Film 100 - Badlands

What can I say.

I've done it.

Film 99 - The Lady Vanishes

I watched most of it, and I'm pretty sure that counts.

Film 98 - Kes

Having previously read the book the film was good, and in many ways following the vision of the original... but maybe just because I read it first, it just seemed like the film was rehashing the same story, an excellent one, but one I'd heard before.

The football scene was just as, if not more funny, as in the book though.

Film 97 - Love Actually

What's better than one love story? About twenty love stories.

That's why Love Actually holds the joint top spot with 500 Days of Summer in rom-com-ville.

How can you chose the best one out of them? The prime minister and a member of his staff, the two stand ins who find themselves standing in on a sex scene from some movies or another before their first date, or possibly my personal favourite, the 11 year old who's found the 'one.'

Film 96 - Lost in Translation

I should really stop watching so many good films, so many really awe-inspiring films. I honestly don't know where to put this film... is it brilliant, or simply great.

Bill Murray, Scarlet Johansson just have one of the greatest connections, the understanding between the two makes the film great. At times, nothing was said for nearly a minute, but both acted with understated brilliance.

Film 95 - My Best Friend's Wedding

90s romantic comedy for me next, a film that delivered less than 500 Days of Summer but more than How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Therefore, a reasonably good but not great film.

Film 94 - Cloverfield

Another apocalyptic type film, this time with a huge great monster type thingy.

It was all shot on hand-held camera, giving it that sort of Blair Witch Project type feel.

Good film.

Film 93 - 28 Days Later

Another zombie thriller/horror type film, full of suspense, atmosphere but also touching moments.

I would place it on a level with I Am Legend, two different but just as brilliant apocalyptic films.

Film 92 - Flushed Away

To be honest, I watched it because it was short.

Mildly entertaining, thinly plotted, but with some funny moments (mostly slapstick)

Film 91 - Blades Of Glory

I like sports films, so I knew why I liked Blades of Glory. It wasn't a great film, but it was funny despite the fact it was pretty formulaic.

Film 90 - I Am Legend

What a film, what a brilliant performance from Will Smith, what suspense, what atmosphere, what sadness. 

One of the best films of the year, without question. I will write more later, because this really does deserve more.

Film 89 - Happy Feet

This film grew on me immensely up until the point that Mumble was taken to the zoo and almost lost his voice trying to get his point across.

If the film had ended at that point it would have been heartbreakingly sad but also heartbreakingly true to life, but the 15 final minutes just feel like an unrealistic and tacked on happy ending.

Film 88 - Johnny Mnemonic

Just a bad film, and that's all there is to it. A contender for worst film of the year because of the wooden acting, awful dialogue, lack of coherent plot and almost complete pointlessness.

If Logan's Run was an example of good sci-fi, this was an example of terrible sci-fi that really insults the audience's intelligence.

Film 87 - Logans Run

I am a sci-fi fan, and I do like films which are set in the future and introduce a new element to society. Logan's Run's element was the fact that everybody in the sealed society has a palm device thingy which tells them in no uncertain terms that their time is up once they reach thirty. 

One of those sci-fi films which probably could have been better than it was, it could have been a great film but it ended up only being a good film, verging on very good.

Film 86 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit

This was the quintessential film of two halves, the first which I couldn't quite get into despite some decent moments, but somehow it metamorphosed into a really funny film, which did to the world of cartoons what Shrek did to fairy tales and Singing in the Rain did to musicals.

That was a little thing called satire, but a friendly slightly bizarre satire on the world of 1950s Hollywood during the era of the Looney Tunes cartoons, but bringing the characters or 'toons' into the real world with hilarious results. 

Film 85 - Shrek 3

I had seen the first two Shrek films and the third one follows the same sort of formula: subverting the fairy tale stereotypes, a few laughs and generally just a laid back hour and a half of light entertainment.

Just like Singing in the Rain, it's the perfect Christmas film because it works on adult and child levels and doesn't really demand that either think too much.

Film 84 - Singing in the Rain

What can I say that probably hasn't been said before?

Nothing. It's just a classic and one of those films that you have to watch at Christmas.

Film 83 - The Waterboy

As I have five films I've watched over Christmas to review, I'm going to be brief.

I liked the Waterboy to an extent, the extent being that it was a sporting underdog story. Other than that, it wasn't that great, and Adam Sandler was laughable in that there seemed to be no reason for his stupid acting which detracted hugely from the film.

Film 82 - Evan Almighty

Not quite as good as Bruce Almighty, mainly because Steve Carrell is not quite as good as Jim Carrey.

But then again... who is?

Film 81 - Honey I Shrunk The Kids

The perfect film for a lazy Sunday afternoon... and even though it was a Wednesday today I wasn't after a taxing or intellectually challenging film.

And I didn't get one.

Film 80 - Looking for Eric

I really did like this film, unlike the previous one I watched, it was funny, a little bit grim and tremendously strange.

And sometime, that's how I like my films.

Film 79 - How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Since my computer is right next to my TV, I'm going to put up my impressions of films I watch on there during each advert break.

First Break: Rom-coms are supposed to make you laugh, right? Well I haven't even got near a chuckle so far, but the set up is decent and offers the chance of some laughs later.

Second Break: Slightly funnier I suppose, but nothing that actually made me laugh. It's all been pretty bland so far.

Third Break: Funnier again, the only part of the film so far I've actually enjoyed, still think it's a fairly average film,  and I can predict the ending already: They both find out about their respective agendas, split up in anger, then get back together and realise they love each other.

Fourth Break: Less funny, and a bit too easy, the way that they both suddenly fell in love with each other. There just wasn't enough difficulty in it for my liking, the whole films been a bit too glossy. All the rom-coms I've liked this year have just seemed more real than this (500 Days, Chasing Amy)

End: Just didn't quite make it for me, the fact that I could predict the ending, the massive plot hole of them being mad at each other for doing exactly the same thing.

Film 78 - Die Hard

It took me a while to get into Die Hard, considering the fact that I don't normally like action movies, I was quite surprised that in the end, I really did quite like this.

I think the operative word here is "quite." It's not in my top ten, or even top twenty films, but I reckon it will be in and around the final fifty when I do my final analysis.

Film 77 - Back to the Future Part 3

I'm starting to get into the home stretch, the last twenty movies or so until I can say I've done the seemingly impossible, and watched around 80 movies in under 4 months. 

So my reviews are going to get a little shorter...

Very good second sequel, much better than most, and featuring my favourite thing ever, a steam locomotive time machine. 

Film 76 - I Love You Phillip Morris

Maybe it's because I was very tired, but I didn't love this film like I thought I would. In many ways, I didn't like it at all.

