2 Comments, Comments, Comments

To all of our readers,

Since we currently have only one super fan who makes all of the comments, the one and only Ed. F., we at Jamie Dixon Cider feel it is necessary, in the words of the great 90's rap duo Tag Team,¹ to say "Party on party people let me hear some noise.  There's a party over here.  A party over there. Wave your hands in the air.  Shake your derriere.  These three words when you're gettin' busy.  Whoomp there it is!"  aka in non-Tag Team-speak, MAKE COMMENTS.  Make them early, often and late.  The comments don't have to be insightful or long or valuable or even positive.  Heck, they don't even have to be in English if you are one our readers from Germany or Russia or Belarus.² You could say "oh that post sucks how could you be so wrong" and we couldn't care less.³  But if you say we are wrong, just be ready to defend yourself in a spirited way, because who doesn't like a good argument every now and then?  Seriously though, we will appreciate any and all comments 'cause we think they can lead to good discussions to all the random nonsense we post.

Sincerely,
DC the Brain Supreme (Marty) and my man Steve Roll'n (Sean)

¹ Tag Team Whoomp! (There It Is) was the first CD that I ever got, way back in the early 90's.  Talk about a classic 90s one-hit-wonder.
² Thanks to Blogger and Google for the really useful Audience Stats that show where all of our views are from.
³ Notice the correct use of couldn't care less.  People mess this up all the time, which drives me crazy as a pseudo grammar nerd.  If I had said we could care less, then that means that we care some and that some amount of caring could actually be reduced.

1 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... The Epic Conclusion

As I mentioned in a previous countdown day, having a daily countdown proved to be harder than I thought.  All the Christmas hustle and bustle with errands and shopping and all that jazz didn't make it any easier.  All excuses I know.  But it's time to finish off the countdown with one huge flurry of Christmas Songs!

Starting off the top 5, we have a tie at numbers 5 and 4 for Santa Claus is Coming to Town by the Jackson 5 and Bruce Springsteen. Both versions are so awesome that each gets a spot.  You have the awesome Motown sound of Jackson 5 and the incomparable all-American rock song of the Boss.  All I know is you better be good for goodness sake...

With the bronze medal at number 3 is All I want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey... great song that is part of a great scene in Love Actually...

At number 2 is Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC.  Such an awesome modern aka, post my birthday, Christmas Song...

And at number one *drum roll* we have the 12 Days of Christmas by the Muppets and John Denver.  I remember always having my Dad play the Muppets record when I was growing up.  Playing Christmas records and being with family around the Christmas tree in Christmas morning.   It doesn't get much better than that...

Bonus... Jimmy Fallon, the best late night host and chronic sketch laugher, did a great version too...
http://gawker.com/5433562/jimmy-fallon-and-the-muppets-sing-the-12-days-of-christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas.  Merry Christmas to All!!!

0 Top 10 Twitter Accounts

I am a big fan of Twitter. It is an extremely useful tool, a great way to stay on top of things and a good place for aggregation of information. Additionally, you dont have the same annoying things that you by now have come to expect with facebook. It's simple, streamlined and a great conduit. I follow about 350 accounts on Twitter which are all over the map. News services, fantasy baseball information, fake parody accounts; it runs the gamut. So without further ado, here are my 10 twitter accounts to follow, in no particular order, with some included rationale.

10: @Dadboner

I can't say enough about Karl Welzein from Grand Blanc Michigan. He can't wait for the weekend and he loves a good celebraish. This joke account is written in character and is basically a daily or semi-weekly comedy strip following Karl and his roommate Dave's ridiculous antics. Worth a follow and if you find yourself truly bored, read his tweets from the beginning, chronicling his slow descent.


9: @sbnation

A sports website which doesn't take itself too seriously. They have a blog for any team you could think of, the writers are funny, and they love a good gif. Andrew Sharp is one of my personal favorites for his embracing of the ridiculousness as well as his Troll Tuesday columns

8: @JPosnanski

For my money, Joe Posnanski is one of the best sportswriters out there. He writes often and on many topics and is an extremely easy writer to read. He was pilloried for his book on Paterno, and rightfully so for its lack of depth and insight on the Sandusky allegations, but he is an excellent writer with many opinions which are worth considering.

