Toy Story 3

What's unique about the Toy Story trilogy as a whole is its consistency with the lives of those who saw the films as they were originally released. The original Toy Story was released in 1995, when I was six years-old, which I saw in theaters. Andy, the main driving point for all of the toys in all three films, is also about six. Toy Story 2 was released 4 years later; Andy is a little older, as was I. Now fifteen years later after the release of Toy Story comes the third and final chapter in the series, Toy Story 3. Andy is now leaving for college, right up to date with the events in my life, once again (almost, at least). The growth of Andy is entirely parallel with mine, so each film strikes a chord with me no other film has, and I know for a fact I'm not alone, as all my friends grew up with it as well. Besides the timeline, the film is also consistent with it's characters; every reoccurring character is always voiced by the same actor it was in the film before it, even Andy. For a trilogy that spanned over the course of 15 years, this is an amazing feat (and good luck).

Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson's fourth feature film; he has helmed such products like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and most recently There Will Be Blood. I am a huge fan of each of these, especially Blood, which is probably somewhere in the top ten list of my favorite films of all time. It should come to no surprise that I enjoyed it, but this film is definitely not for everyone, for a few reasons.

JCVD

As far as I was always concerned, Jean-Claude Van Damme was always a talented and skilled martial artist. He just happened to show it off in movies. As for the acting department...not so much. No one ever says "Have you seen Van Damme's latest movie? It's so emotionally engaging!" Surprisingly however, it wouldn't be too far off to say that about his self-titled film from back in '08, JCVD.

Best Idea Ever: Lil' Inappropriate Golden Books

This has to be one of the coolest ideas ever. Josh Cooley, who is an Animation Story Artist over at Pixar Studios is creating a parody of those Little Golden Books from when I was a kid, under the name "Lil' Inappropriate Golden Books", with the title Movies R Fun! There are several more pages obviously, and are all in the same style as the one posted above. They cover some of the most famous scenes in cinematic history, ranging from films like Apocalypse Now and 2001: Space Odyssey. It's so genius that my only complaint about it is that I should have thought of this first.

You can check out Cooley's blog here, or better yet, buy a copy here when the book goes on sale, for a tentative price of $5,000,000. Yes, I'm sure that's just a joke. You can currently buy prints to hang on your wall however, which is pretty cool.

Favorite Trailers: 300

Thought I'd try something different and write an article every once and a while about a trailer I particularly like, even if I don't feel the same about the actual movie it's promoting (which is often the case). The first trailer I'll show off is that of 300's. Despite the film being filled with half-naked men on steroids, I am actually a fan of the film. Sometimes I enjoy a good popcorn movie with lots of gore and action and corny dialogue, and 300 fills that appetite just fine. As for the trailer, it does exactly what every trailer should do: drink a pack of Redbull and smash everything in sight. Although this is probably partially owed to the Nine Inch Nails song that is brilliantly used.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Nicolas Cage is one of the most confusing actors, ever. For every amazing performance he has done, there is another hilariously bad one to go along with it. Bad Lieutenant could easily be mistaken for the latter, but thankfully, it's not. Let me get this out of the way, however: this film is as campy as films get, and the director (Werner Herzog) and Cage know this. The problem is, not all viewers will acknowledge this, and will mistaken the intentional campiness for, well, unintentional campiness. Every minute is more ridiculous than the last, but if you look closer, it is also genius. You can tell Cage is just having a blast with his role, and as a viewer, it is a blast to watch him.