Flavours of the Month: January 2011...

LOOKS:

Kick Ass (Blu-Ray) - still a great flick. I'd forgotten how thrilling the action set pieces were, too.

Scott Pilgrim VS. The World (Blu-Ray) - three of the four commentaries and another viewing on top, plus all the special features. I must have heard the menu music a hundred times by now.

Inception (Blu-Ray) - Nolan's mind-bender blockbuster is still as spiffing as it was in the cinema, if not more so.

The Expendables (Blu-Ray) - Ultimate Recon Mode is quite impressively done, and one of the best Picture-in-Picture tracks I've seen so far. While I generally prefer Rambo to this, it's still a bloody good time and I look forward to a sequel.

Black Books - years late to the party, but we barged through the rest of the complete box set.

Boardwalk Empire - it took a couple of episodes to get into it, but you find yourself becoming really quite invested in the characters and the complexities of their relationships. Plus the re-creation of the 1920s is superb.

Clarkson: The Italian Job - I think his DVD from 2009 was better, but it was still good for a bit of a Top Gear-like fix. The best sequence was the race at the end.

Lost: Season Three & Four DVD Extra Features - now I just need to get my mits on the last two seasons.

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide - 3 discs of video nasty goodness, and surprisingly informative. Definitive, most definitely.


SOUNDS:

The Black Angels "Directions To See A Ghost" - I love their first album (Passover), and I've come to really dig this second outing too.

Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy Soundtrack - the flick was the visual and aural treat of 2010, so Daft Punk's superb soundtrack has been in my CD autochanger ever since.

Sex Bob-Omb, Metric "Black Sheep", and Nigel Godrich "Hillcrest Park" - there's been a distinctly Scott Pilgrim flavour to January, so that naturally extended to the aural world too.

Kick Ass OST - not only was it a great action superhero movie, but it had a cool score to boot.

Black Spiders "Just Like A Woman" - as recommended by a fellow fan of Airbourne.

Bo Diddley "Hey, Bo Diddley" - as heard during one of the Mafia 2 cutscenes.


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Cold - I haven't had one since January 2009, so that was a rubbish few days. I do maintain however that some people who say they have "the flu" actually have a cold, and they're just trying to sound tough. Cold or Flu, they both suck. As if the time of year when you're packing away all the festive decorations wasn't depressing enough, eh?

Script Writing - working on the new version of the short version of zombie mini-epic "The End" (working title), as well as working on an idea to enter for a Public Information Film.

The Big Book of Top Gear 2011 - it's just a bunch of silly old nonsense mostly, but I do love Top Gear.

Cyanide & Happiness Vol. 2: Ice Cream & Sadness - my favourite online webcomic in book form for a second year running.

The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense - I continue to make my way through the trade paperbacks for the first time, and while the dialogue is still needlessly filled with unrealistic exposition, the scenarios are intense and gripping. By the end of this volume I was gagging to read the next.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Vol. 1) - the Scott Pilgrim feel to January extended to the first two (of six) volumes of the graphic novels.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Vol. 2) - it's interesting to see that volumes 1 and 2 basically make up an hour of the movie (which runs for an hour and 50 minutes), but it's also cool to see further exploration of the characters and entire sequences that never made it to the film version (such as Ramona and Knives' library battle).

Call of Duty: Black Ops - the second time around, like with the previous CoD, it's not about the hype and all about playing the game on its own level. It also helps that you know what to do, so you don't have moments where the action gets too confusing, which has been the case with first-runs for the last couple of CoD games.

Mafia 2 - I fancied some 1950s gangster action, so I gave this another spin. It's no GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption (essentially being a linear game in a sandbox world), but I still found myself really enjoying it as the story continues to make you invest in the characters. I even got to nab some more achievements and collectibles I'd missed the first time around.

Jeremy Klaxon - Driving Us Insane (A Parody) - just a bit of fun, and one of those pleasant surprise gifts you get at Christmas.

My Chronological Top Ten Films of 2010:

The Book of Eli (17/1/2010):
More of a movie apocalypse than the realism of The Road, with arse kicking action, superb visuals, and a great soundtrack. It's not perfect, and the central theme might turn some away, but I really quite enjoyed it from start-to-finish.

Shutter Island (27/3/2010):
A B-Movie genre flick with the talent and budget of an A-Movie. Scorsese excelled at forboding atmosphere and paranoid asylum-bound mystery, while DiCaprio delivered yet another quality performance.

Kick Ass (4/4/2010):
Superheroes that aren't so super, but who cause a lot of violent havoc and have filthy mouths. Pure, unrestrained entertainment. Sequel please.

Inception (19/7/2010):
A mind-bending blockbuster with a thunderous score, the best trailer of the year, and the ability to mix wow-factor visuals with huh?-factor smarts.

The A-Team (1/8/2010):
One of the pleasant surprises of the year. I thought it was going to be a disaster upon first hearing about it, but it grew on me gradually, and then proved to be an thoroughly enjoyable action romp.

The Expendables (22/8/2010):
I prefered Rambo, but the sheer bad-assery of this 1980s throwback actioner employing modern techniques provided an addictive dose of adrenaline. Plus Terry Crews' shotgun was amazing.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (28/9/2010):
It's a shame it didn't do a bit better at the box office, but it was clear from the first frames that this was going to be a cult hit all the way. This unappologetically niche flick has kept coming back into my mind over the months since its summer release, and I look forward to delving deeper into the Pilgrim universe with the graphic novels.

Jackass 3D (7/11/2010):
The whole 3D thing hasn't evolved beyond a flashy visual gimmick, and I doubt it ever truly will, so a bunch of idiots hurting themselves and flinging various bodily fluids at the camera was an ideal use for this technology. An ideal audience participation experience, filled with absurdly gross-out moments.

Toy Story 3 (Blu-Ray) (23/11/2010):
Perhaps the best one of the three, but certainly tied with the original, this series closer provided guffaws and lumps-in-throats in equal measure. A visual treat with a heart-felt script to match. It tugged on your heart strings with Pixar's perfected storytelling skills and was a definite 2010 Top Five moment. That sequence in the final act alone was enough to earn it endless kudos.

Tron Legacy (2/1/2011):
The script could have used a touch more shading for certain aspects, but as a visual and aural experience it was second-to-none for 2010. The 3D wasn't employed to particularly involving effect as the neon glitz of The Grid overtook any depth-of-field snazziness with ease, and the soundtrack by Daft Punk was pulse-poundingly perfect. I really enjoyed this flick, and while the original was a very important moment in cinematic history, this sequel really delivered the goods for me.

Honourable Mentions:

The Road (31/1/2010):
This is exactly how the apocalypse would be in real life - unlike The Book of Eli's darkly entertaining movie-apocalypse - a harrowing and tough experience. It didn't quite have the hauntingly memorable quality of Cormac McCarthy's superb book, but the heartfelt father/son tale translated perfectly to devestatingly moving effect. It's a film for fathers to deal with the fact that one day they'll be gone and their offspring will have to fend for themselves, and it's a film for sons to deal with the realisation that one day their guiding light will be extinguished. Like I said - devestatingly moving.

Machete (28/11/2010):
Perhaps I had amped it up in my head too much since the release of the thoroughly enjoyable Grindhouse, but Machete didn't quite fire on all cylinders after an uproariously entertaining opening. However, despite the slight disappointment, it was filled with that gleeful grindhouse vibe and I'm sure I'll enjoy it time-and-again on home video.

The Town (26/9/2010):
Ben Affleck's heist thriller might have treaded similar boards to many other heist thrillers, but it's honest and detailed approach to Boston's criminal class, and the three superbly crafted heists made it stand above its peers who have come out in the wake of influential flicks like Michael Mann's Heat.

Back to the Future (re-release, 3/10/2010):
I didn't include this in the 2010 Top Ten as it's a re-release, but it was easily one of - if not the - best cinema-going experience of 2010. The movie is perfect already, so it was glorious to see this life-long favourite on the big screen, but more than that it was heart warming to see young parents bring their young children to see this film that had been so important to them and successfully pass their enjoyment onto their offspring.

