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Mr_Noir
I work a shit job as a computer salesman born and raised in Australia. Used to be a video store clerk, but my boss was a total dipshit, so when I turned 18 he bumped me down to 3 hours work a week... Cheap bastard.
Interested in film...obviously...also interested in video games on the side.
I'm 19 years old with the hope to become a successful writer/director some day. Working on about 6 different feature length scripts at the moment, and moving into pre-production on a short film right now.
I run a wedding video business on the side, and own a Sony HDR-FX1... Would really like to get my hands on a Canon XL2, but hey, so would every other aspiring film maker with hardly any money :D.
I hate most of the crap that gets churned out of Hollywood nowadays. Don't think that that means I'm some sort of snobby film elitist. You know, the ones who can't watch any movie without inferring 5 layers of subtext from it. Those guys make me want to get violent. I mean seriously, just because you're a snob who won't watch a film that was either made after 1970 or doesn't have subtitles, doesn't mean you're somehow superior to everyone else... Seriously, after viewing your list of Top 10 films, all of which are obscure European titles from the early 20th century, no one goes to bed at night wishing they could be like you. Well, I can't speak for everyone I guess. But I know that I don't aspire to be a pretentious jerk-off film snob.
I just love good, _entertaining_ movies, and sadly, most of the stuff released these days is mediocre at best. Way too commercial really. I love a good independent gem.
I completely respect any film maker who strives to be different, and take a chance with a project. Same with the producers who fund those risky scripts I guess.
I'm also a fan of the legendary comedian Bill Hicks. A true example of a brilliant artist. He never comprised his beliefs for money, and didn't care if people liked them or not. But he truly did inform and entertain at the same time. May he Rest In Peace.
On the topic of edgy comedians, David Cross seems to be the comedian most fit to be the heir to Hicks' crown. Another fine example of a great comic, whose presence is so valued in a time where the world NEEDS laughter.
Anyway onto my list of favourites... Yeah they're all pretty mainstream... But uh.. You know, if that actually bothers you, I probably wouldn't want to waste my time talking with you anyway, so don't feel too high or mighty.
Favourite Actors: John Travolta, John Cusack, Mel Gibson, Jean Reno, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joaquin Phoenix, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Clive Owen.
Favourite Actresses: Anna Paquin, Liv Tyler, Claire Danes,
Favourite Directors: Martin Scorsese, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, Stanley Kubrick, John Woo (well, his Hong Kong work, not so much his recent Hollywood work.)
The reasons:
Martin Scorsese - Probably my favourite filmmaker of all time. He's the man when it comes to seedy, gritty, crime epics. Goodfellas, Casino, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Cape Fear, etc. They're all extremely entertaining, but at the same time, they've got some awesome character development and underlying drama. And let's not forget some of the moments that are just... you know, totally cinematic (eg: the steadycam shot through the back of the Copacabana in Goodfellas to the tune of "And then he kissed me")
Quentin Tarantino - If Scorsese's the god of crime movies, Tarantino's his right-hand man. His films are fun. Plain and Simple. Fun, and refreshing. They might lack the drama of some of Scorsese's pictures, BUT, he makes up for it by having some supercool stuff in there, and extremely memorable characters and scenes. I do think his movies are a little overrated, but regardless, they're great fun.
Kevin Smith - The guy rules. Doesn't go with typical shithouse hollywood humour. Is extremely dry, but at the same time, extremely profound. Got a great range as well; can go from a dick joke to a deep conversation about sexual politics with no trouble at all. Great characters as well.
Robert Rodriguez - His films aren't Oscar winning material. They're not meant to be. But they are FUN. Movies can be fun, remember? Not only that, but I love the guy's way of working. Cheap, effective, fast. Almost guerilla film making. As an aspiring filmmaker I can't help but admire his work.
John Woo - Another guy whose films aren't Oscar winning material, but they are amazing fun. This guy's the god of �ber-cool action cinema. Unfortunately he hasnt had many great scripts to work with as of late...but his Hong Kong films are masterpieces.
