A Fine Sunday Revelation

I had a thought. You know I’m about to get back to work on this list of movies I have, right? The 101 Greatest Movies? This one. It’s in the Blog Roll. It’s not hard to find. Pay attention kids.

Well, 2 years ago when I started this whole shindig, I decided to watch them all. From number 1 to 101, not a movie would go unwatched, in order.

But nay, I now think. How dumb does an individual have to be to start at number 1 and go to 101. It’s like, and the winner is!!! and second and third place…

Why would I start with a movie like the Godfather, and then know that the next 100 movies on the list aren’t going to be as good. That’s like, promising myself that at least 250 hours of my future will not be all that great. That’s freaking dumb…..

So now I say to you. I START AT 101!! Which is Groundhog day, right? Gettin some Bill Murray before he was shot by Jesse Eisenberg. It should be a good time. Who knows when that’ll happen.

But for real. Why didn’t anybody tell me how dumb I was to start at 1 and go down… Positive note, now I have another reason to rewatch the Godfather Trilogy. CHAMPION.

Also, I want a new clever sign off thing…
Logan

^see, that’s just lame.

1) The Godfather(s)

So this fancy new list book thing I have set number 1 as The Godfather and The Godfather part II. I decided HEY, if I’m watching parts I and II, why not just watch III while I’m at it! And you know what? The Godfather trilogy deserves the top of every list. Holy crap.

Part I. Marlon Brando stars as Don Vito Corleone. O wow. Gotta be one of the most imitated characters ever. With the stuffed cheeks and the voice. The voice hits you. Its so weak that its over powerful. With that airy scratchy kinda quality, It chills you to the bone. Its really great. I’m a big fan! And as Al Pacino brings the character of young Michael Corleone to life, you get drawn into it and you feel like you are actually part of the family. For the length of the movie, I referred to myself as Logan Corleone. Fortunately, I don’t really interact with people, so nobody knew…. But f’real, a great movie. One problem I have with it: some of the blood and special effects are not done so well. HOWEVER [comma] with 23 kills in a 1972 film, it really isn’t very noticable except for one scene. (a guy gets shot in the eye. about two seconds later pink water runs down his face.) But every character made me feel one way or another about them. Sometimes it was “ocrapocrapocrapocrap don’tdie don’tdie ocrapocrapocrap,” and then sometimes it was more of a “HURRY UP AND KILL HIM!!” Truly one of the best movies I have seen. If I made a list, I don’t know if it would be number one, but it would definitely be up there. I actually think my list wouldn’t have a number one. It would start with number 2 and there would be 37 of them. then there would be 23 3’s. and 32 4’s. etcetera. you know. I can’t make decisions. That’s why I bought a book to tell me what movies to watch! mhmm.

Part II. Starring Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone. Truly fantastic. Brings the family to life like nobody I could think of. If there ever was a typecast role, this would be it. Part II also stars Robert De Niro as a young Vito Corleone. In flashbacks showing Vito’s rise to power in the streets, De Niro made his name, becoming the only American actor to receive an Academy Award (best supporting actor) for a role in which no English was spoken (he spoke fluent Italian the whole time). SO GOOD. Well, I suppose I won’t go into too much detail, simply because it’s pretty much the same thing as Part I, just completely different. Truly a fantastic movie. Truly fantastic. Truly. T. . Really, this is one of those movies I could watch over and over and over and over and over and over and over again untill I stopped watching it. Then I would watch it again. maybe twice…

Part III. Of the three, not the best. This one brings in Andy Garcia to play the role of Vincent Mancini. Still an absolutely GREAT movie. But it’s like putting… hmmm. Let me get a good analogy here real quick……. It’s like comparing oranges to clementines. Yes, oranges are absolutely delicious. Truly a great fruit, but compared to a clementine? COME ON!!! Clementines are so much better than oranges, I don’t care how good oranges are! I LOVE CLEMENTINES! Holy crap I want a clementine. O wow.

Anyway, if you get a chance to watch any of the three, I would highly suggest you take it. I would suggest you start with Part I, then go from there, simply because you can’t just jump in a family all weird like. You have to follow them. Know them from the start. If you don’t watch this movie I might just have to find you and force you to. They’re just that good. Missing them would be like skipping your daughters wedding so you could go to the beach with your mistress while your wife is in the hospital delivering your son. It would just be wrong. Perhaps I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse…

Logan

The List: 101 Greatest

So I suppose ya’ll might want to see the list. If you read this, promise me you’ll buy the book too. It has lots of great information (as mentioned in post number previous). This list has been compiled by Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza in their book The Greatest Movies Ever: The Ultimate Ranked List of the 101 Best Films of All Time.