Flavours of the Month: August 2010...

A bit earlier this month, and I'm trying out a new style of doing this monthly blog post.

LOOKS:

Blade Runner - finishing off that 5-disc DVD box set.

Everybody Loves Raymond - repeats during lunch time.

Creature Comforts - repeats recorded from late night ITV2.

Friday 13th: Parts 2, 3 and 4 - what with it being a Friday 13th, they showed several of the films from the franchise. I'd forgotten how relatively tame the second movie was, with its really brief moments of violence, I finally got to see the third movie in its full 2.35:1 original aspect ratio (rather than the grainy Pan & Scan 4:3 VHS I've been used to), and to round things off I got to see the uncut version of the fourth movie.

SOUNDS:

Alan Wake OST by Petri Alanko - the perfect compliment to thinking about the game a lot (and giving the prequel short film Bright Falls another viewing).

The Black Angels "Passover" - linked to Alan Wake with the opening track "Young Men Dead", I've really gotten into this 'rock dirge' album.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

I finally got around to, and finished, reading "Driven to Distraction" by Jeremy Clarkson. As is customary at Christmas, any self-respecting Top Gear fanatic will end up with one or more books written by one or more of the presenters. "Distraction" was an epic tome; a weighty hardback too large for comfortable reading ... but once I got back into the style of Clarkson's aritcles I enjoyed it as I always do.

I've been getting some good prep work done on "Allen Bridge" - my next script - but there's plenty left to think about. Speaking of scripts, "Summer Road" was finished off and posted off to the BBC Writersroom.

Finally there's been a lot of summer time painting and decorating going on (a task I'm good at, but find utterly mind-numbing), as well as some rather late (or rather early) spring cleaning - I've been digging through my chock-full cupboard, weeding out junk for recycling and items for charity shops. On top of all that my entertainment centre in the corner of my room has changed significantly. My trusty 21 inch Samsung CRT has been replaced with a 24 inch Goodmans HDTV ... my Naiko VHS player has been swapped-out for a 12 year old Sony monster chock-full of bells and whistles ... and to cap it all off the hand-me-down DVD player that had been gradually going on the fritz has been replaced by a Samsung Blu-Ray player. I've even got a new cable for my Xbox360 so I can game in HD.


It was the announcement - after three years of waiting - of the home video release of the theatrical version of Grindhouse that pushed me over the edge. The 2-disc DVD has no new extras, whereas the Blu-Ray has all the existing ones and a whole shedload of new content ... and as a huge Grindhouse fan, it was the straw that broke the camel's back - I had gotten utterly fed up of home video releases of movies I was most looking forward to buying getting shafted on DVD in favour of Blu-Ray. Some other examples would be Cop Out, Kick Ass, and Iron Man 2. I'm an extra features whore (especially for making ofs, particularly if they're feature length), and so that Grindhouse announcement was the last straw and more than three hundred quid later, here I am!

Knight and Day...

I wasn't in the slightest bit fussed about this movie. I knew nothing of it until long after it had wrapped, and then I only knew very little - especially as the 'pre-buzz' focussed entirely on Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz being in it. "Not interested", said I.

Then they appeared on Top Gear (which made for an entertaining edition of Star In A Reasonably Priced Car) and they showed a clip of one of the action sequences and that got me a little bit interested. Then the following day (I think when we'd gone to see The A-Team) they showed the trailer and it looked good from an action stand point.

Such was Knight and Day - a dose of action comedy that was affable enough throughout to not put you off (unlike all that "omfg it's Cruise and Diaz!" pre-buzz nonsense). The action was our real reason in going to see it and it delivered in that respect with some spiffing set pieces (the highway battle being a high point). The rest is all fair enough but not particularly dazzling or memorable. If you're into Cruise and/or Diaz then that'd be a plus for you to check it out (I'm neither here nor there about them), but all-in-all it was a decent distraction for a Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't all that and a bag of crisps either.

My Top Films of the Decade 2000-2009...

Following on from my Top Ten of 2009, I've only gone and compiled a list of my favourite films from the past decade - a tricky task in itself. There are years where there are sometimes several more films I would have wanted to include, but you just have to pick the ones to fit in your allocated spots - as such I set myself the task of picking a Top Three for each year, with two honourable mentions.

My Top Films of the Decade 2000-2009:

2000:
Top 3:
American Psycho - phenomenal book, phenomenal movie. Bale at his career best in a hell of a flick.
Battle Royale - brutal, comedic, action-packed and iconic.
High Fidelity - Cusack is on top form, the soundtrack is top notch, and it's generally just great.

Honourable Mentions:
Memento - a cracking little thriller that fucks your head up.
Requiem For A Dream - this should be shown to kids at school to deter them from drugs. Horrifying, electric, and in your face.

2001:
Top 3:
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - a decade-defining trilogy begins.
Donnie Darko - mind-fuck meets the nostalgic high school movie.
Dogtown and Z-Boys - beautifully crafted, energetic, involving documentary about the birth of modern skateboarding.

Honourable Mentions:
Black Hawk Down - a thunerous slice modern war(fare) film-making.
Monsters, Inc - Pixar take a simple concept and turn it on its head, and give the world the cutest tyke in motion picture history.

2002:
Top 3:
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Helms Deep. Nuff said.
28 Days Later - they're not zombies, but Danny Boyle's UK-set dose of apocalypse has reverberated throughout the horror genre.
The Rules of Attraction - vibrant, sleazy and stylish.

Honourable Mentions:
Spider-Man - Raimi's superhero movie masterstroke.
Bubba Ho-tep - Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis. Nuff said.

2003:
Top 3:
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - the conclusion of the grandest filmmaking achievement in decades.
Lost In Translation - moving and involving character study that makes you feel like you were in Japan.
Bad Santa - gleefully politically incorrect and so funny it hurts.

Honourable Mentions:
Finding Nemo - Pixar hit another high note with a beautifully animated and written undersea tale of a father searching for his lost son.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Tarantino's first movie in six years, and it's a thrash-bash slice of pure QT brilliance.

2004:
Top 3:
Downfall - astonishingly great telling of the final days of Hitler and The Third Reich.
Shaun of the Dead - the best British film of the decade, and it's an utterly hilarious zombie comedy - with shamblers in it, and the folks behind Spaced giving it to us.
Team America: World Police - foul-mouthed hilarity from the South Park duo and a cast of supermarionettes.

Honourable Mentions:
Layer Cake - Matthew Vaughn and Daniel Craig on top form in a gangster picture that does away with years of Lock Stock's influence with limitless confidence.
Saw - giving the horror genre a royal kick up the arse, this intense, shocking, low budget flick is just fantastic.

2005:
Top 3:
The Devil's Rejects - Rob Zombie's Citizen Kane. A brutal, stylish, confident shredding and re-writing of the horror and road movie handbooks.
Sin City - a graphic novel brought to life with real pinash.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - under-rated, but tip-top Hollywood-set detective-flavoured thriller with RDJ knocking it out of the park.

Honourable Mentions:
Brokeback Mountain - poetic, beautiful, heart-breaking.
The Descent - one of the (few) scariest horror films of the decade, which takes time to investigate the characters themselves before squeezing us into the most claustrophobic movie ever made.

2006:
Top 3:
United 93 - gripping, none-more-intense dramatisation of the infamous hi-jacked flight on September 11th 2001. Horrifying, and incredible in its power to move the viewer to tears and adrenaline-fuelled muscle spasm.
A Scanner Darkly - superb, drug-addled rotoscoped Philip K. Dick adaptation.
Rocky Balboa - the return of two giants in the form of Stallone and his most famous character, in a thoughtful and inspiring return to the ring.

Honourable Mentions:
Right At Your Door - terrifyingly real-feeling terrorist attack indie flick.
Casino Royale - the spiffing reboot that made James Bond cool again.

