Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Paddy Goose]

Up in the Air

George Clooney played a man who travels around downsizing people at companies. So it is topical. Then he had a romance with a fellow flyer, but with an unexpected twist.

[Steadmund Brand]

Wow.. no Lugosi fans eh.. first list that didn't get a conversation going

Steadmund Brand

[Ausgirl]

Dunno how JtR Shades-of-Whitechapel related any of this is, but I love a good mystery/horror film and some are unrelated entirely, but elicit the same sense of passion I have for unsolved crimes.

Hammer Horror! (spoken in a Kate Bush voice)

My first movie crush was Christopher Lee, in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), I think was about 7 years old, and had taken to sneaking up late (9pm!) to watch the Friday night horror feature on TV.

I thought he was the ant's pants. Was a huge Hammer fan, for many years after.

Also: Basil Rathbone as Sherlock. I adored those films, as a kid. Still do!

My current list of favourite films is just too long to type! I prefer thrillers/horror if it's intelligent enough to be interesting, and I love anything with a twist ending, but my list is pretty eclectic really.

Currently I've been watching some highly amusing recent comedy/horror flicks from New Zealand, "What We Do In The Shadows" (I'm still laughing..) and "Housebound".

Hellboy 1 & 2. I LOVE Ron Perlman so much. And I have an unashamed crush on Hellboy. Think of me what you will. Also, the elves were awesome in 2, plus clockwork Nazis, Rasputin and Lovecraftian monsters, what's not to adore.

"Night Watch" & "Day Watch": EPIC. Just epic. I re-watch these annually.

All the Riddick films. Vin Diesel.. Move over, Ron. That voice! The goggles. The shiny head. /swoon

All the Marvel comic book movies. All of them. Especially those featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (though he's a bit tall for the role, hubbahubba anyway). And Thor, because Loki, and comic books are awesome.

I have not this past year indulged my passion for Jodorowsky films, or Dario Argento. Note to self: please do so.

Random list:

12 Monkeys
Sin City 1 & 2
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Parker
City of Ember
Dark Shadows (Barnabas comic book fan, me)
City of Lost Children (Ron P. again <3 )
Warm Bodies (zombie romance ftw)
Seven Psychopaths
Dracula Untold
Men Who Stare At Goats
O Brother Where Art Thou?
From Dusk Til Dawn (I call this last three the "Clooney Triad of Hotness and Excellence")
Hamlet - with David Tennant <3
Kill Bill 1 & 2 (with Pulp Fiction for dessert)
Let Me In
Pan's Labyrith
The Box Trolls

Special mention: All of the Peter Jackson/Tolkien films. It just doesn't get more epic than that.

[Ausgirl]

I forgot Lugosi. Big fan here.

[martin wilson]

Some stonking films there, I prefer the original Let The Right One In but whatever.

Black Sheep, a very silly NZ film about killer,er, sheep.

Can't remember the title, early Peter Jackson zombie film where the hero offs the undead with a garden strimmer.

Wuthering Heights, and another Kate Bush song, although watching the video, I didn't think so much of Emily as Charlotte Bronte. Surely this is Mr Rochester's mad wife escaped from the attic to sing us a song?

All the best.

[John Wheat]

To Martin

I believe the Peter Jackson film your talking about is. Brain Dead.

Cheers John

[martin wilson]

Thanks John.

All the best.

[martin wilson]

And I'll chuck in The Club, The Odd Angry Shot and Breaker Morant for which Jack Thompson should have been nommed, Wolf Creek, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and an insane Oz/NZ/? film called The Devil Made Me Do It.

All big antipodean faves.

I'll also get sarky with Jackson and say he has gone so far off canon with The Hobbit trilogy, it wouldn't have surprised me if Gandalf had gone berserk with a Flymo.

All the best.

[Ausgirl]

Martin: the only thing I have been deeply offended by, re LoTR/Jackson so far, is the complete lack of Bombadil (whom I've never been able to fit in that cosmology neatly, but that's another topic perhaps) who was one of my favourite characters. I actually don't mind the rest..I don't tend to expect films to follow their source books precisely, and I think Jackson has done a bang-up job of fitting a rather lengthy, incredibly complex book world into a few hours of film.

But no Bombadil? Seriously, he was pushing it, there.

I also prefer "Let the Right One In", but that little actress in the English version (name escapes me presently) did a great job with the role, I thought.

I went to see Brain Dead at an independent cinema with an enormous crowd of metalheads when it was first released. We basically filled the theatre, and cheered so loudly at that lawnmower scene (omg, the garden gnome! how funny was that?) that we were heard outside, people were wandering in, wanting to know what was going on.

We booked an extra, basically private session by hassling the owner (very nicely!) to screen it again, which she did just for us, with great amusement. Them were the days.

It makes me sad that Jack Thompson isn't more widely celebrated for what he did for Aussie cinema in the days when we actually made some decent films. Hardly anyone of my daughter's generation has heard of him, and this is a terrible shame.

Tonight's film will be a re-watch of "Hugo", which is just beautiful.

[GUT]

And I'll chuck in The Club, The Odd Angry Shot and Breaker Morant for which Jack Thompson should have been nommed, Wolf Creek, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and an insane Oz/NZ/? film called The Devil Made Me Do It.

All big antipodean faves.

I'll also get sarky with Jackson and say he has gone so far off canon with The Hobbit trilogy, it wouldn't have surprised me if Gandalf had gone berserk with a Flymo.

All the best.

All goodies, but I'm not a big Picnic fan.

But I'll throw in The Castle and the Dish.

[martin wilson]

Hi all

Thanks GUT, I don't know The Castle so I googled it, I'm looking forward to getting that so yay!

The Dish, of course! I'm sure Sam Neill was in Sirens but for some reason he is not what I remember from that film.

Ausgirl.

"Aww, look mate, any chance we can see Brain Dead again?" Love that. I watched it on BBC2 which back in the day used to show Oz films, usually on Sunday nights about 11ish. I remember Thommo's closing speech in BM and was glued to the set, great actor.

You are right, the whole LOTR saga and Bombadil could fill a seperate thread. Some interesting theories online about Tom btw.

All the best.

[GUT]

Hi all

Thanks GUT, I don't know The Castle so I googled it, I'm looking forward to getting that so yay!

The Dish, of course! I'm sure Sam Neill was in Sirens but for some reason he is not what I remember from that film.

Ausgirl.

"Aww, look mate, any chance we can see Brain Dead again?" Love that. I watched it on BBC2 which back in the day used to show Oz films, usually on Sunday nights about 11ish. I remember Thommo's closing speech in BM and was glued to the set, great actor.

You are right, the whole LOTR saga and Bombadil could fill a seperate thread. Some interesting theories online about Tom btw.

All the best.

Two lines from the Castle have entered the Aussie vernacylar

"Tell 'em their dreamin'" and

"It's the vibe of the thing"

[martin wilson]

Hi GUT

I hope this isn't patronising but something about 'strine always cracks me up.

I still chuckle over Kath and Kim where Barry Humphries character was payed "in koind".
All the best.

[GUT]

Hi GUT

I hope this isn't patronising but something about 'strine always cracks me up.

I still chuckle over Kath and Kim where Barry Humphries character was payed "in koind".
All the best.

Kath and Kim were brilliant and Barry is a genius.

[Ausgirl]

Two lines from the Castle have entered the Aussie vernacylar

"Tell 'em their dreamin'" and

"It's the vibe of the thing"

The serenity!