Top 5... Music Moments In Movies

There's no denying that I love movies. What you may not know is that I also have a deep, abiding passion for music. Some of the greatest movie moments were enhanced a thousandfold by the music accompanying them. Who can forget that moment in Back To The Future when the music swells up and then you hear that one line from Earth Angel just before George kisses Lorraine?? It's moment's like that which simply become nothing less than EPIC! Now I have listed my Top 5 Music Moments in Movies. BTTF is excluded because it's my favorite movie of all time and as such is in a class by itself. Other rules include: it has to be a live action movie (animated movies are too easy). It has to involve the main characters in the movie, so it can't just be your favorite song overlayed on a montage. If you can, it has to be part of the story line, but at the very least it has to have some of the main cast members involved somehow. Are we clear on the rules?? GOOD. Here now is my Top 5 Music Moments in Movies:

 #5) From "Get Over it" - Love Will Keep Us Together
Starting us off is the intro bit to a cute little film called "Get Over It". Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you looked around while heartbroken and see that the WHOLE WORLD is in love but you? This is kind of the epitome of that...


  

Personally, I think the Marching band was a little over the top, but I completely agree with Ben Foster's reaction at the end. If you haven't seen it, check the movie out. It's a really cool way to spend 90 min.

#4) From "500 Days Of Summer" - You Make My Dreams Come True 

This clip is at the complete OPPOSITE end of the spectrum. This scene happens just after our hero, a nice, but neurotic guy (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), hooks up with his girl for the first time. 

Yes, ladies, this is how we see the world the morning after. (The song changes depending on your guy's preference, but everything else is dead on.)

#3) From "Ray" - Mess Around

This clip is from Jamie Foxx's tour de force "Ray". At this point in the career of Ray Charles, his producers are trying to get Ray out of his standard practice of copying everyone else's style and working on developing his own. One of his producers comes up with an intriguing method.


I loved the look on Ray's face when the producer says that he wrote it. If you haven't seen this movie, go watch it... RIGHT NOW!

#2) From "Shine" - Flight Of The Bumblebee

My number two entry (and it was close) is from the biopic for the piano player David Helfgott. A prodigy pianist who had a nervous breakdown and was never quite the same again. In this particular scene, he had been away from playing piano for awhile (his landlord locked the piano in his rooms) and had been haunting a diner close to the assisted living apartments where he was living. A waitress at the diner took kindly to him, but the owner of the joint was a bit of an ass. But Helfgott wouldn't be held down!



Talk about the epitome of a "SCREW YOU" to the owner!! This scene is the beginning of the upturn of Helfgott's life. The movie itself is a masterpiece and I STRONGLY recommend it to anyone who wants to see Geoffrey Rush in a NON Hector Barbossa role. I must warn you it is a heavy movie.

#1) From "Crossroads" - Guitar Duel

No, this is not the Britney Spears movie, go smack yourself in the face HARD, SEVERAL TIMES for even THINKING that I would deign to watch that... film. No, this is from the 1980s blues classic Crossroads, with Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca. This is the final part of the film, where they finally make it back to the crossroads where Willie Brown made his deal with the devil and where he tries to get him to break the contract. WARNING: This is the END of the film, so if you haven't seen it, this is a spoiler. But enjoy it anyway!!



WOW, right? Talk about some fantastic guitar playing!! The tall, white guy is Steve Vai, a phenomenal guitarist. If I'm correct, I believe he wrote most of the guitar duel music. And in case you're wondering, Ralph Macchio wasn't playing the guitar, it was Ry Cooder, legendary blues guitarist, playing off screen. Again, this is a movie I STRONGLY recommend to anyone who is a blues fan. It's not an Oscar calibur film, but it's an amazingly good time.

And there you have it, my dear readers, my Top 5 Music Moments in Movies. What are YOURS?? Sound off in the comments below!

Top 5... Best Superpowers

As a geek and comic book lover, it's pretty much inevitable that the topic of super powers comes up for some type of consideration. When it comes to super powers, I don't necessarily go for the flashy, world domination type of ability. What I value in the super power market is versatility, not attention. With that in mind, I present you my top five favorite super powers, in order of preference.

5: Invisibility - The versatility here is the near limitless situations where this power can be used effectively. Most of which involve seeing things you shouldn't see or hearing things you shouldn't hear. My preferred version of invisibility is from the Sci-Fi Channel's tv show "The Invisible Man", where clothing can also be made invisible.

4: Telekinesis - A simple power, but with proper application can do a great deal. For example, I could levitate an object I'm standing on (or levitate myself), giving me the ability to fly.

3: Teleportation - Like invisibility, the ability to teleport is versatile because of the wide variety of situations to which it can be applied. Just watch the intro to X-Men 2 and you'll see what I mean.

2: Control machines - This power is versatile because of the increasing number of areas that are under the control of machines. From banking, to telecommunications, to traffic, any and all can be used.

1: Control Magnetism - This the most versatile of powers, since with the proper application of scientific principles, one can replicate a wide variety of abilities such as flight, energy blasts, levitation of other objects, invisibility, etc. Plus with our society getting more and more technologically advanced every day, the effects of this power reach further & further.

Top 5... Greatest Batman Stories

With this post, I'm starting one of two new running threads in my blog, the Top 5 list. In this case, here are my top five greatest Batman stories.

5: No Man's Land - This story was just amazing. The death of Gordon's wife, the virtually endless amount of work to re-take Gotham City. This was an epic read, and I didn't even read all of the issues! Plus this series introduced both Lex's bodyguard, Mercy Graves & Joker's sometime girlfriend, Harley Quinn.

4: The Long Halloween - Following in the footsteps of Batman: Year One, this story is great because it delves more into the life of Harvey Dent before he became Two-Face and also because it takes most of Batman's Rogue's Gallery and changes them from mob-enforcers & thugs to true super-villains.

3: Death In the Family - The death of Jason Todd. 'Nuff said.

2: Under The Hood - The power of this story comes from Batman having to face the decisions he made after Jason Todd's death. As well as facing the brutal consequences of Batman's most harshly kept rule: Never to kill.

1: KnightFall - For me, this is the single greatest Batman story told. No other story goes so deeply into the primal psychology of why Bruce Wayne chooses to remain Batman, how Wayne kept from crossing over into evil, and how incredibly difficult taking up the Mantle of The Bat really is.