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.

Day 13: Michael (1996)

History
The only thing I remember about this movie is the following piece of dialogue from the trailer:

Michael (John Travolta): "You know what John and Paul said right?"

Random dude: "The Apostles?"

Michael: "No, The Beatles."

Yeah. It's as bad as it sounds.

Random Connections
John Travolta - is famous, he plays Michael the angel in this movie.
Bob Hoskins - played Mario in Super Mario Brothers, and had a cameo in Spice World.
Andie MacDowell - does make-up commercials

Oh yeah and Norah Ephron, the director, gives herself a stupid cameo.

What's it about?
Tabloid writers get wind of an angel living with an old lady in Iowa. They want to bring him to Chicago to get a scoop. It's basically a road trip movie with an angel. There's romance, a dog and the world's largest non-stick frying pan.

Thoughts
There are three strikes against this movie from the beginning.

First of all, when you think of bad movies from 1996, you think of either Michael, One Fine Day or Eddie. The Phantom was good, even Broken Arrow isn't that bad, and Jingle All the Way is a damn masterpiece.

Secondly, Nora "Sleepless in Seattle" Ephron is the director. Now I'll admit, I liked You've Got Mail. But Bewitched was horrible, and so is Michael. In any case, it's a good bet that if she's directing a movie, it will involve something conventional WITH A CHARMING TWIST!

Third, my Dad got this movie for free when we got a DVD player in 1999, and I haven't seen it until NOW. If you want to convince someone to buy a DVD player, you probably should guarantee in writing that a movie like this will never see the light of day, not give it away for free.

Rating
AWW HELL NAW!

Day 12: God's Gun (1976)

History
Lee Van Cleef is the man. After watching the Dollars Trilogy in one day with Slinker, I said to him that this guy should be digitally inserted into every movie ever made. Slinker remembered that comment and a few years later, found this movie along with another soon to be seen Lee Van Cleef movie for a dollar. Knowing that this was the best deal of the century, he picked it up.

I didn't actually see any of the movies until tonight, and for that I need to slap myself. Not because the movie is good, oh hell no. I should have seen it, of course, because it has Lee Van Cleef in it.

The main reason I didn't see this movie for so long was because I was skeptical about Lee Van Cleef playing a good guy, on top of that a priest. I mean, he's played a character that enters a man's house, eats his food, steals his money, and then shoots the man and his son. Now he's playing a priest? Secondly, the priest character dies like 10 minutes into the movie, so there isn't any Lee Van Cleef for a while. Thus, we started this movie a year ago, so we didn't get around to finishing it. Tonight, I saw it all.

Back to my comments about Lee Van Cleef needing to be in every movie ever made: This movie sort of comes close to that, since he plays two parts in the movie. So that priest character who died in the beginning? Well he'll be avenged by his look-alike brother!

What's it About?
Outlaws, led by Jack Palance are taking over a small town. There's this kid named Johnny who is friends with a priest. The priest gets killed, the outlaws take over the town, and Johnny goes to get help.

Thoughts
The kid, totally randomly, turns MUTE after the Priest gets killed. I don't know if that was done to add depth to the story, or whether the kid's lines were cut because he stole the director's Kit Kat bars, but either way it's totally unexpected.

Actually this movie is not that great, but Lee Van Cleef saves it as expected. He should have played 10 characters instead of 2 though. This movie has crazy music whenever something cool or exciting happens, and otherwise it has normal Western music, which is good. It also has corny death scenes, silly music and mediocre action which make this movie all right.

Rating
Oh yeah.

Day 11: World Trade Center (2006)

History
There was some controversy over whether this movie would deal with conspiracy theories since Oliver Stone is directing. But that's not the case here.

Random Connections
There are two 24 cast members here, the dude who plays Curtis and the guy who plays Mike Novick.

What's it about?
Although this movie is about an event that affected many lives, it mainly focuses on two Port Authority police officers, who are struggling to survive amidst the remains of the World Trade Center. We also see their family members, all of whom are hoping for good news.

