New Movie A Day: Next 167 Days

Watching a movie a day is really hard. The plan has derailed. In the next 90 Days I only manged to watch 34 movies. So I've caught the list up to present to represent more movies. All in all I've watched 128 new movies this year. So far. There's still over 100 days left in the year to catch up.

Here are some highlights:

Spike Lee films - I went through and watched several of Spike Lee's older films and I have to say I am not a fan. I think they fail on a lot of attempts, either from poor writing, odd formal elements or just that they're really bad. I can't tell if that means Do the Right Thing is that much better or maybe Do the Right Thing is actually not that great. What I think is the case is that he just happens to get the recipe right in Do the Right Thing. He mixes the right amount of social commentary with story. His other early works, with perhaps She's Gotta Have It, the mixture is way off. School Daze is so all over the place and un-cohesive that by the end when all of sudden every black character is out on the quad looking at the camera the message has never sunk in. This awakened moment is un-earneMo Better Blues has a narrative but it's so lightweight that it becomes boring by the second half of the film. And this is the straw that broke the camel's back with Lee acting in his own movies. He's a joke when he tries to act alongside the powerful Denzel Washington. Washington is the best part of that film and He's Got Game. He Got Game is probably the best of the early Spike Lee films, perhaps because it's not that early. But it has a stronger plot and some interesting characters. The B plot with Milla Jovovich really doesn't work and could and should have been cut from the film. Jungle Fever works on a lot of levels, but is really really dated with early 90's music and art direction. John Tuturro and that storyline actually is one of the best parts of the film, overshadowing in my mind even the main plot, partially because Tuturro is so good, but also it's more subdued and not as in your face with its half of the message.
d and out of place.

Major Disappointments - I was so looking forward to Dogtooth. The premise sets up so thoughtfully, but it never fully pays off. It would have paid to have a stronger structure, at least some structure because as is it's slightly random and in-cohesive. La Dolce Vita is a huge disapoint too. Another film where a little more structure would have gone a long way. It too was kind of just a string of scenes, that while are fun and interesting themselves, don't pay off as The Last Picture Show was slightly disappointing. I just never quite got into it. Anchorman 2. Now the definition of major disappointment. The fall off is tremendous from the first film to this one. The one bright moment is the epic newscast fight toward the end, which basically became the point of watching the film once it's realized the film awful.
much at the end.

Slight Disappointments - The Raid 2 will not be making any top ten lists. The first one is so tight and effective. This one is basically a martial arts crime film. Not the worst thing but just not as unique as the first film. My Neighbor Totoro was good but not one of my favorite Ghibli films. Totoro doesn't show up till 45 minutes into it. Although the huge highlight of the film is Catbus, my new favorite character of any Ghibli film.

Major Surprises: After Earth. It really wasn't that bad, just a little bad. The Lego Movie. It's true: Everything is Awesome, including this film. The hype is justified, it's super fun and awesome. I was nauseous the whole film and managed to hold off throwing up until the very end when I ran to the bathroom and vomited into the movie theatre toilet. The movie good enough to hold off my vomit. Totally worth it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - My favorite film of the year.
I smiled the entire time in the theater. It was so delightful.

All is Lost - I think there are two or three bits of dialogue in the whole film. Amazing. Perfect minimalist film making, it's captivating from start to finish.

The sound work is stunning as well, there are other parts where the sound is prime in telling the story so well.

