It was my birthday this past weekend, during which I turned 30 and have been reliably informed that my life has peaked, and everything past this point is just sorrow and pain, so hurrah for that. As I have been occasionally known to do on my birthday, I gave my self a gift that will make my life harder in the form of another list to wade through upon this very site. It’s another list by Empire magazine, who have once again taken a poll of their readers and compiled a voted-for list of the top 100 movies of all time. It’s not terribly different from the last time, with only four added movies, all of which I’ve seen and some I’ve reviewed. However, they spiced things up by approaching a heap of active directors and requested their personal top 10 lists too. Some took it seriously and gave their top 10 film lists, many of which contained films I’d never heard of but look forward to seeing at some point, but other directors went a bit nuts. Edgar Wright, for example, gave a list of 40 movies including Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Last of Sheila and Phantom of the Paradise. Adam Wingard’s top 15 includes Dick Tracy, Gerry and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Matthew Vaughn submitted a list of ridiculous length, separated into genres, with the action section regrettably containing Rocky I-IV, and comedy including an entry that reads “A melange of the Pink Panther movies”. Most annoying is Garth Jennings, who took the top 10 in a different direction by just naming films with the numbers one to ten in the title. Some are great – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Three Amigos, Seven – but then there’s also Four Brothers, Five Children & It, Nine, etc. Thanks Garth, now I like Sing even less! Anyway, that’s enough of that, let’s get into the movies I watched this past fortnight.
Continue reading →