Top Ten Movies of the Decade

Over the next few days I will be putting together a couple of lists. This is the first one (the other two being top albums of the year, and of the decade). There were a lot of really good movies that came out this decade. Here are my favorites:

10. Rent (2005)


9. Children of Men (2006)


8. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)


7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)


6. Munich (2005)


5. No Country for Old Men (2007)


4. The Wrestler (2008)


3. Serenity (2005)


2. Mulholland Drive (2001)


1. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

"I Hear the Remake Is Better"

In the musical commentary to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, during the song "Ten Dollar Solo," the actress who played Groupie #2* says, "I want to live forever/Just like in Fame/But not as depressing/I hear the remake is better." We were all a bit confused: when did they remake Fame?

Well, they haven't. Yet. The remake comes out in September. So how do they know the remake is better?

Because of the director. His name is Kevin Tancharoen. His sister is Maurisa Tancharoen. Maurisa co-wrote Dr. Horrible, and played Groupie #1 (and also sings "Nobody's Asian in the Movies" in the commentary, one of the best songs). Which makes the reference to the remake no one has heard of even more funny.

*American would want to know what Tracy (Stacey) is all about. It's good for the whole team, good for the family. This is about family!

Star Wars: Retold (By Someone Who Hasn't Seen It)

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Movie Quote Meme

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies. (No particular order)
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.
6. Go Ahead, do your own...you know you want to! (Assume this is me tagging everyone who reads this)

These actually represent my top 15 favorite movies:

1. "I remember wrenching the steering wheel to the right and slapping my foot against the brake petal. I wasn't the driver anymore. The bus was like this huge wave about to break over us. Bear Otto, the Lambston kids, the Hamiltons, the Prescotts, the teenaged boys and girls from Bartlett Hill Road, Pete, Suzy, Laura, Rick, Sean Walker, Nicole Burnell, Billy Ansel's twins, Jessica and Mason... all the children of my town."

2. "You promised me that everything was gonna be OK, remember? I fucked that sleaze bag for you, then I put myself through fucking hell for you?"

3. "Up men! And to your posts! And let no man forget today, that you are from Old Virginia!"

4. "That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned."

5. "Silencio."

6. "Dad gave me this. Fifth birthday. He said, 'Childhood's over the moment you know you're gonna die.'"

7. "How do you document real life, when real life's getting more like fiction each day?"

8. "My island!"

9. "Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up."

10. "Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax, you're GODDAMN RIGHT I'M LIVING IN THE FUCKING PAST!"

11. "The only worry you got is dying. And if that happens you won't know about it anyway."

12. "You can't just apologize, Johann. You left your battle station at a critical moment. Also, you disobeyed my command."

13. "If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?"

14. "You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."

15. "Now go home and get your fuckin' shinebox."

New Star Trek Photos!!!

Here are some recently released photos from the new Star Trek prequel. After each photo, I'll tell you what I like and don't like about each picture.


If you can't tell who the characters are, don't talk to me again. Ever.

Likes:
- The new cast has a fairly similar look to the original cast. They at least look like their 1960s counterparts, particularly Dr. McCoy.
- Simon Pegg!!!
- Uhura. Zoe Saldana is hot!
- They didn't fuck with the uniforms, with the exception of Kirk's black shirt, which apparently will be explained in the film.

Dislikes:
- All the characters look good. Except Chekhov. I don't remember his hair being that curly.
- Speaking of Chekhov, what the hell is he even doing in this movie! He wasn't a member of the original crew, and didn't join the cast of the original TV show until later. This, of course, caused a somewhat major scene error in what was otherwise a great sci-fi movie.



Likes:
- Again, the characters look good. Chris Pine has Kirk's mannerisms and posture down.
- Uh oh, someone's wearing a red uniform! You all know what that means! (If you don't know what that means, don't talk to me again. Ever.)

Dislikes:
- Yes, that is the bridge. This movie seems to suffer what many prequels do: despite the fact that the story takes place before the other movies, they have better technology.
- Another complaint about the bridge: why does it look like we just saw a picture of a Star Trek/Tron crossover film?



Likes:
- Again, the look of the character is solid. Zachary Quinto looks the part.

Dislikes:
- Spock is supposed to be unemotional, yet looks very pissed off here.
- He also appears to be strangling Kirk. What's up with that? Now I have to wait until May to find out! Dammit!

Righteous Kill and False Advertising

Next week, the movie Righteous Kill, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The movie is advertising itself as starring the two greatest actors of their generation, together at last. Now, I think the movie looks good, and it is great to see them together in a movie.

At last. Which would be good if this is the first movie they've been in together. Which it isn't.

They were both in Heat, Michael Mann's great heist movie. Granted, in this movie, they only share two scenes (one great scene in a restaurant, and then the end of the film which I won't spoil for you), and it looks like they share more screen time in Righteous Kill, but they were in the same movie.