7: @BobbyBigWheel
A Brooklyn based attorney, he writes for sbnation but is worth following for his puns and jokes as well as for his knowledge and insight into the NYC food scene. He actively interacts with his followers, which is an important aspect of Twitter; the ability to have a conversation with a complete stranger. If you are coming to visit New York, he is a good source for places to eat.

6: @keithlaw
A baseball writer for ESPN who used to work in the front office of the Blue Jays, Keith Law is worth a follow for his sarcasm alone. Incredibly knowledgeable about baseball, but also provides insight through his meadowparty blog on cooking, restaurants, board games, music and movies, among other things. He doesn't take himself too seriously and is a good follow if you like baseball.

5: @bruce_arthur
A Canadian sports journalist, Bruce Arthur is a great follow. He opines frequently on "American" issues such as gun control and the presidential election, and interacts with many followers on Twitter. Provides an interesting look at America through the eyes of a neighborly Canadian.  Additionally, I love it when he tweets on a NFL Sunday about the CFL, just throwing me for a loop. I still don't know what a rouge is.

4:@robdelaney
Incredibly crude but incredibly hilarious basically sums up Rob Delaney. A comedian, he tweets often and almost no subject is taboo. He had an ongoing series during the 2012 election hectoring Mitt Romney for various things. If you want to laugh but also feel sick to your stomach at times, give Rob a follow.

3: @smartfootball
Another NYC based lawyer, Chris Brown, writing under the name smart football gives his nuanced and thoughtful take on all levels of football. He looks at the X's and O's but boils it down so that a layman or relative newcomer could understand what he talks about. A good follow if you like football.

2: @Filmdrunk
A comedian who writes movie reviews, Vince Mancini aka Filmdrunk posts entertaining links, funny film reviews and humorous social commentary. I feel like me writing this review comes straight from the pages of Readers Digest. The point is, he's funny and links to funny shit.

1: @OldHossRadbourn
A parody baseball account of a long dead pitcher, Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won 60 games in 1884. This account mocks and derides anything and everything around baseball and also addresses other ridiculous cultural phenomena.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 6

I've realized daily countdowns are harder than you think they would be.  It can be hard coming up with witty descriptions for Christmas songs day after day.  But the show must go on.  Every countdown deserves to be fully completed.  Hopefully the Mayans don't try to interfere with ending the world.  That would probably be a bummer right?

So onto the countdown, at number 6 Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney...

8 Best Movies of 2001

Here's the much anticipated best movies of 2001 showdown...

Sean:

Good lord. Talk about your dregs. This was a bad year for film. Many of the movies that were nominated for or won Academy Awards I did not see or I did not think were noteworthy. I was never going to see Gosford Park or Moulin Rouge, and I thoughts the Lord of the Rings movies were idealized fluff that were far too long. With the benefit of hindsight, Lord of the Rings would have made a great miniseries in the same vein as Game of Thrones. But perhaps you needed a Lord of the Ring to make a Game of Thrones (and GOT is way too violent and sexualized for a major cinema release). 

However, there were a couple of films that stood out, with my nomination for best movie of the year at the end.

Enemy at the Gates- A pretty standard action flick. The fact this is even listed here shows the lack of depth of quality film making as well as my general ignorance of the movies that came out this year.

Zoolander- A movie that I remember seeing previews for and thinking it would be awful. However, this was in reality a very funny movie to watch. This film developed a cult following which quickly bloomed into a full on cultural sensation, which sadly ruined many of the funny lines of the movie. 

Mulholland Drive- David Lynch. He sucks. Stupid movie that went nowhere.

Spy Game- This was an even better action flick than enemy at the gates, adding the element of spycraft and espionage, and casting Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in the two leading roles. A very enjoyable movie to watch. Blackhawk Down also falls under this heading.

I would write about Vanilla Sky here, but I think you will have enough to say about that movie for the both of us.

Oceans Eleven was the start of the ensemble cast movies, at least in my recent memory. Clearly they have been going on for a while before this, but this movie kicked off a flood of movies that followed it. 

I think the best movie of 2001 was Training Day. Denzel Washington up until this point had mostly if not always played the upstanding black character in a movie. However, in Training Day, he turned heel, playing the role of a dirty cop who would do whatever it took to get the results he wanted. He won an Oscar for his acting and the film did an excellent job, at least to my uninformed eyes and brain, conveying a little of what it was like to be a cop in an inner city.

