Updations and other stuff.

Back from Vegas. I want to go back right away, it was awesome and I feel like watching Rush Hour 2 for the Vegas scenes. Funny moment from the trip:

I was already down like $140, and was determined to get it back. I was back in the hotel room.

Me: Henrique, I'm going to go back down with this $100 and get it back.
Henrique: You're an idiot Mahesh.
*2 hours later*
Me: Remember when you said I was an idiot?
Henrique: Yeah.
Me: You were right.

After that Henrique was laughing for a while. All right so Let's finish up some old stuff, the last few movies from Round 1 of this movie a day thing.

Day 45: The Sandlot

What's it about? Baseball in the summer.

Thoughts: Awesome movie, should have seen it sooner. Much sooner. Great summer movie.

Rating: Aww Hell Yeah






Day 46: Live Free or Die Hard

What's it about? John McClane? More like John Estranged am I right? We already know he's divorced and his wife hates him. But now, his daughter hates him. Anyway, his daughter was introduced so that she could get kidnapped, so that John McClane can kill people and try to save her and the country.

Thoughts: It's better than part 2, not as good as the first, not quite as good as the third, so not bad overall. It gets pretty ridiculous later on, but overall not a bad return to the Die Hard franchise.

Rating: Oh hell yeah.




Day 47: Vanishing Point

What's it about? This dude. Who drives a Dodge Challenger. For the entire fucking movie. He's supposed to deliver the car to a customer, and wants to do so very fast. Oh yeah and he only stops to take speed, run away from rattlesnakes, and see some random people singing. Also, there's this stupid ass DJ that is trying to help/motivate the driver through the radio.

Thoughts: This movie was all right. The reason I saw it was because in the Death Proof part of Grindhouse, all those women were talking about it for like 20 minutes. No, seriously, they would not shut the fuck up about this movie. I was like "If I'm watching a movie about people talking about a movie, then the movie they're talking about must be the shit right?" Wrong. This movie is not the shit. Secondly, if he's supposed to be delivering the car to a customer, why is he totally wrecking the car in the process? Well it did make for some good chase scenes.

Rating: Oh Yeah.


Movies seen since then:

The Simpsons Movie - Was pretty good.

The Bourne Ultimatum - Better than the second one. The best part of the Bourne movies is when he's like "lol I'm on the phone with you and I can see you too, I'm the shit."

Dave Chappelle's Block Party - Great music.

Zodiac - Very long movie. Was okay. Jake Gylennhallasll wasn't that good in the part.

TMNT - Not so hot.

Rush Hour 3 - I've seen the first two movies like infinity times each, so I was pumped for this one. It was good, pretty short, but kept in the same spirit as the 2nd one. Fun times, although I think Chris Tucker beat up more people than Jackie Chan this time around.

Animation: Popeye and Archie

Time to talk about Popeye and Archie DVDs. Today two things came out, and I was anticipating them, to different degrees. First up, Popeye Volume 1:
This Popeye set has the first 60 theatrical shorts from Fleischer Studios, which produced 108 Popeye shorts from 1933 until they dissolved 1942. From 1943 to 1957, Paramount, under the name of Famous Studios, took over and produced 125 more shorts. The same thing happened to their Superman cartoons.

This is some high quality stuff right here, Fleischer Studios was pretty technically skilled. In addition to the 60 shorts, there are a couple of commentaries on the history of Popeye and of animation, as well as a bunch of "popumentaries" on the different characters.

I remember the first time I saw a Popeye cartoon, still have that video. I feel like looking it over and seeing what studio it's from...

Anyway I'm not even 1/3 through Disc 1 but already this set is awesome.

So when I was at the store, I noticed that this had also come out:


So we're going from Popeye which was produced during the golden age of American animation to...1968, well into the TV era. Big drop in quality here. I used to be a huge fan of Archie comics, and back then any from of Archie on TV was something I had to see at least once. I bought some Archie digests from Giant yesterday for the hell of it, and whenever I see some of the 70s comics for a few bucks I try to get those. So I...still read Archie from time to time. There I said it.

That's why I was more pumped from for the show Sabrina The Teenage Witch than any 11 year old kid should have been.


After seeing it I was like "WTF? Salem isn't suppose to talk! And they got Hilda and Zelda wrong, they're supposed to dress like actual witches...and...AWW HELL NAW!" In addition, Hilda was supposed to HATE non magical people. But hey, it's a TV show, so I guess they had to adapt it. So after a while I ended up liking the show and was like "You ever read the comic? No? Then suck it you freeloading bandwagon jumping Step By Step watching fuck ." Same thing when the Josie and the Pussycats movie came out, but I didn't bother to see that shit. Despite all this, I was still thinking "Oh, so Melissa Joan Hart found work after Clarissa Explains it All? Good for her."

