I'm done trying to review summer movies!

I don't know what it is man. Maybe I'm on a hot streak. Maybe Hollywood is. I don't know what's going on anymore. Maybe I'm stuck in the coolest sequel-fueled dream ever. All I know for sure is that that going to the movies is fucking sweet. And it's hard to grade stuff and not sound like a peppy little schoolgirl (which, let's face it, I am anyways).

I just got back form LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD with a bunch of the guys, and rest assured, we all semen'd many a time out of pure Bruce Willis-surfing-on-top-of-a-fighter jet stimulation. It was incredibly over the top, funny (?!), smartly-written (??!!), with some truly cream-worthy action sequences (Willis drives a chick into a wall at 70 miles an hour and she just keeps truckin'!), and Justin Long was even good (no Mac plugs???!!!). I mean c'mon, Bruce Willis is 52 years old, divorced, and he made the Greatest Action Movie ever twenty years ago. Why sequelize it for a third time? I don't know, I don't care. All I know is that LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD is ri-dic-u-lous.

Seriously, though, that's the way it's been alllllllll summer. Shit, even FANTASIC FOUR 2 was acceptable (and pretty enjoyable if you're able to make fun of it and likely piss of people behind you). OCEAN'S THIRTEEN was seriously blissful, and somehow the most irreverent/self-aware and yet still focused of the trilogy (I think the Mexican segment may be the most genius-written piece of art that ultimately doesn't matter in history). PIRATES 3 was a mess but entertaining as hell, with some truly fantastic special effects and a pretty damn involving plot for a three hour epic. I've so far skipped EVAN ALMIGHTY and SPIDEY 3, but no regrets. I'll undoubtedly catch them both on DVD, anyway.

To go along nicely with the sequels and threequels that met expectations, there are the littler movies that exceeded them. I'll get 1408 out of the way so I can fully laud my baby (no pun intended). It was solid, a lot better-written and carried out than I thought it would be. John Cusack stars, and I think this may be his first movie since CON AIR and GROSSE POINT BLANK that I liked. It truly goes bizarro at points and I won't deny I was shaken up often. Solid movie.

And then there's the chewy nougat center at the heart of this delicious candy bar summer. It's name is KNOCKED UP.

It's gold. Pure gold. Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow made a really good movie in 2005 with THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, but their new creation is a masterpiece. I can't think of a comedy that is written better than this, ever, and only a handful of romances (ETERNAL SUNSHINE, CASABLANCA, and not much else). If you don't know what it's about, here's a mini-synopsis: A lovable loser (Rogan) gets lucky with a newly promoted entertainment reporter (Katherine Heigl, remember the name) whose sister (Leslie Mann) is having problems with her awesome but kind of not-there husband (Paul Rudd), and the two end up pregnant (the first couple, not the married ones). They decide to keep it and try to stay together, but love's a messy thing as they come to find out, especially when it's pretty forced. This is the funniest movie I've seen in a long time, and its characters are vibrant, complex, and easy to like and empathize with, and there are scenes that will have you gasping for air out of laughter and then needing a tissue for cry. I didn't go ten seconds throughout the movie without laughing, smiling out of true happiness and contentness, or really, truly caring for the characters. There, now you know what it's about, GO SEE IT.

And it's now 1:45 in the morning, so BAH! to you, I'm going to bed.

Top 17 R-Rated Movies

I was as giddy as a schoolgirl with new clothes when I saw the first trailer for LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, after all the speculation that it would be total shite after a twelve year hiatus. It had John McClane crashing a car into a helicopter in mid air, for God's sake. It couldn't not be good. The news came in last week though that the movie has been rated PG-13, which is an indicator to me that the series has sold out to the masses big time. That's a fucking shame, really, considering DIE HARD is probably the best pure action film of all time. It got me thinking about my favorite R-rated movies, which I now present to you in the company of sexii pictures and write-ups. Their my favorites in terms of entertainment value, ideas about humanity explored, pushing the envelope, revolutionary cinematic value, and plain blood and bullets. Here are my 17 favorite rated R movies.

-AMERICAN BEAUTY-

I'm tired of this Lawrence Welk shit!