1. The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974)

2. Citizen Kane (1941)

3. Casablanca (1942)

4. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

6. North by Northwest (1959)

7. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

8. Annie Hall (1977)

9. Chinatown (1974)

10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

11. Nashville (1975)

12. Some Like It Hot (1959)

13. All About Eve (1950)

14. Psycho (1960)

15. Taxi Driver (1976)

16. Apocalypse Now (1979)

17. On the Waterfront (1954)

18. Gone with the Wind (1939)

19. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

20. The Searchers (1956)

21. La Dolce Vita (1961)

22. Double Indemnity (1944)

23. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

24. Vertigo (1958)

25. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

26. GoodFellas (1990)

27. Jules and Jim (1961)

28. Funny Face (1957)

29. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

30. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

31. Strangers on a Train (1951)

32. It Happened One Night (1934)

33. The Graduate (1967)

34. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

35. Raging Bull (1980)

36. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

37. The African Queen (1951)

38. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

39. Blade Runner (1982)

40. The Conformist (1970)

41. Schindler’s List (1993)

42. The Lives of Others (2006)

43. Diner (1982)

44. City Lights (1931)

45. The Deer Hunter (1978)

46. 8 1/2 (1963)

47. Top Hat (1935)

48. Rules of the Game (1939)

49. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

50. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

51. King Kong (1933)

52. Star Wars (1977)

53. The 400 Blows (1959)

54. A Night at the Opera (1935)

55. My Fair Lady (1964)

56. Night of the Hunter (1955)

57. The Third Man (1949)

58. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

59. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

60. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

61. Pinocchio (1940)

62. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

63. Fargo (1996)

64. Blue Velvet (1986)

65. Jaws (1975)

66. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

67. Do the Right Thing (1989)

68. Wild Strawberries (1957)

69. The Bicycle Thief (1948)

70. Bringing up Baby (1938)

71. Paths of Glory (1957)

72. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

73. Pather Panchali (1955)

74. The Lady Eve (1941)

75. The Last Picture Show (1968)

76. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

77. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

78. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

79. M*A*S*H (1970)

80. American Graffiti (1973)

81. The Producers (1968)

82. Rashomon (1950)

83. Cabaret (1972)

84. The Bank Dick (1940)

85. A Place in the Sun (1951)

86. Red River (1948)

87. The Conversation (1974)

88. Grand Illusion (1937)

89. L.A. Confidential (1997)

90. Butch Cassidy (1969)

91. Imitation of Life (1959)

92. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

93. Spartacus (1960)

94. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

95. The Seven Samurai (1954)

96. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

97. Atlantic City (1980)

98. American Beauty (1999)

99. Pulp Fiction (1994)

100. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

101. Groundhog Day (1993)

And so it begins. My adventure to see them all. No matter what. If I’ve already seen them, I’ll watch them again. If I don’t want to see them, I’ll suck it up. Let’s go

Logan

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan

“So let’s go”

HAHAHAHHAAHHAHHAHAHAAAA. Funny movie. Very funny. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of Adam Sandler, especially his recent movies. But he got himself a winner with this one.

An Israeli Counter Terrorist, Zohan Dvir (Adam Sandler), fakes his own death so that he can go to New York and become a hair stylist. When he arrives, he can’t find anywhere to work, and he doesn’t have any place to stay. But by a series of hilarious incidents, Zohan gets a job at a Palestinian hair studio, and becomes quite hot stuff. But when his arch-nemesis The Phantom (John Turturro) learns that Zohan is in New York, all hell breaks loose. Who would have thought that hell could be so funny?

I absolutely loved this movie. Definitely one that I will watch again very soon, and also one that I will tell all of my friends to see.

If you’re looking for some kind of intellectual movie that will get you thinking about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, don’t even step towards this movie. HOWEVER [comma] if you’re looking for some moronic entertainment that doesn’t take an ounce of brain to watch, but keeps you laughing throughout the whole thing, then COME ON DOWN. Director Dennis Dugan struck gold with You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. With an all-star cast, including Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Dave Matthews, and Rob Schneider, with special appearances by Chris Rock, Mariah Carey, Kevin James, and Dom Deluise, this movie certainly wasn’t short on the acting!

