Recap

Everybody love statistics right!?

Anyway, a recap of my top 20:

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. The Prestige
3. Léon (The Professional)
4. Fight Club
5. Full Metal Jacket
6. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
7. Batoru rowaiaru (Battle Royale)
8. The Matrix
9. The Truman Show
10. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

11. Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie)
12. The Fox and the Hound
13. SLC Punk!
14. The Nightmare Before Christmas
15. About Schmidt
16. The Big Lebowski
17. Toy Story
18. American Beauty
19.Groundhog Day
20. Catch Me If You Can


The average year for my top 20 films is: 1996.5
Not a lot of older movie there. But I believe we shouldn't hold on to the classics in the way that people do. Like Citizen Kane: Yes, it may have been revolutionary in technique and the changed the way movies are made, but that doesn't mean it holds up to today standards; technology has advanced since then. I can appreciate it, but it isn't that enjoyable to watch and does not belong on my favorite list.

Also, my taste isn't really that bad. Taking the average of their ratings on IMDB and RT we get:
8.115 and 85.9%

And since we all like statistics, I also took an adjusted average or w.e. It's like they do in figure skating, where they discount to the highest and lowest score, so it's more average I guess. Well instead of 6 judges I have 20 movies, so I removed the top  and bottom 3 and got: 8.18 and 87.1%
The consensus is in: I have a good taste in movies.

And finally, I would like to shout out to other movies that got a 10 from me (there is 59 movies with that rating at the moment)

I have a couple Estonian movies. I may be a bit lenient in giving them 10s, but nonetheless, they are great:
29. Viimne reliikvia (The Last Relic) (1971)
37. Kohtumine tundmatuga (2005)
42. Sügisball (Autumn Ball) (2007)
56. Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse (186 Kilometers) (2007)

Also some movies that aren't considered so great that I love:

30. Underworld (2003)- I think I've mentioned this movie enough as to why it is so awesome
(31% on RT)

35. Dumb and Dumber (1994)- I don't understand why this movie was critically disliked; it is hilarious. It does have some dumb humor, but so many great quotable lines:

Oh, and also Jim Carrey.
(63% on RT, which isn;t tii bad, but this movie deserves so much more)

50. Cheats (2002)- A low budget high school comedy that is wonderful. It is pretty unknown. The leads haven't accomplished much after, though I have noticed them in one or two other great movies. It doesn't have a rating on RT though it does have only 4 reviews all rotten. And only has 5.9 on IMDB.

57. Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009)- Just as the title explains, this is a movie that defines the genre "so bad it's good". Not a big fan of that genre, but this movie is hilarious. The over acting, the cheesey special effects, the ludicrous plot and inconsistencies, and this:
(RT: 16%)

SO there. That's done with.

Oh, before I forget

So Jim Carrey is the king of comedy. He hasn't done too much great comedy since Yes Man which was three years ago...also not his greatest work. However, he proved that he's still got it on SNL some weeks ago:

And there was the Black Swan parody, but I prefer the last one. The Black Swan one is a better showcase of Carrey, but this sketch is funnier overall. Plus his (and the others') face is sooo hilarious, plus the robotic motions are spot on.

But, as I probably previously mentioned, Jim Carrey is actually a great drama actor, as proved as well as my favorite movie of all time

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)-

Jim Carrey plays Joel Barish, who finds out his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet) has gotten him erased from her memory, so he decides he might as well do the same to her. Then we take a journey, where Joel travels through his subconscious on a backwards sorta timeline. It also features a "present" reality timeline with Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood. (Fun fact: It seems, to me at least, that Mark Ruffalo became popular after this film. It was after this that he started being in more mainstream movies: Collateral, Zodiac (eventually The Kids Are All Right and Shutter Island) though he was in a bunch of stuff before)
So the plot is somewhat complex. If you don't pay attention at the beginning you can get a bit lost. It's not a dream within a dream within a dream type of deal, but it still has the subconscious involved. It has some warping things going on (visuals, special effects n junk)

It is a romance movie with comedic elements (not a romantic comedy; the drama dominates). This movie asks the age old qestion: is it  better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all? It also provides a sorta answer at the end.

