100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 92. Queen - Sheer Heart Attack

Every Tuesday I respect one of the albums that make me love music

92. Queen: Sheer Heart Attack

I once purchased the book 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die. If I died tomorrow, I’d have really missed out on some good albums (according to the book anyway). I made it a goal to listen to all 1001 Albums. I’ve still got about 750 to go, but it was through this book that I heard Queen: Sheer Heart Attack.

Now a long time ago I wrote a blog entry about the best (most important) and the greatest (most talented) in which I said The Beatles are the Best band, but Queen is the greatest. This was stated at a time where I really only knew their ‘hit singles’. While my opinion remains the same Sheer Heart Attack re-enforced my opinion.

Simply put Freddy Mercury was one of the best vocalists in music history and Brian May was an equally incredible guitar player. The biggest hits from this album were Killer Queen (which contains one of my favorite guitar solos in popular music history) and Stone Cold Crazy (credited with creating Heavy Metal). That being said, the opening tack Brighton Rock contains some of Queen’s best guitar and vocal work ever and immediately puts you in the mood to really rock out.

Queen is more than just great guitar work and vocals though. Every element in these songs are key be it John Deacon’s heavy bass work or Roger Taylor’s drumming or even the incredible multiple vocal tracks and harmony the album is perfection.

However my favorite elements of the album is the way tracks overlap into each other. Tenement Funster slowly morphs into Flick of the Wrist which itself leads into Lily of the Valley. While stuff like this is nothing new (Mewithoutyou makes whole albums like this) for some reason the idea of this existing in the recording days of 1974 is incredible to me (although the Beatles first introduced it in Abbey Road Side-B)

The revolutionary elements of this record almost seem unending. For example, if you’re a metal head and you’ve never heard Stone Cold Crazy prepare to hear some of the first elements of Speed Metal. It’s undeniably one of the fasted and heaviest tracks of the 70’s. With insane drumming from Roger Taylor and even more impressive guitar work from Brian May.

However despite all of these impressive musical moments my favorite song is the shortest track. Dear Friends is simply Brian May on Piano and Freddy on lead vocals. Clocking in at only 1:09 it still always managed to make me smile and cry a little at the same time. In fact I’m just going to close this with that now.

When he's not listening to classic albums about 30 years too late Matt is tweeting, hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show and writing for Geekscape.net (check out his Guilty Pleasure this week on In the Land of Women and his pick for Favorite Movie Soundtrack)

<----- 93. Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill

91. Punchy's Pilots: Otter Space ------>

I hear it on my Stereo but can't remember the Screen?

So last night I decided to relisten to New Found Glory's From Your Screen to Your Stereo Part 2. I hadn't listened to it since it first came out (except for King of Wishful Thinking occasionally popping up on my iPod), not surprisingly my biggest issue with the album remained. I have no clue what movies half the songs are from without the assistance of liner notes or wikipedia.

From The Screen To Your Stereo (2000)

Alright now the original EP is a classic. I remember when I was in high school my old band 'Off the Wall' (don't bother looking for us online but if you want to hear 3 high school sophomores trying and failing to sound like NFG and Relient K contact me and I'll email you our only album) would constantly cover songs from this album, specifically My Heart Will Go On and The Glory of Love. It was their last album before they exploded the next year with the hit single Hit & Miss. Every song on the album you distinctly remember the movie it was in. That Thing You Do!, The Goonies R Good Enough, The Neverending Story and the other 4 songs on the album were all written specifically FOR the movies that they appeared in.

From the Screen to Your Stereo Part 2 (2007)

Okay so right off the bat (and this is being nit-picky) but the original had a better album cover. Just saying. Anyway of 11 songs appearing on this album only 5 were written specifically for a movie (King of Wishful Thinking, Iris, Crazy For You, J'y suis jamais allé and Don't You Forget about me). Out of those 5 only two I think people distinctly connect them with their respective movies (Pretty Woman & The Breakfast Club). A song like Iris you just think of Goo Goo Dolls before you think of City of Angels and most people haven't ever seen Amelie' or Vision Quest.

But that doesn't matter, I mean the other 6 songs even if they were written before the movie could still make me remember the movie that they're from right? Well let's go through the remaining tracks.

Kiss Me - While it was written and released a year before She's All That was released, I think most people still connect it with the iconic stair sequence.

It Aint Me Babe - I challenge most of you to tell me what movie this is from without cheating. Because for some reason NFG covered a non-Johnny Cash song for Walk The Line. To be fair if they picked any J.C. song it'd be a Johnny Cash cover way quicker before it'd be a cover of a song from Walk the Line

The Promise - This is from Napoleon Dynamite and since it's an obscure 80's song, I suppose people might only connect it with N.D.

Stay - Lisa Loeb's breakthrough hit appeared in the movie Reality Bites, during the closing credits. No I'm sorry I'm not counting this one at all.

Lovefool - This was already a hit single before it appeared in Romeo & Juliet. Again not going to count that one either.

Head Over Heels - Is from Donnie Darko. Does anyone remember this song over Mad World when they think of Donnie Darko? I didn't think so.

I want to clarify that I actually think this is a good album. New Found Glory really had a good time making this record and it shows. But part of the fun of 2000 EP was that hearing those songs immediately brought nostalgic memories to your mind. You saw the sequences where the songs appeared or remembered their iconic music videos (filled with clips of the movie). Part 2 just feels like a cover album that's trying REALLY HARD to have a 'songs from soundtracks' theme.

From the Screen to Your Stereo Part 3?

No there are no intentions of a Part 3 as far as I know. But perhaps in another two years NFG will hit the studio and do it. I know I'll buy it and you will too. Here's some songs I'd like to hear them play (on the very off shot chance they find this blog one day)

1. Sugarhigh - Empire Records

2. After Today - A Goofy Movie

3. The Man in Me - Big Lebowski

4. 3 Small Words - Josie and the Pussycats

5. You're the Best - Karate Kid

Honestly, I'll be happy if they just cover one of those 5 suggestions

When Matt Kelly's not bitching about New Found Glory he's tweeting, writing for Geekscape.net and producing his podcast The Saint Mort Show

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 93. Young Frankenstein

Every Thursday I review the movies that made me love film

93. Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein may be the first movie on this list that is important to me because it reminds me of my grandfather, but it’s certainly not the last. I remember the first time I ever saw this movie was Thanksgiving, probably around second grade. My grandfather was sitting in the living room watching TV and flipping through the channels. He found Young Frankenstein playing on a station (Probably TNT or USA as they frequently played this movie) and yelled, “Matt! Come here!” I ran over to him and sat down and he just said, “Watch this, it’s very, very funny”. The scene was the now-famous Putting on the Ritz dance number. I laughed because it was pretty funny but I don’t think I truly understood the humor of the situation.

Regardless, the movie was airing the following night so I asked my mom to record it for me (this was done with a blank VHS tape and a VCR; for you younger readers this was how things were done before DVDs, pirating and DVR). I watched the movie constantly and even showed it to various people who couldn’t quite understand the humor and didn’t seem to appreciate it a similar manner. I watched that tape so much that when I finally got around to buying the DVD a few years ago I was disappointed that it didn’t have a commercial for the Elvria, Mistress of the Dark television premiere.

The story follows Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Fronk’-en-steen) (Gene Wilder) who is informed after a college lecture that his famous (but mad) scientist grandfather has died and Frederick has been left the entire estate. He leaves his fiancé behind and travels to Transylvania where he is picked up by Igor (pronounced “eye’gor”) (Marty Feldman) and his new sexy lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr). They arrive at the castle where Frederick meets the housekeeper Frau Blucher.

