Friday 15 April 2011

The 30 Day Film Challenge

First off, apologies for the current trend of list-based posts I'll be putting up. With songs last time, films on this occasion and games after that, you'll no doubt be looking for something else worth your time. It'll come, don't worry, got some ideas rolling about, you know.

Anyway, here's the 30 Day Film Challenge. I'll put up trailers/favourite scenes from each film, and maybe describe them a bit as well, just to fill it out a bit (well, more than the 30 YouTube videos would fill it out in the first place). So without further ado:

Day 1 - Your Favourite Film

This is actually an incredibly difficult question, but the definitive favourite has to be Almost Famous.


I've written so many times about why that film's amazing, so I won't go into it again. It's not even £3 on Amazon, so here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Almost-Famous-DVD/dp/B000C4ETDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302770436&sr=8-1 BUY IT, ALREADY!

Day 2 - Your Least Favourite Film

I'm not counting films that are so bad, they're hilarious (Student Confidential, Ground Control, I'm looking at you). Instead, I'll show you the trailer from the one film that actually drove me to snapping the DVD in half after I watched it. I present the WORST FILM EVER, 2012. I seriously hope Woody Harrelson and John Cusack only did this for the money.


Oh yeah, I snapped it because SPOILER ALERT Everything turns out OK at the end. HATED that film.

Day 3 - A Film You Watch to Feel Good


Probably one of the best films of last year (and certainly the film I saw the most often), Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I honestly can't find a fault with this film, and it was one of the contenders for Day 1, I'll have you know:



Day 4 - A Film You Watch to Feel Down


This also could have been in Day 2, but I would only ever watch The Phantom Menace again if I was being paid a substantial sum of money. Why would I EVER willingly watch something that totally ruined the reputation of what was one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time? With such a great cast, it should have went so, so well. Instead, it had Jar Jar Binks on hand to counteract every positive aspect of the film (of which there are few).



Day 5 - A Film That Reminds You of Someone


Hmm. This might be an odd choice, but Shaun of the Dead somewhat reminds me of myself, in that I too come up with zombie survival plans, albeit with none of them featuring a pub:



Day 6 - A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere


Even though it's totally the wrong place, In Bruges reminds me of the Battlefields trip in school. (We visited Belgium for the day, it's close enough.) I also just wanted an excuse to use this film, I loves it!



Day 7 - A Film That Reminds You of Your Past


As far as I can remember, Toy Story was the first film I ever saw at the cinema, and I remember queuing round the corner of the place to get tickets. There started my love affair with Pixar...



Day 8 - The Film You Can Quote Best


"It's all right, Andy! It's just bolognese!" is probably the best line in Hot Fuzz. I have no idea why, but it just cracks me up...



Day 9 - A Film With Your Favourite Actor


Joseph Gordon-Levitt's the name, and here's a trailer for (500) Days of Summer:



Day 10 - A Film With Your Favourite Actress


Easy A, starring Emma Stone:



Day 11 - A Film By Your Favourite Director


See, I don't really have a favourite director in particular, but if I were forced to give an answer, I'd probably say the Coen Brothers, because they really haven't put a foot wrong for the huge amount of time that they've been making films. Here's the trailer for Raising Arizona:



Day 12 - A Film By Your Least Favourite Director


That has to be Roland Emmerich, without question. Here's Independence Day:



Day 13 - A Guilty Pleasure


Moulin Rouge!, which I haven't actually seen in aaaaaages, but it's a film that I really did not expect to like...



Day 14 - The Film No-one Expected You to Like


"Glen Coco! Four for you, Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco!" Yep, it's Mean Girls, probably the best teen high school comedy of all time that isn't Easy A:



Day 15 - The Film That Depicts Your Life


Leaving this one blank on purpose, because the fact remains that no film depicts my life because somehow I haven't yet been the subject of an award-winning biopic...

Day 16 - A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate


Transformers. Not saying anything else about it, other than the fact that Michael Bay is just about as terrible as Roland Emmerich.



Day 17 - Your Favourite Drama Film


The Lives of Others, because there's going to be something else in Day 26. Shame that the guy playing Wiesler died a few months after the film won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.



