To continue my review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-Z, this is the Sixth part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 750+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-Z which has so far taken me 3 years to get to the I’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try. Click here to read parts A to E.

The F’s seemed to contain more horror films that most of the other alpha blocks containing Final Destination 1-3, Fright Night, Frighteners and especially the Friday 13th movies taking up 11 of my F collection. Also I have a few films new to my collection that I haven’t had a chance to watch or fully appreciate after a rushed viewing like Christopher Nolan’s Following or Bill Paxton’s Frailty (thanks Tracy for recommending) that probably would have made my top 5.

But there are some films that are in the F’s that won’t make my top 5 films like Finding Nemo, Farenheiht 9/11, Fargo, Fight Club and Ferris Bueller, not because they aren’t good enough but because there are the below films that are under appreciated or have a special place in my heart.

A few more I’m glad I don’t own before we move on to the top 5: Flubber, Free Willy, Freaky Friday (remake), From Dusk Till Dawn 2&3, From Justin to Kelly, Flash Dance (sorry Dave), Fantastic Four, Fast and Furious, Four Weddings and a Funeral and the perverse sounding Flesh Gordon!

And so on with my choice collection of F’s.

Frighteners

Frighteners is the excellent film Peter Jackson made before The Lord of the Rings, produced by Robert Zemeckis, Michael J Fox’s last major role in a feature film and the birth of Weta as a major digital effects company going from 1 to 35 computers to deal with the demand of visuals effects for the film.

Fox stars as Frank Bannister a psychic investigator, who See’s ghosts due to having an accident where he died and was brought back to life, and so he has befriended ghosts who haunt peoples houses and cons the owners by seeming to rid them of the ghoulish squatters for extortionate sums of money.

Unfortunately an evil spirit appears that starts killing people off and Frank gets accused of the murders so Frank and his ghost buddies set off trying to solve who and why the murders are occurring that leads the film to enter a dark finale. Its a very enjoyable film and one of those that were undeservedly under-promoted by Universal, i didn’t even know it existed until it came out on DVD and I am a huge Peter Jackson fan following his films from Bad Taste.

The evil spirit is brilliantly designed giving it a grim reaper appearance and Frank sees a number appear on the soon to be murdered victims head showing their order of death which was a great touch and added to the original plot of the film. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh show their talent for writing which was showed off brilliantly by the ever so watchable Michael J Fox, its such a shame we probably wont see him in a major film role again, the visual effects were stunning for their time and showed glimpses of what Weta would showoff in Lord of the Rings.

Fright Night

Fright Night is one of my favourite Vampire movies ever. Released in 1985 it was one of the first Vampire films I watched all the way through without crapping myself and needing to turn it off when I was young, It was just a pure joy to experience and it’s where I learned all my Vampire rules from, don’t invite Vampires in, Crosses, stakes in the heart, Holy Water, No reflection, garlic and so on, it will ways have a place on my DVD shelf.

Chris Sarandon in the role of the Vampire Jerry Dandridge is so suave and charming that he makes one of the best blood sucking baddies of all time and battling him is the excellent William Ragsdale as the paranoid horror fan Charley Brewster and the quality thespian Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent a washed up horror movie actor that hosts Charlie’s favourite TV show Fright Night is recruited by Charlie, mainly for the money than Charlie’s story, to help defeat Charlie’s new next door Vampire neighbour.

It’s a fantastic 80′s horror film that just has everything I want from a Vampire story.

Funny Games U.S

Funny Games is a remake of the Michael Haneke Funny Games by director Michael Haneke. It’s so good he made it twice. It’s a brutally honest and intense depiction of violence in our society that shocks and is at times painful to watch as we witness the torture of a family that is mostly done off screen but nevertheless the sounds occurring in the background is what makes it so torturing for the viewer to experience.

Funny Games stars Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Devon Gearhart as the Farber family travelling to their summer house to unwind, they are greeted on arrival by their next door neighbours apparent guests, two young men dressed in white, who appear charming but there is something wrong with them, you can just sense it. What unfolds is the slow and incredible build up of tension as the young guys, Paul and Peter (played excellently by Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) introduce themselves to the family and are as nice and polite as you could want but they just over impose themselves and become unwelcome as things take a turn for the worst as Mrs Farber chooses to become impolite. It’s an instant change of atmosphere that sets up the rest of the film. The young men eventually step up there torture and bet the family they will be dead by 9am the next day and the family have to bet against it, it’s a horrible progression that just dominates the movie.

Even now I can still imagine what happens in the front room and the emotions that go along with it even though I never really saw what happened in there and that’s the strength of the film, it’s all about the telling of the story and the lingering long shots that make everything so uncomfortable to watch and this is heightened by the performances from Pitt and Corbet as the evil torturers who are just perfect and break the forth wall in humorous moments. Watts and Roth also excel as the victims and you feel their pain and anguish as the shocking events unfold.

Funny Games will divide opinions but for me it was a wonderful yet controversial film seen and told through the eyes of Michael Pitt, Haneke is one hell of a director.

Face/Off.

