Underrated: favorite movies with a twist

I've been fascinated by how much money movies make for a while now. Part of it is the phenomena of the flop, a movie that had a huge budget but proved not to be a blockbuster. The other is what I like to call the hidden gem or the small budget hit, which is a movie that isn't expected to do a lot at the box office, but turns out to be a huge, huge hit. I can think of several like that: Black Hawk Down and 300 jump to mind. I think those got huge because Hollyweird accidentally made a movie that most people can relate to, as opposed to the dreck they usually serve up with their left wing messages and agendas. That's a post for another time, I think.

What I have been interested in lately are movies that may or may not have been hits at the time, but have been forgotten or pushed to the back because of new material and holiday movies coming to the theater. Some of my favorite movies are classics, or huge blockbuster hits that are older now and neglected. Still others are films that were never big hits, but turned out to be great little movies. TNT calls some of these The New Classics, but some are just classic in and of themselves, regardless of when they were issued.

Since you know already that I'm working towards a list, here it is! I decided that only choosing five total would be more work than I want to put in on a day off, I decided to choose some categories. These may or may not be in order.

Older Action Movies. These can be war movies, gangster flicks, or anything else that pretty much has guns as a central theme. lol!

1. Black Hawk Down. It was a huge hit, but it's such a great demonstration of the American spirit that I have to include it. It should not be forgotten.

2. Hatari. Even though it's not a Western, this is one of my top six John Wayne movies. Red Buttons and many of the character actors that are seen in John Wayne movies are here, and the story is flat out fun.

3. The Big Hit. It's the quirky movie on the action list. Its about hit men, but its part comedy, quasi-love story, and revenge flick all in one.

4. The Buccaneer: Probably my all time favorite movie that doesn't star John Wayne. The cast is epic, the story huge and sweeping, encompassing both a pirate story and a story of the founding of America. What's not to like?

5. The Longest Day. There just aren't that many stars in a movie anymore; it's too expensive. This film is huge, epic and has more stars than fit on the Hollywood Walk of Stars.

Comedies. These had a profound effect on my sense of humor, and I still find them hilarious. Many of these were hits, but they should be considered must-see flicks.

1. Stripes. Deep and profound effect on my sense of humor. While it lacks heavily in realism, it makes up for that in just plain funny.

2. Ghostbusters. The first was funniest. The ending of the second was bad. It is said that there will be a third, with the original cast having singed on to do it.

3. Strange Brew. I think most people don't get Bob and Doug McKenzie, but I still find this movie funny. I have a couple of the McFarland Toys Bob and Doug playsets, too. They're awesome.

4. The Hangover. This one's way over the top and not for everyone. If you're not easily offended, though, it's a terribly funny movie.

5. Ski School. The second one sucked. This one had a particular spirit about it that was pretty dang good. With a "b" movie like this, it's easy to go over the top and ruin the suspension of disbelief, but they minimized that with this flick. It just makes me laugh.

Others. These are movies that I dig but can't fit in just one category. There's cop stories, actioners, sci-fi, and..."other".

1. The Fifth Element. Its not just that I'm a Milla fan. This is a great story with some innovative tricks thrown in. Its funny, it's action packed, it's just plain entertaining.

2. Shaun of the Dead. It's a zombie movie with greatness involved. It's a new classic.

3. In Bruges. It's all kinds of quirky. Not everyone will love it, but if you're kind of into the Guy Ritchie thing, you might dig this.

4. Public Enemies. This didn't do quite as well as it should have. Fantastic cast, and it's different. Normally, a film like this is either from the cop's or robber's POV. This one goes pretty much right up the middle. If you didn't see it, you should have. It releases to DVD in about a week or so.

5. Appaloosa. You have to ignore Renee Zellwegger in this one. Its not about her anyway. This is a great cowboy story of The Reckoning.

6. The Proposition. Another off the beaten path Southern Hemisphere Western. This one's set in Australia. Its a story of choices and family. Powerful and intricate.

