Blindspot 2016: final rankings

WOW. I’m done! Can you believe it?! I most certainly can’t. My 2016 Blindspot list was the list I’ve bitched about the most, not because of the bad movies but because I struggled so much getting time to site down and watch the films I chose. I’ve been really bad with schedules, which really ddin’t help the matter. But anyway, let’s stop that now because yet I still somehow managed to see all each and every film listed.

My list of 2017 is up tomorrow, and I’ve at least seen a number of them in preparation with my bestie and the remainders are great films won’t feel like a bit of a chore to get through. I also have most of those films already available, which was one of the reasons I took so long with 2016’s Blindspot – struggling to find these films.

Here’s a rundown of from least favorite to favorite. The scores are listed, but I’m not too worried about that right now, just basically listing what I remember actually liking the most.

Spot #12: Home Alone (1990)

Rating: 6/10

This is definitely the movie on the list that I should have watched way early in my life to really love it. I can see why people my age would love it if they saw it as children, and probably has the same sentiment towards it as I do towards a film like Matilda, which again reminds me that I really want to watch Matilda again. Home Alone was lost on me, I really couldn’t find any interest in a story where the main character was a child.

Spot #11: Love Actually (2003)

Rating: 6.5/10

There are people that actually think that this is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. I could not disagree more. There are critically few characters that are even remotely likeable and I was highly offended by most of their actions. Eugh.The best thing about this film is Colin Firth and Alan Rickman, and if those two men can’t convince me that a film is worth it, nothing can.

Spot #10: Back To the Future (1985)

Rating: 7/10

The same as Home Alone here – missed my chance. It was much more appealing though as there were at least older characters, but I still felt my attention wavering once or twice.

Spots # 8 & 9: Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)& 2 (2004)

Rating: 7.5/10 and 8/10

Yes, I am fully aware that these are Tarantino films so low on my list, but I have my reasons – mostly (and I might get shot for this bout of honesty), is that I found the story a bit lacking on both and overly violent even for Tarantino. I am such a fan of Django Unchained, Inglorious Basterds (my favorite), and Pulp Fiction, and these two didn’t get anywhere close to touching my top favorite films of his.

Spot #7: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Rating: 8.5/10

I had trouble finding films this year that convinced me of its originality, and ESotSM is one of the very few that could convince me that creative talent was still alive and well. I loved Kate Winslet with her crazy hair, I adored Jim Carrey, Mark Ruffalo was adorable and Frodo was a sufficient level of creep in here. Hey! Kristen Dunst didn’t make me gnash my teeth.

Spot #6: Warrior (2011)

Rating: 8/10

This movie! I was bent double with anxiety. Who must win? Does any person deserve to lose? Performances by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy were phenomenal. I cannot accept that this film tanked in the box office, it is truly great.

Spot #5: Memento (2000)

Rating: 8/10

Another frequenter of my Blindspots has been Christopher Nolan. He’s such an intelligent man and it comes through in his films. Memento was this year’s pick, and I unsurprisingly loved it.

Spots #3 and 4: Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)

Ratings: 8.5/10 (both)

Yes, I agree. How haven’t I seen these two films up until now?! I lived for 26 years without the knowledge of how awesome Ripley was or how gross the chestbursters are, and although my life wasn’t sad before, it is all the richer now.

Spot #2: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Rating: 9/10

Both numbers one and two for me were really sad and thought provoking films that provided insight into the very best and the very worst of the human nature. Pan’s Labyrinth is the ONLY film that could have beaten out To Kill A Mockingbird.

Spot #1: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Rating: 9/10

The winner of the year is the gut wrenching and incredibly poignant Pan’s Labyrith. This is a bit touchy feely, but watching this film made me want to cry for two reasons – the beautiful directing and the sad story of Ophelia and her desperate escape methods from the horrors of her world.