2007:
Top 3:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - an incredibly well crafted, mesmerising, meandering, poetic, beautifully photographed and acted piece of filmmaking.
Zodiac - David Fincher delivers a fascinating slow-burn character piece.
No Country For Old Men - stunning return of the Cohen Brothers to their best in a perfectly crafted thriller.

Honourable Mentions:
Grindhouse - brilliantly sleazy love letter to the golden era of low budget, independent grindhouse cinema.
There Will Be Blood - wow. Just wow.

2008:
Top 3:
The Dark Knight - it kicks ass. Nuff said.
WALL.E - beautiful. Pixar's best since Toy Story.
In Bruges - non-PC and utterly hilarious, deeply black British comedy.

Honourable Mentions:
Rambo - the ultimate bloke's film in which Rambo atomises a Burmese soldier with a huge truck-mounted machine gun. Nuff said.
Tropic Thunder - endlessly quoteable mix of action and mass market satire. RDJ owns everyone.

2009:
Top 3:
Avatar - I visited Pandora. I want to go back. End of story.
Moon - UK indie sci-fi with it's head thoroughly screwed on. Superb.
Adventureland - it makes you feel like it was your own coming of age.

Honourable Mentions:
The Wrestler (2008/09) - soulful turn from Mickey Rourke in a soulful film.
Gran Torino (2008/09) - a non-PC Clint Eastwood growls his way through a touching realisation of one old man's twilight.

Finally, as I'd alluded to at the start of this post, there were many times when I struggled to pick one film over another, so here follows a list of films I was close to including as greats & favourites.

The 'Ones That Didn't Quite Make the List' ... List:

2000 - Tigerland (tense boot camp war movie without the war).

2001 - Training Day (gripping), and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (simply a fun favourite).

2002 - Panic Room (rarely has a simple premise been so masterfully executed).

2003 - The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions (take away all the pretentious nonsense, and you've got two kick ass action sci-fi flicks, plus I really enjoyed seeing them in the cinema).

2004 - The Aviator (a fascinating life story from Scorsese & DiCaprio), The Bourne Supremacy (the best of the three in my eyes), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (a stylish, wordy end to an enjoyable romp), The Machinist (stunning), and Napoleon Dynamite (this became a huge favourite in our off-campus house at university).

2005 - Batman Begins (overcame 'bat nipples' brilliantly), Good Night and Good Luck (intriguing slice of McCarthy era tension), and Walk The Line (great, quite simply).

2006 - Clerks 2 (a firm favourite of mine, and a really touching/gleefully crude follow-up), and The Departed (Scorsese doing what he does so well).

2007 - Sunshine (beautiful), 28 Weeks Later (my biggest about-turn in movie opinion this decade), The Simpson's Movie (the funniest they've been in years), Gone Baby Gone (tense directorial turn from Ben Affleck with a great performance by his undervalued brother Casey), and Juno (quirky and fun).

2008 - Iron Man (it kicked ass), The X-Files: I Want To Believe (welcome back), and Taken (Liam Neeson kicking all kinds of ass, nuff said).

2009 - Watchmen (even better the second time around with the Director's Cut), District 9 (smar sci-fi that's also bloody enjoyable), Drag Me To Hell (scared me witless), Zombieland (ridiculously fun), Dead Snow (zombie Nazis, nuff said), and Inglourious Basterds (QT's best since Pulp Fiction).

*phew*

Right, that's enough lists for now I think.

My Top Ten Films of 2009...

Laid out in the order in which I saw them throughout 2009 (with screening dates, and links to my original thoughts on them), the following is my Top Ten movies of 2009, after which I've also included six honourable mentions.

2009's Top Ten Films:

The Wrestler (18/1/09): Mickey Rourke triumphantly thunders back onto the centre stage after success, obscurity, and a series of memorable supporting roles, in an affecting turn as the fading wrestler who missed his big shot. Moving, emotionally complex, and beautifully directed. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/01/wrestler.html Crank 2: High Voltage (19/4/09): An insanely over-the-top nitrous injection of chest-thumping manliness. As if Nuts magazine was made into a movie, it's the ideal watch for a group of lads. Constantly surprising in it's never-ending flood of adrenaline and preposterousness. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/04/crank-2.html Drag Me To Hell (31/5/09): The best cinema going experience of 2009, and one of the all-time best cinema trips I've ever had. Despite the PG-13 rating, it managed to scare the bejesus out of the entire audience (a matinee performance, yet bustling) - myself included. The return of Sam Raimi's mad streak should bode well for Spider-Man 4. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/06/drag-me-to-hell.html Inglourious Basterds (16/8/09): Tarantino's bonkers, long-in-waiting WW2 epic. Despite some script flab, lengthy cat & mouse dialogue battles have rarely been this tense. Interspersed with moments of vibrant, none-more-confident violence, how could you resist Pitt's jaw-jutting Aldo Raine's attempt at an Italian accent? http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/08/inglourious-basterds.html District 9 (6/9/09): Smart science fiction returns after numerous entries into the annals of vaguely sci-fi pish (Transformers 2, Terminator 4). Politically restrained, yet conscious sci-fi action from the men who almost got to give the world the Halo movie (which was promising from YouTube'd test footage). http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/09/district-9.html Dead Snow (DVD): Tag-lined brilliantly with "Ein, Zwei, Die!", it's got zombie Nazis in it. What's not to love? Gleefully OTT gore with a silly streak a mile wide. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/09/dead-snow-2009-offerings-and-running.html Adventureland (13/9/09): Thoughtful and enthralling coming-of-age comedy drama. 'From the director of Superbad' was the wrong way to sell it, but nevertheless Kristen Stewart manages to make the entire audience fall in love with her, as 80s nostalgia reigns supreme, and everyone reminisces about their own youth - whether it was like Adventureland or not. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/09/adventureland.html Zombieland (11/10/09): Wonderfully entertaining zombie comedy (despite the runners) with Woody Harrelson's glorious Tallahasse pulling us all along for the ride. A brilliant cameo from a comedy legend, and some truly stunning emotional moments really adds depth to what could have otherwise been Dead & Breakfast (which was a pish 'zomedy'). http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/10/zombieland.html Moon (DVD): More smart science fiction, this time from the talented duo of Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell. It wrong-foots you with a smart, slow burn script that plays with convention and reverence for such sci-fi greats as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Silent Running. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/11/moon.html Avatar (20/12/09): My movie of 2009 is the triumphant return of an older, wiser, mellower James Cameron. Despite the predictable, under-cooked story arc, the real reason to love Avatar is for the chance to visit the lush, fully realised world of Pandora, and to fall in love with a 10ft blue CGI alien called Neytiri. Employing subtle and involving 3D, we're all along for the ride. Undeserving of some (note "some") of the harsh criticism levelled at it (anything with a large, loving following and buckets of hype is subjected to scattergun bitterness from a vocal gang), this film allows you to visit another world entirely. An inconsistently developed, but wondrous nonetheless, show from one of the greatest showmen in cinema history. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/12/avatar-in-3d.html

Honourable Mentions:

Gran Torino (8/3/09): Clint Eastwood manages to make every man in the audience develop a lump in their throats as the screen icon confronts his mortality through a comically racist, cantankerous old-school grump of a character. While not his greatest film, it's far from his worst, and certainly one of his most thoughtful entries in a long and illustrious career. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/03/gran-torino.html The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (8/11/09): A wonderfully weird march of Gilliam craziness that famously features the final screen appearance of Heath Ledger. It boggles the mind, but you still come out sure enough that you've seen something of quality. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/11/imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus.html Watchmen (15/3/09): I'm not known for Zack Snyder fandom (the Dawn of the Dead remake was a load of bullshit), however Watchmen is his best film to date, and he at least delivered a faithful (sometimes slavishly) adaptation of a property that was long-considered unfilmable. Some might say it should have remained that way, but it is an (occasionally flawed) interestingly dark version of superhero lore. Complex, political, ponderous, morally ambiguous, violent and even a bit sleazy, it is a memorable flick (and not just because of Dr Manhattan's gigantic blue wang). http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/03/watchmen-epic-rant.html His Name Was Jason (DVD): Out of all the major slasher icons, Jason is my favourite, and this year I picked up this excellent 2-disc DVD documentary all about the franchise. While the main feature is flawed, the wealth of revealing extras more than make up for it. Indispensible for all Jason fans. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/04/his-name-was-jason.html My Name Is Bruce (DVD): As a big Bruce Campbell fan, this fun little romp was great fun to watch. Plus the DVD is packed with revealing and hilarious extra features. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-name-is-bruce.html Martyrs (DVD): A haunting, disturbing and even artistic French horror that takes the (sigh) "torture porn" sub-genre by the scruff of the neck and turns it into something better. http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/09/martyrs.html ... And so there we have it, my run down of the best movies I've seen in 2009. To everyone reading, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010!

