My 2008 Resolution

Here is MY unique 2008 Resolution:

This is a list of www.theyshootpictures.com TOP 100 Greatest Films of all Time. By the end of '08 I plan to have seen them all.

Here is the list as well as the one's I've already seen:

1 Citizen Kane (SEEN)
2 Vertigo (SEEN)
3 The Rules of the Game
4 2001: A Space Odyssey (SEEN)
5 8 1/2
6 The Godfather (SEEN)
7 The Searchers
8 Seven Samurai (SEEN)
9 Tokyo Story
10 Sunrise
11 Singin' in the Rain (SEEN)
12 Battleship Potemkin
13 Lawrence of Arabia
14 L'Atalante
15 Bicycle Thieves
16 The Passion of Joan of Arc
17 The Godfather: Part II (SEEN)
18 Raging Bull (SEEN)
19 Rashomon (SEEN)
20 Casablanca (SEEN)
21 City Lights
22 Touch of Evil
23 The Third Man (SEEN)
24 La Dolce vita
25 Les Enfants du paradis
26 La Grande illusion
27 The General
28 Some Like it Hot
29 Breathless
30 Psycho (SEEN)
31 Sunset Blvd.
32 Persona
33 L'Avventura
34 The Gold Rush
35 Chinatown
36 The Magnificent Ambersons
37 Ordet
38 Taxi Driver (SEEN)
39 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (SEEN)
40 Jules et Jim
41 Rear Window (SEEN)
42 Seventh Seal (SEEN)
43 The Night of the Hunter
44 Apocalypse Now (SEEN)
45 Contempt
46 The 400 Blows
47 It's A Wonderful Life (HALF SEEN)
48 Andrei Rublev (SEEN)
49 Intolerance
50 Ugetsu monogatari
51 M (SEEN)
52 Modern Times
53 Wild Strawberries
54 La Strada
55 Blade Runner
56 The Wild Bunch
57 Pather Panchali
58 Rio Bravo
59 North by Northwest (SEEN)
60 Au hasard Balthazar
61 The Wizard of Oz (SEEN)
62 Gone with the Wind
63 The Mirror (SEEN)
64 Greed
65 The Conformist
66 Fanny and Alexander
67 The Apartment
68 Nashville
69 Metropolis
70 Pickpocket
71 The Leopard
72 Playtime
73 Madame de...
74 Letter from an Unknown Woman
75 Notorious
76 Pierrot le fou
77 Ikiru (SEEN)
78 Sansho the Bailiff
79 Viridiana
80 once Upon A Time in the West (SEEN)
81 Voyage in Italy
82 Sherlock Jr.
83 All About Eve
84 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
85 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
86 My Darling Clementine
87 Last Year at Marienbad
88 Bringing up Baby
89 L'Age d'or
90 Barry Lyndon (SEEN)
91 Double Indemnity
92 Amarcord
93 A Clockwork Orange (SEEN)
94 To Be or Not to Be
95 The Man With a Movie Camera
96 His Girl Friday
97 Gertrude
98 On the Waterfront
99 Noseraftu
100 Broken Blossoms

If by some miracle I finish this before '08 ends, I'll probably start watching all of the Best Picture Academy Award Winners. I think I would be more up for it now that I've gotten myself used to ancient movies. Haha.

Cheers to '08! Happy New Year

Mystic River

Who would of thunk that Clint Eastwood, the kick ass cowboy from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(my #4 favorite movie of all time) would make an awesome director? And he directed a drama at that! And a fine film this drama, this Mystic River, is.

The films opening scene is of a typical New York neighborhood. Three young boys play street hockey, but lose their ball to a sewer. They come across a wet block of cement in the sidewalk and take turns writing their names in the wet cement; Jimmy, Sean and Da... but Dave is unable to finish as a black car pulls up to the house. A man steps out and tells the boys that he is a cop. He asks each of them where they live then orders Dave into the back of his car. He tells the other boys not to mess up any more sidewalks or he'll come back and beat them. We are then shown that the man is not a cop, but a kidnapper who takes Dave away. He does (thankfully unseen) horrible things to him, before Dave escapes. However, these events will not only affect Dave further down the road, but Sean and Jimmy as well.

