What makes a film for me…

The other day I got to thinking. I was wondering about what makes a film special for me. What are the different ingredients that make a movie resonate and ensure I will return for more. I should stress I’m going to jump around in genres here a bit. There is no one film that will contain all these things (at least I don’t think there is?) After some thought I came up with the following list.

a Futile Gesture

Nothing better than a character(s) in a movie laying down their lives for very little point. With a cry of either "You go on without me" or "I'll hold them off" the plucky sidekick is instantly doomed and royally screwed. Examples: Almost the entire cast of Aliens, Miles Dyson (Terminator 2), Spoon (Dog Soldiers) Ok I admit boxing a werewolf is cool but be honest he was fucked.

Breaking the 4th Wall

Wikipedia defines this as  “The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of fiction and drama, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comedic effect. When this boundary is "broken", for example by an actor onstage speaking to the audience directly, or doing the same through the camera in a film or television program, it is called "breaking the fourth wall”

Mel Brooks is very good at this and he does it all the time, see the example below. Nothing funnier than a glimpse behind the curtain so to speak. Other good examples in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, National Lampoon’s Animal House and The Mask.

time travel / Time machines

Doesn’t matter if it’s Back to The Future, The Time Machine, Primer, Twelve Monkeys or The Time Traveller’s Wife. Messing about with the linear nature of the universe is just epic. I enjoy nothing better than the headfuck that is a good temporal paradox. I saw Hot Tub Time Machine the other day and it dealt with the macguffin that is time travel excellently. It was also great to see Chevy Chase on screen again as I love Fletch. I tried reading the article on Wikipedia about time travel but my head threatened to implode and then explode.

swords

Highlander alone should be reason enough to have this on the list but there are many other splendid films that feature the merry swash and buckle of swords. Kill Bill would not have been half as special if it had been all gun rather than sword play.  Other prime examples include Zatoichi, The Sword and the Sorcerer and The Princess Bride.

The Lower Lip wobble

Something that always amuses me, when it really shouldn’t, is when an actor attempts subtle emotion on screen. Some lovely lower lip acting going on in this scene from Jerry Maguire. Fucking hilarious!

an epic finale

I have much love for Who Dares Wins, I’ve discussed it before at some length. One of the reasons is this ten minute sequence toward the end of the film. If your not that interested in watching the whole clip cut to around 9.05 and enjoy the macho hall jogging.

So there you have it. All you Directors out there please take note. All you need do is create a film that has even one of these elements and I’m there. Two or more and I will be your willing slave for life.

Cheerio

A Cinematic Cheesecake

How to Train Your Pablo Cheesecake

Yesterday Mrs Cheesecake and I had the pleasure of taking our 5 year old nephew, Nico (Unarmed and Dangerous), on his first trip to the cinema. We went to see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. I told him that I would let him post a review on the internet of what he thought. See below for N(U&D)s insightful review. Not only that but his opinions of cinema in general.

His first reaction to the cinema was that he very much liked the giant television. When I asked him about the story of the film I got following response

"I did like the black dragon he was my favourite". As I said insightful.

Turns out that 5 year-olds don't really think much of the 3D experience either. He lasted about twenty minutes before the glasses came off.

I also don't think he was that bothered that the vast majority of ancient Vikings sounded suspiciously Scottish. Though he did claim later on that when he blows up the world we will all have to move to Scotland? and learn to speak Scottish.

Later

Toothless Cheesecake

PS I enjoyed the film but have no plans to blow up the world. The animation was great and I liked the characterisation of the Vikings and the dragons. Also I would quite like a beard like the head Viking had (To my knowledge the dragons had no facial hair)

Pablo Cheesecake – 2009 - A Year in Review – Part 1

So 2009 is very nearly over. With that in mind I thought I would write a little (turns out its gonna large) blog detailing as many of my favourite things from this year. As usual, whenever I put together a list, they are in no discernable order. These are just a few things that found there way into my life in the last 12 months and how I feel about them.

Music

I make no secret about the fact  that my musical tastes are what some would call odd, I collect movie and TV soundtrack tunes for fuck sake. That aside I think this year I have found myself slightly more mainstream than normal. Lovely new web apps like Spotify and Blip FM have opened my ears to new music more than ever before. The two biggest discoveries for me this year have been Them Crooked Vultures and Alestorm.

Them Crooked Vultures self titled debut album is fan-fuckin-tastic. Take a little Foo Fighters, season liberally with some Queens of the Stone Age and add just a pinch of Led Zepplin and behold a super group is born. Every single track is a winner. There are a couple of truly exceptional tracks though. Caligulove, Gunman and Dead End Friends are all epic. This is a perfect example of musicians making music just for the hell of it. It is all fuckin great.
 
Alestorm are the kings of Scottish Pirate Metal. Now I know what your gonna say. “But Pablo that seems to be a rather niche genre isn’t it?”. Your not wrong but damn if they don’t totally own it. I should say at this point there is a good chance that I am a frustrated pirate at heart so I may be slightly biased…..Yar!!

Film

I’ve said before that I am a genre junkie and 2009 sure was a good year for genre films.  Watchmen was a garish big clusterfuck of a movie, personally I adored it. Pandorum was an unexpected gem. Star Trek was a fantastic update. District 9 was insightful, clever and thought provoking sci-fi. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was fun and looks pretty great on blu-ray.  In fact its worth mentioning that all the blu-rays I have watched so far look brilliant. Another highlight of 2009 I guess was my first exposure to blu-ray.

Thank fuck for that. I got through my movie section roundup without mentioning Avatar…aww bugger it.
Calm down Cameron you’ll get your review when I’ve seen the film. I’ve heard good things so hopefully Avatar will deliver.

My this blog is nowhere near finished but I have lost the will to type. I still haven’t mentioned books and TV.  I think I may have to split this into two and come back to the second part later. 

Till I can be arsed to write the next part.

Laters

Cheesecake Out

Pablo Cheesecake – Movie Music Maestro

For a while I have been collecting assorted musical flotsam and jetsam. I have managed to cobble together around 75 of my favourite movie tracks. iTunes loves me! There is absolutely no criteria to be part of this list. The tracks can be main themes or incidental music. Every single one is a winner in my opinion. You think this list is bad you should see the TV themes track listing it’s about four times as big.

Movie/Track Name	Artist
Austin Powers - Soul Bossa Nova	Quincy Jones
Austin Powers - What the World Needs Now	Burt Bacharach
Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F	Harold Faltermeyer
The Big Lebowski - Hotel California	Gypsy Kings
The Big Lebowski - What Condition My Condition Was In	Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Big Trouble in Little China	John Carpenter
Blade Runner	Vangelis
Born Free	Matt Monroe
Brazil	Geoff Muldaur
The Breakfast Club	Simple Minds
Buckaroo Banzai	Michael Boddicker
Carlito's Way - Oye Como Va	Various
Casino Royale (1967)	Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Casino Royale (2007)	Chris Cornell
Daredevil - Lapdance	N*E*R*D
The Deer Hunter	Various
Deliverance - Duelling Banjos	Various
Diamonds Are Forever	Shirely Bassey
Enter the Dragon	Lalo Schifrin
Enter the Dragon (Ska Cover)	Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Escape From New York	John Carpenter
ET the Extra-Terrestrial	John Williams
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Mr Blue Sky	ELO
Ferris Bueller - Museum	Various
Ferris Bueller - Oh Yeah	Yello
Flash Gordon	Queen
Fletch	Harold Faltermeyer
Get Carter	Roy Budd
Get Carter (Remix)	Various
Ghostbusters	Ray Parker Jnr
The Golden Child	Various
The Goonies	John Williams
Grease	Frankie Valli
The Great Escape	Various
Halloween	John Carpenter
Harry Potter	John Williams
Highlander	Queen
Indiana Jones	John Williams
The Italian Job - Self Preservation Society	Various
Jaws	John Williams
Jurassic Park	John Williams
Kill Bill - Battle Without Honour Or Humanity	Tomoyasu Hotei
Kill Bill - The Lonely Shepherd	Zamfir
Kill Bill - Woo Hoo	The 5,6,7,8s
Krull	London Symphony Orchestra
Lifeforce	Prague Philharmonic
Live And Let Die	Wings
The Long Good Friday	Various
The Man With The Golden Gun	Lulu
Mannequin	Starship
Monsters Inc	Randy Newman
Odeon - I Like It Like That	Pete El Conde' Rodriguez
OHMSS - We Have All the Time in the World	Louis Amstrong
Pearl and Dean (1st Version)	Various
Pearl and Dean (2nd Version)	Various
Police Academy	Various
Pulp Fiction - Misrolou	Dick Dale
Rambo (First Blood)	Various
Rocky	Various
The Saint	Orbital
Saturday Night Fever	Bee Gees
Saturday Night Fever - A Fifth of Beethoven	Bee Gees
Shaft	Issac Hayes
Spiderman	Danny Elfman
Star Wars	John Williams
Star Wars -The Imperial March	John Williams
Superman	John Williams
Together in Electric Dreams	Phil Oakey
Tristar Pictures 1980's Ident	Various
A View to a Kill	Duran Duran
Who Dares Wins	Roy Budd
XXX - Feuer Frei	Rammstein
2001 - A Space Odyssey	Various

Pablo Cheesecake:Warzone

So this afternoon I went to the movies and saw Punisher:Warzone. None too shabby. Now don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane and that's not what I got. Instead I got some nice stylized hyper-violence and the ocassional flash of blacker than black humor.




In previous versions that have been brought to the screen the character of the Punisher has been a bit less than intimidating. The Punisher is meant to be intractable, monosyllabic and withdrawn. There should be glimmers of humanity but only very small hints that this man once had a life. In my opinion Dolph Lundgren and Thomas Jane were just a bit lacking. Ray Stevenson however is pretty damn near perfect. Mrs Cheesecake made a good point that Ray looks better as the Punisher than as pre-trauma Frank Castle. I've been a fan of Mr Stevenson's work since the tv series Rome and it is nice to see him moving into movies.

The other actors in the film all looked as though they were having fun hamming it up outrageously.

Dominic West - Who'd a thunk it from Oliver Cromwell to Jigsaw in one easy jump.

Doug Hutchinson looks like he was having a blast as 'Loony Bin Jim'.

It was nice to see that for a change the mighty Colin Salmon survived till end of the flick. Looking forward to Doomsday Colin!

The SFX were good. Lots of gore (Special mention has to be made to the inventive coming together of a free-runner and a rocket launcher).

In conlusion I would be happy to pay may hard earned to go see another movie with this particular Punisher in it. My brain didn't have to work to strenously and when I left the theatre I felt the warm fuzzy glow of being entertained.

Good Work Fella!




Till next time

Laters