Resident Evil:Retribution

MOVIE ZONE Let’s start from the finish: The Resident Evil movies tend to end with the survivor’s back against the wall, tons of enemies crowding in from every angle, and ace symbolic music. That alone is enough for a certain amount of points from ten, for memorability. The music creeps in like Lucifer’s talons on the icy keys of a piano made from frozen tears. I think it started off on an Alice Cooper CD.

For once I can tolerate hundreds of gunshots and cars being flipped Michael Bay-style because this is a franchise of merit with something going for it on a philosophical level. Raccoon City and The Hive and The Umbrella Corporation have an iconic historical feel by now. Milla Jovovich is for this what Sigourney Weaver is for the Alien series. And that ladies and gents is all that’s required for a franchise to stay true to itself—have the same star simply show up for the next one. The instant you get a different person in, the whole thing goes Pete Tong.

Usually, generic Matrix-like fight scenes are embarrassing, but when it’s rubber-clad Milla in computer-generated environments then they're drop-jaw impressive. The punch and pomp and panache are popping off the screen. There were too many flying bullets, far too many, even for a series you have a fondness for, and like usual the first one is always the best. After one or two forgettable ones though, number 5 (is this really the fifth one?) is back on the up.

It’s so macho at times, like many other flicks out there, that it might seem laughable. But Scarlet or Kate or Charlize couldn’t pull this off, and what it does well, it does like nothing else does. Probably because this is a computer game movie, like Silent Hill. They have something about them. Visually stunning.

Multiverse, Millenia, Movies, etc

...When the Writing gets tough, the Photoshop gets going... 

The novel’s on hold. Been shelved for a month. But there’s absolutely no problemos, because the path and plot are kinda set, and the outlook is special. So let’s not get our frilly pink Asda knickers in a knot about that. More worrying is Mr. Ridiculous, a side project that is only 10,000 words in after over a year. The average must be a paragraph a week! Half a page every now and then is good going. It was always going to be slow because it’s unique, and relies on notes. You can’t make notes up. They arrive every now and again. Sometimes 3 a day. Sometimes none for 4 days. I text myself notes, on my portable mobile telephone. But still, progress at the moment, in all written endeavours, is snail-like. 

Even editing the backlist, which was like a breeze for the first 2 books, has run into a wall. Exhausturbation is proving to be as much a headache to sift through as it was to write a draft. As Michael Douglas says, in the writing film Wonderboys (2001), starring Robert Downey Junior of Iron Man, Katie Holmes of Batman, and Toby Maguire of Spiderman...phew...much of it was written ‘under the influence’, meaning a tipple of premium Dutch lager by the way, not Valium crushed and snorted through a blunt. His unfinished script in that film takes up a couple of boxes, and in loose pages to boot. And like the Constant Writer Steve King says about his doorstop tome The Tommyknockers, “It wasn’t so much written, but gutted out.”

In Exhausturbation, at a part where the story goes into the main characters mind, describing the makeup of his psyche as an actual physical place, very much like in The Cell (2000), guess who was shatted on by a dollop of writer’s block, regarding this particular work, that lasted 3 whole years? Yup, yours truly, who else! And alas, at the same place during editing, guess who has been stuck again for several weeks? The passage is about a metaphysical dome called THE LOBBY OF HIS PERSONAL HELL, an enormous cathedral-like structure of bio-mechanic matter like that godforsaken sludge pit where the robots feed off humans in The Matrix (1999). Basically, it has just dawned that the book fleeces (rips off) movies from around the millennium...although of course it is ten times well better than all of them combined.

Exhausturbation is so far the most difficult story to ‘make work’. And in a way, the most exciting. It went on such a tangent that the only way to wrap things up was to include a black hole/multi-verse/parallel reality. This abstract diversion would give way to the kind of dreamscape prose that would rise in The Violent Arsonist, 2 years later, although because of the long gap, I came back to Exhausturbation after The Violent Arsonist was finished and did the 36,000 word flash fiction collection Kixter in between (the titles Exhausturbation and Kixter are words of my own making...voila). And that’s how the themes of books interlink, see? Because at times you juggle and flip from one to another, taking with you what you learn in each...

