Category: Movies

A Life In Lists #1: Movies

February 25, 2014

For the almost-eight-years of this blog I have resisted the hallmark of lazy websites everywhere: a list.

But to celebrate my upcoming Geburtstag and to drive up page views and therefore advertising dollars, I am going to break my self imposed rule and – goddammit! – go on a list bender! Not just any list, but themed lists: 42 entries, for the (very soon) 42 years of my life.

Given the academy awards are soon upon us, what better way to start this endeavour than my own ‘awards’ so to speak. So here we are, list number one…

My favourite films of the last 42 years

1972 – Fist Of Fury
1973 – Enter The Dragon
1974 – Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

1975 – Picnic At Hanging Rock
1976 – The Man Who Fell To Earth
1977 – Star Wars
1978 – Superman
1979 – Mad Max
1980 – The Empire Strikes Back

1981 – Excalibur
1982 – The Dark Crystal
1983 – Return Of The Jedi
1984 – Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom
1985 – A View To A Kill
1986 – Labyrinth
1987 – Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
1988 – The Lair Of The White Worm

1989 – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1990 – Total Recall
1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992 – Unforgiven
1993 – Faraway, So Close! (The last film I saw before leaving Australia)
1994 – The Lion King
1995 – Sense and Sensibility
1996 – The God Of Cookery
1997 – Starship Troopers
1998 – Velvet Goldmine (Best musical ever!)
1999 – Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
2000 – Gladiator

2001 – The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
2002 – The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
2003 – The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of The King
2004 – Shaolin Soccer
2005 – Kung Fu Hustle (My favourite film of all time)
2006 – V for Vendetta
2007 – Dragon Wars
2008 – Hancock

2009 – Crank: High Voltage
2010 – Scott Pilgrim vs The World
2011 – Thor
2012 – The Avengers
2013 – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2014 – Journey To The West

Years were chosen based on the US release dates.

The hardest years to single out only one film were 1982 (due to Raiders of The Lost Ark and Tron) and 1986 (due to Aliens and Blue Velvet) and 2012 (due to Hobbit). I also had conflicting feelings about last year…

Journey To The West won’t be released for a few weeks yet in the US, and even then probably only in a very few theatres. But I watched it twice on the plane, and I can hardly believe I’ll see a better film this year 🙂

Can you spot…
1) The years with no ‘the best’ movies so I chose ‘the worst’? 😉
2) The film on the above list that I haven’t actually seen (yet)?

So, what do you think of the list? Leave your critique in the comments!

How Did My Resolution Go?

January 21, 2014

Last year I made a post detailing what I felt was an enormous amount of books, games and DVDs on my ‘list’ that I felt I really needed to get through. It became a resolution or sorts, to shrink all lists in 2013. How did I go?

Books

I made great progress in this category, reading the majority of the approximately 50 volumes that were sitting on my shelf this time last year. The only one I haven’t yet found time for is In The Wake Of The Sea Serpents, the 800+ page magnus-opus by Heuvelmans. In addition to those I had this time last year, I purchased and read many new books during the year, mostly manga and fantasy novels. I try and read every single night before sleep at the least.

However – and to my delight since I love books – I have to admit my ‘to read’ list is hardly smaller than it was last year, replenished as it was by a large variety of other books. Heuvelmans tome is now accompanied by 3 other cryptozoology books, and they share a shelf with about 20 novels (mostly fantasy), a handful of manga (not much I am interested in is released nowadays), and a half-dozen or so RPG manuals such as the one pictured above. Add to this a couple of Doctor Who books, an art book or two and four books on video-game and pinball history and I should have enough to keep me busy well into 2014!

Movies & TV

As with my books, I made great progress on the DVD ‘watch list’ of February 2013. Ultraseven, Lexx, Claymore – all the box sets have been watched. In fact almost every single item we owned last year has been watched months ago, and many more have now filled their place.

In fact, the ‘watch list’ as of today is actually longer than it was last year. Two items alone: the Inspector Morse DVD box set and the Monkey DVD set sum to over 100 hours! Add to these several other anime DVD sets (Spice & Wolf, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!), another Japanese sci-fi set (Ultra-Q) and about a dozen assorted DVD movies (almost all sci-fi/fantasy) and we’ve got our watching cut out for us.

Games

As with the other two categories, I made bold strides into my piles of unplayed games. As of today I have:

– 8 unplayed PSP games, only one of which was actually purchased in 2013
– 8 unopened 3DS games, most of which are less than 6 months old
– only 1 unopened Wii U game (Pikmin 3, which I may start playing today!)
– 2 unopened PS3 games (both of which I owned last February as well…)

As you may recall from the blog post a month ago, I purchased much less games in 2013 than I usually do, which allowed me to play a lot more games I already owned. I expect during this next year to ‘finish’ the PSP games as well as possible the PS3. Since I currently have no plans to obtain a PS4, I imagine this section of the list will be much reduced this time next year.

Last time I looked at the piles of unopened/unread/unwatched media and thought “Why do I even buy more stuff?!”. Now I look at the smaller piles and think “I’m looking forward to opening that!”.

In other words, I think my resolution was a success 🙂

Christmas Cards

December 24, 2013

No, not those cards, these cards:

That’s a selection I obtained through my usual sources (ie. purchased at a Con). I was debating what to do with them for a while and since I’ve gone overboard with Xmas gifts already decided it was time to open them all. And so, in no particular order…

I recall having some of these cards before I ever saw the film. I think I was a bit scared of some of them actually, especially the alien ones. If I lived in the US I may have joined the fan club!

Gremlins was a bit of a phenomenon when it came out wasn’t it? And yet these days I only seem to recall the effect Phoebe had on me (and probably every other teenage boy that watched it). Looking at these cards reminds me I haven’t seen the film in 20+ years. I wonder how it has held up?

The Jaws 3D cards are as dreadful as you’d imagine, but the curiosity factor is certainly raised by the inclusion of a ‘3D viewer’. How good is the 3D effect? Well, using a bit of technomancy I can let you judge for yourself:

It’s almost like the shark is jumping out of the screen isn’t it? 😉

The Black Hole cards do an equally good job of making me want to see the film again, after 30-odd years. And who among you isn’t impressed by concept art stickers?!? But the most nostalgic part of these cards was actually on the back of the wrapper:

OMG! I remember this candy! I used to buy the coffin containers, and all the little pieces were bone shaped. Tasted terrible, but I loved the little plastic boxes 🙂

The Jurassic Park cards were very disappointing in their design, being less impressive by far than all the others. But to my excitement, the pack contained an incredible lenticular hologram card:

And even more amazingly, it’s a sticker! This is one of the most amazing chase cards I have ever seen, and I certainly didn’t expect to pull it from a $0.50 pack of 20-year old cards!

I guess Christmas came early this year 🙂

Robot Claw

My favourite films of the last 42 years