First film. Say Anything. That’s right. Anything you want. This pretty picture features John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, an average day teen, chillin’ in Seattle, graduating and all that. College is surely on everyone’s minds, sept for Lloyd, whose main concern regards asking out the super smart and popular Diane Court. Featuring that one scene and directed by Cameron Crowe, this movie helped set the 80s as the decade for teenage tomfoolery. Fun fact: when Lloyd drives down 45th, he passes the Guild 45th theater which happens to be playing another Cusack flick, Tapeheads. Reality just got pretty crazy in this mud!

Second film. 12 Monkeys. Originally not conceived as a TV biopic based around the casting dilemmas behind a fictionalized 1960s pop group, 12 Monkeys was eventually adapted by Terry Gilliam as a futuristic sci-fi thriller where a virus has killed millions and survivors such as Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt must live underground. A bunch of stuff happens. Fun fact: Director Gilliam gave Bruce Willis a list of “Willis acting clichés” that he was refused to use during filming (such as the “steely blue eyes look”).

Third film. Memento. Directed by one of my favorites, Christopher Nolan, this film is a crazy ride where Guy Pearce repeatedly loses his short-term memory, relying on sticky notes to remember just what the hell he’s been up to. Throw in some mystery and murder and you’ve got yourself a fascinating driller (drama-thriller… insanely clever, i know). Fun fact: Christopher Nolan originally wanted Alec Baldwin for Guy Pearce’s roll. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing they didn’t have any costumes fitted for the character beforehand… Because Alec Baldwin is pretty large and Guy Pearce isn’t. Okay, not funny. Moving on.

Fourth Film. White Chicks. Directed by Kenan Ivory Wayans, this film features his brothers Shawn and Marlon as two kind of crappy FBI agents who are told to go undercover in an abduction case by disguising themselves as the daughters of a tycoon (hence, “white chicks”). What could possibly go wrong? Fun Fact: The original title of the movie was called the Miltons, in attempts to showcase a more direct spoof of the Hilton family.

Fifth Film. No. Fifth TV Show. No. First TV Show. The Kids in the Hall: Season 1. A wonderous sketch comedy show anyone my age should recognize from reruns on Comedy Central, this Canadian sketch comedy show originally aired in 1988 under the guise of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Most of the sketch comedy is wild and out there, reminiscent of Shakespeare, with most female roles being commandeered by the all-male cast. Great late 80s/early 90s comedy. Fun fact: The name of the troupe comes from comic personality Sid Caesar, who, when telling a joke that didn’t go over well, attributed it to “the kids in the hall”.

1. Alfie Just Kidding.

1. eXistenZ This might be the first Jude Law movie I’ve seen, and it’s certainly one I’d recommend. This sci-fi thriller is directed by the great David Cronenberg and has Jude playing a marketing trainee, stuck fleeing with the world’s leading virtual reality game creator, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, after a group of people try to kill her. I don’t want to give much away about the movie, but if you like weird stuff or are familiar with Cronenberg’s work, I would check it out. If not, proceed with caution.

2. Gattaca And I guess this must be the best Jude Law movie I’ve seen. In another flick from his sci-fi days, Jude plays a genetically superior man to Ethan Hawke’s character (big stretch), who is not genetically engineered like the rest of them and therefore gets crapped on by modern society. Therefore, Hawke sets out to impersonate Law, whose suicide-attempt left him paralyzed from the waist down and super bummed out. Luckily, money solves everything, so Law is all set to sell his identity to Hawke, which isn’t quite as easy as either of them may be hoping for. With a classy blend of drama and sci-fi, this movie stretches far beyond a simple popcorn flick. Highly recommended.

3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Perhaps best known as Heath Ledger’s final and unfinished performance, Jude, along with Johnny Depp and Colin Farrel stepped in to play the remainder of Ledger’s character for the scenes he was not able to complete. These scenes take place inside the imaginarium, which is an imaginary world created by Doctor Parnassus as part of a traveling show to the public. Directed by another great, Terry Gilliam, this movie is certainly a trip.

4. Repo Men I haven’t seen this movie yet, but was glad to hear Jude was revisiting the sci-fi genre, something that could have helped his street cred 5 or so years ago. As far as I know, the movie is set in the future where artificial organs can be bought on credit. Need a new heart? Sure, just sign this form. Six months later… Oh, you can’t pay for it? We’ll have to send Jude Law and Forest Whitaker in to get that heart back. Sorry dude! The movie should be something along those lines.

5. Sherlock Holmes This is another on my to-see list. This is one of those movies I’ll have to force myself to see, however. I mean, I’m sure it will be fun and entertaining, but I’ve never cared about Sherlock Holmes in the first place. Still, it’s nice to see Jude playing a character that isn’t a sex-god (unless we have differing opinions on the character of Doctor Watson… I guess I should see the movie before I talk). Plus, Robert Downey Jr’s been hitting it out of the park lately, with films like Zodiac and Iron Man. I hear the chemistry between Law and Downey is legit, so hopefully the movie will not disappoint!

So anyway, Bill and Ted are pretty well-known as the masterfully 80s spaced-out slacker teens played by Keanu Reeves and the legendary Alex Winter, who not only reprises his award-winning role of Bill S. Preston, Esq., but also that of Granny Preston. While the first Bill & Ted film, Excellent Adventure, delved into the heavily controversial topic of time travel, and featured appearances by Socrates and Beethoven, Bogus Journey travels down darker roads, where evil Bill and Ted cybernetic organisms are sent back in time to terminate the two future-rockstars whose music is destined to one day unite the world. Do Bill and Ted make it out of this “hell” of a situation? Spoiler alert, they totally don’t. They go to Hell. Which is why I used the quotation marks around “hell”… See, I did it again.

So if you, like me, are curious what happens to Bill and Ted in the deep depthy depths of the underworld of non-living death, you should probably check out Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. It may not be on par with sequels like Terminator 2 or The Dark Knight, but maybe it is…

Guardi il film per scoprire che lui fa per fuggire il suo sentenza di morte (e scusi il mio italiano povero)!

The first flick I will review is available in our New DVDs section, and frankly, I can’t understand why it hasn’t been snatched already. Actually, I guess it’s because the cover is crappy.

I mean, look at that piece of crap. Truly awful. But what is, is that… is who is… is that a beautiful… who’s that stud front and center? What? Paul Rudd, you say? Paul Rudd? Automatic qualification for watching a movie (unless it’s Over Her Dead Body, which I refuse to ever see).

However, much like Over Her Dead Body, this film covers the always-intriguing topic of death. Paul Rudd plays Paul Miller (big stretch, Rudd), an actor (once again, Rudd) who has struggled in Hollywood for years (resorting to making crappy movies like Over Her Dead Body, perhaps?) and is tired of living. Therefore, he decides to kill himself, but not without documenting his last 2 days of existence.  So he hires some friends to film him as he goes about saying goodbye to his loved ones, who, understandably, think he’s a bit crazy.

So does Paul give in? Does he die? Does the camera crew stop filming? Does he meet a strapping young woman and fall in love? Does he shoot himself in the mouth to destroy his alter-ego who has been setting up chaos organizations throughout the country? Watch this movie and you’ll soon see!

In all honesty, this movie, despite it’s crappy cover, works because of Rudd’s charisma and ability to hold an audience’s interest throughout. I would even argue that Rudd does some of his best work in a few parts, with a certain monologue scene in particular that might force you to develop a man-crush (which you should already have if you’ve ever seen Wet Hot American Summer). So yeah, buy this movie. It’s well worth the watch and we have a shiny new copy all ready to go for you!