Eight days of favorite films III: Comedy

Continuing my eight day look at my favorite films by genre we have comedies:

1. The Great Dictator (1940)
2. Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
3. Duck Soup (1933)
4. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
5. A Christmas Story (1983)
6. Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948)
7. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
8. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
9. Bringing up Baby (1938)
10. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Once again, there are certain trends you can observe; for one, I appear to be roughly 90 years old. For another, I really seem to like Cary Grant.

Comedy is a tricky one with me. I like amusing wordplay more than slapstick and I like slapstick more than gross-out humour. I also have a limit to the amount of snark I can take with my comedy, so modern comedies have a hard time winning me over. I usually do my best to avoid comedies.

Explaining why I find something funny is a task I'm not equipped to meet. Instead, I'll just give you a scene from my favorite comedy, the Great Dictator:

Tomorrow: the Mystery/Suspense genre

Eight days of favorite films II: Science Fiction

This is a list guaranteed to disappoint my high-minded science fiction-loving friends who loan me their Vernor Vinge and speak breathlessly about Gattaca. I mean, I like Gattaca just fine, but...*sigh* on with my list:

1. Serenity (2005)
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
4. Aliens (1986)
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
6. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
7. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
9. WALL-E (2008)
10. 12 Monkeys (1995)

So if yesterday demonstrated that I like Batman, I guess today shows how much I like Star Trek. I don't consider myself a huge Star Trek fan now, but...I don't consider myself much of a science fiction movie fan currently either.

I felt that I should divide science fiction and fantasy into two genres, although the two are usually combined. Science fiction has plenty of well-known films to fill up the ranks of the greats, but (as we'll see) fantasy isn't as well-populated.

In many ways I could have merged this genre with yesterday's action/adventure. Although all of these films utilize science fiction trappings, I think 12 Monkeys is the sole film which explores an idea in a way only the sci-fi genre can. The rest are mainly action films (with WALL-E & Star Trek IV also serving as comedies). Top marks go to Serenity, the filmgoing experience of 2005 for me.

With the exception of the Empire Strikes Back I had to shut the Star Wars films out of this list, a notion that my 12 (or even 18) year old self would have found absurd. It's not that I don't still enjoy the old movies, nor do I feel that the new films have irreparably damaged the franchise's reputation, I simply fell out of love with the franchise more than a decade ago. I still like them fine.

Tomorrow: the comedy genre!

Eight days of favorite films I: Action/Adventure

Way back on my defunct blog Section 241 I once wrote a post about the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best genre films. I disputed their definition of "genre," as well as the few genres they chose to represent. Having already aired all of that, I thought I should delve into what I consider great genre films.

Over the next 8 days I'll be listing my 10 favorites from 8 genres: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction, Comedy, Mystery/Suspense, Drama, Horror, War and Fantasy. I would have liked to represent Musicals, Westerns & Documentaries as well, but I had a hard enough time filling out the top 8 genres (but for the record my number one favorites of each genre are respectively Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), High Noon (1952) and March of the Penguins (2005)).

To begin, I'll cover Action/Adventure. It is tricky to divide films into genre because some films could fit comfortably into multiple genres. I'll explain some of my rationalizations and other thoughts after the list:

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
2. Die Hard (1988)
3. Leon - the Professional (1994)
4. The Man Who Would be King (1975)
5. The Seven Samurai (1954)
6. Batman Begins (2005)
7. Iron Man (2008)
8. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
9. The Untouchables (1987)
10. Batman: Mask of Phantasm (1993)

Well, it's clear that I like Batman films, if nothing else. Rather than create an animation genre I chose to distribute my favorite animated films amongst whatever genre they fit best. I also considered a super hero genre, but ultimately decided that super hero films were best described as a sub-genre of action/adventure and left it as you see.