Michael Mann - Similar reasons to Scorsese. Just makes great films. Plain and Simple.
Stanley Kubrick: I feel no need to elaborate here.
And... although I think The Professional is one of the greatest films ever, Luc Besson didn't make the list, sorry.
Also, listing your DVD collection your profile seems to be the "in" thing at the moment, so without further ado:
15 Minutes
21 Grams
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Alien SE
Aliens SE
Angel Heart
American Beauty
American Psycho
Bad Boys
Bad Boys 2
Bad Santa
Basketball Diaries
Batman Begins (2 Disc)
Batman (2 Disc)
Batman Returns (2 Disc)
Batman Forever (2 Disc)
Battle Royale
Battle Royale 2
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
A Better Tomorrow
A Better Tomorrow 2
The Big Lebowski
Bill Hicks Live
Black Hawk Down
Blade
Blade 2
The Blair Witch Project
The Blues Brothers
The Boondock Saints
Bowling for Columbine
Braveheart
The Breakfast Club
Buffalo Soldiers
The Butterfly Effect
Carlito's Way
Carl Barron Live
Carl Barron - Whatever comes next...
Casino (2 Disc)
Chasing Amy
Chris Rock - Bigger and Blacker
Chris Rock - Never Scared
City of God (Cicade de Deus)
CKY Trilogy Round 1
CKY Trilogy Round 2
CKY4: Latest and Greatest
Clerks
A Clockwork Orange
Collateral (2 disc)
Con Air
The Crow
Daredevil
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Dazed and Confused
Death to Smoochy
Devil's Advocate
Die Hard SE
Die Harder SE
Dirty Deeds
Dogma
Donnie Darko
Don't Say a Word
El Mariachi + Desperado
Empire Records
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Exorcist
Face/Off
Family Guy season 1
Family Guy season 2
Family Guy season 3
Falling Down
Fargo
The Fast and the Furious
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fight Club
Final Fantasy
Forrest Gump
Freddy vs Jason
The French Connection
From Dusk till Dawn
The Fugitive
Full Metal Jacket
Garden State
The Godfather
Gone in 60 Seconds
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly SE
Goodfellas
Goodfellas SE
Haggard
Halloween
Halloween 4
Halloween 5
Happy Gilmore
Hard Boiled
The Hard Word
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Heat (2 Disc)
Hero
Identity
Insomnia
Jackass: The Movie
Jackie Brown
Jaws (2 Disc)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jersey Girl
John Q
Kill Bill volume 1
Kill Bill volume 2
The Killer
Kiss of the Dragon
LA Confidential
The Last Samurai
L�on - The Professional
Lethal Weapon 1
Lethal Weapon 2
Lethal Weapon 3
Lethal Weapon 4
Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Mad Max 2
Mallrats
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Memento
Million Dollar Baby
Minority Report
Mission Impossible 2
Mystic River
Napoleon Dynamite
Narc
Not Another Teen Movie
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
The Office series 1
The Office series 2
The Office Christmas Specials
Office Space
Old Boy
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
The One
Outfoxed
Payback
Phenomenon
Phonebooth
Pirates of the Caribbean
Predator
Pulp Fiction (2 Disc)
Reservoir Dogs
The Ring
Road to Perdition
The Rock
Romeo and Juliet (1996)
Ronin
Run Lola Run
Rush Hour
Scanners
Scarface
School of Rock
The Score
Scream
Se7en
Seinfeld volume 1 (seasons 1 and 2)
Seinfeld volume 2 (season 3)
Shaun of the Dead
Shrek
Shrek 2
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining
The Simpsons season 1
The Simpsons season 2
The Simpsons season 3
The Simpsons season 4
The Simpsons season 5
The Silence of the Lambs
The Sixth Sense
Slipknot - Disasterpieces
Snake Eyes
Snatch
The Sopranos season 1
The Sopranos season 2
The Sopranos season 3
The Sopranos season 4
The Sopranos season 5
South Park season 2
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
Speed SE
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Star Wars episode 2 - Attack of the Clones
Supersize Me
Super Troopers
Swordfish
Taxi Driver
Team America
The Terminator
Terminator 2 - Judgment Day
Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines
Training Day
The Transporter
True Romance
Two Hands
The Untouchables
The Usual Suspects
Viva La Bam season 1
The Wog Boy
X-Men
X-Men 1.5
X-Men 2
Zoolander
Yeah I know there's a few titles in there that are pretty shameful, but they were cheap. At least the ones I'm thinking about were.
