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And the topic for April 9 is ...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, April 09, 2010 12:10:10 AM
... The Top 10 Bad Date Movies of All Time!!

With Steve Carell and Tina Fey unleashing "Date Night" on an unsuspecting public, Bad Date Movies seemed to be a reasonable choice.  Particularly since "Date Night" appears to be a movie about a bad date (although much as they'd like to or pretend to, married folk don't "date") and, more importantly, appears to be bad.  Period.  But we'll talk about that tomorrow.

So join us after our Good Friday break as we dissect "Date Night", "Clash of the Titans" and the truly horrible "The Last Song".  As usual, we're on at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with your thoughts.
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The Top Ten Hiker Movies of All Time

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Saturday, March 13, 2010 1:04:09 PM
Believe it or not, I'm posting the list:

  1. Stand By Me (1986).
  2. The Book of Eli (2010).
  3. The Wizard of Oz (1939).
  4. The Lord of The Rings (take your pick, but I'd choose The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  5. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  6. Up (2010).
  7. The Princess Bride (1987).
  8. Apocalypto (2006).
  9. The Sound of Music (1965).
  10. Lost Horizon (1939).
All of the above (and most of the movies below) are available on Amazon.  And if you're interested in them, you might as well copy the following link in your browser to get to the No. 1 Movie (and any others you might fancy):

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00003CXIP?ie=UTF8&tag=emmettoftheunbli&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00003CXIP">Stand By Me (Special Edition)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=emmettoftheunbli&l=as2&o=1&a=B00003CXIP" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;

Or not.  Your choice.  So I'm a mercenary.

And if you're at all interested in the field from which these gems and semi-gems were plucked, here are the rest of the possibles (in alphabetical order).

A Far Off Place (1993)
A Passage to India (1984)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
Alive (1993)
Americano (2005)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Beau travail (1999)
Blood Diamond (2006)  
Bolt (2008)
Cliffhanger (1993)
Continental Divide (1981)
Deep Impact (1998)
Deliverance (1972)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
EuroTrip (2004)
Evan Almighty (2007)
Exodus (1960)
First Blood (1982)
Gran Paradiso (2000)
Hansel and Gretel (1987)
Holes (2003)
Hostel (2005)  
Into the Wild (2007)  
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
K2 (1991)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Predator (1987)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Shoot to Kill (1988)
Something New (2006)  
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Southbounders (2005)
Tears of the Sun (2003)
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
The Goonies (1985)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
The Hiking Trip (2007)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Mission (1986)
The Mountain (1956)
The Naked Prey (1966)
The Nines (2007)
The People That Time Forgot (1977)
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
The Pied Piper (1942)
The Road (2009)  
The Ruins (2008)
The Searchers (1956)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
There Will Be Blood (2007)  
Transsiberian (2008)
Turistas (2006)
Vertical Limit (2000)
Walkabout (1971)
Wolf Creek (2005)

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And the List for Today Is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, March 12, 2010 4:21:06 PM
... The Top 10 Hiker Movies of All Time!!

You may remember (Ibarely do) that a few weeks ago we did the Top 10 Biker Movies of All Time!  During the show, some joker called up and suggested Into the Wild.  We aksed him what that had to do with bikers.  He said, "Oh.  I thought you said Hiker Movies"!

Ba-da-bing.

So today -- mostly out of spite -- we're going to actually do Hiker Movies.

And Into the Wild ain't going to be on it.

So tune in today, Friday, at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts. 

And I may even read them this time.
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And the top Ten List for December 11 is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, December 11, 2009 2:28:09 PM
... The Top 10 Rodeo Movies of All Time!!

As you may know, Mr. Hewitt spent a portion of hte week in Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo.  (You just have to love cowboys.  Terse.  To the point.  No "National Finals of Rodeo", no "National Finals Rodeo Championships".  Just "National Finals Rodeo".)

So although we did discuss the possibility of doing the Top 10 Minor Sports Movies of All Time (in honor of "Invictus", which we will also be reviewing this week), I decided that the Top 10 Rodeo Movies of All Time would be more creative.  And harder to come up with.

So tune in today, Friday, at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts. 

And I may even read them this time.
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"Evewrybody's Fine" -- Best Movie of 2009

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, November 20, 2009 2:07:38 PM
I went to a screeing this week of the new Robert DeNiro starrer, "Everybody's Fine", which is due to be released Decewmber 4.  This is a remake of the 1990 Giuseppe Tornatore movie of the same name (except in Italian, I guess) starring Marcello Mastroianni.

