Monday, August 20, 2012

#50- Dumb and Dumber


Those words alone pretty much sold me on how completely original and hilarious Dumb and Dumber was to me. This was a film that holds a real special place in my heart only for the fact that my brother and I watched this so many times on VHS that one fine afternoon we reenacted the entire film word for word in our living room just for the hell of it. It's a movie to me that I can pop in at a given moment and laugh my ass off by all of the slapstick humor and clever jokes thrown all around the movie. In my eyes, it's Jim Carrey's best comedic performance and even one of Jeff Daniels' best films to date. It took two actors that no one would ever dream of teaming up and had one of the best on-screen chemistry I have seen on film. But I can't give all of the credit to just those two as the supporting cast was just as hilarious such as Harland Williams as the piss-drunk (literally) cop and Mike Starr as the unintentionally hilarious thug Mental.

This face had me ROLLING on the floor first time I saw this.
The whole movie played out like one long road trip film with all the hijinks you'd come to think of with these types of films but just in a more off-the-wall sort of way. Take the diner scene in where Harry tosses a large salt shaker and nails redneck badass Seabass (played to perfection by professional hockey player Cam Neely) in a scene that is just too good for words. Seabass casually gets up and yells "WHO'S THE DEAD MAN THAT HIT ME WITH THE SALT SHAKER!?" and Lloyd just flat out snitches on Harry, finger pointed and everything.

Classic sell-out moment

This would not be the last we would see of Seabass though as later on in the film we get to a scene that really goes out there in terms of what we may think of public restrooms. Lloyd just casually walks to a gas station bathroom to take a piss. As he is doing his business, he notices something written on the bathroom stall (the picture I posted at the start). Then this like eerie music comes on and we get an extreme close-up on the horror shown on Lloyd's face as he soon realizes that he just walked into the very same stall where the "manly love" could happen....at 2:15AM sharp. Seabass comes crashing out of nowhere and it's this look that has me in tears every time I see it.

The one scene that got me the most though had to be the bare essentials sequence. basically what happened was that Harry and Lloyd had both lost their jobs and were on their last dime. Lloyd decides to use the last of their money to go grocery shopping and Harry gives him strict instructions to get only the bare essentials. Lloyd then asks if he looks like an idiot and the scene cuts to him in a ten gallon cowboy hat, two cases of 24pk Coors Light and about five pinwheels. What follows next has to deal with an issue of Rhode Island Slut, a stolen wallet and a sweet innocent old lady in a motorized cart. The transition to the scene was spot on cause here I was thinking maybe he'd get nothing but candy and maybe just maybe a jug of water or something but no, dude buys a ten gallon hat and his idea of the bare essentials.



There are so many classic moments in this film that I can't really describe them all in full detail. this was truly a comedy for the ages and one of the funniest films I have ever seen. So much so that I had to put it on my list as one of my top fifty of all time. I'll just leave with a quote that I stuck with during the performance featuring my brother and I:

" That John Denver's full of shit, man"

Sunday, August 19, 2012

The Big 50 *EDIT*

Slight change to the lineup. Adding five films and taking out some movies out. Don't know how I forgot to add these movies but it just goes to show you how incredibly tough creating this list really was.

Moneyball
Crazy Stupid Love
The Avengers
The Cabin In The Woods

What films will be taken out:

Friday
Jaws
Goldfinger
21 Jump Street.

That is all, carry on with your day/night/whatever :)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Big 50

As most of my friends know, I love movies. I watch a film almost every day or at any given moment when I have free time. I know movies; actors, directors, composers, cinematographers, visual effects studios, producers, the whole nine. I eat, shit and breathe cinema and I hope to one day get my foot in the door of the medium and showcase my talents towards the next generation of moviegoer. Which is what kinda led me up to this list in question. What most people ask me are what some of my favorite films are and I always go to my usual top three of all time and that is Batman Begins, American Beauty and The Incredibles. I love those films to death and that top three can never change no matter what sort of amazing film seems to break that trifecta. But then I begin to think about all the other movies I have watched and what films I feel that made an impact on my life in some shape or another. And that dear readers brings me to my top fifty films of all time (in MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION). Now be warned that this list may or may not have some of your favorite films, quite frankly the entire ranking of this list might baffle the shit out of you but I cannot state this as honest as I can: it's my list and not yours. Smiley face.

#50 Dumb and Dumber
#49 Mission Impossible 3
#48 Kung Fu Hustle
#47 Ninja Scroll
#46 The Brave Little Toaster
#45 Friday
#44 Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
#43 Aladdin
#42 Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
#41 The Bourne Ultimatum
#40 Moon
#39 Jaws
#38 Attack of The Clones
#37 War of The Worlds (Spielberg)
#36 Minority Report
#35 The Lost World
#34 Back To The Future Pt. 2
#33 Saving Private Ryan
#32 Empire Strikes Back
#31 The Time traveler's Wife
#30 Terminator 2: Judgement Day
#29 Die Hard With A Vengeance
#28 Spider Man 2
#27 21 Jump Street
#26 28 Weeks Later
#25 Goldfinger
#24 Total Recall
#23 From Dusk Till Dawn
#22 The Raid: Redemption
#21 Iron Man
#20 Aliens
#19 Planet Terror
#18 Casino Royale
#17 Robocop
#16 Blade Runner
#15 Out Of Sight
#14 The Prestige
#13 Pulp Fiction
#12 Inception
#11 Requiem For A Dream
#10 The Usual Suspects
#9 The Amazing Spider Man
#8 The Dark Knight Rises
#7 The Social Network
#6 X-Men First Class
#5 Collateral
#4 Raiders Of The Lost Ark
#3 The Incredibles
#2 Batman Begins
#1 American Beauty

For the next 50 days (starting next Monday to be exact) I will be watching and reviewing my top fifty films of all time in ranked order. I'll consider this my love letters towards these films as to why I feel they are some of the best pieces of cinema I have ever laid eyes on. I will be adding clips, favorite scenes, best tearjerkers, awesome one-liners and everything in between. I'll post a trailer for each film before I post to get the general motivation to what I am writing about. It'll be up on here, Facebook and my Twitter feeds so just look out for those. Enjoy a trip down memory lane for this fan of films and embark on a journey into the mind of one die-hard movie lover, it's a trip well worth its weight in movie reels.