Scenes That Rock

Cabaret (1972)

A lot of people who know me (you know in real life) probably have no idea that Cabaret is my favourite musical of all time. Some people would probably assume Rock n Roll High School -because of my love for the Ramones and P.J Soles (and Paul Bartel when you come to think of it)- and I do love that film, some people would wrongly assume The Rocky Horror Picture Show and some people would also wrongly assume My Fair Lady because of my love for Audrey Hepburn (I think that film is massively overrated). I think Cabaret is my favourite musical because of the overbearing presence that the Nazi regime will becoming into full power very soon which will greatly effect some of the characters of the film: The Jewish and the gay/bi-sexual. Actually most of the musical numbers are restricted to the stage of the Kit Kat Club, some great songs like Two Ladies and Money, both feature the character Emcee (played absolutely wonderfully by Joel Grey- the father of Dirty Dancing's Ugly Duckling Jennifer Grey). As much as I think the Emcee is wonderful he doesn't appear at all in my favourite scene.

The scene I rather to as the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene for obvious reasons. Brian (Michael York) and Maximilian (Helmut Griem) appear to be in an outside cafe of some sort (damn my memory) when a blonde male voice begins to sign angelacily. The camera eventually pans down to reveal a Nazi flag (Swastika).

What makes the scene powerful in my eyes is one by one almost everybody in the cafe (minus the main characters) standing up and joining in the song. By the end only Brian and Maximilian as well as an elderly gentlemen are those who remain seated. It's a very good representation of how the party's beliefs struck a chord with the German citizen.

A wonderful scene from a wonderful movie.

What I've been watching

The Departed (2006) is the latest film from the masterful Martin Scorsese. Of course it's a wonderful piece of cinema, what else would you expect from him?. It is probably his best film for quite some time (that's not discounting his most recent films I'm just saying how much I loved this). The cast are all great but extra word should go out to "mad" Jack Nicholson as the crime boss Frank Costello and Mark Wahlberg (with films like this and I Heart Huckabees) he's more than made up for Planet of the Apes). Highly recommended. Rent (2006) is a limp musical based on the original Broadway production. I don't know something just didn't click for me- the music was bad it sounded like musak-, the performances where pretty good though in places such as Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel. I'd never seen the original production so maybe I'm missing something. Give it a miss P.S. any film that features BOTH Rosario Dawson and Sarah Silverman and I'm saying give it a miss, they must be something wrong. Dead and Breakfast (2004) surprised not that it was anything special, in that it surprised me that it was a lot better then I thought it would be. There's enough blood to satisfy the blood lust crowds and actually as some funny little moments. The cast features David Carradine, Erik Palladino (formerly Dr. Dave on ER), Bianca Lawson (formerly Kendra on Buffy. I also remember her from Saved by the Bell: The New Class), Jeremy Sisto (Spoiler: He seems to die in every horror film I see him), Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) and Oz Perkins (son of Anthony 'Psycho' Perkins). Not groundbreaking or life changing but recommended.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is "classic" grindhouse horror - not a piece of art but a piece of enjoyable cinema- Wes Craven as directed some good and some duds in his career and this thankfully falls in the good category, if anybody as seen the remake and not seen this- it pretty much follows the same pattern, including the dogs called Beauty and the Beast and the order of the family's demise. Watch it for Michael Berryman. Watch it for a funny 70s moustache. Watch it to be on edge. Recommended.

THE TV SHELF

What I'm watching at the moment in rotation to each other:

Ali G in the da USA (I believe titled Da Ali G Show in America)

French and Saunders at the Movies

The Addams Family Volume One

Party of Five Season One

My So Called Life: Complete Series

How I Met Your Mother Season One

Bask in the loveliness of...

Sarah Paulson

Whatup?

Didn't have as much time to myself to watch as many films as I'd hoped this weekend and have only had time to watch two. The two are pretty different movies.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) is Will Ferrell's first foray into more serious material (a lá Jim Carrey in the Truman Show) and is surronded by a wonderful cast including the lovely Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Arrested Development's Buster Tony Hale. The film reminded me a little of Charlie Kaufman's work in the most flatering sense, writer Zach Helm is certainly one to watch for the future, the high concept plot sees Ferrell as an IRS investigator who starts hearing a woman's voice narrate is life, one days he hears her say that is death is imminent. It's a wonderfuly kookie movie that I strongly recommend.