At times even I, the dude who wrote it, thinks wowsers, gracious me, what the frig is going on in this man!? I can’t believe or remember what I’m reading. It's a pwopa (proper) mental journey. I killed a main character for no good reason and introduced a giant child in a force field as big as the Marshmellow Man in Ghostbusters (1984). All good zany fun, if nothing else! The plot literally fell apart at the seams and had to be stitched up with alternative drink thinking. Martin Rees, eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist, has been discussing dark matter and multi-verse theories just this morning on BBC Radio 4, which is doubly-fitting after the meteor on Friday night, which, for dangsakes, I missed. There was a new programme called Orbit aired on Sunday night too, and the skies have been clear over here in Northern England, so inklings of space are in the old grey matter, like – cliché alert – distant jewels. Or sequestered sequins.

Does space conflict with faith? Why is there a black hole in the middle of our galaxy? What is the universe expanding into? Are the aliens already among us? And most bafflingly of all, joking aside, just who the flying fook IS Carmen Sandiago? Answers in an email with the subject heading WHOCARES please. Danka.   

Casshern

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i--UUeGTMvo&feature=related

A small screen on PooTube will never do this justice, and it literally is 10x more magnificent on a big crisp TV, but the link above provides just an idea of kickass Japanese animation manga at its very impressive best anyway. One dude batters an army with fearless skill and flair. TWO WORDS – TOO GOOD! Simple as. Show me a more inspiring special effects sequence, and I’ll show you a big fat liar. FACT!

Just sat through Appleseed Ex Machina (2007), another animation (they’re the best), and am now about to watch Immortal (2004), because I have just discovered that Immortal, along with Casshern (2004), were the first of their kind, in as much as they were the first movies to be shot entirely on a “digital backlot”, blending real actors with CGI surroundings.

http://piebald77.blogspot.com/2010/08/favourite-shots.html

Transformers Duh

Oh no, not another one. When will Michael Bay stop abusing our eardrums with his boring explosions? All this guy cares about is flipping cars. Okay, it’s great for kids, it’s in 3D, with stunning special effects and a spectacular finale, but as an adult, I think I’ll stick with adult movies, like Skyline, and District 9, for my kicks.

Mark Kermode, country’s top critic, did the best review of a film I’ve ever seen on his video blog. It was Transformers 2. All he did is bang his head against a metal door. No words needed. Pity he couldn’t have banged his head into Shia LaBoeuf’s face.

I lost all interest when the huge shape-shifting robots started talking back in the first one. I was half a fan until they started talking. I like to ‘buy into’ a movie. I like to be able to imagine that it’s real. I just can’t get my head around the fact that these technological warfare monstrosities have personalities.

Someone said that this is like sticking your face into a blender. I wouldn't go that far, like.

http://piebald77.blogspot.com/2011/03/stealths-path.html

The Ruins

There’s something oddly cinematic about a blond covered in blood. Now, before you start reaching conclusions from that statement, let me explain…

I say this mainly because of the movie Scar (2007). After being held captive and tortured, a young woman chainsaws the bad guy at the end. As she grimaces and gets into the chainsawing of him proper (there’s more to it than pulling a trigger), her gritted teeth and cheeks are spattered with blood. It’s gruesome, but at the same time, you’re thinking, go on girl, stick it to him, the dirty mother! It’s almost inspiring, after what she’s been through, the real moment of glory for the underdog.

The clip here reminds me of The Exorcist (1973) an awful lot. The Ruins is one of those movies which you remember for one standout scene alone. Nothing special had happened prior, but once it took off, you were like, wow man. This is disturbing, without being overly twisted and sick or bizarre. The movie is far from a bloodfest. There’s so much gore out there, but hardly any of it is done for any worthwhile purpose. Think of all the Final Destination (2000) deaths. Sure, they’re imaginative and skillfully executed, but come on, they’re just for laughs at the end of the day. This, for me, was a shocking thunderclap of emotion in what was otherwise a quiet, non-eventful movie. It was wrenching, moving, and brilliant.

