More "Best of the Decade"

The UK Times has now stolen my idea and did their 100 best of the decade.
Here is their list: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6902642.ece

I disagree with many especially Bourne as #2, but they do have some good movies on here.
Check it out and write back. For those that don't want to click, here are their top 25:

25. Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
24. 28 Days Later... (Danny Boyle, 2002)
23. Man On Wire (James Marsh, 200
22. Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)
21. Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, 2005)
20. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
19. United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006)
18. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 200
17. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
15. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
14. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
13.This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2007)
12. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
11. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles, 2006)
10. Hunger (Steve McQueen, 200
9. The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006)
8. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006)
7. The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald, 2006)
6. Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 200
5. Team America: World Police (Trey Parker, 2004)
4. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)
3. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2007)
2. The Bourne Supremacy / The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2004, 2007)
1. Hidden (Cache) (Michael Haneke, 2005)

70 Things you didn't know about Marvel

Nothing too amazing here if you're a comic book fan, but if you're not this list has a bunch of interesting tidbits that the layman may not know about my beloved Marvel Comics. Everything is covered here from the business side to the movies to the comics themselves:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co....C-Bltn=CFKD51F

Best movies of this decade?

I was talking to my friend Craig who runs a decent blog over here called TV Babies. In one of our discussions he said he doesn't think there are really any great movies this decade. I'm not exactly sure what I think. So with this decade coming to a close it's time to look back.

Now are many of these movies going to be classics going forward? Not all, but some definitely will. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, for example, I think will always be recognized until I am old. But I started thinking about others and doing some research since my memory isn't the best.

One thing I came across is this list from Paste Magazine.

I also came across this discussion from a message board I follow

Well, I'm thinking of turning it over to my loyal reader, (Yes singular) but also anyone else that may stumble upon this blog (after I post it on my facebook and twitter).

I will list some that I definitely agree with right now, but as far as my own personal rankings from 50-1 or whatever, I cannot do that right now. So in no particular order:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Just a perfect Trilogy. If you haven't seen it, come on over to my apartment on New Years Day where I always go there and back again as a hangover cure.
Inglourious Basterds - Only saw this once so far, but was shocked and amazed by the maturity Tarantino showed, and the story.
Mulholland Drive - Amazing. Even if I'm still not sure I fully understand it.
The Prestige - The twist of Usual Suspects, the weirdness of mulholland, great acting, fun story. See it!
City of God - Haunting, but fantastic film about Brazilian Gangs
Pans Labrynth - Not what I expected when I saw it. And that was a good thing.
Memento - Nothing will beat the first time watching this. Trying to put the pieces togethers.
Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 (For very different reasons) - The first one for the fun and action, the second one for the story. I love Tarantino
Anything Pixar (mostly Incredibles, Up and Wall E) - Great for all ages for different reasons
Sin City - Visually stunning.
Donnie Darko - Diet Lynch. I've seen this movie 3 times in the theater, who knows how many times at home. Dream Halloween outfit: Frank the Bunny
There Will Be Blood - Epic. For some reason it sticks in your mind.
Magnolia - Two PT Anderson movies. Not a coincidence.
Sunshine - Am I the only one that likes this Heart of Darkness-ish film?
Waking Life (was that this decade?) - A little talky, but still amazing. The content and visuals.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - A little sad, but a great way to tell a story.
The Departed - A perfect crime film, and it does not follow many conventions.
Royal Tennenbaums - Fun script. Owen Wilson makes this movie.
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Didn't like it the first time, but gets better each time I watch it.
Dark Knight - Not quite a perfect comic book movie, but close.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Great script, fun movie, and Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. looking like they are having the most fun since the 80s.
40 Year Old Virgin or Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Great, great comedies.
Requiem for a Dream - A difficult movie to watch, but that doesn't mean it isn't fantastic.
Cache - Watched this one morning. Different than most anything you have ever seen.
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Simply amazing. More fun than most movies you will eve see.

I'm starting to run out of movies and I'm sure that I have forgotten some of my favorites, but I think there are some actual GREAT films on this list as well as some that I know only I like. But what does everyone else think?

Fire back in my comments section. What do you like? What do you not like? Are there any GREAT films of this decade or just some "good movies"?

More weird images.

These are always fantastic and I like posting them. So go and check them out here:
http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=184368

I especially enjoy the Sonic the Hedgehog one.

The Fellowship of Radio City Music Hall

Last Friday I did something absolutely special. I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at Radio City Music Hall.

I love these movies, and have never seen a movie at Radio City which for my money is one of the most beautiful places in New York City.

Seeing the movie would have been cool enough, but what made this even better was the presentation. The theatrical cut of the film was shown with subtitles because there was a full 200 person choir and 64 piece orchestra playing the score live.

The music in this film is great on its own but I have never heard it as clearly as it was played live. Also the mix of the movie is such that you sometimes hear more of the action, battle scenes and acting as opposed to the music, but in this presentation the music was featured.

Putting into words what I saw is difficult, but you can get a piece of how it was presented by clicking here

At times it was a little overwhelming to try and decide where to look. Do I watch the movie, or do I watch the conductor? The violinists or the drummers or conductor? Sometimes I forgot there was an orchestra as I got sucked into a movie I have seen about 30 times.

There were also solo vocalists like an Enya sounding woman to do her songs, and some kids from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir to do those vocals.

One thing that was real cool was how on the Conductor's easel he had a flatscreen showing the movie but there was a white dot that was pulsing helping him keep the beat.

It is really difficult to put an experience like this into words, but it really was a special night and made me love the Lord of the Rings movies even more. I honestly could have gone for watching the entire trilogy even though I left Radio City well past 11:00.

Stephen King books

I was looking through a list of Stephen King books and realized I was only about 5 books away from reading all of them. With Under the Dome coming out next month (King's newest 1200 page opus) I decided I better finish reading all of his books soon.

As a result, I started Pet Semetary today. Sure, I have seen this movie about 10 times, which is why I never read the book (some others I have not read include Cujo and Christine for the same reason), but now I feel like I should complete this feat.

I do not have all these books and hope they find their way to me with minimal purchases on my end.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

My brother works for the publishing sector of Disney. They have a new series of books that geared towards young adults that he recommended to me. I read all five books in under a month with each book taking about 3 days while reading on the train. So although they are a very quick read, if you are a fan of Harry Potter types of books, I would definitely recommend these.

The story of the book is similar to Harry Potter, but instead of magic the underlying element that keeps the books moving is the premise that all of Greek Mythology is real. Zeus is the king of the gods, Hera is the queen etc, and they sometimes have children with mortal: These are Demigods also called Heroes in this book.

In the first book, the main character named Perseus (Percy) Jackson finds out he is a demigod and gets sent to a camp (kind of like Hogwarts) in Montauk that helps train Heroes. It turns out there is an old prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi (who resides in the attic of the building of this camp) about a certain Demigod changing the course of history on his 16th birthday.

I won't give anything else away, but if you enjoy quick, action packed stories, and if you enjoyed Greek Mythology whenever you learned it, I think these books are a lot of fun.

Like Harry Potter, they also get better as they go on, with the last book being quite good and well worth the time to read the other four previous ones.