DVD's I own

I firmly believe this is Spike Lee's greatest accomplishment. Sure, it might not ooze the same amount of style and shock that his other brilliant movie, Do The Right Thing, does but it manages to elevate to a level that doesn't need that sort of grandiose style and has probably one of the best endings ever. Truly stunning and maybe Norton's best performance - period.

Fucking incredible. Danny Boyle is a genius and is one of the most promising directors around, right next to P.T. Anderson and Christopher Nolan. But I think Boyle thought he was making part of 28 Days Later during the filming of the final part of Sunshine. It's the only explanation.

Another Hitchcock classic. The ending didn't really do it for me but other than that, it was great.

Cage's best. Kaufman is amazing. And Spike Jonze has a great sense of direction as always. About as good as Being John Malkovich, maybe better. Have to watch it again.

It's amazing how much I missed the first time I watched this. The visual gags are hilarious and everything Leslie Nielson does will put a smile on your face.

Thank you Bill Paxton for delivering one of the greatest, most quotable lines ever. The world is forever in your debt.

Despite it's numerous flaws and cliches, this is still a highly enjoyable film with great cameo appearances by Zooey and Dwight Schrute.

Basically Will Ferrel's best comedy. He hasn't been able to match this sort of talent yet.

It's ridiculous how amazing this movie is. Watching back some clips on Youtube, I notice the subtle things that just pop out at you without even realizing it. Woody Allen is a comic genius, and this is his masterpiece hands down.

This is easily the best Vietnam war movie ever made and it's not even mainly focused on the war. It's more of a journey into the darkness of the human psyche and the soul, done very well I might add. Back in the time when Coppola made really compelling and important movies, this shines as one of his most important works. The whole cast is amazing, and you gotta love the appearance of an out-of-his-mind Dennis Hopper. Then again, does he really play any other type of character? Despite all the troubles of the production of the movie (nearly going bankrupt and an overly-fat Brando, to name a few), Coppola achieved his grand vision, despite how convoluted the Redux seems to be at times.

"Do you like your quasi-futuristic clothes Mr. Powers? I designed them myself."

I could watch this a thousand times and still not get tired of it. It's a classic for any generation and should be appreciated by all for what it is. I would consider this, along with Raiders and Empire Strikes Back, as Pantheon movies, meaning they are movies that I will never grow tired of, no matter what. When I watch these movies, they bring a mix of nostalgia, joy, thrills, and a sense of wonder. These movies are the reasons why I will always love cinema to the day I die.

A great sequel to a perfect movie.

UPDATE - After watching the original cut on a whim, all I have to say is...wow. Ford's VO is so obnoxious and stupid it ruins such a beautiful film. Thank God for the Final Cut.

The Sci-Fi genre is easily one of my favorite genres to watch. These movies usually offer one of two things: either a completely different world in which the director immerses the audience into full of wonder and excitement, or a futuristic look at the way our world is progressing and different possibilities of how certain aspects of society, if not all of mankind, could turn out to be. These type of social commentaries are always interesting to watch and give the audience an insight into the world of ethics. Blade Runner is one such movie.

Genius minds like Fritz Lang, George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, and Ridley Scott have all contributed immensely to the Sci-Fi genre. Scott first made his impact with a little film called Alien. All throughout the 70's, many filmmakers were trying to bring back the classics that the 50's brought about like Forbidden Planet and The Time Machine, but attempts like Soylent Green and The Omega Man failed commercially and failed at what they were attempting to do. But at the end of the decade, Ridley Scott entered with his sublime masterpiece. How was he to top that after shaking the genre forever? With this of course.

From the get go however, Blade Runner was plagued with way too many production problems. Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott did not get along. Producers were pushing ideas on to the film that made no sense and dumbed the film down. Companies backed out of financing the movie. It seemed like a disaster. Scott did manage to salvage a great movie and managed to polarize critics, whether it was a masterpiece or just another sci-fi piece. And from there everyone knows the stories about the future releases of The Director's Cut and so on. Finally the Final Cut came out in 2007 and Scott's true vision fully realized. But enough about the history. Why is the movie brilliant?

