All posts tagged Top Ten Movies

My Left Foot

One of the Day-Lewis Entity’s earlier appearances in human guise. Superb.

1. There Will Be Blood
2. My Left Foot
3. Ratatouille
4. Cloverfield
5. Juno
6. 9 Lives
7. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
8. Charlie Bartlett
9. The Big Lebowski
10. Jumper

Jumper

If you’ve seen the trailer for Jumper, you have pretty much seen the entire movie. It is a fun special effects film populated with unlikeable characters that all act like dicks to each other.

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Ratatouille
3. Cloverfield
4. Juno
5. 9 Lives
6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
7. Charlie Bartlett
8. The Big Lebowski
9. Jumper
10. Voices of a Distant Star

Quick Updates

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Ratatouille
3. Cloverfield
4. Juno
5. 9 Lives
6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
7. Charlie Bartlett
8. The Big Lebowski
9. Voices of a Distant Star
10. Rambo

1. Veronica Mars
2. Lost
3. Torchwood
4. The League of Gentlemen
5. The Mighty Boosh
6. Witch Hunter Robin
7. Robot Chicken
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Live for Nothing or Die for Something

Would I have gone to see this had it not been a free advance screening at the Alamo? Probably not. Our “tickets’ were spent shell casings from an automatic weapon, which was kind of cool.

There’s not a whole lot of movie here. It does contain the longest sequence of horrific violence I’ve seen in a movie. The last act was just the sound of a heavy artillery gun and people exploding.

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Ratatouille
3. Cloverfield
4. 9 Lives
5. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
6. The Big Lebowski
7. Voices of a Distant Star
8. Rambo
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Ratatouille

Big surprise: another flawless gem from Pixar. I was joking with Dave some time ago that I’m getting tired of the perfection Pixar delivers. I’m ready for the horrible Pixar train wreck of a film.

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Ratatouille
3. Cloverfield
4. 9 Lives
5. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
6. The Big Lebowski
7. Voices of a Distant Star
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10.

Oil Rigs and Shakey-cams

Daniel Day-Lewis has achieved a sort of mythological status, much like Bigfoot. People claim to have seen him or spoken with him outside of a movie set. But the fact is, he is a being existing outside the boundaries of our mundane world. Every few years, his tendrils of cosmic energy detect a story worthy of him and he coalesces into human form to assume the role needed. There is no acting involved. The Day-Lewis entity, for all intents and purposes, *is* that character. When filming is concluded, he retreats to his trailer. The next day the film crew will find only a crumpled pile of clothes coated in a glittering quartz-like film.

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If someone had a high-quality video camera with unlimited battery life strapped to their hand when a monster attacked New York City, the footage contained in the camera would look like Cloverfield.

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Cloverfield
3. 9 Lives
4. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
5. The Big Lebowski
6. Voices of a Distant Star
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Nausicaä

I have yet to see a bad Miyazaki film, though Nukes claims they exist.

Miyazaki borrows heavily from his friend Jean Giraud to get Nausicaa’s visual style. It almost seems like a tribute to him.

Great voice cast on the new Disney dub. You get Patrick Stewart and Edward James Olmos!

I also recently watched Voices of a Distant Star, a short 30 minute anime that was written and animated by one guy on his computer. It is a little choppy, but still very impressive when you compare it to an anime produced by an entire studio.

1. 9 Lives
2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
3. The Big Lebowski
4. Voices of a Distant Star
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The Big Lebowski

The Coens have been on my mind since I saw No Country for Old Men. There were a bunch of clips from the Big Lebowski during the pre-show and I thought I should revisit it. I think I was a bit more into it this time around.

1. 9 Lives
2. The Big Lebowski
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9 Lives

As part of my SELP project, I am immersing myself in films relating to women’s issues, created by women filmmakers or having to do with single mothers. To date, I’ve watched the Vagina Monologues, Thirteen and 9 Lives.

9 Lives is a series of 9 loosely connected vignettes about various women. Each vignette is a single, uninterrupted take. Each woman in the film was complex and multi-layered and yet they were just a facet of all women, a different face for a different day.

The men in the film seemed brutish and awkward by comparison, even the most gallant failing to share a plane of equality with any of the female characters.

I was pleased to see Holly Hunter again, nuanced and wonderful. If you need to be reminded of Robin Wright Penn’s acting caliber, this is the film to check out.

The final story, a simple tale of mother and daughter, enacted by Glen Close and Dakota Fanning, cut me to the core. I thought I was observing a simple slice of life, but the reveal, accomplished with the simple rotation of the camera showed me the truth.

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Return of the Top Ten Lists

This may or may not be a short-lived experiment, but, in order to account for how I’m spending my time, I may begin to keep track of movies, books and various other entertainment.