10 Movies I’m Thankful For
Around this time every year good manners dictate that we look at things and be thankful for them. Family, friends and good health are amongst the most immediate and important ones but these days we have a lot to be thankful for. For instance, I am thankful for Facebook allowing you to see when a recipient reads a message you have sent them, just so later when they try to lie about having seen it you can catch them with their pants down. I am thankful for places like Binge Media where all us cool kids can go to bitch about pop culture with one another. Here, I present to you, a list of ten movies that I am thankful for, all for different and unique reasons. Keep in mind, much like my 10 Movies That Should Be Remade article, is presented in alphabetical order, not in order of importance.
The Jist: As far as comedy goes Monty Python are, to me, the absolute kings. I love the Pythons and a lot of their individual projects as well so it really is not much of a stretch to say I have a lot of love for A Fish Called Wanda. Combining the writing/directing/acting talents of John Cleese with Kevin Kline’s insane Otto character is a comedic match made in heaven. Add to that Michael Palin playing the brilliantly stuttering Ken as well as Jamie Lee Curtis hamming up every scene she is part of and you get a really brilliant comedy that gets overlooked far too often.
Scene I’m Thankful For: The stuttering “Cathcart Towers” scene.
The Jist: Believe it or not there was a time, not so long ago, when Batman was an irrelevant mess. While the 66’ television show was a big, flash-in-the-pan hit, it drove Batman as a character into pop-art positivity, a far cry from the current iterations of the character. All that being said, Adam West played a great Bruce Wayne/Batman and the show, while omitting Two-Face, introduces most of the Rogue’s Gallery pretty well. This all culminates with Batman! The Movie, essentially an extended episode where Batman and Robin square off against Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler and The Joker trying to take over the United Nations and the world. The movie is kitchy and insane, but it is so much fun to watch and enjoy when you are of a certain frame of mind.
Scene I’m Thankful For: “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”
The Jist: Some concepts are so perfect they just need to happen. Eventually, Tarantino was going to make a World War II film, it was just a matter of what his angle would be. I love this movie, and it is actually one of the few films on this list that also sits on my favorite all-time movie list. Everything that makes a Tarantino movie a unique experience is present here. You have fantastic dialogue, kinetic direction, unique wordplay and a great deal of suspense on top of the usual Tarantino comic relief that punctuates all of his work. I would even go so far as to say that if every director has one film that best illustrates their style then Inglourious Basterds wholly encompasses Quentin’s style.
Scene I’m Thankful For: The Fass-bender General ordering “Drei Whiskey”
The Jist: A genuine surprise for me when I first saw it, Red State is about as far as Kevin Smith could conceivably get away from Jay and Silent Bob’s shenanigans. The film, uniquely I find, follows not a main character but takes more of a documentary style following a situation as it unfolds. What beings as an innocuous sexual encounter via Craigslist evolves into a disturbing and intense modern terrorist encounter. Red State doesn’t feel like many other films and has few fans but I count myself amongst them for doing things differently. It also helps that Michael Parks steals the film with his magnetic performance.
Scene I’m Thankful For: Michael Parks’ first sermon.
The Jist: Star Trek has always been known for taking the genre in new and interesting directions. I think most Trekkies would agree that some of the films are miles ahead of the others. In my opinion, Star Trek First Contact is the most interesting and innovative of the Picard films. Where the main story deals with time travel and Picard’s run-in with the Borg collective the far more interesting plot takes place with the man who invented warp drive, Zefram Cochran. The idea of examining history and the difference between how it is perceived versus how it actually is makes this film a great sci-fi movie, even outside of the franchise. It is also really great to see the most important event in the entire Star Trek mythos happen in this film, and while the film does not shove the idea down our throat it does a good job conveying the importance and gravity of that moment.
Scene I’m Thankful For: The aforementioned moment of First Contact.
The Jist: A woman is struggling with being a single parent as a creature known as the Babadook seems to be terrorizing her son. The film, an Australian independent, made a pretty big splash last year as one of the great horror films of 2014. While I am not a big fan of the film, there is something to appreciate from it, seen below.
Scene I’m Thankful For: Not a scene, but the entire film, because without it there is no BABADIIICK!!!
The Jist: Maybe the most controversial film in American history, most of us remember last year when North Korea threatened to end all American life if Sony released this film. Luckily, they couldn’t keep the movie down, with anonymous movie guy and VOD delivering the film straight to our homes. You have to appreciate this film for having the cojones to call out a current world leader while also illuminating the problems inherent in that society. I thought the facade storefront scene in particular was surprisingly powerful for a movie full of dick jokes.
Scene I’m Thankful For: Katy Perry’s Firework finale.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The Jist: As far as documentaries go this is probably my all-time favorite. The flick concerns the world-record holders in classic arcade gaming and all the nerdy quirky-ness that comes along with it. Centered around Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell as your classic rivalry story, this flick is a perfect example of why documentaries are great; they can illuminate an aspect of the human condition that we mere mortals know nothing about. While the records in this film have already been surpassed at this point, this is still a nice snapshot of a time when men where men, and boys played Ladybug.
Scene I’m Thankful For: “We’ve got a Donkey Kong kill-screen coming up here.”
The Jist: Cross-dressing and old-school horror films collide in what is easily the ultimate midnight movie. Tim Curry is at his best here and sets the standard by which all other flamboyant musical performances will be judged. A role for Meatloaf, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick playing the straight couple and the oddity of the entire thing is what makes Rocky Horror such an insane movie, but one that continues to entertain to this day.
Scene I’m Thankful For: The Time Warp
The Jist: A hard-boiled 70’s thriller, Pelham 1 2 3 is a real classic when it comes to gritty genre flicks. The flick lives in a very realistic New York where a group of armed men board a commuter subway train and hijack it, demanding a ransom for the hostages now on board. The great casting from top to bottom starts with Walter Mathau and goes right on down the line to Robert Shaw in what I believe to be his most underrated performance. While this film was remade recently it does not hold a candle to the original by any means.
Scene I’m Thankful For: ***FINALE SPOILERS*** Gesundheit!
We’d love to hear from you and know what movies you’re thankful for by commenting below! Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone (except for you Canadians) and Binge On!