For some reason, I was sure I had seen a blog or article where the author listed his or her Top 10 Most Important Movies. The idea was not to list the greatest movies or their favourite movies, but the movies that had the most importance to them. I was sure that Kelly was the author of this possibly mythical list of movies. She says she wasn’t but since she was nice enough to hunt down the lists she DID do, here are the links for…
Her 100 Favourite movies: http://khager.vox.com/library/post/100-favorites.html
And
Her Top 10 Best Movies: http://khager.vox.com/library/post/top-100.html
I don’t think I could do a Top 100 list for either category, and besides, I think a Top 10 Most Important (To Me) Movies is a pretty intriguing list in and of itself, so here goes (in no particular order):
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Star Wars: I fall completely on the Wars side of the Star Wars/Star Trek fence, and this movie (and its sequels in the Original Trilogy) certainly captured my imagination when I was a kid. I still don’t consider myself a science fiction fan, but Star Wars is one of the arguments AGAINST that statement.
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Highway 61: Growing up, Canadian movies were usually nature documentaries aired on CBC. Watching Highway 61 made me realize that we could make quirky, fun movies. Bruce McDonald would go on to make Hard Core Logo and…well, a lot of TV shows, but along the way he became perhaps the most off-beat director in Canadian film history.
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The Wrestler: The Wrestler did in dramatic fashion what Beyond the Mat did in documentary style, showcased pro wrestling, warts, glory and all on the big screen. And the Wrestler took it a step further, as it had a far wider opening, and even got some Oscar buzz for both the film and its stars. (And any film that includes a “Holy Sh!t!” chant gets props from me!)
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Twister/Independence Day: In the summer of 1996, there was a slew of big budget action flicks. Neither of those two movies were lauded for their plot, but they were just fun movies to watch. In fact, it inspired me to write a big-budget movie, about a cop battling a crime boss whose mob is posing as a terrorist group. It was the first script I ever began and finished. (Sadly, it never quite made it to the big screen!)
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Strange Days: Many of the films on this list have made me want to make movies. Strange Days made me want to make movie trailers.
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World Trade Center: I remember sitting in the theatre watching World Trade Center, scared to death I was going to lose it, emotionally. I managed to hold it together, but World Trade Center remains one of the most emotional movies I’ve ever seen.
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Clerks: The story behind Clerks, and how Kevin Smith made it on the super-cheap to get this off-beat Black and White movie about two friends stuck in dead-end retail jobs to the screen was damned inspirational to a guy working at a Blockbuster at the time.
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A Bridge Too Far: Back before Blu-Ray and DVD, even before VHS, there was something called “Videodiscs”. My Dad used to rent them from a local electronic shop in Glencoe, and one of my favourite discs was A Bridge Too Far, a star-studded recreation of the 1944 battle of Arnhem. The film sparked my interest in Operation Market Garden, the risky Allied plan that resulted in the battle.
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When Harry Met Sally…: Of all the so-called “Chick Flicks”, this is my all-time favourite. I also really enjoyed just how the two main characters became friends first, before sleeping together and overcoming a lot of personal relationship adversity before finally falling in love. (It also sparked my crush on Meg Ryan and my puzzling fascination with the way she says the “F” Word in one scene.)
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Milk Money: This remains the worst movie I have ever seen in theatres. It also serves as inspiration, because I figure if someone thought this was a good enough film to be released, anything I can come up with should be a shoe-in
Honourable Mentions:
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The Doors
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Gettysburg
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Wimbledon
My lead-off to this blog entry is going to come as a surprise to many of you…but for my massive wrestling fandom (which has admittedly waned severely over the last decade or so) and the similarly massive presence that pro wrestling has on the Internet (similarly waning since the demise of the Monday Night Wars and the failed Invasion angle of 2001), there are very few wrestling websites I visit on a regular basis.
Basically it boils down to three main sites:
SLAM Wrestling (http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/) – mostly for their News and Rumours section, and for the odd article or feature.
Online Onslaught (http://www.oowrestling.com/) for their columnists.
And finally…
411Wrestling (http://www.411mania.com/wrestling) for their columnists, video, PPV and TV recaps, and very frequent (as in several times a day) news updates.
But see, 411Wrestling is actually a sub-site (am I using the correct terminology?) of 411mania, which also has sections for politics, sports, MMA, music, and boxing…but really the only other site I check out is the Movie/TV section. (And even then it’s usually to see what hot-actresses/models-in-bikinis photo montages they’ve posted…KIDDING!)