79. Apr 2 - 12 Years a Slave - award winner

80. Apr 2 - Fail Safe - compare to Dr Strangelove

81. Apr 3 - Anchorman 2 - just for funs

82. Apr 5 - Much Ado About Nothing - love the play

83. Apr 6 - He Got Game - unseen Spike Lee film

84. Apr 7 - Freakonomics - prep for class on Documentary

85. Apr 9 - Empire of the Sun - unseen Spielberg film

86. Apr 12 - Doctor Zhivago - unseen AFI Top 100 film

87. Apr 14 - Mo Better Blues - unseen Spike Lee film

88. Apr 15 - End of Watch - student suggestion

89. Apr 16 - Thor: The Dark World - pop culture

90. Apr 18 - School Daze - unseen Spike Lee film

91. Apr 19 - Blackboard Jungle - youth culture study

92. Apr 22 - Another 48 Hrs. - study of film sequels

93. Apr 27 - My Neighbor Totoro - unseen Miyazaki film

94. Apr 27 - Foreign Correspondent - unseen Hitchcock film

95. Apr 28 - The Guilt Trip - on the dvr 

96. May 2 - The Three Faces of Eve - students paper on mental illness on screen

97. May 6 - The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson!

98. May 10 - Jungle Fever - unseen Spike Lee film

99. May 11 - After Earth - on the DVR, pop culture

100. May 12 - Muppets From Space - with the boys

101. May 14 - Frances - a students paper on mental illness

102. May 15 - Princess Mononoke - unseen Miyazaki film

103. May 17 - The Lego Movie - with the boys

104. May 20 - Dogtooth - sounded extremely interesting

105. May 24 - Escape from Alcatraz - unseen prison film

106. May 28 - Westworld - unseen sci-fi classic

107. May 31 - Escape From Tomorrow - pop culture, indie film

108. June 7 - Wall Street - unseen classic

109. June 8 - Freebirds - with the kids

110. June 16 - La Dolce Vita - unseen foreign classic

111. June 19 - The Firemen's Ball - unseen Milos Forman film

112. June 22 - All is Lost - unseen film from 2013

113. June 29 - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - pop-culture

114. July 1 - Bringing Out the Dead - unseen Scorcese film

115. July 5 - Begin Again - went to the theater

116. July 8 - Shadow of a Doubt - unseen Hitchcock film

117. July 9 - The Last Picture Show - unseen classic

118. July 15 - The Life of Emile Zola - unseen classic

119. July 20 - All of Thomas Edison's short films to 1903 - unseen classic

120. July 21 - Tiny: A Story About Living Small - interesting doc

121. Aug 7 - The Raid 2 - just for funs

122. Aug 10 - Magnificent Obsession - unseen Douglas Sirk film

123. Aug 15 - The Cat Returns - unseen Studio Ghibli film

124. Aug 21 - Lone Survivor - pop culture

125. Aug 24 - Amazing Spiderman 2 - pop culture

126. Sep 2 - Saftey Last - unseen silent comedy classic

127. Sep 9 - August: Osage County - awards contender

128. Sep 10 - Captain America: Winter Soldier - pop culture

Lover or Hater of Film: Top 10 Films of 2004

For 2004 I went back and watched every major film to come out. All the blockbusters. All the awards contenders. A lot of foreign films as well. I re-watched some that I hadn't seen since then even. Some held up pretty well. And I found a few gems I had previously overlooked. Of course, this was the year of The Butterfly Effect, it was also the year of these day films.

1. Downfall - Absolutely my favorite film from 2004. The moment I saw the trailer for this film I knew there was something different about it. The entire film is so incredibly intense, from start to finish. It's amazing how intense it is considering that 1. these are Nazi's we're following, 2. there's no real main character (the secretary is the main protagonist, but there are long stretches of the film without her and there are so many other plot lines that she's lost at times). Still, every scene and sequence has a haunted quality, as if we're watching the ghosts trapped in their last tomb, reliving their final moments over and over. The haunted nature sucks the life out the viewing time and again as we watched horrible and evil acts being played out by maniacal beings; from parents killing their children so they won't have to grow up in a world without National Socialism to officers shooting themselves as a last act of defiance. The world perhaps will never see a movement quite like the Nazi's, who mixed such an odd sense of kitsch with such an evil way of taking over a modern society, and this film captures all of that whole movement distilled down to the last week in it's fanatical leader's life.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - One of the most unique movies ever made. Movies in so many ways are like dreams and memories and this film probably gets closer to what memories feel like than any other movie. The details and emotions are what carry this film; and it seems like the filmmakers understood that, planting tiny details into every scene that eventually comes back later at some point. It's sort of like the pieces or objects in our dreams that make sense until we wake up and they don't quite fit into reality. That's sort of the essence of symbolism in literature, when an object carries more meaning that the physical object itself. But Eternal Sunshine doesn't ever dwell on this more than needed, they place these important things in spots around the action; from cups to drawings to hair color. It's an odd romance


3. Anchorman - This is the movie that made me laugh so hard I fell off the couch. It has spawned a thousand one-liners relating to such topics as: San Diego, scotch, a woman's hiney, relaying important news items like "Cannonball", a whale's reproductive organs, the use of cologne, bears, lamps, when to drink milk, our cages of emotions, the sizes of burritos and their proper disposal, and so much more.

4. Kung Fu Hustle - I had to go back and watch this again because I fell asleep watching it in 2004. I'm glad I did because this film is legit. It combines so many different styles to fit into a whole new world of it's own. It's hilarious and captivating alongside being an amazing action film. Besides all that, it is one of the best Asian films of the last 15 years, up there with House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This film though, follows the tradition of so many Asian films, though, that merge Eastern and Western styles so fluidly. It builds a world full of depth all while paying homage, a balance that's hard to do sometimes.

5. The Aviator - This should have won Best Picture. Watching this again really brings out how good of a biopic this is and how well the effects still hold up pretty well. In many ways, this was a big grand movie (much aligned with the subject matter) and deserves the praise for the large leaps it takes in tackling every aspect of what makes a movie a spectacle. The aeriel plane sequences alone are amazing, but matched with DiCaprio's performance and the breathtaking production design (covering several decades) this film fires on all cylinders. And it's now given me reason to say "Show me all the blueprints" over and over again when my three year olds ask the same question twelve times.

6. The Incredibles - Usually when movies(or TV shows) make up their own superheroes it comes off as fake or forced. But leave it to Pixar to do it right. They not only created very real and believable heroes, but they created a whole world to support them. They play homage to the 60's Modern style that fits so well with the tone of the superhero world. I'm sure Mad Men took at least a little inspiration from The Incredibles' production design. The world they create yearns for a sequel, yet the story is so perfectly wrapped up a sequel would probably take away from the complete story of the family.





7. The Life Aquatic - Here we are with Wes Anderson. Perhaps part of his low dip (with Darjeeling Limited) but the film holds up on repeated viewings and gets better over time. Perhaps the low dip is due to the grander scope of the film, as compared to previous films that were more personal and primarily character driven. Here you still have the characters, but that's mixed with bigger scenery and grander adventures. Anderson has been able to find a balance now, Grand Budapest Hotel is very grand and adventurous), but Life Aquatic was almost silly at times because you have small, quaint Anderson-esque characters out in the dangerous world in real life seeming situations. But that's where the value of repeat viewings come in. The Anderson-esque nature of the characters and situations is initially lost of the real-world grand scope, but on a re-watch it's easier to find the tiny Wes Anderson touches. For instance, Willem Dafoe's facial expressions in the background of scenes. Maybe one other flaw is Owen Wilson playing a Kentucky pilot. It seems so out of place. Perhaps Anderson has learned his lesson on forcing accents onto actors that shouldn't have them. (Just look to Ed Norton's plain accent in Grand Budapest Hotel for an example of a performance not needing it.)

8. Hotel Rwanda - Have to put this in here. It's such an incredible true life story. The emotion and chaos are so real and wild and hard felt. Not necessarily a film you go back for for entertainment, but one worth watching for something else.

