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.