Courage Hills South

I started a tumblr.

2011-02-07T02:21:00.001-08:00

So this one is gonna die. Good bye blogger.

What the feez?

2010-12-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

I was checking over my last post when I noticed something in one of the pictures. Look between Shepard and Miranda.

Whoever that is just took watermarking to the next level. BTW my laptop needs a sticker, preferably a Giants one.

Introducing EDI

2010-12-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

I got my own computer. I named it EDI after this beautiful bitch:

Which is the AI in this beautiful bitch:

Which is the ship from this beautiful bitch:

So now I'll be posting again. I'll leave you with the new slap.

Hot drinks, really get you going. *BLOW*

4 Songs I Like: Education Connection Edition

2010-04-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second edition of "4 Songs I Like". Here's 4 songs I like at the moment

The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

Straight outta the Serengeti! The Very Best is an African Pop band that sounds like Ladysmith Black Mambazo minus the harmonies plus synthesizers. I was going to pick another song off this album until I stumbled upon the music video. It has a semi-Tim & Eric vibe, which seems to be the most important criteria in music videos I post here.

Kanye West - Street Lights

This is one of the songs I initially overlooked off of "808s and Heartbreak". If more R&B songs sounded like this I'd listen to KMEL more. Here's a video that says it was commissioned by Kanye. I wonder if this polygon style is going to become something like the 8-bit look has. 1996 in this bitch!

Education Connection Commerical

This commercial probably plays from the middle of the night til noon. I could picture it along with Roni Deutch, The General and Western Career College. I feel like the girl in it auditioned for American Idol but didn't make it to Hollywood. You know what, I can also see this playing in prime time but only on the CW.

The Beatles - And I Love Her

This is off of A Hard Day's Night. After listening to a good chunk of the Beatles catalog I could say I favor the earlier stuff. It reminds me of my mom's old red van, sitting in the backseat on the way home after Wednesday bingo. I could feel my forehead pressed against the window right now.

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I think my next post is going to be on R&B and why I've grown to hate it.

Standing At My Podium, I'm Trying To Watch My Sodium

2010-03-31T02:57:00.000-07:00

Kanye West, The Strokes and Vampire Weekend are the only artists who I've listened to all their albums. I had all the Kanye songs on shuffle while I was weed whacking the fields and I was remembering the good songs, the shit songs, the songs that turned to shit, and shit songs that weren't as shit as I thought.

College Dropout (2004)

Best: Two Words/Get Em High
(Most imitated, Grammy nominated/hotel accommodated, cheerleader prom-dated)

Worst: Last Call

Did Not Age Well: The New Workout Plan/All Falls Down

Better Than Before: Slow Jamz/Jesus Walks

Late Registration (2005)

Best: We Major/Heard Em Say

Worst: Bring Me Down/Crack Music

Did Not Age Well: The all stayed about the same.

Better Than Before: Touch The Sky

Graduation (2007)

Best: Good Morning/Flashing Lights/Can't Tell Me Nothing
(Good morning and look at the valedictorian/Scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean)

Worst: Drunk and Hot Girls

Did Not Age Well: Stronger

Better Than Before: Big Brother

808s & Heartbreak (2008)

Best: Bad News

Worst: Pinocchio Story

Did Not Age Well: Heartless

Better Than Before: Paranoid\RoboCop\Street Lights

Album Ranking:

1. Graduation - Only strike against it is Drunk & Hot Girls. Has the best beats and the best lyrics. Good thing he took Bittersweet Poetry off of this because that song is terrible.

2. College Dropout - All Falls Down and New Workout Plan are still played out to me. Usually by now it would turn the corner and be listenable again. Album's still stacked though.

3. 808s & Heartbreak - Kanye fucked around with Autotune and made the best R&B album in a long time

4. Late Registration - The beats are still good. No real memorable lines though.

Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy.

2010-03-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

I bought a double pack of Star Wars themed cards. One of them has movie posters on it and the other has quotes. I think they really missed an opportunity with the quotes deck. They could have completely omitted the prequels. Compare these cards:

To these ones:

These could really mess up a card game. Did you just hear a player groan? That probably means they were just dealt the queen of hearts.

The Breakfast Club

2010-03-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

I watched "The Breakfast Club" yesterday. I haven't seen any John Hughe's movies outside of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". It's weird watching an old movie as popular as this for the first time because it's been referenced everywhere. Large portions of this movie have seeped into my brain before I've even seen it. Like the dance scene, the two months detention scene and the essay. What was even weirder was seeing things that I didn't know was a reference to "The Breakfast Club". Like "knock your dick in the dirt". Overall I liked it though I felt it was crossing over into cheesy at certain moments.

- Emilio Estevez dancing reminded me a lot of Peyton Manning dancing here.

- Those two in the picture above were my favorites.

- At times in the movie I was tempted to say, "Geez, cry more."

- I think I would've liked it better if they didn't sign the essay as "The Breakfast Club", and just had the title go unsaid.

