The Blog of Trevor McKee

2011 Movies

2012-01-02T21:24:00.001-05:00

Movies I saw for the first time in 2011

1. Exit Through the Gift Shop (****)
2. Toy Story 3 (****)
3. The Asphalt Jungle (***)
4. True Grit (2010) (****)
5. The Green Hornet (***)
6. Black Narcissus (****)
7. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (****)
8. Just Go With It (**1/2)
9. The Apartment (****)
10. The Karate Kid 2010 (**1/2)
11. Me and Orson Wells (***1/2)
12. Lean on Me (**)
13. Easy A (***)
14. Get Low (***1/2)
15. Monsters (***)
16. The Adjustment Bureau (****)
17. Paul (***)
18. Tangled (****)
19. Black Swan (***)
20. Charade (****)
21. Source Code (****)
22. Suddenly (***)
23. Salt (***)
24. Hanna (****)
25. The King’s Speech (****)
26. Thor (***1/2)
27. The American (***)
28. The Tourist (***)
29. The Fighter (****)
30. X-Men: First Class (***1/2)
31. Anvil: The Story of Anvil (***)
32. Kung Fu Panda 2 (****)
33. Double Indemnity (***)
34. Somewhere (***)
35. The Lincoln Lawyer (***)
36. Unstoppable (****)
37. Captain America: The First Avenger (***)
38. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (****)
39. Hobo With a Shotgun (**)
40. The Hustler (****)
41. The Shining (****)
42. Underworld (***)
43. Friday the 13th (**1/2)
44. Contagion (***1/2)
45. Limitless (***)
46. Drive (***1/2)
47. Underworld Evolution: (***)
48. Splice (***)
49. Tron Legacy (***)
50. Moneyball (***1/2)
51. Winnebagoman (***)
52. Rum Diary (**)
53. The Muppets (****)
54. Curious George 2 (***)
55. Win Win (***1/2)
56. Morning Glory (**)
57. The Help (****)
58. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (****)
59. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (***)
60. Another Earth (****)
61. Fast Five (**1/2)

2010 Movies

2011-01-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

1. The Princess and the Frog (***)
2. Sherlock Holmes (***)
3. Sunshine Cleaning (**)
4. Inglourious Basterds (****)
5. I Love You, Man (***)
6. Dirty Harry (***)
7. A Serious Man (****)
8. Shutter Island (***1/2)
9. Let the Right One In (***)
10. The Searchers (***)
11. Zombieland (****)
12. The Surrogates (***)
13. Up in the Air (***1/2)
14. How to Train Your Dragon (****)
15. No Impact man (***)
16. Julie and Julia (***)
17. Moon (***)
18. Fantastic Mr. Fox (****)
19. Iron Man 2 (***)
20. Sunset BLVD (***1/2)
21. The Tooth Fairy (*)
22. The Lost Weekend (***)
23. The Hurt Locker (****)
24. Bronco Billy (**)
25. His Girl Friday (****)
26. This Is It (***1/2)
27. Get Him to the Greek (****)
28. Alice in Wonderland (***)
29. Hot Tub Time Machine (***)
30. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (****)
31. Inception (****)
32. Invictus (***1/2)
33. Parenthood (***)
34. The Losers (**)
35. District 9 (****)
36. Kick-Ass (****)
37. Gentlemen Broncos (***1/2)
38. The Kids Are Alright (****)
39. Duplicity (***)
40. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (****)
41. The Town (***1/2)
42. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) (***)
43. Daybreakers (**)
44. Secretariat (**)
45. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (****)
46. Avatar (****)
47. Red (***)
48. Megamind (***)
49. The Sasquatch Gang (**1/2)
50. A Prophet (***1/2)
51. The Red Shoes (***)
52. A Dennis the Menace Christmas (**)
53. Murder by Numbers (***)
54. I’m Still Here (**)

Movies 2009

2010-01-01T23:41:00.001-05:00

Movies I saw for the first time in 2009:

