Mike’s Top Ten of 2010 (REMIX)
I’m in the middle of revisiting the last few years of top ten lists.
I won’t do all of them, don’t you worry. I’m just doing the ones that I made since the blog started.
Well — technically I made all of them since the blog started. But I’m talking about the top ten lists I made for specific years and not for decades. The ones where I ranked stuff specifically and did it with less than a few weeks of time to think about it. Which are 2010, 2011 and 2012. Everything else I’ve had lots of time to sit with and decide my opinion on. So those I don’t need to update. These — these will be interesting.
I’ve updated my 2012 list and 2011 lists, and today is 2010. The thing about this one is that I didn’t really rank anything outside the top ten that year. I just sort of threw in a quasi-tier two thing that wasn’t well-thought out at all. So now I’m gonna update that shit for real.
Here’s my (REMIXED) Top Ten list for 2010: (more…)
Mike’s Top Ten of 2011 (REMIX)
I’m in the middle of revisiting the last few years of top ten lists.
I won’t do all of them, don’t you worry. I’m just doing the ones that I made since the blog started.
Well — technically I made all of them since the blog started. But I’m talking about the top ten lists I made for specific years and not for decades. The ones where I ranked stuff specifically and did it with less than a few weeks of time to think about it. Which are 2010, 2011 and 2012. Everything else I’ve had lots of time to sit with and decide my opinion on. So those I don’t need to update. These — these will be interesting.
So yesterday I updated my 2012 list, which is just about three months old now. Today I’m doing last year’s list, and tomorrow I’ll do 2010′s list. Each will be interesting for their own reasons. This one because 2011 was a hard year to create a top ten list for (and I still think I’ll need some more time to fully create one), and 2010 because I didn’t really list all the films I list now, so there’s a whole different set of work to do there.
That said, here is my (REMIXED) Top Ten list for 2011: (more…)
Mike’s Top Ten of 2012 (REMIX)
I had the idea to do this for last year’s top ten, and then that branched out to doing last year, this year, and the year before last — because that’s what happens with me.
I came up with the list three months ago, so there aren’t too many changes — but I have certainly updated my feelings about the films. I definitely have a better handle on stuff right now, and I have to say — sometimes I worry that I do a bad job of picking my list and that some films are gonna fall off. One, maybe two is acceptable over time. Three or more is not. And now, three months after I came up with the list — if I’m changing my top ten around, that’s not good.
So my hope in doing this was that I still felt the same way about all of the films, and that was my reason for doing this — making sure I’m still making my top ten lists the right way, which is with an eye for the long run, and not putting stuff on there because it’s trendy but rather because I think I’ll still love it as a favorite film of the year in five or ten years.
That in mind, here’s my (REMIXED) Top Ten list of 2012: (more…)
Mike’s Top Ten Movie Posters of 2012
I threw an article together of these last year, and I had so much fun picking them out that I decided to make it an annual thing.
The creation of movie posters is a lost art. All those classic images of movies — when you think of certain movies, the first thing you see in your mind is the poster. Gone With the Wind, Scarface, Ghostbusters, Forest Gump, Jaws, The Exorcist – these are classic images that we’ll always remember. Nowadays it’s all just cut and paste and photoshop — get as many faces on the poster as possible, repeat the same layouts over and over to remind you of other successful movies. Not to mention — so many movies have multiple posters, and then they change the DVD and Blu-Ray artwork, so there are so many different images for a film that nobody even looks at the posters anymore. It’s a shame.
So this exercise has become not only about pointing out which movie posters I liked over a year, but celebrating the lost art of movie poster making. I love when posters (whether the film is good or not. As you’ll see, I loved some posters this year from movies that weren’t well-received at all) have really smart or iconic images on them. Think of my favorite poster from last year, Ides of March – that’s one of those posters that’s gonna be one of the most famous images of all time (or so I’ll keep saying until it is). A good movie poster should tell you what a film is about in a single, memorable image. And so few do that now.
So let’s celebrate the good movie posters of 2012: (more…)
Mike’s Top Ten of 2012
Another year, another Top Ten list.
I was very pleased with this year. Definitely more so than 2011. This year felt like it had a lot of strong choices for inclusion on this list. Last year’s list was probably easier to compile, but that’s because I knew right off the bat seven or eight of the films that would make it. This year, I didn’t really know what was gonna make it, but I did know I’d have a lot of great films to choose from. And overall, it just felt like I was happier with the amount of choices available to me for this list.
In case you didn’t know — what I do every year is list my ten favorite films of the year, along with an 11-20 (as I do on all my top ten lists for each year), and then I also create lists of second and third tier films, which are basically my way of ranking as many movies as possible that I liked. The top ten are my absolute favorites, the 11-20 were my next favorite, and so on and so forth. The entire thing ends up being a top ten plus fifty more films. Last year, I struggled to round out tier 3. This year I had to cut off an extra ten films I could have included. So overall this felt like a strong year. Or maybe that’s because I wasn’t as negative about everything this year.
The other thing to note, before we get into the films, is that this is the only time I really ever rank my top ten. After this, it pretty much reverts to alphabetical order. It’s not really about the numbers so much as what’s on the list. I also, as I always say, try to think of the long game when I rank these films. I try to think of films that are most likely to remain on my top ten list when I revisit it in one, two, five years. So let’s get right into it. Here are my Top Ten Films of 2012: (more…)
The Unforgivable Films of 2012
This list is getting harder for me to create every year.
I’m more positive about movies now than I’ve ever been. I don’t gather deep-seeded dislikings of movies before I even see them, and I generally stay away from all the trailers and stuff for movies before they come out and the online reaction about movies after they come out. It just makes me a happier person to stay away from all that shit. And I’m more about looking at the positive in every movie, rather than looking for shit to attack. So it makes it harder, after trying for a whole year to be like, “Well, no, it wasn’t good, but let’s not be too harsh on it,” to go, “Fuck that movie, it made me want to beat up harmless animals.”
That said… I have developed a soft spot for this list. So of course I was gonna do it. And honestly, the more I started honing in on ten movies I didn’t like the most, it made it real easy to say bad things about them. Since the movies on this list — they’re not good. They either aren’t trying, were made only for the money, or are just so unspeakably executed that they do a disservice to the art form that is cinema. Why shouldn’t I shit all over them when they’re that bad? I know how hard it is to make a movie, and I know nobody tries to make a bad movie — but the people on this list made bad movies. So let’s make fun of those movies. (more…)
Mike’s Favorite Movie Trailers of 2012
This is gonna be a bit ironic, seeing as how I avoided 95% of all movie trailers this year, and the only ones I saw were either big movies I was eagerly anticipating (for better or for worse), ones I saw in theaters, and ones that were put on at work on someone else’s computer that I ended up watching. I actually went and watched most of the trailers for the year within the past few days.
That said — a good trailer is still a good trailer. Cutting a good trailer is a lost art, it seems, as most of them now are either one of two things — straight teasers, or plot machines. They’re either telling you nothing or everything. Not only that — not many trailers actually stand out anymore. You know what was a memorable trailer? The one from The Muppets. Or, going back a few years, one that always stuck out to me – Little Children. With the train sounds building to the crescendo. I still remember that trailer. There’s a delicate balance to a good trailer. They should tell you something about the film, without giving the entire plot away, they should be memorable, and not follow the same tropes as every other trailer (unless they’re gonna make fun of them), and above all else, they should make you more excited to see the movie than you were. If it’s something you weren’t sure about, it should make you want to see the movie. If you were going to see it anyway, it should make you excited that it’s gonna be really good, and if you were already crazy excited for it, it should make you almost pee your pants in anticipation, wanting the months to pass sooner so you can just see it already. That’s what a good trailer is.
So, with all that — here are my favorite trailers of 2012: (more…)
Oscars 2012 Update: Best Original Score Eligibles & AFI Top Ten
Two more things were announced yesterday, one that has Oscar implications, and one that doesn’t, but is still interesting.
The first is the list of eligible scores for Best Original Score. There are 104 of them, but I bet when I’m done, I can narrow it down to a manageable twenty or so, if not less.
The other is the American Film Institute’s top ten films of the year. They tend to stray more toward what the Oscars will do than NBR, which typically has those few character choices that make me gravitate toward them. But AFI is usually pretty solid.
So we’ll start with them and get them out of the way, and then end with the scores. (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1950-1959)
This has become, by far, my favorite part of this blog. These articles have introduced me to so many movies. Ones I needed to see but hadn’t, ones I’d wanted to see but never did, ones I had no idea about. They’re the perfect excuse to go out and see more things. Plus I get to uncover some real gems. I’m so excited to do these top tens lists that I’ve began starting them earlier and earlier each time. The last one, I finished with a month to spare. This one I started before that one even went up. That’s how much I love these lists.
I’ve done the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s and 1960s already. The way I do them is — I list my favorite ten movies for each year, then put an 11-15 (or 11-20. This decade, we have all 11-20s, because it’s incredible) at the bottom, to both recommend more great films as well as make it easier on myself when I revisit these lists in the future to update them to account for the passage of time and my maturation of taste.
The other thing I do with each decade is, outside of the top 15-20, I include a “fun” list at the bottom. For the 2000s, it was the “Terrible Ten,” of films from each year that I hated. For the 90s, it was the “Films of My Childhood.” For the 80s, it was the “Awesomely 80s Movies.” For the 70s, it was the “70s Recommendations.” For the 60s, it was the “Out with the old, in with the new.” This time, I’m doing what I’m calling “Gems of the Studio System.” There were a lot of great films from the 50s, and I wanted to find a good way to describe all the extra films I included. And I noticed, while figuring out logistics for these lists, that almost all of them were films from major directors, and that a lot of them (the films) are relatively unknown (for the most part). So the idea behind the lists was to show some hidden gems that, because of the studio system and most directors making three, four pictures a year, got lost over time. (Not all of them are by famous directors, but 90% of them are.) I’ll also tell you which director did which one. I bet on more than a few you’ll go, “Really?”
Now that’s all explained, let’s get into the lists: (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1960-1969)
We’ve reached the 1960s. We had the 2000s and its Terrible Tens, the 1990s and the Films of My Childhood, the 1980s and the Awesomely 80s Movies, and the 1970s and my 70s Recommendations. Now come my favorite films of the 1960s.
Just like the other decades, along with the Top Ten, I’ll also list an 11-15 (or 20, depending on how strong the year is) list at the bottom to make it easier for me in the future. The idea is that when I do revisit these lists and see how my tastes have changed, I’ll have more than just ten films immediately on hand to get a sense of which films made it on or fell off the Top Ten list. (Let me remind you: the lists only include (or exclude) the films from these years that I’ve seen. As I see and like more films from the decade, the lists will be updated accordingly.)
Now there’s the issue of the extra category. As I always do, I like to include an extra category besides the 11-15; the Terrible Ten, the Films of My Childhood, the Awesomely 80s Movies, etc. This time, for the 60s — it’s not a particularly consistent decade. That is, with the 80s, they had 80s movies. The 60s don’t really have that. They were more of a combination of the end of the studio system and the changing film landscape and the end of the production code (epitomized by Bonnie and Clyde). So my 60s list will be what I’m calling “Out with the old, In with the new.” That is, films (good films, mind you. Not just any films. I had to have least liked them enough to put them on) that either typify the fading studio system (“out with the old”) or the emergence of New Hollywood (“in with the new”), as well as “other good films too,” which are ones that don’t necessarily fit in either category, but are also pretty great. “Out with the old, in with the new, and other good films too.”
So here are my Top Tens of the 1960s: (more…)
The Best Movie Posters of 2011
I had a thought yesterday, and for me, now, having a thought is like being drunk with friends – whenever you think of anything out loud, no matter how stupid, crazy or hypothetical it was, the immediate response is, “DO IT!”
“I kind of want to pee off this balcony right now.” “DO IT!” “Wouldn’t it be awesome if I chugged the rest of that bottle?” “DO IT!”
This “DO IT!” had to do with my thought of how there were so few good film posters out nowadays. What ever happened to Baby Jane the art of poster creation?
Remember all those classic posters from years gone by? Gone With the Wind, Jaws, Scarface, Vertigo, Full Metal Jacket, Ghostbusters – there are hundreds of them.
Nowadays, it’s all cut, copy, paste, photoshop. Every poster is designed to remind you of something else that made money, or of a famous poster from a while back. There are sites all over the internet (which I won’t link to, but all you need to do is search and you’ll find a bunch of them) that show you how derivative most of these posters are. It’s terrible.
So, in order to promote the good, here are my favorite movie posters from 2011: (more…)
Mike’s Top Ten of 2011
Everyone’s got one. Here’s mine.
Pretty simple — just a list of my ten favorite films of 2011. No arguments, no, “I agree, but I liked this film better,” none of that. This is my list, that’s that, end of story. I do this for me. I do this so I can see, in one year, in three, in ten, which films retain their status with me, and which fade over time. It’s a tough business, making a Top Ten list. Most people are pretty short-sighted about it. I try to put a little thought into it and think, “Will I want to be watching this movie in six months?”
That said — thinking about it with that in mind — it’s been a rough year. I had a pretty tough time coming up with an acceptable list. Of course, within the list of films, there were more than ten to choose from. But, in terms of past years — this one has definitely been the weakest in a while, maybe since 2006 (though last year was a bit tough). I guess the key is just not overthinking it, and going with what I felt I liked the best. So, let’s just get into it.
One quick note to make — this will be the only time I actually rank a Top Ten of the year list. After this, it reverts to a simple list of ten in alphabetical order. I’m only doing it this way now because we’re in the middle of it, and people want to know specifically what was liked. Don’t focus so much on the numbers. I’m simply just listing the films I liked the best. Think of the long game here. That’s what I’m doing.
So, here they are — my Top Ten Films of 2011: (more…)
2011: The Unforgivables
I had a crisis of conscience this year.
I turned over a new leaf in 2011 in terms of how I watch movies. I became much more open about certain films, trying to go into (and come out of) them with a more positive outlook. I stopped looking for things to attack and ridicule, because that goes against what movies are. You’re supposed to look for the value in them, not watch and go, “Oh, I can annihilate this one.” The change in mindset led to me being much more okay with some movies that I just wouldn’t have been okay with last year. I still didn’t like them, but I just didn’t get so upset at them.
Last year, I posted a list of what I considered to be the Unforgivable films of 2010. What made a film unforgivably bad instead of just regular bad was the fact that it made me physically angry as I watched it. We know films like Twilight are gonna suck. They’re bad, but they’re not Unforgivable because we know they’re bad. An Unforgivable movie is one that’s not only bad, but it makes you want to tell people how bad it is while you’re watching it. So I made my list and wrote some pretty funny rants about them (all stemming from one I wrote on The Switch that began as a Jerry Maguire-type memo (or mission statement) to my friends about how they should avoid the movie at all costs).
Thing is, though — afterwards I felt bad. Sure, I didn’t like the films, and I wanted to tell people that I did not like them Sam-I-Am, but the rants were somewhat unnecessarily harsh, even though they were meant for humor. And this year, with my newfound positive outlook, I wondered whether another list of Unforgivables was the right thing to do. I thought, “Why just bash something in the name of humor?”
And then I thought, “Why not just bash something in the name of humor?”
So welcome to the Unforgivables list for 2011. (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1970-1979)
It’s time for another one of these. Perhaps my favorite recurring feature on the blog (next to the Pic of the Day). Me listing my favorite films of a particular decade. We’re up to the 70s now.
If you want to keep track of my progress on these lists, you can see the others here: 2000s, 1990s, 1980s.
This one will be just like those other ones. Same Ten films per year, same 11-15 (or 20, if it’s particularly strong) at the bottom, so when I come back to these lists, I can easily know which films almost made the cut so I don’t have to put too much work into updating them. The only difference is the fun list at the bottom. The first time was the “Terrible Ten” list of films I hated from that year. The second was “Films of my Childhood,” a list of films I saw and loved when I was a kid. This one will be, simply — 70s Recommendation. I will be recommending certain films from the decade (that don’t already appear on my Top Ten lists) that I feel greatly represent the 70s as a decade. You’ll see what I mean when you see the lists. Just know, though, that these films are either wonderfully representative (the way the Awesomely 80s Films were of that decade), or are real hidden gems of the decade that not many people may have seen (or would think to see) nowadays.
Also, as always, the list is based on what I’ve seen. As I see more films of the decade (and like them), the lists will be altered accordingly. Now, let’s get listing: (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1980-1989)
This has become a recurring feature here at B+ Movie Blog. Back in March, I posted my Top Tens of the 2000s, because, even though I don’t put much stock in them as be-all, end-all catalogues, I do love making Top Ten lists. So, three months later, I made a list of my Top Tens of the 90s. I liked doing it so much, I figured I’d try to do one for every decade (it gets murky past the 20s, but we have a ways to go before we get there). I’ll space them out every three months, so that way it feels like one of those “very special episodes” TV shows like to do.
What I like to do for each decade is, after listing the ten films from each year I like the best (as well as an 11-15, so that when I revisit the lists in the future (update them in five, ten years, or whatever), I won’t have look through at every film that came out over again), I like to put another list at the bottom for fun. For the 2000s, it was the “Terrible Ten” list of films I hated the most from each year. For the 90s, it was a list of “Films of My Childhood,” the films I grew up watching and loving. Now, for the 80s, I’ve compiled a list of “Awesomely 80s films,” movies from the 80s that are amazingly reflective of the decade. You’ll see what I mean when you see them.
Let’s get to the lists: (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1990-1999)
Three months ago, I posted my Top Tens of the Decade. It was meant to be a list of the films I liked best over the past decade (that decade being 2000-2009. I also included 2010 because it was recent and because, I want to see how much it changes by the time it goes on the list it’s supposed to be on, Top Tens of Decade, 2010-2019). You can read my motivation for such a list in the link up there.
