Christmas Classics...

During my time off this Christmas, I watched two classic Christmas films - one I had never seen, and the other, I have not seen in a while...



First off, for the first time ever, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) starring James Stewart. I was aware of the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where the girl is talking about an angel getting his wings when a bell rings was from this movie. I finally caught it on network TV this year. The movie begins with three cosmic voices having a conversation about helping a man named George on Earth. Clarence, an angel who has yet to earn his wings, is sent down to assist, but not before he gets a quick lesson on George's life from his friends. James Stewart plays George Bailey, a small town guy who grows up in Bedford Falls and who is eager to leave his roots and see and do things all around the world. He meets a girl at a dance named Mary (played by Donna Reed). After the untimely death of his father, George takes over the family real easte business and is successful at it but at the cost of his adventures around the globe and college. George weds Marry as the town geezer Potter tries to ruin him and his honest business at every turn. As all of his friends and brother become world travelers, successful and rich, and war heroes, George suffers a crisis of faith and aims to end his life. Clarence shows up and introduces himself as George's guardian angel. He intends to show George how much the world would miss him had he never existed and restore his faith in living...



I loved this movie. I can't believe I had never seen it in full until now. James Stewart is funny, serious, and sad. The entire cast is great. Clarence leaves George a wonderful message at the end, one of my favorite scenes.



A Christmas Classic? Absolutely. 5 out of 5 Khans!

Next up, a childhood favorite of mine...

SCROOGE (1970)



The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge has always been my favorite 'Christmas Story.' This is the version I remember watching one sunday afternoon in the mid 80s on Christmas break and it has stuck with me ever since. Technically this is a musical, which is something I just don't do...but the actors and look of the movie are so good, I don't mind it much. Albert Finney plays Scrooge. He is perfect - and he will always be Scrooge to me no matter how many times they remake this story. Pre-Star Wars Alec Guiness portrays his doomed friend Jacob Marley. One of the creepiest sequences occurs when Jacob takes Ebenezer up into the London night sky and shows him all the lost souls floating aimlessly as ragged ghosts - doomed to wander forever. Pretty intense stuff for a Christmas movie.







Special shout out to the very first Nazgul....er I mean Ghost of Christmas Future...now it just looks like a cheap Halloween costume and mask, but back then it scared the crap out of me!



In the end, Ebenezer realizes the error of his ways and becomes of lover of life and giving. I love the scene at the end where he pulls his Santa disguise down for a quick second as Bob Cratchet and his wife realize who he is.



4 out of 5 Khans! (I had to knock off one Khan for all the singing! Haha!)

TOP ALBUMS OF 2013....And Beyond...

I usually only do a Top 10, but a few more snuck their way in so I'm mentioning 12 albums this year...

#12...MEGADETH _ SUPER COLLIDER
Standout Tracks: Kingmaker / Super Collider / Built for War



Mustaine and Co. have a good thing going with the current lineup. Not any better than anything recent, but certainly not any worse.

#11...STONE SOUR _ THE HOUSE OF GOLD AND BONES, PART 2
Standout Tracks: Red City / Black John / Peckinpah



Corey Taylor follows up his concept album endeavour with a solid hammer of hard rock.

#10...WATAIN _ THE WILD HUNT
Standout Tracks: All That May Bleed / The Wild Hunt / Outlaw



Black metal album of the year.

#9...SEVENDUST _ BLACK OUT THE SUN
Standout Tracks: Faithless / Black Out the Sun



These guys just keep putting out good hard rockin' albums.

#8...ALTERBRIDGE _ FORTRESS
Standout Tracks: The whole damn album



Slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite bands out there.

#7...PHILLIP ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS _ WALK THROUGH EXITS ONLY
Standout Tracks: Usurper's Bastard Rant / Bedroom Destroyer



A bit of a different avenue for Anselmo - more punk oriented than his stuff with Down or Pantera but there is no denying the man's authentic aggression. Takes a few listens to get into, but a worthy record nonetheless.

#6... ALICE IN CHAINS _ THE DEVIL PUT DINOSAURS HERE
Standout Tracks: Hollow / Stone / The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here / Phantom Limb



The world is a better place when Alice in Chains is making new albums. Nice to have you back once again, Jerry and friends!

#5...BLACK SABBATH _ 13
Standout Tracks: God is Dead? / Loner



No way this should have succeeded, esp without Bill Ward on board. Happy to get such an inspiring work from these old geezers!

#4...SEPULTURA _ THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART
Standout Tracks: Trauma of War / The Vatican / Tsunami / The Bliss of Ignorants



It's difficult to think that Derrick Green has been a member of Sepultura for longer than Max Cavalera was at this point. And while it will be hard for any incarnation of this band to duplicate the quality of early works such as Chaos AD or Roots, there is no reason to ignore the excellent stuff they are putting out now. Precise and tight with a bit of the expected tribal influences we've come to love. Badass.

#3...QUEENSRYCHE _ QUEENSRYCHE
Standout Tracks: Where Dreams Go to Die / Redemption / Don't Look Back



So odd they would return to serious form without their most recognizable member. The best Ryche album in almost two decades. They make it sound so easy - almost like they never left. Hope this incarnation continues...FU indeed, Geoff Tate!

