What You Should Have Seen #21

I've got a friend who is constantly at a loss whenever certain movies are referenced between me and other mutual friends at work. It came to a head a couple of weeks ago, so two friends and I came up with a list of 100 movies that this girl has to watch by the end of the year. These are cinema classics or the highest examples of film. These are movies we all love and reference, most of them constantly.

So I don't come across as hypocritical, I'm going to watch the movies on this list that I haven't seen. I can't expect her to watch all of these if I haven't seen them all myself.

So here's her list. It is in no particular order. The highlighted movies are the ones I haven't seen yet.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Matrix

Alien

Aliens 

Star Trek II

Star Trek III

Star Trek IV

Star Trek VI

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Heat

Unforgiven

The Godfather, Part I

The Godfather, Part II

Goodfellas

Sling Blade

The Usual Suspects

The Professional 

Terminator

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Reservoir Dogs

L.A. Confidential

Full Metal Jacket

The Sting

Gran Torino

Snatch

No Country for Old Men

Platoon

Donnie Darko

The Thing (1982)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Amelie

The Untouchables

The Omen (1976)

Tombstone

The Ghost and The Darkness

Open Range

First Blood

Lonesome Dove

The Last of the Mohicans

Watchmen

Batman (1991) 

Batman Begins 

There Will Be Blood

Boogie Nights

Army of Darkness

Downfall

The Road to Perdition

Swingers

12 Monkeys

High Plains Drifter

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Rob Roy

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Rain Man

National Lampoon's Animal House

Mulholland Dr. 

Spaceballs

Blazing Saddles

Grosse Point Blank 

Saving Private Ryan

Dazed and Confused

RoboCop

The Blues Brothers

Glengarry Glen Ross

Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

This is Spinal Tap

The Muppet Movie

American History X

Bad Santa

Blade Runner

Clerks

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Shaun of the Dead

The Wrestler

The Whole 9 Yards

Zombieland

The Thomas Crown Affair

Hudson Hawk

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Predator

Hellboy 

Airplane! 

The Machinist 

The Jerk 

From Dust 'til Dawn

Desperado

Explorers

EuroTrip

Equilibrium

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Young Frankenstein

The Fifth Element

Dogma

Thor 

The Rocketeer

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

Four-Day Weekend Video Constitutional

I won't watch this in the theater, but I REALLY want to see this movie. A part of me, though, wonders if it works more as an idea or a fake trailer than an actual full-length movie. Plus, Ron Swanson, bitch.



Was Captain Jean Luc Picard gay? I think this clip answers that little question.



Heck with the story and heck with the acting ability of Sam Worthington, Wrath of the Titans looks like a visually stunning movie. I didn't even know this was in the making, but now I want to see it.



I loved the Lord of the Rings movies, even though I wasn't fully blown away by the books. Now The Hobbit has a trailer, and yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And hey! That's the British Jim from The Office as Bilbo, right? I like him. After fully watching the trailer, I think I've changed my mind. I think I DO need to see this in the theater.



This short video of a bullfrog playing a game on an iPhone starts out cute and ends hilariously.



I haven't heard a definite "YES" that Prometheus is actually an Alien prequel or sequel. I don't care, it still looks pretty awesome, and Idris Elba is in it, so I'm sold.



This Die Hard mash-up was pretty awesome.

Weekly Constitutional

Want a free Newcastle t-shirt? Well, not totally free. You still have to pay for shipping, but you can customize the shirt! Use 8834510051 as the Coupon Code.


http://newcastlebrownale.spreadshirt.com/

In honor of the season premiere of Supernatural, here's a great mash-up video featuring clips of the show with advertising audio. And an oldie but goodie, Supernatural (In My Pants).





I like each Ok Go CD a bit less than the previous, but the videos are still awesome. And this one has doggies!



How can you NOT watch DJ Kitty without smiling?



New trailer for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Looks like I've got to rewatch all the movies before November. I'll probably reread all the books after the last movie.

Holy shit! Don't eat a red gummy bear and then drink some potassim chlorate (I'm assuming that's the main ingredient in banana juice?).



Oh, how I really really really wish this would have been the opening to Iron Man 2. I was SOOOO disappointed when I didn't see the Pepper-kissing-the-helmet scene that played in almost all the trailers. I guess I kind of get that Favreau wouldn't want to open the movie with a hungover Stark, y'know, with a bunch of kids watching it, but that logic gets shot down once Stark and Rhodey slug it out while Tony is smashed.




If only they would have made fun of Bill saying "Sookie" in his horrible accent. It's still better than Katy Perry.

First Video Dump of the Summer

Gotta throw this in at the top spot. It's the video for Matt Mahaffey/sElf's new song, Could YOu Love Me. He's singing backwards, man. Backwards!



The music really helps the creepiness factor of this video. Apparently it's from a Sherlock Holmes video game, and Watson just disappears and reappears near you. Creepy.



Can't stand the song or the singer, but it really works as a Star Trek video. I'd party with the crew of the Enterprise.



Okay, I've been hearing about Auto-Tune the News for quite a while now, but I've stayed away. I hate auto-tuning, and I just assumed I'd hate it applied to comedy. Oh how wrong I was. Looks like I'll be going back and watching the previous 11 installments.



