It was a quiet and relaxing week and Sideways wins the epic battle of S's

Where I was this week

It’s 5:30am and I’m traveling back to Wichita from a week in Florida with the family.  Other than some good, quality family time there isn’t much else going on for me to report – unless you want to hear about me sitting around a pool in 80 degree weather (I’ll spare you the details).  I did take this picture of a pretty sunset in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Track and Field

I tried not to bug the athletes too much this week and let them enjoy the holidays with their families.  I did get a few messages from some athletes and I will be getting back in touch with them later today to see how their training is going.

This will be the last full week of training on their own before they return to Wichita and the confines of the Heskett Center.  As of today (Monday, Dec 29) we only have 11 days until our season opener at the University of Kansas.  Next week I’ll be previewing that meet.

 “S” Movies

It just happens that one of my shortest blogs will be this week when I have the longest movie review of the alphabet.  There are a whole bunch of awesome movies in the “S” category.

This is the 18th of a 24 part series (we’re almost done!) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 178 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

I own 15 “S” movies and there isn’t a bad one in the lot.  Here’s the list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Worldwide box office)

Sideways (2004, 126 min, R, 7.6, $109m) – One of my all-time favorite movies.  Directed by Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church, this is a buddy movie about a bachelor party gone wrong in wine country.  I remember seeing Sideways in a little theater with a friend and we couldn’t believe how funny it was on first viewing because we didn’t know much about it beforehand.  It’s a very quotable movie and has several memorable (and very R-rated scenes).  Get a group of friends together, pop open a few bottles of wine (no Merlot) and enjoy this classic!

Swingers (1996, 96 min, R. 7.4, $4.5m) – The movie that made the phrase “Vegas baby” popular was also the first starring role for Vince Vaughan.  If ever there was a cult classic film this is it.  Written and co-starring Jon Favreau (who directed Ironman and Elf) it basically just follows around several actor friends while they are trying to make it in Hollywood.  It’s really funny as well as being a pretty good story but Vaughn steals nearly every scene he’s in with his obnoxious personality.  This has got to be one of the most quoted movies of the 90’s.  This movie is “so money” that it didn’t even know it!

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, 120 min, R, 8.1, $377m) – This sensation of a movie hit the theaters without a ton of fanfare but quickly became one of the top movies of 2008.  English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 127 hours) made a very interesting and stylish movie about an Indian teenager and his life told through a game of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”  For me it really brought the slum of India to the forefront and what these kids have to do to just survive, let alone thrive.  It’s cleverly put together and overall just a great movie.

Stripes (1981, 106 min, R, 6.9, $85m) – Bill Murray and Harold Ramis are a couple of down on their luck guys who decide to join the Army in hopes of kickstarting their lives.  It seems like every major star does a military movie and this is Murray’s.  I love this movie, it has so many great lines and funny scenes that bring out Murray’s sarcastic sense of humor (watching him try to do five pushups at the beginning is classic).  I recently saw him in “St Vincent” and I think he is becoming one of our most beloved comic actors of all time because he just seems like a guy you want to hang out with.  It was directed by Ivan Reitman who did the Ghostbusters franchise after Stripes.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977, 96 min, PG, 6.8, $126m) – This is one of the first movies I can recall watching from my childhood and the way Burt Reynolds avoided the police while fronting for a semi hauling a bunch of beer across the country was just cool as heck.  Reynolds is the star but when you watch it over and over again the real comedy comes from Jackie Gleason as the cop in hot pursuit of the Bandit.  Sally Field and Jerry Reed support the leads with great performances as well.  There is nothing special about the plot, this is just a fun movie watching a guy avoid the cops in a fast car while Gleason gives us terms like “tick turd” and “sumbitch!”

Slap Shot (1977, 123 min, R, 7.4, $28m) – A cult classic starring Paul Newman as the player/coach of the Charleston Chiefs minor league hockey team who starts using violence to win games and earn fans for a team that is about to be sold and moved out of town.  I saw this movie for the first time in college with a bunch of college hockey players at Kent State and remember how much they loved this movie.  I watched it again recently and, surprisingly, it holds up well.  Newman is great in the lead role but the majority of the comedy comes from the three “Hanson Brothers” who arrive to the team in the middle of the season and wreak havoc on the opposing players.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012, 122 min, R, 7.9, $236m) – This was another small budget movie that came along at the right time and hit it big.  It didn’t hurt that it happened to co-star two of the most up and coming names in Hollywood with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.  They both play people with mental/emotional problems but find a way to work together in reaching their goals.  You know it’s a great movie when Robert De Niro plays a supporting role and goes largely unnoticed.  It’s not a typical romantic comedy but I guess it could be classified in that genre, and for a date it would be one of the better movies you could find.

