Tossin’ It Out There: What’s YOUR Favorite Big Dumb Action Movie?

Olympus has FallenIn honor of “Olympus has Fallen” and “G.I Joe Retaliation”, and to welcome back all our regulars who were scared away by yesterday’s MTESS (LOL), I thought we’d turn our attention to action movies in this week’s discussion.

I thought, however, that a straight up “What’s your favorite action movie” would turn into a debate between “Die Hard” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, so let’s add a twist… let’s explore that sub layer of movie that, like “Olympus Has Fallen”, you know are stupid, but you enjoy watching them anyways.

There’s absolutely no shortage of those, and it will broaden the choices up beyond “Die Hard” and “Raiders” (which aren’t dumb). If someone wants to select “A Good Day to Die Hard” though, be my guest! :roll:

So what’s YOUR favorite? Will you reach back to something from the heyday of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, or will you choose something a little more recent, like, say, the first “G.I. Joe”? Maybe you’re a Michael Bay fan, there’s so many in his oeuvre that qualify! :D

Ok, let’s hear it! What’s YOUR favorite big dumb action movie?!

Daniel Fogarty

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Readers Recommendations: “Strangers on a Train”

strangers_on_a_trainHey everyone, it’s Friday, time for another entry in the Reader Recommendations series!

The Reader Recommendation series is intended to help me formally pursue all the great films that commenters bring up each week in discussion which I’ve never seen. If there’s a movie that comes up that I haven’t seen, but you think I should, email me @ fogsmoviereviews@gmail.com or let me know in the comments that you’d like to participate!
 
This time up, our movie recommendation comes from Melissa HunterMelissa profile of The Soul of the Plot! Melissa’s selected a classic Alfred Hitchcock movie for us, 1951′s “Strangers on a Train”!
 
I’m a big fan of Hitchcock, and have seen many of his films. But somehow this one has eluded me until now, so I’m all too happy that Melissa gave me the opportunity to formally check it out!
 
Click through to see what we had to say!
 

Tossin It Out There: Who’s YOUR Favorite Movie Monster?

teen-wolf-teen-wolfAlright, everybody, how’s it going?

As I’m sure everybody knows, I spend the weekend watching some terrible, terrible movies. I made it through, but certain movie elements need to be redeemed in my eyes… one of which being movie monsters.

From the classic movie monsters to the animated monsters of Monsters Inc, there’s a lot of cool movie monsters out there. Scary ones, funny ones, creative ones… they’re not all as bad as the ones I spent Sunday with!

Who’s your favorite? Do you lean towards the funny? Like, Slimer from Ghostbusters? Or the terrifying, like the cave creatures in “The Descent”? How about giant monsters, like in “Cloverfield”? It’s wide open, let’s hear it! In order to allow zombies (there aren’t many specific zombies) you can choose monsters who run in packs, if you like.

Just to make this ruling early, Aliens are allowed, but no serial killers, please! ;)

Let’s hear it! Who’s YOUR favorite Movie Monster?

Classic-Movie-Monsters

Daniel Fogarty

The Great Debates: “Animal House” or “The Blues Brothers”

 Animal_House_vs_Blues_Brothers

It was in March, a little over 30 years ago now, that John Belushi passed away.

He was a legendary comedian, but his filmography basically boils down to two great films. Animal House and The Blues Brothers. Today, I ask you to choose between them.

Which one are you going to pick?

Click through to read the tale of the tape!

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Tossin’ It Out There: Who do YOU think is the most overrated?

Halle_Berry_the_CallPurely coincidence that Halle Berry has a new movie coming out this weekend, folks, purely coincidence.

We all have actors and actresses we look at and think, really? Them? Everyone else is making a big fuss, and they keep landing roles, and we just think, really? Them?

In our opinion, said star is overrated. The public and/or Hollywood thinks more of them then they’re actually worth. If they were a stock, it would be time to sell, as you’d be getting more money for them then their actual value.

Who’s yours? Who do YOU think is overrated? It can be someone all time… they don’t necessarily have to be working today. It could be a director if you like as well.

But let’s hear it! Who do YOU think is overrated?

Daniel Fogarty

The Top Ten Steven Spielberg Movies

Top-10We saw quite a bit of discussion last week here about Steven Spielberg, and that prompted me to focus this month’s “Top Ten” on officially ranking his ten best films.

It was quite a challenge, actually, because when you talk about Steven Spielberg films, you’re talking about several of the greatest films of all time. He’s one of the most popular directors of all time, due to the fact that he’s made so many of the most popular movies of Spielberg_filmsall time. His filmography also has a number of powerful, dramatic films as well. Certainly he has more than ten that could be considered great, so it was difficult to narrow down the field!

But that’s all part of the challenge, and I’m more than happy to take it on!

Click through to see how they shook out!

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Tossin’ It Out There: What’s YOUR Favorite Classic Movie?

casablancaYesterday’s “Lawrence of Arabia” post got me thinking about the classics. Those movies of an age gone by that still resonate with us today.

Many still hold a lofty place in pop culture. The land of Oz gets revisited this Friday. Who wouldn’t be able to answer “What movie is the (misquote) ‘Play it again, Sam’ from?” Everyone still knows King Kong. From the mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock to the westerns of John Wayne, Classic Films are still alive and well thanks to TV and DVDs.

What’s YOUR favorite? Are you partial to Bogart? A sucker for noirs like “Double Indemnity”? Maybe it’s “On the Waterfront” or “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Any “Sunset Boulevard” fans out there?

Which ever one it is, let’s hear it! What are YOUR favorite Classic Movies?

EDIT: LETS SAY PRE-1970, PLEASE. OK? FIRE AWAY.

Daniel Fogarty

Tossin’ It Out There: What did YOU think of the Oscars?

MacfarlaneOk, everyone. We’re going to bump our weekly discussion up a day in order to talk about the big show, the 85th Annual Academy Awards… better known as The Oscars.

What did you think? Did you watch? What was your favorite part? Your least favorite part? What did you think of Seth MacFarlane?

Even if you didn’t watch, I’m sure by now you’ve checked out the list of winners. What do you think there? Any surprises? Sure, the mortal locks came through, like Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis, but we also saw Ang Lee upsetting Steven Spielberg and Christoph Waltz winning his second Oscar for a Quentin Tarantino movie!

There’s tons to talk about, it was a crazy show. From Captain Kirk to sock puppets to Ted, the entertainment portion was all over the place, and the awards portion rewarded some very well deserving people!

What did YOU think?

Daniel Fogarty

The Great Debates: Indiana Jones or Han Solo?

Indy vs Han

Alright everybody, here we go!!

With rumors circulating that Harrison Ford may reprise his role as Han Solo in “Star Wars: Episode VII”, I figured it was the perfect time to get the great debates going again… with one of the big ones.

Indiana Jones? Or Han Solo?

Click through to read the tale of the tape!

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