But it still fucked up the comic, they changed the way everybody looked, since they had to cash in on the show's popularity. Hilda and Zelda were updated to wear modern clothes, and Sabrina also looked different: She didn't have her hair in that constantly folded backwards over her head with a plastic headband look. Nobody looks like this:



Now back to The Archie Show. First off This Intro should tell you all you need to know about the show. One year when I visited India as a kid I got this Archie video. (By the way if you ever want infinite Archie comics, go to India.)

So anyway like I said, anything to do with Archie in TV form was something to look at at least once. That video I got in India was the first 2 or 3 episodes from this DVD. As a result, I'd see those episodes a couple times every year that I visited. So there's a nostalgia factor. Anyway this is very cheap animation, they don't even draw the black checkered lines on Archie's head. And the voices seem wrong for the characters. But this show spawned a couple popular songs, including "Sugar Sugar". Yup, that song that people remember from time to time "you are my candy girl" and all that, is by The Archies, a "fictional" band just like the Gorillaz. If you like Sugar Sugar, I recommend Bang-Shang-a-Lang. I'll see how the rest of the series is, so far I haven't delved into new territory.

But on the back of the booklet for the DVD it said to look out for more Archie stuff on DVD next year. I can only hope it's The New Archies, which was pretty good. I remember it used to be on The Family Channel in the early 90s.

Summary: Popeye is awesome, and Archie could be cool too.

A trip to Costo turns into something entertaining.

Here's some fun. So how do Costco and Deadwood mix? Like this:

Costco is a nice place. Lots of stuff. Occasional good prices on DVDs.

I've also been watching Deadwood the last few days. The lowdown is that due to a coupon, each season costs $30 where it would otherwise be $50, at Costco.



So I'm minding my own business watching an episode of Season 2, and the disc starts skipping on me. I thought "Oh hell no, you did not just do that." After multiple cleaning attempts it still would not work. All right, time to pay a visit to the Costco returns department.

When I got there, I happened to be standing behind some dude who was returnign linguine. I felt like backing away slowly, but decided to stick around anyway. Anyway I am able to return it, but not after a long conversation with the damn lady. First I find out via my brother that there are no more coupons left. And secondly I can't exchange the DVD for a new one, only refund it. That's fine, but then I'd have to pay $50 for a new one. No good. I mention most of this to the lady and hand her the membership card:

"Wait, this isn't your card."
"It's my mom's."
"You can't shop with this."
"Yes I can."
"She has to add you to the card. I'll have to put a block on the card."
After a little more of this, I'm like "Just give me the refund."

BUT HOLD UP TIME OUT:

She gives me a $50 refund when I actually paid $30, because she failed to pay attention to the coupon that I mentioned repeatedly, which was the primary reason I was there. "Uh excuse me miss--you gave me extra money--oh wait you were an asshole? Guess you'll be wondering why you're missing $20 when it's time for the final count at closing time numbnuts."

So anyway, I'm about to leave, because I don't have the coupon booklet....but I find out that the lady in Aisle 7 has it and scans the coupons in for people. Sounds like a nice person that I should pay a visit to.

I get another copy of the DVD, and get a spot in aisle number 7. Oh guess what, she scans the coupon, and gets someone to overrides the override that that other dumbass put on the card.

Summary: Lady gives me $20 for free.

Consider this the bridge.

A Flick a Day is on vacation. But I did see Ratatouille again today. Haven't seen a movie besides that since last Wednesday. Feels...refreshing. Like 7-Up.

The reason is that there were other things to do, reading that new Harry Potter being one of them, wanting to take a break being another.

I'll be back to see more movies hopefully soon, and of course, that list from last post is not going to be followed.

Before I go, here's a round up of all the "Aww Hell Yeah!" movies:

Caddyshack
The Sting
Rashomon
The Old Man and the Sea (animated short)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Rope
City Lights
Bicycle Thieves
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Ratatouille
Ikiru
Transformers
The Iron Giant
High and Low
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
The Sandlot (not discussed yet)


All right that's it for now.

Stop. Hammer time.

I'll put up the posts on days 45-47 later. Day 48 (yesterday) was skipped for a couple reasons, the main one being this:

And it will likely be the reason for any delays today too. Anyway the count is 52 movies for 49 days, so we're still ahead. Yippee Skippy as Miss Piggy would say from Muppet Babies.

Oh yeah some people wanted to know what the future movies are. They'll probably be these:

Easy Rider
Kid Vengeance
Vampires in Havana
Stray Dog
North by Northwest
and the 1970s King Kong

All right, that's it for now. Later.

Day 43/44: Die Hard 1-3

Counting this as days 43 & 44 to make up for that day I missed and to get back on track, watching these 3 movies should make up for that (07/15)

Background
I found out about a pricing error this week. Basically the collection to the left was priced at $7.50 and it includes a free ticket to the new Die Hard movie. Yippee Ki Yay Motherfuckers.

So today I checked out the first Die Hard, and after that was in the mood to watch the rest, so that's what happened to my day. Let's hit it.

Die Hard (1988)

The one that started it all. Terrorists, led by Alan Rickman, take over a skyscraper and John McClane is there to take them down.

