30 Days of Film - Day Eight
• Day 08 - A movie that you’ve seen countless times
First off, it is currently about midnight, meaning I’ve spent the best part of the last four and a half hours down the pub, so this might not be the most coherent post ever.
Secondly, my parents have gone to bed so I no longer have internet access and thus will be posting this tomorrow morning. Or possibly evening if I don’t get a chance before I go to Cambridge.
Unlike yesterday, today was a difficult choice because there are lots of films I’ve seen countless times, especially as a kid. I’m just one of those people. I read books over and over and I do the same with films. There are, in fact, very few films I’ve liked where I’ve thought “you know what, it was a good film but I have absolutely no urge to see that again.”
So there is George of the Jungle (1997) which is just plain awesome, The Lion King (1994) which is just, you know, my childhood, Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) which is my absolute Christmas film, Gordy (1995) which maybe I should talk about because no one has ever fucking heard of it. And as I’ve got older there is Pretty Woman (1990), Dirty Dancing (1987), Hairspray (2007) and Star Trek (2009). But I’m going to go with
Shrek (2001)
The reason for this is that I haven’t just seen this countless times, but everyone I went to school with has seen it countless times too. Christmas when I was in Year 9 was about when this came out on DVD / Video and it was the number one choice for video to watch as the end of term. So we saw it a lot. To the point where practically my entire English class was saying most of the dialogue along with the movie. I’ve never had that happen with any movie ever. It’s difficult to remember how amazing it was at the time. The subversion of all the Disney movies and fairy tales we had all grown up on. The references to countless other films. The adult humour that at 14 we thought made us so clever to get. Just everything about it. It’s still amazing today. Hell, I can still quote almost the entirety of Donkey’s onions/cakes/parfait speech, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of you can too. I can still sing all of the Dulac song, and do, frequently. And Shrek’s karaoke dance party at the end? I still can’t hear any of the songs in that without expecting it to go into the next one. Me and my friend even spent an afternoon making a dance up to go with it.
I love the film, and it still brings a smile to my face. It’s just one of those films that will be inextricably linked to my adolescence. Which is, perhaps, slightly lame, but is nevertheless the truth. I will never be able to watch it without thinking of Mrs Lewis’ English class, all of us sitting on desks and everyone, even the cool kids, going “In the morning, I’m making waffles!”
First off, it is currently about midnight, meaning I’ve spent the best part of the last four and a half hours down the pub, so this might not be the most coherent post ever.
Secondly, my parents have gone to bed so I no longer have internet access and thus will be posting this tomorrow morning. Or possibly evening if I don’t get a chance before I go to Cambridge.
Unlike yesterday, today was a difficult choice because there are lots of films I’ve seen countless times, especially as a kid. I’m just one of those people. I read books over and over and I do the same with films. There are, in fact, very few films I’ve liked where I’ve thought “you know what, it was a good film but I have absolutely no urge to see that again.”
So there is George of the Jungle (1997) which is just plain awesome, The Lion King (1994) which is just, you know, my childhood, Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) which is my absolute Christmas film, Gordy (1995) which maybe I should talk about because no one has ever fucking heard of it. And as I’ve got older there is Pretty Woman (1990), Dirty Dancing (1987), Hairspray (2007) and Star Trek (2009). But I’m going to go with
Shrek (2001)
The reason for this is that I haven’t just seen this countless times, but everyone I went to school with has seen it countless times too. Christmas when I was in Year 9 was about when this came out on DVD / Video and it was the number one choice for video to watch as the end of term. So we saw it a lot. To the point where practically my entire English class was saying most of the dialogue along with the movie. I’ve never had that happen with any movie ever. It’s difficult to remember how amazing it was at the time. The subversion of all the Disney movies and fairy tales we had all grown up on. The references to countless other films. The adult humour that at 14 we thought made us so clever to get. Just everything about it. It’s still amazing today. Hell, I can still quote almost the entirety of Donkey’s onions/cakes/parfait speech, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of you can too. I can still sing all of the Dulac song, and do, frequently. And Shrek’s karaoke dance party at the end? I still can’t hear any of the songs in that without expecting it to go into the next one. Me and my friend even spent an afternoon making a dance up to go with it.
I love the film, and it still brings a smile to my face. It’s just one of those films that will be inextricably linked to my adolescence. Which is, perhaps, slightly lame, but is nevertheless the truth. I will never be able to watch it without thinking of Mrs Lewis’ English class, all of us sitting on desks and everyone, even the cool kids, going “In the morning, I’m making waffles!”