{crazyjen}

Movies you can't NOT watch.

I read a post on Cathy Zielske's blog this morning about Movies you can't NOT watch. So if you are flipping through the channels (which I honestly don't do much b/c I haven't been watching much TV lately) and a movie comes up you just can't not watch. You have to. You are physically glued to the station. No more channel surfing. No matter what is going on you have to watch this movie.

So that got me to thinking what movies do that for me. Here's my list which could get long but I'll keep it short.

1. Bull Durham - too many one-liners to count or even list that I use all the time. I'll just say one. "Meat."
2. You've Got Mail - classic romantic comedy for emailers. "if I knew your name and address I'd send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils."
3. The American President - Michael Douglas and Annette Benning. Awesome. Perfect presidential couple. great dialogue. "People drink the sand because they don't know the difference."
4. Forrest Gump - love this movie. I went to the Bubba Gump restaurant and knew all the answers to their trivia questions. love this movie. plus one of the main characters is named "my Jenny" although her personality isn't mine. "shrimp creo, shrimp on a stick, coconut shrimp, boiled shrimp, broiled, baked..."
5. The Fifth Element - "multi pass!", the fight scene were LeLu kicks the cr#p out of the Mangalores (sp?) while the Diva is singing. Love the fight scene, love how it coincides with the music and love love love the music. (think I could write love one more time?) ok. love the movie.
6. Man on Fire - can I just say this movie is a diamond in the rough. Denzel is great as the wounded man. (emotionally/mentally) Him on the war path, the rage...cleverness.
7. Tommy Boy - "Fat man in a little coat." "Richard, were you watching spanktra vision?" "It doesn't hurt here or here but right here." Need I say more?
8. Clueless - yes, I know but it's a funny movie. It cracks me up. She's such a nutbag. "She's so adorably clueless we've got to adopt her." There are so many one-liners that came out of that movie that teens used, you have to have this movie on here.
9. Predator - yep, that hot and sweaty jungle kill-or-be-killed movie is at the top of my list. the end part where he preps all those traps for the predator. gotta love that. oh and when they mow down the forest trying to get it, can't beat that. the ammo involved just staggers me. jessie ventura with the gatlin gun, sweet!
10. It's a Wonderful Life - classic Christmas movie. Jimmy Stewart is the man. The whole idea behind the movie, what would life be like if you weren't born, awesome!

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight. It was good...great. I really liked it. I'll buy it when it comes out. It's good. Very Dark. Very long. A thinking person's movie. They push the moral and humanity button until it breaks. It really makes you think about humans, crime, craziness and what makes a person tick. It goes round and round about what a hero is, what makes a hero and how close a hero can be to a criminal. (there's more but this post would be way too long)

Awesome action sequences. Seriously cool. Some stuff I've never seen before. I want to see it again, maybe on the IMAX.

The joker is awesome. He steals the show. He's everything the critics say he is. Awesome! What more can I say?

There are a couple funny/witty parts in there, snuck in of course. I laughed but nobody else did but that's usually the case.

So my suggestion, see it on the big screen if you get a chance.

Wanted

I saw Wanted over the weekend. It was good; funny, witty, action-packed, a good date movie. I'd see it again. Would I buy it? Hmm...maybe, probably.

This movie was a cross-between Office Space, the Matrix and Tomb Raider I'd say. The action was way different than most action movies, a bit surreal (aka not completely believable) but cool. Interesting, a different perspective. Cool. Yeah, cool, that's it. I enjoyed it.

It was funny too. I know, it doesn't seem the type to be funny but it was. A witty funny, as in not slap-stick, but if you have a sense of humor and pay attention you'll laugh. I did.

Of course having Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy in it does help. An interesting mix but they work together. Morgan as the stable elderly wise-one. Angelina the quiet but deadly assasin and James McAvoy the comic relief turned into deadly killer filled with vengence and a purpose. I won't say it's flawless but it works.

All in all, I'd say you should see it if you like anything I've just said. If you don't, that's fine too.

Star Wars at the MN Science Museum

Me, Mom, Tristan, Chris and his guest went to the Star Wars Exhibit at the Science Museum. We also went to the IMAX "Special Effects" movie.

The movie was friggin' sweet! It talked about how Industrial Light and Magic does some of it's coolest stuff, like making models appear real using moving motion picture cameras, how they made and blew up the White House in Independence Day and how they basically blow stuff up. At the end they had the Milenium Falcon jump into hyperspace and it felt like you actually did. It was cool.

