So I forgot to post yesterday, mostly because of the holiday, and a lot because I am totally out of sorts because of this move to Brooklyn.  Therefore, I see no more fitting movie about forgetting on my list to post today than Momento--a movie about a guy who has no short term memory.

In Momento, Guy Pierce can remember everything just about until his wife's death, which he thinks he has a clear enough recollection of.  His memories since then, however, are all recorded on Polaroids, tattoos and little notes for himself.  In the meantime, instead of just trying to survive in this less than ideal situation, he's out trying to find his wife's killer.

Oh, did I mention the whole movie is shot backwards, tracing each scene to the scene before it?

And you thought the Polaroids were confusing.

The beauty of it is that you watch each seen as he experiences it--completely without prior context.  He arises in a hotel room.  Is it his room?  Someone elses?  Should he be there?  You don't know until the next scene.   One of the best moments in the movie is when he finds himself running, but he's not sure if he's being chased or doing the chasing, until his pursuer fires a gun at him.  "Is he running after me or am I running after him?  [Boom.]  He's running after me."

The supporting cast has two stars from the Matrix--Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantolino.  Both do a great job and you're not sure how much either is manipulating poor Guy and his condition at any point in the movie. 

You probably need to watch this movie twice... with a friend you can have a good argument with, because you'll probably see the movie differently.  Its thought provoking and definitely requires a careful viewing.

Despite the Mets' losing two of three to the Yanks, I've got baseball on the brain thanks to the Subway Series.  In fact, the way the Mutts tossed the ball around the infield over the weekend, there was only one movie I could possibly pick today to add to my list.

Major League.

Major League is, by far, the most quotable baseball movie out there, and as soon as it came out, whether I was playing baseball or wiffle ball, that's all we did growing up--quote the movie.  It seems like every team has one of the characters on this team.  The bad-kneed veteran catcher.  The old junkballer.  The huge guy who can't hit a breaking ball. 
So maybe Major League didn't win or get nominated for an Oscar.  However, its definitely in the same park as my previous movies.  (Yellowstone.)  When you play baseball, there isn't a moment in the game that can't be summed up perfectly by this comedy classic. 

Booted groundball?

"Come on, Dorn.  Get in front of the damn ball.  Don't give me this OLE bullshit!"

Team not hitting?

"Harry Doyle: That's all?  One goddamn hit.  Assistant: You can't say goddamn on the air. Harry Doyle: Ahh, don't worry, nobody is listening anyway."

Pitcher not going after the hitters?

"Forget the curveball, Ricky.  Give 'em the heater!"

And of course, uncorking one six feet to the left of the plate?

"Juuuust a bit outside."

I love seeing depictions of the future on film, and I always think its really cheesy when the future is some kind of peaceful utopia.  Blade Runner's future is a dark, rainy stew of microchips, languages, neon, and flying cars.  (Its 2005... where are our flying cars?!)

Sometime towards the end of next year/beginning of 2007, we'll see Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 4...  25 years after Blade Runner...  25 years of attempting to top what I think may be his best performance.  Harrison Ford has never been the indestructable tough guy... he's always carried the weight of the situation on him, but still managed to win in the  end.  The streets of the future have worn him down in Blade Runner, but he's got enough for one or two good swings.

Sean Young is perfect in this movie...   too perfect, which creates a lot of conflict for Harrison Ford's replicant eliminating dayjob.  Its too bad she went from Stripes, Blade Runner, and Wall Street to starring opposite Punky Brewster in Motel Blue.  (I've never seen it, its just that IMDb paints a pretty dismal picture of her spiralling career.) 

Darryl Hannah's eyeblacked replicant charactor isn't someone I'd want to mess with in a dark alley in the future either...   especially with that crab walk and all.  So let's see... Darryl's played a robot, a fish, a 50ft. tall woman...   pretty versitile. 

The visuals in this movie are really something...   a lot of time is spent just showing us the landscape, putting every scene in context.  The juxtaposition of all this technology and all the grit and grime set an appropriate tone for the job that Harrison Ford is tasked with doing.

...because we all know, just like Rocky V, the third Godfather didn't exist.  You never heard of it.  It never happened.   You hear me?

Because Sofia Coppola may be able to direct, but she can't act her way out of that nose.

But anyway, these two movies always go together.  You buy the boxed set.  Its like...  pasta and sauce.  Cappuccino and a little sambuca.  (Or, if you're my grandmother, a lot of sambuca...  j/k!  We always pour more in than she wants.) 

I don't really have to say much about the Godfather set.  You know it.  You've all seen it.  It has an amazing cast of actors and the time is taken to tell the story of an excellent book, which I read as well.  If you haven't seen it in a little while, spend an afternoon with it on a rainy Saturday.  While you're watching, don't hesitate to stick two pieces of bread in your cheeks and do your own Brando.

I bring this set up, which should be on everyone's list, because I was reminded of Sonny Corleone the other night.  James Caan does a terrific job as the headstrong, short tempered eldest son of the Don.  Remember what he does to Connie's husband for hitting her?  Well, I'm walking along 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn the other night and this couple is crossing the street.  The car waiting at the corner beeps them along as the light changes to green.

The guy whips around and says, "What's your f*cking problem?"

The driver responds, "Get the f*ck out of the street."

Obviously, he didn't know he was dealing with Sonny...   this guy basically takes off, without hesitation, down the street running after the car on foot.  The next line is classic:

"Get out of that car so I can bitch slap you!"