The visuals from Blade Runner, much like 2001, hold up even to this day. They simply blew most people away and had a truly unique view of the future and how globalization will affect us all. The cinematographer knew what he was doing and the dark, surreal atmosphere is the stuff of brilliance.

Harrison Ford gives one of the best performances of his life here as the confused and torn Deckard. Without the stupid VO, he really shows that he has the acting chops to be a serious actor. All the supporting cast were great as well, especially Rutger Hauer who seems like he was born for this role.

The movie keeps up enough ambiguity to have viewers constantly questioning what is real and what is not. The obvious big moral issue is over genetic engineering, or cloning, and the religious and moral debates that ensue over the topic. It's definitely interesting to see these clones have some of the same feelings as real humans and how its unclear whether what our scientists are doing are moral or not. All these issues make Blade Runner as relevant as the day it came out, reinforcing its status as a classic.

I could go on all day about the magnificence of Blade Runner, but most of it has to be viewed for yourself. One of my closest friends watched this once and said it felt generic to him and he didn't see its significance. But I respect his opinion. You are either going to see Blade Runner as one of the best sci-fi movies ever or just another run-of-the-mill movie. If you find it as something special though, you will most likely have the same thought running through your mind: utterly mind-blowing.

Gilliam's best work to date, creating an often hilarious, but at the same time surprising surreal world. An instant classic.

"Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!"

Good solid Scorsese film thats only hampered by the fact that it's too similar to GoodFellas. You would think that's a good thing, but eh, not too much in this case. Sharon Stone is a bitch as well, so you got that.

Stunning, breathtaking, and very disturbing. Kubrick at his best. Like art, it just keeps getting better and better with each viewing.

(There will be spoilers, but not major ones, just fyi.)
The masterpiece I was hoping for. At first as the movie went on, I thought it was going to not trump Batman Begins, but my god was I wrong. Just like the Joker's constantly changing background story about his scars, the movie seems to constantly continue to present twists and turns that are brilliant beyond words.

The cast: Christian Bale is brilliant as always with his charming, yet conflicted nature storming him with personal vendettas that only the greatest heroes could ever trump. Bale is the most talented actor working in Hollywood right alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, even if that man is a monster of a god among actors. The supporting cast (Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Caine) are all fantastic and help keep the foundation of the story amazing. Sadly, despite him being one of my favorite actors, Michael Caine suffers from not having enough involvement. Don't get me wrong, he's still spectacular, but I didn't get to see all the charm he brought in the first film as much. That's probably the movie's weakest point. Still, everything scene Caine is in stands as a highlight of the whole movie. Next comes Freeman who I especially love and his performance is full of depth that the first movie did not show. Really great stuff. Then there's Maggie. Wow. So much better than Katie Holmes even though I still admire her performance in the first one. It was brilliant as well.

Then there's Gary Oldman. If the man wasn't a legend already, he cements himself in the records as a brilliant actor in the role he seemed born to play, as Gordon. The man cannot be praised enough, juggling his constant duties as a police officer who is around people who hate the Batman, and cooperating with him at the same time.

Two of the biggest performances most people were most anxious to see were Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. Heath Ledger, how can I put this, deserves every Oscar of the last ten years. Okay so obviously he doesn't, but it is definitely true he needs the nomination at the least. I obviously can't speak for him winning it right now because all the movies of the year have not been released but still, it's the best performance of the year so far. The chaotic, psychotic nature of the Joker is so masterfully done that Jack Nicholson's performance of the Joker is put to shame, no matter how much I like it as well. Nicholson got nominated for the Joker in '89 so Ledger better get it as well, or I'll be mad as hell and won't take it anymore.

The biggest surprise though was Eckhart. He did not have the best performance, however he came in a pretty close second and blew me away. He should not have been as overshadowed as he has been from Ledger's performance because it has the power and emotion that any great performance has. Brilliant stuff. The performances are what make this movie truly spectacular and a shining example of what an actor should bring to the screen.