9. House of Flying Daggers - This film could not be left off a top ten list of that year. The use of color alone could make it one of the best films of the last decade. The blind dancing sequence as well could keep it on that list as well. The film truly shows that Hollywood does not have a monopoly on amazing cinematography. The best cinematography could be coming out of the Far East. Wuxia storylines sort of thread the line between overly complicated and overly simplified, which is a hard thing to do. Emotions and characters and the situations they're in can be simplified, i.e. a girl pretends to be a blind geisha to spy on the government. But Wuxia films are filled with twists and turns; i.e. She's not really blind at all! And the guy who is protecting her really is a spy from the government! And of course they fall in love while performing amazing martial arts. Amazing film. On par with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, maybe better even.

10. Spiderman 2 - The best of the Spiderman films. Like most superhero films, the second takes what works from the first and makes it better, then avoids the bloated plot trappings of the third. (Look to the Dark Knight trilogy as the prime example.) The character arch is the best of the films, and Doc Ock is the best villain from the films, mainly because Alfred Molina was cast. The Spiderman series actually did an amazing job with casting. It's always nice having amazing classic actors in superhero films; Willem Dafoe, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellan, etc...) Molina isn't necessarily given amazing dialogue or characterization, but he manages to put so much depth and intellect into the character. Even Dafoe in the first film just sort of relied on being crazy a bit too much, something Molina never does in this film. It really is a shame that the third film failed so badly when this film gets every part right. There's only one villain, which means so much more time can be spent on his story and on Peter Parker's story, which is what makes the Spiderman character so interesting. Overall, one of the best superhero films to date, and a shining moment for 2004.



Honorable Mention:
Man on Fire - saw this the first time after coming back from Mexico City. Glad I didn't see it before, otherwise I would have been scared the entire time, and not just during taxi rides.
Miracle - can't help myself. I believe in miracles.
The Chronicles of Riddick - this one surprised me a lot. I thought for sure it would be awful, but it isn't bad at all. Vince Diesel isn't really the best actor, and the story is a little shallow, but the production design is amazing and a decade later it holds up pretty well.
Kill Bill Vol 2 - just off the list. No real reason to keep it off the top ten, but maybe in hindsight after Tarantino's later films isn't as shiny.
Collateral - landmark film. One of the early great features shot on video. The use of light and dark is amazing. Overall, a very compelling story. And Tom Cruise has grey hair.
The Sea Inside - for a film about a guy stuck in one place this film is quite engrossing. Mainly because of the philosophy it brings up.
Motorcycle Diaries - such an easy film to watch. This belongs on the top ten road movies ever made.
Yesterday - the premise seems so simple; An African woman discovers she has AIDS and deals with her life. But the whole film goes about it in such a straightforward and simple way that the existential crisis is there without being on the nose.
A Very Long Engagement - I love this director. WW I looks so great. No one knows love like the French.

New Movie A Day: First 90 days

This year I decided to set a New Year's Resolution of watching a new movie every day. I've always felt so behind in what I haven't seen, this is the way to try to get over that. There's been plenty of missed days, and a few days with multiple new films to try and catch up, but it's pretty hard to consistently find the time to watch a new movie every day, especially since I also spend time re-watching some classics for other things and classes. For the first three months (90 days) I watched 78 new films. Here are a few highlights.

I watched a lot of films from 2004 I've previously missed because I'm going to do a "Am I a Lover or Hater of Film" for 2004. Worst film I've seen this year comes from 2004. The Butterfly Effect. It fails as a film on so many levels. The story is awful, makes little sense and takes way too long to get going. The cinematography isn't that great, neither is the sound design (which uses some very un-creative sounds). Then the theme I think is just ultimately poor and wrong. Closer is a close second. I thought it was awful, pointless and actually really boring.

I also watched a lot of new films from 2013 to catch up on what I missed. Her was amazing, and my favorite film from last year so far. I was also a big fan of American Hustle, it had me engaged the entire time. Short Term 12 is a hidden gem from the last year. Gravity was pretty amazing as well.

There are also plenty of classics. As I go over the list there's one film I can't remember at all: Monkey Business. It's a Howard Hawks comedy, but after that I can't remember one thing about it. Another forgettable film is the Marilyn Monroe iconic film Seven Year Itch. Monroe is hardly in it, mainly it's following a married guy in the summer when his wife and kid are vacationing and he keeps running into his upstairs neighbor, Monroe. It sets up for a good comedy, but then keeps getting bogged down by the awful inner thoughts and monologuing of the dorky main guy. The most iconic part of the film is the subway air vent blowing Monroe's skirt up, but the film version is nowhere near as interesting as the still photos that are usually shown instead, which is a wider shot and shows all of Marilyn including the fun look on her face. The photo attached here is not within the film, but a publicity photo. In the film, we never see her face and the skirt blowing up in the same frame, or the guy looking on.

One of the most interesting classics I saw was the grandfather of zombie films: White Zombie. The film is about a white woman that gets taken under the spell of a...plantation owner or wizard or Count..who knows what he is, but he's super creepy. He turns regular people into mindless workers, aka zombies in the voodoo tradition. It follows in the tradition of classic horror/monster movies of fear of the taking white women and what could happen to them. The entire film has some very creepy sets and locations, including the opening countryside where zombies come out of nowhere at one part and in another the travelers run into a funeral taking place in the middle of the road.

Maybe the best film was Capote. It seemed before like just one of those biography films where it's carried entirely by the lead actor and everything else is sort of at the behest of just that, like Ray (a good film but nothing without the performance of Jamie Foxx). Capote is carried by Hoffman as Truman Capote, but the entire film is amazing, from the cinematography to the supporting cast. It can be hard for a biopic to move beyond just telling events to getting to the heart of the character, and even moving deeper than that to why it's so important of a story. Themes in biopics can be very shallow and sometimes unclear. Sometimes that's because they try to cover too much and that gets lost in the scope of a person's life and sometimes it's because looking at just one person's life isn't always as valuable as important events or fictional stories that become better metaphors than true life accounts. What happens with Truman Capote is almost symbolic of a society losing it's soul and heart with the type of violence and disregard for life being seen in America through that time period. The lack of color through the film really shows this dismal outlook. This film was interesting in so many ways, it was engaging and one of the best biopics ever made.