Marty:

Wow, you are right.  2001 was a horrible year for film. Trash on trash on trash.  

Quick overview of the nominees...

Gosford Park: the token English film that is always nominated

Moulin Rouge: well made musical  but is still a musical.  The right way to see a musical is go to the actual show.¹

Lord of the Rings movies I don't think I have ever been able to stay awake for any of the trilogy.² Game of Thrones is so much better than Lord of the rings.  

A Beautiful Mind: the best of the nominees.  A solid and entertaining movie. Just not the best of the year.  

In the Bedroom: don't remember anything about this movie. I'd imagine it is depressing cause that's what the Oscars do.  

Other movie wise, you left out Ali.  Very solid biopic and Will Smith is awesome as Ali. He should have won over Denzel in Training Day.  

Speaking of Training Day, movie is really sweet to watch. Denzel is awesome in the heel role. I'd say it is the second best movie of the year. However, as you alluded to, Vanilla Sky was the best movie of 2001.  I'm sure this will be my lowest rated film of the year choice but haters always gonna hate.³  Vanilla Sky is an intense, thriller  with great performances that really makes you think about life and what makes life worth living. I've seriously thought about what I would do if I was given the option of either living out my life or instead entering into a lucid dream where I could relive my life over and over.  Would I always make the same choices in life? Or would my life by vastly different due to random events that I have no control over? Or would I end up exactly where I am because my choices will always be my choice? Or if I relived part of my life that had less heartache would I be better off?  I'm not sure how everything would end up, but I''m sure that it would be interesting to have the option to find out. Like the tech support dude says, "There are no guarantees, but remember: Even in the future, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour."  

So at the end of the day Vanilla Sky beats out Training Day because the film had something bigger to say than just a classic good cop vs. bad cop story.  

Sean:

You are right that "A Beautiful Mind" is the best of those nominees, and I didn't even see it. British period pieces can all go hang, if you ask me. You are spot on with Vanilla Sky. I think the acting in Training Day was better than the acting in Vanilla Sky, but the underlying message of the movie in Vanilla Sky was the best of all the movies made in 2001. Training Day isn't a movie that you would walk out of and discuss what things meant and what they did not. Vanilla Sky was. VS had you pondering existential questions and I wonder how much better it would have been with a better actor than Tom Cruise⁴ in the main role. That's interesting that you think Ali should have won. I saw it in theaters and I walked away unimpressed. I thought ALI was too long, boring, and just not an enjoyable movie to watch. Will Smith is made for a big budget action movie⁵ or a helpful black man role.⁶ Him in a biopic just doesn't work for me. 

Don't get me started on Peter Jackson. How do you make 3 movies out of a 333 page kids book? I guess the Twilight people know a thing or two about that. I would imagine people rated VS low because they were either confused about it or they did not like the ending, which is not really a happy one. I think this wraps up 2001, so it's onto 2002.

Marty:

By the way there was literally no chance that I would give you the last word on a discussion that involves the greatness that is Will Smith.  Will Smith transformed himself in Ali.  The film itself was so-so but Will Smith's performance as Ali was top-notch, which is why he should have won.  He's the biggest movie star in the world and almost every movie he makes is entertaining as hell because of him, which in my opinion is underrated.  Take I am Legend for example.  The entire film is basically him talking to himself or his dog.  There are only a few other actors who could have pulled that off.  Tom Hanks does that in Castaway and he gets an Oscar nomination, but Will Smith gets nothing.  Should he push himself more? Yes.  Was he wrong in turning down the role in Django? Maybe, but if he doesn't want to say the n-word over and over then that's his call.   But seriously, you know exactly what you are going to get when you go to a Will Smith movie: charm, charisma and entertainment.  

¹  Peter Jackson is such a 1 trick pony.  His other movies like King Kong have been unspectacular at best. And his newest trilogy is a poor man's Lord of the Rings.  Seriously, 3 movies for the Hobbit.  That is insane.  I think Peter Jackson would make Green Ham and Eggs a trilogy if he had a chance.

²   Yes a bit pretentious, but of course I'm going to say since I just ordered season tickets for Broadway musicals.  Who is fancy now?

³  The film is 40% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.8 on IMDB.

