Search

Search only in certain items:

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols by The Sex Pistols
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols by The Sex Pistols
1977 | Punk
8.9 (15 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was only nine years old in 1976 so I wasn't down the front at the 100 Club, I was still watching Doctor Who. Like everything in those days it probably filtered through slowly to Haywards Heath Market. It was the first record I bought. It was shockingly brilliant, and is one of those records that if you played it in 200 years time it would still sound like that. I think that they perfectly defined their own genre. They were the ultimate punk band. The other so-called punk bands to me sound like a parody of the Sex Pistols. It's a lot to do with John Lydon, he's a huge hero of mine. I was going to have a PiL record in here but I thought you can't have two records by the same person. I saw PiL play recently, and it's the first time I've ever done this, but I went to John Lydon's dressing room door to thank him for everything, but he was asleep. To have created the Sex Pistols was an amazing thing in itself, and then to go and create a new band that was just as groundbreaking in such a different way was unbelievable. John Lennon didn't do that. Jim Morrison didn't do that."

Source
  
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
1993 | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A full-tilt ball, I tend to be averse to anything ruminating with *this* much untamed theater kid energy - but Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and of-fucking-course Bette Midler are 110% off the chain. I admit that the odious 90s stereotypes in this are hard to stomach, but I miss when Disney's live action allowed for such sublime scenery-chewing like this trio of perfect performances instead of Will Smith and some dude tepidly talking about jelly for what feels like an hour. I hate to be that guy, but something this lively just couldn't be recreated from the company today; Kenny Ortega's knack for brilliant practical effects and super impressive CGI for the time today is replaced by plastic visuals and flat soundstages where any sense of fun all but evaporates. Make no mistake, this is still not much more than pure fluff at the end of the day - but Lord it's such a blast. One of the few millennial-worship films I can fully understand the hype for, a delightful cross between ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ž๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜Œ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฌ and "The Three Stooges". It's also consistently funny. "I Put A Spell On You" is a bop, and maybe I'm just getting old but the stuff at the end had me genuinely choked up.
  
40x40

Rowan Atkinson recommended Being There (1979) in Movies (curated)

 
Being There (1979)
Being There (1979)
1979 | Comedy, Drama

"Peter Sellers movies, I would have to have in on him. Iโ€™m tempted by Being There. Again, one of his more serious things, but a beautifully attenuated performance I thought he did in that. I havenโ€™t seen the movie for a long time. Iโ€™m always nervous about saying, โ€œOh, that was a brilliant movie,โ€ if you havenโ€™t seen them for 15 years or 20 years, because you may go back to them now and think, โ€œOh, ah, well actually, itโ€™s not great.โ€ Or at least, โ€œItโ€™s got those great bits that I remember, but thereโ€™s a lot of stuff in between that is very unimpressive.โ€ But I seem to remember the only thing that really spoiled it โ€” and it was very much the fashion at the time โ€” was the sort of bloopers edit over the end credits. And I thought that movie in particular did not suit and did not need shots of Peter Sellers cracking up. But obviously the producers or the distributors said, โ€œLook, itโ€™s a Peter Sellers movie and it hasnโ€™t got a lot of laughs in it. Can we just stick something silly in the end?โ€ And that is what they did, and it didnโ€™t completely ruin the film, but it came very, very close, in my opinion."

Source
  
40x40

Biff Byford recommended Machine Head by Deep Purple in Music (curated)

 
Machine Head by Deep Purple
Machine Head by Deep Purple
1972 | Pop
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This album was a statement โ€“ here we are, Deep Purple. I think it changed a lot of musicians and the way they looked at music, in the same way Zeppelin did. But this rang British bells. They had other great albums, but this was the first one I got into โ€“ itโ€™s great from beginning to end. Before this line-up, with Ian Gillan, they werenโ€™t so heavy, then they went funky with Glenn Hughes, because he was a big R&B singer, though David Coverdaleโ€™s singing was brilliant. Come Taste the Band was when it went truly funky, after Ritchie Blackmore left. We toured with Blackmore in Rainbow a few times โ€“ nice guy one minute, then the next he could be odd. Once, someone threw a lighter on stage and he walked off and went back to the hotel. Other times he would play all night. He was very moody. First time we played with them was Donnington but we didnโ€™t have much to do with them. One time we toured with them we did two shows and went down really well and they kicked us off โ€“ we turned up at Wembley for the next show and the gates were closed and we were told to go home."

Source
  
40x40

Pete Wareham recommended Girl Loves Me by David Bowie in Music (curated)

 
Girl Loves Me by David Bowie
Girl Loves Me by David Bowie
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I didn't get into him at all for ages. For years and years I just thought, what is all the fuss about?' I just could not get into it. And then one day someone said: ""Have you listened to Hunky Dory?"". I hadn't checked that out at all. I really got into Hunky Dory. I transcribed and analysed nearly all the songs on it. I got into Low, and I quite like 'Heroes', and Scary Monsters. But there's a lot of stuff I don't like. I could probably list 10 Bowie songs that I think are amazing, and the rest of it I'm not too bothered about. I'm really obsessed with him as a character, as an artist. To me he's incredibly impressive and really exciting, his relentless drive to reinvent himself. Probably one of the most inspiring people I can think of. But musically, it's not quite as abundant. That last album: it's quite weird. I was really into Death Grips, he was really into Death Grips, and Kendrick Lamaar as well. It's an album that owes a lot to those guys, but then it's also got a saxophone player on it. This track 'Girl Loves Me', he uses the language from Clockwork Orange. It's just a brilliant idea."