1. Eagle Eye (***)
2. The Spiderwick Chronicles (**)
3. The Game Plan (**)
4. Religulous (***1/2)
5. Hancock (**)
6. City of Ember (**)
7. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (****)
8. Slumdog Millionaire (****)
9. Lakeview Terrace (****)
10. Zach and Miri Make a Porno (***)
11. Watchmen (****)
12. Wanted (***)
13. Pineapple Express (***)
14. Monsters Vs Aliens (***1/2)
15. Madagascar (***)
16. Milk (****)
17. Officer and a Gentleman (***)
18. Rear Window (***)
19. Up (***1/2)
20. Man on Wire (****)
21. Primer (***)
22. Hang em' High (****)
23. Gran Torino (****)
24. Revolutionary Road (**)
25. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (***)
26. The Big Lebowski (***1/2)
27. Knowing (***)
28. Chinatown (****)
29. Public Enemies (***1/2)
30. The Wrestler (****)
31. Chaplin (***)
32. Valkyrie (***1/2)
33. Taken (***)
34. Step Brothers (***)
35. Ponyo (****)
36. The World's Fastest Indian (***1/2)
37. Happy Go Lucky (***)
38. The End of America (**1/2)
39. Adventureland (***1/2)
40. Where the Wild Things Are (***)
41. Drag Me to Hell (***)
42. The Commitments (****)
43. Paranormal Activity (***)
44. Star Trek (****)
45. Get Smart (***)
46. A Clockwork Orange (***)
47. Interview with a Vampire (**)
48. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (***)
49. The Brothers Bloom (***)
50. Food, Inc (***)
51. The Hangover (***1/2)
52. (500) Days of Summer (****)

Game Gear Jungle Book

2009-12-02T23:26:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, when you least expect it...

2009-09-16T19:43:00.003-04:00

I couldn't possibly think of a bigger rom-com cliche than this movie ad...

Space Invaders

2009-09-05T12:03:00.003-04:00

Why am I so bad at Space Invaders?

Disney World Photos

2009-02-15T13:21:00.002-05:00

We all just got back from a week in Disney World. Here are the photo highlights.

http://picasaweb.google.com/futuregenetics/DisneyWorld2009

Also, if you have me as a friend on facebook, you can view them there.

Paddle Fighter

2009-01-15T20:02:00.006-05:00

For some reason I have a peculiar love for this game. It was a genesis title only released in Japan. I first learned about it when I had my Gametap subscription. It's sorta like air hockey or pong, except not lame. I didn't win this game; but I was too lazy to record another match. My favorite part is that you play against Donkey-Face.

Lawsuit seeks to take 'so help me God' out of inaugural

2009-01-01T12:27:00.001-05:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A number of atheists and non-religious organizations want Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony to leave out all references to God and religion.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, the plaintiffs demand that the words "so help me God" not be added to the end of the president's oath of office.

Read the Full Article

The 2008 Movie List

2009-01-01T12:00:00.002-05:00

Here are all the movies I saw for the first time in 2008, with a 1-4 star rating

1. The Kingdom (***1/2)
2. Juno (****)
3. 3:10 to Yuma (***1/2)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (**)
5. High Plains Drifter (***1/2)
6. Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds (**)
7. Saw IV (*)
8. The Outlaw Josie Wales (***)
9. Sunshine (***1/2)
10. Gone Baby Gone (***)
11. King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters (**1/2)
12. Futurama: Bender's Big Score (***)
13. American Gangster (***)
14. Micheal Clayton (***1/2)
15. The Darjeeling Limited (**)
16. Awake (***)
17. Rendition (***1/2)
18. Dan in Real Life (***)
19. I Am Legend (**)
20. The Full Monty (***)
21. There Will Be Blood (****)
22. The Ruins (**)
23. P2 (***)
24. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (***)
25. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (***)
26. Cloverfield (***)
27. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (***1/2)
28. Vertigo (***1/2)
29. Jumper (***)
30. Iron Man (****)
31. Lost Highway (***1/2)
32. Wall-E (****)
34. The Hoax (****)
35. Raiders of the Lost Ark (****)
36. The Hudsucker Proxy (***)
37. The Brave One (*)
38. Control (****)
39. Funny Games (***)
40. The Dark Knight (****)
41. The Bank Job (***)
42. Tropic Thunder (****)
43. Redbelt (***)
44. I'm Not There (***)
45. Into the Wild (****)
46. In Bruges (****)
47. Speed Racer (***)
48. The Golden Compass (**)
49. Snatch (***)
50. Network (***)
51. Kung Fu Panda (***)
52. Transsiberian (***1/2)
53. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (***)
54. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs (***)
55. Quantum of Solace (***)
56. Shadow of a Doubt (**1/2)
57. Paranoid Park (**)
58. The Fall (***1/2)
59. The Incredible Hulk (***)
60. Horton Hears a Who (***)
61. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (****)
62. Burn After Reading (***)

