And then there was two

Well these are technically numbers XI and X, but i figured, with my math genius brain, that if i do it in intervals of two, then I'll have 1st place left over for a separate post.

Also, I had finals and stuff...hence the lack of updates. Now that the winter break is starting, I'll try to be more consistent.
SOOOOO.....

11. Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) aka Amelie - Only one of two non-US films to make it into my top 20. This basically falls into the slightly over-saturated genre of indie romantic comedy, though it came out, as you may have noticed, in 2001, which is years before the genre got very popular. It features a quirky lady and some odd dude, and they fall in love. So it's like almost some Zooey Deschanel movie, except it's French. And I must say,  Audrey Tautou (Amelie) is just as adorable as Zooey.

Goddamn adorable!

The movie has a great, quirky sense of humor, via narration at times.

As I said....goddamn adorable.

A warm, happy romcom featuring a serious of odd events. The perfect film in a genre that, unfortunately, has become full of just awful movies.

IMDB: 8.6
RT: 90%

starting my top ten, I actually have a movie from 2010. How exciting:
or maybe "how fun" would be better, Hans Landa?

(Ah. He was just awesome. Oscar well deserved....we-ell de-serv-ed.)


Ahem! On to the next movie

10. Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) - I  blogged about it, when I got the DVD....yes, I actually bought this movie. That's how great it is.
A good summery about this movie could be: The worst part of it was that it ended. I would give where credit is due, since that is not my original line. HOWever, this so called fan of the movie gave it a 9/10. How he gives any movie a 10 is beyond me.

Plot: Scott (Michael Cera) wants to date Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). To achieve his goal he has to defeat her seven evil exes. Simple.
The main criticism with this movie (other than old people, who don't understand video games/comic books) is that seven evil exes is too much; it gets repetitive. To that I say Wrong! (i think I've used that link before, but it's just too great). All the fights are different and awesome. It's complete with comic book style POWs and Street Fighter-like shots, split screen, etc. And after winning a fight Scott gets some coins.

Ready....FIGHT!

OW...My stomach lining!!

It features some cool cuts and edits accompanied with some "epic" sound effects. Similar too director Edgar Wrights other awesome movies Shaun of the Dead and  Hot Fuzz.

Also, for all you Micheal Cera haters out there, who say he plays the same character in every movie- the awkward teen. Scott is not the same. At times, yes, he is quite awkward, especially towards the beginning. But at times he gets pretty hardcore (fight scenes) and is sometimes a jerk.
The supporting cast is also great. Especially, Scott's gay roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin). He provides some of the best lines in a movie full of epic things said. To be honest, they aren't really all that "quotable", but still in the context of the movie, there is a lot hilarity.

....all in all, everything is great. Visuals, cast, script, sound effects
oh, ya, and it has a great soundtrack. indie rock n' stuff (beck, etc).

Sadly, as I mentioned in my previous post, it wasn't a commercial success. My generation (and younger) being the target audience; people who play video games and read comic books (I don't read comic books actually, but i appreciate them). We, as a collective, don't really like paying for stuff when it's on the internet for free.

AND here... is my favorite moment:

IMDB: 7.9
RT: 80%

Next time we'll look at two movies, where what we see isn't necessarily real.
OOooo....what a tease. What could they be?! I'm excited for one.

Why is 6 afraid of 7?

Because 12 13 14!......wait, I think I messed that up...Damn it!  Well enough procrastinating with my top movie countdown. I got finals and stuff coming up, so I might actually have to do some work! fuck that shit.

Today we got the aforementioned 12, 13, 14, which features two movies that I doubt you'd find on other lists.

14. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Second of three animated movies in my top 20. Though this technically isn't animated, its stop-motion, but I just lump them in the same group. Deal with it! 4
It has quite a unique story. The ruler of the Halloween world, somehow gets into Christmas land, and then is like, "I want that!". Like most animated movies, there are a lot of songs (well, I guess nowadays animated flicks don't really have those anymore)...So like older animated movies, like Lion King and such, the pre-Pixar era, its sort of like a musical at times. The songs are made by the very talented Danny Elfman, who you should know if you are familiar with moving pictures. He's done the soundtrack for like a ballion different films. Anyways, Nightmare's soundtrack is just one of the best. Some would actually argue that the movies music is annoying, like this tooooootally gay on rottentomatoes....well it is only that one jerk. Send all your hate to him please. It isn't directed, but rather produced by Tim Burton. Some would say, that this means Tim Burton just gave it money and did nothing else. But I'd like to believe that he had some sort of creative control, because this film just exudes his dark style. And maybe shouldn't really be shown to easily fightened children....
An intro to Halloweentown:

As you saw, the various citizens of Halloweentown look just awesome. And the main character, Jack Skellington is just plain bad-ass:

Comes in two flavors: friendly

and not so much

What's so great aboot it, is that it's a mash-up of two (very different) holidays, so you can watch this biannually, to celebrate Christmas and Halloween.