There were parts of the film that I really liked, the original time that Steven and Phillip met in prision, was cute and funny. The part when it seemed like Steven was dying of AIDS was heartbreakingly sad, but both of these good things were ruined by their counterparts: the bad things.

The bad things were the fact that the movie glossed over major things, like about five prison escapes. I also didn't like the end and the fact that Steven faked dying of AIDS, but I guess that's unavoidable, this being a true story.

Film 75 - Back to the Future Part II

I wouldn't say it was quite as good as the original, but it's certainly better than most films about time travel, just because the characters (unchanged from the first film) are so good, so funny and are in a pretty well written storyline.

Again, I wouldn't say it was as good as the first, but sequels never are.

Film 74 - Yes Man

I liked it, because when you look as it, it's impossible to actually dislike a film with Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel (especially Zooey, she's lovely)

The whole idea saying yes to everything (taken from the book by Danny Wallace) is one that gives so many possibilities. Carl learns Korean, how to play the guitar, gets into a bar fight, falls in love, and does thousands of other things including a frankly disturbing scene which I can't bring myself to actually mention.

Suffice to say, if you watch it, you'll know what scene I mean. 

Film 73 - A Scanner Darkly

I don't know what it was trying to say to me, the animation confused me, I was tired, the plot didn't seems to make sense.

I laboured through it, even a 20 minute phase towards the end which I quite liked, I didn't have the concentration. It was too spacey, my eyes and my brain couldn't keep up.

Film 72 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

It's a bit different to the book, but I enjoyed it, mainly down to the fact that it - like the the books, and doubtlessly like the radio and TV series' -  is brilliantly written.

I had heard bad things about the film before, that it wasn't true to the original radio series or the books. I can't really comment on that, but as itself, it is a really good film.

It helps that all the characters are perfectly cast, almost exactly as I'd imagined, especially Arthur Dent being played by Martin Freeman and Zooey Deschanel how I imagined Trillian too.

Film 71 - The Matrix

Just like Blade Runner, it's a masterpiece which at times is impossible to follow. To be fair, it made a lot more sense most of the time, but at times near the end I just didn't get it.

You can't deny that it's a masterpiece though, and another film that I'm glad I got round to watching.

Film 70 - Hard Candy

About the most disturbing film I have ever had the fortune/misfortune to see. It tricks with your emotions so well, as you start by believing that Jeff (the paedophile) deserves what's coming to him, but as the torture increases you start to realise how much of a psychopath - 14 year old - Hayley is.

It's one of the most insane films ever, 14 year old girl seduces - not that he needed seducing - paedophile before drugging him and torturing him. A particularly nasty segment comes when she pretends to castrate him whilst he's tied up. Neither him nor the audience know that she hasn't actually done it until he manages to free himself.

Hard Candy is one of those films that it's impossible to love, difficult to even like, and may even make you wish you hadn't watched it. But it will make you think.

Film 69 - Smart People

It failed to rivet me, having the same problem as so many 'comedy-drama' films: it wasn't funny enough and it wasn't dramatic enough.

Few films can pull off this lack of anything on the surface that makes you love it, and those are the ones that have an awful lot underneath. Smart People, just like the Royal Tenenbaums, failed to pull off this ultra-indie style of film.

FIlm 68 - Sliding Doors

Another really good film, with a concept that fascinated me, and given that it was built around getting or not getting on to a tube train, and the alternative realities that followed.

Symmetry was something that was obvious throughout the film, as similar things happened in both universes to slightly different effects and at slightly different times.

The best moments in this film came towards the end of the film, it was an unashamed rom-com throughout with an interesting uniqueness, so towards the end came the point which was most interesting in both ways, with the better reality dying but it looking like in the end almost being resurrected, which also had a brilliant symmetry to  it.

Film 67 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Another superlative comedy film, surpassing the other John Hughes film I've watched this year for laughs but maybe not for emotional impact.

Still, it isn't a film to be dismissed as a cheap laugh, there are some genuinely profound moments amongst the crazy madcap stuff that goes on.

EDIT: Actually it's the third John Hughes film I've seen this year... I didn't know he wrote and produced Home Alone.

Film 66 - Shallow Hal

One of those movies that had more than you'd see on the surface. If you look at it shallowly you see a comedy about fat people and good looking people and how one who sees himself as the latter eventually finds a way to see past looks and love a fat person.

The other way of looking at is is that it's a very funny film that contains some important debates about what beauty is and how judgemental our society is.

I prefer to look at it the latter way, but any right thinking person should find thinking about it that way deeply uncomfortable. And that's a good thing.

Film 65 - Slumdog Millionaire

A brilliant, sad, feel-good, moving, heart-warming - there aren't enough adjectives - film.  Simply blew me away with the emotions it made me feel, the quality of the storyline.

Possibly the best Danny Boyle film in this list (the fourth that I've watched) and given that they are all brilliant films, that is a high accolade.

The moment with the cricket question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, would have worked better if I hadn't known the answer (therefore knowing the host was tricking him).

N.B. Second Danny Boyle film to feature toilet diving. Urgh!

Film 64 - Sherlock Holmes

Not really my sort of film, coupled with the fact that I was sitting in a rather uncomfortable position most of the way through.

It was too actiony, and I couldn't concentrate on it for long enough to understand the plot that well.

Film 63 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

So, I finally got fed up of being one of those people who'd never seen Star Wars. I think I'll get through the other two in the original trilogy and probably give the prequels a miss.

I liked it and I can see why it became a classic, the characters, the effects and the storyline were all very well done and it's full of classic moments and quotes. 

I don't think I really need to go over the plot... evil empire v rebels etc., since you probably all know it already, and I am aware that I am 33 years behind in seeing one of the great cultural phenomenons, but to be fair, I've only been alive for 18 of those years.

Film 62 - The 39 Steps

Classic thriller, from Hitchcock and the earliest film in this list. To its credit, it doesn't seem any older than Citizen Kane or Casablanca and has aged very well, simply because it is a great story, full of twists and turns and great moments of dialogue.

The main character Richard Hannay had his fair share of great lines, my favourite being when seeing some sheep blocking the road "Hello, what are we stopping for? Oh, it's a whole flock of detectives"

Film 61 - V for Vendetta

A breathtaking revolutionary film, that ranks among the best films I've seen this year. V's character is brilliantly morally ambiguous and gives rise to so many questions and thoughts that it would be impossible to chronicle them in one blog-post.

