You Don't Know Jackson
*Originally published on 11/18/09
This article, written back in 2004, discusses the curious case of Michael Jackson. It was a touchy subject back then and with his recent passing, it becomes even murkier ground to cover. Add to that the fact that the media covered him ad nauseum, I don't want to seem like I'm trying to start a new wave of coverage.
King actually comes to Michael's defense and reminds us that until a jury convicts him, he is, for all intents and purposes, innocent. The media did a good job of discrediting the legendary artist and, as King points out, the only thing they really had to go on was the fact that he was odd.
People refused to give him the benefit of the doubt and even wondered how anyone could defend him.
It's a moot issue now and many agree that it's better to remember him as the legendary entertainer that he was, but it still raises a point about the media. There are times when a trial gets major coverage that the defendant is assumed to be guilty by the general public. It's one thing to happen with someone like O.J, where there was a plethora of evidence, but I also remember the media had hung those Duke lacrosse players out to dry a couple of years back when that huge scandal broke, at least until it was revealed the the woman made it all up.
King closes the article by asking his readers if it's possible for an eccentric to get a fair trial in this country. Last time I checked, being an oddball wasn't a crime, but when presented in the right way by an attorney, I have a feeling a jury would be able to twist that into a vote of "guilty".
The Rating Game
*Originally published on 11/19/09
King decides to tackle the MPAA film rating system in this volume of his column. It's an interesting discussion to be had as movies are made or broken based on their ratings. PG-13's always do better than R's (be glad it's not talk like a pirate day or I totally would've done something with that) and what films are able to put into movies of various ratings varies.
I understand the need to have a ratings system, to kind of give you an idea of what sort of material is in the movie, but at the same time, as King points, out, they're not exactly consistent. He goes so far as to say it's hypocritical. I don't know if I'd agree on that, it's inconsistent to be sure, but to say it's hypocritical might be a bit harsh.
Movie rating is this sort of vague, nebulous area where some profanity and violence is OK, but once you add in one more curse word or add in a few more drops of blood, you hit a new rating.
King points out that Return of the King was pretty violent and dark, although the other two weren't exactly light and cheerful (Fellowship started off that way but it too had it's fair share of nightmare fuel) so I think by that point, audiences had a pretty good idea of what to expect.
The recent "spoof" movies (and trust me, I use that term in the loosest sense) are some of the most disgusting things you will ever see, it's all revolting toilet humor. Films like Transformers 2 or The Dark Knight (two films that are polar opposites in terms of quality) are both films that are sort of marketed to kids and yet both contain material that a lot of parents would freak out over.
A lot of older films were rated R, but are quite tame, even by some PG-13 standards. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, could very well get a PG-13 rating were they to release it now. I know that a lot of this stuff isn't really quantifiable, but you need to have a more concrete system because as times change, so does what passes for a certain rating.
It's especially interesting since they have often added ratings in to try and be more concrete. For a long time, there was only PG and R, it was only a couple of decades ago that they put in a rating system to cover movies that sort of dwelled between the two.
King closes the column by saying that the ratings system takes the fun out of it. I don't know, I can see how it's necessary. It gives moviegoers an idea of what sort of movie to expect. Some movies seem like they're geared for kids and turn out to be incredibly dark, while others have a fair share of violence or language, but are ultimately harmless. I've never gone into a movie and thought that it was ruined because I knew it was a PG-13 flick. Given how movie going is often a family activity, it's good that there's a way for people to know what sort of stuff is going to be featured so that they can decide if it is something that they don't object to seeing with their kids. They just need to be more consistent and come up with a more detailed way of doing it.
Stephen King on Celebrity Gossip
The Passion of Alicia
*Originally published on 11/20/09
This article has the master of horror throwing his two cents in on the box office phenomenon that was, Passion of the Christ.
This isn't a film review, although the author does say he liked it, but he reflects on something that occurred at the theater as he was watching it. Apparently, a mother brought her three young children, all of whom were under ten years old, to see the movie.
I honestly have no idea what she was thinking. As if that was bad enough, she was upset that the theater manager, having more than an ounce of common sense, warned her that the movie was extremely violent and probably not appropriate for elementary school students.
This isn't an isolated incident either. I remember when my friends and I went to go see Silent Hill when that first came out and there was a woman who brought a group of young children in to see it. It's mind boggling to me that parents wouldn't do at least some cursory research before bringing their children into see an R rated film.
