Saturday, February 22, 2014

Spread the Word | Fight Club Trivia, New Rowling Novel and Video Games That Should Be Banned for Kids


The roots of blogging, social networks and most other things I spend too much time with are in networking and connecting to other people. That's why I'm introducing this new feature where I'm going to share posts, videos, podcasts and much more, as well as some of my own extra-blog activities.

B Nick Jobe's fun little game of Grammatically Scripted continues.
L Lindsay lists 5 Things You Should Know About Fight Club - and yes, I didn't know all of them.
O Nik writes about her favorite posters and favorite shots of 2013.
G Dan reviews The Spectacular Now, a film I simply cannot get out of my head.
S Rissi names her Top 10 Reasons I Love Being a Blogger - very inspirational.

V Jamie is just the kind of vlogger I'd like to be one day - here she talks about fangirling.
PewDiePie makes the funniest video game vlogs like games that should be banned for kids.
D lisbug cracks me up everytime, especially with her slutty makeover.
S Not even Honest trailers succeeds in making Gravity look bad. That was a compliment.

The Fantastic Four movie is cast with Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell!
J. K. Rowling's next book The Silkworm (sequel to Cuckoo's Calling) releases this summer!
Sherlock Season 3 is finally out on DVD - too bad I'm broke.
I got a credit card. Okay this is not really news. But still!

M New video: The first and foremost last book haul. (YouTube)
New article: Is Sherlock Holmes Still Readable? (The Artifice)

Spread the word!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Leaving Hogwarts and the Prisoner of Azkaban


HARRY POTTER AND the prisoner of Azkaban
book 1999      movie 2004      first read 2002?     first watch 2004

A third-in-a-row return to the school of wizardry and witchcraft, where I swoon over Alfonso Cuarón's directing style, Daniel Radcliffe's improved acting skills and how Hermione's hair looks from behind.

ZOOM IN.



Also known as "The One Everybody Loves", Prisoner of Azkaban marks the point at which the Harry Potter film adaptions became a force to be reckoned with. Changing out director Chris Columbus, who had approached the previous two films from a traditional "children's movie" perspective, with the darker and more stylized mind of Alfonso Cuarón, stepped up the game quite a bit. It also helps that the three leads have grown into better actors and that their characters are able to develop in a more interesting, nuanced way. Finally, Prisoner of Azkaban connects another two Brilliant Brits to the series with Gary Oldman as Sirius Black and David Thewlis as Professor Lupin.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Blind Spot Fixed: Memento


Memento was easily one of my blind spot films that I was most excited to watch. It's Stevee Taylor's favorite movie of all time, which in itself is worth a thousand reasons I should watch it, and in the top 10 of countless lists floating around the internet - including many an IMDB Top list. In contrary to many other of my blind spots, I actually knew about Memento a long time before I moved to the island of film lovers (as Ryan McNeil - sort of - puts it: the more movies you watch, the more blind spots you never even knew you had, you discover). I owe this knowledge to one of the sides of Indian cinema that I've always been critical of: it's affection for remaking films from other corners of the world (primarily Hollywood blockbusters). So Ghajini, a 2008 Bollywood hit remake of Memento, marked my first encounter with the Memento Mori story. Ironically enough, this movie was also a Hindi-language remake of the 2005 Kollywood (Tamil-language) film of the same name by the same director. At any rate, Ghajini was fairly enjoyable, mainly because of its cinematography and the man who turns iron into gold, Indian superstar Aamir Khan. However, it didn't ignite a burning desire to watch the original Memento in me.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Updated 100 Favourite Films!


Drum roll, please! I finally completed updating my 100 Favorite Films list after what might've been a whole year. You can check out the new list here. There are new images for every movie that has stayed in the list and sad smileys for the ones that had to be kicked out. Or maybe I forgot to add those.

OUT 
Amores Perros
500 Days of Summer
Little Big Man
Hunger
La Strada
Pan's Labyrinth
Sita Sings the Blues
Parineeta
Salaam Bombay
Babel
Yuva
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Volver
Asoka
Monsoon Wedding
E.T.
Pride and Prejudice
The Last Unicorn

IN
Grease
The Perks of Being A Wallflower
Rocky Horror
The Matrix
The Breakfast Club
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Easy A
Star Wars
Scott Pilgrim
Ugestu Monogatari
Before Sunrise
Driving Miss Daisy
Sunset Blvd
American Psycho
Alien
Apocalypse Now
Spring Breakers
Fish Tank

CHANGED
Schindler's List -78
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -78
Dogville -73
Rashomon -67
Dhobi Ghat -51
Forrest Gump -49
A Single Man -41
Brokeback Mountain -29
Wo hu cang long -29
Kill Bill -28
Khudito Pashan -25
The Silence of the Lambs -25
Moonrise Kingdom -23
Rang de Basanti -23
happythankyoumoreplease -18
Barry Lyndon -13
Romeo + Juliet -12
Slumdog Millionaire -11
La belle et la bete -10
The Godfather -9
Casblanca -8
The Virgin Suicides -7
Up -5
Borat -4
Ratatouille -4
The Tree of Life -4
The Lord of the Rings -4
Little Miss Sunshine -3
Confessions of a Shopaholic -3
The Graduate -3
Singin in the Rain -3
Qivitoq -2
No Smoking -2
Atonement -2
Fight Club +1
Stand By Me +1
Into the Wild +2
Harry Potter +2
In the Mood for Love +2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind +3
Titanic +3
Sholay +4
Annie Hall +4
Match Point +4
Hanna +5
Clueless +5
The Hangover +5
The Shining +5
Billy Elliot +5
Devdas +5
The Truman Show +6
Das Boot +6
Kal ho naa ho +7
Harold and Maude +7
Lost in Translation +7
Pulp Fiction +7
2001: A Space Odyssey +7
The Lion King +8
Black Swan +8
Moulin Rouge! +8
Anari +8
The Little Mermaid +8
Finding Nemo +9
Dev.D +12
Somewhere +12
Bumbai +13
Sunrise +13
DDLJ +14
Drive +14
Toy Story 3 (replaced all) +14
Dirty Dancing +15
Midnight in Paris +17
Mary and Max +17
Lawrence of Arabia +17
Melancholia +18
Pyaasa +35

UNCHANGED
Dil Chahta Hai
The Dreamers
Dil Se..

Feel free to comment on the list, praise it or smash it, whatever you like.


100 FAVORITE FILMS


DON'T LOOK NOW
red • Venice • lipstick-biting

QIVITOQ
icebergs • places I've been to • roughian

UGETSU MONOGATARI
mysterious woman • samurai • fantasy

RASHOMON
doubt • investigation • complex