Day 18 - Your Favourite Comedy Film


The video below has the subtitle "Funny Bits," but that doesn't do This Is Spinal Tap justice. The entire thing's just pure genius, and watching it NEVER gets old. I'm making it my mission in life to one day find the bootleg 4+ hour version of the film. You cannot dislike this film.





Day 19 - Your Favourite Romantic Film


Now I'm really not a fan of romantic comedies in the traditional sense, primarily because THEY SUCK. So here's Definitely, Maybe, a film that kind of turns the genre on its head, with Ryan Reynolds telling his daughter (Abigail Breslin) about how he met her mother, and getting her to guess which of the three women it was. Great film.



Day 20 - Your Favourite Action Film



Because the main character inspired Solid Snake, and it goes to show you that you can to a hell of a lot with a tiny budget, my favourite action film is John Carpenter's Escape From New York:


Day 21 - Your Favourite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film

While James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day came so, so close to getting this one, the best sci-fi film (and also the best sequel) of all time has to be Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes Back, which has a twist ending that M. Night Shyamalan could only have dreamed of having, and yes, Star Wars is really, really good, but Empire was the one film in the trilogy that I loved above the other two:


Day 22 - Your Favourite Horror Film

While this may not have been a horror film, per se, I've only ever watched The Terminator once, when I was about 6, I'm sure. And due to the fact that it scared me shitless, I'll probably never watch it again. It's the metal skeletons chasing Sarah Connor that did it for me. Even remembering it while I type this is giving me the shivers.


Day 23 - Your Favourite Thriller/Mystery Film


Dead Man's Shoes, by Shane Meadows, is just fantastically well-directed. There's twists abound, but best of all, Paddy Considine's performance is out of this world. Love this film.



Day 24 - Your Favourite Animated of Children's Film


I won't count Toy Story 3, because it made me cry. But because of the connection I've always had for Roald Dahl's books, Fantastic Mr Fox takes home the prize, because you don't see enough real character in animation these days (outside of Pixar), and I've always had a soft spot for stop motion films!



Day 25 - Your Favourite Documentary Film


Some Kind of Monster, the film that focuses on Metallica during the production of the often-slated St. Anger, actually makes me appreciate the album more, because it shows how close the band actually came to splitting during its production. Plus it's got Metallica in it, so what's not to like? But Lars Ulrich is a whiny little dick for pretty much all of the film.



Day 26 - Your Favourite Foreign Language Film


Goodbye! Lenin came very close to taking this one, as did Park Chan-Wook's terrifying Oldboy, but it has to go to Robert Rodriguez's debut, El Mariachi. Filmed on a tiny budget, part of which was financed by volunteering for medical experiments, I'm sure, it was the first foreign film I remember watching, and I still have it on VHS. It was pretty much remade in the much better-known Desperado, but I prefer this, and it's better than Once Upon A Time In Mexico by a country mile.



Day 27 - Your Favourite Independent Film


I could have went with Jean-Claude Van Damme's JCVD here, but instead this one's going to go to Kevin Smith's Clerks, not because it's a great film (which it isn't, not really anyway), but because it was the first American indie I ever saw that had a miniscule budget pretty much on par with El Mariachi, and the fact that Smith sold all of his comics and maxed out many, many credit cards to make the budget is a pretty good example of commitment to your craft.



Day 28 - The Most Obscure Film You've Seen


Without a doubt, this one has to go to Student Confidential. With a totally and utterly misleading poster:


(there's no assault rifles, or maces, in sight in this film), to the casting of Michael Jackson and Michael Douglas' far less successful brothers, this film is almost guaranteed to be one you've never heard of. That is, unless you've seen this, the worst ending in the history of cinema:



Day 29 - Your Favourite Film As A Kid


I think that one would still go to Toy Story again, primarily because it was the first film I ever saw on a big screen...

Day 30 - Your Favourite Film This Time Last Year


It has to be Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass:



Hopefully you'll check out a couple of the films there, if you haven't seen them already, that is!

Darren out, saying I want to tell you something I do know about: How to make inordinate amounts of money in the world of business!


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