After today’s film, there are only 32 days left in the year which means the finish line isn’t too far away and I’ve begun my quest to watch films people recommend. The film I chose for today is a film that a friend of mine suggested since I expressed my love for the film Snatch. Snatch was directed by Guy Ritchie who also directed today’s film Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Eddy (Nick Moran) fancies himself to be a really good card player, but that changes when he plays the game with the wrong people. You see Eddy and his friends now owe Hatchet Harry (P.H. Moriarty) 500,000 lbs (which in today’s money is over 6 million US dollars). He has one week to get Harry his money or their fingers will be chopped off which in turn sends groups of all different thugs on one heck of a collision course. The film also stars Jason Flemyng (Snatch) as Tom, Dexter Fletcher (The Elephant Man) as Soap, Jason Statham (Crank) as Bacon, Vinnie Jones (Swordfish) as Big Chris, Lenny McLean (The Fifth Element) as Barry The Baptist, Frank Harper (Bend It Like Beckham) as Dog, Steven Mackintosh (Underworld: Evolution) as Winston, Sting as JD, Vas Blackwood (Mean Machine) as Rory Breaker, and Alan Ford (Snatch) as the Narrator.
I love the style of Guy Ritchie who kind of mixes the world of music videos with his films in where the music is almost an integral part of the film. The music at times can set up the moods of scenes or tell you what kind of characters have shown up on screen. There is one scene where the music is normal until it changes to something crazier when shady characters show up all of a sudden. The soundtrack itself is absolutely brilliant and a must have for any fan of music. The film itself is well written and absolutely brilliant. I loved every moment of the film including the setup of what was going down to the mystery of what in the heck is going to happen next. The acting was also superb from every angle as we get some memorable characters in this film. Two of my favorite characters from the film are these lowlifes by the name of Gary (Victor McGuire) and Dean (Jake Abraham) who are tasked to steal some guns, but in fact set up a giant sh** show that goes down in the last half of the film. I also loved the tones of the film because it has that British feel to it where it’s cloudy and gloomy looking like the weather outside in England. I definitely loved the film and I can see why it was recommended to me in the first place. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
Believe it or not, I was never a huge fan of science fiction films growing up as a kid and in fact I preferred horror movies over them. With all the talk of a new Alien film, I figured what better time than now to see all the films in the franchise and start with the film Alien. A space merchant vessel known as the Nostromo is heading back to Earth after a routine pick up of whatever the cargo is. The crew is nice and asleep in their pods during the long and strenuous travel when they are awoken by MOTHER which is the ships computer. They discover that there is a distress signal from somewhere in space and protocol says that they have to investigate. After investigating the call, one of the crew members is attacked by something and they bring aboard a master alien specie that is takes no prisoners. The crew has to figure out a way to get safely home and away from the alien before it’s too late. The film stars Tom Skerritt (Top Gun) as Dallas, Sigourney Weaver (1492: Conquest Of Paradise) as Ripley, Veronica Cartwright (The Witches Of Eastwick) as Lambert, Harry Dean Stanton (The Green Mile) as Brett, John Hurt (Hellboy) as Kane, Ian Holm (The Fifth Element) as Ash, Yaphet Kotto (The Running Man) as Parker, Bolaji Badejo as the Alien, and the film was directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner).
So, I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised with how much I really liked the film. One thing I noticed about spaceships in space carrying humans and that is all of them are run by a computer that malfunctions. For example in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal 9000 runs the ship and basically kills everyone while MOTHER runs the ship in Alien and she’s not very helpful. Humans will never learn throughout time that we should never trust a computer. Nevertheless, the computer in this film is obviously the least of their troubles as they are being chased around and killed by an amazing H.R. Giger designed Alien. Now that is a pretty scary scenario if you ask me, but the beauty of the film wasn’t how much you saw the alien, it was where the hell was he. The film gave you that Jaws effect where you are wondering where on this creepy ship is that scary alien. When it’s time to go, they give you the alien on the ship. The film contained a small cast, but this cast is as brilliant as it gets with the likes of John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, etc. As I said above, I was never a huge fan of Sci-Fi films so I avoided watching these, but I am glad that I started because it has a brilliant story and sets. The cinematography and the editing of the film is also a strong point for the film. That is why I am going to give the film an A for a final grade.
For today’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday film, I searched the internet far and wide to find a film that peaked my interest. I settled on a Jackie Chan (Rumble In The Bronx) film that I had never seen in The Medallion. In the film Chan plays a Hong Kong detective named Eddie who is hot on the trail of a criminal named Snakehead (Julian Sands). When he gets close to Snakehead, he finds out that Snakehead is after the chosen one Jai (Alex Bao) for a medallion. After an accident finds him dead, Jai uses the medallion to bring him back to life and it turns him into a super warrior. Now with the help of Interpol agents, he has to stop Snakehead from getting his hands on it. The film also stars Lee Evans (The Fifth Element) as Arthur Watson, Claire Forlani (Green Street Hooligans) as Nicole James, John Rhys-Davies (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring) as Cmdr. Hammerstock-Smythe, 
Over the past couple of years, we have seen Hollywood transition from remakes to now coming up with sequels some 15 to 20 years or so after the original films (e.g. Dumb And Dumber Too). That is definitely the case with today’s film Zoolander 2 which brings back Ben Stiller (Mystery Men) as everyone’s favorite male model. The world has changed over the last fifteen years and someone is trying to kill off all the beautiful people in the world forcing Derek Zoolander and Hansel (Owen Wilson) out of hiding. Together the two of them will travel to Rome to find Derek’s son and help fashion police officer Valentina Valencia (Penélope Cruz) find whoever is behind these heinous crimes before the fashion world is ruined forever. The film also stars Billy Zane (Titanic) as Billy Zane, Justin Bieber as himself, Sting as himself, Kiefer Sutherland as himself, Jon Daly (The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty) as Agent Filippo, Christine Taylor (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as Matilda, Will Ferrell (Daddy’s Home) as Jacobim Mugatu, Justin Theroux (American Psycho) as Evil DJ, Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) as Katinka, Kristen Wiig (Despicable Me 2) as Alexanya Atoz, Kyle Mooney (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) as Don Atari, and Fred Armisen (Easy A) as VIP.
I think there should be a window of time that you have to come out with a sequel to a film because 15 years is a long time to wait to do one. That’s why I felt the Dumb And Dumber sequel suffered because they waited too long and comedy changes over time. What was funny in 1994 isn’t funny in 2014 or in this case what was funny in 2001 isn’t necessarily funny in 2016. This may have been a really funny film if it was released in 2002 or 03, but not 15 years after the fact. I have to admit that I liked the overall story of the film and I loved a lot of the acting in the film, but it just wasn’t laugh out loud funny in my opinion. One of the most annoying characters in the film is hipster Don Atari (Mooney) and I suppose I should be commending him cause isn’t that the point after all, hipsters are annoying. The always beautiful Penélope Cruz was definitely a nice addition to the cast of beautiful people, but it just wasn’t enough to save the picture. One thing I didn’t understand was the point of the orgy (made up of Kiefer Sutherland and others) unless I am missing something from the first film. As much as I don’t like Justin Bieber, he was a good sport to die in the opening minutes of the film and what a glorious death it was for the Bieber. The film isn’t boring, it’s just not that funny if you get what I am saying. As I said before, it’s a film that would have been funny if it came out 10 years ago, but they waited too long to strike. I am going to give the film an B- only because it’s better than Kindergarten Cop 2.
So, I have been ranking the top 25 for each month in the challenge and I am about to up the ante by ranking the top 25 films of the first quarter of 2016. That is right, I am going to rank the top 25 films of the first quarter which means all the films from January up to April which makes it the first quarter of the year. Just in case you were wondering what didn’t make the list, well it’s simple, it’s whatever movies are not listed in this list. There are some films that are still the clear cut top films and some that may surprise you. Check it out below:
I have decided after seeing what a friend was doing with his challenge that I would rate the month of February as far as the films I watched. So, I have decided to list my top 25 films of each month and we are starting with the month of February. I will look at all the films I watched and I will rate them from 25 to 1 with one obviously being my favorite film of that particular month. At the end of the year I will rate the top 25 of the year if I make it to that point and hopefully I do. Obviously there are films that are left behind from the list considering some months have 30, 31, and this year February has 29 days. So, some films are unfortunately left behind and I will tell you that The Witch, Sharknado 3, The Punisher, and Black Mama, White Mama are left off the list. I’m not really going to explain why, but rather just show what my top 25 was. So, here is the list:
For today’s film, I felt like watching a Sci-Fi movie and there was one for some reason that I had never seen before. The Fifth Element was one of those films that I had never seen and took the chance to see it for today. The film stars Bruce Willis (Die Hard) as a retired special Ops agent Korben Dallas, a man that is hired to protect a supreme being named Lola (Milla Jovovich) and retrieve some important stones. You see in the film, they explain that supreme beings have come to Earth to protect human beings from evil forces as the evil forces come every 300 years. It’s 300 years in the future and the evil forces are coming and they need the stones to protect the Earth from the evil forces. The film also stars Chris Tucker (Friday) as Ruby Rhod, Ian Holm (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring) as Father Vito, Luke Perry (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) as Billy, Brion James (Blade Runner) as General Munro, Tommy “Tiny” Lister (No Holds Barred) as President Lindberg, Lee Evans (There’s Something About Mary) as Fog, Charlie Creed-Miles (Harry Brown) as David, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, and the film was directed by Luc Besson (Lucy).
I am definitely happy that I finally took the time to watch this film. All I have to say is that Milla Jovovich is amazing hot and she was nice to look at. The film has it all from action to suspense that kept you on the edge of your seat to some comedy with Chris Tucker who while his character is annoying, he was funny. This film was like Die Hard meets any of the great Sci-Fi film we all love. Bruce Willis brought that bad ass mentality to the film that he made famous in the Die Hard series. The cinematography and special effects were absolutely awesome and I love the costume designs especially with some of Milla’s outfits. I don’t remember what they were called, but some of the aliens looked goofy and awesome. The last 30 plus minutes of the film is where all the magic happens on screen and it was worth the watch. One thing that kind of confused me is that Luke Perry had his name in the opening sequence credits and he’s only in the film for maybe fifteen minutes. I guess he was a big enough name at the time that he could get those. The other thing that I could have done without was Tommy “Tiny” Lister as president of the territories, but that’s how it goes. This is definitely one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies that I have seen and that is why I am giving the film an A- for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 