Finished the F's

Face/Off (Some really great bad dialogue and unbelievable action sequences)
Fallen (An often forgotten about film that is a great thriller)
The Family Stone (Usually in my Christmas rotation, but good year round)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Need I say more?)
A Few Good Men (This movie still has great dialogue and performances. Alan Sorkiny goodness)
The Fifth Element (Leloo Dallas Multipass)
Fight Club (Still one of my all time favorite films)
Final Destination (This first one is still a fun horror film. I ignore the rest)
Finding Nemo (Pixary goodness. Remember: Fish are friends. Not food.)
Forget Paris (Still one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time)
Four Brothers (In my Thanksgiving rotation usually)
Four Wedding and A Funeral (A bit dated, but still good)
Fraility (A great horror/thriller everyone should see)
Free Enterprise (Cult classic that I identify with)
French Kiss (Kevin Kliney goodness)
The Frighteners (Peter Jacksony goodness)
Funny Face (Audrey Hepburn singing for herself. Personally, I think Marti does a better job being her)

This Week In Netflix

Submitted for Your Approval: Rod Serling (1998) Description from Netflix: This documentary about Rod Serling derives its name from the weekly introduction that the "Twilight Zone" host delivered with his signature clenched diction. These fantasy playlets linger because of their twist endings and science-fiction trappings, which shrewdly disguise the taut morality plays the prolific screenwriter Serling (Seven Days in May, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Planet of the Apes) hid within.

Great information done as a bad documentary. It sounded good on paper, but they used footage from the Twlight Zone episodes as B-roll footage. They also got a bad impersonator to do all the Rod Serling quotes. I recommend reading the book instead.

The Mutant Chronicles (2008) Description from Netflix: In a futuristic world where Earth is divided into four warring "Corporations," a frightening new breed of NecroMutant threatens to destroy the global population. But is Brother Samuel, the leader of an age-old monastic order, the prophesized Deliverer who's destined to destroy the undying beasts and save the planet? Seizing the chance to realize his destiny, Samuel rounds up an army of recruits who can help him do the job.

A little too scifi even for me. Anything that takes more than 10 minutes to explain the backstory is too much. However, great performances by everyone. Tom Jane is really a great actor.


He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Description from Netflix: Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson lead an all-star ensemble cast of characters dealing with the pitfalls of love and human interaction in this big-screen adaptation of Greg Behrendt's best-selling book. Set in Baltimore, director Ken Kwapis's film moves swiftly between a host of storylines brought to life by a stellar lineup of actors that also includes Jennifer Connelly, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long.

Better than I thought it would be. Watchable and even entertaining at times. Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long are the only reasons to watch this.

Julie & Julia

Amy Adams stars in this truth-inspired tale as Julie Powell, a disenchanted government secretary who decides to enliven her uneventful life by cooking all 524 recipes outlined in Julia Child's culinary classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Based on Powell's book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, director Nora Ephron's heartwarming dramedy also stars Meryl Streep as legendary chef Child.

Disappointing. They didn't make the food a character so you don't walk out of the movie hungry. They didn't tie up a few loose ends either. Left me with a bunch of questions. I guess I will have to read the book.

Meryl Streep was perfect and they could have just done the whole movie of just her storyline. She and Stanley Tucci had great chemistry.

They did show the Dan Ackroyd skit in the movie which is what I think of when I hear Julia Child's name.

Inglourious Basterds

Description from Netflix: A Jewish cinema owner (Mélanie Laurent) in occupied Paris is forced to host a Nazi movie premiere, where a radical group of American Jewish soldiers called the Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), plans to roll out a score-settling scheme. The face-off is about to go down -- that's if Col. Hans Landa aka "The Jew Hunter" (Christoph Waltz) doesn't get in the way. Quentin Tarantino directs this World War II-set spaghetti Western.

The commercials for this movie do not do it justice. First off, 75% of the movie is subtitled because the dialogue is in either French or German. Brad Pitt has maybe 20 minutes of screen time max. There are maybe 4-5 violent scenes and they last under a minute each.

With the exception of the final scene, the whole movie could have been done on stage. I walked out of the movie feeling like I watched a really great play. The dialogue and acting was just perfect.

