Seven Months Later

Here's a list of BEST MOVIES I made a while back and just rediscovered:

My Top 50 Movies (Subject to Change if people remind me of great movies I left off, or if I look at the list again and decide differently, which I've already done a dozen times today)

1 - Good Will Hunting
2 - Braveheart
3 - Shawshank Redemption
4 - Life is Beautiful
5 - LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
6 - Dead Poets Society
7 - Saving Private Ryan
8 - Schindler's List
9 - Philadelphia
10 - Field of Dreams
11 - High Fidelity
12 - Cold Mountain
13 - American Beauty
14 - Batman Begins
15 - 300
16 - Magnolia
17 - Rocky IV
18 - The Village
19 - Forrest Gump
20 - The Rainmaker
21 - 12 Angry Men
22 - Toy Story
23 - About a Boy
24 - As Good as it Gets
25 - Hoosiers
26 - Contact
27 - Vertigo
28 - Unbreakable
29 - Robin Hood
30 - You've Got Mail
31 - A River Runs Through It
32 - Amelie
33 - Singing in the Rain
34 - The Talented Mr. Ripley
35 - Kung Fu Hustle
36 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
37 - When Harry Met Sally
38 - Love Actually
39 - Se7en
40 - Castaway
41 - A Few Good Men
42 - Psycho
43 - Grizzly Man
44 - X2
45 - To Kill a Mocking Bird
46 - Moulin Rouge
47 - Tombstone
48 - Almost Famous
49 - The Recruit
50 - Finding Nemo

Things About the Season

At the risk of repeating myself, I love this season - autumn. And here's why:

• Apples. pie, butter, crisp, cider, honeycrisp......all of the many uses of apple are delicious!
• Leaves. brilliant colors (especially at work), falling, crunchy (although, i hate raking them)
• Music. jon foreman, john mayer, nickel creek, vince guaraldi, things folky and moderate
• Gatherings. halloween, bonfires, football, anticipation of 'the holidays'
• Movies. these just seem like 'fall movies' to me, good will hunting, braveheart, when harry met sally
• Sweatshirts. And being close to my wife, staying warm, snuggling with Jack, family moments
• Riley. (nerd alert), some of James Whitcomb Riley's poetry is just perfect, particularly around this time of year

HEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here--
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock--
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries--kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below--the clover over-head!--
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!
I don't know how to tell it--but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me--
I'd want to 'commodate 'em--all the whole-indurin' flock--
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

- J.W.R

State of the Union

What does it say about our 'great country' when the top movie at the box office is "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" ? $29 million?!

I will vote for whoever promises to eradicate cultural successes such as this.

Movies - Spoiler Alert

Be forewarned: I am going to review three movies I've seen recently.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Grade: D)
I sincerely wish George Lucas would have kept the original title he intended: Indiana Jones and the the Saucer Men from Mars. Then, at least, I would have stayed away and known it was going to be horrible. I went in with low expectations, mind you. I did not expect it to be as good as the original trilogy. And the more I think about it, and the more I talk about it, the greater a chance the grade will fall from D to F (it started at a C - oh how the mighty have fallen).

There are far too many stupid things to point out in this movie (stupid and over-the-top, even for an Indiana Jones movie). The script was boring and unoriginal. The introduction of the new character (i.e. Mr. LeBouf) was somewhere between lackluster and a pile of dung. Cate Blanchett was fine - would have been better with a script. The stunts were horrible and refused to even get my unbelief off the ground (and moving toward a suspended state). From surviving a nuclear explosion in a refrigerator, the vine-swinging-catch-up-to-a-Jeep scene, to the three waterfalls (not ONE, not TWO, but THREE consecutive), there is no imagination, no mystery, no mythology built in to them (the perfection of these things are best illustrated in the invisible bridge from a previous IJ).

All in all, don't see it - even from Rebook...I mean, Red Box.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Grade: C+)
The get points for effort, that's for sure. Overall, a decently made movie - certainly improving over the movie making aspects of the first one: the battle/fight scenes were much better (though, why do they always happen with a bright, sunny day - isn't it basic Movie Making 101 to set the mood with environemtn [i.e. at least grey skies, if not stormy])

In the end though, I give it a C+ because the books are so near and dear to my heart. I love them endlessly, and even though I haven't read Caspian in some 4 years, there is just something missing from the series on screen. I may be siding with Clive, that they simply shouldn't be made into movies. There's just something missing.