Snatch (2000, 102 min, R, 8.3, $83m) – Great movie starring Brad Pitt and Jason Statham about boxing promoters, bookmakers, gangsters, robbers, and jewel thieves.  Entertaining throughout, the best part of this movie is Pitt who plays an Irish Gypsy who turns out to be a heckuva boxer that messes up the gangsters’ fix and all hell breaks loose.  Statham is also great is a more reserved than normal role for him.  If you like this movie also make sure to check out the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels made by the same director (Guy Ritchie) and also starring Statham.

The Social Network (2010, 120 min, PG-13, $224m) – This movie tells how Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and then fought several of his own friends in lawsuits over who really owned the rights to the social network.  Jesse Eisenberg does a great job as Zuckerberg who is shown as a genius, jerk and lonely jealous ex-boyfriend all at the same time.  For better or worse, Facebook changed how many people live their lives and inspired every other social media website that has come since so if anything this will serve as an interesting slice of American history for many years down the road.

The Skin I Live In (2011, 120 min, R, $30m) – This is a Spanish movie starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon who creates a synthetic skin like no one has ever seen before.  I don’t want to tell any more about the plot because when you realize what happens about halfway through the movie you won’t believe what you’re seeing.  Two warnings here: 1) the movie is in subtitles and 2) you may possibly be permanently scarred by watching this movie.  With that being said, I highly recommend watching it but be prepared for a twist like you’ve never seen before.  This is a brave movie that would never get a big release in the US.

Super Troopers (2001, 100 min, R, 7.1, $23m) – This was a super low budget movie with no major stars that became a cult classic years later on video and cable.  It follows several Vermont state troopers, who are a bunch of knuckleheads, and end up trying to save their department by outdueling the police officers in their area.  The movie business is a tricky thing, I’m sure there are lots of great movies that go unnoticed every year and this could’ve easily be one too, but for some reason it caught momentum at the right time and became popular.  The guys who made this movie tried making other movies but none have had the success of Super Troopers.

Sin City (2005, 124 min, R, 8.1, $158m) – This was quite the original movie when it came out almost 10 years ago with its unique visual style.  It also had big names like Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke alongside director Robert Rodriguez (who sure knows how to make women look attractive in this film).  The plot is about a miserable town and how all the different characters are caught up in the corruption of that town.  Even today I think the visual style holds up and if you haven’t seen it you should for that experience alone.

Semi-Pro (2008, 91 min, R, 5.8, $43m) – A lot of people were disappointed by this Will Ferrell movie but I wasn’t one of them.  I appreciated the attempt to satirize the merger between the old ABA and the NBA with a fictional basketball team like the Flint Tropics.  If you haven’t seen this movie, Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, who is the owner and player for the Tropics.  It’s rated R so there is plenty of adult humor but I constantly laugh when I watch this movie.  It’s no Anchorman or Old School but it’s as good as most any other comedy that Hollywood spews out these days.

The Strangers (2008, 86 min, R, 6.2, $82m) – This horror movie starring Liv Tyler is about a couple that is staying in an isolated vacation home when they start being terrorized by three unknown assailants.  There is nothing new in the horror genre here, it’s just done very well.  What I like about this movie is that it doesn’t try to explain why the killers are doing what they’re doing – they’re just crazy, insane psychopaths.  It didn’t have the best ending but I will overlook that because of how much I liked the rest of the movie.

Shakes the Clown (1991, 87 min, R, 5.5, $115k) – This odd little movie was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait (who was the weird talking guy on the Police Academy movies).  I can imagine a lot of people won’t like a movie about an alcoholic clown but this is a great premise.  Basically what happens is a regular comedic movie, except everyone is clowns and everywhere they go is a clown culture.  Yep that’s it.  And with that being the case it makes for a bunch of ridiculous scenes that you have to see to believe.  It won’t win any awards but I give it a thumbs up for creativity and effort.

Wow, I didn’t realize I would like every single movie on this list but I do!  And I REALLY like all of them except the last two (which I just like just a normal amount haha).

Next week

It’s almost time for the indoor season to get going so I’ll be talking about our first meet!  It won’t match this week’s list for quality or quantity but I have seven pretty good “T” movies as we start to wind down on this movie by letter exercise.

As always, I appreciate everyone who reads this blog!  If you keep reading it, I’ll keep writing it!  Until next week, go Shocks!