Dora the Explorer - The Movie

I'd pay to see this one.

Jack's Entrance

After Notting Hill, I was thinking of single scenes that stand head an shoulders above the rest of the film. Now me and my kids quite like the first couple of Pirates of the Caribbean films so, with due respect to the critic Mark Kermode who I regard highly, I wouldn't put this in the same godforsaken class as Notting Hill, but I do think that Captain Jack's entrance is one of the best. I'm tempted to add the fight scene in the waterwheel in the second film but that relies a lot on the action whereas this one just requires Johnny Depp and immediately tells you all you need to know about the character.

Notting Hill

I think that, almost without exception, the work of Richard Curtis is complete garbage - the exceptions being the second series of Blackadder, and this one scene from the film Notting Hill. I would defy anybody to come up with one redeeming feature in any of the films apart from this one and don't get me started on the Vicar of Dibley! Even the much vaunted last Blackadder scene in series 4 is really just calculated sentimentality but, most of all, I hate the film Notting Hill with a vengeance. The film surely ranks as one of the most execrable instances of cinema in existence. I used to live near Notting Hill (the Ladbroke Grove end not the Gate end) and I think I can safely say that, even at the time of release, it didn't represent any kind of landscape that most of its residents would recognise. Having said that, amid the dross (and the scene where the characters contest to appear the most unfortunate is about as bad as you can get) there is this one scene in which Hugh Grant walks down Portobello Road from season to season that is absolutely stunning. Nowhere near enough to compensate for the whole thing but it certainly deserved to be in a better film.

And the Bill Withers track is perfect, of course.

Go pick me out a winner, Bobby...

The two best scenes from "The Natural".

Glenn Close warding off evil.

The final scene. Roy versus his younger self.

The film ends in a very different way to the book and there is a debate about whether you should do that. I know that I thought the ending of the 2008 version of "Brideshead Revisited" was a travesty for changing the final scene in the chapel. Here, I am not so sure. It's not Malamud's story but, in my view, it is a better story.

I aim to misbehave...

I watched "Serenity" again tonight. Why on earth did they cancel "Firefly"?

Mal: "Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all are come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything I know this: they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. 
And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave."

From "Local Hero"

Speaking of heroes, this from the film "Local Hero". I live about an hour and a half from Pennan which is where much of "Local Hero" was filmed. It has always been one of my favorite films because of the humour and understated sadness. And who couldn't like Mark Knopfler's haunting score...?

I've always thought that, ultimately, there was only one story worth telling, that of Redemption. In the end,  things work out, to a greater or lesser extent for everyone apart from Mac, but Mac is the one who is redeemed. He still has to leave, though. I want him to be the one ringing in the final scene - telling them that he has packed in the job and will be back - but maybe it doesn't work like that and we work out our redeemed state in the world from which we've been bought back.

From "The Quiet Man"

"Red Will" Danaher:    I'll count three, and if you're not out of the house by then, I'll loose the dogs on you. 
Thornton:    If you say "three," mister, you'll never hear the man count "ten." 

The relevant part starts at 0:45:30.

I remember me and my Dad having competitions to see who could remember quotes from our favorite films. This was always one we would use.