IMDB: 8.0
RT: 97%

13. SLC Punk!  (1999) - I doubt any of you have really heard of this movie. I stumbled upon it based on its lead actor, Matthew Lilliard. Most of you might recognize him as Shaggy from the Scooby Doo movies. Well I saw him there and other places, and then I remember seeing him in a movie a whiiiiile back. That turned out to be Dead Man's Curve, which is nowhere to be found on the internet. If someone could find it for me, that would be greeeeeeat (*to be read in the voice of that guy from office space). But I checked his filmography, and this one seemed interesting, watched it, and loved it.
It's a story of two punks (punk rock enthusiast) in Salt Lake City (SLC) one of the most conservative places like evar. Stevo (Matthew Lilliard) serves as a narrator, to introduce other characters and such, a technique used in many films. The supporting characters are interesting, and the stories Stevo tells about them are quite amusing. For example, an anecdote featuring the lead from Final Destination (the first one), crazy from LSD and with green hair (though not technically narrated by Stevo):

I'll admit there isn't a strong overarching story (though there is a good underlying message), its just about the guys in SLC and their adventure. It's not all fun and games, as there are some serious notes in the film as well. But the ride was so enjoyable, that I don't really care that the overall story wasn't strong. After finding this film, I've started looking at actors/actresses filmographies, hoping to find some lesser known gems, such as this. Also, Matthew Lilliard is awesome, and it is a shame he never really became mainstream.

IMDB: 7.3
RT: 63% (but 89% fan vote)

12. The Fox and the Hound (1981) - I realize this movie isn't as good as most other animated movies. But this one just has the nostalgia factor for me. So i like it more than the average viewer. It's a simple tale of forbidden friendship, between a neighboring young fox and a young pup hunting dog. It has some unnecessary supporting characters....they maybe should have focused on the two main characters more.
But aren't they just goddamn adorable?

Like Nightmare it has a few musical numbers, but not as many, and not as memorable. There are however two extremely low points. One of them is my number two most depressing scene of all time (number one being the final scene in About Schmidt). Just like fairytale, it amazes me how horrifying events there are in children's tales. Proof of that, is the opening:

IMDB: 7.1
RT: 68%


Also, in shameless self-promotion, I have accounts on IMDB and RT (profile: Reigntall on both), where I post some of my reviews (altered slightly for obvious reasons), so if you could maybe, say my reviews were useful (IMDB), or give them a thumbs up (RT) that would be superspecialawesome.

Technology...

 SO now that the mourning period is over, I can continue blogging. (Between you and me, I was just being lazy, and didn't feel like posting anything. But don't tell anyone else, ok?).

Anyway, as I was saying: Technology is.....

So I am hoping this gem that I found will net me some straight cash homie, but at the moment they are pretty worthless. What am I talking about? This:

This is a laserdisc, the precursor to modern day cds and dvds. I won't explain in detail how I optained these, but I now have about 15 movies.

And yes, they are god damn humongous(1:00). Here is more proof:

Note the hand-drawn peppers in the background. My uncle's fine work.

*Note: I have a big head.
Now you maybe asking, "Can you really fit an entire movie on those discs?
First, I'd like to say, stop asking so many goddamn questions. I'll get to it eventually, geez!
Second, no, you cannot. Those discs are double sided. And most movies seem to require an additional 3rd side (2nd laserdisc, with only one side containing any data....not just half a laserdisc....)

So basically every popular movie in the early 90s got the laserdisc (I just like saying that word...sounds fancy) treatment, as did many classics (2001: A Space Odyssey, Godfather, etc). So if one were to have this laserdisc technology, and could purchase any of these movies for a decent amount of money, what would one buy? Well my new collection consists of such all-time greats as: Top Gun, Star Trek VI, Die Hard 2, The Abyss. Though I do also have some actually good movies, like Mrs. Doubtfire, The Fugative, E.T. and the creme de la creme sealed copies of Blazing Saddles and Jurrasic Park. And a collector's edition of the original Star Wars trilogy. Too bad they are all pretty worthless......Maybe I'll just frame them, and show them off, as my platinum music records  =D.


Well, I personally didn't know of this piece of technology's existence, and I hope you learned something too. If I was any good at drawing, I'd probably add the laserdisc to the following picture: