10 Best Things of September 2011

1. Chikara in NYC, "Martyr Yourself to Caution"

This was my first trip to see the Chikara Pro Wrestling promotion in person. A thrilling but still weird experience to have, meeting some of your most respected wrestlers only two feet away. Everyone was on all cylinders, including the great main event between Eddie Kingston and Fire Ant.


2. Drive

A real human being and a real hero. This critically acclaimed film, the first of my top five anticipated films of the fall season, lived to its expectations. I'm now a big fan of Ryan Gosling and that soundtrack, oh man, has ear wormed me severely. Too bad my frequent searches for it and its constant delays prevented it from being included this month.


3. Patton Oswalt, Finest Hour

"I want ALL the ham!". Oh Oswalt, why are you so funny?


4 - 6. DC Comics' New 52

DC Comics premiered their biggest gamble with 52 new comic book series to bring in new readers. Aside from the low points and disgusting displays of sexism, I had a blast and enjoyed all of my buys. The absolute best were Wonder Woman, Action Comics, and Demon Knights, which were all surprisingly fantastic with unique storytelling and beautiful art.


7 - 8. NBC on September 29, 2011

Community and Parks and Recreations, both in their second episodes since returning, had great gags, particularly Parks with its Ron Swanson-centric storyline and a hilarious turn by Patricia Clarkson.


9. Adventure Time, "Fionna and Cake"

This highly anticipated episode pulled off a great satire of why fan fiction and fan scripts should never be animated.


10. The Tommy Wi-Show

I know Tommy Wiseau, auteur of the cult classic The Room, simply is exploiting videogame culture and web humor with his new viral series but watching him befuddled with Mortal Kombat was a guilty pleasure treat.

My Tops of 2011 - September

COLUMBIANA is highly forgettable brain dead action film despite the appeal of Zoe Saldana. It really could have made my Worst Films list if not for Saldana.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK works as a creepy old-school haunted house film with some good performances but its third act is filled with constantly screamed out names and annoying plot conveniences.

FRIGHT NIGHT was really impressive and overcame the fears of the original fans. Colin Farrell and David Tennant had excellent supporting roles, the cinematography was always striking, and it had great horror-comedy script, excluding the JUNO-like introduction.

DRIVE is simply a masterpiece. Just everything blew me away and it has become the top film to beat for myself this fall season.

WARRIOR had the required the feel-good sport tropes but it brought in too many tropes and expectations. Fantastic acting though, especially Tom Hardy.


Best Films of 2011


1. Drive

2. Bridesmaids

3. Rango

4. The Tree of Life

5. Source Code

6. Super 8

7. X-Men: First Class

8. The Green Hornet

9. Paul

10. Thor

11. Fright Night


Worst Films of 2011


1. Passion Play

2. Waiting For Forever

3. Mars Needs Moms

4. Battle: Los Angeles

5. Atlas Shrugged

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

7. Scream 4

8. Gnomeo and Juliet

Drive - Review

The character of The Driver is cool incarnate and a true walking nightmare. There is a reason he achieves some clarity and calmness once he's behind the wheel. Those four tires separate him from the Earth, allowing him to fly like a graceful angel. Cross him or attack the ride and you'll have to contend with a devil, wielding a hammer or an engined-fuel bullet respectively. Choose wisely because this bloodthirsty avenger with a pretty face will leave carnage in his wake.


DRIVE engulfs two of America's most vivid fascinations, automobiles and criminal violence, and with a heavy hand from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn becomes a beautiful masterpiece of terror. It takes your expectations, whether low or high, and gleefully plays and juggles around with them like a mischievous jester. The film hands you an exciting car chase at the start, moves to a slow crawl with quieter moments before exploding at random intervals with undiluted mayhem. It is one of absolute greatest films this year.


Los Angeles, a city ruled by the commerce and entertainment of sports and filmmaking, once again becomes a cesspool of crime of facades. A nameless and often emotionless inhuman being, played expertly by Ryan Gosling, has decided to dip into all of these aspects only if it includes an automobile. He does the car stunts in films, works at a car shop with his mentor/father figure, and is about to get into stock car racing. However, his true obsession is moonlighting as a wheelman, willing to grant various underlings an easy getaway only if they make it back before five minutes are up.


Like all crime stories, a dame comes along but this time with a child. The Driver enters into a blossoming relationship with his neighbor, a struggling mother (Carey Mulligan) with a husband in the joint. This sense of true joy and bliss for him is then grounded and further stomped upon when the husband is released and back in the grasps of his criminal handlers. A chance to rescue him leads to a botched job, massive double-crosses, and a bag full of money. The guardian angel for the scum of the earth now becomes its grim reaper.


Daring is the keyword for this film. All of the players in front and behind the camera bring their truly best work to make a gory art film. Ryan Gosling deserves the best attention with his unbelievably engrossing performance. I often joked that Gosling is our generation's Marlon Brando with his critically acclaimed roles and the immense lust of his female fans. With this film, the joke has come true. He plays up his character's unpredictable behavior to a hilt with his conflicted facials but the audience can interpret what's to come with his silent hand gestures. All of his very talented co-stars can handle the challenge of Gosling, most notably Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman as menacing crime bosses. Even Christina Hendricks, one of the most stunning and talented workers on television today, steals some spotlight in her unglamorous but interesting brief role as a femme fatale.


The artsy cinematography is never pretentious, even during the sun-coated playful scenes. It is able to easily avoid simply being a giant spotfest of glorious framed shots and mise en scene thanks to muted lighting and clever editing. The ugliness of fluorescent lights is everywhere in L.A., amplifying both the immense despair and the brief moments of love. Several scenes are long takes and go on for awhile, almost to the point of parody. However, others are married with the exceptional sound design and music. From the low hums of an engine and a watch to the Tangerine Dream inspired film score and songs, the audio pushes the film to breathtaking proportions.


DRIVE completely moves so far forward and ahead over the rest of this year's releases. It handles both being an art and entertainment driven film and then pummels them harder and further into the viewer's eyes and ears. Truly exciting, truly brilliant.




FINAL REVIEW: 5 / 5

10 Best Things of August 2011

This month ended on a sour note. Best wishes to those also affected by Hurricane Irene.



1. Rifftrax Live Event

"Seize the bone!". Probably my absolute favorite event they have done.


2. MST3K Gamera

Shout Factory ips, unite!


3. Louie, "Oh Louie, Tickets"

Dane Cook and Louie C.K. = Masterpiece of television.


4. UFC heads to Fox

Some much needed validation for MMA.


5. Secret Six calls it quits at Issue #36

One of my favorites is put to pasture for the DC relaunch. A great run by Gail Simone.


6. ALL TOGETHER

Japanese pro wrestling promotions come together for charity.


7. Saints Row: The Third Trailers

Keeping with the pro wrestling feel, this much anticipated sequel had a great trailer where evil luchadors unleash hell. If that didn't sell me, there is a Tron gang.


8-9. Retsupurae Double Feature

Two of the absolute best videos from the Something Awful crew.


10. Ghost Rider 2 Trailer

You sold me just with the peeing fire.

My Tops of 2011 - August

WAITING FOR FOREVER. My god, this movie was madness. Richard Jenkins' talent can't make up for the horrendously awful childhood stalker love story and brain-dead characters.

MARS NEEDS MOMS lived up to its hype as a bomb. Too insanely bad for adults, too dark for kids. Overall depressing and pointless with an awful performance by Dan Fogler.

THE SMURFS wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was still pretty bad. The lame human storylines, the bipolar annoying and stupid/cute and brave Smurfs, and that horrible Guitar Hero scene were all atrocious.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES had a great mo-cap performance by Andy Serkis and a surprisingly good and entertaining script. Its bait and switch finale works though it might annoy others while Freida Pinto was completed wasted.

BEATS, RHYMES, & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST was very original and blazingly bombastic, especially at the beginning, but loses steam with its Behind the Music second half.


