My 100 Favourite Movies: Prelude

A long time ago, when I was a different person, I was goaded into making a list of every movie I'd ever seen. I've told the story before, so if you know me you've probably heard it, and if you haven't, sorry, the re-telling will dredge up unhappy memories. And when that list was compiled, I thought, "Finally! I have completed this time-intensive project with little-to-no value to the world! And now...I'm bored." So I decided to make a list of my top 100 favourite movies.

That was just over five years ago. And in five years, yours truly can rack up a LOT of new movie-watching experiences. So I decided to re-vamp the list back in December, and due to some procrastinating, some life stuff, and some repeated fiddling with the order, I finally completed it. It took quite a while to do; I whittled my master list (over 2000 distinct movies) into a shortlist of about 250, then whittled that down to a shorterlist of about 140, and then viciously cut the last 40 out. Then, in a process that took WAY too many steps to recount here, I finally ordered them into some semblance of an order. Due to the nature of this task, and the nature of ordering in general, if I was to do it another month from now, things might shift around a little bit, but generally everything's where it should be, plus or minus five slots. And I'm very happy with the top 20, and have almost nothing to change about those ones.

But I'm not here to talk about the new list. I'm here, for a moment, to talk about the old one. Some of the entries are a little embarassing now, but a number of them are still classics, and some of them are unfortunate but necessary casualties on a list where I've likely seen over eight hundred new movies since I first started it. So take a look. It's both a reminder of someone that I used to be and, when compared to the list I'll be posting over the next few weeks (few months?), an indication of someone that I may become.

My 100 Favourite Movies: 2006 Edition
100. Casino Royale (2006)

99. Edward Scissorhands

98. Shall We Dance?

97. To Kill A Mockingbird

96. King Kong (1933)

95. The African Queen

94. Babe: Pig in the City

93. The Killer

92. Die Hard

91. The Man Who Would Be King

90. Men With Brooms

89. The Shop Around The Corner

88. High Fidelity

87. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

86. Vertigo

85. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

84. Hellboy

83. Out of Sight

82. Dead Ringers

81. Hallowe'en

80. The Producers

79. Monty Python's Life of Brian

78. X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes

77. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

76. This Is Spinal Tap

75. The 40 Year Old Virgin

74. It's A Wonderful Life

73. Star Wars

72. True Lies

71. From Russia With Love

70. Spider-Man

69. Brazil

68. Kill Bill, Vol. 2

67. Alien

66. The Wild Bunch

65. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

64. The Great Dictator

63. Seconds

62. The Iron Giant

61. L.A. Story

60. Psycho

59. A Fish Called Wanda

58. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

57. Some Like It Hot

56. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

55. Man Bites Dog

54. Mrs. Brown

53. The Muppet Movie

52. Wings of Desire

51. Casablanca

50. Grand Illusion

49. Rushmore

48. Duck Soup

47. American Beauty

46. The Matrix

45. L.A. Confidential

44. The Manchurian Candidate

43. The Princess Bride

42. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

41. Fargo

40. When Harry Met Sally….

39. Leon

38. The Wizard of Oz

37. Frankenstein

36. Blade Runner

35. Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

34. Miller's Crossing

33. Dark City

32. M*A*S*H

31. Rashomon

30. A Hard Day's Night

29. Maltese Falcon

28. The Kid

27. Battleship Potemkin

26. Touch of Evil

25. Raiders of the Lost Ark

24. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

23. Bride of Frankenstein

22. Roxanne

21. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

20. Apocalypse Now

19. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

18. Pulp Fiction

17. The Usual Suspects

16. The Empire Strikes Back

15. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

14. Life is Beautiful

13. Mallrats

12. Unforgiven

11. The Last Temptation of Christ

10. Singin' In The Rain

9. The Searchers

8. It Happened One Night

7. The Rules of the Game

6. The Godfather

5. Dr. Strangelove

4. City Lights

3. The Godfather, Part II

2. Citizen Kane

1. Seven Samurai

What's Up Wednesday - October 5, 2011

So did you know that since the reign of Queen Victoria, the last Wednesday in September has been given the name "Second Tuesday"? That's because it's not true. I missed a week. Oh well! Let's see what I found interesting in the past two weeks.

* * * *

Music
I love The Muppets and am a big fan of off-beat covers, so when I saw The Green Album I knew I would eventually have to give it a spin. It starts off really promising: OK Go!'s cover of "The Muppet Show Theme" is weird and groovy, although it goes on a little too long. Things pick up with Weezer & Hayley Williams's cover of The Rainbow Connection, which gives us a harp doing the traditional banjo riff and a beautiful two-part harmony for the last verse. The Fray's "Manah-Manah" sounds nearly the same as the TV version, which is okay but nothing special. And then there's the Alkaline Trio's version of "Movin' Right Along" which could be my favourite song on the album: it's a fusion of the band's sound with the spirit of the original, where the band plays with it just enough to make it interesting without completely destroying the song. My Morning Jacket's version of "Our World," a song I've never heard before, is a nice little song that would be easily performed by both Muppets and rock stars.

And then...things start going downhill. Amy Lee does a creepy version of "Halfway Down The Stairs," which needs that kind of interpretation like Archie Andrews needs a goth-style makeover. Another lowlight is a really awkward version of one of my favourite Muppet songs ever, "I Hope That Something Better Comes Along" - a human should not sing lyrics like "What could be better than a saucy Irish Setter" straightforwardly. An adequate version of "It's Not Easy Being Green" almost pulls us out of the nose-dive, but then the album closes with Rachael Yamagata's version of "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" which seems weirdly-orchestrated just for the sake of being weird, and is truly unfortunately mixed (I don't need to hear the soft tisues of your mouth sliding against each other when you're singing). I like about half the album and the rest either underhwlmes me or makes me frustrated thinking about how much better it could have been.