⁴  At this point, Tom Cruise had just finished his divorce from Nicole Kidman phase, so he was throwing himself into his work, with little to no attention to his craft; See also Liam Neeson after the late passing of his wife.

⁵  I Am Legend, ID4, Hancock, Wild Wild West, MIB, Bad Boy, Bad Boys 2

⁶  Legend of Bagger Vance, Hitch, Pursuit of Happyness

0 Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer Breakdown

Oh man, I was just looking at recent posts on the blog and if you just took a causal glance you'd think we were a Christmas song blog.  But, that's far from the truth.  We have lots of other random and less than useful things to rant about, which you can see in the flurry of posts today.  So now onto the first in a never ending series of trailer breakdowns because who doesn't love a good trailer.  

The Star Trek reboot or rewhatever from 2009 was beyond big time.¹  *Spoiler Alert* it might just end up my pick for film of 2009, if we ever get to that point. But here is a breakdown of the recent teaser-trailer.²

1. Bad Robot logo... now this is going to be sick³
2. Patrick Stewart's voice? He's the bad guy? Wait what?... 5 minute internet search... Oh not that cool it's the voice of some other British actor.  Those Brits all sound the same to me.
3. British guy says he is returning for vengeance. Classic bad-guy motivation.  Love it.
4. Captain Kirk, he's looking pretty intense.  Don't mess with the Captain ever.
5. Red city with red plants and then a cliff jump OMG!
6. New blonde chick.  Can't go wrong with that casting.
7. Inception like BBRAAAAAAAAA, BRAAAAAAAAA, BRAAAAAAAA.  Thanks Chris Nolan for creating that trend.
8. Spock with a gun.  Dude is all business.
9. Spaceship in water. Wait is this a Star Trek reboot sequel and a Hunt For Red October sequel in one?  I see it going like this Spock is actually related to Sean Connery's character and he's out for revenge.  Is your mind blown?
10.  Sparks in the cockpit of the Enterprise.  You'd think a billion dollar spaceship would be better constructed. But it is always blowing up and sparking.  Maybe it was caused by Harold from smoking up too much weakening the strength of the hull.
11. Spock running a lot like Tom Cruise.  Maybe Tom Cruise was hired as a running consultant on the movie.  He does have the best run in the biz.
12. Cities blowing up.  This British guy isn't messing around at all.
13.  Closing logo.  Very nifty.

Conclusion... This film is going to be awesome.  Thanks J.J.!

¹ I don't care that there are inconsistencies with the Star Trek universe in the 2009 film.  Trek nerds have way too much free time on their hands.  It's a film not a bible.
² I was planning on breaking down the just released trailer, but it isn't blog friendly and requires you to view it on iTunes, so I'll stick with the older teaser, which isn't much different anyways.
³ Insert random comment here about how I am a J.J. Abrams fan boy. J.J. Abrams is the man.  He always will be. I will always write about how he is the man.

0 The Best Movie (Album) of 2012

For the last 5 or 6 years, the popular trend has been to write a year in review column or column(s), talking about the best of every category that the writer has experienced that year. That is way too ambitious for me, but I think I can nibble a little bit at the edges and talk about some of the best things I have experienced during 2012. So without further ado, here is my best movie suggestion for 2012.

Author's Note: I had to go back and look and see what movies were actually released in 2012. Due to my failure to see many movies in the theater combined with the paltry showing from earlier in the year, this post is going to be about music.

The best album, for my money for 2012 was the Lumineer's self titled album "The Lumineers". This album was playing basically from August until now for me. Every track on the album is catchy but every track is different and unique in it's own way. I first found myself listening to Big Parade over and over, but then I started playing Dead Sea and that morphed into Ho Hey, and currently Stubborn Love is my favorite. The lyrics are simple and the music has a gospel/indie rock/Mumford and Sons like sound. If you have not yet listened to it, go check it out on spotify or youtube.

You may recognize Stubborn Love from a Dick's Sporting Goods commercial (which made Siobhan cry) of two brothers playing baseball. Good shit.