So then we went through the exhibit. There was a ton of cool actual costumes and models to see. There was also some exhibits where you could build a car that floated on air and moved using magnetic fields. It was fun. I enjoyed that a lot, like a little kid you might say. I had a little Peter Pan complex goin' on. The minute I don't enjoy stuff like that should be the minute I die. :)

So here's Christles, Tristy and Me putting together our pod with magnetic legos on the bottom and a magnet on top for propulsion. We got into it. We didn't stop until we figured it out.

Here's me happy that I got my pod to travel along this route using magnetic propulsion. Sweet eh? oh yeah.

Princess Leia Costume from New Hope along with R2D2 and C3P0, um do I really need to describe what this stuff is? Should be obvious if you like Star Wars or have been living as long as I have. (New Hope came out one year before I was born).

Tarful, the real Wookie costume. It was like 7 feet tall. I had forgotten how tall those Wookies were. Pretty friggin' sweet. I believe that each of these actually has an air conditioner pack attached because the suits got so hot.

This is one of the Darth Vader suits from Revenge of the Sith. I drooled, seriously...well, not really but close. I may be a bit nerdy but I'm not an uber nerd. Chris might have drooled though or something worse which I won't utter on this blog but if you know me and think naughty thoughts you'll know what I'm not saying without me saying it. Get that, okay, good.

Too friggin' cool. Did I mention that they had a guy in a real Vader costume walking around. You could get your picture taken with him.

This shot is the money shot for the day. Looking into the Darth Vader helmet if you had it on. I might have actually drooled here. Well, maybe not but in my head I was drooling. It was like watching the part in Revenge of the Sith where they show the helmet going on Vader. Ooohh aaahhhh...

Just a cool print they had on the wall with some interesting info. It says "Sound designer Ben Burtt manipulated a recording of a malfunctioning hotel room air conditioner as the pulsating engine sound of the Star Destroyer."

Here some Vader trivia for you nerds out there. "Darth Vader's breathing is a recording of sound designer Ben Burtt breathing from a scuba respirator. The lightsaber sound is a combination of the hum of an idling 33mm movie projector and the feedback generated by passing a stripped microphone cable by a television.

Wall*e and Vantage Point

I saw two movies this weekend. Wall*e and Vantage Point.

First off, Wall*e. I was super excited to see it and it was a good movie but was it great? Hmmm...I don't know. I think my opinion is biased because it was so hyped up and got such good reviews that I'm thinking I didn't think it was as great as it probably is. I was expecting too much. If that makes any sense. Granted, it was good and in line with other Pixar movies but it's not like Cars where I could watch it over and over and over. There is some very funny stuff in it but a lot of slow parts. I mean there are robots in it so there isn't much dialogue at all just movement and sounds to interpret. I guess what I'm saying is you should see it. That's it.

Now Vantage Point. I wasn't really chomping at the bit to see this one. I mean, I saw the previews awhile back and thought it could be good but just hadn't gotten up the desire to see it. I should have. It was really good! I wasn't bored once and it had me on my toes trying to figure it out. The filming style was different. It started off in the present showing a scene and then played it over and over from a different "vantage point". So basically it keeps replaying the same scene from different vantage points/different perspective. It was cool. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will probably watch it again and again. I should say it also showed a couple minutes prior to the initial scene too. At any rate, you should see it when it comes out on video. It's good.

10,000 B.C.

Last night I watched 10,000 B.C. on Blu-Ray with my brother and I have to say I liked it. I did. It was good. The graphics were amazing, seriously amazing. Of course part of that could be because the picture quality was so much better than what I'm used to. (I don't own any Blu-Ray or HD movies, yes I know, shame on me.)

Anyway, when the previews for this movie came out it looked like it could be one of those hit or miss movies so I didn't go and see it. I should have, it would have been worth it to see it on the big screen. Ah well, win some, you lose some.

Seeing the previews kind of tricked me into what I thought it would be about. I thought it would be more about...I don't know, living in that age and killing animals but it wasn't. It was about love and courage and prophecy. Really and truly it was all about a woman if you want to get down to it and a man's love for her and what he would do. A close second would be that man's pride and willingness to help other people.

The movie had a good story and I won't get into the details and spoil it if you haven't seen it. I would recommend seeing this movie though. It was good. Heck, I might even buy it myself now that I've seen it. Although since I don't have blu-ray I might be continually disappointed.

Kung Fu Panda!

