Skip to main content

First Things First


Hi, my name is Phil Cantillon.  Ever since I was taken to see Beethoven's 2nd at Stockport cinema by my Dad (I imagine I ended up enjoying that more than him), I've loved the experience of going to the cinema.  The sticky carpets & the smell of the popcorn.  The fold down seats & the mind blowing trailers.  And then later, the Kevin Bacon adverts... hmm.  Early memories of going to see The Lion King (and A Goofy Movie… *ahem*) and the Star Wars re-releases were so exciting, and I still get that now.
At home I would re-watch and wear out our VHS recording of The Sword in the Stone and Robin Hood until you could barely even make out the naff 90s adverts in between.  When I was being babysat by my gran I managed to convince her Mum and Dad said I was allowed to watch Jurassic Park.  Despite that first showing scaring the hell out of me, that film changed my life.  Somehow I wasn’t left totally scarred, although it’s probably a good job I never braved American Werewolf in London until quite a few years later no matter how alluring it’s black box was.
When DVDs were first introduced my Dad couldn’t wait to set up his surround sound system and invest in a big telly.  I remember him and Mum buying one DVD each; Top Gun for Dad, and The Sting for her.  Excellent choices for very different reasons, but I fell in love with both and couldn’t wait to show The Sting to my girlfriend Charlotte for the first time recently (everyone enjoys being told why they need to love a film scene by scene right?).  Now I have a set of shelves bursting at the seams with my own DVDs untidily squeezed in on top of each other.

There’s nothing more powerful or immersive than a film, particularly when you catch it on the big screen and it’s by far my favourite form of escapism.  I can’t wait to get stuck in here and share my opinion on film’s I’ve watched (latest releases as well as chipping away at my DVDs), and cinema in general.  For the time being though, everyone loves a list:

Fave films
Drive, Jurassic Park, The Thing, Se7en, Inception, Psycho, Rear Window, Fargo, Jaws, Alien, Aladdin and the The Prestige

Fave directors
Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Brian De Palma and Ridley Scott

Fave actors
Tom Cruise (yes, seriously), Steve McQueen, Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Leonardo Di Caprio, Jack Nicholson, Paul Giamatti and Mark Ruffalo

Fave actresses
Helen Mirren, Amy Adams, Emma Thompson, Julie Andrews, Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt, Julianne Moore and Marion Cotillard

Fave cinemas
‘Home’ in Manchester, ‘The Electric’ in Birmingham, and the AMC cinema in Deansgate, Manchester.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Star Trek (2009) / Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Source Ahead of watching the new Star Trek film, Charlotte and I decided to go back and revisit JJ Abrams’ Star Wars audition and its sequel. The first I knew quite well, but I had only seen the second the once at the cinema, and it became one of many DVDs I have sat on my shelf still in its cellophane.  I’ve never been a Star Trek fan by any stretch. I’ve probably seen a little of the original series, and then the odd episode of Star Trek Next Generation TV series as a kid while waiting for The Simpsons, Robot Wars or Malcolm in the Middle to come on. I was always a big Star Wars fan and seemed to think you could only be in one camp or the other for some reason. As far as I’m aware Trekkie reception to the 2009 and 2013 reboots were largely positive bar the pretty one dimensional villain in the first, and the whitewashed return of a popular villain from the Star Trek canon in the sequel. This film seemed to cater for all though. If you wanted comedy, you got it in abundan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fences (2017)

Source Based on August Wilson's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and adapted to screenplay before his death in 2005, Fences has been long in the waiting. There had been previous attempts adapt Fences to film (the rights were first purchased in 1987 with Eddie Murphy penciled in to star), but this had repeatedly been pushed back as Wilson remained adamant that it was directed by an African-American. Having directed twice before, and knowing the source material inside out from his Tony Award turn as the lead, Denzel Washington has taken the plunge and taken his place behind, as well as in front of the camera. With much of the stage cast reunited, including now Academy Award winner Viola Davis (also a Tony Award winner for the same role on stage) it is immediately apparent this has been made without a lot of love and respect for the original source material. Source Fences is a family drama in 1950s Pittsburgh, honing in on Troy Maxson (Washington), and his views on the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Source Tom Cruise and director Edward Zwick reunite after their successful 2003 collaboration, The Last Samurai, in the second of the Jack Reacher movie interpretations: Never Go Back.  If anyone actually got over the choice of Cruise to play Lee Child's title character of his long running novel series, they were left with a movie that had a lot going for it.  Unfortunately, it's follow up may have killed the franchise in it's tracks... [insert 'Never Go Back' pun].   Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher, an ex army major who "they ran out of medals to give" but eventually decided to leave and live his life roaming the streets.  Never Go Back tells the story of his budding friendship with a current army major (Cobie Smulders), and his decision to go on the run with her when she is wrongly framed for espionage.   Source The books are a bit throw-away, but really good fun, and I enjoyed the two I've read.  Reacher's part investigator, part hard m...
Post a Comment
Read more