What We Say Goes

Jan 09

Top Ten 90’s Cartoons I miss

1.X-Men

2.The Tick

3.Spider-Man

4.Garfield And Friends

5.Batman:TAS

6.Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

7.Muppet Babies

8.Tiny Toon Adventures

9.Animaniacs

10.PRO Stars

(technically Muppet Babies and Garfield started in the 80’s, I know, but the bulk of the runs were in the 90’s.)

And a bonus list of Cartoon’s I miss from the 80’s

1.G.I. Joe

2.Super Mario Brothers Super Show

3.He-Man

4.Duck Tales

5.Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling

Jan 02

Top Ten TV Shows Of 2011

Top Ten TV Programmes Of 2011

1. Community
2. The League
3. Parks And Rec
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Game Of Thrones
6. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
7. Archer
8. Happy Endings
9. American Dad
10. Hawaii 5.0

Top Ten Albums 2011

Top Ten Albums Of 2011:Justin Edition

1. Taking Back Sunday - self/titled
2. Yellowcard - When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes
3. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
4. Company Of Thieves - Running From A Gamble
5. Death Cab For Cutie - Codes And Keys
6. Newfound Glory - Radiosurgery
7. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
8. The Muppets - The Green Album
9. Jack’s Mannequin - People And Things
10. The Lonely Island - Turtleneck And Chain

Jan 01

Top & Bottom Movies Of 2011

First off, a hardy welcome to all back to life in a WhatWeSayGoes.com world!

and now without further ado….

Justin’s Top Ten Movies Of 2011

1. Moneyball
2. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II
3. Bridesmaids
4. Mission:Impossible-4:Ghost Protocol
5. Fast Five
6. We Bought A Zoo
7. The Muppets
8. Super 8
9. 50/50
10. X-Men:First Class

Like anyone even had to ask what my number 1 would be.  The sheer joy I got from the scene in Moneyball where Chris Pratt smacked a homerun was comparable to feelings I got watching actual live sporting events…and that is movie magic.  Brad Pitt knocked it out of the park.  I had some trouble compiling my list, especially in the bottom portion, but I loved all the movies I put.  I’m sure next week I’ll wish I put a different movie I loved on the list (Your Higness, A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, and Captain America all got serious consideration) , but this is my final answer.  Seeing HPATDHP2 on the big screen after binge watching the rest of the series the same week made me wish I had never vowed never to watch the Potter movies in the first place, that was an epic fail on me.  Also gotta say, the shocking moment at the end of Fast Five was one of those moments that made me love movies that much more. 

Justin’s Bottom 5 Movies Of 2011:

1. Sucker Punch
2. Bad Teacher
3. Killer Elite
4. Twilight:Breaking Dawn Part 1
5. The Dilemma

I wanted to bathe after i saw Sucker Punch.  It was that bad.

Dec 31

2011 Top Ten Lists

A lot of historic events occurred in 2011, but its impact on pop culture will probably be fleeting. Working on my top ten movies list, I realized there were a lot of pretty good movies, but nothing truly great. The superhero freight train produced some truly watchable films like Thor, Captain America, and X-Men: First Class, but there were no transcendent classics released (either commercial or critical). There was a lot of great television produced, but nothing to completely fill the void of Lost. Then there was the music scene. I can at least partially blame my inability to go out and find new music for my dissatisfaction, but even asking more attentive friends didn’t produce stellar results. Nevertheless, 2011 still produced some pleasing flavors of the moment … and here are my rankings of what kept me entertained this year. 

Best Movies of 2011

1. Moneyball
2. Fast Five
3. Mission Impossible 4
4. Bridesmaids
5. Young Adult
6. Drive
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
8. Captain America
9. We Bought a Zoo
10. Paul

Honorable Mention: Transformers: Dark of the Moon for being the first Transformers that didn’t actively try to destroy my childhood. 

Worst Movies of 2011

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
2. Sucker Punch
3. Drive Angry 3D*
4. No Strings Attached
5. The Rum Diary

* I understand this movie was trying to be ‘so bad it’s good.’ Unfortunately, it only got half of that right.  

Best Albums of 2011

1. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
2. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
3. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
4. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
5. The Strokes - Angles
6. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
7. Boys & Murderers - Songs for Songs
8. Kevin Devine - Between The Concrete and Clouds
9. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
10. Grouplove - Never Trust a Happy Song

Best Television of 2011

1. Parks and Recreation
2. The League
3. Community
4. Game of Thrones
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. American Dad
7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
8. Fringe
9. The Walking Dead
10. Archer

Dec 30

Roger Ebert on why movie revenue is dropping this year

Dec 19

[video]

Dec 18

Mission Impossible: Movie Series Breakdown

Last night, I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. As of this writing, MI4 is at an improbable 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. MI3 finished at 70%, MI2 reached only 57%, and the original scored 61%. Is MI4 the best? Is the series actually getting better or are critics just fickle? The only way to be sure is an analytic, categorical breakdown. 