V for Vendetta (Grade: B)
The best movie of my past two weeks, no doubt. It was a good movie, like may folks said it would be. Good subject matter, pretty good script. Great performance from Miss Nattie Po. I don't know that I'll rave over this one - it may or may not crack into my Top 50 (which does need updating). All-in-all, glad I saw it. Not a B movie, but a B movie.

The Summer of George!

Here are some great things to look forward to this summer:

MOVIES:

Prince Caspian (May 16)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 23)

The Happening (June 13)

Wall-E (June 27)

The Dark Knight (July 18)

Honorable Mention:

American Teen (Jon, did you know there was a Warsaw, Indiana docu in the works?)
Religulous (no trailer yet)
Chapter 27
Wanted


MUSIC:

Coldplay - Viva La Vida (June 17)

I have great hopes for this album. But measured, great hopes. Parachutes and Rush were amazing, X&Y, not so much. And while there is always buzz and comparisons and whatnot, I have hopes. It's reportedly only 47 minutes long, and Apple's mom says it's brilliant. The first single drops tomorrow, for free.




MISCELLANEOUS:

Baby Bouse (a boy, in case you hadn't heard) will be here in only three-and-a-half short months. Clearly, the most exciting thing this summer - maybe ever (August 18).

Best Movies on a Movie Day

Today, a sick day, turned into a movie day in multiple ways.
I'm currently watching the visually stunning movie, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." I'm sure I'll share more later.

And then I spent time thinking/sorting through movies in a couple of ways. So, in this lengthy post you'll get two trailers and two lists.

First the trailers:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
It's hard to tell what the storyline is (this is the first trailer), but it still looks really good. And if it turns out well, this may be a validating movie for Shia LeBouf. And who knew: Cate Blanchett is in it. That'll be great.

King Corn
I came across the trailer through Jorge Garcia's blog. Suffice it to say this is the "Fast Food Nation" for farmers and corn. I've not seen it, but I definitely want to now. Has anyone else seen it?

And then the lists:

My Top 50 Movies (Subject to Change if people remind me of great movies I left off, or if I look at the list again and decide differently, which I've already done a dozen times today)

1 - Good Will Hunting
2 - Braveheart
3 - Shawshank Redemption
4 - Life is Beautiful
5 - LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
6 - Dead Poets Society
7 - Saving Private Ryan
8 - Schindler's List
9 - Philadelphia
10 - Field of Dreams
11 - High Fidelity
12 - Cold Mountain
13 - American Beauty
14 - Batman Begins
15 - 300
16 - Magnolia
17 - Rocky IV
18 - The Village
19 - Forrest Gump
20 - The Rainmaker
21 - 12 Angry Men
22 - Toy Story
23 - About a Boy
24 - As Good as it Gets
25 - Hoosiers
26 - Contact
27 - Vertigo
28 - Unbreakable
29 - Robin Hood
30 - You've Got Mail
31 - A River Runs Through It
32 - Amelie
33 - Singing in the Rain
34 - The Talented Mr. Ripley
35 - Kung Fu Hustle
36 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
37 - When Harry Met Sally
38 - Love Actually
39 - Se7en
40 - Castaway
41 - A Few Good Men
42 - Psycho
43 - Grizzly Man
44 - X2
45 - To Kill a Mocking Bird
46 - Moulin Rouge
47 - Tombstone
48 - Almost Famous
49 - The Recruit
50 - Finding Nemo


Movies I'm Wanting to See

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Apocalypse Now, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, The Road to Perdition, Bull Durham, Cool Hand Luke, Duck Soup, Bonnie and Clyde, V for Vendetta, King Corn, Annie Hall, Young Frankenstein, What Would Jesus Buy?, Once, Across the Universe, 3:10 to Yuma, No Country for Old Men, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Harvey, The Graduate

A Newness

Well, this is now the home of my meandering on the interweb.

Looking back to 2007, there was some great "new-to-me" music out there, including, but not limited to:

- The Damnwells, "Bastards of the Beat"
- Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions"
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "World Cafe (EP)"
- Gaving DeGraw, "Chariot (Stripped)"
- Aqualung, "Memory Man"
- John Mayer, "The Village Sessions (EP)"


Now, looking forward to 2008 (and not just music), here are some things I'm really looking forward to:


- Another year with my wife!

- Movies
- The Dark Knight
- Prince Caspian
- Cloverfield
- Horton Hears a Who
- Rambo (not really, but you have to see it, right?)

- The Fourth Season of LOST

- Another season at Conner Prairie

- The Presidential Election (It just feels like it is an increasingly important time in our history, right?)

- A new Coldplay album

And more to come, I'm sure. What are you excited about?