Some R rated films you might be able to get away with taking your young children to see, but Passion of the Christ...wow. I didn't even really like the movie. My old roommate gave up on it about ten minutes in and I lasted to about the 40 minute mark before I gave up on it. I came out of it with the same reaction Stan Marsh did on South Park; that it wasn't so much a movie as a snuff film. Putting aside my own thoughts on the movie, I feel bad for those kids because they're probably traumatized due to, oh let's be polite and say unwise parenting.
I know movies make for great family outings, but know what you're getting into when you buy the ticket to certain movies because there's a reason that they have that little rectangular telling you the film rating and what sort of material the movie contains, because they're not all family friendly and you should, as the parent, should be responsible enough to make sure that the movies you take your kids to see are appropriate for their age group.
Head Bangor's Ball
*Originally published on 11/23/09
King throws his two cents in on the whole American Idol phenomenon in this 2 page article. Oddly enough, he spends very little time talking about the show, and only uses that as a segue to deliver his thoughts on the state of radio.
He, like many others I suspect, doesn't really listen to the radio anymore. He mentions he listens to a few classic rock stations (and that he even owns one) but even that grows tiresome after a while. The subject of XM or satellite radio comes up and the author has only great things to say, even going so far as to state that it's the future of radio.
I can see that, though I wouldn't say that radio is beyond saving. Sure it has more competition in satellite and internet radio stations but there's no reason why it couldn't stay in the game. One of the things satellite radio is often praised for is the fact that you can pick a genre and you'll get nothing but that. It's convenient, but most stations operate on that anyway, you have your rap, country, and alternative channels. I think the big mistake stations make is cycling through the same songs again and again. You have a wide variety of tracks to choose from, it shouldn't be too hard to mix it up a little.
The second half of the article delves into artists that he has come across and adamantly recommends. Once again, I find myself not recognizing a name in the bunch, but I reckon that's the point this time around; to give you the names of artists you would've otherwise never heard of.
It's Alive! Alive!
*Originally published on 11/24/09
When I first read the synopsis for this article, telling us that King will give us his book recommendations, I thought that this might be the article that fellow Examiner Michelle Kerns cited in her own King's recommended reading article. As it turns out, that list will come later, as made obvious by the dates on the respective articles. King recommends three titles: The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon, and The Narrows by Michael Connelly.
King compares the first book by Mossman to Melville's Moby Dick. The author asks us not to let that stop us from reading it (which is odd considering I enjoyed the book, my main complaint comes from the fact that entire chapters are used to stop and discuss the boat in great detail.) King notes that the comparison comes more from the book's troubled history as opposed to theme or story elements. While King admits that it's a bit difficult to get into, he says that the rest reads like a cross between Jim Morrison and J.D. Salinger.
The second book, Shadow of the Wind, is a complex story about a haunted house. It contains subplots within subplots and displays the horror of doomed love. The protaganist is a boy named Daniel Sempere who has forgotten, not the face of his father, but his mother who had passed away some time before. This leads him to "the Cemetary of Forgotten Books". Here, he adopts a book with the same title, by an author named Carax. As it turns out, a man is on a vengeful quest to destroy every Carax book in existence for reasons unknown. King cites this as a gorgeous read, but says that you have to be a romantic at heart to appreciate it.
The final book King recommends is a sequel to another book that the author published back in the 90's called Poet. Both are gritty crime novels in the vein of Thomas Harris, King himself makes the comparison and adds that it is high praise.
So if you are short on reading material or just looking for more books to add to your library, these are some titles that are worth checking out. Each of them has been stamped with the "Stephen King seal of approval" and that's no faint praise.
Lines to Live By
*Originally published on 11/27/09
This article* deals with one of my all time favorite discussion topics, movie quotes. It opens with King telling us about a film society appearance he made. During the dinner, the man sitting next to him told him that there were no more great lines in movies anymore. Clearly, the man had never seen David Lynch's Dune because that movie alone is chock full of great quotes.
King, rightfully, calls shenanigans on this theory and posits some of his own favorite lines. Some are a tad obvious and predictable, but they're obvious and predictable for a reason and a list of great movie quotes wouldn't be complete without them.
Lines such as "You're gonna need a bigger boat" and "Fredo, you broke my heart" are on there. I was quite excited when King cited a line from Ghostbusters as that's one of my all time favorite movies. Not only did he pick a great line, but he picked one that tends to go under people's radars. Venkman's "the flowers are still standing" is a great line, but it tends to get buried under all the noise so a lot of people gloss over it.
