Movies and TV

I like watching all sorts of different movies and TV shows, mostly on DVD or on my computer, and I'm very happy whenever I find a really good one. I'm not a fan of TV itself anymore, however, since I got so used to watching shows and movies without the commercial break.

I'd like to start with recommending ShareTV.org, a site where you can watch many different TV shows for free online. And then there's Movies Found Online, a site with many different movies up to watch for free. I'm sure that's exactly what DSL was made for.

And before I launch into my list of 21 ingenious movies, here are a few general thoughts about movies:

Things I like in movies:

Things I dislike:

The following is a list of 21 ingeious movies I recommend wholeheartedly. I'll write about other movies or TV shows I watch in the Blog.

Kate Hudson in Almost Famous
  1. Almost Famous - A partially autobiographical movie by Cameron Crowe, about a boy (Patrick Fugit) who tours with a rock band in order to write an article about them. And he falls in love with one of their groupies, played fabulously by Miss Kate Hudson.
  2. Bound - Corky (Gina Gershon) gets out of prison and starts fixing up apartments for money. She meets Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who's married to a money-launderer (Joe Pantoliano). Violet wants to get out of her marriage, away from the mob, and she and Corky make a plan of how to steal two million dollars from the mob in the process. An excellent movie with a great plot and many twists. This movie is by the Wachowski Brothers, btw, and in my humble opinion it's even better than The Matrix.
    3. DEBS
  3. Crash - This movie tells several different stories that interconnect sometimes, and the main topic of the movie is racism. I think racism is even sometimes a bit too much the focus of this movie and I wonder whether a subtler approach wouldn't have been better, but this movie is still really good. It also features a relatively small role by Sandra Bullock, who does an excellent acting job.
  4. DEBS - DEBS is a hilarious action movie parody. Well, think James Bond, just instead of one male hero, you have four young female heroines, instead of bulletproof vests they wear school uniforms. Oh yeah, and the super-villain is a girl, too. Everything's all upside down in that movie, and if it were up to me, there could be a lot more of that out there.
  5. Donnie Darko - Donnie Darko still Donnie Darko is a troubled teenager who doesn't fit in at school and who hallucinates and sees a huge rabbit that tells him the world will end soon. I like this movie a lot because it's so different. It's spooky at first, but as the movie progresses I felt it suddenly made sense. However, after watching the first version of this movie, I had interpreted the movie differently than I did after watching the Director's Cut later. Since the Director's Cut has many formerly cut scenes, the movie is explained in much greater detail. Both versions are great, however.
  6. Finding Nemo - Fish have feelings, too. This movie makes you go from sad to completely amused, especially thanks to the hilarious Ellen DeGeneres. "Wow, I wish I could speak Whale." I recommended this to all my friends, and we all watched it more than once and sometimes find ourselves quoting lines from that movie to each other. "He touched the butt!" A must-see!
  7. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Café - Although one might argue that this is your typical "chick flick", it's a great story and it's funny and sad and the acting is great and it even has a few surprises. Hell, I'm a chick, so what. Anyway, if you're planning on reading the book, too, I'd recommend watching the movie first, otherwise you might be a bit disappointed about some details they left out.
  8. In The Bedroom - As of yet, I haven't seen the movie Marisa Tomei is so famous for, "My Cousin Vinnie", but she's in this movie as well and I really liked her in it. In this movie, she has a May-December romance with Nick Stahl's character, and his mother (Sissy Spacek) isn't too happy about that. Neither is Marisa's ex-husband. A sad and depressive but excellent movie.
  9. Jackie Brown - The only truly great movie by overrated filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. With the wonderful Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, an aging flight attendant caught for smuggling money. Now the Feds want the money, the crook she smuggled for wants the money, and she tries to get the money for herself. Very good and based on the (also good) book "Rum Punch" by Elmore Leonard.
  10. L'Auberge Espagnole - About a French guy who goes to Barcelona for one year to learn the language. A funny comedy that kind of captures the whole "Erasmus" exchange program experience.
