Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Top Ten Favorite Movies 2008

1 - Dark Knight

2 - In Bruges

3 - Wall-E

4 - Iron Man

5 - Forgetting Sarah Marshall

6 - Cloverfield

7 - Role Models

8 - The Strangers

9 - Pineapple Express

10 - Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Friday, December 12, 2008

Top Christmas Movies

1. A Christmas Story - I cannot say it is truly Christmas until I have seen this movie. I probably end up watching parts of the movie every year and never get the whole way through. Once I decided to just sit down and watch it from start to finish. I found out I really liked the movie even better after watching it all without commericals. This movie is now as traditional to me as anything else.

It has humor, heart, and captures what Christmas means to children especially well. The director, Bob Clark also directed another famous Christmas movie, Black Christmas. That was a horror movie which is said to have spawned such slasher movies as Halloween. Good work Mr Clark.

2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Another personal favorite of mine. This is called Christmas Vacation but the Griswold gang never leaves Chicago. Instead all of the family visits and the hijinks ensue. I love the humor and dark comedy of the movie. The film still makes me laugh everytime I see it and has many memorable lines and performances. This is an annual holiday must watch for me.

3. How The Grinch Stole Christmas - Not sure this one needs much explanation. The movie is short but is bure bliss. I love the voice of Boris Karloff and the animation is classic. If you haven't seen this yet, where the hell have you been? Ps, this is the 1966 version, not that Jim Carrey stuff.

4. Elf - A new movie that has really started to make its way as a must see every year type film. Will Ferell plays Buddy the Elf, who goes to NY after being born and raised as Santas Elf in the North Pole.
The direction and look of the movie are very well done. Credit John Favreau for a job well done. The movie is for all ages and is a good family movie with many memorable scenes that leave you laughing. Also look for a cameo from Peter Billingsley, who plays Ralphie in A Christmas Story.


5. Scrooged - Bill Murray is hilarious in this re-telling of A Christmas Carol. I never really liked the story of A Christmas Carol, as you can probably tell by my list. But this more modern version is done with a lot of dark humor and Murray is just great as a mean boss who learns the errors of his ways.

6. The Nightmare Before Christmas - Before it sold out this was a really neat little movie. Ok it still is a neat movie. I remember making my dad see this movie because I thought it looked cool way back in 1993. The movie shows an outsiders look on Chirstmas, and has many memorable songs and images. The movie is just fun.


7. Die Hard - Ok, so the movie is more about terroists than Christmas...BUT it is offically a Christmas movie! Bruce Willis' character John McClane even writes HO HO HO NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN on a guy in his own blood, tell me thats not Christmas spirit!

8. Home Alone - A movie I really was into as a kid. Now I just have fond memories of the movie and wondered what happened to Malkuly Culkin. The movie is more about a kid alone and Christmas but does revolove around the holiday and he even goes out and buys his own tree. I wonder if kids today are still impressed with this movie as I was back in 1990, wow 1990! Where has the time gone?


9. Gremlins - Gremlins rules, it is both funny and scary, if your 12 or younger. The movie takes place during the Holidays. Billy gets Gizmo as a Christmas present from his dad. Did I mention that Gizmo is so frickin cute? Here is photographic evidence:
If you haven't seen this movie you are sure missing out. It uses puppets, no CGI in this movie. Gremilns will always have a spot in my heart and the fact that it takes place at christmas is all the better.


10. Frosty the Snowman - I am going with the animated version for this one. I just think the look of Frosty from the animated version is very iconic to me. I really enjoyed this as a kid and think it still hold up well to this day.



...Well thats my list for this year. It could change depending on what new movies come out but if you haven't seen this great holiday movies I suggest you go rent them and enjoy the holidays!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

80's Nostalgia

I was a pretty big fan of the Ghostbusters when I was a kid. For instance I have a picture of me from my class picture day in second grade and I am wearing a Ghosbusters shirt. I really was a fan of the first movie and of the tv show and comic book The Real Ghostbusters. I guess the show had the "Real" before it because they wanted to make it seem different then the adult movie, which it was since it was a saturday morning cartoon for kids, but i was just a huge fan of it.

I also had tons of the real ghostbusters toys. I still have in my garage the firestation playhouse, which is the main HQ of the ghostbusters, and I have the ecto 1 car and a few other toys still.

With all thing 80's being popular again I think Ghostbusters is prime for a comeback. There have been a lot of talks about a new movie or a remake or a movie with the original cast handing off the reigns to a new younger cast, whatever! Anyway the movies are starting to make there way back into the masses and I think people are happy to see them again. For instance there is a new Ghostbusters game coming out very soon, and it is voiced by all the orginal actors from the movie. Yes, even Bill Murray does a voice in the game. It takes place after Ghostbusters 2, and has me pretty much wanting to get a video game really bad for the first time in a long time. Check out the first trailer from the video games, it looks pretty fun.


I think the game looks really cool and I can't wait to play it.