- Judd Nelson has weird nostrils and apparently I'm not the first to notice:

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The full Airbender trailer has been released. I'm now leaning towards Shyamalan fucks it up. It's them keeping Aang silent that has me worried. I am changing my prediction from "beating Twilight" to "distant but respectable second to Twilight".

Large Snooze Buttons Are Essential

2010-03-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

I got a new alarm clock today. The ones that worked with an iphone were too expensive so I settled for a CD/mp3 plug-in type. Here it is in action:

I burned a CD for it. I was going for a sleep/waking up theme. Some I just added because it had the word "sun" in it. Here's the playlist:

1. The Gap Band - Early in the Morning
2. Kanye West - Heard 'Em Say (Wake up, Mr. West!..Mr. West!..Mr. West!)
3. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - First of the Month
4, Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up
5. Kanye West - Good Morning (Intro)
6. OutKast - The Rooster
7. Rage Against the Machine - Sleep Now in the Fire
8. The Strokes - Fear of Sleep
9. Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tall
10. The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
11. Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky
12. Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
13. Bob Marley - Sun is Shining
14. The Zombies - Walking in the Sun
15. Stevie Wonder - You Are The Sunshine of My Life
16. Dru Hill - In My Bed (So-So Def Remix)
17. Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams Come True
18. ShaNaNa - Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)
19. The Coral - Dreaming of You
20. Arcade Fire - Wake Up

4 Songs I Like: Discovery Edition

2010-03-06T01:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome. It's the debut edition of "4 Songs I Like" where I list and talk about four songs I like at the moment. In the words of Mario, here we go!

Childish Gambino - Bitch Look At Me Now (Two Weeks)

Childish Gambino is one of the dudes from Derrick Comedy. He's also a decent rapper. I've been listening to his "I Am Just A Rapper" mixtapes, where he raps over indie songs. That makes the beats more interesting than 80% of the shit out right now. In this one he raps over a Grizzly Bear song that was used in that VW commercial with Stevie Wonder.

Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun

The whole "Contra" album is good, I could have picked any song off it. I picked this song because it has a video. Lil' Jon, he always knows the truth.

Major Lazer - Keep It Goin' Louder

I posted a Major Lazer video in one of my Top Movie posts and this one is done by the same guy. The majority of the Major Lazer album is good. It's a mixture of reggae and electronic music.

Discovery - So Insane

The Discovery album has been my study soundtrack for a couple weeks now. I really like it. It's like an R&B album with a lot of keyboards and synthesizers. They do a version of "I Want You Back" and I don't think Michael Jackson even died yet. If you like Vampire Weekend there's a good chance you'll like this too.

Mass Effect 2

2010-03-02T00:07:00.000-08:00

The Xbox has been out of commission for too damn long. We finally got it fixed at the beginning of the year and by then I was itching to play pretty much anything. Luckily, Mass Effect 2 was coming out at the end of the month. And I'm not sure if it was because of the video game drought or what, but I ended up playing Mass Effect 2 three times back to back. I even started up a fourth game but decided to take a break and let some DLC be released. The game is good. Much better than the first one. The gameplay and presentation are both way better.

One problem with Mass Effect 1 was the boring direction of the conversation wheel scenes. The shots were super simple; point the camera at who's talking, don't move much, awkward exit. This problem was fixed (for the most part) in Mass Effect 2. The direction of the conversation scenes feel movie like. The characters actually walk around during the scenes. However you could still see the recycled animations from the first game. There's the determined point, the pound the fist against palm for emphasis, the nervous touch of the neck and so on.

The voice acting has also been stepped up. It was decent in the first one but Mass Effect 2 takes it to at least GTA 4 levels. Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man is pretty bad-ass. So is Kal'Reegar played by Adam Baldwin. Even the holdovers from the last game are better. The guy who plays Garrus makes him a lot more interesting this time around. However, the same can't be said for Shepard though. It's the same problem as the first game. Renegade male Shepard is fine but paragon male Shepard sounds insincere, like he's delivering his goody-goody lines through gritted teeth. Paragon female Shepard sounds fine but renegade female Shepard has trouble being intimidating and definitely can't pull off smart-ass. Besides that the rest of the voice-cast is solid. Good thing, because you talk to them a lot.

That's Illusive Man on the left. I think he could be Psych's dad.

Mass Effect 2 is all about your squad. You're building up a team to take on a suicide mission so team building is a big part of the game. Fortunately, the majority of the crew is interesting. Each squad member has a mission that delves into their back story. Out of a squad of 11 characters, I only didn't care for two of them, Grunt and Samara. I thought their stories were boring. And the way Samara talks annoys me. She talks like the elves in Lord of the Rings.