And the script! Absolutely outrageous. Written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow, this script is nothing short of  genius. It keeps you laughing at every turn, and even manages to squeeze a bit of true romance and friendship in there.

I am absolutely heels over head for this movie. I honestly can’t wait till I get to watch it again. You know what? I might just do that this weekend sometime. I’ll watch it again. With friends this time.

If you get a chance to see You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, WATCH IT. I promise that you won’t be disappointed, unless you’re looking for something that’s not absolute idiot humor. Its that kind of funny. Like Family Guy or Tommy Boy. They’re so not funny, that they’re funny. Either that or they’re so funny its funny. I can’t figure it out. But THEY’RE FUNNY!!!

Watch it

Logan

“I make you silky smooth”

88 Minutes

“He has 88 minutes to solve a murder. His own.”

Director Jon Avnet shot par on this one. Before you get excited, I don’t see par as being to good. All the good golfers always shoot 2 or 3 below par. Which makes me think. If the point of golf is to get below par, then why is sub-par bad? But that’s another post. Anyway. Knowing this was an Al Pacino movie, I had great expectations. 88 Minutes did not live up to these.

Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is a womanizer and a forensic psychologist. The movie begins on the day of execution of a serial killer Dr. Gramm helped to convict. Bad day for Dr. Gramm. On this day, new evidence is brought forward that he got wrong man. O, and just to make his day a bit better, he gets a death threat. An Anonymous caller tells him that he has 88  minutes to live. This movie is about getting to the mystery caller before the mystery caller gets to him.

88 Minutes follows a decent story line. If you gave me a plot outline to read, I would tell you it would make a great movie. However, with some bad scripting, and some bad acting, a movie can quickly go from decent to terrible. Luckily, 88 Minutes didn’t make it all the way to terrible. Throughout the entire movie, I just thought how bad it was. But towards the end, I realized something. I think the reason this movie isn’t as good as I was expecting is because its so real. Sort of. It is an outrageously fake story, but the acting is almost real. There is no over dramatic reading, or out of this world dialogue, it just seems to be kind of down to earth. Sort of a “o-man-I-just-got-a-death-threat-lets-not-panic-lets-find-out-who-its-from” kind of vibe. HOWEVER [comma] this doesn’t even come close to explaining it all. It’s just me reaching for something to cling to so I don’t have to say that Al Pacino did a bad job. But really, Al Pacino did a bad job.

Plus the fact that the death screams were really terrible. I’ve heard people scream better when they trip. Quite unfortunate.

There is a great monologue to close it up though. Really a great monologue. And well delivered.

I will not watch this movie again. I will not tell you to watch it. But it is Al Pacino, and it is moderately exciting. So I mean, do what you will.
Long and short of it: Not a good movie, not a bad movie. PAR

Logan

Tic-Toc, Doc

The Green Mile

“People hurt the ones they Love. That’s how it is all around the world.”

Wow. It’s been a long time since a movie made me tear up so much. But director Frank Darabont certainly did that with his second Stephen King movie, The Green Mile.

At a penitentiary, head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is in for an experience he won’t soon forget. Life is pretty normal for him and his fellow guards, until one day, an enormous  inmate, John Coffey (Mike Duncan), comes in. Accused of raping and murdering two small girls, Coffey looks like a monster. However, this monster needs a nightlight to sleep at night. Getting to know John Coffey, we learn that he has fantastic powers, and we come to question his guilt. The Green Mile is the story of John Coffey, the guards in charge of his execution, and the moral dilemnas that encompass them all.

This movie is the best movie that I have seen in a long time. Coming in at 188 minutes and 78 tons, this is a very long, very heavy movie. 3 hours and 8 minutes go by like time never started. From the very beginning, The Green Mile keeps a pace that makes it easy to sit through so much movie without getting ancy. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that keeps up with such an emotionally draining story. As my mother say’s, it’s an afternoon movie. If you even try to watch this at night, theres no way you’ll sleep afterwords. You’ll just lay in bed and think. And think some more. And keep thinking. And thinking. And thinking. There are a few little funny spots, which are mixed in perfectly with the emotion, and just at the right times to give you a break and lower the “holy-crap-i’m-going-to-explode-into-a-large-puddle-of-blubbering-tears” meter a bit. Good thing to, cause there were a few times that I came really close to crying. I had to wipe my eyes more than once.

And the acting! Normally, in a movie, there are one or two cast members that just are not that good. This is the only movie I can think of where every single actor on the screen did a fantastic job. I fell in love with the good guys, I wanted to kill the bad guys, and I felt bad for the pitiful guys. There was not a poor performance in the entire movie.