Sean Connery's "You're the man now, dog!" gets an honorable mention. I can see why King brings it up, but I get the feeling it only works because Sean Connery's the one saying it. With any other actor, it becomes rather ho-hum.
"Are you not entertained!?" makes it on his list and that's awesome. He also picks a quote from Unforgiven. I'm still waiting for them to make a sequel to that movie, Unforgiven II.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to great recent movie quotes. We could sit here all day citing great lines of dialogue and still not catch every single one that's been made.
*as much as I'd like to link you to the article, it will only come up as a broken link. For some reason, hyperlinks don't want to work from this computer.
A Kingdom that Didn't Come
*Originally published on 11/28/09
King devotes this article to discussing the failure of the television miniseries, Kingdom Hospital. I caught part of it on the SciFi (oh, I mean SyFy..oy) channel some time last year. I came in on either the second or third part of it so I couldn't really get into it (it is on my Netflix queue though).
He brings up that the series had all of the right elements, a strong cast, enthusiasm from the network, a co-writer who synched up with King rather well. All the parts to make a smash hit were there, but in the end it didn't pan out that way.
King brings up the idea of blaming the network as an easy out, but given the aforementioned circumstances, that wouldn't seem plausible. When the rapidly dropping ratings were addressed, I expected King to facetiously blame the viewership for not watching, but he doesn't do that either.
When the author consulted his wife on the first episode, she replied that she enjoyed it, but that it, in her words, "required a lot of heavy lifting". If I had heard this criticism in context, I could throw in my two cents, but as it is, I don't know what that means. I get the idea, but heavy lifting, emotionally? psychologically? intellectually? philosophically? Maybe it's not one of these things, but it's just, as Marty McFly so eloquently put it, heavy in a general sense.
Well the reviews will be coming so we'll get to find out together won't we readers?
Now Hear This
*Originally published on 11/30/09
Following up on his earlier article that discussed some of his favorite movie quotes, Stephen King displays some of the quotes that readers sent in. Apparently, this was a big hit as his inbox was flooded with e-mails citing quotes.
There are a couple of quotes from The Princess Bride, which pleased me as that's one of my favorite movies.
A lot of the quotes were either by women (attempting to contradict a theory King posited that guys get all the good lines), or about women. The fans even quoted two King based films when talking about great woman spoken lines. One came from Misery and the other came from Delores Claiborne (is it a coincidence that both were lines by Kathy Bates?)
Hudson's "Game over man! Game over!" gets a mention as does the classic, "It's not a tumah!" spoken by the Governator himself in Kindergarden Cop. As the existence of Austrian Death Machine proves, you could make a whole list compiled of great Schwarzeneggar lines alone. I mean you've got the always amusing "Get to da choppa!" as well as "Put that cookie down! Now!" as well as a plethora of others.
I mentioned earlier that great movie quotes are Legion and that we could sit around all day bringing up quotes without even really making a dent in the grand total. As King's venture proved, that really is the case.
Four Star Follies
*Originally published on 12/1/09
King takes on film critics in this column and points out how quick they are getting to rewarding a film four stars, even if it is nothing more than entertaining summer fare.
King makes a point to say that a lot of that year's movies were good, but not great. With the exception of Van Helsing, which King said made even Catwoman look good. Both are bad, but I found Catwoman far more painful to sit through.
As far as the star system is concerned, I think it's important that critics be specific as there are two scales currently in use. There's the four star system, where four is the pinnacle, and a five star system that gives critics a little bit more breathing room. So just saying that a movie is three or four stars doesn't help unless you have some context.
I see his point though, some movies do get overpraised even though they are just lighthearted entertainment. King makes a good point, but then he uses Spider-Man 2 as an example. He asks is Spider-Man 2 a four star movie; I said yes. I maintain that it is still one of the best superhero movies to date. Me being the comic fan that I am, I would be more partial to these types of films and personal preference does play a part in critiquing these movies.
He's right to say that they don't compare with the likes of The Godfather, but I wouldn't call it a 2 star movie either. I'd call it a four star movie, if it's out of five, but out of four, I'd give three, maybe three and a half.