Random Connections

• The guy who talks to Bruce Willis over the CB radio throughout the movie is the dad from Family Matters.

• The City Worker who pops out of the sewer is none other than Henry from Blank Check. I was like "I know that voice....it's the John Candy wannabe limo driver from Blank Check!" And guess what, Die Hard has a comic relief limo driver as well, so this dude has been in two movies involving limo drivers in secondary roles. Shit I never would have expected so many Blank Check connections during this movie a day thing, but here we are.

And since I never got to put up a poster from Blank Check, here's one now:

• Oh yeah this is also Alan Rickman's feature film debut, and among other things he's Snape in the Harry Potter movies, which were talked about a few days ago.

• The deputy police chief was played by Paul Gleason who was the principal in The Breakfast Club, and he was also in a lot of other stuff.

• This last one isn't so random, but the cinematographer for this, Jan de Bont, got into directing a few years later, and his first movie was Speed.

Thoughts
I liked this a lot, I saw the ending on TV once but never the whole thing. Should have seen this sooner. Once the action starts it doesn't stop.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)

People were right, this is like Die Hard but with airplanes. It was pretty random that it took place at Dulles of all places. Who knew Centreville could be the center of so much action. Oh yeah and since when did it snow so much during Christmastime in this area anyway?

So John McClane is back, and this time there is trouble at the airport. This movie isn't as good as the first movie, but it's still pretty good. It had some cool moments and surprises.

Rating
Oh hell yeah.

Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

This time we add Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons. I saw this on video a while back, and now it's time to see it again.

Okay so in this one, Jeremy Irons plays Simon, the brother of Alan Rickman's character from the first movie. He's pissed, and as a part of his big plan, makes John McClane and Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) play a high stakes game of Simon Says. I always liked the puzzles that Simon made them do.

So this is the first movie that gives John McClane a 'partner' but it's a good addition. It takes the series in a different direction which is pretty cool. And as with the other Die Hards, this one has a good amount of shit getting blown up.

Rating
Oh Hell Yeah.

Day 42: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)

Background
This movie looked random, and Friar once said "I can't believe you haven't seen this." Now that I've seen it, I can't believe I hadn't seen it either.

What's goin on?
The main dude/writer/director/actor, Steve Oedekerk, inserted himself into a 70s martial arts movie and redubbed all the sound.

How is it?
This movie is the shit. The dubbing and all that stuff is hilarious. I made my brother see it later that day.


Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Days 36-41: A lot of stuff.

Been a couple days since the last post. Anyway let's do this.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Day 36, 1975)
Pretty famous movie, was pretty good. Saw most of this for a high school movie class, but didn't see the whole think until now. I don't have much to say about this...except there are bunch of people in this who go on to fame, and Christopher Lloyd is also in it. On that note, I need to see Suburban Commando.

Random connections
Well Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson are both in this, and they both become Batman villains. That's probably not a coincidence though: I think Nicholson suggested that DeVito be in Batman Returns.

Rating: Oh hell yeah.

Son of Kong (Day 37, 1933)
This was a follow up to King Kong, and was released in the same year as its predecessor to cash in on its success. The producers realized that it would be foolish to try to emulate the scale and magic of King Kong, so they decided to make a more comedic movie. And it's only 69 minutes long.

The movie takes place a couple months after the original. Carl Denham, the dude who brought Kong to New York, is being sued by everyone because of the damage that King Kong caused, and he sets out to sea to get away from it all. But he ends up returning to Skull Island, with his old captain Englehorn, the stereotypical chef Charlie and a new female character.

It was actually an entertaining movie up until the ending, which was pretty terrible in terms of being unrealistic on many levels as well as closing all doors to any sequels. But hey, we always have Mighty Joe Young for more giant ape action.

Rating: Oh yeah

Moving on to the next movie,

Singin in the Rain (1952, Day 38)

I'd heard the title song a lot due to watching A Clockwork Orange a lot, as well as listening to the soundtrack. That song is pretty catchy.

Anyway this is a tight movie, nice dance moves and choreography. I liked the story too, about making movies, and talkies coming out during the end of the silent era. That was sort of explored with the Chaplin movies earlier.

So it's mainly about three people, the main dude (Gene Kelly) who's an actor, his best friend (Donald O'Connor) who is a music director and a girl (Debbie Reynolds) who runs into the main dude.

A cool thing about this movie: In a lot of movies the main character's best friend gets the shaft and is often relegated to comic relief, is antagonistic towards the main character's love interest and is pushed aside as the main dude is trying to win the girl. Well in this movie he does have comic scenes, but he actually gets good screen time and comes up with the smart ideas, and is actually friends with the girl. Something different.

Rating: Oh hell yeah!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Day 39, 2007)

So this time, Voldemort is about to come back and nobody believes Harry and Dumbledore. On top of that the Ministry of Magic is trying to keep both of them quiet.

