Tasty's Top 10 Movies of the Decade

I was requested by one of our loyal readers (I guess they do exist) to do a top 10 movie of the decade list. So in effort to keep our only reader happy I have decided to make his dreams come true. I have also asked fellow blogger Timmmay to give his top 10, hopefully he will post that tomorrow. Onto the list.

#10 Big Fish
When I first saw this movie, after about five minutes I was ready to walk out, I am not much of a fan of Tim Burton or Ewan McGregor, but I decided to give this movie a shot. I am glad I did. It is a feel good movie, about a fathers relationship with his son, told through a bunch of semi-made up stories that the father used to tell the son. The son, played by Billy Crudup, feels like he never got to know who his father really was, and vows to have to fix that relationship before his father passes. Great performances from the dad, Albert Finney, McGregor, and Crudup, make this a must watch film.

#9 Oldboy
I am sure only a handful of you have seen this Korean film. This movie takes a theme, revenge, seen thousands of times in movie and puts in incredible twist on it. This movie will have your head spinning. I didn't know much about Korean film until I heard about this movie, but I will say that is one of the most original and daring screenplays I have ever seen. If you like action and psychological thrillers, this is the movie for you.

#8 LOTR (The Fellowship of the Rings)
I was one of those people that didn't want to give Lord of the Rings a chance, I am certainly glad I did. Within the first half hour of the first film I was completely lost in the realm of hobbits, dwarfs, elves, and men. Call me a flame, if you want, but I can almost guarantee if you give this trilogy a chance, it will capture you as well.

#7 Sin City
I have never been a big fan of comic book movies, they are usually entertaining, but often the story lines are just to far fetched, and so are all the action sequences. Well this movie is just that, but it has a visual style that I have never seen before, and enough substance and good acting to keep me wanting more. Frank Miller deserves a lot of credit, for taking the comic book and graphic novel genre to new heights. I know many that will say 300 and Batman Begins, were the reason this genre reached new heights, but I will argue for Sin City every day of the week. Not to mention appearances by beauties Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaimie King, Britany Murphy, and Devon Aoki. I had to clean the pre-cum off my shorts after watching this film.

#6 Into the Wild
If you go back to read my original movie review you will notice that I had some problems with the movie. Mainly being the stupidity of the main character. However after seeing this movie now several times, I realize that my problems with the character is what made this such a good movie. You may not believe in what Alex Supertramp believes, in but you can make no mistake, that he stood for something. You throw in an absolutely wonderful soundtrack and you have a must own movie.

#5 No Country for Old Men
If you are a fan of Coen Bros movies, you will have to agree that this is different than any film they have ever made. I dark, complex storyline, is what first captured my attention, but what made me really admire this film, is the Coen Bros ability to tell a story, through a litany of complex characters. The performance of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh is as chilling as you will find.

#4 Kill Bill Volume I
I really enjoyed both of Tarrentino's Kill Bill movies and they both nearly made the list, however I have to put the first one a little bit ahead of the second. With all Tarentino movies, the genre is all to his own, and the style and visual effects of this film are amazing. You throw in the dialogues and action sequences that Tarentino is known for and you have a wonderful film.

#3 There Will Be Blood
You either love this film or hate it. I think that has a lot to do with the story in which there is no real climatic point, in fact you could almost say this movie starts at the climax and moves on from there. At a slow pace at best. But to me the real beauty in this film lies in a simple character. I man driven by greed, hate, and resentment. Daniel Day Lewis, is in my mind the best actor on the planet, and he proves it in this movie. Go ahead give it another watch, keep an open mind, and I think you will take much more out of this film.

#2 Departed
Leo, Wahlberg, Nicholson, and Matt Damon, directed by Martin Scorscese, not much more needs to be said. Though it isn't my favorite Scorscese film, it is my favorite of the decade. This story is a remake, but the story can only be done with wonderful characters in which you can actually believe. There are some scenes in this movie, that were the definition of real suspense. Wonderful film.


#1 City of God
This is one of those movies that when you finish watching, you don't know if you should feel happy or sad. This movie is about the life on the streets of Brazil, and how hard it is for an adolescence to keep his life straight, growing up in the tough streets of Brazil. The characters are real, and you cannot help but feel for each and every child that is portrayed, good and bad. This is one of my favorite foreign films of all time.

HEY SHOWTY

I had no idea they had movie theaters in Africa. I though it was just head baskets and AIDS, AHaaaay!
*crip walks back to the internet*

A heads up, compliments of LMF

For you Milwaukee kids, just wanted to make you aware of a great live music opportunity this Friday night. Personally, I'll be at the hockey game (UW vs. UM) in Madison, but I've seen this cat before and will again. If you want to see and hear something special, head over to the Bay View Brewhaus this Friday night for some good beer and some great music. One of the acts is a personal favorite, William Elliott Whitmore, but you can check out the other acts as well (Hoots and Hellmouth, John Savage.) Go ahead. Treat yourself. As you can see below, they loved him in Belgium.

Caption Contest

Another great Halloween costume...

I Love Me a Shitty Fight Scene

Hat tip to C$$$ for sending this. It is one of those scenes where you just have to ask yourself were they even trying to make it real, or were they just like, "fuck it, looks cool to me"? Either way it works for me.

Take Control of Your Finances

If you know me, then you know I am terrible when it comes to money. I love pissing it away on gambling, booze, fine dining, fantasy sports, etc. Even worse I do not balance a check book, rarely look at my bank statements, and I do not really have much of anything for savings. With the birth of my daughter I knew this was going to be one of my biggest challenges if I was going to maintain the style of living I have grown accustom to. I realized that I need to insure my life to protect for my daughter, I needed to start planning for the future. Both in terms of mine (retirement, travel, house, marriage) and hers, (college, summer camp, piano lessons etc.)it certainly wasn't going to be easy.

I then stumbled upon a blog I had not frequented in a while and they had this great post about Automating your finances. See link below. Anyways the basic principle is you pay yourself before you do anything else, and with the money left over you are free to spend it any way you wish. If i want to blow a couple hundred playing cards, or drinking with the guys, or going to that really expensive restaurant, I can do it as long as I have paid myself first. Seriously it will be easier to follow me if you read the blog post. Anyways, I am still in the process of making this work for me, and I have a long ways to go. But I am now 3 months in to this switch and I already can see the differences. I actually am seeing a savings account grow, making sure I have everything else covered, and still able to do get crazy once in a while. In that time, i have finally started banking online (I know right) have all my bills directly paid from my checking account (though I am looking into some sort of rewards based credit card, to pay all my bills), I have set up two life insurance policies, one in which will build cash value, and I have also set up a Roth IRA that automatically takes from checking each month. This seems like a lot to do, but I have probably spent 3 hours total getting all of this automated, and now I maybe check my bank statements 2 to 3 times a month, but I am totally covered. No need to worry about the nasty letters for un paid bills, no need to worry about bouncing the occasional check, though I still cannot figure out how to cut checks online.

Anyways, I wanted to share this with you because I really feel, that one of the biggest problems with people my age, is the have no hold on there personal finances. I work at a company in which less than half of the employees take part in a 401K plan. I am starting to learn that creating wealth and long term financial stability, is as easy getting on top of your personal finances, and paying yourself before you go out to the bars, or buy a new pair of shoes. I sure as hell know I don't want to work until I die, and automating my finances I believe is the first step in ensuring that doesn't happen.

Link