We then jump twenty some years down the road. Dave is married with a son. Jimmy is an ex-con with a family and Sean is a cop whose wife has left him for an unspecified reason. After the murder of Jimmy's daughter the three are thrown into a whirlwind of events that lead to an explosive and tragic conclusion.

Eastwood's film is effective, chilling, intense and all around wonderful. The performances from the entire cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney are excellent and some were even Oscar nominated.

The two and a half hour run time feels drastically shorter thanks to the captivating story and near perfect pacing. The cinematography and other technical elements such as lighting and even music are quite excellent.

Though the film is not without flaws such as a rather unsatisfying (yet realistic) ending and probably a bit too much unnecessary exposition. Nevertheless, this film kept me on the edge of my seat and had enough mystery to keep me guessing until the final revelation.

In the end, however, this film is about human suffering.What things we suffer through tragedy and trauma can make a person do. And how pain and anger causes a human to do rash and unjust things. It's a brutal reality that Eastwood isn't afraid to show in a gritty light. And when the final credits roll one most consider the fact that justice isn't always served, and that the world is a dark and cruel place.

8/10

Rated R for Violence and Language.

Falling Slowly

"Take this sinking boat and point it home,
we've still got time. Raise your hopeful voice,
you have a choice,
you've made it now."




A really nice scene from a sweet movie.

G' Day

I know that you might think it a bit weird that I'm online on Christmas day, but in my family Christmas day is the most uneventful day of the year. We get up, exchange gifts, stuff our faces and then do nothing all day long. It's pretty freaking grand. I think that is the way Jesus would have wanted it. I watched two films today: Once and Rain Man both of which were very nice movies.


Fear not, however, for this blog post is not going to be just a recap of my uneventful Christmas day, but instead I'm going to blog about something I love very, very much (and if you don't know by know that I love this you're under a rock): film. As much as I love and appreciate the medium this doesn't mean that it does not have a dark side.





So, that being said I present you with the theme for the day:




My BOTTOM 10 Films of 2007
This list may cause a bit of controversy, but keep in mind that these are merely my opinions and I do not speak for any others.)


DISCLAIMER: I haven't seen the so called worst films of the year such as Epic Movie and Transformers, so that is why this list doesn't include them. If I had seen said movies, they probably would have made the list.




10. The Invisible



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435670/

An absolutely dull and uninspired movie that drags you into the pits of teen angst and despair. Riddled with stupid plot point after stupid plot point it stumbles down a predictable road into a completely sappy ending with absolutely no substance. Justin Chatwin is dull and emotionless throughout the entirety of his performance and the rest of the cast isn't much better. There is no and we are instead treated to one whiny emo song after another blaring over the film and completely ruining the film. I had high hopes for this one but was sadly let down.




9. Dan in Real Life

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480242/

I am going to be slaughtered for this, but I don't care. I found this movie to be very mediocre. A movie that almost seemed to demand that I be charmed by it that is full to the brim with ROMCOM cliches and a terribly ridiculous plot. The situations, dialogue, and overall structure of the film were tiresome and dull. While not devoid of it's positive points such as nice acting (except Dane Cook who should disappear forever), genuinely funny moments and a wonderful soundtrack, I was mostly turned off and unimpressed by this film. I guess the horrific Dane Cook performance, awkwardly hidden cliches, unlikable characters and a script that screamed, "I'M WITTY AND CHARMING! GIVE ME AN ORIGINAL SCREEN PLAY OSCAR," just really didn't work for me as it seemed to for others.

8. Spider-Man 3

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413300/

Without a doubt, the most disappointing movie of the year. I am quite smitten with the first two Spider-Man flicks, but this one seemed... off. A ridiculous plot that made me roll my eyes on several occasions that gave way to numerous unnecessary subplots made this film convoluted, uneven and heavy handed. The characters I fell in love with in the first two movies seemed in this one as if they were strangers masquerading as the old ones. The writing was terrible and the sappy, we-learned-that-revenge-is-bad ending was the break in the Titanic's hull. An overall terrible disappointment.

