Top 10 Movies of the 80's / All-Time

Deciding on the Top 10 movies of the 80's is an impossible task.  The list could  also be interchangeable with the Best Movies of All-Time.  Growing up an 80's baby, they each have a special sentimental value. If I come across them on cable, I'll stop and watch every single time.  Here is my Top 10 in no particular order:

1) The Goonies: quite possibly the best movie of all time.  There is no better kid's adventure movie out! A group of friends face foreclosure from a country club that wants to expand and demolish their homes.  They go on an adventure to find One Eyed Willy's buried treasure and encounter booby traps while being chased by the Fratellis (a family of criminals).  

2) Coming to America: the funniest movie of all time (Eddie Murphy in his prime).  A young African prince comes to the U.S. (Queens, NY) to find his queen.  He was looking for love and pretended to be a pauper to find someone who wanted him for him (not status or riches).  

3) The Karate Kid: the biggest underdog movie.  A high school senior moves with his mom from Newark, NJ to Reseda, CA (how he's not tough enough growing up in Newark, who knows).  He meets a girl and endures beating after beating by her ex-boyfriend and friends. His building's handyman teaches him karate by doing everyday errands repetitively: painting, car washing, and sanding the floor.

4) Ferris Bueller's Day Off: how many of us want to do this every day of our professional lives?  Call out sick, pick up your friend/girlfriend, borrow a ferrari, go to a Cubs game, pretend to be Abe Froman (sausage King of Chicago), and sing in a parade.

5) Back to the Future: this movie put time travel on the map.  A teenager goes back into time (1955) and disrupts his parents from falling in love.  He has to repair their courtship, try not to be erased from existence, and find a way back to 1985. 

6) The Karate Kid II: After Godfather 2, this is the next sequel that beats the original. Can Daniel LaRusso's life get any worse: his girlfriend dumps him, his mom moves to Fresno for work, and he goes to live with his building's handyman (Miyagi).  Miyagi gets news that his father is dying in Japan and Daniel decides to tag along.  While in Japan, Miyagi meets his ex-bestfriend (Sato) and his nephew Chozen who harass them about having no honor (Miyagi fled Japan years ago because he didn't want to fight Sato to the death over a woman).  Any movie with a typhoon, crane dodging, ice block breaking, a tea ceremony, and a fight to the death deserves to be better than the original.       

7) Weird Science: every adolescent/teenage boy's dream - being able to create the girl of your fantasies through a computer.  

8) The Shining: after the Exorcist, this might be one of the scariest movies of all time.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

9) Glory: 5 words: Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington.  If you're not touched by this movie, there is something wrong with you.  There can't always be a happy ending. 

10) A Christmas Story: I watch the movie marathon on TBS every year.  Red Ryder BB gun....you'll shoot your eye out!

Honorable Mention: Scarface (too clique to make the list), Full Metal Jacket (the boot camp scenes are priceless), Stand by Me (didn't have enough gas to make the list), Indiana Jones  series (too hard to pick one because they're all great).

Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies, Oh My!

Is it me or does every new movie, TV show, or book have a vampire, werewolf, or zombie in it? I recently went to see Zombieland with Woodie Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg (the guy who looks like Michael Cera) - I really went to the movies to see Couple's Retreat with Vince Vaughn, but I was a week early. I noticed nothing but commercials or movie previews featuring one of the three. Let's see....vampires are in New Moon (Twilight series), Trueblood (HBO series), and CW's Vampire Diaries. Werewolves are in New Moon, the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire book series (Trueblood), and Wolfman (new Benecio Del Toro movie). Zombies have always been a favorite of mine (See: Swine Flu = 28 Days Later?) and they are in the parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Resident Evil franchise (video games and movies), and Zombieland. I'm starting to wonder if the entertainment industry thinks we're all mindless zombies by using the same recycled formula on the masses (making it a real Zombieland).

Eminem and Bruno at MTV Movie Awards

In case you missed it, here's a clip from the MTV Movie Awards of Bruno (a Sacha Baron Cohen character from The Ali G Show) landing in a 69 position (teabagging) on Eminem's face and lap. Eminem wasn't too happy about the stunt and leaves once his bodyguards get Bruno off. If you remember, The Ali G Show featured 3 characters: Ali G (a "gangster" from Staines who interviewed unsuspecting celebrities/politicians), Borat (a journalist from Kazakhstan), and Bruno (a gay Austrian reporter). Bruno is now being made into a documentary movie like Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Swine Flu = 28 Days Later?

Whenever 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, I Am Legend, or any of the Resident Evil movies are on cable, I stop everything I'm doing and watch. I don't know why I like the post apocalyptic genre so much - maybe its the same reason I like camping (the whole survival element). I've read Stephen King's The Stand and Cormac McCathy's The Road - both were a bit overrated, but they did provide a "How To" manual on surviving and human nature's true colors.