Suffice to say, I'm finding it difficult to judge V and whether he was a lunatic or a genius, and it seems that the best answer is that he was on that thin line between genius and insanity. Evey however was an easier character to work out but was just as compelling, and Stephen Fry's character (who seemed much like I imagine Fry to be himself) was also well portrayed.

I particularly liked V's opening monologue full of v words, the fact that even though it went on for two hours, the plot was constantly progressing, and the twist at the end of Evey's captivity was completely impossible to predict.

I did shed a small tear when Evey read the letter in her cell and reached the moment when the writer says "I love you." That was just heartbreaking, as was the kiss between V and Evey at the end of the film.

I could go on, there was just so many good things about this film, but I fear I'm rambling, and so I shall wrap it up with this: A serious contender for No.1.

Film 60 - Citizen Kane

Parts of the film were utterly enthralling and it certainly seems like an innovative film in its time, but despite the fact that I can see why it is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever, I don't love it. I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it.

Maybe it's a young person's bias against older films, or something else I didn't quite get. I still think the film is a masterpiece and the final scene truly breathtaking. The narrative structure Orson Wells uses is innovative for the time and especially compared to other old films I've seen such as Casablanca.

In the 'Old film' stakes I'd say it ranks behind Casablanca and a long way ahead of Heaven Can Wait, but it is undoubtedly more ambitious than either of those too and despite the fact I couldn't quite love it, I found it a tremendously intriguing and brilliant film.

Film 59 - Back To The Future

One of the most thoroughly entertaining films so far, in fact one of the best, and one of very few films on the list that I've got totally absorbed in and never once thought about how long it had been going, consequently the near two hours flew by.

It's a shame in a way that I'd already seen the film parodied in numerous other shows, but then that also did enhance in some ways my enjoyment of some of the most famous moments, like the Jonny B Goode sequence and the phone call to Chuck Berry.

Doc Brown may well be my favourite character in anything ever, and certainly the best mad scientist ever written, and Marty McFly may well be the coolest person in the entirety of the 80s. Put, simply a masterpiece and a hugely lasting piece of pop culture that continues to be referenced to this day, even by people who've never seen it. Just brilliant.

Film 58 - Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I really did like this, the setup was pure comic farce, the recently dumped guy decides to go on holiday and ends up not only in the same place, but in the same hotel as his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. The rest of the movie was pretty funny, and easy to watch but never quite hilarious.

Still, there were many good things about this film, Jason Segel as Pete, Mila Kunis' role as Rachel, Russel Brand as Aldous Snow is hilarious and the three of them along with Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall, really have a good comic connection.

The only problem was resisting the urge to think of Jason Segel's character as Marshall (Erikson) but he does put in a different sort of performance to his character in How I Met Your Mother

FIlm 57 - Garden State

Zach Braff's directorial debut also shows him in a new light in front of the camera. Writing, directing and starring in a movie means that it's basically all him, and he deserves to take most of the credit for a quirky, but hearfelt, genuinely thought provoking and at times depressing film.

Braff plays twenty-something actor Andrew Largeman whose life is just a haze of prescription medication and who hasn't felt any real emotion in years. When going back to his home-town for his mother's funeral, he comes off medication and slowly - with the help of the eccentric compulsive liar Sam - begins to feel some emotion again.

The brilliance of this film is just in the slow transformation of Largeman, who at the beginning has no reaction at all the news of his mother(who he accidently paralysed)'s death but by the end is able to tell Sam that he loves her... and all this in about a week.

Film 56 - Hamlet

An excellent RSC production of the classic play, adapted into a 3 hour TV film, and starring the incomparable David Tennant as the title character and Patrick Stewart as King Claudius and the ghost of the former King Hamlet.

The quality of the plot and writing is obviously beyond doubt, so what makes this a really good film for me is the quality of the acting and direction. Not just the normal cinematic direction but the costume, set and emphasis that you only get with the theatre.

Previous versions of Hamlet have always been either film or theatre, so this being a hybrid of the two really works, giving it the authenticity of the shows theatrical run along with all the benefits that come with the medium of film.

Film 55 - Magicians

I had high expectations for this comedy, what with Mitchell and Webb starring, a host of other brilliant British comedy actors and actresses being involved and the script having been written by the writers of the excellent Peep Show. Those expectations were not let down, Mitchell and Webb managed to play off their brilliant comedic partnership whilst playing new but similar characters to those they had before.

The supporting cast - including Peter Capaldi and Jessica Stevenson - was excellent as suspected and the writing was just as good, including a brilliant final twist, perfectly set up.

It's just really good to watch two successive really good British films, it seems there is hope for the industry here after all.

Film 54 - Trainspotting

The third Danny Boyle film I've seen this year, and it far surpasses Sunshine and as for Shallow Grave... well I can't separate the two. 

You could see watching it how Boyle's direction had progressed since Shallow Grave, the film was shot brilliantly and the post-production work gave it all a very real, grimey feel. Ewan McGregor gave the best performance  in the film as Renton although Robert Carlyle is very convincing as the psychopath Begbie.

It was just a really great film, and I know I say this about a lot of films, but it's got to rank highly in my end of year list.

Film 53 - Soylent Green

I thought it was a good film, but with one fatal flaw, I'd worked out that Soylent Green was made out of people before halfway. That kinda took the suspense out of it, but I am a dystopian film/fiction fan so I did enjoy this. The concepts were all thought provoking and the situations believable.

One of the parts I liked the most was the ending, perfectly scripted and an action ending, rather than like in too many films which go on a little longer than they should. There were parts of the storyline I didn't quite get, but that didn't bother me too much and certainly didn't spoil a pretty damn good film.

Film 52 - Home Alone

Family Christmas fare despite the fact that it's only November... and it's a (cliché I know) film of two halves.

The first half, I really disliked, I saw nothing interesting or funny, Macaualy Culkin was just annoying and the film just wasn't going anywhere at all.

Then came the burglars, awfully acted but the perfect victims of Kevin's booby traps, resulting in some hilarious physical comedy and a surprisingly good second half of the film, and the fact that the latter part was better makes this a passable family comedy.

Film 51 - Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

One of those films that didn't have to make a huge point about anything, it was just content with being hilarious. Sometimes that's a very admirable goal, so the film includes smoking pot with the president, getting pissed on by a member of the KKK, a bottomless (as opposed to a topless) party, an inbred cyclops freak and a show stealing cameo by everyone's favourite (and actually gay) druggie womaniser... none other than one of my favourite people ever Neil Patrick Harris.

Harris's cameo including hallucinating a unicorn and branding a prostitute might actually make it even better than the brief cameo by Bill Murray in Zombieland

Not many films in this list had more laughs than Harold & Kumar, so much so that the frankly ridiculous storyline didn't matter.

