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November 14, 2012 My Pedigree: Movies

I’m naming this entry that strictly because it fits the naming scheme. I really don’t think that a person needs a pedigree to talk about movies. Most people I know love movies, it’s just the type they disagree on. I’ll never be a guy who writes movie reviews because I can’t pick them apart the “right way.” I enjoy most movies, but I can’t tell you thing one about cinematography or themes. I did poorly in my Literary Criticism class in college for the same reason. “I liked this” wasn’t quite enough for my teacher.

I have been keeping movie journals over the last eight years, keeping track of what I watched when and in what format, and, starting in 2007, who I watched them with. Here are the numbers:

2005 – 263
2006 – 371
2007 – 107 (slow year!)
2008 – 241
2009 – 221
2010 – 120 (I got married this year, so there was bound to be a fall-off)
2011 – 142
2012 (so far) – 139

In addition, in 2008 I started a (so far) yearly tradition of hosting a movie marathon in January or February, the months people were most likely to not mind being indoors all day. Here’s the history on those:

2008 – Star Wars – We watched in Episode order, not release order. No women showed up for this one.

2009 – Lord of the Rings – So far, this has been the best-attended one, with an almost-equal mix of men and women in attendance.

2010 – Indiana Jones (from Worst to First) – My order: 4, 2, 1, 3. Yes, I think Last Crusade is the best one by a slight margin, though I won’t quibble with people who choose Raiders.

2011 – Pirates of the Caribbean – Back when there were only three movies in the series. This one was the least enjoyable, in my opinion. The first one reaches heights never again attained by the remaining movies.

2012 – Harry Potter – Had to split this one over a Friday night and Saturday. Lots of people came to at least parts of this one, with 5 of us being there the whole time.

I’m still considering what to have this next January. I’m leaning towards a Batman marathon (7-8 movies, depending on if I include the 1966 movie, which I’m not inclined to do) or an Avengers marathon (but a friend sorta did that before The Avengers was released to theaters, so that seems like copying). Any other ideas? Keep in mind that the series need to be PG-13 or lower, to allow for the potential audience.

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November 13, 2012 Pixar Movies

In honor of Brave being released today on BD/DVD, I thought I’d post my top ten Pixar movies list. My list looks different from most other ones I’ve seen, so be nice, eh?

10. Cars (2006) / Cars 2 (2011) – I haven’t actually seen Cars 2, but I’m lumping sequels together because I lump the Toy Story movies together so these are getting lumped together, too. I disliked Cars enough that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t much care for Cars 2, so I feel safe in ranking these together here.

9. WALL·E (2008) – I liked the first 40 minutes well enough, but once they get to space the only thing I enjoy is the OCD cleaning robot.

8. Ratatouille (2007) – I’ve only seen this once. I liked it well enough, but could stand to see it again.

7. Finding Nemo (2003) – There’s a lot of great stuff in this movie, starting with the cast.

6. Brave (2012) – I won’t lie to you – the accents are a big part of why I like this one so much. I also like that there wasn’t an actual villain, really. The main conflict was family relationships. Strong female character with a strong family message. Good stuff.

5. Monsters, Inc. (2001) – Listen, you put Miracle Max and Walter Sobchak in a movie together, even as voices, and I’m going to line up for that one. I also love that Boo’s dialogue was just the film makers following a little girl around with a microphone and recording here while she played.

4. A Bug’s Life (1998) – I’ve seen this one more than any other on this list, mostly because the kids I was around really liked it. I’m willing to admit it ranks higher because there’s a nostalgia factor, but I also love that Dave Foley and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are in it.

3. Toy Story (1995) / Toy Story 2 (1999) / Toy Story 3 (2010) – Fantastic movies all around. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are perfect together, and the way so many classic toys are brought to life is just beautiful.

2. Up (2009) – The first ten minutes of this movie are better than most other full movies released that year, beautiful and heart-wrenching. I’m sure that part of the appeal of this one is that I’m getting older, and its “Live your life!” message is a reminder I often need, but it’s a great movie on its own without me piling anything else on it. Doug the Dog is one of my favorite movie characters ever, and his “I hid under your porch because I love you” line is delivered so dead-on perfectly that it will never fail to make me smile.

1. The Incredibles (2004) – I heard this movie described as “what the Fantastic Four movies should have been,” and it’s hard to disagree. The strong family themes, the all-out superhero action, the middle-age weariness, the desire to do what a person is uniquely gifted to do… it all adds up to my favorite Pixar movie so far.

I already know that most people rank WALL*E a lot higher and A Bug’s Life a lot lower and will usually put the Toy Storys(ies?) at the top, but this is my list and I feel very strongly about it. And, really, from 8 up I unequivocally like all of them, so arguing that most of them are good is… not really an argument.

Tags: Pixar, Tuesday10

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November 12, 2012 Good Things In Bad Stuff

To kick off this semi-regular feature, we’re going to use…

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

There’s no question this movie had a lot of terrible things in it. Ranking those terrible things would start with “surviving a nuke by getting in a fridge,” move on to “CGI gopher,” and then to “extradimensional beings,” with plenty of other stops along the way. Too easy, I say! More difficult: finding good things in this movie. I found exactly two things in this movie that I really liked.

Indy’s back!
Most people complained about how old Harrison Ford looked and how tired he seemed. Me, I was glad to see him back. Ford put the character back on just like the leather jacket, and I was only sad that he was trapped in a bad story. World-weary? Well, excuse me, but I think constantly fighting Nazis and then Communists might make you feel like the world wasn’t exactly Pie-In-The-Sky Land. There’s only so much dodging traps a fellow can do before it starts affecting him.
Marion’s back!
Marion and Indy in Raiders is one of the all-time great pairings. She was tough but feminine, gutsy, and no-nonsense – a perfect match for Indy. Seeing her and Indy back together brought a smile to my face, and it was great to see them banter.

If pressed for a third item, I’d probably say when Indy takes his hat back from Mutt. There’d been a lot of talk while the movie was filming about this movie setting up Shia to take over the reigns and have a new series of Indy (Mutt?) Jones, so when Mutt picks up the hat and the camera lingers on him about to put it on, only to have Indy take it back? Yeah, I liked that moment.

Frankly, I’d take a fifth Indy film, no problem. The odd-numbered ones are the best ones, so #5 could be the best in the series, who knows?