SB

Below is an alphabetical list of 50 movies I would absolutely force you to watch if:

A. We were friends.
B. I were in a position to force you to watch them.
C. I cared about staying friends with you.

So keep a tally on how many you’ve seen and we’ll see how you do.

1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. American Psycho
4. Back to the Future
5. Big Fish
6. The Big Lebowski
7. Chasing Amy
8. The Departed
9. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
11. Finding Nemo
12. Forrest Gump
13. Garden State
14. Ghostbusters
15. Gladiator
16. Goldeneye
17. Good Will Hunting
18. Hackers
19. Hook
20. Jaws
21. Jurassic Park
22. The Karate Kid
23. Kill Bill
24. The Lord of the Rings
25. Love Actually
26. The Matrix
27. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
28. Moulin Rouge
29. Newsies
30. A Nightmare on Elm Street
31. Office Space
32. Once
33. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
34. Pulp Fiction
35. Raiders of the Lost Ark
36. Reservoir Dogs
37. Rocky
38. Shaun of the Dead
39. Sin City
40. Snakes on a Plane
41. Spider-Man 2
42. Spirited Away
43. Stardust
44. Star Wars
45. The Empire Strikes Back
46. Return of the Jedi
47. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
48. The Truman Show
49. WALL-E
50. When Harry Met Sally

Here’s the rating scale for watching them at all:

10 or fewer: How is that possible? Are we friends?

11-20: Get Netflix immediately.

21-30: Go to Blockbuster sometime.

31-40: We should hang out a little more.

41-50: You’re pretty awesome. You and I could probably hang out a lot.

Here’s the rating scale how many of these you’ve seen that you actually liked*:

10 or fewer: Clearly, we’re family or else I’m not sure why I know you.

11-20: You’re okay. I mean, you could be cooler, but it’s reasonable to believe we could carry a decent conversation.

21-30: You’re doing a lot better than the people in those other two categories. We may even be able to talk for several hours.

31-40: You are an incredibly cool person.

41-49: Either you’re one of the coolest people I know or obviously I like you enough to have personally forced a decent amount of these on you.

50: If you’re a dude, high five; we’re probably best friends. If you’re a girl, marry me.

*Liked does NOT mean “loved”; just that you generally had a good time with it.

How did you do?

My DVD collection is like my baby. I can tell you where, why, and when I got nearly every single title in my collection. Don’t believe me? Test me.

In the meantime, here are five of my personal favorite inclusions that most people haven’t seen, haven’t heard of, or didn’t realize were on DVD. This is NOT a list of my favorite DVD’s. Nor is it even a complete list of my “gems”. It’s just a few of my favorite titles that you probably don’t have. If you DO have any of these, give yourself some cool points. Quite a lot of cool points, actually.

5. G.I. Joe: The Movie

First time I saw it: When I was a kid, several times as a rental. We never owned it.

When did I buy it? Tenth grade from Circuit City in Rocky Mount, NC. Cost around $20 even though there are barely special features, but it’s such a rare title, I didn’t care.

Why is it awesome? This one is mainly making the list because it’s discontinued and thus impossible to find in stores. Sure, you can get it from Amazon “sellers” for $20 still, but where’s the excitement in that? It’s also making the list because G.I. Joe toys were by far my most used toys when I was a kid and I love the characters because of it. Also because there’s a live action G.I. Joe movie coming out this summer and it looks awesome.

4. Fido

First time I saw it: I wanted to see it, so I convinced Johnny Bland to buy it for a movie night he was having (with his youth group or something, no less) even though he had never seen it either.

When did I buy it? Spring Break 2008 at the Blockbuster near Wrightsville Beach. Purchased as a 4 for $25 deal on previously viewed movies along with Breach, Disturbia, and Knocked Up.

Why is it awesome? It’s a zombie movie about using zombies as maids and butlers, all surrounded by unusually cheerful 1950’s sitcom attitude. It’s like Leave It to Beaver meets Dawn of the Dead. It’s also Canadian, but let’s not hold that against it.

3. Newsies

First time I saw it: Yikes. When I was little? That’s the best I’ve got. Long enough ago that I feel like I’ve always known the song “I’m the King of New York”. I’d very seriously doubt it was much later than Age 6 or 7.

When did I buy it? The second I realized it was on DVD. I was in the “new” Best Buy in Rocky Mount in December of the year it opened (2005?), when I saw it on the shelf. Christmas was coming up, but I bought it anyway. Well worth the full $20 price tag.

Why is it awesome? It’s like the manliest musical ever. There are only like four girls in the entire movie. The rest of it is about teenagers fighting for their rights to…sell newspapers and choreograph dances. You know, all the key freedoms Americans enjoy.