Avatar (in 3D)...

Introduction:

Straight into my Top Ten of 2009, and most likely my favourite film of the year, comes Avatar - in freakin' 3D as well.

The triumphant return of James Cameron has happened, and in 3D to boot with the biggest budget ever attached to a feature film - territory that isn't unfamiliar to JC, as he was both the first to break the $100 and $200 million barriers. To kick off, I'm going to address some of the up-front issues that have been incessantly talked about by the mass media (the extent of which is unfair and needlessly focusses on only a select few eye-catching things).

3D:

Anyway, to get them out of the way, let's first start with the 3D technology utilised in Avatar. I hadn't seen a movie in this new fangled 3D tech before - those clear-lensed plastic framed glasses that make everyone look like Buddy Holly - and indeed I was saving myself specifically for Avatar. I had a brief moment of pondering going to see My Bloody Valentine 3D, but soon came to my senses (indeed the film itself was pish, and unsurprisingly the original movie is superior). I'm pleased to say my eyes didn't hurt, nor did I get a headache, and there was no blurring to the image - only at times a sort of juddery look to some of the faster moving elements in the foreground. There'll be more technical words to describe and illustrate whatever that issue was, but they're beyond me ... fortuntely the few times that happened didn't detract from the whole.

So there we six were in the cinema, four of whom (myself included) had never seen one of these 3D movies, all thoroughly weirded out by the first jolt of 3D trickery - some advert involving a giant head thing with nuts (or something) flying through jungle. At that point I'll admit I did instinctively duck out of the way with not a hint of irony or mockery. Indeed, such trickery was throughout Avatar - but in a far more subtle way.

For example, holographic computer screens peering in at the edge of the frame, on-screen text, glowing seeds floating on air currents, or burning embers drifting through the shot (convincing enough that I almost started trying to swat them away before realising). As such however, these moments did cause an amount of distraction (especially with this being my first foray into 3D cinema going), but never enough to spoil anything I'm pleased to say.

Mercifully James Cameron (naturally) avoided such ludicrous 3D spectacles as poking anything and everything including the kitchen sink into the camera lens, and anytime a spear or machine gun lunged at us it was in a shot that would have been composed as such regardless of the 3D.

Is the 3D required the tell the story? Far from it, and it never will be. So it's really only there to add to the immersion, but again this isn't truly necessary as I've so often found myself fully immersed in 2D movies on a television screen. Indeed, JC's Aliens continues to leave me utterly gripped throughout when watched in 2D on a 20 inch TV. It's the quality of the filmmaking that counts, not the flashy gadgets on offer.

That said, in the case of Avatar, the 3D did help to add an extra layer of immersion that made visiting JC's Pandora an extra special experience. Seeing this movie in 3D was a treat in itself, and might possibly be a one-off for me. Do I want to see Pixar movies in 3D for example? Not really. The quality of the storytelling and the animation is what matters in a Pixar movie. Avatar was however, an exception, and while it will most likely work just as well in 2D, I was utterly willing to go that extra mile just for James Cameron.

The budget:

The next common issue to be gang-humped by the mass media is the budget. Yes, it's large - officially $230 million (with a further $150 million for advertising) - but so what? JC has broken budget barriers before, and he still is. Move on already, sheesh. The budget doesn't make the movie (well technically it does, because it pays for everything, but you know what I mean) - just look at Transformers 2. It cost a packet and it was stupid ... a guilty pleasure sure, but really, really, really stupid.

The CGI:

Next up - the CGI - sitting there watching Avatar I had a thought. What's the big problem with CGI that some people have? It has it's place, just as long as it's utilised correctly, and indeed with this flick it's totally necessary. Without CGI you couldn't make Avatar. The only thing that practical effects (like a puppet) has over CGI is that you just know that it exists in the same physical space at the same time as the actors. Indeed this can sell the puppet better than some CGI (especially the earlier stuff) which can look utterly pish. However, even a puppet is fake. It's materials cobbled together (with skill) to make something that doesn't exist. Similarly, the CGI work of Weta (who did fantastic work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is a case of just using a computer to make things that don't exist.

At times some of the creatures do look 'too CGI' (for example the Hyena-and-Panther-like creatures during one night-time ambush, which look rubbery in a CGI way), and you're fully aware that it's all a lot of CGI going on ... however, for the most part you buy it. You indulge your imagination - just like you'd do with a rod puppet, or fake severed limb. The world of Pandora and its military & corporate occupiers are mostly constructed from CGI, so it all works in the end. It's how this film is supposed to look - this isn't a case of chucking a bit of CGI into a live action movie. Indeed, this is more a case of throwing a bit of live action into a CGI festival.

Is this a bad thing? Not in the slightest - like I said, this is just how Avatar is supposed to look, and thus it works.

Further to the issue of CGI is the Na'vi themselves. When I first heard about Avatar, I was a bit "eh?" about the whole 10ft tall blue aliens with tails thing. Fortunately the more I saw the more I become invested in the idea, and by the end of the movie (indeed within minutes of being introduced to the Na'vi in the cinema) I was a true believer in the Na'vi. They felt real, even in the (wisely few) scenes featuring humans and Na'vi.

What sold it? The human emotion of those performing the parts. Indeed, the motion capture utilised in Avatar is a runaway success. These blue aliens feel like real beings, and being able to see the people beneath it all further adds to selling you the idea. Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver and Joel Moore's avatars all look the spitting image of them, and while (for me at least) Zoe Saldana's Neytiri looks less like their human counterpart than the others (perhaps because I'm less familiar with her, and she doesn't have Moore's distinctive features or Weaver's individual smile), I'm still utterly drawn into the eyes of her.

Neytiri is a fully realised being, a charming and attractive character - you can see exactly why Worthington's Jake Sully is stunned by her and ends up falling in love with her. You're along for the ride through the eyes of Jake Sully, and you can never quite take your eyes off Neytiri as she guides you through the lush world of Pandora.

Twitches of the nose, minute movements in the mouth, the movement of the eyes - in all of the Na'vi you can feel that there is something much more going on that just some flashy CGI. You feel like they're real. Mission accomplished, Mr. Cameron.

The story:

Some of the more sarcastic and derisive members of the press and internet public have snidely commented about Avatar as being 'Pocahontas/Fern Gulley/Dances With Wolves in space', or even a rip-off of that Delgo movie (or whatever it was called - an arsey little comment which makes no sense whatsoever when Avatar had been dreamt up long before it existed and was indeed shot and half-rendered by the time that flop was released).

Personally, I've never seen any of those movies, so the comparisons are meaningless to me. Indeed, they should be meaningless to the masses too. Orson Welles himself stated, when being lauded as an original, that all the stories you could possibly do have already been covered. He said that he himself was making stories that had already been told. Indeed, it's all about the way you tell the chosen story, and what you do with all the minute details.

What Cameron does with the story is tell it his way, and while you'll know most of what's going to happen long before it does, so what? It's a joy to see it happen when it finally does. That said, the 161 minute running time is a bit much on the respective arses of the cinema going audience, but it's a damn sight shorter than Titanic (with a stronger plot to boot).

