Favorite TV shows / Movies

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Zai]

SVU, or SUV as me and a few members of my family like to call it, is a pretty cool [guy. eh finds rapists and doesnt afraid of anything] show. Rather interesting, but the current season just ended. =/

Monk is an awesome show. I usually just watch the all-day marathons of it, but that's just me. =D CSI, Survivor, Myth Busters, Lost and (a lot of) other shows are pretty good. I still need to catch up on Lost; I haven't watched it in at least three weeks.

But I usually just watch whatever interesting is on at the time.

[Maxine MagicFox]

Myth Busters is fun but they've not released anything new recently that I know of.

As for SVU, yes, Elliot is very kewl but it's Olivia that I like. Anyone woman that can keep up with a guy and kick his ass is good in my book XD
:3 I wish the two would end up dating, but at the same time I'm not sure if I wanna see their close "friendship" end. Sometimes being just very good friends is good too, plus I don't know if their job is the best to have in-job dating in.

[ryuzaki]

My favourite movie would have to be Rush Hour 1 and 2. As for TV Shows it would be Everybody Loves Raymond.

[Zai]

Actually, there was an SUV episode (I think this past season) where their boss(es?) made them go to a person (psychologist/psychiatrist/therapist/other, I suppose) that evaluated whether or not the two were too close (relationship-wise). And they were found to not be. Or something.

So, yeah. I'm not seeing a dating thing in SUV's future. I didn't see this season's finale, but it was supposed to be TRAGIC and EXCITING. =0

[Maxine MagicFox]

Unfortunately, I can't catch the time when the newer episodes air. I'm usually watching past/re-hashed seasons. It's depressing *sigh* The last I saw that was "up to date" was the finale of Olivia

[spoiler]
finding her biological brother
[/spoiler]

^_^; I'll see the episodes some day. Aww, and those sound like good eppies, too! I don't mind not seeing them together as dating. It would be nice but, as I said before, I think their friendship thing is something even better. I remember one episode where Olivia had her throat almost sliced open and Elliot chose to stay with her as opposed to going after the culprit who had a child hostage. Losing the child tore him up inside, but I never got the vibe that he ever regretted his decision. <3

[ZetaBladeX13]

A few of my favorite movies would be:

* Monty Python and the Holy Grail

* Hot Fuzz

* Little Nicky

* Borat

* [insert any George Carlin stand-up video here]

* Every Miyazaki film

* Any George A. Romero film (Zombies ftw!)

* Labyrinth (lol, David Bowie)

As for TV shows:

* Two and a half Men

* Everybody loves Raymond

* Scrubs

* Invader Zim

* MxC

[Hanyou]

Shows:

Political/ News Shows: 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Glenn Beck, On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, ABC World News

Pundits are only destructive if you hang on their every word (remember, kids, The Daily Show is NOT a good source for news). I like Glenn Beck's show because he frequently admits his biases and doesn't seem to expect anyone to agree with him. As for The Colbert Report, I don't mind laughing at my own views. And yes, you'll often hear me rant about a liberal bias in the news, etc.--but at least I'm informed about what ABC, CBS, and NBC do. I refuse to not watch those channels, if only so I can get a different angle on the news and know what I'm talking about. And pretty often, they peddle good information.

Sitcoms: Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Everybody Loves Raymond, Cheers, The Andy Griffith Show, George Lopez, Frasier, I Love Lucy

These are my all-time favorite sitcoms--it doesn't mean I watch them all at once. Right now, I spend about 30 minutes a night on Home Improvement and another 30 minutes on George Lopez. Cheers and Seinfeld are probably the best on the list, though.

Television Dramas: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Does this even count? I don't watch it much, and the only reason I do watch it is that (for the most part) the stories are somewhat isolated. I could never commit myself to watch a television drama on a daily or weekly basis, so I've never tried.

Anime: The Big O, Cowboy Bebop

Bebop's on everyone's list, but it's The Big O that I really love. I own season one and two, and they're both pretty good. I don't really care for giant robots, but everything else about the story and the setting is very much to my liking. The robots become more tolerable in season two because they're brought to the foreground of the plot, which makes the whole thing feel less contrived. Both of these shows also have really great soundtracks.

Miniseries: North and South

A good civil war epic in spite of its soap opera-ish tendencies.

Movies:

This will be long because I'm a bit of a movie buff. I frequently rank my favorite movies, and this is where they stand now--though the list could change tomorrow, depending on my mood. It's also worth noting that "favorite" is not synonymous with "best." Chariots of Fire ranks above Metropolis as a favorite, but is it better? Probably not, though I'd argue both are very good movies.

1.) Chariots of Fire:- An uplifting, powerful story about two people who battled the elitists of their generation and became legends. I must have watched this movie a hundred thousand times and I never get tired of it.

2.) Ben-Hur: Heston had no rival when it came to acting. He was one of the best of his time, and helped create some of the most enduring characters in cinema. Half the reason Ben-Hur is so good is that Heston portrayed his character with a sincerity and energy that you simply don't find in modern cinema. The story was also incredibly good, however, with all the trappings of a greek tragedy. And while the chariot race will always be hailed as perhaps the greatest scene of its kind (rightfully so), I find the redemptive ending even more powerful.

