A Fistful of Bacon! (Matt's Picks)

    Kevin Bacon’s birthday was yesterday, and we didn’t think it should go unnoticed by the world of Dorks.  He was the definition of cool when I was a little one, and while his career has been all over the place, perhaps down more often than up, he’s hung in there and managed to earn some real respect. 

5.  The Charming Villainy of Sebastian Shaw (X-Men: First Class):  I was hardly the biggest fan of the latest mutant overload, but Kevin Bacon was like a bolt of lightning, giving the movie a great deal of its energy.  Like a mutant Bond villain, he was a worthy adversary for Magneto and  Prof. X.

4.  The Everyman Morality of Tom Witzky (Stir of Echoes):  Yeah, it’s not a very good movie, but Bacon sells the heck out of his Joe Schmo character’s dilemmas.   He’s gonna find out who done that young girl wrong, and he doesn’t care what rocks he has to upturn.

3.  He Wants That Cab (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles):  If it weren’t for Kevin Bacon, none of Steve Martin’s mad adventure would have ever happened.  Don’t mess with Bacon.

2.  The “Oh, Crap!” Moments of Jack Swigert (Apollo 13):  Sometimes you just have a bad day.  From forgetting to file his taxes, to getting stuck in a deathtrap far out in space, things could have gone better.

1.  The Movie Poster for Qucksilver (Quicksilver):  When I was a kid, this poster hung in every video shop, from the mom & pop convenience store down the street to the two story job in the center of town.  As I grew up, this VHS was at every video shop.  Yet, like Lyle Alzado’s Destroyer (another ubiquitous poster), I never got around to seeing it.  But you rocked the 80s, street biking Bacon!

-Matt

A Fistful of Retro! (Brad's Picks)

Honestly, the best decision made concerning X-Men First Class was giving it the Cuban Missile Crisis backdrop of 1962 and dropping Charles, Erik, and the lovely White Queen in groovy 60s attire.  Whatever other problems this hard-to-please dork had with the plotting and teenybopper mutants can be dismissed with this fresh perspective.

Since Matt took Sky Captain, Black Dynamite, and Call of Cthulhu for his Fistful I had to go with some rather obvious choices.  The films below totally capture (I imagine since I didn't come into the world till 1979)  the feel and the joy of the time period being portrayed...or fetishized.  And my top two picks have been safe and sound in My Top Ten All Time Favorite Movies for quite some time.

5.  That Thing You Do!:  The saga of The Wonders is warm and wholesome and it's one of those rare films about the music industry that also produces great music.  I don't think this film or director Tom Hanks gets enough credit.

4.  Ed Wood:  Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland.  Whatever cinematic crimes Tim Burton has and will continue to unleash upon my poor, tired eyes will always be forgiven cuz once upon a time in the 1990s he granted us the gem that is Ed Wood.  A film about the love of film and the joys of forcing that love on others no matter how little money or talent you have.  Ed Wood gave me another personal hero to place atop my mantel.

3.  Chinatown:  Roman Polanksi's love letter to Film Noir is simply exquisite.  It hits all the beats and still manages to feel new and exciting.  A climax that punches you right in the gut and a villain so great he'd find his way back into cinema as a tortoise in this year's Rango.

2.  Miller's Crossing:  "Look in your heart" and witness the Coen Brothers' finest hour with this brilliant ode to the gangster film in which Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, Joe Polito, Marcia Gay Harden, and JE Freeman have never been better.  But at the end of the day is this exercise in language just a film about a guy and his hat?

1.  Raiders of the Lost Ark:  Speaking of hats...In just the same fashion as he did with Star Wars, George Lucas sets about concocting the ultimate ode to the adventure movie serial while at the same time crafting the Ultimate Adventure Film.  Harrison Ford's fedoraed silhouette has become so iconic it's easy to forget that Raiders started out as a retro experiment.  It just doesn't get better than Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

--Brad