7. Pirates of the Caribbean

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449088/

Yet another disappointment of a movie. Though entertaining for the first hour, the film is horribly misguided and overly complex with an over the top climax that ultimately didn't satisfy me. I'm not one to hate on action films because their action films, but this one just didn't work. Johnny Depp's weird Jack Sparrow is worn out and Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are desperately obnoxious. Stupid plot twists, dull yet confusing character interactions and a preposterous and cringe worthy wedding scene made this film... well.. bad.

6. The Last Mimzy

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768212/

What the heck was this movie? What was the point? I don't even need to say anything else.

5. In the Land of Women

See here:

http://hs.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=20883226048&id=604895990&index=12

4. The Messengers

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425430/

This movie was a terrible horror film. Not a laugh out loud funny kind of horror film, not a so bad it's good horror film, it's just a flat out suckfest! Kristin Stewart is a terrible actress and her career should never go anywhere! The direction, cinematography, scare scenes and plot twists were misguided and felt as though they had been done by a ten year old( although I think a 10 year old could make a better movie). Terrible and a waste of 90 mins. of my life.

3. Thr3e

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486028/

Thr3e is one of my favorite Dekker novels and I was excited to see the adaptation. Boy, what a stinker. Everyone involved in this project took Dekker's book and raped it several times over. Terrible acting, directing, writing, camera work, etc. made me want to puke because the source material for this film is so good. I am now officially scared for any upcoming Dekker or Peretti adaptations as I know that they will receive the same brutal treatment as this one did.

2. Licence to Wed

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762114/

What a horrendous movie. Dan in Real Life had cleverly hidden cliches while this one had blatant and unashamed cliches doing a jig for the entire hour and half running time. Mandy Moore and Robin Williams were absolutely terrible and while the awesome John Krasinski gave in a good turn it wasn't enough to save this train wreck. The sad thing was...it was too bad to look away. I couldn't bring myself to turn it off and I horribly regretted it. This is the reason why I dislike modern romantic comedies so much. Where did the 90's ROMCOM's go?

1. High School Musical 2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810900/

Is it possible to say that there is a worse movie than the first High School Musical? Yes. It's putrid sequel HSM 2. And what saddens me even more is that the masses of the MTV generation have been fooled into thinking that this singing and dancing piece of turd is actually quality! I can accept when people say that Transformers is the best film of the year, because I mean at least that looks like quality trash. This, however, is unacceptable! It's blatantly disgusting and in all honesty thematically repulsive. At least the first film was for individuality and acceptance. This one seemed to almost be the opposite. Troy was a complete and utter pushover for the entire film. He let his friends and his girlfriend walk the heck all over him and in the end nobody got their comeupance. Don't even get me going on the terrible musical numbers. This is, without a doubt, the worst movie of 2007.

2007

Here's a video I made recapping the highlights of '07.




Here's to 2008!

Cheers!

Is it for real?

I'm really bad with lists and they change all the time and I even made one a few months back that I thought I was proud of... until I saw about 10 films that kicked the butts of several films on that list.
However, this list is one that I'm confident in and that I think will stand for awhile:



Top 30:
1. The Breakfast Club (1985) John Hughes

2.Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick

4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone

5. Taxi Driver (1976) Martin Scorsese

6. Stalker (1979) Andrei Tarkovsky

7. Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino

8.12 Monkeys (1995) Terry Gilliam

9. Fearless (1993) Peter Weir

10. Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock

11. Unbreakable (2002) M. Night Shyamalan

12. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock

13.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Michel Gondry

14. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick

15. The Mirror (1975) Andrei Tarkovsky

16. 12 Angry Men (1957) Sidney Lumet

17. The Godfather: Part II (1974) Francis Ford Coppola

18. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Alfred Hitchcock

19. Silence of the Lambs (1991) Jonathan Demme

20. Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurosawa

21. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Guilmerro del Toro

22. The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola

23. Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock

24. Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa

25. The Village (2004) M. Night Shyamalan

26. Barry Lyndon (1975) Stanley Kubrick

27. Reservoir Dogs (1992) Quentin Tarantino

28. Children of Men (2006) Alfonso Cuaron

29. Singin' in the Rain (1952) Gene Kelly

30. Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz

Thoughts and comments are appreciated. As you can see my favorite decades for film are the 50's and 70's. And I still haven't given up on modern films either.