Thougths
There's a lot of people saying "too soon" or "I won't see this." But this isn't exactly some action movie. As mentioned earlier, it's mainly about two people's struggle to survive. It's good for what it is, an all right movie.

Rating
Oh yeah.

Day 10: American Grafitti (1973)

History
George Lucas directed this a couple of years before doing Star Wars.

Connections
There are a lot of people in this. Ron Howard, Harrison Ford and Richard Dreyfuss. Richard Dreyfuss ages badly apparently. He looks like he's 15 in this movie (but is actually around 25), and now he looks like he's about to celebrate his bicentennial. Dreyfuss also had a small role in The Graduate from a few days back.

What's it about?
It's 1962 and teens spend their last night last night in small town California before going off to college.

Thoughts
This movie was really good. There's a lot of driving around, and everyone is listening to Wolfman Jack on the radio, which ties scenes together, and there are many interesting characters and situations that they get involved in. How did George Lucas go from this to Episode I?

Rating
Oh hell yeah!

Day 9 (06/10/07): Rashomon (1950)

History
This is a Japanese movie directed by Akira Kurosawa. I saw this third year, and re-watched it because it's awesome. Basically:

Akira Kurosawa + Toshiro Mifune = Success

What's it about?
A bandit encounters a husband and a wife in the woods. The bandit (Toshiro Mifune) sets his eyes on the wife and rapes her. What happens next is told through each of their perspectives, all of which conflict with one another.

Thoughts
Celeste sure as hell didn't want to see this, but after watching for a while she was like "Oh hell yeah!" That's an example of this movie's awesomeness. Toshiro Mifune is great as the bandit.

Rating
AWW Hell Yeah!

Day 6, 7 & 8

Day 6 (06/07/07)

The Graduate (1967)

History
This movie is famous for some reason.

What's it about?
A college graduate has an affair with an older woman and later falls for her daughter.

Random Connections
Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World is in this movie, playing Dustin Hoffman's dad. He was also on the first season of Soap, like the guy in The Sting from a few days back. Also, looking at their list of films, Anne Barcroft (Mrs. Robinson) and Katharine Ross (Elaine Robinson) are in two of the worst movies I've ever seen, respectively, Dracula: Dead and Loving it and Donnie Darko.

Thoughts
This movie was all right. The camera zoomed in all the way in like every scene. On the music side of things, Simon & Garfunkel, who provided the soundtrack, needed to shut the hell up for most of the movie. I mean damn, this movie has almost as much shitty music as Garden State. The only good song was "Mrs. Robinson."

Rating
Oh.


Day 7 (06/08/07)

The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

History
This movie has a stupid name.

What's it about?
People are seeing haunting images of a "mothman", and Richard Gere and Laura Linney are trying to figure out what's going on.

Random Connections
Laura Linney, who plays a cop in this movie, was in another bad movie that's supposedly based on a true story, The Exorcism of Emily Rose.


Thoughts
This movie flat out sucked.

Rating
Aww Hell Naw!

Day 8 (06/09/07)

Shawn of the Dead (2004)

History
People say this is good. Some romance, comedy and zombies.

What's it about?
Zombies and comedy and some romance.

Thoughts
This movie was good, just like people said. This review is symmetrical, except for this sentence.

Rating
Oh hell yeah!

Day 5: The Sting (1973)

History
I had heard a lot about this over the years. It's been on my Grandfather's movie rack for as long as I remember. When I saw it there, I thought it was about killer bees or something. Turns out I was wrong. This is the second and last film that teams up director George Roy Hill with actors Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the first being Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Sting won 7 oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

What it's about
It's about two con men, avenging a friend's death, working together with a lot of other cons to pull off a big "sting" to take a mob boss's money.

Random connections
One of the main con-men in this, is also on a few episodes of the first season of Soap. The Sting also has Robert Earl Jones who was also in Witness from a couple days ago, although I don't know who the hell he was in that. Oh yeah and he's James Earl Jones's dad too.