My favorite of the squad are Garrus and Tali. I've always liked Tali's story the most from the first game. The Quarians are the most interesting race in the game, so it was nice to see the Migrant Fleet and male Quarians. I remember thinking if she was a love interest for Mass Effect 2 I would go for her, but I ended up going after Miranda because she had Sarah Walker's face. Next playthrough. Unlike Tali, I really didn't care about Garrus in the last game. He was on the bottom of the totem pole, even below Kaidan "I'm dead in most people's save files" Alenko. All he did was whine about C-Sec and how the bureaucrats were holding him back. In Mass Effect 2 he's left C-Sec and is a vigilante in a space station run by gangs. What makes it even better, the gangs have banded together to kill him. He's on some Batman shit now. He sucked in the first game because his arc ended with him deciding to leave C-Sec. That's like a superhero movie ending before they even get their costume on. But now he's a bad ass out for revenge. And he's actually got jokes this time around too. My female Shepard totally hit it.

Like I said earlier, I completed the game three times. I plan on completing it again at least 3 more times, making it once as each class. The only other game I've done that with is Def Jam: Fight for New York and that games is pretty high on my All-Time list. What makes these games great are it's replay value. The basic mechanics of the game are good and the classes play different enough to warrant multiple playthroughs. The biggest addition to Mass Effect 2 is the new cover system. It's like Gears of War lite. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than the previous game's. They also cut out a lot of fat. The inventory system has been replaced with a simpler system. The attribute points are done in a simpler system. And the Mako is freezing on whatever planet the first Normandy crashed on. The Mako has been replaced with Planet Scanning, which is boring. However I'd still take it over the Mako, just to be rid of the steep-mountain-climbing stalls. I'd rather be bored than frustrated any day of the week. In the end everything they cut was justified.

I'd recommend Mass Effect 2 to anybody. I don't play as many games as I'd like, but compared to those that I have played for the Xbox 360, it's one of the best. The shooting aspects aren't as good as Gears but its the special powers that makes it special. Like having Samara lift an enemy into the air with her mind powers while having Zaeed concussive blast him off of the side of the buildings. Looking forward to Mass Effect 3.

Top 50 Movies of the Decade: 10 - 1

2010-02-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

I finally did it. I finished the list. Here's the top 10. The complete list is at the bottom along with some other stuff.

10. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
The high ranking of "Slumdog" is mostly due to me seeing the ending at Thanksgiving dinner. I watched it with my family and remembered that this movie (and especially the ending) was pretty good. Soon after I made this list and put Slumdog in the Top 10. I've watched the whole movie again since, and it doesn't really hold up to the rest of the Top 10. It's still good though. Just not as good as the others.

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Wes Anderson is one of the only people who can do whimsical right. In the wrong hands the characters can become cloying, and I was actually worried about that in the first half of the movie. The good thing is, Fantastic Mr. Fox never crosses the line into annoyingly sweet or clever.

8. Observe And Report (2009)
"Observe and Report" and "Funny People" made up Seth Rogen's year of redemption. I was sick of the filthy-mouthed-but-actually-a-nice-guy characters he would play. In "Funny People" he cut out the filthy mouth part and played a genuinely nice guy, and in "Observe and Report" he cut out the nice guy, and played a genuinely crazy asshole. "Observe and Report" is my favorite of the two because of how crazy and dark it is.

7. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
There's so many great characters in "Basterds". Aldo Raines, Frederick Zoller, Shoshanna, Hugo Stiglitz, the Bear Jew and so on. But Hans Landa, the gentleman Nazi detective, takes the cake. The dialog makes this movie. Every conversation scene is great. You're not sitting there waiting for the action to happen, like I was during Death Proof.

6. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
I was big in to this movie when I was in high school. I even have the above Fellowship poster on my wall. A year or two ago I was thinking maybe I jumped the gun getting this poster, like I did with that Green Day one. I watched the trilogy again and unlike Green Day, it holds up and will retain it's spot on my wall. Fellowship is my favorite of the three. I like it because it's the simplest. You got the Fellowship making its way to Mordor and you got Saruman building his army to stop them. In the next two it becomes a bit complicated when the Fellowship splits up. Now you're following all these threads with all these different characters being introduced that you only get to half-know. If only my boy Boromir made it through the first one, that ring would have been in the lava by the middle of Two Towers.

5. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)
I was a big fan of Undeclared so I was looking forward to seeing this. Seth Rogen was still an unknown then. I remember people thinking Cal was played by Dustin Diamond. I think what makes this the best of the Apatow and Apatow-type comedies is Andy Stitzer. He's easily the most likeable of the leads in those kinds of movies.

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
This movie mixes sci-fi with a love story perfectly. Both parts are equally strong. I like all the stuff going on with the Lacuna employees as well as all the crazy mind-erase sequences. I think Elijah Wood's character is secret MVP of this movie, just because of how unprofessional he is.

3. Ratatouille (2007)
One of my favorite Pixar movies, second only to the Toy Stories, and I'd say it's the funniest of the bunch. I think Linguini is an underrated character. As far as my favorite Pixar characters, it goes: Woody, WALL-E then Linguini. And I also like how Remy is kind of an asshole.

2. The Dark Knight (2008)
It has the number one superhero and the number one and three villains so it had to be good. I saw the shit out of this summer of 08. I think I've seen it in theaters around 5 times, I could have recited the lines with them. Here's my top 5 yelled lines from Dark Knight: 1. "RACHEL!" 2. "LOOK AT ME!" 3. "WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN!" 4. "NO MORE DEAD COPS!" 5." MY DOGS ARE HUNGRY!"