THE END

Thoughts and Feelings for the Day- December 16, 2007

It is an amazing feeling to do something for others. I can't even begin to put it into words what an amazing thing it was to watch as those children received their brand new bicycles. The utter joy and gratitude was something that one had to see to understand. It blows my mind how society ruins Christmas and then how we all sit around and complain about it. Talk is cheap. If you want the real meaning of the season then get the hell off of your ass and go do something worthwhile! Even the smallest thing can mean something. Let's be selfless for a bit and bless others, because in the end it will bless you as well.

I think that, for the first time in my life, I understand what it means to love somebody. It's something I can't really comprehend, but this isn't the same as the last few times. There is something that seems right about it. It's almost like I'm being nudged in that direction. I can't really explain it because it goes way beyond my emotions. And you know what, it is so important to me that I'm willing to wait. I'm willing to wait until the time is right and God says: "
Go ahead." I don't care how long it takes. This doesn't seem typical. I don't think it is. this isn't me in over my head or judging something based on a feeling.

I'm so ready for 2008. While 2007 has been an important year and a year of major growth for me it hasn't been pretty. I really feel that 2008 is the year for positive change. It's basically like God planned it this way:

2006 was the year of my ultimate downfall as a human being.
2007 was a year of rethinking things and growing up the hard way.
and for 2008 I feel like God is telling me that things around me are going to start looking up and that I'm really going to start walking in my destiny. This encourages me and makes my troubles from the past two years seem pointless. There's just a couple more things to get out of the way. Gotta put my faith in the one who saves.

I'm also renouncing my stance as a hardcore cynic. I still have some hope for humanity and... as ashamed as I may be to admit it... I'm actually a bit of a sentimentalist. Yet, fear not my friends, for I hope to keep a healthy balance of cynicism and sentimentality in 2008.

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease (and there goes my sentimental side),

-Bradley

Thoughts and Feelings for the Day- December 13, 2007

I feel like I need to blog, but I don't really know what about. I just feel like I have something pent up that needs to come out. Not really sure what to do with it, so I'm just going to ramble and hope that something even slightly coherent comes out.

I have been extremely tired this week and I don't really see how that can be as I've gotten plenty of sleep. I'm honestly just crediting it to stress. It's kind of a sad thought to think about the fact that even when I graduate high school, there will be a whole new set of stressful things to bug me. It just blows my mind how fast paced life is. It's almost as though humans have come to a point where they want to be on the go 24/7 and we never take time to recooperate. It catches up with us. I never want to come to a place where I'm too busy to take time to just stop moving and just sleep or something.

In many cases, alot of my solace comes from losing myself in a film, but this week hasn't really given me opportunity to do such a thing even though I've got three that I'm dying to watch. Maybe over the weekend things will calm down a bit and I can chill out and watch a flick.

This has probably been one of the most difficult December's of my entire life. So much crap has been popping up and it has started to drive me crazy. I do, however, find solace in the fact that I have Jesus on my side and he is the onl one that could keep me going.

SO, here are my thoughts of the day condensed:

Slow down every once in awhile.
I need to watch the Tarkovsky and Leone films that I rented.
December has been hard, but Jesus keeps me going.

THE END.

Well, well, well...

My dear friends and people I don't know. Here I am. Xanga wasn't cutting it anymore, and I have ventured into this universe. I very much dislike change, but believe this one may be for the best. For some reason or the other I have really been feeling the need for a change. Small as this one was...it's a change.

Life is a funny thing. Not funny in the HAHA sense, but funny in the "hmm that's interesting" sense. I don't even know what I want to say, but man...it's funny.

Just so everyone knows, I'm not the type of blogger that writes about current events in my life. The only thing I basically ever blog are my deep thoughts, feelings and FILM REVIEWS! That's correct. Not only will you see deep into my brain and emotional spectrum, but you will also get complimentary film reviews FREE OF CHARGE! Every week! 'Cause I watch a lot of them.

I really have nothing else to say for now. Guh' bye all. I be all up in yo bitzness soon!

-Bradley