larrychartier.com » Movies

My Top 10 John Hughes Movies

Larry — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:22:55 +0000

I found out yesterday that one of my all time favorite directors (also producer and writer), John Hughes, died of a heart attack. He’s not someone I have ever really thought much about, yet it is a little upsetting…

His movies are classics…even if you don’t know the name, you know his movies. Growing up in the 80′s and 90′s it was hard not to enjoy one of his films. Even to this day I still have a hard time turning the channel if one of them is on TV…the other day Weird Science was on (and it clearly wasn’t one of his best) and I sat and watched the entire thing…

In honor of his career, I count down my top 10 John Hughes movies.

10. The Great Outdoors
09. Some Kind of Wonderful
08. Uncle Buck
07. National Lampoon’s Vacation
06. Pretty in Pink
05. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
04. Home Alone
03. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
02. Sixteen Candles
01. The Breakfast Club

For the complete list of all his films, check out his IMDB page. In the meantime, here is a cool little tribute to him for an award he won back in the early 90′s…

A Dark Alternative to the regular Superhero Genre

Larry — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:37:37 +0000

I finally had the chance to check out the Watchmen this past weekend…what an awesome movie! I’d never really heard of the story before the movie came out but now that I have had a chance to look into this dark alternative to the regular superhero genre I want to know more.

The movie starts with a collage of clips starting in the 1940′s to their present time in the ’80s and really gives a good lead into the characters without spending a ton of time slowly telling each of their stories. The movie itself is set up in a parallel universe where the US had won the Vietnam war (with thanks to the Watchmen) and Nixon is running for his fourth term as president. It’s also a world where super heroes (and super villains) had once existed but now seem to be a dying breed. All in all it was a nice change of pace from what I normally see in a superhero movie…I recently watched Spiderman 3….It was horrible. The version I watched was the 3 hour directors cut and from what I have heard, that is the version you want to see. Apparently the theatrical version was cut in such a way you felt like there were holes in the story…I am not surpised people would feel this way as there was so much going on. I actually will probably watch it a second time just to pick up on all the small things I probably missed the first time around…

Final thoughts…a great story, a pretty good movie, and an awesome alternative to the regular superhero films.

One of the Greatest Sci-Fi movies I have ever seen!

Larry — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:07:58 +0000

Cole and I finally went to see the new Star Trek on Friday after weeks of trying…thanks Pam for babysitting!

I must say, I had pretty high expectations for this movie and after seeing it I left the theater feeling more satisfied with a movie than I have in a long time. Everything was perfect…the story, the cast…even our seats in the theater. I was never a huge Star Trek fan, but as die hard space geek I was really excited to see how the re-imagined version would look and feel. There were no disappointments…even Cole who usually can’t sit through a 90 min. movie left wishing it was longer.

The movie was directed by J.J. Abrams (creator of LOST) and anyone who knows me knows that LOST is my all time favorite TV show…once I knew he was attached to direct it I was sold. As I read more about the what they were doing it I became more and more excited…when I saw the trailer I became even more impatient and began counting down the weeks till it opened in theaters.

All said and done it was truly one of the greatest Sci-Fi movies I have ever scene. Definitely a movie I will buy when available on DVD and definitely a movie I will recommend everyone to go see…even if you are not a fan you will not be disappointed by this amazing movie!