I cant have a top five film list without the inclusion of a John Woo film, the director that really got me into films with the stunning “Hard Boiled” in 1992, I’d never seen anything like it and from then on I fell in love with films and with John Woo. And so 6 years later John Woo was directing Hollywood movies with varying degrees of success in Hard Target and Broken Arrow and then he made Face/Off that catapulted him into the mainstream with one of the most incredible and OTT action movies ever seen.

Staring the career revitalised John Travolta and current big action star Nicholas Cage on the back of The Rock and Con Air, Face/Off was always going to be something special and at times almost ridiculous. The plot is of Detective Sean Archer who for years has been trying to bring down his nemesis criminal mastermind Castor Troy and when he finally does, putting him a coma, news emerges Castor was about to pull off a huge terrorist attack on US soil and so with the help of some crazy futuristic technology Sean Archer goes undercover as Castor Troy by taking his Face Off and putting it on his own, problem is they have to take Sean’s face off too and so put it neatly in a bowl ready for reattachment after Sean’s mission to locate the terrorist bomb is complete.

Castor Troy unexpectedly wakes up and gets the doctors to attach Archer’s face to his then kills and destroys all evidence of the swap and goes off taking the place of Sean Archer. It’s a bonkers plot that should make for a crap film but it doesn’t, it turns out to be one of the most enjoyable and unbelievable great action movies of all time that completely entertains from start to finish with some cool set pieces like the “Some where over the rainbow” scene, the room of mirrors and when Archer and Troy meet for the first time after swapping faces, it’s just Woo at his best and Cage and Travolta totally enjoying themselves as each other. Stunning movie, will always put a smile on my face.

Fitzcarraldo

Fitzcarraldo is a film that stunned me, not just for it’s story telling but for it’s production values. Never has a film attempted to do the things achieved in Fitzcarraldo and never will a film attempt to do them again. Werner Herzog directs a phenomenal film about Brian “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski), a failed ambitious business man who lives in a small city in Peru in the early part of the 20th century and his dream is to build an Opera house in the city  that requires a ton of money to build and that money will come from his new found venture of the production of rubber.

Fitzcarraldo locates an unclaimed Rubber tree plot that is in an almost impossible to reach location off the vicious Amazon river rapids and leases it from the government with a plan to travel down an adjacent river then physically pull his three-story, 320-ton steamer over the muddy 40° hillside using enlisted native slaves to get the steamer to other side to be able to get access to his leased land containing the rubber trees. Simple.

But of course things don’t go to plan as Fitz comes across all sorts of setbacks as he slowly pulls the steamer up the hill using logs and pulleys and boy is it one of the most impressive sequences in film history as the feat of pulling the boat up a hill was all done for real without using special FX, a true wonder of film making and engineering. Its no wonder that this effort caused so much misery to the cast and crew and its a surprise it ever got finished at all.

The original lead actor, Jason Robards, became ill and was prevented to return to the film so Herzog had to recast Fitzcarraldo with Klinski after considering Jack Nicholson and himself for the role. Mick Jagger was originaly cast as Fitzcarraldo’s assistant but due to conflicts in schedule’s so wrote him out of the film and re-shot the entire film from the beginning and things got worst, Klinski fought with Herzog, the cast and the natives so much that Herzog claimed a native chief offered to Murder Klinski for him but refused as he needed to complete filming! incredible.

The film is also a great watch with incredible performances especially from Klaus Klinski, but I will always remember it for the outstanding feat of film making.

And in the words of Daniel Plainview “I’m Finished”!
G’s coming soon.

To continue my review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-Z, this is the Fifth part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 700+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-Z which has so far taken me 2.5 years to get to the end of H’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try. Click A, B, C and D to read previous parts.

The E’s are a long time coming but here it is. Firstly some films beginning with E that let down alpha group for me personally, I’m not a big fan of Easy Rider, nor the English Patient, also couldn’t care for Erin Brockovich, Evita or Ernest goes to camp which is why i don’t own them.

The E’s did produced some great films that didn’t quite make the list were the terrifying Exorcist, the incredible biopic Edwood (mainly because Martin Landau won the best supporting actor Oscar instead of Samuel L Jackon For Pulp Fiction, maybe deservedly so but Pulp Fiction should have won more Oscars!),  The brilliant John Carpenter Escape from New York, The funny Woody Allen film Everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask, Bruce Lee Classic Enter the Dragon, The flawed but enjoyable Equilibrium and the great 80′s adventure The Explorers.

And so onto my top five picks from my collection, in no particular order we have a very enjoyable road trip movie set in Ukraine staring Elijah Wood, the Legend that is Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead, a very enjoyable New Zealand film Eagle Vs Shark, The incredible Viggo Mortensen directed by amazing David Cronenburg in a brutal Russian mafia film and the stunning Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman effort Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind. All are great films all are well worth a watch.

Everything is Illuminated is a wonderful film by debut writer/director Liev Schrieber who has gave acting a rest to make the film based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, and boy was it an accomplished debut film.