Film 50 - The Royal Tenenbaums

I don't think this Wes Anderson directed comedy is a bad film, I just didn't get into it. Sometimes that happens, there was nothing that I particularly liked about it, or even particularly disliked...

...

Sorry.

Film 49 - There's Something About Mary

Goofy romantic comedy with Ben Stiller, not a bad film but not going to get into the top films of the year. It seems like it punched below its weight, it seems like it could have been better but was still a decent film.

The story is, Ted gets a prom date with Mary in high school but an accident involving his flies and a certain dangly appendage kills that. Fourteen years later he's still obsessed with her, problem is everyone else who runs into her seems to fall in love with her too.

The annoying thing for me was that it wasn't as funny as it was billed to be, it's often rated in top comedy films lists and although it was funny, it wasn't hilarious, and that's annoying.

Film 48 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

The blackest of comedies, but also one of the funniest. An unhinged US General launches a unilateral nuclear strike against the USSR during the middle of the Cold War, and the rest of the film deals with the president and his men trying to clear up the mess along with the men of a B-52 bomber carrying out the strike.

This maybe wouldn't seem like it would have the makings of a great comedy, but it really delivers, the brilliance of it being in the absurdity of it all and the satire on the Cold War period. There are many great lines but if I had to pick one out to end this blogpost on it would be:

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

Film 47 - Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Before I launch into a long blog extolling the virtues of something I've watched many times I'd like to add a disclaimer: Yes I know this isn't a feature film, but I consider it a short film as although it was originally released as a mini-series on the internet, it's now on DVD, and I've always watched it as one thing, not three parts.

With that out the way I can get on to the brilliance of the show, a musical tragicomedy about a super-villain, his arch nemesis and the girl he loves.

There are just so many great things about Dr. Horrible, the characters are all brilliantly acted, we have a superhero and a super-villain and somehow we all empathise with the villain. The plot line is great and the songs all brilliant, the ending is just gut-wrenchingly sad and the comedy permeates everything from Captain Hammer: "These are not the hammer.... the hammer is my penis" to Neil Patrick Harris's exquisite comic timing.

One of my favourite things ever, not just films... things.

EDIT: This isn't really Film 47, it should have been either 6 or 7 as I saw it around that time first, but it's easier putting it at 47 than re jigging the whole order.

Film 46 - Zack and Miri Make a Porno

In two words: Unexpectedly good. Sure there were things wrong, things I would have done differently and the overall concept was shaky at best.

The scenes when they were actually making the porno weren't the best, but Zack and Miri's love scene showed why sex in the movies is better than sex in porn... insinuating what's happening rather than showing it outright (and better acting than some of the half-arsed attempts in the rest of the shooting of their porno).

So, it was one of those films that was greater than the sum of its parts, even the things done badly didn't ruin it, and the things done well (like the ending and some really brilliant comic timing throughout) made up for it.

Film 45 - Zombieland

This definitely ranks in my top two zombie comedies of all time, and it's very difficult to seperate it from the equally brilliant Shaun of the Dead.

The two films are very different though, Zombieland puts more of a focus on action than Shaun ever did, but in their very different ways they are equally funny. As well as being funny the film does have an emotional core to it and the developing friendship and comradeship between the four wanderers is a nice touch.

All the dialogue is razor sharp and the almost insane violence of Tallahassee is just great, making this a simply brilliant film.

Film 44 - Groundhog Day

A real contender for film of the year, because it just shows how much can go on in a day, and in doing so dealt with one of my pet obsessions, the idea of eternity; a personal eternity.

There's a theory of films that I once read that stated that every film could have one 'gimme' where anything is allowed, and after that things would have to make sense. This film's gimme is the idea that Phil Connors is stuck in one day that he must have relived thousands of times. He tries to kill himself, he spends months depressed, months seeking Rita's love, tricking people and learning to play the piano.

He had his own personal eternity, I always thought I would love that. The difference is that when I always imagined it, I could stop it and return to reality any time I want, he couldn't and that was the crucial difference.

Maybe another difference is the fact I know what I'd do with my own personal eternity, and he didn't.

Would you?

Film 43 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Another brilliant comedy by the Python collective who literally cannot be unfunny, whereas Life of Brian had more of a satirical edge to it, the Holy Grail is just pure comedy, tempered with some satire but less defined by it.

If I have to explain why it's funny you shouldn't be reading this, you should be watching it. Explaining such a great comedy film is like dissecting a frog...

Film 42 - Driving Miss Daisy

From a blood and guts gore-fest, to a touching comedy-drama starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman. Driving Miss Daisy does have several similarities to another film with Tandy in that I've seen (Fried Green Tomatoes) in that it explores the racial issues in the south of America and does it in a thought-provoking and really touching way.

Everything is just really well done on the film, Tandy and Freeman play their roles with aplomb and special praise has to go to Hans Zimmer for creating a distinctive and stylish soundtrack.

The story just has a great flow to it, and gradually with the help of Hoke we start to see the cold shell retreat from Daisy and a great friendship is established. One of those truly heart-warming films

Film 41 - Saw VI

Well, to be completely honest, I've got no idea what happened in this film. I didn't think it would have much of a storyline and the copious amounts of alcohol I consumed before watching it with my flatmates kinda took the shock factor away.

The film only just gets onto this blog, because despite the fact that I was sitting watching it, my attention span was so limited I can never remember watching it for more than five minutes at a time without me or someone else interrupting.

Film 40 - All the President's Men

If Ace in the Hole was an exposure of the very worst in journalism, All the President's Men was a celebration of all the very best.

Woodward and Bernstein's investigation may have been one of the finest works of investigative journalism of all time, and the two hours plus of this film seems to just scratch the surface of the monumental effort that must have been put in by the two reporters. Still, it was a marvellous piece of entertaining cinema, and told expertly the story of the first part of the investigation, the hard work before the conspiracy began to unravel.

It could almost be a documentary such was its commitment to the truth and reality of the discovering of the story, but unlike some documentaries it was constantly engaging, one of the films that you simply can't look away from, can't take your eyes or mind away from it. Simply brilliant.

Film 39 - Heaven Can Wait

Not a bad film, this 40s comedy, but not nearly funny or interesting enough to get towards the top of my list. It's the second film from the 40s that I've watched this year, and Casablanca is hundreds of times better.

There were points that I did like, and the final scene was nicely done, not going on too long as many films seem to these days, instead ending on the right point.

But that's not enough to make it anything more than average.

Film 38 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

This was one of those genre defining movies, it flirted with being an adventure film, at times a comedy and at many other times was just a just indefinably good film.