The first time I saw this movie, I got giddy. I was 14 or 15, and I didn't understand the subtext of this piece of genius (as if I know everything now, being the 17-year-old genius that I am). What I did understand, was the glee. It was seeing a movie that my parents had explicitly forbidden me from seeing, because of all the sex, language, drug use, and the ending. Seeing it "secretly" during the wee hours of the night while my parents slept in the next room probably enhanced my first viewing more than anything, but on repeat viewings (I've seen it all the way through three times since then), I not only love every scene of the movie, I can appreciate the angst it explores. My family is falling apart right now, with an imminent divorce on the horizon, and I can relate wayyyy too well with the mom's lack of self-confidence and generally fried brain, as well as the dad wanting to re-discover the golden days of no responsibility and all fun. And of course, I can relate with the sexual angst of teenager-hood, of not knowing how to like certain people, how to please others and myself, and perpetually wanting more. AMERICAN BEAUTY, along with FIGHT CLUB and THE MATRIX, closed the door on a century of film with a resounding, refreshing bang, as well as teaching me to "look closer" at film, as well as life.

-APOCALYPSE NOW-

Dun dun a dun dun, dun dun a dun dun!

I don't know if this movie is a bad dream or a good one, but it certainly is a movie that God seemingly directly handed over to man. Maybe the greatest film of all time dealing with war (it's got some competition on the list, as well as THE THIN RED LINE), Coppola's vision of insanity "isn't like Vietnam. It is Vietnam," according to the director himself. Marlon Brando gives maybe his performance (but hey hey, he also has some competition on the list) as Colonel Kurtz, the embodiment of insanity. Martin Sheen, though, gives the best performance of the movie and maybe all of the 70s as Willard, the man sent to Cambodia by the army to kill Kurtz. You knew from the opening scene that the movie was going to be something else, with Willard lying on his cheap motel's bed with the rotating of the ceiling fan slowly turning into the terrifying cry of the helicopters, exemplifying how the violence, the madness, "the horror", consumes all.

-CHILDREN OF MEN-We're almost there.

When I saw CHILDREN OF MEN with my friends on its first day in wide release, I almost had a religious experience. It was that transcending. Not only was I, the film buff, blown away, all of my friends were as speechless as I. It's really something to get a bunch of teenage idiots in complete awe. Emmanuel Lubezki is maybe the best cinematographer working in Hollywood these days, with THE NEW WORLD, THE THIN RED LINE, ALI, and SLEEPY HOLLOW already under his belt, he shot perhaps the most cinematically incredible film I've ever seen in this wowzer of a movie. He and director Alfonoso Cuarón depict one of the bleakest and fully realized dystopian futures ever, where most of the world has fallen into pure chaos, garbage lines the street, and the schools are abandoned, but not forgotten. Clive Owen gives one of the four or five best performances of a very stacked 2006, as Theo, a man who goes from a hopeless, who-cares-about-life loser to the savior of men. There are about a half dozen scenes that will seriously knock you on your ass in terms of there extended takes and extraordinary craftsmanship, as well as punch you in the gut from their emotional power. This is an exceptional film in every way.

-CITY OF GOD-

It was like a message from God: "Honesty doesn't pay, sucker".

Rookie director Fernando Meirelles took a cast full of no-name, first time actors, a script adapted from a 400-page series of memoirs, and a pretty modest $3 million budget, and crafted a masterpiece. There are few artists who can truly capture life on film; the emotion, the energy, the subtleties, but this Brazilian auteur did when it was released 2002. While his follow-up, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, was overblown, over-serious, and boring, CITY OF GOD remains a gem after multiple viewings, and is still right up there among the three or four best movies of this decade.

-THE DEPARTED-Maybe some day you'll wake the fuck up.

Ahh, the sweet smell of perfection. THE DEPARTED is, to me, a perfect film. Its energy is vibrant and in and of itself, every performance rings true (Nicholson is a force of nature, stealing every scene he's in, and DiCaprio and Damon are like two sides to the same coin), and the tension is practically tangible. One of the most amazing things about it is that it runs for an epic 150 minutes. That's a credit to the Mr. Eyebrows himself, for keeping everything in the story so interesting all the while, as well as Thelma Schoonmaker for cross-cutting multiple story lines until the climax of William Monahan's masterpiece script is reached. A masterpiece in every sense of the word, and even though its only eight months old, it's one of my very favorite movies.

-DIE HARD-

Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho.

Yippie kay-yay, Mr. Falcon (isn't edited TV just awesome?). The definitive action movie, DIE HARD is the one that put Bruce Willis on the map (for better or for worse), telling one of the simplest stories of all time: the good guy beats the bad guys and gets the girl. The cinematography, music, amount of bullets, and Alan Rickman's excellent portrayal as one of cinema's best villains, that German nationalist you love to hate, Hans Gruber. Seriously, who doesn't love seeing him say "shoot the glass!"?

-DO THE RIGHT THING-

You've gotta fight the powers at be!

