Top 10 Movies (meme)

Just got back from an awesome vacation to Springfield, Missouri to visit some old friends, got to see the St. Louis Arch while we were there and got some fantastic photos of that I’ll have to upload soon.

While I was away I was tagged by Nick Gray for the latest meme - Top 10 Movies. This is going to be very difficult for me, because I absolutely love a lot of movies… luckily the rules specify that they do not need to be listed in order, which should make it a bit easier.

Rules:

1. List your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
2. If you are tagged, you have to post and tag 3-5 people.
3. Link back to the one who tagged you.

And now, in no particular order, are my Top 10 Favorite Movies.

Saving Private Ryan

Easily the greatest war movie ever made. Spielberg’s masterpiece manages to capture many themes of war including salvation, grace, brotherhood, sacrifice, respect, despair, hope, honor, and fear. The opening D-Day scene breathed of an intensity not before seen or experienced in film, and the rest of the film carried that intensity as their band of brothers marched onward. Absolutely one of the best films ever created.

American Beauty

This movie is responsible for my absolute love for film. Before American Beauty I viewed movies simply as a 2 hour entertainment distraction, whereas now I can see the art and beauty in film. Kevin Spacey’s performance is brilliant and the directing is phenomenal. Coupled with a great script and a fantastic score you have another one of the greatest films ever.

Memento

When I saw this movie for the first time I had never heard of it and had no idea of the strange directorial spin I was stepping into. What a roller coaster, I loved every second of it! If you haven’t seen or heard of Memento I recommend going out and renting/buying it now. The director, Christopher Nolan, would go on to re-invent the Batman series first with Batman Begins, and coming out this summer with The Dark Knight.

Unbreakable

I am a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan and have loved every single one of his movies. This choice was a toss-up between Unbreakable and Signs. I went with Unbreakable both because it was the first DVD I ever purchased, and it is one of M. Night’s most under-appreciated films. I absolutely loved the idea of the movie, the self-discovery of a super hero in the real world, and the implementation of it was pitch perfect. I would’ve loved even more if this movie had gotten better acclaim and had evolved into a series, but I guess that will have to remain in my dreams.

Road To Perdition

Another greatly under-appreciated movie, Road To Perdition is a slow moving tale of a father and son escaping the mobster life. Thomas Newman’s score was perfect for this tale and remains some of my favorite film music ever. In my opinion one of the greatest film scenes of all time is when Tom Hanks’ character, Michael Sullivan, is forced to gun down his old boss and father figure, John Rooney. Best. Scene. Ever.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Okay, do I really even have to explain? A New Hope started it all but RotJ has speeder bikes, Jabba the freakin’ Hutt, Boba Fett’s death via Sarlacc Pit, epic space battles, Wicket, the death of the Emperor, the Millennium Falcon basting through the Death Star, Admiral Ackbar yelling “It’s A Trap!” - what more could you ask for in a movie? I’d like to choose all 6, or at least the classic trilogy but if I can only pick one it’s gotta be Return of the Jedi.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Yet another amazing trilogy that ends on a real high note, though it remains to be seen (by me at least) how the new film measures up. Last Crusade is a classic American film with the witty, happy-go-lucky professor/treasure chaser Indiana at the helm.

The blend of humor, wit, puzzles, action, and adventure is top notch with more memorable scenes than you can shake a stick at (i.e. young Indiana’s run through the circus train, smashing the church floor in sync with the librarian stamper, Indiana and his dad tied to a chair in a revolving fireplace with the room on fire, Indiana hanging off the side of a tank headed towards a cliff, Indiana jamming a flagpole into the spokes of a passing Nazi motor-biker, Hitler signing Henry Jones’ diary, Henry shooting off the tail of their airplane, the list goes on and on and on).

No Ticket.

Good Will Hunting

This is one of those movies that is great without actually being able to say why. It is just a fantastically written movie with great performances by Robin Williams and Matt Damon alike.

Adaptation

This was another tossup between Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is also written by the extremely talented Charlie Kaufman. Adaptation is one of the most interesting films I’ve ever seen, it takes a couple of views for the genius to set in. As the screenwriter of the movie is actually in the movie, writing the very movie you are watching, there are lots of little tricks and internal jokes going on throughout the movie. Pay special attention to how the movie changes its pacing and style after Kaufman attends a writing seminar which tells him how boring his film will be if it lacks certain elements.

The Matrix

Unlike some movies out of trilogies listed above, it was not at all difficult to pick my favorite movie of the Matrix Trilogy. Though (unlike many) I actually did enjoy the second and third movies of the trilogy, they pale in comparison to the original. Not only are the action scenes in The Matrix some of the best ever made, if you strip them out this would still be a top 10 movie for one of the coolest plots, scripts and overall design and feel ever.

And the special meme is awarded to...

• Phil
• Chris
• Shawn
• Scott

→ We Travel In Tribes

→ Guys Jumping & Backflipping Into Jeans

→ Goonies of the Caribbean: The Search For One-Eyed Willie

→ POD Patches: Lincoln Brewster guitar sounds

Ben Vesco provides a great analysis of the POD X3 Live patches used by Lincoln Brewster (a high-profile POD X3 Live user). Full of great POD X3 tweaking information to get the most of your own custom patches.

Free Nine Inch Nails Album

Trent Reznor has done it again. Just a couple months ago, the instrumental-only 4 disc epic “Ghosts” was released as DRM-free downloadable content which offered the first disc as a free download and pricing models which were as low as $5 for all 4 discs/36 tracks (at very high quality - 320 kbps).

Now, Trent has released a new full studio Nine Inch Nails album, entitled The Slip, as a free download from his website.

thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me

Nice. I’ve listened a couple times through and I think this might be my favorite NiN record since The Fragile. Go download it now!

Echo Faith Redesign or: Where’s the Blue?

Welcome to the new Echo Faith — j5.

I’ve been stressing about this redesign for a long time, knowing that once it was live I was going to see a lot of it. As you may notice, this does not match the teaser design screenshots I posted back in October 2007. My idea was to create a new look that featured my designs and art without and let that be the shining part of the site. I redesigned and re-redesigned this idea way too many times and was never quite happy with it… it was just too simple and plain for me.

So I went back to the drawing board a bit and decided to try punching out a cool textured design with more of a muted color so that the sidebar mini-portfolio images would still pop. My wife, Danielle, gave me lots of great critical feedback to help me narrow in on what was working and what wasn’t. My hope is that the critical aspect of the sidebar images will motivate me to create more compelling pieces so the sidebar is fresh..

With this redesign I have made the switch from Wordpress to Expression Engine. I’d like to say the process was smooth and easy, but it most assuredly was not! Though much of that was likely due to my severe lack of knowledge about how Expression Engine works. I can already tell that I will definitely be much happier with Expression Engine - the flexibility is huge. Once I figure it all out this will be my CMS of choice for most of my future projects, except those on the real cheap (EE licenses are not free, except for the core license).

Major props to Michael Boyink both for an amazing series of Expression Engine tutorials and for responding whenever I ranted or complained about something with EE on Twitter. Echo Faith j5 was also transitioned to the fantastic new 960 Grid System but the extremely talented Nathan Smith.

To fully enjoy the redesign please view in Safari… text-shadow = win.

I hope you like it.