Tag Archives: saving private ryan

DC Cinematic Universe, Movie Lists, Movies, Star Wars

Top 10: Movies Where the Villain Kills the Hero

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Sometimes everything isn’t happily ever after for our heroes.  WatchMojo has put together a list for a great topic for discussion: movies where the villain ends up killing the hero.  The hero’s journey doesn’t always end the way we’d hope (those reeling after this weekend’s Avengers: Infinity War are feeling that).  Sometimes a hero sacrifices themselves to ensure their ultimate goal.  Sometimes a hero’s goal IS their own death.  Sometimes….well, sometimes they bad guys DO win.  It goes without saying that unless you feel like you’ve pretty much seen iconic movies GIANT SPOILER WARNING!  What do you think of WM’s selections?  Off the top of my head, Road to Perdition, Shane, and Logan (which is in a lot of ways an homage to Shane) spring to mind.   I think we can definitely find two better selections than The Wicker Man and Batman vs. Superman (seriously, guys?). What other films do you think should have made this list where the hero didn’t make it to the end credits?Mel Gibson in Braveheart

 

Movies, Their 10 Best

Matt Damon’s 10 Best Movies

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Matt Damon

Matt Damon burst onto the Hollywood scene when he and his friend Ben Affleck (whom you may also have heard of) came out of nowhere with a script they co-wrote and starred in: Good Will Hunting.  One of the best Oscar moments in recent memory is the two of them going bezerk after winning Damon’s only Oscar to date for the film’s screenplay.  Damon has gone on to be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in The Bourne movies, Ocean’s trilogy, Saving Private Ryan, The Martian, Interstellar, and more than a dozen other huge hits.  Post-The Martian, Damon has been in a bit of a slump, and it remains to be seen how much his career will be hurt by his ties to disgraced Hollywood mogul and sexual predator Harvey Weinstein (Damon has admitted he knew of Weinstein’s atrocities and did not come forward).  On-screen, he’s one of the most versatile and talented actors of his generation.  Time will tell what his sins of omission will do to his career going forward.


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Movie Lists, Movies

Top 10: Military Operations Hollywood Got Right

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Hollywood certainly has a long history of glamorizing or fabricating military history, but WatchMojo has put together a list of the 10 most accurate military operations Hollywood has depicted.  Though WM doesn’t say so in their piece, I think they’re referring to the operational parts of these films (as there are parts outside of the ops in this films that are fictionalized).  It’s a fantastic idea for a list, and I was extremely interested to see what did and didn’t make the accuracy cut.  I have a tremendous respect for the men and women who put on a uniform and serve those who don’t, and I think their stories should be portrayed with as much attention to detail as any stories told.  In thanking them for their service, it’s the very least (the VERY least we can do).  One of the most memorable theater-going experiences of my life was seeing Saving Private Ryan at a small theater in WV, and scattered throughout the crowd were elderly men in full uniform.  Their presence there gave what we saw onscreen so much more weight, and I’ll never forget their faces afterward.Black Hawk Down

Movies, Their 10 Best

Tom Hanks’ 10 Best Movies

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tom-hanks-im-kinda-amaz-009

Tom Hanks is the biggest star in Hollywood and has been for over two decades.  From a start as a comedian, first on TV in Bosom Buddies and then in film with movies like Bachelor Party, Hanks got his big break, first in 1984’s Splash, then exploding into popularity in 1988 with his first Oscar nomination for Big.  Since then, he has gone on to win two Oscars, four Golden Globes, and his work with HBO on miniseries like From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific has won him six Emmys.


Tom Hanks, Robert Loggia, Big

Hanks is often called the “Jimmy Stewart of our generation” in that despite being the star he is, he’s a genuine person; the everyman who becomes someone with whom the audience can instantly relate.  Many actors, especially comic actors, really just play a heightened version of themselves in film.  Hanks began his career doing this, but soon disappeared into his roles and those roles defined some of the finest cinema of the last 30 years.  Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, the Toy Story Trilogy, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Charlie’s Wilson’s War, and the list goes on and on.  Hanks’ #11-20 films are of a quality that most actors would kill to have them as their top 10 (and I cheated and combined the Toy Stories to get two more films on the list; perks of making the rules).  Hanks turned 60 in 2016, hard as that is to believe, but he’s still Hollywood’s leading man.

Jim Lovell, Apollo 13, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard

PS – If you find yourself in a movie and Tom Hanks is the captain of whatever vessel you’re traveling on (Captain Phillips, Sully, Apollo 13)…..buckle up.  Things are going to be ok, but you’re in for a bumpy ride.  If he’s the captain of your platoon, that is another story altogether.
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Movie News, Movies

Best Pictures of the Last 25 Years: KT Pick vs. Oscars

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Oscars

The Oscars are three weeks from tomorrow, and a new Best Picture (likely The Revenant) will be crowned.  Each year, during Oscar Week, we reveal the KT Community choice (which you  can currently vote for on the homepage) and I do The Renaissance Film Awards, which is how I stay sane (ish) during Oscar ceremonies that manage to incense me more than most Presidential debates.  The Revenant was a great film, no doubt, but this year was so good that it’s not even in my top 10 anymore.  Thus, the Academy and I will be disagreeing on Best Picture again, a historical trend that I am bored enough today to document in detail.


Here are the Best Picture winners from the last 25 years vs. my pick for that year’s best film.  Beside the Academy’s pick I have where I would have ranked it that year (there is a massive spreadsheet behind this fixation) and beside mine how it fared at the Oscars.  Even with the expansion of the Best Picture to a max of 10 nominations, I’ve only agreed with the Academy twice in the last 25 years (though they picked my runner-up thrice), and the trend seems to have us moving further apart, whereas there was a good decade stretch where my pick was at least among those nominated.  Take a look and see which you’d pick. Continue reading Best Pictures of the Last 25 Years: KT Pick vs. Oscars →