ITB with AB #10: Top 10 Sitcoms (The Applause Sign Is On!)

What's in the Box:

In this edition of the ITB I thought I would share my top 10 favorite sitcoms and some of my favorite supporting characters and guest stars from each show. With that being said lets pull out the box cutter and open up the box!


TV Box:

10. Boy Meets World (1993-2000): This show follows Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) along his journey from middle school (season 1), to high school (seasons 2-5), and college (seasons 6-7). We also get to watch the growth of many characters during the course of the series. Cory's family: Father Alan (William Russ), mother Amy (Betsy Randle), older brother Eric (Will Friedle) and younger sister Morgan (Lily Nicksay/Lindsay Ridgeway). Rounding out the full series main characters are Cory's best friend Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong), girl friend and eventual wife Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), and teacher/principal/neighbor George Feeny (William Daniels).

Favorite Supporting/Guest: Leon White aka Big Van Vader as Leslie "Frankie" Stechino Sr. Vader plays the father of Frankie Jr. (Ethan Suplee), one of the school's bullies, and is a famous professional wrestler. He also happens to be a former student of Mr. Feeny. He appears in a handful of episodes but the best one is "The Thrilla in Phila" where Cory joins the school wrestling team.

Other supporting and guest characters that I enjoyed during the series where Griff Hawkins (Adam Scott), Frankie Jr. (Ethan Suplee), and Jonathan Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn) although he was a main cast member during his time on the show.

9. Home Improvement (1991-1999): This is perhaps the first show I can remember sitting down and watching with the entire family. The cast was lead by Tim Allen who plays Tim Taylor, the host of a DIY type home improvement show called Tool Time. The show follows him and his family, wife Jill (Patricia Richardson), and his sons Brad (Zachary Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). Throughout the show the Taylor family has two characters that are voices of reason. The first being their neighbor Wilson Wilson (Earl Hindman) whose face was always mostly hidden by the fence separating the two yards and a variety of other objects. The second being Al Borland (Richard Karn) who is Tim's co-host on Tool Time.

Favorite Supporting/Guest: Bob Vila as Bob Vila! Bob simply plays Tim's rival on the show and adding to the rivalry is that Al is a huge fan. Bob appeared on four episodes, one episode in each of the first four seasons. 

About the only other supporting or guest appearance worth noting from the series was in season 6 when The Beach Boys guest star and it is revealed that the Wilsons in the band are Wilson's cousins.

8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-Present): Always Sunny follows a group of friends and business partners referred to as "The Gang" as they run their bar and get into all sorts of trouble throughout the series. Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), and Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) are the co-owners of Paddy's Pub. Dennis' twin sister Deandra "Sweet Dee" (Kaitlin Olson), the main bartender at Paddy's, and their legal father Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) make up the rest of "The Gang."

Favorite Supporting/Guest: The best supporting character on the show has to be The Waitress. She is the girl of Charlie's dreams and she wants nothing to do with him. The Waitress is played by Charlie Day's wife Mary Elizabeth Ellis.

Other great supporting and guest characters on the show have been Z (Chad Coleman), Da' Maniac (Roddy Piper), and Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara (David Hornsby).

7. The Office (U.S.) (2005-2013): This series follows the everyday lives of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The show is filmed like a documentary which makes for some great moments throughout the series. While there is a plethora of characters on the show the main cast consists of Regional Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Assistant to the Regional Manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), sales reps Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), and former receptionist/sales rep Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer).

Favorite Supporting/Guest: Will Ferrell as Deangelo Vickers guest appearance on the show. He appeared in four episodes at the end of season seven. His first three were Steve Carell's last three episodes. Deangelo takes over as the Regional Manager and happens to be even more incompetent than Michael was. Some of his greatest skills are air juggling (pictured below) and the ability to dunk a basketball...although his demonstration of that ends badly.

Other great appearances on the show have been Danny Cordray (Timothy Olyphant), Todd Packer (David Koechner), David Wallace (Andy Buckley), and Robert California (James Spader). 

