6.30.2007

Last night I was watching the movie 'Girl Fever' aka '100 Women,' which is pretty bad, but it's almost a guilty pleasure...

Anyway, there's this line in there, something about art is the only thing that's honest, where you 'can't fake it.' Your stuff is either good, or it isn't.

Then I thought about the movie 'Fever Pitch,' where Jimmy Fallon says something about how Baseball is the best sport because there's no faking it. You can either hit a curve ball, or you can't.

So naturally I think, what the hell? I guess you could say that about anything. Basketball -- you can either make it in the basket, or you can't. Accounting -- you can either do the math, or you can't. This seems to be a pretty common analogy.

But, what really gets me is that, at least with Baseball, hitting a curve ball is a good metaphor. A curve ball to one person is a curve ball to another.

With art, it is about 70% subjective, 30% objective. I really don't like any Andy Warhol stuff, but apparently he was some important artist. I'm sure some would agree, and some would disagree. Subjective.

But my point is people need to come up with a new metaphor for why things are honest and the best. Because 'you can either ______ a _______ or you can't' has been done and done. If I see it again in a movie, I'm walking out.

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6.23.2007

I heard this second-hand, but it's true and here's a source: http://www.wdtn.com/Global/story.asp?S=6696215

Basically on a Superman ride at Six Flags, something went wrong and ripped off this teen girl's feet. If I had to pin down the top three thing I'd think would be the most painful, that would be one of them.

And of course this is another reason why Superman sucks. Batman for life.

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6.21.2007

Oh man, so AFI finally redid their 100 movies list! I haven't looked at it yet, but I've been on a quest to see them all. Right now I'm at 82 (see the old list here).

I had a long post here ranting about movies I like being dropped numerous spots to make way for inferior movies, but things like that aren't ever good. Sure, American Beauty was snubbed and movies like Forrest Gump, which shouldn't be anywhere near that list, remain, but what can you do? Fargo being kicked is very, very sad.

I like the first list a lot better. Oh well, time to tally.

80. So I lose 2 movies. Still, what a terrible new list. Ten years from now until they fix it...

Oh, you can check the full list on the AFI site but you have to log in, so do it here.

And courtesy of some people at AwardsDaily, here's a couple lists:

All the movies that are NEW:

18 The General (1927)
49 Intolerance (1916)
50 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
59 Nashville (1975)
61 Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
63 Cabaret (1972)
67 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
71 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
75 In the Heat of the Night (1967)
77 All the President’s Men (1976)
81 Spartacus (1960)
82 Sunrise (1927)
83 Titanic (1997)
85 A Night at the Opera (1935)
87 12 Angry Men (1957)
89 The Sixth Sense (1999)
90 Swing Time (1936)
91 Sophie’s Choice (1982)
95 The Last Picture Show (1971)
96 Do the Right Thing (1989)
97 Blade Runner (1982)
99 Toy Story (1995)

All the movies that have been DROPPED:

(39) Doctor Zhivago (1965)
(44) The Birth of a Nation (1915)
(52) From Here to Eternity (1953)
(53) Amadeus (1984)
(54) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
(57) The Third Man (1949)
(58) Fantasia (1940)
(59) Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
(63) Stagecoach (1939)
(64) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
(67) The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
(68) An American in Paris (1951)
(73) Wuthering Heights (1939)
(75) Dances With Wolves (1990)
(82) Giant (1956)
(84) Fargo (1996)
(86) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
(87) Frankenstein (1931)
(89) Patton (1970)
(90) The Jazz Singer (1927)
(91) My Fair Lady (1964)
(92) A Place in the Sun (1951)
(99) Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967)

Sad they went: My Fair Lady, Amadeus, Fargo, Manchurian Candidate, Fantasia.
Glad they joined: Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men ... and that's it.

I'll have to just make my own damn list.

Edit: And as one last note, why is LotR: Fellowship on there, and not LotR: Return of the King? The third was a much better movie....

Okay, and here's my new list:

AFI 100 Movies. I got some movies to watch.

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6.14.2007

So when I was in Vegas, I learned that supposedly AFI also did the 100 best movie posters. Here's a site where you can see them all:

moviegoods.com

I haven't seen a number of these, actually... Well, here's some of my favorite posters from this list (emphasis on 'posters,' with the quality of the movie having no weight). Also, ignore the terrible MovieGoods logo, I guess.











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So last week I was in Las Vegas, which was pretty awesome. I kept a detailed log, but it's hand written and just for me. But anyway, two things about Vegas for now:

I can't believe how dry it is there. Granted, it's in the middle of the fucking desert, but every day after the first my lips were completely dried out, regardless of the bottles of water I'd drink. I think maybe I'm too used to the Florida humidity.

Also, the cab drivers there are ridiculous. I don't know how they go more than three minutes without an accident. They never check their mirrors or blind spot or anything, and squeeze into spots I would never even consider. And there's no cops driving around, so pretty much all of them run red lights. The only real traffic law seems to be, don't hit the pedestrians, but they still honk at them even when there's an okay to walk signal.

And of course none of them speak English very well.

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6.13.2007

My bad guys, I went out of town for a week, plus general lazy tendencies. More on that later. For now, what I do best: mini movie reviews.

Ocean's Thirteen

Better than Twelve, not as good as Eleven. Definitely not a 'good' movie, but for sure a very entertaining one. Soderbergh and the crew should continue making these forever.

8/10

Pirates 3

A little late on this one. . . . Pretty long, pretty bad. There's no real care for the characters, and while they didn't exploit Johnny Depp as much as they did in the second one, it gave Orlando Bloom more lines, which is never good. So many plot holes and subplots that really don't lead anywhere. Disappointing.

5/10

Knocked Up

Quite the hilarious movie. Solid laughs all the way through. Most of the jokes are just great one-liners, so I won't say much since quoting them out of context isn't effective.

8.5/10

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