If you want to call someone twisted, call it Conrad Williams, whose latest crime book is called Blonde on a Stick! Haha. I recall his reading last year at Manchester Book Market. It was a bright, beautiful day, the hottest day of the year thus far, and he was reading about blood oozing out of cut throats! Now that's a man into his horror.

Oh and by the way, in case you miss it like I did the first time, keep your eyes on her forehead when she swigs from the bottle.

Sucker Punch

Not to be confused with the abysmal British turner-offer Donkey Punch (2008)

What can I say, apart from go and see it? I can’t emphasize the importance of going into movies fresh as well. Pull out all the stops to be naive. The trailers and the hype spoil all the surprises. There were no opening credits, because great cinema doesn’t need to hook you with big names at the beginning, so I was welcomed by happy pop-ups such as Gretchen from Donnie Darko, or Jena Malone if you prefer, and Scott Glenn, the guy who keeps money under the floor in Training Day (2001). This got into flow fast. As is so often the case, an unseen “star” reaches the radar in almost 2 consecutive films – Abbie Cornish, from Limitless (2010). It’s funny how someone you are unaware of can feature in 2 movies you watch back-to-back and suddenly they are the hottest thing on the box since sliced bread and there’s no one else you’d rather be slobbering over, cough, I mean watching. This last occurred with Evan Racheal Wood, in The Wrestler (2008), and in King of California (2007), alongside the man virtually guaranteed to lose his rag in every production, the legendary Michael “goddamn” Douglas.

Sucker Punch (2011) is made for big HD tellies. And people like me. It’s always a good sign when the opening soundtrack is one of the teenage anthems that marked you growing up, a good remix of The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This. Did I recognize Bjork’s voice throughout, too? I was so impressed by the opening sequence that I almost started it again, which is super unusual, but I didn’t want to be there all night. That was 5 minutes in. At the 26 minute mark I had to take my hat off and take a breather. I almost turned it off so my memories of that first 26 minutes could live on as they were, and not be tarnished by another 82 minutes, which would only serve to surely water down the intensity of what I’d viewed so far.

It was the best 26 minutes ever. Its unforeseen evolution and skill truly "sucker punched" me. One epic twist is rare enough, in 90 minutes, such as Orphan (2009). By 26 minutes, in this, there’d been 2. And we’re talking a twist of Gothika (2003) proportions, when Halle Berry awakes as a patient in the hospital where she works, very early on in the film. There was that sense of reality flipping on its head, and then flipping on its head again. Dual existences and fantasy are what it’s all about, for myself. That sh*t is my bread n butter. Again, as with Hannah (2011), I could almost have been watching an adaptation of my own work.

Knowing others out there have emptied the entire contents of their creative psyches into scripts and then had their ideas propelled onto the screen via visual effects teams and millions of bucks reaffirms my Wheel of Life typology i.e that the individual hardly matters, as the life of humankind is a self-perpetuating cloud of regenerative / regurgitated / reincarnated artistry and creation. Phew! Best point in months! Months, I say!

It went on just a bit too long, milking that other reality for every cent, like The Hulk (2003) (2008) changing back-and-to far too many times; of course, expected, this is Warner Bros. here, but you can’t ask for a better balance between Hollywood happy endings and mind-bending, off-the-rails filmmaking than this. It was Gothika, Beowulf (2007), Resident Evil (2002), and a war movie in one. The thing is, however, I thought I was watching something like Gothika, so when it did its cross-genre tricks, I was stunned and gob-smacked with awe, fixed to the screen like a toddler watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Sad thing is, these very tricks are tools of promotion on the front cover and the marketing, so others will judge it against out-and-out single genre movies.

