Continuing on from yesterday’s Top Ten Movie Characters meme as tagged by James from Luke, I am your father
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5 – Walter Gibson, The Sure Thing
“Sorry I’m late. There was this big problem… and I’m late because of it. “
When I was 16 years old Walter “Gib” Gibson was everything I wanted to be. Cool, irreverent, freewheeling, witty, and ultimately – able to get a girlfriend. What a hero. Often overlooked in retrospectives, I’d argue that The Sure Thing was the best work in the careers of two outstanding talents: director Rob Reiner, and actor John Cusack. The greatest teen movie of the 80’s, and that’s really saying something.
4 – Batman, Batman Begins
“It ends here”
As you know I’m a massive fan of the Caped Crusader. And Nolan’s depiction of him in Batman Begins is about as perfect as I suspect we’ll ever see. There are some flaws however, I’m not keen on the gravely voice for example; but all in all it’s pretty damn good. I’ve singled out Batman Begins specifically as this film was actually about Batman; The Dark Knight, while excellent, was really about the Joker and Two-face more than Bats.
3 – Stan Laurel, Various Movies
“I’m sorry Ollie”
I have a rather large boxed set sitting on my shelf of 21 DVDs full of Laurel and Hardy Hal Roach classics from 1926-1940 . Over the year’s I’ve sold many of my other DVD’s on ebay; realizing that all they do is take up space and gather dust. but I’ve never even considered selling my Laurel and Hardy collection; that stuff is for keeps. Of the two I’ve plumped for Stan to make this list, mainly because he’s a home town boy (relatively speaking – he’s from Northern England anyhow) and he was actually the comedy brains behind the duo. But if truth be told he wouldn’t be half the comic he was without Oliver Hardy. Evan has recently started showing a healthy interest in slapstick and I have grand plans to start introducing him to the boys over the next few weeks.
2 – Gregory Underwood, Gregory’s Girl
“Have you ever been in love? I’m in love.”
The 16 year old me may have wanted to be Gib from The Sure Thing, but I identified much more with the good natured bumbling of Scottish teen Gregory from Gregory’s Girl. Apart from Gregory also was able to get a girlfriend obviously. If there has ever been a more endearing rendering of sweet and tender adolescent awkwardness than created by writer/director Bill Forsyth and actor John Gordon Sinclair then I have yet to see it. Magnificent stuff.
1 – Kermit, The Muppet Movie
Frankly, Miss Piggy, I don’t give a hoot. “
There are few people in TV and television that truly deserve the moniker of genius; and Jim Henson was one of them. To be honest I could have very easily have filled this entire list with Muppets characters alone: Fozzie, Gonzo, Ms Piggy, Rowlf, the list goes on and on. Kermit was the figurehead of the Muppets, but more importantly he was the heart too. He was great in the TV shows, but it was in the movies that he truly shone. I challenge anyone to name a better movie opening scene than him sitting in a swamp singing Rainbow Connection. It gives me goosebumps every time.
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And that’s it. I just realized that my list is made up completely of men. In my defense I think this is due to the paucity of good roles for women in hollywood rather than any misogynistic attitude on my part.
And anyway, girls smell.
The rules state that I have to tag some fellow bloggers to do their own version of the meme. Normally I don’t do tagging, but I really enjoyed doing this meme so I thought I’d break with tradition. So here goes:
- Lee, from Quit Your Day Job – because such lists are very much his thing
- JJ Daddy-O, from JJ Daddy-O – because he hasn’t blogged in, like, forever.
- Simon, from Mere Bagatelle – because I want to see if our movie tastes align as well as our musical ones
- Ian, from Single Parent Dad – because I want to see how far up his list Cloe from Beverly Hills Chihuahua comes
- Ajan, from Dutchnid – because I want to hear about some characters from all those Dutch “speciality films”.
- Greg, from Greg and Deb on the Web – because it’s about time you got sucked into this blogosphere thing like the rest of us man. Join us. Join us.
- Jo, from Jo Beaufoix – because we’re swine flu siblings. that’s a bit like blood brothers, but mixed gender and a lot more snotty.
- Sam, from Rabbit Confused with Raisins – because mum told me I have to let him play with my friends as he doesn’t have any of his own
- Catherine, from Some Vague Utopia – Because she’s a meme virgin.
- And finally Andrew Collins, from Never Knowingly Underwhelmed – because I like to aim high on occasion.
And obviously if you fancy doing the meme but I haven’t tagged you then feel free to have a go anyway. I’m not the boss of you.
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
And I have so been posting, er, this week….
JJ Daddy-O´s last blog ..Mmmmm…. Nong Shim Neoguri Ramyun…
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Actually it’s my view those are the weakest two muppet films. My favorite is the Muppet Movie, followed (controversially) by Muppets from Space.
(and FYI you’ll find that game isn’t “football”. It’s just rugby played by people who are scared of getting hurt so have to dress up in pads)
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Cheers for the tag, no really, I think I’ll actually enjoy this one. Especially when you give Mark Hamill a roasting in my comments.
SingleParentDad´s last blog ..Who Got a Black Eye?
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hey… thanks for the mini-blog linkage, I appreciate that very much. I think you might want to check the URL, it seems to be circling around back to here. Thanks!
Jeff´s last blog ..Virus Stompers is open for business!
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
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Jeff Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Jeff´s last blog ..Virus Stompers is open for business!
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I was wondering if characters who originated outside of movies (ie. in comics or on TV) would be allowed, and you seem to have answered that question.
Next though, I want your top ten TV characters.
Rol´s last blog ..Reader’s Wives
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
and I am going to have to think about that TV one
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Avitable´s last blog ..MomDot Marketing Fail
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
If you go to the US Amazon site for the Gregory’s Girl DVD, a review I wrote eight years ago is still right on top.
Thanks for the nostalgia, Dan, I really thought it was going to be Indy at #2. I know what I’m watching again tonight.
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Dan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Gregory’s there by his own merits though. It’s a stunning film. I advise against watching the sequel though. It’s not a truely awful film, but it certainly doesn’t add anything.
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I’ll start making a list tomorrow, I hópe I get some time tomorrow evening to really write it down..otherwise it won’t be till sundaynight.
I hope ’speciality’ doesn’t mean anywhere near bad :P, but I’ll try to make a Dutch movielist incl. a little synopsis.
Arjan´s last blog ..Magnetized
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on Jul 15th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
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on Jul 16th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Hmmm, going to have to do some thinking about this one.
Problem is, most of the compelling characters I’ve seen lately are from shows like The Wire (hello, McNulty!) but that’s kind of cheating, since a series like that has 60 hours over 5 years to develop the character. Not really fair to movies, which only have about 120 minutes. (barring sequels).
JJ Daddy-O´s last blog ..Mmmmm…. Nong Shim Neoguri Ramyun…
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on Jul 21st, 2009 at 2:05 am
[...] done a meme for ages and certainly haven’t since the relaunch/disaster of this blog so when Dan tagged me for the top ten movie character list it was perfectly [...]
on Jul 21st, 2009 at 9:33 am
nice list. I want to try and come up with my own but I don’t reckon I’d ever be able to decide. Not only can I not make a decision to save my life but my tastes seem to change on a whim.
I’m going to make an effort though.
Sean
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on Aug 14th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
lelik´s last blog ..Pregnancy Weeks 13-16, Month #4 (Pregnancy Health Guru)
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