Ten Movies To Bring Them All And In The Darkness Rank Them: Ranking The Lord Of The Rings Films

First off, a very very very big thanks to Jim Dietz, Jen Gualdoni, Scott Mendelson, Aaron Neuwirth, Victoria Irwin, Maxwell Haddad and Philip Vandy Price for subbing in here and guesting to give this retrospective many different flavors.  Believe me, it gave me a nice little break to catch up on some other things as well ;)  I hope you enjoyed their voice on this journey back to the Middle-Earths of Peter Jackson, Rankin/Bass and Ralph Bakshi.  

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014)

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

2014

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom. Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee

Rated: PG-13

Will you follow me...one last time?

           ~Thorin Oakenshield

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug (2013) - Philip Vandy Price

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

2013

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom Evangeline Lilly, Andy Serkis, Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch

Rated: PG-13

Revenge? REVENGE?  I will show you revenge!

                ~Smaug

Here's our final guest piece for this fantastic and flavorful little retrospective.  It comes from Philip Vandy Price who you might remember I talked Robocop with on Out Now With Aaron & Abe.  He's got a terrific little film review blog I enjoy following called Reviews From A Bed that you can check out HERE!  

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Maxwell Haddad

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

2012

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Lee Pace, Sylvester McCoy

Rated: PG-13

I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure.

             ~Gandalf

Today we've got one of my favorite people to talk film shop with and...well Sleepy Hollow...one of my co-hosts on the IchaPod CraneCast, Maxwell Haddad!  You definitely need to check out www.cinemaxwell.com as well as his writing over at The Young Folks.  I'm so thankful he's taken on An Unexpected Journey for us here in the Fellowship!

The Fabulous Journey Of Mr. Bilbo Baggins The Hobbit (1985)

The Fabulous Journey Of Mr. Bilbo Baggins The Hobbit

1985

Director:  Vladimir Latyshev

Starring:  Anatoly Ravikovich, Ivan Krasko, Igor Dmitriev

Not Rated

There's no quote here, because I'm not fluent in Russian.

And props to Jim Dietz for directing me to this.  I had no idea it existed.

The Fellowship Of The Retrospective

The Hobbit; Battle Of The Five Armies is bringing Peter Jackson's 2-Trilogy 6-film epic of the JRR Tolkien lore to a close.  Although, I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of this universe.  Personally, I'm not some super huge Lord Of The Rings junkie.  I never read the books, but I was quite a big fan of the original trilogy, as I think its cinematic excellence.  Every time there's a new one my but is firmly planted in a seat opening weekend.  However, I'm also someone who is perfectly fine with the theatrical cuts of these films.  I own no real collectibles on the series aside from Blu-rays and DVDs in my movie collection.