King does say that the movie's very cool, and he had a grand time watching it, but he felt that he would forget it by the time the next batch of summer movies rolls around. Where as Evil Dead has stuck with him even after 20 years. I don't know if Spider-Man 2 has that kind of staying power. I'd have to watch it again (and we'd have to wait another 15 years or so), but I've noticed that even fans of the movie are starting to note that the movie is starting to lose it's shine so his point does remain valid. I would've picked a different movie to illustrate the point, but it's still a good point none the less.
Celebrity Deaths
*Originally published on 12/2/09
On the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, Stephen King reflects on the impact celebrity deaths have on us on both the personal and cultural level. He focuses on the death, namely, of young stars who have gone before their time. Oddly enough, King makes no mention of the conspiracy theories nor does he allude to all the sightings people have made since Presley's death. The death of John Belushi is also mentioned.
With Heath Ledger's death last year and the eerily high amount of celebrity deaths that occurred this past summer (what was it. 12?) this article is even more apt than when it was originally published.
While the topic is fairly morbid, King does end it on something of a lighter note. The idea that these artists leave a legacy of work that will be enjoyed for years to come does have a sort of Wrath of Khan feel to it with the "he/she's not really dead as long as we remember him/her' subtext. So while we do mourn the loss of such figures, we tend to take comfort in the fact that we have their works to look back on and enjoy.
Political Musicians
*Originally published on 12/3/09
I'm going to try to tread lightly here. I rather like the fact that this column has remained free of politics and this article seems to be trying to pull me into a minefield.
King opens this particular article discussing the Dixie Chicks snafu where they apologized for being from the same state as George W. Bush. As you may recall, this led to a fair amount of backlash. Boycotts were organized, T-shirts were made and people even burned their old CD's. King compares the latter to Nazi book burnings, classy, don't you just love Godwin's Law?
Now both sides are going to pull the first amendment argument. Yes, the Dixie Chicks had a right to say what they did, likewise, the fans had a right to react, so no one's in the wrong in that regard.
Artists want to leave their mark, and politics seems like an ideal means of leaving said mark. A lot of older artists are still hailed as brilliant for their commentary on certain political issues. N.W.A, for example is often praised as revolutionary and ground breaking in the way they brought various issues to light. I prefer the Chronic era Dre material myself, but OK, I'll give them that.
More often than not, it seems to me that bringing in politics ends up being counter-productive. Why alienate a portion of your fan base? No matter what side of the fence you fall on, half the people are going to disagree with you and that could, and most likely will, lead to resentment.
In the case of the Dixie Chicks it alienated almost their entire fan base. It's not surprising since they are country music artists and that is generally a conservative area.
Now, you could make the argument that these artists are so big that they can afford to alienate half of their fan base, but that sort of mindset just seems unhealthy. It also defeats the purpose of going through the effort of "sending your message" if fewer and fewer people are going to listen.
I have to admit that the ending of the article was a bit amusing. King notes various musicians who are campaigning for a candidate due to a desire to see Bush out of office. The thing is this was in '07, when Bush was coming up on the end of his second term. Maybe it's just me, but that just seems like an exercise in futility.
I understand the desire to make an impact and a difference. I just think that there are more productive ways of doing it. Many of the artists (Bono included) do a great deal of charity work and I think that's the way to go. Sarah MacLachlan is an advocate for the SPCA, and while not a musician, Jimmy Carter has become a champion for Habitat for Humanity. Whenever there is some major natural disaster, many artists and celebrities donate time and money to aid those affected.
I would argue that doing such work would make an even greater impact as you don't get mired in the standard left wing/right wing BS that has plagued the country for years. You could even bring the two groups, who spend most of their time calling anyone who opposes them bigots, commies, nazis, or people who are destroying America, together under a common banner. There's your noteworthy impact and your legacy right there. It is also a win/win since this allows you to champion your cause and get your message out while pleasing the "shut up and sing" crowd who don't care about your political opinions and just want to hear good music.
Pet Peeves of 2004
*Originally published on 12/10/09
King dedicates this article to the things that really grind his gears. What's rather odd is that he picks his pet peeves of 2004 when the article was published in 2007. I mean, why not go with 2006 seeing as this was still early in '07, or maybe just be general and not bog it down to one year. I don't know, I found it peculiar.
The first thing on his list is the "I'm X and I approve this message" tag at the end of presidential campaign ads. This is, of course, referring to the 2004 elections when you would see those ads nonstop. King wonders why it's needed since we can assume that they approve the ad. However, given the number of political activist groups on both sides nowadays, I see why it's there. It annoys me too, but I understand it's presence.
