Retro-Review: Halloween

    
     How many holidays have films named after them? There are plenty of Christmas films, but I am not aware of any entitled "Christmas". There is a movie about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but that doesn't exactly qualify as a Valentines Day film (and from the reviews, this year's romantic comedy "Valentine's Day" doesn't qualify as an actual film). Of course there is "Groundhog's Day", a good movie starring Bill Murray, but the problem here is that Ground Hog's Day fails the pass the "real holiday" test. Halloween though, is lucky enough to have a film named after it, so it seemed rather appropriate as a horror film newbie to start the Halloween season off with John Carpenter's 1978 film "Halloween".

If I Picked the Winners: Best Pictue 2009

To get the idea behind this column, click here

     Okay boys and girls, it's time to put on your H.G. Wells hats, go down into the basement, and dust off the old handy-dandy time machine as we travel way back into the mysterious, mystical land that was 2009. It was a strange time with primitive customs and habits that are hard to understand for our sophisticated 2010 minds. It was a time when Lebron James was still universally admired by everyone, Geico had yet to run that annoying ad with a pig that says "wee, wee, wee" all the way home, and NBC had not yet approved a comedy that points out the hilarious clash of cultures that occurs when an American has to work in India (that last point was a bit of sarcasm, and yes, I'm well aware of how corny this opening is, but I could not help myself). It was also the first year since 1943 that the Academy Awards expanded its Best Picture nominees pool to ten. While I have to admit, I was initially very much against the idea, in the end it worked out great. Spurred on by 2008's criminal omission of "The Dark Knight", the Academy thought that if they expanded the Best Picture category to ten nominees they would be able to recognize a wider taste of films from all different genres, and at least in the first year, it was mission accomplished. Their were independent films, more traditional films, an animated film, and even two sci-fi films! The only downside of ten nominees is it means I have to write a longer article right now, but that's not your concern, so here we go to my ranking of last year's nominees for Best Picture.

5 Great Films for Halloween

     I have to admit it, when it comes to scary films, I am a wimp. As a child I was easily scared by horror films, and even as a teenager they bothered me enough so that I consciously avoided them. I am just now starting to view some of the most famous horror films, which makes the horror genre far from my expertise. In fact, there is probably no other major genre of film that I know less about than horror. Despite my lack of qualification though, this is a movie blog and it is near Halloween, so I am pretty much obligated to make a list about the best films to see for Halloween. The consequence of my ignorance of the genre though means that the list includes films that are definitely a stretch to be included as "Halloween films" (only one of the films would clearly qualify as a horror film), but all five films are great no matter what genre they belong in. Also, I want to clarify before hand that the ranking of the films reflect their appropriateness for Halloween and do not necessarily represent my view on how the films should be ranked overall. Now without further ado, here is my (unqualified) opinion on the five best movies for Halloween.

News: Batman 3 Gets a Title

   
     Any time there is a whisper about anything to do with the next Christopher Nolan Batman film, people go crazy, but today, there is actual legitimate news to report. Nolan revealed in an interview that the next Batman film will be titled "The Dark Knight Rises". It seems there is a clear attempt here to cash in on the enormous success that was "The Dark Knight" by keeping it in the title. I'm sure the film would do great no matter what it is called though, and I'm kind of disappointed with the lack of creativity in the title. Overall, the title of a movie doesn't matter (although I think some people like "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" more just because of the title). What matters is how good the film is and Christopher Nolan has a tall task to follow-up one of the best films of the last decade.

     Nolan also revealed that the villain in the movie will not be The Riddler like many were speculating. Frankly, I’m glad the villain isn’t The Riddler, because even though I like the character, I think it would be a little too similar to The Joker. We're going to have to wait a bit longer to find out who the villain of the film will be, but it the meantime, let me know what you think of the new name and the villain that you would most like to see in "The Dark Knight Rises". If you're interested in reading more about Nolan's thoughts on the upcoming movie, click here.

Retro-Review: Badlands

   
     Wouldn't it be great to do something only four times in 37 years and be declared one of the greatest geniuses of your profession? As implausible as that sounds, somehow film auteur Terrence Malick has managed it, directing only four films in his 37 year career and yet miraculously building one of the most rabid fanbases in all of moviedom. You would think that four films in this amount of time span would create too small a sampling to create a fanbase for a director, but Malick's upcoming film, "The Tree of Life" (release date May 27, 2011), is the most hotly anticipated film in the movie blogging community. The advantage of the brief filmography is that it creates one of the easiest "film festivals" to complete. Hell, even if you wanted to do an "Ed Wood film festival" (if you're into masochism), that would take nine films, so the "Terrence Malick film festival" is relatively just a blink of the eye.

     I started on this bunny hill of a film festival with Malick's first film, 1973's "Badlands". "Badlands" stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek (who both look shockingly young) as a twenty-five year old man from the wrong side of the tracks and fifteen-year old girl raised by her father in nowhere-ville South Dakota. One day after walking home from his job as a garbage man, Sheen sees Spacek playing with a baton in her front yard and immediately takes an interest and approaches her. After a short conversation, the two start up relationship until Spacek's father finds out about the two and forbids her from seeing Sheen. After a failed attempt from Sheen to convince Spacek's father to let the relationship continue, Sheen breaks into Spacek's house with a gun and demands to take Spacek away with him. When her father refuses to acquiesce to Sheen's demands, he attempts to call the police but is shot and killed by Sheen before he can reach the phone. From then on, Sheen and Spacek go on the run, as the body count at the end of Sheen's gun piles up.

What's in a Meaning: Will the Real Mark Zuckerberg Please Stand Up

     For my first ever review last week, I sounded off on my love of David Fincher's newest film, "The Social Network" (or "the facebook movie" as it's more commonly known). One of the strongest points of the film is the fascinating character that is the film's protagonist, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. There is a lot of protest from people who say the film takes too many liberties with the moral character of the real Mark Zuckerberg, and this may be absolutely true, but frankly, I don't care. It's a movie, and the character as he is written makes for great dramatic art, so while I have no clue what the real Mark Zuckerbeg is like, I am interested in discussing the Mark Zuckerberg of "The Social Network". That's why, for the first ever edition of "What's in a Meaning", I thought we could look into the soul of the Mark Zuckerberg of the film, and discuss the varying opinions people seem to have on who he is and what his motivations are.

     The idea behind this irregular column, "What's in a Meaning", is whenever there is a film that seems to generate special interest in the film's meaning, or the meaning of a particular scene, or the interpretation of a character or line of dialogue, this column will be the place where I will give my opinion and where others can express their opinions. Basically, I wanted a place to get philosophical and this felt like the best way to do it, and the movie that has stimulated my thinking the most lately has been "The Social Network". In particular, I have been fascinated to hear people's different interpretations of Mark Zuckerberg and why he takes the actions that he does in the film.