Sunday, September 28, 2008

Current Projects


For various reasons, my movie-blogging habits have been very erratic lately and for that I do apologize. I am currently working on several different film "projects" at the moment, and I thought that I would share those film projects with you. When I say "projects", please do not think that I am actually doing anything of any real significance. What I am speaking of are mostly just personal OCD movie habits. As you saw with my "1500th" film, I take great pride in keeping careful track of the films that I see. Beyond just tracking the name of the films, I keep track of their director, year of release, genre, the date I watched it, their tag-lines, memorable quotes, best action scenes, best dramatic scenes, notable performances, technical achievements, and oh so much more. So, I take all these little items and constantly desire to rank them. Hopefully, these projects will find their way onto the site in some way or form, but it may take a little while, as these projects are still very early in development. So, without further ado, here is a small rundown of the current projects I am working on.

MOVIES TO SEE LIST
I have a current master list of films that I would like to see before I die. The list is sorted by year, and the films that are on it are any film that strikes my interest, has won serious awards, is seen as historically important, is a top entry into its genre, gained critical favor, gained popular favor, or gained cult favor. The list has allowed me to gain a good idea of what films I want to see for each year and decade. Obviously, this film list will always continue to grow because there are always new movies coming out every year that I add to the list. I have no ability to "finish" this list given the nature of it, but I am excited about "closing out" years. Closing out years to me is exciting, as I literally view every film from a given year that I want to watch. As I close out the years, I begin to include them on my next ongoing projects...

The Leaman Awards
Since the film year 2003, I have put together a year-end packet known as the Leaman Awards. They have evolved over the years into the current their current incarnation, which is a 40 page end of the year packet, awarding things from "Most Suprising Film of the Year" to "The Eric Bana Award" (which is given to the actor with the best performance in a bad film, as Eric Bana had in Troy). I'm currently working on my 2008 Awards, but every year I am also attempting to go backwards in time. Last year I re-made my 2003 Awards, and this year I am focusing on the year 1998. So I am currently focused on the movie year 1998, and closing out all the best films from that year. The most current one I've watched from that year is Jackie Chan's Who Am I?. Below is a fight clip from that film. Warning, the fight scene is incredible!

Best Action Scenes of All-Time
This is a fairly new database that I've created. I've always kept track of the good action scenes from a given years films, (in order to compile my top 15 Action Scene List for the Leaman Awards), but I am now putting all those lists into a database. Its long and taxing, but its ridiculous amounts of OCD fun for me. How else am I to compare the fight scenes I saw in Fist of Legend with James Cameron's True Lies?

Reviews
Probably the hardest area to keep up with, but one that I hope to post in very soon. I've seen Burn After Reading and Ghost Town recently, and I really want to post my reviews for those fims very soon. In the meantime, Burn After Reading and Ghost Town each recieve a B- grade from me.

So there you have it, just a quick summary on where I stand at the moment. Got any idea's for any other great movie projects? Got any suggestions for great 1998 films that must make my viewing schedule? Seen Ghost Town or Burn After Reading recently? Let me know!

6 comments:

8rent said...

Kyle, I'm beginning to think you may want to rename your movie blog Celluloid Sisyphus, seeing that you've taken on a task that would make even Camus envious.

Scott Mendelson said...

Glad to see I'm not the only one who finds the climax of 'Who Am I?' to be one of the very best fight scenes in Jackie Chan's film history. The film premiered on HBO (his imports had been tanking at the box office), and I watched it on a lark. I was shocked, stunned at the sustained level of quality combat. It just went on and on and on. A true classic.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to seeing some of these projects online soon. May I also recommend a project where you take characters from various children's movies and then describe who would win in a hypothetical fight? I can start one for you: Milo, from "Milo and Otis" versus Oliver, from "Oliver and Company"--talk about a cat fight! Yeow!

Kyle Leaman said...

Brent,

Your dead on with the Sisyphus comment. I guess as Camus says though, whats important is that I can smile while doing it right?

Scott,

Along with my other projects, I'm currently on a Jackie Chan kick right now. My first experiece with Jackie was with his American work like Rush Hour. Its only recently that I've been able to view his hong Kong work. Unfortunately, the only American film he's done that comes close to his Hong Kong work is Shanghai Knights. I would stack up that marketplace Singin in the Rain fight with some of his best "Prop" fights. Who Am I was such an odd movie. The first half was typical cornball, but stunningly absent of action, and the second half features three great top notch action scenes. The final rooftop fight is one for the ages, and the fact that the slide down the building tops it off, is just incredible.

Micah,

I would take Milo in that one. How about this one, Fievel from American Tale vs. Remy from Ratatouille?

Anonymous said...

Well, I'd have to say Fievel; I mean, he knows the "laaaaaaazy eye" (if you allow some leverage to include Fievel Goes West into his skills training...)

Unknown said...

Kyle, congrats on watching "Fist of Legend". I'm sure it was enjoyable. Allow me to give you some suggestions in the future if you are still interested in the Kung Fu genre. I have been watching martial arts movies since I was a kid in NJ. What better thing to do in NJ?

Anyway, a few suggestions to get you on the "path of destiny".

#1) Gordon Liu - I suggest him in his starring roles as a Shaolin monk. He played an important part in the genre and does an excellent jobs in movies such as Shaolin v Wu-Tang and 36 Chamber of Shaolin.

#2) Subbed or Dubbed? Subbed is better as far as story continuity, but if you want a hilarious moment or two go with dubbed. Also a little research goes a long way, when looking for original languages.

#3) Okay last one for now, type of action. Some movies utilize situational comedy-style action in their movies. Others, such as Fist of Legend, have the fast paced short fist style action. If you're curious about a movie youtube a fight scene.

I also suggest the Mystery of Chess Boxing. It has a great end fight scene. Also the movie that inspired the Wu-Tang Clan!