It’s the Fourth of July and I hope everyone has the day off, or at least has great plans tonight for fireworks and fun.

Since it’s a holiday, there wont me much going on here at Pop Critics today. I plan on a nice EARLY morning of golf, followed by a noon-time nap methinks.

So for most of us, it’s a three-day weekend. People go out of town, have parties, drink beer, watch fireworks or just relax by the pool.

The Friday Question is:

What are you big plans for this Fourth of July holiday weekend?

Like I said above, it’s golf and a nap today, with some BBQ and swimming/fireworks over at some close friends. Saturday and Sunday may be spent running some errands or possibly starting on the baby’s room. A trip to Home Depot yesterday gave me a few projects to take care of as well.

But don’t you worry. I have three Burn Notice discs just waiting to be watched, and you can almost guarantee they’ll be completed by Sunday evening. We’ll probably try to catch another movie this weekend as well.

So what about you guys? Big plans? What are your Fourth of July traditions?

Whenever a movie comes out with an interesting cast, I like to pick one of the actors that has some film history under their belts and ask the fun question: Which movie of theirs is your favorite?

I’m picking Morgan Freeman this time, because when I checked over the list of great movies he’s been in, the choices were staggering. The question is:

What is your favorite Morgan Freeman movie?

If you want a quick list to remind you of all his films, check out IMDB.

For me, there is only one that will ever be my favorite Freeman movie, and that’s The Shawshank Redemption. The movie is in my Top 10 list of all-time, and he’s a huge reason why. His portrayal of Red, and how he befriends a banker sentenced to prison for murder, was astounding.

I love his transformation, and the choices he makes at the end. He was simple brilliant.

What about you guys?

(On a side note, I’m going on vacation starting late this morning, so I wont be posting much else today. Have a great weekend and see you next Monday!)

There was a lot of groaning over the choices made by the AFI members, who seems to value the old and classic versus the new and perhaps just as good.

So instead of complaining about their lists, I thought we could just choose our own winners in each genre. Or maybe just pick a few films that we’d put at the top of a few of these genres, which are:

SciFi, Westerns, Animation, Romantic Comedies, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Gangster, Courtroom Drama and Epic.

That leads us to the official, BOLDED Friday Question:

Pick a few genres from the above list and name the movie you’d put at the top of each.

I’m not going to go crazy, but here is a few I’d go with:

SciFi – Yes, I’d stick with AFI’s choice of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I can’t help it, I still think it’s one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen.

Fantasy – I’d move Lord of the Rings to the top, although I agree a bit with the Wizard of Oz being number one. It’s just that Peter Jackson’s film was so brilliant and wonderful, I just have to go with it here.

Epic – This category is weird, because Titanic is in it, but is that really an “epic” movie? Either way, I think Band of Brothers deserves to AT LEAST be in this category and it COULD be up there at #1. I know it’s not really “a movie” but that’s only because it was too long to be in theaters. *grin*

So what about you guys? I’m highly curious what films you’d rank #1 in these various genres.

The Incredible Hulk comes out today and the one reason I have slight hope that it will be good is because of Edward Norton.

He’s a fantastic actor, one of my definite favorites. You always know that you’re going to get a good performance when he’s in the movie you happen to be watching.

So today’s Friday question, in honor his hopefully reviving the Hulk franchise, is this:

What is your favorite Edward Norton movie?

For myself, I’m going to have to go with Fight Club. I’ve never been so shocked at the end of a movie before in my life and I’ll never forget that moment.

But there are so many good ones to choose from. I recently loved The Painted Veil (if you haven’t seen it yet, go rent it this weekend) and one of my other favorites is Rounders.

What about you guys?

And lately I’ve expanded from not just “books” but to also graphic novels and comics.

My question for you guys today:

What the last book/comic/graphic novel you’ve read?

I like this question a lot because it’s fun to get ideas of what to snatch up on my next trip to Barnes & Noble.

