My Favorite Movies

No cheap words required here.

My first name's Luke, for chrissake.
The first 3 letters of my last name are H A N.
Change the Ns in my last name to an M and it sounds like 'Hamil'.
Of course I'm a fan. I don't think I was ever given a choice in the matter.

Mmmmm, slave girl outfit.

A six foot tall bunny rabbit named Frank. What else is there to say? Oh yeah...Jena Malone.

My dad named me after this dumb ol' movie. Guess ya gotta love yer namesake...especially when he is the granddaddy of cool and the epitome of the TRUE non-conformists and anti-authoritarians of this world. He may be a fictional character...but he's one hell of a role model.

Besides...I really can eat 50 eggs.

Forget all the records it broke because people were lured in by all the hype over the dude's death...this was simply one of the best, most intelligent films made in quite some time. Not best comic book movies. Best movies, period.

When a movie whose central character is a guy running around in high tech jammies beating the crap out of bad guys can lead you and your buddies to lengthy late night debates about the truly semantic nature of good and evil...you know that what is essentially a genre film has evolved into something much more.

As much as I enjoy what Christopher Nolan has done with this character, a part of me wishes that he won't make any more. I wonder if it's possible for him to deliver something that can surpass Dark Knight. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, that the impact this film has hopefully had on the genre will fuel him to out do himself, but Vegas odds and my magic eightball say that's unlikely.
Guess we'll see.

I am Jack's duplicitous psyche, but the second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club...

It's not necessarily in my Top Five, but without this movie, I wouldn't have a Top Five anything...

It's Cusack at his geeky-cool best.

Because you never go ass to mouth.

Perchance I am a tad too free with the 5 stars. Screw it. This is the one that started it all. Without this, there would be no stink palms or comatose deities. In short, there would be no happiness.

If you haven't seen this....don' teven talk to me.

C'mon! Elliott's in it. All growed up and not bribing goofy lil' aliens with Reese's Pieces. And how many times do ya get to see Denis Leary cold-cock some clown with a toaster? That's worth the rental fee right there.

...what can I possibly say that the movie doesn't say so much better for itself?
Just watch it.
A lot.

"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." Yes indeed, Meathead.
Besides...even jaded old cynics are entitled to brief bouts of hopeless romanticism.

I admit...at first I was extremely reluctant to see this. A wannabe Pulp Fiction knock-off, I figured. Allow the beatings to commence, atonements for this mortal sin. Hallefrigginlujah, I saw the light. What was I thinkin'? I was an assface.

Between some amazing performances -especially by Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Common and Alicia Keyes (surprisingly)- the kick-ass soundtrack, Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream-esque score and just a great friggin' story...what's not to like?
And he may've only had a few scant moments on screen...but Jason Bateman totally stole the show, man. He was just funny as hell.
If you haven't seen this yet...what the hell are you waitin' for?

I think this speaks for itself. Just watch it. You won't regret it.
Unless you're an insomniac who works with heavy machinery...then it might be a bit too close to home for you.

Between this and Idiocracy...intelligent cinema may finally be making a comeback.
Thank God.

I don't care what anyone says. Check out the Director's Cut..then go read Miller's Born Again and Man without Fear storylines. MSJ nailed the character.

I was 17 when this came out -pulling up the rear of the slacker generation train wreck, still in high school, still livin' with my folks- and it was okay. I didn't quite get it.
Now I'm pushing 30 and sometimes it just hits a bit closer to home. I get it now.
As a film, it may have not perfectly defined us Xers, the way the 'Big Chill' encompassed our parents' generation before us, but I think it speaks volumes as far as art imitating life imitating art imitating life. The question is, which is the imitation: the film or my life?
Until I figure that out...I'll just sit back n' take pleasure in the details, bursting with fruit flavor and riding my own melt. 'cause me, ya see...I'm nuthin'.

Absolutely sick and twisted. One of those movies ya get done watching and say, "did I just see what I think I just saw?" The kind of movie that makes you a little queasy n' uneasy for the next few hours...like some nuked day -old Taco Bell. Maybe I'm on my own here, but it gave me that same "ooooh, shyte" feeling 'Requiem for a Dream' gave me the first time out. That should be taken as a compliment.
All in all, I think a pretty damn good film for a first time writer-director. Definitely worth checkin' out, if you can find it.
If you do, lemme know where....

Maybe I'm a little too free with the 5 star thing. Screw it. This is what started it all. I'd watch it more, but it seemed apropos to only watch it 37 times. In a row?

Every malevolent, malicious, but wholly justified and understandable act of pure random insanity you've ever wanted to commit on those days when you have been been pushed totally over the edge. I despise Joel Schumacher for what he did to the Batman franchise...but, givin' credit where credit's due...he kicked some serious politically incorrect ass here. God bless 'im.

Can you get any closer to mythopoeic than George's "helluva good country" speech? Go watch this, then take a good, long look around you. Then watch it again. 38 years later, the truth in his words is still undeniable. It's kinda sad...