  11. Love Actually - Another movie with several intertwining stories like "Short Cuts" or "Magnolia". This time it's a romantic comedy set in England, with Keira Knightly, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson and our very own (i.e. German..) Heike Makatsch. A very sweet movie.
  12. Magnolia Magnolia - Another movie with several episodes. The stories are interesting, the acting is fabulous (well, Tom Cruise was annoying, but I guess that was part of the character he was portraying - which is not to say he's not annoying in real life), and although this movie is really long, you hardly notice it because it's so interesting. (Of course, my sister disagrees, and so does Lorelai of the Gilmore Girls.)
  13. Match Point - One more reason NOT to read what a movie is about before you watch it. This Woody Allen movie is very different from the other movies of his I've seen. This one's a drama, I guess, and it has Jonathan Rhys-Myers as a bit of a con-artist (IMHO) in it, who marries a rich woman for her money. Then he meets Scarlett Johansson, falls for her, and is then pressured to decide between the two women.
  14. Monster - I was one of those people that used to complain about how Charlize Theron must've been miscast for this movie if they only ended up putting tons of make-up on her and having her gain some pounds to make her look less attractive. After watching the movie, however, I'm think casting her was right, as her performance in this movie is incredible. I also really liked Christina Ricci's performance, which I think was totally underrated by the critics. Anyway, the movie is based on a true story, the life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who killed several of her johns. What I love about this movie is that it's not one of thos black and white movies, it doesn't paint her - as the name might falsely suggest - as this evil monster who just went around killing people. The story has many more layers, and sometimes Aileen is even likeable and beautiful in her own way, while at the same times the cruelty of her actions is still apparent and her killing is never glorified. The movie is partially hard to watch (on account of the violence), but I still think it's well worth it.
  15. My Life Without Me - I watched this alone in the movie theater and it really moved me. Which, in this csae, is a less honest way of saying I cried like a baby. Sarah Polley (who was also in "Go") delivers an amazing performance in this movie about a woman who finds out that she's going to die soon. So now she tries to do some things she always wanted to do and also to get her husband ready for a life without her. Sarah Polley is in fact so good in this movies that I almost forgive her for being in that piece of crap "No Such Thing". Almost.
  16. On Golden Pond - I didn't even really know Katherine Hepburn before this movie, but I think I might've missed out. In this movie, her and Henry Fonda play this old couple that go back to their little house at Golden Pond, Henry Fonda's character being terribly scared of dying and bitter of his old age. And then there's Jane Fonda, who also plays Henry's daughter in this movie, and their relationship in the movie is probably equally difficult as it was in real life.
  17. Prey for Rock'n'roll Prey for Rock'n'Roll - In this movie, Gina Gershon ("Bound"), Drea de Matteo ("The Sopranos"), Shelly Cole (one of Paris' sidekicks on "Gilmore Girls") and the fabulous Lori Petty (from "Tank Girl") are in a band together. Gina Gershon plays Jackie, the narrator of this movie, who ponders on her 40th birthday whether she should quit the music and face the fact that she's not going to become really famous and drink Collins in music videos. I liked the acting in this movie, the dialogue and the three-dimensional characters.
  18. Shattered Glass - About journalist Stephen Glass who's accused of making up some of the stories he wrote about.
  19. The Big Lebowski - A very funny movie with a funny Jeff Bridges as the "Dude", who spends his time bowling with his friends and guzzling White Russians, until a bit of a mix-up turns his life upside down.
  20. The Contender - I can't think of many other political movies I like, but this one I've watched several times and will certainly watch several more times. In this movie, the vice president of the US dies and the president (the Dude Jeff Bridges) picked out Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) for the job. But not everyone agrees with that choice, so rumors are spread and her past gets spread in the media. A very good movie.
  21. The Matrix - Let's see... Neo finds out what the Matrix is. Follow the white rabbit, down the rabbit hole. "Why do my eyes hurt?" "Because you've never used them." Do I need to say more? An excellent movie! Forget parts 2 and 3, this is the only REALLY good Matrix movie.