I swerved the front cover at first because it looked like something silly, and was only “sucked” in by a description line which mentioned the words “institutionalized” and “alternate reality”. Again, I stress how thrillingly rapturous it is to be swept away by a drastic change of course in a story rather than to enter it with preconceptions defined by billboards or adverts. Imagine your reaction if a talking, cigar-smoking unicorn in red leather boots made a debut halfway thru an episode of Columbo, against your reaction if you knew it was about to happen – no comparison, is there? Remember the Cadbury’s gorilla advert? Did you see that, or hear about it first?

There will always be a dilemma between selling the pitch and not giving too much away.

Go see this. Now. Or I’ll discipline you like I’m your dad and treat you like I’m your pimp. hohohaha

P.S Forgot to mention Carla Gugino from Snake Eyes (1998). Strong cast this.

Source Code / Henry's Crime

I twinned up on a double dose of Vera Farmiga here, who shot to stardom in my Best Actress Hall of Fame when she played Teresa Gazelle (Running Scared, 2006) and assassinated a female paedophile by blasting her from close range with 3 bullets, one in each boob and one in the head! The best bitch-on-bitch slaying by far! I’ve not seen her in anything bad, to be honest, much like the English actor Christopher Eccleston.

HENRY’S CRIME (2010) features Keanu ‘wooden’ Reeves at his most stiffest and concrete, as if a smile would crack his face, along with Farmiga and the catalyst, James Caan. This cast I simply had to see. The result was me smiling fondly along for much of the movie, mostly because of just how bad Keanu is when he’s not up and down on those cables in The Matrix, and by bad I mean good, but in a bad way. He has perfected that dumb, vacant look, and Caan, who, to me, will always be the poor Paul Sheldon in Misery (1990), who perfected how to smile and look pleased while simultaneously fearing for his life, still pulls off those hilarious expressions. At one point Keanu arranges to pick him up from jail but then turns up without a car, suggesting the bus station, and Caan stares at him with as much disbelief as he does when Kathy Bates, as the deranged Annie Wilkes, decides to hobble him with an axe.

SOURCE CODE (2011) is a scorcher. Take it from me and listen to what I'm telling you. A scorcher. It’s all good. There doesn’t seem to be a beginning, middle or end, just a chunk of movie more or less all the same. Slammin’ viewing. Never seen anything that had me so engaged from the first shot when Jake Gyllenhaal appears on a train not knowing who he is (we’ve all been there eh?). It’s what I call a ‘situation’ movie, because it’s all about a character being caught in a situation. They have a different ‘arc’ than traditional movies. There’s no waiting around with them. Think Groundhog Day, with action, on steroids, and you’re in the ballpark. Was much better than expected. Mainly because of the fact that it was set on a moving train. The premise asks a little much, but if you can grasp the philosophical ‘brain in a jar’ argument, then no amount of sci-fi Hollywood storylines will ever throw you off. You know the one, that life is a computer simulation and all that.

If you are ever confused, just tell yourself that his brain is in a jar somewhere. It works with anything. I was lost within the very first 5 minutes of Inception, and with 142 minutes of running time left, it was either Di Caprio's brain in a jar or my head up my arse.

Hanna / Limitless

LIMITLESS (2011)
When I was first took by surprise with the trailer I thought it might be an advert for aftershave or something masquerading as a movie trailer. I thought this because it kind of looked too good to be true to be a movie. It looked hyper, if that makes sense. And, like the Inception trailer, I quickly switched over and made a mental note to watch it. Unlike Inception (2010), I didn’t fall asleep during the time I got around to watching it. It started with a writer down on his luck before completing a book in 4 days, so I was pleasingly and surprisingly gripped from the word go. Then the movie evolved, and had me from feeling comfortable about myself in the beginning to not so comfortable at the end. It really took me on a journey, this one did, and left me in considerable deep thought after it had ended, which probably hasn’t happened since Donnie Darko (2001). The unmistakeable sign of a cracker is when you are rewinding it as you watch along.