Maybe it's my age (far closer to DeNiro than to his wonderful co-star, Sam Rockwell); maybe it's the fact that I have children getting closer to the age of DeNiro's screen offspring (Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Bekinsdale (who knew she could act?)); maybe it's just the season.  But this is, far and away, the best grown-up movie I've seen this year.  And if you don't go see it, something's wrong with you.

DeNiro plays a widowed man retired from his job covering telephone wire with PVC, and his exposure to the PVC over time has caused him some medical condition that impacts his ability to travel.  He is proud of his work, and proud that it has given his children the opportunity to get an educaiton and succeed in life.  After his wife dies and his children all cancel a planned family reunion, and he realizes that his wife was the only one who really had a relationship with his children, he decides to take a cross-country trip by train, bus and truck (the latter unplanned) to visit them unannounced.  Perhaps not the best idea, but understandable.  He loves his children, he believs they love him, he's proud of their success, and he desparetely wants to establish a closer relationship with them as he feels his own mortality sweeping down on him.  What follows is a voyage of discovery -- on everyone's part -- that is deeply moving.

From the trailer, you'd think this is a holiday comedy.  And while there are light moments, a comedy it isn't.  What it is is an extremely well made, extrevely well acted film that you will think about long after it's over.  DeNiro is simply marvelous; sometimes you just sit there and marvel at how much emotion he can squeeze out of the smallest look or gesture.

This film is well worth your time, and if it isn't nominated for Best Picture (after all, there are now 10) and DeNiro for best actor, something is seriously wrong with the process.  Go see it.
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"The Blind Side" Hits the Mark

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, November 20, 2009 1:37:20 PM
As just about anyone with a television set knows by now, "The Blind Side" (based on the wonderful book by Michael Lewis) is the basically true story of a very large, very athletic young black man who is semi-adopted by an evangelical white family in Memphis, Tennessee, after he is abandoned by his drug-abusing mother.  The traler is grand; does the movie live up to it.

Thankfully, it does.  Sandra Bullock does a stellar job as Leigh Anne Touhy, the feisty ex-cheerleader from teh University of Mississippi who cajoles her family to take Michael Oher (pretty well played by Quinton Aaron) in after she sees him walking down the street, in the rain, in late fall.  The movie follows Oher development as both an athlete and a scholar m(well, at least a semi-scholar) and his interaction with his now mostly-white Christian school.  Although no overtly evangelical, The Blind Side makes it clear that what motivates the Touhy family (and the private Christian high school that admits him) to take "Big Mike" in is not his athletic ability (although that certainly didn't hurt) but their belief that it was simply the Christian thing to do.  This is a sentiment that is not very often expressed in modern film.

Although the rest of the cast (particularly Kathy Bates as Michael's tutor, Ms. Su, and Jae Head as the annoying little brother (and he does start to get to you after awhile) present themselves well, this is basically Bullokck's movie, and she does a fine job with it.

So if you're looking for a post-Thanksgiving outing for the family, take in "The Blind Side".  It's fine for everyone (if you don't mind one tiny reference to a certain body part which I can't mention in this review because it constitutes "inapproprate language" according to the robotic posting inspector).  And it has one of the best lines in it of all time -- and if you're a loyal Hewitt listener, you'll recognize it when you hear it.
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And the lLsit for November 20 Is ...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, November 20, 2009 12:47:44 PM
... The Top 10 Water Movies of All Time!!

Remember last week when Mr. Hewitt dumped my segment so that he could galavant off to that world-renowned vacation spot, Fresno, to kvetch about the Delta Smelt?  And about how the politicians in Sacramento had turned off/rationed the water to the Central Valley to protect its tiny little hide from extinction?

Well, now we're doing Water Movies.  And I have no better explanation than that.

So tune in today, Friday, at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts. 

And I may even read them this time.

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And the List for Today, October 30, is ...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, October 30, 2009 7:26:25 PM
.... well, a little hard to explain.  Not that that makes it significantly different than any other list.

What we're going to do is to the the Top One Through 10 Movies.  The number one movie with the number (or word) "ten" (or 10) in the title, the number one movie with the number/word "nine" (or 9) in the title, all the way down to the number one movie with the number "one" in the title.

It'll be fun.

No, really.

And we'll also be talking about today's "major" release, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (which I liked a lot better than almost any other critic).  So tune in today, Friday, at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts. 

Not that I'll read them.  Or care.
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And the List for Octrober 16 is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, October 16, 2009 10:57:57 AM

... ...  The Top 10 Entrepreneur Movies of All Time!!  Why?  Well, why not??  After all, Mr. Hewitt (and, by a remarkable string of coincidences, me too) has/have opened a new law business (which he may have mentioned on the show).  So while he and Generalissimo are attendign BlogWorld (or some such nonsense) in Las Vegas, I will be holding down the big chair and jhousting with the internss.  What better way to start a weekend?. 

