Movies – Page 4 – GringoPotpourri

Top Ten Bond Theme Songs

As a movie buff, travel-holic, and music lover, the James Bond films hold a special place in my heart. They feature scenery-chewing villains, exotic locales, and memorable opening credit sequences (not to mention cool cars, hair-raising action scenes, and gorgeous female co-stars).

“Spectre,” the 24^th Bond film not counting the one-hour TV movie “Casino Royale” from 1954 nor the 1983 “Sean Connery returns” vehicle “Never Say Never Again,” opened last week. I was fortunate to catch it during its Thursday, 11/5 sneak preview. While not the best in the franchise, it is a solid follow-up to 2012’s “Skyfall” and, if the rumors are true, a nice swan song for Daniel Craig’s James Bond. The song that plays over the opening credits, “The Writing’s on the Wall” by Britain’s Sam Smith, is worthy of inclusion among the pantheon of great Bond songs. I don’t know if Smith’s falsetto was the right touch for what is supposed to be a somber tune, but you can decide for yourself here.

Smith’s song, like so many others, opens with a full orchestra. Oscar-winning film composer John Barry scored most 1960’s – 80’s Bond films and wrote many of the title tracks as well. The strings and horns are commonplace in many (though not all) 007 songs, and Smith pays heed to the tradition. But there are better Bond songs out there. Below, with YouTube links to the opening title sequences from each film, are my picks for the Top Ten Bond Theme Songs:

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Ten More Horror Movies (11-20)

Another spring and summer have come and gone and autumn is already upon us. My second-favorite holiday, Halloween, is just three weeks away. Although AMC Network isn’t repeating last October’s 31 days of horror movies, other cable networks are doing their part – SyFy, TBS, even ABC Family! This, of course, pleases me (as it does for many other night owls too, I suspect). Over the last several days I’ve watched “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “John Carpenter’s The Thing,” and “April Fool’s Day,” to name just a few.

Last fall I published the ranking of my top ten horror movies. That list ran the gamut from vampire art house flick to slasher movie to black-and-white Alfred Hitchcock thriller. I had fun compiling said list, however I know that it barely scratched the genre’s surface. As such, I thought I’d pad it by writing about ten more genre films that I like or at least respect.

Without any further ado, here are another ten horror movies that I love:

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Top Ten Outdated Movies

Last month, during TCM’s annual “31 Days of Oscar” feature, during which time the network airs nothing but Oscar-winning/nominated movies, I stayed up late one night to watch “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” I hadn’t seen it in many years but remembered loving it, and was thrilled over having the opportunity to see it again.

Wow. This movie, which tackles the subject of race in a we-are-all-one-rainbow-nation kind of way, has not aged well. Although it boasts a legendary performance by Spencer Tracy, and a strong cast that also includes Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier, the language of the time is now considered offensive, while the film’s message means well yet comes across as condescending today.

I started thinking. What are other movies that, typically through no fault of their own, have not withstood the test of time? One of the first to come to mind was 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Although that movie was given an enormous budget by Paramount Pictures, its special effects have aged poorly, and the Starfleet uniforms (including Persis Khambatta’s hideous, too-short white onesie) went out of style exactly five minutes after the movie premiered. But then I remembered attending a theatrical re-release of 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” that took place in Los Angeles in 2011. That film, widely considered by Trekkies and Trekkers alike to be the series’ best, moves at a snail’s pace by today’s standards, and also hasn’t aged well. Paul Winfield and Kirstie Alley in supporting roles? What, were Robert Guillaume and Dee Wallace Stone unavailable?! I quickly realized that I could fill this list with “Star Trek” films. That was too easy, so I opted to disqualify all of them.

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The Inter-Review

You surely remember the hubbub last December when, following the hack of Sony Studios computers, Sony decided to cancel the theatrical release of “The Interview.” The film’s premise: The travel plans of a U.S. journalist and his producer who journey to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un are compromised when the pair is handed an assassination mission by the CIA. Although the film is a comedy, news of its existence is was said to have ruffled the feathers of high-ranking muckety-mucks in North Korea. Upon learning of the film’s release last fall, Kim Jong-un supposedly called the plot “an act of war.”

It was later revealed that the Sony breach was the handiwork of a group of terrorist hackers from (or sympathetic to) North Korea that called themselves the “Guardians of Peace,” and that this group promised multiple acts of terror should the studio release the film. Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Sony announced that it would not release the movie, and was put in an even worse position when the Hollywood elite screamed about freedom of speech violations. The decision by Sony ultimately cost the studio $45 million and cost the studio’s chairperson, Amy Pascal, her job.

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Oscar 2014-15 – predicting the winners

This year’s list is a bit late in coming. I took advantage of being snowed in over the past week to catch up on many of 2014’s Oscar nominees. (Netflix is my new best friend.)

I have seen most – but by no means all – of the nominated films and performances. As with last year, three of the four acting categories are near locks, and the closest race is for Best Picture. (For a somewhat-lengthy examination of my 2013-14 picks, click here…and know that I correctly guessed seven of those eight major category winners.) Better late than never, here are my predictions for tonight’s Neil Patrick Harris-hosted ceremony.

