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Quiz 56 2/4/2010     Sound Film-iliar Name the films from these sound clips.     Oscar Nominations Disappointment Maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety. I have seen most of the films up for best picture, and all I'm hoping is that none of those take home the statue. None of them were horrible, most of them were good if not very good... but none of them have that pow that makes me root for them. Last year I would have screamed at the TV if Slumdog didn't win... this year I almost just don't care. Who is your pick? Best Picture Avatar The Blind Side District 9 An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire A Serious Man Up Up In The Air     Quiz 55 1/28/2010     Movie Mash #2 Combining Movie Titles     Features Review from Quiz 54 The Hangover This is the highest grossing R-rated comedy, ever. That's pretty impressive when you start putting it against the competition. And as much as I would like to complain a little about the R-Rated comedies that I would rather be the top grossing, I'll instead be nice and just talk about whether or not this film deserves it... kinda. There's nothing really wrong with the movie. It makes you laugh, it goes on an adventure, it has a good plot and great characters... so why do I only say kinda?!? Well, because after I left I though, "that was a good movie." That is all that I thought. I didn't think "I need to tell everyone I know to rush out and see this" and I didn't think "I need to see this movie again"... and the worst for the studio, I didn't even think "I have got to get the DVD when that comes out!" I really just thought "That was a good movie." The movie has some similarities to Sideways. Sideways left me feeling exactly the same way (and I've yet to see that movie again, too). In the end, would I tell somebody they had to see this film? No. But if somebody asked if they should see the film, I'd say yes. There is a fine-line between the two.     Quiz 54 1/21/2010     Respect the Specs Their futures are so bright     Featured Review from Quiz 53 Up - Got worse with every newly introduced character Sigh. The first 10 minutes is some of the best writing and animation work ever. It's super sweet and touching and happy and sad and just plain incredible. Then the boy joins the old man and it's cute and fun. Then the bird shows up and I felt like saying, okay, that's fine... and then there was the talking dog. Really, I never felt the film recovered after the introduction of the talking dogs. With the introduction of each new character I started to care less and less. I just wish that the story stayed as simple and sweet as it was in the begining.     Quiz 53 1/14/2010             Don't Miss It The Golden Globes Be sure not miss the Golden Globes this weekend hosted by Ricky Gervais! What are your picks? Best Motion Picture - Drama Avatar The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire Up In The Air Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical (500) Days Of Summer The Hangover It's Complicated Julie & Julia Nine     Quiz 52 1/7/2010     Movie Mash #1 Combining Movie Titles     First Movie Mash Quiz! A new quiz type A movie mash quiz provides a poster of two separate movies combined into one. For instance, it could should knights stripping nude, and the answer would be "The Full Monte Python and the Holy Grail".     Top 10 movies of the Decade ... or 12 (why 12? Because I said so!) Lately everyone is posting their favorite films of the decade. On one hand I think that these lists are completely stupid, because nobody is ever going to agree on the best movies of a decade, they can't even agree on best films within a year. This argument really hit home when I read Roger Ebert's best films of the decade and it had "You, Me, and Everybody We Know" on it, a film that I would put as one of the decade's worst. So then I asked "What is the point of making such a list?" Eventually I decided that there are upsides to making it. One is that it tells you all who it is you're talking to. The second is that if you like some of the list below, and you're not familiar with others, then maybe, just maybe, I can promote a film that I'd like more people to see. Thus, here is my list. I'd love to hear your opinions on it. comments@filmbabel.com. #12. Brokeback Mountain (2005) #11. Crash (2004) #10. Pan's Laberynth (2006) #9. Juno (2007) #8. Revolutionary Road (2008) #7. Hotel Rwanda (2004) #6. Adaptation (2002) #5. Old Boy (2003) #4. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) #3. Synecdoche, New York (2008) #2. Requiem for a Dream (2000) #1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)     Quiz 51 12/31/2009     Legs They know how to use them.     First Poster Pieces Quiz! A new quiz type A poster pieces quiz provides a portion of a poster and asks if you can name the film. If you need a closer look at the piece, click the image to see its full size version. Good luck and have fun.     Quiz 50 12/17/2009     Seconds of Leftovers It's still what the holiday season is about     Two Weeks Notice No quiz on December 24th Make sure to check out the archive and come back on December 31st for Quiz 51, which will be the first of the "Poster Pieces" quizes. See you then!     Quiz 49 12/10/2009     Leftovers It's what the holiday season is about     This and That Why leftovers in December? I'm not going to lie to you, mostly it's because I'm really busy and these are the clips that I have left after a year of quizzes. I'm sure it doesn't sound all that difficult to grab 9 clips each week, but you throw in a toddler and a full time (paying) job, and it's pretty much impossible. So this week is just a random collection... hope you find it fun anyway. If you want to send any donations so I can quit my day job, feel free to paypal them to comments@filmbabel.com. :-)     Quiz 48 12/3/2009     Holocaust Disgrace - Never Forget.     Perspective Why a quiz on the holocaust? I apologize to anyone that is upset or angered by this week's quiz or for what I have written here. If you are in any way offended, I'm sorry and I hope that you will return next week. The other day I was driving home from work and I heard an interview on Fresh Air. Unfortunately I cannot remember who the interviewee was, but something that he said struck me way down in my heart. He recounted the trip his father had made to leave Poland and come to the United States. It wasn't because he was fleeing for his life, it was instead because an American woman had visited Poland and "on a whim" he'd decided to move to the United States. This did not please his parents too much, but he started a new life. Then, tragedy occurred when his entire family, still in Poland, was murdered by the Nazis. He never forgave himself for leaving, although there was nothing that he had done wrong or could have done if he had stayed. Days later, I hear claims that the holocaust never happened. How can anyone believe that? And that's when I put these two stories together and asked, "Who do you think is lying? Was the gentlemen being interviewed on NPR making the story up completely? Did his father lie to him that all of his relatives were murdered when they weren't? Did his family fake their own death?" It's ridiculous to claim any of these as being realistic. Films are not real. They can be made to say anything that you'd like them to say and show anything that you'd like them to show. But these films are trying, whether they succeed or not, to tell us of a time that we can in no way comprehend. For that fact alone, I honor them. With this posting I promise no answers, or help, or even pretend that I can understand. Instead, I hope to honor the Jewish people and pray that nothing like what had happened before will ever happen again. To everyone, I wish a Happy Hanukah.     