* * * *

Comics
I have been curious about Matt Wagner's Grendel comics for a few years, so last week I got off my ass and took Grendel: Behold The Devil out of the library. If I had done my research I would have discovered that this was one of the last books in the series, but I decided to try it anyhow, figuring every comic is someone's first and that it might hook me hard enough to want to seek out the other comics. And boy, did it. In this volume Grendel is Hunter Rose, bestselling author by day and brutal crime kingpin by night. Behold The Devil is an examination of a "lost" episode in his life, and if this is anything like the earlier comics then I am in. Beautifully illustrated, perfectly paced, this tale of violence unfolds step by glorious step until the surprise (to me) ending. The violence is absolutely exq$uisite; the first five pages of Chapter One completely blew me away. I will be back for more, definitely, and will re-read this one with relish when I get back to its spot in publishing continuity.

* * * *

Movies
I saw Drive yesterday and it is GOOOOOOOD. It's not the big dumb action movie they're trying to sell it as, although sharp-eyed viewers would probably have figured that out by the use of pink font on the posters and trailers. It's a thoughtful, suspenseful action film, more along the lines of a Point Blank or To Live& Die In L.A. than a Fast & The Furious. I've heard a few people say the 70s & 80s homage is slap-dash and unsatisfying, but I really feel there's a lot to like. There are a number of very quiet moments, nearly TOO quiet, and there are a lot of very subtle performances that would have been completely extinguished in a lesser film. And when things go bad, they go really bad. Shocking, grotesque violence, with one scene that had me squirming in my seat. And the cast is great, too. Ryan Gosling's stoic performance may go a little too far towards stone-faced at times, but Carey Mulligan is note-perfect, Ron Perlman is fun and intimidating, Bryan Cranston is great as usual, and Albert Brooks is TERRIFYING as a crime boss. No seriously. I was shocked too. If you like film in general and action films in particular, then you need to make a trip to see Drive, and soon.

* * * *

Books
After months of struggling to read, I broke into Grant Morrison's Supergods for Nerd Book Club and it is a really fun and fast (but uneven) book. I enjoyed his (admittedly skewed) examination of the Golden and Silver ages of superhero comic books, with a little bit of examination of how these books represent spiritual archetypes that have been with us for centuries, but these analogies didn't really going anywhere other than "Did you notice that? I did, it's amazing." Which is okay, I guess, and I enjoy seeing someone else's perspective on these familiar characters. And then about halfway through, it became less about an exploration of the character archetypes & how they could inform us about human nature and became part-history, part-memoir. I understood why: Morrison felt he needs to explain his motivations for writing, which are based on his life experiences, including his metaphysical ones. And while that fits into the theme of the book, which I won't completely reveal because I think finding that theme is part of the journey,

I think the memoir aspects could have been toned down and the thematic aspects given more direction and follow-through. The book is in some pretty desperate need of an editor, as things get a little meandery about halfway through and almost spiral completely out of control towards the end. (There are also some pretty obvious typos and things being mentioned out of sequence.) For me, though, being familiar with Morrison's style, I find the lack of direction is a trap he sometimes finds himself in, and I was able to climb out of it with him and bring something worthwhile along with me. So I ended up liking it and will probably re-read it in the next couple of years, but  I would be really interested in a non-fan's perspective on the book.  I don't know if it would be easy to follow or impactful for someone who doesn't have strong connections to the characters or the writer like I do.

* * * *

DVDs/Blu-Rays
Two weekends ago I went to visit a friend and we had a marathon of all 25 episodes of the first season of Community Season 1. That marks the seventh time I've gone through the first season in under 12 months. Which probably sounds silly but it really is that good. I noticed jokes and references this seventh time that had completely passed me by the first time, which means that either a) I am not very observant or b) these are some amazingly great episodes. I would like to think that the answer is b). Regardless: if you haven't seen Community, you really should. It is one of only a handful of shows that represent the pinnacle of television comedy, and I have no doubt that it will be remembered very fondly in the coming decades.

* * * *

TV
This "week," I would like to take a moment to talk about...The Playboy Club. When I first heard that there was going to be a prime-time drama about The Playboy Club, I was dubious. I thought that it was just a lame way to grab ratings by cashing in on the Mad-Men-60s-style-chic and parading beautiful women around in Bunny costumes and their underwear. And I will admit: it was partly that. But honestly, only partly. By the end of the first episode I thought, despite myself, that there was something more there. They introduced a lot of characters, and involved a lot of interesting themes: politics, race relations, organized crime, sexual orientation, gender roles, and a handful of interesting mysteries. And there were musical numbers! And did I mention a half-dozen beautiful women? Sure, some of the characterizations were groaningly broad, and the "Hugh Hefner in the shadows" bits were pretty awful, but I thought there were things to grow on. I felt even more positive about the show after the second episode, where things felt a little rushed and some plots were given more time to breathe. And that meant, of course, that it would be cancelled. I just didn't think it would have been by episode three! I thought for sure I'd get a half-season out of it at least, where they could wrap at least a couple of plot threads up. Instead I got three episodes of what was a pretty promising show. I guess most viewers didn't see it the way I did, but I really think that The Playboy Club is up there with American Gothic as one of those promising shows cancelled way too early.

* * * *

Life
Last Monday my brother got me royally drunk, tied some training wheels on me, and set me up in his hockey draft. I apparently did okay, stealing some players out from under some of the other guys, and I walked away thinking I did okay. And then three days later he sent me a text saying I had drafted someone who had already retired. And nobody noticed. So I have a lot more to learn, I guess.

* * * *

And that's it. More song updates to follow, for sure, but now it's time for me to get on the exercise bike. Curse you, bike.

What's Up Wednesday - September 21, 2011

Just a short one this week. Why? Good question!

* * * *

Life
My weekend was full of wedding-related things. My good friend's bachelor party was on Saturday, and then Apocalypse Kow sang at a wedding of two very nice and appreciative gentlemen on Sunday night. I am surprised I made it through Sunday though, because I was feeling kind of sick, and when I got home after the wedding I turned into VERY sick. So sick that I missed work Monday, Tuesday, and today, although stuff finally turned around today and I'm feeling well enough to go in to work tomorrow. But yeah. Watched a lot of TV and read some comics, so that was an okay way to spend my sick days I suppose...

