you can see these short films HERE, but I warn you, they are stupid and not very funny.

• United 300
• Texas Chainsaw Musical
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Rehab
• Casino Royale with Cheese
• Quentin Tarantino’s Little Miss Squirtgun

     I‘m going to assume that you all have seen a lot of movies and so I won’t really be spoiling anything for you by showing you that picture to the left. If you are worried about spoilers from some big name movies from the past then don’t look at the picture and don’t click on it to see it larger and then don’t go to http://www.threadless.com to order the t-shirt. I generally don’t like geeky shirts but I’m actually considering buying this one.

Happy Birthday Star Wars!