Upcoming movies to be stoked about

So the summer is basically over and with it, all the big movies are done. But there's still a lot I'm looking forward to this year and in the coming years. So here's a list of what I'm most excited about.

2008
James Bong 007: Quantum of Solace
Casino Royale may not have been the best James Bond flick, but Daniel Craig proved to be possibly the best Bong yet. Finally we're seeing the character have a soul. No more sleeping around and cocktails for the hell of it. This Bond is all about the mission and does what he has to, which may mean blowing off the girl rather than sticking around. He's emotional and emotionless, and with Marc Forster, director of Stranger Than Fiction and Finding Neverland, this film should be great.

Burn After Reading
The Coen brothers are returning to comedy after their evil tangent with No Country for Old Men. Brad Pit, George Clooney, and Tilda Swinton together, awesome.

Twilight
Hey, vampires are always awesome.

The Punisher: War Zone
I actually liked the first Punisher film. Even though the sequel has a different actor in the lead, it still looks to be a good time, super dark. After the first trailer hit the big screen, director Lexi Anderson said she was surprised they found enough action footage without gore. Colour me intrigued.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
David Fincher directed Alien 3 before doing thrillers, serial killer stories, and Fight Club. His next film looks completely different. It's nice to see him returning to films that could never happen. It looks like a Tim Burton film, but twice as smart.

2009
Watchmen
The director of 300 is back with another graphic novel adaptation...actually, the graphic novel adaptation. It looks amazing. This film more than any other has me freaking out. It's the mid '80s. Richard Nixon is still the president. Superheroes, while common in culture, have been made illegal. A lot of people wanna hate on 300, but it was a faithful adaptation, thus I have faith in director Zack Snyder (he also did the Dawn of the Dead remake, which was pretty good).

Wolverine
I didn't know what to think of this one until I saw a bootleg trailer that premiered at Comic Con. Now I'm stoked. Wolverine is a great character and using the Weapon X storyline to introduce a grip of new characters is a great idea.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This one should've come out this year, but they pushed it back eight months, so annoying. Especially since the preview is to good. I love these movies and The Order of the Phoenix was great. We''ll see if they can keep it up.

Terminator Salvation
Christian Bale is one of new favourite actors, and attaching him to one of the most interesting sci-fi concepts is brilliant. Ever since the first Terminator movie, I've wanted to see the human/robot war. Finally, it's happening, and John Connor is Bale. Sweet!

Star Trek
I grew up on the Star Trek movies and shows, so this one makes me all nostalgic. But reminiscing about my youth isn't the only reason I'm gonna see this one. Creator of Lost and Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams is helming this, so it'll be interesting to see what fresh eyes can do for a very old franchise.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
I enjoyed Transformers, but it definitely took way too long to introduce Optimus Prime, luckily all the characters are established, so the explosions can just begin. Here's to badassness.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
I grew up on this cartoon, so the idea of seeing Snakes Eyes in live action gives me nothing but good feelings all over. It's gonna be mindless and thoroughly entertaining.

Top 50 Villains

So a bunch of film sites have been posting their favorite cinematic villains, and I just had to chime in. This is my list, so film history takes a backseat to my personal preference. Don't hold me to the order after like 15. I've also got a top TV villains list here too.

Top 50 Film Villains
Jack the Ripper, Iam Holmes, From Hell
Dracula, Gary Oldman, Dracula
Lady Deathstrike, Kelly Hu, X2
The crawlers, The Descent
Alonzo, Denzel Washington, Training Day
Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street
Samara Morgan, Daveigh Chase, The Ring
The shark, Jaws
Zero Wolf, Raoul Trujillo, Apocalypto
Queen Bavmorda, Jean Marsh, Willow
The Joker, Jack Nicholson, Batman
Hans Gruber, Alan Rickman, Die Hard
The Fratellis, Anne Ramsey, Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi, The Goonies
Jigsaw, Tobin Bell, Saw
Jennifer Carpenter, Emily Rose (when possessed), The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Hayley Stark, Ellen Page, Hard Candy
The Operative, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Serenity
Prince Nuada/Nomak, Luke Goss, Hellboy II/Blade II
Zorg, Gary Oldman, The Fifth Element
Lord Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter
Ursula, Pat Carroll (voice), The Little Mermaid
Hannibal Lector, Silence of the Lambs
The Cloverfield monster, Cloverfield
Woo-jin, Yu ji-Tae, Oldboy
The Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz
The Witch, Lucille La Verne, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Satan, Rosalinda Celentano, The Passion of the Christ
Ommadon, James Earl Jones, The Flight of the Dragons
Mr. White, Harvey Keitel, Reservoir Dogs
Kevin, Elijah Wood, Sin City
Mr. Glass, Samuel L. Jackson, Unbreakable
Agent Smith, Hugo Weaving, The Matrix
The Emperor, Ian McDiarmid, Star Wars
Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer, Blade Runner
T-1000, Robert Patrick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Evil Ash, Bruce Campbell, Army of Darkness
The Predator, Kevin Peter Hall, Predator
The alien, Alien
The White Witch, Tilda Swinton, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Captain Hook, Dustin Hoffman, Hook
Anton Chigurh, Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
'Verbal' Kint, Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects
Ringwraiths, The Lord of the Rings
Doc Ock, Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2
G'mork, Alan Oppenheimer (voice), The Neverending Story
Darth Vader, David Prowse & James Earl Jones (voice), Star Wars
The infected, 28 Days Later
Captain Vidal, Sergi Lopez, Pan's Labyrinth
The Joker, Heath Leger, The Dark Knight