Source
  
They Say I'm Different by Betty Davis
They Say I'm Different by Betty Davis
1974 | Rhythm And Blues, Soul
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Would Betty Davis have been famous if she hadn't married Miles Davis? Well, is Betty Davis famous? Because it didn't really work; at the time, it put people off, because she was married to Miles Davis - "Oh, she's his missus, she's just bloody flaunting it. I'm not buying a bloody record by her". You can dress it up how you like, be raunchy and using sex to sell it and everything, but it didn't really work. So I think she may have been more successful if she wasn't married to Miles Davis, because it isn't anything like him. Some of her other records are a bit crap, a bit hit and miss in places, but this one reminds me of Grace Jones: it's got a lot of soul, and it gets a really good groove going, and she just does her thing over the top of it. A lot of funk used to give me a headache, but this has a few parallels with Captain Beefheart; it reminds me of Clear Spot-era Beefheart. I knew of Betty Davis at the time, in the 70s, and I completely dismissed her because it gave me a headache, but now I've rediscovered her. And she's brilliant."

Source
  
The Celebration (Festen) (1998)
The Celebration (Festen) (1998)
1998 | International, Comedy, Drama
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I would say that Thomas Vinterbergโ€™s The Celebration was probably one of the most influential movies for me to be a filmmaker. I had seen a lot of how-to movies in the past, but there was something about how unapologetic that movie was to be filmed on a video camera. They had all these rules because of the Dogme 95 rules, where you couldnโ€™t have a tripod, you know, you canโ€™t bring in lights, you canโ€™t use props that arenโ€™t already there, you canโ€™t use music, and I thought, โ€œWell, this movieโ€™s going to suck.โ€ I went to see it, and I was riveted, and it was like that moment where I kind of sat at a coffee shop โ€” I saw it in Washington D.C., I was there on a trip โ€” and I just sat there thinking, โ€œThe only reason youโ€™re not a filmmaker right now is because youโ€™re not going out and doing it, because these people just made something with a camera thatโ€™s sh**tier than yours, and itโ€™s brilliant.โ€ So, โ€œThe only reason youโ€™re not a filmmaker is not because people arenโ€™t giving you money, or giving you a break. Itโ€™s because youโ€™re not good enough, or youโ€™re not doing it.โ€ So that was a very important movie for me."

Source
  
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
2008 | Drama, Romance
A once again astounding Dev Patel sells otherwise sulking, superficial melodrama. Don't you hate when the framing device is more interesting than the actual story? If not for the calamitous ๐˜ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜บ then the stuff when they were kids here would be some of the worst moments of Boyle's entire career - overedited to smithereens, fetishistic of plight, and vaguely offensive. Even when this gets good I'm convinced this movie is much more concerned with dragging these characters through the mud and inflicting pain to wring synthetic sympathy rather than fleshing them out beyond one-note characterizations and abrupt turnarounds. Still pressed this brilliant premise didn't get the justice it truly deserved but the last hour of this is executed about as engagingly as it could have been, for what it ended up being (which only makes the transition from the older stuff to the newer stuff more jarring) and randomly gets super entertaining, if not much less simplistic. Score is pretty decent, too. It's alright but not sure why this shook everyone's world back in the day, you guys do know Indian cinema exists too, no? Way better than ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜š๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ž๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ but way shittier than ๐˜“๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ. The "Jai Ho" segment is as cringey as it is memorable.
  
The Jacket (2005)
The Jacket (2005)
2005 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
"๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜บ ๐˜ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ท๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ... ๐˜ž๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฏ'๐˜ต ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ท๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜บ, ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ด? ๐˜ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ฆ ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ?"
Categorical drivel, nonsense almost solely for the sake of nonsense. Emo time-traveling ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜บ + ๐˜›๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜”๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ๐˜ด that feels like a Marcy Playground music video which basically acts as a one hour forty-three minute essay on why dying kind of blows. Sort of awesome, though if there's any supposed underseen masterpiece here as I was led to believe, I haven't found it. Don't get me wrong, there are brilliant concepts here - the whole idea of the titular womblike jacket system is tantalizing, and in numerous instances this portrays a very clever way in which the people in your past manifest into your future and can either help you or haunt you depending on the choices you've once made towards them. But none of it is developed enough, this feels like one of those movies that was really promising until it got whittled away to scraps by the studios - but that wasn't the case? Idk I still liked it - I'm glad this wasn't condescending and purposefully cold like it probably would have been were it made today - but I just wanted it to be longer, man.
  
Red Dragon
Red Dragon
Thomas Harris | 1989 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller
9
7.8 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
194 of 200

Red Dragon ( Hannibal Lecter book 1)
By Thomas Harris

RED DRAGON: the novel that introduced Hannibal Lecter
Will Graham was a brilliant profiler of criminals for the FBI - until he suffered terrible injuries in the process of capturing Dr Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter.

Years later, a reluctant Will agrees to help the FBI hunt down a depraved serial killer. But he soon realises that he needs the help of the only mind better than his own at understanding madmen.

The mind of Hannibal Lecter...


Iโ€™m a huge fan of Thomas Harris and this is possibly my third reread of this book and series! This time I seemed to enjoy it that little more and Iโ€™m not sure if itโ€™s because I have a clearer picture of the characters and feelings surrounding the books from the tv series! He has a way of writing so you get so involved with the story and the characters, that to me is what keeps me coming back to read these books over and over. For the short intervals that Hannibal is in theses books gives you a feeling heโ€™s watching over everything you read. Poor old Will really has had it tough too! On to silence of the lambs!!!