I waste a lot of my time watching shitloads of movies, so there's plenty of stuff I want to put on my page. One of my favorite activities is watching a video whilst eating takeaway (peferably McDonalds), and I can usually watch any old shit and still enjoy it as long as I've got some takeaway handy. Another thing that changes my enjoyment of a movie is when I'm the only one in the house. By this I don't mean everyone else is at work or school, but I mean when the rest of the families gone on holiday and I've decided to stay at home instead. Whenever I'm the only one in the house for a week or so I start to get into the shitty action movies (Bad Boys, etc.) which I usually hate. I don't know why this is, but it may have to do something with the fact that I often just go nuts whenever I'm 'home alone' for a long time, and I often find myself having meaningful discussions with the dog or just with myself.

Anyway, my favorite movie of all time is by far Taxi Driver. Even though it was made over twenty years ago, I still think that no other movie is nearly as good. Robert De Niro (my favorite actor) is excellent as Travis Bickle, and Martin Scorcese (my favorite director) directs the movie brilliantly. For those of you (the unfortunate few) who haven't seen it, Taxi Driver is all about (you guessed it) a taxi driver, Travis Bickle, who returns home from a tour of duty in Vietnam to find an America different to that that he remembered. Travis is unable to maintain relationships with people of his own age (Cybill Shepherd), and falls in love with a fourteen year old prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster). He then eventually goes on a rampage, wiping out Iris' pimp (Harvey Keitel) and other people working with the pimp. A lot of people I know think that the movie is too boring (it does take over an hour before Travis starts going nuts), but I think that it is extremely interesting throughout the entire film. De Niro really brings the film alive, and this was done before he physically bulked up, so he's perfect as the sinewy nutjob. I think that the only other person on Earth that could do the role is Henry Rollins (maybe if he lost some muscle), as he shares the same intensity as De Niro does in the film.

As I said above De Niro's my fave actor and Scorcese's my fave director. For those who don't know, these two have teamed up (along with Joe Pesci) to make other classics such as Raging Bull , Goodfellas, Casino, and others which I can't think of at the moment. I thoroughly reccomend all these movies, as they are all excellent movies, and if you like the gangster-film types, then you'll most probably love all the films mentioned above.

Another actor which I highly respect is Harvey Keitel. All throughout his career (over fifty films!), he's always portrayed the most anti-Hollywood characters possible (Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, Fingers,), and he's always done them really well. He's done a lot of films with Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Til Dawn,), and they've also always turned out really well. I know a lot of people didn't really get into From Dusk 'Til Dawn (except for one particular friend of mine), but I personally loved the film. Quentin wrote the script for this move and it was directed by Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Desperado). Even though I HATE Desperado (I haven't seen El Mariachi), Rodriguez does a really good job with Dusk, and he's made an excellent movie which is really enjoyable.

Probably the movie that disturbs me the most now is Blue Velvet. The character Frank Booth (done excellently by Dennis Hopper), is by far (in my opinion) the most evil person ever portrayed in a movie. Blue Velvet is directed by David Lynch, another of my favorite directors, who has also done excellent movies such as Wild At Heart, Fire Walk With Me (the prequel to the Twin Peaks series), and the full Twin Peaks series. I think that the Twin Peaks series are excellent, and at the moment I'm going through all the episodes again (which takes a VERY long time).  I saw Lost Highway awhile ago now, and I still can't figure out what the fuck happened.  It is still an awesome movie, with Trent Reznor doing the soundtack to the movie, and stuff like NIN and MM being played throughout a lot of the actual film.  Oh yeah, it also stars Henry Rollins as a prison guard and Mr. Manson and Twiggy Ramirez as porno/snuff actors.

I also like well-made war movies quite a lot aswell, with Apocalypse Now being by far my favorite.  For those who haven't seen it (everyone should have by now - it's over 20 years old), it's basically about a soldier (Capt. Wilard - Martin Sheen) in Vietnam who is sent up a river to kill another American (Col. Walter E. Kurtz - Marlon Brando) who has gone completely insane.  In the process, Wilard starts to agree with some of Kurtz's opinions and actions, and faces a crisis as he is forced to choose between killing Kurtz or abandoning the U.S. army.  This movie is absouletly awesome, and even if you haven't seen the film, you've probably heard some of the quotes around (e.g. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning").  Anyway, check it out.

Yet another movie I love is Seven (called Se7en overseas).  The style of the movie is just mindblowing, with a really dark setting, it's constantly raining (apart from the end scene, which is awesome), the music really fits the movie (helped by Trent Reznor), and even the opening and ending credits to the movie are excellent.   One thing which I really love about the movie is that the killer is always a few steps ahead of the detectives, and the only reason he gets caught is because he gives himself up.  This is a lot more realistic than the usual bull shit detective movies where the cops get there just a minute too late.  In fact, I personally think that the movie bears a fair bit of similarity to Homicide: Life On The Streets in that way.

Seven is pretty graphic (especially the sloth victim - that is really bad), so I would personally advise against eating takeaway whilst watching this move.   Even though eating some McDonalds usually enhances a movie heaps, when you're staring at a big fat dead guy who's turned blue and is lying naked on a slab (gluttony), that Big Mac in your hand just doesn't look too appealing.

No other movies really bother me at all, but there are definetly some where you can really feel the pain caused to the people in the movie.  Two awesome examples of this is Shallow Grave (made by the people who did Trainspotting) and No Apparent Motive (featuring a very young Charlie Sheen).  I personally really like these types of movies aswell, and the two examples listed above are both excellent movies.

My Top 10 Movies

1. Taxi Driver

2. Apocalypse Now

3. Se7en

4. Raging Bull

5. A Clockwork Orange

6. Goodfellas

7. Blue Velvet

8. Clerks

9. Fargo

10. The Big Lebowski