HANNA (2011)
With the one word title of someone’s Christian name, which is always a good sign, and the striking cover image below the names Eric Bana - Chopper (2000) and Cate Blanchett - Notes On A Scandal (2006), I had already seen enough after one glance at the dust jacket to know I was going to like this one. I was not disappointed after pressing play. There was too much choreographed fighting, which I detest unless it's used comically*, but like The Book Of Eli (2010), it was not enough to ruin the rest of a belting, truly cinematic movie. At one point, I may well have been watching an awesomely impresive adaptation of the last book I wrote (excluding short story collections), entitled The Violent Arsonist (girl grown and raised as an experiment in a special research facility). This phenomenon happens very rarely and it is a very rich natural-high experience when it does. The movie Slither (2006) was so identical at one point to my book Slithering Lake* (a man barricading himself into his bathroom during a mutation phase), that I am still half-convinced to this day that the content of one of my old hard drives fell into a movie director’s hands…

These, considering the types of movies I watch, are the absolute pick of the bunch at the moment. Best in a long time. I would have liked Hanna to be more like a book and continue to steer off on a tangent, instead of tapering to conventional Hollywood rules, but that’s asking for too much, and the reason why I hold independent films like Ink (2009) in such high regard. What horrified me as well is the fact that both Limitless and Hanna have their main male leads fighting off a gang of baddies in a subway station, Jason Statham style, which was either sheer coincidence or some producer somewhere financing multiple projects who has a very healthy appetite for underground subway station fights. Who knows? I don’t know how any industry works.

*See, they hardly even bothered changing the title.

*Imagine Phil Mitchell having matrix fights (cables and pulleys for his flying kicks etc) in EastEnders (also known as RearEnders or BellEnders).

4 Movies a Day Keeps _______* at Bay

Some covers just say it all, don't they?

What’s the most movies you ever got done watching in a day? I’ve been a fan of slipping straight into another one as soon as one finishes, and now and again I’ll even watch three, come bedtime, but Sunday was fixed with not three but FOUR movies, one of them even fleshed out with adverts on Channel 4.

They were FAIR GAME, TAKEN, THE SUNSET LIMITED, and SHOOTER. I almost turned the last one off after 90 minutes to watch something else, but stuck with the last quarter determinedly. The first one nearly got switched after just twenty minutes, but Naomi Watts can be very persuasive.

The Quentin Tarantino related his habit of watching three movies a day once in an interview, so ever since I considered this behaviour standard practice. Perhaps he has much better reason because he makes them, but still. If they’re decent movies, it’s time well spent. There’s a lot of crap about though. A ton of crap. The moviefilms I watch are carefully selected. Sometimes the title and/or front cover is usually enough, but if in doubt I like to see who’s in it, or try to glean a few plot details. If I ever watch a trailer in full, it means that I’ll never watch the film.

I distinctly prefer NOT to know the premise of a movie before I watch it. The less known, the better. Very rarely one knocks you off your feet anymore though; perhaps they had more effect when you were growing up because you were more emotionally receptive?

If it’s got Val Kilmer and Dakota Fanning in it, I’d much rather be pleasantly surprised by their sudden screen presence than by their names appearing at the beginning. I’d rather wait until the end for the director’s name too.

(One of the movies consisted of two men sat in a room talking about faith for ninety minutes. Not to most people's tastes I'd imagine, but right up my street).
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Sky News reported that Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have been ‘degraded’ by the recent coalition assaults. Degraded? What did we do, rush over there, line up all his troops, pull their underpants down, take some pictures, and post them on the web?
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DB TINKERBELL has found a new muscial avenue. Doesn't happen very often. In fact, only twice - once when he discovered Trance, and once when he discovered Symphonic Metal. How does your musical history pan out? Do you have special songs that trigger special memories? A kind of music that speaks louder than the rest? How tough would it be narrowing all you like down to your fav top ten songs? The bounce-bounce-heavy track below has brought the Asian download chart into vested consideration. Kicks in at 48 secs.

