Where Are You in the Movie of Life (Again)?

I wrote about this site before here, but I was just thinking about it again today. It's a site where you put in your birthday and how old you think you'll be when you die and they show you what scene you are at in a certain movie.

Here's where I am in Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, and Titanic.

Things I Saw... The Avengers

I am still obsessed with The Avengers even though I saw it six days ago. It was really good. I mean, right?? 

Over at Pop Candy, Whitney posted a link to this website where you can watch the end credits. The site belongs to the group that designed the credits, Method Studios. It was really interesting to watch the video because right after seeing the movie I was too caught up with the experience and with wondering if I should stick around to see BOTH post-credits scenes or not to really appreciate how cool the credits were. Check out the site and video here and then check out Pop Candy, as always, here.

Speaking of those post-credits scenes, I stayed for the first one but not for the end. For more information about a certain kind of food - although it is spoilery, I guess, go here (it is the huffpost).

More later!

Netflix Instant Recommendation #1: The Fall

This is the first in a new series of movie reviews where I recommend some of my favorite films and TV shows that are available to watch instantly on Netflix.

"It was the natural order of things."

I should probably start with my favorite film, Tarsem's The Fall. I briefly mentioned this film before in my post "Life is Bigger Than You and You are Not Me." You probably have a movie like this, it is one of your favorites, but it seems like no one else has ever heard of it. You recommend it to people, but you are not able to explain it very well and they usually don't take your advice. When they do watch it, however, they LOVE it! Every time I lend it to someone who wants to watch it, they end up lending it to someone they know AND buying their own copy.

The Fall stars Lee Pace (from "Pushing Daisies") as Roy, an injured stuntman in the early days of Hollywood. Although he cannot walk, it's really his heart that is broken. He meets a girl in the hospital named Alexandria and begins to tell her a story. From that point on, the film switches between the scenes in the hospital and those where Alexandria pictures the story told by Roy.

One thing that makes this film so amazing is the visuals and the locations (OK, that was TWO things). Director Tarsem Sighn (perhaps best known for directing REM's music video "Losing My Religion") spent years taking jobs directing commericals around the world in order to finance this film, scout locations, and make connections. Just look at some of these stills:

This is by far one of the best little hidden gems available instantly on Netflix. Watch it at night, in the dark, cuddled up under a blanket with some popcorn - it will not disappoint.

If you enjoyed this film (or not) feel free to leave comments!

Here is the official website for the film and here is the IMDB and the Wikipedia page, for more information.

Life is Bigger than You, and You are not Me!

I've probably mentioned before that my favorite movie is director Tarsem's The Fall starring Lee Pace. Before directing movies like The Fall and The Cell, Tarsem was best known as a music video director and a director of television commercials. Critics don't always love his movie work, but his visuals never fail to impress!

This site has gathered together some of his best commericals as YouTube clips for you to watch.

I am including this link of perhaps his most famous music video, REM's "Losing my Religion", (for which he won an MTV Video Award) and this picture from The Fall, which first got me excited to see it:

Now, you do your part and go add The Fall to your Netflix queue!

Where are You in the Movie of Life?

This site is pretty fun for a few seconds:

If you put in your birthday and the age you think you'll be when you die, it will show you a picture of where you would be in a movie if your life were a movie (Like Star Wars or The Princess Bride). This is where I would be in Star Wars if I die at 72.5 years old.

You can post your results on Facebook, too.

Top 10 "Middle" Movies of the Decade

I don't know who David Wane is (his blog is apparently titled, "BLOG"), but I like his top ten list of the ten "middle" movies of the decade - movies that were not the best or the worst. :) Here is the list (I have added links to IMDB pages, years, and my own unnecessary snarky comments).

1. Changing Lanes (2002): Ben Affleck and Sam Jackson... change lanes or something.
2. Blue Crush (2002): Hotel maid gives surfing lessons to football player or something.
3. Runaway Jury (Tie with Baby Mama) (2003): A jury runs away from home and then learns a valuable lesson, maybe?
4. Baby Mama (Tie with Runaway Jury) (2008): Everyone loves that Tina Fey, right? Right?
5. 3:10 to Yuma (2007): A psycho outlaw tries to outwit a rancher. One of these characters is played by Christian Bale and the other is Russel Crowe. My question: which one is not the psycho?
6. Music & Lyrics (2007): This movie is pretty cool. Plus, It has that guy from Glee in it.
7. Charlie Wilson's War (2007): This has Tom Hanks in it.
8. The Terminal (2004): So does this.
9. Insomnia (2002) The Robin Williams/Al Pacino flick we had all been waiting for.
10. The Mexican (2001): This is about a gun. I think.

Get those Netflix queues ready fans of mediocrity!

Movies I Wouldn't Mind Seeing This Holiday Season

My family usually goes to the movies over the holiday. Here are some movies I wouldn't mind seeing.

The Princess and the Frog: It looks cute.

The Young Victoria: British Costume Dramas - Hooray!

Sherlock Holmes: I am so excited!!

What else? Um... maybe that Twilight movie?

Sorry, I thought this list would be longer.

Anyway, I'm really excited about Sherlock Holmes.