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

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.

3D, is it the future of cinema or just a cash cow for the foreseeable future?

Hey all, Back again for the 2nd time in a 1 week, man I got to get out more. Going back on my last post about how bad the final installment of the saw series was bad and just plain ugly 3D, has brought me to take a look at the way 3D is dominating the cinema at the moment.

3D is a gimmick. I know this, you know this, hell even James Cameron has spoken out about how bad the recent flood of "3D" movies are. I put the 3D in " " because he is on about the recent trend of transfering 3D in post production.

The biggest casualty of this phenom, is Clash Of The Titans. One of the worst movies of the year in my opinion, and one of the worst throwing the 3D sign around. This movie is not 3D, it wasn't made in 3D and the process of 3D took them round a month. This is not the best way to do a 3D movie. Warner Bros. spent nearly $170 million on Clash, if they were throwing that type of money around, why didn't they just make the movie IN 3D? Now that would've been an experience.

Imagine if this scene in the movie, when Sam Worthington's character is on the flying horse, going in and out of the Krackens grasps, was filmed in 3D, like Avatar was, it would've been jaw dropping. But no, Warner Bros. just decided to do post 3D which is a movie killer.

This gets back to the last post of SAW3D, a movie that was made in 3D, and didn't even use it to it's advantages. Imagine how one of the traps would look, circular saws, hanging bodies etc coming towards you.

Out of the recent trend of movies that are in 3D, My favourite is Avatar, ovbiously this would be the top choice as it is the first actual 3D full length extravaganza experience. Yeah yeah it got the old pocahantas story, but it is told in a exciting way.

When the movie kicked in, it was a kick to the senses of what a 3D movie could be. When this scene, the first time that Jake is attracted by the plants and flowers and the tree of souls offspring, was just, wow.

Number 2 onwards is Resident Evil Afterlife and Monsters Vs Aliens. No story what so ever in these movies, but just pure fun. And in December we have Tron Legacy. Which will be a full on fun flick, which just looks amazing.

And from next year, we have nearly every single movie coming out in 3D. Let's just hope the powers that be, will actually learn that the only way to have a fun 3D movie, is to actually have a fun 3D movie, not convert it, but film it.

Cheers for the read,

SAW series COP OUT

I've just seen the "Final chapter" of the Saw series, "SAW 3D", and in my opinion, is one of the worst in the series. I will will be going into spoiler terrority here, so if you don't want to know what happens, Then stop reading and go read something else.

The movie started out quite good with the opening trap in 3D. It was a very innovative way of not over using 3D but using it for the gruesome parts, EG blood and intestines flying at the screen. Then the movie started to take the downfall off using cliche after cliche and then ending with the worst cop out in the series.

First of all, bringing back DR GORDON from the first movie, was a really cool idea, 3 movies ago! The online forums was talking about this idea in 2006/07.

The game this movie round was also a bit crap, to put it nicely. Each trap wasn't thought out.

This is how I think the pre production meeting went.

INT. OFFICE - DAY

As the production team quickly flick through the finished pages of the current version of SAW 3D Kevin, the director, BURSTS through the door.

KEVIN:
Since you spoilt my chance of directing a decent flick in Paranormal activity 2, I am going to ruin your final chapter in this ludacris series of films, that should've ended after the 3rd!

The room goes deathly silent.

KEVIN:
I am going to use no imagination when me and the team are designing the traps! you want 3D, Well I'm going to give you spikes and sharp objects coming at you! No no no not flying at you, but moving YOU towards them! How amazing is that for 3D! And, for the big finally, were not going to do nothing! So you'll have to keep on making more of this movies and you won't hire me cause I'm going to wreck this baby!


The team jump out their seats, applauding and whooping.


END

There was a few moments when I thought, "Okay, this may get a bit better, or their toying with us for the big surprise twist",

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read on if you don't want to know what the "big surprise" is.








Right, since your still reading on, your either , A) you've seen it B) don't mind about spoilers or C) you don't give a shit.

Being the final chapter in a series which started off with a film that was being touted as the next SE7EN, with it's cracking thriller storyline, and very innovative editing, and a slight amount of gore, and has gradually gone down the more gore and gruesome way of film making, and up until saw IV has had pretty decent twists at the end, BUT nothing can top the twist in the first movie. When you found out that JOHN KRAMER (JIGSAW) was in the room with them the entire time as "The Corpse" was mind blowing. No one saw it coming.

The second and third movies had really good twists, but then when the writing was taking over by a team of writers from SAW IV onwards (who only got the gig cause they won a tv show, was a dumb idea).