By now you'll know what the plot of the movie is, so I won't bang on about that. However, is it bluntly told? Having heard the review by Mark Kermode I was expecting something that would bludgeon me over the head. Fortunately I didn't watch that movie. There are moments of blunt-as-you-like exposition which are, of course, necessary for the audience, but they're written in such a way that doesn't make an awful lot of sense for people who know full well what they're talking about. People who have been living on Pandora for a very long time. The epitome of these moments of bluntness is a scene where Selfridge (Ribisi) moans at Augustine (Weaver) about why they're there - Unobtanium (a silly name, no matter how you slice it) sells for stupid amounts of money per kilo. Sure, we need this info, but do tell us in a better way. But like I said, the majority isn't like that at all, even if you can predict the general arc of the story.

However, how many films can you predict the plot arc of? Countless numbers, that's how many, so why people are bemoaning Cameron for it is beyond me. Like I said, a handful of story types told in innumerable ways. The fun is in how it's told and what you see along the way; to invest in the characters and watch their story unfold.

I mean think about it, how many people out there in the real world are living exactly the same lifestyle as many others? Exactly. Get off your soap box and just enjoy the world James Cameron has invested himself in and presented to you.

Problems:

There are some problems with the film though. The odd line is eye rollingly in-your-face, particular the one about "shock and awe" and ultimately the one about having to "fight terror with terror" (or something like that) - since when were the Na'vi performing terrorist acts on the mining corporation?

The action, unlike Aliens or T2 for example, never gripped me like those movies did. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I was rarely moved to the point of finding my fingernails embedded in the arm rests. Meanwhile T2 still astounds me, and Aliens still leaves me wide-eyed, fist-pounding and breathless. That little extra something was missing from the muscly thrust of Avatar, and so the action set pieces didn't pummel as I'd thought they would. Even the final barrage, which Cameron talked about recently, didn't grab hold of me and shake me like a rag doll. Aliens (again) on the otherhand, did so during the four big set pieces.

The depiction of the Na'vi as 'typically Native American' is a bit on-the-nose, I'll admit. However, it never bothered me personally. Although it does feel a bit 'stereotypically tribal' ... but you could also say that the bastards in the mining corporation (such as Ribisi's Selfridge) are stereotypically git-like with their 'flea-infested tree dweller' dismissals of the Na'vi.

Indeed the corporate-versus-nature allegory is also a bit on the blunt side. However (again), that said, I never felt pummelled by it (unlike how I felt by the blanket coverage of the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference cop-out talking shop). Cameron does succeed in winning the audience's hearts & minds in favour of Pandora and the Na'vi. We learn about them and their culture as Jake does, and as such we are (perhaps unsurprisingly) on the Na'vi side when the final battle comes around ... indeed on the positive side, dare I say it, I was a little bit devestated when the Na'vi are left to flee their home (a feeling much-inspired by Saldana's honest, gutteral, heart-broken wails of sorrow - all beautifully rendered in pitch-perfect CGI motion capture).

Colonel Quaritch is a kick ass character, a chest-thumping gorilla of a man, but he's annoyingly one-dimensional. It would have been great if he was even the slightest bit questioning of his own methods, or just had a different side to all his gut-toting. Even still, you can't help but feel a bristle of neck hair when he brazenly fires upon an escaping aircraft.

It's interesting, but in a movie where the minute details of the CGI 'emotion capture' are so important, there is a distinct lack of the minute details woven throughout the script. The motivations and feelings of the main characters are often glanced at, but never excavated and picked apart. If there was some more of that it would have helped sell the human side of the coin better. Fortunately the Na'vi are covered quite thoroughly, albeit mainly through Neytiri. It's understandable though that Cameron might have become distracted by this rich other-culture and alien people, but it is still a shame that the human characters were left out in the cold a bit. To have been a bit less black & white would have been nothing but positive, although with the overall plot arc it's hard to see how that could have been achieved.

Conclusion:

Despite cursory problems, the odd quibble, and a slightly flabby feel, Avatar was a great experience. I loved visiting the world of Pandora, realised in such loving detail by JC and his team, and no sooner had I left the cinema than I wanted to return. I wanted to feel the subtle use of 3D again, I wanted to get to know Neytiri all over again, and I wanted to see Jake learn to love Pandora again.

Avatar is a different kind of film from JC. You can see a shift in his mindset and the influence of his documentary projects. Typically James Cameron throughout (central love story, pioneering technology, powerful female leads, record breaking budget, masterfully crafted and designed in-film technology, and so on), Avatar is the film to see in 3D. It's a welcome return of Cameron, and while it was never going to pull in the box office figures of Titanic, it is easily a better and more interesting film (my relationship with JC's Titanic has been a rollercoaster unto itself), and is without a doubt worth your time and money.

I'm very much looking forward to the DVD release, and hopefully it'll be a features-packed extravaganza. I want to delve into Pandora all over again, and I want to see how it was all put together.

I think that about covers it ... for now at least.

Top 50 Favourite Movies Ever - Part 6...

Read Part One here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/favourite-ever-movies-part-1.html
Read Part Two here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-2.html
Read Part Three here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-3.html
Read Part Four here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-4.html
Read Part Five here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-5.html

The final 'ten block', in alphabetical "I'm incapable of assigning any decisive numerical order to each film" style.

Top 50: #1-10

* Aliens (1986):
One of the best sequels ever made, and what used to be my all-time favourite movie. When I was a kid - before I'd even seen the movie - I still knew it was grade A cool, and indeed my friends and I would all fight over who got to role-play as Hicks (played brilliantly and admirably by Michael Biehn - who deserves bigger roles in my view). I'd seen Alien when I was 9 (the first horror movie - well, it's part horror movie - I ever saw), then I think I saw Alien 3, and then finally Aliens. Cameron's film is a rock-solid all-round box ticker on the list of awesomeness. An entire nest of aliens (before CGI), space marines, perfect editing, pacing and direction ... and then James Horner's blood-rushing score. The first battle with the aliens, and then the operations room siege are the two key highlights in the entire movie for me - they both leave me clutching the edge of my seat - every single time. Thrilling doesn't even describe the feeling adequately. Great action, great dialogue, great effects, great goddamned everything quite frankly.

* The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007):
Chopper is a decent movie - it's Director Andrew Dominik's first - it got a lot of attention and applause. I liked it, but I wasn't especially fussed about it...a gritty movie about a tweaked-as-all-hell violent criminal essentially. So to see the same guy direct a meandering, wistful, hypnotically poetic western comes as a bit of a shock. It divided viewers, and I firmly lie on the side of "love it". Roger Deakin's cinematography is absolutely breath taking, the central performances are astounding (particularly Casey Affleck), the score is spot-on and, well ... it's just awe inspiring. I was so dumbstruck after my first viewing that I obsessed over it for weeks and months, deliberately starving myself of it just in case the effect had been a fluke. Then I got a copy after getting a letter printed in Total Film (I've had four printed to date - ergo, four free DVDs) and then waited some more until I saw it again. I watched it this time with someone else, but they didn't like it much at all ... so perhaps that dampened my love of the movie a bit at the time, but quite quickly my sheer love for this film returned. I got the soundtrack and I poured over the final forty minutes another couple of times just to cement my adoration - it's an absolutely spell-binding film.

* Back to the Future (1985):
It's quite literally a perfectly written movie, and what's more it utterly captivated me as a kid, and indeed one of my first memories of going to the cinema was to see Back to the Future III. To this day it just makes me feel warm inside. If you're watching Back to the Future, then all is right in the world. Mind-bending time travel technicalities, memorable quotes, fantastically fun set pieces ... man alive, it's hard to describe how great this movie is and how much I love it.