Con Air (1997) is a different type of movie = pure popcorn. The movie is dumb from start to finish and more then once defies logic and common sense, it's never meant to be high art but it's utterly enjoyable with enough exciting and (intenionally) funny moments. A good cast to boot including Ving Rhames, M.C. Gainey and Dave Chappelle in supporting roles, Steve Buscemi is the best though, when I was a youngling this film played a small part in me becoming a fan of him.

The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada, Rent and The Black Dahlia should be among those watched this week.

Bask in the Loveliness of... DOUBLE BILL

Lucy Davis

Jenna Fischer

Bask in the loveliness of... THE RETURN

Double Helping!

Amy Poehler

Maya Rudolph

Back Again

Haven't been around much, been very, very busy, hope to get back to updating it regularly again now, calender is less full the rest of this month.

Anyways it was my Birthday yesterday (by that I actually mean Thursday, it's early morning Saturday I guess when I write this), I turned the grand old age of 25- a quarter of a century, 5 years to 30, had a typical Birthday day in which I didn't really celebrate it. On with some recent DVD watches of the last couple of days.

Revisited the 1932 movie Freaks a couple of days ago, If I'm honest I've always had something of a fasination with abnormal people, that's why I'm such a big fan of the movie The Elephant Man and this. The "Freaks" where not actual actors but real genuine circus performers and it shows, some would say Dracula was Tod Browning's best film but this is much better. It's admittedly a little on the outdates side but at least there is a strong sense of unity (family) in the "Freaks" even if the finale goes off into horror terrority, weird ending aswell (which I will not spoil for you here).

Birthday viewing was Superman Returns- which marks the second year running I've watched a comic book movie on my birthday (It was X-Men: The Last Stand last year), It took a little while to pick up it's momementum but when it did it was extremely solid, Brandon Routh abely steps into Christopher Reeve's costume (who you can't help but compare to), Kevin Spacey is a strong Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman is still the king Luthor to me though) and I always like seeing Parker Posey in any movie. Only casting misstep is Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, just seems too young to me for how I envisioned Lois.

Hot Fuzz, reteamed Spaced/Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in a satire of big Hollywood action movies (I hesitate to use the word spoof as it's been tarnished with Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie and so on...) with a London cop transfered to a small English village. A top notch cast including the leads, Paddy Considine, Olivia Colman and probably a showstealing turn from Timothy Dalton. I actually think this is a better movie then Shaun of the Dead, which I think is a tad overrated.

Idiocracy, stuck in release limbo for a while is the first film from Mike Judge since the cult favourite Office Space, whilst not scaling the heights of that or Beavis and Butthead or King of the Hill, it's still an enjoyable enough movie with a couple of funny moments. I do think the premise had a lot of potential and it's not explored enough (the film comes in at around 80 minutes). Maya Rudolph looks beatufiul in this movie. Worth a watch but don't except a cinema classic.

Tired

Finished working a 24 hour stint yesterday teaching camerawork and editing. Forced to be up this morning because I've got another workshop later on. Luckily it's only two hours out of my day to do. The 24 hour stint was good- named the 24 Hour Challenge, 6 young people made a film of their own, in the 24 hours, to say I was exhausted at the end of it was an understatement. Thanks to a lot of rushing about and lack of sleep.

In other news I'm going to see WWE in Sheffield, front row seats in October. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet (Note: with all the recent suspensions and firings it's hard to know who is going to be there). Peace out.

Stuff I've been Watching Lately

Really not been watching too many film lately, recently watched HARD CANDY starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson which stars the younger looking then she is Ellen Page as 14 year old girl meeting a 32 year old photographer played by Patrick Wilson on the internet. She prepares a Screwdriver drink for him at his house and he passes out and accuses him of pedophilia which Wilson denies and she begins to torture him, the film is not too bad, the message is a but muddled in there somewhere but the performances are top notch, also it's never too gory like what the splat pack offer.