Spike Lee has never been afraid of a little controversy. Not now, with his 2006 documentary smash WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE (which I have yet to see), not in exploring the post-9/11 scene in New York City in 25TH HOUR, and not when disecting the life of a tumultuous public figure (MALCOLM X). His first big movie, though, was DO THE RIGHT THING, and it remains his best to this day. It's Brooklyn in the hottest day of the summer, and the racial tensions of the diverse neighborhood under examination are rising faster than the thermometer. Featuring one of the ten best scripts in history and a pitch-perfect cast including a lot of terrific characters, DO THE RIGHT THING is a masterpiece, one of a handful of truly perfect films. When compared with trashily-written garbage such as CRASH (which of course the Academy rewarded Best Picture), the escalating emotions and complex ideas are presented with nuance and remarkable thought, despite a lot of the characters acting with so much energy and hate that it sometimes seems like they're screaming directly into the camera. It's a fierece, fiery, take-no-prisoners movie, and I don't know that a more socially relevant film has been made with such quality ever since.

-FIGHT CLUB-

If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, can you wake up as a different person?

FIGHT CLUB is maybe the most important film ever made to me. It is the movie that made me understand the importance of subtext, of reading between the lines. On the surface it's a bunch of guys beating the shit out of each other. Tyler Durden is the man. Marla Singer is just some desperate ho-bag. Dig deeper, though, and you find that things are twisted and chaotic. Isn't that what we want, though, as men? Don't we want some injection of life into our stagnant blood? Don't you just want to grab some guy by the collar and let loose? Or do we want substance? Is life so twisted these days that we must resort to violence to express ourselves or even feel a pulse? I won't even go into how flawlessly made the film is, I'll just leave this as a mini-analysis of the film's subtext. It's like Donkey says in SHREK: "It's like an onion-it's got layers." And hey, who doesn't like seeing Ed Norton pummel Angel Eyes' face?

-THE GODFATHER-

I believe in America.

The AFI came out with their revised list of the 100 best American movies last week, and Martin Sheen said something simple and interesting about THE GODFATHER, which came in at number two. He said: "THE GODFATHER is America's most essential film because it's a film about America". True words, Marty. It's maybe the best film ever made, a scorchingly affecting, incomparably beautiful and gritty portrayal about the defining crime family in cinema, Don Vito Corleone's clan. It's a genuine tragedy, about Vito Corleone's desperate grip on power in the world of crime in New York City. He seemingly has everything, except for his son Michael, who loves him, but doesn't respect him. THE GODFATHER features one of the best casts in history, with James Caan, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton giving legendary performances. And of course, their is the Don himself, played by Marlon Brando in what I believe to be the greatest performance in film history.

-HEAT-

You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.

HEAT is as epic as movies get, while remaining a human drama. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino give two of their best performances, as the best bank robber in the business and the best cop in the LAPD. De Niro's restraint and subtlety contrast well with the over-the-topness of Pacino, and I think this contrast makes the dynamics of their characters all the more interesting. They're both men who put their work in front of everything else, including the women they're with. This is one of the best character studies in movie history, and it's always involving and tense throughout its sprawling 170-minute running time. It also contains one of best, most pulsating, most immediate shootouts in movie history.

-THE MATRIX-

He is the one.

I think the genius of THE MATRIX is undeniable. It's influence, only eight years later, is evident in the many idiotic rip-offs and cash-ins Hollywood has produced in hopes of another sci-fi re-birth. This is a kind of testament to the incredible filmmaking that THE MATRIX is. It goes where no sci-fi film has gone in its combination of visceral thrills (bullet time, people) and concepts, where humanity has been wiped out basically by itself and it has been reduced to a "virus to the world", as put by Smith. This is on the short list of essential sci-fi films.

-PREDATOR-

If it bleeds, we can kill it.

This is purely primal aggression on film. It's half a dozen of the most badass men in the world going into the jungle to hunt some South American slime and come out all dead at the hands of a certain Predator. All except for Ahnuld, or course. For my money, this could be the best non-stop action movie ever, right up there with DIE HARD (another John McTiernan film). There's no preachiness or pretentiousness or forced messages here, just some major pwnage.

-PULP FICTION-

So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass.

Can I said anything that hasn't been said about this? I guess I just like it because of Christopher Walken.

-RAGING BULL-

So give me a... stage / Where this bull here can rage / And though I could fight / I'd much rather recite /... that's entertainment.

Although I argue that Martin Scorsese's best film is THE DEPARTED is his best film, mainly because its so damn entertaining while telling one of the best and deepest stories in recent mainstream cinema. That almost seems blasphemous, though, considering what the recent Best Picture winner is up against. Roger Ebert has called RAGING BULL "the greatest study of sexual frustration in modern cinema", as well as one of the best films of the 80s. I agree with both counts. Oh, and by the way, Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta gives the best performance in movie history.