* The Dark Knight (2008):
It took me a while to get around to seeing Batman Begins (I saw it on DVD), but when I finally did, it was quite impressive. Then I didn't watch it for quite a while until The Dark Knight was about to come out - then I realised how super-awesome Batman Begins is - and then the following day I went to see The Dark Knight, the hype around which was immeasurable. I've ranted and raved before on this blog about why I loved the movie, so be sure to track that down ... some people complained about the length ... I don't know what they're on about. When the movie ended I wanted at least another half hour, and 3/4 of the way through I was gutted that we weren't only 1/3 in. I was gripped - ludovico style - to my seat throughout. It's smart, it's tense, there's always something going on, and it's just bloody good filmmaking. I'll cap this off by saying this - a kid (about 8-10 years old I guess) towards the back of the theatre yelled out "WOOOOWWWWEEEEEE!!!" when the truck flipped head-over-heels ... yep ... that about sums up what I think of the whole film.

* Dawn of the Dead (1978):
One of the reasons I wanted to become a filmmaker, was Dawn of the Dead - the original and best. It was another formative film viewing experience from my formative film viewing years in my mid-teens. I remember reading an article in a 1997 issue of SFX Magazine all about the release of the "Director's Cut" (Extended Cannes Cut) of the film in the UK (which was cut by 6 seconds at the time). I re-read the article numerous times, and marvelled at the pictures from Romero's (at that time) Dead Trilogy. I'd already seen Day of the Dead at this stage, which blew me away ... but nothing like Dawn of the Dead. I remember sitting down in the evening to watch it ... then I remember sitting still in the same position utterly, 100% dumb-struck 2 hours and 20 minutes later. In between these two points I had been so utterly drawn into this superb horror classic that time disappeared. I've since watched it about 30 times, and oddly, after 20-something viewings I found myself suddenly exhausted by the sheer power of the opening 15 minutes of the film ... not sure why, but I was - and it just illustrates how much continued power this movie contains for me. So powerful was it, that it usurped Aliens from my number one slot at the time.

* Fight Club (1999):
As I said in the previous entry, which included Zodiac, I am a huge David Fincher fan. Fight Club introduced me to the excellent work of Chuck Palahniuk (I've read all his books), and as a film it floored me in all respects. As a Palahniuk adaptation it's perfect. As a film in its own right it's perfect. I've seen it numerous times and it's still fascinating, visually arresting, technically impressive and just really well crafted. Add in an examination of modern man's sense of pointlessness ("we have no Great War..." etc), and you've got the ideal male movie.

* Ghostbusters (1984):
Here we are again, back to my childhood classics - and this is my all-time childhood favourite. I loved The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, I had a ton of the toys, and I watched the two movies a hell of a lot ... and at the time of writing I have the videogame for Xbox360 on pre-order. Then I went for quite a number of years without seeing it until I bought the DVD (as part of a nostalgia trip I took while at university) and it all came flooding back. Similar to my rediscovery of Short Circuit, I found myself miming along to the dialogue and predicting the music cues, sound effects and editing. Not only that, but I was suddenly - aged 20 - finally able to get all the adult jokes throughout (I was surprised there were so many). I love both GB movies, but as is almost always the case, the original is the best ... and it's bloody fantastic.

* The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966):
During my, yep you guessed it - formative mid-teens - I first got into westerns. Channel 4 showed the Dollars Trilogy, which was also pretty much my introduction to the career of Clint Eastwood. The slow, creeping sense of tension during the stand offs (helped in no small amount by the spot-on editing and pitch-perfect score), dotted throughout the meandering grandeur of the rest of the movie has only impressed me more and more over the years. Properly epic and seriously cool, and while it's not exactly a realistic western, it's a great western movie - and indeed, it's my favourite western movie (regardless of it being a "spaghetti western"). It's just so good.

* The Maltese Falcon (1941):
I first saw this astounding noir classic during the first semester of my first year at university during the "Key Issues" course, which gave a general grounding in cinema history. Not only that, but we got to see a real, restored print of the film - something which I don't think I appreciated enough at the time, but which I have since really appreciated in retrospect. It was my introduction to Bogart, and my introduction to a whole host of classic Hollywood cinema. For me it was the point at which my cinematic tastes were blown wide open, and my appreciation for cinema took a large step up. It was even the subject of one of my first essays at university (and I got a 1st on it).

* Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991):
I first saw it on BBC1 (with all the fuck-words deleted) in the mid-90s. I then, for some daft reason, recorded over my videotaped copy and then it was never on TV again for sodding years. I got so desperate to see T2 again that I made it my New Year's Resolution one year ... and then, about 2 weeks later, I got it on video in WHSmith for £5.99. After thinking "wow, they cut out a lot of fucks ... and some violence ... from this flick", I was royally chuffed that I'd gotten my mits on T2 once again - and at that point it became my number one film (it was then overtaken by Aliens). Like Aliens, T2 is one of those rare beasts - a sequel which is precisely-as-good-as, if not better than, the original - and the pioneering CGI effects were, and still are, insanely impressive. Cameron proved himself as perhaps the greatest action director living with T2, a film which is consistently awesome from start to finish. To this day, T2 still knocks me over with a feather ... it's simply that great.

So there you have it. After six exhaustive days of blogging to celebrate my 300th blogpost (which was part one), I've laid out my Top 50 films of all-time ... with a further 10 honourable mentions ... and none of them properly numerically ordered within each 'ten block' ... although the 'ten blocks' are ordered in themselves, but well, it's the best I can do. Right now though, I need a breather!

Top 50 Favourite Movies Ever - Part 5...

Read Part One here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/favourite-ever-movies-part-1.html
Read Part Two here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-2.html
Read Part Three here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-3.html
Read Part Four here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-4.html

Yep, you guessed it, this 'ten block' is listed in alphabetical order.

Top 50: #11-20

* Casablanca (1942):
During my time at university, my eyes were opened to a whole series of different movies (Asian cinema, musicals, Canadian film, and the old classics for example). One of the movies which I discovered (although I'd known of it for many years) was Casablanca. It was included as background study for a course on Classic Hollywood, and I was in awe of it. Plus I was finally able to really get the references to it in the videogame Grim Fandango (an excellent game, by the way). Humphrey Bogart (my classical star of choice) moping around in a pool of heart ache, cigarette smoke and alcohol was something I found very compelling as a main character. It's beautifully written, acted, shot and directed, and quite frankly I don't need to explain to you why it's such a good film...you should know already.

* A Clockwork Orange (1971):
In the UK this film was self-banned by Kubrick after some high-profile acts of violence were blamed on it, and after Kubrick died A Clockwork Orange was soon released to UK audiences for the first time since the early 1970s. It was also at this time that the BBFC had a change of leadership, and I - in my formative mid-teens - found myself in a great position. I was at the age when film fans should be discovering controversial gems, horror flicks and the like, and the BBFC were finally un-banning a variety of titles (many fully uncut). 2000 was the year that I really went mad for this film - I read the book, I got the soundtrack, and I got the video - it inspired me so much (not in terms of ultraviolence though!) that I based my entire GCSE 2-D Art final exam on the film - a piece inspired by the movie, and the artwork surrounding it. I guess I overdosed on it, because I then spent many years away from it, and only recently did I re-discover it all over again, and I was immediately as familiar with it as I had been all those years ago when I was in my mid-teens. Also, as you should all know, it's a bloody masterpiece to boot!

* The Evil Dead (1981):
Again, my formative mid-teens factor in here, and it was at this time that my local post office was selling a run of cheap videos for £5 each. The Evil Dead was, if memory serves, the first one of many that I bought there (well, my Mum did technically). In the couple of weeks prior I had heard friends at school talking about it (some of the lads I now go on frequent cinema jaunts with) and all I got from them in terms of a review was "green mashed potato, and a pencil in the ankle" ... not glowing, and a bit mocking ... but I knew how their taste measured up against my own taste, and I figured this was most likely going to be right down my alley. Needless to say, it most certainly was, and it has since become one of my all-time favourite horror movies. The Evil Dead is of constant inspiration to me as an aspiring filmmaker - sometime soon I would love to be making my first real movie, and if it could be something with as much invention and adventure as this one, then I'd be a-okay with that alright!