There was so much on the surface to this film and so many sub-plots, the son who may not be, the oceanographer exacting revenge on the shark that killed his best friend, the estranged wife and the making of an award winning documentary.

It's ironic that as I write this a David Bowie song comes on my Spotify shuffle, as for some reason his songs were used throughout, some great songs used in good places in a truly great film.

Film 37 - Fahrenheit 911

I'm becoming a huge fan of Michael Moore's film-making, he's always incisive and generally manages to irritate everyone he's attacking with his wry line of questioning. There was less of this in Fahrenheit 911 than in the other films of his I've seen, but it was just as good overall as any film he's made.

From exposing the Bush family's business connections with the bin Ladens to the extent Haliburton profited in Iraq, this is a tour de force for Moore, as his incisive commentary is as usual able to simplify even the most complicated concepts and his investigatory zeal is evident to see, as well as his skill in crafting a documentary from this time mostly archive footage

Put simply, Michael Moore is the best documentary film-maker of his generation, and there can be no question about it.

Film 36 - Paranoid Park

Underwhelming is the main opinion I have of this film. The concept works perfectly, a young skateboarders life begins to fall apart after he accidently kills a security guard, and there are some great moments in the film, but the cinematography never really did it for me.

Gus Van Sant the director previously directed Good Will Hunting, a film I loved, partly because he did nothing dramatic with the camerawork, editing and effects, he just let the story flow. This time the flow seemed slow and stilted, the camerawork veering between docu-style and amateurish, and half of the film where nothing happened.

The good moments when they did happen were truly great, and save the film from being a complete dud. The moment the security guard is sliced in half is brilliantly shot and without being gruesome had a great effect on me, and the final scene when Macy tells him to write everything down completes the catharsis of the film brilliantly, and sets up the first person narrative convincingly.

Verdict: concept great, storyline good, execution poor. An average film, with the potential to have been so much more.

Film 35 - Taxi Driver

Well, what a contrast. From the indie hit 500 Days Of Summer to todays film: Taxi Driver, and honestly, writing this the moment after I finished watching it, I'm not quite sure what impression to take. Travis Bickle clearly gets more and more insane as the film goes on, and his moralistic stance is kinda contradicted at the ending. The fact is, the ending is set up to make him look like a nutter on a killing spree, yet he ends up as the hero. This is the first film that I end up making no judgement on, it's up there with Shallow Grave as one of the most disturbing films I've watched this year - and ever - but I cannot seem to work out whether I agree with it, or even like it.

I think Betsy summed it up when she talked about Bickle's "contradictions," everything about his was wrong, yet somehow right.

Or maybe right, but somehow wrong... I really don't know.

EDIT: With further thinking, and a read of the Wikipedia article, I found out that Iris was actually supposed to be 12, something that I missed in the film (I thought the pimp was lying when he said she was 12). After seeing that Bickle's actions seem a lot more heroic, and i think the idea of him as an avenger seems the best way to put it. One thing is for sure though, Taxi Driver is a classic.

Film 34 - 500 Days Of Summer

There was no way I wasn't going to dislike this film, consider my list of things that make a good film: Zooey Deshanel. Check. Adorably indie rom-com. Check. Non-linear narrative sequence. Check. Lovestruck cute guy  (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Check.

But enough with lists, it had all the ingredients and this film mixed them together so well, into one of the biggest indie hits of 2009. It's amazing that it's taken me this long to actually get round to watching it, but it's definately one that I will give another watch, and that's not something I can say about a lot of films.

Film 33 - The Hangover

Me and my flatmates watched this average comedy last night, they all seemed to like it, and I was less sure. Yes, it delivered some good laughs but the storyline was pretty poor and a lot of it seemed very clichéd and hackneyed.

It's one of those films that I neither love or hate, but I can't imagine it placing very highly in my ranking of the films  I've watched this year.

Film 32 - Ace In The Hole

Yesterday the journalism department at my uni (Sheffield) organised  a showing of the film for all the first year students in the department, and I'm very glad I was forced to go.

I don't usually like old films (Casablanca aside) but this story of a journalist willing to do anything for a story really resonated with me and I'd just like to C&P the comment I posted on the blog of the department, as it pretty well sums up my view:

It seems a common view these days that journalism is dying and isn't what it used to be, but if what is portrayed in Ace In The Hole is reasonably accurate; journalism has always had its good and bad side. The case can be argued that Chuck Tatum has a lot in common with the protagonists of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. In both cases the journalist or journalists would do anything they had to, in order to get a story. In many ways the phone-hacking was of a far less serious nature than what Tatum did, blackmailing corrupt officials and getting a man killed, but the general face of journalism hasn't changed, there have always been reporters willing to break the law and act unethically to get a story and there always will be. The only difference seems to be that the methods have changed, and in many ways have got more sophisticated.

Film 31 - Superbad

Brilliantly funny, just brilliantly funny. I don't care what anyone says, and I'm sure there are people who don't like it, but Superbad is an immense film, and most of its laughs are delivered by Seth and McLovin, two of the funniest comedy characters. Michael Cera is as usual great as the comic foil Evan, and he must be the most appearing character on this blog (Youth In Revolt, Juno,

It's really a modern comic farce, nothing goes right for most of the film but somehow the characters manage to stumble through, make it to the party, and each in their own way get what they want. The unexpected part of the film was the emotional core at the end, making this not just another high school comedy.

(As you might have guessed, I've given up on the 100, and maybe even on the 50. What can I say, I've failed you all)

Film 30 - Spinal Tap

Frequently named amongst the funniest films ever made, Spinal Tap is a mockumenty rockumentry and side-splittingly satirical masterpiece.

The humour comes mostly from the stupidity but genuine sincerity and belief in their own ability that the band have. The funniest moment may have to be Nigel Tufnel's touching piano piece which he provisionally entitles: Lick My Love Pump, or the moment their new album is shown to them "There's something about this that's so black, it's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black." or the films crowning moment, the amps which go up to eleven, which prompts the immortal line from Tufnel: "But these go up to eleven"

Just a complete classic.

Film 29 - The Pursuit Of Happyness

One of the few films that has ever reduced me to tears, just brilliant. The story of a single father struggling to bring up his five year old son whilst trying to get a decent job. Will Smith played the father, and was brilliant as an inspiring dad who would do anything for his son.

The saddest moment in the film - and possibly the saddest in any film I've ever seen - was the moment when the father and son had to spend the night sleeping in a subway bathroom. The middle of the film was heartbreaking, as the two of them struggle to find somewhere to sleep each night.

The end however was inspiring, just showing that with hard work anything can be achieved (in retrospect, that's a little corny, but the film was genuinely inspiring).