Later that night Frederick is awakened by an eerie song being played on a violin. As he searches for the source he discovers a secret entrance leading to his grandfather’s laboratory. After reading some of his private journals he decides to continue his grandfather’s work. Igor and Frederick dig up corpses to create a new monster; finally, all they need is a brain. Igor is sent out to steal a brain but accidentally gets one reading “Abnormal” (Which he read to say the name ‘Abby Normal’).

The monster (Peter Boyle) is brought to life but is completely out of control. Frederick sedates the monster and locks him up. The townsfolk are worried that another Frankenstein is in town and might terrorize them once again. They decide to send Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars) to investigate Frederick further. Frankenstein manages to convince the Inspector that he wouldn’t attempt to do any such experiments. When he returns to his lab he finds Frau releasing the Monster and playing the eerie song on the violin. She explains to Frederick the importance of his heritage.

Frederick offers the first glance of “the creature” to a theater of illustrious guests, they are won over by the monster’s ability to follow simple commands as well as it’s musical number of Putting on the Ritz; however, when a stage light explodes the monster is frightened and runs through the crowd. Frederick decides that the monster will never live to it’s full potential with an abnormal brain and decides to transfer some of his stabilized intellect to it. The townspeople, in the mean time, are attacking the castle, they break down the door and enter the lab, but are stopped when the Monster speaks to them and is able to reason with them now, having a much more functional thinking process.

Mel Brooks has stated on the Spaceballs commentary track that his least favorite part of filmmaking is directing. He goes on to further say that the one exception is Young Frankenstein. He has often referred to it as his favorite of his movies and the legends say that the entire cast had so much fun making the movie that they spent an extra week just filming scenes not in the script.

What’s brilliant about Young Frankenstein is that, unlike his other movies like Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles or Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which are all parodies of a specific film or genre, Young Frankenstein works as both a parody and a comedic sequel the classic Universal originals. During the town meeting one man even states that they’re still having “nightmares from the five times before” referring to the five Frankenstein movies made during the golden age of cinema.

It’s that type of loving-homage that makes Young Frankenstein so enjoyable to watch. Gene Wilder completely commits to the role of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Marty Feldman is perfect as Igor (and created one of the more famous gags in the movie with the constantly moving hump) and it’s obvious that Mel Brooks loves the subject matter.

I’ve learned that the more people I talk to about this movie the more and more people (specifically my age) have similar first-time stories. They saw it on TV when a family member told them to watch it. For some people it’s Gene Hackman’s cameo as a blind hermit that they remember most; for others like me it’s the Putting on the Ritz dance number. Regardless why you remember the movie it’s definitely one that hasn’t lost a second of freshness over the last three and a half decades.

Frankenstein and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein have both been long considered the best horror movies of all time, so it’s only fitting that Young Frankenstein is considered the best parody of all time.

When he's not watching classic parodies Matt Kelly is tweeting, writing on Geekscape.net and hosting the Saint Mort Show. Check out this week's episode featuring Robert Myer Bennett (Free Enterprise), Joanna McGowen (You Are My Star) and Kristin Henson (Dirty Signs with Kristin).

<----- 94. Charlie Bartlett

92. Pulp Fiction ----->

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 93. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

Every Tuesday I count down the 100 Albums that make me love Music

93. Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill

A few weeks ago when I was talking about John Reuben, I said until John Reuben I disliked hip-hop. Why this wasn’t a complete lie, it wasn’t totally true. As I mentioned in my write up on UHF I liked Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise but also like every white suburban kid born since 1980... I always loved the Beastie Boys.

Why do white rockers love the Beastie Boys? It’s not just because they’d always mix in rock guitars to their songs, but it’s also not a racist thing. White kids like the Beastie Boys for the same reason anyone likes the Beastie Boys, they’re super sincere. If they rapped about growing up in the Ghetto and their struggles no one like them, instead they wrote 13 songs on their debut album about hitting on college chicks, drinking Heineken beer and eating at White Castle. This is one of the many reasons why it’s the only album by a white rap group to get a perfect rating from The Source magazine, to quote Reverend Run ‘Real respects Real’.

