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I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Scalzi’s listings from the Rough Guides‘ Movie guides. They make me wonder what the canon lists of movies would be for specific topics. I’ve listed a few that I think should be on the list (sticking to movies that I’ve seen, of which there are far too few). What else belongs there?

When I was a kid, “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket” came out within about fifteen minutes of each other. I saw both and was lucky enough to get a veteran’s perspective on both of them. My father, who served as a grunt, thought that “Platoon” was particularly well done (he’s gone on to say that “We Were Soldiers” is much more realistic, which absolutely horrified me when I saw the film), while his friend Fred, a journalist during the police action, thought that Kubrick’s film was spot on. Many stories came out of the compare and contrast of these two films. Needless to say, movies about Vietnam have always fascinated me.

I know that there are several big, important, award-winning movies that should be on this list that I haven’t seen. What are the best and the brightest movies about Vietnam? Or, considering the subject matter, what are the worst and the darkest? Either way, I’d love to know.

• Born on the Fourth Of July
• Full Metal Jacket
• Good Morning Vietnam
• Platoon
• We Were Soldiers

More Alternate Film Canons.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Scalzi’s listings from the Rough Guides‘ Movie guides. They make me wonder what the canon lists of movies would be for specific topics. I’ve listed a few that I think should be on the list (sticking to movies that I’ve seen, of which there are far too few). What else belongs there?

Some of my favorite movies are about dystopian futures — think 1984 or Brave New World. Even when they’re powerfully cheesy they are (or at least have the potential to be) thought provoking. Somehow, no matter how unreal the movies are made to look, they always come out seeming very real, very looming. I think the genre — in film and in literature — keeps us honest and thinking as a society.

So above and beyond these films, what belongs on the canon list of films about dystopian futures? I’d love to hear your take on it.

• 12 Monkeys
• Brazil
• Masked and Anonymous
• The Matrix
• THX-1138

More Alternate Film Canons.

Empire Online lists the 50 greatest Independent Films of all time. Which, to me, says that it’s once again time for the film canon game. Onwards!

Note that I don’t really see value in the forced 1-50 ranking. I like the bag-of-movies approach much more. However, this is how they were originally presented, so I’ll stick with it.

• El Mariachi
• Ron Lola Run
• Cube
• Blood Feast
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• Mad Max
• Amores Perros
• Shadows
• Swingers
• Dead Man’s Shoes
• The Descent
• The Passion Of The Christ
• Grosse Point Blank
• Being John Malkovich
• Buffalo ‘66
• THX-1138
• The Blair Witch Project
• Shallow Grave
• Two Lane Blacktop
• Pink Flamingos
• Sweet Sweetback Baadasss’
• Bad Lieutenant
• In The Company Of Men
• Dark Star
• Lost in Translation
• Drugstore Cowboy
• Happiness
• The Evil Dead
• Nosferatu
• Roger And Me I’m not a Michael Moore fan, but I loved this film
• Slacker
• Lone Star
• Withnail And I
• City of God
• She’s Gotta Have It
• Blood Simple
• Stranger Than Paradise
• Memento
• Eraserhead
• Bad Taste Huge thanks to Robert and Kasia for introducing me to this one
• Mean Streets
• Sideways
• The Usual Suspects
• Sex, Lies and Videotape
• Night of the Living Dead
• Monty Python’s Life Of Brian
• Clerks
• The Terminator Seeing this movie at #3 is definitely the surprise of the list for me
• Donnie Darko One of my favorite movies that I don’t own a copy of
• Reservoir Dogs

Films Whose Presence in the Canon I’m Particularly Gratified to See (pick up to five): Lost in Translation, Bad Taste, Donnie Darko.

Films in the Canon Whose Presence Should Not Be (pick up to five): Sideways.

Films I’d Pick to Replace Them (pick up to five): The Limey.

Previously: The Comedy Canon, SciFi Film Canon.

