Getting to know you

Shaun the Sheep Farmageddon on DVD and Apollo 11 on Blu


SQ

Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit


Do you have a favourite musical - stage or film?

Days before the world went chaotic, I was lucky enough to see the new Back To The Future musical. Might seem like an odd choice but it worked so well and was very easily one of the best things I've ever seen live. So probably because it's fresh in my min I'd say that.


SQ

Stage:- Rebecca (A stunning production at the Raimund Theatre in Vienna.)

Film:- The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg


What are you looking forward to most, when the world returns to some semblance of sanity?

Getting back to the cinema. Probably more important things to do but I'm already missing it. In April a cinema near me was showing Apollo 13 on the 50th Anniversary of its launch. I've always loved that film but never got to see it at the cinema and was really looking forward to it.


SQ

Just being able to get together with friends again. Plus, we have a retro cinema near where I live, and they were planning a season of classic Westerns this month. I was really looking forward to seeing Rio Bravo and The Searchers again on the big screen.


Can you see any upside to the current world wide shutdown?

Pollution levels are going down though, so that's a good thing. There are probably other decent things going to come but not sure what.

Pollution levels way down, which is great news. Unfortunately, probably too little too late. I think there are some important lessons to be learnt from this, but I doubt that the so-called "great and good" will pay any heed to them if the chaos in America is anything to go by. It's hard to credit that there are still people who are in denial about Covid-19 and its effect on the world.


Approximately how many movies have you watched since the beginning of the lockdown?

Exactly 9, which is half of my total for the year so far. I used to watch sooooooo many more films and I miss those days.



SQ

I haven't kept count, but 3 - 4 per week, so I guess between 12 and 16. I keep meaning to catch up more with the fairly large number of DVDs which I haven't got around to watching yet, but I keep getting side-tracked.


Are you catching up on your reading?

Not on the slightest. Not picked up a book since around Christmas!


SQ

I've been reading more than I've been watching movies. A few months ago I came across a list of 100 greatest novels of the 20th century as voted by readers of the New York Times. I set myself the goal of reading as many as possible, and over the last month I've read The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, East Of Eden by John Steinbeck, A Passage To India by E. M. Forster and I'm about three quarters of the way through Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Next on the agenda is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.


Who is your favourite super hero?

I've not read any of those!


I'm not really sure I have a favourite. I like Iron Man as portrayed by Robert Downey Jr more than most others in films, but I suspect I wouldnl' be as keen if someone else were to play him. Same goes for Wolverine and Hugh Jackman.


SQ

Of the Marvel Avengers series, I like Captain America, and I particularly like Tom Holland as Spiderman.
As a kid I liked Captain Marvel a lot - that was before he underwent a sex change.


Do you have a favourite Shakespearean film?

Yes - the Baz Luhrman adap of Romeo and Juliet and also 10 Things I Hate About You.

SQ

Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Hamlet.


SQ

As above.

Fave Star Trek movie?

The Wrath Of Khan


SQ

Same


Least favourite Star Wars film?

The first one.


SQ

Kinda like them all, but at a push id say Attack of the Clones (just).

Least fave LOTR/Hobbit movie?

The entire Hobbit trilogy was a waste of time.


SQ

The Desolation of Smaug.


Favourite MCU character who hasn't had their own film?

Namor - The Sub Mariner

SQ

Wong, Dr Strange's buddy



Favourite film that you wish had a sequel?