Fordham graduation is this Saturday, so in honor of that event, I thought this would be a fitting time to put up what might actually be my favorite movie--definitely one in my top five.  Ben Braddock has just graduated and the only thing he's got planned for himself is a little "drifting here in the pool."  Ideas?  Well, everyone's got ideas for him...  from "Plastics" to meeting with older women in hotels to taking out their daughters when they come down from Berkeley.  Everyone thinks they've got him pegged, too.  "Track star."  "Agitator."  (Gotta love the Normal Fell bit there as the landlord in Berkeley.  Obviously, that got him the Mr. Roper gig.) 

Its tough though.  The one thing college doesn't really prepare you for is figuring out what to do with yourself after you're done, and so any graduating senior can relate to what Dustin Hoffman goes through in this movie.  For one thing, its just a bizarre situation to be back home from college after you've lived four years on your own and now, all of the sudden, you're thrust back into their world.  Your whole college life comes to a screeching halt, and now you're hanging out with people in their 50's.  (At least my parents didn't buy me scuba gear and make me test it in our pool on my birthday in front of all their friends.)

The music (this seems to be a theme with me...) from Simon and Garfunkel is classic, as is the whole movie...   Its tough to get more memorable than Hoffman's ride in his Alfa Romeo down to Santa Barbara to search for Katherine Ross's wedding, touched off by the "Mrs. Robinson" track. 

So watch this, or go back and watch it again.  Listen to every line.  There are too many good ones that Hoffman's deadpan style might lull you past, but so many of the short ones are funny.  He tells his parents that he's getting married, and then they realize that he hasn't even asked the girl yet.

"Benjamin, this whole idea seems rather half-baked."

"No, I assure you, its fully baked."

Anne Bancroft, who is like a million years old now (and married to Mel Brooks) rasps and smokes her way into Dustin Hoffman's world for the summer, culminating in a train wreck of a standoff towards the end.  She "controls" much Ben's life, and the movie, until he finds what he actually wants and goes after it.  So take some time off if you need, but not too much, to find your Elaine, and go after it like a track star.  You'll learn why wood is better than wire, and how to keep a crowd at bay with a crucifix. 

"Doesn't he seem like the kind of guy that needs to fight them off with a stick?"

Benjamin Braddock.   Class of 1967.

In case you didn't see Christian Bale and Wolverine... um...   Hugh Jackman in The Prestige yet, stop reading.    I am going to give away a major plotline here.   Don't blame me if you keep reading... you've been warned.

As far as I can tell there are only two scenarios that make sense with this movie.... two explanations that neither of which are entirely satisfying.

1)  Christian Bale has a natural twin that he has grown up with all his life.  He makes "Telsa" the key to his book because Telsa is attempting a cloning machine that doesn't work, sending Hugh Jackman on a wild goose chace.  (Because, if he was aware of it working, he would have essentially given his one advantage, being a twin, over to his arch rival.)   By sheer dumb luck, the machine actually turns out to work.  Now, actually, I believe Tesla was more likely trying to invent a transporting machine... and that happens to be the wackiest glitch in the world... that it doubles you.  But, either way, Bale could have never thought it to work.

2)  Telsa actually did make the machine work for Bale and he used it once, to clone himself a twin.  The second Bale doesn't seem to exist very early on in the movie, like when he's a stagehand.  Where was he all those years if they weren't doing the magic act routine?  Plus, it's just too random that the key to the diary is Tesla, a man that, in reality, has nothing to do with his trick, b/c Bale already has a twin and doesn't need a transporting or cloning machine...   of which Telsa actually winds up, ironically and accidently, creating a cloning machine that works.  Of course, this doesn't make sense either, b/c Telsa doesn't even know his machine works until Hugh Jackman comes to visit him.  If that was the case, though...  why would Bale have anything to do with Tesla?   

Saw a sneak preview of the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, last night.  I'm a huge 007 fan, so I've been looking forward to this movie for just about after the credits of the last one started rolling.

Well worth the wait.

