Great Article 30 Things You Might Not Know about Caddyshack

Bill Murray as Carl Spackler in Caddyshack

It is the 30th Anniversary of Caddyshack, an 80's Comedy Classic and Erik Larnick did a great piece on this classic movie.  If you love Caddyshack as much as I do, you will love reading through his 30 tidbits about the movie that you probably did not know.   And if, god forbid, you have never seen Caddyshack...get it to the top of your rental list right away!!

Isn't it amazing how many of the great comedies came out of the 1980's; Caddyshack, Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller, Vacation, Sixteen Candles, Ghostbusters, Airplane!, This is Spinal Tap, etc.  It was such a fruitful comedy time, that it has become one of the popular ranking categories on Rankography.  Here is the Composite Ranking (blend of all member rankings) for Comedies from the 80s.  Enjoy.

Christopher Nolan Thinks Therefore He Is.....Brilliant!

Christopher Nolan has cemented his name in the minds of many movie goers these days as he continues his strings of remarkably wonderful movies. This weekend saw the release of Nolan's latest piece of work "Inception" Inception takes the viewers through a dream world and leave us with much speculation of what is going on, and in the end what truly happened? The movie leaves many questions and room for debate. Like any great piece of art the viewer is capable of making educated theories on what the true meaning behind the work really is. This is definately the case with 'Inception"

SPOILER ALERT
I have to warn anyone reading this that my talk here may reveal spoilers of the movie and so for those of you who do not wish to have anything spoiled then I advise you see the movie prior to reading this article. I want to start this off by hopefully helping many of you out there that are scratching your heads over the movie to better understand some of the direction that Christopher Nolan relates his material to in "Inception".

The Philosophy
Nolan's body of work here can actually begin it's path down the road of History, more particularly looking back on the Philosophy of one Rene Descartes. Those of you who do not recognize the name may recognize the famous quote "I think, therefor I am". Descartes was a very unique Philosopher with many interesting theories on the brain. I could honestly bore you the reader to death with all of the elements surrounding the work of Descartes, but instead I am going to try to simplyfy the ideas that he presented in his Philosophies. The world around you right now you experience is all sensory. Everything you currently know and understand is experience through the senses touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. This information is collected and creates what we as humans know as reality. These sense are created though through nueral impulses produced by the brain. This has been left to much speculation that what we can touch, smell, taste, see, and hear are merely only a small fraction of a true reality.
If you could for just a moment imagine that you could start from scratch as a human being, your brain is not limited to the restraints that you are taught growing up. Imagine for a second that you did not know the worlds limitations such as gravity, pain, and general logic is it possible that you could be capable of being taught to do things that defy everything that we know? It would be like being awake inside a dream, almost say a dream within a dream? This would allow you to go beyond the narrow scope of reality that we are currently pleagued with and experience a different world then those around you. This is just a thought to ponder. Descartes compares himself to a prisoner who enjoys an imaginary freedom while asleep, and dreads waking. These same theories have been used in other such film productions as "Waking Life" and "The Matrix" and also in the literary works of Lewis Carol "Through The Looking Glass".
If you were to look at the work of Descartes then you would realize that it is possible for the human subconscious to continually be dreaming. Even when a person is awake their brain is in a dream like scape and this could possibly create the world around you.

"There is a dream inside a dream, I'm wide awake the more I sleep" -Marilyn Manson-

It is even evident in song lyrics that people have realized that everything that we preceive as reality may be nothing more then a deception to keep us further from the full potential of the world around us. Like we are being kept from a greater truth then we can truly understand.
Now I hope that so far I have you on all the same wavelink as me so that we can begin to talk about and relate these theories to "Inception". The biggest question on the minds of all of the people who have seen the movie revolves around the ending itself, the question on whether or not Cobb was in fact still dreaming. At this point in the movie we have witnessed four different levels of a dream all of which run concurrently. There is the car chase across the bridge, a hotel wing void of gravity, a snowy fortress, and desolate area. Is it possible then that there could have been a fifth level to the dream itself, was Cobb still inside a dream or was he in fact back in reality?

Wide Awake
Christopher Nolan has left the entire film open to interpratation from both perspectives and that is what is going to make "Inception" a classic in the long run. First of let us look at the idea that Cobb was not dreaming at the end of the movie. Nolan writes in the movie that we are not mentally able to articulate how we came to be in the situation. This is shown when Leo's character Cobb is sitting at the resteraunt with Ellen Page and asks her if she remembers how it is they got there. This is when Ellen Page becomes puzzled and realizes that she in fact is currently in a dream herself. When Leo wakes up from the mission in the movie though we get a very clear sequence of events, which would leave one to believe based on what we have been taught that this would have to be reality.