It's interesting to see the kinds of heroes who make up my favorite action films; some of them aren't entirely heroic, notably a murderous hitman (Leon), two rogues who con their way into a kingdom (Man Who Would be King) and a weapons maker who has a *literal* change of heart (Iron Man). But the others are more or less straight arrow good guys - a philanthropic millionaire who besmirches himself for the greater good (Batman), a treasury agent out to get Capone (Untouchables), a bandit who robs from the rich and gives to the poor (Robin Hood), the titular Seven Samurai who defend a doomed town and a cop who fights his way through a building of heavily-armed men to save his wife (Die Hard).

It's also interesting that four of these have downbeat endings where the hero either dies accomplishing his task (Leon), achieves his task but pays a heavy price (Seven Samurai, Dark Knight) or outright loses everything (Man Who Would be King).

So what do I enjoy in an Action/Adventure film? Usually it's a singular protagonist who is bold enough to take on an impossible challenge, likely because of his particular worldview (there are 7 protagonists in the Seven Samurai but Kikuchiyo clearly takes the cake; his status as a non-samurai makes him more fallible than the others but also more worldly-wise). I enjoy a well-coreographed fight scene (which is hard to come by in some major action films, sad to say) but I'm happiest with films where there's a ticking clock - only so much time for the hero to beat the odds or be beaten. Interesting heroes; tense moments; exciting action sequences; I'm easy to please.

Tomorrow: my 10 favorite science fiction genre films.

Life is beautiful. Comics retailing is ugly.

Boy, I'm in a great mood. I watched Obama's inauguration speech yesterday and was extremely impressed with his eloquence. Even though he's the leader of another country, I'm really pleased that he's in office and it gives me hope for the future.

Wait, what? Diamond is once more restricting the number of independent titles that they'll sell to comic shops? Gee, last time that happened it forced SLG to wrap up Rex Libris. Well, nothing like that can happen to me again, right?

"Pitzer confirmed there would be no more Johnny Hiro comic books in the immediate future..."

NOOOOOooooooOOOOoooOoooOooOOoO!!!

Deep breath. Keep reading.

"...with some of the forthcoming material folded over into a planned trade. "People will be getting more Johnny Hiro, though. We have plans to release a collection in June, which collect issues #1-3, while adding 'issues' #4-5."

Whew.

Michael's books in April

OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #4

Written by AL SJOERDSMA, CHRIS BUCHNER, RONALD BYRD, MICHAEL HOSKIN, ERIC MOREELS, BOB SODARO, JEPH YORK & STUART VANDAL

Continuing the chronicle of the Marvel Universe, starting with Spider-Man (from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #170 on), Iron Man (from IRON MAN #70 on) and the X-Men (from UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #7 on). Follow the history of the Marvel universe as it unfolds month by month with the All-New Official Index to the Marvel Universe. Each issue provides synopses for dozens of individual comics, including back-up strips, introducing you to the characters, teams, places and equipment that appeared within, providing vital information about first appearances, where they last showed up and where they appeared next! 64 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99

WOLVERINE: WEAPON X FILES

Written by JEFF CHRISTIANSEN, RONALD BYRD, ERIC J. MOREELS, STUART VANDAL, MICHAEL HOSKIN, CHAD ANDERSON, RICH GREEN, JEPH YORK, MARKUS ETTLINGER, MADISON CARTER & MIKE FICHERA Cover by FRANK MARTIN

A brand-new, all-inclusive handbook for Hollywood's favorite mutant, spotlighting a complete biography of Wolverine! He may be in an acre of comics each month, but this is the only place to get the real score! Also featuring some of the Canucklehead's best allies - including Gambit, Maverick, Tyger Tiger and X-Force! And along for the ride are villains - the likes of Blob, Daken, Deadpool, Mastermind, Orphan Maker, Donald Pierce, the Purifiers, Sabretooth and S'ym! And more than four dozen other stars linked to our man Logan from Amiko to Silver Fox! 64 PGS./Rated T+ ...$4.99

War of Kings Saga - online!

Too much trouble for you to walk in to your friendly local comic book shop to get a free copy of War of Kings Saga? Well, why not go online to Marvel.com's digital library and read it there?

I've made it simple for you

Finding it too hard to keep track of the comics I've had published? Don't know where to begin looking? Well, you could begin right here, thanks to this list I made at amazon.ca listmania!