#2...CARCASS _ SURGICAL STEEL
Standout Tracks: All of them but the best song titles get the nod here: Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System / A Congealed Clot of Blood / The Granualting Dark Satanic Mills



Released their last album 17 years ago. Then all of a sudden they are back, and we should all be thankful. Groovy Riff Immolation at its finest. Bravo.

#1...CHIMAIRA _ CROWN OF PHANTOMS
Standout Tracks: No Mercy / All That's Left is Blood / Plastic Wonderland / Crown of Phantoms



The finest album of the year. Such a powerful album. Well done.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Trivium - Vengeance Falls / Killswitch Engage - Disarm the Descent / Havok - Natural Selection / Dream Theater - DT / James LaBrie - Impermanent Resonance / Oblivion Soundtrack / Man of Steel score by Hans Zimmer

ALSO OF NOTE:

Two great soundtracks worth mentioning:





That's all folks!

MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2014...

I always like to do this once I've posted my Top Movies of 2013. A look back and a look forward, if you will.

#9 INTERSTELLAR - Christopher Nolan. Science Fiction/Aviation. Space. I'm in.



#8 Transformers - Age of Extinction. Let's be honest, other than the first one, these have been kinda crappy. The last one was an improvement over the second. Rumors of the Dinobots, Galvatron, and Unicron all have me interested. Here's to hoping...



#7 Expendables 3 - All the greats together yet again.



#6 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - the trailer looks awesome and Chris Pine is the man.



#5 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - the first one was excellent. Can't wait to see more of this story.



#4 The Raid 2: Bernadal. My favorite action movie of 2012 gets a sequel.



#3 Lone Survivor. This will be out very soon and it can't come soon enough.





#2 X-Men Days of Future Past. Dare I hope this is as good as First Class? It looks SO PROMISING!!!!



DRUMROLL PLEASE...

#1 MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIE OF 2014....DUH

GODZILLA. Outside of the 2009 Star Trek reboot, this might be my most anticipated of the last DECADE. The first trailer was amazing. Godzilla looks big and nasty again. Multiple monster fights. Please now I must have it.



We will see you soon, my friend...

TOP MOVIES OF 2013

It's that time of year again! Time for all of those top 10/favorite lists to pop up to celebrate another year down the drain. I'll be throwing up several posts over the next few days counting down this and that. And we're off...

I did not get to as many movies in the theater this year as I'd hoped. Still, some new and interesting stuff made its way into my Top 5

#5 (A TIE!) THE BAY and V/H/S 2...

A Double Creature Feature! Both effective and creepy little horror films. THE BAY was filmed in Georgetown, SC a few years ago but only recently made its way to Netflix. The story follows the scifi premise of real-life parasites growing really large and nasty due to toxic waste and invading an entire seaside town. I hate bugs, I hate things that crawl out of you and aren't supposed to be there, and what makes it worse, these things are REAL!!!





VHS 2 - I watched this back in October as part of my annual 30 in 30 Celebration. Reminded me of old school anthologies like Creepshow from the 1980s. Scary imagery and effective gore. My favorite short was Safe Haven - featuring the Shepherd of Paradise - YIKES!





#4 MANIAC...



A remake of an early 80s low-budget slasher flick. Elijah Wood plays a serial killer who lurks the streets in search of female victims. Shot almost entirely in first person from the POV of Wood's character - a very original take on horror genre. This is a very stylish and well-made film given the subject matter. Not what you would expect from Wood in the slightest but he is very good in this!



#3 EUROPA REPORT...



Incredible "real-world" space exploration movie. A team is sent to one of Jupiter's moons (Europa) to search for the proof of water and more importantly - life. Along the way they run into obstacles that they must overcome. Part Alien - Part The Abyss - Part 2001 - its a found footage type film but that doesn't get in the way of a good story and visuals. The found footage is actually the recordings taken from the starship's onboard cameras so its like watching a NASA program. Very refreshing scifi that doesn't need pew pew lasers to succeed.



#2 EVIL DEAD...



This had enormous potential to suck hard. Instead it blew those fears into a million bloody chunks. A remake of the 1983 original classic. Some minor details of the story are changed....No Ash!...but it more than makes up for that with truckloads of gore and demons. This is its own story and can stand firmly on that. Small nods do exist to the previous films and talk of more sequels to this as well as Army of Darkness have resulted. Mission Accomplished.



AND HERE IT COMES...

#1 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS...



What a shock right? Not the revelation that the 2009 film was but still the most fun I had all year in a darkened theater. KHAN, Klingons, Section 31, the USS Vengeance, Spock in a Volcano, I loved it all! Abrams knows how to open his Trek films, and seeing the aliens worship the ascending Enterprise was a wonderful way to begin. I often do the same thing. HAH! Admiral Robocop is great as Khan's enabler. Carol Marcus is introduced and we get several incredible scenes of the Enterprise warping, falling, and getting the crap shot out of it. Really - not one shot fired in the whole movie? Come on!!! All in all, the nods to Wrath of Khan are plentiful but not over the line in my opinion. They make sense within the context of these new versions of the characters. I can't wait to see what deep space holds for this crew in the next movie. Please make several more with these actors!!!!















HONORABLE MENTIONS - Pacific Rim / Machete Kills / The Hunger Games - Catching Fire / Olympus Has Fallen

INCOMPLETES (not seen but want to) - Thor - The Dark World / Elysium / Gravity / Anchorman 2 / Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug