Archive for the ‘Top five’ Category:
My top five Batman artists
At the end of the day this is an impossible list.
To cut the field down from the calibre of artists that have drawn the Batman over the years is just something I’m not up to. I don’t know if anyone could, certainly not pleasing everyone (if anyone!).
These are five artists that I just love, I love their interpretations of the Batman and some of them are indeed the best Batman artists ever, but I ain’t saying anything!
- Tim Sale - his work has caught the attention of the world thanks to Heroes but before that Sale was and still is doing amazing work on Batman (as well as extraordinary stuff with some of the Marvel characters).
- Norm Breyfogle - I grew up on Breyfogle’s work on Batman, he has the most brilliant control over kinetic energy in his depictions of Batman, especially in the cape.
- Frank Miller - Apart from being a great writer I love his artwork too, it has this great raw power to it, his Batman is a warrior.
- Mike Mignola - One of my favourite Batman series is the Black and White series and part of that series was Mignola’s Batman (he’s done covers before).
- Jim Lee - I’m really loving his work on the All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.
So who are your favourite artists?
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Top five movie deaths
A little morbid maybe but there is nothing like a cool movie death. I’m not talking about gory horror movie deaths either, there are way too many of those imaginative ends for me to condense into a list of five.
Now I know this is going to stir up some debate, so bring it, throw some more movie deaths out there! Grab yourself a tissue, pretend some dust got in your eye:
- Boromir: Lord of the Rings - I mean dude! For the briefest moment the greatest evil ever corrupts you so how do you redeem yourself? Taking some mean looking arrows in the chest whilst protecting two hobbits (who probably should have run off). It’s a majestic death that completely redeems the character.
- Spock: Wrath of Khan - The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few… sniffle… I mean it’s really dusty in here man and I’ve got something in my eye. You’re a cold bastard if you’re not moved by Spock sacrificing himself for the Enterprise, brilliantly executed (forgive the pun) sequence, possibly Shatner and Nimoy’s finest moments.
- Harry Stamper: Armageddon - Ok if we don’t set off the nuclear explosion in the next twelve minutes then it’s going to destroy the Earth but someone has to stay here and sacrifice themselves. Let’s draw straws and then to hell with that Bruce Willis is going to take a dive. He does have enough time to say goodbye to his daughter and make Ben Affleck cry… did I mention that there is something in my eye.
- Wash: Serenity - Nooooooo did you just see the Serenity crash and get all bashed up and stuff, OMG that poor ship, thank god everyone is OK and… Arrrrrrrrrg WHY!?!? Curse you Whedon and your unexpected deaths!!
- Ripley: Alien 3 - If I’ve said it once I’ll say it a thousand times I’m not debating the value of Alien 3, I like it, I don’t have a problem with it (well the recut version anyway) and I think it’s quite the scene when Ripley falls backwards to her death while clutching the newly emerged alien queen.
So go on let me know your favourites!
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Top five Stan Lee cameos
I think this is my favourite top five list so far because it gave me the chance to reminisce on what I think are absolute little comic book movie gems.
The Stan Lee cameo.
Forget anything else but above all Stan Lee is a living treasure/legend/icon. The man is responsible for some of the greatest comic book characters ever. Nuff said 
- Fantastic Four - There are a couple of reasons why I like this cameo so much, for one thing it is a speaking role and is not too much out of place and secondly it’s based on an actual character! Willie Lumpkin postal worker, whom Stan helped create. It is just a real treat for me as a comic book fan and I’m reminded of the character’s appearance in the Marvel Onslaught comic.
- Spider-man - Stan saves a little girl from being crushed by some falling concrete and bricks during one of the fight scenes. It’s a cool scene simple because Stan shows us that one man can make a difference and be a hero - he also repeats the act in the sequel.
- Daredevil - A young Matt Murdock saves a man in the street with his face stuck in the newspaper from stepping out into the traffic. It’s a nicely shot scene and not overdone which is what can happen in some cameos.
- Incredible Hulk - It is of course a tradition now to spot Stan and I had a huge grin on my face as he is the ‘old guy’ who has a brush with gamma irradiated sports-drink, again a nicely shot cameo.