Every day this week, we’ll be playing a new and exciting game called “Name That Song!” The idea is simple: I’ll post a series of images — foods this week — from a song. Post the song’s artist, title and (if you can dig them up) lyrics in the comments if you can figure out what it is. If necessary, I’ll post the answers next Friday (11/18).

As I’m pretty sure I know almost everybody who reads this, I feel comfortable saying the following: you’ve all got enough nerd in you to be able to answer this one without search engines. This isn’t some obscure stoner anthem or a pre-Geffen Beck B-side. Late-20/early-30-something geeks untie! You can totally get this one without the magic internet machine! (Feel free, of course, to use the search engines for lyrics once you’ve guessed the song.)

(Ed. Note: I was looking for cauliflower here, but this was the best I could do. Sorry!)

It’s movie canon time again. This time, Scalzi presents the list is from The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies. Same drill as the Sci-Fi list: mark movies you’ve seen and movies that you own a copy of*.

• Airplane!
• All About Eve
• Amelie
• Annie Hall
• The Apartment
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Blazing Saddles *
• Bringing Up Baby
• Broadcast News
• Caddyshack *
• Le diner de con
• Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb * This is my personal favorite movie
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
• Duck Soup I’d probably list this as the movie that I’d most like to see again
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Four Weddings and a Funeral
• The General
• Ghostbusters
• The Gold Rush
• Good Morning Vietnam *
• The Graduate
• Groundhog Day Filmed in Woodstock, IL, home to the overwhelming majority of my father’s family
• A Hard Day’s Night
• His Girl Friday
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
• The Lady Killers
• Local Hero
• Manhattan
• M*A*S*H
• Monty Python’s Life of Brian
• National Lampoon’s Animal House *
• The Odd Couple
• The Producers
• Raising Arizona
• Roxanne
• Rushmore *
• Shaun of the Dead *
• A Shot in the Dark
• Some Like it Hot
• Strictly Ballroom
• Sullivan’s Travels
• There’s Something About Mary
• This is Spinal Tap
• To Be or Not to Be
• Tootsie
• Toy Story *
• Les vacances de M. Hulot
• When Harry Met Sally…
• Withnail and I

Films Whose Presence in the Canon I’m Particularly Gratified to See (pick up to five): Duck Soup, Groundhog Day, Rushmore, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall.

Films in the Canon Whose Presence Should Not Be (pick up to five): Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dodgeball, When Harry Met Sally.

Films I’d Pick to Replace Them (pick up to five): The Big Lebowski, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Fletch.

Every day this week, we’ll be playing a new and exciting game called “Name That Song!” The idea is simple: I’ll post a series of images — foods this week — from a song. Post the song’s artist, title and (if you can dig them up) lyrics in the comments if you can figure out what it is. If necessary, I’ll post the answers next Friday (11/18).

Every day this week, we’ll be playing a new and exciting game called “Name That Song!” The idea is simple: I’ll post a series of images — foods this week — from a song. Post the song’s artist, title and (if you can dig them up) lyrics in the comments if you can figure out what it is. If necessary, I’ll post the answers next Friday (11/18).

Today’s entry is sort of a gimmie, but I really did have to include it. It is, after all, the song that inspired this week’s entries.

If you’re up and reading on Tuesday night, you can see election returns, updated in real time, on the magic internet machine.

Every day this week, we’ll be playing a new and exciting game called “Name That Song!” The idea is simple: I’ll post a series of images — foods this week — from a song. Post the song’s artist, title and (if you can dig them up) lyrics in the comments if you can figure out what it is. If necessary, I’ll post the answers next Friday (11/18).

Well, yesterday’s post was solved before noon. Perhaps it was a bit easy? Perhaps The Chairman’s work is a little too well known? Who knows. Either way, I hope today’s puzzle is somewhat more challenging. Good Luck!

Good Morning!

Every day this week, we’ll be playing a new and exciting game called “Name That Song!” The idea is simple: I’ll post a series of images — foods this week — from a song. Post the song’s artist, title and (if you can dig them up) lyrics in the comments if you can figure out what it is. If necessary, I’ll post the answers next Friday (11/18).

Enjoy!