0 Fantasy football

Fuck fantasy football. It's the worst. Arbitrary bullshit where only a modicum of skill is required. Sundays are ruined. I don't root for the Vikings anymore, I root for the players on my fantasy team. What the fuck is that? What's the point of having a tribalistic attachment to a team based on a geographic boundary if I don't even follow through on it? So I am throwing in the towel and quitting fantasy football. Fantasy baseball enhances a sport which can be boring at times to watch whereas fantasy football only takes away from the actual sport. You can make the argument that fantasy football means that tonight's dog shit Jets-Titans game is important, but that is spurious to me. If you aren't a Jets or Titans fan, why watch what surely will be an un-enjoyable boring game. One more week of setting my lineup and then I will be throwing in the towel.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 7

The Christmas song countdown is starting to get into the heavy hitters.  At number 7, we have the Christmas Song by Nat King Cole.  I'm not sure there has been anyone quite as cool, as classy or as smooth as Nat King Cole.  Although it's been said many times and many ways, Merry Christmas to you...

By the way Chappelle's Show had an awesome clip with Nat King Cole...

Comedy Central

Completely unrelated to Christmas, but Chappelle's Show was beyond big time.  So many classic skits and so many references that are still used today.  Sure, that might make me sound old but the show is still really funny and is a great take on race in society.  Skits like the Black White Supremacist, the entire Wayne Brady episode, the Mad Real World and Fear Factor with Tyrone Biggums are all classics.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 9 and Number 8

Just a quick weekend update for the Christmas song countdown...

At number 9, we have the best version of Jingle Bells out there by the one and only Mr. Frank Sinatra.  Who doesn't love those J I N G L E bells?

At number 8, another all time classic White Christmas by Bing Crosby.  No explanation needed...

 

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 11 and Number 10

Many apologies for missing the countdown on Thursday.  I'm sure my many devoted readers or reader if they exist were heart broken yesterday.  Sadly, the real world of actual work¹ and a pointless continuing legal education class² meant I was very short on time to blog.  But don't worry!  I'm back today with a double header to make up for missing yesterday.

Coming in at Number 11 is Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon.  Obviously a classic...

Next at number 10 is Little Drummer Boy by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.  This is by far the best and definitive version of Little Drummer Boy by an American legend.  A Christmas song so good that it almost made the definitive Summer 123 song countdown twice! Just think a song about Christmas was almost in a summer song list.  That is cray. Pa rum pum pum pum...

¹ Contrary to popular belief held by my roommate, my friends and my family, I actually have a job that requires actual work by an actual lawyer.  I can't maintain my above 100% efficiency by doing nothing all the time.  I think they are all hatin' cause they wish they had my job.  As always haters always gonna hate.  

² Yesterday's CLE class was about the Landlord Tenant relationship, which you would think would have been a very good topic for me since I'm constantly thinking about becoming a slum...er landlord.  But, you never know when you get a roomful of lawyers involved.  And in the case of last night, it was not good.  The presenter basically copied meaningless lists from the internet about and one lawyer kept on talking about her problems as a tenant and a buyer in NYC.  Seriously, I could not care less that you had an awesome apartment in NYC and that your neighbor was paying $800 in rent control for an apartment that should have been $3,500. Blah, blah, blah.  End Rant. 

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 12

Coming in at number 12 in the countdown is Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys.  Classic song by a classic American rock band. Doesn't get much better than that...

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 13

Even though my fellow blogger hates Christmas music and has a long standing feud against Christmas for valid reasons, I'm not going to let his negativity seep into my positivity. Although, he better watch out Fox News might declare him to be a head terrorist in the war against Christmas.  Christmas music might be cheesy, sentimental and over-the-top at times, but it is still awesome because any song can instantly make you think of fun time you had in the past when it was playing.

So coming in at number 13 is an oldie but a goodie, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee with a bonus Christmas light show...

By the way I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into making one of the Christmas light shows. I can't wait to try to make one.  It is the perfect way to spread Holiday cheer to all of your neighbors and maybe cause a few seizures on the way.

0 Christmas Music

I hate it. Can't stand the stuff. With two exceptions. The two best Christmas songs EVER are Alvin and the Chipmunks "Christmas Don't Be Late"

and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You

I dare you to name a better song. Your only argument that might sway me would be something from the Home Alone soundtrack.

0 The 14 Days of Christmas Songs... Number 14

After watching DMX sing perhaps the finest version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I've become inspired to have my own countdown of the best Christmas songs.