Last night I made a brother-bonding date with my little brother (they are all little 'cause I'm the oldest. ha ha) Christles (his name is actually Chris but that's my nickname for him amongst other things like blowhole, Christophor, poopstain, doorknob...I better stop now) to see Kung Fu Panda.

Let me tell you...that movie was friggin' awesome! Oh yeah. I was eating it up. It was dramatic and funny and hilarious and serious and goofy and scary and interesting all at the same time. Kind of Jackie Chan meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was funny, you should see it. I loved it.

I laughed so hard for most of the movie and guess what the best part was? Nobody else was in the theatre. Okay, time out, yes, if nobody else was in the theatre is it really that good? Yes, it is. I went on a Monday, so just get past that for now. Anyway, I didn't have to worry about disturbing somebody with my raucious laughter except for Christles but I would think he'd be used to me by now. :)

Anyways, I won't spoil it for you by saying what my favorite parts were and there were many. One in fact I was still laughing about when we were leaving the theatre.

Okay, so with that in mind, go see it if you want a good laugh. p.s. My favorite character besides THE big fat Panda, the monkey and then the Mantus.

Sex and the City (the movie)

Kimmie, Michelle, Kelly, Krysta, Amanda and I went to Sex and the City last night. It was friggin' awesome! It fit with the TV show perfectly and it had the same quick-wit, high fashion and cleverness from the TV show. I laughed so hard at some parts, seriously. The theatre was in a constant uproar. I've never heard so much laughter before. Lately, theatre-goers have been kind of duts. No laughing just watching. Boring.

Anyway, back to the movie. It is fairly dirty and I mean dirty. As in it is rated R but probably should have been NC-17. They show a lot and I mean A LOT of nudity, sex and male and female body parts. So if you are a parent and your kid wants to see it, I'd think twice. Not really appropriate for teenagers.

Let's see, what else. Oh yeah, all the same characters from the show. That was nice. It wouldn't have been the same if they had to use a different actor/actress for any of the TV characters.

There was this part...it was seriously funny. Okay SPOILER ALERT. So Samantha gets herself a dog. I won't say why but she gets this little yip-yip dog and it's got the habit of humping pillows and stuff. It's hilarious. It's the perfect dog for her. The theatre just laughed.

Charlotte has this funny part when they are in Mexico. She refuses to eat anything other than pudding from a sealed container because she's afraid she'll get ill. So then she holds out for most of the trip until she's in the shower thinking of her perfect life and she opens her mouth and swallows some water. Then she gets the shits from it. She's trying to walk quickly back to the suite with her thighs closed so she looks like a penguin and then her stomach is growling the whole time and she ends up...well, "Pukipsee'ing" in her pants. :)

Sex and the City

Sex and the City was my favorite show when I was in college and after I got out of college. I loved watching that show. Why? Um...hello, it's about a bunch of middle-aged women and their struggles with men. Even as a 20-something I could relate. Well, maybe not relate to the supreme amount of sex they had with guys. That's not me but I could relate to the problems in a way. I also enjoyed the awesome dialogue they had, it was quick-witted and hilarious. You can't beat that. Their clothing and seeing NYC was awesome too. I mean, I wouldn't wear a lot of the stuff that SJP wore but each girl was an interesting character and had interesting wardrobe choices.

So anyways, my point about this is that the movie comes out tonight and I'm going with my favorite group of girls: Kimmie and Michelle. Should be fun! I wonder what the chick to guy ratio will be? I'm going to make a point to count the guys tonight although if they had any sense in their head they'd be practically begging to go. Any movie with the first word of "Sex" should definitely be something a guy would want to see. Hello they are guys? :)

Iron Man

I saw Iron Man on Monday afternoon with my brother Chris. I think he's seen it 3 or 4 times now. He loves it. Anyways...

I liked it. Yeah, I'll definitely buy it when it comes out. It was pretty friggin' good. Here's the thing I liked the most. Well, not the most but the first thing that comes to mind. Roberty Downey Jr. was perfect for this role. He has that arrogance to him that can be very unattractive but it wasn't. He was just plain funny. Normally that sarcastic arrogance would turn me off quicker than a rocket take-off but it didn't. I thought he was hilarous and um...he's got some nice lookin' arms. My favorite part was when he was working on his suit back at his house. Interracting with all of his little gadgets. Some of the dialogue was so funny. I laughed a lot. I loved when he was flying that was neat too. I kept thinking, "That would be scary but super fun too."