For myself, I just finishd City of Ember and absolutely loved it. Review coming later today or Monday, but let’s just say it was a wonderful tale and so very unique.

What about you guys?

I realized that in my Top 15 TV Shows on DVD list, I didn’t mention Extras at the end, another show from Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office.

Never seen but pieces of it, yet I’ve heard it’s hilarious.

It got me thinking about what it’s like to be an extra on a show, and that made me wonder what show I’d want to be on if I WERE to be an extra.

So the question is:

What TV show would be your #1 choice to appear as an extra?

This is an interesting question for me. My first inclination is to say Lost, but I think I’d just end up on a beach somewhere and not interact with anyone important.

Shows like The Office don’t always have a lot of extras, although the scene in the high school this year had a ton.

Honestly, I think I’d choose Battlestar Galactica and just HOPE I could be an extra on the hangar deck where people rush around working on Vipers and Raptors. There is bound to be a good scene in there, plus you get to see all kinds of cool spaceship models and maybe snap a few pictures.

What about you? What would be your ideal show to appear as an extra?

You may or may not have read my review on the movie yet, but either way, I’m wanting to think back to the original three Indiana Jones movies and remember fondly the greatest moments.

So the Friday Question is:

What is your favorite Indiana Jones movie out of the original three, and give us a favorite quote from any of those movies.

I’ve always liked The Last Crusade the best, which is due to the Sean Connery factor. His addition as Indy’s father really made the movie fun, plus all their banter back and forth, the backstory of Indy growing up, etc.

The intro to the film when he’s played by River Phoenix, and gets the hat put on his head, and then he looks up, a lot older on a ship on a stormy sea…that will always be a fun memory for me.

My favorite quote/exchange from the movie:

Professor Henry Jones: Those people are trying to kill us!
Indiana Jones: [shouts] I know, Dad!
Professor Henry Jones: This is a new experience for me.
Indiana Jones: It happens to me all the time.

What about you guys?

I thought up this question because of all the Fringe and Dollhouse news this week. I’m looking forward to theme immensely, which could pose a big problem.

What if they suck?

The Friday Question:

Do you ever remember a show you were REALLY looking forward to and it ended up complete crap?

I have a few answers from this past season, like Bionic Woman and quarterlife. There are many, and if you need helping looking them up, I found a great link right here that has a list of all canceled shows for the last eight years.

But without looking at them all, I think I really was bummed when Drive last year turned out just not very good in my eyes. I was so excited for it, mainly because of Nathan Fillion, but even if he was the best part of the show, it wasn’t enough.

Another one would be Invasion…I always get into alien stories, but I think I watched about 35 minutes of the show and gave up.

What about you guys?

It should be fun and interesting to see what the answers are.

The question is:

Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?

And you get EXTRA bonus points if you have a picture of said meeting.

For me, I really can’t pick one that is really famous. I did sports writing for awhile, so I’ve talked to a few NBA, NFL and MLB players. I did a phone interview with Tom Gugliotta, asked Shawn Marion a question and even had a quick conversation with Bill Russell. I think I remember he was asking for directions. Jake Plummer, Dave McGinnis, Al McCoy, etc.

All of those were sort of on the job though, so I don’t really think they count.

I think the best story of all was my wife and I going to see a taping of Celebrity Poker Showdown in Las Vegas with two friends of ours (Scotty Dub and wife!) and seeing Phil Gordon in the bathroom. Scotty talked to him more, but I think I got a word in edgewise.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything. I’m depending on you guys.

The Question: What was your favorite cartoon growing up as a kid?

I can remember quite a few cartoons that I liked, such as M.A.S.K. Smurfs, Transformers, Gobots, He-Man, Superfriends and a few others.

But I think my overall favorite has to be Thundercats. Not sure why, but I always thought it was one of the better ones. I’d wait the entire episode just to hear Lion-O hold his sword up to his face and yell, “Thundercats…Thundercats…THUNDERCATS! HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Gooooood stuff.

What about you?