1. School of Rock (2003)
If I catch this channel surfing I could watch it the whole way through. I'm not the biggest Jack Black fan but this movie uses him perfectly. All those Jack Black-isms that could be annoying in another context, work well here. Another thing this movie has going for it is its great soundtrack. If you're going to have a movie based around music, you need to make sure the musical performances are at least good. In "Be Cool" the whole movie is based around Christina Milians's character being the next big thing. But when she performs she's nothing special, yet Travolta and company are messing themselves over how great shes going to be. In "School of Rock", Jack Black talks about a great rock show changing lives and they actually put on a good performance at the end.

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Here's the final list:

50. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
49. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
48. I Love You, Man
47. Juno
46. Zathura
45. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
44. Up
43. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
42. Big Fish
41. Love, Actually
40. About A Boy
39. The Hangover
38. Napoleon Dynamite
37. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
36. No Country For Old Men
35. Sideways
34. Hot Rod
33. Star Trek
32. Unbreakable
31. X2
30. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
29. Be Kind Rewind
28. Holes
27. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
26. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

25. WALL·E

24. Serenity
23. Lilo & Stitch
22. Step Brothers
21. The Incredibles
20. Mean Girls
19. Old School
18. Funny People
17. Spider-Man 2
16. The Royal Tenenbaums
15. Elf
14. Ocean's Eleven
13. Knocked Up
12. Speed Racer
11. Superbad
10. Slumdog Millionaire
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. Observe and Report
7. Inglourious Basterds
6. The Lord of the Rings
5. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Ratatouille
2. The Dark Knight
1. School of Rock

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I used a weighted system to rank the years. I put the best movie from that year next to it.

10. 2006 - 2 movies on the list - Borat (#30)

9. 2000 - 2 movies on the list - O Brother, Where Art Thou (#27)

8. 2005 - 3 movies on the list - The 40-Year-Old Virgin (#5)

7. 2002 - 3 movies on the list - The Two Towers (#6)

6. 2001 - 3 movies on the list - The Fellowship of the Ring (#6)

5. 2007 - 7 movies on the list - Ratatouille (#3)

4. 2004 - 8 movies on the list - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (#4)

3. 2008 - 7 movies on the list - The Dark Knight (#2)

2. 2009 - 8 movies on the list - Inglourious Basterds (#7)

1. 2003 - 10 movies on the list - School of Rock (#1)

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Now here's some random unranked lists I made:

Top Villains:
The Joker from "The Dark Knight"
Hans Landa from "Inglourious Basterds"
Regina George from "Mean Girls"
Uncle Rico from "Napoleon Dynamite"
Derek from "Step Brothers"

Top Trios:
Ron, Hermione and Harry from the Harry Potter series
Batman, Harvey Dent and Commisioner Gordon from "The Dark Knight"
Mitch, Beanie and Frank from "Old School"
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas from "The Lord of the Rings"
Seth, Evan and Fogell from "Superbad"

Top Endings:
School of Rock - The Battle of the Bands
Be Kind Rewind - The Fats Waller movie getting a standing ovation
Speed Racer - The whole final race with all the flashbacks
Slumdog Millionaire - The last question until the dance number.
Ratatouille - Ego tasting the ratatouille followed by his review.

Top Inanimate Objects:
The house from "Up"
The Costco-sized detergent bottle filled with beer from "Superbad"
The tin Zathura game unit from "Zathura"
The boot with a plant in it from "WALL·E"
The ratatouille from "Ratatouille"

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Next up is probably a Mass Effect 2 related post and maybe some movie reviews. This post has kind of been clogging up the baselines for this blog. Take it easy til then.

TEAM CONAN

2010-01-20T02:00:00.000-08:00

I remember back in my freshman year of high school I used to watch Conan on this hefty little black and white TV that's been in the family since the early eighties. It was all dials and antennas and Sacramento's NBC station was one of the only channels that came in clear. So I'd watch Conan until the first sketch or guest then go to sleep. I've been watching Conan since I was in elementary school. I was so young that I remember "In the Year 2000" used to scare me. I used to think "If They Mated" was funny too. I still have Andy's last Late Night show on tape along with random sketches we'd tape on the cassette we'd record music videos on. I've put some thought into this, and Late Night With Conan O'Brien along with Saturday Night Live and the Simpsons probably did the most to shape my sense of humor, and I'm guessing a lot of other peoples too.

A while ago I was trying to pinpoint when I first started to really like Will Ferrell. I liked him on SNL but it was his bits on Conan that put him over the top in my eyes. My favorite is the pull-ups for charity/heckler one. I haven't seen it in a long time and it isn't on the 10th Anniversary DVD (They put the stand-up/heckler one on there. I like the pull-ups one better.) I like that Conan would let comedians do crazy bits like that. A more recent example would be Danny McBride doing Fred Simmons. I knew Danny McBride from Hot Rod but to me this cemented him as someone to watch.