Frozen was pretty good too. The hype is mostly justified. Because of the kids, we ended up watching this film 3 times over that weekend, and many parts of it since. It reminds me of when we got Aladdin on VHS when that came out. We watched it every day for a week and it didn't get old. Frozen is just that classic Disney film that is so easy to watch and so easy to get stuck in your head. And there's nothing wrong with the film at all; it's a simple, easy story that doesn't offend (unless you have some weird anti-gay agenda that some blog is supposing). As well, it's actually interesting how the film turns normal fairy tale tropes on its head in a very "wink and nod" sort of way. "You got engaged to someone you just met?!?" "But it's true love!" 

Here's the total list of films, with the reason for seeing them

1. Jan 1 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - comparison to the original

2. Jan 2 - The Wolf of Wall Street - awards considerations

3. Jan 3 - The Philadelphia Story - AFI Top 100 list

4. Jan 4 - Maria Full of Grace - from the year 2004

5. Jan 6 - Butterfly Effect - from the year 2004

6. Jan 8 - American Hustle - awards contender

7. Jan 8 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - I own the DVD 

8. Jan 9 - The Wolverine - just for fun

9. Jan 10 - Rise of the Guardians - on the dvr 

10. Jan 11 - Howl's Moving Castle - from 2004

11. Jan 13 - The Ladykillers - from 2004

12. Jan 14 - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - previous award considerations

13. Jan 14 - Fruitvale Station - awards considerations

14. Jan 16 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - from list of Hemingway films

15. Jan 16 - Justice League: Doom - just for funs

16. Jan 17 - Short Term 12 - awards consideration

17. Jan 20 - American Psycho - comparision to Wolf of Wall Street

18. Jan 20 - The Sea Inside - from 2004 (Best Foriegn Language film)

19. Jan 21 - Life is Beautiful - blaring hole for not having seen it

20. Jan 22 - The Butler - award's consideration

21. Jan 23 - Chronicles of Riddick - from 2004

22. Jan 24 - When Worlds Collide - sci-fi cultural comparision to Invasion of the Body Snatchers
23. Jan 24 - Mitt - I don't know

24. Jan 26 - The Color of Money - Scorcese film I haven't seen

25. Jan 27 - Journey to the Center of the Earth - comparison to other 1950s sci fi

26. Jan 29 - Captain Phillips - awards contender

27. Jan 29 - Resident Evil - glaring hole in pop culture reference

28. Jan 30 - Her - awards contender

29. Jan 31 - Monkey Business - a Howard Hawks film

30. Jan 31 - Blue Jasmine - awards contender

31. Feb 1 - Monsters University - own the DVD, with kids
32. Feb 3 - Don Jon - awards contender

33. Feb 5 - The Manchurian Candidate - from 2004

34. Feb 9 - Being Julia - from 2004

35. Feb 12 - From Here to Eternity - classic film on AFI list

36. Feb 12 - 48 Hours - to study the sequel Another 48 Hours

37. Feb 14 - Closer - from 2004

38. Feb 14 - Admission - for Valentine's Day!

39. Feb 15 - Gravity - awards consideration

40. Feb 17 - Dogville - from 2004

41. Feb 19 - Kung Fu Hustle - from 2004

42. Feb 20 - His Girl Friday - for feminist film theory

43. Feb 20 - Vera Drake - from 2004

44. Feb 21 - The Spectacular Now - awards contender

45. Feb 22 - Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters - pop culture reference 

46. Feb 23 - Das Boot - unseen classic, and DVD was on the shelf

47. Feb 26 - Ender's Game - pop culture and awards contender

48. Feb 26 - The Lady Eve - feminist study

49. Feb 27 - Spirited Away - huge pop culture gap

50. Feb 28 - All the President's Men - on AFI list, unseen classic

51. Mar 5 - Rush - awards contender

52. Mar 7 - Dallas Buyers Club - awards contender

53. Mar 7 - The Bling Ring - pop culture

54. Mar 8 - I Don't Know How She Does It - with Betsy 

55. Mar 9 - Sanjuro - unseen Kurosawa film, and I own it

56. Mar 11 - Play it Again, Sam - unseen Woody Allen film

57. Mar 11 - Inside Llewyn Davis - awards contender

58. Mar 13 - Monuments Men - for class

59. Mar 14 - She done Him wrong - classic film, feminist study

60. Mar 14 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence - unseen classic

61. Mar 15 - An American Werewolf in London - with Boopie

62. Mar 16 - Girl Most Likely - I love Kristen Wiig

63. Mar 17 - The Exorcist - unseen classic

64. Mar 18 - Yesterday - from 2004, nominated for Best Foreign Oscar

65. Mar 19 - Man With a Movie Camera - unseen classic

66. Mar 19 - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - awards contender

67. Mar 21 - White Zombie - unseen classic

68. Mar 21 - Baby Boom - feminist study

69. Mar 22 - Frozen - with the boys

70. Mar 23 - Monsters - interesting concept

71. Mar 24 - Born into Brothels - from 2004

72. Mar 24 - Oz the Great and Powerful - pop culture

73. Mar 26 - The Seven Year Itch - unseen classic, feminist study

74. Mar 27 - Jules et Jim - unseen classic

75. Mar 28 - Red Dawn - pop culture

76. Mar 29 - Capote - past awards contender, relates to book on Cold War culture 

77. Mar 30 - Written on the Wind - Douglas Sirk film, feminist study

78. Mar 31 - Paranoia - a student's research paper

Finally My Best/Favorites of 2012 or Am I a Hater or Lover of Film 2012 Edition

Because I don't get to the movie theater as often as I like, I must rely on Netflix more than I like to watch the new great films. Which means the previous years awards winners aren't viewed until....May.