Starring Elijah Wood as Jonathan Safran Foer a slightly eccentric American/Jewish character who collects memories of his family in small plastic bags pinned to his wall in case he forgets them. We follow Jonathan on his odyssey through the Ukraine with a hip-hop-obsessed, broken English-talking guide called Alex (Eugene Hutz), Alex’s cantankerous grandfather also named Alex (Boris Leskin), and granddads visually impaired dog Sammy Davis Jr. Jr, and these characters take Jonathan on his journey so he can find a woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately wiped of the map by the Nazis.

The film is a great watch with the excellent Eugene Hutz stealing the film as Alex providing some great moments, especially with his intro into the film. The story is slow but enjoyable and nicely shot and the three main characters work well together with Alex and Jonathan having some great cross cultural discussions and granddad Alex going on his own journey that all comes together to make a very emotional ending.

Evil Dead is the film that launched the directing genius that is Sam Raimi and the acting legend that is Bruce Campbell. The film was made in 1981 by friends and amateur actors, funded by donations from families, friends and local businesses and

went on to be one of the most successful horror films of all time, spawning two further Evil Dead movies that didn’t break even until 6 years later.

Bruce Campbell is Ash who along with 4 other friends head off to a remote cabin where they find the Necronomicon, The Book of the Dead, and accidental unleash evil when one of them plays an audio tape that contains excepts from the book. One by one the group start turning into crazed zombie deadites and it’s down to our hero Ash to stay alive by killing his one time friends.

The film is outstanding considering it was made by a bunch of friends on a small budget and shows early signs of Raimi’s cinematography skills with stunning shots, camera angles and movements that all add to this classic films enjoyment.

Of course the film launched the career of the brilliant Bruce Campbell who is a joy to watch at anytime and went on to star in Evil Dead 2 which was basically a remake of Evil Dead with a bigger budget and also vehicle to launch evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness where the character of Ash reached cult status with his strap on arm chainsaw, shotgun and the legendary catchphrase “Groovy”.

Brilliant brilliant horror film and a true inspiration to wannabe film makers.

Eagle vs Shark is a bizarre funny film starring Flight of the Conchords Jermaine Clement as Jarrod, a geek who works in a video store. Lily (Loren Horsley) works in a fast food restaurant and has a crush on Jarrod and begs for his attention but Jarrod is more interested in Lily’s workmate Jenny. Jarrod invites Jenny to a party where you are asked to come dressed as your favourite animal, Jenny discards the invite and Lily retrieves it and attends instead.

Lily goes dressed as a Shark and of course Jarrod is dressed as an Eagle and at the party Jarrod hosts a videogame fighting competition and Lily beats all to get to the final vs Jarrod and here Jarrod takes an interest in her.

The film then follows the pair on a road journey to Jarrod’s childhood home where she has to put up with him settling the score with an old school bully, Jarrod’s extended eccentric family and how Lily bonds with them and other misadventures that endear the two characters to us more.

It’s been called a cross between When Harry Met Sally and Napoleon Dynamite which is fair enough but the film stands on it’s own with the two brilliant and like-able characters that add a real sense of affection and charming humor thats a bit tongue in cheek but overall very enjoyable and different. One of my favourite films I watched in 2009.

Eastern Promises. When the legends that are David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen teamed up to bring us the stunning and brutal History of Violence in 2005, I was excited to hear they were teaming up again to bring us Eastern Promises in 2007 and expected another strong story and performance from Viggo. I was not disappointed.

Viggo plays Nikolai Luzhin, a drive/bodyguard of a Russian mafia family based in London. Through a turn of events a nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) comes involved with the mafia after a young girl dies giving birth in her hospital and in trying to locate the babies blood relatives through the dead girls diary, she traces it to a restaurant owned by the mafia boss Semyon and enters the world of the underground Russian mafia.

Nikolai chooses to assist Anna but has to do so secretly to prevent Semyon or his liability of a son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) finding out and so not to give to much away, that’s where the film travels into the world of Russian mafia, the violence, the code and the loyalty. Its a phenomenal watch and remarkably realistic.

Viggo Mortensen is the standout star of the film (no surprises there) and worthy of his Oscar nomination, his accent, his manner and his dedication to the role is truly unforgettable. A scene in a steam baths where Viggo fights completely naked against two knife welding killers is amazing, realistic and tense (as well as strange to watch) and shows what a truly great actor he is, you’ve never seen a fight scene like it.

Overall the film is incredible and a must see, if not for Cronenberg’s amazing direction then for Viggo on top form in a wonderful film.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, recently voted No.6 in our Top films of decade and deservedly so. Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry it was always going to be a classic visual and originally intelligent film that was for me one of the most incredible viewing experience I had in the Noughties.

Starring Jim Carrey as likable Joel and Kate Winslet as the lovable Clementine, a couple trying to forget each other after their relationship fails. But the way they try to forget about each other is by using a paid procedure to erase their memories of there lives together and it’s going through this process that they understand what was so good about what they had with each other.

