Well, here’s my newly re-written list of last decade’s finest. To put this list together, I consulted a lot of my younger friends and relatives, trying to figure out which movies were to their generation what movies like “Ghostbusters” and “Jurassic Park” would be to my generation (and kids these days seem to be looking back fondly at a lot of R-rated movies.) Anyway, here’s the final list:
10. Wall-E
It’s sort of redundant to put any Pixar film on here since they’re all gold, but Wall-E marked the last time any critics looked at a Pixar trailer and said “looks like Pixar’s got a flop now.” 45 minutes of Pokemon robots saying their own names, followed by 45 minutes of fat people rolling around, and it was still epic. Come “Up,” nobody questioned Pixar anymore.
9. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
THIS is what a car-racing movie should be. No undercover cops. No deals gone bad. No corporate conspiracies. Just cool cars, hot women, and a dude driving really fast around sharp corners in Japan.
8. V for Vendetta
Dude brought knives to a gun fight and WON.
7. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
An odd choice, but it has been argued that this movie is so mind-boggingly stupid that it practically borders on brilliant. Truth be told, I can’t even come into the last half hour of the show without watching the rest of it. Those David Hasselhoff scenes alone are some of the best things ever put to film.
6. Shaun of the Dead
Zombies, a cricket-bat, the music of Queen, and one guy doing his worst to save everybody. I’m starting a slow clap now. Feel free to join in anytime.
5. Team America: World Police
Everything you ever need to know about world politics. As performed by puppets.
4. Kill Bill
Can’t have one film without the other. 90 minutes of sword-fights and exploding blood-filled condoms go hand-in-hand with 2.5 hours of people just sitting and talking about sword-fights and exploding blood-filled condoms.
3. Transformers
The strange thing about Transformers is that everyone either loves it or hates it, but nobody’s calling it a cult film. Granted, you could say the same about any other Michael Bay movie, but I have to give both him and Steven Spielberg credit for actually turning some ridiculous kid’s thing into something ridiculous for all ages. I mean, come on – my mom wouldn’t even buy me the toys as a kid, but I swear she watches this movie every week.
2. Super Troopers
Because meow. That’s why.
1. Avatar
Why? Because in the last ten years, every blockbuster film has tried to be the “biggest movie ever.” Lord of the Rings, Spider-man, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Dark Knight, the Matrix Trilogy. And yet when all was said and done – and not a single filmmaker could top “Titanic” – James Cameron just sighed, strolled on up and said “here, let me show you how.” Then he made the blue kitty smurf version of “Pocahontas” and made the most money ever. That is mad skills right there. I’m sure most studios are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what they were doing wrong.
And just for kicks, my own personal list of favorite movies from this decade (in no particular order.) I find these ones are just really good rainy day movies:
The Incredibles
Cars
A Knight’s Tale
The Road to El Dorado
Almost Famous
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
School of Rock
Lilo and Stitch
Anchorman
Kung Fu Panda
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (yes, really)
And now I’m done with the lists for now. In the meantime, what were some of your personal favorites?
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin doing a parody of “Paranormal Activity.” Somehow, 0:20-0:25 makes me laugh every time.
Seriously though, did they ask Alec Baldwin to be on the show so he could be Steve Martin’s punching bag? I can picture George Clooney taking that kind of verbal abuse and laughing, but Alec Baldwin strikes me as the kind of guy who bottles it up and strangles Steve Martin after the show.
This is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. One guy decided to go right ahead and re-create the opening musical number to one of my favorite movies shot-for-shot using live actors and special effects. If I ever see this guy on the street, I’m buying him a taco.
Sorry it’s taken a while to repost anything. I’ve been going hardcore on the job hunts and having what could be arguably the most frustrating time finding a place that’s both “hiring” and “right now.” So one can imagine I sound like a broken record if they ask “how’s your day been?”
In the meantime, my little brother’s just moved out of his apartment and has come to stay with me for a few weeks (and just when I got this place super-clean too.) So having never had a roommate before, I can only say that this is going to be interesting. Especially if that bong of his gets used for more than decoration and the condo board starts going around knocking on doors again. But in the meantime, I still get free access to his coffee maker, movies, and even get to take care of a cat for a few days. He has his video games here too, and I’m growing concerned that being in such close proximity to Guitar Hero is going to throw a damper on my job hunt.
Anyhow, that’s life at the moment. Will get back to you next time something happens.
Yours sincerly and figuratively, Chris Ushko, Box of Mystery 2010
Here it is: the next chapter in my trilogy of nephew stories. Time travel has always been one of my favorite subjects, so I had fun coming up with my own take on how somebody could screw up the past, especially if that somebody is Dewey.
I’m still convinced that J.J. “Mystery Box” Abrams is spying on me somehow.
Chris Ushko, Box of Mystery 2010
And even better, my friend Dave managed to send me a few lost articles from his RSS which reminded me that all my previous posts have been stored in my Google Reader. So a huge thanks to Dave, and another huge thanks to Amie who got me started on using Google Reader just a few months ago. I’ve managed to recover the text of those articles, so I’ll just re-post the major ones here for archive purposes. (My apologies to anyone using a feed who just wound up with tons of old posts.)
Just in time too, since I have something relatively big on the way for later this week. Stay tuned.
I was getting quite good at it too, but unfortunately, had no choice but to turn in my resignation today. Different circumstances have forced me to seek out two full-time jobs around my neighborhood instead.
Just a few quick stories and observations about my brief stint in door-to-door marketing: continue reading »
Having recently finished “Brutal Legend” again for the umpteenth time, I wanted to post up a review, but a simple review didn’t seem to be justice enough for the fifth installment in one man’s legacy of video games. Enter Tim Schafer – not a house-hold name, and not associated with any mainstream games like Super Mario or Halo – but nonetheless, one of the finest creative minds that the medium has to offer and one of my personal heroes. continue reading »