Licensed to Ill is the greatest party record ever made and is one of the best rap debuts of all time. MCA, Ad Rock and Mike D all have their own style of rapping from Ad Rock’s borderline screaming, to MCA’s mumbles and Mike D’s high pitch voices they mixed their Punk Rock based with hip-hop and created a sound that was undeniably their own. They drew quick comparisons to Run DMC (which makes sense as Run DMC originally wrote Slow & Low).

While songs like Rhyming and Stealing and Fight For Your Right (To Party) have a heavy metal meets hip-hop sound. Meanwhile tracks like The New Style and Posse In Effect sound like old school late 70s-early 80’s rap. Regardless of the rapping styles every song creates an atmosphere if wanting to party with friends.

The stand out tracks to me will always be Paul Revere which shows off their incredible story telling styles and Hold It Now, Hit It which is evidence that no one trades off rhymes like the Beastie Boys.

For years this was the only rap I listened to because it was the only rap that was played on modern rock stations. To this day the album still introduces young kids into what rap can be.

When he's not trying to rap along with MCA, Ad Rock and Mike D you can find Matt Kelly tweeting, hosting the Saint Mort Show or writing for Geekscape.net (this week his guilty pleasures article was on The Presidents of the United States of America)

<------ 94. Dashboard Confessional: The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

92. Queen: Sheer Heart Attack ----->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 94. Charlie Bartlett

Every Thursday I discuss one of the 100 movies that made me love movies

94. Charlie Bartlett

Charlie Bartlett came out in 2007 and was unfairly compared to Superbad and Juno for being an “unrealistic” movie about high school. I think this is a little unfair, for starters Juno is about as realistic as the mother/daughter relationship on Gilmore Girls (both of which feature characters who talk too fast and are far too witty and detailed to be even reasonably realistic) and secondly, I don’t think this movie ever pretended to be realistic.

Charlie Bartlett tells the story of Charlie (Anton Yelchin), a rich boy whose only friend is his mother. Charlie desperately wants to be accepted by his peers and after being kicked out of every single private school is enrolled into a public school. He’s not immediately liked. He befriends a mentally challenged character Len (who is a wonderfully enjoyable character but just disappears mid-movie) and is beaten up by the school bully Murphy. The incident leads to Charlie being wrongly prescribed Ritalin, which leads him towards a freak out. Charlie decides to contact Murphy and the two begin selling the drugs at the school dance.

One day a student with serious anxiety problems named Kip come up to Charlie asking for help. The two walk into the bathroom and Kip tells him about his anxiety attacks. Charlie goes to his therapist that day and repeats everything Kip had told him. The therapist gives him a diagnosis, which Charlie in turn gives to Kip. Charlie becomes the school therapist performing all of his work in the men’s bathroom and eventually becomes increasingly popular. The general idea of the “bathroom stall confessional” is one of the most appealing elements of entire film and certainly one of those plot devices that makes you wonder, “why didn’t I think of that?”

Principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.) knows that something is up but has no real evidence. He’s an emotional wreck as it is. He was once a well-loved teacher at the school but since becoming principal he has lost the respect of the student body and is currently on thin ice with the superintendent. As if his problems couldn’t be worse his daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) has begun dating Charlie.

As I’m sure you can expect, a student eventually overdoses on his prescription. The student is Kip. He is not killed, however, and refuses to say where he got the drugs. Charlie and Kip become friends and Kip shows Charlie a play that he had been working on about high school. Charlie finally convinces Principal Gardner to let them perform the play because “it’s important that the students hear its message.”

Throughout the film, there have been various students protesting the school’s installation of cameras in the student lounge. They use Charlie’s popularity to get a huge protest one night that results in Charlie’s arrest, consequently leading the students to riot and Nathan Gardner to be fired.