Also, I should mention that there is no historical accuracy to the movie at all.

It's awesome and I highly recommend.

This Week In Netflix

Alien Trespass (2009) Description from Netflix: This homage to 1950s-era alien invasion flicks stars Eric McCormack as Ted Lewis, an astronomer whose body plays host to an intergalactic bounty hunter named Urp after a spacecraft crashes into a mountain. But Urp isn't the only survivor: A ravenous monster is now roaming the California countryside. With the help of a local waitress (Jenni Baird), it's up to Ted -- or rather, his alien alter ego, Urp -- to save the planet from total annihilation.

This was brilliant! It was a B movie script done with today's technology. It had all the key elements and was just a lot of fun and a great guilty pleasure. I highly recommend.

Will Shakespeare (2-Disc Series) (1978) Description from Netflix: The tragedies, histories and comedies of playwright William Shakespeare are some of the finest in the English language. But in this made-for-television miniseries from the 1970s, the Bard of Avon's own life offers a plot that's just as riveting. Emmy Award winner Tim Curry stars as Shakespeare, with Golden Globe winner Ian McShane co-starring as Shakespeare's fellow playwright and rival, Christopher Marlowe.

Right - Tim Curry and Ian McShane in their prime on a BBC produced show. I thought this was going to be awesome, but I forgot that the BBC sucked until the early 90s. Oh god this was horrible. I tried so hard. It was cool to see Ian McShane so young, but my god was that boring.


Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (2009) Description from Netflix: While making a routine commute on a London double-decker, Doctor Who (David Tennant) and his fellow passengers are mysteriously transported through a wormhole to a planet inhabited by an endangered anthropomorphic species known as the Tritovore. Aided by the daring cat burglar Lady Christina de Souza (Michelle Ryan), the Doctor sets out to defend the Tritovore from a race of menacing aliens that are plotting to take over their planet.

Disappointing Easter episode. I expected more, but the Doctor really needs a good companion and Michelle Ryan wasn't it. This was especially weak compared to how much Torchwood's "Children of Earth" totally rocked.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Description from Netflix: Due to a genetic disorder, handsome librarian Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) involuntarily zips through time, appearing at various moments in the life of his true love, the beautiful artist Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams). Also starring Ron Livingston as Gomez, the soul-stirring romantic drama was adapted from the best-selling Audrey Niffenegger novel by Bruce Joel Rubin, the screenwriter behind the beloved weepy Ghost.

There are few movies on this planet that will make me cry. This is one of them.

This was a great romantic film and total chick flick. I haven't read the book, but I now want to. Rachel McAdams was just perfect as was Eric Bana. I highly recommend checking out.

Finished the E's

Elf (A Christmas movie with Bob Newhart. 'Nuff said)
Elizabeth (Historical accurate as Star Wars, but still enjoyable)
Elizabethtown (I may be the only person who likes this movie)
Empire Records (It's Rex Manning Day!)
Enchanted (I love this movie)
Enemy of the State (Bruckheimer goodness)
Escape from New York (Classic)
Evening with Kevin Smith (Love the Superman and Prince stories)
Ever After (Fun re-telling of Cinderella)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Well made movie)
Explorers (Classic. Still awesome)

Mashups

Sometimes people like to take the audio from one movie trailer and match it up visuals from another movie. Here are three of my favorites:

The audio from "Quantum of Solace" with the visuals from "The Incredibles":


The audio from "Watchman" with the visuals from "Wall-E":


The audio from "Hot Fuzz" and the visuals from "Toy Story 1&2":

This Week In Netflix

The Soloist (2008) Description from Netflix: This true-life drama tells the poignant tale of Los Angeles newspaper reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), who discovers brilliant street musician Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), and the unique friendship that transforms both their lives. In helping his new friend deal with his demons, Steve ends up battling with his own. Joe Wright directs this inspiring drama based on the bestselling book by the real Lopez.

Meh. You could almost hear the studio giving notes. This was not a good movie and I think part of the problem is the main character is the same person who wrote the script since this is based on a true story. It reads like a newspaper article and is told very factually with all the emotion drained out of it. Not worth checking out.

