There is a great deal of debate here.  Not a great deal of debate on being a part of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers.  For those of you not aware The League is a loose collection of bloggers that receive a weekly question from League head honcho, Brian at Cool and Collected.

http://coolandcollected.com/

Here’s what Brian asked of us this week:

What are your Top Ten Movies?

Some of the League members are going in different directions with this.  10 movies they hate, that they haven’t seen, that they found on Mr. Skin (okay, no one is doing that one).  But I think I’m going to stay straight forward with it.  My favorite movies, for whatever reasons.  Some are all time favorites and have been watched what seems like hundreds of times.  Others have meaning for me that runs deeper than the hour and a half of screen time.  Onwards!

Honorable mentions to: Speed Racer, Monster Squad, Princess Bride, (and I’m sure I will think of other favorites later on).  I already wrote of my love for both Speed Racer and the Monster Squad.  Princess Bride is that magical film that will always be watched at any time, no matter how much of the movie has already aired.  1:30AM and there’s only a half hour left in Princess Bride that started airing as the midnight movie?  Yup, there goes the next half hour of my life.  All that love for these three movies must mean the next 10 are something special.

10.  Avengers

I am just already giving in and putting this movie on the list.  I was excited, I felt like a kid again while the movie was playing, and money is already set aside to buy the BluRay on day one.  The fights, the dialogue, the feeling that after all these years of comic book reading the Lee/Kirby New York City with all of its thrilling, stunning, amazing, incredible, mighty, invincible stories is actually in front of me.  Well, I never thought I would have that feeling.  For that reason alone this movie is already in the top 10.

9.  Lean on Me

“We don’t want a good teacher, we want Mr Clark.”  The dream of being a writer was preceded with the dream of being a teacher.  When you’re young and think you want to be a teacher, movies about teachers become instant favorites.  Films to study and emulate.  Then, as one grows older, most of these films fall aside because honestly they’re not that good.  I don’t think I’ve watched Mr Holland’s Opus once since high school.  Yet I used to be obsessed with that movie.  Lean on Me, however, still holds up as just a really good movie.  Plus, the soundtrack is actually pretty great.  If you don’t agree you can leave this blog right now.  You are all expurgated.

8. Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon

There is no real reason to have this on here other than it was “my” 1980s movie.  My house didn’t subscribe to HBO, but the babysitter’s house did.  Plus there were four kids, all of whom older than me, living under that roof.  This was the advent of VCRs too.  These two combined to form the wall of VHS movies taped off of TV.  There were 100s of tapes at that house.  Yet for some reason only two ever came off the wall when I got to pick what to watch (on the separate TV and VCR for the kids being babysat).  Last Dragon and/or WrestleMania III.  I had never seen anything like Last Dragon before, nor any of the specific films or genres the movie was based on/parodying.  I honestly felt Bruce Lee was some sort of made up character.  That’s how out of touch I was.  Sure, I’ve seen plenty of martial arts, Asian films, and blaxploitation since.  Many of which were better movies.  However the inner child still thinks of this as a perfect movie.  Great fights, catchy music, and one of the baddest mofo’s ever on film.

7.  Tao of Steve

Right movie, right time.  Donal Logue plays a fat philosopher Lothario.  One thing I was at the time, and two things I wanted to be.  What a wonderful character.  He’s not the usual ladies’ man character, but he makes his mind sexy.  By using the lessons of great minds from the past, he gets into womens present pants.  I still follow parts of his philosophy.  Plus, due to the extreme indy nature of this movie chances are you can take lessons and quotes from the film and pass them off as your own.

6.  High Fidelity

A movie for your mid to late twenties for damn sure.  When you realize life isn’t quite what you expected it to be.  However, there is also the possibility that with a couple of tweaks it might not be the dream, but it can be a damn acceptable substitute.  Its good to be prepared that life, jobs, and relationships will sometimes suck ass.  However, there are lessons to be learned within the suck.  (I really don’t know if I’m happy with that line or not.)  Find what you’re passionate about, and turn it into a career.  Go ahead and fuck up your relationships, but learn from it and apply those lessons to the next one.  Maybe it will work out this time.

