Top 10 Movie Characters

Lucy is currently doing her hypnosis CD which is supposed to alter her mind so that she is no longer hungry and stops eating when she is full. If I have calculated this correctly, this should give me just enough time to respond to a meme in which my brother tagged me sometime in July. It was top 10 movie characters of all time (in all honesty, this will probably be the top ten movie characters I can think of right now): 

So here goes (in no particular order):

Randle Patrick McMurphy - One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

"They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot! The next woman that takes me on is gonna light up light a pinball machine!"

Possibly a very obvious one, but I have to say one of my favourite hero's of all time, stretching back to when we had to read the book in GCSE English.

Steve Zissou - A Life Aquatic

"Ned, next time you have a brilliant idea, whisper it to me first. Otherwise I look like a sort of day-dream Johnny, you know?"

To be honest this could have been Lost in Translation or Broken Flowers. I absolutely loved Broken Flowers, but appeared to be the only person that did! I can't get enough of the deadpan style.

Marv - Sin City

"Ahh Jerks, they should have shot me in the head. And enough times to make sure too. Its so stupid. Everyone knows what's coming."

Another film in which I love the style for different reasons. And you can't bead Marv, indestructible, stupid but with a heart. I had trouble finding any decent clips though.

'The Bride' - Kill Bill

"Its mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality."

Not much to say about this one. Another character I love for style, Tarantino-esque lines and a bit of ass-kicking

Seth - Superbad

"I'm over here in my unit, isolated and alone, eating my terrible tasting food, and I have to look over at that. That looks like the most fun I've ever seen in my entire life, and it's B.S. - excuse my language. I'm just saying that I wash and dry; I'm like a single mother. Look, we all know home-ec is a joke - no offense - it's just that everyone takes this class to get an A, and it's bullshit - and I'm sorry. I'm not putting down your profession, but it's just the way I feel. I don't want to sit here, all by myself, cooking this shitty food - no offense - and I just think that I don't need to cook tiramisu. Am I going to be a chef? No. There's three weeks left of school, give me a fuckin' break! I'm sorry for cursing."

I have had a few problems with my Ipod, which means that I only have a few films which will copy onto it for my train journeys etc. Superbad is one of them and I have watched it a lot of times! I love Seth, but a Michael Cera character (e.g. in Juno, Arrested Development etc) could have been in there too.

Bigwig - Watership Down

"I can run. And I can fight!"

One from my childhood here. I loved Bigwig, my favourite by far. I always tend to favour the heavyweight second characters in films. 

Watership down was genius (although a little heavy for a kids film) And Bigwig was the toughest.

Couldn't find any good clips for this, just some wierf Bigwig tribute video.

Richard Sharpe - Various Sharpe Episodes 

Just wanted to add this one in quickly (though it is not technically a film character, it rates right up there for me! 

Turns out I didnt have enough time for ten, and having used up all of my free time credits for the week yesterday. Lucy is demanding that I go and watch some crappy TV with her, so I guess I will have to end the post here.

What do you reckon?

Random Review: District 9

Lacking money or imagination, we went to see District 9 at the cinema last night. I have to say that it was brilliant. I was very surprised, being a Lord of the Rings geek, I had a preconception that Peter Jacksons films were bursting with effects but lacking in story.

The only way I can sum up District 9 is:

The scare factor of 'Alien'

+

The goriness of 'Starship Troopers'

+

The humour of 'Serenity'

+

The style of 'Cloverfield'

+

The political slant of 'Hotel Rwanda' or an anti apartheid film.

All of which are fantastic movies in their own right. I highly recommend it (even Lucy likes it and she only likes Jennifer Aniston flicks).

Adirondacks

As mentioned in my previous post, I managed to sneak away for the weekend to Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains following a trip to a factory I am working at, close to Montreal.  

The trip basically consisted of me, delayed by an hire car employee who had lost his keys, and by US customs, arriving at the mountains at around midday, and then trying to rush round what was a pretty arduous route as fast as I could in order to make it back before sunset (as I had pretty much no equipment/compass/torch etc).

When I arrived I tackled the Algonquin peak, which at 1,500m above sea level is actually higher than anything we have in the UK (though it didn't feel like it as I think I may have started a little higher than you would do with, say Ben Nevis). Due to the time constraints it was pretty thigh busting on the way up (as I had accidentally chosen the steep side for the ascent), and ankle-breaking on the way down. 

