10 Best, Best Picture Winners

1. The Godfather (1972)

2. The Godfather: Part 2 (1974)

3. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

4. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

5. No Country For Old Men (2007)

6. Rocky (1976)

7. Platoon (1986)

8. The Departed (2006)

9. Gladiator (2000)

10. The Deer Hunter (1978)

 

They Were In That?: Horror Edition

A lot of big time actors appeared in Horror Movies earlier in their careers.  Some, I'd say, would have to be more proud of their work than others.  I'm sure I'm missing a bunch, but these are pretty good.

Jennifer Aniston - Leprechaun (1993)

Kevin Bacon - Friday the 13th (1980)

Ben Affleck - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Paul Rudd - Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Johnny Depp - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Renee Zellweger - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)

Matthew McConaughey - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)

Patricia Arquette - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Jack Black - I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

Dana Carvey - Halloween II (1981)

Josh Hartnett - Halloween: H20 (1998)

Eva Mendes - Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)

Ving Rhames - The People Under The Stairs (1991)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Troll (1986)

Brook Shields - Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Rainn Wilson - House of 1,000 Corpses (2003)

Michelle Williams - Species (1995)

Naomi Watts - Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)


Lots of great work right there.  I actually like a bunch of those movies, probably more than the actor/actress in it.

Happy Halloween

-Keefe

Ridiculous List of Horror Movie Remakes

It really is comical how many horror movies have been remade in the last 10-15 years. There are so few original ideas out there. Movies that came out 20 somethin years ago are still being remade or "re-imagined" as those involved like to say. I'm not dumping on all of these movies, cause I have enjoyed some, but still this is a bit much. ALL of these movies listed below have been re-done. (Not a complete list)

• Halloween


• Halloween II


• Friday the 13th


• A Nightmare on Elm Street


• Black Christmas


• When a Stranger Calls


• The Hills Have Eyes


• The Hills Have Eyes II


• Psycho


• The Thing (twice)


• The Fly


• House on Haunted Hill


• Dawn of the Dead


• Cape Fear


• House of Wax


• The Hitcher


• Dracula


• Frankenstein


• The Wolfman


• Prom Night


• The Omen


• I Spit on Your Grave


• The Wicker Man


• It's Alive


• The Last House on the Left


• Red Dragon (was Manhunter)


• My Bloody Valentine


• Night of the Living Dead


• Piranha


• One Missed Call


• Quarantine (was REC)


• The Ring (was Ringu)


• The Ring 2 (was Ringu 2)


• Sorority Row (was The House on Sorority Row)


• The Amityville Horror


• The Crazies


• The Eye


• The Fog


• The Grudge


• The Haunting


• The Stepfather


• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre


• The Uninvited (was The Tale of Two Sisters)


• 13 Ghosts

There are many more, but these are the most popular. So remember young fans of Horror, when you're watching a movie, ask yourself, "Is this the original?" Chances are, the answer is no.

-Keefe

Top 5 Horror Movies By Decade

Less than a week away from Halloween, let's talk Horror Movies. The Sports Brief covers the Horror genre like no other Sports Blog out there. (That's gotta be true.) You can search "horror" in the upper left hand corner of this site to see all of the past entries related to Horror, including past lists and reviews of such classics as Scream 4, Trick r' Treat, and The Strangers.

This list gives you the best five films of each decade going back to the 1950s. You'll want to keep the light on. Buahahahaha. (You know what I'm sayin.)

1950s
5. The Bat (1959)
4. The Fly (1958)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
2. House of Wax (1953)
1. House on Haunted Hill (1959)

1960s
5. Peeping Tom (1960)
4. Cape Fear (1962)
3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
2. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
1. Psycho (1960)

1970s
5. Alice Sweet Alice (1976)
4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
3. Black Christmas (1974)
2. The Exorcist (1973)
1. Halloween (1978)

1980s
5. Evil Dead II (1987)
4. The Thing (1982)
3. Friday the 13th (1980)
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
1. The Shining (1980)

1990s
5. Candyman (1992)
4. Basic Instinct (1992)
3. Seven (1995)
2. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
1. Scream (1996)

2000s
5. Feast (2005)
4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
3. The Ring (2002)
2. Saw (2004)
1. The Devil's Rejects (2005)

2010s
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
4. Saw 3D (2010)
3. Shutter Island (2010)
2. The Crazies (2010)
1. Scream 4 (2011)

There you have it. Clearly I have not seen enough horror movies that were released in the past two years, because the 2010s list is pretty weak, but I'm not going to put something on there that I haven't seen. Feel free to let me know what ones I missed.

-Keefe

Rich Reviews: Scream 4

"What's your favorite scary movie?"

Well mine is probably Scream. (The original Halloween and Devil's Rejects are up there.) There is a lot I liked about the first installment, particularly the way it revitalized the horror genre. The characters in Scream were self aware, they watched movies and openly discussed them. The "what if you were in a horror movie" angle. As a bit of a film dork myself, I enjoyed all the tip-of-the-caps to previous movies, specifically legendary horror classics.

Say what you want about the original, but it was very smart. It is easy to make fun of it now, and trust me all of my friends do for liking it so much, however I think it still holds up today, 15 years after it came out. The story is solid, the characters are well developed, and most importantly for a horror movie, it's both scary and entertaining.

What about the sequels? Well at least all of the references to movies were still there. They even made a point to say in Scream 2 that sequels suck, and "by definition alone they are inferior films." I thought 2 had it's moments, some good ideas, I enjoyed it.

Scream 3 did not have the same writer (Kevin Williamson) as the first two, but it acted as the finale of a trilogy. Again, like the second film referencing other sequels, they devoted some time in 3 to describe trilogies, different rules, rare in the horror field, etc. Again, it had it's moments, but clearly the films go, A, B, C (if you're grading at home).

Alright enough about the first 3 films of the franchise, I just wanted to point out that I am a huge fan, it's my favorite franchise of horror films (beating out Halloween and Saw). So needless to say I was pumped when I heard they were making a 4th (with director Wes Craven, writer Kevin Williamson, and stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette).



I was busy opening weekend, if not I would have gone, seriously. Anyway, the girlfriend and I were 2 of I'd say 10-12 people in the audience for a Wednesday night showing at 7:30pm. That's not surprising as it made only 18.7 million in its opening weekend. Not what they were looking for. (Scream 2 made 33 million opening weekend, while Scream 3 drew 33.4.)



Scream 4 takes place 10 years after the end of Scream 3. Gail Weathers (Cox) is now Gail Riley and is married to Sheriff Dewey Riley (Arquette) in Woodsboro (the original town). Sidney Prescott (Campbell) comes back to town to promote a book she wrote, and next thing you know people start getting stabbed. They introduce a bunch of new characters, lots of high school kids, some new cops, and you got yourself a cast, where not only can anyone die, but anyone can be the killer.



It's a classic "who done it/ who is doing it." I tried figuring out who did it for probably a full hour, I won't spoil anything here.

But was it good? In a word, eh. I didn't hate it, that might be the big Scream fan in me talking. For a movie that was 10 years in the making, it was a let down. You got to think, if Kevin Williamson spent 10 years on this it was going to be really good. I wonder if he spent 10 hours on it.

The first movie was so different and so smart, this movie tries to hard and comes up short. There was to much of the, "well that was how it worked then, so now it is like this, so we need to expect that, and everything is different while being the same." What? And they should have spent more time developing a true story instead of just upping the kill count and trying to fool you on who the killer(s) is/are.

In the end, it's no where near the as good as the first one, and doesn't even rival the second. I'd have to watch it again before I say for sure it's worse than 3, but I feel like I could do a solid debate on either side of 3 & 4 for which is better. If you happen to be a big fan of the series, it's worth a watch, but go in with low expectations. If you don't like these movie, you didn't read this far anyway.

When To Watch It Scale


The WTWIS is broken down to the following 4 categories...

-Theater
-Netflix
-TV
-Don't Bother

Although I was a bit disappointed, I will go with "Netflix" for Scream 4. (The TV version, unless on HBO will be edited pretty bad I imagine.)

Alright, there you have it. Hope this helps. If you saw it feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you thought or e-mail me at sportsbrief@gmail.com

-Keefe

The Hangover 2 Trailer

-Keefe

Rich Reviews: Trick 'r Treat

Rich Reviews is back with a special Halloween Edition. I recently saw the direct-to-DVD film Trick ‘r Treat. It stars Dylan Baker (Dr. Connors in the Spidermans) and Anna Paquin (True Blood and X-Men). First, a little back story. The movie was made back in 2007 and scheduled for a Halloween release. However, Saw IV was opening the same time, from a different production company and they feared getting smoked at the Box Office.

