Make him and offer...

I recently filled out one of these circulating lists, asking me to mark each movie on the list I had seen. Apparently if you had seen more than 85 films, “you had no life.” Out of 243 on the list, I had seen… (wait for it)… 167 (or just shy of 2x no life).

I love movies. I am the guy that buys a dvd rather than rent. I’ve taken my collection and put it into a database so I can find movies more easily and to help prevent me from buying duplicates (which has sadly happened). Although, this probably falls more into the “Fred is a geek” category than “Fred loves movies.” (Hopefully the Harley counters it)

Anyway, the title here reflects something I’ve spent way too much time contemplating. When you ask most of my friends who their favorite actor is, the most common answer is either Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. Me? I have a hard time answering with just one. I’d most likely give a list of my top three — Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, and Al Pacino.

Sometimes I change my mind about the placement on the list. If I happened to re-watch Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks might jump up a notch. If I saw Godfather II, De Niro rises. So the list constantly gels (lets not forget Morgan Freeman of course), but in all, the top 3 always seem to be Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino.

Yet, I digress. The bottom line here, is that after long and serious contemplation (well, as serious as arbitrary thought can provide), I’ve decided that simply, I like Al Pacino more than Robert De Niro.

Let me say this again… Robert De Niro is one of my favorite actors. Let’s face it, without De Niro, some of my favorite movies would just be horrible. Midnight Run proved De Niro could be funny (sure he was funny in others, but Midnight Run is just that good). In Raging Bull, there’s no way you can’t be awed by what the man brings to the screen. Godfather II? I mean, to take a Marlon Brando character and make it even better… wow. The list goes on, and we can talk for hours about De Niro’s performances… but in the end, I like Al Pacino more.

I’ve always joked that if I could ever make a movie, I’d want Al Pacino to give a speech. In my opinion, no one (and I mean no one) can top an Al Pacino speech. From the Scent of a Woman honor tirade to the pep talk in Any Given Sunday, from the funeral in City Hall to the end of The Devil’s Advocate, if there’s a speech in a movie, no one will deliver it better than Pacino.

Both De Niro and Pacino have range, sure… I mean what De Niro did in A Bronx Tale was fantastic, but to me… when you look at Donnie Brasco and The Godfather(s)… I mean wow. To go from Michael Corleone to Lefty? Forget about it.

So why do I like Pacino more? For a while, I didn’t. For many years I thought De Niro was simply the finest actor in the world. Then, as I grew older, I noticed that I re-watched Pacino moves more often than De Niro’s. From Serpico to Godfather to Donnie Brasco to Glengarry Glen Ross to you name it… I re-watch Al Pacino movies more than I re-watch De Niro films.

If you can watch a performance over and over again, there must be a reason. And to me, that reason is Mr. Al Pacino.

Fred saw Iron Man in 2008

I’ve said it before — I love movies. I simply love movies. Sure, not all movies receive my love; horror films and I never got along (except I did like Scream). And sadly, my sister and I have our movie senses switched as I like a good chick flick and she likes the scary ones. But as usual, I digress…

Back in 2002, when I was first posting rants online, I posted a little mini-rant about seeing movies in the theater (the site’s been through so many changes since then that I reposted back in 2007). When I was a kid, and even through high school, seeing movies in the theater brought great joy — even the bad ones. The bad ones? Yes Virginia, even seeing a bad movie in the theater was once a fun thing to do (I remember very well a loud, applauding standing ovation given to the movie Warlock when it ended; wow that was a bad movie). Anyway, I don’t know if it’s getting older, or adding commercials, or even changes in culture, but at this point, I’d much rather wait a few months, pop the film into the DVD, and watch it at home.

Maybe it’s because since 2002 I’ve had big wide-screen TV’s… or maybe it’s because in 2003 I bought that Bose system I always wanted… but nonetheless, if I could choose between watching a film at the house on my couch or going to see one in the theaters, 9 times out of 10 I’ll choose the house. Now I have made exceptions… I absolutely wanted to see the Star Wars films on the big, big screen… and Spider-man… and well most comic book films.

Which brings us back (thank God) to the point of this post… the movies I’ve seen in 2008.

Out of all the films that came out in 2008 (here’s the highest grossing 400 of them), I only saw a whopping four (4) of them. How sad is that? I’ve only seen 4 of the movies that came out in 2008. And out of those four, I saw only one of them in the theater (Iron Man). 