My Conan Apperance - watch more funny videos

There is no point to this post besides saying that I'm team Conan. Also I hope Leno gets beat hard in the ratings. All Leno had going for him was that he seemed like a nice guy. Now he looks like an asshole. Conan is the future, his hair isn't even gray yet. NBC cut loose someone who could be their guy for the next 15-20 years to keep Leno, who anyone who can use a computer hates. I'm never watching Leno again, which is easy enough because I never watch him now. Where ever Conan ends up, that's where I'll be.

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Also I'm almost done rewatching my top ten movies of the decade. One of them is about nine hours long so I've been doing that one in chunks. Then after that it's just two more movies left. Then I'll shuffle the order around if needed and post it.

A Short Breather: What Movies Look Good for 2010

2010-01-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

Your Highness (October 1)

I was going to post my Top 10 movies of the decade, but I decided to rewatch the ones I can't recite the dialog along with. That means it's going to take a little time. So I decided to take a short breather and post the movies I'm looking forward to in 2010.

I realized a year is a long time while I was compiling this list. Most of these don't even have posters yet. I'm guessing that some of these dates will change, and some might even be bumped in to the next year. But not the first one on the list. It already has commercials out.

Hot Tub Time Machine (March 19 - IMDB) - Based on the title (and the trailer), this could be good. Since it's called Hot Tub Time Machine, I hope they're not afraid to go crazy with the comedy.

How To Train Your Dragon (March 28 - IMDB) - This is a computer animated movie by Dreamworks. Even so, I'm still interested because it's by the guys who made Lilo & Stitch.

Kick-Ass (April 16 - IMDB) - I've been on the Kick-Ass hype train since I saw the first trailer. I think I might do a media blackout for the rest of the way there.

MacGruber (April 23 - IMDB) - It's based on the SNL sketch. I like Will Forte and the SNL movies are never as bad as people make them out to be.

Iron Man 2 (May 7 - IMDB) - I like the trailer, but I'm worried that too many things have been added. Iron Man 2 has Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, & War Machine. That sounds like two too many. Hopefully they can all be balanced to make a Spider-Man 2 caliber movie.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28 - IMDB) - Mostly because I liked the video game. The movie looks average. I doubt this is going to be the next Pirates of the Caribbean.

Get Him To The Greek (June 11 - IMDB) - This is a spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's about Russel Brands' character Aldous Snow. He fell off the wagon and Jonah Hill needs to get him to the Greek.

Toy Story 3 (June 18 - IMDB) - Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are both in my Top 20 movies of all time, so of course I'm excited for this.

The Last Airbender (July 2 - IMDB) - Call me an optimist, but I think Shyamalan pulls this off in a big way. Wait. Cancel the "in a big way" part. I think it's going to be decent.

Dinner For Schmucks (July 23 - IMDB) - It has Zach Galafianakis, Paul Rudd & Steve Carell. It's a remake of some French movie about businessmen who bring idiots to dinner to see who found the stupidest one. I'm not sure how close the remake sticks to the source material.

The Other Guys (August 6 - IMDB) - This is the next Adam McKay/Will Ferell comedy. I'm sold.

Your Highness (October 1 - IMDB) - It's a comedy starring Danny McBride & James Franco in the Middle Ages. I'm sold.

Due Date (November 5 - IMDB) - It's a road trip comedy starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. I'm sold.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (November 15 - IMDB) - It's the beginning of the end. Half-Blood Prince came close to being as good as Prisoner of Azkaban, let's see if this could do it.

The Green Hornet (Dec 22 - IMDB) - Michel Gondry sells me on this more than Seth Rogen does.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (No Scheduled Release Date - IMDB) - I only have vague ideas what it's about, but I trust the guy who made Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. And apparently the source comic makes frequent references to Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario so it has that going for it too.

My Projected Top 5:
1.Toy Story 3
2.The Last Airbender
3.Kick-Ass
4.Deathly Hallows Part 1
5.The Other Guys

This reminds me of a game I want to play. What you do is predict the order of the top 10 summer blockbusters by domestic gross. You make and rank your list and the closer your prediction, the more points you get. I'll keep this in the back of my head until we get closer to summer.

Top 50 Movies of the Decade: 20-11

2010-01-07T04:24:00.001-08:00

Here's the list so far:

50. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
49. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
48. I Love You, Man
47. Juno
46. Zathura
45. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
44. Up
43. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
42. Big Fish
41. Love, Actually
40. About A Boy
39. The Hangover
38. Napoleon Dynamite
37. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
36. No Country For Old Men
35. Sideways
34. Hot Rod
33. Star Trek
32. Unbreakable
31. X2
30. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
29. Be Kind Rewind
28. Holes
27. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
26. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

25. WALL·E

24. Serenity
23. Lilo & Stitch
22. Step Brothers
21. The Incredibles

We're almost to the end. Here comes 20-11:

20. Mean Girls (2004)
It's funny how the least famous one at the time, Amanda Seyfried, has arguably the best career now. I call it the "Josie & the Pussycat Effect".

