OK, as has become a yearly tradition here, time for my list of the 10 best movies of 2008. I've seen almost all of the movies that could potentially find a place here, with the exception of Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon and maybe Valkyrie, so I guess you could consider this a work in progress, but here goes:
10. Rambo - Best action movie I've seen in a long time. Plucked straight out of 1985 and dropped into our time to remind us what a good action movie looks like. It also taught me that, when pushed, killing becomes as easy as breathing.
9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Awkward comedy at its finest. When Jason Segel's character runs into Sarah Marshall for the first time and says "I've come here to kill you..." I almost wet myself.
8. Iron Man - Big budget Hollywood filmmaking done right. Very formulaic, but very polished and very entertaining.
7. The Wrestler - Just saw this one today. Some minor flaws along the way but the ending kicked my ass. Another movie that follows a formula but does it well.
6. Changeling - The first Eastwood movie I've liked since maybe Unforgiven, but not the most recent (see below), this movie was really well acted, amazingly well shot, and basically shows you what it looks like when everyone working on a particular movie is at the top of their game.
5. Rachel Getting Married - Very slow but very immersive. Really makes you feel like a guest at this wedding. Watching everyone's backstory unravel is tremendously fascinating. Heartbreaking but also very uplifting.
4. Role Models - The best comedy in a year of great comedies (Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express), this movie is not only consistently funny but consistently hilarious.
3. Gran Torino - Wow. Just wow. Surprisingly funny and also really depressing, with Clint Eastwood's beloved brand of Catholic guilt sprinkled on top. I can't recommend this movie enough.
2. The Dark Knight - Nothing I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said by so many others. The most hyped movie to ever actually live up to the hype.
1. Wall-E - Equal parts art film and studio film, comedy and tragedy, accessible equally to children and adults, and still manages to feel like it caters to no one. The product of a truly powerful vision, computer generated or not. Pixar's finest movie, and at this point that really says something.
Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2008. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your "Year In Review." (I cheated and put the first paragraph - things tend to make more sense as it seems I never get to the point in the first sentence.)
Get ready for some inaccurate political analysis and gushing about the Lakers!
January - "Hilary Clinton won New Hampshire. For Obama supporters, this appears to be a set-back, and you know what? It is. The loss in New Hampshire exposed a gigantic hole in Obama's campaign strategy. Here's the problem: Every single candidate that I can remember who has depended on a large chunk of his votes coming from young voters has always lost."
February - "Today, the Lakers successfully traded for Pau Gasol, one of the great low post players in the NBA, and didn't have to give up a single important player to get him."
March - "Would anyone be interested in going to a Lakers game at some point pretty soon?"
April - "(no entries)"
May - "When I get bored, my attention span tends to get dangerously short, and I end up spending a long time on projects that I had just decided to do minutes prior. This is what resulted this time: (photoshopped picture of me and Pau Gasol)"
1. Pick 13 of your favorite movies. 2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie. 3. Post them for everyone to guess. 4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it. 5. NO GOOGLING!/using IMDB search functions or using social networking sites. They aren't too hard if you know me and good movies in general. 6. To guess, write a comment below with the number and the name of the movie
*******BEGIN!******
1. "That's that, Mattress Man." (Hondo)
2. "Who you calling friend, jackass!" (Josh Baker)
3. "Welcome to the Cafe '80s, where it's always Morning in America, even in the aftern- n- n- n- n- n- noon." (Josh Baker)
4. "I'm a fucking idiot!... I'm a fucking idiot! I'm a fucking idiot! I'm a fucking idiot!... Fucking idiot!" (Dani via MySpace)
5. "You have a message from Elaine, your mother... she's a handful". (Eli)
6. "It smells like a turd covered in burnt hair!" (Sarah Brin)
7. "Yeah, well that's like... your opinion, man." (Gregg)
8. "I respect women. I respect them so much that I completely stay away from them!" (Brian)
9. "Are you going to shoot me?" "That depends. Do you see me?" (Josh Baker)
10. "I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you? Now I just feel bad for you." (Eli)
11. "I'm sick of you being so dark, when I'm so impish and whimsical!"