Anyway, if you want to know anything else, just PM me.
Reviews
Chasing Amy (1997)
Smith's best. Affleck's best. One of the greatest love stories ever.
Love stories are difficult to do well. So is comedy. Kevin Smith does both. Very very well.
Chasing Amy is, in my opinion Kevin Smith's best movie (Clerks 2nd, Dogma 3rd) and I really don't know where to start the praise.
Traditionally, Hollywood romantic comedies are... well, bad. Really lame PG-13 comedy, with some catch phrase repeated ad nauseum, and always some sort of "hilarious" incident involving a baby or a cute dog. And the characters are just as annoying as the lame jokes, so ultimately, you don't really care about whether or not they get together in the end.
Chasing Amy is different. These characters are lifelike.This isn't a romantic comedy for teenage girls. It's a movie for adults. Almost everyone can relate to being a situation where they've loved someone so much, but due to certain circumstances, you just weren't able to have that person. And I guess that's what Amy's all about. Unrequited love. Well, Unrequited love and sexual identity, but that's another topic for another day.
The real genius of this film is that for all it's serious themes, it manages to convey it's message without being at all pretentious. Most independent films have this sort of, arrogant pretentious "I'm so artistic" feel about them.......And I hate that. Smith's success lies in the fact that his movies are meaningful, and they're actually funny as well. And Chasing Amy is no exception.
In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining, and realistic love story than Chasing Amy. It's combination of hilarious dialogue, interesting characters, and realistic themes makes it a winner.
Adaptation. (2002)
Australia.
When I took a copy of this home from work the other night (it's not out on video and DVD in Australia till like July, video store staff get advance copies) I'm not quite sure what I expected. i'd read good things about the movie, but I still had no idea what to expect.
I'd already seen Being John Malkovich, so it was sort of amusing to see scenes from that. As for adaptation but, I have to say that I did enjoy it, and it's quite possibly one of the most original movies I've ever seen.
Nic Cage has done a great job of portraying Charlie and Donald Kaufman, and while the storyline did get a bit confusing from time to time, it was still pretty enjoyable.
insanely realistic car crashes as well...
7.5/10
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Suave, Stylish, Classy, and Clever
I love a good heist flick. When done right, they rock. Gone in 60 Seconds was awesome, The Score was pretty cool, and Ocean's Eleven is no exception.
People might comment on how many of the characters don't distinguish themselves from one and other, but really, this isn't completely true, and with such a great ensemble cast, I think it's possible to look past that minor flaw.
The story's fantastic, it doesn't drag for one single moment during the 112 minute running time, it's got some really great dialogue, it's capped off with a really clever ending...and it wreaks of style and class from beginning to end.
To be honest, I can't find much wrong with this flick at all. It's a great film, that's very easy to watch, and I'd recommend it to pretty much anybody.
8.5/10
Memento (2000)
One of the most original movies you'll ever see.
Yeah, my plot summary is accurate. As I look at the titles on my DVD shelf, I realise that Memento - nestled comfortably between The Matrix and Ocean's Eleven - is easily the most unique title in my collection, and probably one of the most unique movies ever created.
Christopher Nolan has done a hell of a good job here. This is a movie, that, much like Fight Club, is a movie that you have to watch at least 2 or 3 times before you can fully understand and appreciate it, but even then, this is by no means a bad thing. Memento is a movie that I find myself watching over and over, and it still isn't at all boring.
