Shmee.Me

March 13, 2013March 13, 2013

My Favorite Five Movies!

I decided to share my favorite five movies, and for me this is a hard list to put together, but I buckled down and picked five movies that if you came over to my house I would watch even though I have seen them several times. The critics may not agree with me, but who cares it is my list, and as soon as you write something on the internet you are wrong anyway. So here it goes.

5: Spriggan

When I first moved out of the house and in with my group of friends, we watched this movie all the time. It follows the most convoluted plot about Noah’s ark that you will ever hear, but what makes it great are the crazy over the top characters. There is a guy with a chain gun arm that can throw a helicopter at you! It makes me smile just to think about it.

4: The Muppets Christmas Carol

This is by far the best version of the Christmas Carol that has ever been made, and it features The Muppets. Double points! It is one of two movies that I need to watch every Christmas, but it is the one I look forward to the most (Maybe if you ask nice I will tell you the other movie). Everything from the sets to the cast are spot on in this movie. It is just fantastic.

3: Gross Pointe Blank

It doesn’t get much better for a dark comedy then Gross Pointe Blank. John Cusack is an assassin that goes back to his high school reunion to find himself. There he meets up with his old flame, and all sorts of crap hits the fan. It is funny and has a good amount of action. This movie made John Cusack my favorite actor for awhile, then he started making bad movies and that ended, but Gross Pointe Blank is still great.

2: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

It is not often that a middle movie of a trilogy is so awesome, but The Empire Strikes Back is. It has Yoda, Hoth, and a flying cloud city, and I think it has the best writing of all the Star Wars movies. This is Gorge Lucas’ best film. It is so good that despite all the crud that has happened to Star Wars over the years, I am still a Star Wars geek.

1: Dark City

There are very few noir Sci-Fi movies out there that are any good, but Dark City is not only good it is amazing, and so far my favorite movie of all time. This movie sets the tone so well and as we figure out who John is we also unravel the secrets of the bizarre world that he lives in. I think every film buff needs to watch this movie.

So there you have it. I am sure you disagree with me on my picks, but that is your right. I would love to hear what your favorite movies are, so leave me a comment and let me know.

March 10, 2013

Is Oz Great and Powerful?

Oz: The Great and Powerful is the prequel to The Wizard Oz, and is directed by Sam Raimi. It never lives up to the original film, but he still made a pretty decent movie, and if you have seen Raimi’s earlier work then you might notice that this seems a lot like Army of Darkness for kids.

Army of Darkness features a jerk that comes from the future and he saves a kingdom with his knowledge of basic science. Oz: The Great and Powerful features a conman/magician, Oz (James Franco), that goes over the rainbow in a balloon and saves a kingdom with his knowledge of science and theatricality. He even has some scenes at the end of the film to confirm that he knows they similar too, but unlike his previous movie, Oz learns his lessons and becomes a better man.

You can tell Raimi is having fun with the visuals in this movie. Since it is a fantasy land he goes over the top with color and the detail, and it looks fantastic. He also gets to use his horror chops because the flying baboons are quit scary, and he has a few startling scares too. He also peppers things from the original Oz all over the place so you know it is the same land.

The actors, especially the witches, Mila Kunis (Theodora), Rachel Wiesz (Evanora), and Michelle Williams (Glinda), do a great job, and they are really the stars of this movie, but if you are not a fan of James Franco, then this movie will not change your mind because he is pretty much James Franco. Oz’s computer animated compatriots, played by Joey King (China Girl) and Zach Braff (Flying Monkey), do a great job of playing the characters sweet and keeping Oz on the straight and narrow.

Raimi did what he could to make a worthy prequel to the classic film, but he falls a little short. It is still an entertaining film, and since he kept it PG, you can take your whole family, which is a rarity these days. It does make me want to watch Army of Darkness again though.

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

Top 10 Movies for 2013

As we move towards movie season 2013, I thought it might be fun to list my top 10 movies that I want to see this year. Here they are in descending order.

10: World War Z

A movie about a war with Zombies? Count me in, though it has fallen down my list due to a number of script rewrites and people saying that they completely changed the story from the book, but it is still a movie about a war with the undead so it sneaks in at number 10.

9: Ender’s Game

Orson Scott Card’s book finally makes it to the big screen. If falls to number 9 since I think this is a hard book to convert to a movie with all the internal monolog of Ender, plus they need to find a ton of good child actors.

