B+ Movie Blog: Year One
It is December 31st, at 11:59 pm, as this goes up.
One year ago today, this blog was started.
I had no idea what would happen when I started it.
My only plan was to document the Oscar Quest, and talk about film.
It gave me an excuse to keep writing. Keep creating. Keep talking about my favorite topic.
I told myself I would try to write one post every day. The goal was 365.
This post will be my 800th. (more…)
Pic of the Day — Oscar Season
Not rabbit season. Or duck season.
Back in August, I had the idea to have the January and February Pics of the day be Oscar-themed. It goes along with all the theme months I’ve been having since September. For the next 60 days (it’s Leap Year, motherfucker), all the Pics of the Day will be Oscar-themed, such that, while they’ll all be winners of major Oscar categories (aka, the Quest), they’ll also be (for the most part) really classic shots from the films as well. Such that, when you see them, they should give off that classy, Oscar vibe. Like when you pay that extra couple hundred bucks so your prostitute for the evening gives off that “professional” vibe and not the “I’ll suck yo dick for rocks” vibe. That’s normally how it is around here.
Plus, since I love symmetry and even numbers — sixty days, six categories (Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director), it all works out. I’ll just go through the categories. So that’s the way this is gonna work. Tomorrow will start with Best Picture (one of the most famous shots in all of cinema to boot), and then go through the categories (in the order stated up there) until the end of February. We’ll end up with ten Pics from each category (there’s no system here past the fact that it won in the category I’m putting it in).
The goal here is for every Pic of the Day from now until the Oscars to be one that you can look at and think, “Oscar film.” We’re looking to class up the place, the way a bride waxes her bush before the wedding. (I’m getting it all out now.) Now… let it begin.
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…)
The Box Office Report – December 30-January 1
Last week, in Box Office…
In what shocked the shit out of everyone, Tom Cruise stood up and said, “Fuck y’all, I’m still a badass motherfucker at the box office.”
Okay, so maybe he didn’t say that. He said, “I can go back to my well really well. And my movie made $46 million, so I can rhyme well with well. Do something.”
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (I hope you’re all appreciative of the fact that I get the punctuation right every time for your benefit when trying to repeat it.) made $29.5 million. And this is after it opened really strong last week. Everyone is amazed at how this happened. Some blame Scientology. I, honestly, blame no one, since this was actually a really entertaining film, and was everything a Mission: Impossible film should be. So let it make the money. It’s well on its way to recovering its budget back. It has currently pulled in about $95 million so far (off a budget of around $150 million. Not to mention pulling in almost $200 million worldwide so far).
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows finished second for the weekend, with $20.3 million. Still pretty strong for it. I’m not sure why they’re considering this such a failure. “Oh no, it only made $40 million instead of $60 million! We’re fucked a dinosaur’s story! It’s crossed $100 million domestically already. Disappointment, my ass! (more…)
