Monday 28 November 2011

Top 10 list.

WOW. Is all I can say about this. I wrote between February and now, 3 blogs, detailing little things that has happened to me and the movie world, but they seem to not be appearing!

Anyway, the WOW part of this, has come, that it is finally time to do my TOP 10 All Time favourite Movies. This list has taken me months and months to figure out. Some of the movies are decades old, some are new. I'm 25 years old and some of these movies are way older than me.



Right! let's get to business. I'll start from 10 and work down.




10: LEON. AKA THE PROFESSIONAL

when I first saw this movie like 10 years old, I used to sneak and watch all the 15 and 18 rated movies way before I was allowed. Nowadays parents and Watchdog groups think this is the reason why people go and kill people. LOL it's not. When I was a child, the only movies that scared me, were Steven Spielberg movies! ET and Jurassic Park scared the shit out of me!

Anyway, back to Leon. What a truly amazing movie. I used to just think, it was about a Hit man killing people, and that it was cool to be able to do that kind of job.

Then I grew up, become this movie Connoisseur so to speak LOL. This movie is a lot more deeper than I remember. Probably because I now look it at in a different aspect, ( I tend to look at movies now in Script form, imagining how it was written).

Natalie Portman owns this movie, and for a 12 year old to have this as her first role, Whoa. the emotion she shows in her eyes when she walks past her front door, seeing the body of her father and hearing that her little 5 year old brother has been shot, WOW. goosebumps just thinking about it.

I can honestly see why this is considered a masterpiece in France, Luc Besson's Homeland. The story telling is so unique and so explosive, a hit man taking a young girl. that alone is a good story, but when you add in the deal they come to, the human will teach the killer how to be human, and the killer will teach the human to be a killer. I mean, C'mon!

just look at that piece and how I wrote it. A killer being taught how to be human, loving, caring. and in return, he will help the little girl, the most delicate human ever, to become a killing machine.

I really hope in the next few years we see a stand alone Matilda movie. Natalie Portman is coming hot off the heals of an Oscar win, and this could really be here time to turn the action heroine. take over the reigns from, I don't know. Only actress kicking arse is Zoe Salenanda.


9: EVIL DEAD TRILOGY

I had to go for all three here. You just can't be a fan of one of these movies. If you are, you don't know what a good series of movies are, you probably think the all 7 SAW movies are great, NO!

Again, most of these movies on this list will be from way before I was old enough to watch them, I'll just give my thoughts on them, as I see them now.

EVIL DEAD 1, a pure gore out horror movie. what an introduction to Sam Raimi ladies and gentlemen. This guy knows how to make a horror movie, and I wish he would go back to this style of movie making, instead of making a zillion dollar studio picture. Sam, take that kind of money and make a new zombie masterpiece! Don't remake these, just get the money, cast Bruce Campbell and turn that shit up to 20!

EVIL DEAD 2, pure genius. it shows the entire 1st movie in the 1st 9 or so minutes, and that's remaking the god damn thing! this 1 is more slapstick than the 1st, but it works. The dutch, the whip pan, the home made camera on a stick dolly, this film had it all. the visuals, the gags, pure genius.

ARMY OF DARKNESS, a pure fun, medieval movie, with added Ash! Only reason this was made I think was to make a newer model of Clash of the titans. A fun end to the trilogy.

8: STAR WARS: EPISODE IV: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Now, this is my favourite Star Wars movie, ever. Empire goes so deep on many levels. So many story lines going on through the different characters. Favourite story has to be the Han/lando/Vader. I know Lando isn't in the film for a long period of time, but he is, in my eyes, the most crucial part to Empire. He turns Han Solo over to Vader! I mean, C'mon!
Fair enough he goes as far, trying to get him back, but anyone knows, once Vader has you, that's it!

The crucial spoiler as well, the whole "No, I am your father" was just pure genius. Here, everyone fucking hated Vader, but he's the ultimate movie villain, and he turns out to Be the hero's DAD! I mean, C'mon! How come Lucas didn't have any of this fantastic movie layout for the second trilogy, I know it was about Anakin before he turned Dark, but it could of been done a lot better.

7: ALIENS

Now I shall say why Aliens is much better than Alien. Bill Paxton is in it! GAME OVER, MAN!
Aliens is a full on horror sci fi War movie. James Cameron is a super human. Everyone of his movies has broken box office records, broken the barrier for what we can fully imagine on the screen. He made it possible for people to love a cyborg robot, love a water tentacle, Hell he made young girls love the Titanic!