Well, there we have it. I enjoyed the majority of this list – truly it is probably only numbers 10 – 12 that really grated on me, and yet I am not displeased about spending time with them. Did you do a Blindspot in 2016? Comment below t and I haven’t discovered your undoubtedly awesome page, send me the link below 🙂

January 12, 2017January 11, 2017 by Natasha Categories: 2016, Blindspot, Movies, movies, UncategorizedTags: Alan Rickman, Alien, Aliens, Back to the Future, Blindspot, Blindspot 2016, Carrie-Anne Moss, chestburster, Christopher Nolan, Colin Firth, Elijah Wood, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gregory Peck, Guy Pearce, Harper Lee, Home Alone, Jim Carry, Joe Pantoliano, Joel Edgerton, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Kill Bill, Kirsten Dunst, Love Actually, Mark Ruffalo, Marty McFly, Memento, Pan's Labyrinth, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Hardy, Uma Thurman, Warrior 9 Comments

December 2016: Watched, Read, Loved

Happy 2017 everyone! I pretty much disappeared from the blog in December. I needed a break. I often am way too harsh on myself about blogging – wanting desperately to post five times a week. It is important to remind myself though that blogging is supposed to be fun and for times where I actually have the time. So I gave it a bit of a break and I am back feeling all refreshed!

It was also quite a sad December globally with the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher. It seemed like 2016 kept knocking everyone down and I am really glad it ended. Let’s hope for a peaceful and fantastic 2017.

Series Watched:

Vampire Diaries Season 5: I am currently stalling with this season. It is a pretty rotten season and by far the worst of all the seasons so far. I need to finish it up but definitely not feeling all the bullshit of the season.

Alias season 1 and 2: EEK! I am having so much fun! It is so much fun! I can’t wait to review this.

Movies Watched:

Rogue One: A Star Wars movie. It was good, great excitement and all. I did like The Force Awakens better though.

Memento: This was my second last blindspot for 2016. It is mind tingling and interesting, well directed and acted. Definitely worthy of watching, despite me taking ages to get it done!

Annie: I put this on for my mother to watch. It was okay – very singy and full of children but not overly offensive. It’s definitely a film that parents can watch with their children without wanting to cry because it is so boring.

Twilight: I had such a weak moment! Want to review them all at some stage again.

Scream 1, 2 and 3: this was so much fun. I’m planning to do the fourth one soon. Great entertainment!

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Same here. I am having way too much fun with these old school thrillers.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:  second time watching this and I loved it way too much.

The DUFF: I am racking up the watches on this film. I showed it to my mom and my bestie on separate occasions and they both really enjoyed it. Why so much hate against this film? I know it is completely different from the book, but the additions worked really well.

The Departed: The Departed is a film my bestie has told me to watch or be disowned. So I watched it with her just to make sure she had the evidence and everything 😀 did I like it? Yeah. Excellent performances and directing all around. I got a bit exhausted with the length of it, and that is about the only thing I didn’t like.

Me Before You (2016): after reading the thought provoking book I was quite amped for the film. I pushed it back when the reviews didn’t garner the most promising reviews I pushed it back. Bestie and I watched it on our visit, and it was okay. Not really bad, but Me Before You doesn’t carry as much emotional baggage as the book does.

Cruel Intentions: What a deranged film. I enjoyed it, but wow, deranged. Not something to watch with your parents, if you weren’t already aware.

Ocean’s Eleven:  I really liked this! Heist films done right is a treat for the soul man. Clooney and Pitt together? There can’t be a better idea out there.

Seven:  I got to see a young Brad Pitt as the excitable and young cop and Morgan Freeman as the intelligent, calm cop. It’s quite dark and deals with a demented serial killer. It had a dark and depressing atmosphere.

Books Read:

Dawson’s Creek – this is a compilation of short stories based on the series. I’d love to watch the series at some stage, but the book isn’t worth reviewing.

The Collaborator – Margaret Leroy – I can’t wait to post this! I really loved the book, and was so unhappy when I finished it.

The Martian – Andy Weir. The Martian was my favorite film of 2015, and I really wanted to get my hands on the novel. However, I’m struggling at this stage to get through it as it contains some unnecessary jargon in my opinion.

What were you up to in December? Tell me!