Quiz 47 11/26/2009     As seen on TV From the small screen to the Silver Screen.     Upcoming Expansion of FilmBabel Filmbabel has been all about the Burnt Bulbs. As fun as they are to create and as much as people have enjoyed them, I'm planning to branch out and make other games as well. Some weeks will still be Burnt Bulbs, some will be naming fragments of posters, others will be a merging of two films together asking you to name the newly formed movie... If you have ideas of other types of quizzes that could be made, feel free to drop me a line! This is as good a time as any to warn that there will be no quiz on December 24th.     Quiz 46 11/19/2009     The baddies These people are "bad guys", or at least thought to be.     Baseball is boring... Art don't imitate life It is not fair that good sports are made into bad movies. Let's start with basketball. I love basketball as a sport, but it makes for some awful, awful movies. There's the exception to the rule, which is Hoosiers, but how many Hoosiers would have to be made to offset Kazaam, The Air Up There, The Sixth Man, Air Bud, Juwanna Mann... should I go on? And there there's football, which is actually my favorite sport to watch. It's exception is Rudy. After that there's Wildcats, Necessary Roughness, The Replacements... and the overly cliché films that may even be well made but are still a complete waste of time, like Remember the Titans, Lucas, or We are Marshall. On the other side of the coin, there's boxing. I can't stand boxing, but who can argue that Rocky and Raging Bull don't make you want to start watching? And then there's freakin' baseball. I can't stand baseball, I think it's horribly boring unless you're the one playing it. But Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural... They make the game seem not only entertaining, but life altering. Even Lagaan made the game or Cricket seem exciting! What I can take comfort in, I guess, is that no film has ever made car racing seem interesting, not even "Cars". This is a... um.... "sport" (really?) that even editing can help!     Quiz 45 11/12/2009     I hear dead people The clip, the movie, or the title is about dead people.     Featured Review from #44 He's Just Not That Into You If you get over the initial meeting between the main characters (how easily it unfolded and was resolved), and you overlook the added-on "plot" of Professor Walter Vale (I hated that they made his character have a story at all, it just distracted from the real point of the film) then you start to get into the film. But even that had things in it that had no significance to me. Who cared if the professor wanted to learn how to play the drum? Who cared if the girlfriend sold jewelry? The story is about good people that try to live good lives, even when their country is trying to throw them out. If they'd focused on the real issues more and caused me to really care about any of them (maybe I'm supposed to care about the guy simply because he plays the drum? Guess I'm a hard sell)... Lastly there is the clumbsy love story between Walter and Mouna. Again, why do I want to see these people get together? They're both total duds.     Quiz 44 11/5/2009     Because I felt like it I just grabbed the clips I wanted to.     Quiz 43 10/29/2009     The High School Years Ah, those were the times... what years were they?     Quiz 42 10/22/2009     I'm sorry, what was that? 9 clips featuring an odd mannor of speech.     Where clips come from... My sources It first started with owned DVDs. Mine, then a friend of mine, then my sister and parents. Then I started capturing a clip from every film I got from Netflix. Even better is Netflix's Watch Instantly which allows me to view hundreds of movies, skip to any moment in the film! As a last resort, like if I have 8 Ben Stiller clips and I just need one more, I will grab a clip off of youtube. Clips are all collected using CaptureWizPro which I love and could never do this without! Other than that, I use all free software. Images are edited in Microsoft Paint, the AVI is tranfered to WMV via Windows Movie Maker, AVI to mp3 via Goldwave, and pages are all written in ASCII via notepad. That's either impressive, or sad, I'll leave it to you to decide. I also owe thanks to my wife who puts up with my spending time on this each week, and those of you that come back each week. Even bigger thanks to any of you who have told your friends to come visit, too!     Quiz 41 10/15/2009     A Quiz of Few Words 9 clips without much to say.     Featured Review from #40 He's Just Not That Into You There are several stories going on here. First I'll talk about the one that really worked. Justin Long and Ginnifer Goodwin were amazing in this movie. They were the only characters that really brought any spark to the screen and were enjoyable to watch. I'm becoming even more of a Justin Long fan and Ginnifer is exciting to watch. Next would be Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck, which although their story was very thin and a little too easily resolved, they at least showed that they could act and were pleasant to pass the time. Lower we get to the multifaceted relationships between Kevin Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Connelly. I didn't care if or how any of these people ended up with any of the rest of them. They were completely flat. If other characters didn't say, "I'm mad and passionate about you", I'd not realize there was any reason for anyone to feel that way about them. Being a big Jennifer Connelly fan, I found completely flat and devoid of real emotions character to be the most disappointing of all. And last, if she even counts because it's SUCH a small role, would be Drew Barrymore that neither had a good role nor did well in the role she was given. But even worse than all of that were the segments between chapters acted by people that were either no name actors (that never should be real actors) or regular people (who should have never tried to be actors). These stupid, horrible, painful segments just killed the already slow flow and appeal for this movie.     See Archived Quizzes