Author Archives: tony

Ok, Empire top 500

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So here’s what I’ve seen in the Empire top 500.  Again, green are the ones I’ve seen.  Caveat: It’s a long list, I’m tired and not well, so I may have missed some, I may have mis-marked some and I can’t promise this list matches the top 250 list.  I didn’t mark the ones I’m interested in or the ones I own but haven’t seen (there are more in this list) because it’s a long-ass list.  I’ve seen about 124 out of this list.  People reading this in their RSS reader, sorry for the length.

  1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
  3. Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
  4. Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
  5. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
  6. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
  7. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
  8. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952)
  9. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
  10. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
  11. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
  12. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
  13. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

    14. Continue reading →

IMDB top movies

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A couple of friends have commented on my IMDB post from yesterday.  I thought I’d expand and answer their questions in another post.

JodyTheBad is up first.

I can’t help but share my opinions.

Good! More comments = always good.

I loved the dry humor of Fargo. And the ridiculous absurdity of it, kind of like Pulp Fiction in that way.

It’s been on my ‘I should really get …’ list for soooooooo long.  It’s probably like 2 quid from Amazon.  (In fact, it’s £3.48 for the special edition).  But then EverQuest took up all my spare time and I hardly watched any movies.  Now I have the Kevin Smith stuff to get through, and then I’ll probably start going through the Cohen Brother’s stuff in more detail.

I know everyone loves it, but I’d skip The Big Lebowski and instead watch The Graduate.

Yeh I should probably watch them both.  I have a real complex about watching classic movies made before I was of movie watching age, don’t ask me why. I’m not sure.

And you haven’t seen the Sixth Sense? I loved seeing it, although I guess it’s not as fun if you know how it goes. But I will very highly recommend seeing “Unbreakable.” It’s really great. A++++, would watch again.

Grete went to watch Sixth Sense when it was on in the cinema with a friend.  I can still clearly remember the conversation when Grete returned, she was telling me the story and I said, ‘oh, and Bruce is the guy who’s dead?’.  She was non-plussed.  I saw Unbreakable and I quite liked it, in fact I think I prefer the idea behind that more so than Sixth Sense.  But then I love SLJ in anything he does anyway.

And from Leigh,

I’m always quite please to see that I’ve watched nearly all of the first 100 and a substatial portion of the top 250.

Yeh, I’ve seen a lot of films that don’t make that top 250, but then movies are art, and one man’s empty, void and shallow movie is another’s fantastical trip into infinity.

The fact that T2 is ranked higher than Aliens is just crazy.

Yeh, frankly I’d rate Aliens higher than Alien as well, but that’s me.  Also it’s a pretty small margin between the first few.

I can’t believe you’ve not watched Se7en, 12 Angry Men, Schindler’s List (much like ‘The Green Mile’ I avoided this film for years thinking it wouldn’t be that good and I was very wrong), LA Confidential or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Se7en – not my kinda movie.  I don’t enjoy suspense for the sake of it movies.  12 Angry Men, sounds interesting but see above for ‘before I was born’.  Schindler’s List maybe on the right day.  LA Confidential – yep change to a blue.  Eternal Sunshine, I never forgave Carrey for Cable Guy.

Remember, I actually bought Shoot ’em Up, and thought Smokin’ Aces was ok, that’s the kind of philistine you’re dealing with here!

IMDB top 250

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The IMDB top 250 is here.  I should think it doesn’t change very quickly, but this snapshot from the list was taken today (28/10/2008).  Green I’ve seen, Blue I specifically want to watch at some point, Red I’ve got on DVD but haven’t gotten around to watching, Black I won’t not watch them.

  1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  2. The Godfather (1972)
  3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
  4. The Dark Knight (2008)
  5. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il (1966)
  6. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  7. Schindler’s List (1993)
  8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
  9. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  10. 12 Angry Men (1957)
  11. Casablanca (1942)
  12. Star Wars (1977)
  13. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
  14. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
  15. Goodfellas (1990)
  16. Rear Window (1954)

    17. Continue reading →

things i’m tired of

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  • coughing so hard i have a headache
  • coughing so hard my stomach muscles hurt
  • coughing in general
  • not being able to breath through my nose
  • coughing
  • sneezing
  • and i’m as sick as you guys about blog posts from me on my health, sorry

Wanted on DVD

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I’ve already reviewed Wanted based on the cinema experience.  We got the DVD a couple of days ago and watched it last night.  A second viewing certainly adds some value, it was interesting re-watching scenes knowing how the whole thing plays out, seeing the characters playing out the lie that is central to the story, watching it build towards the end.

If you’ve not seen it in the cinema, and you like a bit of action with some flare, I recommend it.  Really.

Deja Vu

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Time paradoxes make inherently confusing stories, so it’s critical that you connect with the characters and feel the plot has some value otherwise you’ll be left drifting.  Deja Vu manages enough to keep you interested, keep you wanting to see more, and keeps you caring about the two main characters.

The screenplay is clever but doesn’t try to overstretch and there are no attempts to explain the paradoxes, and plenty of in-story explanations of why time travel is a really bad thing[tm].

The performances are solid, Denzel is interesting and believable, Paula plays the small amount of time she has on screen pretty well.  I’m not entirely convinced their actions in the latter half of the movie make much sense, but I’m willing to suspend disbelief to let the story play out.  There’s some action, some cute effects, some nice ideas and a certain level of suspense especially towards the finale.

The ending was kept hidden pretty well, and although I finally realised how it would play out just before it actually did it was worth the wait.  No shocking last moment twists, no huge discovery, just a decent ending for a decent movie.

I’ve blessed my case with an offering of blood

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Case fan has been noisy and getting worse (two big fans in the case, one front, one back, it’s the front one that’s been going).  Bought a couple of new ones a while back, but found that I could get by, by tapping the fan and the bearings would settle down so I never actually put the new one in.

But the last few days the tapping has only fixed it for a few minutes, so I finally got around to replacing it tonight.

Not as easy as I’d hoped.  Had to remove the hard disk cage to get to the back of the fan mountings.  The existing fan was wired into an adapter plugged into one of the power cords, all of which was nicely cable-tied together by the folk who built the machine, with about 50 other cables.  So I had to cut the ties and then sort out all the hanging wires and remove the fan.  Lucky for me I bought a fan with a 3-pin to 4-pin converter, because I needed it.  Picked the quieter of the two I bought, and lined it up to screw it to the front of the case.

The screws are self tapping into the plastic, but they’re not easy to put in, and while putting the second one in my left hand slipped and I dragged my thumb over some sharp metal on the case.  Nice 1 inch long, 2mm deep gash on my thumb.  I didn’t get a photo, we dressed the wound pretty quick.  Nice big splodge of blood in the case, I think I got most of it.

I was tempted to check my blood sugar since there was so much spare blood hanging around.

Finally got the screws in and the case sounds nice and quiet.

Dentist

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Grete has more patience than me, and she’s arranged an appointment for me with the dentist on Friday.  So now I get to blog about how I hate dentists, and my irrational fear of not being able to open my mouth wide enough.

Hey, I said irrational.

Texture is everything

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When you can’t really taste food, the texture becomes doubly important.  And you begin to realise how much texture and taste interact to form the overall experience.

Melon which is over-ripe and soft is ok as long as you can taste it.  When you can’t taste it, it’s like eating soft mushy nothingness and my brain decides the best response is a gag reflex.

Don’t worry, soon I’ll get better and you can stop reading this junk.