Monday 18 March 2013

Top Ten Movie Countdown BlogFest

I'm joining in the Top Ten Movie Countdown BlogFest.

Now, I thought this blog post would be easy, but I'm finding whittling my list of favourite movies down to just 10 is v. difficult - many have fallen by the wayside!

10. The Mummy (1999)
I love Egyptology, I love adventure movies and John Hannah has the best one liners ever! Brendan Frazer and Rachel Weisz star in what everyone thought was going to be a minor adventure movie, but turned into something of a blockbuster. I'm not surprised, because it has a stellar cast, a fun script that doesn't take itself at all seriously and a good dose of action to back it all up. Plus, the heroine is out and proud as a LIBRARIAN! What's not to love?




9. Lady In White
Lukas Haas after Witness, but before he grew up, playing Frankie Scarlatti, a young boy who, thanks to a trick by his friends, gets shut in the school cloak room and thus witnesses the appearance of the ghost of a little girl. Shortly thereafter, he is attacked by someone who is very much alive, who comes looking for something in the same room, and he is nearly killed. Thus begins his quest to find out who the little girl is, who the mysterious woman in white can be and what his attacker wanted in the school room.

It's a bit twee in places, the whole hearts and stars at the end is not its finest moment, but this film has the ability to gently scare (don't expect blood and guts and lots of screaming), take you to the edge of your seat and also charm as it harks back to rural USA in the mid 20th Century. It's a small town story, not fast paced, but enthralling and the first time I watched it, I wanted to find out everything Frankie is discovering.


8. Jack's Back
This is an 80's movie starring James Spader (wow is he sexy in this one) and Cynthia Gibb, and, on the surface, I should have hated it, because it contains two of my most awful things in a movie: Jack The Ripper inspired murders (I find them really boring); death of a twin. However, this is one of my all time fav movies now, hence it being on this list. It just has something, probably James Spader, but there is something else as well - a little mysticism, a bad boy done good and some really good action.



7. The Green Mile
I cry and cry and cry when I watch this movie, but I also smile through the tears at times. Heart-wrenching and difficult to watch in places, but just a brilliant, brilliant piece of cinema.







6. The Young Sherlock Holmes
This is a real romp of a movie that reinvents the first meeting of John Watson and Sherlock Holmes to a boarding school in London. It's Steampunk before Steampunk was invented, throws in Egyptology, which is a favourite of mine and mixes it up with a lot of fencing and stiff upper lip. It was also an early use of computer graphics. The villains are villainous, the heroes, heroic and its not that subtle, but I've loved it since I was young and the whole attack of the killer cream buns that happen in the middle is priceless!



5. Chocolat
I can go back to this movie and watch it over and again. The characters, the eccentricity, the setting are all just wonderful. N.B. I tried to read the book after seeing the movie and absolutely loathed it. :(







4. The 13th Warrior
This is another one of my go-to comfort movies. I can put this on and just watch, I don't get bored like I do in other movies I've seen before. Antonio Banderas playing an Arab who gets dumped with a bunch of Norse men going off to rescue a village from a (possibly) mythical foe. He's a poet, not a warrior, and if he'd been ten years younger, I'd have said this was a coming of age movie, but it's more than that. There's self-discovery, courage and a lot of dead vikings by the end of the movie, but, since it embraces the complete fearlessness of death that the Norsemen have and their sense of fatality, you don't grieve for them, you celebrate them.



3. The Woman In Black
I have read the book, seen the stage play, seen the TV adaptation and I was chomping at the bit to see this movie when it came out. Some folks might have groaned about Harry Potter being the lead, but Daniel Radcliffe plays a perfectly understated Arthur Kipps, a young man devastated by the loss of his wife and struggling to find his way back into the world. Much of the film is focused just on Arthur and the ghostly terror that awaits him in Eel Marsh House, an isolated place on an island cut off from civilisation for much of the day and night by the tide. Daniel proves that he is a strong actor, who can hold the screen by himself. For fans of horror, there are plenty of moments from spooky to downright terrifying and it is a well-paced, totally absorbing story.

2. The Lost Boys
This movie began my life-long addiction to all things vampire, plus, I like the Lost Boys' style! ;P
I love the half-vampire fighting full-vampire for their soul trope and this one did very well. It's very 80's, but it's the bits of the 80's I like to remember, so it's well worth a watch for any vampire movie fans.