6: AVATAR/TERMINATOR 2

I can never judge between these two juggernauts of movies. One hand, you have possibly the greatest science fiction movie ever made, then on the hand, you have the greatest action movie ever made.

I love me some James Cameron as you can see, he takes spots 6 and 7 on my list. AVATAR, in my eyes is what the movies is all about. Yes it is the story of Pocahontas, but EVERY SINGLE MOVIE is a retread of something else ( Except for INCEPTION that was just crazy as hell). The visuals, the story telling, the music, hell even the set direction is fantastic. Everyone bad mouthed the movie when it was being publicized, calling it fern Gully and giving it a hard time. Everytime James Cameron brings a movie out, people put it down. Then it goes on to gross the biggest amount of cash, EVER. It wouldn't be a bad guess, that when AVATAR 2 and 3 arrive, they will be the first films to gross over 3 billion, trust me.

TERMINATOR 2, the finest piece of action cinema, ever. And I love Hard Boiled which is just a mesh of bullets and mayhem.

The Special effects, the visual effects, the costume design, the stunts, the action, the explosions, the acting! (not counting Arnie LOL) If this movie wasn't made, we wouldn't have the likes of Inception, I Robot, Avatar, Jurassic Park! This movie made those possible. The scene of Patrick, walking out the fire in CGI, WOWZA! Then you have all the other cool bits, which practically make the whole movie. The freeway Chase, the helicopter going UNDER the bridge, the steel mill, the desert scenes, the attempted assassination of Dyson, this movie is the greatest Action movie ever.

NOW THE TOP 5!!!!

5: HIGH FIDELITY

A lot of people ask me, why do I love this movie so much, my response is normally, I don't know. So I've decided to have a long hard think about why I like this movie so much.

High Fidelity is the story of what every man has gone through. Thought about past relationships when one has gone sour. You think back, from when you can actually remember you liked girls, how they all played out against each other, and what would've happened if you stayed with them.
All along intercut with everyday life of coming off a break up and trying to win that girl back.

It also has a kick arse soundtrack.

4: SHAUN OF THE DEAD

Shaun Of The Dead is by far, the greatest Zombie Romantic comedy by far. It even has geniune scary moments, like a true horror movie. It's almost like Simon and Edgar wrote a funny love story, then after a drunken night, said "Let's put Zombies in it!" I would love to of seen them making this idea come to fruitition.

3: THE DARK KNIGHT

The greatest Superhero Movie, ever made. When Christopher Nolan took over the Batman series, no one had any idea how good this guy would be. Memento and Insomnia are great movies, but no one thought the guy behind these would do a comic book movie, then Batman Begins rolled round. Applauded by everyone, loathed by a handful, it was the Caped Crusader how he was meant to be, REAL.

Then this little baby came along, The Dark Knight. The Nolan brothers, along with David Goyer, the man responsible for the birth of serious comic book movies, came up with making the sequel, a Crime film. Whichever one came up with this idea, slap on your back pal. Well done.

You have the opening bank heist, the conning of crime bosses, the dread of killing of your enemies, and then you see Batman kicking arse. Everything about this movie screams why didn't you consider this for Best Picture!

That all aside, the key reason to this movie, is sadly no longer with us. The talent that was Heath Ledger. OH MY GOD. The young guy brought everything he had in his arsenal to this role of The Joker. He well and truly deserved the Best Supporting Actor Role ( I say BEST ACTOR Oscar should've been his) he took the movie to a whole different level. He was scary, spooky, funny ( ta DA!) and most importantly, grabbed the whole reason of what The Joker is, Chaos.

2: THE GODFATHER & GODFATHER Part2

I can't choose between these two, because if Godfather was never made, every single Crime/gangster, drama movie would never of been made. The year Godfather came out, Hollywood was dying. It needed money, no films were being made to the extent they are now, and only a few had a million dollar budget.

Then Godfather came out. Blew everyone away, the story, the characters, the murder montage at the end, Michael going completely against his family wishes of joining the family business, but then when his father is gun downed, he becomes more ruthless than anyone could possibly of imagined.