When I first heard that there was going to be a Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogen, I rolled my eyes and dismissed it. Now the first trailer is out, and it actually looks like it could be pretty fun. As a plus, it's got Christoph Waltz as the villain. As a minus, it's got Cameron Diaz.

FIRST TRAILER FOR RED!!!!! I love Warren Ellis and just about anything he writes. I love Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker and Morgan Freeman. I think the chance to see Helen Mirren portray a retired CIA hit woman is priceless. This movie looks like tons of fun.

Waterlogged Picture Dump

These are pictures I've come across that I think are slightly awesome.

What You Should Have Seen #7

Sometimes it can be tough to watch a movie with so much history behind it if you’re not immersed in that history. I went into this movie with a somewhat better-than-basic knowledge of Star Trek and the mythology.

I’ve never watched any episodes of the original series, but I have seen all of the movies. I think I’ve seen every episode of The Next Generation, and I’ve also seen all of those movies. I’ve seen almost all of Deep Space Nine except for the last season or two, and I’ve never seen an episode of Voyager. I attempted to watch Enterprise when it started, mainly because I really like Scott Bakula. I’ve read two Star Trek books. So those are my credentials. I know who the main/important characters are. I know a bit about the important relationships. So I’m not coming into this movie as a blank slate, but I am by no means a Trekkie.

First impressions? Kirk’s birth was incredible and heart-wrenching. I think I’m going to enjoy this movie.

Notes:

• I like Zachary Quinto as Spock.
• I liked that, rather than have a “future song” made up for Jim’s little Corvette joy ride, they used the Beastie Boys. Nice. Vintage (for the time) song in a vintage car.
• Tyler Perry is in this movie? And he’s not in drag?
• I like the casting choice for Bones.
• I like the fact that, while slightly different from the uniforms in The Original Series, they weren’t radically altered or updated.
• Yay for redshirts!!! Aw, poor redshirted Olsen.
• I never knew Sulu was such a badass. I’m impressed, and I like it.
• I’m not a fan of Winona Ryder and I couldn’t take her seriously as Spock’s mom.
• Although it made for a pretty awesome scene, I don’t buy it that the big red ice monster threw away a big meal in order to chase the tiny Kirk.
• I loves me some Simon Pegg.
• The device used to fuel this reboot of a decade-old franchise while still keeping this somewhat in continuity was extremely well done.
• Hey! Scottie reference Admiral Archer’s beagle! That’s the captain and his dog from Enterprise!
• Okay, how’s this for a bit of serendipity and coincidence? Nero’s second in command is played by Clifton Collins, Jr., who I mistakenly thought also played Richard “Boner” Stabone in the ‘80s sitcom “Growing Pains.” In fact, Boner was actually played by Andrew Koenig, son of Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series.
• I know William Shatner was pissed off about not being in the movie while Leonard Nimoy was, but I think the omission and inclusion work extremely well for the movie.

Okay, that movie was pretty damn awesome. I saw that as a fan of action movies with the already-stated cursory knowledge of the Trek universe. I don’t know what Trekkies thought of it, but I’m assuming the review would mean jack squat to them since they probably saw it on opening night. If you’re a fan of sci-fi movies and haven’t seen this yet, do it. It’s worth your time and your money.

Video Dump for the Week

Okay, this is pointless and stupid, but it made me tear up a little bit from laughter. Apparently it's overdubbed with words that are similar to the mouth motions of the actors.



I'm including this trailer for the 2007 British film "Death at a Funeral." It's an extremely fun and funny movie about death and grieving and really knowing who people are. I'm including it NOW because I just learned that Chris Rock is producing a remake of it for American audiences. I have no doubt in my mind that it will be extremely inferior to the original, and I highly recommend that you find this version. You may recognize Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Dollhouse, Arrested Development) and Peter Dinklage (Nip/Tuck, Threshold). Dinklage, by the way, will be reprising his role for the remake.



While I'm at it, let's throw up the trailer for Alan Tudyk's next movie, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. It...looks...hilarious. It's the best parody of a teens-in-the-woods slasher flick that I've ever seen.



I'm a big proponent of books over their big screen counterparts, even with comic books, but I'm expecting this movie to be a lot better than the comic it's based on...regardless of Nick Cage.



I can't remember if I've already posted it, but it couldn't hurt to post it again. Here's the promo for Family Guy's Empire Strikes Back episode. I loved their first Star Wars episode, and I'm anticipating loving this.



If you haven't seen this ad already, well, don't expect to see much of it in the future. The makers have pulled it after receiving apparently a lot of complaints. I thought it was pretty clever and really got their point across.



Has Steve Buscemi ever had a lead role in a movie? He's been in a LOT of movies, but has he ever been the star? Not a star, but THE star? If not, I do believe his time has finally come. Plus, there's Peter Dinklage (it's all connected, see?) and Sarah Silverman.



Here's the red band trailer for the new Michael Cera movie, Youth in Revolt. It's kind of like Fight Club if Fight Club were a teen romance movie.

Youth In Revolt Red Band Trailer - watch more funny videos

And while we're at it, let's throw up Cera's Between Two Ferns episode.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns