It’s time for the second installment of the Year in Movies feature here and it’s also the conclusion of the successful February Blog-O-Rama. Needless to say it’s a pretty big day around these parts. But you didn’t come here for my babbling, you want to know what movies I watched and what I thought about them. So here you go, complete with graphical star ratings thanks to a suggestion by Nick Tabick.
Traitor
This movie, about terrorism and the FBI’s task of stopping it, starts slow and stays slow for most of the movie. It’s rather predictable and offers little in the way or twists and turns. For all these reasons it’s “triller” classification on Netflix is questionable at best. All in all it’s not bad but not something I’d want to see again.
Rating: 
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Kevin Smith’s latest movie is, considering the subject matter, much more vulgar and crude then I thought it would be. Despite that, Kevin Smith tells a simple story of life-long best friends who (and if you didn’t see this coming in the trailer, well, sorry) fall in love. Of course hijinks and Smith’s trademarked f-bomb laced dialogue fill out the film.
Rating:
Angel-A
Luc Besson is famous for quirky, over the top action movies like Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. Angela-A is almost a complete 180 from the usual Besson fare and is essentially a character piece about two people, Andre and Angela. It’s sort of a modern day spin on It’s a Wonderful Life — it’s even shot completely in black and white. The film is simple yet beautiful and uplifting. A great movie. And don’t fear the subtitles!
Rating:
Cannibal! The Musical
Trey Parker, of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park fame, created this little gem of a movie while he was a student at the University of Colorado in the mid nineties. It seems like the film was made for about $35, and you know, it might have been. It’s the re-imagining of the, oddly enough, true story of Alferd Packer, the only American ever convicted of cannibalism. The film itself, actually a musical as the title suggests, is funny, goofy and features Japanese Indians. It slows down a bit in the third act, but all in all it’s a pretty funny film — considering the subject matter.
Rating:
Major League
Since MLB Spring Training is right around the corner, it’s fitting to watch a baseball movie. Since it’s one of the best baseball movies, it’s fitting to watch Major League. The story follows the worst baseball team ever assembled, the Cleveland Indians, who try to win it all to spite their new owner — who conversely wants them to loose so she can move the team to Miami. Less then ten years after this movie came out, there was a professional baseball team in Miami that was actually better than the Indians. Maybe the owner knew what she was doing after all. Either way, it’s a great movie.
Rating:
The Transporter 2
What can you say about anything in The Transporter series? Sure, this wasn’t as good as the first one, but as far as over-the-top action goes it’s an enjoyable ride. It’s also the second Luc Besson film to make the February list.
Rating:
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
This is the simple and rather predictable story of two people who start out pretending to be dating and end up, well, dating. Don’t worry, I didn’t spoil anything. You figure this all out about twenty-eight seconds into the film. After watching this, I’ve come to realize that Michael Cera will forever be known as George-Michael Bluth. Don’t get me wrong, the movie wasn’t bad. There were moments of halarity brought on, mostly, by Norah’s drunk friend and a quick cameo from Andy Samberg. Also Bishop Allen makes a quick cameo. I saw Bishop Allen at a show with Mates of State a few years back. They’re a great band and joined Mates of State for an awesome version of “Along for the Ride.” All of this has nothing to do with the movie, but it’s worth noting.
Rating:
Michael Cera and Kat Dennings are Nick and Norah
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As we come to the end of another glorious year we’re given an opportunity to look back from whence we came. The best way of doing so, as evidenced by the countless TV shows and posts across the internet, is through a year in review. Like everything else around here, things are handled a little bit differently. So, without further whoop-de-do (it sounds better, go with it), I present the 31st Annual Justies.
Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps
The Olympics were two of the greatest weeks of 2008 and there were dozens of amazing moments ranging from the incredible Opening Ceremonies to the unforgettable I Love Beijing theme song. There were so many great moments this year it’s hard to choose just one that stands out. Ok, that’s a lie. There’s one moment that was far better than any other and is, quite frankly, the greatest moment in aquatic sports history. The Justie for the Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps goes to Jason Lezak’s amazing comeback in the 4×100 relay which won the USA a gold and created one hell of a story. There has never been a comeback quite like that nor has there been an instance of shear determination. Way to go Lezak, way to go.