Jim Carrey is great
He goes from this

to this

This movie really does fill out the entire range.

throughout the film. Of course Kate Winslet is also fantastic and was even nominated for an Oscar.


Why is it my favorite? Features one of my favorite actors, is a beautiful love story with a unique of presenting the plot (via sci-fi-ish elements), has parallel stories, and also has some comedy. *The funniest line/moment  actually doesn't belong to Carrey, rather a very minor character, though Carrey does have a very funny scene later in the movie, but I don't want to spoil theses two scenes. ESotSM also has some great lines like
"Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating. Plus the ending....well sort of ending. It is actually 20 min before the end. Anyway, there is one scene which I think is the most beautifully sad thing in cinema ever.
Also, it takes place in the greatest place on Earth: New Jersey. w00t!

And for those of you wondering about where the title comes from:

IMDB: 8.5
RT: 93%

Spongebob!

So here is the promised new weekly segment.
It is to honor one of the greatest shows ever made:
Spongebob Squarepants
For those of you who don't know him........You had no childhood.

I'll go through an episode week by week (clarification: a 30 min show consist of two episodes technically, so I'll to two per week I guess), showing clips n stuff. And at the end of the season I'll have compilations n stuff. Hopefully this will be enjoyable.

Season 1:
Episode 1a: Help Wanted
The series starts off strong. Introduced to Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs. Spongebob goes to get a job at the Krusty Krab. However, the best line in the movie is uttered by an unusual source, his stingy boss. This is one of his few non-money related lines:

Upon watching these older episodes again, I have gotten an appreciation for Squidwards humor. Before I didn't really like him. He isn't my favorite character all of a sudden, but he went up the ranks. I mean with lines like these:

Has a solid story for a pilot episode.

Episode 2b: Reef Blower
Series started off strong, but then there is episode. There are literally no lines. It is just Spongebob trying to clear his front yard with a reef blower (like a leaf blower, but underwater). Some gags are great, but you can only go so far without dialogue.

Episode 2c Tea at the Treedome:

Introduction of Sandy and her dome full of air. Another decent episode, but not one with some great gags to highlight. Though I love this bit of voice acting, and it shows Spongebob's ability for sarcasm:

Ahhhhhhhh, Spongebob! you can have 3 consequtive ass jokes, followed by slapstick, but then you also have such great random humor and word play.

Pokemon of the Week #2

I sincerely apologize, because somehow my picture collection has almost disappeared. I still got a few. I'll eventually go back and update this post when I get new ones. And this segment will have to wait a while probably, as I try to obtain new pics.

So technically I picked Turtwig....it's a better pick than Skarmory, but still not exciting. So I realize that this isn't going to work: I'm not going to get the likes of Dunsparce and Quagsire every week. So I'll do this more systematically. Starting with, appropriately, the starters.

So this week we have the first 9 pokemon in the pokedex.

When I played Red version, I picked Squirtle, because that's the best choice of course. Many people will probably say that Charizard > Blastoise, but that's false. (Well, technically one on one, Blastoise wins beacause water>fire, but Blastoise wins just because he is awesome)

Also, the 2nd form for Squirtle is WARtortle. All Charmander gets is Charmeleon.

Shiny wise, Charizard is cooler. He is black, I call it Charkoal (hahahaha, I'm hilarious), Blastoise just turns pinkish. Definitly not as cool.

I would insert epic concept art of both pokemon, but alas, my collection is gone *sad face

I guess competative battling wise, Charizard is better- he has better attack and a more diverse moveset, while Blastoise has to settle with being an underused "bulky" water pokemon (has a lot of health and decent defense) so instead of using his massive cannons, you just stall with toxic.