January 10, 2017January 8, 2017 by Natasha Categories: Movies, movies, Review, Reviews, Series, UncategorizedTags: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alias, Andy Weir, Annie, Books, Bradley Cooper, Cruel Intentions, Damon Salvatore, Dawson's Creek, December, Elena Gilbert, Emilia Clarke, George Clooney, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Garner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margaret Leroy, Matt Damon, Me Before You, Memento, Michael Vartan, monthly rundowns, Morgan Freeman, Movies, Ocean's Eleven, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Reading, Reese Witherspoon, Reviews, Rogue One, Ryan Phillipe, Sam Claflin, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scream, Selma Blair, Series, Seven, Star Wars, Stefan Salvatore, Sydney Bristow, The Collaborator, The Departed, The DUFF, The Martian, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Victor Garber, Wes Craven 6 Comments

Blindspot 2016: Memento (2000)

Plot: A man juggles searching for his wife’s murderer and keeping his short-term memory loss from being an obstacle.

Rating: 8.5/10

The entire point of Blindspot is to see things that we were supposed to have seen ages ago but obviously never did for a number of reasons, most notably laziness in my case. Memento is definitely one of these films, and after watching it I am so happy that 1) I finally got to it and 2) somehow avoided spoilers all this time.

Directed by one of the craftiest and most intelligent filmmakers of our time, Memento is some of Christopher Nolan’s finest work. And it should be clear that nearly all of his work is fine – Prestige was on my Blindspot in 2015, I loved Interstellar, Inception blew my mind on a level that I still haven’t written a review for it. Those Batman movies? Dark and heavy and undeniably brilliant. Memento is some of his earlier work, and definitely some of the best that he’s ever embarked on. The directing is excellent, naturally – the black and white and color alternating between past and present. GENIUS.

Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a man with short term memory loss. That alone fascinated me from a medical viewpoint.  Memories and retention of them are so fascinating and complex and the Nolan brothers managed to bring Leonard to life in a way that gives insight to the complexity of his problem. Leonard is highly organized and tackles his memory loss by notes and tattoos. I kept hoping he had some form of a tattoo on his back that would resolve a lot of his problems. Alas, he didn’t, but his tattoos on the front of his body were highly informative and disturbing. Pearce also gives the performance of his career in my opinion – tightly controlled and methodical, this role would have been a disaster in a less accomplished actor’s hands.

The other characters are all a bunch of shady fellows you can never quite pin down – are they bad, are they misusing our guy, what exactly is going down. Assistance is provided due to the movie moving backwards – Leonard never knows what he did yesterday, but at least we do. It quickly becomes apparent that Natalie (Carrie Ann Moss) isn’t what she pretends to be to Leonard, and it is very very easy to quickly learn to hate her. I STILL have no idea whether Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) is a villain or what. He’s most certainly not a good guy and is one of the best grey characters in the story.

The directing is unique and brilliant – stark black and white alternating between current events that are depicted in color – I have to admit I only noticed that part afterwards reading up about it – it is quickly clear that the movie is moving backwards in a way, but the clear difference isn’t something I immediately picked up on. I’ll definitely have to see this again at some stage.

So that is basically it for my second last Blindspot of 2016. I kicked against watching it, but in the end I was so entertained that it will definitely make one of my favorites of this year.

January 3, 2017January 2, 2017 by Natasha Categories: 2016, Blindspot, Movies, movies, Review, Reviews, UncategorizedTags: Blindspot 2016, Carrie-Anne Moss, Christopher Nolan, Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano, Memory Loss, Movies, mystery, Reviews 9 Comments

Blindspot 2016: The list

I wanted to say happy Tuesday but since it has long since been established that Tuesdays are actually the real Mondays, I’ll just say: keep strong, friends. I’ve finally managed to pick some Blindspot choices – I actually went through IMDb’s Top 250 and chose a lot of them from there. I should get a post up sometime about what I’ve seen on that list.

Alien (1979)

I know. I’m ashamed.

Aliens  (1986)

Same ↑

Home Alone (1990)

I have no idea why I never saw this as a kid. I’m really interested.

Kill Bill Volume I (2003)

Tarantino is my man of the moment and really looking forward to this. It might be a bit violent for my taste but I am still willing to try.

Kill Bill Volume II (2004)

Same ↑

Back to the Future (1985)

When Back to the Future Day happened last year I hid in my room, ashamed and sad  to not take part in such festivities.

Memento (2000)

What is a Blindspot list from Natasha without a Christopher Nolan education?

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

This book wasn’t a part of my education at school (fuck you, Government). I want to get to both the film and the book this year.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

I haven’t really read up about this because I hate spoilers, so really keen to see what it is about.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Dark fairy tales? IN.

