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martind-6
Don't like talking about myself.
I'm far too fantastic to verbalise.
Or so my mother says!!......
But here are some of my FAVOURITE QUOTES
You're not who you are, you're only what other people think you are! (Ally McBeal)
Remember, when you're with me, it's the only time you're not the strangest person in the room. So go ahead. Get weird with me!! (Ally McBeal)
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Everybody's alone. It's just easier to take in a relationship! (Ally McBeal)
Helping others is never more rewarding than when it's in your own self-interest! (Ally McBeal)
Make enough money, and everything else will follow! (Ally McBeal)
You know, I had a great aunt once who said if you stare at a beautiful woman too long, you turn to stone. She was partially right! (Ally McBeal)
Oh my soul let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes, look out at the things you've made. All things shining. (The Thin Red Line)
If I should never find you in this life, let me feel the lack. One glance from your eyes, and my life will be yours. (The Thin Red Line)
The only evidence I see of the antichrist here, is everyone�s desire to see him at work. (The Name of The Rose)
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. (Equilibrium)
That's the way it crumbles... cookie-wise. (The Apartment)
I used to live like Robinson Crusoe, shipwrecked among 8 million people but one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were. (The Apartment)
Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part. (Se7en)
This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time. (Fight Club)
You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. (Fight Club)
Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God? Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. (Fight Club)
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. (Fight Club)
There's a pleasure, sure, in being mad, which none but madmen know (John Dryden)
Life is pain highness. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something! (The Princess Bride)
Reviews
I Went Down (1997)
Forget Pulp Fiction, this is real.....
Having lived my entire life in Dublin, I may appear to be bias. However, I don't believe I am, but I do believe I 'get' this movie a lot more than a person from another land might. The dialogue, which is the movies strongest point, is not only hilarious, it's totally real.
This film is like a trip to a rough Dublin pub. Complete with idiotic 'North-siders' and Irish slang. Pulp Fiction is said to have some of the best dialogue ever, but even it's biggest fan can't deny that the dialogue has a very staged feel. 'I Went Down' however, really does sound like two regular Dublin lads having a 90 minute argument.
By the way, the title refers to the two characters driving down to Cork, not what you may think.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
A movie with an extremely ambitious goal, which it more than achieves!!
Since the release of the excellent 'The Big Red 1', every war movie has tried to do the same thing. That is, to convey the horror of war, and the loss of innocence caused by war. This is indeed a very powerful message, which has to be expressed. However, most film makers, at this stage, see this as 'shooting fish in a barrel'. Even master Spielberg could not stretch beyond the 'horror of war' theme in the brilliantly shot Saving Private Ryan.
But, not until Terence Malick, has anyone tried to reach deeper and darker into the effects of war. 'The Thin Red Line' showed us how (through the murder of another human being, and the fighting for a cause you really, deep down, don't understand), your soul can be lost.
From the opening scene, where Private Witt (James Caviezel, in a star making role), plays with the doe-eyed innocent children of a village he has deserted to... through to the final scene where, upon leaving the Island of Guadalcanal, we see (heart-wrenchingly) the change that has happened to these innocent boys, we are shown how the effects of the past events can never be left behind, but will always be with them. But if you watch this movie with an open and alert mind, you will notice that, there has also been a change in you. You become fully aware of how lucky you are, to have not experienced war in your lifetime.
Acting wise, this movie was unbelievably overlooked. Ben Chaplin's scene where he reads a letter from his wife (who occupies his every thought), just to read that she has left him for an Air Force officer, always makes my heart sink with pity, and fill with anger at the same time. What excellent directing, but even better acting!!! And why the performance of Nick Nolte was overlooked by the academy is also a mystery.
Much was made of Steven Spielberg's directing of Saving Private Ryan (Indeed he picked up another gong), but all he did wad use a hand held camera and on over-exposed colour film...... mix that with the gory, panic-filled opening scene, and you've got some super stylish visuals. However, Malick was ingenious enough to use the effect of the battles on the surrounding wildlife (a confused & scared snake in the long grass, a bird dying at the feet of the fighting soldiers..... ), to show us the destructive horror of war, not just simple blood and guts, but the irredeemable damage caused by such senseless carnage.
An outstanding achievement of a movie, which could be analyzed for an eternity, and which requires numerous viewings, to gather the full impact of it's message.
10/10
Blade Runner (1982)
Sexier Than Star Wars, Deeper Than 2001 A Space Odyssey.....
Any movie brave enough to ask the question, 'what does it mean to be human?', deserves some credit. But not only is this a fantastically deep movie, that repays your level of attention 10 fold, it is the visual masterpiece of all time.
It is the common opinion that the 1992 directors cut, is the definitive vision. On face value, this may appear to be true. The dead-pan voice-over is gone, as is the 'Hollywood happy ending'. However this takes from the original vision Ridley Scott had, a vision of a classic Bogart-style detective story, set in the future. In the original 1982 cut, all of the detective story cliches are in abundance. Yellow, murky light through Venetian blinds, smoky bars and a monotone voice-over from the hero. Also, the amazing cinematography, that has become to trade mark of Blade Runner, is constantly dark and overwhelmingly moody. But in the Original cut, this dark/pessimistic view, is broken at the 'Hollywood happy ending' by a sun-drenched mountain drive, which comes like a breath of fresh air. The one instance in which the directors cut surpasses the Original cut, is the inclusion of the famous 'Unicorn Dream', which was the main clue to Deckard being a replicant. If this dream sequence was inserted into the original cut, a movie so perfect would be created, that it would rival 'Shichinin No Samurai' as the most flawless movie ever made.
So, for the record, Deckard is a replicant, and the directors cut is not nearly as good as the Original.