The following day Charlie goes to pick up Susan and drive her to play. When he arrives Nathan is on the patio, quite drunk, walking around with a gun. Charlie tries to stop him from taking his life and ends up falling into the pool below. Nathan dives in and saves Charlie. The two go to the play, which ends with Susan singing Sing Out, Sing Out by Cat Stevens, a song made famous in the movie Harold & Maude.

I quite enjoy the movie and have been a fan of it since it was first released. While most critics felt the movie was uneven and didn’t have “a single likable character,” I found them to be appropriately layered, giving them a stronger sense of reality. Charlie represents every creative-minded person who just longs to be loved. He is the Gonzo to the world’s Muppet Show, a misunderstood mind.

There’s so much to like about this movie. The music is almost always pitch-perfect with the tone the movie is trying to present. The camera work is excellent; director Jon Poll knows how to fill the screen with objects that combine Charlie’s privileged background with the blue-collared lifestyle of the people around him.

Robert Downey Jr. is incredible at Principal Nathan Gardener which isn’t too shocking, since roughly 2004 RDJ has been a unstoppable acting force giving 100% in all his work regardless if the script is great or just plain awful.

The speeches that Charlie delivers to his fellow students (or in dreams of his) are simplistic but legitimately inspiring. The main message of his speeches centers around the general concept that “you are not alone” and “can do whatever you want if you just try”. Feel free to call them simple “Sesame Street” messages, but in a world where every movie has this major message attached to it, it’s nice to have a simple message film here and there.

The Biggest downfall of the movie is that it tries too hard to be homages to other films. Instead of being able to watch the movie for what it is you’re going to be constantly thinking about how Charlie reminds you of Ferris Bueller, or how the first half the movie reminds you of Rushmore, or how the riot sequence reminds you of Pump Up the Volume. Furthermore, the usage of Sing Out, Sing Out by Cat Stevens will feel familiar not just because you’re a fan of Harold & Maude but because it’s first presented in the movie almost identically how Maude first plays the song to Harold.

Charlie Bartlett is not an award-winning movie and shouldn’t be considered one, but it is one of those films that you can’t help but enjoy; in the back of your mind think of how much better the film could have been.

When he's not watching Indie films Matt Kelly is writing for Geekscape.net, Tweeting and hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show

<----- 95. UHF

93. Young Frankenstein ----->

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 94. Dashboard Confessional - Places We Have Come To Fear the Most

Every Tuesday I post one of the 100 albums that make me love movies

94. Dashboard Confessional: The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most

When talking about Blink 182’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, I mentioned being in a band. It was at this band’s practice I first heard of Dashboard Confessional. At the time they were more a source of mockery in the mentioning of them. We were 15-16 years old, we wanted to rock... not listen to acoustic music.

A day or two later I saw the video for Screaming Infidelities and it didn’t really grab me as anything amazing or important. It was a little catchy but I didn’t find anything else about it to be impressive.

About a year later though they performed on the new MTV Unplugged. Again this turned into a joke at school. “Why is an acoustic artist doing an acoustic set? That’s not unplugged, that’s just a regular show”. Since I wasn’t a fan of the band anyway I didn’t watch. It was a few weeks later I could MTV playing his performance of The Best Deceptions and suddenly I got it.

Hearing the songs with an audience singing along really changed my opinion of the band. It wasn’t about how catchy the lyrics were, it was about what the lyrics said. Chris Carraba’s heart-ache and hopeless romanticism was what made people connect with.

That’s when I finally bought the CD and started to understand why people loved this group. The Best Deceptions and Screaming Infidelities scream of a broken man, someone who has lost all trust towards not just his significant other, but women in general. Meanwhile songs like Saints & Sailors and Standard Lines reflect on the nostalgic aspects of missing someone.

It is easily one of the top 5 greatest break up albums ever written. Dashboard has had a good career and a nice following. While I’ve enjoyed all their albums; they don’t get better than the early stuff of Swiss Army Romance, MTV Unplugged and Places You Have Come To Fear the Most.

