The joys of being an assistant

You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

- The Devil Wears Prada

I love this scene. Meryl Streep is so, so good in this film. Pretty much why I'm watching it again. It's sad, but part of me wishes my job in publishing was more like this movie. It's hideous and awful, but I'd rather run errands than have to write more editorials. And I wish I could have Anne Hathaway's wardrobe.

Music: The Devil Wears Prada

Top 10: Suit Fetish Enablers

I didn't have a Top 10 planned for this week - I've been far too busy to get anything organised (deadline was moved up a week and no one told me! Aaaaagh!) Instead I was going to post a pic and marvel at how dapper Mr Fassbender is. That's when I realised hey, that in itself is top 10 fodder. I do have a bit of a suit fetish after all. Quite frankly, I think life would be infinitely better if men wore waistcoats all the time. So, here are my top 10 favourite suit-wearers.

• Michael Fassbender

Let's face it, this man can do no wrong. None. None of it. Think about it. He sings with little provocation. He laughs like a lunatic. And he steals golf carts with James McAvoy. Wrong? Doesn't exist.

• James McAvoy

Speaking of my would-be-best-friend-if-life-was-fair, he fills out a suit quite nicely too - whether scruffy like in Penelope (also, major hat love there. Oh, so major) or just rocking really awesome jackets (yeah, technically not suit related but come on.) Just so by the by, Keira Knightley, who was in Atonement with James (a film I refuse to watch because I don't do war/angst), stars in an upcoming film with the fantastic Mr Fassbender. Why, Keira? Why am I not you? *dalek voice* EXPLAIN.

• Ben Barnes

Dorian Gray proved that putting someone in a suit immediately makes everything even better (which ironically is rather the opposite of what it tries to convey. Oh well.) Ben, the boy we all seem to lay claim to through various degrees of separation ("my friend's friend's aunt's uncle knows his parents" etc etc), looks good in anything, but it's like he was made to wear suits. Just look at him.

• Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

We can all thank Inception for bringing suit fetishes to the mainstream. That is, in a large part, due to the lovely Joseph here. See, waistcoats. You can't go wrong.

• Eduardo (Andrew Garfield)

Okay, The Social Network is a great film, but I can't be the only one who thought it was extra memorable because of Eduardo. Let me also take this opportunity to point out (again) that Andrew is just so nerdtastically adorable. Is it possible to watch his surprise comic con appearance and not want to hug him? I don't think so.

• Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer)

Oh, you are one smooth guy Mr Caffrey. You and Mr Fassbender are also helping to improve my hat appreciation. Hmmm hats. 

• Ianto Jones (Gareth David Lloyd)

Obviously. The Whoniverse is arguably responsible for my suit appreciation. Also, I said it before but I'll say it again, life is better with waistcoats.

• The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)

Whoniverse! All your doing! All of it. Anyway, bow ties and fezes may be cool but pinstriped and (controversial) blue suits, and converse, are brilliant.

• Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch)

Has there ever been such a well-dressed consulting detective? Of course not. Don't ask such silly questions, you lower the IQ of the entire street.

• James Bond

It doesn't really matter what incarnation, suits are to Bond what air is to breathing. I have a particular penchant for Daniel Craig though - I once read an excellent article on the subtleties of his suit designs and it just had me hooked. Yes, I am lame enough to read an article on suit design.

And because I can't just end it there, honourable mentions go to...

• The Winchesters (and my dearest Castiel)

Just because they’re so adorable. Especially when they first start out and their suits are horrifically bad and they look super uncomfortable. Never did two men seem less suited to…um…suits. But A for effort boys. Cas, on the other hand, is the best holy tax accountant everrrr. End of.

• Oh, and The Master (John Simm)
  

My favourite lunatic ♥

• And Jim Sturgess

Hmmm. Suits.

Music: She's a rebel - Green Day

Of naps and reading

Came home early with a terrible headache and had a nap. Felt marginally better afterwards, or at least well enough to some reading, so I read The Hunger Games. I think Tomorrow, When The War Began is better, but I still couldn't put it down. Part of me wanted to be annoyed with Katniss for being so oblivious and for kinda breaking Peeta's heart but then, how can I be? I realised she's just like me. Which is interesting.

Wish I had the second novel so I could just keep going but alas, I'll have to save up for that. In the meantime, I guess I should start A Game of Thrones - but it's so big and I've heard it's super addictive and I have so many things to do! Gah. Tempted to just take a week off and read o.O

I am also fine with this casting.

Music: Into the west - Annie Lennox

For you I am blinded

Nostalgia is a funny thing. I can go weeks, months, without the thought of you crossing my mind until, quite suddenly, it crashes down around me. Awareness and regret. I’m young again, stupid and careless, and you’re there, always there, always looking out for me. The best friend I didn’t realise I had until you were gone.

And I marvel sometimes at how I can miss you, so many years later, as if I’m missing the possibility of what could have been, what should have been, had I stayed. Sometimes I even wonder, in those rare moments when the lack of your presence is almost tangible, whether there’s a part of me that’s remained untouched since your removal from my life. A part that will always remain untouched. Maybe every broken line I ever wrote, every lie I ever told, maybe it was all for you.

It’s a cliché to say you never appreciate what you have until it’s gone but that’s what you do. You drive me to clichés. It’s the only way I can make sense of any of it. We were young, too young, and surely it shouldn’t hold sway, can’t hold sway. Irrational and meaningless. But somehow you burrowed your way into my emotions and no amount of arguing with myself can evict you. I think you’ll be there for the rest of my life.

It’s selfishness, really, that drives me. I just want to know if you think of me. If you ever remember the times we spent together. Does the thought bring that lopsided smile to your face? Do you remember the colour of my eyes, the sound of my name, the way you could always be yourself around me? Do you remember how you’d stick by me even when I was being impossible, how you’d always forgive me when I picked a fight? Do you even remember my face?

But I’m smarter than that. I know that no one ever remembers the ones who leave. That knowledge – the thought that you never knew, will never know, can’t possibly care – is harder to bear than the memory of you, the memory that breaks me open and defies my better judgement. If I had been better adjusted, if I had been less insecure, if my life had taken a different path, if we had been given more time…I would have been your refuge, you would have been my all.

Music: Blinding - Florence + The Machine

Sunday laziness

I feel like a truck has run over my head, repeatedly. Rather than pretend to have anything useful to say, here's a list of things I currently want -

Marvel gym bag from Superhero Stuff

Pretty much every Think Geek t-shirt ever.

'The Better Man' print from Society6

A corset

Doctor Who series 5

White Collar series 1

New fingerless gloves

Burgundy Doc Martens

Fragrances from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (Wanderlust range in particular atm)


And...other...things. Brain fried, going to fully appreciate Neal Caffrey's suave awesomeness now.


Music: White Collar

Top 10: Favourite Game of Thrones Characters

I haven’t read the books – the first one arrived yesterday, I'll get to it – but I love the show (and okay, I haven’t finished it but I know what happens. Woe.) The problem with Game of Thrones is that it has such an abundance of great characters (most of whom want to kill each other). Ah well. Here are my current faves:

• Eddard Stark

So noble. So well-meaning. So doomed.

• Jon Snow

Someone give the kid a hug! He's like the Faramir of the Seven Kingdoms.

•  Tyrion Lannister

I love Tyrion. He seems so apathetic yet gets involved in everything.
Plus he hits his idiot nephew, something I've definitely wanted to do. Also,
can we just take a moment to appreciate what a great actor Peter Dinklage is?
(I watched Penelope the other night, completely forgot he's in that.)

• Arya Stark

Stick 'em with the pointy end, kid.

• Daenerys Targaryen

Her brother is a jackass who just tries to use her, but she
comes into her own so subtly and beautifully.

• Catelyn Stark

She's so decisive and fiery. She's a Queen in my mind.

• Bran Stark

Oh, Bran. You're so cute and dealt such a horrible hand.

• Jamie Lannister

I want to hate him, but he's kinda compelling in an awful way.

•  Renly Baratheon

The witty one. Bless.

• Loras Tyrell

Just because. I have a soft spot for knights and there's a romanticism to him I appreciate.

Yes, it would seem I have a predisposition to House Stark. That's because, sooner or later, the Starks are always right...winter is coming.

Music: Rolling in the deep - Adele

I wouldn't front the scene if you paid me

Hang on, am I to believe that in the entire X-Men universe, there isn’t a single mutant who can heal others? They’ve got all these insane powers, but not one of them can heal? Really? It seems evolution dropped the ball on that one, I mean surely that would be insanely useful. Someone who can heal others, cure anything, you know? Until everyone can heal themselves, like Wolverine and Sabretooth of course. But then I don’t know how wise self-healing is for evolution, cause they wouldn’t die. Not that great, just ask Torchwood.

Speaking of Miracle Day – madness. Gwen’s a bit insane. And does Jack really expect me to believe his immune system is compromised because of his immortality? Dude, you’re from the 51st century, remember? Your immune system is already charting way ahead of us poor 21st century humans. I don’t think that’s going to magically wear off because you’ve been alive too damn long.

Overall, episode two was very House-like. There better be some major pay off with this Oswald Danes character cause every break in action to cut to him is starting to damage my calm. It sort of amuses me that the UK-US trip took basically an entire episode, when the trip there was mere minutes in the first ep. Also, woe. Rhys! Come back! Your crazy wife is much more palatable when she’s with you. Anywhoodle. I still don’t really know what’s going on, so wait and see how it goes I suppose.

Music: Thank you for the venom - My Chemical Romance

The world could be burning

I swear, sometimes I don’t know why my friends put up with me. Take yesterday, for example. I was over at R’s for a proper trip planning meeting – which we did while watching, among other things, Inglorious Basterds. This of course led to making a whole lot of inappropriate Nazi remarks as we "travelled" through Europe (nicely balanced with some communist remarks as well cause we're egalitarian like that - I swore at Karl Marx at least once, something to do with visas and polio) and then I completely gave up any pretence of paying attention to what we were doing when the basement scene was on. I’m paraphrasing but it went something like this:

R: What’s there to do in Prague?
Me: …hm, what? Where are we?
R: Prague.
Me: Who cares, Fassbender’s on.
R: Ok great, when we get off the train and you wonder what we’re doing, I’ll remind you that we don’t know because Fassbender was on screen.
Me: I won’t even regret it.

By my heel, I care not.

I may point out that this isn't the best film to watch when multitasking because of all the subtitling. Anyway, I have since discovered that Lonely Planet recommends an old-timey confiserie in Berlin called Fassbender & Rausch – so there you go. Relevance is where you find it. Don’t say it never did anything for us, R!

In related news, if we do get arrested at some point on our European adventure (considering how inappropriate we are, it is looking alarmingly likely), please bail us out.

Music: Dark blue - Jack's Mannequin

Golden lies feed my role

In his latest Fuse blog, Mat Devine shares 5 tips for (maybe) conquering writer's block. One of them is -

D. GET STUPID. The best songs were written by bands who had no idea what they were doing. Their subsequent work lacks charm and originality because their innocence was lost. They’d been “taught” the formulas of the craft; the modes, arrangements, melodies, keys, tempos. My hunch is that right now you know too much. Challenge yourself to look at the page and at language in a new way. Deconstruct and reconstruct. Be free. Be wrong.

That is me. It is so me. I'm so bogged down in theory, in the basics of writing, in the study of how everyone else does it, that it becomes nearly impossible to just...write. I've settled into this uni/work-writing state, and it's hard to break out of that. At least there's comfort in knowing that everyone else goes through such things too. Just have to keep at it and one day "the flow" will come back. Hopefully.

Music: Hyper music - Muse

Harry Potter and The End Of All Things

As vaguely promised, my thoughts on the film. Firstly, I once again have to say that I don’t know how anyone who hasn’t read the books knows what’s going on. I know there are people out there who just watch the films, but I just…I don’t get it. You miss so much, all the little things that make it really special. So much knowledge is taken for granted. Just one example, the Lupin and Tonks relationship. Even the emotional resonance of significant deaths. There’s an overall feeling of implication – that you’ll get it, because you know.

I’ve made peace with the fact that everything won’t make it into the films - really fantastic things too, like Kreacher’s rallying of the house elves. There simply isn’t time to include everything and things have to be changed to make it fit into the film format. It used to piss me off, but I get it now. So, with that in mind, I think the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 did a wonderful job closing out the series.

The start is a little jarring. It's probably a good idea to watch Pt 1 again. You’re just thrown into the action with no preamble and it’s a bit disorientating. It took me a while to settle back into the story and get used to the pace because it felt like things were just happening too quickly. Once you get past that, however, it’s an enjoyable ride that delivers both the familiar, while also taking some interesting turns. It’s great for example to see the others fighting during the Battle of Hogwarts because it’s not a view you’re afforded in the books, always being tied to Harry. I thought it was quite clever to show Voldemort coming undone with the destruction of the horcruxes, becoming more desperate and more deranged as it went on.

Some memorable moments for me was Neville’s turn as a total BAMF and McGonagall stepping up and being completely awesome. I was thrilled with the translation of ‘The Prince’s Tale’ to the screen – it was everything I could have hoped for and Alan Rickman’s performance was a real standout of the film. Really though, I thought the cast all turned in convincing performances.

I think it’s testament to a franchise’s strength that it can continue to surprise you and continue to push you into wanting things to go a certain way, even when you know exactly how it all plays out. In the stand-off scene between the Death Eaters and the Hogwarts fighters, I so desperately wanted Draco to stay on the Hogwarts side. I knew it wouldn’t happen, but I just wanted this character to finally be something more, to redeem himself and live up to his potential. Even though I didn’t get that, I thought it was oddly fulfilling to watch him and his mother walk away. I found a grudging respect for Narcissa there.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but everything seems to have come together in the final film, the performances, the effects, the balance of the book-to-film tone. Overall, I thought it to be a suitable end to an era. It’s bittersweet, sad but triumphant and hopeful, and isn’t that really a mirror of how we all feel? It’s over but, you know, somehow it’s okay.

Music: On an unknown beach - Amanda Palmer

Lost in migraine country

To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
You've been trying to reach me, you bought me a book
To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
I've been paid, I've been paid

To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
You've been trying to reach me, you bought me a book
To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
I've been paid, I've been wait, I've been...

Don't get offended, if I seem absent minded
Just keep telling me facts, and keep making me smarter
And don't get offended, if I seem absent minded
I get tongue-tied

Baby, you've got to, be more discerning
I've never known, what's good for me
Baby, you've got, to be more demanding
I will be yours

I'll pay for you, anytime

And you told me you wanted, to eat up my sadness
Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away
You told me you wanted, to eat up my sadness
Jump right

Baby, you've got to be more discerning
I've known never known what's good for me
And baby, you've got to be more demanding
Jump left

What are you holding out for?
What's always in the way?
Why so damn absent-minded?
Why so scared of romance?

This modern love breaks me
This modern love wastes me

Do you wanna come over, and kill some time?
Throw your arms around me

Music: This modern love - Bloc Party

Top 10: Positive Thinking

Being a little different and doing a list of 10 things that make me happy right at this very moment. Mostly this is because I’m at work and don’t have time to find/make quotes/pics for the other top 10 list I’ve got brewing. And this is simple. So, in no particular order, here’s to life’s positives:

• Butterbeer at the Schnitzel

For some reason, the idea of meeting at a pub after work on a Friday still amuses me – clearly because my brain refuses to accept that I am supposedly a responsible adult now. But anyway, that’s exactly what I’m doing and L and I will no doubt be reminiscing over our Harry Potter youth while wishing we actually had butterbeer.

• In-jokes

The aforementioned pub is not actually called Schnitzel. I’m not even going to try and explain it, but there are few things in life more fun than sharing an in-joke with your friends that makes everyone else look at you like you are completely deranged. Bless.

• Trip Planning

Excitement! R and I are getting together for a big planning sesh tomorrow. Operation: We Still Need A Name For This is a logistical challenge but one I’m sure we can figure out. Be afraid, Europe, be very afraid. And it’ll no doubt be followed by Supernatural. “Is it because we’re awesome? I think it’s because we’re awesome.”

• Supernatural Analogies

It can be applied to anything. Although I’m not that keen on the fact that I’m Sam. It’s not my fault I’m the tall one :P

• Harry Potter Overload

It’s everywhere. Everywhere. It’s like everything else has ceased to exist, especially on Tumblr. And it’s brilliant. I particularly like seeing how much the cast has grown up across the films – they were so little! We were all so little. Gah.

• Musical Blasts from the Past

I unearthed a mix cd while sitting in traffic the other day that’s from 08. It contains songs from all these bands and albums that I love but that aren’t really in regular rotation anymore. It’s funny how some albums you just connect with in a way that you never really replicate with a band’s other work. Anyway, it’s full of Forgive Durden, The Matches, Lostprophets, Linkin Park, Armor For Sleep, Placebo and many others. It’s a bit of an eclectic mix, but it makes me ridiculously happy.

• James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender

Yes, yes, I know. I keep going on about them. But they’re so brilliant, I can’t heeeeelp it. I mean, they’re fantastic as it is on their own, but put them in an interview together and it re-defines what awesome is. Seriously, look up perfection in the dictionary and you’ll find a photo of these two being idiots. Stop being so adorable! It’s annoying!

• Game Of Thrones

You know what’s great about this show? Everything. Even the title sequence. There are so many brilliant characters in this, I don’t even know where my allegiances are. Now I admit, I haven’t read the book(s). I don’t really want to because it’s not finished and I don’t particularly want to get involved in the ire and frustration that is reading an incomplete series, but I understand it’s really very good. And if the characters are so solid on screen, how fabulous must they be on the page? I can’t resist finding out. Winter is coming.

• Graphic Novels

Look, half the time I don’t know what the hell is going on. I’m reading like ten different ones at the same time and I’m not entirely convinced I get the whole comic thing (and the X-Men ’verse hurts my head) but somehow, in all the madness, I’m actually enjoying the experience.

• Geeky Connections

You know, ones who send me graphic novels to read and buy Fallout: New Vegas for me because I mentioned it once in passing. Not to mention keep me in TV shows – even if they’re slacking a little there and get me addicted to things without supplying the final episodes (Game of Thrones! Aaaaaaah! Also, SPN. Sigh.)

See, quick and easy. Also, it's Friday and the sun is out for a second, I can afford a little positivity.

Music: Great Romances of the 20th Century - Taking Back Sunday

That's it then

So I enjoyed the film. Bittersweet as it all is. Might do a proper review type write up if I have time later. But in the meantime, I found this and thought it worth sharing...



Music: About to watch Game of Thrones

The thing about Harry Potter

Tonight my friends and I are off to the midnight screening of the final Harry Potter film. It’s both exciting and ever so slightly traumatic.

It may sound weird to some, but Harry, Ron and Hermoine are like personal friends I grew up with. When they were eleven, I was eleven, and we all grew up together. In the end, I overshot them a little, but it didn’t really matter – the effect was the same. There are just so many memories. All the lining up, math classes spent reading, discussing everything in detail, trying not to spoil M about Dumbledore because she couldn’t read the The Half Blood Prince until after exams were over. Oh, and she was so into the fandom too, introducing us all the dubious joy of wizard rock (which incidentally I still have on my computer.)

Of course the movies played their part too. The Philospher’s Stone was the first film I saw here, I went with my mum for my birthday. Funny to think about it now, it seems like a lifetime ago. There came new friends, more memories, silly things like hanging out after school to watch The Prisoner of Azkaban and smuggling hot chips past a highly suspicious security guard. It’s just scattered through my entire adolescence.

Really, when it comes right down to it, this is all I have left of my childhood. It’s the only thing that overlaps the two halves of my life. You know how everyone has that stuffed toy they had all their life? Mine got lost when we moved here, and in a way Harry Potter is that for me. That link. We’ve been through so much together, good and bad. Harry, Ron and Hermoine were always there, a reprieve, a rallying point.

I remember when the exhilaration of blitzing through The Deathly Hallows wore off and the reality of it being the last book ever sunk in, it didn’t seem quite so sad because “we still have the movies!” And yeah, I never liked the movies nearly as much as the books, but it was still something. After tonight, it’s all gone. My childhood is officially over. Even though you could argue that it’s been over for a long time, it still feels like this is the moment when the door finally, resolutely closes.

It seems so surreal that at midnight, I’ll be saying hello to all these characters for the last time. The only consolation I have is knowing that, out there, there is a whole generation of people who know exactly where I’m coming from with this. ‘Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.’ Really, we’ll never be alone. That’s got to count for something.

Music: Every me, every you - Placebo

And so it began

The main thing I took away from the first ep of Miracle Day? "Hey, I've been to Gwen's house!"

The show

My holiday snaps

 

I have no intention of going on about the ep (I know the UK's a week behind - how novel) but I'd just like to say I don't particularly care for the title card. The whole medical look of it reminds me of the covers of a melodramatic hospital-based book series I read once while on holiday.

Meh.

Anyway, nice to know that logic still does not prevail in the TW 'verse. My mum's only input? "Oh great, Gwen's still hysterical."

Music: Ear to Ear - Forgive Durden

Footloose in my velcro shoes

"She’s not my favourite of the X-Men, in order that would be Wolverine, Cyclops - oh wait, I forgot Professor X. Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Iceman, then Storm, Angel, the Beast - oh wait, Nightcrawler. Professor X, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Cyclops, Iceman, then Storm, Angel…"

-  The Bad Fish Paradigm (S2E1)

In moments like these, Sheldon is just so me.

Music: The future freaks me out - Motion City Soundtrack

Competition is a fickle thing

So, my boys just lost the Super Rugby final. I'm absolutely devastated. I mean, I'm happy for Ewan McKenzie that he's finally won a final, and it's great for the Reds and rugby in Australia. But, my boys. My boys. After everything we've been through this year, I really think we deserved this win. They lost their home field, faced so much, travelled so much - hell, went to England to play a match to raise money for Christchurch - and just...everything. It would have been so great if they could at least have this. But alas, it was not to be.

Sport, man. Such a cruel mistress. The only consolation I can take from this is that no one is injured, and that surely, surely we'll take the World Cup this year. Now excuse me as I have to get back to entertaining guests. And then later, I shall watch Torchwood - cause I'm sure that'll cheer me up o_O

Music: Fox Sports and weeping

Top 10: Frequently Watched Films

It’s the return of the Friday Top 10! In honour of my recent obsession with X-Men: First Class, I’ve decided to dedicate this week to the films I have re-watched the most. I’m a big re-watcher/re-reader – considering my obsessive tendencies, it’s not much of a surprise. I like that the more your watch/read something, the more subtleties you pick up, whether it be in the nuances of characters, writing or design. Sure, after a while, you reach saturation point and there’s nothing else to take away from it, but for me, it doesn’t dull the enjoyment of something. Some people will argue you waste your time going back to things you’ve already seen/read but I think it’s a comfort thing. Sometimes you like to hang around the house in that threadbare hoody you know you should really throw out, and sometimes you like to engage with something you know you’re going to love.

•  Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

I have no words that will convey how much I love this movie. I’ve seen it more times than I can remember and can practically quote the whole script off the top of my head. "Me, I’m dishonest, and you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. Honestly, it’s the honest ones you want to look out for because you never know when they’re going to do something incredibly…stupid."

It's not a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs,
but what a ship is...what the Black Pearl really is...is freedom.

•  Lord of The Rings: FOTR, TTT, ROTK

I’ve got all three down because I tend to watch them together (or rather across three weekends.) I might have seen The Two Towers one or two times more. That scene where the elves arrive at Helm’s Deep never fails to give me goosebumps. It’s got such a foreboding air that one, the threat of battle. Anyway, I don’t have any solid idea how many times I’ve watched these either but it’s a lot. And we’re talking the extended editions too. And with the cast commentary. Yeah, it's that level of crazy. The extended edition blu-rays have just been released and I understand there’s an extra disc – what is on that disc? I demand answers! And I am not buying blu-rays to get them! Gah. These films hurt my heart. I’ve cried during all of them. How lame.

History became legend, legend became myth, and  those
things which should not  have been forgotten were lost...

•  10 Things I hate About You

This is the perfect teen film. My love is boundless, boundless I tells you! Although I haven’t watched it in a while, when I used to work double shifts at the doctor’s surgery I would watch it in my break – it was exactly the right length. So sometimes I’d end up watching it twice or three times in one week. I have a real affinity with Kat Stratford (and I do mean the film, not that show that's running around. I don't even want to talk about it.)

The shit hath hiteth the fan...eth.

•  Center Stage

I seriously think this is that one dance movie everybody secretly adores. Well, girls anyway. One of the main things I like about it is that pretty much all the stars are actual ballet dancers (except for Zoe Saldana, I think, who is clearly just made of awesome.) It’s just such a feel-good story about following your dreams and doing it on your own terms. How can you go wrong with that? I always end up feeling desperately lazy after watching it though.

I am your slave! / I'd believe it more if you weren't
staring at your own reflection when you said it.

• About A Boy

"And there I was, killing them softly with my song." This film! Aaaaah *grabby hands* Firstly, to all those people now desperately in love Nicholas Hoult after Skins and A Single Man and XMFC….NEVER FORGET. Oh, the hair. I never miss an opportunity to watch this film. If it’s on TV, I’ll watch it even though I own it. Actually, it’s sort of my favourite Christmas movie. What? It has a Christmas song in it.

I mean he's a special, a very, very special boy and he's got a special soul
and I've wounded it. / Oh, please, just shut up, you're wounding my soul.

•  The Blues Brothers

As with the film above, I’ll watch this one on TV too. And it’s on quite a lot, mainly when TV1 tires of Cliffhanger and Rambo. It’s such a ridiculous amount of fun, I can’t help myself. "It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses."

We're on a mission from God.

• The Matrix

When I first got this on DVD, I pretty much watched it every day for a week. There’s nothing I don’t love about this film, absolutely nothing. I don’t really know what else I can say on the matter.

There is no spoon.

• Little Miss Sunshine

This is another film I watched a lot in my "lunch breaks" back in the day. I always forget about this one – I think I’ve seen it more times than I actually realise. I love the oddball collection of characters, and you can’t really fault the road movie formula. The great thing about this film is that it goes against the grain, the character motivations aren’t the standard ones you’ve come to expect from films. And that’s brilliant. Also, Dwayne. My heart breaks.

Everyone just...pretend to be normal!

•  Stardust

When I want something fantastical and mythical, but still quite light and fun, I default to Stardust. (Incidentally, when I want something fantastical and mythical and entirely camp, I default to Labyrinth.) I think…this is a flawless film. Flawless! You want reasons why this film is perfect? Fine. Firstly, it’s based on the book by Neil Gaiman, the personification of awesome/genius.Flowing on from that, the characters are captivating. It’s perfectly cast and everyone turns in great performances. Sir Ian McKellen narrates. It has Robert De Niro in drag. Ben Barnes is in it…for like three minutes, but still. In short: it’s funny, it’s engaging, it’s brilliant.

Do you see another world out there? No, you see a field. Do you see
anything non-human? No. And you know why? Because it's a field!

Yeah, I got tired of making graphics pretty quickly. Sorry. Anyway, since I don’t actually count how many times I’ve watched things, I can’t be sure beyond the first three if these films are actually the ones I’ve watched the most – they are the first ones that came to mind though.

Honourable mentions go to: The Princess Bride, Snatch, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Almost Famous, V For Vendetta, Across The Universe, Iron Man, Beauty & The Beast and The Lion King.

Oh crap, I forgot Star Wars! That definitely should have been on the main Top 10 list. There goes my geek cred. What a loser.

Music: Il Tango... - Forgive Durden