7.Bad Boys II. Its a guilty pleasure, and I like it better than the first. I hope they can get together to make a third.

8. Zombieland. Again, not a perfect movie (there will be a LOT more zombies walking around), but very entertaining, and one of the greatest cameos EVER. Like the girl said, "He just gets me". If you don't know what I'm referring to, you have GOT to see this one.

9. The Ghost and the Darkness. Well cast, memorably performed, and classical in subject matter. This one was a moderate hit, but I fell in love with it from the first showing. I got the same rush from the suspenseful moments as I did when I thought I had jumped a black bear while hunting.

These kinds of posts are always changing and variable, because there's always movies I can't remember at the time I'm doing this. I'll have to start taking notes and keeping track of ideas. I'm just not quite there with this list. I'll revisit this later.

Star Trek: Yup!

Went with Paul J. to see the new Star Trek today. I gotta say, overall its a very enjoyable movie. Even if it was a PG-13 and Simon Pegg wasn't in this one enough, I liked it, especially in contrast to the movies that came before it.

The existing flicks are OK, although I'm not a big fan of the ones with the TV show cast in 'em. Much like the James Bond series and the new Batman franchise, the new one is just better than its predecessors. Bad Attitude Bond and Mean and Nasty Batman are improvements over the previous versions, and in total, so are the cast of the new ST.

There are a couple of character interactions that I thought were outside the canon of the original, and the young Spock isn't as comfortable in the role, in my estimation, than Leonard Nimoy, but those are huge shoes to fill. Still, he was good in the role, and Karl Urban was surprisingly good as Bones. In the past, his performances could be characterized as...how to put it...wooden. As Bones, he channeled just enough of Deforest Kelly to let you know who he was, while still putting his own twist on it. I didn't figure out who Nero was until I looked it up on IMDB. Great performances abounded.

Go see it. Its a good story and quality escapism for a couple hours, and it's just plain fun. I'm looking forward to seeing the others in this franchise.

Taken: This Cool Movie is Haji Approved

Went and saw Taken this afternoon. I guess I was a little surprised that it was still in the theaters, but it point of fact, there isn't much else out there. Already saw "Watchmen". Other than being a little taken aback by the nudity in a movie about superheroes, it was very "meh" to me. Taken, however, had something that seems to be a bit of a trend these days: the somewhat older guy gettin' mad and kickin' teeth in. Taken is one of those movies, except for one thing that Hollywood got wrong. Again.

One thing that older heroes know that younger ones don't is that they understand support and networking. Check out "Burn Notice". The 40 something former spy relies on people that he sometimes doesn't like because he knows he needs help. Older dudes have spent a lot of years, even just by virtue of being on the planet for a longer amount of time, developing a network of contacts in a whole range of different areas. The father in Taken, a CIA "preventer" (probably in the paramilitary branch; the dudes that took down the Taliban with 5th SFG), had been places and done things that developed a specific set of useful and deadly skills over his career. He was a skilled man among skilled men. And therin lies Hollywood's mistake. Again.

Without giving too much away, the father in the movie goes to France to find the daughter that was kidknapped there. The thing is, he did it alone. This guy had a group of experienced bad asses that he'd worked with for years. He called one and got a modo intel dump. He made contact in Europe with a couple guys that were still in the biz but were behind desks now. And yet, he went about the investigation and splitting of wigs by himself.

This is a problem for me. I have several very good friends with kids. If somebody were stupid enough to take my friend's kids, all I'd need was a call or a text. "Meet me here, bring heat". I'd be out the door as soon as it took to grab the gear bag. I pray a day like that never comes, but what must be must be. Don't mess with my friends and their kids.

I guess the reason the movie was made the way it was that if they'd done it the way it should have gone, dude would have rolled up in Paris with a couple Para branch dudes and a couple recently retired CAG guys, and the movie would have been over in just about an hour and 15 minutes; 48 hours in real time. The flick they made was supposed to be over the course of 96 hours. The old dude was sandbaggin', I guess.

Tropic Thunder: a comedy that's actually funny!

