The 15 Movie Questions Meme

Shamelessly pinched from the always-excellent Too Much Apple Pie, who in turn pinched it from Rol at Sunset Over Slawit, who in turn got it from Sunday Stealing, and so the list goes on. I try to maintain a healthy meme-aversion but since this is all about films, I'll let this one slide. Ask me these questions again in a week's time and you'll get several different answers, undoubtedly, but for now here goes.

1. Movie you love with a passion.

   Easy. The Graduate. Made before I was born, this still speaks to me about how I felt about my life when I was a graduate. Except, you know, I didn't sleep with a family friend's wife and then run off with the daughter.

2. Movie you vow to never watch.

   Not so easy. I usually vow never to watch a film again, having suffered it once. But just on principle, I intend never to watch anything with Transformers in the title.

3. Movie that literally left you speechless.

   Lars von Trier's Antichrist. And no, it wasn't that self-mutilation scene that tipped this film over the edge for me but the opening two minutes. I can't think of anything I've found as hard to watch. So speechless, but not in a good way.

4. Movie you always recommend.

   Most films by Stanley Kubrick, but most of all 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've banged on enough about this in the past so I'll just say that it makes space travel look how I want it to be, and has a breadth and scale that is unsurpassed even now, more than 40 years later.

5. Actor/actress you always watch, no matter how crappy the movie.

   Not that he's made too many crappy ones, but Robert De Niro. People rightly talk about Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, both astounding, but God, have you seen Cape Fear too? The guy is bloody amazing.

6. Actor/actress you don’t get the appeal for.

   I don't really understand why teenage girls the world over get their collective knickers in a knot over Daniel Radcliffe but I guess that's because I'm neither teenage nor a girl.

7. Actor/actress, living or dead, you’d love to meet.

   I'm not sure it's such a great idea to meet your heroes - how can they do anything other than disappoint? So I won't say Dustin Hoffman or Robert De Niro or anyone else who I might feel let down by, but instead Tim Robbins. I think he'd be interesting to talk to without even discussing his many excellent films.

8. Sexiest actor/actress you’ve seen. (Picture required!)

   Well, I couldn't choose so here's two and you can decide for yourself!
      

9. Dream cast.

   Well, obviously Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Natalie Portman and Audrey Tautou, for starters. Now I just need to work on a pitch to bring them together...

10. Favorite actor pairing.

    John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan in Gregory's Girl. If you were a secondary school boy in the 80s, you know why.

11. Favorite movie setting.

    I'm with Rol on this one. The Overlook Hotel, the setting for King and Kubrick's spectacular collision.

12. Favorite decade for movies.

    I'm guessing this will be an unpopular choice but the 70s. Lots of gritty movies like Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man, some great pre-Lucas sci-fi like Logan's Run and Westworld, the rise of Spielberg (Jaws, Duel, Close Encounters)... what's not to love?

13. Chick flick or action movie?

    Action movie if I'm on my todd, chick flick if watching with my significant other. I'm no fool.

14. Hero, villain or anti-hero?

    Sometimes hero, occasionally villain but mostly anti-hero.

15. Black and white or color?

    Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.