19. Old School (2003)
If you're reading this blog, you already know.
I love you,
Jeremiah

18. Funny People (2009)
The comedy to drama ratio in Funny People is closer to Freaks and Geeks than Apatow's earlier movies. This is definitely the least funniest of them, but I liked the story and the subject matter well enough.

17. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Doc Oc beats out Green Goblin by just a little bit for my favorite Spider-Man villain. I wish they didn't do Sandman in the third one and gave more time to Venom or vice versa. Or maybe focused on Harry more.

16. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
This movie wins Best Song Choices. "Me And Julio", "Hey Jude", "Ruby Tuesday", "These Days", "Police & Thieves" and more. This movie influenced my taste in music more than any other.

15. Elf (2003)
This decade has only produced one Holiday Classic, and Elf is it. It's funny and sweeter than syrup.

14. Ocean's 11 (2001)
This movie reminds me of Summer 2002. That's when it came out on DVD and I watched it over and over. My favorite characters are Rusty, Virgil Malloy and Frank Catton.

13. Knocked Up (2007)
Leslie Mann is MVP.

12. Speed Racer (2008)
Speed Racer has another one of my favorite endings. I liked the storytelling style of Speed Racer. The movie looked like a Eric Wareheim music video.

11. Superbad (2007)
I've never laughed as much in a theater than I did during the first 40 minutes of this movie. I remember the jokes didn't let up until they got to the first party.

TOP 10 COMING UP NEXT! If you know me you could probably guess what the top 10 are, but probably not the order. The top 10 is going to be a mega post so I might not be done with it in one day. But it will be done this week.

Top 50 Movies of the Decade: 30-21

2010-01-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

Here's the list so far:

30. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
I really wish he got to make a Ali G movie like this or Brüno before the character got too popular.

29. Be Kind Rewind (2008)
I have two favorite parts. The first is when they're eating after kicking that gang out of the store. They start talking about how they like The Lion King and the whole restaurant starts talking about how they like it too. The second is the ending. It's one of my favorite endings of the decade.

28. Holes (2003)
This is still Shia LaBeouf's best movie. My viewing experience was enhanced by my inability (at the time) to pick Patricia Arquette out of a line-up. I didn't know the teacher ended up being Kissin' Kate Barlow even though they clearly showed both of them being played by Patricia Arquette.

27. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Back to back Tim Blake Nelson movies! O Brother wins Best Soundtrack hands down.

26. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince are far above the rest of the movies in the Harry Potter series. This is the one where things got serious (wink) which set the tone for the rest of the series.

25. WALL·E (2008)
I hear that a lot of people don't like the Axiom portion of the movie but I think the whole movie is perfect. WALL·E is my robot best friend.

24. Serenity (2005)
Firefly is one of my favorite TV shows ever. This was its ending and it went big. Serenity is one of the few movies that truly convinces you that no one is safe.

23. Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Easily the best of the Disney's non-Pixar animated films of the decade. My favorite part of Lilo & Stitch are Lilo & Stitch (the movie is aptly named).

22. Step Brothers (2008)
Step Brothers is the best of the Adam McKay-directed Will Ferrell comedies. Step Brothers has the perfect amounts of story and crazy shit. Derek and Robert Doback are co-MVPs.

21. The Incredibles (2004)
People making superhero movies need to watch this to see how action sequences should be done. The story's better than most superhero movies too.

20-11 coming tomorrow. We're nearing the end. The top 10's going to have more than just the list. See ya.

Top 50 Movies of the Decade: 40-31

2010-01-07T04:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the list so far:
50. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
49. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
48. I Love You, Man
47. Juno
46. Zathura
45. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
44. Up
43. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
42. Big Fish
41. Love, Actually

Now here's 40-31:

40. About A Boy (2002)
Two UK comedies in a row. And they both feature a school concert in the climax. Get a new ending England. Geez.

39. The Hangover (2009)
Best Recycled Joke goes to the Dan Band for inappropriate wedding band. It was actually funnier this time. I think it was, "You be a nympho. I'll be a nympho." and Jeffery Tambor's disapproving look.

38. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
This movie has aged the worst on this list but some of it still holds up. "I caught you a delicious bass," isn't so funny anymore. But Napoleon killing Deb in tetherball is still hilarious.

37. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
The best of the Will Ferrell sports comedies, but not the best of the McKay comedies.

36. No Country For Old Men (2007)
I need to see this again. I remember really liking it. The next comment will be better.

35. Sideways (2004)
Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti get the award for Best Duo. I like how the same guy who says, "We drank a 95 Opus One. With smoked salmon and artichokes, but we didn't care," says this later in the movie, "Could I get a copy of Barely Legal. (The clerk grabs the magazine.) Oh, no - actually. The new one."

34. Hot Rod (2007)
I read an interview with the Lonely Island guys that said this wasn't a full out Lonely Island movie. If this was them at about a 6, I'd like to them at a 10.

33. Star Trek (2009)
There's not a weak spot on this cast. I'm predicting they will have a Dark Knight-caliber movie in this series with this new cast.