Godfather Part 2 is the possibly the greatest sequel ever made. Considering that this movie is ACTUALLY the middle and end of Godfather the novel is truly world class. A 6 and a half hour masterpiece, watch it in 1 go, and you will be blown away.

Again this movie was great with the story telling, Michael wanting to go legit to save his marriage, the whole betrayal plot, and the part that no one, ever would've seen coming, the killing of his own brother.

Truly spectacular.

DRUM ROLL PLEASSSSSSSSE.......

1: HEAT

Heat, in my eyes, is the single most complete film I have ever seen. It is art, it's not a movie, it's a film. A true work of greatness by Michael Mann.

it's a simple story of Cops & Robbers. But it is told in such a finesse way, that you want to spend your days with both sides, seeing how they cope with everyday life, how they plan their jobs, both catching the criminal and executing the crime.

We see the story unfold through 6 different people, all interwinding into one big finale that is explosive and heart wrenching.

Neil Mcaulay and Vincent hanna are the teo greatest characters to grace the silver screen. Exactly the same person, but different person as well. They both want to be, and are, the best at their jobs, but Hanna has trouble balancing his work life with his personal life, the two are merged together. While Mcaulay on the other hand, doesn't have a personal life, as he sees that it interfers with his work, until he is finally brought down to Earth by the Lovely Edy.

The film has a 2 hours and 43 min running time, and not once, does it slow down or make you fell bored. The film is on going, the plot is driven forward by many many little things you need to know about the characters.

The Bank heist is the single most epic gunfight you will ever see on film. The 11 minute shootout, epically filmed in downtown LA, let's you hear every single gunshot, the echoing round the buildings, and the confrontation at the end, between Hanna and Mcaulay, is the heart wrenching when you realize this isn't going to go how you want it.

The key aspect of this film, is to see that both sides of the law have rules, they both have loved ones they care about and that is what matters the most, family.


Well that is my top 10 people. Hope you all enjoyed the read and look out for my movies next year! LOL

Sunday 13 February 2011

The Dark Knight Rises people!

Hey bloggers, sorry for the long lay off inbetween posts.

Let's get this thing off to a good start, Let's talk about the major news over the last few weeks in the movie world.
The casting of The Dark Knight Rises. The casting of Anne Hathaway as "Selina Kyle", in my eyes, is perfect casting. She has the looks, the body and best of all for a Nolan flick, acting chops. Alot of people out there are putting her acting down, but the girl can act. She was outstanding in Valentine's Day and The Devil Wears Prada.
I think she will bring a certain aroma to the role, which Michelle Pfeiffer didn't. Don't get me wrong, Michelle WAS the Catwoman, but Anne has a certain look that echoes the comics of Catwoman.

At the moment there is no concrete evidence, that Anne is playing Catwoman. Nolan has only confirmed that she is playing Selina Kyle. if this is true, I think it's a fantastic echo of the comics as Selina Kyle is actually a member of Carmine Falcone's family.

This would tie in wonderfully with Batman Begins, almost bringing the story full circle ( which Nolan has gone on recorded saying that he only came back to do the 3rd, is that he can CLOSE the story on Batman, if it was good enough.)

Also on the cast is Tom hardy. We all knew he was cast way back in November, but nobody knew who he was going to portray. There were rumours saying he was going to play Black Mask, DR Hugo Strange, Killer Croc, DeadShot and various others. But no one said anything about Bane, which is who he is playing.

Now Bane was mentioned in a post way back in October over at Batman-on-film. And Jett also had an idea that was the character he was playing. ( My money was on Black Mask).

Anyway, this is going to be a villian that CAN match up to the brilliant Heath Ledger (R.I.P) who has probably played the greatest onscreen villian in I don't know how many years. ( since Darth Vader, maybe?) Tom Hardy is a fantastic actor who loses himself in the role ( Christian Bale anyone?) So when these two go at it on the screen, and it will happen, it is going to be spectacular. If We see the film unfold as the comics unfold, we shall see Bane take over the underworld ( he may already be top dog, we won't find out till next year) and end with him breaking the Bat. Which I can't see happening, So we'll probably get a real brutal fight between the two, half way through the film, then have Batman come back and put Bane to rest. ( Hence the title The Dark Knight Rises).
All in all, this could turn out to be the best of Nolan's trilogy. He has a vast amount of history to play with, maybe even rewrite it. All I know is that come July 2012, I will be in line to see the biggest movie event of next year.