I honestly could talk for hours and hours about this movie, unfortunately, I can’t write that well. So here it is. If you could only see one more movie before you died, make it The Green Mile. Not only is it a fantastic movie, but it is an excellent film as well. I make this distinction: I feel like movies are more for entertainment, and films are more for art and education type stuff. And I tell you what, this is very entertaining, and VERY educational. It puts so many imponderables in your mind that you really could carry on a years worth of discussion on just this flick.

I honestly loved this movie, if you haven’t gotten that yet. Please, do me a favor, and watch it. Maybe tell me what you thought. I’d love to see if anybody shares my sentiments!

Logan

“Take my hand boss. You see for yourself”

Pigs

“26 Letters in the Alphabet. 26 Girls. 1 Campus Legend.”

Surprisingly, not quite the movie I was expecting. But still not that good.

Written by Karl DiPelino and Chris Ragonetti, and Directed by Karl DiPeliono, Pigs is almost your run of the mill “lets-see-how-much-sex-we-can-fit-into-one-movie” kind of deal. Almost.

Pigs is about one college champ, Miles (Jefferson Brown), that is outrageously lucky with the ladies. His buddy, Cleaver (Darryn Lucio), decides that since he’s already slept with the some of the toughest letters of the alphabet, he need to try to bed the entire thing. He needs to get a girl whose last name starts with each letter of the alphabet. Reluctant at first, Miles gets talked into this. They look through Miles’ 24 volume journal collection of all the girls he’s slept with in college so far. It is decided, that in the final 2 months of his college carreer, Miles needs to bag the final 10 letters. Cleaver sets up a betting pool, and the game is on.

I was expecting this movie to be completely shallow and lifeless. Which it kinda was. Again, kinda. Classified as a Romantic Comedy, Pigs is really not all that comedic. Nor is it all that romantic. But it is slightly funny, and it is slightly sweet. The humor level is at around a 6 out of 10. Funnier than most dramas or romances, but not nearly as funny as a comedy. The romance level is at more like a 7.428363 out of 10. HOWEVER [comma] it does have enough empty dialogue to keep you going. Well Miles succeed? It’s something you need to know. But you definitely already know right? Welcome to Hollywood! They all end the same! That’s what I thought, but as I watched, things started to pan out differently, pretty well actually. It followed a good story line. Then it had a crazy twist at the end. Then another one. Then another one. The last 5 minutes punched me in the face! It was awesome. Good story.

But the acting kinda sucked. In all honesty, there were tons of better actors in my high school drama club. Then again, we were a super troupe. Like, really good. Anyway, the acting was mediocre at best. The cast took some bad lines and made them even worse. To add to that, most of them seemed to have a speech impediment of some sort. The ones that didn’t, just failed to enunciate in any manner. There were a few times I had to guess at what they had said, and a few more times than that I rewound a bit to catch it again. According to IMDB, only a few of the actors have been in more than 2 films, and a great majority of them made their debut in Pigs.

I do have to give the director and writers some props though. To take a standard, holywood trash-flick script, and change the ending that much takes balls of steel. But it worked. Also a surprising fact, there was no real nudity in this film!

I probably will not watch this movie again for quite some time, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if I had to.

I’m not going to tell you to go out and see this. It’s really not worth it. If your looking for a waste of your time, something that doesn’t require any thought at all, but still provides a small amount of entertainment, then I suppose Pigs is the movie for you. But I would look for something else if you actually want a good  movie.

Logan

The Tuxedo

“The name is Tong, James Tong.”

The movie “The Tuxedo”, starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Good movie. Not great, but good.

In “The Tuxedo,” Jackie Chan stars as Jimmy Tong, a hapless taxi driver that gets offered quite the pay raise to take a job as a chauffeur for Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs). After an outstanding mishap, Clark Devlin is left comatose. Tong accidentally tries on his tux, and finds it gives him extraordinary powers. He gets thrown into the world of espionage and treason when Devlin gets paired with a new agent to stop somebody from tainting America’s water. He’s wearing Devlin’s suit, why not just take his place?

Lets first mention one of the most important parts of any good movie: hot she-star. If the female lead is attractive, it makes even a bad movie somewhat watchable.  And I tell you what, Jennifer Love Hewitt has got the hot she-star down pat. She looks absolutely amazing, specially when on screen next to the not-so-pretty Jackie Chan. HOWEVER [comma] Chan gives us an excellent display of true “I-do-my-own-stunts” humor.