There's still a few outstanding on the list, but I feel confident that I can pick my favs and best films of the year from what I have seen.

10. The Grey - Bringing up the rear is a big surprise film that I didn't know how I would like it. But its simplicity of story and the amazing awesomeness of Liam Niesen draws you in. He's as captivating as in any other film he's ever been in. That's sort of all you need to know. The plot is rather simple, but that's something modern movies sort of pass over too much these days.

And Liam Niesen is fighting wolves.





9. The Avengers - Speaking of over-blown, plot heavy Hollywood monstrosities. It took 5 films just to set up the story of this movie. At times it seemed a little too complicated for it's own good (they spent an awful lot of time at SHIELD), but the characters were so well done. Joss Whedon should been rewarded simply for that. The arch of the team is so well managed. It wasn't the greatest film but it was really, really fun.

8. Zero Dark Thirty - And speaking of really fun movies. There's nothing like watching a 3 hour film about a decade long chase for a man hiding out in a compound being chased by people staring at computers and torturing people. But in all seriousness...I think it was fantastically well done. It is NOT The Hurt Locker by any means.....but that's the point. This film shows how modern warfare is really done...with satelites and phone hacking. I love The Hurt Locker, I think it is also a tremendous film, but this film Here's my mini review from a Facebook comment:

"The most amazing thing about the film is how reserved the movie is. From the character development to the pacing. I said after it was over to Betsy, I loved the music. She asked "why, it didn't stand out." I said, "Exactly." It was the music in the Bond film where it's slowly building while Bond is working and really doing his job well. The music, like the film, is not the grand climax. It's the slow, drawn out, paced endurance that is at the heart of the film. It might even be the theme of the film: We didn't catch bin Laden in the explosive invasion of Afghanistan, we caught him by putting our heads down and going to work. President Obama said something like we aren't going to "spike the football" afterward. American cinema is always going to be great at spiking the football. Our action films pretty much define America as football spikers, and when we go to the theatre, we want to be shown that. It was just nice that the film about our greatest post 9-11 triumph didn't spike the football. It just put it's head down and methodically went to work. (Maybe it was a little long, though.)"

7. Argo - Speaking of spiking the football! Well....spiking it 30 years later in a semi-fictionalized form. I wish this film had kept more to the facts, though, it would have made it feel more authentic. Seriously, maybe it's just my trivia hungry, history checking mind, but I kept thinking during the film, "Did it really happen like that?" I knew for sure, there was no way, the Iranians were driving down the runway at the end chasing the plane as it was taking off...it just seemed too film-climaxy to be true. And sure enough, that and a lot of other stuff was not true. But...it's based on real events, it's not real events. So just looking at the film, it was great. But is this better than Zero Dark Thirty...or why do I like it better? I'm just like everyone else...Argo was just more entertaining. It was fun to watch Americans stick it to the Iranians with the use of ingenuity and wit to outsmart them. More fun usually wins out.

6. The Hunger Games - And speaking of more fun. A fun game where youths are forced to kill each other in an arena. I honestly just like this film because I read the book. Or rather, I listened to it on a long car ride. It isn't perfect. I don't like some of the details of the world the book and film created. At times it seems rather far fetched. But that being said, I also think there are some really great things about the world that was created. Especially the visuals...District 12 was extremely well done...and the capitol is outrageous. All in all...not the most unique premise...but as an amalgamation of great sci-fi tropes and set-ups, it does pretty well with what it has.


5. Safety Not Guaranteed - And speaking of a film doing the best with what it has. This is the low-budget time travel movie that you didn't really expect to have any time travel in it. This was like the Hipster Time Travel film. It has the awkward girl from Parks and Recreations and the loud mouth from New Girl and together they balance out quite well. There actually isn't much to say about this. It was just so damn charming....and it sort of snuck up on you like that. Next thing you knew you were rooting for the awkward girl and the weirdo and it was over. And it was so cute.

4. The Raid: Redemption - Moving onto a film that is the opposite of cute. I don't usually get into Asian cinema, but for some reason this one reached out to me and said "Rent me." So I did. And I loved it. The big reason is the premise. A SWAT team is taking out a drug lord who controls a tall building. Floor by floor they make their way up taking on swarms of bad guys. I love situations like this...for one, it takes place all in one location and secondly, I just love the idea of people going through a building and taking out a whole gang. Sort of like Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis. There's a lot of shooting in that film and a lot of busting into rooms and shooting people. And there is a lot of shooting in this film. And some really good fighting. It takes a while for the emotional plot to get going, but that's actually a positive. The emotional arc never feels forced, it isn't cheesey or out of place. There was a perfect balance between awesome action films and actual dramatic story progression. Some might say it's the best action movie in decades.

3. Moonrise Kingdom - At this point it gets tricky. I love Wes Anderson. I love all his films and he might be my favorite director. And I absolutely loved this film. It's almost too Wes Anderson perfect though. Maybe in years to come this will be the film I return to from 2012. In fact, I know that will be the case. But the films ahead of this one are there for two separate reasons.

2. Silver Linings Playbook - I loved this film too. A lot. It was hilarious. And engaging. And it had Robert De Niro being amazing. This sort of took the mantle from Little Miss Sunshine and all the Oscar worthy dramedies that have come out in the past decade and it went one step further. The characters had more depth. The situations had more comedy and the story was so much more engaging. It was just a dramedy about a family in one weird situation after another...it was a family with meaningful characters stuck in a not so weird situation that somehow seemed kind of weird. Honestly, at any moment the film could have de-railed and gone wrong. But it never does. It sort of beautifully is one long de-rail that makes you realize in the end it was on the rail the whole time, the rail was just cockamamie. Silver Linings Playbook was a beautiful cockamamie masterpiece.

