The Inconsistent Writer

A little over two years ago, a few friends and I embarked on a little known journey called The 30 Day Movie Challenge . Every day we'd post a new photo (or video) on Facebook highlighting a favorite film dedicated to that day and embrace our inner movie geek. When the challenge started to draw to a close, we still wanted more. With only a few days remaining, we quickly cobbled together 30 more days; 30 more categories in which we would celebrate our love of film and sharing with each other the silly surprises each of us would post. In all honesty, I couldn't wait to get up in the morning, access my list where I had quickly jotted down each day and the corresponding movie that went with it. It was a joyous occasion, even if it was rater trite and mostly meaningless. But we had fun, damn it! So, a couple of weeks ago, I had the crazy notion to try and compile a third list. Arrange more sub-genres. Collect additional movie subjects. Consolidate years into decades. This list co

"You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else." Tyler Durden, Fight Club (1999) If nothing more, Fight Club always took me down a peg or two when I started to think that I might-be, could-be, or wanted-to-be better than anyone else. Although I never agreed with every philosophical viewpoint that Tyler Durden was trying to make, he went against the grain of the status quo, spoke against the objectivity of materialism and gave a great big defiant middle finger to being a slave of consumerism. For that reason alone it is commendable.

" The Godfather is the I-ching . The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question. What should I pack for my summer vacation? 'Leave the gun, take the cannoli.' What day of the week is it? 'Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.'" Joe Fox, You've Got Mail  (1998) When presented with the challenge to help a friend in need, Joe provides strategic advice taken directly from The Godfather . His friend, Kathleen, balks at the advice given with her response, "What is it with men and The Godfather?" Last week I quoted The Godfather directly. I personally think it offers all sorts of great advice, and if you want me to, I could give you 9 off the top of my head right now. (Well, maybe not 9, but you get the idea.) Of course, some of them may not be valid for all walks of life, but many of them could be. And men seem to love and appreciate this Godfather wisdom more than women. I’m not really sure why,

Tuesdays from this day forward will be known as  Top 5 Tuesdays . I may not post a Top 5 List every week, but when I do, it'll be on Tuesday. (If you just read that last sentence out loud, and in the voice of the " most interesting man in the world ", like I just did, score one extra point just for you!) Everybody loves a good action movie. Well, almost everybody. Any why not? We love watching our hero being thrown into one of several seemingly implausible and improbable situations where guns are blazing and complete property destruction is the end result. But what about the action sequence? Where it's just a series of quickly-paced sequences that follow our hero -- or a character that we haven't even been introduced to yet -- to complete an impossible objective. Maybe it's an unknown and unstoppable intruder inside the White House. Maybe it's a cat and mouse car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Or maybe it's a bank robbery that goes fro

"Because a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man." Don Corleone, The Godfather  (1972) If there was one constant theme throughout the entire film of The Godfather , it was family. Business was family and family was business. There wasn't a dividing the line between the two because one almost always relied upon the other. Don Corleone always put his family first and one could also argue that it eventually became his demise.

Kevin Smith posted this morning that at 4:20 AM (his pun more-than-likely intended) he started writing the third and final chapter of Clerks : THE BEGINNING OF THE END 20 years ago today, we started shooting CLERKS. 20 years later, with no plan or provocation, I jumped out of bed at 4:20 this morning and started writing CLERKS III. It's been like hanging out with old friends. And after 2 hours of tapping the keys and giggling, I have come to a conclusion... CLERKS III will be the best film I'll ever make. And while I'll let a majority of his other films slide under the radar right now (even though I do believe that his craft as a screenwriter peaked with Chasing Amy ), his move here to make a third installment of Clerks (especially when his second venture with the same characters wasn't any better), seems awfully sophomoric. I get it, dude, you're an immature guy and you like to talk and write about immature things. I listen to your pod-casts regularly and

"There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. You stick with that, and everything else is cream cheese." Coach Finstock, Teen Wolf  (1985) As I begin the long and familiar road back to my blogging roots -- writing inconsistently and leaving my movie review site to slowly wither and die -- I've decided to dedicate Mondays to Movie Advice. It's short, sweet, and super easy to post on a weekly basis when all I need is the following: (1) a movie quote, (2) a couple of sentences of personal insight or commentary, and (3) most importantly, letting the quote speak for itself. Today's quote -- while potentially sound advice -- is put here just because I've always found it funny. And while this movie hasn't done anything but aged poorly in its almost thirty years in existence, the lea