Random Movie Talk

So, I love movies - maybe a little too much. But I've never actually written a blog/post about which ones I like, so here goes.

First, I want to let everyone know what amazing things Titanic did in the box office. There was something magical about that movie, something that made people see it over and over again. The statistic on that movie are staggering. My brother kept saying that Spiderman 3 would eclipse it. However, it could 15-20 years before a movie comes close to it.

In the U.S. alone, it earned a total gross of about 25% more than the next movie of all time. Titanic earned over 600 million in the U.S. while the 2nd highest grossing movie in U.S. history is Star Wars Episode 4 at about 460 million (Episode 4 was released in theaters twice). While 25% more and 140 million more is a substantial figure, Titanic really blows away the field with their worldwide figures. It's amazing.

When Titanic left the theaters, it had almost doubled the previous worldwide record of Jurassic Park. Since then 7 other movies have passed Jurassic Park, but none has come close to Titanic. Titanic earned $1,835,400,000 in the box office. The next highest movie? The Lord of the Rings 3: Return of the King at $1,113,027,325. Titanic earned over 50% more than the next best movie. It's amazing. Even with all the huge hype surrounding movies like Shrek, Pirates and Spiderman, no movie in 2007 even reached 1 billion (only 3 movies ever have). Harry Potter movies have never cleared 1 billion. Why? Well, mostly because American movies aren't huge successes overseas. Titanic was different and earned money everywhere it went.

Anyways, back to the current. The year 2007 was a big dissappointment for me in the box office. Although there were a handful of great movies, there were a ton of highly anticipated movies that just didn't live up. Shrek 3 was the worst of the series yet and generally wasn't really that funny, Pirates 3 was ok, but not as good as it's previous entries. Spiderman 3.. well, I must admit that I didn't see Spiderman 2 or 3, but I heard 3 was dissappointing and Peter was just way too emo for fans.

Here is my list of Top 7 Movies in 2007 (my opinion):

7. Superbad - I don't generally like comedies. For every good one, there are 4 bad ones. This movie is a gem though and one of the few quality comedies in 2007. McLovin is the surprise hit of the movie. See this one for great laughs!

6. Bourne Ultimatum - A great finish to this great trilogy. Matt Damon has solidied himself as one of the best actors out there. These 3 films need to be seen, this is one of the best spy movie series you will ever see.

5. 300 - This movie was the "man-movie" of the year. The people of Sparta are being threatened by the Persia King. Instead of waiting for approval by the government, the Spartan King, Leonidas, takes 300 spartans to go fight the hundreds of thousands persian warriors. It's just a bad-ass fighting flick as the spartans dominate over waves and waves of overmatched persians.

4. Children of Men - This movie wasn't a huge box office hit and most people that I've talked to didn't like it, but that doesn't change how much I liked it. The movie has a good story-line, good acting, great camerawork and cinematography, and has some jaw-dropping scenes. See this one!

3. Pan's Labyrinth - For some reason, Pan's wouldn't have been the magical journey for me if it were an english movie. The entire movie is in spanish, with english subtitles and it seems to add to it's mystique. Let your imagination enjoy the journey with Ofelia. (PS - The faun is not named Pan)

2.Transformers - Here it is. Easily the special effects movie of the year. Transformers has awesome fighting sequences with huge special effects. That was obvious. Where Transformers really excelled was in it's humor. There are funny parts throughout this movie and all the characters are enjoyable and fill their roles. If you havent seen this movie yet, see it. You may not love it, but you will enjoy it.

1. The Departed - As much as I loved Transformers, The Departed was still my favorite movie of the year. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the best actors in this generation. The rest of the cast is also phenomenal. The story is top notch and filled with tension. The last 10-15 minutes are full of surprises. If you only see one movie on this list, see this one!


(EDIT: Add in an 8th movie - I forgot about Gone Baby Gone. Great flick!)

A New Start

So, I've finally done it.

I've thought about creating new accounts for all of the websites/online services that I use and after putting it off for weeks, maybe months, I've finally opened up a whole slew of new accounts this morning.

So, even though I haven't really set up profiles/information yet, the accounts have been created and they will all be displayed on my facebook, which should be my main page of information now.

Before, I had scattered names for every site. One site used DanielScheri while another used Danoramma. I also had Danoramma1, DeGarmo, DanScheri, Dano614 and other names floating out there.

My new name is a variation of a name that has followed me for about 3-4 years now, ever since I started using it as my name in online play of Call of Duty 2.

The name is: DeGarmo2

I was able to get this name for every account I opened, except for one: AIM. Sadly, I had to select DeGarmo20, which kinda ruined the whole thing, but oh well.

You can find a list of my new accounts under my Facebook profile.