I'm not a regular inhabitant of the cinema, not by any means, but I do enjoy films. Alright, I do tend to have narrow tastes on film matter and, granted, I'm not the huge film buff that some of my friends are... but here are some of my favourite films. There's no particular order, though I've listed my truly favourite films first, and I've added some links to related pages. Anyways, enough of the talk... time to grab some popcorn and look at the films...
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's masterpiece of Cinema. An impressively serious Science Fiction film with some amazing special effects including the almost dance-like movements of spacecraft. Mysterious Alien artifacts guiding the evolution of mankind prompt a space mission to Jupiter, but the mission goes horribly wrong as the computer tries to cope with conflicting orders. The trip-like scene involving the only surviving crewman has found many admirers amongst hippies... and myself.
Ridley Scott's breathtaking adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". The seminal cyberpunk film. The whole oppressive film-noir atmosphere and subject matter really made a huge impact with me. The first time I saw this was just after the Director's Cut was released (easily the better version), I borrowed the video off a friend of mine... and have been hooked ever since!
Francis Ford Coppola's incredible film set during the Vietnam war. Based upon the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, Coppola stated that the film "Is not about Vietnam, it IS Vietnam!". Famous for such scenes as Air Assaults on Vietnamese villages to the sound of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", "the smell of Napalm in the morning" while clearing VC troops, dropping Acid to the sound of artillery and the sight of explosions and flares, and Marlon Brando as a rogue US Army officer committed to his own form of warfare.
Classic Space Opera. George Lucas' epic trilogy captured powerful drama, fairy tale storylines and spectacular special effects in an incredible Science Fiction (well, Science Fantasy) setting. I grew up on these films... I can't recall how many times I've seen them all (probably nearing the hundreds mark by now!) but each time I always find something new. No matter how well I know the lines and recall the plot they always seem fresh. I was ready to hate the recent cinema re-releases with the revamped special effects, but with a couple of minor gripes they work amazingly well and enliven the stories even more. Great stuff...
Erm, apologies for the lack of major descriptions... but I'm an Artist / Programmer not a film reviewer! *grin*
Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam film (noticed that I happen to like Vietnam War films yet?) tackles raw recruits going through training (an often ignored aspect of the war), then life as an Army Journalist (showing the lies) and finally as a frontline soldier (showing the true horrors of combat). A brilliant, and often disturbing, film from a remarkable director.
Classic Science Fiction Horror. Dark, claustrophobic, almost gothic atmosphere with a real sense of fear characterised the first film - hardly surprising when you combine Ridley Scott with H R Giger! The first sequel was just as good, though closer to the standard Science Fiction action film, not necessarily a bad thing. Alien 3 was not so good in my opinion, though it did capture part of the whole atmosphere of Alien. I've only seen 'The Making of Aline Resurrection', courtesy of the Alien Boxed Set, so I can't comment on Resurrection just yet...
I also have a huge passion for the Star Trek films (I felt it best not to list them here), cheapo 50s Science Fiction and Vampire B-Movies and (if you haven't already noticed) an unhealthy obsession with films about the Vietnam War. My interest in Vietnam Films includes worshipping the Gunnery Sergeant from Full Metal Jacket, humming Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and saying "God I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" - make of that what you will. Snippets of sound from FMJ, Apocalypse Now and Bladerunner have made it onto albums by my favourites Fear Factory and Ministry amongst others, while "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones moved from the end of FMJ to the title sequence of "Tour of Duty", the Vietnam War TV Series.
Why not try looking for these great films, and others, on the Internet Movie Database:
Fans of the Hitchcock classic "Vertigo" may like to take a look at Andrew Morrison's Vertigo page, which is one of the best film pages I've personally seen. Well worth a look! Have I seen Vertigo? Well, yep... only once but rather enjoyed it. I saw it on video at er... Andrew "Vertigo" Morrison's house, but this isn't a free plug or anything. In fact, I'm not even sure he knows I've linked to his page. Honest! *grin*
