FILM VAULT TUESDAY (Week 1)

Most of by best ideas come when to me when I’m in the bathroom which I like to call “My Other Office.”

Well, I’m not saying this idea is one of my best ever, but it did come to me while I was in “My Other Office,” so I’m going to run with it.

The idea is pretty simple: “Film Vault Tuesday”

Every Tuesday Night I’ll be going into my DVD collection to find an older movie that I (and hopefully you all) haven’t seen or thought of in a while… The inspiration for this came to me the other night when I was flipping through the channels and came across “A Few Good Men” on HBO.

I’ve probably seen the movie a half dozen times in my life, but it had been such a long time since I've seen or even thought about the movie that I was sucked in. I ended up watching it until the end and had even forgotten some of the plot twists and memorable lines.

I love when I accidentely re-discovery of a forgotten Movie… So my goal is to see if I can re-discover one every Tuesday... I'll reach into my DVD collection and see if I can pull out an oldie but goodie.

I’m not saying that everybody should go rent or watch the movie I pick, it’s just kind of a suggestion as a movie you should think about watching the next time you’re at a Movie Rental Place and can’t think of anything to rent...

There will be some ground rules, but of course I’ll ignore those at my own discretion because well… It’s my idea and my blog. But for the most part I plan on sticking to them and anyway, here they are:

1.] The movie should be preferably more than 10 years old, but at least older than 5.

2.] It’s got to be a good movie, but it can’t be a classic. For example, I wouldn’t be breaking any ground if I said “Hey everybody! Do you remember Goodfellas? That was a great movie… You should go watch it.”

That’s not to say I’ll be picking obscure movies either… Just nothing too obvious.

3.] Bonus points apply for a movie that’s got dated hair styles and music… "Footloose" comes to mind as an example. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy looking at somebody with goofy 80’s hairdo dancing to bad synthesizer music?

Now, having said all that, my first movie fits none of that criteria… I’ll stick to the criteria in the future but for sentimental reasons I have to make this movie my first movie for FILM VAULT TUESDAY…

Title: 25th Hour

Credits: Directed by Spike Lee. Stars Ed Norton, Rosario Dawson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper

Why: I’m a little biased when it comes to this movie… Spike Lee is my favorite director, Ed Norton is my favorite actor, and as if that wasn’t enough, the movie debuted in theaters on January 10th, my birthday.

Despite my biased opinion, trust me when I say this is one of the most underrated movies in recent memory… Had this film had more marketing behind it, it would have won a trunk full of Oscars and landed on most people’s All-Time Classic list.

Spike managed to get the absolute best out of every actor in the movie. Every scene of the movie is a well crafted piece of art… It’s a very gritty drama about a convicted heroin dealer (Ed Norton) who’s facing 7 years in prison. The movie is the story if his last 24 hours of freedom… How he comes to terms with that, and how he plans to face it. But it’s so much more than that… It follows his group of friends and gives their perspective. It’s about Morality, Love, Trust, Friendship, and so much more.

Like a lot of Spike Lee films it’s also a kind of love letter to New York… What’s unique about this particular letter is that it’s post 9-11 New York. To my knowledge it’s the first major movie to even acknowledge or deal with the fact that 9-11 even happened. But at the same time it's just a periphial aspect to the overall plot of the movie.

I could ramble on and on about it for pages and pages but I'll spare you.

Remote Stopping Scene: You know when you’re flipping through the channels at home and you come across a movie you’ve scene a thousand times, yet you HAVE to stop and watch because “that one scene” is about to come on… you just can’t change the channel until you see “that one part”.

Well for me that part in 25th Hour is “the mirror scene”… The main character is having his last dinner at his father’s bar. Things start to get a little emotional so he excuses himself to go to the bathroom. He’s sad, frustrated, angry, and afraid. He looks into the bathroom mirror, and spurred on by "fuck you" graffiti written on the mirror he unleashes one of the great "Angry" monologues of all time… If I see 25th Hour on HBO I simply CAN’T change the channel until I see that part.

Goosebump/Tear Factor: Several goosebump scenes, including "the mirror scene" mentioned above… but the last 10 minutes really get the eyes watering for me.

Overall Rating: I’d say 9 out of 10... It’ my all-time favorite movie. I’m not saying it’s the best, but it‘s pretty damn good… But then again, I’m biased.