Nolan is a top director and his script shows it. He now has three masterpieces on his hands (the other two being Batman Begins and The Prestige) so anything he does from now on has to be watched closely because it will probably be great. But seriously though, this is a prime example of a harrowing tragedy, with everything around Batman falling down around him, the Joker one step ahead of him. Never have I been on such a roller coaster of an experience with a story in a theater with suspense that I have not seen since the days of Hitchcock.

The cinematography is gorgeous, the score genius (seriously), and just about everything you could think of. The Dark Knight shows that comic book movies are no longer just light summer fluff, no. TDK has set a standard that if future comic book adaptations don't even come near to this movie, they will fail because they don't feel like art, which this movie is. I can only imagine where they will go from here (if Nolan and Bale do not come back, I will be furious), but there are plenty of avenues to explore that could make the next Batman film just as bloody brilliant as this one. If you don't think this is as close to perfect as you can get, you obviously do not appreciate movies. God bless you Heath Ledger.

2nd Viewing Response - Not only is it just as good, but scenes that seemed a little weak were made stronger by knowing where the movie was going. Morgan Freeman's performance wasn't as good as I remembered though. It was great of course, but not AMAZING. And I have to give Bale more credit than I did because nothing was going to top his performance in the first one, his origin story.

The 2nd of the great Vietnam epics, Walken gives the performance of a lifetime and De Niro, Streep, and yes, even John Cazale, no matter how far he has a stick up his ass, give great performances as well.

Besides having an all-star cast, this Scorsese film completely delivers everything you could possibly want, music, editing, etc.. Honestly there's not one thing wrong about this film that I can point out. Jack in this movie is the reason why De Niro and Pacino have no reason for sucking in their old age.

Let me get this out of the way: Alan Rickman is a total badass. Yes, yes Bruce Willis is badass as well but Rickman's two best character performances are Professor Snape and the one in Die Hard. But besides Rickman and Bruce, this redefined the cop/action movie genre, for better or worse.

Surprisingly still entertaining and thrilling, despite being re-spun into a thousand different other types of robbery movies, i.e. The Inside Man. Pacino delivers and a well thought out movie through and through.

I love them facial expressions.

If the world is destroyed by a giant monster, I vote for Stay Puft the Marshmallow Man to lead the destruction.

It's not as amazing as Part 1, but it sure as hell is amazing, with great performances by Pacino and Cazale. But what really makes the sequel hold up with me is the sequences with De Niro as a young Don Vito. They're brilliantly executed and show a beautiful and gritty 1920's where the mobs ruled in almost all impoverished areas. Fantastic.

The best of all the Bond films, the plot is cunning and the antagonist ruthless. Sean Connery was always the best and this movie just proves it as his best performance.

Lee Van Cleef is a total badass and Clint Eastwood is the coolest man alive, no doubt.

1/3 comedy, 1/3 character study, 1/3 love story, this is an all-time classic. Simon and Garfunkel's music is classic/perfect and Dustin Hoffman is in the performance of his lifetime.

Well it's finally here. And of course the big aching question for all: was it worth the wait? In short, yes. But it should be noted here that hype can kill any movie. Yes, a movie should be as great as possible but people have unreasonable expectations for it. Obviously, The Dark Knight lived up to it, but in a year so full of great movies, they seem like disappointments with all the ridiculous hype. But enough ranting. That said, this was still very entertaining.

Probably at this moment, it's my 3rd favorite of the 4, but that might change upon repeat viewings. The main thing the movie doesn't do wrong is emphasize on Jones being old. If Spielberg had done that, the movie would have gotten old fast (no pun intended) and the audience's interest lost. Thankfully Spielberg crafts Ford's character as badass as he ever was. CGI also worried many people, creating the impression that the original feel of the first 3 movies would be lost. But one's got to remember that back in the 80's, those movies were also constantly finding ways to outdo themselves with impressive visuals. It's just now, the industry has CGI. But even still, the CGI isn't overdone with only maybe 3 scenes total that are heavily CGI centered. For the most part, CGI never gets in the way of the film.

