AND THE WINNER IS...

With the awards season in full swing, I thought I'd recap this last year. To help me remember the films I've seen, I went to IMDb-the best damn movie site! I tell everyone about it. Check it out if you haven't. I have compiled a Top 10 list for 2006.

Here it is in no particular order:

• Pan's Labrynth
• The Prestige
• The Fountain
• The Descent
• Children of men
• V for Vendetta
• Inside Man
• Lady in the Water
• Babel
• Thank you for Smoking

O.K. I'll be honest. I haven't seen Babel yet, but I know it would be on the list if I had. And I'll also admit that "technically" Thank you for Smoking is a 2005 film, but it is so freakin' good that I wanted to tell everyone about it. But that will be a later blog.

In fact, in deciding to review movies, I thought I'd begin with one that is actually nearly three years old. I finally got to watch it and well...just keep reading.

On the surface, Saw looks like your typical gore fest. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy blood, guts, and goo if

1. It's done well, and
2. The flick isn't just gross for gross' sake.

In short, I want some meat on those bones!

Saw is not an example of #2. I used to work in a steakhouse that served a 32oz T-bone and a 64oz Porterhouse. This movie is the special 6 pound challenge we served! It grabbed me at the beginning, shackled me to the couch, and kept me there til the end. What I loved about this movie is that the characters had depth, the story moved constantly forward (even thru flashbacks and flashbacks of flashbacks), and the protagonist(s) weren't saints and the antagonist wasn't purely evil. In fact, if you ask me, Jigsaw was nothing more than a good samaritan in many ways. This idea blossomed in my head when Amanda (a drug addict and survivor of an ingenious trap) says simply "he helped me." I have yet to see 2 or 3, but so far Jigsaw has not murdered anyone and he rarely inflicts pain unless it is for self-preservation. What Jigsaw does is accuse people of taking life for granted and posing an interesting question-are you willing/able to take someone's life to save your own? With the level of self-absorption and importance in the world, I believe the # of people who would answer 'yes' in that situation is more terrifying than any movie.