Hobo Dan: So where the hell have we been? It’s been a busy fall, let me tell you. We organized a 5K run, attended some sort of gathering every weekend starting in mid-October, both have been sick (the Wife twice!), field dressed a cat, had another car problem (on the first day at my new job!), got a PS3, learned that my suit jacket (which I’ve had for two years) has real pockets and that they just sew them shut for packaging, avoided mowing the lawn one last time, fought with the Wife about jack-o-lanterns, fought with the Wife about everything else, apologized to the Wife about being wrong in all the fights, threw caution to the wind, had caution blown back in my face, ate a lot of holiday food and (if you can believe it) completely forgot/was too lazy to even think about blogging over the last few weeks. Our sincerest apologies.
The Wife: Again, sorry for the lack of posts as of late. Like many of you the holidays are an extremely busy time for us. Pesky sinus infections don't help with blogging either! First off, we've failed to review two awesome movies that we've seen this month. Sadly, our collective favorite movie of 2011 will not receive it's own separate review due to time constraints. But, we will discuss it briefly! I know, I know, you are BURSTING with anticipation!
The new Muppet movie, The Muppets, is without a doubt the BEST movie of the year! We saw this when I was feeling under the weather, but at the same time had cabin fever and desperately needed out of the house! Well, this film proved to be excellent medicine! It perked both of our spirits right up. Growing up always loving the Muppets, made the nostalgia of the movie particularly great. It even brought a few tears to my eyes when they sang the infamous "Rainbow Connection." So if you haven't yet done so, plan to see The Muppets! It delivers laughs and is just plain fun — something we all need every now and then! We also saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and it too, did not disappoint. It was much like the first film, clever, witty and action packed. If you can't make it to the theatre to catch this flick, give it a view when it comes out on Blu-ray and DVD in a few months.
Hobo Dan: I was not kidding when I proclaimed on the Facebook that The Muppets is my favorite movie of 2011. There is nothing to dislike about this film. If you don’t like it, you have no soul. After a year of being beaten to a pulp by the economy and society and idiocy and reboots and sequels and everything else, The Muppets truly energized me and made me feel good, young and happy; even if for only a short time.
The Wife: We suppose we should discuss our Christmas celebrations too. As usual our holiday was great, despite the aforementioned pesky sinus infection. We both got a lot of great gifts, had fantastic food, including quite possibly the BEST turkey ever that WE cooked for Christmas Day dinner, and of course, enjoyed new and old traditions with family and friends. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus, we hope your holidays were a blast!
So now for the burning question...how was our 2011? Well it's been quite an interesting year filled with new events and exciting change. For a year that started rather rough, it has ended quite well for both of us. The beginning of 2011 was filled with too much snow (funny now that we are complaining about the lack of snow where we live...grass is always greener right?). The winter months also brought the start of our Best Picture Project. Yes, we know it's been quite awhile since we last did a BPP review, but don't fret, more will be coming your way in 2012! In March we had quite a bit of fun on St. Patrick's Day! Gimme Da Gold! Then spring time brought about Easter and of course, my (the wife) birthday celebrations! Yes, celebrations, plural. Didn't you hear? My birthday is basically a month long holiday. FACT. Thanks to Charlie Sheen's insanity of the year, the slogan of this year's birthday bash was "Winning" as the tiger blood runs deep within my veins! On the day of my party, we also ran a 5K together and I took home a first place win! With my win, I got a $50 gift card to Dicks...so can we say...wait for it...wait for it...WINNING!
The spring also brought a personal accomplishment for me as I finally scratched "run a half marathon" off my bucket list. I successfully completed the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a challenge, but a great experience. It provided me with a sense of accomplishment in regards to my running that I had not had since college. To read all about my experience, check out my half marathon post! While the spring did bring many positive moments, it also began the start of some very challenging months, which continued into the summer. The stressful time and late nights of work often put a strain on our sanity. To help ease the stress, we relaxed by seeing multiple movies over the summer. We also met one of my goals of 2011, a goal that I never really thought would come true! Yes, we visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. Click here for a full recap of our magical experience. It was fitting that we got to visit the Wizarding World this year, as it was basically the summer of Harry Potter! While the books are my favorite, the Harry Potter film series will always hold a special place in my heart! Luckily I now own all of the films on Blu-ray, but it isn't the same knowing I won't get to anticipate a new movie anymore...that is until the emo reboot in twenty years. We also visited Walt Disney World, my favorite place on earth! Here you can find all of our mini summer vacation blogs. We can't forget that we also celebrated SHARK WEEK over the summer as well...you know otherwise known as the greatest week in television.