They kind of had a good twist with SAW IV, but then kind of ran out of ideas. On to SAW 3D, the twist at the ending was a no shocker. Having JILL TUCK locked up in a police cell for her protection, but have HOFFMAN get to her anway, was a lame idea, atleast we FINALLY got to see what the reverse bear trap does to a human skull! Goodbye JILL!

Then the ending starts. After HOFFMAN kills JILL, he returns to his hideout, burns the entire thing down and then we see him get jumped by three people wearing the PIG MASK. We don't see two of the faces, but the one who takes his mask off, it's no other than DR GORDON.

it then goes through the entire series in flashbacks, say DR GORDON has been helping JIGSAW all the time, because he saw'd his own foot off and that he showed he had what it takes. I mean COME ON!!! when SAW II was released, EVERYONE was saying that the limping guy in the camera footage at the beginning was DR GORDON, Did these guys just look up on the web and say "Whoa! we can use that and say we came up with that, and it was our whole plan all along!"

After we see the flashback footage, were then back in the Bathroom from the first film, it began there, so it might aswell end there, right?

DR GORDON then leaves HOFFMAN, chained up and has thrown the hacksaw into the tunnel, Then says GAME OVER and closes the door leaving HOFFMAN to waste away like ADAM.

This was the worst way they could end this series of movies. I mean you had a really good thriller/horror trilogy then decided to make more just so you can make money. If you were really considering to make 4 more, then you should've actually mapped out a story that could've flowed from one another to a massive twist ending in SAW VII ( now 3D)

Like having JOHN KRAMER ( JIGSAW ) actually be a pawn in someone elses game. A higher power so to speak. Maybe just leave it like an episode of Inspector gadget, where all you see is a hand turn off a bank of video monitors, who has been watching every single game played out, but never show who was watching the monitors, leave it to the audience to make up their own mind or who it was.

It was just a major let down for a series that started so promising for 3 movies, then just fell like the nightmare, Halloween and Friday 13th series'.

Well thats my short analysis of the SAW series started out great, and how much of a let down the final movies were.

I just hope they leave it now, and not make anymore. But leaving HOFFMAN alive and DR GORDON the living heir to JIGSAW'S legacy, leaves it open for more trash to make money off.

LIONSGATE, if you do decide to make another 1 or 3, Give me a shout and i'll show you how to make a trilogy that will live up, or even surpass the original trilogy.


This has been a production from DANIEL T WOOD, up and coming screenwriter who loves the movies and wants entertaining and sometime's a thought provoking experience, WHICH I DELIVER in my scripts.

Scripts in progress.

Well it's been a while since I've been on here. Been busy trying to get my work seen, aswell as actually working to pay the bills :-( life really does suck when your not doing the things you love.

1st thing, I've just recently seen the Edgar Wright directed, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD. My opinion? Totally amazingly, awesomest (is that a word?) most surreal movie event this year! The movie rocked my senses until my face was aching from smiling and laughing.

Right, main reason for this blog, at this momment in time, I am looking for people to read my wor, give me feedback etc. I'm working on a trilogy of B movie styles called BAD JESUS. If you want to know more, drop me a line at dannywood86@hotmail.co.uk

Just completed my 4th draft of my 2nd story in the Dark World trilogy. I got a thing going on at the mo with trilogies. Some reason I like trilogies and think movies work better in this format. Especially if you got tons of back story or ideas floating around and not enough room in your first story.


Woody out

Free Speech for the dumb!

Revolution Muslims, a small extremist group out of New York city, which is now under the guidance of an idiot called, Abu TalHah Al-Amrikee. Man that is a long ass name. Let's shorten it and call him Muhammed.

Muhammed has been making threats to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, for supposedly making fun of their "Prophet" Muhammed. Now this is just childish from this guy and in my opinion just doing cheap publicity for his extreme website, and it's worked. Look at me, I'm writing a blog about it!

Well now the shit has hit the fan. Everywhere you look people are against this man. Every muslim asks why are they portrayed as terrorists, bad people etc. Well this guy is there spokesperson.

Congratufuckinglations Muslim religion, this guy has just made you the biggest hate figure on the planet. Now I know not all Muslims are like this, I have a few friends who are believe in this faith, and I'm not against them, I have nothing against religion, but People like this muhammed, is making people think that you are terrorists, your are how we see you in movies.

This group is not a true believer in religion, they are making the religion how they want to see it. They are twisting the book to their needs.

I've also found out that the address and phone number on their site is a foney, goes to show how brave they are.

You know what, this is going into a full blown rant now.

All these extremists say they are doing it for allah, blah blah, and they are proud of doing it, then why cover their faces when they kill someone? Why use a mask to cover your face? Because your nothing but scared boys. Not men, Boys. Using women and children to kill people is wrong, your god would be very disappointed in you all. You know what, in your "great" book, it does not condone violence upon anyone.

Right, that's the end of this one.