If you turn on the news or cnn.com, the latest health scare is Swine Flu. Before that it was Salmonella (peanuts), E. Coli (green onions), Avian Flu, SARS, Anthrax, and Mad Cow. What is Swine Flu you ask? It's a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs and is now affecting humans. People are in a frenzied panic because it has killed hundreds of young adults in Mexico and has been found in Canada, Spain, and the U.S. (20 new cases were already found in New York City). What makes the virus so scary is that it keeps mutating, making it harder to have a vaccine for. So what should you do? Lock yourself up in a mall with other survivors, build a fortified bus, and try to find a secluded island. If that doesn't work, stock up on supplies, find yourself a German Shephard named Sam, and make sure to be home before sundown when the infected come out. Or you could wake up from a coma, find other survivors, get to a military outpost, and wait to be rescued.

It's Not You, It's Me

After rating 952 movies/TV shows, I suddenly hit a wall and started scraping the bottom of the barrel. Netflix was great when I caught up on classic shows from the very beginning: The Wire, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lost, 24, The Shield, and Grey's Anatomy. I watched a number of great foreign films that I had never even heard of: City of God, Amelie, Amorres Perros, etc. I was a member since 2004 and have never had an issue with Netflix: I've only received 1-2 scratched DVDs in a 5 year period, DVDs always arrived within a day, new movies were available right away, and they were tweaking their business model by making streaming movies available for free. My only complaint was that I ran out of good movies/TV shows to watch. I found myself watching some very questionable movies: Hannibal Rising, The Love Guru, The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor, and Tropic Thunder. With services like www.hulu.com and free DVD burning software available (www.dvdflick.net), Netflix became obsolete. I'm sorry Netflix, you did nothing wrong - it's not you, it's me....

The Curious Case of Revolutionary Road

I just saw Revolutionary Road and can't believe that it wasn't amongst the nominations for movie of the year. The movie follows a young married couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) with 2 kids living the "American Dream" in the suburbs. Neither one of them is happy: DiCaprio hates his mundane office job, Winslet is a housewife who gave up her dream of becoming an actress, and they both feel the "hopeless emptiness" of the life that they created. One day, his wife suggests escaping the rat race by selling their car/house and moving to Paris. She was going to become the breadwinner by getting a lucrative secretarial position while her husband was free to find his passion. They tell their neighbors and co-workers of their plans and set forth planning their escape.

So what made the film great besides the powerful acting performances and subtle nuances between characters? I found it completely thought provoking - why do we toil with jobs that we are unhappy with? Why do we give up on our dreams when our circumstances change? Is the "American Dream" a complacent delusion? Why do so many marriages lead to unhappiness? Does your life end when you have children? The funny thing is that the voice of sanity in the movie comes from the most unlikely source: an "insane" person.

Body of Lies

I was bored on Saturday and decided to go to my favorite mall (Palisades Center Mall) for dinner and a movie. I saw Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe - you can't really go wrong with either actor. The movie follows DiCaprio as a C.I.A. operative who tries to take out a terrorist network with the help of his boss (Crowe) and local intelligence authorities. DiCaprio gets caught between his boss' need for immediate results, double crossing allies, and everyone looking out for their own self interests. Sound familiar?

After the movie, I went to The Cheesecake Factory and was shocked at the 45-60 minute wait at 8pm. No problem (I was feening Farfalle with Chicken and Craig's Crazy Carrotcake Cheesecake). I stood in the waiting area and patiently waited for the pager to summon me. The place was packed with people with shopping bags and I saw 6 pregnant women during my 40 minute wait (counting pregnant women became a game and helped pass the time). So I wondered....is the U.S. economy really doing badly? Is consumer spending an indicator of recovery? Then I noticed that everyone was paying with credit cards. The same credit cards backed by banks that can barely loan money to one another. I used my credit card as well, but I carry a zero balance and use it to accumulate reward points. I learned my lesson when I had $25,000 in credit card debt and $25,000 in student loans when I graduated from college. I was disciplined enough to get out of debt, but I wondered how many people were paying the minimum, not scaling back on their lifestyles, and living a Body of Lies....

What Happens in Vegas

In What Happens in Vegas, Ashton Kutcher tells Cameron Diaz: "I'd rather do nothing and be happy, than do something I know I don't love." His character was recently fired by his father from the family business and she was miserable working 80 hours a week on Wall Street. Is it really worth getting depressed on Sunday once you realize that the weekend is over, dreading the alarm clock's faithful buzz, or looking for sharp objects when stuck in pointless meetings?