* * *

Comics
Read a lot of these this weekend but the best of the bunch was probably one I read today: Batman #1. Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo put out a first issue that has EVERYTHING I want from a Batman book: villains, fight scenes, skulking, detective work, sidekicks, plot twists, and a ton of style. It doesn't skimp on the alternate identities, either: by the looks of this issue, Bruce Wayne will be playing important roles both as the billionaire and the bat. As much as I liked Action Comics last week, I think I liked Batman even more.

(And yes, I know that the past 2 weeks have been nothing but new DC books. I promise to do something different next week, both for variety's sake and to stretch my own reading & writing habits.)

* * *

TV
The only premiere I caught last week was Ringer, and whoah BABY was that a flawed episode. Even with some pretty great actors (Buffy AND Batmanuel!?!) I can't overlook the absurd script and blatantly awful special effects. I mean, when the twin Sarah Michelle Gellars were on the boat together I almost vomited, not because I was sick but because I cannot BELIEVE that made it on television. It's a mildly interesting premise, with a few cool plot twists, and I am of the opinion that one mediocre episode doesn't doom a series, but really, that show needs to seriously pick up in the next few episodes or it is getting cancelled and fast.

* * *

Scotch
At the aforementioned bachelor party a handful of us went out to The Bothy, a local wine & whisky bar, to do some Scotch tasting. I got myself a sampler of three one-ounce selections from the Glenrothes distillery, and they were TOP. NOTCH. I was particularly fond of the Glenrothes Select Reserve, my Twitter review of which was: "Glenrothes Select Reserve: sweet, vanilla, spice. A Scotch you could give anyone, especially your awesome Grandma."

(For the record, I do have an awesome Grandma who drinks whisky, but she is a Nana and generally prefers rye to Scotch. I might just be able to convince her to try this, though.)

If you like Scotch, or even if you just like whisky and aren't 100% sold on Scotch, this is one to try. I am going to get a bottle of it very, very soon.

* * *

DVDs/Blu-Rays
Watched a LOT of these in the past few days. Finished up Castle Season 2 (still a lightweight show but packed full to the brim with charisma) and Community Season 2, which would make that my sixth time through that season. But only the first time through with commentaries! And a few interesting movies, including the fascinating Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, which is pretty much mandatory watching if you are interested in standup comedy. However, the thing I want to take more than one sentence to talk about is Ichi The Killer.

I'd heard about this movie, obviously, but my interest in seeing it turned *way* up after I saw another film by Takashi Miike, Zebraman. (And yes, you need to see Zebraman. But that's slightly off-topic.) Ichi The Killer is based on a manga series and it is bloody, disgusting, and hard to watch. I don't know if I liked it, in fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't. If there's one thing that I learned from watching Ichi The Killer it's that splatter movies aren't really my thing. If there's a particularly good one I'll probably watch it, but the level of violence and gore in Ichi The Killer was enough to make me want to turn off the movie. I finished it, though, and I'm glad, because there are some fantastic performances and...let's say interesting themes. In the future, though, I'm going to try and make sure my Miike films are more Zebraman than Ichi.


And that's it for now. I might be feeling better but I'm not feeling great. Hopefully next week I'll have more links, more reviews, and more wellness.

The Return of What's Up Wednesday: September 14, 2011

Hello! In efforts to find more ways to distract myself that aren't "sit on couch and eat too much while watching movies," I'm pulling out the What's Up Wednesday semi-feature I tried about a year back. This should get me writing more regularly, and should provide me with a "deadline" and reason to dedicate some blog time every week. This week's update is going to be long, as I figured I should dive in headfirst, so let's see what struck me as interesting, fun, and or important about the previous week!

* * * *

Movies

I got to see Contagion with @Morgoid last night. The trailer had me mildly interested until I saw that it was directed by Steven Soderbergh, and then I knew I had to see it. Soderbergh's one of my favourite modern directors, and although he's helmed a few clunkers he's also put together two of my favourite movies: Out of Sight and The Limey. And since he is apparently retiring from the movies to paint, I thought I should see what might be his last movie in the theater.

Overall, I thought Contagion was a good film. First of all, it's a hell of a cast: Lawrence Fishburne, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Enrico Colantoni, Chin Han, Elliott Gould, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle, and Bryan Cranston all do remarkable work. I thought it would be distracting having so many recognizable faces because the presence of so many stars might pull you out of the story, but ultimately having so many names helped because they were all really good performances. Each character was given moments of weakness and of strength, so the characters weren't all paragons or villains, but people with varying degrees of greed, hope, selfishness, passion, and fear.

The pacing, sparse score, and naturalistic dialogue help the film to be very matter-of-fact without being boring: it really does feel like this is what would happen if there was a worlwide outbreak of a devastating disease, which makes the horror very real. You get to see the impact of the outbreak from varying levels: international tensions, national political issues, state and family emergencies. It's a very thoughtful and well-researched film that some others might find cold and unengaging but I appreciated the lack of sensation and sentimentality that you might find in a lesser "Hollywood-style" thriller.

* * * *

Books

Still finding it really hard to read lately - apparently stress plays havoc on my concentration - but I am trying to finish The Lost City of Z that I started reading for Nerd Book Club. It's adventure non-fiction, the story of explorer Percy Fawcett and his doomed trip into the South American jungle in search of a fabled lost civilization. I'm enjoying it but I don't like the author putting words and thoughts in the character's mouth: it's one thing if you're quoting from journal entries and letters, but inventing dialogue whole-cloth is where I draw the line in my non-fiction. Your mileage may vary, but if you enjoy exciting and interesting non-fiction then I think this is up your alley.

