hardtack

Well, that begs the question, what were the first and second worst? :-)

If it makes you feel better BB, according to the Devil's Dictionary, a saint is a "dead sinner revised and edited".

Love B&W when it's used well... Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Sin City (apart from the odd splash of colour), The Man Who Wasn't There, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and so on... and of course all of those early films such as Wages of Fear, Cape Fear, Casablanca, Psycho and many many more...plus one particularly good psychological thriller The Snake Pit.

They all show his talents... What's Up Tiger Lilly (his first?) - he acquired the rights to a Japanese gangster flick and dubbed his own dialogue over it. Sleeper is a great film with a screamingly funny Jewish tailor robot. Bananas, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Small Time Crooks, Manhattan etc etc... they are all good and each quite different. One of my favourites though, a black and white mystery with Mia Farrow and John Malkovich, Shadows and Fog... great.

Yes, agree that Blackadder is a cut above Mr Bean. American comedies can be very good, but lack the British eccentricities that you find in shows like Fawlty Towers, Not Only But Also, Monty Python, Blackadder etc. Having said that, I was a real sucker for Seinfeld and before that, a long time before that, The Bob Newhart Show (both the one where we was a psychiatrist and the one where he was a hotel owner, that owed a lot to Fawlty Towers).

Agree... the funny thing was that for the entire first series, Baldrick was the "brains" and Blackadder the dolt. Oh, and I still have nightmares whenever I think about the "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" special, with Baldrick in a leather "posing pouch"...uuurrrrgggghhhh!! And speaking of British comedy on TV, I have to say I love the League of Gentlemen series... have all of them on DVD as well as their Apocalypse movie which is also a hoot (if you haven't seen this show, chase it up as it's definitely worth a look).... another series worth checking out is Psychoville; the Brits really do have a way with humour that, for the most part, the Americans simply can't do... then again, they are also responsible for some of the worst TV comedies as well.

Ok Choke, being true to my word, here is a list of fairly obscure things (well, obviously not obscure to everyone) that I would recommend - I won't go into descriptions, analysis etc - you can find all of that on IMDB no doubt... so choke on this ;-) Music related documentaries plus a couple of others: The Filth and the Fury (Sex Pistols doco) The Future is Unwritten (Joe Strummer of the Clash doco) Searching for the wrong Eyed Jesus Deep Blues - a musical pilgrimage to the crossroads The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack Ghengis Blues Crumb Lost in La Mancha Movies: The Harder They Come Robinson Crusoe on Mars Wise Blood Happiness of the Katakuris Survive Style 5+ Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl Branded to Kill Tokyo Drifter Shock Corridor If, O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital (trilogy) Juliet of the Spirits High and Low Throne of Blood Raise the Red Lantern Not One Less The Road Home just a few to get on with... can add more if you like... many more.

Don't worry, you're not alone on that score... I am closing in on 6 decades of supporting the MFC and have a collection of well over 1,000 DVDs and Blu Rays.

Well, let me know what you are "into" and I will be more than happy to add to your woes by giving you a list of what I think are worth watching.

Both the matrix and Dark City, in my opinion at least, borrowed heavily from the concept in Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld" series. I preferred Dark City purely because it was a bit darker almost in a film noir kind of a way. You mention "Fisher King"... now that reminded me of a great sci-fi (ish) film "Brazil"... love it. For something a bit out there, I recommend "Repo Man"... but I'm a bit of a sucker for anything that has Harry Dean Stanton in a leading role.

No, you are right about Leslie Nielsen (in a straight role) and it was Robbie the robot. I have it on DVD and on Blu Ray. It's the film about a settlement on a planet where the inhabitants are being killed off by an invisible monster known as the "Id". Brilliant movie that had special effects way ahead of its time and is filmed in really glorious technicolour. It has lost none of its appeal over time.

Not really historically related, but there is a very old sci-fi film from 1967 called "Quatermass & the Pit" (aka 5 Million Years to Earth) has a great storyline that links satanism to aliens. Loved it and have a copy of DVD. Others that have interesting links (historical or otherwise) are: - "Forbidden Planet" from 1956, which I rate as one of the all time greatest sci-fi movies made, is a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's "Tempest" - The 1979 film "Time After Time" is an interesting take that has HG Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time (in his Time Machine of course) and into the 20th century... surprisingly well done. - "Slaughterhouse 5" which is the film from Kurt Vonnegut Jnrs novel of the same name where the main character Billie Pilgrim is "unstuck in time", concurrently living in the present day in the New York state, in the past in Dresden during the bombings of WW2 and in the future on the planet Tralfamadore; it is actually a very good interpretation of the book (unlike the attempt at another Vonnegut novel "Breakfast of Champions" that starred Bruce Willis).

