25 Random FILM Facts About Me

For you Facebook dwellers, I'm sure you are familiar... about 2 weeks ago a chain note blew through FB urging tagged individuals to list 25 facts about themself. During a conversation yesterday, a friend suggested that I should take a stab at a film-related version of this. The idea intrigued me and I must admit, I think MANY of those notes would have been more interesting had they been confined to the subject of movies and media. (man...how surprised am I that you hate cleaning the bathroom?... lemme guess, you dislike stepping in dog poo too?)

Off we go...

1. I don't remember what year Shaolin Soccer reached North America but I rolled my eyes at the whole Stephen Chow phenomenon. Kung Fu Hustle was so passe, I was severely disappointed. I watched Stephen Chow in 1985 when he was 18 years old and hosting kids variety/news show on TVB in Hong Kong. His audacity and hilarity shone brightest in the early 90's, reaching brilliant levels of verbal vulgarity that will never translate into the English language. In my eyes his work peaked in 1991. God of Gamblers III and All's Well Ends Well are still some of my favourite Hong Kong films.

2. Don Knotts was great in Pleasantville.

3. I hate Big Trouble in Little China. Everyone else seems to derive so much amusement from it but I can barely tolerate to watch it.

4. I read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby before watching the movie and disliked it intensely, it was so dumbed down, abbreviated and shallow compared to the book. Then I saw the movie years later, long after I'd forgotten about the details in the book, and really liked it. Even went out and bought myself a copy of the movie. Now I'm thinking I should never read the book again.

5. The first film I ever saw at the Toronto Film Festival was Gemini from Japan in 1999.

6. Pulp Fiction should've won the Best Picture Oscar in 1995.

7. Films formatted to "Full Screen" are garbage, it's one thing if they were shot that way, but if I receive/buy-by-mistake a full screen version of something I most likely won't even watch it. It blows my mind that a larger percentage of people prefer Full Screen DVDs, to see why you folks are complete turds, I suggest you read this: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

8. I was in my teens when I first saw Reality Bites, I didn't really get its Gen-X-ness. I grew closer and closer to the characters with each viewing as an adult, now I feel the message is a little dated but brilliant. How come Ben Stiller stopped making films like this one?

9. Dummy is probably one of the funniest movies that I own.

10. Darren Aronovsky has, as a whole, the most annoying fans. God forbid someone not treat every frame of every one of his movies as if it were a piece of the holy grail. I'm allowed to hate The Fountain. When was the last time a Kevin Smith fan berated you for hating Clerks?

11. I haven't seen it since it first came out on video, but I liked The Mighty Ducks movie when I was 14.

12. Out of all the stars I've been in the proximity of, Sophia Loren has the most crazed fans, whose zealousness and fervor overshadow fans of Johnny Depp AND Brangelina!

13. I was severely disappointed by Wong Kar Wai's 2046, but its soundtrack is one of my top 10 movie soundtracks of all time. All of his soundtracks are terrific (with the exception to My Blueberry Nights, which I was lukewarm to) but 2046 blows them all out of the water.

14. Last year during the Toronto Film Fest, a friend of mine almost had the opportunity to pick up Wong Kar Wai from the airport and escort him to his car. During which time they could've made conversation. The job eventually fell on someone else, but the question that I wanted my friend to ask Wong Kar Wai was "I understand you often eat congee in and around Causeway Bay, what place would you recommend for the best congee?" [Causeway Bay is a district in Hong Kong]

15. The first film I ever saw at the Tribeca Film Festival was Planet B-Boy in 2007.

16. Keanu Reeves' best performances were in My Own Private Idaho and Parenthood. He wasn't bad in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure either.

17. If I could get past her bodyguards and not suffer any repercussions from a third party, I would step up for Faye Dunaway and slap Hilary Duff for having the over-inflated ego to think that she can play Bonnie Parker in a Bonnie & Clyde movie. It's not about looking the part, it's that she's a talentless hack. The only person whose talent she will ever outshine is her sister's.

18. [This is taken from my Fackbook personal 25 things version] Although I'm not a huge fan of hers, I think I would want Evan Rachel Wood to play me in a movie.

19. My favourite Brat Pack movie is St. Elmo's Fire. I cried the first couple times I saw it.

20. I've never see I Am Sam, I never want to see I Am Sam, but I adore the soundtrack, which is all Beatles covers (even more than Across the Universe)

21. The first film I ever saw at the Montreal World Film Festival was Luck (from Canada) in 2003.

22. As it stands, I never want to see the Canadian film Rare Birds. We used the script to do a project in my Business of Film class in university and then I did a bunch of transfers and burns for it at the post house where I was doing my co-op. Overexposure really kills your curiousity

23. I don't ever need to see Ginger Snaps either, despite being told it's good. My screenwriting prof was one of the story editors and pulled one too many examples from it in his lectures.

24. On the flipside, I adore Patricia Rozema's adaptation of Mansfield Park and I would've never even known about the film had my Music for Film prof not screened it in the class.

25. I have attended 4 different Film Festivals during my travels in the last 7 years: The Vancouver International Film Festival, The Montreal World Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Festival, and the Rome Film Festival. (I missed the Tokyo International Film Festival by a week)