So I've read all the books and seen all the movies, but I'm not one to complain about (or even remember) what was cut out of the movies and all that. I've enjoyed all the movies that came out, and I expected the same with this one. But man, even I was surprised at what they cut out, mainly because I didn't end up giving a damn about characters I was supposed to care about. One of the worst of the Harry Potter movies, but maybe it'll be better on future viewings or something.

Rating: Oh.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Day 40 1988)

Now this is what I'm talking about. The title is all I need to know. And the tag line "In Space no one can eat ice cream" didn't hurt.

Random connections
This is connected to King Kong in a way: The Chiodo brothers, who wrote and directed this movie, are featured in the King Kong documentary that's on the DVD for that movie. This is the only major movie they worked on but I think they're puppeteers or something so they know about King Kong.

The movie
This was a silly movie, again, the title says it all. If you're looking for a corny funny movie, then watch this. Oh yeah and it has an awesome theme song.

Rating: Oh yeah.

Rescue Dawn (Day 41, 2007)

This is the movie that i was trying to see a couple weeks ago. Even though I had to pay this time, it was still worth it, this was tight. It's a true story about a US Navy pilot, Dieter Dengler, played by Christian Bale, who get shot down in Laos during the Vietnam War (before it escalated) and taken as a prisoner. He attempts to escape along with other people who have been imprisoned for over two years.

So Werner Herzog is the director, and he had done a documentary about the dude a little while ago, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Oh yeah and Werner Herzog is a hardcore dude. He filmed this movie in Thailand, and they didn't have trailers, instead they stayed in the sets that were used as the prisoner's quarters, in bamboo huts. Also, once he was shot during an interview with an air rifle and, even though he was bleeding he was like "nah, let's just continue with the interview." And he saved Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash and left before Phoenix could say thanks. In conclusion, watch this movie.

Rating: Oh Hell Yeah!

Bebe's Kids (Day 41, extra movie, 1992)

This is on a long list of early 90s movies that I had heard of, but never seen. Reginald Hudlin was the writer of this movie. Oh yeah and he's now the president of BET.

So this movie is based off the comedy of Robin Harris and it's about this dude who's trying to get with this woman, who has a son. She suggests he take them to a theme park called "Fun World", but three kids also tag along. Who are they? Bebe's kids. So, one thing sort of weird about this movie is that the kids refer to themselves as "Bebe's kids". I don't know about you, but I never met a group of siblings who identified themselves as their mother's children.

Random connections
LOC ALERT LOC ALERT LOC ALERT
Tone Lōc is in this movie. We last saw him in Blank Check as Juice. This time he plays a baby, one of the three Bebe's kids.

In case you need a reminder as to his awesomeness, here again is a link to one of his music videos. Because it bears more repeating than the fucking white stripes, that's for sure.

Oh yeah now back to the movie. This is so ridiculously random that I don't know what to say. The animation is pretty bad, but it's interesting. This movie gets a brand new rating.

Rating: What the fuck?!

But if I were to give it a 'real' rating, it would be oh yeah.

Day 35: High and Low (1963)

My bad
I missed a day a couple days ago so I'll try to make up for that. My average is still higher than 1 movie per day since I started this, so that's on track. (7/7/7)

Background
It's another Kurosawa movie with Toshiro Mifune. Loosely based on the book King's Ransom by Evan Hunter.

What's this about?
A kidnapping occurs and it gets really interesting after that. A police procedural movie.

Thoughts
This is the kind of movie that shows stuff which other movies would just glance over. Scenes that would last 1 minute and be brushed aside are given focus and last longer than usual, for example there's a scene with all the police that are involved in the kidnapping case, and they go over many different aspects of the case in detail.

On another note this movie made awesome use of widescreen, with characters placed on opposite ends of the screen, and well framed shots like this:

The story also has a good balance of focus between the police crew, and the main character (Mifune).

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Days 31, 32 33 and 34

Black Snake Moan (2007)
This movie looked good, but actually wasn't that good.

What's it about?
Samuel L. Jackson sees to it that the nymphomaniac Christina Ricci is cured of her ways. He goes about this by chaining her to a radiator and playing blues music.

Rating
Oh yeah.





Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
This is an animated movie about a brother and sister who survive air raids in Japan during the last days of WWII. Pretty sad. I decided to see this after reading Ebert's essay on it where he said that this movie "belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made."

Rating
Oh hell yeah.







Transformers (2007)
I don't know anything about the TV show, but this movie was awesome. Really good special effects.

What's it about?
Giant Robots on Earth.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Update
I caved and bought one of the toys. Man it's so cool. Took me forever to figure out how to transform it though. That shit was hard.



The Iron Giant (1998)
I should have seen this sooner. Back when it came out, I dismissed it as a kiddie movie based on trailers, but now I know I would have loved it then.

Another important bit of information is that Brad Bird directed this. He also directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and he knows his stuff, so that should have been a retroactive tip off as to the quality of this movie.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 30: The Hidden Fortress (1958)

History
Yeah another Kurosawa movie.