1. Wreck It Ralph - Yes! Hardly ever do I feel like watching a movie twice in a row. I didn't with this movie, but I felt like it! I won't spoil the film by overly discussing it. But it was freaking awesome. And finally John C. Reilly....finally the role he was born to play. He always seems sort of off in whatever role he's in, like somehow he took the mantle from Keanu Reeves in awkward acting style. He was the father in We Need to Talk About Kevin....and he did not belong there. He hardly ever belongs. But he did in this film! So good...and Sarah Silverman....amazing! I love Cinema!!!!!



Honorable Mentions:
The Hobbit (Great film, but a little long)
Lincoln (Great film, but too much talking)
Django Unchained (Great film, but way too much N-word)
The Dark Knight Rises (Good film, but way too little Joker)
Dredd (Good action film, but way too much copying of plot of The Raid: Redemption)
Prometheus (Great sci-fi film, but way too many plot holes)
Hitchcock (Best bio-pic of the year. But I don't like bio-pics)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Bad film, but has what Lincoln was missing)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (decent film, but really captured what high school was like in the 90's)

Kung Fu Panda 2 and the Modern Sequel

It's an unavoidable fact: Hollywood makes sequels. They even make sequels to sequels. Those are called "threequels." And as everything Hollywood does, there's a pattern to how they're structured, sometimes good and sometimes awful. And just like with most movies, there's usually a pattern to the whole process, and the more and more franchises Hollywood makes, the more they're exploited and the easier they are to notice. The modern day sequel has been even more patterned with the advent of the trilogy. Now, three movies can follow that pattern. The first film of a franchise is usually pretty standard, whether it's The Godfather or Green Lantern. But just as the first film is usually patterned(and noticed for it's pattern after the sequel comes out), the sequel is just as patterned as the first film.
I can pinpoint the birth of the modern day sequel to The Godfather Part II. It was the first major film to recognize in title that it was a sequel. Before this, Hollywood shied away from calling a sequel a sequel and giving it a numerical designation. The Godfather revitalized the film industry, making more money than a film had made in a long time. A sequel today would be a no-brainer, but back then it was sort of a risky idea. But with the success of the first film, Paramount felt like it was a good idea to directly associate the second film with it. 
Soon there were other sequels and franchises popping up in the 70's and early 80's; French Connection II, Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones...Hollywood now wasn't just making sequels they were making franchises; film empires that could sustain themselves through not only film revenue but through other media and merchandise. 
Enough film history. Let's look at the patterns that started way back then and are still being used today in sequels. First off, it should be noted that trilogies could be looked at as one long three part movie. With the first being Act One, the second being Act Two and the third being Act Three. The first act sets up the hero, sets up the world and the major problem, and ignites the hero on a wider adventure. The second act is the big ordeal the hero goes through, perhaps it is the hero's darkest hour or an unmasking where he learns who he really is and who his enemy really is. The third act sets up the final conflict and resolves the turmoil.
In franchises, the first film is usually some sort of origin, especially in super hero films. The hero comes to terms with who he is and begins his quest in the "New World." First films vary widely, usually following the same basic story structure, but the big difference is that at this point its not always knowable if the film will turn into a franchise.
Third films vary even more, but that can be attributed to other non-story elements. There's either years between films, a change in the writer or director or there's such a problem with tying everything together it gets too bogged down in the details. Examples include The Godfather Part III where it was almost twenty years between films, or X-Men 3 where there was a new director involved.
Now onto what's often described as the best film in the trilogy: "the second one."

The biggest and easiest trait to see in the sequel is the "our house is under invasion" or "they've gotten into our system" or in the case of the new G.I. Joe sequel the "they've destroyed our whole freaking team!." This provides the basic framework for the sequel, but each film does it in a different way, some more subtle like The Dark Knight, and some way too obvious like G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Here's some of the better examples. In the first Godfather film we see the rise of Michael Corleone into the role of the new Godfather. It's basically his origin story set at the end of his father's reign as the Godfather. By the end of the film Michael has not only attained that status, but also set himself up as the definitive power in organized crime. It appears as if no one could take him down. In the second film, as the first there are a few plots going on, and there's two that directly play into the sequel theme. One plays into the notion from the first film, Michael is so powerful he could not be brought down, except a power outside the realm of organized crime: the government. Michael and the family is under attack from a Congressional committee looking into his crime family. It looks as if he's going to be taken down by this bigger power, especially since the star witness is a member of the crime organization. Michael outwits the Feds by bringing the witness' brother from Italy in a statement that his brother would be in danger if he testified. 
The other plot is that there is a mole somewhere in the organization that allowed an assassin access to the family compound. Literally, a sniper is within the family gates shooting into Michael's house, and the mole is the relative closest to him; his brother. His house is literally under attack. Oh and one of the other plots...Michael's wife had an abortion and she's leaving him.

Here's a few more examples. X-Men 2 is about the government finding out about Professor X's secret school for mutants. They infiltrate the school, taking some of the student mutants and scattering the team.

One of the most classic sequels: Empire Strikes Back literally starts with the rebels base being invaded, scattering the rebels and our heroes. Toy Story 2 involves a plot to split up the heroes, changing their world, they're being invaded by the toy store owner. Back to the Future 2 involves Marty saving his own family from being ruined.

One other often used trait of the sequel is the internalization of conflict. In most of the films above there is also some internal conflict the hero struggles with concerning his new place(i.e. new powers, new station, new setting.)

