Movie of the Day – The Faculty

Man, I remember this movie being a huge deal when I was a teen.  Everyone was weirdly talking about this movie like it was the be all end all of movies.  I must admit, I did get swept up into seeing this on opening day, mainly cause MTV was promoting the hell out of it and Tommy Hilfiger was sponsoring this movie for some reason, I guess they saw it as an avenue put their clothes on pretty young actors in a high school setting.  Either way, I was and still am, pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy this movie, even after its release in 1998.  It doesn’t hurt that Robert Rodriguez directed this more teen friendly version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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Movie of the Day – Final Destination

Amongst all the death and carnage of the Final Destination series has given us over the decade or so it has been around, the real catalyst for fear of death came from the first film.  It introduced the notion that death will come for us when it is our time and there is no way to avoid it.  Now I am aware that we will all die, unless we get some sort of technology that will allow us to live forever, but in this case we will die in the most Rube Goldbergian way possible and it will look utterly spectacular.

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Movie of the Day – 21 Jump Street

Since this is coming out on Blu-Ray on Tuesday, I got to talk about this movie.  I mean, I lament the fact that Hollywood continuously scarps the bottom of the barrel and will pretty much remake every fucking television show in existence into a movie, but once in a blue moon, they do yield a nugget of gold amongst all the shit that gets made.  21 Jump Street was by far and away, one of the funnier comedies to come out in 2012.  It took the ridiculous premise of the show in which it is based on and made it even more ridiculous by reveling in the absurdity of grown men infiltrating a high school to bust up a sophisticated drug ring.  Even typing that sentence was absurd, but damned if this movie isn’t side splitting hilarious and well acted by C-Tates (Channing Tatum) and Jonah Hill.

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Movie of the Day – Elephant

I remember watching this with a date when it came out back in 2003 and thinking, “well this is a real mood killer”.  Besides the fact that it was her decision to watch a Gus Van Sant film that was apart of his “Death Trilogy”, I was unable to shake the feeling of chills and uneasiness that came over me when I watched this film, thus making for awkward conversation after it was over.  Trying to tell a story, as fictional as it may be, of a high school shooting only 5 years after the Columbine shooting was provocative, but important.  Some may say it is exploitative and could incite copycats, but film in general is a medium used to showcase life, even in a fictionalized setting.  Elephant is a powerful film that shined a light on the subject of school shootings, unflinching and unwavering in the portrayal of fiction students on both sides of a tragedy.

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Movie of the Day – Sidekicks

Fuck Yeah!!!  Please tell me I am not the only one who saw this 1992 gem of a film?  I don’t want to say that you missed out on a phenomenal film and all, but you did if you haven’t seen this movie.  Listen, we all look up to someone, this movie just shows that one kids really, really, really, looks up to Chuck Norris.  I mean, who doesn’t look up to the guy?  He is Chuck Norris after all.  While this movie is  exactly like The Karate Kid (not the Will Smith kid version), it still has some terribly redeeming qualities to it, mainly Chuck Norris and Danica McKellar (oh Winnie Cooper).

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Movie Review – Bully

I was a victim of bullying.  Shocking I know that a nerd like myself was the target for bullying with my glasses, portly disposition and general intelligence level above those that I attended school with.  It stings being bullied and teased in school for no other reason than to be the target of some ridicule so others can feel good about themselves.  I take comfort in the fact that my life has turned out immensely better than theirs, with a career (currently in between jobs) and not currently siring several children and working for slightly above minimum wage.  Take that fuckers!

Anyways, now that I have openly vented about my past, bullying is still some morbid national past time that happens even decades after I exited the education system.  We see it in the news about teens killing themselves from incessant bullying and the backlash of violence from those that just can’t take it anymore.  Everyone knows why but they can never seem to get to the heart of the issue.  Young kids deciding that the teasing and bullying becomes almost too much for them and end of taking their lives or those around them.  It’s a tragedy that has to be addressed and it hopefully a documentary like Bully will bring to light the issues of bullying in schools in the most direct way possible.

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One Year Anniversary!!! Movie of the Day – Brick

It has been exactly one year to the day that I have started this blog.  I personally never thought that I would be able to post one item every day since the inception of this little adventure.  I started out the blog with my ode to one of my favorite films of all time, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a film that rests comfortably at the top of my favorite film list.  But while it was the first film that kicked off this little adventure, there was one film that I first posted on my Facebook account that pretty much started my daily Movie of the Day post.  Brick, a film that takes the time tested neo-noir, crime genre and give it a new coat of paint and a slick script to produce one of the most unique and memorable movies I have seen in a long time.  Brick to me is a film that will always be one of the best.  For some reason, when I first started posting a movie of the day on my facebook timeline, this was the first film to come to mind.  It’s a film that encapsulates the era of the crime genre and spins it enough to make it something all its own.  A world of intrigue and lies, built upon the grounds of a high school where the teens become the adults and the story takes on a life of its own.

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Movie Review – 21 Jump Street

I will admit that I never really watched the television show, 21 Jump Street.  I was far too young for the edginess that was the late 80s and the procedural nature of two undercover officers posing as teens in high school and busting up the cheer club or whatever.  I was around the age of 3 at the time so I couldn’t comprehend much at the time, but through my pursuit of pop culture knowledge, I came to learn that the show was a serious undercover format and that High School is apparently dangerous as Compton.  So while this show has faded into the pop culture lexicon, thank the idealess Hollywood Execs and their penchant for making the old new again for bringing back this crime drama and turning into something that we can all handle, a buddy cop comedy.

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Documentary of the Day – Hoop Dreams

This is the portrait of the American Life.  I have never really seen a film that explores the complex issues of life through the story of basketball.  Hoops Dreams is one those films that catch you off guard when you first watch it.  I went in expecting to watch a documentary about two high school kids, competing and hoping for the chance to chase their dream of being drafted into the NBA.  It’s an underdog story with a goal at the end, but the film ended up being something more than a sports film.  How often can you say that a sports film expertly captured the nuances of American life, exploring complex issues like race, poverty, class, and education.

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