Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

I had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday which explains the lack of posting this week and the amount of movies I watched. Since I had the operation at 8am Thursday I got home at a point where there wasn’t anything on TV (pretty much the only thing worth watching on daytime TV is The Price is Right). That reality lead me to my movie collection which I hasn’t had much time to enjoy since I moved to Chicago. I rifled through the films and found three that I hadn’t watched in a while. Three of my favorite films of all time.

Beverly Hills Cop

Probably Eddie Murphy’s best work, Beverly Hills Cop, the first in a series of three (possibly four…) films, is the story of a Detriot cop named Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) who is trying to being his friend’s killers to justice. As Axel starts to investigate the murder of his friend he is lead to Beverly Hills where mystery, intrigue and hilarity ensue. The whole movie is put together well with the right balance of humor and seriousness. Oh, and the soundtrack is great!

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones)

George Lucas’ second best known series is the Indiana Jones trilogy (a fourth is coming soon) which starts off with Raiders of the Lost Ark. A younger Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones, an archeology professor and renegade archaeologist. In Raiders of the Lost Ark Jones is informed that the Nazi’s are on the verge of finding the Ark of the Covenant and that he is being in sent in to find it first. The movie is an incredible roller coaster ride with many memorable characters and is no doubt a piece of cinema history. I could watch this film hundreds of times and it would still be as good as the first.

The Mummy

I am a sucker for any adventure story involving archaeological objects and especially ones involving Egypt. This is probably why I was drawn to The Mummy to begin with and it didn’t let me down. Richard O’Connell, played by Brendan Fraser, is an American who, while fighting with the French Foreign Legion, discovers Hamunaptra which is where the books of the living and the dead were supposedly buried. Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) then hires O’Connell to lead her to Hamunaptra which is where the Mummy is awakened. This film also has a nice blend of humor and suspense and was well conceived. It’s enjoyable from beginning to end and over and over again.

Those are all of the movies I watched and by the end I was pretty much pain free. Not bad! Before I finish this post I also want to mention a movie that is in theaters now.

Children of Men

I don’t want to say too much about Children of Men since I really want you all to go check it out so here’s the basic premise: For the last 18 years all human women have been infertile. In those same 18 years the world has gone to hell. However, there is now a woman who is pregnant and she needs to be brought across England to safety in a ship offshore. Oh, and England is pretty much a battle ground where you can’t trust anyone.

The film was well done and the story was great. Also, for you film geeks out there, my friend Don pointed out that there is a scene toward the end of the movie where there are no cuts for about 10 minutes as the hero is followed through a battle ground as he tries to find the baby and mother. It is pretty incredible. Check it out if you get a chance.