* reality, boredom, writing, cleaning, fingerbanging the neighbour's cat

Blogging Desire

It was the summer of 2007 that I decided I wanted to blog. I was watching Mulder from the X-Files (David Duchovny), star in Californication, a new series about a hip, womanising Los Angeles writer. X-Files was good, but I’d never been much of a fan, so when I looked at Duchovny, I didn’t see Mulder. That’s important, because familiar typecast actors have it all to do.

Take Danny Dyer. You might see him as a TV presenter who fronts those hard knock shows late at night, but I see him strictly as an actor. For a while, he was gold, proper talent, but for me, now, he’s done too many films in too short a space.

Some writers complain when their scripts get optioned and made into movies, because the end result doesn’t match their original vision. I’d be absolutely keen for someone to rework some of my material and do whatever the hell they liked with it – as long as it didn’t involve Ewan McGregor.

The best movies, the real gems, almost always feature unknown actors – faces you haven’t, at the time you watch them, seen before. A movie could come out tomorrow starring Russell Crowe, and it doesn’t matter how good it is, or what it’s called, because it’s just another Russell Crowe movie. You get me?
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Mulder’s good in Californication. He lives the life. He blogs. I could do that, I thought, because it’s just rambling with words, expressing yourself like in a diary. Of course, there’s blogging, and there’s blogging, just like there're movies, and there’re movies.

After just over a year doing it, there have been too few personal entries. I’ve been making an effort trying to keep me-time to a minimum, stressing over pictures and colour and presentation of external subject matter, when most people on the web are talking a load of shite. It’s time to start talking shite myself. And if you think I've been talking shite already, then you ain't seen nuthin' but nuthin' yet.

Pish. Tosh. Piffle.
Bollocks.

A Stealth's Path

Peak sequence in the movie Skyline (below). It’s very brief but very densely packed. Take people out of the question, or life in general, and it’s hard to see where a emotional response is going to come from within cinema. The next step is so obviously machines, at least in the sci-fi world of tomorrow’s future.

The point here is to identify with the Stealth aircraft in this clip. There’s obviously a pilot inside, but it seems to have a personality all of its own. People talk about supercars being objects of beauty, and belonging in galleries, not on the road; the same goes for this particular kind of propulsion aircraft. It is an absolute marvel of human engineering, craft and design. The thing is slick and sleek and sublime and downright beautiful. It looks mean and ruthless at the same time. Among the ugly alien machines here, it even looks cute.

It’s a character. That’s the nail on the head. It’s a bleedin’ character. You’re on its side. You’re rooting for it. It’s all alone, with the odds stacked against, trying to forge a narrow path through the enemy lines towards the hostile Mothership. If it can just get through, to have one single shot, one single chance. It’s your only hope, your last line of defence against the invaders. Mankind depends on it.

There’s no going back. It has one mission. Like a nose-bombing kamikaze. It’s own life has gone > that’s history. The only thing in question is whether it can hit its target...

Movie of the Month

This is not the usual place for movie reviews, but The Anonymous Journalist discloses why he is so excited about his latest cinematic experience. Rest assured, it must have something special about it to even get mentioned on The Blob.

From the first few seconds I knew I was watching a quality vid. It’s lovely when that happens. Just the style of the opening shots win you over from the get-go. The main lead was excellent in DEAD MAN’S SHOES, another British movie, and in this, only the second time I have ever seen him, he was no letdown either.

The great thing about British movies, apart from being able to relate to the enhanced realism more, is recognising familiar faces. More often than not, they’re fringe actors, coming into their own, rather than typecast veterans from Hollywood who play themselves more than the characters they are portraying.

Samuel L Jackson is a perfect representation of someone who turns up on set and simply plays himself (not always a bad thing). His persona has far outgrown the gravity of any fictional character. Take Lecter, for example, an even more extreme case, whose best character has BECOME himself, and overtaken the already irrepressible Sir Anthony Hopkins – it doesn’t matter what picture he's in, he will always, unmistakably, be HANNIBAL THE CANNIBAL.

