Top Twelve: My Favorite Movies of All Time

I love movies, I am a movie buff, its my stress reliever, its my anti-drug or something. I vividly remember before the internet offered me free movie downloads via the torrent, there was a thing called movie rental, in Betamax format. In our neighborhood, my favorite video rental store is quite convenient, wherein just dial their number, browse to their list of available tapes and their delivery guy will immediate brings you the Betamax via a bike, oh sweet memories.

Anyway, here are my top twelve favorite movies of all time, well so far. Some of the popular movies for extreme movie buffs like Shawshank Redemption and others are not included in this list since I have not watched those movies. The list is strictly that comes first on my mind and fond memories from it.

12. Toy Story
The very first full CGI movie and I fell in love with it for its sheer beauty. The premise was simple, kiddie yet awesome. Everyone can relate since one way or another we had experiences playing with toys. The story is clever and every toy in Andy’s room is oozing with life and personality, even the little toys are well animated and looks like the real thing.

Not the real thing I am talking about

The voice actors are top-notch and for being the first full CGI movie, they did a great job. Even it has reruns on Disney Channel I am never sick of it. I love both sequels but the first one was my favorite CGI animated movie of all time.

11. Batman Mask of the Phantasm
Next to Superman, Batman is my second favorite comic character of all time, but I think Combatron will still kick both their asses good. Anyway, I am a big fan of Batman the Animated Series and sometimes I watched some of the episodes via Youtube. I like the way they combine some elements from the sought after Year One and Year Two graphic novels into one stylized adult oriented animation. If you close your eyes, the animated movie sounds like a live action movie.

Batusi not included

Explosions, blood and realistic violence pounds the screen, and I think the only missing is someone from the movie actually say an appropriate swear word.

10. Back to the Future
My favorite Science Fiction of all time and I absolutely love the Delorian Time Machine. The whole trilogy was memorable but just like the Toy Story trilogy, the first one is still the best in my opinion. The film blew my mind and I remember repeatedly watching it over and over, via of course, a rented Betamax tape. The whole time traveling concept from top to bottom was well executed even at first I had trouble figuring all the time line continuum mishaps. The chemistry between Doc and Marty are top-notch and I just love how same actors and actresses portray different roles in different time lines. When I was a kid, I wish our old Mitsubishi Lambda is a real Delorian Time Machine so I can go back to the past and to the future.

If you squint, it does look like the Delorian Time Machine

Lastly, Einstein the dog, the first living creäture to experience time travel, is plain awesome, yes you are, yes you are.

9. Jurassic Park
Another epic masterpiece of Steven Spielberg where everything he touches turn gold. Good casting and the dinosaurs (both CGI and animatronics) are convincingly awesome. The T-Rex and the velociraptor duo gave me nightmares back then. The sequels were kind of hit and miss especially the third one when the dinosaurs became genius in some way.

Genius Dinosaur = Terrifying

The action scenes involving the dinosaurs were realistically terrifying, and who can forget that guy that was bite off by a T-Rex while hiding inside of a mini bathroom? This is my second favorite Science Fiction movie of all time.

8. Hot Shots Part Deux
My favorite kind of comedy is the one relies purely on slapstick. Both the first and second Hot Shots film were comedic gold but Part Deux takes the cake for absolutely the funniest movie of all time, well in my opinion of course. The movie also boasts the most number of body count in a movie ever, at that time, an astounding 249 bodies which died in tons of hilarious fashion, beating Robocop and Total Recall’s combined body count.

MTRCB is not amused

I miss this kind of comedies since a plethora of current comedies relies more with shock and a bit of gore in the side. Also, using a chicken as your arrow is also effective in killing enemies.

7. Goodfellas
Next to comedies, my most favorite movie genre is more on with action, with guns, violence and more guns. Goodfellas is one the best mafia movies and every one in the cast delivered authentic and awesome acting. Ray Liotta’s portrayal of a real gangster Henry Hill is frighteningly amusing. On the other hand Joe Pesci’s character has intense fetish of saying the word fuck all the time.

Can you pack this sheet for me,
I need  your fax machine, I need to fax her later

The violence aspect is over the top, realistic and gritty. Some others say the film it is like a realistic mafia violence porn, beating the equally violent Godfather trilogy. The movie is known for its violence yet the story is still good and you can actually see the main character Henry Hill growing up before our eyes, dealing with police, his mafia BFFs, his wife and his other wife, its like a condensed local soap opera, but more blood and more Pesci’s F-bomb shenanigans

6. Scarface
Of course, who can forget Al Pacino’s memorable psychotic portrayal of one cocaine powered Tony Montana. One of the grandeur movies in the 80s and one of the rare aspects presented in the movies back then is the sheer rawness and in your face approach of all the characters, including that guy that has his face sliced off like cheese via a cheese grater presented in a form of a chainsaw.

Cheese grater

They say the movie is like the junior son of the Godfather trilogy wherein Don Corleone is the calm daddy and Tony Montana is your typical problem child that raises hell in school. Definitely one of the best gangster movies ever produced.