So tune in Friday at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts.

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And the Topic for October 2 is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Thursday, October 01, 2009 6:38:21 PM

...  The Top 10 School Assembly Movies of All Time!! And really, what else could it be with "Zombieland" coming out tomorrow?  I can't wait.  And there are a kaboodle of movies out ther to choose from.  But I need yours. 

So tune in Friday at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed) or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.  And if you have any bright ideas, let me know ASAP by commenting here or email me with yoiur thoughts.



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And teh Topic for September 4 is

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, September 04, 2009 12:20:46 PM
...  The Top 10 School Assembly Movies of All Time!!
Almost anyone can figure out why we're doing this list -- the long anticipatedc and much-debated presentation by the President of  --- something to elementary school children next Tuesday.  Although why we're doing School Assembly movies -- of which the pickings are admittedly slim -- rather than Hubris Movies (my personal chooice) -- would be a subject best left to his Hughness.
So this time help is desparately needed.  If you have any ideas -- and want to get credit for them on the show -- post a comment with your choice.  If I haven't thought of it already (unlikely, but possible), and it makes the list (more likely than you'd think, you'll get full credit on the air.
So tune in today at 5 Pacific on your local radio network (unless we're tape delayed or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with.
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And the Topic for August 14 Is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, August 14, 2009 12:33:10 AM
...  The Top 10 Fishing Movies of All Time!!

I was dead bang certain that we'd done this before, but apparently -- and surprisingly -- I was wrong.  And with Mr. Hewitt again out of the studio fishing in Montana (good luck, Montana), it seems like a rational topic to tackle (get it?)

So tune in Friday at 5 PST on your local radio network or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with. And if you have any suggestions that you feel must be included, leave a comment and let me know. 
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"G.I. Joe" a Big No-No-No

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, August 07, 2009 4:15:08 PM
Not that there's anything inherently wrong with a two hour exercise in mind-numbing action and more-than-a-little violence, mind you.  But sometimes....

Since I have no desire to encourage anyone to see this shockingly bad movie, I would have absolutely no problem revealing the plot, if I could begin to figure our what it was.  Suffice it to say that two average (well, probably above-average) soldiers, "Duke", played by the dreamy (per my daughter) Channing Tatum and the possibly equally dreamy for all I know "Ripcord" (Damon Wayans). are recruited to join a secret unit called G.I. Joe (or, as they're known throughout the movie, "the Joes") after their mission to protect four NATO warheads containing little nano-thingies that eat anything and everything, fails.  Amazingly enough, the former fiancé of Duke, Ana (Sienna Miller), is behind the theft of the warheads.  I mean, Tatum is cute and all (I guess), but is his rejection enough to turn her to a life of crime?

Now, this is not a movie that stands up to any kind of strict (or even relaxed) scrutiny.  But since the entire premise of this debacle is that the creator of the nano-thingies must steal them back to carry out his nefarious plan, you have to wonder why he just didn't save himself some unnecessary grief and a lot of money by just making four more warheads while he had the chance and double-billing NATO for them.  That's what the Democrats would have done.

In any event, but for the violence (impalings, etc.) and the standard Hollywood view that you can bump off thousands of people, but it's OK as long as you haven't been formally introduced to them, this would be a perfect movie for your average 6 year old boy.  And it will make Hasbro, the maker of G.I. Joe, a bagazillion dollars.  But if the boy's over 6 ... not so much.

So the bottom line is, don't waste your money.  It's the worst summer blockbuster since Transformers.  Go see (500) Days of Summer, or The Hurt Locker.  You'll feel better about yourself.
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And the Topic for August 7 is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, August 07, 2009 3:48:51 PM
...  The Top 10 Mob Movies of All Time!!

Not the Godfather type mob.  Just the traditional, old-fashioned, what-the-heck-are-you-doing-to-our-health-system type mob.  Your guess is as good as mine, but I have to guess on the radio.

So tune in today at 5 PST on your local radio network or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with. And if you have any suggestions that you feel must be included, leave a comment and let me know.
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And the Topic for July 31 Is...

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Thursday, July 30, 2009 3:45:13 PM
...  The Top 10 Beer Movies of All Time!!

With the Obama-Cop-Professor beer meeting occurring today -- what is almost certainly the best known White House beer bash in US history -- what could be more appropriate than unearthing the Top 10 Beer Movies of All Time?  Duane couldn't think of anything, and neither could I. 

So tune in Friday at 5 PST on your local radio network or on good old reliable KRLA and see what we come up with. And if you have any suggestions that you feel must be included, leave a comment and let me know.
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