* * * *

DVD/Blu-Ray

Speaking of Elliott Gould: I watched a lot of DVDs this week (including the fascinating I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale which is a must-see documentary for people who love acting and/or movies, and the entire first season of Castle which was just as fun as I remembered), but the DVD I really want to rave about is The Long Goodbye. I read Raymond Chandler's novel when I was in University and really liked it, and was a little hesitant to watch a re-imagining of the story directed by Robert Altman, who I knew had taken a number of liberties with the story and the setting (updating it to the early 1970s, contemporary for the time). Finally sitting down to watch it, though, I was really pleased: although it does feel like an Altman film in the same vein as M*A*S*H or McCabe & Mrs. Miller (meandering storyline, chunks of improvisation, moments of unintelligible dialogue, constantly moving cameras), it works as a movie in its own right.

Elliott Gould's Marlowe is really terrific, and it's because he doesn't do a version of Humphrey Bogart, although there are similarities in the characterizations. I love the contrast between Marlowe's 1950s aesthetic and the rest of the characters "contemporary" attitudes and styles; his straightforward hard-boiled nature and older-cut suits play beautifully off the ambiguous characters and sometimes outrageous outfits. Gould is funny and wry when he needs to be and tough and cold when the situation calls for it, and another awesome standout is Sterling Hayden, sporting a Hemingwayesque beard, as a troubled writer that Marlowe is hired to find. Plus: Arnold Schwarzenegger in a non-speaking role sporting a moustache. Yeah. That happened. I can't stop thinking about it since I watched it three days ago, which to me is the mark of a good movie. Watch it: you just might be surprised.

* * * *

Podcasts

I'm going to shine a spotlight on what is not just one of my favourite comedy podcasts but one of my favourite podcasts period: Doug Loves Movies. (Fun Fact: I saw a taping of Doug Loves Movies when I went to California in July and if you listen to this episode you can hear me laughing in the background and catching a monkey.) The premise is that comedian Doug Benson sits around a table with a bunch of his friends, ostensibly talk about movies, then play movie-themed games such as "Build a Title" (where you add movie titles together to make things like "Wait Until Dark City of Angels in the Out-Field of Dreams" and "The Leonard Maltin Game" (think "Name That Tune" but with movies and actors). In the past two days I've listened to five episodes and they're all very funny; three of the most recent episodes were recorded live from the Bumbershoot festival and feature great guests such as Scott Aukerman, Kyle Kinane, Eugene Mirman, and Paul F. Tompkins. I think the Bumbershoot episodes are a good intro to the show because you get a lot of content and a lot of great guests without a lot of self-promotion (which, let's face it, is why people do the podcasts). If you like movies, standup comedy, and tangents: Doug Loves Movies is for you.

* * * *

TV

On Monday the last episode of So You Think You Can Dance Canada aired and while the show itself felt kind of like filler, Mary Murphy's breasts shocked and terrified, and Leah Miller's special brand of anti-charisma threatened to break my spirit, I enjoyed it. Not only did the "right" dancer win (in both my and @DanicaHere's opinions), it featured some of my favourite routines. If you're curious as to what I thought, or what you can expect, here are four of my favourite routines of the season in glorious low-fi YouTube quality! (You can skip through the judges at the end, I usually do.)

Melissa & Shane in a Hip-Hop routine (choreographed by Luther Brown; the music is awful but the dance is really fun; starts at about 0:50)

Jordan & Joey in a Jazz routine (choreographed by the great Sean Cheeseman; starts at 1:16)

Shane & Lindsey in a REALLY fun disco routine (choreographed by Melissa Williams; starts at about 3:08)

And because I want EVERYONE to see this last one, embedded video! Jordan & Christian in a breathtaking Jazz number (again by the brilliant Sean Cheeseman):

* * * *

Comics

I read quite a few comics last week, but the ones I'm going to focus on are the ones from the DC relaunch. For those non-comics people who read my blog, DC Comics (they who make Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc.) decided to revamp/relaunch their line of superhero comics by streamlining continuity, making the characters younger and more modern, and releasing 52 new titles starting all over at #1. It's an attempt to bring in new and lapsed readers, and as someone who is neither of those two things I'm still excited to see what they do with their titles. The four titles I liked best from last week were:

Swamp Thing: The list of talented creators who've worked on this title in the past is about as long as my arm, and this first issue lives up to those expectations. This is more of a supernatural thriller than a superhero book, but it's definitely grounded in the shared universe thanks to featured appearances by a number of recognizable DC characters. Swamp Thing features really lush art from Yanick Paquette, which is some of my favourite art of the books I read. I've never read anything by Scott Snyder but he has sold me on this Swamp Thing and I will be going back to pick up some of his Detective Comics run as well.

Animal Man: I have a soft spot for Animal Man; I have almost the entire run of single issues from 1-89, and even when it got really weird and sloppy it was still interesting. Writer Jeff Lemire does a good job of holding the tradition of the title while still breaking new ground, and while I wasn't always affected by Travel Foreman's art there were a number of sequences that blew my mind. Definitely a companion book with Swamp Thing, bringing supernatural and horror elements into the superpowered DC Universe, and despite a few reservations I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

OMAC: Something I thought would be disposable and easy to pass up ended up being my favourite book of the week! I love 70s Jack Kirby and OMAC is some of the best stuff he did in my opinion, and Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen, and Scott Koblish make this new iteration SING. Part of the reason I love it so much is that it reminds me of those old Kirby books, with many tips of the hat to the King's legends, but the other part is because it is BIG LOUD FUN which is sometimes all I want out of a superhero book. Evacuate your expectations because OMAC is going to destroy them!

Action Comics: The new origin of Superman from writer Grant Morrison, penciler Rags Morales & inker Rick Bryant is probably the most new-reader-friendly of the bunch, and despite some online brouhaha is a very good comic. This new Superman feels like he's going back to his 1930s roots: a working class hero with a sense of social justice. He doesn't fly: he leaps tall buildings in a single bound. He's faster than a speeding bullet. As for the locomotive...well, you just have to read the issue. It tells a complete story but ends on a cliffhanger, daring you not to pick up the next issue.

* * * *

Life

Is about as positive as a Morrissey song. I'm not getting into it. But the possibility of more #yegprov (a Twitter-enhanced improv experiment) is an exciting development. And I hope to have a new creative project to ignore starting on Monday, so keep your eye on this space.

Mini-Regina Piles: May

I know, it's been a while. I've been a little preoccupied, life has thrown me a couple of curve balls and I haven't dealt with them well. I don't want to say anything more about that, and I don't want to make excuses, lest this become a blog where I post once a month and say "I promise to be better" every single time. So let's make a deal: pretend I put this up at the beginning of the month, and I'll try and get better. Okay? Okay.

Here's what I made it through last month:

• Essential Super-Villain Team-Up, Volume 1
• Incredible Hercules: Assault on Mount Olympus
• Samurai Executioner Volume 1
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume 2
• Love And Capes Volume 1
• Why I Hate Saturn
• No Hero TPB
• Bones, S3
• The Dick Van Dyke Show, S1
  
• The Aviator
  
• For a Few Dollars More
  
• Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (Technically I'd already seen it, but that means it counts to me!)
  
• Dark Passage
• The Circus

And here's what I plan on trying to get through this month (with new colour codes for comics, television shows, and movies):

• Golden Age Flash Archives, Vol. 1
• Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
• Crisis on Multiple Earths, Vol. 1
• Lone Ranger, Vol. 2
• Samurai Executioner, Vol. 2
• Samurai Executioner, Vol. 3
• Atomic Robo, Vol. 2
• Astro City, Vol. 2
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, S1
• Homicide: Life On The Street, Season 3
• Bones, Season 4
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 1
• Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Volume 1
• Doctor Who, S3
• Scrubs, S1
• The Godfather, Part III
• A Day At The Races
• Zack & Miri Make A Porno
• Dick Tracy (I've seen it before but not since I bought it)
• Kung Fu Hustle (same as Dick Tracy)

Nothing new that's depressing this month, unless you count bleak samurai stories as depressing (which I don't). I'm trying to have nothing but upbeat stories, because honestly, between the way Homicide and Alfred Hitchcock Presents aligned with my mood last month, I didn't want to have anything more to do with them. Hopefully I can get through them with some sitcom breaks to take the edge off. I'll be back later; right now it's time for a little Scrubs.

Mini-Regina Piles: Late April Edition

Two months in a row I have given myself the Mini-Regina Pile Challenge: make a small but manageable pile of pop cultural matter and try to burn through it in a month. The point of this exercise is twofold. First of all, it was supposed to get me to actually watch, read, and consume my way through my vast bought-but-untouched collections. Second of all, it was supposed to kick-start my writing again by making reviews and blog entries.

The first part of the challenge is going pretty well, I must say, with a couple of small hiccups. While there is some room for improvement, I am ploughing my way through over 75% of the stuff on in my pile. The writing thing? Not so much. I don't think I wrote a single review on an external site, and NOTHING on this here blog. But I keep telling myself: baby steps. Keep making the lists, making tiny improvements, and things will turn around. So, let's look at what I actually made it through last month, shall I?

Through March 31, I managed to consume the following movies, comics, and TV series:

• Kelly's Heroes
• Three The Hard Way
• Angels With Dirty Faces
• Bones, Season 2
• Showcase Presents: The Haunted Tank, Volume 1
• Superman: Escape from Bizarro World
• R.E.B.E.L.S., Volume 1: The Coming of Starro
• Put The Book Back On The Shelf: A Belle & Sebastian Anthology
• 20th Century Boys Vol. 3
• Awesome: The Indie Spinner Rack Anthology
• Marvel Boy
• Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (Volume 2)

I also made some progress on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Homicide: Life on the Street, although my Alfred Hitchcock Presents remained untouched. And I made a decision about my Star Trek box set. Even though I put it on my first list, I realized that it's the kind of show I want to savour, not gorge on. Particularly as I only have the one season right now. That's not the kind of thing I want to burn through. So I replaced it with Doctor Who: Season Two. Which isn't as long but I felt good about it (and had a LOT of fun watching it). Plus there were a couple of my DVDs that I didn't put on the list that I watched, for one reason or another (Highlander, The Marx Brothers' Room Service, Alfred Hitchcock's Number 17), which would have EVENTUALLY made it on a future pile...so it's about even.

For April I want to accomplish two main things: get rid of all the stuff that's left over from my previous two lists, and make at least one update entry every week. I also want to switch out Star Trek: Season One for something thematically appropriate and with a similar time commitment. It's going to take a little more effort, but it's all part of my process. My nerdy, nerdy process. Here's the pile for this week.

• Essential Super-Villain Team-Up, Volume 1
• Incredible Hercules: Assault on Mount Olympus
• Samurai Executioner Volume 1
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume 2
• Love And Capes Volume 1
  
• Why I Hate Saturn
  
• No Hero TPB
  
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, S1 *
  
• The Dick Van Dyke Show, S1 *
  
• Homicide: Life On The Street, S3 **
  
• Bones, S3
  
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1
  
• The Aviator *
  
• For a Few Dollars More **
  
• The Godfather, Part III
  
• Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster
  
• Dark Passage
  
• The Circus

* Continued from February
** Continued from March

So here's hoping for more reviews, more blogging, and a higher success rate for the first month of Spring! (And yes, I know it's already 10 days into April. I am nothing if not tardy.)

Mini-Regina Piles: March Edition

One month ago, I started a challenge to myself: making my way through my massive pop culture collection, one tiny Regina pile at a time. I gave myself what I thought was a reasonable yet achievable challenge: four movies, five television seasons, and eight comics collections. Big enough to be daunting, but not so big that I would just give up on it. My plan was to update all through February with every item I removed from my pile, but being out of top blogging shape, I managed to review exactly zero items on this site. But I did give it a go, and I wanted to take a moment to examine my progress and give myself another challenge for March. So, first things first: how did I do?