Greatest Thing on TV
All in all, it’s been a pretty crappy year for TV. The Writers Strike cut a lot of seasons short and seemed to affect the quality of TV for this season as well. So the pool to draw from here is obviously pretty slim. But there were some stand outs. The Office and 30 Rock have been stellar and new shows Fringe and Life on Mars have been entertaining. But one show has been better than the rest, so the Justie for Greatest Thing on TV goes to Chuck. Chuck is consistently entertaining and just quirky enough to be endearing but it was “Chuck Verses Tom Sawyer” that pulled it in. Twin Galaxies, arcade games and Rush? Can’t get much better than that.
Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic
People search for funny things on the internet. Some people spend tons of money and time trying to figure out the best combination of Julianne Hough, Will Smith, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, the Jonas Brothers and Wil Wheaton to get their search engine ranking high enough for people to notice. Around here I do things a little different. I write things and then see how people find them. If a Miley Cyrus mention gets slipped in, well, so be it. It was earlier this year while perusing my site logs that I came across this category’s winner. The Justie for Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic goes to this post about Chinese food and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’ll let you figure out what people were searching for.
Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me
A lot of crappy things happened in 2008 including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires and a new Rambo movie. I jumped off a cliff and blacked out in the water, but I’m exempt from this category for obvious reasons. No, there was one crappy thing that unfortunately deserves this Justie; the Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me Justie goes to the economy. Sure, I’m affected indirectly, but whatever. The economy pretty much sucked this year and have put hundreds of thousands out of work. Unfortunately it looks like it may get worse before it gets better but one thing is for certain, it will get better. Here’s to hoping that the economy earns the 2009 Justie for the Greatest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me.
Most Addicting Social Media Outlet
Hello my name is Justin and I’m a social media addict. This year there were plenty of social media sites begging to earn an addiction: Facebook, Shelfari, Strands, and Last.fm just to name a few. But there was one that stood out far above the rest — possibly combined. The Justie for the Most Addicting Social Media Outlet goes to Twitter. I wasn’t the only one addicted either. Not only did twitt rank as one of the years ‘buzzwords’, but now CNN even takes comments — and in some cases breaking news — from Twitter.
Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To
This one is a tough one to call. I’ve been a number of places this year including Seattle, The Bahamas, New Orleans, Key West, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah. In those various places I’ve seen a fair share of strange things, like the odd traffic lights on the highway in Seattle, but by far the Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To goes to Utah. Why Utah? Their numbering of streets is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is laid out in a grid, which makes sense, but that grid is far too large. For instance, we had to turn from S 700 E onto E 10600 S. Does that make any sense? Then, thrown into the middle of that was State St which does make sense. I don’t get it. Way to earn that Justie, Utah.
Coolest Thing of the Year
Despite all the crappy things that happened, 2008 had it’s share of some pretty cool things. Myron Rolle won a Rhodes Scholarship and I read Snow Crash, both pretty cool. The Dark Knight made a ton of money while the Devil Rays won the American League without any. Tiger Woods had the comeback of his career and Bill Gates ended his. All of these things are pretty cool, but only one can win the Award. The 2008 Justie for the Coolest Thing of the Year goes to The Olympics.
It was going to be pretty hard to beat the summer games. They began with the coolest Opening Ceremony ever performed (no video links available, stupid NBC) and included some unforgettable moments, a lot of which occurred in the pool. Michael Phelps won a record setting 8 gold medals, which will probably never happen again. Countless records were broken, smaller countries shined and for a few weeks in August the world actually came together and enjoyed each others company. You can’t really get much cooler than that.
All the Justies have been handed out and I’ve got nothing left for 2008. The ball will soon drop and bring in 2009. Let’s see what happens.
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