Pursuits · Movies
Movies & quotes
My brain holds onto song lyrics and movie lines like a toddler holds onto a lollipop. It's a slightly useless superpower, but HAS won me R5 000.
I can forget a conversation when I hang up the phone, but I can quote whole scenes word for word and tell you which line comes next in a song I haven't heard in years. It's all just pattern and recall, the same wiring that makes me good at reading code, pointed at Ace Ventura instead.
Cheese of the day
The R5,000 cheesy movie line
5FM and Panarottis ran a competition called "Cheese of the Day", post your favourite cheesy movie line, and people voted for the best. My entry, courtesy of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective:
"If I'm not back in five minutes… just wait longer."
On the 1st of April, 5FM phoned me up: "This isn't an April Fools joke, but you won!" Five grand for a perfectly cheesy one-liner. Worth every silly second.
Goofy comedies are home
I'm a sucker for a smart-dumb comedy. Give me Jim Carrey, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Robin Williams and Adam Sandler at full tilt, Ace Ventura, The Mask, School of Rock. The kind of films that don't take themselves seriously for a single frame.
Anything where the music drives it
This is where my movie taste and my music side collide. I love films about and around music: Rock of Ages, Yesterday, Michael Jackson's This Is It, Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Amy, Searching for Sugar Man, August Rush, Whiplash, and the glorious music-meets-goof crossovers, This Is Spinal Tap (these go to eleven!), The Wedding Singer (Adam Sandler is genuinely a decent musician), School of Rock, and Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, all sit near the top of my list ever.
I've even got a soft spot for full-blown musicals, Hairspray, Pitch Perfect, Grease, Glee, High School Musical, because everything happens in time. The opening sequence where the postman walks to the beat, throws the paper, and it lands on the beat? That little hit of everything-locked-to-the-rhythm does something to my brain.
And then the big worlds
On the other end of the dial: fantasy and sci-fi. The Matrix (the blue rain on this site isn't an accident), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and, yes, both franchises, egads, Star Trek and Star Wars. Throw in Terminator, Alien, Back to the Future, Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible and James Bond, and you've got my comfort-watch shelf.