SavingPrivateRyan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Believe it or not, I wasn't yet a full-blown movie geek in 1998. I didn't even start saving my ticket stubs until the summer of '99. In all fairness, I hadn't been quite old enough to go to the movies by myself yet -- not much younger than any of my colleagues in the summers they covered, but young enough to spare you the math.

Every third weekend, my younger brother and I spent with our father, and a reliable way to spend time together was often to go to the movies or rent something and stay home. So by only (probably) going to the movies every third weekend, I only saw maybe six movies theatrically over the course of those eighteen weeks. I'll bold those that I remember going to see as I go along, and then touch upon the rest of the releases in between.

(By the way: the weekends in the summer of 1998 happen to line up with those of this summer. Let's see just how far we've come...)

Many people think that a movie needs to avoid an R-rating in order to become a blockbuster. Most recent top earners have followed that dictum, with only four R-rated movies among last year's top 25 at the box office. Zack Snyder's 300 was a defiant exception in 2007, earning more than $456 million worldwide, and clearing the way for Snyder's R-rated dream project, Watchmen. Its content advisory warns / promises: "Strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language." Can such an R-rated superhero movie become a blockbuster today, especially in the wake of PG-13 smashes like The Dark Knight and Iron Man?

If the history of the movies has taught us anything, it's that people will flock to see films that they really, really want to see, no matter the rating. As evidence, here are seven R-rated films with strong, adult content that may have made some folks blanch -- but it didn't keep the flicks from becoming blockbusters.

Basic Instinct
Paul Verhoeven's thriller has it all: sex, violence, profanity, and very adult themes. The most notorious shot features Sharon Stone's, er, legs, but the flick also includes male and female nudity, intense sex scenes, stabbing, blood spattering, dozens of profanities, and relentless sexual innuendos. But it's not just a sensationalist button-pusher. Indeed, Basic Instinct lives up to its title in its dogged, sometimes earnest exploration of the basest desires known to man or woman. It may have tittilated, but it also made you think long after the credits rolled.

Warning: Above clip may scar young children for a very, very, very, very long time.

That's it. My day is officially over. The South Park Studios are now open, and not only can you watch every single South Park episode for free (for free!!!), but you can also search among tons and tons of clips (roughly 3000), which you can then embed on your site. Since this is, like, the greatest thing to happen to the online world since the very awesome movie website Cinematical was born, I figured it was worth a post. Ah, but South Park is TV -- not film. Okay. Fair enough. That's why I found an SP clip that was film related.

The above South Park clip comes from one of my favorite episodes of all time -- Imaginationland. This is right after the boys first arrive, are greeted by the folks who live in Imaginationland, but then have to survive a lethal suicide bombing attack. That's when they switch to riff on a scene from Saving Private Ryan ... and, well, go watch it for yourself. And please don't be mad at me when your boss scolds you for hanging out on the South Park Studios site all date today. For you fans: Most random character to show up in Imaginationland? Who was it?

Must ... Not .. Watch ... 20 ... Episodes ... Right ... Now ...

[via EW]

Today we salute the military veterans who have either served in wartime or in peace. I think technically Veteran's Day specifically honors war veterans, but I don't see why the non-combat military personnel needs to be excluded. Still, in the movies, it's the war vets that are most memorable, and on this holiday, I'd like to present my list of seven favorites.

Obviously this list isn't comprehensive -- in fact, I don't feature any examples of the now-stereotypical Vietnam vet character, which would include Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July or Gary Senise in Forrest Gump. This is just a list of characters, positive and negative, that I prefer and which I think somewhat represents the wide and diverse scope of war vets.


"Homer Parrish" from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)

About fifty years before Robert Zemeckis was digitally removing Gary Senise's legs to make him the disabled vet Lt. Dan of Forrest Gump, William Wyler directed a real amputee veteran named Harold Russell as the handicapped character Homer Parrish in this movie about the difficulty of coming home following World War II. Russell actually won an Oscar for his performance as Parrish, a former high school quarterback who returns to his childhood sweetheart, with whom he's engaged and for whom he no longer feels good enough. The actor/character has hooks for hands and appears in some sappy, obligatory scenes where he has trouble with them, but he ends up a guy that is beloved more than pitied, and it's almost easy to forget he has the handicap, especially after hearing him play piano with the false limbs.

It's rare that anything I see at the movies these days strikes me as profound, groundbreaking or revolutionary. I've been watching a lot of movies for a very long time. Visually, things have changed over the years. But it always comes back to the story, doesn't it? 300 is a movie that pushes the boundaries of conventional movie-making. And the story was OK, too. So we watch it and think, "Wow, that's pretty f**king cool." But if the story completely sucked, the movie wouldn't be nearly the smash hit it is.

So I went to see Meet The Robinson's at the famous El Capitan theater in Hollywood. My first thought when the movie started playing was, "Wow, this is pretty f**king cool looking." At about 600 hundred theaters across the country, the movie is shown in Disney Digital 3-D (yes, glasses and all). As I started getting roped into the movie about the orphan kid and his friend, I thought, "I really like these characters, and this is pretty f**king cool looking."

As I continued to watch the movie, I was totally engrossed. And I was aware that I was totally engrossed. (As a movie "reviewer" you actually start to monitor your own reactions. I know, it's a bit creepy and droid-like). I thought to myself, "This movie is totally fun and I love the characters, but why the hell am I so into it?"