52. Unbreakable

               Before we even start talking about Unbreakable lets settle one thing first. M. Night Shyamalan is a genius. He is one of the best filmmakers of this generation.  All the movies that I have seen by him (The Happening is the only one I haven’t) are amazing. He put himself in a bad position having two awesome movies at the beginning that both featured a “twist” at the end. But he is a genius.

          Unbreakable is designed as an homage to and re imagining of the classic comic book story.  The best thing that M Night can do is take the normal tough guy actor and tone him down, restrain his presence. Both of the stars here, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, both follow this trend. Willis plays a security guard who is the only survivor of a horrendous train crash. Jackson aka Mr. Glass sees this as a sign that Willis is Unbreakable. He is a modern day super hero.

                I don’t want to give away the ending of this amazing and awesome movie. But Willis goes on a journey to rediscover his path and purpose in life. Does that path include his wife and child? Does that path include Mr. Glass? Does that path include embracing a super hero role? IT does embrace one amazing movie and one outstanding job by a genius director. 

Final Verdict: Worth owning and worth having a sequel!!!!

47. Coach Carter

               There are a lot of these true life inspirational sports that have come out in the past few years. Just like with Romantic Comedies it’s hard to stand out in the crowd and be different. Coach Carter does this well, for one reason: Samuel L. Jackson.

             Jackson’s performance as coach Anthony Carter is what makes this movie one of the better sports stories.  He is funny, crazy, insightful and motivational as the coach of the Richmond High Basketball team. Richmond is in the inner city of Oakland, California. Coach Carter gained national notoriety a few years back for taking a hard stance with his players. The hard stance was that he forfeited their games until the students were caught up and passing their classes.

                This sports story was made by MTV films so the content is going to be a little rougher than the Disney Sports stories such as The Rookie or Remember the Titans. But I guess when you are dealing with inner city teens it’s not really the usual Disney fare. Again, I think this movie would be destined for mediocre-ville if it wasn’t for Jackson. Oh and some young actor name Channing Tatum is in it too. 

Final Verdict: Worth owning.