busyrobot.com

I have already written a post on this subject, but after writing it I felt that I had not seen enough of the movies that came out in 2007. There are still a few movies that I have not seen that came out in 2007 that may deserve to be on this list but I have to cut it off here and make a definitive list for the year. So I am going to call this list “My favorite movies of 2007″. To see what I have seen in 2007 (click here) and to see what I have seen in 2008 (click here).

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Once
3. Juno
4. Black Snake Moan
5. Gone Baby Gone
6. Michael Clayton
7. Atonement
8. Grindhouse: Planet Terror / Death Proof
9. Away from Her
10. No Country for Old Men

Other movies I enjoyed this year are…

300
3:10 to Yuma
Hot Fuzz
The Bourne Ultimatum
Atonement
Shoot Em’ Up
Superbad
Knocked Up
I am Legend
The Brave One
Stardust
The Hunting Party
Persepolis
Martian Child

(Edit) 1/12/2008

After writing this post I feel that it is not fair to rate my top ten movies of 2007 until I have seen a few more films. I have been looking at other critics and reviewers lists and I am sorry to say that I have was not able to see as many movies as I would have liked last year. I will be posting a new list at the end of January list my final picks for 2007.

This list reflects only the movies I was able to watch that came out this year. It may change because there are a few movies that came out in 2007 that I was unable to see. To see what I have seen this year follow this link. Here’s the list…

Top Ten

1. Once
2. Juno
3. Black Snake Moan
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. Michael Clayton
6. Hot Fuzz
7. Grindhouse: Planet Terror / Death Proof
8. Away from Her
9. 300
10. No Country for Old Men

Honorable Mention

11. Shoot Em Up
12. Superbad
13. Knocked Up
14. I am Legend
15. The Brave One

This list was taken from www.imdb.com on November 7th, 2007. I am in need of some inspiration of some films to watch so I thought it would be a good idea to make sure that I have seen all the films on this list. Here is where I stand so far. The movies I have seen are in bold…

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Schindler’s List
4. Goodfellas
5. The Usual Suspects
6. The Silence of the Lambs
7. Fight Club
8. The Matrix
9. Se7en
10. American Beauty
11. Léon
12. American History X
13. L.A. Confidential
14. Reservoir Dogs
15. Saving Private Ryan
16. Forrest Gump
17. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
18. Vita è bella, La - It’s a Beautiful Life
19. Braveheart
20. Unforgiven
21. Fargo
22. Mononoke-hime
23. The Green Mile
24. The Sixth Sense
25. Heat
26. The Big Lebowski
27. Trainspotting
28. Groundhog Day
29. Ed Wood
30. Toy Story
31. Lola rennt
32. Twelve Monkeys
33. Haine, La - Hate
34. Toy Story 2
35. Trois couleurs: Rouge - Three Colors: Red
36. Central do Brasil - Central Station
37. The Lion King
38. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
39. Magnolia
40. Chung Hing sam lam - Chungking Express
41. Casino
42. Festen - The Celebration
43. The Straight Story
44. Sling Blade
45. The Nightmare Before Christmas
46. JFK
47. The Insider
48. Before Sunrise
49. Miller’s Crossing
50. Good Will Hunting

Picture galleries have been added to the Busy Robot website. To access this new feature click the Picture Galleries button on the left hand side of the screen. So far the galleries include pictures of Ruthie (the wonder kitty),  Basement Progress, and the infamous Kuyper
Family Reunion / Corn hole tournament. New galleries should be added soon as well.

I’m a little biased about this movie since I graduated from Marshall University. Watching it through my eyes was probably a much different experience than by someone that has never visited Huntington, West Virginia. I thought that overall the movie was good. It was definitely meant to pull at the ol’ heart strings, and in that respect it did a very good job. The only thing that the movie seemed to lack on was football. I was expecting to see a little more on the field action. Maybe I completely missed the point of it though.
First off, I can say other than the diner scenes and some of the house sets everything was filmed in Huntington and looked very authentic. Watching it was like stepping back into Huntington. I even saw my old apartment during the scene where all of the fans are walking to the game.

I think that this is a film that has needed to be made for a long time. Matthew McConaughey did a good job portraying Coach Jack Lengyel. I’m sure he embellished a bit considering Lengyel was a very humble and quiet coach. This moviess main goal was to tell the story of what happened so many years ago and to show how a community can come together and put back all of the pieces. In this way, this movie works on so many levels. B

Movie Quote:

• “When you take that field today, you’ve got to lay that heart on the line, men. From the souls of your feet, with every ounce of blood you’ve got in your body, lay it on the line until the final whistle blows. And if you do that, if you do that, we cannot lose. We may be behind on the scoreboard at the end of the game but if you play like that we cannot be defeated. Now we came here today to remember six young men and sixty-nine others who will not be on the field with you today, but they will be watching. You can bet your ass that they’ll be gritting their teeth with every snap of that football. You understand me? How you play today, from this moment on is how you will be remembered. This is your opportunity to rise from these ashes and grab glory. We are… Marshall!”