32. Unbreakable (2000)
"He must have an angel, cause look how death missed his ass/Unbreakable, what you think they'd call me Mr. Glass?" - "Through the Wire" by Kanye West. That had me sold on him. I never thought I'd hear an Unbreakable reference in a rap song.

31. X2 (2003)
Nightcrawler breaking into the White House is the best action sequence in a super hero movie ever. I talked about this before in a blog. If your character has superpowers, they should show them using their powers to their fullest potential. I don't think many superhero movies do that.

30-21 is coming tomorrow.

Top 50 Movies Of The Decade: 50-41

2010-01-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

I finished my Top 50 of the Decade list. Instead of spilling the beans all at once, I decided to gradually roll them out. This way I could add in those pretty pictures I love so much. And in case you were wondering, The Departed would have been number 51. Here's 50-41.

50. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
The first and best movie in the series. Dead Man's Chest and At World's End are a bit jumbled in my mind. But this one was simple and well done. This one was like A New Hope while the other two are like the Prequels.

49. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
This gets my award for Most Underrated Comedy.

48. I Love You, Man (2009)
This movie gets the award for Best Instance of Saying It's Title Within The Movie.

47. Juno (2007)
If you could get pass the annoying dialog it's actually pretty good. But it's rough, especially in the beginning. "You're eggo is preggo, home skillet." Ugh.

46. Zathura (2005)
The award for Children's Book Adaptation Movie All Star goes to Josh Hutcherson. This one was easily the best of those.

45. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
This beat out "50 First Dates" for Best Comedy Set In Hawai'i. The MVPs of this movie were the ladies, Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell.

44. Up (2009)
The only bad thing about "Up" is the adventure they go on. I didn't care for Kevin, the dogs or the old explorer. Everything else was perfect.

43. Kill Bill Vol 1. & 2. (2003 & 2004)
1. O-ren Ishii 2. Bill 3. Elle Driver 4. Vernita Green 5. Budd. That's how I rank the kills.

42. Big Fish (2003)
This movie gets the award for Most Baller Use Of Daffodils.

41. Love, Actually (2003)
If I had this on DVD I would make it part of my holiday traditions. I've been trying to work "The Terminal" in there too.

That was part one. I'll try to get the next part up soon.

Some Quick Resolutions for 2010

2010-01-03T04:31:00.000-08:00

2010 is upon us and like most people, I've come up with resolutions. It's late and I'm tired so this one will be short.

Watch more movies. I saw "It's A Wonderful Life" towards the end of 2009, and I ended up loving it. I thought maybe the dialog or story would not have aged well but it still works like gangbusters today. It inspired me to check out not just other classics but movies that aren't comedies or comic book based (though I'm still highly anticipating "Kick-Ass".)

Write more. I think my writing skills might have atrophied. I was rereading my Avatar review and thought it was still clunky. And I could have expressed myself better. I will hone my writing skills in the new year. Sharpen them into a lethal killing machine. And when I slay my first victim, not even Grissom would be able to solve that shit.

Read more. This is to help with the writing. I do read a ton on the internet, but a good deal of that is unfiltered trash that misspell "rediculous". I will read stuff that has been through the hands of an editor.

Exercise more. I started working out in November. I started out slow but I was eventually up to 4 days of week of lifting weights and cardio. Then the holidays hit. The busy weeks leading up to Christmas I slowed down. The week between Christmas and New Years I came to a complete stop. I'm pretty sure the little progress I've made has been undone days of consecutive big dinners. But I've heard this is a common story. I've heard Ross on "Friends" talking about still having some "holiday weight" on him. This year I will finally start taking an exercise regiment seriously.

Buy more music. I'd like to put money in the pockets of peoples music that I think deserve it. Wale and Flight of the Conchords, I will purchase your albums when I come in to some money. Elvis and the Beatles, sorry dudes. You're already rich as fuck. Maybe someday when I'm rich as fuck also.

I still got that "Best Movies of the 00s" coming so look out for that. I also plan on making a "Most Anticipated Movies of 10" list while we're still in the dead zone of January. By the way, I'm still trying to get used to saying "ten" to refer to the year. Like "Remember the Falo Reunion in San Diego we had back in 10?" It sounds funny, but I'm sure as sugar cookies not going to say "oh-ten". Leave the "oh's" back in the 2000s. And leave the "two-thousands" with it. BECAUSE IT'S TWENTY TEN BITCHES! ENJOY YOURSELF!