The acting by everyone was pretty exceptional. Harrison Ford still had the best performance of the movie, but Cate Blanchett followed close behind. Her performance might have bordered on stereotypical of "the Reds" at times, but she was still phenomenal, as cold and haunting as ever. John Hurt performed well too, but nothing too extraordinary. And Karen was Karen. Which leaves us with Shia LeBouef. What's there to say about him? Has he ever truly played a deep and emotional character up to now? He's been in I, Robot, Disturbia, and Transformers, to name a few. He's not exactly the deepest of character actors, as of now. Then again, the role he's in doesn't need a truly extraordinary actor. He does do a fairly great job in the movie though, as the comic relief known as "Mutt" Williams. For most of the movie, he's a typical grease-ball of the 50's, combing his hair back constantly. And that really does get annoying the 100th time he does it. But later on in the movie, he gets the chance to stretch his acting muscles a bit especially with emotional scenes involving his stepfather and such. (SPOILER) It's a little cliche to see Mutt be the son of Jones and doesn't really come as a surprise to the audience when the reveal comes, but does give the chance to have a strong bond form between LeBouef and Ford. (END SPOILER) Overall, everyone performed well, but besides Ford, everyone had room to improve to reach greatness.

With the CGI, action scenes became more explosive and intense. The major car chase scene, while over dramatic, was still awesome. Also the scene with the ants has got to be one of the most chilling scenes in all of the 4 movies. That could have not been done easily, if at all, back in the 80's. The part in the beginning where all the crates explode after the car drives through them made no sense, and the whole magnetism thing was a complete stretch.

One of the most important aspects of the movie is the story, and overall it's kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, it maintains the historical-ness of the first and third movie, not pulling any of that Temple of Doom cult stuff, which is a good thing...until the Crystal Skull is found. (SPOILER) The whole alien aspect of the story just seems silly. I understand how it ties into Indy's whole "not believing in supernatural crap", but still, Lucas and Spielberg should have left their love of extra-terrestrials out of the Indy franchise. Everything about the flying saucer and the aliens "being one" was out of place and just an excuse to actually think of some historical artifact to chase after. Or something along those lines. The story still didn't get too destroyed by all the aliens, so overall it was still fun and exciting.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade all are amazing films. And so is the latest Indiana Jones movie. It combines all of the exciting elements of the previous films, providing a fun and exciting follow up to the first three films. Anyone who is a fan of the Indiana Jones movies or of action/adventure movies to begin with, should go see this, as its full of charm and character. Here's hoping that Indy 5 will be equally as great, if not better, than Crystal Skull. And yes, there will be another; its basically spelled out all over the movie.

"Sallah, I said NO camels! That's FIVE camels; can't you count?"

A grand sweeping epic that can't be topped in shear awesomeness. Sure, there are better movies than this, but not many.

It's one of my lesser favorites of Wes, but it's still awesome.

The best animated film of all time, there is very few things wrong with this film and I just can't stop appreciating the benchmarks it set for the rest of the world to follow in.

I love Tokyo.

Gets an "A" for Suicide is Painless, alone. An additional "A+" is added for the acoustic version sung by the black man. Classic.

I have no idea what happened, but I love it. Silencio.

Quiet frankly, Once is one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. Yes, I've seen movies like There Will Be Blood, Raging Bull, and Schindler's List in the last few months, but this my friends, tops it in terms of sheer enlightenment. I will very quickly go out and buy this, along with the soundtrack. It is the best musical I have ever seen.