My schedule didn't match up to see Tropic Thunder in the theater, which I regret now. I watched it on DVD this evening with homeboy and shooting partner Paul J. The interesting part of the experience was that the film was a Whollyweird comedy, and yet we were both actually laughing! I'd have never thought that possible if I hadn't seen it muh damn se'f.

I'm usually lukewarm on Ben Stiller. His movies can be quite funny, but more often he falls into the "cute" catagory for me, such as with Night at the Museum. Unfortunately, they're gonna do a Night at the Museum II. He was great as White Goodman in Dodge Ball, but that wasn't a Ben Stiller movie as much as it was a Vince Vaughn vee-hickle. In Tropic Thunder, though, he was outstanding.  There were times that I forgot that he was Ben Stiller and I believed he was Tugg Speedman. With some actors, that's easy to do; Robert Downey Jr. should be up for an Oscar for his performance as Jeff Lazarus, "I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude! ".

The best part by far, though, was the parody of Whollyweird as a Whole. The drug addict, the agents, the deal makers, the Method actors, the consultants, and more, all skewered. While America was laughing hysterically, there were plenty of folks in The Biz squirming in their seats. After the flick, Paul and I were laughing at various lines that were added to the Chrystal Method's "That's the Name of the Game" ride out credits song, and we agreed that it seemed hard to believe that this movie got made. I still marvel that somebody green lighted a movie that made fun of what they do. For that reason alone, this one's worth seeing.

There's a lot of profanity in this flick, which is kinda typical for a comedy these days. I guess a lot of people find swearing funny; I'm not really one of those. This is still a funny movie, and I really do wish I'd seen it on the big screen with the digital sound system. Woulda been fun!

QOS

Went and saw Quantum of Solace yesterday with my bro M4Guru. While disappointed in the $4+ Coke that was not really a Coke, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I may end up dropping some spoilers in this post, due to my stream of unconsciousness writing style, so caveat emptor. I don't know if that applies here, but the only other Latin I could remember off the top of my head was "Otium cum dignitatum", which means "leisure with dignity".

The important thing with this movie, and Casino Royale that precedes it, is that the New Bond is a much better couple of movies than any of the previous iterations of Bond movies. Bad attitude, loose cannon, ass-kicking-sans-gadgetry Bond is miles better than the more recent, gadget dependent Bond characterizations. The constant references to Bond goin' haywire and killin' ever'body are both comedic and apropos. The only drawback is that they've got him running a Walther PPK/S mouse gun, rather than the "They finally get it!" P99 of previous movies. That's really my only complaint; I'd much rather see him running a Glock or MnP. A custom tuned 1911 is probably beyond the realm of possibility with Bond, but a man gun would be schweeeeet.

SPOIL-ISH!

The other thing that I really liked, and a number of people have said they didn't like, was the new bad guy organization: Quantum. Its sort of an economic Al Qaida, an organization with a cell-style structure and even more secretive than anything we know about now. MI-6 didn't know a thing about them at the beginning of the flick, so its gonna be interesting, over the next couple films that Daniel Craig is signed on for, to see how this group becomes exposed and taken down.

There were still a couple things that I didn't "get", as I saw it only once so far, but I think it's entirely possible that those questions will be made clear later on. They did a nice job of conveying the sense of "everywhere and anywhere" with Quantum; they have a very, very long reach. Its going to be interesting to see how they are developed over the next couple of movies. Its all very sinister, but Bond will kill 'em all if the film calls for it...which, of course, it will. Which is, of course, why I'm such a fan. lol!

Quarrantine. It could have been good...

I'm not gonna bother with post election rants right now; both of you who read my blog have a pretty good idea where I stand on that issue.lol However, that's not to say I'm not gonna be ranting!

Spoiler follows.

I went to see Quarantine with Matt E. and Paul J. about a week ago, partly because it looked cool and partly because there's not much else of interest in the local theater right now. It looked like an interesting take on the zombie genre, and it proved to be that...and less, in a couple of areas.