Joel finds out Clemetine is having the procedure done and in retaliation follows suit and whilst going to sleep and being fitted with the equipment by the company who do the memory erasing, carried out by Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo, the film incredibly shows Joel’s memories being erased one by one whilst we see the memories relived before us and with Joel fighting to keep them as he realises he made a mistake and desperately tries to save memories. Its stunningly shot and at times beautifully surreal and all works to perfection.

A reason a few people I know haven’t seen this film is because Jim Carrey’s in it, but Carrey is truly outstanding as Joel and I wish he would do more serious type films like this as he and the rest of cast perform wonders making it so successful, Winslett was nominated for an Oscar whilst Kaufman, Gondry and Pierre Bismuth won the Oscar for best Best Writing/Original screenplay and it should have won more.

The story is incredible and not only breaks your heart, as we see the characters despair of their failing and erased relationship, but it bends your brain with the incredible visuals that have to be seen to be believed and if you haven’t seen this film, make it your next purchase.

And that’s the E’s. I hope you enjoy these films as much as i did and again if you have any suggestions for films I haven’t picked then let me know.

Sorry for taking so long in getting these letters reviewed, So many films and so little time but the F’s will be coming soon.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/01/02/a-z-movie-reviews-es/feed/ 11 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/12/07/a-z-movie-reviews-ds/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/12/07/a-z-movie-reviews-ds/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:42:53 +0000 Gary Phillips http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=3303

To continue my review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-Z, this is the Forth part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 700+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-Z which has so far taken me 2.5 years to get to the end of H’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try. Click A, B, and C to read previous parts.

And so we reach the D’s and looking into the history of D’s I found some hideous movies I’m glad to say I don’t own like the Dr Doolittle remakes, Dude where’s my car, Deuce Bigalow male gigolo (2 parts, how!!), D3 Mighty Ducks, Daddy Day Care, Domino, Dracula dead and loving it, Dumb and dumberer when Harry met Lloyd and so on.
However I do own, or my wife owns Dirty Dancing and I had probably the best experience watching it as I took a bottle of tequila in hand and did a shot every time a scene annoyed me and so almost a full bottle of tequila later I finished the movie in high spirits and in the only way I was going to get through it.

I’m also amazed by my own inability to own all great films, I am missing the likes of Deer Hunter, Day Earth stood still (1951), Dig!, Dirty Dozen, Dirty Harry, Downfall, Dark City, Duck Soup and many more I’m sure that should must own as they really are missed in my collection, maybe santa will be kind this year.

And so onto my five choice films of the D’s. We have a classic Steve Martin on top form movie, the ultimate Stanley Kubrick film with the ultimate Peter Sellers in his finest performance, A deeply Dark Muppet Movie, a charming Steve Carell Rom-Com Movie and the best comic book superhero movie ever made. A wonderful choice of movies and again all offering something amazing and unique.

A few notable omissions from my top five are:- Dead man Shoes, Die Hard, Deliverance, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Duel and Desperado.

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

This is one of my favourite movies, not because of the story or the acting or the cast but because it’s so dam clever and completely original, I’ve never seen a film like it before or since.

Released in 1982 and staring Steve Martin as Private Detective Rigby Reardon whose recruited by Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) who is convinced that the reported death of her father, who was a prominent Cheese scientist working on a secret recipe, was no accident.

Rigby finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are “The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta.” And starts a search for these people and here is where it sets itself apart from any other film, for the people Rigby meets are all from scenes of old classic black and white movies cut into the movie to give impression Rigby is talking or interacting with the likes of Marlon Brando, Vincent Price, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and many more, it works brilliantly and is flawless mainly due to the excellent design of costumes that match perfectly to the original actors dress and the excellent set design that again matches to the original scenes in the old movies, this combined with excellent editing make a quite brilliant movie.

The comedy is top draw with Steve Martin showing off his timing and line delivery with utter natural comic ease which makes the film work so well and carries the movie on even though the plot goes completely bonkers when the Nazi’s get involved towards the end but never the less it’s a genuine classic comedy movie.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb

Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors that has ever graced our eyes and Dr.Strangelove is my own personal favourite movie of his wide variety of films.

If you haven’t seen it then it’s definitely one of those films you have to see before you die.
Released in 1964, the plot is still very relevant and dark today as it was then and centres around a paranoid army general who freaks out thinking the Russians are polluting the bodily fluids of the American people and so starts off a chain of events that lead to a potential nuclear attack on USSR. The President meets with his advisers and is informed that if nuclear weapons are dropped on the USSR then it will set of a “˜Doomsday Device’ that will destroy all animal and plant life on Earth.

It’s Peter Sellers who makes the film so incredible and memorable as he performs as three entirely different characters throughout. Merkin Muffley The President of USA, British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and the show stealing ex Nazi nuclear expert Dr Strangelove, an utter joy to watch Sellers at his best and utter such classic funny lines like “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room”. Brilliant.

Peter Sellers in my opinion was scandalously beaten to an Oscar for best Actor by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady and Kubrick was beaten by George Cukor for best Director also for My Fair Lady and personally Dr.Strangelove is easily a superior film, maybe it was too dark of a film for it’s time but it was the best film of that year by a long way.

