#8 Revolver - One of my top 5 favorite movies that I saw last year. A friend came over and I watched it with him again. I was wondering if it would be as good as the first time I watched it or would it have subsided a little bit. Upon second viewing, it still holds up as one mind blowing movie. But I won't hype this movie too much. I'm just going to sit back and wait for the rest of the world to catch up with what I already know. This is a great movie.

#9 Notorious - Biopic about the infamous rapper Notorious B.I.G. Biggie Smalls. Big Poppa. Christopher Wallace. I can't thing of any other names. Although it's a touching story, I couldn't help but feel the production value doesn't quite match up to the grandness of Hip-Hop. It's got much more of a indie feel than a blockbuster performance, which is what I would expect from this type of music. Maybe I just don't get rap music and the grandness of it all just escapes me. But I do enjoy watching real people come to life on the screen, particularly the performances by the actresses playing Faith Evan and Lil' Kim. But this movie just doesn't live up to other music biopics like Ray or Walk The Line.

One interesting aspect of the movie for me is the lip service that rappers like B.I.G. pay to God, yet live such criminal lives. I would expect a man of God would live his life by a higher ethical standard. But maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe, in the end, we all are redeemed by an acknowledgment to a higher power rather than the life we have lived.