Best Films of 2011


1. Bridesmaids

2. Rango

3. The Tree of Life

4. Source Code

5. Super 8

6. X-Men: First Class

7. The Green Hornet

8. Paul

9. Thor


Worst Films of 2011


1. Passion Play

2. Waiting For Forever

3. Mars Needs Moms

4. Battle: Los Angeles

5. Atlas Shrugged

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

7. Scream 4

8. Gnomeo and Juliet

Looking Back at Summer, Forward to Fall

Overall, the summer was simply okay. Many franchises are now stuck in neutral (Cars 2, The Hangover 2), or crashed (Green Lantern).


Here are the highlights I'm expecting to see in some way while playing catch up on previous 2011 releases at my local art theater or on DVD:


September 9 brings the first hyped-up feel good sports film, Warrior. Because nothing says the love of family then pounding your brother in a MMA cage.

September 16th has the next further star-building block for Ryan Gosling with Drive, along with the at least curious remake of Straw Dogs.

October 7th is the premiere of Rock'Em Sock'Em Rob...I mean Real Steel, as well as another Gosling sighting with the political thriller The Ides of March. Though I do feel that Clooney's film isn't going to be as exciting as his previous directing affairs.

October 14th has the second battle of 80's remakes with The Thing and Footloose while Pedro Almodovar's latest The Skin I Live In reaches art theaters. The producers for the first two films are probably crapping bricks with what happened in August.

October 21st...another Paranormal Activity,...zzz...Red State...zzz...Three Muske...zzz...oh wait! Martha Marcy May Marlene finally comes out. Yes, more John Hawkes action and the breakthrough performance of Elizabeth Olsen.

November 11th brings the crazy auteurs with Tarsem Singh's Immortals and Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Clint Eastwood makes another boring movie with J. Edgar and...oh god, Jack and Jill comes out. Sweet Christmas!

November 25th has a massive triple threat of the peculiar Martin Scorsese film Hugo, critically acclaimed foreign film The Artist, and the long-awaited Muppets movie called The Muppets.

December 16th is only noted for the purely Oscar bait for Meryl Streep with The Iron Lady and Noomi Rapace's American debut with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I might simply just skip both.

December 23th has the heavily hyped The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake and The Adventures of Tintin. Also, there's is the gloriously great/awful sci-fi b-movie The Darkest Hour.

December 30th has Steven Spielberg Round 2 with War Horse. Sadly, sans theatrical puppets.

Best Actors of the Year...So Far

Since I'm on a roll with 2011 overviews, I decided to discuss about the actors who brought the absolute best in movies this year.


Best Actor

Oh man, this is going to be hard. Not to say that there were no great acting in main male roles all year, far from it. It's just that there is a rare few who stood completely out. Not a lot of big star-making roles, besides of course Chris Hemsworth in Thor, nor any clear locked-on favorites for myself. Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class was a sheer joy with his gray morality and menacing gaze, so he probably will be my top contender for now. Brad Pitt was also exceptional in The Tree of Life, but he could have been a little better. Paul Giamatti in Win Win, like the movie, is a true dark horse in the competition. Rutger Hauer shouldn't be excluded for his performance in Hobo With a Shotgun, nor should Abhishek Bachchan in Dum Maaro Dum. Though others may disqualify him, Andy Serkis deserves special mention for his performance as the motion captured Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.


Best Actress

Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, hands down. This is the first performance that came to mind that also has stayed on my mind this year. She is going to face heavy competition in the next four months but I suspect there might be a surprise Oscar nomination down the road. Her other tough opponents: Jessica Chastain's earthy mother, or is she the representation of Gaea?, in the surreal and moving The Tree of Life. Elle Fanning as the public pariah tomboy in Super 8. Amy Ryan as the no-nonsense matriarch in Win Win. Jennifer Lawrence's take as the future Mystique in X-Men: First Class. Also, Amber Heard's underrated badass role in Drive Angry.


Best Supporting Actor

One of the hardest working and constantly under the radar, William Fichtner was the absolute man as The Accountant in Drive Angry. Competing in scenery-chewing but slightly losing to Fichtner is Kevin Bacon's brilliantly hammy role in X-Men: First Class. A fellow comic book player, Tom Hiddleston handled his role as Loki very well in Thor.


Best Supporting Actress

Like her fellow co-star, Melissa McCarthy was the best and the true show-stopper as Megan in Bridesmaids. She is currently the unstoppable queen in this department.