Putting it simply, without spoiling anything, Memento's a movie that you have to see, and with it's extremely intricate storyline, will probably make a lot more sense the second time round. In fact, possibly the ONLY problem I can find with Memento is that the first time you watch it, it takes a little while for you to work out just what the hell's going on. BUT, aside from that, this is a quality flick from beginning to end, that will have u hanging to know what happens next...or what happened before.
8/10
15 Minutes (2001)
Fantastic - very few flaws
Let's face it - even if this movie was bad, people would still see it for DeNiro's screen presence. Thankfully, this movie isn't bad. It isn't bad at all. In fact, it's very good, and a fantastic satire on the media world of the new millennium.
In fact, it's that satire that makes 15 Minutes stand out from the crowd. It could have become just another murder-thriller, but instead, director John Herzfeld has put a very nice and very original spin on it. The result is a very entertaining thriller, and a very well crafted satire, not to mention a well crafted film in general.
Let's not forget some of the performances as well. Naturally, DeNiro is outstanding. But Ed Burns also does quite a good job, and Karel Rodan does an absolutely superb job of a villain. By the end of the film chances are that you completely hate his character, Emil Slovak.
So, in summary. A great murder-thriller. A fantastic satire. Admittedly, it's probably not for everybody, but if you love a good thriller, you can't go wrong with 15 Minutes.
8/10
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Nice work, Quentin.
Okay, I'll start off by saying that if u haven't seen this movie yet, do so immediately. Now that that's out of the way, I'll go on to actually review the film.
First off. In case my user-name wasn't a good enough indication, I am a huge fan of this film. It's one of my top 5 movies of all time, and in my opinion, is one of the best movies ive ever seen, obviously.
to be fair, yes, it does have its flaws. Like, I really didn't care for the whole Bruce Willis sub-plot, although it did tie in fairly nicely with Jackson and Travolta's storyline, I just didn't really care for it all that much... and Maria de Medeiros' character REALLY got on my nerves. But, with that said, I can't find any further fault with this film.
As I said, it's one of the best films I've ever seen, and probably ever will see. I can't really simplify it much more.
Basically: It ain't better than Reservoir Dogs, but it's still a damn good film. Go see it ASAP.
9/10
Clerks (1994)
Just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like you...I couldn't agree more.
I love this movie. I'm not going to pull any punches here, or waste time with lengthy introductions, i'm just going to skip the formalities and get right to it. Once again, I love this movie. It's by no means high-brow entertainment, but I don't care. It's a cult classic, and being a video store Clerk myself, I can appreciate it even more.
Considering it only cost Kevin Smith 27 grand to make Clerks, he's done a pretty damn good job, and while the View Askew saga remains one of my favourite movie sagas to date, Clerks easily tops them all.
I'm not sure what else I can say here. This is indeed a very quality flick, but I can see why it wouldn't be for everyone. But, speaking from the perspective of a video store clerk who quite often has to deal with douche-bag customers, I can sorta relate to this movie, and that reason, and dozens of others, it remains one of my favourites...It's a shame that the Region 4 DVD is just dodgy, and has literally no extra features (short of scene selection :P)
anyway, if you haven't seen Clerks, and want a good laugh,be sure to get it out next time you're at your local video store.
8.5/10
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Decent, but disappointing.
Uh...I'm not sure where to start, so I guess I'll be brief.
I had pretty high expectations of this movie, but then, I'm sure everybody did. It seems the Wachowskis may have given Reloaded just a little bit too much hype, because, honestly, this movie did not live up to my expectations, or the hype. Now, I'm not going to deny that the movie is worth seeing for the special fx alone. They are spectacular. There's no two ways about it. The car chase is quite possibly the best I've ever seen in a film. The 100 agent smiths fight was also spectacularly done. Let's not forget the rest of the gunfights etc. Bottom line, the special FX rocked the house, but the story left a lot to be desired...But, with any luck, this will be remedied once Revolutions has been released, and the story will make a bit more sense after that.
Also, I'm aware that Reloaded and Revolutions are in fact one movie, but as a movie by itself, Reloaded leaves a lot to be desired. Bring on Revolutions, so this can be fixed.
6/10
-VV_17