Rants & Raves Archive

So now that we’ve covered what I missed and got those that under-performed out of the way it’s time for my top ten films of 2010. Just to qualify the list before we start – these are the ten films I enjoyed the most at the cinema this year, I make no claims for their artistic merit. They provided me with a good time at the cinema and it’s in order of my level of enjoyment that I’ve listed them in here.

My Top 10 Films of 2010

10. Date Night – That this is the only comedy on my list probably shows that it’s not my favourite genre. Having said that I do like a good laugh, although my sense of humour may not be considered normal (I find Jerry Lewis funny and I’m not even French). 2009′s top grossing comedy The Hangover barely raised a smile so the fact that Date Night is on here may mean it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I loved it. Steve Carell and Tina Fey share wonderful onscreen chemistry and perfect comic timing making a convincing married couple and the film moved at a brisk pace so if any jokes did fall flat you didn’t have long to wait for another. There were also some amusing cameos from James Franco and Will i Am, not to mention Mark Wahlberg sending up his beefcake image.

Apart from how many I’d missed (see previous post) the other thing I noticed when looking through 2010′s cinema releases was how many of the films I did see turned out to be major disappointments. That’s not to say they’re bad, well not all of them anyway, but they didn’t live up to the expectations their stars/directors/hype engendered. So here’s the second top 10 of 2010 -

The 10 most disappointing films of 2010 (once again in no particular order)

Ninja Assassin – I really enjoyed James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta, a film with more depth than the usual action blockbuster. I excused him for The Invasion on the grounds that it wasn’t his film, he was just brought in by the studio after Oliver Hirschbiegel failed to give them the film they wanted (although taking the job was perhaps not a great career move). But Ninja Assassin, that he carries the can for. Despite some entertainingly gory fight scenes McTeigue managed the near impossible task of making ninjas boring.

Edge of Darkness – What should have been the triumphant return of Mel Gibson to the big screen after a seven year hiatus proved to be anything but, although given later real life events it wouldn’t really have mattered if this was a five star classic, Mel’s career would still be in the toilet. Edge of Darkness also featured some of the most obvious stunt doubling I’ve seen in a film for a long time, so even if Mel does manage a comeback with The Beaver it’s definitely time for him to give up on the action hero roles, or at least find a decent stunt double.

Over two years since my last post! No prizes for guessing what my New Year’s resolution was. Apart from a couple of guest reviews over at Blogomatic 3000 this is the first thing I’ve written in all that time, so I apologise if I’m a tad rusty and for the lack of new content. If things go to plan (and resolutions don’t get broken!) I promise (threaten?) there’ll be something new here at least once a week. There’ll also be a bit more focus than in the past, with the key ingredients being reviews of low budget horror movies and classic western TV shows, a strange combination I’ll grant you but hopefully both will find an audience.

It’s traditional as the new year starts to look back on the previous twelve months and pick your favourite films, and that was my original plan here, but as I was looking through the list of films that garnered a cinema release last year I realised how many of the year’s more critically acclaimed films I’d failed to see. And not just critically acclaimed films either, there were more than a few films that were never going to be the critics’ darlings that nevertheless had been high on my list of ‘must see’ films but, for one reason or another, they’d passed me by (and still do, despite many now being out on DVD and Blu-ray). So, I thought, why not do a ’10 films I wish I’d seen in 2010′ list? That way people wouldn’t think I just didn’t rate Shutter Island as highly as the films in my top ten, they’d know I just hadn’t seen it.

So here we are at the start of my third week walking to work (although last week I only walked twice) and the Shuffle seems to be getting attuned to my brain patterns (an unadvertised bonus feature). Picking up on the fact that I was late for work this morning it gave me a more up-tempo trip than usual and eased me in gently for the return trip this evening.

There:

• “Bad to the Bone” – George Thorogood
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” – The Firm (Not the guys who did Star Trekkin’ but the ‘80s supergroup featuring Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers)
• “Silver and Gold” (Live) – U2
• “Tangram (Future Part)” – Tangerine Dream (This makes surprisingly good walking music)
• “See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time) – The Verve
•  “Mexican Cantina” – Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio & Vince Tempera (From Carambola a 1974 spaghetti western)
• “I Still Miss Someone” – Johnny Cash
• “Siamese Twins” – The Rainmakers (It’s a shame Bob Walkenhorst hasn’t released any new material since his 2003 solo album The Beginner but at least many of Bob’s live shows, plus several vintage Rainamkers gigs, are available for download at Internet Archive)

And back again:

The second week of walking to work didn’t get started until today (yesterday the weather was crap and Monday was my birthday so I caught the bus both days). So here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Fisherman’s Daughter” – Daniel Lanois
• “Superstition” (Live) – Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble (A performance that really shows what a great band Double Trouble were)
• “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” – Johnny Cash
• “The Middle of the Road” – Alabama 3 (A surprisingly restrained song from their latest album)
• “96 Tears” – The Stranglers
• “If a Tree Falls” – Bruce Cockburn (Bruce the musical eco-warrior)
• “Is That Love” – Squeeze
• “The Longest Time” – Billy Joel

And back again:

• “Morning Glory Wine” – Mark Lanegan (This would have fit in better on the way to work but it’s such a good song it’s always welcome)
• “Burn Bitch Burn” – Kiss
• “Rollercoaster” (Demo Version) – Robert Plant (I got a ticket to see Plant and Alison Krauss live for my birthday! Roll on May 5th)
• “Green Ballet II” – Adrian Legg (Legg’s a great guitarist but this hasn’t really got a beat you can walk to)
• “Tremor Christ” – Pearl Jam
• “Lady Luck” – J.J. Cale (Now here’s a guitarist who writes songs that get you moving!)
• “Tangled Up in Blue” – Bob Dylan (I love a good story song and this is a classic)

Day two Shufflin’ to work and here’s a pop quiz for you – what song is the title of this post from? While you think on that here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Wildflower” (Acoustic version) – Sheryl Crow
• “Since I’ve Been Loving You” – Page & Plant
• “You Know What I Mean” – Phil Collins
• “If I Should Fall Behind” (Live) – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Steve, Patti, Nils and Clarence get to give their tonsils a workout alongside Bruce)
• “Super Sex” – Morphine (Who needs guitars?)