Warrior (2011)

Tom Hardy, my husband. But it also shows up on the IMDb list so it is worth a watch. Can’t wait.

Love Actually (2003)

Because my bestie hated it and everyone else loved it (or most people). So I will go see what I will see.

What did you pick? Link me your posts below 🙂

January 12, 2016January 6, 2016 by Natasha Categories: 2016, Blindspot, Movies, UncategorizedTags: Alien, Aliens, Back to the Future, Blindspot, Christopher Nolan, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gregory Peck, Guy Pearce, Home Alone, James Cameron, Kill Bill Volume 1, Kill Bill Volume 2, Love Actually, Memento, Pan's Labyrinth, Quentin Tarantino, To Kill a Mockingbird, Uma Thurman, Warrior 11 Comments

Marvelous Mondays: Iron Man 3

Plot: (IMDb) When Tony Stark’s world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

I had SO much win last weekend when I accidentally stumbled upon this movie and watched it while having a break between studying stints.

Iron Man 3 was good this time around but I confess that my initial impression was influenced by seeing it on the big screen. Marvel’s current movies are all about big effects and graphics and not always necessarily about the storyline. They are flashy and mesmerising, and I definitely get caught up in the sparkle of it.

Tony Stark goes through character development in this instalment, but that is something that has been cracking from Iron Man 1. He has gone through his stages that started with a playboy billionaire into a slightly more responsible adult to where he finally accepted he needed a balanced life if he wanted Pepper in it. Tony in the third instalment is dealing with the trauma of witnessing Aliens invade space, carrying the weight of protecting New York and carrying a nuclear missile into space and falling back. That certainly does sound like a lot to deal with, and it is immediately apparent that although he is still his flippant and sarcastic self, he is worried and the only way to lessen his stress is to build an army of Iron Man suits.

Then there is the Mandarin, an evil terrorist who keeps bombing the shit out of places. The world wants Tony to intervene, but Tony is actually too busy trying to live his life and hide his obsession from Pepper. But then Happy is hurt, and Tony’s best friend is suddenly in critical danger because of the Mandarin. Tony promises retaliation and goads the Mandarin by giving out his address on live television. Tony’s mansion is destroyed in an attack and Tony barely escapes alive, but manages to get a message to Pepper that he is still breathing. He lands in some godforsaken town where there are obviously things amiss and meets a kid with whom he bonds immediately. But Tony is soon tracked down by scary mutating humans who just won’t friggin die, and he is forced to leave and find the Mandarin. The Mandarin is nothing like Tony expected and he needs to readjust his plan of attack because the President of the USA is in danger.

#lookscanbedeceiving

I have to say of the three villains that the franchise has hosted, the Mandarin bored me the most but should have been the most intense. Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane was a villain because he was greedy in the first movie, Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko was excellent but Vanko wasn’t necessarily Tony’s enemy, which hate stemmed from what his father felt towards Tony’s father. Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian and Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin was the direct result of Tony’s careless behaviour towards other people earlier on in his life, so these characters should have been full of antagonism towards our main man. The Mandarin managed to disappoint me on so many levels – it was a stupid plot twist and ruined the entire pace the movie had successfully maintained through the movie. I was so bleak about that terrifying Mandarin being a damn puppet! Pearce did okay as Killian but I felt his hatred was rather disconnected and he was trying too hard to be a muhahhaa type of villain.

The graphics are still amazing but it is Marvel and that is kinda their modus operandi. I loved all the Iron Man suits and how they lighted up in the scene where they are all heading for that shipper boat thing (I obviously don’t know the name of it).

Thus, Iron Man 3 is okay, but the franchise seems to be exhausting Robert Downey Junior’s previously inexhaustible wit, so I do think that they should focus more on the other superheroes (I personally think that a good Hulk movie with Mark Ruffalo can work exceptionally well)

#OnlyStrongInASportsBra

PS: This list is finally actually PROPERLY updated, so go have a look and let me know if you are interested in doing a movie.

November 3, 2014October 30, 2014 by Natasha Categories: Avengers, Movies, ReviewsTags: Avengers, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Patl, Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Pepper Potts, Robert Downey Jnr, The Mandarin 3 Comments