12. "We must all have waffles! Forthwith!" (Sarah Brin)
13. "That's not the point, Conrad. The point is that Towel Head and Camel Jockey are perfectly good substitutes." (Hondo)
Hey, did you know that if you're writing a post to LiveJournal, and you accidentally hit the ESC button, it automatically deletes the entire entry permanently? Well, I just learned that lesson the hard way, many, many MANY words into an elaborate retrospective essay about the Lakers season that has been, the highs and lows, my many emotions as a life-long fan, and it all vanished in the blink of an eye. Very frustrating.
That being said, this has been by far the most rewarding season I have had as a Lakers fan. In my lifetime, they won it all five times: 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, and 2002. I was too young to experience those first two first-hand, but I vividly remember the other three, and I have to say, this is the best Lakers team since Magic's heyday. The chemistry is palpable. Kobe is the alpha dog of course, but all of his teammates clearly love and respect the guy, and play their asses off every day to stay on his good side, and he clearly loves playing with them too. Kobe has this reputation for being introverted and hyper-competitive, and obviously there is merit to these observations, but he has a rapport with his teammates like I have never seen. He called them out in the off-season, and instead of them telling him to fuck off and get traded for all they cared, each and every one of them stepped up their game, resulting in a brand of team-oriented, half court basketball that very closely resembles the Bulls offense in the 1990's, with Jordan as the ultra-confident, ultra-clutch player who prodded his teammates to previously unforseen heights. Also reminiscent of those Bulls teams, the quality of the ball movement and spacing has been incredible this year, and I feel like it's impossible to play with this much chemistry on the court and not have similar chemistry off it. I have seen plenty of video of the guys on the team hanging out outside of practice, have read the reports about the team dinners during the playoffs, and I saw a reflection of their closeness last night as they stood arm-in-arm during the trophy presentation, with Kobe genuinly beaming.
The Shaq/Kobe Lakers didn't have this sort of chemistry; instead, they were the perpetual favorites, the glitzy behemoth of a team that was expected to always win. Of course it was exciting when they won, and disappointing when they lost, but I just didn't feel as tied to those teams because of their status as perpetual favorites. This team, on the other hand, started out the season with no such high hopes, hoping to at least make the playoffs, but slowly grew into a cohesive unit with palpable chemistry. I watched as they started slow, watched games in which Ronny Turiaf started at center(!), saw Trevor Ariza arrive and bring excitement, watched Andrew Bynum come into his own on both ends of the floor, watched the Christmas Day game against the Suns when they were starting to come into their own. Then I saw Bynum get hurt, with Ariza getting hurt the following week, and watched nervously as the team treaded water with Kwame Brown at center and about to start a nine-game road trip. Then Pau Gasol came to town, assimilated seemlessly, helped the chemistry even more, allowed Lamar Odom to flourish even more, watched them beat New Orleans AND San Antonio the last week of the season to clinch the #1 spot, watched them sweep a 50 win Nuggets team in Round 1, watched them clinch their second round series by beating Utah IN Utah, and just last night I watched while they made short work of the defending champions.
I realize the Lakers still have to win four more games to achieve their ultimate goal, but regardless of how the next few weeks play out, I can honestly say this has been the most memorable, rewarding season that I have ever experienced as a sports fan.
(And to think, my original post was considerably longer than even this one turned out. Very sad.)
When I get bored, my attention span tends to get dangerously short, and I end up spending a long time on projects that I had just decided to do minutes prior. This is what resulted this time:
Either my beard is longer than his, or I have a gi-GANTIC chin. Probably the latter.