There were many more I’d like to have seen (and still would) such as Hancock, Indiana Jones, Dark Knight, WALL-E, Quantum of Solace, etc. But as of this post, these are the four I’ve seen, along with my patent pending 10 word or less review:

• 27 Dresses
  Chick Flick complete with typical bar song singalong. Ok.
  Yeni says: “It was good. I liked it. Girly movie.” 
   
• 21
  A little slow and long, but good nonetheless.
  Yeni says: “I slept through that movie.” 
   
• Iron Man
  Excellent film. Must stay until after the credits.
  Yeni says: “Good. Fred loves it. I just like it.” 
   
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
  What? Really? How? Well, I saw it in Spanish.
  Yeni says: “Overacted. Like they don’t know how to act.” 

Like most “budget conscious” couples, Yeni and I try to save money when possible. When leaving for our extended trip, we lowered the thermostat to a brisk 65 degrees. After a very snow filled journey home, we raised the temperature up to 74, relaxed for an hour or so, and went to bed early.

Around 4am or so, I heard what I thought was the fire alarm; and not used to using natural gas in the home, I quickly got out of bed to investigate. You see, I like to avoid gas fueled explosions when possible, and assumed that the alarm would be followed by some sort of Bruce Willis / Jerry Bruckheimer fireball explosion. Well, no fire, but this alarm was so, so very loud.

When my eyes gained focus, I looked up high and noticed this wasn’t the smoke detector, but rather the Carbon Monoxide alarm. Well, we shut off the heater, got some warm clothes, tried to call 911 from the VoIP phone (and then had to use the mobile), and got out of the house. The fire department showed up and Yeni and I enjoyed the reflections of the emergency lights on the snow (I told Yeni they were her Christmas lights). We stood outside and let the fresh air remove our nausea and headaches. After 45 minutes (or so) of talking with the Fire Department, the levels had lowered enough for us to return inside.

In the morning, a furnace repairman could not find any levels of carbon monoxide. Our neighbor told us he had recently closed a vent when spraying for wasps and thinks that this action may have been the cause. Although we would have liked to have found a definite source of the carbon monoxide, it’s good to know that the alarm is loud enough to wake me from a deep sleep.

We all know that I’m quite a fan of the Buffy show and this is good news for people looking to not work on their computers. The WB apparently is relaunching as an online-only network. Neat idea.

Anyway, I signed up for the beta program… so who knows? Maybe Anya will be coming to my desktop in the near future.

To get me out of the house and paying 11 bucks for a movie… it has to be a movie that excites me (like Iron Man, but let’s talk about that later). I mean after-all, for just 3 bucks more than a ticket price, I can sit in the comfort of my own home, have the ability to pause (rewind, etc), and more importantly – not deal with people.

I truly cannot remember the last time I was at a movie when someone didn’t use their cellphone. Ugh. But at least I know it’s a common problem, because now after some of the movie commercials, you get those director PSAs reminding you to shut off your cellphone. Normally, I always see Sydney Pollack… but today I saw Martin Scorsese’s version (I truly love Scorsese).

The last movie I saw in the theater… (before today) was Spider-man 3. And coincidentally enough, the next movie that I needed to see in the theater was also a Marvel comic – this time… Iron Man. I get so excited about these super-hero movies that I feel I’d be missing out on something if I didn’t see it in a theater.

Fred’s 3 word review of Iron Man: “Iron Man rocked.”

Robert Downey, Jr. is back and was absolutely perfect as Tony Stark. The whole movie was a great tone and I’d say was as enjoyable as a Spider-man (don’t get me wrong… Spidey is my all time favorite… this movie though was really, really good).

The only negative was listening to little terrors talking throughout the whole movie. I truly think if you’re a parent that has not taught your child to sit still and keep thoughts to themselves during a movie, that you shouldn’t be allowed to take kids to the movies.

I took my god-kids with me to see Spider-man 2 and they were well prepared. They knew they weren’t allowed to talk or ask questions. They could get my attention if needed by tapping me… (since it was Spidey, they also knew they couldn’t take a bathroom break until the movie was done but that’s another story). I truly don’t understand how a parent could be so insensitive to others around them.

Maybe next time, I’ll load up on beans before the show… and when the kids start talking or that cellphone rings… I’ll have a little crop dusting.

We enjoy it. We talk on regular voip “lines” and record the chat on a regular off the shelf PC I picked up at Wal-mart.

Anyway, we post the chats on the site in mp3 format, or you can even pick it up on iTunes.

Wanna hear the latest chat? Check it out here. This week is mostly movie talk, very little voip.