When director Michael Davis set out to make this movie I think that his first objective was to make an action movie that had never been done before. In essence I think that he took out the old action movie cliche bag and dumped it out and replaced it with his own new bag of tricks. The first time I laid eyes on the trailer to this movie I thought that it looked like any other mindless action movie, lots of guns, a thin plot, and some over the top special effects. Let’s just say I was wrong, and I’m glad.
First lets look at the cast. Clive Owen was born to play an action hero. I just never new he could do it over the top and in a weird sort of way make fun of the whole genre at the same time. This is a hard tight rope to walk without coming off as condescending. Monica Bellucci was a stretch for me in this one, but after seeing this movie I can see why she was cast for the part. She is a very exotic actress and to have someone that seems to play such deep parts in a movie such as this one was a little confusing at first. I feel she held her own in this one and had a great performance. Now this brings us to Paul Giamatti, another strange pick for an action movie bad guy. Last time I looked Giamatti was the go to guy when you were looking for a loser type that everyone can root for to make something of himself or to save the day. This is definitely not his usual role but he was great. His facial expressions and the way he delivered some of his lines was downright menacing. He played the role of the demented villain convincingly while remembering that this movie was no where near serious.

From the opening scene to the ending credits this movie was over the top and out of control, in a good way. I don’t want to give anything away because this movie just has to be experienced. Let’s just say if someone pulls a carrot on me with the intention of using it as a weapon I’m going to take them a little more seriously. Shoot ‘Em Up knows its an over the top action movie and it plays on this perfectly. It disregards every law along the way. It laughs in the face of the law of gravity, it completely forgets about the law of physics, and it spits in the face of every civil law that exists, and it does it with style.

I had a great time watching this movie. Usually while watching something like this I get upset when something is so over the top that it is not physically possibly. During this movie I was just hoping that the next stunt they pulled would trump the previous one. Between the great one liners and the various new ways that you can use a gun to kill someone that has never been done before in a movie I was mesmerized. If you would like to see what Die Hard would look like if Bruce Willis was completely invincible and didn’t have to adhere to any of the laws of gravity or physics, then go check this one out. B+

Movie Quotes:

• “My god. Do we really suck or is this guy really that good?”
• “Guns don’t kill people! But they sure help.”

This is the list of movies from the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. This is a great book for any movie lover and it is a great way to find a movie to watch when you feel like there is nothing good to rent at the video store. I own a 1st edition copy of this book, but it was revised in 2005 in 2nd edition and a few new movies were added and some older movies were omitted. I would like to be able to say I nave seen all the movies from this book one day. The ones that I have seen so far are in bold.

A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Way Down East (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922)
Dr. Mabuse (1922) Parts 1 and 2
Nanook of the North (1922)
Nosferatu (1922)
Read more »

Progress reports have been updated on the Basement Project.

To allow people sitting in the back row of chairs to be able to see the the full projection screen I have been planning to build some sort of a riser box to accommodate the second row of chairs. This has always been in my plans, I just wasn’t to sure what the best way to go about it was. My father let me know that this should be a pretty simple task and that it would take no longer than a single day to plan and build. As usual he was right. We measured out the space where we planned to build the box and set out to Home Depot. We purchased all of the materials we needed and within about 4 hours we had the project completed.

Some specifics about the box.

• It is 12′ x 9′ and was built with mainly 2 x 4s and a couple 2 x 12s.
• The box is not attached to the floor or any of the walls just in case future owners of the house decide to use the room for other purposes.
• I plan to wrap the box with the same carpet that will be going into the theater portion of the basement.

I am really happy with how this part of the project turned out. Thanks again, Dad!

==============================================

==============================================

Progress reports have been updated on the Basement Project.

Of all of the parts of building the basement, I’d have to say that painting has been the easiest and the most rewarding. It’s so nice to see to see the results as the work is being done.

My original color scheme was going to be set in deep blues, grays, and black. After I put these colors into Google SketchUp and began looking at the colors on the walls it seemed to really make my theater seating pop out a little too much. Just to let you know, I purchased six (like new) Ijoy massage chairs to use as my theater seating last year. I got a great deal on them but they are upholstered in a bright cyan blue color (pictured below). My original color scheme was so dark that it really made the chairs the focal point of the room so I have decided to go a different route with my paint colors. I chose to use more of an earthy tone with two shades of brown, gray, and black to give the room a warmer gentler feel and it really tones down the chairs and brings the room together as a whole.

==============================================

==============================================

Progress reports have been updated on the Basement Project.

Mudding the walls and ceiling has not been an easy chore. If I was going to pay to have any part of this project done for me by a professional, then this would have been the job I would have chose. I have done my best to do a good job but this step takes lots of patience and a little bit of talent to get it done in a timely fashion. I have the patience but I am definitely lacking in the talent department when it comes to mudding the walls. It took a lot longer than I had planned but the work is finally done.

Looking back now I think there are a few lessons I have learned while working on the drywall. The first one would be to take it slow and apply a small amount of drywall on each pass. There were a few places that I added to much mud and it took up to 2 & 1/2 days to dry instead of the usual one day. The second lesson would be to take the time to feather the drywall out. I have a few places in the corners where the walls and the ceiling meet where you can see a hump in the wall where the drywall quickly slopes down to meet the paper. An extra coat farther out from the corner would have taken care of this but I was a little to excited about getting to the painting to go over these spots one last time. The final lesson would be to understand how much sanding sucks. If I would have made less mistakes and been a little more careful with the amount of drywall I was using then the sanding would have been a much easier job.

All in all I am happy with the way that everything came out. I have chose a new color scheme instead of the blues that I have in my original plans. You can check out the new color scheme by clicking (here).