... FOR "QUIZ TIME, PART 1"

I'm in the process of streamlining my "Best Films" project (it's taking me way too long to get it finished; at this rate, I'll wrap it up just in time for the next decade to come rolling around). So, to distract you, here's a quiz.

We'll call this one "Movie Title Mashup," just for the sake of calling it something. The rules are simple: I give you a movie title. You take the last word of that title, and come up with your own title that begins with that word. Then combine the two to form one giant title. If that confuses you at all (because, let's be honest, sometimes I even confuse myself), let me give you a freebie:

Rosemary's Baby + Baby Mama = Rosemary's Baby Mama

Got it? Awesome. Now a rule. Now let's try a few, shall we? Please leave your answers in the comments below. Winner gets my undying respect and affection. Or at least what's left of it.

... FOR "MOVIE DIALOGUE AND 'THE RULE OF THREES'"

Something occurred to me the other day as I sat watching The Princess And The Frog with the kids for the twentieth time. (Good movie, that one. It's always nice when kids latch onto something that doesn't make me want to jab a chopstick in both ears.) Original thought doesn't occur to me all that often, to be perfectly honest, so I thought I'd better get it out there.

You're familiar with "The Rule Of Threes," yes? It's a general rule of thumb based on the assumption that people always remember things better in threes (click here for a more in-depth definition). In screenwriting, the most important use of this rule is the three-act structure, which goes something like this:

   Act One: Main character gets into trouble;

   Act Two: Main character tries to get out of

     trouble, but the more he tries, the deeper he

     gets;

   Act Three: Main character gets out of trouble.

... FOR "THE BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE" - PART 4

Genre:

DOCUMENTARY


Defined:

Lights! Camera! Reality! The Documentary is cinema in its purest form - literally any film that documents life as it happens, without actors or a written script. History's earliest films can be considered Documentaries: solitary camera shots (each less than a minute in length) of moving trains, surgical procedures, and the like. Genre films of 2000-2009 ranged from the controversial (Michael Moore's hot-button Fahrenheit 9/11) to the cute and cuddly (March Of The Penguins), and were more popular at the box office than ever before. Not only do the best Documentaries allow us to draw our own conclusions about the events and the lives on display, they also capture human drama so compelling and unique you'd swear someone made it all up.


The Top Five:

5. The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters (Seth Gordon, 2007)

The most entertaining Documentary of the decade, set in the cutthroat world of – no joke – competitive arcade gaming. At first it seems to follow the rags-to-riches story of Billy Mitchell, the arrogant, mullet-haired "Video Game Player Of The Century" who's coasted on that reputation since he set the high- score record for Donkey Kong in 1982. Then a challenger emerges: a down-on-his-luck junior high school teacher named Steve Wiebe (that's "Wee- bee"), who proves himself the first major contender for the throne in more than 20 years. The fun of the movie is in the not-so flattering picture director Seth Gordon paints of Mitchell and his "disciples" – grown men who've diluted themselves into thinking their accomplishments have actual real-world merit. But it's Wiebe's journey to overcome impossible odds that had audiences cheering.

... FOR "THE DAWNING OF CINEMA MAGIC"

As a warm-up for the Documentaries entry in our "Best Of The Decade" series (due in a few days - I promise), I thought I'd treat you (or re-treat you, for those already in the know) to just a few of the earliest recorded films in history - five clips, to be exact. These are nifty little glimpses of everyday life - some only a couple seconds long - that were mind-blowing to audiences of the day. (In other words, they made lots and lots of money. Nickels of it, as a matter of fact.)

Some of you might be asking, "How come these things are so darn short?" Well, that's because the technology was just in its infant stages. After all, "motion pictures" are just that: a series of frames played in sequence, one after another at high speed, to give the illusion of actual movement. These clips are the earliest example of that. Innovative minds such as Eadweard Muybridge, William Kennedy Dickson, and Thomas Edison invented the camera equipment that helped usher in the new age of cinema as we know it.

... FOR "'WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE' AND THE RISKY BUSINESS OF FILM ADAPTATIONS"

Adapting books into film can be a tricky business. Especially when that book is a much-loved children's classic. Especially when that children's classic is less than 50 (written) pages long.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat In The Hat, The Polar Express - all books we've loved since childhood, turned into Hollywood features of wildly varying quality. A big reason these adaptations fail artistically is because of the padding: Since movies these days run at least seventy to eighty minutes (any shorter and they'd qualify as a "short"), filmmakers are forced to figure out how to bloat these books to feature length. And in doing so, they usually stray from the tone of the original story - what made the book such an enduring classic to begin with.