5. Terminator 2
The movie that defines that 90s, well except futuristic time traveling death bringer cyborgs from the future. The first Terminator was one the landmarks in cinema history with its special effects and brain farting inducing time travel concept but Terminator 2 pushed it further with more explosive actions, impressive CGI effects and of course, a great storyline. I just wished they did not show in the trailers that Arnie will be the good guy in this film. The enemy, however, is one big bad scary guy who can do a lot of things with his hands like it turns into stainless blade that can make you slice and dice. He is scary in everything, his stare, his stance, his gesture, even asking you if you know the guy in the photo he is showing is scary.

Him: Do you know this person in the picture? Me: Aahh!

If you want to know more about the 90s, watch this, if you like 2 cyborg death machines from the future destroying some parts of LA, like a local mall and a foundry, watch this. Like the other movies in this list, if it shows locally in movie channels, I still watch and enjoy it.

4. Black Hawk Down
Based from the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, this is one of the rare movies that there is no definite lead protagonist which is a great breather from the usual war movies that has its own lead good guy. We got a few minutes of movie opening and then bam, lots of lots shootout and real casualties for the good guys.

NES renditions of 2 Black Hawk Helicopters before being shot down

The film is one of the most intense war movies ever produced because us, the viewers, are on the edge of the seat watching every single war scene, its like we are in a real war zone where in we are the camera guys following and documenting the rangers and marines fighting their way in Mogadishu just to capture a few guys but ended up fighting for whole freaking day, adding the unforeseen crash of two Black Hawk helicopters, another addition to already stressful battle with angry Somalian mob. Definitely a must watch for war and action movie buffs.

3. The Dark Knight
My favorite Superhero based movie so far. Nolan, the director, impressed the Batman fans with his earlier film, Batman Begins, the much-needed reboot of the franchise after the last Bat film that was obviously Batman on Ice complete with ice skating. The sequel, is definite the cream of the crop of superhero movies. Bales’ performance is superb but the villains outshines everyone in the film, Aaron Ekhart as Two-Face and Heath Ledger, Heath effin Ledger was effin outstanding.

Guy in prison suit: not Heath Effin Ledger

I feel the movie is something like my number one choice in this list but with comic book characters. I love Nolan’s stand on using realistic stunts instead of relying it completely on CGI, giving us a lot of holy shit moments, like that truck flipping scene, that shit was insane, I need to calm down.

2. Saving Private Ryan
The innovator of shaky cam complimented with lots and lots of freshly machine-gunned dead bodies. One of the most realistically terrifying war movies ever made. The first 20 minutes is one of the must unforgettable intro ever, because I see lots of machines gun shredding allied soldiers while Tom Hanks becoming Omega Tom Hanks leading his men to victory.

Omega Tom Hanks also dominates the fighting game world

Like Black Hawk Down, all the war sequences are terrifyingly realistic but in bigger scale, this is World War 2 after all. You can feel for the characters risking their lives just to find a certain Private Ryan. Lots of explosions, world war 2 authentic weaponry including the scene hilarious backfiring of sticky bomb and gruesome gore that you don’t want to see in life.

1. Heat
My absolute favorite movie all time and it stars two of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The movie is best remembered for the Los Angeles street shoot out but aside from that, the whole movie is well written and packaged.

Figure 1.1 An Angry De Niro

A very good crime drama and I love Michael Mann, the director and writer of the film, treated both Al and Robert as not your ordinary protagonist and antagonist. If you watch it its like watching two separate movies, one focus on Pacino’s character dealing his messed up family at the same time trying to stop De Niro’s reign of “heisting” terror. The other one is De Niro’s straight to the point attitude in planning and implementing his next heist and at the same time still maintaining his humanity like having a somewhat decent relationship with his girlfriend and making sure keeping his men on the line.

When two finally meet, epic showdown and unforgettable quotes starts throwing toward the viewers.

They are currently throwing unforgettable quotes to you.

This movie is one of the reasons why I love action movies and one of my overall main inspirations of the novel that I am writing, which is still not finished (damn it).

That’s my list of my top twelve favorite movies of a time, I hope you enjoyed wasting your time reading this list.

Post of Rage 4: The Headache Sequel

Currently, I am recovering from a terrible bells palsy, probably due to enduring stress for back to back events that happened for the past few months. I still get minor headache behind my head even if I overslept for both weekend days. My head is like being jack hammered and it is the perfect ingredient for another entry of the post of rage.

Novelty Radios
Again, the proverbial different folks for different strokes, but come on, we need to have good music, not ear wrenching novelty music which compose of horrible old love song ballads, one hit wonders from local talents that loves mashing the sampler machine like there is no tomorrow, combine with terrible, self labeled awesome novelty DJs.

Ahhh! sound of novelty radio station! Ahhh! tugstugstugs!