* Grindhouse (2007):
Annoyingly it was never released as Grindhouse in the UK - only as the separate releases - but regardless, I got to see the original cut - and I loved it. I have since seen the two films separately several times, and I have to consider them together rather than apart, even when they're in stand-alone mode. I had grown up watching these kind of movies, as well as those of Rodriguez and Tarantino - so, obviously, it was a match made in heaven. Planet Terror is an absolute riot (especially with the lads over for a few cans), and Death Proof is just so super cool - heck, I've written at length about Death Proof on this very blog (have a look down the Blog Tags on the right to find my musings on the flick). Am I looking forward to more Grindhouse entries? You bet your ass I am.

* Heat (1995):
Again, when I first saw it, it was a little before my time. Then I re-discovered it years later on a double-disc DVD and all the pieces fell into place. The beautiful camerawork, the relentlessly gripping performances, the epic feel, the soundtrack and so on - it's all stunning. Throw in one of the best cinematic bank robberies ever (brilliantly referenced in the best mission of GTA IV, as well) and you've got one of those films which just makes me exhale in a stunned, awe-inspired fashion ... nuff said.

* Rocky (1976):
I enjoyed the series when I first saw them as a teenager, but it was only until a few years later that I really fell in love with the franchise, and it all began with the original and best. A great little underdog story, and a source of immediate inspiration whenever you watch it, happen across it, or listen to the soundtrack. Who doesn't love Rocky?

* Scarface (1983):
Epic - that says it all really - but to elaborate further, it's also one of my favourite rise-and-fall tales. Pacino rides high, as do DePalma and Stone. It's such an involving film from the get-go for a myriad of reasons, and I'm sure you know them all. Not even the cheesy and misguided adoration that dime-a-dozen American footballers and rappers lavish on it on MTV Cribs can damage this cinematic classic. It meanders when it needs to, it's sweet when it wants to be, it's epic throughout, and ultimately it's a brash tragedy ... then the superb GTA: Vice City came along and made me love Scarface even more.

* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974):
Again, cut to me in my formative mid-teens ... it's winter, I'm eating my dinner, and I'm watching - for the first time - the original (and best) Texas Chainsaw Massacre on a fudgy 3rd generation videotaped copy. That's how these movies should be viewed, they're too crisp and safe on DVD, but on a no-labels videotape - a generation of a generation of a generation - bleeding colours on screen, simple and slightly muffled mono audio ... oh yes, this is really how these movies should be watched by first-timers. It's feels a little bit dangerous, a little bit illicit, and it's almost like your own little secret - but one that all your friends know about - and indeed, that's how you get to see it. For years beforehand I had seen clips on horror movie documentaries (such as Clive Barker's A-Z of Horror), read about it and seen lurid stills in books, and then finally - with a background of the BBFC liberalising itself and finally unleashing Leatherface upon the UK - I got to see it. As a side note, on my bedroom wall, I have my own autographed photo - Gunner Hansen as Leatherface.

* The Thing (1982):
There are very few movies which are capable of not only scaring the bejesus out of me, but capable of doing so time after time after time. The fifties version is enjoyable, nostalgic and a little bit quaint, but Carpenter's version of the source material is astounding (and it remains so to this day). The profound sense of isolation, claustrophobia and paranoia-soaked cabin fever are damn-near tangible. The gore effects of Rob Bottin are shocking (again, still to this day). Kurt Russell kicks fucking ass, and Morricone's score could even make a teddy bear's picnic sound terrifying (it was used on the Top Gear Polar Special to excellent effect). Even the videogame was terrifying ... and you know what, I'm still a little bit scared - even after seeing it countless times - to go back into the blizzard. Horror perfected.

* Zodiac (2007):
I'm a major fan of David Fincher, and his methodical examination of what happened to those who tried to solve the crime of 1970s America, never releases its grip upon me in all respects across the entire production. The script shows an astoundingly hardcore amount of attention to detail, as does Fincher's never-more precise directing. Truly, 100%, flabbergasting.

Well, only one more part to go, what will be in my Top Ten of All Time? Find out very soon!

Top 50 Favourite Movies Ever - Part 4...

Read Part One here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/favourite-ever-movies-part-1.html
Read Part Two here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-2.html
Read Part Three here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-3.html

Like in the previous parts, I will be covering this 'ten block' in alphabetical order, due to my continued lack of ability to number these films any tighter than five ordered 'ten blocks' with an additional "Honourable Mentions" category (which was in Part One of this series).

Top 50: #21-30

* Blade Runner (1982):
I've only seen two versions - the 1992 Director's Cut, and the 2007 Final Cut - so, for me, the 1992 Director's Cut is the version for me (although the replaced shot towards the end showing an elaborate building facade is way better than the buggered-out old side of a warehouse like it was originally). When I first saw it, I think (again) it was a bit before my time - but a couple of years later I bought it on video (in widescreen too) and have since viewed it a few times. "Visionary" gets bandied around too much these days (just see the quite simply technically incorrect labelling of Zack Snyder as one, by the advertisers, for the Watchmen promos) ... but Ridley Scott is a true visionary, and Blade Runner is (with Alien coming a close second) Scott's most incredible visual treat. It's Sam Spade versus those who are 'more human than human', it's perhaps the greatest interpretation of a dystopian future in cinematic history, and while being drowned in darkness and ever-lasting rain, smog, and artificial light, this film is beautiful.

* Clerks (1994):
In recent years this has been more to me than just a foul-mouthed indie comedy - it has become one of my key inspirations for my own writing. I don't mean in a rip-off way, rather I'm currently aiming to be on course to (hopefully) someday soon be able to make my own Clerks - as in, my first real movie - and Clerks is one of the films which has inspired me on my continued search for success in my goals. On the other hand sometimes it's just good fun to watch a couple of slackers play street hockey on the roof and talk about Star Wars all day - I have to say, I'm one of those people who take movies and dissect them with others to microscopic lengths ... only I'm talking about zombies, not collateral damage on the Death Star.

* Day of the Dead (1985):
This was my introduction to George A. Romero - well, in terms of the first GAR flick I saw - my first introduction was actually a couple of years prior (1997 to be precise) when I read an article in an issue of SFX magazine all about the release of the 'Director's Cut' (Cannes Extended Cut) to the UK. Fast forward to my mid-teens and I finally got my hands on my first Romero movie on videotape - bought for £5.99 in a local Woolworth's (a store chain that finally bit the dust in the current recession here in the UK). I remember watching it just after lunch time on a Saturday afternoon, as my Dad was cutting the grass outside, and being dumb-struck by the gore effects (Savini's career best, in my view). Not only that, but the soundtrack, Joe Pilato's Captain Rhodes, and the best zombie ever committed to the screen - Bub to name but three things which make Day of the Dead so good.

* Die Hard (1988):
Otherwise known as my all-time favourite Christmas movie - this is how real Die Hard should be. Tough, sweary, violent and flat-out action packed. Die Hard has been in my life for many, many years now - indeed it was one of the first 18 rated movies I ever saw - and I've loved it ever since. Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, in a high-rise, taking names ... what's not to love?

* Goodfellas (1990):
My favourite Scorsese film, and my favourite gangster movie at the same time. A wonderful soundtrack, a great script, great cinematography, memorable and powerful performances all add up to make this an enthralling watch. There are many 'rise and fall' movies like it that owe a debt to it (Casino, Blow, American Gangster - to name three), but this is really where it's at.

* Pulp Fiction (1994):
Great script, great performances, immensely quote-worthy, dripping with cool, and it wound up the moral 'majority' when it was released. It has a power to draw you in, and while there's not a lot of boom-or-bang going on, it never lets go of your attention. While I'm a continued fan of Tarantino's work, Pulp Fiction is probably his best work - it just has 'it'.

