August 2009

Well, I started this post a while ago, but it kind of got away from me. It’s not even July any more, so I figured I’d rush through this so you could at least see my pics. Did I do my research? No, I didn’t. Am I very tired? Yes, I am.

Top 10 Films of 2003

10. Elf
Edging out the haunting Elephant and somewhat amusing Old School is one of the better Christmas movies, Elf. In fact, this seems to be the go-to Christmas movie in my family these days.

9. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Just a grand adventure on the high seas. It all hinges on the strength of the relationship between Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany, and those guys nail it.

8. Finding Nemo
Another great movie from Pixar. Not my favorite, but certainly enjoyable for all ages.

7. X2: X-Men United
This sequel gave us more of everything we wanted, but in a cohesive, enjoyable story, unlike The Last Stand, which was content to throw as many characters and action set pieces at you as it could.

6. A Mighty Wind
What I found surprising about this film was just how much heart it had. Sure, it has that great Christopher Guest humor, but there are also a few tender moments too, I guess. I don’t really know, because I’m so tough.

5. Big Fish
Definitely one of my favorites from Tim Burton. Just a really neat film.

4. The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
So here was a movie that was just a lot of fun. A simple enough story, wonderful characters, some tasty special effects. Why’d the sequels have to get so convoluted?

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
A movie just as epic as it predecessors, and a damn satisfying conclusion to the franchise, but it loses points for being really long.

2. Lost in Translation
Sometimes it seems like this movie was just made for me, it play on a lot of my favorite things. I understand if it wouldn’t make your list, or if you even straight up don’t like it, but Lost in Translation really works for me.

1. Kill Bill, Vol. I
The first Quentin Tarantino movie I saw in theaters did not disappoint.

Top 10 Albums of 2003

10. The Darkness – Permission to Land
I guess I just find this album to be amusing. It rocks, but it also gets a lot of charm from lead singer Justin Hawkins. It’s a shame he left the band, because he’s what made it all work.

9. Rooney – Rooney
One for the ages. Well, no, definitely not. But it was pretty catchy. These guys kind of fell off the radar too.

8. Jet – Get Born
Oh man was I about this album back in the day. Jet were the shit. What happened to those times?

7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
Finally, an album I still listen too today. Funny story, once I was listening to this on my iPod in the car on a family trip and my dad asked me to put in on the car speakers. We didn’t even make it through the first track before they requested I change to another band.

6. The Kings of Leon – Youth & Young Manhood
A lot of great KoL rockin’ is on display here, with some of my absolute songs in their library making their debut, such as “California Waiting” and “Holy Roller Novocaine” (by the way, I hate hidden tracks that are attached to other songs with several minutes of silence, that’s annoying).

5. The Strokes – Room on Fire
Honestly, I’m kind of lukewarm when it comes to The Strokes. Except for this masterpiece. So damn rockin’ you might just forget that your driving a semi and make a turn a little too sharp and cause a major accident.

4. The White Stripes – Elephant
The best White Stripes album? Maybe. If you asked me right now, I’d probably say it is.

3. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves
Conan O’Brien said he’d buy it. Have you?

2. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism
The album that made me about Death Cab. I have since checked out their earlier stuff, but if you ask me, it gets really good right here.

1. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
Oh God damn you, Radiohead. Your music is so good.

Top 10 Video Games of 2003

10. Panzer Dragoon Orta
Sorry Beyond Good & Evil, I bought you too late and never played you. But this game is hella fun. And purdy, too.

9. F-Zero GX
It’s all about the tickets.

8. Viewtiful Joe
I feel like this was already on a list? Maybe? I dunno. Stylish time-bending side-scrolling action.

7. Burnout 2
They were like, “hey, crashing’s fun. Let’s make that into a game.” Genius.

6. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Sure, Jedi Outcast is the better game, but you could arguably have more fun with this sequel. Especially online. Dual lightsabers for the win!

5. Soul Calibur II
Everyone bought the GameCube version. It had Link! Link from Zelda! Yay!

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Beyond being absolutely gorgeous (at the time) this game was also one of the most fun in the series. Except for all the aimless sailing.

3. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$
What a brilliant game. God knows how many hours I wasted on this GameBoy classic.

2. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Just a really well made game. A delightful little story and some of the best platforming of all time make this a must-own.

1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
There had never really been a Star Wars game like this before. An incredible RPG epic with a deep story that practically demanded multiple play-throughs. One of my favorite games ever.

Funny People

(Contains Some Spoilers)
An unusually busy week for me, which is why I was only able to post one other time this week. Luckily, I had a brief window of time to go check out Judd Apatow’s latest comedy epic (by which I mean it’s 140 minute length). Teaming up longtime pal Adam Sandler with the rest of the Apatow gang, I’d expected Funny People to rank somewhere among the best of the Apatow related productions but in the end I believe it fell somewhat short.

I’ll try not to bore you with any kind a lengthy synopsis but let me just set it up as a jumping off point. As probably everyone who reads this blog already knows, Funny People is more or less a buddy pic about the relationship between an aspiring comic Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a famous yet lonely and ailing comic named George Simmons (Adam Sandler) and the various “funny” people that surround them.

I loved the set up here and for about the first 45 minutes or so, I was deeply engaged. On one side you have Ira’s mundane and awkward existence living with two very wacky roommates in the cocky Mark (Jason Schartzman) an actor on awful sitcom and fellow comic Leo (Played by Jonah Hill in top form) and then you have the world of George Simmons. A cynical comic turned actor who although immensely successful has become isolated due to his bitter and self centered personality. Brought together at a comedy gig this comedy really soars as their relationship unfolds.

So what changed for me after that? I guess I consider this my spoiler, it was the moment that George’s creepy European doctor declared “I think we’ve beaten this”… At that point I felt that the movie had lost something. Sure, there was an occasional mention of someone saying “It could come back.” but I didn’t really believe that. They seemed to make it quite apparent in their revealing that his chance of survival far exceeded his chance of death…. And as time went by, I really missed that compelling element, even if it was a depressing subject for a comedy (or borderline drama or dramedy or whatever) I felt it should of been left far more ambiguous and more towards the final act.

What follows is still entertaining, it’s still funny, it’s still a reasonably good movie but where is Judd trying to take this story? The film almost seems to become two movies combined as George’s former love Laura (Leslie Mann) becomes the focus of the film. Sure it’s still entertaining but too much time is spent here and I could swear it takes like over an hour to get to that point. Maybe if Judd would actually edit his movies down they’d have a better rhythm, cause after awhile this starts to get sloppy. So I wasn’t surprised when the film didn’t have much of an ending. It was fine but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to take away from this experience and feel that although Judd is very good with his comedic writing, his storytelling abilities are lacking.

With that out of the way I still liked a great deal of this movie. Just about everyone in the cast gives stellar performances especially the always surprising Adam Sandler. The cameos were a lot of fun as well but probably could of been trimmed back a little (Eminem comes to mind and as much as everyone likes him, Ray Romano didn’t seem necessary either.) But how about all the movies within the movie? “Re-Do”, “Merman” , that movie where Adam Sandler was in an eating contest? (Probably my favorite part of the movie.) That was just hilarious and this movie had no shortage of great jokes and bits.

You know what else I liked about Funny People? Seth Rogen… I’ve been getting the vibe that it’s become cool to not like Seth Rogen anymore. Some people seem to get fed up with the fact that he’s everywhere and are getting tired of his “shtick” but that I don’t understand. I don’t think he ever fails to deliver and Funny People is probably one of his best and most sincere performances to date. He’s likable, relatable and always well, funny… What more could you want? Just thought I’d address all that.

Sorry to make you read so much but I had a lot on my mind. ( I’m gonna go ahead and be a little generous with my rating for now) This was probably the last big summer movie for me so now it’s all about waiting for the fall. I guess there’s still District 9 and Inglorious Basterds but I’m not really that excited for those yet, we’ll see what happens as the days go by, Otteni out.

Sean’s Top 10s of 2003

Everybody Loves a Clown