5.  Grindhouse

More than Death Proof and Planet Terror, this movie is here because of the experience in the theater.  Both movies plus all the trailers and bumps and over three hours of a shared movie experience.  Everyone in the theater was a film geek and knew what they were getting into.  We all shrieked and gasped and laughed and got off everywhere we were supposed to.  It was loads of fun.  After this I understood what film fans and writers were talking about.  I didn’t live in a big city.  I didn’t go up with anywhere that showed cult films or did crazy things just for fun.  Sure, it took that long in my life to have the experience, but it was a memorable one.  Certainly one that added to my writing dream.  In the crazy dream of a Hellions franchise complete with comic book store  – there is a small theater.  Somewhere to show all the cult, the classics and the cartoons.  Somewhere to indoctrinate the next generation of geeks.

4. Rad

Is it because the movie has never been released on DVD?  Is it because I have some obsession with ass sliding?  Will the song “Send Me an Angel” be played at the upcoming wedding? I think its because Cru Jones looked bad ass as hell.  Hey, I have a bike! I say as a child.  Cru was skilled, and resourceful.  He won the race and put all 12 gears to Aunt Becky!  With DVD, BluRay and digital there is really no reason to still have any VHS tapes.  I have the old WWF logo stuff still, and dammit I am more than willing to pay well over $100 for a copy of Rad.  Its like buying a cassette player, hell maybe even so far back as picking up an 8 track player.  There is really no good reason to buy an antiquated piece of machinery for one use.  And yet, Rad Racing is live and playing on the TV.

3.  Star Wars

Episode IV, the “first” one of course.  Its the red pill or blue pill of this lifestyle we have all chosen.  Do you watch Star Wars, think of it as no more than a two hour movie and move on?  Or, do you watch it and have your life changed?  The gateway drug for geek culture.  I remember loving it when I was a kid.  Watching it again as a slightly older kid and understanding more.  Accepting my true geeky self as a teen and down the rabbit hole Star Wars took me.  But none of it would have happened if that first film hadn’t been so magical.

2.  Kevin Smith pick (currently Clerks 2)

At various points in my life, almost every Kevin Smith movie has been important to me.  Clerks showed me that being broke and living in a small town without any resources should not stop anyone from stepping out of that world.  Mallrats came along when I was literally just hanging out at a mall all my days.  Chasing Amy reached me after high school when I was discovering there is more to the world, and love, and humanity than what my small town high school had shown me.  Dogma gave me the courage to question all the truths I was told my entire life.  Jay and Silent Bob is on the short list of major film experiences for me.  A packed theater at an advance screening of the movie.  Nothing but obsessed fans and some of my closest friends.  Currently, Clerks II speaks to me.  I’m not at the job I want to be.  Life is crazy and scary and I’m not getting any younger.  But you know what, the pieces are there.  Things can happen.  I just need to say it out loud and take that risk.

1. Cloverfield

Shocked?  I thought you might be.  I will do an Origins of Hellions post one day, but to be quick its all because of this movie.  When I saw the 1-18-08 trailer all I wanted to do was learn more.  I knew more about it than any of my geeky friends knew, because I’ve always been good with research.  I was also looking for a voice at the time.  Some place to get my thoughts across.  The result was forming my first blog.  All so I could talk about Cloverfield.  Thousands if not millions of hits from all over the world.  The blog went through a few names, and was even pretty big on MySpace for awhile.

Now I’m part of the League, I write for other sites, I have phone numbers from NYC to LA of people who enjoy, love and respect my work.  All because of some shaky cam movie that enthralled me so much I had to talk about it.  Maybe the actual monster or TJ Miller didn’t change my life.  But my life was changed as a result of this movie, and thus it has to be number one.