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Ready When You Are, Sgt. Pembry

By no means am I a movie buff. In fact, I have probably seen an average to below-average amount of films in my lifetime. Likely somewhere in the middle in the cosmos of viewing hours.

Every now and then, however, I come across a movie that makes me wonder why I don’t spend all of my free time sitting around and watching Netflix. I would have said TV there, but I refuse to pay $90 a month for cable that I’d likely rarely use.

So Netflix it is for me.

Just the other night, like so many before it, I found myself swiping through Netflix’s exhausting, yet somehow still yawn-inducing, catalog for a good night-time flick. I had seen “No Country For Old Men” listed for a long, long time yet never bothered to give it a chance. It’s not that I was avoiding the movie, I just always managed to find something else to settle on.

Not to mention, its title is a little too ambiguous for me to wrap my head around.

Without many options that night I decided to dive in head first and see what this 2007 neo-western thriller, based on a Cormac McCarthy novel, was all about. And I should have known a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen would not disappoint.

And I wasn’t.

This was one of those movies where it garnered a lot of attention when it came out, yet escaped my attention –likely due to college classes, work and an empty checking account.

I was always a fan of “Fargo,” another Coen brothers classic, which surprisingly has turned into an amazing television series almost two decades after its release. “No Country” might even be better, in my opinion.

If you’re like me and sometimes miss those “can’t miss movies” I suggest you give it a chance. There’s some violence in it, so parents be warned.

In the hundreds of movies I have seen in my 30 years on Earth, a handful stand out to me in one regard or another. Some are just classic comedies; some are good thrillers; and others make you think — whether a whodunit, a politically charged drama or a documentary that hits all the right notes.

My top five favorite films of all time are pretty set in stone, though outside that they have changed over the years. I used to be a huge fan of “American Beauty” with Kevin Spacey and that stupid floating plastic bag with its dozen metaphors. However, after watching it so many times I have grown bored of it.

Does this happen with movies that are supposed to be considered a favorite? I have tried a few times to watch it again but couldn’t get past where Spacey quits his job.

I suppose I might have to wait a few years and try again. Sorry, Mr. Spacey, I prefer you as President Underwood at the moment.

With Halloween a distant memory, I should note that horror films are my least favorite genre. I have lived through plenty of horror stories to last a lifetime. That being said I am fond of “The Silence of the Lambs,” which is not so much a horror flick than a psychological thriller.

That scene where Lecter turns in his chair to face Clarice and they begin to talk about the lambs is cinema gold. Lecter’s escape from jail was pretty great, as well.

I’m not one to force my preferences or opinions on others. To each their own, they say.

Though if you, the reader, happen to be in the mood to watch a good movie this weekend, I do have a few suggestions, each with their own quality.

My “can’t miss” flicks, in no particular order: The Game; Punch Drunk Love; The Thin Red Line: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; 50/50; All the President’s Men; and Moneyball.

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