The end of summer and beginning of fall started to bring many good things to the DUMP family. I accepted a new job, which I love, and the husband accepted a promotion about a month later! Now that we are adjusting to our new positions, we hopefully will get back into a regular blogging rhythm for 2012!
So that brings us here. Despite the challenges, I think 2011 proved to be quite a great year. We hope to make 2012 even better! As we mentioned previously, we saw several movies this year...some good and some bad. Below we will each rank our top five movies of 2011. If you would like to further discuss our choices or tell us yours, please comment!
The Wife:
1. The Muppets
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
3. Captain America
4. The Hangover Part II
5. X-Men: First Class
Hobo Dan:
1. The Muppets
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
3. Thor
4. Captain America
5. Sherlock Holmes
We wish you all a very happy, healthy and safe new year! Be sure to look for our first Movie Monday post of 2012, set to publish Jan. 2. We will be sharing our thoughts on the recently released The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Hobo Dan: And finally, because I know you all have been waiting patiently, the most viewed Dump the blog post of 2011 was... Statesticles with a huge 466 hits!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Top Ten Christmas Movies
The Wife: Well here we are once again...It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry for our lack of Monday posts and movie reviews, it has been quite a busy fall for us! To make up for that we have an early holiday gift for you, our Top Ten Christmas Movies! These are the films we like to watch over and over and over and OVER again every holiday season!
Please note that all of these movies are so close, and with the exception of numbers one through three, it was very hard to rank them! So let's get started, shall we?
10. Die Hard — YES THIS DOES SO COUNT! Die Hard is a movie set at Christmas that brings the awesomeness of Bruce Willis and Carl Winslow...as a COP, of course! This film also has a young Snape in it. Basically Bruce Willis saves Christmas just like Rocky defeated communism. Win!
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon) — You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch! This flick doesn't need an explanation. I have watched this every Christmas since I was a tot!
8. The Santa Clause 2 — Not as good as the original, but still cute and funny. It just "feels" like Christmas in this movie and Tim Allen once again shines as Santa. This film paints a perfect picture of how I always dreamed the North Pole would look like as kid.
7. Jingle All the Way — I seriously LOVE this movie. I don't get the hate it tends to receive. I think Sinbad is hilarious in it and I love how it realistically portrays the crazy greed that the holiday season brings. Not to mention this movie is so unintentionally funny, and that makes it even more awesome! You would think that they would have given Arnold's kid in the movie a name that he could pronounce. Instead they named the kid Jamie, which sounds like "Chamie" in Arnold speak. "Chamie, get ya muddah on da phone please!" I would say that the little boy who plays Jamie is the only annoying aspect of this movie. George Lucas, did you not bother to watch this movie before casting this kid as a young Anakin Skywalker?
6. The Santa Clause — I wish I could put this movie higher on the list because I love it so much, but alas, I can't have a tie. As I mentioned earlier, Tim Allen is awesome in The Santa Clause movies. I credit this film for making me spell "Santa Claus" wrong for SEVERAL years. It also taught me that hot cocoa tastes best when "shaken, not stirred." The Santa Clause is simply wonderful. It's kid friendly, but has jokes that adults can enjoy too. As a child I was fiercely defensive when it came to the question of Santa's existence, so much so that I would argue with kids at school about it. I WANTED to believe and wasn't ready to let the magic of Christmas go. That's why I love this movie; it shows you that you can "believe" in Santa at any age. "Seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing."
5. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — I absolutely LOVE this movie! When I was younger I preferred this over the original, however, due to nostalgia and my "older" taste, the first Home Alone is now my favorite. However, this movie is almost just as good. I credit Home Alone 2 for beginning my obsession with New York City. I still have yet to experience NYC at Christmas time, but it is on my list of things to do. Sure, people gripe that it's a carbon copy of the original movie mixed with more harmful traps, but I say why ruin a good thing? Home Alone 2 delivers just as many laughs and of course, gives you that warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling.