I'm only limiting the countdown to Christmas songs, sorry Adam Sandler, but his Hanukkah song is still awesome with classic lines like, "You dont need Deck the Halls or Jingle Bell Rock
Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock--both Jewish!" and "O.J. Simpson--not a Jew!"

So coming in at number 14 is Last Christmas by Wham! Words can't describe how big time this video is... The 80s at its finest...

 

0 The Best Movies of 2000

Because we have a wealth of movie knowledge, love talking about movies and the Academy Awards are horrible, we have decided to go year-by-year discussing what we each thought were the best movie or movies of the year.  No point system or some arbitrary ranking system, just two dudes B.S.'ing and making random arguments   If you think we messed up, are completely insane or left a movie out, comment and add to the conversation... 

Marty:

Wow, 2000 was a weird year for movies.  The top grossing movie was that horrible Grinch movie staring Jim Carrey and Scary Movie finished in the top 10.  However, 2000 is one of the rare years that I actually agree with the Oscars choice for best picture.¹ Gladiator was the best picture.  An epic film, with epic battles and epic speeches   Russell Crowe is at his best as Maximus, Joaquin Phoenix is great as the creepy Commodus and Ridley Scott is solid as ever directing.  The movie holds up pretty well with great rewatchability 2 years later. Ugh, I'm getting old. Plus, I'm a sucker for anything that deals with the Roman Empire.  Add it all up and Gladiator was the top movie of 2000.

Sean:

You are starting out with a bang here, and it really is tough to disagree with your Gladiator suggestion. I agree with your Gladiator nomination, and thought it was the movie of the year for 2000. It is an epic movie, one of the few that I would put in the epic movie pantheon and a movie you can rewatch over and over. The acting is fantastic, and it was the movie that really put Russell Crowe on the world's stage. The action scenes are many and varied, from a Roman legionary army battling barbarians in modern-day Germany to a fight in the Colosseum.  But I think the argument could also be made for several other movies that came out in 2000 and are deserving of praise.

Boondock Saints came out in early 2000 and is a cult classic when it comes to movies. The Irish brothers who turn into modern day Robin Hoods with more than a dash of vigilantism is a very well known movie and a solid action flick. 

American Psycho also came out in 2000 and this satirically dark take on 1980's Wall Street and the culture that rose up around it is a very interesting movie with a very interesting approach. You never know by the end of the movie if it was all just a series of dreams or actual events, but the tale is a lurid and sordid one. 

Billy Elliot was a movie I saw in college, following a young English boy who just loved dancing and whose family sacrificed everything for him. A bit of a tear-jerker but a very well made movie and it held your attention.

Traffic was well acclaimed and I think it won an Oscar for something. It was well made but nothing I would call the best picture of 2000.²

Marty:

I have a feeling this will be one of the few years that we will actually agree. I thought for sure you'd pick Requiem for a Dream, which I never liked as much as a lot of other people.  

Spot on with Boondock Saints and Traffic. Traffic is typical Soderbergh very well done but missing something.  

American Psycho is pretty big time, Patrick Bateman is one of the best movie characters you will find. Plus, you can't go wrong with the constant barrage of 80's references such as Genesis and the awesome excuse of having to leave in order to return a videotape. Although, I think it is too over-the-top to be the best movie of the year.  

Speaking of other movies from 2000, my second best movie for the year was probably Memento, which is one of Nolan's finest. What took it down a notch for me was that as soon as you see the ending there isn't any reason to watch the movie again, sort of like the Sixth Sense.

Sean:

I knew I glossed over something. I meant to mention Memento. You are right and 6th sense is an apt comparison. Maybe you watch the movie one more time after you know the secret, just to spot the glitches and the continuities that you missed the first time. 

Requiem for a Dream was an eh movie. It was almost like a car crash in movie form, following these 5 people and watching their lives being destroyed. People liked it because it was an edgy movie. 

That is spot-on analysis about American Psycho. Patrick Bateman is a top 5 movie character because he is 80's yuppies excess to a T. And the music is somewhat nostalgic but believable at the same time.

¹Most of the years the Oscars are horribly off e.g., Shakespeare in Love, Million Dollar Baby and anything that involves English period pieces

²Almost Famous was also critically acclaimed and I wish I could opine further on it, but I never actually saw it.