As the first segment in the Off-Topic series of fanposts, I wasn’t really sure how to approach the format so I figured I’d try a few different things. First an introduction: As you may have read here, Chris, our dear leader, was hoping to implement a series of posts that would offer an outlet for specific topics unrelated to football. This topic, obviously, is movies, everything movies. There basically no rules (outside of the DBN guidelines) concerning what you can or can’t talk about here, as long as it’s related to movies, the film industry, and all the wonderful things involved with seeing and/or making cinema. Post your top ten lists, rate/review recent movies you’ve seen, old movies, upcoming movies, discuss genres, directors, studios, HD, 3D, ect. Once work in a theater? Talk about that. There are really no limits, besides no thread hi-jacking, let’s keep it about movies in Off-Topic: Movies.

I’ll get things started by posting my tiered list of personal favorite movies:

1. Fight Club

2. Pulp Fiction

3. The Departed, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Shawshank Redemption

7. Saving Private Ryan, Goodfellas, District 9, The Big Lebowski, The Social Network, The Prestige, City of God, Toy Story 3

15. The Hurt Locker, Zombieland, Spirited Away, Kick-Ass, 300, Seven, 127 Hours, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Movies that I admit may not be great, but for one reason or another I love or really liked:

I Am Legend, True Grit, The Boondock Saints, Smokin’ Aces, The Hangover, Gran Torino, Avatar, Full Metal Jacket, V for Vendetta, Avatar, Saw (only the first one)

I’d love to discuss any one of those individual films.

Here are some quick reviews of some movies I’ve seen recently and are fresh in my mind:

City of God (IMDb) – I loved this film. It tells an incredible true story a two young kids growing up in a ghetto in Rio. Filmed entirely in Portuguese, you have to read subtitles, but that does nothing to take away from the engrossing story and well shot visuals. Simms' Admittedly Meaningless Rating Scale: 8.9/10

Spirited Away (IMDb) – I really enjoyed this as well. This Japanese anime film does things with classic animation that I didn’t even realize were possible. I saw the English dubbed (by Pixar) version. The film gave me a sense of adventure that I hadn’t felt since I was a kid. Simms' Admittedly Meaningless Rating Scale: 8.8/10

The Big Lebowski (IMDb) – For some reason I had previously never sat down to watch this despite hearing a lot of positives things. I finally did and laughed my ass off, in a very good way. It was quite literally the funniest movie I have ever seen. In my opinion, this is the Cohen Brothers’ masterpiece, a near perfect dark comedy. Simms' Admittedly Meaningless Rating Scale: 9.2/10

Did I mention David Fincher is like the gr8est directer EVAR! 

Keep this in mind: Like any form of art and/or entertainment, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s fine to debate the merits of any film, in fact I encourage it, but keep the childish bickering to a minimum (i.e. "That movie sucks, your taste in movies sucks, f#$% you, go root for Buffalo!")  

[EDIT] It had just occurred to me: NO SPOILERS! (Mods please delete spoilers if you spot them.) There's not a damn thing worse pertaining to film than having a movie unwillingly spoiled for you.