Best Picture

Nominees:
American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

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Ten More Holiday Movies (11-20)

I love Christmas. Not the race-yourself-to-be-the-first-in-the-door-at-Best-Buy-on-Black-Friday aspect of the holiday, but the childhood nostalgia of time spent with family – dysfunctional or not – mom’s home cooking, carols, egg nog, and the lot. And to top it all off, people (outside of big box stores, that is) actually make a more concerted effort to be nice to each other, however short-lived their kindness might be.

I found myself watching several holiday movies on late night cable TV of late. And why not? Most of these films only show up on broadcast television once a year in November or December, and sometimes not even then.

The best holiday movies celebrate the virtues I mentioned above. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” and “Miracle on 34^th Street” come to mind. Those are just three very re-watchable classics that made my Top Ten Holiday Movies list from last year. A few friends asked me what movies would come next on the list, and I couldn’t readily answer. I have since given the subject some thought.

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Top Ten Horror Movies

Halloween is just around the corner and cinemas are filled with scary movies of varying degrees of quality. (My local cineplex is showing the “Conjuring” sequel “Annabelle.”) I started thinking about some of my favorite scary movies. Of course, there are sub-genres within the greater “horror” category. The last 15 years have been especially kind in this regard, with new categories emerging such as “found footage” (“The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity”), “torture porn” (“Hostel,” “Saw”), even “horror comedy” (“Zombieland,” “This is the End”).

I tried to come up with a list that encompasses several sub-genres. Slasher, zombie, vampire, haunted house, serial killer…I covered most of the bases. You will see that after each film on my list, I’ve also recommended similar movies that you might want to check out – they could be by the same director, of the same genre, or with a similar narrative/visual style.

Enough babbling. Here are my top ten favorite horror movies:

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Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman: His Top Ten Movies (Better Late Than Never)

The Grim Reaper has been especially cruel this year in his dispatching of Hollywood legends. Less than two weeks ago, we lost the beloved Robin Williams to the ravages of depression. Only one week prior to Williams’s passing, TV and film legend James Garner died of natural causes. And just one day after the media reported on the unfortunate death of Williams, it was revealed that another legend had died – the beautiful Lauren Bacall, also of natural causes.

But as regards acting titans, this past February we lost someone whose screen legacy may have towered over all of theirs. Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, passed away in his New York home. Depression-related accidental drug overdose was the cause of death. I mention the cause of Hoffman’s death merely as a reminder that genius – as was also the case with Williams – is so often tortured.

As I wrote about Williams’s passing (read about it here), I said to myself, “I should have written something similar after Philip Hoffman died.” I mentioned this to a few friends who commented on my Williams blog post, and they encouraged me to write about Hoffman anyway, even if several months had passed. And here we are. I hope, Loyal Reader, that you’ll find this a good piece of nostalgia.

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Remembering Robin Williams: His Top Ten Movies

Robin Williams, the much-loved comedian and Oscar-winning movie star, has died, following a long battle with depression. He was 63.

I was surprised to learn of Williams’ passing as I sat down in front of the television to watch the evening news with my parents. Each year we post on social media about Hollywood’s “death watch.” The tweets are always in jest, as are the names of many of the celebrities tweeted about. Charlie Sheen…Joan Rivers…Lindsay Lohan…Andy Dick…Zsa Zsa Gabor…Abe Vigoda. This year we lost two Oscar-winning giants of stage and screen. The first, Philip Seymour Hoffman, died in February of a depression-induced drug overdose that few people saw coming, or even knew was a risk factor for the gifted actor. When he passed, social media commentary was universally consistent in its praise of Hoffman as a wunderkind of stage acting and film drama. Almost nothing was said of Hoffman in jest.

The second, Robin Williams, was found dead yesterday in his northern California home. Suicide-by-asphyxiation is believed to be the cause. Celebrity tweets are still pouring in as I write this, but if it’s possible to find an even higher-profile star than Hoffman for Hollywood to lose to depression, then Williams might be that star. Let us hope that he’s the last one for a long while to lose his life to such a devastating disease.

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Oscar 2013-14 – predicting the winners

I have been under the weather lately, and even had to cancel Thursday and Friday classes. Because I don’t normally get sick often, the roughly once-every-two-years happening always hits me like a ton of bricks.

Something that happens once every year is the Academy Awards Ceremony. The 2014 show (which honors the previous year’s movies, a naming quirk that has always confused me), is this Sunday. I just watched “Nebraska,” the Alexander Payne (“Sideways”)-directed, father-son road movie that garnered six Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. It is a good little film, but my point is that once again I’ve managed to see just about every nominated film before the live broadcast. The only nominee I’m missing is “August: Osage County.”

Here are my predictions on who will – and who should – win Oscars tonight. I am only an amateur but I seem to have a knack for this sort of thing. Last year I correctly guessed five of the six winners in the Picture, Director, and Acting categories. I hope to improve upon that number in 2014!

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