6. Eastbound & Down (2009-2013): This HBO sports comedy follows former professional baseball pitcher Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) as he falls from sports stardom and must return to his hometown middle school in North Carolina to become a substitute P.E. teacher. Along for the ride on his up and down journey as he tries to return to the pros are his friend and assistant Stevie Janowski (Steve Little), his older brother Dustin Powers (John Hawkes), and his high school girl friend April Buchanon (Kathy Mixon).

Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite guest on the show is Jason Sudeikis in season 3 as Kenny's teammate and friend Shane Gerald. Shane is the catcher for the Myrtle Beach Mermen until an unfortunate event happens. Sudeikis also plays Shane's twin brother Cole in season 3.

Other great appearances on the show are Pat Anderson (Adam Scott), Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell), Reg Mackworthy (Craig Robinson), and Roy McDaniel (Matthew McConaughey).

5. How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014): The truth of this series is that it takes place in the year 2030 as Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) tells his children the story of how he met their mother. The stories follow Ted (Josh Radnor) and his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) as they go through the ups and downs of life while living in Manhattan. Although I really enjoyed this show it had an awful series finale.

Favorite Supporting/Guest: The best supporting/guest character on the show in my opinion was James Stinson (Wayne Brady) who is Barney's gay half-brother. The two are very much alike in most ways and even serve as each others wing-man.

Other great characters during the shows run include Ranjit Singh (Marshall Manesh), Brad Morris (Joe Manganiello), Kevin (Kal Penn), and Arthur Hobbs (Bob Odenkirk).

4. The League (2009-Present): The show takes place in Chicago and follows a fantasy football league, it's members, and their everyday lives. The members of the league include Pete Eckhart (Mark Duplass), Kevin MacArthur (Stephen Rannazzisi), Rodney Ruxin (Nick Kroll), Dr. Andre Nowzick (Paul Scheer), Kevin's brother Taco MacArthur (Jon Lajoie), and Kevin's wife Jenny (Katie Aselton).

Favorite Supporting/Guest: I have to go with a tie for best supporting/guest for The League. Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) and his best friend, porn director Dirty Randy (Seth Rogen) are amazing characters on the show. Rafi has more appearances on the show than Randy but when they both share the screen, specifically the episode that follows just these two characters, the show reaches a new level of crazy. 

Other great characters to appear on the show include Shivakamini (Janina Gavankar) who is the namesake for the league's trophy, Ted Rappaport (Adam Brody) who is one of the league's out of town members, and a tone of current and former NFL players.

3. Parks and Recreation (2009-2015): The show follows Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), a mid-level bureaucrat working in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. The ensemble cast includes Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe). The show is similar to The Office in that it is filmed like a documentary.

Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite supporting character from the show is Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz). He is Tom best friend who is similar to Tom but takes everything to an extreme level. The two start an entertainment company (Entertainment 720) at the end of the third season.

Other great characters from the series include Donna Meagle (Retta), Dave Sanderson (Louis C.K.), Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn), and Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd).

2. The Big Bang Theory (2007-Present): This show is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Doctors Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) are physicists at Caltech and roommates. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lives across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon and is a waitress and aspiring actress from Nebraska. The last two remaining orginal main cast members are Leonard and Sheldon's friends and co-workers aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Dr. Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Starting in season 4 Doctors Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) became main cast members.

Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite supporting/guest character on the show is Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) the lonely comic book store owner. Stuart has some great lines throughout the show. Stuart does receive main cast status starting in season six.

Other great characters from the series include Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie), Wil Wheaton as himself, Zack Johnson (Brian Thomas Smith), and Arthur Jeffries (Bob Newhart).

1. Scrubs (2001-2010): The series follows the lives of employees at the fictional Sacred Heart teaching hospital. The main character of the show is Dr. John "J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff) who we follow while he guides us with inner monologue and daydreams. Other main cast members include Elliot Reed (Sarah Chalke), Christopher Turk (Donald Faison), Perry Cox (John C. McGinley), Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins), and The Janitor (Neil Flynn).

Favorite Supporting/Guest: Dan Dorian (Tom Cavanagh) is my favorite minor character from the series. J.D.'s older brother, Dan is a hyper, quick witted slacker who works at a bar and lives with their mother.  

