Professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities.

If you read movie blogs, and if you're here it's a good bet that you read one or two, you may have seen a meme going around. Basically, people have been writing 10 movie based facts about themselves, and then tagging other to do the same. I was not tagged. I'm not surprised by this as I write pretty infrequently these days. And besides, if I really cared all that much, I'd just do the damn meme anyways.

Now before you start yelling at me to 'quit your whiny whining whiner', let me explain something. The whole point of that last paragraph (other than linking to 3 other blogs) is because something came to mind this evening and, well, it made for a good lead in.

I have one movie related thing about me that I want to tell you. One thing that I want to write about tonight. See, I was looking for a movie to watch tonight. I'm bored. That's all there is to it. So, it occurs to me that I could watch a movie. Ok, sounds like a plan. I'll put a movie in. Well, I don't want to pay too much attention to it. See, I almost want background noise as much as I want anything. So, whatever movie I pick, it has to be something I've seen before. And it can't be Evil Dead 2 since I just loaned it out. It's been a long time since I saw Amelie and I've been wanting to watch it again for some time.

So I pull the DVD out of the DVD drawer. I put it in the DVD player. The menu comes up. I press play. I wander off momentarily. I come back. I press the audio button on the remote. As much as I love the sound of the French language, I know less than 30 words any more. And besides, like I said, I don't really want to pay that much attention. There is no dub on the DVD. French audio and English subs only. Now. This wouldn't normally bother me. Not even a little. Like I said, I love the sound of the French language. Subtitles don't bother me, not even a little. I just didn't want to pay much attention.

See, this happens to me a lot. I want to watch a movie, but not something new. Something I've seen before. Something that I've seen many times. Something that, if I leave the room and come back, or turn my attention from for a little while, I'll know just what's going on when I come back in the room.

This brings me up to the real reason for this post. My assumption is that I'm not alone in this. That other people do this with movies as well. And, well, I thought that it might be fun to share some favorites. I don't really have a good name for the list, but I'm going to list a few that I always fall back on, and if anyone else is so inclined, comment, or write about it on another blog and let me know.

My List Of Movies I Like To Watch When I Want To Watch A Movie But Don't Want To Watch Something I'm Unfamiliar With (in no specific order):

• Raiders of the Lost Ark (tonight's choice (Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are just as likely))
• Star Wars (any of the six)
• Lord of the Rings (any of the three)
• Shaun of the Dead
• Serenity
• Doomsday
• Event Horizon
• Hellboy II
• Planet of the Apes (the Chuck Heston original)
• Resident Evil

Alright. What have you got?

Wouldn't it be fun if I did a whole week of trailers? Day 1

I saw a preview today, and I just HAD to share:





Written by Michael "Remember me from 'The State'?" Ian Black, directed by David "Hey, I played Ross" Schwimmer and starring Simon "I might be the funniest actor ever" Pegg and Dylan "I was the guy who looked like Harry Potter in Shaun of the Dead" Moran and Hank "I was that guy in the American Godzilla movie. No, that was Mathew Broderick, I was the OTHER guy" Azaria.

Any one of those would have been enough to make me want to see this movie.

dreamrot's favorite movies week: day 3: Shaun of the Dead

It was at some point in the summer of 2004 when I first started hearing about Shaun of the Dead. I don't exactly recall when I first heard about it, but I remember the anticipation as it neared it's release. I remember hearing more and more about how great it was, and seeing previews that just looked amazing. And I remember talking about it with other movie nerds.

It wasn't until it came out on DVD though that I finally saw it. My love for the movie was immediate and all encompassing. This was everything I could have wanted from a movie. Blood, guts, zombies, comedy, Philip. These were the kind of jokes that I made. The characters made choices I would make. I didn't have to try to understand the movie, I'd practically been living it in Detroit without the zombies. I didn't have to "get it," it got me.

I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles

Look at your life. You do the same things day after day. It's easier to go to the same place that you know you like than to try something new and take a chance. You're in a rut. Get up, go to work, eat dinner, go to bed, was, rinse, repeat.

Shaun and Liz are on a date of sorts. They're out. At the bar. Again. The same bar they always go to. Liz would like to do something different, but Shaun likes the comfort and familiarity. Shaun tells Liz that they'll go someplace nice tomorrow, and when he fucks that up, she breaks up with him.

Shaun resolves to get his shit together and get Liz back, but there's something that might get in the way of his plans, a metric shit ton of zombies. Shaun has to save his mom, his friends and his favorite bar from the threat of death.

I'm not going to do the play by play on this one, sorry. Let's skip to the best part, what I liked.

There was an accident, then, everybody died. Trouble was... they didn't stay dead.

Director Edgar Wright does a great job of foreshadowing through out the movie. People who you right off as extras and don't pay attention to come back as zombies. The two trips Shaun makes to the store are shot nearly identically with the exception of the destruction the second time and Shaun is completely oblivious to it all.

The characters are all stereotypical enough to be familiar while at the same time unique enough to be believable. I love how the movie sort of toys with your normal zombie cliches. I love how for all of the jokes and humor in the movie that there is never a moment where the zombies are not treated dead seriously. It would be so easy to make the zombies act stupid and funny, but the zombies behave like zombies should. Shaun spends the movie trying to be the hero but is constantly coming up just short. He doesn't save the day. He doesn't manage to save all of his friends. He doesn't save his mom. He essentially fails at everything except winning Liz back, but it's so easy to relate to him because he tried. If he had succeeded at everything you'd think "That's so great! He won!" but instead, you don't give it a second thought. It turned out the way it turned out. Sure he got his girl back, but look at what it cost.

That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

Ultimately, Shaun wants to change his life. But he doesn't! Everything just stays the same, except he's got a story to tell. There's a certain tragedy and realism to that that I just love.

I don't do this often, but as far as I'm concerned, Shaun of the Dead deserves and gets 10 slices of fried gold out of 10.