Night at the Museum (2006) Description from Netflix: Chaos reigns at the natural history museum when night watchman Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) accidentally stirs up an ancient curse, awakening Attila the Hun, an army of gladiators, a T. rex and other exhibits. Larry tries desperately to keep marauding Neanderthals and Mayans in check, fighting a losing battle until President Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) comes to the rescue. Owen Wilson and Dick Van Dyke co-star in this family-friendly fantasy.

I liked this. I thought it was a cute kids movie. I'm looking forward to renting the sequel even though it looks like more of the same. I thought the comedy was just right and not too over the top.

I Love You, Man (2009) Description from Netflix: In this bromance, the cinematic equivalent of a rom-com buddy flick, Paul Rudd plays a recently engaged guy who's got the bride-to-be of his dreams but lacks an all-important significant other when it comes to their pending nuptials: a best man. On a determined hunt for a stranger who will stand up for him, he eventually meets a candidate (Jason Segel) with wedding-party potential. Jaime Pressly, Rashida Jones and Jon Favreau co-star.

The commercial made this out to be a very different movie than it was. I liked it. I thought it was decent. Although Paul Rudd was just a little too dorky at times. However, the out takes of him playing with a squeaky chair were pretty funny.

Farmville on Facebook

I am addicted to this application game on Facebook.

Here is a video that quickly explains:

RIP John Hughes

New York Times:

August 7, 2009

John Hughes, Who Captured the Lives of Teenagers in the 1980s, Dies at 59

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — John Hughes, the once-prolific filmmaker whose sweet and sassy comedies like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” plumbed the lives of teenagers in the 1980s, died Thursday on a morning walk while visiting Manhattan. He was 59.

The cause was a heart attack, according to a statement from the publicists Paul Bloch and Michelle Bega.

Mr. Hughes turned out a series of hits that captured audiences and touched popular culture — and then flummoxed both Hollywood and his fans by suddenly fading from the scene in the early 1990s. He surfaced sometimes as a writer, occasionally under his pen name, Edmond Dantès, the real name of the Dumas hero in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

His seeming disappearance inspired a 2009 documentary, “Don’t You Forget About Me,” by four young filmmakers who went in search of a man who was by then being compared to J. D. Salinger because of his reclusiveness. It became a tribute to Mr. Hughes’s influence on youth culture.

Mr. Hughes, who began his career as an advertising copywriter in Chicago, had been living quietly on a farm in northern Illinois. He is survived by his wife, the former Nancy Ludwig, whom he met in high school; two sons, John and James; and four grandchildren.

John Wilden Hughes Jr. was born on Feb. 18, 1950, in Lansing, Mich. His family moved when he was 13, to the Chicago area. His father worked in sales, and he lived in a middle-class, all-American reality that became the mainstay of his films.

“I didn’t have this tortured childhood,” he told The New York Times in a 1991 interview. “I liked it.”

While visiting New York during his advertising days, Mr. Hughes hung around the offices of National Lampoon magazine and was published when he showed a gift for comedy. Once having begun work as a screenwriter, he pursued the craft relentlessly.

In the 1991 interview, he said: “If I’m on a roll, and I finish a script at 3:00, I’ll start another at 3:02.”

Mr. Hughes’ biggest success, in box-office terms, was the “Home Alone” series, of which he was the writer and a producer. The first film, released by 20th Century Fox in 1990, turned the simple tale of a young boy, played by Macaulay Culkin, who was forgotten by his vacationing family, into a monster hit. The film took in more than $285 million at the domestic box office and spawned two sequels.

He had a reputation for discovering and bringing out the best in young actors. In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Culkin said: “I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person. The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man.”

Mr. Hughes’s greatest professional effect came from a series of teen-oriented films he directed in the 1980s, beginning with “Sixteen Candles” in 1984. It was a whip-smart but tender look at coming of age, with Molly Ringwald as a girl whose 16th birthday is forgotten in the whirlwind of her sister’s wedding; it featured emerging actors like Anthony Michael Hall, John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Jami Gertz, among others.

“The Breakfast Club” followed in 1985, with “Weird Science,” immediately behind, in the same year. By then, the troupe of young actors who showed up in films by Mr. Hughes and others who worked in the same vein had expanded to include Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy; they were tagged “The Brat Pack.”