1. Return of the Jedi
This has to be number 1: I waited to see it for five or six years after it came out, because we didn't get to the cinema a lot when I was a kid and, so the first time I saw it was on video when we borrowed a VCR for the Christmas holidays and rented the vid. Then we nearly wore out the tape, because we watched it so many times.

32 comments:

  1. LOL - I imagine you will hate my choice in movies. I haven't seen any of yours. We are total movie opposites.
    Rhonda
    Laugh-Quotes.com

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  2. Totally with you on those choices, darling sister :), but then that was pretty much a given. Did you edit all those images, or is that a style on them?

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    1. we didn't agree on every one, but the ones we differed on were not a surprise :) If you mean the white border, then, that's the default with this blog theme.

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  3. young sherlock... was just one of those films, but watch out for the bald chicks with hair extensions..

    Jeremy [Retro-Z]
    Howlin' Wolf

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    1. It was, wasn't it? ;P And cream cakes, one has to be careful about dastardly jam doughnuts!

      The whole mummifying alive thing gives me the creeps and yet I picked two movies that used it - go figure! ;)

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  4. You're right. We are opposites! LOL But I do like your 1 & 2 choices. I'm sure we could watch a movie together with zero problems. :)

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    1. :D - we'd just need a negotiator to help us pick the movie.

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  5. Young Sherlock and Lady in White! You're one of my new favorite people. Glad to meet you! :)

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    1. Glad to meet you too :D

      I love your selection of animations. I'll comment in more detail over on your blog.

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  6. I could watch Chocolat again - or pretty much any Johnny Depp movie for that matter.

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    1. Johnny Depp is a good excuse to watch a movie :)

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  7. Lost Boys is CLASSIC Love it.
    Mummy, too.
    NICE LIST!

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    1. I love the soundtrack to The Lost Boys as well, I listen to it regularly.

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  8. I love, love Chocolat. Darn, can I still add to my list? The Mummy movies are some of my all time favorites. I rode the Mummy ride at Universal Studios seven times in one day:)

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    1. I had the exact same reaction when reading other people's lists - 10 is just not enough! :)

      Wow, 7 times, that must have been a lot of queueing!

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  9. Jack's Back, Young Sherlock Holmes - you pulled out some forgotten gems there!
    Thanks for participating in my blogfest.

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    1. :) My DVD collection is full of 'old gems', and some real old 'crap' too ;P Thanks for organising, this was fun.

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  10. I forgot all about Young Sherlock, great list, really enjoyed the Mummy too and of course star wars.

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    1. I measured by most popular films on those that I go back and watch most often, and Young Sherlock is one that I have finally ripped to my media server so I can watch it on demand at home :)

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  11. Star Wars in any form is a given, but I had forgotten about Young Sherlock Holmes.

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    1. I restrict my Star Wars liking to 4, 5, and 6 - I really can't watch the prequels. Young Sherlock is a forgotten joy of silly adventure and tragedy all rolled up in one :)

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  12. Return of the Jedi and The Mummy are great. I haven't seen #9, 8, or 3, but I'll keep these in mind the next time I rent.

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    1. There's a few on other people's lists that had grabbed my attention as well that I will have to check out.

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  13. I loved the Mummy series! Can't believe I forgot to put it on my list.
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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    1. There were so many movies from other people's lists that made me stop and go 'oh yeah, I should have added that', but then I'd have had a top 100, not a top 10 ;P

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  14. A very interesting mix. The ones of these that I've seen I enjoyed very much.

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  15. Great choices. I've seen half of them, which is more than most lists! Green Mile was a tearjerker but great. Lots of variety here.

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  16. I've only seen three of these! Sounds like I'm going to need to work on seeing more movies, lol. :)

    Looking forward to keeping up with you for the A to Z Challenge! :)

    Jaimie
    Living in the Light
    A to Z Ambassador

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    1. :) What can I say, I have an eclectic taste in movies.

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  17. Just dropping in from the blog hop. Great list! Much love for "The 13th Warrior". :3

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  18. Great list - Green Mile, Chocolat and Return of the Jedi are ones I love. The rest I haven't seen or don't remember :)

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