-SAVING PRIVATE RYAN-Earn this.

The jolt that the first twenty minutes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN gives you is incomparable. It's a unique experience, in that it doesn't wait until the middle or end of the movie to showcase its most incredible scene. You see a man go to a graveyard, and then BAM, you're on Omaha Beach. The intensity doesn't fade away, either, nor does the emotion. Spielberg's movie has a beauty to it, the sentiment that there is enough good in a life to sacrifice much for it.

-THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-

To this day I don't know what those Italian ladies were saying.

While most of the films on this list feature a lot of blood (what can I say, I am still 17, ya know), this one doesn't really. I love it, though, like everyone else. It tells one of the most emotional, purely artistic stories in history, as both the film and short story by Stephen King (!) have made me cry like a baby. That's why it's on the list. Because of Red and Andy. Because of the unconditional, ever-present feeling of hope, even in its darkest moments.

-SIN CITY-
That's a damn fine coat.

Oh. Yeah. Who doesn't love SIN CITY? It's two hours of kinetic, unique energy, awesome cinematography, and old school, badass storytelling. All three of the stories work, and the score (Rodriguez's own work) is one of the most badass ever. Badass is the best word for this movie. Badass, badass, badass.

It's 2 in the morning

Your moment of zen.

FUCK. YES. (Part 2)

FUCK. YES.

Paris

You obeyed the master.

*The Justice System is fucked up.

Paris

You stupid skank. Get your crabs back in prison.

I have to talk about LOST (with spoilers)

Never in the history of TV has there been an anomaly like LOST. I sincerely mean that.

It's changed since the first season. It's still a 'WTF?' show, but not like it was when it debuted in 2004. It has a mystical, epic quality to it that has developed over time. Where most dramas succumb to stupid theatrics and soap opera-esque situations and dialogue, LOST has gotten better with each succeding season.

"Time to die."

The Season 3 finale was a momentous occasion for me. Ever since the show came back from hiatus, it's been perfect. Perfect. Especially since the first six episodes of the third season underwhelmed me (other than a few moments, such as, say, when we discover The Others have a village and the Red Sox moment). There hasn't been a weak link in the 1Characters have been developed in shocking and emotionally draining ways, there has been a perfect balance between action and meditation, and the epic quality of the show has grown exponentially. Gone are the days of such mysteries of "what's in the hatch?" or "what's with the polar bears?". Now it all feel much...bigger. More important. It makes me think about the characters as if they were real, and that their (unbelievably far-fetched) situations seem plausible.

I don't update this blog as much as I used to. I know, I know. Please stop crying. I felt compelled to here, though. The finale floored me. I don't know if it ever reached the orgasmic levels of awe that the final fifteen minutes of Season 2's finale did, but it was brilliant. Seeing shit actually blow up in the first fifteen minutes, the tension of the "one minute" between Jack and Ben, Charlie's sacrifice, the revelation that getting rescued is the worst thing that could possibly happen, Hurley kicking ass and Sawyer quickly turning around and executing Mr. Friendly, the "Not Penny's Boat" message Charlie gives to Desmond as he is dying, and the ultimate revelation that at least Jack and Kate make it off the island, is enough to get me into a tizzy for a few days. Guess what, it has.

This series really hits me. Sure, I love the intensity and emotional resonance that THE SHIELD, NIP/TUCK, and 24 bring to the table, but they've got nothing on LOST. While everything else either dips or belly flops into melodrama, LOST always clicks with me. Even the bottom of the barrel (I'm looking at you--pre-hiatus Season 3) is better than 90% of the crap that is on TV (I'm looking at you, erm, everything). The acting, the character development on both the island and in the flashbacks (Locke, Jack, and Kate are three of the five best characters on TV, right alongside Jack Bauer and J.D. Dorian), and the way the characters react to the extraordinary situations they find themselves in every day while the haunting score plays in the background, make for an emotionally devastating hour of television. I actually welled up three times during the finale alone (Charlie, the "one minute", anyone?).

So yeah, to recap: I love LOST, superlative superlative, superlative, the end. And now I have to wait another eight months to see a new episode. It'll be worth it, though.

LOST

LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST.

Do you still get inspired?

I watched a few movies on the plane rides to and from Spain (which is a different, incredible story on its own) that got me thinking. They were Notes on a Scandal (for the first time), American Beauty (for the 4th time), bits and pieces of The Pursuit of Happyness (second time around), and Facing the Giants, which was a curious watch. They all had the sometimes subtle, sometimes glaring strand of inspiration for change that's in all of us.