In X-Men 2, that great internal struggle is placed on the shoulders of Wolverine, who basically carries the entire franchise anyway. In the sequel, Wolverine is struggling with his identity and who he really is. Through the plot of the film, he ends up discovering his dark past and what he was "supposed to be." But he rejects that and becomes a hero instead.
In Empire Strikes Back, we delve deeper into the feelings and emotions of the characters we came to know in the first film. Luke Skywalker goes on a journey to find Yoda and learn the ways of the force. Literally, he has to find the power within himself in the form of the force. As well, Han Solo and Princess Leia are internally discovering their real feelings, as they fight against the walls they've built up. And even as they finally build their relationship, a metaphor for unity, Darth Vadar and the Empire tear it down. Again, back to the idea that "our base is under attack."
In Back to the Future 2, Marty McFly no longer is trying to save his family's past, he's now saving their future in the opening segment of the movie. He comes literally face to face with himself(actually his son) and as the arch of his three film story goes, he begins to look internally at what his own demons are. Those demons and his internal conflicts, as is the case with most trilogies, don't get totally resolved until the third film, but it's the sequel where the hero begins looking internally at them.
Hollywood has gotten really good at making sequels. So good that they usually can hide the pattern when done well. And perhaps when not done so well the sequel doesn't turn out "as good as the first one." Iron Man 2 is a good example of a poorly structured sequel. At first it seemed to profess the traits of a good franchise sequel, Tony Stark was supposed to feel more of the weight of being a hero, there was a government investigation that was trying to take him down, and there was supposed to be a plot inspired by the comic book storyline of Tony's alcoholism being his real demon. But none of those storylines authentically stuck. The film got bogged down in the actual villain, Whiplash. The Whiplash story bookends the film, rather than a storyline dealing with something internal to Tony. The other villain is also an extremely external villain, Justin Hammer, is trying to destroy Iron Man from the outside. (It appears from the trailers that Iron Man 3 is taking on the persona of a usual sequel: Tony's house is literally destroyed, the villains are trying to make Tony weak, and there is a great amount of emphasis placed on Tony's personal struggles rather than struggles as the superhero Iron Man.)

The film I'd like to explore, and that brought this whole thesis to a head is Kung Fu Panda 2. I was extremely surprised by how well done this film was. It is not a perfect film, by the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, and the pattern DreamWorks has drawn upon and the way they crafted it into this story is remarkable.
The film opens with a trope often employed in sequels, the reveal of the villain. This doesn't always work, Iron Man 2 uses it, but in this case it works quite well. It tells the tale of Lord Shen and how he came to be, which also leads to how Po came to his circumstance. Their stories become so intricate that for the film you almost can't tell one without the other. Po became the Dragon Warrior because of Shen, and Shen became a villain because of his fear of who Po would become. Even with the villain, it's internal.
The film then movies on with what seems like an average adventure for the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five; they rescue or attempt to rescue and subdue bandits raiding the Musician's Village. Of course, that ties in with the larger plot, and isn't just any adventure. This is where the movie could have turned into something for the straight to video bin. Their adventure is seen as ordinary. That may work for an episode of the Kung Fu Panda TV series, but for a movie it has to be epic and life or death.
But what the film does well is tie together Po's opening, learning the internal secrets of Kung Fu, and infuses that into every aspect of the plot and theme. In the first film, Kung Fu and Po becoming the Dragon Warrior was about becoming an external fighter. Po, the panda, was the only creature that could defeat Tai Lung, a tiger. Po defeats him externally, and Po is able to get to that point by learning to take his inner strength and make it external.
In the sequel, Po must take his external strength and internalize it. He slowly gets there on his journey of self discovery. That first reveals itself in the opening battle when Po has the flashback. It again happens when Po winds up where he was born and lived as a child. It's here, discovering his roots, that he first begins to internalize Kung Fu. In the final conflict, Po has internalized his power so much, that he's able to internalize any external force, including the great power that Shen has controlled; his canons.
It's interesting also to note the other part of the plot. Not only is Po fighting to save Kung Fu for himself, he's fighting to save all of Kung Fu. Kung Fu is LITERALLY under attack. Literally. That's greater than any base, or organization, he's saving an entire philosophy and way of life. A way of life that is actually internal. The Kung Fu Panda franchise was set up for this story and this setup. It would have been so easy to make another adventure. But the filmmakers finely crafted the story to provide just what the whole arc needed. Hollywood may know how to exploit things. But along the way that means they can make really good sequels.

Am I a Hater or a Lover?....of film. Part 1

Because I have been recently accused of being a hater, rather than a lover of film, mostly because my Top 10 List for 2011 consists of four films, I've decided to go back and make my Top 10 Films of the Year list for the past decade.

BTW, here's my Top 10 Films for 2011, I added X-Men: First Class just to try to get to five.

1. Drive

2. Melancholia

3. Bridesmaids

4. Super 8

5. X-Men: First Class

And just to be fair, here's some honorable mentions: Tree of Life, Captain America, Rango, Thor, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (I could have made a full list with these, but these last films I just didn't feel like I could list on my "favs" list.

2010

Now while this year was a huge disappointment for blockbusters and Summer films, it was exceptional when it came to dramas and technical pieces. But despite that, Youth in Revolt was by far my favorite film of this year, while Winter's Bone was my favorite for the dramatic and higher brow films and A Prophet was my favorite foreign film.

1. Youth in Revolt

2. Winter's Bone

3. A Prophet

4. King's Speech

5. The Social Network

6. Black Swan

7. Inception

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

9. Despicable Me

10. Tron: Legacy

2009

Again, a clear favorite at the top, but Moon is definitely one of my favorite films of the last few years.

1. Fantastic Mr Fox

2. Moon

3. Zombieland

4. The Road

5. The Hurt Locker

6. A Serious Man

7. Away We Go

8 500 Days of Summer

9. District 9

10.  Inglourious Basterds

Honorable Mention: An Education, Taken, Where the Wild Things Are

2008

Besides these five films I just could not find another film I would consider a favorite. I was a hater this year apparently.