Other great characters from the series include Sam Dorian (John Ritter), Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller), Ben Sullivan (Brendan Fraser), and Ted Buckland (Sam Lloyd). 

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Well now that I have shared my top 10 favorite sitcoms I thought I would quickly share a few that I have seen some episodes of and plan to start watching.

1. Modern Family 

2. Friends 

3. House of Lies

4. Community 

5. Malcolm in the Middle 

Final Thoughts:

I don't have much to say for Final thoughts this week other than I hope to be back on the regular schedule very soon. I'm happy to announce that the blog now has an official Facebook page! Everyone can now reach and post on https://www.facebook.com/insidetheboxwithadambach. As always I can also be reached on Twitter (@acbach27) and at acbach27@gmail.com. Feel free to write in with any ideas, suggestions, or thoughts.


Everyone Have a Great Day!!!

ITB with AB #9: The 1st Annual Boxies (The Best and Worst Movies of 2014)

What's in the Box:

Hello all! So this post is way over due as I like to put up a post by Friday every week. With this post I am starting my very own movie awards named The Boxies. Due to the late nature of this post I'm going to shorten what I had originally planned. I will share 4 of my favorite movies from 2014 and 4 of my least favorite movies from 2014. At the end I will also recommend a few more movies from last year that I think are worth the watch. So I hope everyone enjoys taking a look inside the box!

The 1st Annual Boxies

So like always I just wanted to say that this is all my opinion and it is very possible some of you wont agree with my decisions. I also want to point out that I didn't see every movie that came out last year so I might not have seen what some of you liked. Also I do want to warn everyone that there might be a few spoilers within my blurbs about the movies. With that being said lets get the awards started!

The Boxies' Best Films of the Year:

Guardians of the Galaxy: In my opinion this is the best action movie of last year! This is the best Marvel has done in blending action and humor since the first Iron Man. The movie, which is fueled by a fantastic cast lead by Chris Pratt, does a great job delivering the origin story that superhero movies are infamous for but without it ever feeling boring or to rushed.

The movie also features one of the best soundtracks of the year. Titled Awesome Mix, Vol. 1, the soundtrack features songs such as "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede, "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone, and "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways.

This Is Where I Leave You: As you all know I did an entire review of this movie a couple weeks ago. As I said before this movie features great performances throughout and the cast works really well together.

I wont to go much into detail on this one since I wrote a whole review for it at the end of my Movie Characters Part 2 blog. This is a fun movie that has a little bit of everything in it and great characters.

Chef: If you haven't seen this movie yet go onto Netflix and watch it! Jon Favreau (Iron Man) directed and stars in this movie about a chef who decides to star a food truck when his dream off opening up a restaurant fails to pan out.

This movie features a great cast that also includes John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, and cameos from Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Patt, and Robert Downey Jr.

How To Train Your Dragon 2: Once again if you haven't seen this it's on Netflix instant. This movie is even better than the first HTTYD and I thought that movie was great!

This movie features everything from dragon racing, bad guys who yell a lot (not Al Pacino), and alpha dragons. Unlike the upcoming Worst Films section I don't want to spoil anything about this film because it really is great. So join Hiccup and Toothless for another amazing adventure!

The Boxies' Worst Films of the Year:

Boyhood: Okay yes it's pretty cool that this movie was made over 12 years. Looking past that point this isn't a great movie. It isn't really all that original of a story and it's really boring.

The Monuments Men: Holy crap was this one a let down! This movie was made to look amazing in the trailer. It was made to look like an Ocean's movie set in World War II and based on a true story.

The problem was this movie does nothing to hold the audience's attention. I'm sure the story this movie was based on is amazing but the movie did a bad job of trying to tell it. I watched part of the movie fast forwarding and I didn't feel like I missed anything because I already had no idea what was going on in the movie. I also think this movie would've been better off without the all-star cast.

Hercules: Just to clarify I'm talking about the Hercules starring Dwayne Johnson since there were two movies last year about Hercules. I didn't see the one with Kellan Lutz but I heard it was actually worse than this one. I took Latin in high school so I am a huge fan of Greek Mythology and I love the story of Hercules. Well this movie took that story and then said lets do something else.

The movie takes place after Hercules has completed his twelve labors. The problem is in this movie Hercules is a sword-for-hire and has a band of friends who help him along the way. Basically this movie takes all of the supernatural out of the story. For example the Hydra is just a group of soldiers who all wear matching armor. So they basically made the story realistic which just doesn't work for the 12 Labors of Hercules. He is the freaking son of Zeus! You can't base the story in reality because his dad is the King of the Greek Gods.

Godzilla: Had this movie been Cloverfield 2 I might have enjoyed it more because it at least wouldn't have been a lie. Remember that warning at the beginning about spoilers well this will be full of them.

First off the movie is called Godzilla but he only has like 20 minutes of screen time and most of that screen time is his back. Instead most of the monster screen time goes to a male and female monster who are trying to reach each other so that they can mate. Second, Bryan Cranston is featured in most of the trailer for this movie and well guess what he dies like only a quarter of the way into the movie! Instead we are forced to have not so Kick-ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as our main character. Finally, it really felt like Ken Watanabe was only cast in the movie so that Godzilla could be said dramatically with a Japanese accent.

Other Movies of 2014:

Here are a few more films from 2014 that I recommend everyone should check out.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Birdman

Tusk

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Just try to ignore Megan Fox...worst casting choice of the year!!

Big Hero 6

Final Thoughts:

Thank you all again for reading the blog each week. I will try to get back on schedule with the blog as I will still be posting one on Friday. In the next post I will share my Top 10 Favorite Sitcoms. If anyone whats to suggest a topic for me to talk about or a list they want me to create or if you want to share your own thoughts or lists you can email them to me at acbach27@gmail.com. As always you can also follow me on Twitter (@acbach27) or I always share the links to the blog posts on Facebook. I'm considering creating a Facebook page for the blog but would like to hear everyone's thoughts on creating one. 

Until next week...err Friday!

ITB with AB #8: Nintendo 64 or 64 Reasons Why Gaming Is Awesome

What's in the Box:

Hello everyone! This week inside the box I share my top 15 favorite games from the amazing gaming console that was the Nintendo 64.

Game Box:

This has definitely been one of the funnest lists I've worked on since starting up the blog. It has brought up a lot of fun memories from when I was younger and really has me wanting to play all of these games again. What I did notice that surprised me was the fact that I only actually owned 3 of these games. All of the others were games that I rented over and over or played at a friends house. With that being said here is my Top 15 N64 games.  

15. Rampage World Tour (1997): Did you ever want to experience what it would be like to be Godzilla or King Kong? Well than this was the game for you. In Rampage World Tour your goal is to destroy cities buy smashing buildings and eating people. The game was for up to 3 players and the playable characters were a giant lizard, gorilla, and werewolf.
 

14. WWF No Mercy (2000): To this day No Mercy still might be the best wrestling game I've ever played. At the time when I was playing this I wasn't really a wrestling fan but I was aware of who some of the biggest names were. I played this a lot at a friends house but when I got to college I picked this game up pretty cheap during a time when I did watch wrestling a lot. Although my interest has faded quite a bit it's still fun to pop this game into the system now and again.

13. Mario Tennis (2000): This was just a very fun tennis game with all of our favorite characters from the Mario universe. They attempted to recreate the fun on the Gamecube but they added extra elements that took away from the original fun.

12. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998): To be honest I don't remember a whole lot about this game other than the fact that you got to fly all of the different star fighters from the Star Wars Universe. That fact alone made this game freaking awesome! This was one of my frequent rentals from Blockbuster back in the day. You get to fly the Star Wars ships!!!

11. Diddy Kong Racing (1997): This is the first game on my list that I owned during the hay day of the 64. Although not as good as Mario Kart 64 these two games can't really be compared. Diddy Kong Racing featured more of an adventure style story mode and also featured one on one boss battles and racing modes that feature airplanes and hovercrafts in addition to karts. Two of the racers from this game would go on to be featured characters in other games on the counsel (Conker and Banjo).

10. Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001): So I should clarify that I have never actually played the story mode of this game. I only ever watched a friend play it. I did hover play the multi-player which was equally as awesome. The story mode for this game was insane and all I remember is a tone of movie spoofs and a giant shit monster that you had to throw rolls of toilet paper at to defeat. The multi-player pitted squirrels vs teddy bears in all out war. The best part was if you used the samurai sword on the teddy bears instead of blood their bodies gushed foam stuffing.

9. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 (2000): These two games were so much fun and also featured amazing sound tracks. All though a third game did come out on the 64 as well it wasn't as enjoyable for me as the first two. These games also featured some awesome cheat codes and other game modes like S-K-A-T-E which was a version of H-O-R-S-E.

8. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996): This game was so much fun but it did have one serious problem. You couldn't see shit. This game came out four months after the release of the system and the graphics weren't great. However that didn't matter because this was an awesome first person shooter. You play as Dash Rendar and the events take place in between the events of the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In this game Dash takes on everything from a yeti to Boba Fett himself. Oh and did I mention you have to take on an AT-ST on foot! If you can get over the fact that the graphics looked pretty bad even back then it's an amazing game and any Star Wars fan has to get their hands on it.

7. Mario Kart 64 (1996): Hours among hours of fun...for the one or two buddies you play with that are crazy good at this game. This game might not ruin your friendships but it will for sure make everyone hate each other for awhile. If you really want to get mad at your friends you can try out the battle mode.

6. Super Mario 64 (1996): Although I didn't own this game I did borrow it and really enjoyed the game. The graphics and 3 dimensional universe look amazing but at times the camera could be a real burden to the game play. It caused me to fall of smaller ledges a lot but this wasn't the only adventure game that suffered from camera problems. All in all this was a solid game and nothing was more fun than finding a flying cap, doing the triple jump, and flying around the maps.

5. Mario Party 1-3 (99, 2000, 2001): These 3 alone are maybe the best party games ever! After number 3 the games started to fall off a bit but these early ones were so awesome. Hours and hours of fun these are just like board games on drugs.

4. Banjo Kazooie (1998): This is the second of three games on this list that I owned. While I never actually beat it on the 64, I did beat it last year when I downloaded the game on Xbox Live arcade. The game still lived up to what I remembered it to be and it features a lot of fun characters and funny dialogue.

3. GoldenEye 007 (1997): This game is still hands down of of the best first person shooters ever made. The story is very fun and follows the movie pretty well but the multi-players is where it is at. Featuring characters from the story mood as well as some of our other favorite henchmen from the Bond-verse. It also features weapons from other movies from the franchise including the Golden Gun which kills in one shot and the ray gun from Moonraker. Just don't play with someone who dominates with the throwing knife because that will make you hate your friends.

2. Super Smash Bros. (1999): One of the greatest fighting games of all time! Link vs Samus Aran, Star Fox vs Pikachu, Mario vs Captain Falcon, these are just a few of the match-ups that can be contested in Super Smash Bros. The final boss in this game is a floating hand! How bonkers is that?

1. Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998): This game is the last on the list that I actually owned and it is a game that has a high replay value in my opinion. The game has different side quest that you don't have to complete to finish the game so of course I had to go and beat the game with and without completing the quests. This game at times suffers from the same camera problem that Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie have which is the fact that at times it isn't where you want or need it to be. Other than that the fighting system is easy to master and the story is very good.

Well there you have it. I hope that you all had some good memories spring up from reading this list as I had creating it. I do briefly want to share with you my Top 5 Nintendo GameCube games. What I will say is that this system didn't have anywhere near the impact that the N64 had with me but it still had some fun titles.

5. Star Fox Adventures (2002)

4. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2003)

3. Soul Calibur 2 (2003)

2. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003)

1. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)


Final Thoughts:

As always I want to thank everyone who reads this blog week in and week out. As always you can follow me on twitter (@acbach27) or email me at acbach27@gmail.com. This week I would like to leave all of you with a short poem. I hope you all enjoy and like always, Have a great weekend!!!