4. Elf — How can you not LOVE this movie? I could watch Elf year round! I love Will Ferrell and I love Christmas, so this is the perfect combination! Along with my sister-in-law, I can pretty much quote this movie word for word. Elf is a hilarious, fun Christmas movie. In fact, it has become our traditional movie of choice when we celebrate Christmas with the husband's dad and stepmom. "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"
3. Home Alone — Another favorite and probably one of my most constantly watched movies during the Christmas season. I LOVE Home Alone! This movie never gets old and I still laugh now just as much as I did when I first watched this at age five. I come from a rather large extended family, so it always reminds me of that. It also feels "Christmasy," so that's another reason why it's so good. When I watch Home Alone I find it necessary to have "a lovely cheese pizza just for me." I also always question if Kevin ever ate that awesome looking macaroni and cheese after his defeat of the wet bandits. Watching in 2011, I love noticing how dated this movie is and I love knowing that it couldn't be duplicated in the technology-savvy world we live in now. Home Alone simply makes me happy and it's not Christmas until I've watched this over and over, yes, and OVER again!
2. A Christmas Story — Many of you might be shocked that this isn't number one, but believe me it comes in at a very CLOSE SECOND to the number one Christmas movie. Again, I LOVE THIS MOVIE! A Christmas Story is just one of those classics that never gets old. It has so many great scenes and it's not Christmas until I watch this. While I own this movie, I still make sure I tune my television to 24 Hours of A Christmas Story starting on Christmas Eve evening. The dad is probably my favorite character. "Fra-gi-layyyy, must be Italian!" So many other great quotes come from this film as well. I love little brother Randy, especially when he is dressed in his snowsuit and "can't put his arms down!" Ralphie and his quest to get his perfect Christmas present, a Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air riffle, is classic! It reminds us of when we were little and desperately wanted our perfect Christmas present. The Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant is, of course, one of the best scenes. So politically incorrect, but hey, that makes it all the more funny. "Ra Ra Ra Ra!" I want a leg lamp...it's a major award!
1. Christmas Vacation — If you know me or my family at all this shouldn't come as a surprise! Christmas Vacation is my absolute favorite Christmas movie of all time! It's hilarious and every year it just gets better and better! I always feel like I notice something new and funny with each viewing. Much like the jelly of the month club, my family quotes this movie all year because it is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year! Our quote fest really heats up on Thanksgiving! Clark Griswold's quest to have the perfect fun-old-fashioned-family-Christmas and all the obstacles it takes to achieve this equals awesome comedy. Cousin Eddie is at his best in this movie as well! To keep the blog clean, I won't do Eddie's famous quote from Christmas Vacation, but I am sure all you Christmas Vacation fans know it by heart! Clark's angry rants are another great aspect of this film. I should also mention that I love Rusty's facial expressions throughout this entire movie (by the way Big Bang Theory fans, Rusty is a young Leonard!). Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis are great too as are all the grandparents! Christmas Vacation gives me that holiday feel with laughter and, like many other movies on this list, it wouldn't be the holiday season without watching it several times. "And WHY is the carpet all wet, Todd?!" "I DON'T KNOW, MARGO!"
Before this post is wrapped like a perfect Christmas present, here are some honorable mentions: The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Muppet Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday in Handcuffs (yes, I know this is an ABC Family Original...but it's really cute), The Preacher's Wife and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown.
There are several other Christmas movies that I love, but it could take forever to mention them! Let us know your favorite Christmas movies! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Please note that all of these movies are so close, and with the exception of numbers one through three, it was very hard to rank them! So let's get started, shall we?
10. Die Hard — YES THIS DOES SO COUNT! Die Hard is a movie set at Christmas that brings the awesomeness of Bruce Willis and Carl Winslow...as a COP, of course! This film also has a young Snape in it. Basically Bruce Willis saves Christmas just like Rocky defeated communism. Win!
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon) — You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch! This flick doesn't need an explanation. I have watched this every Christmas since I was a tot!
8. The Santa Clause 2 — Not as good as the original, but still cute and funny. It just "feels" like Christmas in this movie and Tim Allen once again shines as Santa. This film paints a perfect picture of how I always dreamed the North Pole would look like as kid.
7. Jingle All the Way — I seriously LOVE this movie. I don't get the hate it tends to receive. I think Sinbad is hilarious in it and I love how it realistically portrays the crazy greed that the holiday season brings. Not to mention this movie is so unintentionally funny, and that makes it even more awesome! You would think that they would have given Arnold's kid in the movie a name that he could pronounce. Instead they named the kid Jamie, which sounds like "Chamie" in Arnold speak. "Chamie, get ya muddah on da phone please!" I would say that the little boy who plays Jamie is the only annoying aspect of this movie. George Lucas, did you not bother to watch this movie before casting this kid as a young Anakin Skywalker?