Dark Crystal

The Muppet Show this isn’t. Jim Henson brings to life this amazing fantasy tale using entirely puppets, animatronics or actors wearing puppet outfits and the result is a dark and scary movie that is one of the most loved children’s films of it’s time.

The film is a fine old good vs evil tale that centres around the character of Jen, the last Gerlfling in the world and her journey to insert the missing shard splinter into the Dark Crystal to end the rule of the Skecksis when the three suns align.

On route she meets a variety of characters including a banished Skeksi who is trying to capture them to get accepted back (This Skeksi was the creepiest thing I remember witnessing as a child) another Gerlfling and her dog-like pet Fizzgig and together they travel to the Dark Crystal to finish the rule of the Skeksis.

Dark Crystal is a wonderful film showing off all of the Henson magic and adding a incredible fantasy tale that scares, excites and impresses at every turn and still to this day I can sit and watch and enjoy every minute of it.

Dan in Real Life

A hugely underrated film staring Steve Carell as Dan Burns a widowed father of three girls who takes them to his parents vacation home for a huge family get together.

Whilst visiting a book store he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche) who he connects with, something he hasn’t done since his wife died, they hit it off but and have to go their separate ways after she receives a phone call but they exchange numbers and Dan is left in love and further telling his family he may have met someone special.

It turns out that Marie is dating one of Dan’s brothers and when she turns up to the family get together things take a turn for the awkward, Dan can’t confess to the family that Marie is the girl and Marie can’t either after just being introduced to large family and so the two share a very awkward and frustrating time in the same home to very humorous consequences.

The film moves along nicely with some touching moments and laugh out loud scenes due to Carell’s excellent comic timing, and it’s Steve Carell who impresses the most in a great semi serious role as a father desperately trying to find someone to replace the hole left by the death of his wife and picking the one person to fill that that’s already taken by his brother.

Great film, moving and very enjoyable.

Dark Knight

The standout film by far, not only in the D’s but arguably from all of the letters I have done so far. It’s got everything you could want from a film, action, gadgets, plot and the best portrayal of Batman vs The Joker you could hope for.

The film will be remembered for the performance of Heath Ledger and rightly so, the Oscar was fully deserved as Heath Ledger gave us the perfect performance of the insane with genius to battle the gravel voiced Batman and was so good you wanted to see more of the Joker than of the Batman.

With the addition of a well setup story to create Two Face, played by the excellent and highly underrated Aaron Eckhart, it was the almost perfect film from the Director who can’t make a bad film, Christopher Nolan.

I saw this at the IMAX and it wasn’t quite as impressive watching it at home but still the quality of the Dark Knight is astonishing with the only down side for me were Batman’s voice and the sonar concept at the end.

It’s all setup nicely for the next film with everyone guessing who will be the next villain in Batman 3, my choice is the Riddler but who knows.

Thanks for reading, any recommendations welcome. Coming soon is part five the E’s.

To continue my review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-Z, this is the Third part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 700+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-Z which has so far taken me 2+ years to get to the end of G’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try.

Another letter and another bunch of classics I should own and a selection of ones I’m glad to say I don’t own.
A few to mention are Catwoman, Cannonball Run, Cape Fear, Clash of the titans, Cool running’s, City lights, Chinatown, City of God, Cheerleader Ninjas, Cool as Ice, City on Fire and Casablanca. I’ll leave it to you to decide the good and the bad.

The chosen five films below are all different genre’s and all offer something really different. There is a classic Guillermo Del Toro Fantasy, a stunning action adventure, an autobiographical, a documentary and a true legend of a self funded self made independent movie.

Controversially what is missing from my list is Citizen Kane, a film I think is really overrated and doesn’t fully deserve being at the top of a majority of top 10 film lists of all time, It is a stunningly made film of it’s time and so epic and supremely acted by Orson Welles but I can’t watch it all the way through and enjoy it which is what I gage a good movie by, I remember buying it and being excited that I was about to see something special, but it never really lived up to the expectations.

On with my top five films, they are:

Cronos, Written and directed by the amazing Guillermo Del Toro, this is a supreme fantasy tale from 1993 of a device shaped like a beetle that gives ever lasting life after it attaches itself to the holder but the side effect is that you develop a need for blood.

The device was created in 1535 by an alchemist for eternal life and lasted him for 400 years when he died in an accident. The device is then lost and rumored to be in a statue of a archangel where a wealthy cancer stricken Dieter de la Guardia is buying all archangel statues in chance to find it but an antique dealer, Jesus Gris, happens upon the device and unwillingly becomes it’s master and develops a taste for blood.

Dieter sends his burly nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to get the device by any means necessary and so the story unfolds of the lust for blood, the desire of immortality and the consequences of owning the device. It’s a very well made film, considering the budget of just $2 million which made it the most expensive Mexican film of all time, and it’s the film that launched Del Toro into the big time.