My disclaimer: I haven’t pre-calculated the winning movie. I am figuring out the scores as I go and will sum up at the end.

Threat Level

• MI - A stolen NOC list. All the IMF secret agents are at risk. Aren’t they always? (+1.0)
• MI2 - A virus that kills within 48 hours. Scary, but a cure has also been produced. (+2.0)
• MI3 - The rabbit’s foot. We never learn what this is, but Simon Pegg has some spooky words about it. (+3.0)
• MI4 - Thermonuclear war between the US and Russia. The highest stakes, but didn’t we see this already in about every Jack Ryan movie? (+4.0)

Villain

• MI - We don’t even know who the main villain is until the final act. Then we find out it’s old man Jon Voight. It’s a nice double-cross, though. (+3.0)
• MI2 - Dougray Scott plays a snot-nosed rogue IMF agent who wants … stock futures? (+1.0)
• MI3 - Phillip Seymour Hoffman kills it as the dastardly Owen Davian, proving a villain doesn’t need to be physically threatening to be scary. (+4.0)
• MI4 - We barely meet the villain until the latter half of the movie and I don’t think he had more than 3 minutes of dialogue. (+2.0)

Supporting Villains

• MI - Vanessa Redgrave plays the devilish super-cougar Max and Jean Reno plays his double agent dark and mysterious. (+4.0)
• MI2 - Some guy named Hugh Stamp. His jaw gets broken later in the film. (+1.0)
• MI3 - Billy Crudup carries on the rogue IMF agent tradition… but not very menacing once he is revealed. (+2.0)
• MI4 - A very Bond-esque villainess who works for diamonds. Good in the scenes she is in, but she makes an early exit (+3.0)

IMF Team

• MI - There’s a lot of overlap between the IMF team and the villains. Emilio Estevez sustains a memorable death and we’re introduced to Ving Rhames’ Luther. (+3.0)
• MI2 - Ethan Hunt is supported by Luther and a 90 pound supermodel. He wasn’t even disavowed in this movie… where the hell is the backup? (+1.0)
• MI3 - Simon Pegg is introduced to the series, Keri Russell’s head explodes, and Luther continues his reliable course as Ethan Hunt’s wingman. (+2.0)
• MI4 - A pretty fresh team consisting of Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner. Josh Holloway takes the early mincemeat role. Unlike the previous three, the team pretty much backs up Ethan the entire movie. Ethan must be touched by this as well, because he gives a corny speech about teamwork at the end. (+4.0)

Iconic Scene

• MI - Ethan hangs upside down above a pressure sensitive floor while breaking into the CIA HQ. (+4.0)
• MI2 - Motorcycle joust. (+2.0)
• MI3 - A tough one. There are a lot of great scenes but I don’t think any are iconic. (+1.0)
• MI4 - Ethan Hunt climbs the world’s tallest building with malfunctioning magnetic gloves. (+3.0)

Opening Sequence

• MI - A dark opening sequence involving fooling a mark into thinking he killed a hooker. (+2.0)
• MI2 - I don’t remember if there was an intro to the virus or if it was just Ethan Hunt climbing a cliff. (+1.0)
• MI3 - A flashforward to the climax of the movie! Immediately puts you on the edge of your seat. (+4.0)
• MI4 - The team incites a prison riot to break Ethan Hunt out of a Russian penitentiary.  (+3.0)

Final Battle

• MI - Ethan battles a helicopter while clinging to a train. (+3.0)
• MI2 - Motorcycle joust, visceral fist fight, and John Woo doves. (+2.0)
• MI3 - Fist fight with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a shabby Shanghai doctor’s office while a charge is on the verge of explosion in Ethan’s head. (+1.0)
• MI4 - Hand to hand combat through an automatic parking garage in Mumbai. (+4.0)

Ethan Hunt: Iron Man

• MI - Ethan blows up a helicopter and is blasted from the exploding chopper to the front of a speeding train. (+2.0)
• MI2 - Ethan has a head-on collision with his enemy while jumping off a motorcycle. (+1.0)
• MI3 - Ethan electrocutes himself to short out an explosive device in his brain. (+4.0)
• MI4 - Ethan drives a BMW off a ledge and drops 100 feet head-on into the ground. Good thing it had an airbag. (+3.0)

Results

1. 26 Points - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
2. 22 Points - Mission Impossible
3. 21 Points - Mission Impossible 3
4. 11 Points - Mission Impossible 2

“The President has initiated Ghost Protocol.” — Also, What We Say Goes is back.