Starting back with Blair Witch Project, the Bouncing Handi Cam (BHC) technique was born as a new and creative way to film a movie. It was innovative at the time. Unfortunately, several other movies have taken it up as a plot device, such as was done with Cloverfield. Now its getting tired and isn't creative anymore. And there's more that goes with it, too.

Despite what directors may think, you don't have to wave the camera around like a spastic drunk for me to remember that there's a guy with a hand held camera that's giving us his perspective on what's happening. It may come as a shock, but if the same dude has the camera throughout the movie, its not all that tough to remember who he is and what he's doing. People, in general, can keep track of such things. Do us a favor, director-type personages: bounce it a little at first to give us the effect...then quit it. I'm not willing to get motion sickness just to watch your damn movie.

An additional, equally irritating corollary to the BHC style of filming is the absolute stupidity of the people who are getting filmed. There are cops at the apartment building, who have 15 in the gun and a couple reloads each. If there are three of 'em, that means there's 135 available rounds, and there were maybe 20 people in the whole building. Call me crazy, but if you have to shoot an infected body, chances are you're gonna have to do that for everyone else that gets infected. You know from recent experience that the building is sealed, and that the paramedics can't do anything about the infection. That being the case, kinda seems stupid to feed your neck to somebody you know has been bitten, doesn't it?

I'm getting sick and tired of people who should know better, acting like morons. If you can't have 'em act like they would be trained to act, DON'T PUT THEM IN THE DANG MOVIE! That ranks in Stupid right up there with backwards sights on rifles and endless magazines. There are tons of people that can be experts for movies that can fix the Stupid if the director is smart enough to pay attention to what they say. Most of the time, they aren't. Its getting to the point that directors are the cause of everything that irritates me about movies. If I find another director that gets it right, I'm gonna go see every damn thing he does. At this point, it looks like Ridley Scott comes closest...but he's smart enough to listen to his advisors. I'm thinking there's a trend to be seen there...

Wanted: another of the patented quick reviews

Went to see "Wanted" this evening with Top and JAG, since JAG is PCS-ing to Virginia and I'm unlikely to see him anytime soon. The word is: don't. Despite a couple funny lines and a nice butt shot of Angelina Jolie, the gun stuff was stupid and the movie sucks overall. If you're into guns at all, don't bother. It'll piss you off on so many levels, I can't even count 'em all.

The Happening: The Quick Review

Just got back home after watching The Happening with Top and JAG. I could have saved eight bucks. I hear about Global Warming all day long, on the radio, in the news, and everywhere else I turn. I didn't need M. Night Shamalyan to make a movie about it.

The thing that's not scary about this flick is that nobody gets murdered. Suicide is not all that scary, and it should have started in Europe, rather than ended there. They're figuring out that Global Warming is hogwash (HA! When was the last time you saw that word on a blog?), since they've been taxed to death over it already, and its getting worse, according to those who make money on it. Recent polls show they've had enough of it. The movie shoulda killed them all off first, before America finally understands that its all hooey and people like Algore (who's mansion in TN is using 10% more power with all his eco-friendly upgrades and replacements than it was originally) are making BIG MONEY off of it.

Save your money; skip the latest Global Warming Movie.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull..uh...what?

Just got back from seeing Innyanna Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well....it was corny, but at least it didn't make a lot of sense.

No Money from Me for "Rambo"

"Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have."
--Sylvester Stallone

Nice bit of hypocrisy there, Sly. I guess its totally different when you make a big damn paycheck off of guns. After all, its just a movie, right? Wrong.

Rumors are that you have a CCW and a private range on your property...which I whole-heartedly support. What I can't support is your belief that you're somehow more important than the rest of us, and we need to be disarmed while your celebrity allows you to protect yourself. You can do what you wanna do, bro. However, actions have repercussions, and the repercussion of this is that you will get not one thin dime from me to see any of your movies, in the theater, on DVD on on TV, ever. EVER.
Signed-
Haji, a pissed off gun owning, gun shooting, carrying every day consumer.