Film 28 - Seeker: The Dark Is Rising

A fantasy, slightly Potter-esque fight between good and evil film becomes the 28th film on my list. At the rate I'm going I'm beginning to think that 50 may be a more realistic target for this year. Anyway, back to the film at hand. The critics hated it but I quite liked it.

The whole premise was simple but time-tested, an ultimate fight between good and evil, light and dark. The person who had to lead the fight was a 14 year old boy, the seventh son of a seventh sun (supposedly magical). The film was paced well but ultimately the main flaw was that it was just too simple.

Too many major revelations were telegraphed badly, and it was too easy to keep up with. The whole film didn't have the complexity to move it beyond a decent film to a good or very good one.

Film 27 - My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Rather more straightforward fare from this comedy, guy meets girl, they start dating, he finds out that she’s superhero G-Girl and that she’s completely insane, he breaks up with her and she throws a shark through his windows.

There are some genuinely funny moments in this film and whoever plays the main character’s best friend reminded me of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, in a good way. Mostly it’s a little too generic and the ending just seems too convenient. Average.

Film 26 - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Touching, moving and confusing are just some of the adjectives which can be used to describe this reality bending romantic drama/comedy. Joel, (Jim Carrey) finds out that his ex-girlfriend Clementine has wiped him from her mind. He decides to do the same thing to her, but in the course of the process he remembers all the good times, and how much he loves her, and tries to retrieve her in some part of his mind.
   
The film has its confusing moments but the main premise of being able to wipe your memory of someone is the only unexplainable thing that you have to accept. Towards the end I lost the film, as Joel woke up and presumably met Clementine again but it confused me too much. 

Despite that it ended well and poignantly, with the hope that they had a future together, a bittersweet happiness.

Film 25 - Life Of Brian

Monty Python is one of those shows which I’ve been meaning to watch for a very long time, and finally I got around to watching arguably the comedy collective’s best work. A scathing satire on the Roman Empire, and the cultish nature of religion, with everyone looking for somebody to follow, Life Of Brian is an excellent film.

Myriads of quotes can be lifted from this film: “He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy,” a crowd shouting “We are all individuals” and one individual piping up with “I’m not.”

One of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.

Film 24 - Juno

How could I fail to like this film? Much like Youth In Revolt and Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist, music plays an integral role, however it isn't a straightforward 'Michael Cera meets girl' indie film. Oh no, it's a lot more interesting than that.

The star of the show isn't Cera (who plays a recurring important part well) but Ellen Page who gives a tour de force as the titular character, a 16 year old girl impregnated by Cera's character Paulie Bleeker. She is just brilliant as Juno, pulling off a teenage girl without any use of stereotype, a credit also to the writers.

I don't normally go into the main storyline of the film, but I'll make a slight exception to add a reference to the prospective adoptive parents of Juno's baby, Jennifer Garner and Jason Batemen portraying a likeable but at the same time dislikeable couple.

The best moment in the film... the ending. What happens? Well I'm not going to ruin it for you.

Film 23 - Good Will Hunting

Yet another critically acclaimed film for me to watch, and yet another positive review from this film blog. It started a little slowly and the main concept (of a genius janitor) is shaky at best, but the rest of the film makes up for it. Damon and Affleck's screenplay is well written and flows brilliantly, with just enough comedy to keep the film away from being too serious.

Whilst Affleck puts in a forgettable performance Damon is brilliant as Will Hunting the aforementioned janitor prodigy who is one of the most complicated characters in anyone of the films I've seen this year, and Robin Williams pulls of the same sort of role he did with such panache in Dead Poets Society as the mentor of the dangerously precocious Will.

The soundtrack was excellent, with the Elliott Smith songs used: Between The Bars, No Name #3, Angeles, Say Yes, and Miss Misery all put in the perfect places (and yes I did half just watch for the Elliott Smith songs).

What. A. Movie.

Film 22 - Chasing Amy

The storyline intrigued me, and the film delivered a lot of very funny moments, and it's one of those films which offers you no end of quotes: 'Because the other three are figments of your fucking imagination' and 'Hey, I always notice that bored look.'

It was based around the world of comics, one which I'm not that well acquainted with but the storyline was well written and had all the little details that made it a memorable film. The characters were all three-dimensional other than Banky who wasn't given enough depth and Hooper X who played a small memorable part.

Pretty much my only problem with it was the moment that Holden and Alyssa get together, it was romantic, but too much so, even for this hopeless romantic. It just didn't make sense, the verisimilitude wasn't right, the fact that they got together worked perfectly for the film but the way it was done didn't work for me. 

Overall though, a very good film, one which may well be in the top ten so far, we'll just have to see if it stays there.

Film 21 - Sunshine

Sunshine: A thoroughly thought provoking, confusing, and ultimately slightly disappointing sci-fi thriller.

I recorded the film a couple of weeks ago (or months, I'm not exactly sure). It must have been around the same time I watched Shallow Grave because it was part of the Danny Boyle season on Film4.

The basic concept of the film is that of a spaceship sent with a payload of a huge stellar bomb which they have to deliver into the sun to re-ignite the dying star. The most interesting bits of this films are the psychological elements, the cabin fever of the crew and the fact that ultimately the humanity of Capa was what caused their downfall.

Where the film fell down was in the final part where it became a little less tense and a bit more horror film like. The idea that was involved wasn't intrinsically a bad one, but was handled badly and seemed out of tone with the rest of the film. The science involved lacked verisimilitude and it was disappointing to end like that.

The very final scene however was simple and effective, Capa being absorbed into the sun with the bomb and the sunrise on earth: "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it."

Film 20 - Nacho Libre

It has become abundantly clear to me that I'm not going to make it to 100 films this year, if I did it would be the greatest comeback since that dead guy in the bible.

On a similar note, Nacho Libre is a comedy about a monk who becomes a masked wrestler to feed orphans. It's less crazy than it sounds. Honest.

Jack Black is as usual hilariously funny in the lead role and he lifts the average writing and plot up to make this a half decent comedy with most of the laughs coming from his impeccable comic timing.

Film 19 - The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is a film which many people see as the best high school film ever, and out of the few that I have seen, it ranks at the top. It manages - unlike many films about teenagers or American high school - to be completely truthful about the lack of equality between the different cliques and unlike many others doesn't accept that it always has to be like that.

The film is one of those rare films where very little happens, no characters go on journeys, die or have to complete any kind of task. It is almost completely about character development and understanding, starting with 5 high school students from different cliques who (other than John Bender's bullying) avoid talking to each other, and ending with 5 friends (almost).