8: R.I.P.D.

This is a movie about the Rest In Peace Department, a group of dead cops that move people and monsters to the other side. I am hoping that Jeff Bridges can make Ryan Reynolds tolerable.

7: Thor: The Dark Worlds

A sequel to Thor with the Dark Elves? Yes Please, and Disney/Marvel hasn’t let us down so far.

6: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I loved the books and was caught off guard when the first movie was as good as it was. I won’t be again, and I hope they keep the quality up.

5: Man of Steel

Zack Snyder (Watchmen and The 300) and Christopher Nolan (Latest Batman Trilogy) reboot Superman. Warner Bros has a lot ridding on this, and the buzz has been very good.

4: Iron Man 3

Marvel/Disney continues to make movies I want to watch, and adding Sir Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin sounds amazing.

3: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Here is hoping we get to see Smaug in this movie! The Hobbit Trilogy rolls on.

2: Star Trek Into Darkness

The first J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie was better then anyone expected, and now the hype is out of control for this second one. Please, Please be good, and oh yeah it has Benedict cumberbatch in it!

1: Pacific Rim

Guillermo Del Toro, Giant Monsters vs. Giant Robots, and Idris Elba! Plus they beat the crap out of San Francisco. I can’t wait, I really need to build that time machine. I ordered all the parts I just have put it together yet.

So that is my list tell me what you think or even add your own!

March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Where is Batman?

My last rant about the future of DC mostly turned in to a rant about the future of the Justice League, so I decided to turn my sights to the Dark Knight himself. DC has several options available to them as where to take the Batman series and I am going to explore a few of them.

The first option and probably the worst option is the reboot the franchise. I think everyone knows how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, and I don’t think many people want to see that again, so whatever they do they should keep Batman’s past in the past, mostly anyway.

The option they seem to be trying now, if the rumors are accurate, is pay Christopher Nolan a ton of money and hope he brings Christian Bale with him. This would make a lot of movie fans happy, and I am sure they would make a lot of cash, but we have kind of done their Batman, and it is all mopey and sad, very good, but I am not sure how much more realistic bleakness we can all handle. They should pay Nolan a lot of money stay around Warner Bros though. It would be a good investment.

The next option is to make a movie with Morgan Freeman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and make almost a Batman Incorporated movie with Lucius Fox sort of running Batman franchises to try and keep crime at bay throughout America. It would be fun and they already have the pieces in place to make it happen.

The last major option that I am going to put forward is to do a Batman Beyond movie with an aging Bruce Wayne handing over the reigns to a young protégé, and guiding him every step of the way. This lets Warner have a new Batman, but without the need for a reboot plus you can incorporate all sorts of fun Sci-Fi elements because it would be the near future.

Of the options that I put forward I like the last two the most. They both take the Bat in new directions and allow the studio to show us something exciting, and since I like Sci-Fi a Batman Beyond movie sounds amazing, but I am pretty sure they will try their hardest just to give Nolan tons of money, which will be good, but just not super original, but we will see, and this post is on the internet, so maybe I will change some minds (it won’t).

March 5, 2013March 5, 2013

Not the 21 Jump Street I Remeber

21 Jump Street is a movie based of a television show from 1987. A show I might add that when Mom wasn’t around I enjoyed watching as a kid. They decided to play it for laughs instead of the drama that it was initially, and it mostly worked.

The movie starts as we watch Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) in high school, Jonah is a geek and a looser, and Channing is a cool jerk jock, but they graduate and get to know each other in Police Academy, and become partners. They screw up their first bust and they get sent to a restarted under cover project called Jump Street as punishment. Because in the police force being an undercover detective is worse then being a bike cop. At Jump Street they are sent back to high school to bust a new designer drug ring. Hilarity ensues.

This movie mostly works because of the chemistry between Tatum and Hill. They seem to be having a great time making this movie and hanging out together and it brings you in to it. Hill plays his normal unsecure overweight guy, and Tatum plays his normal good looking dumb guy throughout this movie but for a buddy cop comedy it works, and watching thirty year olds navigate an ever changing high school scene is quite funny. They also throw in some over the top action just because, and it is always appreciated.

If you are in for watching some raunchy high school humor, it earns it R rating, and writers blissfully destroying a “classic” show from the ’80s this movie is worth a watch.