There are different degrees of inspiration obviously, depending on what type of medium it's presented in and how it is then presented once in that medium. All of these were films (thanks for the obvious, Captain Tim), but my high on Spain still factored into the equation when I was watching them. It was an awesome ride home, though, because it's nice seeing people get what they want. Lester Burnham wants to be his own person, not just another office drone with a shitty marriage and a daughter who hates him, in American Beauty. Chris Gardner wants to see his son be happy and to live a good life that he earned, in The Pursuit of Happyness. Barbara Covett wants to be with a woman half her age and infinitely more beautiful than her (who also happens to be straight, as it is), while Sheba Hart wants to feel some pleasure in her monotonous life in Notes on a Scandal. And in maybe the most interestingly made film of the bunch, the hyper-realistic Facing the Giants's main character Matt Prater wants to teach his football team that there are bigger things out there than the gridiron.

I liked to loved all of these movies. They all have their own qualities that make them work. Beauty is the best of the bunch, no doubt about it. Seeing Lester Burnham's midlife crisis see him turn into a ball of giddy energy while everyone else in his life goes crazy is an oddly inspirational sight, as well as a thought to ponder. When does solidifying yourself as your own person turn into a bad thing? Is being a materialistic, superficial person necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so. If someone wants to find inner peace, while the person next to them wants a diamond ring the size of a small piece of fruit, I say good luck to both of them.


Chris Gardner is without question the most inspiring film character of last year. When you can have teenage guys breaking down and crying at a film about a father helping out his son, you've made something special. It only strengthens The Pursuit of Happyness's case as a terrific movie that it's based on a true story. Even after only watching about ten minutes of it, I was teary-eyed, and not ashamed to admit it. I'm beating a dead horse with this word, but don't you just feel so fucking inspired by something so beautiful as a man turning an impossible situation, with his son's life and future in the balance, into such a phenomenal success? Maybe it's because it had Hollywood poster-boy Will Smith as the lead, but a lot of critics panned this movie. "It's too sappy." "It's too contrived." "Everything clicks". "There's not enough conflict". "Did anyone think it wouldn't turn out alright for Will Smith in the end?". I think some people almost don't want to have a warm feeling in them anymore. They want to see the dark side of life reflected in films, and can't stand when a story as touching as this, with a star who is so recognizable and is still able to genuinely affect you to the very core, hits you. When Smith teared up and started to lose it while sleeping in a subway with his son, it just hits so hard. And that's what makes the ending, even if it is predictable, so potent.

Notes on a Scandal is the most disturbing film of the bunch. It's got Dame Judi Dench in a startling performance as Barbara Covett, and old teacher at a run-down high school in England who fancies herself younger women. She finds one in the beautiful Sheba Hart, the new art teacher. Cate Blanchett plays the multi-faceted character with the pitch perfect note of desperation the role calls for, and she equals Dench's greatness (too bland a word?) in every minute she's on screen, even though it's clearly Dench's movie. Anyway, Barbara sees Sheba going down on one of her students, and instead of doing the proper thing by notifying the authorities right away, she manipulates the situation to the point where she's getting more pleasure out of the teacher-student than either the teacher or the student. She changes her life because of the 'situation', as she refers to it, because it allows her to be in close, intimate contact with the woman she lusts for. Messed up? Yeah. Fascinating? Yeah. Notes is a quietly affecting and almost always engrossing character study, on two characters who truly do deserve a movie as solid as this to be made about them.

Facing the Giants is something of an interesting movie just for how it was produced. It's as if a camera crew, for a real movie (not a documentary-type deal), followed around the characters in the film. The acting is pretty shaky, but the emotion came off real to me. I honestly got the impression that real peoplel were being filmed, even if it did involve some Hollywood-ness. It's a very simple story; A football coach tries to rescue his failing program, job, and marriage by tying in the "God wants you to be better people, not just better football players" message. It works, surprise surprise, and the team wins the state/national/county championship, which you knew was going to happen. That's not important, though. What is important is that the film is somehow able to truly inspire despite being preachy as fuck and having some of the most hackneyed dialog I've ever been subjected to. I don't know how the movie worked, with its bad script, dialog, camerawork, acting, and cheesiness, but somehow it did, all in all.

P.S.- I realize now that I'm not as inspired about this essay as I was when I started it a few weeks back. I think I was still high on Spain then, which I'm about to write about (ahh the joys of an afternoon with nothing to do), and just feeling good about life. Sorry if this was total shite.

P.P.S- I don't know about the italicized movie titles. I kind of feel too pretentious and art-housey. I miss my caps. Comment on how you feel, since you have nothing better to do.