* Rabid (1977):
I first saw it during my teenage years on a videotape bought from my local Post Office for a fiver, and it's my favourite Cronenberg film - so much so that I was delighted to be able to write an essay all about it, and Canada in the 1970s, during the Canadian & Quebecois Cinema course that I took during my time at university. Rabid is part of my long-standing fascination with, and love of, Canada (some day I hope to go there, perhaps even get a chance to work there). It's dark, it's indie, it's got a porn star in the leading role doing a bloody good job, and those final moments are nothing short of memorable. Indeed, it has recently (at the time of writing) inspired me while writing a new script.

* Shaun of the Dead (2004):
The peak of the Wright/Pegg/Frost era (thus far anyway). I may have worn myself out on it a bit now, but the zombie-fan references littered throughout are enough to make any zed-head go dizzy with delight. It's British, it's actually hilarious, and it's provided me with countless hours of entertainment ... and it was even connected to a memorable trip to the cinema - after leaving the cinema we (I was driving) got thoroughly lost in Newport for over an hour.

* Short Circuit (1986):
Yep, another one of my childhood favourites - Johnny 5 is definitely still alive, and still has the power (with the added help of a good dose of nostalgia) to utterly grasp me and never let go. During my time at university I bought the DVD and promptly sat down to give it my first viewing in many years - myself, along with a housemate, had an epic trip down memory lane. The film was (and is) so seared into my memory through repeat viewings, that I remembered practically the whole script, and could predict (and recall) the various sound effects, music cues, camera moves and so on. No wonder I loved WALL-E so much.

* Tremors (1990):
This is a favourite from my later childhood, first discovered when it was shown on BBC1 (cut at the time, though, when the Beeb were really sensitive to swearing and gore, even after the watershed). I was young enough at the time to want to emulate it - I built my own replica of the duo's battered blue truck in Lego, and while wearing my own jeans (knees ripped-through - it was the 90s), white t-shirt and burgundy shirt, I would pretend I was Kevin Bacon - or rather, his character of Val. From an older view, it has nostalgia as well as an undeniable fun factor - a modern day (at the time at least) fifties monster movie. Add in the beloved gun-toting Burt, gravel-voiced Earl, and some truly memorable deaths (the hat in the sand, the road workers, Walter Chang, etc) and what do you get? A bloody good time, is what.

Top 50 Favourite Movies Ever - Part 3...

Read Part One here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/favourite-ever-movies-part-1.html
Read Part Two here:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-50-favourite-movies-ever-part-2.html

Again, like in Part Two, I'll be covering this 'ten block' in alphabetical order.

Top 50: #31-40

* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968):
I originally saw it when I was a teenager, I liked it and respected it, but perhaps it was a bit before my time. Then a while ago I got the Kubrick 10-disc DVD boxset, and spent quite some time enjoying an overdose of one of cinema's most engaging and awe-inspiring directors ever. Seeing it only for the second time, about a decade after first seeing it, I found myself transfixed, dumb-struck and fascinated all at the same time - suddenly, 2001 really clicked with me - like I said, I think it was a bit before my time when I first watched it. Technically the film is a marvel, visually it is stunning, and thematically it's deeply intriguing.

* Batteries Not Included (1987):
This is one of my early childhood classics and one of my fondest movie memories from more innocent times, and one which (like other childhood favourites) I would watch over-and-over again on my videotaped copy. What is not there for a kid to love? It's packed with cute robots getting up to all sorts ... plus I was captivated as a child by the architecture of the old, crumbling building (when I was a kid I wanted to be an Architect when I grew up) and indeed, the inferno which destroys the building was of particular fascination. As a keen drawer as a kid (and until filmmaking really took over my creative time) I would produce multiple drawings of that kind of building burning down ... perhaps that sounds a bit dodgy, but it was just a childhood fascination with things being destroyed, as well as the rustic look of the place itself. Indeed, the whole part where the building burns down - as an action set-piece you might say - fascinated me as a kid. The tense build up, the danger, the desperate need to escape, the spectacle of the raging inferno and then the Phoenix-from-the-ashes revival. These days whenever I see a clip on TV I'll quickly find myself become transfixed by it all over again, finding it hard to pull myself away - an overload of nostalgia.

* Brokeback Mountain (2005):
I may have only seen it once, but it left a definite impression on me - that final melancholly shot encapsulating perfectly how and why this film was so good. Mind you, I had to wait a while until I saw it, due to the sheer volume of hype and mockery surrounding it (heck, even I produced a Brokeback style trailer for Gary Ugarek's Deadlands: The Rising before seeing Ang Lee's film). The cinematography is incredible, the frame capturing paintings rather than images. The plot is enthralling and emotional, the direction poetic, the performances open, honest and naked. It's a wonderful love story - and the fact that it's about two cowboys has nothing to do with it - it's just a love story. File this entry under the softer side of my persona.

* The 'Burbs (1989):
Yet another childhood favourite, and yet another which endured countless viewings by my young self on videotape ... and yes, another favourite involving a spectacular inferno which lays waste dramatically to an architecturally engaging house. What's more, I could perhaps trace my love of the horror genre way back to this movie, which involves horror elements - and indeed I was stunned by the clip a chainsaw-wielding maniac bursting through a wall (I would much later, when I finally saw it, make the connection that it was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - one of my favourite horror movies). The movie is filled with classic comedy lines (which I enjoy referencing with fellow 'Burbs-mad friends) and is simply so much fun to watch.

* Critters (1986):
During my early horror-viewing years (after years of taking sneaky peeks at the horror section in my local videoshop, drooling over the lurid cover art), I got to see this cheeky little horror comedy (which, yes, involves another impressive scene of house destruction). It was one of the earliest horror franchises I got into and, again, it's just a lot of fun to watch and has over the years become one of my nostalgic favourites.

* The Devil's Rejects (2005):
I've always been a Rob Zombie fan, and have thoroughly enjoyed all his movies, but it is this one which has most impressed me. Unlike many of the post-millennial pretenders, this flick really feels like a down and dirty, sleazy 1970s, balls-out, punch-in-the-face horror movie. A horror movie which is really horror. The opening siege is brilliantly put together, the cast of undesirable leads are blackly-comic and instantly iconic, the horror is gritty, nasty and serious and the DVD features the best and most in-depth 'making-of' I have ever seen (at the time of writing I am still yet to see the epic four-hour doc for Zombie's Halloween). Quite possibly the best post-2000 horror flick, and undeniably one of the best horror movies of all time.

* The Matrix (1999):
I remember going to my local independent cinema with my Dad, right in my mid-teens, to see this movie, which I had been getting increasingly excited about. That year, this was the movie you simply had to see, and it didn't disappoint. I fondly remember sitting in the theatre staring gob-smacked at the screen, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing at the time, and it is also one of the many times I went to the cinema, just my Dad and I, that I remember fondly. Watershed movie-making, regardless of the wobbly sequels (which, action-wise, still left me head-spun in the cinema a few years later).

* Escape From New York (1981):
Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken - one of his greatest roles, if not his greatest role - directed by John Carpenter when he was at the height of his game, and featuring a classic Carpenter score (like the equally superb scores for Halloween, The Fog, They Live, and Assault on Precinct 13). When I first saw it I wasn't especially impressed, but I didn't hate it ... but again, like with 2001, I guess it was just a bit before my time, and I quickly grew to love and admire this slice of expertly realised dystopian future adventure.

* Screamers (1995):
This was one of my favourites during my teenage years. It had "the dude from RoboCop", a dystopian future setting, and blood-seeking killer robots. I haven't watched it in a good while, but I saw a clip recently and it still holds great interest to me - and indeed now possesses the nostalgia factor. It's kind of hard to explain why I like it so much, but I do ... let's leave it there.

* Sin City (2005):
I love Rodriguez movies (well, not those kiddy ones he did), and Sin City is one of his which I love the most. Great source material, great style, great execution, and just a really wild, fun ride throughout. It's a little bit sleazy, a little bit tough, and bloody enjoyable.