I mean, my reproach for the hypocrisy of the flower power generation knows no bounds -the way my parents and their cronies sold out, desecrated, raped and castrated the entire value system of their self-proclaimed counter-culture for positions of inscrutable, immoral power in boardrooms and bedrooms- and their quest to create a corporatocracy is a Judasian betrayal to the very spirit of this film. But of its own accord, not as a by-product of a pathetically contradictory era, this movie is a testament to the virtue of true non-conformity and the alienation that inevitably comes part in parcel with trying your damnedest not to bray it up with the rest of the sheep.
And for that message...I am forever indebted to those hypocrites.

Every now n' then, something comes along that just mirrors a certain time in yer life. Usually, I've assumed this phenomenon was reserved strictly for songs. But it would seem movies could fit that bill too.
I was in my junior year of high school, home on a week long suspension -which ended up getting extended for another two, thanks to an inability to keep my mouth shut when confronted with the overwhelming asininity of authoritarian ass clowns- the first time I saw this on cable.
Without a doubt, the dialogue was kinda cheesy then just as it is now and some of the acting was less than first rate, but the IDEA this film represented, the MESSAGE it was tryin' to convey...man, it was like gettin' smacked in the face with a warm waffle iron.
Not to mention it had one helluvan eclectic, kick-ass soundtrack.
My suspension revolved around charges of attempted anarchy (I shit you not) and the corruption of the morals and minds of minors for the dissemination of what was deemed by the powers that be as inappropriate, unsubstantiated disinformation and egregious vulgarity, or some such highfalutin nonsense. It was a friggin' magazine, the clichéd, hackneyed underground newspaper. Ooooooooooo. This of course, was long before the days of bringin' homemade explosives and assault rifles to school when ya got mad. Literature that appealed to the prurient interest was considered "big doins", back then. The two week extension came when I suggested to the principal and superintendent that the silly charges should be re-phrased more accurately as the corruption of the morals and minds of peers, since I too was a minor. But alas, this ain't supposed to be an A&E Biography about me...it's a friggin' movie commentary.
The point I'm tryin to make is simply that it was another one of those great coincidental moments of art and life imitating one another. Christian Slater's character got carted off by the Feds, I got tossed out of school (albeit temporarily)...all for just tryin to have a little bit of fun while maybe helpin to open a few peoples eyes and minds to the BS and hypocrisy of the bureaucracy that was surroundin' and swallowin' em.
And seeing this flick under those circumstances, it's stayed with me ever since, cheesy-goodness and all.
Even now, years after the fact, I watch it and then catch myself lookin' around, listenin', hopin' for that elusive, mythic voice, the one cryin' out in the wilderness; the one that will shepherd home the lost little children and banish the nameless monsters to whence they came.
The one voice that will finally, maybe, infect us all with a little bit of truth... 'cause after all, the truth is a virus.

I'm sure someone will stumble upon this little diatribe and call me cornball or a dumbass or any number of less than complimentary names, but so be it. Personally, the name is Nuwanda.

I think I was in 7th grade when I first saw this. And I was blown away. It was one of those rare movies that you're convinced is talking directly to you, y'know?
I mean, I remember bein' a teen and knowing without a doubt that my friends and I had the world by the balls, that at any moment we could wake up and take on the world and win. Change things, make a mark that would not fade in time. And in the process, make a few girls swoon...

Perhaps better than any other movie that has approached the subject, this one speaks so passionately, yet so simply to that inherent rebelliousness we all felt at that age, the irrefutable need to not bray it up with the rest of the sheep, the desire to find your own voice and use it, to whatever end, good or ill. To sound your barbaric yawp over the roof tops of the world and not give a damn if everyone around you starts laughing.
And even the idea of having somebody -be it a teacher or a friend or a lover- who pushes you relentlessly to find something truly extraordinary inside yourself...am I the only one who wished he had that, way back then...or even now?
I mean, think about this:

"I, I didn't do it. I didn't write a poem."
"Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn't that right, Todd? Isn't that your worst fear? Well, I
think you're wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal."
.... .... .... ..... ....
"Now, you don't get away that easy.
The picture of Uncle Walt up there. What does he remind you of? Don't think. Answer. Go on."
"A m-m-madman."
"What kind of madman? Don't think about it. Just answer again."
"A c-crazy madman."
"No, you can do better than that. Free up
your mind. Use your imagination. Say the
first thing that pops into your head, even if it's total gibberish. Go on, go on."
"Uh, uh, a sweaty-toothed madman."
"Good God, boy, there's a poet in you,
after all. There, close your eyes. Close your eyes. Close 'em. Now, describe what
you see."
"Uh, I-I close my eyes."
"Yes?"
"Uh, and this image floats beside me."
"A sweaty-toothed madman?"
"A sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brain."
"Oh, that's excellent. Now, give him action. Make him do something."
"H-His hands reach out and choke me."
"That's it. Wonderful. Wonderful."
"And, and all the time he's mumbling."
"What's he mumbling?"
" M-Mumbling, 'Truth. Truth is like, like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.' "
"Forget them, forget them. Stay with the
blanket. Tell me about that blanket."
"Y-Y-Y-You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it'll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream."
"Don't you forget this."

I just bought the DVD a few days ago and saw this for the first time in years...and I still got goosebumps from that scene. And nostalgically I remembered that feeling of invincibility, the one that comes from the naivety of youth. And sadly, I realized that it was no longer me holding the world by the balls, that in fact it was never me. All this time, if's been the other way around...