Storyline
Two peasants just escaped a battle and are now searching for gold. They stumble upon a general who is trying to protect a princess. The peasants get involved, motivated by their greed.

Connections
Toshiro Mifune is the General.

This movie also inspired George Lucas about telling a story from the perspective of the two lowliest characters, in his case R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars.

Thoughts
This was cool. Toshiro Mifune is good in his role, and there were some nice action scenes.

Rating
Oh hell yeah

Day 29: Ikiru (1952)

History
Another Kurosawa movie was available at the library. Given the track record so far, I had to check it out. This came in between Rashomon and Seven Samurai.

Storyline
A man finds out he has six months left to live.

Thoughts
This is the best movie I've seen during this summer and is one of my favorite movies now.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Day 28: A few more.

So I went to the theater I used to work at, saw some old friends, got in for free. I was supposed to meet Max at the theater to see Sicko at 7, but was running late and entered the theater after the movie started. Apparently he was sitting in the same row as me. I looked over and thought it was him, but wasn't sure. I talked to him later and he said he was trying to wave at me, but I didn't see him.

So since I couldn't find him, I went to the next show which was starting in 5 minutes.

Sicko was pretty good, was definitely better than Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. It still had a few "look at me, I'm Michael Moore" moments, but it wasn't bad.

Rating
Oh yeah.

I figured that I could catch up with Max after the movie, but it turns out he didn't have his cell phone on him at the time. So I checked out another movie, which I had heard good things about:


You Kill Me was really good, it stars Ben Kinglsey as a hitman working for the Polish mob, who also has a drinking problem. When he is too drunk to perform a hit, this is the last straw. His boss sends him to AA. It also has Luke Wilson as his sponsor and Téa Leoni as a love interest. It was pretty funny, had good acting all around. Bill Pullman was in this too and I didn't even recognize him for a while.

Plus this movie introduced me to one of the best inventions ever: Cashew Butter. It's like Peanut Butter but with Cashews. Bill Pullman's character gives some to Ben Kingsley's character as a housewarming gift, and I was thinking "Is...is this possible? Because if so, I HAVE GOT TO GET ME ONE A DEESE!"
I got some today and it tastes like awesomeness.

Rating
Oh Hell Yeah

Day 28: Ratatouille

History
Pixar. First day, first show.

What's it about?
A Rat who likes to cook. He gets to fulfill his dreams in one of the best restaurants in Paris.

Connections
Brad Bird wrote and directed this, he also directed The Iron Giant and The Incredibles.

Thoughts
Great animation, from the character models and movements to the realistic water and the look of the food. Also, the acting and story were great. I wanted to see it again after it ended.

Pixar Ranking
Ranking them is hard I'll do them in tiers:

1. Toy Story & Toy Story 2
2. Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo
3. A Bugs Life
4. Cars

I haven't seen a lot of these in a while, this will probably change whenever I see one of them again. But Ratatouille is among the best.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah.

Other Stuff
They had the trailer for Wall-E, which I mentioned in earlier posts, showing before the movie. It was great to see it on a big screen. Also, the Pixar short Lifted played before the movie, it was funny.

Day 27: What did we end up watching?!

After the events that happened at DC, we went to Hollywood Video in order to rent Die Hard. That wasn't available, but Bridge to Terabithia (2007) was. I had wanted to check it out anyway.

History
Kevin Smith and Richard Roeper were both like "this movie is the bomb yo, don't believe the kiddie image." So I figured I'd follow their advice.

What's it about?
Two friends escape from their everyday lives with their imaginations. They also go through school and family life. The trailers made it look like some Harry Potter/Narnia thing, but it's not, and it should have been marketed better (the filmmakers weren't too happy about that apparently).

Random Connections
Robert "T-1000" Patrick is in this.

Thoughts
This is the kind of movie people are like "lol you liked that?" sort of like A Little Princess was back in the day. But it's really good. It's got a pretty shocking moment too. This was a pretty good movie, and Vish and my brother thought so too.

Rating
Oh hell yeah.

Today I got served.

So what happened to me today? Well, I checked my email, and noticed some messages for free advance movie passes. I hadn't gotten them for a while. Today I had three messages about them, two were about Rescue Dawn, and one was for I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. They were both playing at the same time tonight. On top of seeing a movie in advance for free, it would be my movie for the day. Not bad.

Hmm...should I choose this:

Or this?

So I was talking to my friend Vish on AIM, and I was like "Yo, wanna see Rescue Dawn tonight because it's free" and he's like "Yeah". The show was for 7 pm. But it takes Vish an hour to get here due to traffic, so we go to the Metro at around 6:45. The movie is playing at the U.S. Navy Memorial.

We arrive at the memorial at 7:01. This was a "first come first served thing", so we were like "What the hell...what if we don't get in?! We paid for Metro tickets to go to a movie that we might not get to see?!"

Anyway the building is 701 Pennsylvania Ave. We find it, and the doors are fuckin locked. We walk around the block checking every entrance. Locked. Wander into an apartment complex that's part of the building and the receptionist is like "The Naval Memorial is around the corner". We go around the corner. It's locked. We wander back into the apartment complex. She's like "What the...are you on a scavenger hunt?"

After that, we ran into two other dudes who were talking to a guy for directions. They were also trying to get into this screening. They had no luck either and had been looking longer than us, but one of them heard that it was canceled. After we all walk around the block, those guys go back on the Metro, while we walk around, and go back to an entrance that we already tried. It had a number on the side that said "For after hours access call ..." I did that, and there was a voice that said: "The number you have dialed has changed. Here is the new number..." AAARG. Anyway that new number leads to an answering machine. Well behind us is the same guy that helped the two random guys. He leads us to the right place after we have a few minutes of confused conversation. We finally find the right door to the building, tucked away in a corner. That's locked too.

We're like "What the fuck" and leave. While on the Metro, I had a suspicion about those emails.

When we got home, I excused myself and re-checked the email. I was wondering, "why did I get TWO emails about Rescue Dawn?" I figured that they do that sometimes, no big deal. But that suspicion that I had was lingering...

Here is what the first email said:

But here's the second email which I did not check:

Looks like I FORGOT TO READ THAT! It wasn't an extra ticket email, it was a "If you don't read this you will be fucked" email. Yeah I'm an idiot.

Day 26: Modern Times (1936)

History
This is Charlie Chaplin's next movie after City Lights. It's also the last appearance of his Tramp character.

What's it about?
Industry and how it affects people in a modern environment.

Thoughts
This movie had more sound, and actually some spoken sentences in some sequences near the beginning that looked really cool, and futuristic, even today. This had a great musical score, and as usual very good physical comedy from Charlie Chaplin. There's a great song sung near the end too.

Rating
Oh hell yeah.

Day 25: Evan Almighty (2007)

History
This is the sequel to Bruce Almighty. Remember that asshole guy that dissed Bruce? It's about that guy.

What's it about?
Steve Carell plays Evan who is asked by God to build an Ark. This is problematic since Evan is a freshman congressman, who has a lot of work to do.

Random Connections
This movie filmed in Crozet, VA, and I tried out to be an extra. Good thing I didn't get a call back!

The director, Tom Shadyac went to UVA.

The fat dude from Knocked Up is in this and he plays a funny intern/assistant to Evan.

Thoughts
This movie wasn't bad for a while, but it just got ridiculous nearer towards the end. John Goodman was pretty cool. Wanda Sykes had some stupid lines that were good too. The worst part of the movie was Molly Shannon being in it.

But the thing that got me was that they made Crozet out to be Norther Virginia. Complete with mountains. Oh yeah and there happens to be a dam next to the Potomac river. Max and I were cracking up at this geographical stuff.

Rating
Oh.

Day 24: Sanjuro (1962)

History
This is the sequel to Yojimbo. Kurosawa and Mifune again.

What's it about
The main dude, Toshiro Mifune, is back, and this time instead of playing both sides, he's working for one group, and focuses more on strategy. He is helping a bunch of guys get back their kidnapped master. The guys are pretty stupid, so they rely on him quite heavily to get shit done.

Thoughts
It's not as intense as Yojimbo, but it's still really good. The plans and tricks that the main dude came up with were pretty smart, and there's some good action, with unrealistic sword slashes, but still cool.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah.

Day 23: Yojimbo (1961)

History
It's time to see more Kurosawa movies, and also get pumped for Sergio Leone week, which will start soon hopefully.

Anyway this movie was remade, (and some would say ripped off) as A Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone's breakthrough movie. I don't remember that movie too well but it seems about right. Yojimbo was followed up by Sanjuro.

What's it about?
A wandering samurai (Toshiro Mifune) comes to a small town with rival gangs. He works them against each other, while trying to get the best of both worlds.

Thoughts
This movie had me interested from beginning to end. It's like a samurai western, with good fights, and nice showdowns. There's even a dude with a gun that looks like Elvis (look at the top left of the poster). The music is awesome. And, as said before with Rashomon, Kurosawa + Mifune = Success. So far.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Day 22: Bicycle Thieves (1948)

History
This is an Italian movie yo. Anyway, this move is also known as The Bicycle Thief, but somehow it's now called Bicycle Thieves because that's a better translation of the original title.

I read somewhere that Satyajit Ray had seen this movie over 50 times, maybe 100 or something like that, and it made him want to make movies. Well if it had that impact on someone, a movie like that has got to be pretty good. Plus Criterion just released a new transfer, so this movie is lookin' SHARP, and my library just happened to have a copy of this, oh hell yeah!

What's it about?
A man gets a job which requires a bicycle. The man gets his bike back from a pawnbroker and goes to work the next day. Then, the bicycle gets stolen and so the man must look for the bicycle with his son.

Thoughts
This is an awesome movie. It reminded me of Where is My Friend's House?, which involved a kid searching for his friend's house in order to return his notebook to him. Anyway this movie has great acting, and the people in it are not actors. The story is simple like City Lights and is told well.

Side Note
I was reading the Wikipedia article for this movie and it said something about Pee-wee's Big Adventure being loosely based on this. Holy crap, that makes sense, it didn't even occur to me while watching this.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 21: Brazil (1985)

History
So I had to see two movies after watching the Wall-E trailer: City Lights and Brazil. City Lights was covered yesterday, but the reason for seeing Brazil is that people were pointing out that the music used in the Wall-E trailer is from Brazil, and since that music was good, I wanted to check this out. Other reasons to see it were that people said it was good, and because Terry Gilliam is the director.

Random Connections
Whoah! Katherine Helmond, who played Jessica Tate on Soap was the main dude's mom. The other movies of the day that had Soap cast members were The Graduate (day 6) and The Sting (day 5).

Johnathan Pryce, the guy who plays the main dude, was the bad guy in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Also, Bob Hoskins was in Michael from day 13.

And speaking of upcoming Pixar movies, according to imdb, Ian Holm, who was in this, is in Ratatouille, which comes out this Friday.

What's it about?
It's a futuristic dystopian sci-fi movie, with a lot of weird stuff happening and dream sequences. The main dude has an average job in the government, but increasingly feels like he needs to get out. He has recurring dreams in which he is flying, and he sees a woman in these dreams that he falls in love with. Then he sees her in the real world, and has to meet her.

Thoughts
This movie seemed to have a lot of false endings, and the music got really loud at times. It was all right. The music itself was good, and the sets and props were awesome. There were some funny moments as well. I'll have to see this again though because I didn't really understand all of it.

Rating
Oh yeah.

Day 20: City Lights (1931)

History
I was watching the trailer for Wall-E, Pixar's movie for next year. Someone pointed out that Andrew Stanton, the director, said the movie is like "R2-D2 meets City Lights." If that's the case, and people were saying City Lights is good, this seemed like a good movie to check out.

This movie came out in a time where silent films were already obsolete, but Charlie Chaplin could do what he wanted. It was a gamble but it was successful. For more about all that, check this review.

The only other Chaplin film I've seen is The Gold Rush, but I've seen some of his shorts a long time ago, and read part of his autobiography for some 8th grade english project. Still haven't heard his voice though, but that's what DVD extras are for.

What's it about?
The Tramp (Chaplin) falls for a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). He befriends a drunk millionaire, and while using some of the drunk's money to buy flowers, the flower girl believes he is rich.

This description sucks, but it's a simple story which is well done.

Thoughts
A nice story with great music, great comedy and physical acting, and the timing was awesome, it must have been pretty hard to get some of that physical stuff just right. People said that the last scene is memorable and it is, it's really good.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Day 19: Mr. Brooks (2007)

History
All I knew about this movie was that Dane Cook was trying to do serious acting. That alone should have been an indicator of this movie's quality.

Random Connections
William Hurt, who was last seen in Michael (Day 13), continues his streak of appearing in shitty movies.

What's it about?
Kevin Costner plays Mr. Brooks, a rich dude with a wife and daughter, who is addicted to murder, and he has an admirer, Dane Cook who wants to accompany him on a murder. Oh yeah Kevin Costner also has an imaginary friend played by William Hurt.

Demi Moore plays a detective on the hunt for the killer, but doesn't know who he is. She's randomly going through a divorce so that her character can have something to talk about, as well as so that her ex-husband will get killed by Kevin Costner. New and exciting.

Thoughts
People were going "ooh" acting all surprised and stuff during moments that were supposed to be funny or shocking. But for me, after watching like 3 seasons of The Shield recently, as well as Dexter (which has similar themes) I was like "Whoah, I didn't know Sesame Street was playing here." Seriously, don't see this movie.

Rating
AWW HELL NAW

Day 18: Rope (1948)

History
Hitchcock movie that looked cool. Why is James Stewart being plastered all over the poster like he's the star? He's not. But I guess he was the only famous person in the cast or something.

What's it about?
Two dudes kill a friend and host a party with the body hidden in the room.

Thoughts
This movie is really cool because it takes place in real time and there are a lot of long shots, lasting around 8-10 minutes, and they are blended together to make it look like a single really long take. So it seems sort of like a play...it's based on one too. The way that the characters interact and the conversations that they have are all well done.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 17: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

History
Everyone has heard of this movie in one way or another. Robert Redford's Sundance film festival is named after his character, stuff like that, blah blah blah. I used to confuse this movie with Smokey and the Bandit because both names had two characters and the word 'and' in the title. Anyway The Sting, from day 5, was the second pairing of Robert Redford, Paul Newman and director George Roy Hill. That movie was so good, that I had to check this out.

What's it about?
Two outlaws robbing banks, on the run, having fun.

Random Connections
Uh...same three dudes from The Sting (Day 5). Oh yeah, and Katharine Ross, who plays a woman involved with the outlaws, is Mrs. Robinson's daughter from The Graduate (Day 6).

