Five Great “Team” Movies You Should Watch

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Today the full length trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie premiered to much fan fare.

My initial reaction was: “Holy shit. That’s the Guardians of the Galaxy?!” Let me emphasize the “Holy Shit,” because when I was a kid growing up in the 90’s, this was the “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Don’t get me wrong, the comic was okay, but I rarely ever bought it or read it. But holy shit, when did this new cinematic adaptation become the Guardians?

When did Chris Pratt become such a bad ass? Why are raccoons suddenly so amazing?! That said, I loves me some movies about a motley crew of rough necks that learn to trust one another and to get ready for “Guardians of the Galaxy,” here are five great “team” movies you should watch as an appetizer. Or if you want to see “Guardians” now and need something to tide you over. Either way the movies on this list are great..

United they stand, Divided they fall.

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Our Top Ten “The Simpsons” Episodes of All Time: 1. Mother Simpson

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1. Mother Simpson
Season Seven
1995

All the years we watched “The Simpsons” we never quite knew about Homer’s mother. We know that Homer grew up with an overbearing occasionally mean father who didn’t care much for Homer, but we barely garnered a glimpse in to Homer’s other parent. I naturally assumed for many years that she died when he was a baby and Homer was stuck with an awful dad. Truth be told, Homer’s father Abe isn’t even that much of a mean dad, just someone who grew up in a different time. There was that stern belief that dads couldn’t and shouldn’t be friends with their sons. That idea still carries over today with some parents. In either case, we’re finally given an idea of what happened to Homer’s mother and why he never really spoke of her all this time.

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Our Top Ten “The Simpsons” Episodes of All Time: 2. Deep Space Homer

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2. Deep Space Homer
Season Five
1994

All hail the inanimate carbon rod! Homer is able to finagle a trip to space by NASA thanks to his usual bumbling and insanely good luck. NASA, just like every other organization, wants to attract public interest to their space launches (that are losing out to “A Connie Chung Christmas”), and decide to find an average man to go to space with them. Little does Homer know that they’ve picked him after he spends an unusual amount of time calling them to complain about their boring space launches. After a twist of fates, Barney becomes Homer’s competitor for the spot as an astronaut allowing for one of the wackiest and most memorable episodes of the series bar none.

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Our Top 5 Childhood Animated Crushes

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Valentine’s Day is this Friday, folks. In celebration of the day that reminds a lot of people that they’re single, and forces a lot of people to buy presents for their loved ones out of sheer obligation, we’re featuring five animated characters from our childhood that we crushed on for many years. They stemmed from television, movies, or perhaps video games, and they’re five animated women we were definitely fond of and swooned over for a long time.

What animated characters did you crush hard on? Let us know!

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Our Top Ten “The Simpsons” Episodes of All Time: 3. Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in “The Curse of the Flying Hellfish”

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3. Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in “The Curse of the Flying Hellfish”
Season Seven
1996

Not much was ever made of Grandpa Simpson until the later seasons of the series, where we learned that he was a mean old codger. And sometimes for a good reason. Often times just because he was a jerk. In “Raging Abe Simpson,” it’s one of the most entertaining Grandpa-centric episode where we’re given an interesting dimension in to his youth. Bart Simpson also gets a crash course in to Grandpa’s life, when he learns he’s a part of a blood oath to collect priceless art as he’s close to being the last one standing in his troop of the Flying Hellfish. But Monty Burns breaks the oath by sending assassin Fernando Vidal out to get Grandpa.

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Our Top Ten “The Simpsons” Episodes of All Time: 4. The Way We Was

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Before the series wore out the gimmick like a bad pair of pants (Homer was a Seattle grunge rocker? Seriously?), “The Simpsons” had the tendency to evoke some of the most heartfelt nostalgic episodes of all time. They not only were hilarious and infinitely quotable, but they also packed a lot of heart. “The Way We Was” chronicles the beginnings of Homer and Marge’s tumultuous romance, and how they managed to find love in one another in spite of being polar opposites. The episode has great meaning to me, if only because it introduced me to one of my favorite songs of all time, “The Joker” from Steve Miller.

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Our Top 5 Studio Ghibli Films

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2013 signaled the final film release from master director Hayao Miyazaki with his gorgeous and somewhat controversial “The Wind Rises.” Though Studio Ghibli presses on with their slew of amazing films, Miyazaki will leave a large hole in filmmaking. We’ve been fanatics of Studio Ghibli for many years since we first saw “Kiki’s Delivery Service” in the late nineties and fell in love with Ghibli’s sense of awe and wonder. In celebration of the brilliant studio (that we often prefer over Disney, by the way), here are our top five films from Studio Ghibli.

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