So all this talk about Charmander -> Charizard and Squirtle ->Blastoise , one may ask, what about Bulbasaur?
I think this picture sums it up:

No one likes Bulbasaur.

I'm also going to start another new segment, which I'll try to do regularly on Thursdays. Be ready!

Golden globes....more like golden Oh-Noe!-...bs

So getting into movies more in the last year, I decided to watch...most of... the Golden Globes, a pretty major award.

And I was disappoint!

So I'm just going to rant

Firstly, the most obvious thing. They still have all the comedy categories combined with musicals. Therefore Burlesque was nominated, which was a bad movie. Also, apparently the atrocity known as The Tourist was a comedy, as it was nominated for best comedy.

I haven't actually seen a lot of things nominated. I actually have only seen, out of the nominated films: Black Swan, Toy Story 3, Inception, Alice in Wonderland, Easy A....so ya. But I am relatively well informed of what is good and what is bad.

Why Easy A, Scott Pilgrim or Kick-Ass weren't nominated instead is beyond me. Even the animated movies could have been nominated for best comedy (Toy Story 2 won a while back).

Fuck The Social Network. I refuse to believe that it is that good, that it deserves best director, best screenplay, best score, and best film (drama).

Also, where were Leo DiCaprio's nominations?! He wasn't maybe best actor worthy for Inception, since he didn't really do all that much in that one, but for Shutter Island. He was amazing in that one!

Also, perhaps Jim Carrey for I Love You, Phillip Morris..... not a very wildly known movie, but it was great, as was Jim (sort of like Catch Me If You Can)


That's the main issue with the film portion.


Also, TV shows get awards too. I have to ask....

Glee for best comedy/musical?!!?!?!? WTF!?!?!?! This season of Glee has been trrble. Last season was fine, but this one is boring. Also, too many themed episodes about gay bullying. Not that I am not against bullying, but it is sooooo overblown in the show. It's not funny! It managed to somehow beat 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, and Modern Family.

Jane Lynch winning for best supporting actress in comedy(/musical) TV show is good, since is one of the funniest ones in the show. But Chris Coffer (the gay one in Glee) for best supporting actor, really?! He is one of the most boring characters in the show. All he does is be gay, and cry. I don't know who should have one in that category, but I definitely would have chosen Eric Stonestreet (from Modern Family) over him, because he is hilarious.

But it wasn't all bad.

Natalie Portman for best actress
Colin Firth for best Actor

The guy who plays Sheldon won best actor in TV series (comedy/musical). I was like O RLY!!?! That was cool, especially since his co-star was presenting the award, and went insane with joy when he won.

Also, forever fantastic Steve Buscemi won for best actor in a TV drama (for Boardwalk Empire). I have never seen that show, but it's Steve Buscemi. Who else are you going to give it too? Christopher Walken wasn't nominated, so it has to go to him.

Also, DeNiro got a a lifetime achievement award or sth, and they showed a slideshow of his works. Noticed some pretty interesting movies that I hadn't even heard of, so I might be checking those out....

Pokémon of the Week #1

So, with inspiration from a friend, and in the honor of the new Pokémon games (Black and White versions) being released this year, I am starting a weekly segment. I'll try to do this every Monday. We'll see if I can be consistent. 

If you think this segment is dumb and doesn't interest you, then you can just go hang yourself, because Pokémon is awesome.

I'll be using a random number generator to determine the pokémon. To save time, I won't take each one individually, say a separate post for Kadabra, but rather all associated evolutions/pre-evolutions Abra and Alakazam as well..... 

I'll just express my opinion on the pokémon- competitive battle viability, coolness, shiny-ness, etc and show off funny and cool pictures of the chosen one(s). Warning, some pokémon I don't care aboot at all...say Luvdisc or crap like that, so the posts will be short. Let's just hope that the RNG goddess is in my favor.

And this week it is........

#227

 

Skarmory!!!