When he's not writing about the albums that changed his perception of music Matt Kelly is writing for the Geekscape website. This week his guilty pleasures article was on Just Friends. He also hosts his own podcast The Saint Mort Show and tweets when he remembers that he has a twitter account.

<------ 95. John Reuben: Hindsight

93. Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill ----->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 95. UHF

Every Thursday I review one of the 100 Movies that Made Me Love Film

95. UHF

I remember the day I discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic I became instantly obsessed. It in the springtime and I was watching The Box when suddenly the music video for Amish Paradise came on. Being the average elementary school student during the mid-90’s, I loved the song Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio (even though I mostly hated all rap music), so as soon as I saw Amish Paradise I was amazed. I never knew you could do that to songs!

I immediately bought his album Bad Hair Day. But that didn’t fulfill my obsession so a week later I purchased a VHS tape that contained all of his music videos. Not only did this introduce me to a bunch of songs over the years but it also contained the music video for the song UHF which for me acted like a trailer for what looked like a crazy movie.

I went out and rented it that day, then I watched it. After I watched it, I watched it again. It was the most bizarre film I’d ever seen. Even the films that Al drew his inspiration from (films by the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks and Zucker Brothers) don’t have nearly the level of strange insanity that UHF contains.

The story follows George Newman and his best friend Bob who can’t seem to keep a job. One day his aunt and uncle hire George as the manager of failing UHF station Channel 62. Through their weird staff of people Raul (who hosts an animal show in his apartment), Kuni (who hosts the game show Wheel of Fish) and the over the top Janitor/Kid Show host Stanley Spadowski (Played by pre-Kramer Michael Richards) they’re able to become the number 1 station in the neislen’s.

Using this simple plot Weird Al and his manager Jay Levey were able to really cut loose with comedic and bizarre parodies of commercials, TV shows and movie trailers. Ranging from such insanely bizarre parodies as Gandhi 2 and a commercial for Spatula City.

This movie was predicted to save Orion Pictures due to it’s insanely positive test audience reaction. However the film went up against films like Ghostbusters 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Lethal Weapon 2 and Weekend at Bernies. This and poor critical reviews are attributed to it’s low box office numbers. Regardless the film became a cult classic throughout the 90’s.

This November I attended my first ever Weird Al concert. In between songs he plays clips from his various TV and Movie appearances on giant TV Screens so he has time to change costumes. At one point he played the Wheel of Fish segment from this. When Kuni asked ‘do you want the red snapper or what’s in the box?’ the entire audience started screaming “box”. It was then I realized this film has the potential to be on the same level as Rocky Horror Picture Show one day (if given a proper midnight screening).

When he's not watching one of the funniest movies ever made Matt Kelly is writing for Geekscape.net, Tweeting and hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show.

<------ 96. Ghostbusters

94. Charlie Bartlett ---->

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 95. John Reuben - Hindsight

Every Tuesday I list the 100 albums that make me love music

95. John Reuben: Hindsight

When I was really into Christian music I used to purchase complications from Gotee, Five MInute Walk and Tooth and Nail (as they were my favorite record companies at the time). I remember one particular music festival I picked up Five Minute Walks’ newest comp ‘Take Time To Listen Volume 5’. It was on that comp I heard John Reuben for the first time.

At this point in my life I had hated all rap music. But when I heard his song ‘No Regrets’ it spoke to me. I immediately purchased his debut album Are We There Yet? and listened to it over and over again. It quickly became one of my favorite albums and opened the doors for hip-hop for me. I couldn’t wait to pick up his next album Hindsight, but when I heard it, I was filled with complete disappointment.

Sure some of the songs were fun (like I John Reu & Doin’) but for the most part this was a much more laidback sound then his previous album which focused on party songs (with 2 laid-back tracks and 2 metal songs).

It wasn’t until a year later when the album really connected with me. Ironically it had to do with two different things occurring in a single summer. First was seeing Reuben live and him explaining a few of the songs. Before this I never knew what the closing track Pataskala was about.

