Scenes I Love: Noah


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One of the best films (at least in this blogger’s honest opinion) of the year also happens to be one of it’s most controversial. It’s Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to his equally critically-acclaimed and just as controversial Black Swan. I am speaking of his Biblical epic Noah and the story of the Flood.

It’s a film that doesn’t feel religious yet full of spirituality. It’s a film that dares to take a look at text seen as hallowed by billions in a way that doesn’t take a stand on the debate of science versus religion (though some feel that Aronofsky’s atheist background paints the film on the side of science). Noah has a scene in the beginning of it’s third act (one that some have called the dealbreaker for how they thought of the film in the end) that best exemplifies the conjoining of science and religion. It’s the best retelling of the Creation Story that I’ve heard and/or seen.

Courtesy of Protozoa Pictures…The Creation scene from Noah.

Scenes I Love: Godzilla vs. Megalon


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It’s just 17 more days til the King of Monsters return to the big-screen. What better way to make a path for his triumphant return than showing you one of my favorite Godzilla scenes ever.

This scene was what got me totally hooked on Godzilla and his monster buddies. While Godzilla vs. Megalon was never one of the brightest stars in the history of the Big Guy’s filmography it definitely showed that Godzilla was more than just kicking and smashing buildings down and burning things with his atomic breath.

Say hello to the Godzilla’s Tail-Slide Double-Kick!

Scenes I Love: Saturday Night Live (feat. Eddie Murphy)


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With the trailer for the James Brown biopic now out for people to watch I just thought it would be appropriate I share one of my favorite scenes from the many years of watching Saturday Night Live.

Before he became a mega superstar during the 80’s, Eddie Murphy was just part of the ever-changing cast of comedians for Saturday Night Live. One of the funniest skits had Eddie as James Brown doing the intro to his very own talk show, Celebrity Hot Tub.

Scenes I Love: 86th Academy Awards Show


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Always known to be the quirky, eccentric personality, during last night’s broadcast of the 86th Academy Awards, Bill Murray provided a fitting, spontaneous tribute to his long-time friends and collaborator Harold Ramis.

Harold Ramis passed away last week at the age of 69 and Murray’s on-stage tribute to his friend must’ve brought not just smiles and applause from the crowd but some tears as well.

Whatever one thinks of last night’s show this was one moment that made it all worth watching.

Scenes That I Love: The Opening of the 1989 Academy Awards


Hi everyone!  Do you know what today is?

That’s right — it’s Oscar Day!

In order to prepare for my favorite holiday, I figured that I would go on YouTube and look at a few old Oscar production numbers.  In doing so, I came across the infamous Rob Lowe/Snow White dance number that opened the 1989 Academy Awards.  I was only three years old when this was first broadcast but I still like to think that, as this endless dance number was broadcast live across the world, I was sitting in front of the TV and telling myself that I could have done a better job with the choreography.

Incidentally, Snow White was played by an actress named Mary Ellen Bowman.  I have no idea if she’s a relative.

 

 

 

Scenes I Love: Jackie Brown


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Latest “Scenes I Love” comes courtesy of Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson.

There’s nothing else to say other than: “AK-47, the very best there is. When you absolutely, positively, got to kill every motherfucker in the room; accept no substitutes.”

Now, that is true since the venerable rifle designed by the late and great Mikhail Kalashnikov sprays all over the place like a freshman seeing a naked girl live for the very first time. Now, his comments about the .45 was a tad misleading. The .45 will jam once in awhile, but not more than any other firearm and the fact it’s still one of the most sought after and popular handguns in the world speaks to the creative genius that is John Browning.

Scenes I Love: In the Line of Fire


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1993’s In the Line of Fire was and continues to be one of my favorite action-thrillers. What’s not to like about a film that has John Malkovich playing a rogue and mentally-unstable CIA assassin who has decided that he wants to assassinate the current President of the United States. Then there’s Clint Eastwood as the last living Secret Service agent who failed to prevent Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

The film was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and was both tense and thrilling in equal amounts. Yet, the film also took some time to develop the relationship between Eastwood’s aging Secret Service agent with a much younger, but capable agent played by Rene Russo. This is a relationship that starts off as quite adversarial but one that gradually moves past that into one of respect then romance.

It was the scene with the two characters taking a break from the dangers of their job to debate the role of women in the Secret Service. It makes Eastwood’s character sound very old-fashioned and while it annoys Russo’s character to no end there’s a sort of playful and flirty byplay between the two throughout the scene. It’s a scene that culminates with Eastwood’s character predicting through years of experience that Russo’s agent character has shown interest in him and thus planting the seeds of a budding romance.

This is the scene I’ve chosen to continue the march towards next week’s Valentines Day.

Scenes I Love: Nichijou


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I’ve been pretty open about my love for anime and, of late, my love for the incredibly funny and irrelevant anime series Nichijou.

This is a series where it runs on it’s own logic that may not makes sense to us, but definitely adds to the hilarious scenes, moments and overall tone of the show. This particular scene is from episode 16 and has Yukko visiting the new coffee shop to try the place out. Ok, nothing funny about it so  far, but this is no ordinary coffee shop but one that serves all those fancy espresso type drinks.

So, this scene just ends up even more hilarious when one thinks of their very first time entering a Starbucks or an espresso cafe having no idea how to order those fancy drinks. For most people not in their 20’s coffee was either black or with cream and served small, medium or large. We didn’t know what that “Tall” meant small or that “Grande” meant medium and don’t even get me started on “Venti”.

This scene just brought back memories of seeing people new to such coffee houses trying to order their coffee and acting as if they know what they’re doing when everyone around them, especially the barista, knows they have no clue what’s going on.