My Top Movies of 2009 (And Why Avatar is No Where Near It)

2009-12-28T03:29:00.000-08:00

I saw Avatar in 3D this past Saturday. I was not feeling it. I give it a C-. I find that I grade comedies a lot easier than any other genres because a good joke is able to cover up an uninteresting story for me. What doesn't make up for a boring story is visuals and action. Pandora was a cool looking place, with it's floating mountains and glowing trees, but the movie can't get by on that alone. I realized at the point where Jake Sully (in Avatar state) was climbing the floating rocks to take the Dragon Taming test, that this would have been better as a video game. In a video game the graphics are rightfully the star over storytelling. It would have made a nice level in Mass Effect. The visuals is always the main thing brought up in positive reviews of Avatar. While I enjoyed the look of the movie, I don't think it's as innovative as people say. These creatures could have come out of the Star Wars Prequels. I've seen more innovative aliens in Mass Effect (sidenote: Mass Effect 2 in one month!) It had the 7-foot-tall big brain cloud with long legs. And the ones that look like an elephant without any ears, trunks, or tusks, who were also intelligent life forms. In Avatar, all the wildlife you encounter in the jungle could be described as an earth animal with "space" inserted in front of it. You have the space rhino, the space panther, the space dogs, and the space dragons. Even the Navi just look like blue versions of Manute Bol. The world of Pandora was interesting, but it was nothing special.

If you don't go gaga over the visuals, all you're left with is the predictable story. You know that he's going to bond with the natives and eventually fight for them against the evil corporation/military. I'm not against predictability in movies because most movies are, but if you're going to tell a familiar story it should be told an interesting way. In Avatar, it's all really obvious and on the nose. The villains are greedy and irredeemably evil. The natives have a special connection to the land and values that are not understood by the corporation. Of course greed is bad. Of course the lives of the natives are worth saving. There's no gray areas in this movie and that makes for a boring time watching supposedly breath-taking sequence after sequence.

Also 3D is useless unless you're in IMAX. Or maybe you need to sit close to the screen. I didn't get the immersion experience in the four 3D movies I saw in the past year except for A Christmas Carol, which I saw in IMAX.

Avatar is all eye candy. That's cool, but it wasn't enough for me. I like this movie the way I like Transformers 2. The big difference is everyone knew that Transformers is silly while everyone is firmly attached to the nuts of Avatar. When I read the praise being thrown at Avatar I feel like I've taken crazy pills. I mean, I rank Phantom Menace ahead of this. Is this some temporary high everyone is on? Is there a backlash looming? Can I lead it?

On a (somewhat) separate note, they showed the trailer for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief before the movie. It looks like an okay flick but I got worried when they showed Percy Jackson having the ability to control water. He's a waterbender. I watched a trailer for a movie about a waterbender before a movie called Avatar. Ain't that a bitch.

The Last Airbender is coming out the same day as the next Twilight, and if it has a good trailer and ad campaign, I think it has a chance of beating it opening weekend. I think it has a wider appeal. (Ed.- On second thought, I think teenage girls would see Twilight twice just to make sure it's number one. I think it could be close though.) There was supposed to be a trailer on Christmas day, but it was delayed into the next year. I really hope Shyamalan doesn't shit the bed on this one.

Enough with the Avatar shit and on to my list of the top movies of 2009. I was going to do a Top 10 but I realized that there might not be 10 movies worth mentioning. Here's my list along with a part of the movie I liked.

THE GOOD:

9. Taken
Liam Neeson shooting his French contact's wife after telling him desk duty has made him soft.

8. I Love You, Man
The reveal of the billboards. You could breathe a sigh of relief after Sydney asked for the loan.

7. Hangover
Alan. That guy killed it.

6. Up
I liked the main theme. And the dog cracking the bottle of wine cracked my shit up in the theater.

THE GREAT:

5. Star Trek
Bones McCoy and Scotty were my favorite characters so I liked Scotty's introduction and the sequence with Kirk's swollen hands.

4. Funny People
"Yeah she's good, but Cameron Diaz? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
"That's just weak songwriting. You wrote a bad song, Petey."

2. Observe and Report
"So...uh, I thought this was going to be kinda funny. But it's actually kinda sad, so...I'll catch you later Harrison."

1. Inglourious Basterds
Hans Landa. He's this years Joker.

I'm going to update this list in a year because I still haven't seen a couple movies that might sneak on here (District 9, Princess and the Frog, Where the Wild Things Are) and I need to rewatch some of these to see if they should move up or down (Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox). I'm also working on a best of the decade list.

And It Look Like, They Asses is Swollen...

2009-12-04T01:21:00.000-08:00

Somehow the 2002 Busta Rhymes song "Pass the Courvoisier, Part 2 (feat. Diddy & Pharrell)" got stuck in my head. I brought it up on itunes and was reminded that the version I had was low quality. The sound quality was bad, there's a couple of skips and some DJ yells "YEAH" during one of the verses (He only did it once. He's the most timid DJ I've ever heard.) I fired up LimeWire to grab the newer high quality rip that I undoubtedly knew to be there. I downloaded a couple versions and they were ALL THE SAME FILE I HAD FROM 2002! It's been damn near 8 years and no one has upped a new version of it. Maybe it's because the song was ultimately forgettable (Diddy's voice really fucks up the song. The chorus is still good though.) Or maybe p2p network users don't give a shit about sound quality. Probably both.

On a related note, the "Don't Touch Me (Remix)" was the best Busta song to come out in a while.

I started a new last.fm. Here it goes.

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Now playing: Busta Rhymes - Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See
via FoxyTunes