*Sigh* My Top 5 Movies of the Year

I said I wasn't going to do it. And really, it should all be taken with a grain of salt, because there are plenty (Children of Men) of movies (Casino Royale) that I haven't seen (The Queen) this year (The Prestige) that might have (Pan's Labyrinth) made my list (Marie Antionette) had I seen them (Unaccompanied Minors... just kidding).

Still, since The Onion AV Club is doing its annual poll, I decided to go ahead and make a top 5 list.

1. The Pursuit of Happyness
2. Thank You For Smoking
3. Prairie Home Companion
4. The Departed
5. Little Miss Sunshine

The Pursuit of Happyness came along at the end of the year, caught me by surprise, and just edged out Thank You For Smoking for the top spot.

I'm surprised Prairie Home Companion isn't getting more attention than it is. It's an extremely good movie. It's Robert Altman, one of the greatest directors ever, at his best. It has death as a subtext, and ALTMAN DIED THIS YEAR. I would think that would have awards written all over it, but apparently not.

A few movies that were close to making my list but didn't quite do it...

I was debating between Little Miss Sunshine and Last King of Scotland for the #5 spot. I easily could have gone the other way.

Also, I considered a number of fairly silly comedies... Clerks 2, Borat, Talladega Nights... But none of them were quite good enough for a top 5.

So there you have it.

Wisconsin State Representative "Krye Tuff"

I've mentioned him twice before....

And now the video is on Youtube. I present to you, my friend, 54th District Wisconsin State Representative and 2003 West Coast Air Guitar Champion...

Gordon "Krye Tuff" Hintz.

Garfunkel Reads!

Every once in a while, Dara updates us on her progress with The Modern Library's 100 best novels list.

Perhaps next she should tackle the 1,000 books Art Garfunkel has read.

As easy as it is to make fun of Garfunkel for keeping such a meticulous record of what he's read, I have to admit he puts me to shame. I've been reading Team of Rivals for months now, and I've still barely made a dent. Well, to be fair, I haven't really been reading much at all lately... I've been reading like ten pages and putting it down for a month and then reading another 10 pages... At this rate I'll finish it in about 2036.

Garfunkel read Team of Rivals AND 13 other books in 2006. Show off.

Well, I did read other books last year before I stalled with Team of Rivals.... I read In Cold Blood, Moneyball, Letters From The Earth, Angels and Demons, re-read Slaughtherhouse Five, read part of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, maybe some other stuff.....

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees

The 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been announced.

Overall, this is a very, very, good group. All very deserving. Well, I'm not all that familiar with the Ronettes, but I'm not going to pick on a group from the 60s.

The other inductees:

R.E.M.

No complaint here. One of my top five or so favorite bands of all time. And I imagine drummer Bill Berry will reunite with the band for the induction, which will be nice to see.

Van Halen

Very deserving induction here too... They were a very big part of my musical coming-of-age in the 80s. But what's going to happen at the ceremony? Will everyone be there? Will David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar perform together? Will they have a duel? Or will they gang up to take on Eddie Van Halen? Or will former Extreme singer Gary Cherone show up and destroy them all? Watch and see.

My prediction... the real chaos breaks out when R.E.M. tells the crowd to "Stand" while Van Halen simultaneously tells the crowd to "Jump."

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

That's right, boys and girls... Rap finally made it to the Hall of Fame. I don't know if I know a Grandmaster Flash song besides "The Message," but their induction is momentous nonetheless.

Patti Smith

I like her. I've always meant to listen to more of her music than I have.

So very good induction class... and I'm looking forward to the ceremony on VH1.

Catching Up On Movies

Thought I'd do a little catch up on my blog with movies, with Oscar season approaching and all...

The Pursuit of Happyness

I said not too long ago that Thank you For Smoking was the best movie of the year... I want to see it again since it was very early in the year when I saw it... But I think The Pursuit of Happyness might very well be a better movie. It was clearly a movie that wanted to manipulate my emotions, and really, it was a pretty conventional Hollywood movie, but for whatever reason, I went along with the ride and loved every moment of it.

Also, as you may recall, I recently put all actors who aren't Forest Whitaker on notice. I am now officially taking Will Smith off notice. I still think Forest gave the performance of the year, maybe the decade, but Will was damn good in this movie. Will might be the front runner for the Oscar because he's the bigger star, and it won't bother me too much if he wins instead of Forest (and really, Forest was a supporting actor anyway).

I'm a little surprised that the movie hasn't been getting Best Picture buzz along with the buzz for Will Smith.

Dreamgirls

I don't care if anyone calls me a sissyboy because of this... Dreamgirls was a good movie. Not a great story by any means... a couple very good songs but most of the songs didn't even do that much for me... It was the performances that made this movie. Particularly Jennifer Hudson, but Eddie Murphy, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover... all good. Stylistically, it was very similar to Chicago, and it wasn't original or outstanding to the point that it deserves to be Best Picture. But if it wins, it won't be the worst offense the Academy has ever commited.

All the Kings Men

Caught up with this on DVD recently. This was on my list of ten movies I wanted to see last fall, but it had been so universally panned that I wasn't that excited about it by the time I saw it. The verdict? I think the criticism was overly harsh. Not a great movie, but I'd give it a mild thumbs up.

Speaking of that list of ten movies, I still need to catch up with a few...

The Good German (What happened to that one? Seemed to kind of disappear.)
The Prestige (Still really excited about this one, just haven't seen it yet.)
For Your Consideration (Not as excited after lots of bad reviews, but I can't stomach the idea of missing a Christopher Guest mockumentary, so I'll see it.)
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (Talk about a movie that went nowhere... at this point I'll just catch it whenever it ends up on Comedy Central in a few years or something.)
Also need to see the two honorable mentions... Marie Antoinette and Rocky Balboa.

Back to movies I've seen recently...

Keeping Up With the Steins

Saw it on DVD. Not a masterpiece by any means, but kind of funny. Not sure if I'd recommend it to gentiles... I don't know if it would be as funny if I weren't Jewish. Jeremy Piven was very funny, and pretty much plays the same character he does on Entourage, so maybe Dara's new found obsession will cross over.

Inside Man

Also finally saw this one on DVD. This one got lots of good reviews, and Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors, so I was really excited about this one.

Unfortunately, I don't understand the buzz around this one at all. While it had it's moments, it was pretty boring overall. Although, given the way the movie ended, I'm still interested in the sequel that's in development.