For the most part, I can find nothing wrong with this movie. The soundtrack is one of the most important things to mention, considering this is a musical. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are musical geniuses and deliver some of the best music I've heard from the 21st century. I still have bands I need to listen to more fully, i.e. Radiohead, but these two musicians but soul into their songs. You feel the pain and suffering they are experiencing or the happiness they experience when writing music together. It's a remarkable feat and one that should not be taken lightly. If you don't feel for these characters by the end of this movie, not even once, then you probably don't have a soul. And yeah, I'm serious. Music nowadays doesn't seem to get what made the 19th and 20th century so wonderful when it came to musical pieces. The classical music, i.e. Bach, Beethoven, and rock classics, i.e. Guns 'N Roses, Journey, had a charm to them that no other bands held. I'm ranting now about the state of music, but there is nothing wrong with any of the music in this movie so that's why I get so pissed at generic rock band #1000.

Anyways, the acting is pretty great too, surprisingly. Especially since neither of them had ever acted before, and Marketa even said she didn't know how she could cry during that one scene (you'll know which one), but she did and very convincingly. The relationship between the two protagonists becomes stronger and stronger as the story moves along and can be seen with the intensity of the lyrics increasing more and more. It's all very awe-inspiring.

Now in a musical, you wouldn't expect the story to be something to extravagant, and in this case its not. But that's the beauty of it! The story is so simple, yet so elegant and sincere. It never tries to be sappy or preachy, and instead shows how life goes on in reality all the way to the ending. And speaking of the ending, wow. So masterfully done. Most movies ruin themselves with their endings (I'm looking at you Sunshine), but (POTENTIAL SPOILER) the ambiguous and open ended ending fit perfectly into the mood of the rest of the flick. And at a short run time of about 86 minutes, I never once wondered when it was gonna end. Only feared it ending cause it's so amazing.

This is an indie picture though, and gets hampered by some shoddy camera work. But hey, that's the budget Carney had, so you can't blame him. He did really well with what he was given. Sure some of it may look amateurish like a home video, almost, but you can't take away from the fact that the action going on in the background is far more important.

The movie could basically be called the anti-August Rush as my friend Riley has said before. Never overly sentimental or sappy, I would think most people would fall in love with it. I could be entirely wrong however, that really doesn't matter to me because I loved the film and will continue to watch it because its one of the most enjoyable experiences of the 21st century, in terms of movies, thus far.

Francis Ford Coppola's intelligent screenplay and George C. Scott's Oscar worthy performance make this one of the most successful biopics ever. Coppola really was one of the, if not the most, talented men in Hollywood and this just reassures everyone of his greatness. It probably helped that the cinematography was brilliant, much of it being filmed in Europe. Oh, and its also a great war movie.

Need to see this again. Wasn't in the best of conditions.

Serious awesomeness. And you can quote me on that.

Hitchcock is the master of suspense, but you can't help but laugh when the man is "falling" down the stairs. Gotta love the '60s!

The King of B-movies and Spielberg's greatest achievement. It's no surprise that this was brought together by both Spielberg and George Lucas, two of the greatest director/writers ever. It doesn't hurt that Harrison Ford is perfect as Indiana Jones either.

What a charming movie...Lloyd Dobler must be a twin of mine.

The quintessential of all horror movies, this is one of Jack Nicholson's best performances. You'll never see anything like it again, at least in terms of quality, and you'll watch it over and over again. It's just that good.

"You don't understand Orson, I'm a man!"
"Well, we can't all be perfect, can we?"

One of the few sequels that does it right.

It's hard for me to write about Star Wars. I grew up on the original trilogy and have an obvious bias towards it. With that said, there's much more to this timeless film - it is a cultural icon of the '70s and all of cinema. Go try to find one person who has ever seen a movie and ask them if they have ever heard of Star Wars. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone that will say no. Between classic characters, a heartfelt and exciting story, and just plain awesomeness I can't understand why anyone would dislike these movies.

Lucas created a living, breathing universe. Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of projects and products have been split off and created even more amazing works (Knights of the Old Republic anyone?). Names and places get thrown at you left and right: Dantooine, Endor, Hyperspace, Yaven, etc. Bet you never heard of Yaven. It's mentioned like once but that's where the rebel base is.

More to be continued later...

One of the most perfectly complete movies ever made.

I don't really know what to say. It's one of the best musicals I have ever seen. And Rickman is amazing as always.