Top 10 TV Villains
Captain Aizen, Kyle Hebert (voice), Bleach
Lucy Butler, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Millennium
Cancer Man, William B. Davis, The X-Files
Princess Azula, Grey DeLisle (voice), Avatar: The Last Airbender
Benjamen Linus, Michael Emerson, Lost
Sylar, Zachery Quinto, Heroes
The cylons, Battlestar Galactica
Caleb, Nathan Fillion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angeles, David Boreanaz, Angel
The Shredder, James Avery (voice), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A little bit of an insane week

So last Wednesday was my last day at the newspaper I'd been working for since October 2007. To celebrate, I went to Long Beach to hang out with Casey for a few days-something I've been doing every Wednesday since I got back from New York/Florida. What was supposed to be a two or three trip turned into a week long adventure. This was the vacation I needed. It was relaxing and packed full of stuff and many new faces.

Wednesday night I show up in Long Beach around 9pm. Casey and I chill for a while before going over to one of Casey's friends' houses. From there, a bunch of us take off to the nightlife, where we meet a number of savory, but mostly unsavory, characters. The party makes its way back to Casey's place, where we stay up talking until 5 in the morning, finally noticing the sun rise and deciding to go to sleep. Also, I love playing Halo.

Thursday I woke up at 2 in the afternoon and spent the day at a coffeeshop, preparing my Freshmen Writing syllabus. Around 8, Casey and I met up again and went over to the same friends' house. We'll call it the party house. We show up in the middle of drama. This is reality show stuff. You stole my beer so I'm gonna slap you, then start a rumor that you punched me, and then I'll drunkenly skate my anger away. It was rather ridiculous, but that's life in Long Beach. Anyways, the best part of this evening was meeting Chuck. He seemed like the cliche drunk guy chillin' on the front porch until we got him talking. The dude taught himself Greek to learn what Paul was talking about in the New Testament. I love these kinds of moments.

Friday
I wake up late again and do the coffeeshop gig. Casey and I opt for a chill night. We catch a late showing of Pineapple Express, before Casey's three friends from Arizona, Amber, Kalani, and Natalie, show up at 2 in the morning. So come 2, we head to the beach. We're just walking around when a group of 7 people invite us to join them and have some free Coronas. So random. That night was great.

Saturday Yet another late start. We get up, hit some coffee, and head to Hermosa for the Hermosa Shorts Film Festival. We do this until 10pm. There are a lot of amazing short films and some really bad ones too. I'd actually scene one, titled Monsoon, last year at a small film festival in Colorado. Crazy. Anyways, it's this night that I decide I'll stay until the girls leave on Wednesday. Why not, I don't have a job. We end the evening hanging around at the party house and then throw on Blade and fall asleep.

Sunday
Beach day! So we don't leave for Sunset Beach until 3pm. Very late start, but we still get 2 exhausting hours in on the water. Casey and myself frog hopped each other into the waves. Sounds fun until the big wave knocks you over. "My kidney! My kidney!" So, we keep it chill that night. Amber and I end that evening at the Pike, a really awesome bar in the area, while everyone else knocks out early.

Monday
So by the way, last week I set up an interview on Monday at Biola to teach a writing class this fall. Since I have no work clothes, the "ladies" (that seemed to be the word of the week, since "ladies" always seem to sound shady) help me find some dress clothes-I needed some anyways. I end up with these nice dark blue pin-striped pants and a light pink shirt. The interview was fine, though the Biola faculty application is 20 pages long with 5 pages of response to their statement of faith. Bull shit! Afterwards, I meet up with the girls at Hunington Beach. We chill, walk around, and stick our feet in the water. We then head back and catch Greek food for dinner. We do yet another night at the Pike and bond some more. Have I mentioned how great these girls were.

Tuesday
Late start. We decide to keep it simple and just head to the Irvine Spectrum. These girls like to shop. But I did find some awesome plaid dress pants from H&M. We do this for a few hours and head back. We decide to finish the night, and week, off at the beach. We take a guitar and some drinks down to the sand and spend the rest of the night singing the first half of whatever cover songs we know.

Wednesday
I wake up nursing a headache and we say our farewells. Threats are made to visit in less than 2 weeks, and hopefully they'll come true. This trip reminded me of how much I love meeting new people since my job and other environments don't really afford me such opportunities. This was truly the funnest week of my summer. I was legen...wait for it...and I hope you're not lack tose intolerant, because the next part is...dary. And now, back to preparing lectures.