T5FO #3: Top Five MacGuffins (Trav's Picks)

A MacGuffin is a film term that means an object that acts as the major plot device. Sometimes these MacGuffins are just easy ways to write a movie without any real conflict. This way, the screenwriters can just have their characters chase after one object for the entire two hours. (See: "The Matrix of Leadership" in Transformers 2, the money in The A-Team, the sand in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.) In other cases, like the following five, MacGuffins are used in ways that actually add to the complexity of the plot, instead of making it lazy.

5. The Ring of Power (Lord of the Rings): Apparently a star shines upon the meeting of myself and the Lord of the Rings, for this is not the first time I've put it in a top five. I was almost tempted to leave this off, to make sure everyone knew that I wasn't a crazed Tolkien fanatic, but it was too difficult to leave th

is off the list, for the ring is the origin of everyone's problems, desires, and companionships in this trilogy.

4. The DeLorean (Back to the Future): While I may not be a Tolkien fanatic, I am a Back to the Future fanatic. Without the MacGuffin, in this case a time traveling MacGuffin, American cinema would never get to experience the joys of paradox, skateboard invention, and awkward one-sided mother son romances. *shudder*

3. The suitcase (Pulp Fiction): Whether you interpret Pulp Fiction's suitcase to contain money, a soul, or just a plot device with no intended meaning, you can't deny the genius of introducing a MacGuffin without ever revealing it's contents. Tarantino, you tickle me pink.

2. Rosebud (Citizen Kane): I know, I know. You're yelling at me right now. "How can Rosebud only reach number two? Whine whine whine, cry cry cry," you say. My response? Shut up. No matter how perfect this movie is, it's true brilliance comes from the fragmented bits of memory we see from each witness, not the MacGuffin that spawns the search. However,

leaving it off the list would still be a travesty, for the greatest film of all time deserves some love every once in a while.

1. The Maltese Falcon (The Maltese Falcon): This titular MacGuffin causes every single plot point to fall into place as it does. People lie, steal, and kill for one statue of a bird. This is MacGuffin to the extreme. An object whose history is lost, fragmented through its multiple changes of possession, the only reason this object is the center of every characters desire is because of the money that comes with it.

Honorable Mention: The ark, from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

T5FO #3: d33j's Picks

MacGuffins are all the rage; you simply MUST have one (or five)!

5. The Rabbit's Foot - Mission: Impossible III

Let's begin, first of all, by defining this elusive concept. You see, there's this thing, and we're not really sure what it is, but darn if Tom Cruise doesn't REALLY need to get his hands on it.

4. The Sun - Sunshine

Armed with naught but the wit of Chris Evans, Danny Boyle's rag-tag team of astronauts sets off in pursuit of the biggest MacGuffin in the solar system.

3. The Rocket - The Rocketeer

Boy, they sure say, "Hand over the rocket!" a lot in this movie.

2. The Briefcase - Pulp Fiction

Does Tarantino's much-sought-after attache case contain drugs, money, drug-money, or an array of light bulbs? None of the above, I'm afraid; it most certainly holds the soul of one Marsellus Wallace.

1. The Heart of Chev Chelios - Crank 2: High Voltage

If, at the end of his fully-crazed and high-octane pursuit, Mr. Chelios manages to reclaim his stolen "strawberry tart," then the neighborhood's amateur physician is reasonably sure he can get it back in Chev's chest. And who really wants to be called heartless, anyway?

Honorable Mentions

The Money - No Country for Old Men

Colonel Kurtz - Apocalypse Now

The Heart of Davy Jones - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

The Brick - Brick

The Pregnant Woman - Children of Men

The Treasure - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dishonorable Mentions

The All-Spark - Transformers

The Matrix of Leadership - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Movie #10: Inception

Christopher Nolan is back, and his latest sci-fi thriller, Inception, just hit theaters today. Does it stand up to his other films, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, or Memento?