The idea then became to move it to an October 2008 release, but that also didn’t happen. Much of the production team on Trick ‘r Treat, including producer Bryan Singer, who directed Superman Returns worked on the Man of Steel sequel, which was a failure. This may have been another reason that Warner Bros. decided to avoid a wide release, or a theatrical release all together.

So you may have been as surprised as me to see previews on TV for Trick ‘r Treat this month and have the commercial end with “Now Available on DVD.” I had never heard of it, it had a couple major movie stars, and they seem to release a lot of horror movie junk, so what was the deal? I did 2 minutes of research and that’s what I found.

As for the film itself, Baker plays a single dad who is a high school principal and a… serial killer. Paquin plays a college student virgin, there’s some kids who play a horrible prank, a young couple, a weird old man who lives alone (Brian Cox), and this little creep kid/man that seems to be everywhere (pictured above). Instead of focusing on just 1 story they bounce around to about 5 and try to have them overlap when they can with characters from other stories in the background here and there.

There are some good ideas within the stories, but for the most part it just doesn’t work. I was confused at parts, and it seemed to either over explain certain things or completely under explain them.

Best part? The run time, only 82 minutes. That’s like a long episode of The Wire, expect no where near as good. There were some really good death scenes… and I’m still talking about The Wire.

Trick ‘r Treat did bring some uniqueness which is very rare for horror, and since it was less than an hour and a half, I’m not pissed off that I sat through it. Ultimately they did make the right decision by not putting it in theatres. It’s not worth that, probably not worth renting (can you still rent movies?), I did Netflix it, but you might not want to take up the top spot in the queue with it. If it comes on TV next Halloween and you have nothing to do, I mean nothing, there’s no MLB playoffs, NFL, college football, NBA opening week, etc., then feel free to give it a watch and let me know what you think.

In the end Trick ‘r Treat was a lot more Trick than Treat.

-Keefe

Best Movies of the Decade

Here it is, the much anticipated "Best Movies of the Decade," according to Rich Keefe, co-author of The Sports Brief and a huge fan of film. You already saw the Top 10 Comedy Movies as well as Top 10 Horror Movies (scroll down or hit the archives) from the past 10 years. Those films will not be found in this list. So no Old School or Wedding Crashers here. Let the debate begin...

10. District 9 (2009)
This is the only movie from 2009 to make the Top 10 or even Honorable Mention. Sci-fi story involving aliens living in a community, "District 9" in South Africa. It stars no one you've ever heard of but it doesn't matter, you'll be sucked right in.

9. The Prestige (2006)
I had not seen this movie until about a month ago despite the fact it had been out for over 3 years. Like District 9, The Prestige, is the only other film on this list that I have only seen once. So maybe I got caught up in the moment, or maybe it should be even higher? And I mean who doesn't like magic?

8. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Admittedly I am a huge Quentin Tarantino fan. I think I own all of his movies. Kill Bill was great, Vol. 1, to me was much better than its sequel. You're trying to figure out what the hell is going on while be treated to a number or memorable fight sequences.

7. Gran Torino (2008)
Clint Eastwood continues to get the job done. There is no way around it. The constant racial and ethnic slurs breaks up the tension throughout the film. If you haven't seen this one yet do yourself a favor.

6. Iron Man (2008)
I like comic book movies. There have been a ton of them, Spiderman, X-Men, Punisher, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Wolverine, Fantastic 4, Batman, and Superman all have been on the big screen at least once. (Iron Man sequel on its way). I would put the first installment up against almost any other, with the combination of Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark/ Iron Man and of course all the special effects that come with these types of movies.

5. No Country for Old Men (2007)
In 2008, No Country took home 4 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor. I usually don't look at Oscar winners to determine good movies, but that year they got it right. Great acting, crazy story, and a must see.

4. The Departed (2006)
Another Oscar winner, the year before No Country. You have all seen The Departed by now, just an all-star cast and cool story. I particularly enjoy the roles by Alec Baldwin and Mark Walhberg.

3. The Dark Knight (2008)
I would put Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker up against any other from the past 10 years with the exception of Daniel Day- Lewis in There Will Be Blood. I'm not just saying that because he died before the movie was released. Sure that made it stand out a little bit more than it would have, but even still it was incredible. I never thought they should have even tried to use a Joker because Jack Nicholson's was so good, it would have been insulting. Well, you know what? Heath's was better.

