Top Films

Friday, March 31, 2006
After doing the research for the 9/11 post I have really wanted to take a break and have some fun. So now I have been compiling lists of my favorite films and talking about these with my co workers.

My criteria for this document was how the film looks today and not how it looked when it opened. So this is a living document and changes from month to month or year to year. An example is that in 1977 I am positive Star Wars would have been a number one, but today it does not look good compared with the newer films so it tumbled down the list. Some of my co workers built their list on how the movie opened and did not factor age into the equation. There is no right and wrong; your opinion is all that matters.

In my opinion movies like Patton and 12 Angry Men still look good today. In fact, you could probably put Patton in the theatres today and people would not know it was made over thirty years ago unless you already knew it was made thirty years ago. On the other hand, some films I enjoy less as they aged; like Star Wars IV, Star Wars I. Anyway here are my favorite films:

1. Gladiator
2. Lord of the Rings-Return of the King
3. Batman Begins
4. Lord of the Rings-Two Towers
5. Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring
6. V For Vendetta
7. War of The Worlds – 2005
8. Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
9. Shawshank Redemption
10. Man in The Iron Mask
11. King Kong-2005
12. Patton
13. Les Miserables
14. Star Wars III
15. Legends of The Fall
16. Underworld
17. Star Wars VI
18. 12 Angry Men
19. Star Wars II
20. Star Wars V
21. Aliens
22. Goodfellas
23. Titanic
24. Matrix
25. Raiders of the Lost Ark
26. Gangs of New York
27. The Pianist
28. Dawn of The Dead - 2003
29. Godfather 2
30. We Were Soldiers
31. Scent of A Woman
32. Godfather
33. Terminator 2-Judgement Day
34. Jurassic Park
35. Silence of The Lambs
36. Matrix Revolutions
37. The Thirteenth Warrior
38. Ghost and The Darkness
39. First Blood
40. Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan
41. Last Samurai
42. Silverado
43. Prophecy
44. Jaws
45. Shindler’s List
46. Total Recall
47. Top Gun
48. The Rock
49. Unforgiven
50. Outbreak
51. Sixth Sense
52. Terminator
53. Casino
54. Star Wars IV
55. American History X
56. Razor's Edge
57. Bridge on The River Kwai
58. Avalon
59. Bourne Identity
60. Forrest Gump
61. Rob Roy
62. Signs
63. Primal Fear
64. Platoon
65. Master And Commander
66. Conan The Barbarian
67. Cool Hand Luke
68. Dirty Harry
69. Star Wars I
70. Black Hawk Down
71. Rocky
72. No Way Out
73. Ed Wood
74. Eight Men Out
75. Vision Quest
76. Elephant Man
77. Falling Down
78. Fatal Attraction
79. Highlander
80. Con Air
81. Casualties of War
82. Judgment At Nuremberg
83. Kelley's Heroes
84. Lonely Are The Brave
85. Road Warrior
86. Marathon Man
87. Uncommon Valor
88. Miller's Crossing
89. Monte Walsh
90. Good Bad Ugly
91. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
92. Natural
93. Omen
94. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
95. Pale Rider
96. Poltergeist
97. Predator
98. Presumed Innocent
99. Regarding Henry
100. The River’s Edge
101. Rocky 3
102. Roger & Me
103. The Corporation
104. Bowling For Columbine
105. A Christmas Story
106. Shoot To Kill
107. Exorcist
108. Unbreakable
109. Spiderman
110. Stand By Me
111. Taxi Driver
112. A Time To Kill
113. To Kill A Mockingbird
114. Tron
115. The Untouchables
116. The Vanishing
117. Walk In The Clouds
118. War of The Worlds
119. The Wild Bunch
120. Sting, The
121. Treasure of Sierra Madre

What are your favorites? Post them on your blog and let me know.

