Tag Archives: gandalf

Top 5: Scenes from The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers (IMDB Top 250 #15)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Every other month, we take a look at a movie from the Internet Movie Database’s List of the TOP 250 FILMS OF ALL-TIME.  These are movies that transcend a simple “My Favorite Scene” column.  These are movies that are hard to just pry five gems from, but we do and examine the film overall.  We’re on our fifteenth installment in this series.  Click on the link here to check out previous installments from #1 The Shawshank Redemption to #14 Inception.

In planned trilogies, middle chapters are the trickiest.  They don’t have a beginning or an end.  They tend to be the darkest night before the dawn of the finale, but it’s possible to go too dark.  You can lose the momentum of your opening and set up narrative hurdles for the finale that are impossible to overcome.  A perfect bridge movie is rare, and with the possible exception of The Empire Strikes Back, the best one ever made is The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Continue reading Top 5: Scenes from The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers (IMDB Top 250 #15)

The Best of The Middle-Earth Saga

Since we just took a look back at the very first film in The Middle-Earth Saga (click here if you missed our look back on The Fellowship of the Ring), it’s hard to leave Tolkien’s world.  CLS Videos has put together this brilliant dual retrospective at the most beautiful sights, the most memorable moments, and the most beloved characters from Peter Jackson’s six films in Middle-Earth.  Drink it all in, because as long as Christopher Tolkien is alive (and granted the man is in his eighties), there is literally no chance that the rights to The Silmarillion or any of the other Middle-Earth ephemera not covered under the current rights agreement.


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch

There is enough material in The Silmarillion for an HBO show to run for a decade, with major stories, like The Children of Hurin, are deep enough for a featured film.  It’s a little bigger than The Hobbit in size, but it’s probably the densest book in terms of amount of potential story threads per page that I’ve ever read.  It’s really a brief overview of Middle-Earth from it’s creation to the end of The Second Age.  That’s THOUSANDS of years of stories.  It’s inevitable that the family will turn over enough members that they will relent and a return to Arda will be possible.  However, to make it as special as these films were to Tolkienites, it will need the same commitment and stewardship that gave us these six films.  Enjoy the video, and a Happy Labor Day weekend to those in the States.
Middle-Earth

Top 5: Scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (IMDB Top 250 #11)

Lord of the RIngs

Every month (or so…..I swear they’re coming more regularly) we take a look at a movie on the Internet Movie Database’s List of the TOP 250 FILMS OF ALL-TIME.  These are movies that transcend a simple “My Favorite Scene” column.  These are movies that are hard to just pry five gems from, but we do and examine the film overall.  We’re on our eleventh installment in this series.  Click on the links for The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction , Schindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, The Return of the King, and Fight Club to check out previous installments.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Having made it through the top 10, we come to #11 on the IMDB Top 250: the opening chapter in Peter Jackson’s flawless adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.  Taking Tolkien’s masterpiece from the province of literary scholars and the kids who sat alone at lunch in high school, Jackson showed the whole world the scope of Middle-Earth (to such extent that New Zealand, where both the LOTR and Hobbit films were shot, pretty much considers itself Middle-Earth).  The Lord of the Rings is my favorite film, and I treat it as one 12 hour epic, not three parts, but this works out to my advantage as all three chapters are in the top 15 and I get to showcase fifteen scenes instead of just five. Continue reading Top 5: Scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (IMDB Top 250 #11)

My Favorite Scene: The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) “Dol Guldur”


First, a thanks to JaidynLuke Studios for cutting together this entire epic scene from the extended version of the film into a two-parter.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who reads this site, that I am an enormous geek.  My Star Wars geek creds go back to practically the cradle, but around middle school, I became a hardcore Tolkienite.  I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Book of Unfinished Tales.  I own the 12 volume literary examination of Tolkien’s entire body of work that his son, Christopher, edited together.  I mean, it got to the point where I not only knew what Quenya was, but nearly listed it as a second language on job applications.  No, actually I didn’t date much during high school come to think of it, why do you ask? Continue reading My Favorite Scene: The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) “Dol Guldur”

Top 5: Scenes from Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King (IMDB Top 250 #9)

Lord of the Rings, Return of the king, Lord of the Rings The Return of the King, Aragorn, Theoden, Eowyn, Gandalf, Arwen, LegolasEvery month we take a look at a movie on the Internet Movie Database’s List of the TOP 250 FILMS OF ALL-TIME.  These are movies that transcend a simple “My Favorite Scene” column.  These are movies that are hard to just pry five gems from, but we do and examine the film overall.  We’re on our ninth installment in this series.  Click on the links for The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, Pulp FictionSchindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, and The Good The Bad and The Ugly to check out previous installments.

7-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-return-of-the-king

With the release of the extended edition of Battle of the Five Armies, Peter Jackson’s six-film Middle Earth saga has come to a completion.  The end result, as a Tolkien die-hard, is a monument to the body of work the visionary fantasy writer created and some of the best films made in the last 25 years.  The Lord of the RIngs is really an 11 hour film broken into three parts, but all three are grouped fairly closely on the Top 250, so we’ll get to examine them all starting with the capper: The Return of the King.
Continue reading Top 5: Scenes from Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King (IMDB Top 250 #9)