And The 2013 Oscar Goes To...

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Cheeeers All.  With the Oscar nominations coming out this week, I thought I’d let you know what some of my favorite movies are.<br /><br />And by favorite, I don’t mean all technically good and what not, but movies that if they come on TV, I would watch again and again even though I have seen them 10,000 times.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrPDideJVVoKA4IP8W3OO9Igw_vBONvknKcz5Joajz8OauEDOjeV4uXITSP2qzR_h_G9tDjHIRgR1ElAySdekYyKbM5zic06I4Wmi2a-qqV8ZVEkYmQYdVxQKO-OT82ruGHK6OubTDLk/s1600/christopher-lee-as-count-dracula1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrPDideJVVoKA4IP8W3OO9Igw_vBONvknKcz5Joajz8OauEDOjeV4uXITSP2qzR_h_G9tDjHIRgR1ElAySdekYyKbM5zic06I4Wmi2a-qqV8ZVEkYmQYdVxQKO-OT82ruGHK6OubTDLk/s400/christopher-lee-as-count-dracula1.jpeg" width="270" /></a>And without further adieu, and in no particular order, the Mattscars go to….<br /><br /><b><i>Dracula: Prince of Darkness</i> (1966)</b><br /><br />Hands down my fave Dracula movie of all time.  Although I don’t spend my days trying to write “new and creative ways to portray vampires”, I am a Draculaphile.   Christopher Lee was THE best Dracula ever, annnnnd…although filmed in 1966?  This movie contains some major, “not so implied” lesbianism.  Oh yeahhhhhh, Baby!!<br /><br /><b><i>Napoleon Dynamite</i> (2004)</b><br /><br />Are you kidding me?  This movie is so stupid and so eclectic (in a literal sense, not a sarcastic sense) that my now 18 year old son and I still say to one and other, <i>“Your mom goes to college.”</i>  Oh my God, the disturbing dryness of it all is a hoot.  When the opening scene has Napoleon tossing out a plastic Superman with fishing line tied to its neck out of a school bus window so the action figure careens down the road, you just know that this movie is gonna be good.<br /><br /><b><i>Shawshank Redemption</i> (1994)</b><br /><br />Who doesn't like this movie?  Communists, that’s who!!  Oh…and Republicans, because they think the warden was just trying to get his fair share from the government and what is wrong with that?  However, there is nothing better than watching a movie where a guy in prison sticks it to THE MAN and the sticking it to THE MAN doesn't involve having anal relations with a cell mate.<br /><br /><b><i>Kelly’s Heroes</i> (1970)</b><br /><br />I am a freak about WWII movies and this one is one of my favorites.  Great cast and great storyline.  A group of disenchanted U.S. Army regulars want <i>“a piece of the action”</i> and successfully attempt to heist gold from a German controlled bank in France.<br /><br />A great cast that includes Don Rickles, Gavin Macleod (no seriously, he was funny), and a hilariously drugged up Donald Sutherland as, Oddball, balance the seriousness of Clint Eastwood who gives some hilarious looks like he did at this year’s GOP Convention.  Although during this movie, he was acting, and not a prisoner of ideology and senility.<br /><br /><b><i>Stalag 17</i> (1953)</b><br /><br />Just like the aforementioned movie, a star-studded cast of William Holden, a young Peter Graves, and a host of others, make this a great flick.  The acting is beyond awesome.  The entire film has funny moments, grungy moments, and serious moments, and just as WW II movies should end, the bad guy, in this case a German spy in a German prisoner of war camp amidst Americans, gets his due in the end.<br /><br /><b><i>Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House</i> (1948)</b><br /><br />Are you serious?  Have you never seen this movie?  If you haven’t, you don’t know what funny is.  Cary Grant (in all of his bisexual glory), and Myrna Loy are hilarious, as he as a successful businessman decides to build their perfect home in the country and move away from the bustle of NYC.  The laughs pile up, due to the price and the problems they incur while getting their perfect home built.  Melvyn Douglas and Reginald Denny are a hoot as well. <br /><br /><b><i>Groundhog Day</i> (1993)</b><br /><br />I think many people have come around, but maybe some STILL do not think of Bill Murray as an “actor.” Pffffft…The man is the bomb, and Groundhog Day is a GREAT movie.  Funny, poignant, and cute.  And Andie McDowell in this movie?  Cute…As…Hell.  And Andie McDowell in this movie?  Cute…As…Hell. And Andie McDowell in this movie?  Cute…As…Hell.<br /><br /><b><i>Braveheart</i> (1995)</b><br /><br />Mel Gibson is a major league asshole, and yet, Braveheart, is a major league cinematic home run.  I love it as much as I loathe the 14th Century Brits.  Nothing like a ragtag team of haggis eaters beating up on a group of backstabbing, pretentious stocking wearing men.  Alba Go Braugh!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhN4KH8goaWygoPwED0W1bQWPHkQPh9T9AX2agjQfnqv2RmD1PAwPbzNpIv57Ciice6b9pJlLXQBBM-YbuBIRTSIS9mWZIBr1127xm2qrRTYZPa-ZKV-Ny9Jj4Y89l7bRW6fdv1cqc3tc/s1600/Inigo+Montoya+Sexy+Funny+Princess+Bride.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhN4KH8goaWygoPwED0W1bQWPHkQPh9T9AX2agjQfnqv2RmD1PAwPbzNpIv57Ciice6b9pJlLXQBBM-YbuBIRTSIS9mWZIBr1127xm2qrRTYZPa-ZKV-Ny9Jj4Y89l7bRW6fdv1cqc3tc/s400/Inigo+Montoya+Sexy+Funny+Princess+Bride.gif" width="400" /></a><b><i>The Princess Bride</i> (1987)</b><br /><br />This may be my favorite movie of all-time…I vacillate on that.  It is so sweet, so cute, and so damn funny. Great cast, great story, and to this day, I quote lines from that movie every day.  After all, who doesn’t like mimicking Inigo Montoya saying, <i>“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”</i><br /><br /><b><i>Glengarry Glen Ross</i> (1992)</b><br /><br />Holy Cow…A dark movie with an all-star cast…Pacino, Lemmon, Baldwin, Arkin, Ed Harris (yeah, he needed his first name used), Spacey and Jonathan Pryce (yeah, him too).  So depressing, so dark witted, and so wonderful.  Who knew that selling real estate could be so cut throat?  This movie has afforded me my fave line whenever anyone leaves the house door, our refrigerator door, or the cooler door at the Beer Mine open….<i>“Always Be Closing!!  Always Be Closing!!”</i><br /><br /><i>Cheers!!</i><br /><br /><i>Matt-Man</i><br /><br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com"><i>mattmaniws@ymail.com</i></a><br /><i><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">@mattman_iws</span></a></i></div>

And The 2013 Oscar Goes To...

Cheeeers All.  With the Oscar nominations coming out this week, I thought I’d let you know what some of my favorite movies are. And by favor...

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