Thoughts
Good chemistry between the leads, and this movie is great. There were a couple of obvious cuts when someone was about to get kicked in the balls and stuff like that, but other than that the action was tight. I liked the colors too. I think I liked The Sting better though, but this is definitely a movie to see again.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 16: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

History
The first Fantastic Four wasn't bad, and made enough money to warrant a sequel.

Random Connections
Michael Chiklis, who plays The Thing, is on The Shield which is an awesome show. Unfortunately, not even he could save this movie.

What's it about?
The Fantastic Four are used to their powers as well as being famous, but things are still far from normal. Now the Silver Surfer is approaching Earth, and he wants to destroy the planet. But why?

Thoughts
This movie started off good, and eventually fell apart as it went on. The banter beween Johnny Storm and The Thing is always good. The Silver Surfer looked cool, and the action was all right, but not great. The story could have been better. One of my main gripes is that it had unnecessary team ups. Good guys teaming up with bad guys out of necessity, bad guy turns on them, etc. Now that doesn't always happen in movies, sometimes the bad guy turns out to actaully be a good ally. But not this time. No, in this movie, you could see the double cross coming from a mile away. Not even a mile away. You could see it coming from farther away than the Silver Surfer's home planet. That joke fell flatter than Mr. Fantastic getting squashed by The Thing during a shitty attempt at slapstick comedy, but my point is that this movie is medicore. But then again, that's what I said about the first one the first time I saw it, and it got better on subsequent viewings.

Rating
Oh.

Day 15: Annie Hall (1977)

History

This movie won the Oscar for Best Picture, but Woody Allen didn't care about all that. Also, this is the movie that beat out Star Wars for that award, which some people are still pissed about.

What's it about?
It's about Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and his life, particularly in relation to Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) and we see what happens before, during and after their relationship.

Random Connections
Jeff Goldblum is in this movie for a second. So are some other people who later get famous, but he was the only one that I noticed.

Thoughts
Awesome movie, I hadn't seen a Woody Allen movie before, but I should check out more now. This had a great narrative structure and fantasy sequences. There's a lot of talking which is cool. Sorta reminded me of Before Sunset. Both movies have a lot of long takes with cool dialogue and characters just walking and talking. Or sometimes just standing and talking. Something like that anyway.

Rating
Oh hell yeah.

Day 15 bonus: The Old Man and the Sea (1999)

History
I was watching the Oscars the year this won, and when they were announcing the nominees for best animated short, and they showed the clips from this, I was like "I HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS. NOW." Those clips looked so good that I read the book partly because of them. Unfortunately, this movie was nowhere to be found, for a long time. But I found it at the library today, and was like "OH YEAH KOOL-AID."

This is very high quality animation, it's all paintings done on glass, and it took 2 and a half years to make. Wait, did I say that right, they PAINTED A MOVIE ON GLASS? Yes, and it looks fucking awesome. That painting above is directly from the film itself. The primary director/animator is Aleksandr Petrov and he apparently has a lot of experience with this technique.

What's it about?
An animated adaptation of Hemingway's novel. An old man is out fishing in the sea and hooks a marlin, but the marlin is a very worthy and noble opponent, and he won't go down without a fight.

Thoughts
This is some of the best animation I've seen. Unlike in a lot of animation, the backgrounds don't stick out like a sore thumb, in this case it probably has something to do with the entire paintings being changed little by little each frame. That adds a sense of realism to this.

This is just awesome to look at. I was like "!!!!!" most of the time. I read that it was shown on Imax, that must have been a cool experience. On the acting side, the voice acting for the boy is horrible, but the old man is spot on. Other than that, this is great, everybody should see this.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 14: When Will I Be Loved (2004)

First off:
Whoops, I didn't get to see a movie yesterday, was moving out of the apartment all day with Blake. I passed out soon after reaching home, and woke up at 1:40 a.m. I had to see something. This was the shortest movie I could find. I'll watch some more stuff today to make up for it.

What's it about?
Neve Campbell plays a bored person in New York, explores her sexuality, weird stuff happens.

Random Connections
Mike Tyson is in this movie for some idiotic reason. No, literally, the reason the director chose to put him in was actually idiotic. Even his cameo in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles was better than this.

Thoughts
This is one of the most pretentious movies of all time. It tries way too hard. It would be fun to watch this with other people, to make fun of. What does this movie have that makes it all elitist and shit?

1.) The director casts himself as a pretentious professor who tries to be down to earth.

2.) Neve Campbell's parents argue over who is the best architect.

3.) Some famous character gets pissed when a Beethoven recording isn't by his favorite composer.

4.) Neve Campbell's boyfriend lists some historical figures and compares them to hip hop, in a joke that falls flat.

Then, there are random sex scenes with classical music playing in the background, trying to be all artistic and shit. However, even with those flaws, the story was interesting, and it was short enough to not get too stupid for its own good.

Rating
Oh yeah.