Not terribly, I have to say. I got through all but one of the comics, and finished two of the television series and made small dents in two more. The movies...I'll get to those in a second. But here's what I finished in February (with some links to the reviews I did manage to post on Goodreads):

• Gon, Volume 3
• NewsRadio, Season 5
• Mad Men, Season 2
• Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus
• Superman: Last Son
• Nexus Archives, Volume 1
• Absolute Planetary, Volume 1
• American Flagg: The Definitive Collection, Volume 1
• Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang

And the movies...well, I didn't watch any of them. Partly for a reason that I'm going to keep secret for another week or so, and partly because I watched over a dozen movies from my PVR in the month of February. (Oh, Turner Classic Movies, you are an amazing resource, but it is impossible to watch all the movies I impulsively record.) Still: I read 7 of my 8 comics, and over 100 pages of the massive Haunted Tank phonebook, and cleared off some shows that had been sitting unfinished for months. So I'm putting one in the wins column.

For March I want to continue to challenge myself and stretch a little bit, while taking advantage of the increased amounts of free time (32nd birthday, Spring Break, slightly reduced late worknights). So I'm keeping all the incomplete items from last month, as well as more than enough new ones to make up for things:

• Kelly's Heroes *
• Three The Hard Way *
• Angels With Dirty Faces *
• The Aviator *
• For a Few Dollars More
  
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 *
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 1 **
• The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season 1 **
• Homicide: Life On The Street, Season 3
• Bones, Season 2
  
• Showcase Presents: The Haunted Tank, Volume 1 **
• Superman: Escape from Bizarro World
• R.E.B.E.L.S., Volume 1: The Coming of Starro
  
• Put The Book Back On The Shelf: A Belle & Sebastian Anthology
  
• 20th Century Boys Vol. 3
• Awesome: The Indie Spinner Rack Anthology
  
• Marvel Boy
• Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (Volume 2)
  

* Continued from February, untouched
** Continued from February, unfinished

I'll update more regularly as I get through them, and probably post a picture of my pile in the next few days. But that's enough to do me for now. I really hope I can tackle EVERYTHING on this list, because I have plans for this little experiment. That's right, I have even MORE stuff I want to pile on. Because apparently I have way more free time than I think I do.

Mini-Regina Piles: The Lamest Journey Begins With A Single Step

Testing...testing...is this thing still on?

*ahem*

Okay. I had an idea the other day, and I figured blogging about it would be an interesting way to go about it and it might might keep me on-task in the bargain. So if there's anyone still here, or if anyone stumbles across this place: thanks. Hopefully I'll make it worth your while.

So, for those of you who don't know me: I am a big fan of popular culture. Movies, comics, television, and books both fiction and non-. I love to watch and read and listen (to music, standup comedy, radio plays, and audiobooks). And because I love these things so much, when I go out shopping, I see a LOT of stuff I want. "Oh man," I'll say to myself, "Quantum Leap DVDs are only $14.99 per season. I think I should get ALL OF THEM." And then I do just that. It's a kind of madness, I think. A madness that has no cure.

Which leads to my home having a higher-than-average amount of shelves, all of them full and overflowing with movies, cds, and (as The Rhino would say) "paper DVDs". I have always wanted to make my way through these chunks of unconsumed pop culture, but every time I feel like I'm making a dent, the madness takes over, and I find myself with three new Discworld books and a bunch of back issues. And so, no progress is made.

Now, one of the podcasts that I listen to - 11 O'Clock Comics - has developed this concept of the "Regina Pile," which is their name for your pile of unread comics that stacks up. I really don't want to get into the reason why it shares its name with the capital city of Saskatchewan, but that's jist of it. And as far as comics go, I have a very, VERY BIG Regina pile. But I never thought about applying it to the other "stuff" that I own. And when I was sitting in the basement last weekend, trying to find the next thing to read, it hit me: I could make Mini-Regina piles that I could work on every month, small enough to be manageable but still a challenge.

The first thing I had to do, though - because I am incredibly anal retentive and love making lists - is compile all my unwatched and unread items together. This was a tougher task than I'd initially thought, so I focused mostly on my DVDs (both film and tv) and my comics trade paperbacks. And while I was both surprised and SHOCKED by the sheer mass of my unconsumed junk, I think I can make dents in it. A number of tiny little dents.

For February, I'm actually tackling two challenges: first of all, my regular Mini-Regina Challenge, and second of all, the "My Wife Will Delete All The Movies Older Than 3 Months Old On My DVR By The End Of February" Challenge. And considering I have about...20 movies that I need to either watch or abandon in 27 days, I'm making my Mini-Regina Pile rather small to start: 4 movies, 0 TV Boxed Sets (because I'm already in the middle of 5), and 4 Comics Trades (plus the 4 that I've already started).

I took a look at my lists and tried to make things as varied as possible. And finally, I ended up with the following for my February pile:

• Kelly's Heroes
• Three The Hard Way
• Angels With Dirty Faces
• The Aviator
• Mad Men, Season 2 *
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 *
• NewsRadio, Season 5 *
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 1 *
• The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season 1 *
• Gon, Volume 3
• Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus
• Superman: Last Son
• Nexus Archives, Volume 1
• Absolute Planetary, Volume 1 *
• Showcase Presents: The Haunted Tank, Volume 1 *
• American Flagg: The Definitive Collection, Volume 1 *
• Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang *

(* - Denotes something I'm already in the middle of.)


And that doesn't count my PVR movies. Something tells me this first month is going to be a spectacular failure, but at least I'm going to try, dang it. I'll try and put at least a little something on this blog whenever I finish something, which should make me more of a presence here and might actually kickstart my Creativity Experiment of 2011 (slogan to be determined). See you soon, internet pop culture fiends. And pray for my sanity, because that is a LOT of stuff to get through.

Rambling: My Surprisingly Apathetic Thoughts On The Film Industry

This has been percolating around in my head for a while, and I don't necessarily know if I'm 100% pleased with my conclusions, but it's as close to an opinion as I'm going to get on this subject. Ramblings about movies, culture, society, and economics ahead, some thoughtful, some grossly under-researched, some original, some not. Forge ahead with me, won't you?