I fondly remembered Rein was an avid listener of a popular DJ.  Later and rightfully she regretted being a fan after seeing the real DJ on TV, a very complete opposite of what the listeners usually engraved to their minds due to his “witty” one-liners that probably taken from a nearby tabloid newspaper, and they tend to think he is one of God’s greatest contributions to handsomeness but you will shake your fist in disappointment. I don’t mind not so popular songs be played on radio because for one, I love every kind of music but please, advertisers, ditch the novelty radios and  go with the stations that plays good songs accompanied by not headache inducing DJs, and lastly, the listeners has the buying power to buy whatever you are selling.

Filthy Public Comfort Rooms
One of the worst things that can happen to you while you are out around the metro is when the Gods of bowel movement suddenly crumpled your stomach and tells you need to unload your feces, like now. Unfortunately in our dear country, especially in our polluted power capital, finding a decent comfort room in public is quite hard.

The correct “Public comfort room usage  preparation mode”

A lot of public rest rooms are filthy and full of crap  smacked all over the place, figuratively and literally, yes I did saw a comfort room with splattered feces in the wall once. Of course, the blame will fall to the ones assigned to make the room squeaky clean and worthy to put our butts on, but everyone knows that maintaining such task with consistency is a sort of allergy to some of our countrymen.

Showbiz  Talkshows and Gossip Suckers
I despise showbiz talk shows, especially the local ones packed with showbiz “journalists” that jerks off backstage when he sees his favorite actor on set. Gossip addicts and being gullible is one of the most popular traits of our nationality. They know more about other persons lives than their selves. Always hungry for scoop and over excited when a revelation is about to broadcast on national TV, complete with epic yet hilarious score and sound effects. Some people actually fight over some gossip and sometimes a kitchen knife is involve.

Gossip, gossip, babble, babble, bullshit, bullshit

Instead of talking about the private lives of our actors and actresses, why don’t we talk about on what they are doing in the first place, which is acting to entertain their fans. Talk more about the movies, TV shows and other miscellaneous projects, that’s good TV. Imagine a world without any gossip addicts, that would be awesome.

Well, at least I felt a little better and I usually say, I hope some of my post here in a way impart the world to make it a better place.

The Late Yakimix Valentines Date

My original plan was to take Rein dinner in either Yakimix or Saisaki back in February 14 for valentine’s day of course, but a disaster strikes, an effin bells palsy slaps and distorted the left side of my face. Currently, I am 70-80% recovered from the bells palsy and I will just waste your time with my bells palsy story probably in the next entry. Since I am in a way functional and I finally got to bring Rein for a late valentines date,  I want to talk about our little dinner in a restaurant called Yakimix. You may consider this my first restaurant review in blog format.

Japanese foods, not WTF

So we went to Yakimix at SM Mall of Asia and as expected, the place was already packed. We waited for our turn and fortunately, the turnaround was unexpectedly faster and the table was already neatly polished before we laid down our tired butts on the chairs. Yakimix is kind of the love child of Saisaki for their Japanese buffet goodness and Tong Yang for their on the table grille complete with a piece of a tong wherein you can act like one of the overacting Japanese Iron Chefs and their chairman.

Iron Chef Chairman: The Final boss of food

I for one, absolutely loved Japanese food even if they have a lot of what the fuck moments over there but their collection of food concoctions is the best. The very first set I graciously munched was a big plate of every sushi available at the buffet area. I am a glutton when it comes to sushi. Even if the sushi creation was not a familiar one, I will still try to eat it.

Fish are friends

There is something about sushi that I absolutely love. Back when I was younger, I can eat more than 2 plates of sushi before heading to the main course. Now, one big plate is good enough for me. Afterward we start collecting our choices of fresh meat and seafood in the buffet area and placed it in our grill set up in the middle of our table. Good thing the machine is smoke less and the noise of the grill is not distracting.

Failed Iron Chef

Just like in Tong Yang, your tummy starts screaming profanity while you wait for your food doing his self grilling thing before shoving up in your mouth in full force, of course, in delight. The result of each grill is, in an over acting expert food blogger term, exquisite. Every meat and seafood we threw in the grill came out good, just right and in another over acting food blogger term, ambrosial.

I am cooking, I am cooking

We end the dinner by munching  lavish and mouth-watering desserts. They offer a good variety of desserts like cakes, ice creams, salads, fruits and ice pops. I ate strawberry and mango ice cream while Rein indulged in fruits. In the end, we enjoyed eating at Yakimix. The only thing that I did not like is their first serving of the drinks. We already finished the sushi set yet our ordered drinks have not arrived yet. Our drinks arrived before we head to our main course and from that, the waiters are kind of refill addicts wherein you just drank 10% of your drink, they will immediately teleport behind you and refills your drink. Maybe a minor annoyance but a good compensation for their slow first drinks service.

Overall, me and Rein highly recommend Yakimix. I spent around 1,300 for both of us and I think the price was just right, just be ready because the restaurant, in all branches are notorious fully packed even in early hours.