The Eighth Shelf

Hallelujuah! I finally finished the first shelving unit! Seven whole shelves down, we're officially halfway there!  I've still got a long way to go, but it feels good to move onto the next unit. Yay!

Before I move on, we have added two more titles to previous letters.  Looks like I'll be reviewing American Psycho and A Few Good Men before we take this party train onward.  But then I'm only 3 titles away from letter K. Fun times.

Here's what's in store for the eighth shelf:

1. Just Married
2. Just Like Heaven
3. Just Married
4. The Karate Kid
5. Kicking & Screaming
6. The Kid
7. Kill Bill
8. Kill Bill, vol 2
9. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10. King Arthur
11. King Kong
12. The Kingdom
13. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
14. A Knight's Tale
15. Knocked Up
16. Knowing
17. LA Story
18. Labyrinth
19. Lady in the Water
20. Lady Jane
21. The Lake House
22. Lake Placid
23. Lars and the Real Girl
24. Last Action Hero
25. The Last Boyscout
26. The Last Castle
27. Last Man Standing
28. The Last Unicorn
29. Lawrence of Arabia
30. Layer Cake
31. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
32. Legend
33. The Legend of Zorro
34. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
35. Lethal Weapon
36. Lethal Weapon 2
37. Lethal Weapon 3
38. Lethal Weapon 4
39. Let's Go to Prison
40. The Libertine
41. The Librarian
42. The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
43. Licence to Kill
44. A Life Less Ordinary
45. Life of Brian
46. Lilo & Stitch
47. The Lion King
48. The Little Mermaid
49. Live Free or Die Hard
50. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

Lots of old favorites here, but also some never-before-seen-by-me selections.  Can't wait to jump right in!

Movie #331 - Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park
1993 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 7 min
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight

Oh, I love this movie.  I'm not a big fan of horror flicks, but this one's more action/adventure with a sprinkling of dinosaur horror than a straight-up suspense/horror movie. It's also a touch sci-fi.  And it has some comedy too, kinda.

I first saw this movie in the theater when I was 12.  Loved it then, still love it now.  Considering that it was made in 1993, the dinosaurs are pretty well done.  The concept of the movie - mixing preserved dino DNA with modern DNA to bring back these prehistoric beasts - is pretty cool. And as I remember, there was a lot of buzz around that time of people wondering if it was even possible.  To the untrained layman, it seems pretty plausible.  I hear it's not really, but who cares? Makes a heck of a movie, in my opinion.

With a great mix of characters,a fantastic cast, and the perfect predators as the bad guys (hello, velociraptors!), Jurassic Park is the whole package.  Still love it.

Movie #330 - Juno

Juno
2007 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 36 min
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, JK Simmons, Rainn Wilson

Finally, a movie about teen pregnancy that's not a heart-breaking drama.  In fact, it's funny. Really funny. Ellen Page's quirky Juno is priceless, always quick with the pickup and always ready with an off-beat joke.  Rad.

One of my favorite things about this movie is the cast.  Overall, it's cast really well: Allison Janney has some great moments as Brenda, Juno's stepmom.  Garner and Bateman make the unlikely pair they portray believable.  JK Simmons is the coolest, calmest, most collected dad of a teen mom I've ever seen, but it works. And Michael Cera staked his claim on the charming geek-boy domain with this film, transitioning smoothly from his charming geek-boy character on Arrested Development. It's almost the same character, just on the big screen and in running shorts.  But he does it so well, it makes sense.

Diablo Cody made her screenwriting debut with this gem of a flick, and I'm looking forward to seeing more from her.  With dialogue that's clever and witty, characters that could be your own friends or neighbors, and a plot that's simple but realistic, I really enjoy this movie all around.

Movie #329 - Jumanji

Jumanji
1995 - Rated PG - 1 hr 44 min
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, Bradley Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth, David Alan Grier, Patricia Clarkson

This movie is another classic, although I'm not really sure how that happened.  An evil boardgame traps its players and unleashes African animals and assorted disasters at every turn.  Players can even get sucked into Africa and then spit them back out, like, 20 years later.  Yikes. 

After the movie came out, they actually made this a board game.  People want to play this?!  Ok, I know, it's not real.  But if it's not as terrifying, is it as fun?

Back to the movie... which has some lame CGI animals.  But it was the 90s, so some allowances have to be made. I guess for it's time, the special effects were top-notch.  What I can say for this movie is that the premise is original and it brings you on a fun adventure.  A great movie for kids, not necessarily adults, but if you grew up watching this one, it strikes a nice sentimental note.

Movie #328 - Judgment Night

Judgment Night
1993 - Rated R - 1 hr 50 min
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr, Denis Leary, Stephen Dorff, Jeremy Piven, Peter Greene

Four friends go out for a night of fun and accidentally witness a murder.  Bad guy Denis Leary wants to kill them now.  Bad times. 

In Judgment Night, Emilio Estevez plays a new father who's been itching to get out of the house.  His friends take him out for the night and he almost gets killed. The lesson? New dads need to stay home and help new moms.  Not my opinion, folks, but apparently it's the filmmaker's.  Hey, I didn't write this movie.

Emilio Estevez is not playing hockey but winds up kicking some serious butt.  Denis Leary's evil, but isn't he usually?  There's not really much to this that's original, just some of the circumstances.  But it's your basic bad guys chasing good guys story and it's pretty predictable.  That's all I got here, folks.

Movie #327 - Johnny Mnemonic

Johnny Mnemonic
1995 - Rated R - 1 hr 43 min
Director: Robert Longo
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Henry Rollins

Pre-Matrix Keanu still hadn't earned his acting chops.  In this movie, his talents are just one level up from his Bill & Ted days... not quite at their best yet.  In other news, he stars opposite the chick from Starship Troopers, so that's interesting.

This movie takes place in 2021... sooooo long from now, right? And although we've advanced enough to download 80 GBs of data into people's brains (in exchange for their own memories), we're still sending faxes and dialing up with modems.  Really?  We can imagine memory chips in people's brains but digital phone cables are too much for us to think up in 1995?

Keanu's a "mnemonic courier" who moves info for people. In his head.  He's got something big in there that's too much for his brain to manage so his adventures center around getting that stuff on out.  When he discovers he's got the cure to a futuristic plague-like disease known as NAS, he might have to sacrifice some of himself to save the world. Dun dun DUN!

In its day, I'm sure this movie was pretty rad.  Now, it's kinda lame. Some cool concepts executed poorly, but only because the technology of 1995 wasn't able to look this far ahead.  As we approach 2021, I don't think we're quite where they wanted us to be in some areas, but I think we've made sustantial progress elsewhere.  Somehow, we'll have to muddle through.

Movie #326 - John Candy Collection: Going Berserk

Going Berserk
1983 - Rated R - 1 hr 24 min
Director: David Steinberg
Starring: John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Alley Mills, Pat Hingle, Dixie Carter, Richard Libertini, Ernie Hudson

I'm not really even sure why this movie was made.  I can't even really say what happens here... But those sneaky people at Columbia Pictures know how to get royalties paid on their lesser-selling titles --  just sneak 'em into a collection with two movies people have heard of.  After watching the first two movies (both written by John Hughes), this one seems like an afterthought, a lowlight from John Candy's career.  But the DVD is on the wall, so I gotta watch it.  Them's the rules.

Honestly, who made up these stupid rules anyway?

John Candy is a drummer/limo driver inexplicably engaged to a hot chick (played by Alley Mills, the mom from Wonder Years) who is also the daughter of a congressman.  His adventures with his male friend Chick and a sleazy film director (who cast Candy in his low-budget kung fu movie... as the lead) get him into trouble. He gets handcuffed to a dead Ernie Hudson, which was my favorite four-minutes of the film, and then makes enemies with the leader of an aerobics cult.  Yes, that's what I said: Aerobics Cult.

While the movie does provide for some fantastic "Let's Get Physical" workout moments, it's a terrible movie overall.  Don't waste your time. Seriously, people.