MARKED MOVIES

The time has come to mark another end to the film year and although these posts are not something that I often manage to do, I have been fortunate enough to catch enough films over the last year to be able to chime in with some of my favourites. As is always the case, however, this is not an exhaustive list and any films that eluded me could possibly have made the cut. There are films like Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, Sally Potter’s The Party and the late Harry Dean Stanton’s farewell appearance in Lucky that I wanted to afford some time to but, alas, there’s just not enough hours in the year to catch everything. Added to which, as much as this was a consistently good year for film, there was really only one that received the coveted 5 star treatment. That said, some could possibly achieve that after I’ve had more time to process them or give a reappraisal while other leading awards contenders like Dunkirk, Lady Bird, The Post, Call Me By Your Name and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri didn’t do enough to even warrant a place here.

As is always the case with me, I compile these lists in relation to U.S. release dates and can include everything leading up to (and including) the Oscar nominations and other festival or annual awards. So without further ado, this is my list of 2017’s finest.

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Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Following J.R.R. Tolkien’s sale of the film rights for “The Lord of the Rings” to United Artists in 1969, The Beatles considered a corresponding film project and approached Stanley Kubrick as a potential director. However, Kubrick turned down the offer, explaining to John Lennon that he thought the novel could not be adapted into a film due to its immensity. The eventual director of the film adaptation, Peter Jackson, further explained that a major hindrance to the project’s progression was Tolkien’s opposition to the involvement of The Beatles. Continue reading →

Just recently an old blogger friend and I got to chatting. We spoke of how the blogosphere has changed dramatically since we entered into it. Which, as a result, led to him coming up with the idea that it would be nice to do an old school blogothon again.

The blogger in question is Nostra who runs the site My Filmviews and you can find the original post here. So, to introduce the relay race, I’ll leave it on the simplistic terms that he has laid out…
The goal of this new relay race is to find an answer to that question. The rules are, just like the past relay races (which Nostra did ages ago), very simple: The list has 10 Christmas movies (in random order) and when the baton is handed over to a new blogger, he or she has to remove one title of the list (with an explanation why) and add one new title. Once that is done a new blogger is contacted who will take the baton and run with it, doing the same (you can reinstate a title which has been previously removed). Now on to the initial 10 movies!… Continue reading →

Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg were offered the chance to direct “Collateral” but they all turned it down. It wasn’t until Russell Crowe became interested in playing Vincent, the hitman, that the project started generating any interest. Crowe brought Michael Mann on-board, but the constant delays, meant that Crowe left the project. Mann immediately went to Tom Cruise, with the idea of him playing the hitman, and Adam Sandler as the cabbie (eventually played by Jamie Foxx).  Continue reading →

Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted this feature but even I hadn’t realised that it’s been nearly 3 Years since I paid any attention to it. For all those fans out there (who have probably long since forgotten about me now) I wholeheartedly apologise for my tardiness. Anyway, for those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: In the film “Hollywoodland” in 2006,  Ben Affleck stars as George Reeves – the actor who played Superman/Clark Kent in the 1950’s TV show “Adventures of Superman“. This makes Ben Affleck the only actor to portray, in one form or another, both Batman and Superman as part of a major motion picture.  Continue reading →