BOOOOOO!!!!!!

O well, at least it isn't Cherubi or whatever. 

Skarmory is semi-decent. It has a unique type of steel/flying. A solid type combo for battling. It is used often.....way too often. Being the hipster that I am, my policy when I play(ed) shoddy battle, was not to use any extremely over used pokémon like Skarmory, Blissey, Garchomp..... unless they were really, really cool like Tyrannitar..... he is sooooo badass. This way, at least the opponents would be surpirsed. True, I lost a lot, but it was still fun being unique with pokémon like Sableye.


Anyways, back to

2nd gen pokemon (Gold/Silver/Crystal). Considered using, ended up not using, already having a flying type in my party. Also, in the same game, it was catchable in the same area as Gligar. For those of you who don't know, Gligar is awesome and >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Skarmory

Uhhhh...it's shiny is the dumb puke-green one, so that's no fun.

Sort of a boring one this time, as was to be expected....the numbers are not in my favor. Try this a couple more times, see what happens

Medalists

3. Léon (The Professional) (1994) -

So in true hypocritical fashion, where I don't like war movies and mobster films in the last post, because of the despicable protagonists, this movie is aboot a hitman Leon played by Jean Reno. It also features a 11-year old Natalie Portman.

Someone's crazy happy!

*This scene isn't in the theatrical cut.


And also there is Gary Oldman as the antagonist dirty cop. He is an enigma for me, as an actor. I am unable to recognize him in any film. I don't know it's him untill I look it up or sth. He looks so different in Nolan's Bataman movies, The Fifth Element and the lots of other stuff he's been in. Maybe it's just me.....

So Mathilda's (Portman) family gets murdered (not a spoiler, happens in the first 20 min....basically the introduction). So she seeks refuge with Leon and wants to also become an assassin like Leon to get revenge. It is an interesting relationship. In some aspects Leon is more of a child than Mathilda. Also, there is some odd sexual tension between them. Initiated more by Mathilda. This is more apparent in the director's cut.



It doesn't actually go thaaaat far.


Why this is so high on the list? I guess it's just because of its interesting, compelling story, great performance by all the leads (Jean Reno is badass to the max), and moments of great humor.



Interestingly, this movie has many references to A Clockwork Orange... also Full Metal Jacket. I guess Luc Besson (writer/director) liked Kubrick, as everyone should.

Sorry for the poorer quality. Also, I wanted to edit a couple of clips together to make like a Kubrick film v Leon comparison, but windows movie maker was being a bitch.

So all I have is text

Leon drinks lots of milk like Alex and his droogs in  A Clockwork Orange
Oldman's character mentions Beethoven an important figure in A Clockwork Orange
Mickey Mouse bullshit a line both used in this film and Full Metal Jacket
IMDB: 8.6
RT: 78%

2. The Prestige (2006) - I actually had a spoilerific post about this movie, so I'll just keep it short.
Chirstian Bale and Hugh Jackman are rival magicians who sacrifice much for their art. Their porformances are superb, especially Bale, who may have a terrible batman voice, and is a jerk, but is still one of the greatest actors. Unlike the other higher movies on my list, it lacks humor. It is pure drama and suspense.

Told you I'd keep it short.

IMDB: 8.4
RT: 75%

And soon the winner will be revealed.

I don't feel like coming up with a title

you ARE the DEMON (3:24-3:56) ....just watch the whole thing

WHY?!

Because WYNAUT!!!!`

Ahem....

5. Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Kubrick was like, da best. It's hard to pick a best movie from this, A Clockwork Orange (my #22), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (my #24), The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey ....for pretentious jerks.
The reason this is my favorite out of his movies, was the successful combination of sirius subject matter and great humor.
Like this:

Full Metal Jacket suffers from the opposite flaw as Scott Pilgrim: it doesn't end. It is divided into two parts: part one being boot camp, and part two the Vietnam War itself. This movie would probably be at the top of my list, in the one spot, if those parts were considered separate. The first half had great humor as shown before. As well as one of my favorite lines - the "jelly doughnut scene" that I have posted before, and shall do again:

But the first part ends dramatically and shockingly. The movie could have ended there. Of course it would have only been 45 min long, but epic nontheless.