Television as been more in my DVD player then anything lately. Dawson's Creek Season Five (must be watching the show in reverse season) was the first season of the show's college years and features a death early in the seasons of one of the main characters of the show. This was also the season that introduced the wonderful Busy Philipps to the series, worth a watch even if like me your not big on the Dawson character Extras Series Two, comfirms performance wise that Ricky Gervais is nothing but a one trick pony, while it's a often very funny series it falls behind The Office and even shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Larry Sanders Show as the celebrity cameos are sometimes a little too self aware.

Had something of a Monty Python binge earlier this week aswell. And Now For Something Completely Different is just sketches from the show just refilmed but it's funny if not quite of the same enegry of the original series. Life of Brian is probably the masterpiece movie of the Python crew which is literally a laugh a minute (or second). Seen it loads of times of course and still makes me laugh. Python related is A Fish Called Wanda which is very funny thanks to the wonderful ensemble. I think Kevin Kline just steals the movie.

That it's for now- got Rocky Balboa to watch, might comment on it soon.

Bask in the loveliness of...

Eliza Dushku

Shine on

Been absent from Blogger since Tuesday because I've been a bit on the busy side, going to be a bit busy next week aswell so I'm probably going to be a little short on enteries. My best friend since I was 12 moved out of Hull yesterday, that's a near 13 year friendship there, we talked (he's now in Manchester) yesterday and I'm going down so everything's hopeful, it's just a bit weird my best friend been all the way in another town.

Bask in the loveliness of...

Anna Faris

Bask in the loveliness of...

Returns after a couple of days break from the blog

Kate Winslet

Bask in the loveliness of...

Jewel Staite

Bask in the loveliness of...

Anne Hathaway

Scenes That Rock

Strange Behaviour (1981)

The qualification for the Scenes That Rock doesn't after neccesarily mean "Films That Rock" there are certain films out there I love scenes from like this one for example. An 1981 horror written by Bill Condon (who went on to direct Gods and Monsters and Kinsey as well as writing Chicago) it takes a similar plot to the later Katie Holmes film Disturbing Behaviour (and probably a million more movies), the film focuses on a scientist running experiments on teenagers that turn them into murderers, but the plot is not really important to this Scenes That Rock entry, the film is nothing more then a run of the mill slasher. What's important is probably what happens abou 20-25 minutes in: The teens all go to a party (as they do in slasher movies) but instead of a poor victim getting murdered the teens do a synchrosided dance number to Lou Christie's Lightning Strikes, wonderful because it looks completely out of place in a horror movie, and sets the film in a unknown era- What teens would put a not massively well known song at a party in the 80s and all dance in unision to who knows?- Anyway the song is wonderful and it help makes the entire film memorable because of it.

Recent DVD Purchases

For some reason I went over a month without buying a single DVD, this was probably the longest time in the 6 years since buying my first DVD player and DVDs that it's happened. That all changed yesterday when I purchased the following:

• The Young Ones Series One
• The Young Ones Series Two
• Fritz the Cat/The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat Double Pack
• Frasier Season Three
• Frasier Season Four
• Happy Days Season One.

Scenes That Rock

Welcome to a new section on my blog: Scenes That Rock basically about the scenes I love from the movies, whether it's pure excitement, laughs, tears or fun. Anyway Let's Get Straight down to business...

#1 Apocalypse Now (1979):

The Raid

Probably my favourite movie scene bar none from the moment the helicopters blare Wagner's Ride of the Valkryies out of the speakers to "Scare the Nativies" and the first gun shots from the copters. Made all the more impressive by all the explosions done on the set at the time. Robert Duvall's Kilgore makes the scene even better- "Fucking Savages" referring to a woman (and innocent bystanders) they'd gunned down after she'd thrown her hat which was loaded with a bomb into an helicopter and talking with surfer Lance about how the great the waves are in all the carnage. Check it Out.

Bask in the loveliness of...

Alyssa Milano

Bask in the loveliness of...

Amanda Seyfried