Solonor's Inkwell

Yes, those AFI movie lists are fun to argue with because they are typically highbrow and without a shred of coolness. I mean, come on, I can understand not using some of the more risque quotes, even if they’re from blockbuster movies like Die Hard (“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.”) or Lethal Weapon (“I’m too old for this shit!”), and I can even forgive them for skipping something like Napoleon Dynamite (“I caught you a delicious bass.”), but how in the hell do you have 100 quotes and not get one from Groucho Marx???

I can’t even list all of the quotes we use on a daily basis around here that come from films not in the list, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride. (Someday, maybe, I’ll try to do so.)

And what?? No Khaaaaaaaaaaaan!???

Anyhow, that’s not why I started this post. Other bloggers worldwide have raked the AFI list over the coals before me, so they’re already looking a bit charred. What I started to say was that the lists always give us a chance to look at a bunch of movies that we hadn’t thought of in a while or that we “really ought to see someday.”

In fact, Whiny started a list of movies he hadn’t seen but wanted to, and it was quite impressive in its classicity (classicness? classicishityness? anyhow, it was full of classics. classicfulness?). I forget sometimes that he’s only a wee lad who hasn’t had time to sit on his ass and watch 100,000 movies. So, his list includes things like Cool Hand Luke, The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane.

Last night, we plunked ourselves down to watch Casablanca. I hadn’t seen the whole thing in years, and it was great. I had forgotten how witty and funny a film it is. On top of that, I love Peter Lorre almost more than any other actor ever. When Whiny asked, “Who’s Peter Lorre?” all I had to do was the beginnings of his nervous maniac laugh, and he knew right away. (In case you don’t, go to The Lorre Collection for more sound clips than you can shake a dead body at.) His appearance in Casablanca is all too brief.

So, while we may not agree with the esteemed panel of experts at AFI, at least we got a good night of movie watching out of it. And that is always a good thing. Here’s looking at you, kid.

I can just picture people sitting around a conference room and going, “Hmm, UNDERDOG… Talking animal movies are popular… and superhero movies are popular… So a talking dog superhero movie should be spectacular!” It’s that kind of logic that has gotten us in trouble. Well Disney and Spyglass Entertainment are teaming to bring UNDERDOG to the screen in CATS AND DOGS type fashion. Underdog won’t be a cartoon character (like SCOOBY-DOO) but will be a live dog “with CGI enhancements.” They even plan on keeping Polly Purepred as a love interest. For a dog. – JoBlo.com

What a coincidence that Michele has just the word we were looking for: NOOOOOOOO!

[ via ***Dave ]

Oh. My. Gawd.

That was aaaaaaaaawesome!

Only my love of Spidey prevents me from declaring it the best ever. And I pity anyone who tries to make a decent superhero movie from now on.

OK, that was seriously fun. I haven’t watch the whole of The Wrath of Khan in years. It was made cooler by forcing our kids to sit down and watch it with us.

No, they didn’t do anything wrong. Shut up.

This is part of their edumacation! You see, believe it or not, in spite of their supra-geek status and the many cultural references to that seminal scream of Mr. James T. Kirk, neither one of the offspring knew where it originally came from! They’re geeks, true, but their geekery extends to things like anime and roleplaying games. They’ve never really sat still for good ole Star Trek.

So, tonight, we did what all families do when faced with a crisis. We huddled around the television to become enlightened. And there he was, in all his plastic-chested glory: KHAAAAAAN!

I think there was some confusion about my recent post where I said I was needing to start up a promotional site. I meant another one. (“lestah.com” is available, actually.) I’m not shutting down solonor.com for a good long time. So, in spite of that loud silence here lately, you can be certain to always get your fix of peeping into the window of my life, ya perverts!

Speaking of peepers, we fixed ours on Kingdom of Heaven last night. Man, I love dollar movie theaters!! Even if the movie is not one for which I’d pay full ransom, it ain’t so bad to see things like Miss Congeniality 2 for a buck. Although, I think I saw George Washington cry when we handed his picture over for The Pacifier. (Vin Diesel compelled me with the power of his mind.)

Anyway, Kingdom of Heaven was pretty good. Not great. Not bad. I thought that the story kind of wandered a bit. And the battle scenes were, if anything, too realistic. So many arms flailing and so much blood spurting that you can’t really keep track of who is hitting whom. And in one overhead shot, where the walls of Jerusalem have been breached, it basically looks like a mob of subway passengers struggling to get past each other to no end.

Considering it’s a movie about the crusades in these post-9/11 days, I thought it handled the subject of Christians vs. Muslims pretty well. Historically… well, it is a movie. However, it’s at least mostly based in fact. The made-up bits, as usual, involve our hunky male lead (Orlando Bloom) and the beautiful princess (Eva Green). That’s Hollywood. If you want the real story (and spoilers), see the Wikipedia article on the movie.

Sadly, Monty Python has forever scarred me from seeing an historical epic on the crusades. When the Knights Templar showed up, I expected them to start singing and dancing. And when Balian (Orlando Bloom) is shown his father’s estate of Ibelin, I swear I heard someone say, “It’s only a model.”