Probably no film so completely captured the arch and almost noxious, yet somehow loveable, quality of Mr. Hughes’s characters as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” The movie, released by Paramount Pictures in 1986, starred Matthew Broderick as a ne’er-do-well high-schooler who spends more energy avoiding the classroom than he might have used inside.

“He can lie, manipulate and con people with inspired genius, especially in the service of a noble cause such as playing hooky,” Nina Darnton wrote of the Bueller character in a less-than-admiring New York Times review.

But the movie took in $70 million at the box office, and wound up 20 years later on an Entertainment Weekly list of the 50 best high school movies of all time, alongside others from Mr. Hughes.

If the magic seemed to fade — Mr. Hughes’s last movie as a director, “Curly Sue,” fell flat in 1991 — he continued to write for the screen. As recently as last year, working as Edmond Dantès, he shared a story credit with Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown on “Drillbit Taylor,” in which Owen Wilson played a low-budget bodyguard hired to keep a couple of kids from getting pushed around.

Some in Hollywood surmised that he had stepped away simply because, for all his successes, he did not particularly like the film business and its ways. He was known as a stickler for control who often tangled with executives even as he made their companies a fortune.

Yet Mr. Hughes ultimately marked the business so indelibly that his name has become identified with an entire genre: comedies about disaffected youth.

My Life According to Queen

This is one of those note/game things on Facebook:

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to as many people as you like and include me (presuming I'm someone you like). You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think...

Pick your Artist:
Queen

Are you a male or female:
Sweet Lady

Describe yourself:
Stone Cold Crazy

How do you feel:
I'm Going Slightly Mad

Describe where you currently live:
Rain Must Fall

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Seven Seas of Rhye

Your favorite form of transportation:
I'm In Love With My Car

Your best friend:
You're My Best Friend

You and your best friends are:
Fat Bottom Girls

What's the weather like:
Cool Cat

Favorite time of day:
The Night Comes Down

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Let Me Entertain You

What is life to you:
Forever

A past relationship:
Good Company

Your current relationship:
Some Day, One Day

Your fear:
See What A Fool I've Been

What is the best advice you have to give:
Play the Game

Thought for the Day:
Don't Try So Hard

How I would like to die:
Sleeping on the Sidewalk

My soul's present condition:
My Melancholy Blues

My motto:
Friends will be Friends

This Week In Netflix

Fanboys (2008) Description from Netflix: They've waited patiently for years for the release of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But when one of their own discovers he's terminally ill, a group of pals embarks on a road trip to Skywalker Ranch to steal the long-anticipated film. Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel and Kristin Bell star in director Kyle Newman's labor of geek love. Star Wars alums Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher and Ray Park make cameos.

This is a movie that is easy to show how bad direction can ruin a movie. You had a great cast, a decent enough plot and tons of money to do this. It took 2 years to get out to the theater. It was just incredibly bland and made me want to watch "Free Enterprise" a few times.

The Air I Breathe (2008) Description from Netflix: Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser and Sarah Michelle Gellar co-star in this Jieho Lee-directed drama that mines four basic human emotions -- love, pleasure, sadness and joy -- for cinematic inspiration. A banker discovers true happiness, a mobster finds hope, a celebrity sees life lose its luster and a doctor wrestles with matters of the heart that can't be addressed within the confines of an operating room.

This movie was the suck. I made it 20 minutes and gave up. I read the description and still don't know what this movie is about.

One Year in Seattle

I have now lived here a full year. I still love it here and my apartment. Not really much else to say really. Happy anniversary to me!

*not one of my shots

Funny People

Description from Netflix: Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons (Adam Sandler) doesn't give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor (Torsten Voges) delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira (Seth Rogen). Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) writes and directs this moving comedy that also stars Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza.

I was looking for to this since I like Judd Apatow other movies he directed, but this was more of an Adam Sandler movie than a Judd Apatow movie. I was disappointed. It had its moments, but it was more "Spanglish" than "Knocked Up." It had some great cameos like Paul Reiser (who looks a lot older). and other stand up comedians.