Britney Spears also annoys him, not so much for her music, but for her general attitude at the time. He admits that she used to be kind of fun, but has seemingly been in a foul mood for some time.
Another thing that annoyed him was how gung-ho some people got in regards to Martha Stewart getting prison time. I'll admit that the media often pounces on and makes a huge deal out of minor transgressions when it comes to celebrities, but she did break the law. Given how big celebrities heads get from time to time you need to occasionally throw the hammer down and remind them to, as a portly sociopathic anti-semitic third grader put it, respect mah authoritah.
Incidentally, Sportsnation was having a similar discussion in regards to Chad Ochocinco and his wacky antics. Anchor Colin Cowherd pointed out that you have to enforce the small rules to keep the big ones intact. Heck, even Batman pointed that out to himself in an episode of Justice League. The media is still at fault for making mountains out of molehills, but sometimes people need to be put in check.
We've all either had a song stuck in our head, or gotten addicted to a song at one point. Right now for me it's Caramelldansen but at the time of this article, Stephen King had 50 Cent's Many Men rattling around in his brain. King notes that he often woke up at night mumbling the words to that song. That's a pretty severe case, I don't think that's ever happened to me. I can definitely see why King would note this as one of his pet peeves for the year.
Another thing that grinded Mr. King's gears was television ads, not just commercials in general but a few that were running at the time. The two big ones he mentions are the McDonald's commercial where a man tells a phantom figure to step away from the chicken mcnuggets. At first, I didn't remember this commercial, but the more I think about it the more it comes back to me. It was odd, but I don't remember hating it. I did, however, hate the Ditech commercials that King also mentions. Good riddance to those things I say.
I don't watch Dr. Phil so I'm rather indifferent, but the show, according to him, makes Mr. King want to, and I quote, "dance around the television in my underwear, sticking out my tongue, making arm farts, and yelling ''Phil the pill took a spill, slid on his fanny down the hill!"...I got nothin, so let's move on.
Donald Trump also gets under King's skin, not so much for his "look at me I have tons of money!" lifestyle, though King notes that, but mostly because of his comb-over. The prior feeds the latter in that his ubiquitous billboards constantly expose the author to "the Don's" hair.
King's biggest pet peeve (and it's one of mine as well) is ads before movies. Not trailers mind you, but actual commercials. This actually bugs me even more now since there's no reason for it. Back when they first started doing it, they justified it saying that movies theaters weren't doing well and they had to make up for the revenue. OK, fine, but a lot of the new releases pull in record breaking numbers, so why are we still sitting through these ads? Well, we all know the answer, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.
A Dozen Thanks
*Originally published on 12/15/09
Acting as a counterbalance to the previous article, King spends this column listing the things he's thankful for. Family, friends, and work get mentioned as they should, but from there King goes to list things from popular culture.
Author Richard Stark (real name Donald Westlake) gets first mention from King who says that the man is a great author and recommends two of his books, Money for Nothing and Nobody Runs Forever by Westlake and Stark respectively.
King also plugs a novel from debuting author (debuting at the time that is), Jack Ketchum. The novel is called Off Season: The Unexpurgated edition.
Tom Waits gets honorable mention for his then-new album, Real Gone. While I was disappointed with that album, I am still a huge Tom Waits fan and it's nice to see him plug the man's work. King also gives iTunes the necessary props.
As one would expect, King is thankful for Lost.
King says that he's also a huge fan of 24. I agree with King 100% when he says that Jack Bauer is just plain awesome. It's an interesting bit of timing, talking about this article since advertisements for the next season have been showing on Fox to hype up the premiere coming in January.
King closes the article saying that he's thankful for the Red Sox finally breaking their curse. He was so thankful that he and another author ended up writing a book about it.
Thanksgiving is a time to look back and appreciate the good things in your life. Acknowledging the big stuff is, of course, encouraged but it's nice to just take a moment to appreciate the little things, even if it is just a good book or movie.
Ear Candy
*Originally published on 12/23/09
King tackles the best music of 2004 in this edition of his column. King tells us that he actually enjoys compiling "best of" lists of this nature and intends to dedicate three whole columns to this. Seeing as 2009 is wrapping up, it's oddly fitting that I come up on these articles now. The author quotes Vanilla Ice and laments the loss of Marvin Gaye. He also goes on to give a shout out to KC and the Sunshine Band's That's the Way (I like it) and says that he desires to come across a tune just as dancable as that one.