I saw in the paper that Daniel Craig brings the franchise back, but I don't want to say that because I think Pierce Brosnan was the one who actually did that... bringing it back from License to Kill, which was, in my opinion, the worst Bond ever.  (A View to a Kill can't be the worst, because it has Christopher Walken.)

Casino Royale starts out with Bond even before he was a "00" agent...  resetting the story just like they did with Batman Begins.

Daniel Craig reminds me of Connery's Goldfinger performance.  Rough around the edges, but every now and then he flashes a smile without being cheesy.  

The story, and their actually is one, is well thought out and not predictable at all.  Just go see it... even if you're not a Bond fan... it's a great action movie for anyone.

Sure... why not. We can play along. I can't wait until Rocky 7 where he starts selling the Rocky Balboa Grill.

Scarlett Johansson will be the best actress of this generation.  There, I said it. Black Dahlia is a cool movie with great style that perhaps gets a little bizzare at times, but she does another fantastic job.  I think I need to find a way to get her an avatar for some kind of promotion.

The story is based on a real life unsolved murder, and the writers come up with a highly implausible scenario for the truth that, in the movie, kinda comes out of nowhere and got a few unintended laughs.  Still, the acting is really good and I was also pleasently surprised by Josh Hartnett, who I still sort of think of as the guy from The Faculty.  This was also the first time I thought that Hilary Swank came anywhere close to being attractive.  Its that mouth... I dunno... 

Anyway...  cool, but only a must see because of Miss Scarlett.

One thing I talked about with Kristin from Fordham the other day is the idea of scheduled blogging...having different types of posts appear of specific days to get a blogging routine going.  I got the idea from Fred, who has a VC Cliche of the Week post and a running Top 50 Albums thing going.

Well, I like music, but I'm not much of an album guy.  Most of the music I have is sliced up into individual songs.  For me, its movies.  I love going to the movies.  I especially love the previews.  In fact, if someone came out with just an hour and a half of previews of all made up  movies with real celebrities, I think I'd go see that.  When I see a movie, I usually have a pretty good idea that I'll like it, and I haven't seen a lot of movies that "everyone" goes to see.  I never saw Titanic or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  I like movies with style--ones that have a little hint of surrealism to them.  I like certain actors--Kevin Klein, John Cusack, Sean Connery, Bill Murray...  and I don't mind a good car chase or explosion.  I don't mind stupidity either.  That being said, for the next 50 weeks, I am going to post, every Monday, a new addition to My Top 50 Movies List. 

Its not the best 50, so I'm not soliciting feedback as to what should be on the list.  Its my list.  There are a lot of movies that you would figure a guy my age would be putting on here, like maybe Goonies or the Princess Bride, that won't show up.  They're fine, but they're not my favorite.  There are lots of people out there who can recite those movies by heart, just not me.

That being said, here's the first one.  Its kind of a bridge between the inspiration for this list, which is Fred's album list, and my movie list, because it has a fantastic soundtrack and that really adds to the movie.  My first movie is Grosse Pointe Blank, with John Cusack and Minnie Driver. 

In short, its about a professional killer who goes back to a Detroit suburb to attend his 10 year high school reunion.  That right there makes for a unique situation, but throw on top of it that he left is high school sweetheart at her front door on prom night...  never picked her up and dropped off the face of the earth for ten years. 

For me, the movie is about being nostalgic and  never forgetting the connections you had when you were coming of age.  There are a few people in my life that I wish I could go back and talk to--people who probably think I'm broken but could be convinced I'm just "mildly sprained".

The soundtrack is one of the best things about the movie.  Not a lot of people at the time realized that it came out in two volumes, and you didn't get all the music you wanted on the first.  The soundtrack features the Violent Femmes, David Bowie,  The Clash, A-Ha and The Specials.  Great songs...  great supporting performances from Dan Aykroyd, Alan Arkin  and Joan Cusack, and a little high school romance revisited.  Feel free to pick up a copy at Amazon (they're selling the movie cheaper than a single volume of the two volume soundtrack), because "You can never go home again, but at least you can shop there."