All that caused by a day in detention, quite an advert for it. Oh, and Don't You (Forget About Me) is an awesome song.

Film 18 - Ladyhawke

Fantasy drama/adventure Ladyhawke was a film I recorded off Film4 a couple of days ago, and it didn't disappoint at all. I started watching it with no pre-conceptions, having forgotten why I recorded it and what sort of film it was at all. The story developed well and gradually up to the point where the mission to reverse the curse was clear.

The main storyline was about Navarre's attempt to square things with the man who set the curse on him and the woman he loves, causing them to be forever apart, him being a wolf at night and her being a hawk during the day. Phillipe Gaston "The Mouse" meanwhile is the only man ever to escape the prison at Aquilla and is enlisted by  Navarre to get him to Aquilla. Gaston colludes with the monk Imperius to try to lift the curse, a solar eclipse eventually providing the metaphor of it being both day and night, Navarre and Isabeau confronting the Bishop who set the curse and lifting it in a glorious happy ending.

The movie was strong on storyline and there were four strong characters, but the most impressive part of the film for me was the cinematography which was visually stunning, the music just added to this to give a slightly spooky at times but always mysterious atmosphere to the film.

Definitely better than the last one, a very good film.

Film 17 - The Incredibles

Standard Saturday night family fare in this animated superhero movie. It wasn't a bad film, in fact it was about as average as a film can be. As I normally do with animated films, I spent most of it trying to work out who was voicing the characters. The voice of the villain - whose name I don't recall - proving very recognisable but one I couldn't quite work out without the help of Wikipedia which reliably informs me that it was Jason Lee, most famous for My Name Is Earl.

The animation, as always with Pixar films, was excellent and the action sequences were fun as well. The main drawback of the film was the storyline which seemed rather generic and derivative of superhero movies and any film in which the protagonist comes out of retirement for 'one last fight.'

For kids a bit younger than me, the film is almost perfect but, after watching Inception, kids films don't have the required complexity for me.... although I do still want to see Toy Story 3.

Film 16 - Inception

Only the second film on this list I've actually seen in the cinema, and one of the best of the sixteen films I've seen this year so far. It's the only film that I've ever seen in the cinema that provoked such an audience reaction; the whole cinema was willing Cobb's totem to stop spinning at the end and there was a collective groan as the film ended on that cliffhanger.

When you take a step back, the totem was a brilliant ending and so much about the film was constructed with such care, the concepts all made sense in their world and the introduction of Ariadne was an inspired move, forcing the whole process to be explained by someone new to it and thus us the audience. Before that point it had been a fairly average and thoroughly confusing film.

After that point the film became a classic caper movie but with an added emotional edge, the whole idea Cobb was doing this final mission to get home to his kids. The insight into his dreams, showing his children but Cobb never seeing their faces, set up for the finale - which almost reduced me to tears - of Cobb walking through immigration at a US airport, walking home and him seeing his kids faces as they turn round from the pose they strike throughout the film, the spinning totem spinning forever and the realisation for me, almost a day later, that he must be in limbo.... I really hope I'm wrong.

 

Film 15 - Capitalism: A Love Story

On an earlier blogpost, about Bowling for Columbine, I linked to a Morning Star article which put forward the theory that Michael Moore is a closet socialist.

After watching this film I can see exactly why you could think that. Moore takes the audience through a whistle-stop tour of capitalism, from the good old days where everything was fine, to the mortgage foreclosures and bank bailouts of the current financial crisis. He handles it all with his usual humour and thoughtful discussion, approaching the subject almost from the standpoint of someone who knows little about the subject. This was how he pulled off stunts like putting crime tape around Wall Street and the hilarious segment when he tried to find a trader who would explain derivatives too him. I don't think anyone really understands those financial terms.

Whilst the rest of the film was interesting and informative - especially in relation to Dead Peasant funds - it didn't change my opinion about anything. The end however was genuinely touching and inspiring, showing the raw people power that the 99% have that isn't possessed by the privileged few, and how when workers unite, great things can be achieved.

Fight the power!

Film 14 - Napoleon Dynamite

Apparently, this is supposed to be a really good film... I just don't get it. I spent an hour and 45 minutes watching it and I saw no complexity to the storylines, no reason to really like any of the characters, and despite purporting to be a comedy, none of it was funny.

If Dead Poets Society was a huge hit, this was most definitely a miss with me.

Film 13 - Dead Poets Society

Occasionally I get the inspiration to watch a certain film from a strange place. A couple of weeks ago, when watching How I Met Your Mother, Barney and Ted parodied Dead Poets Society and then professed their love for the film.

So a couple of weeks later, I finally sat down and watched it, and I loved it. Chock full of memorable lines "O captain, My captain", "Carpe diem. Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary." Stuffed to burst with brilliantly written characters, from Prof. Keating, to Neil Perry and Todd Hamilton. Exquisitely sad, as Neil finds he can't take life any more.

Just truly breathtaking, I know I keep saying this about ever film I see... but this may be the best yet.

Carpe diem.

Film 12 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down A Dream

Some films you watch purely by accident, sometimes just because you watch five minutes of a four hour film and are determined to see it through to the end. That was what I did with this documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

I was no huge fan of them before hand, not having listened to them much if at all, but the documentary was excellent and really turned me on to their music. It had the right kind of mix of new interviews, archive interviews and live footage.

Four hours was a bit long though, despite the fact that it remained interesting throughout, I struggle to maintain my attention span that long.

Film 11 - Brokeback Mountain

Needless to say... I cried. An increadibly emotional film, about two guys who just fell in love. This blogpost is about a month late, and I only got around to writing it because I watched Film 12, so the details are a bit hazy in my mind.

But I can remember the best bits, that first night of passion, the denial, the acceptance, and then finally the love. Sometimes you forget that not everywhere is a secular and liberal as London in 2010, and this film reminds you of the harsh realities of life for gay people in the south of America, then and now. You see them lose work because of it, have to hide this love story from everyone they know, and the flashback into the brutal homophobic killing which reminded them why they had to keep this a secret.

Then, near the end Jack Twist dies, and for the last fifteen minutes of the film, Ennis wanders alone, picking up fragments of Jack's life, the two shirts they wore on Brokeback, and just as Jack kept them to remember him by, Ennis does for Jack.

Film 10 - Casablanca

Here's looking at you kid...

What a film that was, I watched it a couple of days ago and I now know why it so often gets in lists of the best film ever. No film I've ever watched ever had more quotable lines than this one - and even ones attributed "play it again Sam" which were never actually said.