It doesn’t show the imaginative creatures that Del Toro has created since and become famed for but it’s a wonderful take on the vampire genre with outstanding performances from the two lead elderly actors and supporting roles from Perlman and the young Tamara Shanath who played the helpless Aurora, Jesus’s grand daughter. If you want to see where Guillermo Del Toro was first noticed as a director/writer then see this film now, it is slow going but its a fantastic tale of immortality and a true show of what a stunning imaginative writer and director can create. The Hobbit can not come soon enough.

Children of Men , A film that stuns in every way. It has a truly outstanding plot set in England 2027 where the population of the world has been unable to have children for 18 years, a woman is found to be pregnant and it’s down to Theo (Clive Owen) to save humanity by getting her to safety.

The film is directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban) and is based on the novel by P.D.James. The film is so striking in its appearance that it just plasters itself all over your brain and you cant remove the images of a dystopian future from it.

There are some absolutely jaw dropping set pieces of action filming in one take shots that will blow your mind which stop you from blinking for ages in case you miss something, it really is what film watching is all about. They are so memorable and really take the film from being great to something truly amazing, and the setting of an unruly London where the look and mood is captured incredibly well with fortified buses and littered streets showing a bleak future that is more realistic than most assumptions shown in film, it’s truly incredible and well worthy of it’s three Oscar nominations.

Clive Owen is on top form with arguably his best ever performance carrying the film perfectly and on top of that there are some outstanding supporting roles from Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clare-Hope Ashitey and Pam Ferris, with Caine the standout as a dope smoking hippie Jasper that Theo turns to for help.

A classic, and one of my all time favorite films.

Chopper, The film that launched stand-up comedian Eric Bana into Hollywood in the Biographical movie about famous Australian criminal Mark “˜Chopper’ Read and his rise to fame after writing the autobiographical book that the film was based on.

The film first takes place in 1978 and shows Read serving time for kidnapping a judge who was presiding over the trial of his best friend and after a quite disturbing period in prison where he is stabbed by his friend, made enemy’s with almost everyone and has his ears mutilated to get out of prison the character is set of Chopper.

On his release Chopper continues to make friends then turn them to enemies for no other reason than he is paranoid and a tad crazy or in Choppers own words “being a bit schizo or something”. It’s when he learns from the police that there is a hit on him that his paranoia escalates and he eventually ends back in prison where he writes his book and enjoys watching himself being interviewed on TV as a celebrity, whether someone like him deserves that status as a murderer is up for debate but the film has a definite humor about it that makes it a dam fine watch.

Eric Bana produces a performance that is little short of stunning, he changes his physical appearance by adding 30 pounds shaving his head making him almost unrecognizable from the first part of the film and he spent two days with Read to perfect his role (shown in extras on DVD), The change is stunning and the likeness to the real Chopper is brilliant.

The director Andrew Dominik, who also directed the amazing “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and Eric Bana have created something very different from the usual crime bio-pic which deserves a wider audience for it’s black sense of humor and style.

Capturing the Friedman’s, A haunting film showing the fall of the Friedman Family using their own home videos as the body of this documentary. Obsessed with capturing their lives on camera the Friedman family, Mother and Father Arnold and Elaine and their sons Jesse, David and Seth filmed their lives from the good times to their demise when the father and one of the sons were caught in child abuse accusations after Arnold was arrested for possessing child pornography magazines and then later discovered to have molested students in their basement.

Although a horrible subject matter, the film is a phenomenal watch where the family kept filming during its destruction and you watch it in total shock as it unfolds right to the end where Elaine is outcast from the family and the accused head for trial.
Controversially nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary with interviews with some of the grown up victims, investigators and family members it leaves you wondering who was the guilty party as the director Andrew Jarecki was quoted as saying that he was biased in showing the guilty side of the family.

Containing hours of previously unreleased footage and archival material, the DVD makes it clear that Jarecki decided to maintain a studied uncertainty. He had undeniable evidence that the Friedmans had been railroaded by a criminal-justice system in the grips of hysteria.
A film that will truly weld you to your seat and one of the most incredible self destructive families witnessed on film.

Clerks , The ultimate Indie movie self funded on sold comic books and maxed out 8-10 credit cards that led to a man living the dream to make his kind of movies for a living. Made in 1994 by Kevin Smith and shot almost entirely in the store where Smith worked over 21 straight days costing $27,575 in total. The film shows a day in the life of Dante who is forced to go into work on his day off at the Quick Stop convenience store, he spends his day talking to his friend Randall who works in the video store next door and has numerous humorous exchanges with customers, friends and his girlfriend throughout the day.

The exchanges with these people are what make the film excel, the dialogue is so well written and down to earth and the characters, although understandable not the best actors in the world, all put in the performance of a lifetime. The film was filmed entirely in black and white and roughly edited due to the budget constraints but that takes nothing away from this genius movie, with some incredibly memorable scenes that are now legendary like the 37 dicks and the Star Wars Death Star discussion where Randal and Dante discus the murder of all the innocent contractors who were working to build the 2nd Death Star at the time of it’s destruction by Lando Calrissian, it’s pure comic brilliance.

Also introducing the Jay and Silent bob characters to the screen that went on to appear in all but two of Kevin Smith other films including their own film Jay and Silent Bob Strike back.

