LoveFilm? My top 10

For the past six weeks or so Stephanie and I have been members of LoveFilm, a postal rental service whereby for a fixed monthly fee, you can watch as many movies from their database as logistically possible. Simply browse their catalogue, select what films you would like to watch and they randomly choose two for you to watch at home. Once you are finished, send them back and they’ll send you two more.

Being parents now, a visit to the cinema is a rare occasions, we have to invariably find a babysitter and so the last minute spontaneity of our courtship is something we’ve long lost. With our LoveFilm membership it gives us a chance to catch up on what everyone else has been watching and talking about for the past few years and see if there are any films that break the monopoly of my top ten list.

We’ve all probably been asked, “what’s your favourite film” and we’ve probably all got an answer, for whatever reason. Like a book, what you may hate another person will love, what you’ve though wonderful someone else may detest.

So on the understanding that a personal blog is about capturing your particular thoughts of a particular subject in a moment in time. Here is my top ten film list as of May 2011.

Forrest Gump
First on my list, a Tom Hanks movie which most people have probably seen. I saw this for the first time at the cinema on a Friday night with my parents, and the second time the following day with a girl I was in love with at the time. This film is a perennial tear jerker no matter how many times you watch it, life really is a box of chocolates.

Braveheart
Despite probably being not 100% historically correct, this film, on first viewing will have you captivated from the first scene to the last. As an Englishman you are left with a sense of repulsion for the acts committed by so called King and country as you get behind the underdog avenging the murder of his one true love. Romance, action, bloody battles and revenge. What more could you ask for?

The Pursuit of Happiness
There are movies that you have never heard of, despite having one of the biggest names in Hollywood as the staring role. You press the information button on the remote control to see what the latest movie is all about and you think, “sounds alright, nothing else on” and you sit for the next two hours totally engrossed with what’s playing on screen before realising that you have tears streaming down your face and no matter how hard you try you just cannot man the hell up, but it doesn’t matter because your wife is doing exactly the same thing and both of you realise just what an amazing film you’ve both sat and watched.

Pulp Fiction
Probably one of the coolest films ever made. Okay so it has violence, drugs, bad language, blood, gore and sexual perversity but it has Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Bruce Willis all brilliantly directed by Quentin Tarantino on the backdrop of the greatest movie soundtrack ever.

The Shawshank Redemption
I’d hazard a guess that if you asked a thousand people what their top ten films were, The Shawshank Redemption would be on all of them. Amazingly atmospheric, narrated by Morgan Freeman who’s voice alone haunts this movie in such a poignant way that whenever you hear it elsewhere you always think of Andy Dufresne..

Man on Fire
This is a movie about vengeance, revenge against those who have perpetrated great evil against you. But this is Denzil Washington who has been wronged and unlike other movies you genuinely sympathise and want revenge just as much as he does. Guns and action aplenty.

The Goonies
Goonies never say Die! The movie that as kids, we always borrowed from the video shop. Chunk, Sloth, Mikey, Data and the guys. Steven Spielberg's much loved action adventure for kids everywhere.

Dumb and Dumber
Growing up, Jim Carrey was my favourite actor and this is without doubt his funniest film. Harry and Lloyd, two pals on a trip to deliver back Mary Swanson’s briefcase. From the first line to the very last, you’ll be LOL'ing the whole way through.

The Usual Suspects
Like Fight Club, Momento, Seven and Magnolia, those films which you watch for the entire duration only for the last scene to flip everything on it’s head and leaving you asking “what the hell just happened?” in this case, who actually is Keyser Soze?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey, check, Kate Winslett, check, Kate Winslett with died pink hair and running around in bright pink under-crackers, double check. This film, in which Jim Carrey plays it all serious is very cleverly executed, just make sure you pay attention at the back.