Friday, May 25, 2012

The Year in Paul: 2000


What I’ve Seen

Almost Famous
American Psycho
Battle Royale
Beautiful
Best in Show
Chicken Run
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dinosaur
Dungeons & Dragons
Gladiator
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Memento
Miss Congeniality
Mission: Impossible II
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Pitch Black
Remember the Titans
Requiem for a Dream
Rugrats in Paris
Scary Movie
Snatch
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Emperor’s New Groove
The Endurance
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Titan A.E.
Traffic
Unbreakable
X-Men
29 Total

Sunday, February 26, 2012

The 2012 I'm Right Awards


Welcome to the second annual I’m Right awards, we’re so delighted to have you! There are going to be a few changes from last year. For one, I’m abandoning the whole “random order” gimmick, on account of the fact that it was dumb. Instead, I’m replacing it with a new, better gimmick—original categories! I’ve dispensed with some categories, and will be replacing them with new and better ones. The eliminated categories: the three Shorts categories*, Best Documentary (I might have an opinion on this one in a few years, but I have yet to see any 2011 documentaries), Best Foreign Language Film (ditto), Best Original Song (stupid category), and Best Makeup (ditto). That’s seven eliminated categories, so I need to come up with seven new ones. We’ll see how I do.


*Although I actually did see the live-action shorts this year, I just don’t think they belong in the show with the feature films. For the record, my pick would be The Shore.


Also, this year I’m going to ignore what the Academy did altogether, and instead present my nominees in each category and the winner. That should make the presentation less messy. A few categories might have less than five nominees, if I just haven’t seen enough films that qualify. In roughly descending order of importance (interspersed with my new categories), as determined by Wikipedia:


Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Year in Paul: 1999



The long-delayed cinema chronology is back. In honor of the fact that we've finally reached the point where it makes sense to go year-by-year, the series will continue under a new name.

What I’ve Seen

10 Things I Hate About You
All About My Mother
American Beauty
American Pie
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Baby Geniuses
Bicentennial Man
Dogma
Election
Fantasia 2000
Fight Club
Galaxy Quest
Inspector Gadget
The Iron Gian
The Matrix
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
My Favorite Martian
Mystery Men
October Sky
Office Space
Pokemon: The First Movie
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
The Simple Life of Noah Dearborne
The Sixth Sense
The Virgin Suicides
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut
Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
Stuart Little
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Tarzan
Toy Story 2
Wakko’s Wish
The War Zone
32 Total

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Film Reviews: The Ides of March, Barry Lyndon, The Road

The Ides of March


The days of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is long past. Cynicism is in for political movies, and George Clooney’s newest movie (directed, that is) reflects that. While the system isn’t presented quite as darkly as in something like Syriana (also featuring Clooney), it certainly fits into the mold.


The Ides of March stars Ryan Gosling as Stephen Myers, the idealistic but ambitious young deputy campaign manager for the charismatic and talented Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Mike Morris (Clooney), who is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president. While Morris is the favorite, and leads in the polls, the election is hardly decided, and may hinge on the upcoming Ohio primary. Former candidate Senator Thompson of Ohio (Jeffrey Wright) still hasn’t endorsed anyone, and his support (and his delegates) could be key to victory, but how much will his support cost? As the day of the primary grows closer, Myers gets a call from the rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti), who insists that there are things Myers doesn’t know. Other plots involve a tenacious reporter (Marisa Tomei), Myers’ semi-paranoid boss (P.S. Hoffman), and a pretty young intern (Evan Rachel Wood).


Friday, November 4, 2011

TV Roundup: Breaking Bad


While its more famous and popular older brother Mad Men* gets most of the attention from AMC’s crop of original programming, Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad is quietly putting an astonishingly high-quality. In fact, I’m going to make a bold claim: Breaking Bad is the best thing I’ve seen on television since The Wire ended its run in 2008.** Having seen up through the third season of this amazing show, I want to talk a little about it. Hard as it’s going to be, I will refrain from spoilers.


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Paul's Cinema Chronology, 1997-1998





What I’ve Seen

1997
Air Bud
Anastasia
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Boogie Nights
Cats Don’t Dance
Contact
Dante’s Peak
Flubber
Gattaca
George of the Jungle
Good Will Hunting
Hercules
Home Alone 3
Jackie Brown
Life is Beautiful
Liar Liar
Men in Black
Princess Mononoke
Starship Troopers
The Big One
The Boxer
The Game
The Rainmaker
The Sweet Hereafter
The Tango Lesson
Titanic
Wag the Dog
1998
A Night at the Roxbury
Almost Heroes
American History X
Armageddon
Dark City
Elizabeth
Jack Frost
Meet Joe Black
Mulan
My Date with the President’s Daughter
Perfect Blue
Quest for Camelot
Rush Hour
Saving Private Ryan
Shakespeare in Love
Smoke Signals
The Big Lebowski
The Opposite of Sex
The Parent Trap
The Prince of Egypt
The Truman Show
48 Total

Friday, September 30, 2011

The 10 Funniest Examples of Unintentional Innuendo in Harry Potter


And now for another dose of juvenile humor, even less mature than last time. My justification for including this on the blog is that there were 8 Harry Potter movies. So what if all of these are from the books? Hopefully I'll have some real content finished soon.

Drumroll Please...