The Real Inconvenient Truth: Gore's makin' bank

While listening to an interview of Frank Batten, founder of The Weather Channel, this morning on the Genn Beck radio show, I heard an interesting statement: Al Gore is standing to make $100 million off of An Inconvenient Crock...I mean...an Inconvenient Truth. Wow. Half that is a butt load of money. Oddly enough, I haven't heard of Algore donating any of that to environmental groups. Makes ya wonder a little, dunnit?

As this flick took off and gained popularity (read: made money), Al was all over the place promoting it. It has been said that he flew around the country in a G5 corporate jet. Its not known to be the most efficient of jets. One of the places Algore went after his guffaw-inspiring win of the Nobel Peace Prize-now forever relegated to inconsequentiality-was to a fund raiser in Arizona. The menu included such things as lobster medallions, tuna steaks, Kobe beef. If you take a look at all that, you'll notice that none of it is native to Arizona. It all had to be transported in. Additionally, in order to be worth doing, I'm sure there was a decent crowd of people there. And yet there is no outcry over all this from the left. What a surprise.

With Algore flying in and serving a completely imported menu (most of which I can't afford), he just left a carbon footprint larger than my entire family does in a year. Add to that all the jetting around the country, and his carbon footprint becomes larger than my whole family and the company that I work for. At least the company I work for contributes to eliminating terrorists.

What strikes me most is that Algore is making a pile of money. Even if he's making a tenth of what he's reported to be, that's still a metric buttload of money. So...money can be made off the global warming thing? Looks like a lot of money, too. Good thing a politician is the guy making it. If it was a private citizen, rather than a politician, you'd have to wonder if there was an integrity issue there. But as long as its a politician, then you can rest assured that he wouldn't say or do anything that might be a little shady. I mean, he's only making about a hundred million bucks on this deal. He has no vested interest in promoting the idea. It has to be true...right? Must be that he's donating all that money to environmental groups. That has to be it. He's not pocketing all that cash. That'd make it look like he's beholden to the concept to make him rich. But he's a politician! They're known for integrity and inviolable character. I mean, its not like he was VP under an impeached president. He's a rock. Yeah. Mr. Rectitude.

I'm not rolling my eyes. Why would I do that? He's a career politician.

Sometimes I miss the old days

Sometimes there's a reason to feel nostalgic. In many ways, technology and the like are far better now than they've ever been. Advancements have been made in many of my favorite areas: food, beer, electronics (can't afford it, but I think its cool), gear, and firearms, among others. There's even a Coke Zero now, and it doesn't taste like ass. There are cars out there now that can be had new for $15,000 (I know it won't have much on it, but it'll have wheels and a seat) that can go 30 miles on a tank of gas. The art of the carne asada burrito with sour cream and cheese added has been perfected for less than a fiver. Not here, mind you, because Messican food doesn't exist here, but they have 'em in California. I've had 'em, I know its true. 'Course, here we've mastered the $15 half rack of ribs to go. Its not the same, but it must do. The gas piston AR can be had for about what a high end DI gun goes for (I know, HK uppers sell for between $2500 and $5000, but since they'll never sell them on the civi market it doesn't count).

All these advancements were shown to pale in comparison to one Ol' Skoo' way of doing things: the epic summer blockbuster at a single screen theater. I remember seeing Hunt for Red October at a BIG single screen theatre in La Mesa. That place is a Good Guys stereo store now, and it hurts to see it. That old theatre had the ginormous screen, the Voice of the Theatre audio system...it was a great experience. The seats were like the first class seats on a cross country flight. I don't think they had cup holders-its been a while-but the seats were thick, wide and had legroom in spades. I will grant that stadium seating is pretty cool, but the seats are smaller, closer together, and its easier to hear the bung hole behind you on his stupid cell phone.