3.) Patton: Was Patton as cruel as many believed him to be at the time, or was he simply misunderstood? Like any good documentary, this film presents the viewer with a mostly unbiased account and lets him or her decide for him or herself. Aside from being a fantastic biopic, it's also one of the best war films ever made. It's impossible not to like Patton.

4.) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Everything clicked into place here. The story found its direction, the characters broke out of their character types, and the special effects served to punctuate, rather than dominate, the story. It lived up to its name, leaving my favorite Star Wars character neatly encased in carbonite and the hero with five less real fingers, but I honestly feel that Luke's victory in this movie is much more powerful than any victory achieved in any of the other Star Wars films. If Lucas had handled Anakin's fall to the Dark Side as intelligently as Kershner handled Luke's victory over the Dark Side in TESB, perhaps the prequels would have been better. As it stands, the best scene in the prequels--the conversation between Palpatine and Anakin in the opera house--recalls the same sense of inevitability that was present in The Empire Strikes Back. Kershner understood why people go to the movies--it's for the same reason we read books or listen to music. We want to be emotionally stirred, to see ourselves in the characters and the timeless, tried-and-true plot devices such as the Hero's Journey. Lucas knew how to spin a good yarn, but he couldn't put it into words. Kershner filled in the gaps. That's why this franchise was at its very best in 1980.

5.) Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Best science fiction film of all time, period. Even in its incomplete form, it's better than most of what's been released since. Touches on psychology, philosophy, theology, and, ultimately, mankind's will to survive. Powerful stuff. Honestly, this word must have magical powers or something. Not only is another movie on this list called Metropolis, but my favorite music album also has the same name (Metropolis pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory). Anyway, the special effects of this film were so far ahead of their time that I daresay they rival anything that any science fiction film has churned out in all the time since then. The original score (be sure to watch the 2002 version, by the way--it's truest to the original cut) perfectly represented the contrast between the industrial underground area and the "pleasure gardens" above, alternating between heavier, more militaristic sounds and more lighthearted orchestral segments. Any science fiction fan would be well-served to watch this movie. It's as close to perfection as any movie could possibly get. is a trailer for the Kino cut...it should give you a good idea of what to expect. It's easy to forget this movie was made in 1927, isn't it? Be sure to turn up the volume and remember that it's a silent film--the emotional impact of every bit of dialogue and every sound was conveyed through the music.

6.) Lord of the Rings: I'd read the books prior to the release of the movies, and I honestly think the saga lived up to its name. I mentioned above that characters and believable interactions were what made Empire so good. It's hard to make a fantasy story down-to-earth (I don't generally like silly fairy tales with unbelievable magic), and I think Jackson did with Lord of the Rings everything Lucas should have done with the Star Wars prequels. Again, the special effects served the story, rather than the other way around, and interactions drove the plot forward. Much credit goes to Tolkien, but Jackson's achievements should not be understated; bringing this franchise to the silver screen was a monster of a task, and it could have had disastrous results. Instead, it's one of the definitive movies of the modern era.

7.) Batman Begins: I hate superhero films. That's why I love Begins so much--it's true to the style of the more noir-ish comics and you tend to forget it's about a superhero. I really look forward to The Dark Knight, but I'm a bit worried because everything except the Joker looks more cartoonish this time around. Here's hoping Nolan sticks with what worked in the original.

8.) Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis: This is the best animated film I've ever seen. Critics ridiculed it for being all style and no substance, and while I'm generally against that sort of thing, I think this movie's style and substance play off of each other and are both necessary to the progression of the plot (this was also true of the original Metropolis, so I don't see why there should be anything wrong with that). The fluid, bright animation contrasts with the dark and foreboding plot, and it probably has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. The story drew me in with its multi-faceted characters (you can pretty much sympathize with all of them) and the vivid world certainly helped. This is the movie that got me into anime--and sadly, this is the movie that also pulled me out of it when I found no anime films or shows (with the exception of the two on the list above) that, in my opinion, recaptured the sense of wonder or the universal appeal of this movie's plot while still managing to be so deeply personal (Spirited Away came close, but I had a hard time taking it as seriously). Beautiful.

9.) Braveheart: One of the most stirring Hollywood epics of all time, and a clear reminder that a good battle scene is worthless without good characters to drive the action forward. It's not necessarily accurate to history, but I think it fitfully captures the spirit of freedom that drove people like William Wallace.

10.) Citizen Kane: Is it as good as everyone says it is? No. But it's good.

Honorable mentions: Gattaca, Seven, A Few Good Men, Blade Runner, The Omega Man, The Godfather I and II, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars: A New Hope, Casino Royale, The Terminator, Lawrence of Arabia, Nosferatu, Silence of the Lambs, Guns of Navarone, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Spirited Away, The Truman Show, Jacob's Ladder, Dr. No, Memento, Phantom of the Opera (1925), Finding Forrester, Dark City, Pan's Labyrinth, Apollo 13.