100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 29 – Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest is my favorite Star Trek movie.  Calm down I know it’s not a Star Trek movie, but if you’ve seen this movie you get my point.

Galaxy Quest premiered in 1999 and starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman.  Basically they stared in a TV show that was cancelled and they can’t get new jobs and now just go to conventions to live off what little fame they had.  Real aliens see these shows and think they are historical documents from Earth and remake their entire society in it’s image.  When the Thermians (the real aliens) run into real trouble they recruit the intrepid crew of the NSEA Protector to protect them.  I’ll stop there to not ruin the ending.

If you like Star Trek you will love this film.  While it is a spoof of Star Trek you can tell it was done with loving care.  So that while making fun of certain aspects of the genre they also pay tribute to it as well.

Galaxy Quest is rated “PG”.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 28 – Bad Easter Bunny

Ok I know this is total break for me but I love this short film.

This is a quick film for your Easter enjoyment showing what the Easter Bunny does on every other day of the year.

Enjoy.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 23 – The Lord of the Rings

When I say The Lord of the Rings, I mean all 3 movies, Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King.  Since much like the books they are just smaller parts of a larger overall epic.

The Lord of the Rings movies are based on the books of the same name authored by J.R.R. Tolkien.   These books are massive tomes of information about the world that Tolkien created and while the movies have to cut much of the material you can tell that loving care was used to include as much as possible to stay true to the story.

The Lord of the Rings was an amazing series of movies.  Besides the great acting, sets, and action LOTR was an amazing effort in time management.  Directing, producing and editing three 3 hour movies in 3 consecutive years should be and was applauded by critics and fans.

The Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite of this series but all three are worth seeing.  If you have the time and opportunity I would recommend watching the extended versions of these films and if you like them enough listen to the director’s commentary on these films.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 22 – Serenity

Now anybody who knows me, knows that I’m a Joss Whedon junkie.  So me telling you that this is a good movie is a little more than biased, because of that most of the review comments will be pulled from friends and family.

In case you didn’t know Joss Whedon is the man who created the cult hit shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.  From this success he went to Fox and created the show Firefly.  For reasons that aren’t worth going into Firefly was cancelled after just a few episodes.  After much fan outrage Firefly was released on DVD and became a mega-hit or at least successful enough to get funding for a major motion picture.

Serenity is based on the universe that was developed in the show Firefly.  It is a sci-fi western of the most classic sense, where we as a race have moved on from Earth and settled many planets and moons that act like the territories of the old west.  As I said before my opinion is already biased but when I saw it with my roommate and then again with my father it received very favorable reviews from both of them.  My roommate praised it and he has been exposed to both Buffy and Angel and does not enjoy them and my father commented saying that it was the best sci-fi action movie he’d seen in the last 10 years.

I would recommend that you watch Serenity, if you like it I would suggest you follow that up with renting/buying the original Firefly TV series on DVD.

Serenity is rated “PG-13″.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 20 – Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction or “How I learned to stop worrying and love non-linear storytelling.”

With Grindhouse on the horizon I’m inclined to remember how Quentin Tarantino really entered the general conscience of the US movie going audience.

Pulp Fiction brought us a nice mix of violence, sex and language and confused the hell out of you with it’s “where in the story are we now” sequences.  Now I happen to really like this movie but it does take a little getting used too.  Tarantino’s writing style and his musical style are now looked for and enjoyed in all of his follow up movies.

Pulp Fiction is always fun to see, the quick and witty dialogue will have you hitting the back button on your DVD players so you can hear what you missed while you were laughing.

Pulp Fiction is rated “R” for language and violence.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 18 – Star Wars

I was going to have to do a review of Star Wars sooner or later, so now is as good as number as any.

Star Wars is the first movie I ever remember seeing as a child and for better or worse help set me on my path to geekness.  I know it’s a tale as old as time for many a soul from my generation.  Despite seeing this movie well over 300 times throughout my life it still remains a favorite of mine.

Star Wars was brought to us in 1977 by George Lucas and became a block buster hit and moved in the legendary status as the movie to beat for years to come.  It has effected every generation to see it and revolutionized special effects and the business of a movie to toy tie-in.

If you haven’t seen this movie got see it and if you already have what’s the harm in seeing it one more time.

 

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 14 – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the brainchild of Steven Speilberg and George Lucas.  It stars Harrison Ford as Indiana “Indy” Jones who is a professional archaeologist and part-time adventurer.

Premiering in 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark is the film that help propel Harrison Ford to true stardom beyond the geek fandom of Star Wars and it made buckets and buckets of money for both Speilberg and Lucas.

I was nine when I saw this movie for the first time and the key thing I remembered out of it was having a Fedora and whip meant you could do just about anything.  What I came to realize is Fedora’s look silly on nine year olds and improper use of a whip leads to torn up plants, angry Mom’s and a weekend grounding.

All of that aside Raiders is a classic take on grand adventure movies of old, which of course is what Spieldberg and Lucas were shooting for.  This movie is full of family friendly adventure and is well worthing watching again and again.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is rated PG.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 12 – Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness or Evil Dead III (as some people know it) is the brain child of Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi.  Sam Raimi started out directing Evil Dead but it better know for directing the hugely popular Spider-man movies.

Army of Darkness stars Bruce Campbell as “Ash” a man out of time who must fight demons to save the locals and himself.  Needless to say that is so not what this movie is about, this movie is about over the top action, great one liners and some of the best fun you could have in a movie. 

You may not have seen this movie but you have seen some of the “products” of it.  If you’ve played Duke Nukem several of Duke’s lines are stolen from this movie or if you watched Hercules or Xena the camera and action style are copied.  Admittingly that is easy to figure out since Sam Raimi was a producer on Hercules and Xena.

There are about 3-4 versions of this movie available on DVD, my personal favorite is the original theatrical release but many cite the “Boomstick” edition a better version.  Either way if you are looking for a fun way to spend 2 hours this is it.

Army of Darkness is rated “R” for violence and language.

Your Mamma’s a Chipmunk!

I just wanted to test out putting video in my blog so I thought I’d start with one of my favorite commercials.

More to come I’m sure.