Labels: ,

Top Scores

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
There has been a lot of great movie music. I own almost 3,000 scores so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to this topic. Here is my list of the best movies scores of all time:

1. Gladiator – Hans Zimmer
2. Batman Begins – Hans Zimmer
3. Star Wars IV – John Williams
4. Titanic – James Horner
5. Star Wars III – John Williams
6. First Blood – Jerry Goldsmith
7. Bladerunner - Vangelis
8. Lord of the Rings-Return of the King – Howard Shore
9. Edward Scissorhands - Danny Elfman
10. Interview With The Vampire - Elliot Goldenthal
11. Bram Stoker’s Dracula - Wojciech Kilar
12. Lion King – Hans Zimmer
13. Legends of The Fall - James Horner
14. Silence of The Lambs - Howard Shore
15. Lord of the Rings-Two Towers - Howard Shore
16. Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring - Howard Shore
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark – John Williams
18. Underworld - Paul Haslinger
19. Star Wars V – John Williams
20. Star Wars I - John Williams
21. Jaws – John Williams
22. Batman – Danny Elfman
23. Star Trek – Jerry Goldsmith
24. V For Vendetta – Dario Marinelli
25. Man in The Iron Mask - Nick Glennie Smith
26. Last of the Mohicans – Trevor Jones
27. Murder in The First – John Barry
28. Patton – Jerry Goldsmith
29. Les Miserables - Basil Poledouris
30. Shawshank Redemption - Thomas Newman
31. Tombstone - Bruce Broughton
32. Star Wars VI – John Williams
33. Star Wars II – John Williams
34. Conan The Barbarian - Basil Poledouris
35. Predator - Alan Silvestri
36. The Rock - Hans Zimmer
37. Con Air - Trevor Rabin
38. Gods and Generals – John Frizzel
39. Glory – James Horner
40. Hellbound Hellraiser 2 – Christopher Young
41. End of Days – John Debney
42. Natural – Randy Newman
43. Prince of Darkness – John Carpenter
44. Aliens – James Horner
45. Matrix – Don Davis
46. Silverado - Bruce Broughton
47. Exorcist - Jack Nitzsche
48. Gangs of New York – Howard Shore
49. Batman Returns – Danny Elfman
50. Scent of A Woman – Thomas Newman
51. Terminator 2-Judgement Day – Brad Fiedel
52. Jurassic Park – John Williams
53. Matrix Revolutions – Don Davis
54. Prince of Egypt – Hans Zimmer
55. The Thirteenth Warrior – Jerry Goldsmith
56. Ghost and The Darkness – Jerry Goldsmith
57. Total Recall - Jerry Goldsmith
58. First Knight – Jerry Goldsmith
59. Razor's Edge - Jack Nitzsche
60. Platoon – Jerry Goldsmith
61. Dragonheart – Randy Edelman
62. Forrest Gump - Alan Silvestri
63. Omen – Jerry Goldsmith
64. Rob Roy - Carter Burwell
65. King Kong-2005 – James Newton Howard
66. Signs - James Newton Howard
67. Legend – Tangerine Dream
68. Master And Commander - Klaus Badelt
69. Black Hawk Down - Hans Zimmer
70. Highlander - Michael Kamen
71. Miller's Crossing – Carter Burwell
72. Presumed Innocent - John Williams
73. Regarding Henry - Hans Zimmer
74. Unbreakable – James Newton Howard
75. Tron – Wendy Carlos
76. The Untouchables - Ennio Morricone
77. Walk In The Clouds - Maurice Jarre
78. Alexander – Vangelis
79. Godfather - Nino Rota

For you score collectors out there, how would your list be different? Any comments?

Labels: ,

15 Seconds (9/11 Revisited)

Monday, March 20, 2006
If you jumped from the roof of building 1 or 2 of the World Trade Center it would take you 12 seconds to hit the ground. However, it took each of those buildings just 15 seconds to collapse the day of the 9/11 attacks.

When a friend of mine brought up a 9/11 conspiracy, I was totally pissed off at him and dismissed him as a lunatic. That was until I saw the video of the “plane” slamming into the Pentagon. That was no “plane” and it opened up Pandora’s Box for me. I will share with you what I have found so far.

After watching the videos of the 9/11 attacks again, I realized something was wrong. Buildings 1 and 2 collapsed too easily; it looks like a demolition and NOT like the result of the impact of the airliners. The video of building 7 was the scariest. That building was not on fire and sustained no damage but just suddenly fell. Not like a collapse from an earthquake but it fell inward like a demolition.

These buildings, because of their height, were built to withstand a direct hit from a commercial airliner but yet they easily collapse from the impact from one. They claimed the fire from the fuel was too much for the frame to handle but the steel framing from the buildings was hurriedly whisked off before they could be tested. Also, most of the fuel was blown outward when the planes hit as the videos clearly show.

