The H.M.S. ABC Project: A

In the coming days, the two wittiest, most attractive, and most Hoosier bloggers on the web will be beginning an EPIC series of posts. The premise is this: each day we will list our favorite movie beginning with each letter of the alphabet in (you're not going to believe this) alphabetical order. Needless to say your mind will be blown, prepare yourself accordingly. Yours truly will be starting the series with A, followed by Colin with B, and we will alternate letters (I need to brush up on my Q and Y movies) all the way until Colin wraps it up with Z, which I'm sure will be a real shocker. Along the way we hope to stir controversy, but most importantly to introduce you to a few great movies you may not have seen.

The following rules should go without saying, but I'm going to say them:

1) Each entry must be a movie, no TV series are eligible.

2) Articles will be ignored during alphabetization ("a(n)" and "the" for those of us that failed grammar), so as much as you want A Very Brady Sequel to be featured today, you'll just have to wait until Colin does "V" to see if it makes the cut.

The rules are simple enough even for this guy, so let's get started with A.

Is it too early in the series to break rule #1 and pick Arrested Development? Argh, but since I set the rules I should probably obey them. This was a much more difficult decision than I originally thought it would be. The more I thought about it, the more great movies I found. Let's first list some great movies that just missed the cut but deserve some recognition:

Almost Famous

Amadeus

American History X

Animal House

Annie Hall

The Aviator

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Not too shabby, eh? (pun intended). But if you look closer (that's a hint), you'll notice that there is one glaring omission from that list, and it is your deserving winner...

American Beauty

A movie that's poster makes you believe it's about roses and belly buttons, but really isn't

As my fellow snob so eloquently put it, "the best-ever movie opening with Kevin Spacey masturbating in a shower." That really sums it up. But really, this is a phenomenal movie, despite the ever annoying Mena Suvari. Lester Burnham redefines midlife crisis in such a way that creates movie bliss. On the surface it's about an old man lusting for a teenager, but when you "look closer" as the poster suggests, you see it goes deeper and explores how society can shape people. Along the way it will change the way you look at plastic bags floating in the wind, as well as how you respond when someone asks you to pass the asparagus (just pass it, okay?), and make you wonder why you haven't seen more of Wes Bentley (drug addiction). You will laugh and be entertained, but also be challenged. It's a movie unlike any I've seen and I can only wish that I can see more like it in the future. If you haven't seen it, shame on you.

Unfortunately that's all from me today, you'll just have to wait until I "C" you again....I know, I'm hilarious. Once you recover from your side-splitting fit of laughter, please let me know what you think in the comments below. Nixy out.

(Colin's "A" pick: Almost Famous)