You bet. This movie starts off with a bang by throwing the audience right into what would seem like the climax to your average crime thriller. Soon, however, the audience learns that they are not really watching a theft in an obscure Asian mansion. In fact, they are watching a dream. Inception takes place in a world of idea thieves, who orchestrate an elaborate dream for the person to be stolen from. The team of thieves find a way to put the victim, or "subject" to sleep in order to share the same dream. From inside of the other person's head, the team can extract the required information, and sell it to their employer.

Christopher Nolan's brilliant direction and screenplay keep together a premise that would be a herculean task for most directors. On the surface, it's an amazingly engaging thriller that never dulls. Deeper into the subtext of this film lies commentary on the nature of dreams and reality, the power of guilt, and the infectious parasite that is the idea.

Leonardo Dicaprio takes the lead in this dreamscape as the head idea thief, or extractor. His performance, complemented by the actors who make up his team, is one of the most shining bits of this gem. Ellen Page, who plays the newest member of the idea thieves, gives a fairly good performance overall, while some of her more emotional scenes with Dicaprio seem like there is something missing.

This movie takes advantage of having dreams for settings by creating stunning surrealist images. Entire cities fold over, rooms spontaneously flood with jets of water, and the gravity of hallways twists and turns. It is easy to realize how much fun Nolan had in crafting these scenes, and he transfers that joy to the audience beautifully.

Top Five Face of #2: Trav's Picks

Good actors can be in bad movies. These are a few examples where actors wasted effort in something that was never going to be good in the first place. A few of these will seem a bit redundant, but well deserving of their placements.

5. John Turturro in Transformers 2: John Turturro is an actor who I tend to associate with the better films he's been in: Do the Right Thing, The Big Lebowski, etc. However, he's been in some crap like this movie. He gives it his all though, and while that won't get him much respect, it will at least get him a place in this top five.

4. Liam Neeson in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: I can just imagine the look on Liam Neeson's face when he saw the script for this film and found out that he had to say, "That's the sound of a thousand terrible things heading this way." Poor, poor Liam.

3: Dan Aykyroyd in 1941: Spielberg's period comedy 1941 might be one of the slowest moving, and definitely least funny movies I've seen in a while. Dan Aykyroyd performs a pretty good rally speech, however. Unfortunately, it's sandwiched by a lot of boring.

2. Mark Hammill in The Star Wars Christmas Special: Haven't heard of this little gem? That's probably because George Lucas doesn't want you to. Some national TV station talked Lucas into allowing them to film a galactic xmas special starring the characters you know and love. All the big names from Star Wars were forced to act in this monster, but you can tell Harrison Ford would have probably rather jumped into a Sarlac pit than do this gig. Mark Hammill, on the other hand, really seemed to have fun with this thing. I guess he was just glad he was getting work. Zing!

1. Orson Welles in The Transformers: The Movie:

Orson Welles was a genius. Too bad he voiced Unicron in this movie when he could have been doing something more worthy of the creator of some of the greatest films of all time. I sometimes have the desire to edit his Wikipedia page to have it read, "Welles is most famous for voicing Unicron in the animated Transformers movie, while some lesser works include directing Citizen Kane and his broadcast of The War of the Worlds"

Top Five Face Off #2: d33j's Picks

Rather than floundering quietly in a sinking ship of a film, what is it about certain roles that will inspire an actor to dash himself against the rocks of failure in a desperate bid for greatness? Listed below are my picks for the top 5 remarkable performances that were utterly wasted in films that should have been scuttled before leaving the harbor.


5. Anna Faris - Observe and Report
Report is my posterchild for tonal inconsistency, but Faris's frighteningly accurate portrayal of a cosmically selfish party-girl is more terrifying than your local shopping mall's resident sex offender.


4. Kevin Spacey - Superman Returns
Spacey, ever the method actor, famously paraded an effigy of Superman around the set to demonstrate his total immersion in the role of Lex Luthor. Unfortunately, Superman's timid and safe script relegates Spacey's Luthor to the typical Snidely Whiplash fare. (WRONG!)