2. Sin City (2005)
Some movies have 1 bad ass character, few have 2, Sin City give you 3 genuine bad asses. Hartigan (Bruce Willis), Dwight (Clive Owen), and Marv (Mickey Rourke) are the 3 guys you follow around Basin City in this graphic novel turned movie. A ridiculous cast you watch as all the characters intertwine. Still waiting on the sequel, that appears less and less likely.

1. Snatch (2000)
My favorite movie of the past 10, 25, 50, 100 years. A lot is going on between a lot of different characters. They talk fast with an English accent or even faster with a Pikie accent (Brad Pitt), but still to this day I have not found a movie that's been more fun to watch. I don't expect you all to agree with me that it's the best movie of the decade, but you have to admit it belongs on the list.

Honorable Mention:
Gladiator (2000), V for Vendetta (2005), Crash (2004), Mystic River (2003), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), X2 (2003), Training Day (2001), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Memento (2000), Planet Terror (2007).

-Keefe

Best Movies of the Decade: Part 1: Comedy

With the early 2000s coming to a close, what better time to compile "Best of the Decade" lists. Rather than do teams, athletes, or even games, which a normal sports blog would do, I'm going to break down the best films of the past 10 years.

Part 1 will be Comedy; Part 2- Horror; Part 3... non comedy/horror. If the lists are as big a hit as I expect them to be I may even make more in the next couple of weeks.

"Best Movies of the Decade" will include a Top 10 as well as honorable mentions. Feel free to leave comments below, calling me an idiot, agreeing with me, and or giving your list. On to the funny...

10. Meet the Parents (2000)
Just a classic at this point with so many great lines. "That smell is our shit Bob, Focker flushed the toilet in the den last night." The sequel wasn't as good in my mind.

9. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
"Give me a smile pussycat." -Borat talking to a feminist group.

8. Best in Show (2000)
If you're a dog person you'll like this even more, but you don't have to be. From the people who brought you Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman it's a must see.

7. 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
One of the best supporting casts in a comedy out there. The whole crew at Smart Tech is better than Steve Carell who plays a solid straight man in this.

6. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy (2004)
Maybe the most quotable movie on the list along with the most quotable voice. "The human torch was denied a bank loan..."

5. The Hangover (2009)
Fantastic. A ridiculous soundtrack too. Out on DVD today!

4. Superbad (2007)
Nearly a decade before Superbad there was American Pie as the cutting edge high school movie. This one raises the bar and really introduced Michael Cera to the non- Arrested Development audience.

3. Made (2001)
If you missed this one make sure you see it. Written and directed by Jon Favreau, starring him and Vince Vaughn it's like bizarro Swingers. Vince is not smooth... at all, and it may be better than any other movie with both of these guys in it.

2. Wedding Crashers (2005)
It may be a little long and a little too cheesy in some parts, but there are still plenty of laugh out loud moments. Bradley Coooper's asshole role has taken on a new appreciation following The Hangover.

1. Old School (2003)
I'm pretty sure this would be in the top spot for a list of the Top Comedy films of the last 10-20-30-40 years. It's all good. Even a cameo by Craig Kilborn! Feel free to "Bring your Green Hat!"

Honorable Mentions:
Step Brothers (2008), Bad Santa (2003), Team America: World Police (2004), Grandma's Boy (2006), Mean Girls (2004), Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Super Troopers (2001), Strange Wilderness (2006), Pineapple Express (2008), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008).


-Keefe

Coming next, Part 2: Horror

Rich Reviews: Obsessed

In a word: Decent

In several words: On the surface, Obsessed seems like a jv 2009 version of Fatal Attraction, which is still keeping men from cheating on their wives to this day. But of course, it is different than that. I'm not going to give anything away here. Essentially a successful guy is married to Beyonce and they have a 2 year old son. Ali Larter is a temp at the guy's office and is instantly interested in him. She's a bit crazy, Beyonce is a bit jealous, and you've got yourself movie. The guy finds himself caught in the middle of Ali Larter and Beyonce, not sure how many people are feeling sorry for him.

The film (#1 at the box office this weekend) banked on the following: 1. Women bringing their guys to it, so they can say, "you better not cheat on me, cause this will happen" and 2. Guys wanting to go to see Ali Larter and Beyonce. In this regard, it worked on both fronts. There were couples, groups of girls, and groups of dudes at the Sunday evening show I took in.

Ali Larter is worth the price of omission. Unless it's night time at an overpriced city theater. Then maybe you should wait til video, or find a cheaper matinee. Bottom line it was predictable and hurt itself with a PG-13 rating. Sure they'll probably end up making more money at the box office, because a larger amount of people are allowed to see it, but I think it suffered. Fatal Attraction sure as hell wasn't rated PG-13, and this shouldn't have been either.