- Heroes - Ok it’s not a Marvel film, it’s not even a film but the brilliant, brilliant Heroes season one (did I mention it is brilliant?) knows where its origins lay. I almost jumped out of my seat when Hiro goes to board a bus and who happens to be the driver and has lines!? Stan the Man. It should be mentioned another homage in that series that made me very warm inside. The Kirby plaza.
Now there are other cameos that are cool like his appearance in Mallrats and there are some that are simply background shots such as X-Men (he’s either selling hotdogs on the beach or eating them in the background anyway). There is a really bizarre appearance too, one that I didn’t know, one I wish I didn’t know, The Princess Diaries 2:
Just to wash that out of your mind I also have a montage someone put together and the Heroes scene:
Let me know your favourite!!
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Top five shows that shouldn’t have been cancelled
Well it’s Friday for me and that means two things, I can sleep in tomorrow (but I won’t) and it’s time for the Friday top five.
Every once and a while I am reminded that it is show business, not show friends. Production companies are increasingly not your friend. They package stuff and tell you that you like it and it’s edgy and how clever it is. Often the movies and the shows aren’t actually these things.
Once and a while though a show is really good, really clever and you do love it. But it doesn’t sell Cheetos, not to the right people anyway and they take your friend away.
Not because the show sucks, in fact the show has tonnes of potential but the suits only care about the bottom line, not the art.
Today’s list is my Top Ten shows that shouldn’t have been cancelled:
- Farscape - to me it is so obvious, I have no idea why the show was taken off the air. They had agreed to do a fifth season, they pulled the plug with little notice so what we were left with was a cliff hanger series finale. Pfft. Whatever, they came back and did the amazing Peacekeeper Wars. The thing is that they should not have cancelled a show that the suits themselves referred to as a “smart, sexy, intelligent and fun series that rewrites the book on sci-fi entertainment. Farscape is not only the most ambitious original series on basic cable, we think it’s one of the best-written shows on television, period.“
- Firefly - I guess this is another one of those shows that it doesn’t make any obvious sense to cancel in my mind. The cast were great, the stories entertaining and the look of the show was breathtaking. It didn’t help that it was shown in the wrong order in irregular times. The show was badly handled by the network.
- Enterprise - not many are going to agree with me on this one, I don’t care. The show got really good in the forth season and we were strung along by the studio so they could make 100 episodes and syndicate the show. When the powers that be removed themselves from the day to day production the show got really strong it was only when they returned for the series finale that it sucked again. There was so much they could have done!
- Seaquest DSV - yeah, this is a weird one. First season was well made, generally well acted and was taking this type of show in a different direction. The second and third seasons became more sci fi focused, much to Roy Schneider’s dismay. Despite the flaws I could easily have watched another season.
- Angel - who didn’t want to see Angel go fight him a dragon? I know it never rated as well as Buffy but those who watched it, loved it. I know there’s a Season Six comic series but it just isn’t the same and now I suspect we’ll never see an Angel film or mini series - sigh
Oh yes there are lots that have been missed, Men in Trees for example that was the result of bad network management, Futurama which was cancelled for who knows why!? Aquaman never even got to a series. Recently I would have at least liked to see the end of Invasion, Threshold and Surface.
So open the floodgates, shed a tear and share your most missed shows that should never have been cancelled!!
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Top five signs that your DVD collecting is getting out of hand
Looking at our storage facility the other day was a little sobering when we realise how many of our boxes are dedicated to books and DVDs. Books certainly out number the DVDs, we could set up a small library and it makes our removalists miserable. But then I noticed how many boxes of DVDs we have and have many boxes we have actually out.
- You own Batman and Robin because you can’t bear to have an incomplete set, no the commentary is really interesting and… *sob* god I know… they just look better on the shelf all together.
- You know what Amaray packaging is and know that it will make the most of your shelf space when it comes to season two of 24.
- You start sorting them in groups other than alphabetical (it doesn’t have to make sense to other people!)
- You find yourself staring longingly at the new Collectors Edition version of Serenity even though you have a copy of Serenity and can’t work out what the bloody difference is between them so it tortures you in the middle of the night…
- When people talk about having 100s of DVDs you think to yourself “amateur”.
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The Stan Winston top five
With the passing of Stan Winston this week I think it only fitting that for the Friday Top Five we take a look at some of Stan Winston’s work:
- The T-Rex - Ok, you watch a movie from the 90s and it has CGI whatever in it and you think to yourself man that CGI barely holds up I can’t believe how cool I though that was. You watch Jurassic Park and the T-Rex comes out and even today you say to yourself, cool, they built themselves a life sized T-Rex robot and it looks awesome. Thank you Stan.
- The Terminator endoskeleton - yes it’s an endoskeleton, not an exoskeleton. I’m not sure why that is mixed up so much. Arnold is scary enough in the first Terminator then when they rip off his skin and reveal the endoskeleton underneath it changes your whole perspective on stuff when you see it for the first time. Simply iconic, thank you Stan!
- Iron Man - I don’t know how much he was involved in the development of the Iron Man suit, I’ve read that it was heavily involved. Basically the coolest exoskeleton on screen (OK I may be stretching this point too far) but it is one of the coolest designs on the screen. Thank you Stan!!!
- The Predator - Once again the costume maketh the film, a movie that could easily have fallen into the B grade cemetery and forgotten by everyone is elevated by the creation of a suitably iconic alien predator. When the helmet is first removed to display the weird thing underneath it’s a pay off that makes the effect of the cloak hiding the alien for the majority of the film all OK. Cheers for that Stan.
- The Penguin - My favourite of the Batman films is Batman Returns and a big part of that is a believable Penguin. Danny DeVito is awesome as the character but the make up is amazing. Thank you Stan!!
There are so many creature creations to choose from so if you have favourite that’s not listed here you know what to do!!
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A Friday the 13th special top five list
What else could the Friday five list be on a Friday the 13th? Obviously my top five horror movies, I will however point out that these aren’t the scariest movies. I don’t go into all that freaky deaky Ring and Grudge type of horror that the kids are all digging now days. Nor do I enjoy mutilation films like Saw and Hostel (in fairness to both I haven’t seen either but I don’t really have any intention on it, well maybe Saw if it’s on late one night).
No my favourite horror movies are all probably considered old school today and lame by current standards but I grew up on these ones and it is my list. You write your own list. Give me credit. Or money.
- Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors - there are reasons why I chose the second sequel, it brought Wes Craven back into the Elm St fold after the left of centre Elm St 2 and it was banned in Queensland, something I had trouble wrapping my head around when I first moved into the state. I still chuckle at the reasons why it was banned too, not because the main character slashes teenagers to their death in their sleep but because there is drug use??? Freddy was always my favourite character in the 80s/90s horror films. I wasn’t so keen on Freddy vs Jason but I found a lot of depth in those films, especially as a teenager who used to average a couple of hours of sleep per night at best. The characters avoiding sleep always appealed to me. The art direction of the films always impressed me.
- Evil Dead 2 - Bruce Campbell is a living god. The evil got into his hand and he lopped it off and replaced it with a chainsaw, I mean dude!?! Groovy. It had plenty of gore, plenty of innovative sequences and a dead girlfriend who dances in the moonlight and loses her head.
- The Creature from the Black Lagoon - I had to put a Universal monster in the list and Gill-man is my favourite of them so he gets the nod (the other Universal monsters are all awesome though). It was a very clever film for its time too, the underwater photography was brilliant, that suit must have been unpleasant under the water like that.
- Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Sigh. OK now just give me a chance here and I’ll try and explain, yes there are probably better instalments, no it isn’t Jason X, you’ve all made that very clear. But I have to have one of the franchise in here and I choose this one because Jason uppercuts a boxer and sends his head flying off into the distance. Classic. If I had to choose another I would say part three (the 3D one) it was nice standard edition.
- Hellraiser - Clive Barker is an amazing writer, his Books of Blood are just mind numbingly great and so it comes to no surprise that I really enjoyed Hellraiser. Pinhead is a horror icon and the Hellraiser box has got to be one of the coolest props. The second film was banned in Queensland also (so was Near Dark) I’m not sure why but it may have been because of sexual content? I even enjoyed part three that starred a pre Star Trek Terry Farrell and had a Cenobite DJ that throws killer CDs.
Oh man there are a lot of films that could be on the list ranging from Jaws to Halloween (dig that Shatner face mask).
Check out my guest post over on Aussie Bloggers (after 6.30 Aussie time) too as I talk about truly awful Australian horror films.
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Five songs that have left their footprint in my life
This is the hardest list I think I’ve tried to put together, it’s personal, ever changing and way too crowded for a list of only five. But five songs it is. These are probably as close as I can reasonably get to a top five and I guarantee that tomorrow morning it will be way different.
They’ve all left their mark on my life at different times for different reasons and each holds a special place because of it.
- The Ship Song: Nick Cave and the Badseeds - It’s simple, this is the song that my wife and I danced to at our wedding. This is our song, it never fails to move me. In an interview once Nick Cave spoke about selling his songs to advertise stuff and he explained why he would never do it, basically he believed that his fans had associations with the songs for various reasons and it would cheapen their connection to them if he sold them to some advertisement. For this I respect him and am grateful.
- Paranoid Android: Radiohead - Probably have a similar connection to this song as it has to do with Tracey, this song was one of the first if not THE first song we discovered together. We lived in Toowoomba in a tiny flat and managed to scrape together enough money each money for pay tv. Here we discovered the animated series Robin and eventually discovered the band Radiohead and Paranoid Android (yes we’d both heard the brilliant Creep but it didn’t burn itself into our minds like Paranoid Android did).
- Kiss: Tom Jones - There has to be a Tom Jones song on this list, that’s the law, sorry that’s just the way it is. I chose Kiss because it really stands out in my mind and sums up what I think the essence of Jones is. I mean he’s cool but kitsch but cool at the same time. He’s awesome and he thinks he “better dance now!” Of course anyone who has seen him live know that he probably shouldn’t dance now. It’s Not Unsual comes in a very very close second.
- Everybody Knows: Leonard Cohen - If you’ve never heard any Cohen, shame on you, go out and get the essential Leonard Cohen and allow it to change your life. If you have any connection to any kind of art then Cohen will speak to you. I love this song which embarrassingly enough I first encountered in the movie Pump Up The Volume. Again a very close second would be Tower of Song.
- Intergalactic: The Beastie Boys - OMG the Beastie Boys are just brilliant and Intergalactic is a prime example of their brilliant work, best of all they mention Spock! These guys are unbelievably cool and they are Trekkies, it honestly doesn’t get much better for me. It doesn’t hurt that the music is just great too.
I can’t go into the songs that I didn’t include, there are simply too many deserving tracks and I could be here all night. You guys throw some out there!
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Top five books that have left an impact on me
This is obviously going to be a very personal list, which in reality, apart from all of the tough scientific testing I usually do is the case for all of these lists. I wanted to get a little away from the movies and comics and cartoons that usually dominate the Friday Top Five and look at other areas of popular culture starting with literature.
Now I’m not a book snob, obviously there are genres that I am less keen on than others but I honestly recognise popular literature over classically high class literature. I love most books equally.
These five books certainly may not be the best novels ever written but they each have left an imprint on me and my life.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson taught me that a book didn’t have to be like a normal reading experience. If there was any doubt in your mind at all, after finishing Fear and Loathing you know that Hunter hit up the pharmaceuticals rather hard, there’s no way this book could have been written otherwise. The novel reads like a literature equivalent of jazz as the narrative pops on highs and lows throughout as we follow Raoul Duke on his quest for the lost American dream. I almost replaced this with The Rum Diary also by Thompson, written much earlier in his life and I often find myself thinking about it.
- The Wind in the Willows - this extraordinary novel written in 1908 made its author Kenneth Grahame enough money that he was able to quit his day job which he hated (he was a banker) and was able to spend his time messing around in boats. I love the pacing in the book that is often described as too slow but I think it suits the characters. The biggest reason though that this book is in this list is that it was the very first book I read.
- Fight Club - You never really know yourself until you hit rock bottom, something that I really appreciate and has stuck with me since reading this novel. It’s disturbing and violent but also discusses issues about a man’s place in society or how we define ourselves through commercialism. If you’ve only ever seen the movie you make time to read the book.
- The Return - well a Star Trek book had to make the list but this one is pretty much my favourite Trek novel as it is a bit of a fanboy session, you have all the Star Trek series up to this stage crossing over and of course Kirk comes back to life after that stupid death. There is a great connection made between V’Ger and the Borg - ok you have to be a Trek geek to get that. Oh and Shatner wrote it.
- Skymaze - This one may not be as well known outside of Australia it is the sequel to Space Demons written by Gillian Rubinstein. It’s a science fiction books aimed at teens and deals with the themes of growing up, think Degrassi meets Tron, as it is about a computer game that you literally get sucked into and play for real. Skymaze was I think a more well rounded story line and I read it when I was the same age as the kids in the book. The third one wasn’t as good if I remember because the author seemed obsessed with Japanese culture and focused on it more than the story. I can tell you though if she were to write another one where the teens are now middle aged I’d grab it in a second.
There are plenty of other books that could make the list, my first movie-tie-in novel Ghostbusters for example or The Never-ending Story, The Odyssey, the Rama novels, The Time Machine… it could go on.
So what books have made an imprint on you?
Next week we’re looking at music.
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Top five surprising movie gems
Sometimes there’s a movie that you don’t know anything about, or you’ve only heard bad things and then when you bring yourself to watch it you are really surprised, pleasantly surprised!
Well it’s Friday so it’s Friday Top Five time and here are my Top five surprising little gems of a film!
- From Dusk Till Dawn - I had no idea about this film, it came out in a time before widespread internet, actually I might not have even owned a computer at the time at all! At any rate it was my birthday, I was intoxicated and wearing a very bright Hawaiian shirt. “Hey we should go check out that new Tarantino film.“ “Tarantino has a new film? Cool.” So up to the cinema we rock, somehow bought tickets and stumbled into the theatre. Wall to wall Goths and I’m talking serious long haired, middle aged Charles Manson looking Goths. I vaguely recall one of them commenting on my shirt and me thinking that I was going to die. Anyway the movie comes up and it feels like a Tarantino flick, there are guns, crime and of course Tarantino is there. Hey Clooney is cool, he holds a gun coolly and delivers one of my now favourite movie lines (Your best better get a hell of a lot effing better or you’re going to feel a hell of lot effing worse). OK the boys are now at some Mexican bar and Salma Hayek (my first introduction to her) is coming out to perform the dance of evil or whatever. Fair enough, doesn’t seem that evil… SWEET JESUS she just became a vampire and bit Tarantino! Sober in three seconds. Everyone is a vampire. Damn I didn’t see that coming, how cool is this!?
- The Big Lebowski - I knew of it, I had already experienced the genius that is the Coen brothers but hadn’t really gotten around to checking the film out. Some Sunday afternoon, nothing else to do, watch what I now know as one of the most brilliant films ever and introduce myself to The Dude. What isn’t great about this film? Awesome, awesome, awesome.
- Jason X - Oh dear, they made it to Friday the 13th ten, who would have seen that? Probably the same people who made Police Academy Mission to Moscow (no that is not on this list!). Ok so it isn’t the greatest film on the planet, or any planet for that matter. But I really enjoyed it for some reason, it was dumb as these films are supposed to be but then Jason gets an upgrade and it gets even sillier. Actually maybe I’m mixing some of this up with Leprechaun in Space or maybe the Hellraiser set in space?
- Future Cop/Trancers - I honestly only got this out because there was nothing else on the shelves that I hadn’t already seen. You have no idea how glad I was too! It is a lot of fun, low budget silly fun with great one liners.
- Eurotrip - I pretty much figured that I had outgrown films like this despite still enjoying the American Pie films. This was on late one night and I thought why not as it started, apparently Scotty didn’t know and I didn’t look back! It is now one of my favourite comedies and I constantly find myself cracking up when I think about it. Tracey always laughs whenever we quote “you’re a very special boy“. I like the song of course and the French robot.
I actually found this list really hard to write, I couldn’t think of any apart from the first two at first and I’m not convinced on Jason X because I’m thinking I’ve merged it in my mind with those other films mentioned.
So what films have you been totally taken by surprise how good it was or how much you enjoyed it (the film doesn’t have to be good to enjoy it!)?
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