Top Ten Lists – Page 4 – GringoPotpourri

Ten More Great Stephen King Books (11-20)

I love top ten lists. This past January, I published my ranking of what I believe to be the Top Ten Stephen King Books. Over just a few months, that blog entry has become one of my most-read posts.

Mr. King continues to produce new material at a rate that is almost as scary as some of his most frightening novels. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, he published six books – two each year – while regularly visiting the television set of the CBS mini-series “Under the Dome” (2013-present) and simultaneously drafting the screenplay for “A Good Marriage” (2014). He is also one of the most prolific celebrity presences on Twitter, and can often be seen in the stands at Fenway Park, home of his beloved Boston Red Sox.

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Top Ten Outdated Movies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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Top Ten Stephen King Books

As you may know, I do not currently have the financial wherewithal to do the kind of travel that I yearn to do. Although I am working on changing that, in the meantime, the head-in-the-clouds dreamer that I am often passes the time by reading.

I frequently go through genre/author phases when I read. Five or so years ago I went on an “American classics” kick (think J.D. Salinger and John Kennedy Toole). One summer I devoured those dystopian sci-fi masterpieces from the mid-20^th century (“Brave New World,” “Fahrenheit 451,” and “1984” – my favorite novel of all time). I read all seven “Harry Potter” books in just 12 days. During my late teens I raced through several political yarns by the late Tom Clancy. I even convinced myself a few years ago that Russian literature should be my next foray into classical literature…but I failed after just one book – Boris Pasternak’s snail-paced “Doctor Zhivago.”

My favorite author is – and always has been – Stephen King. I first discovered his writing in the late 1980’s when, as a teenager, I went through a serious horror phase. I subscribed to Fangoria and Cinefantastique magazine and I rented every grade-D slasher movie that I could get my hands on – never mind the fact that I was under 17. In fact, I was only 13 when I first saw Mr. King’s “Pet Sematary” on an end cap at the local Waldenbooks. The cover art – which showed an angry cat and the silhouette of a man carry a dead body towards a cemetery – spoke to me. I figured that the word “sematary” was deliberately misspelled, but why? I parted with five dollars of my hard-earned paper route money, bought the book, and was hooked.

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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 Holiday Songs

Can you believe that Christmas is just over a month away? Where did the year go?!?! What makes time fly even faster is the fact that between unseasonably cold temperatures and endless snowfall near the Great Lakes, the calendar has seemingly flipped directly from October to December!

I don’t mean to bypass Thanksgiving by writing that; I am working on a Turkey Day-themed post for sometime next week. It is merely that everywhere I turn, it feels like Christmas. Even the radio is filled with holiday carols. As such, I have decided to embrace the season’s early arrival.

Last year I blogged about my top ten favorite holiday movies. (I even threw in one about Thanksgiving for good measure!) For this year, I toyed with writing a post entitled “Another Top Ten Holiday Movies,” but ultimately decided to share my taste in holiday music with you instead. Here are a few of my seasonal favorites – festive and somber, spiritual and secular, English and otherwise. I selected their best renditions (remakes mostly suck) and put their YouTube links below. I make no promises that the links are ad-free; you have been warned.

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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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Top Ten Films of 2013

A week ago I posted my reactions to this year’s list of Academy Award nominees; the post included my initial predictions as well as my insights as to why some films or actors may have been snubbed over others. After all, there are always a few surprises.

You can read the post here. A couple of readers inquired about my “Top Ten Movies” list for the year. I recited a few favorite films off the top of my head, but never compiled an exact list. Top ten lists, however, are essentially a prerequisite for any film critic, even an amateur such as myself. So without further ado – and noting that I haven’t seen every 2013 film on my wish list – here’s my (pending) list.

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Top Ten Holiday Movies

I bemoaned on Facebook perhaps two weeks ago that I wasn’t ready for Christmas. More specifically, that it still seemed too early for department stores to be decked out in Christmas-y color. A 30-foot artificial Christmas tree in a shopping mall atrium next to a real, year-round palm tree…and Halloween (at the time my comment was posted) was barely two weeks old?! Shudder.

But temperatures have been getting cold – a few days last week were Chicago-esque, almost. I called my parents a week ago and heard my dad listening to Christmas music in the background. The weather – and dad’s “muzak” choices – cold-cocked me into reality: Christmas is less than a month away. And for that matter, Thanksgiving is tomorrow! The next four weeks will seemingly pass in the blink of an eye, but it is a given that even down here, at least one of those weekends will be spent re-watching one of the same old holiday movies that I’ve no doubt seen two dozen times already.

Here, Loyal Reader, for curiosity and for what I hope will prompt a fun discussion, are my top ten favorite holiday movies.

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