My favourite was The Empire Strikes Back (Ep 2)... Ep 3 was when the Ewoks were introduced and for me, that was when Lucas lost the plot and went all Disneyfied. For Sci Fi I'm a big fan of the 50's and 60's films (Earth Vs the Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, Quatermass films etc) and of the later films, loved Bladerunner, Fifth Element, Dark City, Eraserhead etc.

A lot of tweets doing the rounds at the moment saying "Announcement soon... Jack Watts to remain at the Demons" - no mention of a date or time.

Screw Carlton like we did with Brock? No thanks. Jack will start season 2014 aged just 23 and still with his best years well ahead of him. I believe that the right coach CAN motivate a player to the point of changing their psyche and I believe that Roos will be able to (with the right assistants) get Jack to become a fearless footballer... pain is easily overcome, but to overcome the fear of being hurt takes a bit more... that is where Roos comes into the picture; look at how he made the Swans into one of the hardest teams going around.

Great news if accurate.

Not really jazz as such, but it's so hauntingly beautiful that I thought I would throw it in anyway: Daiqing Tana "Ongmanibamai": Japanese weird jazz band Electrocution 250 "Fletcher the Mouse" **Warning: This WILL polarise you!"

Ok, it's been a long while since I jumped in here, so here are a couple you may or may not be familiar with (I try to be a little obscure): Bas Lexter Ensample "HongKongLingLing" Kanazawa, Akiko - famed Japanese minyou singer - "Yellow Submarine"

Would that film be "Tomorrow When the War Began"? It's not too bad, but can't say it really grabbed me. A couple of other Australian films I just remembered that are worth watching (older pieces... as most good local cinema unfortunately seems to be): "Newsfront", "The Getting of Wisdom" and a film that many might think not Australian (and technically may not be due to funding etc), is Alex Poyas' "Dark City"...while being a little similar, this predates The Matrix and, in my opinion, is a far better film. I can't remember what it was showing with (maybe Deliverance), but in 1972 at a Friday "supper" show (late night) at the Trak Cinema, I saw a short film (mockumentary) made by a young George Miller called "Violence in the Cinema Part 1" - brilliant and it still sits clearly in my mind all those years later. As for the Mad Max DVD set... I still have the set I bought in Japan a few years ago and always get a laugh out of that fact that where they list the audio languages, it has Japanese soundtrack, Original soundtrack and Australian English soundtrack. They seemed to be of the impression that this was an American production :-)

I just picked up the triple bluray set of Mad Max 1, 2 & 3 from Amazon UK. - MM3 is a dud, but 1 and 2 make the set worthwhile. Other Australian movies not yet mentioned that I like are: The Last Wave, Cars that Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ten Canoes, Romper Stomper, Bad Boy Bubby, and Ghosts of the Civil Dead.

You're right of course DC...that's why I went for the Kogan equivalent...half the price and equally efficient ;-)

Have you by any chance seen Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog"? Definitely worth a look.

Definitely... Big Lebowski, O Brother, Raising Arizona and Blood Simple... also impressed with their take on True Grit and one of their "less" lauded films, Burn After Reading.

No, don't work in the industry (I'm a technical writer), but have always been a bit of a film nut and am an obsessive collector and watcher of film on DVD and Blu Ray.

"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is superb! How can you possibly go wrong with a Russ Meyer film that features the Strawberry Alarm Clock (band)? I'm a fan of John Waters (the American director, not Australian actor) and have just about all of his films on DVD. Other directors I favour are: Stanley Kubrick, Jim Jarmusch, Tim Burton, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Quentin Tarantino, Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Juzoh Itami, Takashi Miike, Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Feng Xiaogang, Katsuhito Ishii and the Cohen Brothers. If you want to learn about John Waters, get hold of his biography "Shock Value" (1981)... a great read. Love the Shaw Brothers films and enjoyed the reference to them used by Tarantino at the start of Kill Bill 2. I actually once met someone here in Sydney who worked with "Run Run" Shaw in Hong Kong... she explained that he got his name as a young guy running canisters of film between the editing rooms and the studios which is how he got his start in the business.