Thoughts
I liked the look of the movie, from the 1930s setting to the the scene wipes. The main cast of characters was introduced in the opening credits which is also pretty nice. There were chapter breaks which segmented the movie with title cards, a nice addition. The Scott Joplin piano rag "The Entertainer" was awesome too. Lots of surprises in this movie as well, great stuff all around.

Rating
AWW Hell yeah!

Day 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1/2

So this summer, I want to see a movie a day. Here's what I saw so far.

06/02/07: Animal House

Never seen it before. I was underwhelmed. You see everyone wearing in college wearing those "College" T-shirts, and you got posters of Jim Belushi chugging Jack Daniels in every college dorm, and then you see this, and are like "...so that's it?" But then I watched the "look back" on the DVD, and it was prety interesting. Made me think that I should see it again, maybe it'll get better. On a side note, As I was watching the movie, there was this one guy in it, and I kept thinking "What the hell? Is that the Police chief from The Mask?!" Hell yes it's him, and he was also in Traffic.

Rating: Oh.

06/02/07: I also saw Knocked Up in theaters which everyone should go see right now.

Rating: Oh HELL yeah!

06/03/07: Witness.

So some Amish kid witnesses a murder and it's up to good cop Harrison Ford to protect him because the dude that killed the other dude knows that the kid saw him kill the other dude and now he wants to kill the kid and Harrison Ford too. Confused? It doesn't matter because Danny Glover is also in this.

Rating: Oh yeah.

06/04/07: Caddyshack.

It's our second Harold Ramis written movie in as many days. Now I'm wondering, why the hell didn't I see this years ago? Rodney Dangerfield is the best, we were re-watching his scenes right after the movie ended. Bill Murray's part was sort of funny too.

Rating: AWW HELL Yeah!

06/05/07: Westworld.

Yul Brynner as a killer robot cowboy is all I need to know that this movie will be good. Seriously, this movie is awesome. I saw most of it a long time ago and it's still great. We follow two guys who go on a vacation resort where everything is exactly like it was in the Old West. There are authentic bars and saloons, and the town is populated by robots and other tourists. But things take a turn for the worse as the robots start to actually harm people. This is similar to Jurassic Park, just substitute robots for dinosaurs. But that's no surprise since Westworld is written and directed by Michael Crichton.

Oh yeah, and James Brolin, the less stupid one of the two vacationers is also a future Traffic cast member. His decision to be in these two movies was significantly smarter than his decision to marry Barbara Streisand.

Rating: Oh hell yeah.

Bonus movie

06/06/07: The person in the next movie I saw was also a cast member of Traffic (I swear I didn't plan this out), just like that dude in Animal House: The bad guy from Blank Check (who is also cousins with George Clooney). So I got the Blank Check DVD used for $1.99 the other day, and then I noticed that it was all scratched up. Oops. It played mostly fine until the last scene where it basically went haywire and stopped altogether. But I've seen this movie so many times that it doesn't matter.

For those who haven't seen it, it's about this kid who wants money. George Clooney's cousin runs over the kid's bike by accident, and he starts to write a check to pay for the bike, but leaves before he can write the amount. The kid then writes in "one million dollars" and cashes it at the bank. He spends ridiculously, goes on adventures, develops a crush on a bank teller/FBI agent, befriends a limo driver and later finds that he doesn't need all this stuff to be happy. Aww.

What does this movie have that makes it so great?

George Clooney's cousin.
The dad from the Clueless TV series.
Tone Lōc. This guy is the best part of the movie. Wanna know why? Because he's the guy who did this.

All three of those guys are the villians. But that's not all! The main kid's dad is the asshole guy from Independence Day that gets fired by the President. In conclusion, this movie has everything, including a guy who could have been the next John Candy.

Rating: Oh yeah.


Conclusatory Remarks

So we've seen crazy parties, Amish people, killer robots, Rodney Dangerfield, and three movies with future Traffic cast members. And we aren't even done with the first week!