My Mind, or: The Haunted House

"This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time." I don't think too many films impacted my life as positively as this one, and it happened to be a blast at the same time. Many films such as this can come across as fake and unwatchable. It's a credit to the writer, director and the main actors that it came across amazingly well instead. I recall being around 16 or so, in Wynand's company, and wondering aloud "What thick book is this?" It turned out to be the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.  "Fight Club," Wynand replied.  "Oh, I see..." I then ventured, not too impressed. "Ever seen it?" he politely asked.  "Isn't it a jock-thing?" was my silly reply. Suffice to say, it's not, and it wasn't at the time. It's an "I'm human," thing.  I should take this moment to note that Edward Norton is my favourite actor. Has he been in a bad movie? On...

A blend of Hong-Kong-style kung fu to get your blood pumping, this is sure to have a similar reaction with some feeling: "Ag no...not the stupid Matrix again..." Let me explain why I believe this was an entirely monumental and culture-changing iconic film. I was in my junior year of high-school when this came out, so either 13 or 14. After we came out the cinema, I'll never forget that a whole host of kids were running up against walls, and then bouncing off, desperately trying to display some of the tricks shown in this film. This continued for many, many years. Even today, you wouldn't be surprised to be at a party or braai and witness someone (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) showing off Neo's bullet-time moves. Come on, ridiculously cool games like Max Payne shamelessly ripped it off. Hell, at the previous place I worked, there turned to be a guy known as someone from here, which ended up being a constant source of amusement for me and my colleagues. T...

This came out 7 years after the original, and at a time when a young, impressionable Konrad was playing with G.I. Joe's and Bravestarr action figures. I think "ultra-cool" and "getting-my-pants-off-awesome", along with more serious publications' "genre-defining" and "pop-culture icon" were, shall we say, understatements. Naturally, I reckon this IS BY FAR Arnie's best role. Who hasn't seen this? Honestly, it defined the 90's. Director James Cameron, guess what? Did it AGAIN. Btw, he's also done one or two other films. Including writing and directing the two highest-grossing, by some margin (oh, $1 BILLION or so), films of all time. At a $90 million budget or so, this wasn't his cheapest ever, but it made around half a BILLION in it's first year alone. That's U.$. billion, with a B. So, why did it grab our imaginations so? It was the time when robots and so on were still "WTF" cool, arcades ...

This was unleashed on the world the year after I was born. Quite appropriate, no? :-) Seriously though, there's a reason why director James Cameron is considered one of the very best in the business. Check out all the props, sets, costumes, all the prep work for this piece of film-goodness. Considering the budget for this was only $18 million, they sure showed people how it's meant to be done. The dropship, the APC, the space base with its haunting interiors...EVERYTHING.  Yeah,  Alien came before it. This certainly isn't the only film of Cameron's where "Yes. The original's not too bad. The sequel tears it a new one!". It's normally the completely opposite way. The tension of the first, though formidable, is nowhere near the downright TERROR and thrills of the second. The design of the alien itself, coming from one of my favourite artists, the Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, was beyond inspirational and well-done. And, naturally, a little bi...

"English, MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT??!" You wouldn't reckon a mob/comedy/reckless entertainment-style film about two hitmen and the suitcase they're paid to retrieve for a certain Mr. Big Paws (ok, he's not a meerkat mob boss, his name's actually Marcellus Wallace) would really be anything special. How wrong you would be! Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta play the hitmen, Jules Winnfield and the well-named "I wish this was my porn-star name, it's just so cool!"-Vincent Vega. Bruce Willis plays an aging boxer, paid to lose his next fight by Wallace. How are these lives connected? Only the insane imagination of Quentin Tarantino really knows. There was a brief moment in time when a certain scene from this movie was part of the most popular meme on the Internet. It's probably been surpassed by Twilight and rainbow sparkles, or some crap like that. NOT that I have anything against Twilight , it's certainly inspired and...

Director Sofia Coppola blew me away in this off-beat story about the unlikeliest romance to sprout and the drama, and often comedy, to follow. Bill Murray (him again) plays Bob Harris, an actor who doesn't seem too pleased with what he's currently getting out of life. He travels to Japan to shoot a commercial for Suntory whiskey. "For relaxing times, <dramatic turn> make it Suntory time... " "Akuwaru insebo rentato arigatou hajimeshate. Okime! Rentato,  hajimemashite!" "She says, 'More intensity.'" That scene alone had me in absolute stitches. It involved some remarkably fantastic acting to go along with the scripted brilliance, and it worked. One of the funniest scenes in a film, EVAR. I was round-about 18 when this came out, and I remember not being able to control my laughter in the cinema. Wynand and I watched it many times since, on DVD. At the time of the cinema screening, I was convinced that it was just about th...

The oldest film on this list, by quite some margin. Wynand and I bought a second-hand book of "Classic Movies to Watch" and started working through it. By the time I'd read the Casablanca  entry, I was convinced that it was simply a stylish thing for any film fan to do: to love Casablanca . I've learnt an extraordinary number of lessons in life, and my greatest period of learning always seems to be at the current moment. I certainly learned this was a film to take your breath away. I learned that just because everyone else seems to love something, that gives you no reason to hate it simply to "be cool". This is truly beyond cool, even "too cool" for the "cool kids". Hearing the words "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." or "Here's looking at you, kid" or even "We'll always have Paris." does something to me. It evokes such amazing and treasured memories. It was an out-of-this-world...

City of God is a harrowing look at the slum-horrors of poverty in Rio De Janeiro in the 60's (roughly) . It's a little like looking at the scene of a recent accident, or something equally disturbing. Although it makes your stomach churn, it's just too stimulating (in this case, fascinating) to glance away. This happens to be another film which I saw the trailer of, and thought, “Blech, it looks a little violent”. Wynand (Damn! We watched so many movies together!) convinced me that the lives of gangsters such as Lil' Dice would be entertaining, and oh boy, was he right! It's been compared to a Brazilian version of Scarface (another of my all-time favourites). Like Tony Montana plunging his face into a bucket-load of blow ,  City of God  doesn't pull any punches and goes straight for it. The story centres around two boys growing up in this hell-hole who happen to take very different paths in life. The war between gangs rages out of control...