Is This A Dream?
If we look at things from the opposing theory we can look at soem of the facts here. It is told to us that Cobb has violated every single rule of an extractor and has in doing so blurred the line between memory and dream. There is a character introduced who claims to have seen a dream where only reality existed so one could debate the thought that Cobb himself could fall victim to such a seduction himself. Cobb is also known to have learnt everything that he knows about Inception from Miles, so it is entirely possible that Miles could be mastering the dreams of Cobb in order to settle his guilty conscience, and in the end that is the true Inception of the entire movie itself.
These are just some points to ponder when you are arguing for either side of the debate, however keep in mind that it might in fact take multiple watchings of this masterpiece in order to fully understand and see through to Nolan's true point. Then again Nolan may have intentionally left the questions there for us all to ponder just to keep talks of his own movie going on for years to come. This shows the true brilliance of Chritopher Nolan and my hat is off to him for creating a movie that far non is one of the best movies in recent memory. "Inception" is a rare gem in the movie world and should not be overlooked by those who do not care to follow along with the brain teaser of a plot. No matter which side of the debate you choose to sit on, the dicussions over "Inception" are sure to bring on some truly intelectual thoughts, and may just in fact open the minds of some people out there that not everything is exactly what it seems.

This blog has been written by Robert Munson(MDotMovieMan) www.mdotmovieman.com. Robert is movie reviewer who has been an avid participant in the film industry now for over 10 years. Whether behind a camera or reviewing the work of others Robert has always enjoyed the art of film. Please check out Robert's website at www.mdotmovieman.com.

The Year That Film Forgot

Is it possible that the year 2010 could down in history as the worst year for movies? This is a thought that has plagued my movie mind for quite a good portion of the year so far. I am just finding that the more large release movies that I see this year, the more I find myself disappointed with what has been put out.

More and more remakes and sequels seem to be the large portion of movies that debut each and every week at the box office, with movies such as Nightmare On Elm Street, The A-Team, The Karate Kid, and Shrek 4 among those titles and each of which failed to delivery anything unique. Well I should retract that and state The Karate Kid was almost worth the time to watch mostly due to Jackie Chan. However there has just been a real lack of original or unique film making that is out this year.

If you want to know what movies I feel have topped the list of ones I have seen so far this year well look no further then the current #1 film at the box office "Inception". Christopher Nolan's first film since his remarkable "Dark Knight" is brilliant from start to finish. "Inception" was a brain teaser that is remarkably acted, directed, scripted, and filmed. There is nothing negative to report about it and in my humble opinion is the best movie that has been put out in 2010 so far. The other two movies that deserve to top the list are Toy Story 3 which continues the Pixar pattern of producing great movies each and every year, and the surprise hit from Dreamworks "How To Train Your Dragon".

I will admit that there has been movies I enjoyed this year such as "I Love You Phillip Morris", "Hot TuB Time Machine", and "Iron Man 2", but it just seems like none of the movies are reaching for the status of unforgettable and simply settling for good enough.

It is sad to see that 3D movies are rocking the box office records, turns out audiences would rather pay good money for three dimensional images then go and witness a marvel in story telling. Even movies that were in 3d like Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon were simply placed in 3D due to the current fad, lucky enough for us that both these movies utilized story and substance and left the 3D as nothing more then an added kicker for audiences who want that in their movies. I hope that the fall season will recover what has been a very dead summer season for movies.

If not then I hope audiences continue to realize the brilliance of Christopher Nolan's "Inception", and I hope that all of you reading this will take the time to go and witness such a remarkable visionary piece of work.

Vampire Fever

With the incredible success of Eclipse this past weekend, it looks like the US has blood-sucking fever. As a nation of movie-goers we have long had a fascination with Vampires. I am not sure what draws us to these stories -- maybe the allure of eternal youth, the danger of forbidden love, or simply the magnetism of dark, brooding characters -- but the US has the fever bad.

As a result, I thought I would takes some time to highlight some great rankings of Vampire movies -- NOT named Twilight. While Twilight is a unique and interesting take on Vampires (vegetarian vamps), there have been great movies about Vampires for over 80 years starting with Nosferatu in 1922. In that original vampire movie, Max Schreck so transformed himself into the role that rumors swirled that he had actually tried to become a vampire.

Here is the Composite Ranking for the Best Vampire Movies based on all the rankings by members. Just click on any of the member names to see their Vampire Movie rankings.

Some of the interesting titles that appear on multiple lists include:

Nosferatu (1922) - A brilliant dark classic from the age of silent films. Schreck is so creepy in this one that he can invoke nightmares without any sound.

Vampyr (1932) - From Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, this is a brilliant cinematic film where the cinematography creates the haunting mood much more than the plot itself.

Let the Right One In (2008) - A Swedish vampire flick in which the Twilight roles are reversed and a pre-teen boy defends his pre-teen vampire girlfriend from the persecution of the community.

Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) (2006) - A haunting Russian tale of the Others that live among us with supernatural powers and a struggle between the forces of light and dark in this alternative world.