That's vintage Sonny as far as I'm concerned.  It was at that moment that I fully realized I was back in Brooklyn.

But look where it got him.  Sonny never made it and the quiet youngest brother that was destined to be "a senator" winds up taking over the family business.   But that's ok, because they're moving to Vegas and going legit.

Right?

This movie is nothing short of an epic.  Its the Italian immigrant's version of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table.  Because its not just about the movie.  Its about everyone's version of the movie in their own lives.  Now its an overplayed stereotype, but these people were like royalty at one time and there was a story to be told long before the movie came out.  Where they criminals?  Sure.  Did they have the respect and devotion of their communities more so than elected politicians?  You bet.

You know, I think its interesting how every ethnic backround has its own underworld element, with its own style and relationship to the rest of the community.  We always see this mafia thing as "protective" as oppossed to parasitic, but you never know whether or not that's the media spin.  I think that would be an interesting study.

As for the movie?  That's an interesting study in itself.  But remember, leave the gun.  Take the canoli.

Its time for the All Star game--to figure out who's really the best of the best.  But, be careful, because if you're the best, a mysterious woman in black might come and shoot you with a silver bullet.  Vlad, do you hear that?  Derrick Lee are you paying attention? 

The Natural is not only one of, if not the best baseball movie of all time, but it definitely has the single greatest baseball moment of all time--Robert Redford's home run into the lights that sends glass and sparks shining down onto the field. 

The Natural is a fantasy... a dream.  Its the story of reclaiming lost youth and taking one last shot at winning something.  Its about wanting so hard to be the best at something, even if its only for a moment. 

Sometimes, I walk down the street and I feel like if I picked up a baseball, I could through it 100 miles an hour.  Seriously.  Unfortunately, I've never felt like that with a baseball in my hand.  I did have one great casual sports moment, though...  and it was a walkoff shot, too.  Playing intramural softball at Fordham in my Senior year.  We were down by two runs going into the bottom of the last inning.  Our team was half my roommates and half of the varsity basketball team.  Two guys got on and I parked an opposite field 3 run home run over the fence...   I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it, and I'm the last guy in the world that you'd expect to hit a home run, because I'm really just a contact hitter.  It was so cool to trot around the bases, and have all the guys from the basketball team like Jason Harris and TJ lineup between third and home waiting to give you a high five.  There was no broken glass, no sparks, but that was my casual sports moment.

I don't need to talk about the movie anymore.  Its a great baseball movie... what more is there to say?  No, instead, why don't you comment on this post and tell us your greatest casual sports moment.  No college or SEMI pro sports... its got to be beer league softball, little league, street football, or something equally unprofessional. 

Admittedly, I'm getting a little bored of my "50 Favorite Movies" posts. 

I might still contribute once in a while, but I've got 28 of them up now and I'm kind of running out of gas.  (Not running out of movies, though... )

And maybe this says something about intential content production vs. production as a byproduct of consumption.

If I could publish my viewing habits via a link to my DVD player, I would.  That would be a lot easier... and then perhaps a preconfigured post could be waiting for me to just give a review when I watch a movie.

What I'm not getting as much is a conversation about movies, which would be much more valuable.  So, I'm going to try something different. 

Instead of posting what I like, I'm going to post question to the audience about movies to get a little conversation going.

So, this week's movie question is:

"What movie are you most embarrassed to admit that you shed a tear to?"   Guy answers particularly interesting...

My answer?

Blow.

That movie is pretty intense and, at the end, when he just wants to do one last deal so he can make enough money to have a life for his daughter... and then he gets busted... they show him in the prison yard and they just pull the rug out from under you in that scene...   I wasn't really prepared for that.  Admittedly, there was some leakage there.  I think I brushed it off as having something in my eye, but, I admit it, Blow made me cry.

So, I'll admit that I never read the book.  I'm not a big fiction book reader, and it always kind of turns me off when everyone is reading something.

But I feel like seeing the movie gave me a good synopsys of what the story was and I have to say...  it wasn't nearly as interesting or controversal as people said.

Perhaps its the fact that I've actually taken three or four real Theology courses.  I knew that there were other books of the Bible floating around that a council of scholars voted out.  Stories of Jesus' life between the age of like 8 and 30, are also not new to me.   So, while more fundamentalist Catholics who believe that the Bible was a book handed down from the clouds are up in arms from this movie, nothing that was proposed really shocked me.

There's also a huge gaping hole in the story.  [SPOILER ALERT]  Why does finding a direct bloodline to Mary Magdaline necessarily prove that Jesus had children??  Now, I actually believe that he probably did... not sure why he wouldn't...   but nothing about the story proves that she didn't have children with someone else, even after the crucifiction.  These other Bible stories say they were married, but its not like people only had kids with the people they were married to, especially when their spouses die early.  Just doesn't prove much of anything as far as I can tell.

Also, everyone in the movie is pretty good, except for, and I hate to say it, Tom Hanks.  He's horribly miscast in the movie.  We just don't believe him as the smart guy.  Tom Hanks is everyman.  He's the modern day Jimmy Stewart.  He's Forrest Gump...  the Fedex guy from Castaway...   the foreign diplomat from the Terminal.   He's no religious scholar with a PhD. 

Other people could have played the smart guy.  Harrison Ford... well, I guess he's already search for the grail once, so that's out.  How about Russell Crowe.  No, not the bruiser from Gladiator, but the dork from a Beautiful Mind.  Hell, even Bill Pullman could have been more believable in this role.  Any other ideas?