Top 5: Movies I will Watch to Completion Whenever They are on TV

You know that feeling. You're cruising through the channels and suddenly, you come across a movie. Maybe the game is on in 10 minutes, or you're just in commercial break from [insert reality show that everyone watches here] and it's that one movie that you've seen so many times. You can recite every line to it and yet, you can watch it again and again. Even though it has been on for an hour, watching it to completion feels necessary. I would like to present with you now my list of movies that I will watch anytime I find them on TV. Some have been acknowledged as masterpieces. Others, meanwhile, may have you questioning my credibility. Read the complete list after the jump.

What Your Thanksgiving TV Watching Says About You

James Bond Marathon (SyFy)

The Bond marathon is a staple of just about every Thanksgiving. You are likely knocking a few back, and desperately wishing you were James Bond. Given that this marathon consists largely of the most recent movies, it will most likely be an excuse for your dad to talk about how everything was better during his day.

Arrested Development Marathon (IFC)

Your family is loud, insane, and probably a little dysfunctional. Watching the Bluths lie to each other as they cheat and steal might make you feel a little better about your own dysfunctional family. Watching the many insults of Lucille Bluth will put that racist comment your relative yells about Barack Obama into a lighter perspective. You've also seen every episode over 200 times, but you can still find another pun in Tobias's dialogue every time you watch. And for that, I salute you.

The Godfather Marathon (AMC)

This is a different kind of dysfunctional family story. Here's if your family enjoys talking about the secret sauce in their cooking, and occasionally killing people. But more likely you enjoy stories about American history as much as your dad; you will also likely be switching between this and the History Channel all day long. You are also probably a movie buff, and drool over the mise-en-scene during the scene in which Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey. And for that, once again, I salute you.

The National Dog Show (NBC)

Dogs are more entertaining than cats. There, I said it. Watching this also probably brings up great memories of "Best in Show" for you.

NFL Football: Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions (FOX)

Thanksgiving wouldn't make sense for you without football. That, or you just really enjoy watching Detroit suffer (current score: 24-0).

Now, get off the internet and go stuff your faces. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Minimalism: The New Way to Market a Movie

Today, I want to talk not about a movie, but about a poster. Well actually, many posters.

The art form known as Minimalism has become a phenomenon on the interweb. It's not new; artists have been using it for years. However, it's been given a new use: movie posters.

The idea behind Minimalism is to create a work of art that takes a concept and strips it down to its most basic form. When something is stripped down to its most basic element, there is something strangely deeper that can be found in it. It would basically be saying so much by showing so little.

Some of the posters make a lot of sense. A lot of them involve a great knowledge of the film involved to truly understand. Take for example, one poster for "Inception." It simply shows an outline of four of the main characters' faces and their totem placed inside each of them. It is simple and effective. It also shows how each totem is psychologically linked to each character, objects of how their brains work.

Others are confusing, yet portray something so important to the movie. One of my favorites is the one for "The Deer Hunter." It shows six circles. Five are empty, and one is shaded red. Even people who love the movie will be confused at first. Think. Think very hard. Yes, it is portraying a gun with one bullet in it, loaded for Russian Roulette. With this image, such a deep and complex film is boiled down to its most basic, yet most important idea. Who needs an image of helicopters flying through Vietnam when you can just have a picture of the barrel of a gun?

There are others in the spirit of the "Inception" poster. The "Blade Runner" poster has no epic image of futuristic Los Angeles. All it has is that little origami unicorn. The poster for "Inglourious Basterds" shows two hands holding up three fingers in different ways. It's the German three and the English three. It's yet another small detail that made a very big difference in this movie.

Some posters are even more thought provoking and even more creative. The pattern on "The Shining" poster is the carpeting of The Overlook Hotel. The "Titanic" poster is not just a white triangle, it's that deadly iceberg. Some add on to certain movies as well. "The Godfather" poster shows the rest of the horse's body without the head. That is, if you really wanted to know what a headless horse looked like.

At the moment, Minimalist posters are fan art. They are made by and for people who truly appreciate movies. Yet, I feel like this new art form has a bigger potential. Why not actually use Minimalist posters to market movies? They're better and more original than most of the generic crap passed off as posters nowadays. As a marketing tool, movie posters should draw people into a movie with a curiosity factor. If someone sees a "Kill Bill" poster with nothing but footsteps, they might wonder, where do those footsteps lead?

But posters shouldn't just be for marketing. A movie poster should serve the same purpose as an album cover. They should converse with the art, and emphasize a central purpose behind it. A poster of the incredible futuristic Los Angeles from "Blade Runner" might draw more attention, but that unicorn is much more important to the story. You could compare that to the cover of "London Calling." It could've just been an image of London being caught in the middle of the apocalypse. While the simple image of Joe Strummer smashing a guitar may seem out of place, it's really there to show the raw, unbridled power of true rock and roll that the album is partially a metaphor for.

That simple image of a mythical creature, or the inside of a gun are not the first things you'd expect to see on a good movie poster. But like that album cover, they show the strange, mesmerizing magic of truly amazing cinema. The poster is meant to encapsulate an entire film in one image. In so simple an image, so much more can be said.

I couldn't find the "Inception" poster I was referring to earlier, but here is another cool one.