Goodbye Winter

by Adam Bach

The days of Spring are approaching fast,

And so Winter days are gone at last.

Now that the snow is below my knee,

All of the creatures jump with glee.

As we say goodbye to long cold days,

I wait patiently for warm Summer rays.

ITB with AB #7: It's All About Characters Part 2

What's in the Box:

This week I continue where I left off last week on my top 50 movie characters list. That means numbers 25-1 and then a couple more honorable mentions as well. I also give a quick review of the movie This Is Where I Leave You. So open up the box and enjoy!

Movie Box:

Here we go folks! Numbers 25-1 of my top 50 movie characters. With a lot of these characters I am only going to share favorite quotes or moments.

25. Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein), "No, it's pronounced Fronkensteen." I love the scene at the beginning of the movie when he is giving the lecture to his class and in a heated rage he stabs himself in the leg with a scalpel arguing that his grandfather's work was doodoo.

24. Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained), As I mentioned last week when talking about Calvin Candie, my favorite scene from the movie with Dr. Schultz is when he and Calvin are talking about The Three Musketeers.

23. Eric Draven (Brandon Lee, The Crow), "It can't rain all the time." This is an extremely good movie and it's a shame that there have been so many horrible sequels to it. For those who don't know Brandon Lee is the son of Bruce Lee. Unfortunately this movie was the last role for Lee as he was killed during the filming when he was accidentally shot in the abdomen.

22. Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects), "How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?" The end reveal of this movie is amazing! If you haven't seen it you really need to check it out.

21. Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Simon Peg, Hot Fuzz), "We just sat through three hours of so-called acting, constable, and their kiss was the only convincing moment of it." This is one of my favorite movies hands down and in my opinion the best of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

20. Paul Smecker (William Dafoe, The Boondock Saints), "There was a firefight!" Anytime Agent Smecker is describing what happened at a crime scene is by far his best moments in the movie.

19. Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton & Christian Bale, Batman Franchise), As far as movies go these two did it the best. Keaton did two movies: Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) while Bale did three: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Both actors best movie was when they battled the Joker. (Batman and The Dark Knight).

18. Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, Pirates Franchise), "This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" The entire first movie is my favorite performance of the character. The other movies have their moments, most of which are Johnny Depp carrying the series.

17. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs), "You ever listen to K-Billy's 'Super Sounds of the Seventies' weekend? It's my personal favorite." While Mr. Blonde is great the entire movie, his best scene by far is the razor blade scene.

16. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men), "Yes, you did. You've been putting it up your whole life you just didn't know it." Bardem is great throughout the entire film. He is super intense and really doesn't need to say a whole lot to be super spooky.

15. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, Alien Franchise), The first two films in this franchise are where it's at although they are two completely different types of movies. The first movie deals with one alien and follows more of the horror element while the second is an action packed thriller as a squad of marines and Ripley take on an entire nest of the aliens.

14. Darth Vader (James Earl Jones-voice, Star Wars Original Trilogy), "I find your lack of faith disturbing." Everyone's favorite lord of the dark side comes in at number 14. It is also to be noted that David Prowse was the actor behind the mask during filming.

13. The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood, Dollars Trilogy), "Get three coffins ready." While he had no official name in the movies he did go by Joe in A Fistful of Dollars, Monco in For a Few Dollars More, and Blondie in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

12. Han Solo (Harrison Ford, Star Wars Original Trilogy), "You're all clear, kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!"

11. James Bond (All Actors, James Bond Franchise), As I just did an entire blog to the James Bond franchise there really is much more I need to say to this one. I did finish re-watching all the movies and although there are a few that are a bit underwhelming it is still a great franchise and a great character.

10. The MacManus Brothers (Norman Reedus & Sean Patrick Flanery, The Boondock Saints), "And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand. That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patri, Et Filii, and Spiritus Sancti." I have the MacManus brothers as one because they are rarely ever on screen separately.

9. The Bride (Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2), "Those of you lucky enough to have your lives, take them with you. However, leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now."

8. Walter Sobchak (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski), "Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules."

7. Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds), "Oooh, that's a bingo! Is that the way you say it? That's a bingo?"

6. The Joker (Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight), "I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it!"

5. Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction), "If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions."

4. Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."

3. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club), "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

2. John McClane (Bruce Willis, Die Hard Franchise), "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker." I'm not really going to go to much into this one because I did an entire blog post dedicated to Bruce Willis. He gets thrown into a situation that he is totally unprepared for in each movie and he overcomes in the most action packed ways possible.

1. The Dude (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski), "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man." I love that the majority of The Dude's dialogue is taken from previous things other characters say to him through out the movie.

Here are a few more Honorable Mentions to overwhelm all of you:

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, American Psycho)

Magneto (Ian Mckellan & Michael Fassbender, X-Men Franchise)

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey, American Beauty)

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson, Marvel Cinematic Universe)

M. Gustave (Ralph Finnes, The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Selene (Kate Beckinsale, Underworld Franchise)

Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, Nolan Batman Franchise)

Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future Trilogy)

Carl Spackler (Bill Murray, Caddyshack)

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton, Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Review Box:

I watched This Is Where I Leave You in the middle of the week and I absolutely loved it. Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, The Internship) the movie stars, Jason Bateman (Horrible Bosses), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Jane Fonda (Barbarella), Adam Driver (Girls), and Corey Stoll (House of Cards). When their father passes away, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Now this movie is kind of like the Jewish Death at a Funeral in the scope that it follows a family that is sort of broken and are brought back together by the death of the father. The siblings (Stoll, Fey, Bateman, and Driver) and their mother (Fonda) to mourn their father must sit shiva, which means they must stay in the home for seven days as they sit in low chairs and talk with family and friends. Each of the main characters have something going on during this time. Judd (Bateman) quit his job after he walked in on his boss (Dax Shepard) sleeping with his wife and then when he goes home for the funeral he encounters Penny (Rose Byrne), a girl who liked him from his past, and as their relationship starts to blossom his soon to be ex-wife shows up. Wendy (Fey) is married with two kids but it's clear her relationship with her husband isn't the best. It is reveled that she used to date Horry (Timothy Olyphant) the son of her mother's friend. They never say what happened but he still lives at home because he suffered a brain injury when he and Wendy where dating. Timothy Olyphant's role is pretty small in this movie but he is absolutely amazing in this role. Paul (Stoll) is the oldest brother and he is married to Annie (Kathryn Hahn) who used to date Judd. He is the no nonsense character in the film and he has two things going on. One is that he and his wife are struggling to get pregnant and the second is that he is going to take over the sporting goods store that their father ran and he made it clear that he owns half of it and that he wont let youngest sibling Phillip (Driver) run it with him. This brings me to Phillip who the other siblings call a "Man whore" because he is one. He even refers to himself as the "family fuck up" at one point in the movie. He considers himself an entrepreneur which is why he wants to help run the family store with Paul. He is also dating his former therapist Tracy (Connie Britton). I'm not going to spoil the end of this movie but it fits very well with the rest of the movie. The chemistry between the actors in the film is fantastic! It really does feel like a family that has kind of lost touch with each other. The supporting cast is just as good as the main cast. Really the only supporting cast member I didn't mention was Ben Schwartz (House of Lies, Parks and Rec) who plays Rabbi Grodner. He went to school with Phillip and some how earned the nickname of "boner" which he does not appreciate being reminded of it.

The stand outs from this movie are Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, and Timothy Olyphant

but just about everyone does a great job. I wouldn't say there was a weak link in the film but Tina Fey's husband and Jason Bateman's wife played by Aaron Lazar and Abigail Spencer didn't really do anything for me. So if you get the chance to see this movie jump on because it's very good. The cast is great and it's full of solid performances.

Final Thoughts:

I just wanted to thank everyone who reads my blog posts because last week's blog got the ITB with AB its 200th view!!! Thank you all so much for the support and sticking with me week in and week out. 

As always you all can follow me on Twitter (@acbach27) or you can email me any thoughts, reviews, or stories you want to share at acbach27@gmail.com.

Have a great weekend!!!