Shameless Cross Promotion

Around this time tomorrow, I'll be packing up an attractive, yet manly, gray duffel bag with the absolute essentials: 1 neon Bert & Ernie t-shirt, 2 pairs LeBron James Nike shorts, maybe some extra boxers and shorts, and my insanely fresh Steve Francis Rockets jersey. This one. (Maybe if I wear it with some P.F. Flyers and re-engineer myself with several more fast twitch muscle fibers, I can get that high. Here's hoping. Or, more appropriately...here's HOPPING.)

You may or may not know this about me, but I'm in one of Fort Wayne's most popular 6-white-guy rap parody groups: The Bo'z N Da Hood. And while all of the Bo'z hail proudly from the 2-6-0, there are times when there are indeed Bo'z in different area codes. This is one of those times.

Founding Bo member Jon Rocholl is at Columbia in New York City finishing up his high-fallutin' Ivy League degree. And since it's getting to be finals time and he should be studying, most of the rest of the Bo'z are heading out to see him for the weekend. Rage, rage, rage.

So that got me thinking: there have been some phenomenal movies made in the Big Apple. Hell, the city has been partially or totally destroyed a few dozen times (three times in '98 alone...looking at you, Armageddon, Deep Impact, and Godzilla!). And even though it's happened more than twice, they still can't figure out how to keep the top of the Empire State Building giant monkey-free. Get your act together New Yorkers.

Anyways, here's a rundown of some favorite NYC-centric films, in no particular order.


Ghostbusters & Ghostbusters 2 - Doooo...Raaaaay...Egonnnnn! I love these movies, and no, I can't choose or distinguish between them. All I know is that they check in right at the top of my "Scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid but now I think they're hilarious" list. Right behind E.T. Also, they filmed a lot of Ghostbusters on the campus of Columbia. So if I see Slimer this weekend, I'll be sure to tell him you said "What up."


The Muppets Take Manhattan - Has anyone checked to see if they ever gave it back? Fozzie might still own half of Greenwich Village for all we know.

Coming To America - Also makes my "Awesome movies filmed in Zamunda" list. I don't know if you remember this, but Eddie Murphy used to be really funny, and Arsenio Hall used to be alive. This movie is living proof. And let's not forget that it's soul-ly responsible for the Jheri curl craze in the 80s.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze - Go ninja, go ninja, go! Ninja...ninja...rap!


I Am Legend - I really don't like this movie. Probably because it has one of the dumbest endings of all time (and to make matters worse, they give you an ending that makes complete sense as a deleted scene on the DVD...why didn't you just use that one morons?!). But, that having been said, the movie gives you a WALL-E-esque glimpse into what would happen to a big city if it was suddenly people-less for a while. And so you get some pretty sweet scenes with Will Smith hunting deer in the middle of a Manhattan city block and. what. not.


#1) Zoolander - (Yes, this list is suddenly in order of increasing importance.) Fun fact: If you look closely at the New York skyline, you will actually see a skyscraper with a giant "M" on top of it. And you'd better damn well believe I'll be making a visit to the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good, which, thankfully, at press time was at least three times bigger than its model.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to this trip. Oh, and the shameless, cross/self promotion I promised? Let's just say there'll be a Bo'z N Da Hood music video or two (those are movies, right?) filmed in the city this weekend. (Like this one and this one, but way cooler.) And I'll holla next week with some pictures I took, because I know this blog has just been aaaaching for some ColinThompsonPhoto(.com!)s. So until next time...

I'm not an ambi-turner,

Colin