James Titcumb

So here’s another non-geeky post courtesy of my wench over at Metal Mummy. Her increasingly-popular movie meme, imaginatively titled Metal Mummy’s Movie Meme sporting the Twitter hash tag #mmmm (which unfortunately results in many unrelated tweets to do with food, sex and other things that make you go “mmmm”), has been a hit and even featured on the British Mummies Blog. Also she has been quoted in an article on Real Parenting. So well done baby! Keep it up.

Unfortunately I have been rather lax this week and have only just gotten around to doing my post for this week. The theme for this week is Directors, and Hannah unsurprisingly chose Shane Meadows, a fellow Stokie with bald head and really bushy eyebrows. So who should I choose for this one? Well I’m going to nominate some with the films I like from the director to help myself then pick a winner:

1. Peter Jackson (LOTR, King Kong)
2. Gore Verbinski (POTC, The Mexican)
3. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Drag Me To Hell)
4. Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones, Jaws, ET, Hook, Jurrasic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds)
5. Christopher Nolan (Momento, Batman Begins, Inception)
6. Joel Schumacher (Lost Boys, Falling Down, Tigerland, Phone Booth, POTO, Number 23)
7. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Curious Case Ben Button, Social Network)
8. Wachowski Brothers (Matrix)
9. James Cameron (Terminator, Rambo 2, Aliens, True Lies, Titanic, Avatar)

My issue with this topic is that there are so many films I love, but they’re all by different actors. This by no means is a bad thing – it just shows that there are many talented directors out there who really know their stuff and how to help make a film good. So my “short” list is done, now who to pick?? They are all good, so this is by no means a reflection on their talent, but my winner is…

Peter Jackson

I hadn’t heard of him until the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but boy those films are collectively an absolute masterpiece. Having just finished re-watching the extended edition (taken me about 3 months of watching bits at lunch!), it’s fresh in my memory. The films are engrossing not unlike a book might be. I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined up a better look and feel for the films.

Of course it wasn’t just Peter Jackson who made the Lord of the Rings films so amazing, there was an enormous cast behind it, all making the films so fantastic as they turned out to be.

I was sceptical, being a Lord of the Rings book fan, but the films really did deliver above and beyond expectations. Peter Jackson did himself proud with these films. His King Kong remake gets a nod too as it was a great film, although that is not the primary reason.

The exciting point about this is that The Hobbit films are also being worked on at the moment! I have heard snippets of news here and there on it, such as actors new and returning, but I was glad to learn that Jackson will be back at the helm. Only he can do these films justice, and after Lord of the Rings, I have very high expectations…

So my fabulous fiancée is continuing her new meme (which I found out last week is pronounced like “cream”… if you ever wondered…), Metal Mummy’s Movie Meme. This week is Black and White films. Again she made it quite broad, but this is particularly difficult for me. I am an avid lover of great quality movies, and strive to have everything in High Definition, so when an old black & white film comes on I fall asleep pretty much.

A couple of suggestions were Sin City (lots of boobies!!) and Schindlers List. I’m sorry for this, and I’ll probably get a lot of stick for this, but I found Schnidler’s List quite a boring film, and I fell asleep. So I did a bit of Googling, and came across this list, which helped me find my film of choice:

Memento

This film I really enjoyed. It sort of goes backwards and forwards through the story, so you have to concentrate a bit, but I love films like that, because if you do concentrate, you engage with the film more, and I think in turn enjoy the film more. This one has Guy Pearce in a great role and it’s well worth a watch. In HD of course

Definately check it out, and of course check out Sin City if you haven’t (how could you not have seen that??? It’s got lots of boobies in it!)

Yay for boobies!

I’m taking part in Metal Mummy’s Movie Meme – yay! This week is 21st Century Films, but I’m rubbish at thinking so I’m going with the first modern film that is good that comes to my head.

Rambo

… is a undeniably an awesome ultra-violent film. Well, for people that like guns and silly violence anyway. It’s got to be the choice film for me. Sly Stallone pummelling countless bodies with his lovely big 50 cal (pictured) is pure genius. Senseless, bloody violence.

Some would moan that the plot is weak or whatever, but they don’t quite understand clearly. Rambo isn’t about plot (even though the plot, although not the strongest, does have some ties to real-world situation… daft, I know!). It’s about macho-ism and slick death. If you get squeamish, this ain’t the film for you either. It’s not a slasher in the way the Friday 13th series is, but it’s a different concept. It has lots of guns, an excessively high body count and is great fun to watch. Sly Stallone is brilliant at it, and I think it’s nearly the best Rambo film to be honest, behind First Blood. It’s even better in HD – so make sure you get it on Sky+HD or Blu-ray. Definately a film for a romantic night in with the wench. Whilst clutching your assault rifle. Drinking a cider with AK47 bullet ice cubes.

Bonus prize: Goes to the fantastic 2008 film The Hurt Locker. Although there are so many films I’m starting to think of that I could’ve written about (e.g. LOTR), The Hurt Locker is a fantastic film and very modern. It’s not ultra-violent, but it has a fantastic storyline and Jeremy Renner is fantastic in it. Again, worth a check out on Blu-ray.

Oops forgot yesterday… can see my enthusiasm for this idea fading already and I’m not even 2 weeks in… so here’s a view from my side of the bed anyway…