And back again:

• “Don’t Get Me Wrong” – The Pretenders
• “Find You At Last” – John Hiatt
• “Thundercrack” – Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
• “Rock ‘N’ Roll Mercenaries” – Meatloaf (You can’t beat a bit of Meat)
• “Glass Jar” – Lloyd Cole (Just over a minutes worth of electronic tinkling from Lloyd’s self indulgent Plastic Wood album)
• “Babe, I Got You Bad” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (No one writes a love song quite like Nick Cave)
• “Shriner’s Park” – Melissa Etheridge

Less songs today, am I walking faster of are they just longer tracks? You should by now have got the answer to that question I posed at the start; it is of course “Super Sex” by the unique and sadly missed Morphine. Somehow I don’t think they were singing about George W.

I got a lot of cool Christmas presents and I’d be hard pushed to pick a favourite but there’s one that gets used more than any other and that’s my funky new slippers -

Now I know what you’re thinking “Surely nothing so cool and fashionable can be comfortable too” (what do you mean that’s not what you were thinking?) well anyway they are. They’re wonderfully snug and keep my feet nice and toasty (I’ve always suffered with cold feet in the winter). And once you get used to your feet being twice their normal size they’re really easy to walk in…

I recently got hold of an iPod Shuffle for free (no it wasn’t a Christmas present, it was a Tesco DVD Rental promotion, 3 months and you get a free 1Gb Shuffle, so technically not really free) with the idea of using it for my walk to work in place of my aging and rather bulky (by today’s standards) iRiver 40Gb player.

Getting the thing working with Vista wasn’t my idea of fun, plug-and-play it ain’t. I was torn between putting it on eBay or getting a hammer and smashing the little bastard to pieces. Instead I persevered, and after, much googleing and several false hopes, managed to get it working. I’m glad I did as it’s a pretty cool little gadget.

Now for a little background info. Prior to Christmas, in fact for the past couple of months, I’ve had a problem with my feet (the left one in particular). Having seen the doctor I was told there were four possible courses of action – a) avoid whatever aggravates it (working in retail and being on my feet all day this was a no go) b) take anti-inflammatory tablets (this seemed to do the trick) c) steroid injections (this didn’t sound like fun) d) an operation (this sounded even less like fun). While the tablets worked the thought of taking them for the rest of my life was less than appealing but this was the impression I was given by the doctor who told me I didn’t need to make another appointment when they ran out, just phone and ask for a repeat prescription.

It’s New Year, the perfect time for starting some new regular features on Mine Was Taller, and for making a few resolutions.

First up the resolutions:

1) Watch more DVDs than I buy. I seem to have become unable to pass up a bargain, and with the Bargain Forum so helpful in pointing them out it’s resulted in a large “To Watch” pile (actually pile is the wrong word, I wouldn’t want to think how high they’d go if stacked on top of each other but doing so is certainly unfeasible). I’m going to start passing up on some of those previously irresistible offers and also up the number of DVDs watched each week; time will tell how successful I’ll be.

2) Read more some books. Since moving up to the midlands several years ago I seem to have lost the ability to read books. I’ve never been what you’d call a speed reader but I’ve always had a book on the go, yet in the last few years I’ve only completed one book (Don Siegel’s very enjoyable autobiography). It’s not like I’ve completely ignored the written word, I’ve read magazines and continued to feed my childhood comic addiction but books have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully that will change and you’ll see some of the fruits of that change here, including a review of Anthony Holden’s biography of Laurence Olivier (thanks for the Christmas present Kevin!).

Back in August I attended FrightFest at London’s Odeon West End and had a great time. However there were some upcoming horror flicks that I dearly wanted to see but the festival organisers were unable to acquire, one such film being George Romero’s Diary of the Dead. So when the line-up for the FrightFest all-nighter at the ICA was announced and not only was Diary kicking off the event but the great man himself was going to be there, attending was something of a no-brainer.

So on Friday Dan (of Is There Food) and I took the train to London, wondering if we’d survive until morning. With five films spread across ten hours (starting at 9pm) this was going to be even more of an endurance test than the full festival. Still the films promised to be worthy of the effort, alongside Romero’s latest was Robert Rodriguez’s half of the Grindhouse project, Planet Terror, Savage Streets starring Linda Blair and a couple of French goesfests – Frontiere(s) and Inside.

We arrived a little after 9pm (sadly missing out on Mr Romero’s signing session) to find the place full. We quickly made our way to two of the few remaining seats and almost as soon as we sat down things got underway.

George Romero is the godfather of the modern zombie movie. How many people can lay claim to have reinvented a classic monster so successfully that it’s overshadowed what came before? When I think zombie, it’s George’s flesh eating walking dead that come to mind first, not some dusty old voodoo zombie, and I’m sure I’m not alone.