This song is about his best friend Scott Bellows who died while he was recording the album. The song is an optamistic look at death. Instead of focusing on the sadness of loss, he remembered the things that he loved of about Scott and even mixed in a little bit of dark humor “the other day your mom I saw her/Had to tell her I think Scott owed me twenty dollars”.

I also learned that the song Doin’ is directly influenced by the song E.I. by Nelly. Reuben went out of his way to write a song with an even more ridiculous chorus, I think he succeeded.

The other thing that made me fall in love with this CD was a little more bizarre. I was in the middle of a 2 day long drive home from Tennessee after a mission trip. I was starting to realize that I didn’t love my girlfriend. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to hurt her and she was the first REAL girlfriend I ever had. To clear my head I put this CD on. Suddenly a song that I always ignored or skipped came on. The song was called “I Pictured It”. The song is mostly a spoken-word poem with a hook, the hook is along the lines of ‘I look at her, she looks back at me, but her face looks different than I pictured it’ and the verses tell the story of an amazing girl that John just doesn’t feel the same way. He convinces himself that he’s in love when he’s not (My mind was smart enough to manipulate myself but smart enough to realize it was being manipulated).

The break up definitely didn’t go well but that’s not important. I don’t regret the decision and the girl and we were able to become friends again later.

John Reuben will always be one of my favorite rappers, mostly because he opened the door into hip-hop for me. While he still has a following in the christian community he seems to have developed a new found following in the nerdcore scene appearing on albums with rappers like MC Lars. Regardless he still doesn’t get the love and respect he deserves. For those of you who’ve never heard his music, here’s my favorite song of his (and the opening track to Hindsight) I John Reu.

When he's not reviewing nostalgic films and albums he's tweeting, writing for Geekscape.net or hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show (this week's episode features Kyle K, Mitch Donaberger and Scrub's Sonal Shah)

<----- 96. Blink 182: Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

94. Dashboard Confessional: Places You Come To Fear the Most ---->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 96. Ghostbusters

Every Thursday I Discuss one of the films that made me love movies

96. Ghostbusters

I can not for the life of me remember why or how I saw Ghostbusters for the first time. I remember that the first time I watched it the opening sequence with the librarian scared me shitless. That being said I can’t remember if I watched this because of the cartoon (I can only assume so) or if I watched this first. I guess that’s not that important though.

I loved this movie. The beginning scared me to death as I said, but it is one of my earliest memories of being scared and enjoying it. I also adored the sequel (which many people hate). There’s something about the mid-80’s films that make them live on much stronger than newer films. You can meet people of all ages that adore movies like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future. Normally when people discuss the concept of making a sequel or a reboot of a classic film, people get up in arms and angry, however with Ghostbusters people are begging for part 3 or a reboot in the future.

Since there’s a chance some of you have never heard of or seen this movie (hahahahahahhahahahahahahhhahahahahahahahah) here’s a brief summary. Three scientists discover ghosts are real and create a way to capture them. They start a company to take care of ghost problems and government officials try to stop them. There’s also an ancient demon attacking the town. SPOILER ALERT: at the end they save the day.

Ghostbusters is a delightful comedy with minor horror elements. For some reason it’s constantly being referred to by a Science Fiction Comedy, but outside of the fact that the main characters are scientists I don’t really get that title.

The real stars of the movie are the ghosts. I will never understand the CGI craze and I’ll never support it. I’ve never seen a CGI ghost in a horror film look as cool, realistic or interesting as the puppeteer work and creature designs in this and Ghostbuster 2.

While people really seem to hate the sequel, I personally love it. It’s definitely not better than the original but it’s full of great laughs and scares and that’s all that you really want out of these movies.

When Matt's not writing in his blog he's tweeting, hosting his Podcast the Saint Mort Show and writing for Geekcape.net

<---- 97. Heathers

95. UHF ----------->