This action/comedy is quite good at each of these. Action and comedy. While it did not make me laugh out loud, I did grin, and I did do kind of a whisper laugh at times. Almost a laugh, but not. And the action scenes even did their part to add to the humor. Hewitt had her part of “O-my-god-look-what-I-just-did-that-man-is-out!” down perfectly. Add that to Chan’s amazing coordination of dumbstruck facial expressions and outstanding martial arts, and you have yourself what some might call a funny fight scene. Director Kevin Donovan, though, didn’t let the comedy get in the way of the action. While amusing, the fighting still did its part to keep me sweating just a little  bit. And I did toss in the occasional “oof.” That’s what I do when there’s a good hit. I “oof.” It’s natural, don’t worry about it.

The only real reason I don’t call this another great movie, is the pacing. The action scenes did keep up a pretty good pace, but for my taste there was to much time between them. The comedy couldn’t fill it all. Every once in a while, I felt like I should be doing something else, and the the movie seemed to last longer than it really was. BUT, I stuck with it and stayed on the bed, and I’m glad I did. With a slight twist thrown in, the movie starts well, and ends well.

I tell you this. Now you go see if the middle is any good. I dare you. NAY, I triple dog dare you. DOGDOGDOG. Whatchaw! Enjoy it, I know you will. And don’t lie! You will….

Logan

Love Wrecked

I found a new movie today. A movie called Love Wrecked. When I say new movie, I actually mean no so new. 2005 actually. Starring Amanda Bynes. I haven’t seen Amanda Bynes in anything real for quite a while. HOWEVER [comma] I’m going to look for more stuff with her in it. Cause she’s quite the good actress! And she’s really, really attractive!

So in Love Wrecked, Jenny Taylor (Amanda Bynes) gets stranded on what appears to be a deserted island with her Rock Star idol Jason Masters (Chris Carmack). Turns out, she’s on the same island as their resort. woops. Jenny manages to keep this a secret, but this gets difficult when her enemy Alexis Manetti (Jamie-Lynn DaScala) and her life long friend Ryan Howell (Jonathan Bennett) discover what shes up to.

Well, I’ve got to tell you, I really did enjoy this movie. The performances by everybody were quite splendid! I’m not saying Academy Award material, but certainly high quality. It got me to laugh out loud at times. Well, not really laugh. Sort of a loud chuckle maybe. I don’t know, it’s hard to classify. But there certainly are some humorous times! It also gave me goosebumps. Surprisingly romantic. I was almost expecting Nickelodeon type stuff, but it was actually some high quality Comedy/Chick Flick stuff.  But with the high caliber performances, the excellent story line, the BEAUTIFUL setting, and some superior directing, what we have here is a good, old fashioned, “young adult” movie. Definitely one that I’ll watch with a girlfriend! And I suggest you do the same! Watch it, and enjoy it.

Logan

Phone Booth

“Isn’t it funny? You hear a phone ring, and it could be anybody. But a ringing phone has to be answered doesn’t it? Doesn’t it….”

So Colin Farrell. Our favorite Bad-ass movie star. He smokes, he drinks, he beds playboy models on camera, and he makes more money than most people can even think of. O! And he can reduce himself to a sniveling pile of nothing.

In 2002, Phone Booth was released. Directed by Joel Schumacher, this Thriller kept my attention amazingly well. I was surprised. When someone tells me a movie takes place in a phone booth, I think “where can one go with that?” Writer Larry Cohen went somewhere with that. Then he came back. And then he went there again. Colin Farrell gave an amazing performance as Stu Shepard, a cocky NYC publicist, who answers a pay phone, and becomes the hostage of a sniper, played by Keifer Sutherland. So Alexander the Great gets held up in a phone booth by Jack Bauer. FIERCE!!

The entire movie is devoted to the play between these two fantastic actors, and their dealings with the NYPD, as well as Stu’s wife, and his lover. Virtually the entire movie is shot on one street, and yet it holds the excitement and tension of the entire city.

This movie started out strong, with a brilliant character setup, and then just got better from there. The pace never let down, and I got to sit through 80 minutes of joy, with no commercial interruptions!!

This is by far one of the best movies I’ve seen in quite a while. It got my attention from the get-go, and kept it till the credits rolled. And with and ending like Phone booth has, who wouldn’t want to watch the beginning! And if you’re one to sit through the credits, it has some great credit music. Watch it. You won’t be disappointed.

Logan