After staying in superb(ly cheap) hostel type accommodation in a local lodge with a random party of 50 year old birthday revellers, I managed a quick ascent of mount Jo the next day before a little shopping in Lake Placid and a the long journey back to the UK.

The amazing thing for a European in New York State in the Autumn, is most definitely the colours. Although I was probably two weeks early to get the full brunt of the autumn reds, There were still some amazing opportunities for photography. Though I felt I never managed to nail that killer shot (considering the scenery around me), largely due to the fact that much of the walking was in heavy bush, I was still fairly proud of these ones:

The View from Algonquin Peak

Outside the Lodge at Heart Lake in the Morning

The View from Mount Jo (if someone could have just cut that damn tree down...)

Heart Lake ... Again

A Chipmunk Near Charleston Lake in Ontario

I am not a great lover of photoshopped photos (bar a little colour enhancement), probably due to the fact I don't own a copy or photoshop (or know how to use it). But I did a little tinkering with a couple of photos I wasn't quite happy with in iPhoto:

Depending on the Kindness of Strangers

I always thought that Yorkshiremen were a fairly kindly breed, pretty generous in terms of acts if not with their money. Definitely more kindly than those sour faced Londoners. However, today I was faced with a level of blind generousity I have never seen before.

This week I am back in Ontario Canada for work, stuck in the same old hotel I have seen many time before. The difference between this trip and previous ones is that this time I am determined to make a little more of this opportunity to travel.

I decided to take the weekend out here to go down to Lake Placid (of oversized alligator fame) and do some hiking in what I have been promised is spectacular autumn scenery.

This is all on the back of recommendations made by the guys I am working with over here. You cant beat a good loca recommendation.

Everywhere I have been in the world - when I have spoken to locals about the places to go, eat, and things to see - the experiences have been ten times better. Which is a bit of a problem for me, as I cant usually be bothered to speak with people.

Except this time, I was offered not only advice on where to go, but the lend of a car and a big stack of camping equipment. The guy who I hardly knew was going to lend me his car to take across a national border! I would lend my best mates my car (I barely let Lucy drive it).

Unfortunately I am British and therefore unable to accept hospitality of this nature and have consented only to allow him to book me some rental camping equipment upon arrival.

All I want is a decent nights sleep!

Following our little cat related mishap a few months ago, we decided that our current cat (who has always been around other cats) needed a new playmate as to be honest she seemed to spend more time around the neighbours house with their cat than she did at ours.

So we went back to the cat rescue place that we had been to previously. After some embarrassing questions about what happened to poor Beau, I asked about whether they had any discount card programme as because we seemed to be visiting so frequently, I thought we should be entitled so some kind of reward card. You know - like get 3 cats for the price of two or something.

Apparently this is not the way it works, and actually you are supposed to keep your cat for 16 years or some such period of time. 

I jest of course, but we did feel that we could house another rescue cat and provide some company to Ripley. They had a couple of cute cats, nay kittens there and we fell for a four month old tabby called 'Dude'. 'Dude' had been dumped at the shelter by 'some Chinese guy' possibly (as we later found out when 'Dude' came home) because of 'Dudes' psychopathically violent behavior!

So Dude came home with us and quickly became renamed as 'Lenny', though I was all for 'Hicks' as I thought 'Ripley and Hicks' would have been quite a cool combination. 

Unlike when we brought the cats home previously, Lenny was in no way nervous. In fact he settled straight into a routine of systematically attacking any exposed human body part at any given moment, with no regard to etiquette or accepted rules of engagement.

So much so that when Lucy lets the cats into the bedroom at night (aww they get lonely out in the corridor) Lenny will spend the entire night sitting on the pillow, attacking my face and arms, and god forbid, should you stick a foot out from under the covers, it will quickly end up with a cat-shaped attachment!

 

The only night I have managed to sleep this week was when I went on a business trip to Scotland. The only one who is not too bothered is Ripley, who will deal Lenny a simple head blow should he get too boisterous.  

Anyway I am in danger of being one of those annoying people who talks about their cat all the time, so shall end this post.

Lenny launches a surprise attack from the TV cabinet

The devil cat plot its next move...