Top Fifteen: Robots

I love robots. I love robots so much, I have a tattoo of one disassembled on my right calf. To commemorate my affinity for robots, here's my latest Top Fifteen -- the Top Fifteen Robots in movies. From now on, though, all the Top Fifteen will be listed in descending order. You know, for the suspense of it all.

#15 Optimus Prime

Transformers: the Movie

Micheal Bay has nothing on the animated original.

#14 Johnny 5

Short Circuit, Short Circuit 2

One of my favorite movies as a child, and has surprisingly held up.

#13 Gerty

Moon

Like HAL 9000, only helpful.

#12 David

A.I.:Artificial Intelligence

Kubrick + Speilburg + Pinocchio = awesome!

#11 Andrew

Bicentennial Man

One of Robin William's least appreciated roles.

#10 T-800

the Terminator series

The future is now, and it wants you dead.

#9 Borg Queen

Star Trek: First Contact

I love what you've done with your hair.

#8 Ash

Alien

Ian Holm is definitely one of my all-time favorite actors.

#7 Data

Star Trek 7-10

Leave it to an android to help us understand what being human really is.

#6 Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands

Remember, Vincent Price's character was known as "the Inventor."

#5 Wall-E

Wall-E

Pixar's cautionary tale of our destroyed planet wouldn't have been as bittersweet without our lovable hero.

#4 R2D2

the Star Wars series

Luke Skywalker bought a walking trash can, and the rest was intergalactic history.

#3 Agent Smith

the Matrix series

I suppose the sentinels are technically the robots, but their Matrix persona made the series.

#2 Iron Giant

Iron Giant

Brad Bird's pre-Pixar pulp masterpiece.

#1 False Maria

Metropolis

The great silent science fiction epic has been copied many times, but never outdone. 

Top Fifteen: War Movies

With The Hurt Locker sweeping the Oscar race last night, I thought I might take this time to incorporate a new facet to my blog THE TOP FIFTEEN.

Why fifteen? Well, mostly because it's too hard to narrow the list down to ten, and twenty looks like I wasn't even trying.

So here it is . . .

TOP FIFTEEN WAR MOVIES

#1 The Grand Illusion

 

Criterion's first release was an anti-war  masterpiece.

#2 Pan's Labyrinth

 

The dark fantasy element of this movie makes the Spanish Civil War backdrop easily forgettable...but it's there.

#3 Gladiator

 Words are not needed.

#4 Ran

Kurosawa's color masterpiece.

#5 Full Metal Jacket

 

Leave it to Kubrick to find beauty in war.

#6 Braveheart

Think what you want of Gibson, but this is amazing!

#7 The Fog of War

Remorse is the great humanizer.

 #8 Ben-hur

 Bible costume dramas kick ASS!

#9 Atonement

Remember that thing I said about remorse?

#10 Apocalypse Now

(but leave the Redux version alone.)

#11 The Thin Red Line

So much better than Saving Private Ryan.

#12 Why We Fight

Made me fall in love with a Republican President....not an easy task.

#13 Blood Diamond

 

Mmmm, blood.

#14 Cold Mountain

And not just because Jack White was it (although that does give it cool points.)

#15 Schindler's List

 

Don't judge me, it's on here at least.

Meat Beat Manifesto

There's no thief like a bad movie. ~Sam Ewing


I have been embedded in the cinema experience since I was a wee lad. My first movie was "Coal Miner's Daughter." I was 12 months old, but apparently I liked it. My mother said I only shat once. That day a shitting moviehound was made, and i haven't stopped yet.

I am what many would consider a movie snob. It's true.

I am considerably picky when it comes to fine cinema. I know everything isn't going to be a Citizen Kane or a Being John Malkovich, but it doesn't have to make me want to rip out my fucking retinas and wish to god i had been aborted. Is that too much to ask?

But a great movie is better than sex. The story is emotive and passionate, the players are expressive and approachable, the cinematography and direction are articulate and poetic, with great mise en scene and scope. This is what I live for.

What i wouldn't do to watch the Matrix, Grand Illusion, and Magnolia again, for the first time!

Then I came across this,

and it hit me like a bolt of lightning.

This book was written for me. Not in the way some fucking teenage girl feels after reading Twilight and can relate to the travesty of unrequited love of an immortal. No, Mrs Solomons and Schneider personally compiled this book, and fatefully led me to it with a note stating:

Dear Beloved Wezul,
We know how much of a dick you can be
if you're unable to get your fill of good
movies. Here you go. This should
keep you busy for a while.
Love,
Authors.

P.S. Don't be such a douchebag.

So here's my mission, if I choose to accept it. Watch all 1001 movies and give my thoughts, interpretations, memories, reviews, and ramblings on them. Many of these are tried and true Classics that are already part of my permanent collection (*cough cough* MovieSnob). Some are ones I've always meant to see, but hadn't gotten around to it. Some of these are, dare I say it, CRAP!
Nonetheless, I will try my damnedest to scour all the sources made available to me to watch them all. All I ask from my readers (if I get any) is to be patient with me. I am a full-time student, a full-time employee, a full-time boyfriend, and a full-time parent. There will be times these posts come quickly and smoothly. There will be times that life just has to come before the movies. (I know, it brings a tear to my eye as well.)

So come along, fellow Cinephiles, to the Wonderful, Wacky World of Wezul's FILMECTOMY.