1. The Dark Knight

2. Kung Fu Panda

3. Iron Man

4. Wall-E

5. Doubt

2007

Barely got to 10 on this year. I didn't see Zodiac until this last year and I found it an utterly amazing film. No Country For Old Men still holds a special place in my heart for the film that caused two nightmares where Javier Bardem tried to kill me.

1. Zodiac

2. No Country for Old Men

3. Hot Fuzz

4. Ratatouille

5. Transformers

6. Across the Universe

7. The Darjeeling Limited

8. Juno

9. Live Free of Die Hard

10. Sicko

2006

This is a year that I can look back and re-assess what my favorite films are. I hated Children of Men at first, but now I love it. I didn't see Nacho Libre till way later and now....I am in love with it.

1. Nacho Libre

2. The Departed

3. Children of Men

4. Borat

5. The Pursuit of Happyness

6. Little Miss Sunshine

7. The Prestige

8. The Devil Wears Prada

9. Marie Antoinette

10. United 93

Honorable Mention: V For Vendetta, Accepted

2005

Another hater year. Not much to "fav" during the year, except we saw the best of the Star Wars prequels and the beginning of the new Batman franchise.

1. The New World

2. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

3. Batman Begins

4. Wedding Crashers

5. Serenity

6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

7. Madagascar

8. Munich

9. Hitch

10. Walk the Line

Gimrack: An All-Inclusive History of Cinema from the Dawn of Man to the End of Time

As a deep believer in story, it's hard sometimes to appreciate when a film can become true art without being confined to the rigors and structures normally associated with narrative films. There is a very definite structure to film stories, we know it going into the theatre, while we're watching a film and afterward when we wipe our brow and smile that the hero made it out alright, not knowing if he would or not. The same basic story is being told again and again, and yet movies can tell such fresh stories. Rarely has a film ever come out where this structure is completely absent. And usually when a film deviates from the story structure mastered by screenwriters for a century, it's a disaster.

Here's a quick rundown of basic film story structure. A catalyst happens which changes the "normal world" the hero inhabits. The hero accepts or is thrown into the call of adventure, going into a "special world" where he is in over his head, up against a villain or challenge that seems impossible. Midway through the film he faces an ordeal, one in which his "mask" and sometimes the "mask" of the villain is revealed and it's an ordeal that pushes him further away from the "normal world." (An example of a mid-point sequence is in Sixth Sense when the kid says he sees dead people. The kid reveals himself, and Bruce Willis takes his mask off afterward saying he thinks the kid is crazy and he can't help him.) The hero is then plunged into greater and worse obstacles until he faces off in a climax. If he wins, the film is resolved, if he loses it is a tragedy and we are to learn from his mistakes.

Films fit into the structure almost every time. Sometimes they compress years, months or weeks down into two hours, just showing the important scenes and events that help us follow the story structure. Sometimes the film is over a day or weekend, and the plot points are very sequential. As close as films get to being art, they're still confined by the basic idea that the overall story structure is broken down into arcs, sequences, scenes and dialogue. To paint a painting you have to have paint and a surface. So it is assumed, to make a film you have to have these things to tell your story. But every once in a while a film comes along that transcends this.

The Tree of Life is Terrence Malick's latest film. It's an experimental film and an art film. I don't throw those titles around lightly. I hate experimental and art films. I like story and structure. I like when films have structure, it makes them better. I hate films that feel like they can do what they want with no regard to story, because they usually fail. But I believe that at it's greatest, a movie can be cinema, and cinema is art. Cinema is art where filmmaking is the medium. It can combine different elements of other art forms to form something more alive and real than any other art form, but still it's something you could never touch, as you could a statue. The art is in the image and in the spaces between the images. Just as a novel can have magnificent sentences and an intriguing story, but the art is found between the sentences. 

In normal films we feel the art in one shot to the next and one scene to the next. Sometimes films barely become like great literature, with interesting characters and a unique plot. But then they can go above that and reach what is actually art; something deeper than a creation that is something else. The "something else" is actually something else, something symbolic.
At times Tree of Life just seems so much like an art film that knows it's an art film and just is randomly showing you images and breaking the norms, and it's at these times when the audience is the most distant from the film. There's a reason films have structure, structure involves characters and growth and that's what ties us emotionally to the film. But then what else is film, but a dream. Dreams cut together images and actions seamlessly without room for nothing. Think to your dreams, they're never about nothing. Something is always happening and when they blend together, like "somehow it turned into a snowstorm but we were still at the mall shopping for the thing..." Dream merge together, there's no space between for when you would potentially travel from one part to another. Your mind is editing the boring stuff out, just as a film does. And then when you walk up, what do you remember the most usually? It's the feelings. The raw feelings and emotions. Sometimes they're odd, like being so scared of something, it's so dreadful. Again, like a film, it's how we feel during and after the movie that counts. Tree of Life plays like a dream, going from one thing to the next. It's also how memory works, we don't always remember things in exact order with every detail. We just remember how it felt and what the interesting stuff was.
And that's what makes the film so interesting! It's playing like what the core and heart of what film is....a dream. Like memories, it's just the important stuff and it's aim to get right to the raw feelings. The film primarily is just what Sean Penn remembers and feels from his childhood. The scenes are little glimpses and snapshots, edited together to show what he remembers, and ultimately what he learned from his parents at that age; grace and nature. The film strips every other wasted piece of flesh from cinema, that we're left with the bare bare, nakedly on display to show the audience what the real core of filmmaking is. We're so inclined to watching films heavily clothed in lots of special effects and action told in sequential order, that's what usually makes films beautiful. This film bares it all though, warts and fat. It's tough to watch,  but it's usually tough to look at something totally naked.