Matt McKee 5-1-1976 - 12-18-2008

2008-12-28T23:13:00.002-05:00

My brother died on the 18th. I'm not going to write too much about it just yet, but here is the DVD the funeral home provided us. It has some nice pictures of him throughout his life.

Updates

2008-12-16T23:31:00.001-05:00

Made some updates to the blog. Slimmed things down. Toned down the colors. Took off the irrelevant material about the long-over writers strike.

The Current Top 10

2008-12-16T20:06:00.001-05:00

This is a repost from a comment on my friend's blog .

In no particular order, my current top 10

1. Blood Simple
I know Fargo is the favorite Coens' pick...but really my 1-5 would be filled with Coen films if I didn't stop myself.

2. Mullholland Drive
The guy behind the dumpster still scares the fuck out of me.

3. Zodiac
The guy in the basement still scares the fuck out of me.

4. House of Games
( my rebellious Mamet response to all the instances of Glengary Glen Ross on the lists )

5.Donnie Darko (Director's Cut)
I think this was more of a bad movie that accidentally worked very well.

6.Heat
Don't waste my motherfucking time

7.Dr. Strangelove
Not enough things can be said about this movie. I like the atmosphere of comedic paranoia.

8. Raging Bull
Because it's not "Dempsey"

9. Requiem For a Dream
Ass to ass

10.The Usual Suspects
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone. "

No Heaven or Hell

2008-12-08T22:50:00.007-05:00

The sign that's been posted at the Washington State Capitol and Springfeild IL City Hall so far...

Of course, somebody stole it from the Washington State Capitol

Roger Ebert v. Ben Stein

2008-12-08T11:43:00.002-05:00

Rogert Ebert wrote a genious analysis ( not a typical review ) of Ben Stein's film "Expelled"

Check it out here

Why Flightplan Isn't Very Good

2008-12-06T21:38:00.005-05:00

I used to like the movie Flightplan. I even own the dvd. But last week my wife and I were watching it and plotholes that seemed minor before I know see as inexusable:

1. Nobody saw the daughter on the plane.

Peter Sarsgard's entire sinister plan hinged on that. The only problem is, he had no reason to expect that no one would see her before he kidnapped her. Sure, the mother was distraught and the kid had a tendancy to run off, but would you risk the electric chair on the far off chance that 150 people in an enclosed Plane just would not happen to see her? It makes no sense. They TRY to reconcile this by having one little kid in the background at the end of the movie say "See, I knew I saw her!". Nice try.

2. The co-conspiring flight attendant

When they first board the plane, Peter Sarsgard and the flight attendant have a private conversation and they talk to each other as if they've never met. Later on, we learn that the flight attendant is in on it. There's no reason to fake a private conversation. They could have easily fixed that scene by making it seem like someone was able to overhear or was directly listening in.

3. The middle eastern passengers.

In the middle of the movie, Jodie Foster accuses 2 middle eastern men on the plane of hanging around outside of her daughters window the night before the flight. She causes a scene because she is sure it was them; and then nothing ever becomes of this plot point. We learn in fact that they had nothing to do with anything. So why was that written in there? Red Herrings still have to have some bearing to the plot to be a true Red Herring. It doesn't matter that SHE thought they might have something to do with it; The AUDIENCE has to have some reason to think the men had something to do with it. And in this case, the filmmakers were relying on an assumed fear of middle-eastern men on airplanes by the audience for that. Jodie foster herself showed no previous fear of this in the movie. It was a cheap, sloppy attempt at misdirection.