The best part, beside the crazy Ali Larter, was unfortunately the previews. Check out the trailers for Orphan and Drag Me To Hell. Damn they look scary.

Orphan:

Drag Me to Hell:

Keefe's Oscar Picks

This Sunday marks the 81st annual Academy Awards. Being the huge movie fan that I am, I will share with you my picks for the most prestigious awards in Hollywood.

Best Picture: The Dark Knight

(What? This movie wasn't nominated? Forget it.)

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Best Actress: Liv Tyler (The Strangers)

(This movie was scary! Well kind of, could have been better. She's in the mix right?)

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Best Supporting Actress: Rosie Perez (The Pineapple Express)

(Great film, great acting. She wasn't nominated either? Nevermind.)

Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

Ok, I'm going to stop. I've seen The Dark Knight and The Wrestler, that's it. Nothing else gets nominated. Where's Iron Man, The Pineapple Express, Strange Wilderness, Incredible Hulk, The Strangers, and so many other fantastic cinematic treasures? The last 3 years I successfully picked, Crash, The Departed, and No Country for Old Men. This year? Who knows, everyone says Slumdog, so I'm rooting for the field.

Enjoy it. And let me know if you've seen any of the films up for best picture.

-Keefe

Rich Reviews: Iron Man

-Keefe

I saw Iron Man over the weekend, and figured I’d share my thoughts. Chances are you’ve already seen it as the film has pulled in $177 million in two weeks including $50.5 in its second weekend. The formula is simple. Recognizable comic book + movie star or 2 = easy 100+ million dollar block buster. Let’s see Spider- Man (3 times), X-Men (3), Fantastic 4 (2 and counting), Hulk (and we’ll see another one this summer), Daredevil, Punisher, Batman (all of them), I mean if they keep making them we’ll keep seeing them. You name it, I’ll watch it. Infinity Gauntlet? Yes. X-Factor? Of course. Alpha Flight? Why not.

As for the most recent successful Marvel Comic Book movie adaptation, it was the real deal. Iron Man brought the noise, and no, that’s not the glorious surround sound from the CineMagic talking. Even with the lack of a well known super villain (Iron Monger played by Jeff Bridges, instead of a Joker, Magneto, Kingpin, Dr. Doom, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Venom, Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, etc.), you are still intrigued to see what Iron Man is up against. The action, fighting sequences, and special effects were top notch and extremely entertaining.

Robert Downey Jr. was brilliantly cast to play billionaire weapons manufacturer, genius, and playa Tony Stark/ Iron Man. Whether you are familiar with the comic series or not you will enjoy the job done by Downey Jr. There’s been some great acting jobs done in super hero roles; Christian Bale in Batman Begins (and The Dark Knight, which will raise the bar once again) and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X-Men series are just two examples, and Downey Jr. is right there with his performance as Stark. He is a natural to play the part and he seems at ease in front of the camera.

The rest of the cast was solid as well. Downey Jr. clearly brings the level of play up from everyone around him, much like a Kevin Garnett with the Celtics. Speaking of the Celtics, when will they start to play well on the road? I mean are you kidding me with that Game 3 showing? Sorry. The supporting cast: Jeff Bridges, who will forever be known as the Dude was good as was Terrence Howard as Stark’s buddy Jim Rhodes. Howard will undoubtedly have a bigger role in the sequel where I expect him to fight side by side as War Machine. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, Stark’s assistant that knows everything about him. She’s not supposed to be smoking hot, so they got that right, but her acting isn’t the best either. Most comic book movies you wouldn’t notice, but when she’s surrounded by the likes of Downey Jr., Bridges, and Howard you can tell. But she wasn’t bad enough to bring down the entire ensemble.

Bottom line, Iron Man is an absolute treat to the eyes and ears. It’s just over 2 hours long, and you’ll never once feel that the film is dragging. Lots of action mixed with humor. You don’t have to be a comic book fan to enjoy this movie, although I’m sure it helps. I give it a 9 out of 10, and can’t wait for the sequel.

Special heads up brought to you by the Sports Brief. If you have not seen the movie yet, make sure you stay through the end of the credits. You’ll be glad you did.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of Rich Reviews. It will become a new addition to the Brief, where I can sound off on new films that I have seen. Maybe I’ll even save you 9 bucks in the process.