But seriously, recently they had a writers’ survey about the Top 5 Movies that Should Get a DVD Upgrade. (http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/111251/The-411-Movies-Top-5-07.24.09:-Week-175---Top-5-Most-Wanted-DVD-Upgrades.htm) Now, I know for many people, those extras they put on DVDs are just annoying distractions from the actual movie that just serve to jack up the price. Many, including I must assume, some of my faithful readers, would prefer to just get a bare-bones DVD release: the movie and that’s it.
For those of this mind-set…stop reading this blog right now. In fact, never read this blog again. Delete me from your Facebook friends list, your MSN contact list and in fact, BEGONE FROM MY LIFE FOREVER, YOU CLASSLESS HEATHENS!!!!
Okay, I’m kidding! That’s called humour, folks! It shows up on my blog here from time to time. It’s just something you’ll have to learn to live with.
I’m sure we can agree to disagree on this point. (You know…as long as you agree that I’m right and you’re wrong!)
For me, I happen to enjoy the extras that DVDs provide. I like the idea of being able to sit down and watch JFK and then check out the accompanying documentary. I like the idea of watching the Independence Day trailers and TV teasers. And I definitely like listening to the audio commentary on Kevin Smith films. (Snootch to the Nootch!)
In a perfect world, every DVD I pick up would have a trailer/teaser section, audio commentary and accompanying featurettes/documentary. But every once in a while, a movie or, more likely, a TV show comes along that I enjoyed enough to pick up sans mucho extras, and so here is my ….
TOP 5 DVDs I OWN WHICH I WANT AN UPGRADE FOR
1. Grosse Pointe Blank. “The Hitman” Bre…er, I mean John Cusack goes back to his Michigan home town for his high school reunion to complete one last job, win back his high school girlfriend (Minnie Driver) and try and stay alive.
Save for the orginal trailer…oh and a French language track and Spanish subtitles, this DVD comes up Blank in terms of extras. Come on, you mean they couldn’t have put on a “Making Of….” Documentary or a featurette on the use of the music in this movie? Maybe have the cast sit around and talk about their own high school experiences. Cusack and director George Armitage (who went on to direct…The Big Bounce? Really???That was it? Some B-movies in the 70s, Grosse Pointe Blank and The Big Bounce? Huh!) doing audio commentary???
2. Empire Records. The staff of a funky New York record store tries to save their beloved store from being turned into just another corporate outlet.
First of all, the version I have of Empire Records is on a “Double Feature” disc with Singles, and includes but four additional scenes, three music videos and cast bios. Much like Grosse Pointe Blank, I think the DVD could have benefitted by a featurette on the music in the movie (you know, why it was chosen, more about the band, etc) But in a comedy that featured a mostly teen cast, there had to have been an awesome gag reel, to say nothing of the fun that could have been had if they’d all been crammed into a recording studio to do the audio commentary. (Of course, on a slightly more serious note, Allen Moyle, the director who also helmed Pump Up the Volume and, ironically, the 2004 TV Michael Jackson biopic Man In the Mirror, could have sat in for a commentary as well.)
And hey, where’s the “Rex Manning Day” featurette, career retrospective and video we were all dying to see…unless that’s one of the “3 Amazing Music Videos” the DVD boasts.
3. Deep Impact. A comet is about to collide with the earth. No, this is the one without Bruce Willis and that damned Aerosmith song.
Okay, it’s a sci-fi movie about a comet about to collide with the earth. Anyone else think they could have
gotten hours of extras out of this. Making Of Featurettes, Documentaries on the possibility of something
like this actually happening, to say nothing of audio commentaries both from a movie standpoint (director,
cast) and a scientific perspective (scientists, NASA reps, etc).
4. The Gilmore Girls. A single Mom (Lauren Graham) raises her daughter (Alexis Bledel) in a small Connecticut town.
In fairness, the Gilmore Girl Season DVDs have had their fair share of extras, but for the most part they’ve been fairly short featurettes. For the 7th and final season on DVD, the producers of the DVD should have gone all out. They certainly could have produced a half-hour or an hour retrospective on the series, how it came to be, how the show evolved, some of the major plot twists as well as recollections from the cast. Maybe a featurette on the final episode as well as a Behind-the-Scenes look at what went into the making of said episode. It needed more of a send-off than just Kirk’s Tour of Stars Hallow.
5. Wrestlemania I. Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. team up to battle Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff.
WWE gave Wrestlemania III the two-disc treatment which, as I found out as I researched this column, includes not only the entire card but interviews, mini-featurettes and a “Did You Know” pop-up of tidbits feature. Not bad, although I’m thinking they could do better, and they should definitely do better for the initial Wrestlemania. With the WWE’s crack production staff and the amount of video they have access to, could they not whip up a feature about the build-up to the event. Maybe toss on “The War to Settle the Score”. And hey, could they not bring in some of the participants from both the main event and the undercard to do commentary? To say nothing of doing a featurette on those same participants about what it was like to be involved (or at the very least a “Where Are They Now? Segment) as well as modern day superstars about their memories of Wrestlemania I.
So I'm watching TMZ...which is like "Celebrity News for People Who Don't Know Kelly Hager" (well, TMZ covers the lowest common denominator-type celebrity news whereas Kelly is more Celebrity News For the Discrerning Consumer)
Anyways, the crack team of TMZ "journalists" have tracked Jane Fonda on a recent shopping spree, where she was parked in a fire zone. (Geez...where was she shopping Masonville Place where "Handicapped Parking" is code for "Park Here If You're Too Damn Lazy To Walk Five Extra Feet"?) Apparently, this scoop comes hot on the heels of a recent expose on Fonda sneaking her dog into a showing of "Bruno".
But my question is...how did this woman have a career after 1972? For the uninformed, that was the year Ms. Fonda took a trip to North Vietnam, going so far as to pose for photos at a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery. To put this in modern day perspective, this would be paramount to Angelina Jolie hanging out with the Taliban.
For you non-baseball fans: Don't worry, I won't be focusing completely on the game.
I will say this to start off...How is it the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays have at least five reps at the game, and the Blue Jays have two?
If you see only one movie this summer...don't make it "I Love You, Beth Cooper". There have been many movies showing one unforgetable night in the life of a group of teenagers. American Grafitti. 300 Cigarettes. Can't Hardly Wait.
"I Love You, Beth Cooper" is not destined to be ranked among those movies. Quick plot outline: A geek declares his love for the head cheerleader during his valedictorian speech. This sets in motion one night where the geek, his possibly gay best friend, the cheerleader and her two friends (neither one of whom really are used as anything but eye candy filler) hang out, try to avoid the cheerleader's coked-up boyfriend and his two Army buddies.
(And myay I say it's quite disrespectful that all three would-be soldiers are wearing Combat Infantryman Badges, yet there's no mention of any of the three having actually seen combat.)
I think "Beth Cooper" wants to be one of those movies that say something about the high school experience. (The school bully is outed as having been sexually abused, leading to his behaviour. The cheerleader who knows high school might be the high point of her life.) But it spends most of the time just being one of those shallow "We're Young, Let's Party" movies more intent on selling copies of the soundtrack than really giving a crap about making a decent movie.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
And if you're not disappointed by the body of the movie, the ending pretty much ruins it for you. The geek's best friend has threesome with the cheerleader's two friends, looks like he's falling for one of them, only to turn around and announce that yes, he is indeed gay. Meanwhile, the geek tells the cheerleader that no matter what, there will always be someone who loves her....but they just leave the future relationship between the two of them hanging. "I'll probably leave her a message on Facebook." Dear Lord, tell me this isn't the harbinger for "I STILL Love You, Beth Cooper!"
*** SPOILERS ALERT ENDS ***
Well, just when I'm ready to write off Major League Baseball as being anti-Canadian. Not only do they play our National Anthem before the game (albiet just an instrumental version, they got Sheryl Crow to sing the U.S. National Anthem) but when they brought out the "Heroes Among Us" they included one such hero wearing a Blue Jays jersey.
So Roy Halladay ("Currently with the Blue Jays", they've had to mention at least twice so far over these All-Star festivities gets the start for the American League. Aaron Hill bats 8th and starts at second base. At least two other former Jays, Orlando Hudson and Ted Lilly, on the National League rosters.
I'm likening the appearance of Stan "The Man" Musial on the field in St. Louis to a similar one to the late Ted Williams in Boston at an All-Star Game some years ago. Meanwhile, I'm remembering my conversation with a good friend of Musial's and a former Cardinal, Tim Burgess, who passed away earlier this year. I'm sure Tim, a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, is watching on, from the best seat in the house.
Hey, since President Obama can throw out the first pitch at the All-Star game, why doesn't Stephen Harper do the same at the NHL All-Star Game?
Does anyone else think Tim Lincecum looks like a grown up version of that kid from Dazed and Confused? You know, the one just going out of public school, who ironically is a pitcher for his Little League team! Man, I gotta watch that movie again.