Would anyone be interested in going to a Lakers game at some point pretty soon? Tickets can be gotten for about $40 (usually on a weeknight, hope that's not a problem) and I wanna go, and I don't wanna go with my mom. I can scoop up the tickets and people can pay me back. Any takers?
Today, the Lakers successfully traded for Pau Gasol, one of the great low post players in the NBA, and didn't have to give up a single important player to get him. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. My favorite thing about this trade?:
I think we kind of look alike. I'm really excited about the beginning of the Pau Era.
I HAD to post this video. It's an actual commercial for a sandwich shop in Chicago in 1991 starring Scottie Pippen, all-time NBA great and a man who was apparently impervious to double-entendres. I laughed til I cried.
Hilary Clinton won New Hampshire. For Obama supporters, this appears to be a set-back, and you know what? It is. The loss in New Hampshire exposed a gigantic hole in Obama's campaign strategy. Here's the problem: Every single candidate that I can remember who has depended on a large chunk of his votes coming from young voters has always lost. Going into today's primary, Hilary was projected to lose by double-digits, but won anyway. According to Yahoo, "Obama led her by a [large] margin among independents, but he suffered from a falloff in turnout among young voters compared with Iowa." The youth in New Hampshire didn't turn out to vote. In 2004, when John Kerry ran for president, he lost one of the closest elections in U.S. history, and would've won had more youth turned out to vote. Same goes for Al Gore in 2000. For this reason, I have to assume that Obama stands no chance and Hilary is the clear front-runner for the nomination. Her support lies in groups of voters who are more reliable: registered Democrats and women. Sorry to all the Obama supporters, but you might as well throw in the towel if you're gonna depend on young people to vote.
As is becoming a yearly tradition with this here LJ, it's time to post my favorite movies of the year. The only potential candidates I have yet to see are Sweeney Todd and The Savages, but otherwise, I'd say this list is pretty complete. It looks like this:
10. The Kingdom - Rambo for the new millenium. The Americans come in and teach the foreigners about justice, but then it has a conscience.
9. I'm Not There - In lieu of actually creating emotions for the audience to feel, I can at the very least say that I can't stop thinking about it.
8. The Great Debaters - High in the running for the best sports movie ever made. It almost transcends the genre. Plus, one the of the kid actors in it is named "Denzel Whitaker". I like that.
7. Zodiac - A little dry, but undeniably compelling.
6. Knocked Up - Really fun, and with a ton of heart. Also, it does a nice job of cleansing the pallate after all of the snootiness on this list.
5. Breach - Just a phenomenal thriller. So well-crafted, so well-edited, so well-acted. Just a textbook example of how you do this stuff correctly.
4. Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck couldn't have possibly picked an easier first directing gig than this one, between the fantastic source material to the fantastic cast, it almost directs itself. Regardless, it's what Mystic River would have looked like had it been even a little believable.
3. 3:10 To Yuma - Maybe not "The Best Western Since Unforgiven", but still a phenomenal example of the genre.
(COP OUT ALERT!)
1. (Tie) No Country For Old Men (Tie) There Will Be Blood - Both take place in a version of the American West never before committed to film, both filled with wholly unique characters, both ballsy as hell, and both directed by American directors at the very top of their game. I just can't pick one over the other.
THE WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR:
Honorable Mention: A Mighty Heart, 300, Grindhouse
5. 30 Days of Night 4. The Number 23 3. The Comebacks 2. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem 1. Across the Universe
So I finally got back from my three and a half weeks in New Mexico late last night, and, since my account with AT&T has given me a free Flickr account, I figured I would share my trip with everyone via photo journal, aka Kim-style.