There's a commercial I've seen on television for a video phone, and the tagline absolutely grinds my gears:

"Cinema quality picture - in the palm of your hand."

And every time I see it I want to yell at the screen. No. No. NO. That is not possible. Unless you are holding the phone DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES so that it is taking up 80% OF YOUR VISION, then it is not cinema quality. Because part of cinema quality is cinema SIZE. And the absolutely insane theater prices and the relative ease of pirating movies over the internet means that more and more people - and here I am thinking of "young people" but really people of any age - are watching movies exclusively on their television screens or smaller.

I love movies: I go to the movies at least twelve times a year, and often more. I am one of the butts in seats. One of what I think is a dying breed: the MOVIE fan. Originally I think I loved movies for the spectacle, and then I went for the story. What happened to the spectacle? If all you care about is ingesting a story, then why see the movie? Just read the screenplay. The cinematography, the set design, the lighting: that's all important, and you need to be able to SEE it.

And really, if it's just about knowing what's happened in the story, then you might as well watch your DVDs at 4x speed with subtitles on. Because that way you get the story. But you miss everything else: you miss the delivery, the timing, the acting, and the mood. If all you want is the story, go to Wikipedia. If you want the experience, you need more than just a 3 inch screen. (Or better yet: just read the summaries on Wikipedia, save yourself an hour and a half. It's the same thing, right? You know the plot points; you've basically seen the movie.)

I'm not saying you can't watch some movies on the small screen. Anchorman doesn't need the full-screen surround sound experience, particularly if, like me, you've seen it ten times or so. But you shouldn't see Inception or Fellini Satyricon or Citizen Kane for the first time on your iPod.

And yes, I know that movies are expensive, yeah, but there are ways around it. Discount theater tickets, discount theaters, etc. But I make a decent wage, and I can afford to go out to the theater more than a couple of times a year. But I think about people who are just struggling to get by, and want to have a fun experience for them and their families. What are they going to do: shill out thirty bucks for their family of four to go out on Discount Tuesdays or rent something for five bucks at Blockbuster or Netflix? Or just go to a torrent website and download something for free? I don't have a large family, it's just me and my wife. But if I had kids, and money was tight, I know what option I'd pick.

And it sucks, because the movies used to be the refuge of the working classes: you'd go to a double feature for five, ten cents, meet up with your friends or take someone out on a date and make a whole day of it. Even with inflation you can't go from five cents to twelve bucks in less than a hundred years. Movie companies are trying to recoup their losses from people who are renting or pirating, but really, they're forcing the very people away that they want to keep. Which "forces" them to drive the prices up, and now the snake head is eating itself. (And 3-D isn't the answer: people are already getting wise to that scheme. Like they did in the 50s.)

I really do feel that it's important to see movies in the THEATER every once in a while, and not just the big explosive blockbusters, because if you only patronize the mindless explosion-and-shotgun-blast movies that is all that people are going to make. Go see a comedy, or a drama. You might think that it's not going to be worth your investment, but if it's a movie you're interested in, no matter what the genre, then I truly believe it will be. Because it's not just about knowing what the story is about. It's about a social experience. A social experience that is being slowly eroded by greed and laziness. Which I think is sad. Maybe movie theaters will eventually run themselves down; maybe the death of the drive-ins was the first step towards complete extinction. And I'll be sad if that happens. And I'll keep pulling out my old favourites on DVD or watching Turner Classic Movies and watching them. But it won't be the same as being in a theater full of people gasping, laughing, or crying at what they're seeing on screen.

100 Years of Kurosawa

That's not exactly accurate, but it's a good title. Today would have been Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday. Well, technically it is his birthday, he's just not alive to celebrate it. But we sure as hell can.

Kurosawa was a brilliant director, and has directed some of my very favourite movies. I certainly haven't seen ALL the movies he's directed, but in my eyes, he's kind of like John Ford or Martin Scorsese: picking through their filmographies at random, you have a better-than-average chance of picking a masterpiece. If you want to celebrate his birthday by watching one of his movies, or are just looking for a recommendation, here are my top five Kurosawa films:


5. Yojimbo - The movie that inspired both A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing, and probably one of actor Toshiro Mifune's most famous roles. Mifune made sixteen movies with Kurosawa, and this is the one that made him famous in the West. If you haven't seen it: remember how awesome Clint Eastwood was in Dollars. Now, multiply that by about a factor of a thousand, and make him a samurai. Yeah. That's how good Mifune is. A deceptively simple story, masterfully told.


4. Stray Dog - The only movie on my list that isn't a samurai movie, Stray Dog is a contemporary (for post-War Japan) crime movie, about a young detective (Mifune once again) who loses his service revolver to a pickpocket and needs to hunt it down after it was used in a murder. It's both a Japanese "film noir" (or close enough) and a fascinating look at Japan in the aftermath of World War II, and a gripping suspense to boot.


3. Rashomon - It's probably Kurosawa's most well-known movie, but just because it's popular doesn't mean it's bad (a lesson that would have served me well in high school...). A simple story complicatedly told, Rashomon is a master-class in filmmaking, and it has Mifune chewing scenery like a pro. It's probably the most accessible of Kurosawa's movies, too, a good movie to watch if you're just starting out.


2. Throne of Blood - As much as he influenced Western filmmaking, Kurosawa took his influences from all over, and did no less than three adaptations of Shakespeare's plays: Ran (King Lear), The Bad Sleep Well (Hamlet), and my favourite of the three, Throne of Blood (MacBeth). This is a brilliant adaptation of the story, and Kurosawa was using all his techniques to brilliant effect. It made me sit up and gasp at a number of times, and I thought I was immune to all that trickery. Just a brilliant movie.


1. The Seven Samurai - Not just my favourite Kurosawa movie, but my favourite movie of all time. Yes, it's got Mifune, but the standout performance is from another one of Kurosawa's frequent collaborators, Takashi Shimura (a.k.a. Dr. Kyohei Yamane from Godzilla). Sure, it's over three hours long, and the pacing and style might take a little getting used to, but it's well worth watching. Particularly if you have an afternoon to kill.