The author credits Eminem for two tracks in particular, Just Lose It and Mosh, both of which come off his album Encore. Both stand on the opposite ends of the rap spectrum, one being rather silly and the other being dark and serious. It is this range that King cites as an example of the artist's talent.
King's favorite country album was Vane Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn. I can't comment on it as I'm not big on country music. I bear the genre no ill will, it's just not for me.
King closes the column by listing his top 6 albums for 2004. They are as follows.
6) Mojo Box by Southern Culture on the Skids
5) Tonight Alright by Spiderbait
4) Live in Aught-Three by James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards
3) The Revolution Starts...Now by Steve Earle
2) Olabelle by Olabelle
and the winner for Stephen King's number one album of 2004 is....
...
1) American Idiot by Green Day
You can read the article at http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,847439,00.html (hyperlinks have a history of not working when I'm working on my PC so hopefully this is an acceptable substitute for the nonce)
Top 10 Books of 2004
*Originally published on 12/25/09
I hope you guys all had a merry Christmas. Today's article (which I've linked to below) lists King's ten favorite books. Unlike movies or albums, King notes that these are books that he read in the past year (2004) as opposed to books that were published.
10) Double Play by Robert Parker
9) Eventide by Kent Haruf
8) Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan
7) The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever by John Feinstein
6) Double Vision by Pat Barker
5) Absolute Friends by John Le Carre
4) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
3) A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
2) Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
1) The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
If you're looking for new reading material, these are some titles worth checking out. Tomorrow we discuss King's favorite movies of '04.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,955709,00.html
Personal Best (10 best movies of 2004)
*Originally published on 12/27/09
Today's article has King listing his top 10 movies of the year, that year being 2004. King once again states his love of cinema and says that he attended over 60 movies that year. That is impressive. You'd have to go to the theater every week for the whole year and pull in a few double features to pull that off. I wonder how much popcorn you'd end up eating? A lot, I'm sure. On to his picks.
10) Red Lights. Never heard of it, next!
9) The Bourne Supremacy. While you could argue that the series spun its wheels a little (every film has the CIA chasing Bourne for some reason or another) there was a progression and noticable arc to drive the story forward. Damon is also surprisingly effective as an action star. He actually manages to be so impressive that you don't find yourself making the obvious Team America reference when he's on screen.
8) Collateral. The success of the movie really rested on the two leads and neither Foxx or Cruise disappoint in that area. Despite all the craziness that has surrounded him the past couple of years, he shows us that he can still turn in a strong performance.
7) The Incredibles. This film was marketed as a comedic superhero parody and instead it gave us a fun and lighthearted, but still bona fide super hero adventure. It does what Pixar does best and still ranks as one of the greats in the studio's rather impressive library.
6) Shrek 2. With the massive success of the original a sequel was pretty much inevitable. It seemed like the first movie told a complete story, when the writers said that they intended it to be that way, I was a bit worried, but this sequel manages to take all of the things that were great about the original and put it into a story that followed up on the events of the first film without falling into sequelitis.
5) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban This is the one Potter flick that I've watched and my only direct encounter with the Potter franchise in general. Even though I had little to no knowledge of the history ot these characters, I found it pretty enjoyable. I hadn't even seen the first two and I was able to keep up just fine so newcomers don't need to feel like they would be intimidated by the lack of knowledge in regards to the previous stories.
4) Fahrenheit 9/11. It's kind of fascinating how even left wingers rag on Michael Moore. It's not every day that you see people on opposite sides of the political spectrum actually agree on something. In his own backwards way, Moore's doing his part to fight for bipartisanship. Oddly enough recent interviews I've seen of him (on Fox News of all places) has him engaging in surprisingly civil discussions with O'Reilly and Hannity, two pundits not known for their soft spoken approach to interviewing.
3) The Manchurian Candidate
2) Dawn of the Dead. Many people I knew at college hated this film with a passion. They deemed Snyder a hack and consider it cinematic blasphemy. So, when I watched this I had low expectations. Truthfully, it is pretty good. I'm not a fan of the speed zombies, but it works out here. You also get to hear a lounge version of Disturbed's Down with the Sickness and that is downright awesome.
1) Maria, Full of Grace
So there you go, if you're trying to beef up your Netflix queue or are wondering what to pick up the next time you make a trip out to Blockbuster, you have a few titles to consider.
read the article at http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1008401,00.html
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