Familiar faces from British soaps and brand new total unknowns are a blessing, for me. It’s nice to recognise locations and accents.

THE HEAVY was pure quality. It showed you London in daylight, the kind of bright outdoors flick I enjoy, in comparison to dark films such as Alien Vs Predator and whatnot where you’re straining to see what’s going on in places you have no connection with. It never does too much, this, either – it touches you just slightly, without getting soppy, only suggestively hinting at romance/devotion/all the teary stuff, rather than going overboard on it. There are some big names in this, and they perform better than I’ve seen them elsewhere. Personal Bests, I call performances like that.

It’s a macho movie, this, but it has its thinking cap on. It’s full of pace and punch and panache, and even has a TVR as the star car. As a first feature from a director, I'd say he absolutely nailed it. Keep it in mind for when you're browsing the Blockbuster shelves, if you still visit Blockbuster. Is Blockbuster still going?

A.J's Diet Status Today: Quaker Oats with Water, Chicken & Vegetable Stir Fry with White Rice, 3 Rounds of Wholemeal Toast with Clover Light, Bran Flakes with Skimmed Milk, Jelly Babies Smoothie with Marshmellows and Northumberland Fudge flavoured Treacle.

My Movie History

* by host blogger andrew donegan *

I cried to E.T in my auntie’s house. I tried not to let anyone see. Age? I would say around 10.

I watched The Exorcist in my mate’s girlfriend’s house then camped out that very same night. Not a good idea. The scariest thing about that movie is the fact that my mum had to sleep with the light on for years after she watched it, when she was younger.

My R.E teacher said our homework one weekend was to watch True Romance. I had a thing for her, so I knew I would like it. It totally rocked my world. The most significant and meaningful thing in my life, at that time!

Leon was the other big movie to leave an impression in my teenage years.

As an adult, 28 Days Later made a huge impact. I was very vulnerable and receptive at the time, plus I saw it at the pictures. And it was most excellently done. Was, and still may be, my fav.

Donnie Darko had such a feel about it, it was amazing. I watched it alone on a Sunday afternoon.

Vanilla Sky was another complete provocative package of a movie. And Ink, more recently, stirred my soul.

Casshern has the most breathtaking computer-animated action sequence that exists.

The ending to the King Kong remake drew me to the cinema 3 times. The sound of children crying said it all.

Others worth a mention: Gothika, Silent Hill, Nine Miles Down (the song they play to the credits can make a MASSIVE difference), Columbus Day, The Attic, Run Lola Run

There are plenty of movies with excellent bits in them, and even more stinkers, but only a handful really register emotionally, and leave you feeling changed afterwards.

I’ve never watched an adult movie, start to finish. I can’t imagine anyone ever doing that.

Favourite Shots

from top:

SALT (2010)

BEOWULF (2007)

CASSHERN (2004)

The cinematic experience, for me, apart from laughing and crying, is all about the camera work, but the most twisty-panning-zooming-darty shot of the movie may not be what impresses me the most in a film. The Matrix is known for starting off the trendy 360° stuff, but I don't necessarily mean all that overly-funky malarkey, milked to excess as slow-motion bullets leave trails through the air. There ought to be some emotional attachment to the content of the shot as well.

Not all movies even have favourite shots. It can be a task to find one. The shots usually happen at critical times of the movie, if they do. And the camera may not be doing anything. It's personal and subjective. It may be just that moment when your involvement in the experience peaks, the instant when you are realising that you are watching something that is affecting you on a spiritual level, and the on-screen image at that time is stained upon your retina as goosebumps course along the nape of your neck.

Or it may just be an innovative skilful camera move.

There's really no need to explain. A favourite shot is a favourite shot, and only you know why.

FACT: Quentin Tarantino would regularly watch 3 movies a day.