2. Once

First time I saw it: I borrowed it from my friend Connor shortly after Christmas 2008, mostly due to its ridiculously high Rotten Tomatoes score.

When did I buy it? Summer 2008, Best Buy in Orlando, FL for $15.

Why is it awesome? Because it’s absolutely beautiful in it’s simplicity. An indie musical released in 2007, this has slowly climbed the ranks of my all-time list. I bought the soundtrack on iTunes the minute the movie was over the first time I ever watched it, and my love for it grew from there. I mean, seriously, who buys music anymore? That’s how great it was. Even despite it’s Oscar win for Best Original Song I still feel like barely anyone I know has seen it (including my film school friends).

1. Hackers

First time I saw it: I rented it in…6th grade? Sometime around then. I also proceeded to rent it (i.e. make my parents rent it) several more times until finally buying my own copy on VHS. It’s the only VHS I remember buying with my own money.

When did I buy it? Shortly after I realized how much more convenient DVD’s were than tapes. 10th grade at the very, very latest. Stands as the first DVD I ever bought for myself.

Why is it awesome? I’m not exaggerating when I say this is one of my most watched movies of all time. It’s ridiculous. It’s fun. It’s 90’s. To this day, I will still watch it at any given moment.

The Wrestler was the last movie I was waiting to see before making this.

Below is a list of every single 2008 release I saw in order from favorite to least favorite, plus a link to the full review on CA (if it exists – remember I didn’t start the blog until July). At the bottom, there’s a list of movies I still plan to see eventually that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Click (more…) after the Top Ten.

A lot of this is based on how often I would rewatch the movies.

1. (TIE)    Slumdog Millionaire
1. (TIE)    Wall-E
1. (TIE)    The Dark Knight
4.    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5.    Burn After Reading
6.    Hellboy 2
7.    In Bruges
(8.) Let the Right One In
8.    Gran Torino
9.    The Strangers
10.    The Wrestler

(more…)

The Super Bowl is the time of year when companies spend as much money advertising their big summer blockbuster popcorn flicks as it would cost me to make an entire movie from scratch. Here are my thoughts from least anticipated to most based on said advertisements (click the titles to see the videos):

9. Race to Witch Mountain

Alright, Mr. Dwayne Johnson. DOOM sucked, but would you PLEASE go back to making action movies anyway? Before I saw this trailer, I thought I had seen the original Race to Witch Mountain at some point in my childhood, but I don’t remember anything about aliens at all and apparently that’s the plot from the get-go in this one.

8. Star Trek

I think it’s official: Nothing will ever, ever successfully get me excited about anything related to Star Trek. I’m a huge fan of JJ Abram’s Lost, Cloverfield, and even Mission: Impossible 3, and I like a lot the cast members but I still just could not care less that this movie is coming out this summer. Will I see it? Probably, but only because that’s what I do.

7. Land of the Lost

The end of this trailer actually got a laugh out of me, but I’m not sure what to think of the rest. I’m still a fan of Will Ferrell’s brand of stupidity and I love dinosaurs, so I’m sure I’ll end up seeing this as well. I just hope the ads get more promising.

6. Fast and Furious

The original is not a good movie by any technical standards, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t entertained. The second one sort of sucked by ALL standards and I blame a large part of that on Vin Diesel’s disappearance. He’s back, so I’m sure I will be too.

5. Up

I’m having trouble getting excited about this movie. Pixar is possibly the greatest production studio in all of Hollywood right now if you look at their track record so I’m sure this will be one of the better movies of the summer. The ads themselves just haven’t quite hooked me yet.

4. Transformers: Rise of the Machines

The original Transformers was one of the most entertaining movies of 2007. Story? Who cares. GIANT ROBOTS. Considering they’re pumping this out just two years later, things look as explosive-filled as ever.

3. Monsters vs. Aliens

I’ve been excited for this one since I saw the full trailer before the Kung Fu Panda DVD. Dreamworks seems to be on the right track with their animation department, so I’ll be seeing this opening weekend.

2. Year One

Where the hell did this movie come from? I’ve heard NOTHING about it. Jack Black + Michael Cera looks like quite the winning combination to me. Unless the longer trailers start sucking, I’m officially pumped for this movie.

1. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Okay, this didn’t actually air during the Super Bowl. Why? I have no idea because it was everything I wanted it to be. I was a huge, huge, huge fan of G.I. Joe when I was kid, and, amazingly, it looks like that might have gotten it right. If there were a midnight showing; I would be there.