4. The daughter's death certificate/the flight manifest

The daughter doesn't appear on the flight manifest. How did we get there? An Air Marshall doesn't have the power to make those changes. A flight attendant certainly doesn't. The bad guy in this movie doesn't seem to be working for some all-powerful criminal organization, he seems to be working relatively alone. Also, the captain makes some phone calls and obtains a death certificate from the hospital for the daughter. This was Peter Sarsgard's way of trying to convince Jodie Foster she was crazy. But again, the captain worked independently making his phone calls to the hospital; it was never established or even hinted at how it was he was able to fake that information. Did he pay someone off at the hospital? Did the person he pay off just HAPPEN to pick up the phone when the captain called?

5. Here are her demands, but she'll only talk to me.

At the end, Peter Sarsgard tells the captains Jodie's demands; when of course, they are his demands, and he's framing her. He tells the captain that she'll only talk to him, and not to approach her because she'll blow up the plane. What kind of idiot would buy that, or at least not be extremely suspicious of the messenger?

All in all, it was a lazily written script. Had they proof read it once or twice more these ridiculous holes could have been worked out and we would have ended up with a better movie. It seems as though the filmmakers had a idea for a movie, realized the story wasn't going to work, and tried to force it to work.

If you ever had any doubts about the media

2008-10-02T20:53:00.005-04:00

Here's the ultimate proof of how much the mainstream media has stopping caring about their jobs. This article was posted on Yahoo News (via AP) prior to the live debate at 9PM tonight ( I cought it about 15 minutes prior, but according the time stamp it had been up over an hour). Click on the screen shot below and notice past-tense nature of the wording in the first few paragraphs.

They could have at least waited until the debate started to post the article to make it a little less obvious.

Effin' Brilliant

2008-09-23T19:57:00.000-04:00

Lode Runner

2008-07-12T12:12:00.002-04:00

I think Lode Runner is one of the most under-rated games in history.

Despite it's simplicity, it takes strategy and quick thinking.

Berkeley protesters spend 18 months atop trees

2008-06-28T11:07:00.001-04:00

Check out this article, here are a few of my favorite lines.

"Protesters howled, flung excrement and shook tree branches as campus-hired arborists cut supply lines and removed gear."

"Campus officials ended up giving up the water without concessions; protesters declined to yield their urine.
"

Full Article

Not Deniro, But Still Priceless

2008-06-26T22:35:00.001-04:00

The Bill Engvall Show = Bad Bad Bad

2008-06-11T08:53:00.004-04:00

Let me first say that I don't mind Bill Engvall the stand-up comedian. I saw what amounted to half of an episode of the Bill Engvall Show the other night and can say without any hesitation that it is by far the worst sitcom ever to make it on to television. The unfunnyness (it's a word, just don't try to look it up) is perfectly demonstrated in one of the commercials they show on TBS in which one of Bill's friends say "My ex-wife is a magician, she made all my money disappear". I suppose this might seem funny if you were six years old and mentally damaged. The entire segment of the show that I saw was filled with these poorly written, poorly executed, poorly timed one-liners that seem to draw on every possible cliche they can think of. To add insult to injury, Bill Engvall himself will interrupt Family Guy reruns on TBS to advertise his garbage show.

Quit laughing at your own jokes Bill, they're not funny.

Future Pinball

2008-06-04T22:34:00.003-04:00

My latest free video game addiction has been Future Pinball. It's a platform for creating your own original tables. I don't create em myself, but I enjoy playing the 100's of free tables out there. Some are originals, and some are recreations of real-world pinball machines. Here's War of the Worlds:

Download it at http://www.futurepinball.com . Just a warning, it's got steep system requirements.

Wedding Pictures

2008-05-05T20:06:00.003-04:00

I drink it up

2008-04-13T21:27:00.001-04:00

I saw There Will Be Blood for the first time last night, and I think I like this video just as much as the movie.