A sequel, Clerks 2, was released in 2006 and was a pretty good watch and allowed some closure on our favorite characters.

And so that conclude the C’s, Next up is the D’s.

To continue the review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-Z, this is the second part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 700+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-Z which has so far taken me 2+ years to get to the end of the G’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try.

First off was the A’s which you can read here, next it’s the B’s

Again there were some absolute classics in my collection that didn’t make it into my 5 choice B Films like Back to the Future (we’ve all seem them), Blues Brothers, Bourne Trilogy, Batman Begins, Breakfast Club, Bill & Ted, Bladerunner and Bug’s Life to name a few.

Shockingly missing from my collection is the delights of Batman and Robin, Barb Wire and Bean:The Movie! but more serious omissions are Brazil, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the classic John Woo ‘Better Tomorrow 2′ which is unforgivable.

So without further delay I give you my 5 must see films starting with:

Big Lebowski, a film that has been in my top 5 all time favourite movies since its release and my favourite Coen Brothers film.

It has the most iconic movie character in the Dude, played supremely by Jeff Bridges, a supporting cast that provide equally memorable characters like the Dude’s friends Walter and Donnie played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi respectively and a story that was simple yet captivating and completely flawless and immecibly quotable.

With fantastic additional characters like “Jesus” the bowling Pederast (John Turturro), the other Jeff Lebowski (David Huddlestone) and his assistant Brandt (the always brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman) plus many others the film has reached truly iconic levels, It’s made the White Russian Cocktail famous, it’s created a new spiritual following in “Dudeism” (I kid you not) and has launched Lebowskifest, a regular cult convention following of all things Lebowski. A truly stunning phenomenon of a film and I take great comfort in knowing that the Dude abides.

Blood Simple, another Coen Brothers classic film and their first movie.

It’s a basic story of a bar owner who suspects his wife of having an affair, so he hires a private detective to get proof and so begins a story of double crosses, plot twists and murder.

The cast are superb, led by Frances McDormand and supported by John Getz and M Emmet Walsh. It’s quite a brutal Film Noir that showed some amazing glimpses of brilliance by the new Coen Brother team and Cinematogropher Barry Sonnenfeld way back in 1984.

The film is a cracking example of small budget brilliance, it’s very dark and beautifully shot and well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

Brick, With Joseph Gordon-Levitt rising as an A list actor I want you all to see one of his earlier films that seemed to pass a lot of people by.

It’s a strange and a bit of a confusing type of film with a mostly young cast about Brendan (Gordon-Levitt) whose ex-girlfriend contacts him and then is later found dead. Brendan investigates her death and forces his way into a high school crime ring lead by “the Pin” and plots a revenge through a complex story.

I really enjoyed the film, although confusing at times. It was the characters that made it stand out, like Tugger, The Pin, The Brain and our lead Brendan, they all added to a really different and well made film. It’s very cheap at the moment in HMV and well worth adding to your collections.

Boogie Nights, one of my favourite ever films from one of my favourite directors. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson it’s a film about the porn industry in the 70s& 80s and of a rising star called Dirk Diggler and his exploits in making films, making new friends/family and dealing with drugs and stardom.

It’s a truly epic movie lasting about 3 hours but it’s one of the most watchable films ever made with an amazing tale stretched over many years showing the change in the industry and the change it has on the characters we follow.

The stellar cast boasts Philip Seymour Hoffman, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Luis Guzman, John C Reilly, Thomas Jane, William H Macy, Mark Wahlberg, Alfred Molina and Don Cheadle to name but a few.

The film has some truly hilarious moments and some shocking ones too but the overall story is just brilliant and the performances outstanding and well worthy of its 3 Oscar nominations for Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore and Paul Thomas Anderson.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must buy.

Bubba Ho-Tep. Not one of the best films but definitely two of the greatest performances from actors in 2002.

Bubba Ho-Tep is a silly film with a very interesting plot. Basically Elvis is still alive and lives in an old peoples home where he is known as an impersonator of the King played amazingly by one of my favourite actors Bruce Campbell. He is joined by Jack (Ossie Davis) who believes he is JFK and who explains that he was patched up after the assasination in Dallas, dyed black and abandoned by Lyndon Johnson – genius. The two old boys are tormented by the regular deaths of their fellow occupants and find that an Egyptian soul eating mummy is on the loose feeding off the almost dead residents. So they hatch a plan to destroy the creature (Ho-Tep).

As I said the performances are brilliant and their banter makes the film work well, there are some stupid scenes but the image of an elderly zimmer-framed Elvis and an electric wheelchair driving a black JFK is pure gold.

Well worth a watch this one, mainly for fans of the Big chin.

That concludes the B’s, coming soon the C’s. What will make the list? Citizen Kane, Casino, Close Encounters of the Third Kind”¦

As a lover of films I proudly own a huge amount of DVD’s and Bluray films I’ve collected over the years, approximately 700 in all, and having decided to watch them all I’ve started a journey revisiting worlds, characters and stories that I may not have seen again as the DVD’s sit on their shelving gathering dust.