I have more questions that either have no answers or unbelievable answers:

• How can buildings this size collapse in just 15 seconds from the impact of a plane when this building was originally designed to withstand an impact from a commercial airliner?
• Building 7 was untouched by an airplane and had no fire damage, so how could it collapse so easily?
• Why was building 7 omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report?
• Why was no airplane debris found at the Pentagon?
• Why did the FBI seize all surveillance videos of the “airplane” colliding with the Pentagon from adjacent businesses just minutes after the impact?
• Why did the government suggest the black boxes on the planes were never found, when workers at the sites claimed they found three of the four (the missing one was at the Pentagon, where no plane debris was found and video suggests something other than a plane hit the building)?
• Why did the FBI tell the National Transportation Safety Board which ALWAYS investigates every airplane crash to stay away from the flight 93 crash site?

These are just a few of the unanswered questions that have prompted a debate which will be talked about for years but will most likely never be answered.

There is also overwhelming evidence suggesting the attacks were know by the Bush administration well in advance but the information was suppressed and ignored. This evidence provided the means by which the attack would happen (commercial airliners) and the target (the World Trade Center buildings) weeks before. Why was this ignored?

When did this all start?

Project For the New American Century began in 1997 by many of the now Bush Administration participants to protect US interests in the world including a plan for energy domination. This plan identified three nations (Iraq, Iran and Syria) as being an obstacle to US interests in the Middle East. Their plan called for a huge boost in defense spending, full spectrum dominance over all nations and regions (including outer space), long term petro-resource control with permanent Middle East bases, and a preemptive war policy against recalcitrant states. However, they openly conceded that such a huge “transformation” would take forever “absent some cataclysmic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.”

The new “Pearl Harbor” happened on September 11, 2001. I am NOT suggesting our government planned the 9/11 attacks but I am suggesting they were aware of them and did nothing to stop it and might have helped a little. Does this explain why Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose? Why, with all of our technology, has he not been captured? The US trained and funded OBL during the Reagan Administration to fight the Iranians; and these same people are in charge of the Country once again under Bush. Where there is smoke there is often fire.

Eight days after Bush took office he was already planning to invade Iraq and just looking for a reason to do it. What a break for him when the intelligence of the World Trade Center attacks crossed his desk. If you remember it was the events of 9/11 that gave him the support of the entire American population including Congress. He took this opportunity to put the “Project For the New American Century” plan into action.

Some of the most damning evidence of a conspiracy was the reaction of President Bush. While all of this is happening he does not act surprised or alarmed. In retrospect he looks very calm, almost like he knows what is happening. How can this be when the rest of the world was utterly stunned?

No human being could be told of such an event and idly sit and read children’s stories. I imagine other Heads of State were watching the events unfold with bewilderment in their eyes but our President acts like this is no big deal. The only rational explanation for this behavior is that he already knew what was going to happen.

In June 2001 Rumsfeld rewrites the NORAD/FAA air emergency response protocols to require his office's permission in the interceptor launch authorization chain. In the year before this revision the NORAD/FAA emergency response had worked flawlessly 67 times. On 9/11 the system missed four out of four.

Three overlapping air war games were scheduled and run on September 11th that diverted NORAD air assets to Alaska, simulated an East Coast hijacking, and inserted phantom objects into FAA radar screens that confused air controllers on the ground. Why would he do this and why was this information suppressed from the public?

Until recently I would never believe my government was capable of such an atrocity but I also never imagined my government was capable of torturing people until recently either. Now they want to illegally wiretap anybody for any reason without the consent of a judge. I am sorry the Bill of Rights is such an inconvenience for law enforcement but it is there for a reason; checks and balances. What is happening?

You don't believe me; then do your own research. Start here:
http://www.911truth.org/index.php
http://911research.wtc7.net/
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/introduction.html

Special acknowledgments:
Andy R -= For the Title
Jack S – For the argument.

Labels:

Sopranos are Excellence in Programming

Monday, March 13, 2006
After 22 months the Sopranos finally returned last night with a thunderous episode. My entire family gathered around the big screen television and we were completely riveted to the program. I cannot remember us ever focusing our attention on a single show like this one; this is television the way it oughta be.

This show is the finest on television for several reasons:

• Every actor is superb and plays their character to perfection
• The writing is the best; only Deadwood and CSI come close
• The adult themes do not have to be downgraded to the eight grade level of commercial television because HBO is a premium channel
• No commercial breaks during the program to eliminate suspense or divert attention

My only complaint is that I have to wait an entire week to find out what happens next. This is one of the few occasions I actually wish away time. I can’t wait until Sunday!

Labels: