Coco Co-opts College

A college (Sixth College) has decided to rename themselves "Conan O'Brien College" so Conan travels to the campus to ascend to his throne:

See the video here.


[Edit: Now, embedding video causes it to automatically play when loaded which screws up my blog. So I'm just posting links.]

The President on Late Night

Pretty big event for Late Night as they welcomed President Obama as their first guest. Let's go to the clips.







Oh, we don't have any clips?






OK. It turns out when you make every episode of your show a Barrack Obama campaign ad (Late Night, Late Show, Conan) it makes actually having him on redundant.... and boring.

And this is coming from a fan!

IMDB 250 7.2 - High and Low (1963)

High and Low (1963)

When a wealthy businessman receives a call that his son has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom, he and his wife panic and agree to pay the money. A few minutes later, their child walks into the house after a day of playing. The kidnapper has taken the wrong boy but insists on the ransom anyway. The family must decide whether to pay the ransom or risk the life of someone else's child.

As a big Akira Kurosawa fan, it's interesting to seem him make a film set in fairly modern times (modern in the 1960's when it was made). There are suits, thin ties, cocktails and cardigan sweaters. It's almost Kurosawa meets "Mad Men". But the theme is still just as classic: will an ordinary man sacrifice all his wealth and possessions to save someone's life? Feeling pressure from his wife, the police and his business partners, it's still the decision of a single man and his conscience.

Where the film weakens is when it strays from this intriguing sociological experiment. The question of the ransom is only a third of the movie - the other two thirds is dedicated to finding and capturing the criminals. The film transforms into a 1960's police procedural drama. Although well crafted and with significant twists and turns in the case, it's still quite a let down, particularly as there are currently a hundred "CSI" and "Law and Order" shows running around the clock doing essentially the same thing. This movie gets a pass for doing it first, but still, it's not the same.

6/10.

Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 351.

Richter Remodels

For no known reason, Andy Richter decides to help a staffer redo his bathroom.

See the video here.

[Edit: Now, embedding video causes it to automatically play when loaded which screws up my blog. So I'm just posting links.]

Levon Helm

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

The Band - The Weight

The Band - All La Glory

Conan Stars in Halo 4

Conan and Andy will star in the upcoming (?) game Halo 4. Fortunately, they brought a camera crew to film them virtually single-handedly crafting the game:

IMDB 250 7.1 - Stalker (1979)

Stalker (1979)

Somewhere beyond the barbed wire fences and guns of a dystopian future city, lies a mysterious area called "The Zone". Is it the site of a nuclear meltdown? Is it the work of aliens? No one knows. There is rumored to be a place within "The Zone" called "The Room" where a man's wishes become reality. Two men, the Professor and the Writer hire a man (known as a "Stalker") to lead them to it.

Filmed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War on a non-existent budget, "Stalker" features minimal dialogue, minimal music, minimal editing, no special effects and the first 40 minutes are black and white. To say that it's slow is an understatement - it moves at a glacial pace. The actors - when they do speak - debate the nature of God, existence, life, science and art. It's as if Ingmar Bergman made a science fiction movie.

All that said, and even though I generally don't like Ingmar Bergman, I like "Stalker". The main strength is the cinematography. The cinematography of this movie is among the best I've ever seen in any movie. You can pick a frame of this movie at random, frame it and hang it in a gallery and it will probably belong. The sepia-tinged black and white of the first part in particular is simply perfect.

Besides the cinematography, the other main strength is the writing. Tension builds slowly as the men navigate the Zone and questions start to stack up. I found the mystery of "The Zone" and the exploration of a strange world and its other-worldly possibilities undeniably interesting. It's somewhat reminiscent of "Lost". In that aspect, the sparse dialogue only adds to the mystery. Less is more.

Obviously, "Stalker" is decidedly an "art house" film. The pacing is extremely slow, shots are extremely static, the existential conversations, the fact that it's subtitled combined with the almost 3 hour run-time all means that it's not for everybody.... or even a lot of people. But if "art house" movies don't scare you and you don't mind a movie that challenges your attention span, "Stalker" is a must-see.

8/10.

Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 349.
Also, IMDB has split the double feature "Our Hospitality/Sherlock Jr." into two separate movies so....
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 350.

Downton Sixbey Episode 1

As much as "Late Night" with Jimmy Fallon "skews young", the show is actually pretty old fashioned. How old fashioned? Well, a new show about the making of the show allows you to see for yourself. It's called "Downton Sixbey" and it's like nothing else on television at the moment.

IMDB 250 Challenge Revision 6 Complete

It's been a year since I completed Revision 5. Can you believe it? A year! And it was only 4 movies. What happened? Well, I wasn't really interested in seeing the movies and kind of put it off. There are a lot of movies that I could write a lot of words about but not these movies so I'll keep it short.

Let's begin... [Ed Note: Fonts may suddenly change without warning. It's a weird blogspot error and fixing it would be too difficult.]

The King's Speech (2010)

My Rating: 7/10.

Based on historical events, this movie tells the story of King George VI who takes the throne when his brother unexpectedly abdicates. The problem? The King's job is to make speeches, particularly in times of war, and George (Colin Firth) has an extreme stutter. Geoffrey Rush plays the speech therapist hired to train the King to speak but if we're doing this, we're doing it MY WAY. No shortcuts, no "buts", it's my way or I walk! Cue the Rocky-style training montage in which the King helps a Russian peasant through the snow.

This movie is extremely well acted, well directed, and well cinematographed(?). It's interesting and worth watching. It won loads of awards. The weakness is the core of the story. Even as the editing and music artificially creates tension, the idea that the King could have trouble with a word isn't the most earth-shattering nail-biter that's ever graced the screen. Still, it's interesting and entertaining. A simple story, well told.

Shutter Island (2010)

My Rating: 7/10.

An insane killer escapes from a mental hospital located on Shutter Island and is missing but presumed to be alive. Detective KidFromTitanic is assigned to the case of eerie music and periods of long silence punctuated by sudden surprise. As he investigates the mental hospital itself, he begins to worry that his life is in danger. As he discovers that he can't trust anyone, paranoia builds, and with growing paranoia, can he even trust himself?

This is a suspense/thriller and is therefore not my kind of movie typically. But I still found it enjoyable as a compelling mystery and a 1950's period detective movie. The psychological twists and turns are reminiscent of "The Sixth Sense" but the twist ending isn't very satisfying.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

My Rating: 6/10.

I've watched a few X-Men movies as part of this list so you know some hardcore fans are out there voting vigorously but I don't understand the fanaticism. That said, this one is slightly stronger than others.

The movie tells the story of the origins of the X-Men as they discover their powers and find that they're not alone. Watching a character first discover that they have a superpower and attempt to harness it is inherently more interesting than watching a character who's known for years and just takes it for granted. So in that sense, it's got a leg up on the other X-Men movies. The other big plus is that the movie is set in World War II and the Cold War. Rooting the story in such weighty history gives it a little more gravity than the average "comic book" movie.

Other than these two aspects, it's the same old. People have highly unrealistic mutations, they choose sides based on whatever's convenient for the story, they debate their place among the fearful normals and they have flashy CGI-vs.-CGI battles that I don't care about.

The fact that this is now the 50th best movie of all-time is a sad reminder at how prevalent the fan-boi culture is and how little respect people have for good movies. In comparison to "The Dark Knight" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this is mediocre rubbish.

Castle in the Sky (1986)

My Rating: 4/10.

I'll let Netflix describe the plot:

"In this children's anime adventure, young miner Pazu and mysterious girl Sheeta (who wears a magic pendant arounder her neck) team up to find the long-lost island of Laputa, which is rumored to have great riches and gems. Accompanied by a band of bumbling air pirates led by the quick-tempered Ma Dola, Pazy and Sheeta are pursued by government agents who want the riches of Laputa for themselves."

Yeah, that old story. I just don't have any patience for anime. If you love anime, this is probably worth checking out but I have to be true to my own experience and I was bored silly.

----

Having completed this revision, I'm already a year behind! Hopefully, I'll tackle the newest changes a little faster.

Movies This Revision: 4.

Average Score: 6.

Best Movie This Revision: The King's Speech.

Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 348.