6. The Santa Clause — I wish I could put this movie higher on the list because I love it so much, but alas, I can't have a tie. As I mentioned earlier, Tim Allen is awesome in The Santa Clause movies. I credit this film for making me spell "Santa Claus" wrong for SEVERAL years. It also taught me that hot cocoa tastes best when "shaken, not stirred." The Santa Clause is simply wonderful. It's kid friendly, but has jokes that adults can enjoy too. As a child I was fiercely defensive when it came to the question of Santa's existence, so much so that I would argue with kids at school about it. I WANTED to believe and wasn't ready to let the magic of Christmas go. That's why I love this movie; it shows you that you can "believe" in Santa at any age. "Seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing."
5. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — I absolutely LOVE this movie! When I was younger I preferred this over the original, however, due to nostalgia and my "older" taste, the first Home Alone is now my favorite. However, this movie is almost just as good. I credit Home Alone 2 for beginning my obsession with New York City. I still have yet to experience NYC at Christmas time, but it is on my list of things to do. Sure, people gripe that it's a carbon copy of the original movie mixed with more harmful traps, but I say why ruin a good thing? Home Alone 2 delivers just as many laughs and of course, gives you that warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling.
4. Elf — How can you not LOVE this movie? I could watch Elf year round! I love Will Ferrell and I love Christmas, so this is the perfect combination! Along with my sister-in-law, I can pretty much quote this movie word for word. Elf is a hilarious, fun Christmas movie. In fact, it has become our traditional movie of choice when we celebrate Christmas with the husband's dad and stepmom. "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"
3. Home Alone — Another favorite and probably one of my most constantly watched movies during the Christmas season. I LOVE Home Alone! This movie never gets old and I still laugh now just as much as I did when I first watched this at age five. I come from a rather large extended family, so it always reminds me of that. It also feels "Christmasy," so that's another reason why it's so good. When I watch Home Alone I find it necessary to have "a lovely cheese pizza just for me." I also always question if Kevin ever ate that awesome looking macaroni and cheese after his defeat of the wet bandits. Watching in 2011, I love noticing how dated this movie is and I love knowing that it couldn't be duplicated in the technology-savvy world we live in now. Home Alone simply makes me happy and it's not Christmas until I've watched this over and over, yes, and OVER again!
2. A Christmas Story — Many of you might be shocked that this isn't number one, but believe me it comes in at a very CLOSE SECOND to the number one Christmas movie. Again, I LOVE THIS MOVIE! A Christmas Story is just one of those classics that never gets old. It has so many great scenes and it's not Christmas until I watch this. While I own this movie, I still make sure I tune my television to 24 Hours of A Christmas Story starting on Christmas Eve evening. The dad is probably my favorite character. "Fra-gi-layyyy, must be Italian!" So many other great quotes come from this film as well. I love little brother Randy, especially when he is dressed in his snowsuit and "can't put his arms down!" Ralphie and his quest to get his perfect Christmas present, a Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air riffle, is classic! It reminds us of when we were little and desperately wanted our perfect Christmas present. The Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant is, of course, one of the best scenes. So politically incorrect, but hey, that makes it all the more funny. "Ra Ra Ra Ra!" I want a leg lamp...it's a major award!
1. Christmas Vacation — If you know me or my family at all this shouldn't come as a surprise! Christmas Vacation is my absolute favorite Christmas movie of all time! It's hilarious and every year it just gets better and better! I always feel like I notice something new and funny with each viewing. Much like the jelly of the month club, my family quotes this movie all year because it is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year! Our quote fest really heats up on Thanksgiving! Clark Griswold's quest to have the perfect fun-old-fashioned-family-Christmas and all the obstacles it takes to achieve this equals awesome comedy. Cousin Eddie is at his best in this movie as well! To keep the blog clean, I won't do Eddie's famous quote from Christmas Vacation, but I am sure all you Christmas Vacation fans know it by heart! Clark's angry rants are another great aspect of this film. I should also mention that I love Rusty's facial expressions throughout this entire movie (by the way Big Bang Theory fans, Rusty is a young Leonard!). Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis are great too as are all the grandparents! Christmas Vacation gives me that holiday feel with laughter and, like many other movies on this list, it wouldn't be the holiday season without watching it several times. "And WHY is the carpet all wet, Todd?!" "I DON'T KNOW, MARGO!"
Before this post is wrapped like a perfect Christmas present, here are some honorable mentions: The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Muppet Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday in Handcuffs (yes, I know this is an ABC Family Original...but it's really cute), The Preacher's Wife and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown.
There are several other Christmas movies that I love, but it could take forever to mention them! Let us know your favorite Christmas movies! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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