Commando | Cinema Parrot Disco

I was sad to hear of the death of Bill Paxton over the weekend. He has such an impressive movie resume! It’s funny how, even though he was only in very small roles at first, he still managed to be in so many beloved, kick-ass classics. Especially numbers one & two on my list… AWESOME films! It’s great that he ended up in bigger roles in things such as Twister & Apollo 13 but I’ll always first think of him as the lovably annoying Hudson in Aliens and as the hilarious asshole brother Chet in Weird Science.

I honestly thought I’d already done a Bill Paxton Top Ten list in the past as he’s been in several of my favorite movies but it looks like I never did. As always, I’ve ranked these in order from my least favorite to favorite movie as opposed to character role. So, in his memory, here are My Top Ten Bill Paxton Movies (counting down from 16 to include everything I’ve seen):

16. True Lies
15. Mighty Joe Young
14. Nightcrawler
13. Frailty
12. The Last Supper (but need to re-watch & refresh my memory, really)
11. Near Dark (also need to re-watch)

TOP TEN:

10. Commando

9. Twister

8. Streets Of Fire

7. Apollo 13

6. Predator 2

5. Titanic

4. Edge Of Tomorrow

3. Weird Science

2. The Terminator

1. Aliens

Seen But Don’t Remember:
Stripes
Indian Summer
U-571

Never Saw:
Navy Seals (Can you believe that, with my Michael Biehn crush??)
Brain Dead (I like the sound of this one…)
Tombstone
Boxing Helena
The Evening Star
A Simple Plan
Haywire
2 Guns

Finally, I think most people my age know that Bill Paxton directed & starred in the bizarre Barnes And Barnes “short film” video for the song Fish Heads.

In looking up his film credits, I noticed he was also in two other music videos. Love the Pat Benatar video for Shadows Of The Night! I’d forgotten about that video. I miss the “story” videos of the Eighties. Anyway – watch out for Paxton in a small role as a WWII baddie in that video. Also, he starred in New Order’s Touched By The Hand Of God, which I must admit I’d never seen. What a great, eclectic career. Bill Paxton will be missed.

R.I.P. William “Bill” Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017)

Happy Birthday to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who turns 68 today! Yes, 68! Wow – he looked pretty great in Terminator Genisys.

Being a girl, I’m not going to pretend like I worship Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything. However, I do really love a few of his films & always preferred him to other DUDES in “movies for DUDES” such as Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme & especially Steven Seagal (Ew).

So, in honor of Arnie’s birthday, here are My Top Ten Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies, counting down from ten (btw – I’ve not seen all of his movies):

10. Dave (I barely remember this but hated the remainder I’ve seen – True Lies, Jingle All The Way & Junior – so couldn’t include those!)

9. Commando (all I really remember is liking that Alyssa Milano was in this – maybe I should have just done a top five! 😉 )

8. Terminator Genisys

7. Total Recall (although I don’t recall so much of this anymore – time for a re-watch!)

6. Twins

5. The Running Man

4. Kindergarten Cop

3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

2. Predator

1. The Terminator

**There are a lot of big celebrity birthdays today (I almost did a Richard Linklater list instead) so here’s wishing a Happy Birthday to these celebrities as well:

– Christopher Nolan (I’m sorry, Chris, but I hated Interstellar. The Prestige is excellent, though!)

– Richard Linklater (I love you, dude, so I’m very sorry I trashed your movie Slacker on Monday)

– Peter Bogdanovich (thank you for making Mask! it’s one of my top ten favorite movies but I always ALWAYS cry, dammit. Damn those map pins!!!!!)

– Laurence Fishburne (you may be in a lot of movies but my personal favorite of yours is Searching For Bobby Fischer. it’s an excellent underrated film!)

– Lisa Kudrow (hey Lisa, you were the best female character on Friends!)

– Christine Taylor (you were great as Marcia in The Brady Bunch Movie! I’m sorry that you lost your hair in The Craft & that you have to be married to Ben Stiller)

– Hilary Swank (you may have an Oscar but you’ll always be the girl in The Next Karate Kid to me)

– Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill rules! sorry you were killed first. oh wait… it’s a Tarantino movie… maybe it wasn’t all in chronological order)

– Jean Reno (it’s not my favorite movie ever but you were great in Léon)

– Jaime Pressly (I loved you on My Name Is Earl!)

– Also: Happy Birthday to adorable Wil Wheaton yesterday and to sexy Michael Biehn, Kyle Reese himself from my favorite movie on this list, tomorrow. You’re 59 tomorrow, Michael, so I guess I’ll have to kiss you 59 times! Or is it 59 spanks?