Well, there you go. My idea for a Kurosawa film fest might bore some people to tears, but I honestly believe that if you give him a chance, I really believe that any stereotype you might hold of of black-and-white foreign movies. Or at least you'll understand the Rashomon joke in The Simpsons. Any other thoughts on Kurosawa are highly encouraged!

What's Up Wednesday - Special The Dark Knight Edition

So I got back from seeing an advance screening of The Dark Knight about forty minutes ago, and I thought I'd give you guys my thoughts. First of all, yes, I liked it. Which is strange, because I wasn't really expecting it to. I thought it wouldn't live up to the expectations, probably be good but not as good as Batman Begins. And I was wrong. I think that Dark Knight was much, much better than the first movie, for a number of reasons. First of all: the first movie had about fifty minutes of unneccessary origin story, while Dark Knight had zero. You started in with Batman as the status quo right away, which was good for the momentum of the storyline. Second: the science in this movie, while still kind of bad, wasn't nearly as bad as the science in Batman Begins. (Seriously. Microwave generators creating steam in water pipes but not cooking ANYONE? That's bad, BAD science.) Third: excellent, EXCELLENT foils. While The Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul were passable in the first movie, Heath Ledger's Joker is really very good. He's been getting a lot of praise in the media, which I had chalked up the hype machine going into overdrive due to his death. His performance in this movie, however, is in fact very good. Chilling, hilarious, and dare I say even honest? His Joker may not be the one fans are familiar with, but it fits the Nolanverse (a term I just coined, thank you very much) very well. The buzz that he might get an Oscar nomination seems a bit much, but "not getting an Oscar nomination" does not equal "poor performance". Ledger did a teriffic job, showing you just how good an actor he really was.

In fact, as good reason number three-point-five, the acting of nearly everyone in the movie is rather good. Gary Oldman gets a lot more to do in this movie, and he does it very well, playing the one good cop in a city gone crazy and giving the audience a solid anchor. Aaron Eckhart, an actor I've never been particularly fond of, is really quite engaging as Harvey Dent. Of course, Maggie Gyllenhaal is a vast improvement over Katie Holmes, and Michael Caine & Morgan Freeman round out the cast with their trademark gravitas and a couple of light comedic touches. The actor I had the most problems with is sadly Christian Bale, who does a very good Bruce Wayne but grates on me whenever he's Batman, thanks to the ridiculous voice he affects whenever he puts on the cowl. You don't need to sound like you're gargling chunks of hot asphalt* to disguise your voice or sound intimidating. Less is more, man.

Bale's vocal antics as Batman are one of only a few minor quibbles, though. The story starts off as fairly straightforward but then gets as twisted and turned as it becomes more affected by The Joker's influence. There are many good moments in this movie that I could harp on, but it's getting late. The point is, even if you're not a comics fan but liked Batman Begins, I think you'll like this even better. Not that you need me to sell you on it. I just think it's worth your time.


* - Who am I ripping off homaging with this line?

What's Up Thursday - July 3, 2008

I completely forgot about this yesterday, because - and I wish I was making this up - because comics weren't in yesterday (due to the Canada Day holiday), I forgot it was Wednesday. Wednesdays have a very particular rhythm to them: go to work, get comics, go home. The pattern broke and apparently I lost all track of time. I know, I know. But let's not dwell on it, shall we? Let's instead take a short trip into the black hole of my week's experiences.

The Movie(s): I've been plowing through The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection, which contains the first five Marx Brothers movies (before Zeppo left the group). Their first feature, The Cocoanuts, is really uneven, partly due to the ridiculous romantic subplot and partly because the directors couldn't frame a scene if you gave them a right angle and a level. But the brothers really pull it off, particularly due to a great scene where Groucho and Chico go over a map of Florida. Monkey Business is a lot better, and it has some great moments (particularly Groucho's scenes with Thelma Todd, and Zeppo even gets a fairly decent part). Horse Feathers, which was my first Marx Bros. movie, is still a sentimental favourite of mine. But my very favourite, sentimental or no, is Duck Soup, which is a work of sheer comedic genius from start to finish. (I haven't watched Animal Crackers yet, but it would have to be pretty damn good to be better than Duck Soup.) The movies might get hokey at times, but they are classics for a reason.

The Book: I'm getting back into my Wodehouse, and am currently trying to polish off Very Good, Jeeves. It's another great example of very British writing, and hilarious to boot. I laugh out loud every two pages or so (often every page), particularly due to exchanges like this:

'[...]Well, as I was saying, I maintain that the rank is but the ghinea stamp and a girl's a girl for all that.'
' "For a' that", sir. The poet Burns wrote in the North British dialect.'
'Well, "a' that", then, if you prefer it."
'I have no preference in the matter, sir. It is simply that the poet Burns--'
'Never mind about the poet Burns.'
'No, sir.'
'Forget the poet Burns.'
'Very good, sir.'
'Expunge the poet burns from your mind.'
'I will do so immediately, sir.'

The most curious thing I've found about reading this book is that I had read two other Jeeves books before seeing the television series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and I had completely different images of them in my head. Now, after seeing all four series, I can't get Laurie's foppish Wooster or Fry's cool Jeeves out of my head.

The Real-Life: The Peach and I went out and wandered The Works arts festival on Friday, and I saw a few exhibits that were interesting but on the whole I was underwhelmed. Probably because we were on a schedule and could only stop in at locations that were on our walking path. Then we went out for dinner at Sofra, a Turkish restaurant downtown, and it was delicious. We had yaprak sarma, spicy feta dip with fresh-baked flatbreads, rack of lamb, chicken and lamb kebabs, bulgur wheat pilaf, grilled vegetables, and finished it all off with baklava (which were delicious) and Turkish coffee (which The Peach HATED, but not surprising). I would definitely recommend that restaurant to anyone looking for a nice place to eat in Edmonton.