I don't often watch black and white films, and for the first few minutes it was a culture shock, but after a while I grew to see how it worked exactly with the old-fashioned charm of the characters. Characters like Rick were just the right mix of devilishly charming and with just enough virtue so you think he'd do the right thing in the end, and it was obvious why Ilsa was wanted by two men.

The ending, although predictable from my cultural point of view, was perfectly done and the final line remains the best end to a film I've ever seen.

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

Film 9 - Bowling For Columbine

Michael Moore is my sort of guy, a liberal in a land where the term liberal is mostly used as an insult, and according to one Morning Star article - a closet Marxist. The latter seems less plausible, but what is true is that he is one of the world's most famous documentary film-makers and very possibly one of the best.

I had seen part of Bowling for Columbine before, but never all the way to the end - thus it is eligible for this blog. We watched the whole film over a couple of lessons in Media Studies (blah, blah, blah easy subject etc - yep I've heard it all before).

America is infamous for having one of the highest gun crime and gun murder rates in the world and the high rate of gun ownership has been blamed for this, but by the end of the film Moore comes up with a new, more thought-provoking idea: The Media.

Looking at some of the examples of TV news from the US he showed, gives some idea of the climate of fear created that separates the US from equally gun loving Canada. Put simply, fear drives violence and the violence drives more fear and continues in a vicious cycle fuelled by the news media, looking for their ratings.

Film 8 - Little Miss Sunshine

After watching one and a half films I seen before (Fight Club and half of 10 Things I Hate About You) we all dozed off before waking up in the morning to continue with this interesting indie comedy.

The acting and storyline were both good and the granddad character was one of the funniest old men I'd ever seen, but the main problem I had with the film was the concept, a beauty contest for seven year olds. It just seemed so wrong and that just stopped me enjoying the end of the film as my mind just kept going back to the immense wrongness of the idea.

Suffice to say - as it only gets three paragraphs - not one of my favourite films of all time.

Film 7 - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Teen comedies with Michael Cera in seem to be absurdly prevalent these days, enough so that now two of the first seven films I've watched this year have had him in them.

The shadow of 'Youth In Revolt' hung over this film from the moment the disk entered the DVD player, I was deeply sceptical that it could beat one of the funniest films I have ever seen... it didn't.

Despite this it was quite good, Nick and Norah made a good couple, the other members of the gay band were excellently played and the storyline was interesting.

Good... but not great.

Film 6 - Bambi

It's taken me a week to get round to writing up the bunch of films I and a group of friends watched on the first successful  film night that we've managed.

First up on film night, because me and another friend had never seen it before was Bambi... and I liked it.

Basic storyline, Bambi is born, then grows older and has kids of his own. In between is one of the saddest moments ever seen in a children's film, when Bambi's mother dies. If I look at the film with my Media Studies hat on it's an obvious use of the classical Hollywood narrative, but the symmetry with Bambi having his own kids at the end, despite being obvious was really heart-warming.

Nice kids film with some genuinely brilliant, heart-warming and sad moments is my final verdict.

Film 4 - Eating Out + Film 5 - Eating Out 2

To be honest, I watched these with a couple of friends and I remember them... very little. Two gay films, one about a guy who pretends to be straight to get the other guy and where the guy pretends to be gay to get the girl.

I think they were vaguely amusing but I'm just posting them here for the record.

I really need to get a move on if I'm going to make it to 100!

Film 3 - Youth In Revolt

Quite simply one of the funniest films I've ever seen. I went to see it about a week ago with a group of friends and we all laughed all the way through it. The plot seemed fine at the time although the more you think about it there is an element of absurdity about it, but then again how can a film in which the main character creates a split personality alter ego not be slightly absurd.

Funniest moments included:

1) Nick's alter ego trying to destroy the car and trailer whilst Nick inadvertently causes even more damage then walks away trying to look innocent.

2) Nick knocking over the cereal bowl, brilliantly deadpan acting, as Nick tried to think of something vaguely subversive and found nothing much.

3) Dodging the teachers as they try to stop him escaping the French boarding school

4) The book coming to life when he's high on 'shrooms' and the little finger moment, genuinely got the most laughs of any moment in the film

5) Nick being escorted away by the police in a dress

There were many other moments, and in many respects the film was just a vehicle for a series of vaguely connected skits. It was a pretty hilarious vehicle though.

Film 2 - Shallow Grave

A couple of days ago nothing else good being on TV and my internet down meant that I decided to watch Danny Boyle's directorial debut, Shallow Grave. I expected a lot, with Christopher Ecclestone, Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox starring. The original premise, of three people having to decide what to do with a dead body and a suitcase full of money expands over the course of the film into something much more.

This was the most gripping film I've ever seen, David's descent into psychosis was just brilliant, drilling holes in the floor, holding a drill to his flatmates head, and all this caused by sawing the hands and feet off the corpse. The film continues to spiral out of control, making me ever unsure of what David would do next. The killing and body disposing parts of the film have a very horror theme, and the garish piano music is reminisicent of the beginning of  Halloween

It may have been easy for many people to dislike the main characters, but I found myself identifying with their very human greed. They didn't want to kill, they weren't insane to begin with, they just wanted the money. Who knows what they would do in the sort of situation they were put in?

Film 1 - Madagascar

Animated family films with talking animals rarely fail... and this was no exception. For my first film of this year I chose (because it was on BBC3) Madagascar, and it didn't disappoint me.

The group dynamic between the four main characters (Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria) was brilliant, the slapstick comedy was laugh out loud hilarious and they all delivered some very funny lines, especially Melman and King Julian.

The Penguins have a small subplot which could have been expanded. They were brilliantly funny and seemed to have some very socialist/marxist tendencies. Maybe that was just me.

As I was watching the movie, good as it was, my mind drifted to who the voice actors were for the main characters. I immediately worked out that Melman was David Schwimmer and not long after my suspicions were raised that Alex was voiced by Zach Braff. My wild guess for Marty was Chris Rock, it just sounded like him, but I couldn't be sure, and for Gloria I had no idea.

A quick look at Wikipedia shows me that I got two out of three, but not the ones I thought. Alex wasn't Zach Braff but rather Ben Stiller. It sounded so much like Braff though!. I also found out that the voice of King Julian was Sacha Baron Cohen, which makes sense now, but I couldn't tell at the time.

Brilliant fun, not hugely sophisticated, but then, neither am I.

100 Films

Yes, that's right, I plan to watch 100 films this year and blog about every single one of them on here.

That will give me 101 posts on this blog (including this one)

I may start today by watching Once Upon a Time in the West, a film which I saw the start of in a Media Studies lesson last year.

Hopefully in a year and 100 posts time some people will be reading!