Pic of the Day: “I would have stayed for two thousand.” “I would have paid four.” (30th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Now you stop being hard on yourself. All is forgiven.” “You sure?” “Oh, it’s not the first time I was tossed out of a window, and it won’t be the last. What can I say? I’m a rebel.” (20th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Henry, I have a report here from your Major O’Houlihan. Now she makes some accusations here that I frankly find hard to believe.” “Well, don’t believe them then, General. Goodbye.” (50th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I keep having the same dream. He seems to be forcing me to return to the bitter sweet site, of my grandfather’s house, where I was born on the table 40 years ago. Something always prevents me from entering. I keep having my dream. When I dream of the log walls and dark pantry, I sense that it’s only a dream. Then my joy is clouded, for I know I’ll wake up. Sometimes something happens, and I stop dreaming of the house and the pines by the house of my childhood. Then I grieve and wait for the dream, that will make me a child again, and I’ll be happy again knowing that all still lies ahead, and nothing is impossible…” (45th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Heaven, I’m in heaven / And the cares that hang around me through the week / Seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak / When we’re out together dancing, cheek to cheek.” ♫ (85th Anniversary
Pic of the Day: “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I wish I could say something classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn’t be our style. Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory… lasts forever.” (20th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us – in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning.” (35th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “When I was seven years old, my daddy caught me smoking a cigar. Locked me in a broom closet for two days and two nights with nothing more than a box of cigars and a book of matches. No food, Brewster. No water, just those god damn cigars. Wouldn’t let me out till I finished every last one of them. Taught me one hell of a lesson! I’m gonna do to you what my daddy did to me. I’m gonna teach you to hate spending money. I’m gonna make you so sick of spending money that the mere sight of it will make you wanna throw up!” (35th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “The monkey is never dead, Dealer. The monkey never dies. When you kick him off, he just hides in a corner, waiting his turn.” (65th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Until then I had done things my way, but from then on something stepped in and shunted me off to a different destination than the one I’d picked for myself.” (75th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen / Pour myself a cup of ambition / Yawn and stretch and try to come to life / Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin’ / Out on the street the traffic starts jumpin’ / With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5” ♫ (40th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Just checking.” “Everything all right?” “Yep. Two corpses. Everything’s fine.” (35th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “You be careful, madam, or you’ll turn my pretty head with your flattery.” “I often wished I could turn your head – on a spit, over a slow fire.” (80th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “You know, I think you ought to get him some help. He seems to be really hung up on super heroes’ sex organs.” (25th Anniversary)
2020: The Year in Reviews (Part II)
Every year at this time, everyone’s coming off summer and has all these $200 million movies they say are the ‘greatest thing ever’, and I’m always like, “But there hasn’t really been anything that good out,” waiting for the last three months of the year when all the really great stuff comes out. So I was prepared for this. How are the rest of you feeling?
One thing I’m finding with this year is that now that there isn’t a premium on seeing movies and things are either going PVOD, regular VOD or being pushed altogether, I haven’t been in a rush to see things like I normally am (is anyone else even watching stuff? Because it doesn’t feel that way). This year just feels so… inconsequential. There’s been so little I’ve gotten excited about. And also, just so little. I watched less than 100 movies during these past four months and still managed to see 98% of everything that came out. Which is insane. This whole year is insane.
Anywho, here are reviews for everything that’s come out this third of the year (plus a few leftover from the first third): (more…)
Mike’s Favorite Original Songs of the Decade (10-1)
This was probably the list I was most excited to create when I came up with the idea of all these ‘Decade’ lists. It’s the most immediately gratifying. The songs are all right there to listen to and appreciate.
One of my favorite things to do each year (before they tried to take it away from us with that shortlist bullshit) was go through the list of all the eligible songs for Best Original Song at the Oscars and then figure out which ones I liked best. So I already had a giant pool of songs to work from, and then all I had to do was go in and look for any others that may have not been submitted or eligible, etc. And after that it was just making a playlist and figuring out what order they were going in. Which, I’ve gotta tell you, if you’ve never tried it… do it. It’s great. This is now a playlist on my phone that I listen to occasionally because it’s just great songs from movies.
Anyway, this is a list of my 200 favorite original songs from the decade in film. I was pleased that I could get to 200 here because there actually were that many (and more) that I liked enough to deem worthy of one of these lists. We’re gonna post it in chunks of ten, the way we’ve posted all the other lists. Only this one has been slowly been rolled out over the past couple of months, one each day. So really this is just cleaning all that up and putting it all in one place.
So here are my favorite original songs from the films of 2010-2019: (more…)
Mike’s Favorite Original Songs of the Decade: #1 – “Shallow,” from A Star Is Born
1. “Shallow,” from A Star Is Born
It really couldn’t have been anything else. They called their shot with this one, and it’s still going. They debuted this song in the trailer and you knew it was gonna be great. And then they handled it perfectly in the film, the song went on to be a giant #1 hit across the entire country, and then they had that incredible performance of it at the Oscars just before it won for Best Song. It’s the total package of ‘original film song’.
But also, it’s completely rooted within the story and the characters. It’s the song she’s working on when they first meet, and she sings it for him in the parking lot, unfinished. And then he flies her out to the show and has her perform the song for the crowd, which is that first moment where she finally emerges. And it’s all handled so brilliantly on the screen, underscored by the great performances (vocal and acting) by both Cooper and Gaga. And then there’s the lyrics, which perfectly capture who these people are and provide this wonderful love song for both of their personalities to merge in this beautiful piece of music. This is it — the moment they fall into the deepest depths of love with one another.
I’ll say it again — it’s the total package of a song, and there’s really no film to better call the best original film song of the decade than this one.
Mike’s Favorite Original Songs of the Decade (20-11)
This was probably the list I was most excited to create when I came up with the idea of all these ‘Decade’ lists. It’s the most immediately gratifying. The songs are all right there to listen to and appreciate.
One of my favorite things to do each year (before they tried to take it away from us with that shortlist bullshit) was go through the list of all the eligible songs for Best Original Song at the Oscars and then figure out which ones I liked best. So I already had a giant pool of songs to work from, and then all I had to do was go in and look for any others that may have not been submitted or eligible, etc. And after that it was just making a playlist and figuring out what order they were going in. Which, I’ve gotta tell you, if you’ve never tried it… do it. It’s great. This is now a playlist on my phone that I listen to occasionally because it’s just great songs from movies.
Anyway, this is a list of my 200 favorite original songs from the decade in film. I was pleased that I could get to 200 here because there actually were that many (and more) that I liked enough to deem worthy of one of these lists. We’re gonna post it in chunks of ten, the way we’ve posted all the other lists. Only this one has been slowly been rolled out over the past couple of months, one each day. So really this is just cleaning all that up and putting it all in one place.
So here are my favorite original songs from the films of 2010-2019: (more…)
Mike’s Favorite Original Songs of the Decade: #2 – “Drive It Like You Stole It,” from Sing Street
2. “Drive It Like You Stole It,” from Sing Street
I mean, how could it not be? It’s amazing, not only how great the songs in this movie are, but how they build throughout the course of the film. This is the climactic song of the film. This is their ‘big’ song. Of course, it’s shown in a fantasy sequence, but even so. If by now, you haven’t realized this band is the real deal, you do now. This song is just a straight banger. You put this song on a list of ‘Best of the 80s’ without mentioning what it is or where it’s from and it just fits. It’s perfectly done and honestly, was pretty damn close to being my #1 for the decade. That’s how much I love it.