Back in the day, that screen was about a story tall. If you were in the front row, the screen was so large that all you saw was Sean Connery's nostrils. Not even the plural; just one, really. I'd have loved to see POTC: The End of the World on that screen. I saw it last weekend at our local theatre. Its a nice place; well cared for, nicely decorated, fairly comfortable, and supremely expensive. But its just not the same with that little screen. The sound is probably even better, but it all pales in comparison to that huge single screen. What a pity.

The fact is movies have gotten so expensive to make that single screen theatres are just not efficient enough anymore. That's why there's a 4567-plex theatre in the malls now, with chairs smaller than a bucket and screens the size of a piece of paper turned sideways. The ticket is $15 and a bag of popcorn and a drink is $157...plus tax. And, because of those exorbitant costs, we end up with stuff like The Hills Have Eyes 2. That means that the summer blockbuster and the single screen theatre will never happen again. That is, unfortunately, technology costing us one of the greater experiences that used to be available. And that truely is a pity.

Where Hollywood is blowing it

Hollywood, as we all seem to know, is somewhat out of touch with America. Both TV and film hardly ever get it right. The thing that kills me, though, is that its so clear what they should be doing that I can't believe they haven't latched on to it. They even employ professionals to assist with making movies, and they don't bother to ask "hey, what do ya think?" They'd get the right answer for free, and they can't even grasp it. New words can be coined: dufusism, doltocracy, moronicality quotient.

Over There could have been a big hit show. It had the production value, semi-interesting characters, and current story lines...sort of. The Unit may or may not be picked up for another season, but there are some other reasons for that besides half the story lines. At any rate, it got picked up for a second season, where Over There didn't.

Why is that? There's a fundemental difference between these to shows. OT showed soldiers in bad places, doing bad things, and making questionable moral decisions. In other words, they didn't paint soldiers in a particularly good light. The Unit may not be picked up long term, but I believe one of the main reasons the show got a full season purchase is that it depicts America's top warriors doing great things as American soldiers. The holes in the show are aggravating and don't have to be there, but that's a production problem that's a little outside the scope of this missive.

If Hollywood wanted to find another huge hit, they need to do two things: first, realize what is so great about "300": honor, integrity, self sacrifice, and the warrior spirit, among other great qualities. People connect with those ideals. They understand being part of something bigger than themselves. Secondly, they need to understand that America is ripe for a new "war" movie, but one with a different focus. We're ready for a film that paints American soldiers in a positive light, and shows the great heroism and power of the American fighting man. I even have just the story for them.

ODA 555, The Triple Nickle. Everyone on that team that I've met has been a great guy; they're all stand up dudes. Funny, professional, serious. The Triple Nickle was the first ODA into Afghanistan after 9/11. It was the Triple Nickle, with CIA team Jawbreaker, that finally broke the Northern Alliance free and pushed the Taliban out of power. Who wouldn't want to see a big budget action movie about that piece of history? How awesome would that be? Completely mind blowing, is how that'd be! And they wouldn't have to write up some goofy improbable story, like the hokey love story angle that ruined Pearl Harbor. All they have to do is relay what really happened. America would love it. Of course, the same Islamic whackos that set fire to things over comics and protested "300" so vigorously would hate it, which is as good a reason as we need.

My job puts me in contact with America's heroes every day. I have come to know and love them. They're amazing people. John Wayne said about Special Forces in Viet Nam "Somebody needs to tell their story". That time has come again. These men deserve it, and America needs to at least have an idea of what they did. These heroes deserve a proper treatment with no crap added in. And it'll make billions.

The Penguins are Lying!

I read this over on Risawn's blog. This is a review of Happy Feet, that just came out on DVD. She has an interesting perspective, check it out.