Some movies have been binned or sold on eBay after viewing, or post viewing (I’ll list them later) and some have brought back fond memories of why I bought them and why I love movies so much.

Having so far watched up to Godfather on my adventure to view all my movies from A-Z in order, which has so far taken about two years, I’ve constantly added to my collection and started re-buying some films on Bluray to get the most out my TV and maximise my viewing pleasure.

I also find myself searching in HMV or Amazon regularly to find any films in the G’s or H’s I haven’t got yet so I can watch them soon, it’s kind of got to an addiction level with the more I watch the more I want to watch.

There have been times where I’ve bought films in the S’s or T’s for example and refuse to watch them out of order because Ive a system! I desperately want to see “There Will Be Blood” on Bluray but I wont”¦.out of principle, I need help!

I thought I should review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try.

First off was the A’s.

With such classics as Airplane, Alien, Aliens and Annie Hall it was a fine start to my adventure. Airplane was hilarious, Alien was as scary as it always has been, Aliens was a stunning all out action horror movie and Annie Hall was a quite brilliant subtle comedy film and all were a joy to watch, but I choose 5 films that I think were the best of the A’s and they were, in no particular order:

American Movie ““ This film is an amazing documentary following a man’s dream of making a movie with his friends, you watch him struggle with family problems, financial problems, drinking problems and filming problems.

The camera crew follow like-able Mark Borchardt, a long haired struggling American trying to live his American dream as an amateur film maker, he uses his friends, local actors and maxing out his credit cards to make a film called North Western but struggles to get anywhere with it, so he returns to completing a Horror film called Coven, a film he was working on but never completed years before.

He borrows money from his eccentric uncle Bill to finish the movie and along with his best friend and musician Mike Schank, who produces some of the films funniest moments, they set on completing the movie.

The film is a great watch and you really want Mark to succeed, you watch him struggle with normal life, with family, relationships and financial problems and you get a fascinating look at a struggling American’s life trying to live a dream which I too have a passion for.

American Beauty ““ Is this Kevin Spacey’s finest film? Possibly. Spacey plays a man with the supposedly perfect life but entering into a depression and mid-life crisis which escalates when he becomes infatuated with his daughters friend, buys a sports car and becomes friends with a teenager boy from next door who sells him weed this all leads to a mind blowing ending that leaves you shocked and amazed.

The film is beautifully shot and directed by Sam Mendes and fully deserves it’s 5 Oscars. It’s an unexpected classic with every aspect of the film working perfectly to produce one of the all time great movies.

American Psycho ““ The film for me that launched Christian Bale into adult stardom.
I’ve never seen a portrayal of a psychotic killer on film as good as this, and as funny!
American psycho is one of the most dark funny disturbing films of all time, it’s humour is subtle in ways you feel wrong laughing at times and the setting of 80′s yuppie America is fantastically realised.

Christian Bale is so stunning as Patrick Bateman that you can see why he has become one of the most passionate actors of our generation who totally immerses himself in every role he does, He is Patrick Bateman in this film.

Patrick Bateman is by day a wealthy successful investment banker and by night has the urge to kill people, and does in brutal ways whether it’s a chainsaw or a big f’n axe which is terrifying to watch but in a horrible way you kind of like him.

Stunning film if you haven’t seen it, you must do so soon.

Amelie – Probably one of the most beautifully made films of all time, the colours are stunning the acting is sublime and the story is one that is both affectionate and memorable that you won’t forget it for days after.

The film is French and made by the amazing Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It stars Audrey Tautau as Amelie, a young girl who decides to devote her life to helping people after finding a man’s lost childhood memories by chance and returning it to him, the delight it brings to him gives her this new perspective on life.

The story unfolds in wonderful little stories of people she choses to help, her father and his garden gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a stalker, the photo booth ghost, a young shop assistant, an old man who’s bones are as brittle as glass and the love of her life.

Every little story is woven together so well and expertly told that you can’t help but love the film and get drawn into Amelie’s world.

Nominated for 5 Oscars, it should of won them all!

American Splendor – A bizarre film this, but a fantastic comic book adaption from the comic of the same name. Starring Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar the creator of the American Splendor comic, the film follows Harvey in 1970′s as he goes through life as a miserable hopeless part of existence that enjoys scouring garage sales for bargains.

It’s at one of these sales that he meets Robert Crumb, who later becomes a successful underground comic book writer, this makes Harvey inspired to create his own comic and comes up with American Splendor a comic that’s a realistic unsentimental documentation of his working class life, the comic brings him fame and love and is a cracking watch.

The film breaks the forth wall at times, and also cuts in with Giamatti talking to the real Harvey Pekar on set which brings a realism to the movie.

Giamatti is stunning in this film and has won numerous awards for his role as Harvey Pekar. The film is slow moving but entertaining and was a real treat to watch as i bought it by chance on a drunken night out on recommendation from a fellow drunk friend.

I hope you enjoy these films us much as i did, i would love to hear your thoughts.

That concludes the A’s, I’ll be back shortly with my next top 5 B films.