After I posted it, I thought (as I often do), “Wouldn’t it be interesting if I was able to make a list like that for every decade, going back to the creation of film?” And, being the narcissist I am, I also thought, “I should make one for other decades too, so people can see which films I like best, and then watch them.” Now, I don’t know how far back I’ll be able to go (might have some trouble in the 1920s, 10s and 00s), but I do know, being born in 1988, I certainly can do one for the 90s easily enough. That was my decade. So that’s what I’m gonna do right now.
This will be exactly like the Top Tens of 2000-2010. The only change, or rather, the only difference between this list and that list is, there won’t be a “Terrible Ten” list of films I hated. Because I just wasn’t that kind of viewer back then. I didn’t hate films the way I do now. That decade I was between 2 & 12. I was watching shit like Blank Check. But that’s what’s interesting about it. Not what I hated — what I loved.
Since these were my formative years, what I’m doing is, instead of a “Terrible Ten”, after the standard 11-15 (to make things easier next time I revisit the list), is putting what I’m calling a “Films of My Childhood” list at the bottom. That is, at the bottom of ever year, I’ll have a list of 5 landmark Films of My Childhood. These are the films that I loved (and still do, but largely out of nostalgia) and saw as a child. Ones that, if you’re my age, you’ll go, “Oh shit, I love Rookie of the Year!” Keep in mind, this is my list of films from my childhood. There might be a handful of films you think are missing. But, those are the films to put on your Top Tens of the Decade lists. Because I love when people make lists. I’d happily read yours. I’d be positively giddy to do so. Either way, this should be a nice nostalgia trip for you. Let’s get to the Top Tens: (more…)
Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (2000-2009)
Because you know you want to hear them.
Note: These are my favorite films, not the best. My goal here is to list, mostly for myself, but I like to get everyone involved in my narcissism, the films I liked best over the past decade. These are the films I find myself either holding in very high regard over a sustained period of time, or constantly going back to and watching. Which is pretty much the same thing.
Hindsight works well here. The more time that’s passed, the more time I’ve had to reflect on how much I actually like certain films. You watch a movie once, maybe you like it, put it on the top ten because you’re all caught up in it. After five years, you have a much better idea just how much you actually like that movie. Or if the movie’s aged. A lot of movies age very poorly and just don’t carry the appeal five-to-ten years later. Some movies are good, but you’re just not gonna watch them all the time. I wanted a list that captured both the films I watch the most and which ones I liked the best.
This is my list of films that I know, if I had to pick any film from these years to watch, these would be those films. Of course, the further we are from the year in question, the more accurate my list is going to be. More time to reflect.
An exercise like this fascinates me, because seeing somebody’s list of things like this really gives you a sense of what their tastes are (if they’re honest, of course. Some people will leave films on there because they’re “important” and they want to look good. Fuck that. If you don’t like Schindler’s List, whether you respect it or not, say so. Don’t lie because everyone else has it on their lists), or what era they grew up in (I feel only people around my age will share the same affinity for a film like The Sandlot), or, if I know the person, it gives me a better opportunity to turn them onto something I know they’d like. (“You’ve never seen Shakes the Clown? It’s the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.”) Plus, in my own case, I want to be able to go back to these lists every five years or so and see how my tastes change. See which movies have fallen off, which ones came on, etc. Actually that’s pretty much it. I really want to see if I’ll ever get tired of watching Speed Racer for the thirtieth time and finally be like, “Jesus, how have I watched this movie so many times and not been on drugs?” (Note: That won’t happen.) (more…)
1/1/11
Motherfucker.
I felt my blog could start with no better word than motherfucker. Now that that’s out of the way, we already have shit to take care of. Jesus, the work piles up fast.
I guess we need to do this all legitimate-like and explain who I am and what I’m doing. Which usually begins with an explanation of the title of the blog…
Well you know what, I’m not gonna do that. See? Switching this shit up on you already. We’ll get to the paperwork later. For now, let’s jump right into the Nitty Gritty (which is both an idiom for “the basics” and a fake title of an autobiography of a 20th century gangster that I made up just now. Right there. I just did that).
Let’s begin with what will essentially be the topic of all of the posts on this blog: movies. What better way to ring in the New Year (1/1/11. How awesome is that? In binary it means…well, I have no fucking clue what it means, but it means something, and that’s what counts) than to provide a personal list of my top ten favorite movies of last year. And here we go (After a short break): (more…)