Entertainment Weekly just published an article about the possibly impending WGA, DGA, and SAG strikes, in which they ask the question, "If there's a strike, how will all those A-list [actors] survive?". Upon reading this, the most obscene and incoherent flurry of profanity erupted from my mouth. On the list of people most affected by any future strike, the people in front of the camera are at the very bottom. They're not even on the fucking list. To even suggest that I or anyone else should care about Angelina Jolie not working for a few months is ridiculous for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that I think we'd all be better off if that happened (did anyone see "A Mighty Heart"?). The people behind the camera and below the line will be without their health-care benefits and without steady pay for the entirety of any future strike, and unfortunately for those suckers (myself included) they don't make $20 million a movie.
You know what I think is weird? Barack Obama seems to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, yet John Edwards is third or worse in many polls? I'm no Edwards guy, don't get me wrong, but he seems to me to be pretty much the same candidate as Obama: charismatic, handsome, very little substance or experience. So why Obama? I don't know. I'm just asking.
Today I watched an interview with Gary Sheffield on Real Sports, interviewed by Andrea Miller. For those who don't have HBO, here is a hilarious recap:
1.: Andrea Miller: You claim that there is a lot of racism in baseball. Is there a team you have played for that you feel has been especially raci- GS: Yankees!!
It was awesome. He couldn't wait to say this stuff.
2. (I'm paraphrasing, but this is basically what he says): AM: You say that you are against the use of steroids and that you are not a steroid user... GS: Yeah! AM:... and yet, your Grand Jury testimony leaked. You know this, right?
(Cut to Sheffield's blank stare)
AM: And you admit to using "the cream" and "the clear"...
(Cut to Sheffield's blank stare)
AM: And this all happened while you were living with Barry Bonds. GS: Well, you see, I, er... Steroids, to me, has always been a needle in the butt. That's what steroids is. AM: Well surely you are aware that there are different kinds... GS: Yeah, yeah, sure, but to me, steroids is a shot in the butt. Anything else, not steroids.
(This was his actual argument)
AM: How can you continue to claim to be against steroids when you have admitted in the past to taking steroids? GS: When I look at Barry Bonds, he looks like a steroid user. I don't. Therefore, I'm not.
Seriously, this interview was amazing. Equal parts horrible lying and hilarious lying. I was laughing and furious at the same time. If you have HBO, I'm sure it'll be on again and it's worth a look.
Also, there's an amazing documentary about the Brooklyn Dodgers made for HBO that absolutely broke my fucking heart. I'm not much of a baseball guy but HBO makes me one.
So, my birthday is coming up and stuff. If you want to make me happy, and you haven't gotten me anything yet (ha!), money is definitely the way to go this year. I'm thinking about getting an XBox 360, and money would help make the decision. If you think I'm too old for a new video game system, as you probably should be, or you feel like my time would be wasted with a new video game system, as it most certainly will be, feel free to get me something else, I guess. If you're one of the few people left who is still talking to me on a regular basis, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Today, at the end of Day One of a 43 day shoot, the lead actress quit. Good times.
Speaking of good times, NBC decided to start airing the last few episodes of Studio 60 last week on Thursday, and again today, without really telling anyone. That's kinda mean. It's still good, by the way.
Speaking of good things, I've been getting work pretty steadily these days, but I may or may not quit this movie before it ends because I hate it. I hate it a lot.
A list of random celebrities I have seen in person in the last few days:
Jon Lovitz - with a woman half his age Danny Bonaduce - about 5 feet tall Coolio - had to set-up his audio equipment himself Tucker Carlson - just as smarmy and smug in person
A quick sampling of overheard statements yesterday:
Man (to his friend): Man, we should've gotten here earlier, but instead, we... Friend: Yeah, we drank. I could go for another forty right now. Man: One isn't enough!
Later:
Friend: Man, that horse ain't got no dick! Man: Not all horses have dicks. Friend: But that fuckin' horse's gotta have a dick! Where'd it go? Imagine losing your dick! Man: Shit man! Don't say that! Friend: Ew!!
I heard two Scientologists discussing religion with each other, one grown man yelling at another for not throwing candy at him, and a woman randomly breaking into a rendition of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
lyovooshka's journal
