Favourite Films

“I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father”

By
14/12/10

Life, to state the bleeding obvious, isn’t like the movies. Sure you can replicate moments; a first kiss with a new love or paintballing, covered in mud playing Rambo. But realistically whatever your pursuits, everyday life can’t quite live up to our silver screen expectations.

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This Christmas, however you can play a bit-part in replicating the most beloved of all the Holiday films; It’s A Wonderful Life. If the opening words “I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father” gets you welling up instantly then here’s a story for you. The Jimmy Stewart Museum celebrating the life and films of one of the greatest actors of all time may be set to close it’s doors due to lack of funding. They need your help to keep going.

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The Best Students In Film

By
12/11/10

“In England, at any rate, education provides no effect whatsoever. If it did it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and would probably lead to acts of violence in Grovesnor Square”. Oscar Wilde said that. In 1895. 115 years ago.

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It’s probably best not to applaud the small instances of smashing things up this week in the name of literacy, numeracy and the ability to dissect everything from frogs to movies, but to condemn the student protests as “deplorable” because a window was smashed and a bobby’s hat got knocked off seems a little on the reactionary front. Regardless of your standpoint that dick with a fire extinguisher is still a dick.

But let’s not tar all ‘yoot’ below the age of 21 as drug-crazed, morons with no purpose other than to kick off of a bit. Most of them, especially the one’s in movie-land, are pretty bloody wonderful.

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What If Your Favourite Films Had Their Budgets Slashed?

By
21/10/10

Depending on your political preference and/or apathy, yesterday’s governmental spending review was either;
a) Necessary, fair and will bring Britain back from the brink (nice alliteration Georgie),
b) Too fast, too deep (creepily sexual Alan) and likely to make Britain resemble Pottersville from ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’,
or
c) Just another part in the never-ending cycle of politics where one party gets a chance to mess things up for a bit until everyone gets bored and votes in the other lot. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The Cuts Will Be This Big
“The Cuts Will Be THIS Big”

Forgive us our cynicism, as we here at ThisFilmIsON attempt to make light of the fact that close to 1,000,000 of our fellow Britons face redundancy and let’s instead take a wry look at how our favourite films would look with a hairy giant axe-wound in them. No you grow up.

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Top Five Coolest Things From SDCC!

By
31/07/10

With the San Diego Comic Con whetting the appetite for geeks and freaks all over the world, Lewis Swift runs down the top 5 moments from this years convention.

5) The first picture from Cowboys and Aliens!
Whilst Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel series retains a relatively cult status for now, chances are, when the film adaptation is released this time next year copies of the genre bending romp will be flying off the shelves. The man in charge of further lining Rosenberg’s pockets is none other than John Favreau, the man who made Iron Man into a phenomenon. Whilst initially rumoured to be another project for The Fav and his go to guy Robert Downey Jr, scheduling issues forced Fav to look further from home, finally settling on none other than Daniel Craig for the lead.

Q's latest gadget

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UKFC – RIP

By
30/07/10

I love you. I also love KFC. But this isn’t about my easy gratitude to readers of this site for giving me affirmation on my life or the amazing Colonel and his wonderful chicken, grease, salt combination, this is about the UK Film Council and it’s sad, premature demise.

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Some of you may not know what the UKFC does. Some of you may know but not care. Some will be glad to see the back of, what some considered, an overly bureaucratic way of making movies. Some will already know and care deeply enough to have joined the Save The UKFC site) and filled in the petition.

For those that do not know, I’ll try to explain. For those that don’t care, I’ll try and persuade you that you should. For those glad it’s gone, maybe I can flip your opinion. For those signed up, well I’m preaching to the choir. But I do like to preach.

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The Wednesday Watch – Ian McKellen is The Fresh Prince

By
16/06/10

How do you find Will Smith in the snow? Look for Fresh Prints. Hahahahahahhahahhahahha!

Okay, okay, it’s not really a short film but if this doesn’t cheer you up on a Wednesday then you’re probably going a bit head-mental from constant vuvuzela abuse.

I wish I could actually name-check the young chap doing this but alas my googling abilities came up short. But not only props to the kid for a pitch perfect Ian impression but also being a snappy tie-wearing motherfucker. A tie! On Youtube! Fresh indeed.

Got any tips for movie related tiny videos. Get in touch and we’ll stick ‘em up.

Dennis Hopper R.I.P.

By
31/05/10

“What are they gonna say about him? What are they gonna say? That he was a kind man? That he was a wise man? That he had plans, man? That he had wisdom? Bullshit, man. What are they gonna do when he’s gone?”

Dennis Hopper died at 9am local time at his home in Venice, California yesterday after losing his battle with prostate cancer he was 74.

dennis

He was born in Dodge City Kansas on 17th May 1936 and showed interest in acting from a young age. He began his acting career with several TV performances but his first movie role was in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and it was during the making of this film that he met James Dean, their meeting had a huge influence on Hopper and went a long way to transforming him into the great career actor he has become in the staggering five and a half decades since.

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The Wednesday Watch – The Anti-Lassie

By
26/05/10

There’s a lot to do in Cannes. Watch movies, laugh at Russell Crowes accent, watch movies, watch topless women sunbathing, watch movies, etc, etc. But where’s the fun in just watching a movie when you can film one?

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The age old question which is better Cats or Dogs gets an outing 100 million times better than The Revenge Of Kitty Galore (that’s a new kids film not some smut I found late at night). Two friends pit Pooch Vs Pussy in a verbal battle to prove the perfect pet. A twist in the tail makes for an unlikely champion.

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The Tuesday Preview – MacGruber

By
25/05/10

Over the years Saturday Night Live has been responsible for numerous Hollywood feature films. Yet for every Wayne’s World there’s a Night at the Roxbury, for every Blue Brother’s there’s a Blues Brothers 2000. This is not to say that SNL is a dying concept. Stars like Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon and the brilliant Bill Hader all cut their teeth on the long running skecth show. Whilst the noughties has been kind to SNL’s stars the show’s writers have not faired so well. There has been a noticeable lack of SNL spawned features over the last decade, 2000’s avoidable The Ladies Man being the most recent. That is until now!

Sweet Ride!

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The Tuesday Preview – The A-Team

By
18/05/10

Those of you fortunate enough to have been born and raised in the 80’s will remember the enduring pleasure of Saturday TV. Back when there were only four channels, no remotes and channel hopping was merely a twinkle in Rupert Murdoch’s eye it was completely conceivable that a prepubescent boy could spend almost one hundred percent of his day basking in the comforting glow of a cathode ray.

Logo

The afternoon, pre Noel’s House Party slot was arguably the most lucrative slot of all, often filled by such transatlantic delights as Air Wolf, Knight Rider and Bay Watch. Whilst all the aforementioned shows have a certain kitsch, retro cool about them it is another show which has managed to ingratiate itself into the collective memory of an entire generation. Perhaps this is why it is The A-team who has made the tricky transition to the big screen ahead of its Saturday afternoon contemporaries.

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