The second half isn't bad, it's just mediocre. I am not a fan of war movies in general. Maybe similarly to my general dislike of mafia/mob movies that are so popular. I am not a fan of depicting such killers as "the good guys". There are exceptions like this.
The second half starts out strong with this scene, which has some very famous lines:

The rest is bland enough that there isn't much to talk aboot. Just showing the horrors of war 'n stuff.



All in all the epicness of the first overrides the second half, and it falls into the 5 spot.

...le sigh... so much potential

IMDB: 8.4
RT: 96%

4. Fight Club (1999) - Well unlike the previous movie, which has some serious undertones, this one.... not so much. It's just more a bunch of entertainment from beginning to end.

Features Edward Norton as an insurance guy who meets Brad Pitt and then his life gets flipturned upside down. Mahem ensues.
It has a lot of very well known lines. Especially the rules of fight club:

Also, Helena Bonham Carter is the love interest. Personally I think she's hot in a weird sorta way. In this movie atleast

Maybe I just have weird taste...

But I guess the hottest of the film has to go to Brad Pitt.

Now that's a man.

Or maybe Meatloaf instead?

BOOBIES!

This movie also has one of the greatest twist endings. The kind, unlike Usual Suspects, that you can watch the movie again to notice clues. Sadly, it was spoiled for me the first time I watched it, but it was still superb.


It tries to have some philosophical questions asked- the whole issue of people not living their life to the fullest, potential...... but I don't really care when watching this its just a fun, entertaining movie, with great actors.

IMDB: 8.8
RT: 81%

What happened to 2010?

So it is the last full year before the apocalypse, so we need to make the most of it. I don't really do the whole New Years resolution thing, but this year I decided that I should cut down on procrastination. And in resolution fashion i managed to accomplish nothing in the first week. This is due to hanging out with friends I haven't seen in a while. And Assassin's Creed 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

So I beat Asscreed 2. Usually not the fan of too much sandboxyness, but AC2 was great. Killing guards and throwing their ragdoll-ass off the roof never gets old. Also, sandbox games tend to have glitches 'n stuff. Playing this I became disappoint that I don't have some form of video capture. I could have showed all y'all how Ezio thought he was diving head first into water, and instead hits the ground. So great

CODBO was pretty addictive- not the standard deathmatch, rather the cool ones. Gun game. Kill some dudes, getting a new gun with each kill. All the way up to the ballistic knife. Kill someone with the ballistic nife, you win. Also, if you get stabbed, then you go down a gun. 

Apparently, I was really good, but instead of winning the thing, I ran around stabbin' the FUCK (0:27) out of everyone.

But the best occurance, was a meme that was created playing the Sticks & Stones gametype. Everyone has crossbow, ballistic knife, and tomahawk. Stab kills are 25 points, ballistic and crossbow 100 and 'hawk 10. But if you get hit with a tomahawk you lose all your points. So it's fun to throw them around. And as we were playing, we heard this about 16 year old assumidly white, douchbag talking through his headset: "I have like six hawks. I have sooo many hawks." Funny thing is, 6 isn't all that much, as my friend averaged around 8. The best part was how he said it. I can't convey it to you really how great it is, but I did some poor MS painting, and ended up with these:

Original

Obvious continuation:

Might as well:

That should fill my visual aid quota for this post..... too much text this time I guess. Now I will start to keep my resolution, which will include more regular blogging. 

I plan on doing a looking back post on the 2010 in games/film/music, n stuff. Though I'll finish my top 20 countdown first. That will buy me time to watch True Grit, Tron, and The Fighter, so I can have a better "best of 2010 movies".