Why you must see 300

Have you not seen "300" yet? Is there something wrong with you? There must be; this is a must see film. Think of the best movie you've ever seen. This one's better than that. Here's some reasons why you have to, in no particular order:

1. Its not a historical documentary; its based on a graphic novel. As such, the visual aspect of the movie is unlike anything else you've seen.
2. Its not The Grapes of Wrath. Even the simple amongst you are capable of following the story.
3. Spartan women are hot, tough, and not to be trifled with.
4. The one liners from this film warrant watching it several times. In IMAX if possible.
5. This movie has all the best things about the fighting spirit: honor, integrity, patriotism, truth, justice, and living by the warrior's code. If you don't understand these things, you're a liberal. Move to Cuba. Do it now.
6. Action. Lots of it.
7. Spartan women.
8. Its long enough that you get your money's worth without your butt falling asleep or having to sit so long you have to get up to take a leak.
9. Goosebumps. This has much to do with the display of the warrior spirit. If this doesn't get to you, you're sheeple. Move your candy ass to Cuba.
10. All your friends have seen it. You're not on the same page with your friends. They're talking about it, and you have no idea what they're talking about. You might as well move to Cuba.
    

Don't be a bozo. Go see this movie, or move to the aforementioned worker's paradise. Those are your choices.

Two Movies to Recommend

Let's get this out of the way up front: I'm old. I turned 40 a few weeks ago. My alleged formative, great years-according to the radio and TV, anyway-were in the mid to late '80s. Truth be told, I'm more than happy to have moved beyond the high school years. They were not my best or even favorite years. I've had a heck of a lot more fun since then. That being said, that period of time did much to formulate and solidify my beliefs, ethics and convictions. Being born in the 60's pretty much means that you're a child of the70's and '80's, and the events of those decades were very, very influential. Which brings us to the "why" of the recommendation for seeing these movies.

The first of them is simple nostalgia, really. The Lords of Dogtown is simply an accounting of the groundbreaking that happened because of the Z-Boys. The story is more about the interpersonal relationships of that bunch, but the movie is so well done that I can't help but get that feeling of "the good takes place during my growing up years. Being a California kid when skateboards came out meant that my life revolved around skating (and BMX, but there's no movie to recommend about that) and all things related to it. LODTol' days". It extends even as far as the background music. There's a song by Budgie (Crash Course in Brain Surgery, released in '71) that went on to be covered by Metallica. Its all a wonderful snapshot of a very unusual time in America. There was still a little bit of that youthful innocence while the ways of the world were portrayed as well. The best and worst of the time is in there. Its a pretty doggone accurate account, even for a fictional story, of that time in history.

The interesting thing is that while it could be about the changes in technology, it remains to be about the people involved. All the changes in the scene are documented, but they're not the most important thing. The people are.

If, after seeing this flick, you wish to get a documentary account of the story, Stacy Peralta made great film called "Dogtown and Z Boys". He was there, so the documentary is as much a recollection of his youth as an accounting of the personalities and the times. Both of these flicks are really worth watching, especially if you're from that time...or your dad was.

The other film of note is called Miracle. It stars Jack Burton...I mean....Wyatt Earp...I mean...Kurt Russell. This is the story of the '80 Olympic Hockey Team that won the gold medal, beating the Soviets who were the best team in the world at the time. The best thing about this particular movie is that very few of the actors are ones anyone's ever seen before. They're not stars, but the performances are awesome. The players look like players. Even Kurt Russell, who looks very little like Herb Brooks facially, goes above and beyond in this performance. His was the type of portrayal that should be honored with academy awards, instead of the latest guy playing a drunk again.

One of the most telling things to happen in this film happens after the Christmas party as Herb is on his way home. They play a bit of the State of the Nation speech by then-president Carter. The section of the speech they used perfectly desribes the feeling of America at that time. We were looking for something to latch onto to make us feel good about being Americans again. The Carter administration inhereted some ugly problems (remember, there was still fallout from Watergate at that time), and created some more of their own. America needed something to get that feeling of national pride again. This team happened along at the right time, and handed the world one of the most amazing shockers of all time. This film does a great job of explaining why it was so important. On top of that, the actors look like hockey players, rather than actors playing hockey players and not looking like they belong there.

Both of these movies are snap shots of periods in time that could easily be depicted as different from what it really was. The way I remember it (yeah, I know) is how they showed it. Kudos, not to mention the endorsement of a blog writer that hardly anyone reads, to those that made this great films.