Monday, May 19, 2008

Hush by Deep Purple

I got a certan little girl she’s on my mind
No doubt about it she looks so fine
She’s the best girl that I ever had
Sometimes she’s gonna make me feel so bad

Hush, hush
I thought I heard her calling my name now
Hush, hush
She broke my heart but I love her just the same now
Hush, hush
Thought I heard her calling my name now
Hush, hush
I need her loving and I’m not to blame now

(love, love)
They got it early in the morning
(love, love)
They got it late in the evening
(love, love)
Well, I want that, need it
(love, love)Oh, I gotta gotta have it

She’s got loving like quicksand
Only took one touch of her hand
To blow my mind and I’m in so deep
That I can’t eat and I can’t sleep

Listen
Hush, hush
Thought I heard her calling my name now
Hush, hush
She broke my heart but I love her just the same now
Hush, hush
Thought I heard her calling my name now
Hush, hush
I need her loving and I’m not to blame now

(love, love)
They got it early in the morning
(love, love)
They got it late in the evening
(love, love)
Well, I want that, need it
(love, love)
Oh, I gotta gotta have it

Sunday, May 11, 2008





















77 KICK-ASS, GUY MOVIES
*
Okay, first and up front, I own way too many DVDs. Still I decided to list some of my favorite action-adventure films. Some are classics; some are most definitely B-movies that have held my interest over the years. The criteria for my list is simple: the movie had to be a kick-ass flick that I’d recommend to another guy and I had to own a copy which means I’ve seen it more than once. There is no particular order. They’re listed as I thought of them. So here we go:


1) RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
The absolute coolest action-adventure movie ever made. This is the role Harrison Ford was born to play. A roller-coaster ride of thrills.
2) DIE HARD
Bad guys take-over an entire building to execute the perfect robbery. But they didn’t plan on good-guy cop Bruce Willis being among the hostages.
3) THE GODFATHER
The Coliseum of gangster movies. Period. End of discussion.
4) ALIEN
Lean, tough sci-fi horror tale with well-drawn characters, seat-jumping suspense, and one of the coolest, scariest monsters ever seen on film.
5) ALIENS
Major debate on whether this is one of the rare sequels that is better than the source film. Who cares? They’re both bitchin’ movies.
6) THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)
Errol Flynn isn’t playing Robin Hood. He is Robin Hood. This is the oldest film on my list and it holds up well. I still want to be one of Robin’s Merry Men.
7) JAWS
The shark looks fake. Doesn’t matter. Riveting from beginning to end.
8) TOMBSTONE
One of my favorite westerns. Kurt Russell is Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer is Doc Holliday. About a hundred character actors pop up in his movie and the gunfights are only topped by the razor-sharp dialogue.
9) THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
I love Star Wars. This sequel is better than the source film. The final chapter is somewhat of a letdown and the three prequels are a waste of time.
10) BATMAN BEGINS
The best comic book (or graphic novel if you prefer) inspired movie ever. This movie rocks.
11) COOL HAND LUKE
Paul Newman sentenced to a Southern chain gang. Watch how a myth is created. Great supporting cast. “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
12) THE WILD BUNCH
Old West outlaws attempt one last robbery. From that simple synopsis comes a great movie written and directed by Peckinpah.
13) THE LORD OF THE RINGS (all three as one)
The Tolkien classic as envisioned by Peter Jackson. Not all the storylines work but the battles are kick-butt impressive. Oh, yeah, watching all three in one sitting will take you about twelve hours.
14) SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Spielberg and Hanks. World War II in Europe. Soft center but the opening D-Day battle and the closing battle more than make up for it.
15) PREDATOR
In the South American jungle, Arnold and his mercenaries are picked off one-by-one by an alien hunter on safari. Far-fetched? Yeah, but totally cool.
16) TREMORS
The folks in a remote town are trapped by underground creatures that consider them food. This is what a sci-fi horror film should be. Fun and scary.
17) CASINO ROYALE
A reworking of the James Bond legend starting at the beginning. Daniel Craig makes Agent 007 his own and in one of best Bond adventures.
18) ROB ROY
The Scottish legend. Tough swashbuckler. Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange shine and Tim Roth is a terrific villain. Great ending sword fight.
19) THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
A group of gunfighters defends a poor Mexican village against bandits. McQueen, Yul Brynner, Bronson, and Coburn with Eli Wallach top-notch as the bandit leader. Still my favorite western.
20) DIRTY HARRY
Eastwood’s best movie. All that stands between the people of San Francisco and a deranged killer is Detective Harry Callahan.
21) L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
Cops and the mob in 1950’s Los Angeles. Great characters, solid twists. Well-done.
22) THE UNTOUCHABLES
Kevin Costner, along with Sean Connery, form an elite squad to take on Al Capone (Robert DeNiro). Cool story.
23) SAHARA
Bogart and a rag-tag group of soldiers make a last stand at a desert waterhole against a Nazi battalion.
24) INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM
Not as good as Raiders but damn good.
25) INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
Not as good as Raiders but Sean Connery is Indy’s dad.
26) CON AIR
Nicholas Cage is a paroled convict who gets a ride on plane filled with the toughest cons. What could go wrong?
27) SPEED
Cop Keanu Reeves attempts to disarm a moving city bus that has been rigged to explode if its speed drops below 50 mph by madman Dennis Hopper. Sandra Bullock is the spunky bus driver.
28) THE BOURNE IDENTITY
Just buckle up and enjoy the ride as spy-with-amnesia Matt Damon tries to figure out who he is and why people are trying to kill him.
29) LETHAL WEAPON 2
Better than the source movie with cop buddies Mel Gibson and Danny Glover facing a ruthless South African syndicate. Joe Pesci stands out as a mob informant.
30) UNDER SIEGE
The only Steven Seagal movie worth seeing (except Executive Decision for different reason). Seagal is a Navy cook fighting mercenaries who have taken over a naval warship. Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey are great bad guys.
31) THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES
Eastwood’s best western as a loner who keeps picking up lost people as he flees a relentless posse.
32) THE PROFESSIONALS
Tough, leathery western as a millionaire hires four men – Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode – to free kidnapped wife from a Mexican outlaw.
33) THE PATRIOT
Mel Gibson, after his son is killed, joins the rebels fighting the British Army in Colonial America. You really want to see bad guy Jason Isaacs get his.
34) SOLDIER
Kurt Russell is a man raised from birth to be a soldier in this futuristic sci-fi adventure tale. Simple but way cool storyline.
35) EXECUTIVE DECISION
Kurt Russell and a squad of soldiers sneak aboard a hijacked jetliner in flight to rescue the passengers. Far-fetched but intense. 15 minutes into the movie and you’ll know why it’s the best Steven Seagal movie.
36) FACE/OFF
John Woo directs Nicholas Cage and John Travolta in this bizarre action-packed story. Okay, it’s a little too long but it’s really fun.
37) TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Pierce Bronsan is James Bond in the only non-Sean Connery 007 movie worth seeing until Casino Royale was made.
38) LAST OF THE MOHICANS
The French-Indian Wars. The what? Open a history book. Anyway, the fights with tomahawk and flintlock rifle is totally bitchin’. Even the love story added to the old tale works.
39) PLANET OF THE APES
Astronaut Charlton Heston lands on a planet where evolution did a flip-flop. Way corny at moments but it works. One of the best endings ever.
40) THE GREAT ESCAPE
During WWII, the Germans decide to put all the Allied escape artists in one P.O.W. camp. Big mistake on their part. Based on a true story. McQueen on a motorcycle. Big smile.
41) THE DIRTY DOZEN
WWII. Before D-Day. Major Lee Marvin is assigned to train a group of military convicts for a behind-the-lines mission. The Army would never be this desperate. Or would they? In supporting roles are Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas and several other tough guys.
42) ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES
Cagney and Pat O’Brien are best boyhood pals who grow up to be a gangster and a priest respectively. No one is cooler than Cagney when playing a gangster. Add Bogart as another bad guy and a genuinely moving climax and you got a classic gangster flick from the Thirties.
43) THE TERMINATOR
Arnold is a killer cyborg sent back in time to assassinate the mother of the man who will defeat the cyborgs in the future. Did that make sense? Nevermind, it works but don’t attempt translating it.
44) HELLBOY
Graphic novel inspired. A demon baby is found by American soldiers during WWII. He is raised to be a defender of the American way. Hell, I liked it.
45) THE THING
This is one of the scariest movies ever. A group of scientists in the Artic encounter a vicious alien who can inhabit the bodies that it comes in contact with. Kurt Russell stars in this John Carpenter film.
46) FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE
The best Sean Connery as James Bond 007 adventure. Some prefer Goldfinger, others name Thunderball. I like this one.
47) STAR WARS
The best B-movie with a major studio budget ever made. I stood in line more than once to see Luke, Han, Leia, and company fight Darth Vader. While Empire is the best in the middle trilogy, this works just fine thank you.
48) IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Veteran Secret Service Agent Clint Eastwood, who failed to save JFK from assassination, protects another President from madman John Malkovich. Renee Russo is another agent.
49) HILDALGO
Viggo Mortensen, from Lord of the Rings, is a cowboy who enters his mustang in a 3000-mile race across the Arabian desert.
50) MARATHON MAN
Dustin Hoffman plays the most unlikely thriller hero as he fights Nazi Laurence Olivier. The torture scene to get Hoffman to talk using a dental drill will give you the sweats. "Is it safe?"
51) CELLULAR
Fun, action movie as kidnapped Kim Basinger’s only hope is slacker Chris Evans who she has accidentally contacted on his cell phone. Jason Statham is the main bad guy and William Macy pops up as a desk sergeant in a terrific supporting role.
52) RED EYE
Hotel manager Rachel McAdams, on an overnight flight to Miami, discovers that her seatmate Cillian Murphy, from Batman Begins, is terrorist who plans on using her to assassinate a government official staying at her hotel.
53) THE MUMMY
Dumb, wacky and non-stop fun as Brendan Fraser and company unearth the title character while searching for long-lost treasure at old ruins in the Arabian desert.
54) INDEPENDENCE DAY
Alien attack Earth. None of this storyline is believable but it doesn’t matter. When this movie shifts into high gear, it doesn’t slow down a moment for logic.
55) THE MASK OF ZORRO
Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Anthony Hopkins in a swashbuckler in Old California as the old Zorro trains a new Zorro to defeat the bad guys.
56) DEEP RISING
On the high seas, mercenaries arrive at the ocean-liner they intend to rob only to discover that a monster from deep has taken over the ship. Treat Williams is the wisecracking, cowardly hero.
57) THE DEEP BLUE SEA
At sea, a storm unleashes scientifically enhanced sharks that take over their floating lab and the research crew becomes bait. Watch Samuel L. Jackson.
58) VANISHING POINT
Car chase movie. The whole movie is a car chase. A guy bets that he can drive his Dodge muscle car from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. The local cops and Highway Patrol think different.
59) OPEN RANGE
Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner are cowboys who anger a big ranch owner. A little slow in the beginning but a long, cool gunfight at the climax more than makes up for it.
60) LAWMAN
Marshal Burt Lancaster arrives in the town of Sabbath to arrest a group of men who accidentally killed a man during a drunken party in his town. Lancaster won’t be bought off, scared off, or bend the rules while doing his duty. He’s scary.
61) THE FUGITIVE
Doctor Harrison Ford is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. He escapes in a really cool bus-train crash. He searches for the real killer as lawman Tommy Lee Jones searches for him.
62) TRUE LIES
Arnold is a master super spy. Jamie Lee Curtis is his wife who doesn’t know her husband is America’s top secret agent. Fun stuff. Tom Arnold is Arnold’s sidekick buddy.
63) SOUTHERN COMFORT
Military training maneuvers in Bayou country. A squad of National Guard weekenders get lost, steal some locals’ boats then shoot blanks at them. Not a smart plan. Well-done suspenseful little film.
64) A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Average family guy, Viggo Mortensen, takes out two vicious criminals like a hot knife going through butter. The entire town is shocked. Is Mortensen the guy everyone thinks he is? Maria Bello is the wife.
65) THE LAST SAMURAI
The only Tom Cruise movie I like. Cruise is a Civil War veteran who ends up in the middle of a war in feudal Japan.
66) WHERE EAGLES DARE
Richard Burton, Eastwood and an elite group of commandos attempt to rescue a U.S. General from a Nazi mountain stronghold. One action sequence after another. Hard to believe Eastwood plays sidekick to Burton in one of his early roles.
67) FIRST BLOOD
Vietnam vet Sylvester Stallone drifts into a town in the Pacific Northwest. He pisses off the local authorities who then proceed to piss him off.
68) HEAT
Career criminal Robert DeNiro and veteran cop Al Pacino face off in the streets of Los Angeles in this high-octane thriller.
69) AIR FORCE ONE
Terrorists take over the President’s plane but they don’t realize that the President is Harrison Ford. Kick but and take names ensues.
70) SILVERADO
This homage to the B-western is just plain fun as gunfighters Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and a young Kevin Costner face the bad guys who have taken over their hometown.
71) RIO BRAVO
John Wayne is the sheriff, Dean Martin and Walter Brennan are his broken-down deputies, and Angie Dickinson is the girl. Howard Hawks directs the smooth screenplay as Wayne holds a prisoner against the bad guys who want him free. Good stuff.
72) LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD
Bruce Willis is back for a fourth time as cop John McClane. This time he must rescue his daughter from the super bad guys with the help of a young inexperienced hacker. Wild ride, with incredible stunts, from beginning to end.
73) DIE HARD 2
This time cop John McClane (Willis) faces renegade military commandos at a snowbound airport. Not nearly as good as the first or the fourth but pretty darn good.
74) SPECIES
Scientists mix alien DNA with human DNA and create a monster. Well, of course. Dumb scientists. Haven’t they ever seen a sci-fi horror flick before.
75) BANDOLERO!
Outlaw brothers James Stewart and Dean Martin ride with hostage Raquel Welch into bandit country to escape lawman George Kennedy. This movie shouldn’t be on any list but every time I turn it on, I watch it to the end.
76) ROAD HOUSE
Big time B-movie. Patrick Swayze is the ultimate bouncer who takes the job of protecting the only clean bar in a mob-controlled town. Fist city, man.
77) THEM! (1954)Giant ants, created by atomic bomb tests, come out of the desert and head for Los Angeles. Really good for a Fifties sci-fi thriller.