3. Jackie Earle Haley - Watchmen
Comic book movies apparently provide ample opportunity for strong character work in the midst of truly disastrous productions. Case in point: Haley's ferocious screen presence as the unmasked Rorschach almost redeems Snyder's haphazard adaptation of the classic graphic novel.



2. Jeremy Renner - 28 Weeks Later
Presaging his much-lauded turn in The Hurt Locker by at least two years, Renner demonstrated his particular knack for playing the badass with a heart of gold in the misguided followup to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.








1. Ray Stevenson - Punisher: War Zone
Essentially the inspiration for this very list, the totally selfless and unconditional commitment with which Ray Stevenson embraces the role of Frank Castle in this Z-grade action flick is, in and of itself, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.










Honorable Mentions:
Al Pacino - The Recruit
Sam Neill - Daybreakers
Mathieu Amalric - Quantum of Solace

My Movie Week #1

This starts a new segment where I give every movie I watched this week, Monday to Monday. Whether it's old or new, first viewing or 8th, I'll give my opinion of that specific viewing.



1. Brick: This movie is sweet. From classic noir-ish witty dialogue to an inspired score, this movie is a must see. It's on Netflix streaming if you're interested.


2. The first 1/4 of A Fist Full of Dollars: I should never have watched The Good the Bad and the Ugly before seeing this one. It's a great piece of film making, but it felt like a chore for me to finish. This one's going back to Netflix unwatched, unfortunately.


3. The A-Team: It was fun, but that's about it. Scroll down for my full review.


4. Shutter Island: Scorsesi's newest film is worthy of being in the company of his other films, due to its fantastic character development in addition to its well explored themes.


5. Shaun of the Dead: Funny, bloody, and with zombies. What more do you want?


6. Toy Story 3: This was my second viewing, this time w/ 3D. The 3D isn't eye popping, but it does add some depth. Additionally, this movie holds up on its second viewing.

Movie #9: The A-Team

I'm not going to pretend that I ever watched the 80's TV show source material for 2010's The A-Team, but I know that Mr. T was involved, many fools were pitied, and apparently Hannibal loved it when a plan comes together. Those of you who were fortunate (or is it unfortunate?) enough to live in this show's hay day can follow me down memory lane as we explore this specific piece of summer blockbusterdom.


This adaptation of the show attempts to make it feel nostalgic and hip at the same time. The character B.A. Barachus still hates flying, and Face still has his way with women, but at the same time we have the more modern twists, like the unfortunate sequence where Murdock sings Flo Rida's "Right Round." Ultimately, trying to make this movie both new and reminiscent ends up making it feel indecisive. I know, you didn't come here to talk about "plot" or "tonality" or any of that fancy stuff. You want to know if the action is any good.


The answer to that question is a resounding "Kinda." I'm sure you're aware of the scene in the trailer with a falling tank shooting down a helicopter. I won't lie. Parts like this were fun. I laughed, just like they wanted. Unfortunately, I laughed more at the hand to hand combat scenes here. To quote the generic CIA villian in this movie, these scenes can by summed up by saying, "What's going on? Where are they?"Instead of actually creating a fight scene, when hand to hand combat is employed all the audience can see are a bunch of cuts and the sound of a holiday ham slapping into a pool, which I suppose was supposed to sound like a punch. Fortunately, most of the action does not manifest itself in the form of mano a mano fight sequences. The majority of action scenes involve things blowing up or helicopter flight sequences, which are fairly entertaining.


Other blunders include a lame excuse for romance, a botched last act that tries to be
Mission Impossible, and a laughably inconsequential twist. All this aside, I suppose the first half is pretty fun. If you're in the mood for uninspired summer blockbusters, you don't mind horribly crafted screenwriting, bad direction, and mentions of Flo Rida and Steely Dan in the same film, then I guess it could be worth a matinee for it's occasional gems of fun.


This is a mediocre movie.