Five Favourite Films

I agree with him on Gladiator and Man On Fire. Two good films. I've never seen the other three and it's a doubtful I will ever watch them.

I think I need to sit this man down and show him some real classic films lol :-)

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"All I want is fist bumps and hugs" - Taylor Lautner

I've never seen Tommy Boy, but the other 4 are very formulaic. Braveheart is such a campfest.

I've actually not seen any of the films Taylor picked and as an Englishman I think I should refuse to watch Braveheart on principle lol. That said, I'd totally forgotten about it's five Oscars and I was listening to a film critic (who I semi respect) on the radio the other day, he was raving about how talented Mel Gibson is as a director (particularly, Apocalypto). So perhaps Taylor is just a better judge of talent than I am.

As for the rest, Man On Fire, not seen but one of my friends loves it. Gladiator, well you can't go far wrong with a Ridley Scott film can you? I've only avoided it because I felt like it was going to ape Spartacus too much. The Negotiator is a film I've always wanted to watch, just never got round to. But how can you respect any director who had a hand in that US version of The Italian Job? Tommy Boy looks and sounds awful, but I guess everyone is allowed one guilty pleasure.

All his picks seem to be rated high to very high on IMDb so he also seems to have a better idea of what's popular than me. That doesn't stop me though from wanting to sit him down and show him some real classics :-)

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"All I want is fist bumps and hugs" - Taylor Lautner

The Negotiator is a crapfest which asks us to sympathise with a sociopath. Too stupid to be believable but not funny enough to be a parody.

Braveheart and Gladiator are both basically Spartacus ripoffs. Man on Fire is a serviceable film which has the same plot as at least a dozen others.

We see you have a similar taste to Taylor...not... but let's not offend any of those projects or the people related to them, shall we? Because referring to a movie as a 'crapfest' is slightly stepping over a line. A line that separates 'criticism' from bashing and 'expressing your opinion' from hating on things. And that is a line no one should step over despite how many that claim to be prefessional about it do.

Okay, so it looks like nobody is going to ask me what my top-five films would be :-(

So here is a list of five films, not my top five exactly, but five films that if I could, I would get Taylor to sit down and watch.

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
A true (cult) classic of a film featuring what for my money is David Bowie’s best performance on film, playing a humanoid alien stranded on Earth, ah I know that feeling. Now David had some criticism of his acting skills over the years, but not in this film, so it’s worth checking out to see why this performance worked so well. I watched this film on television home alone at an impressionable age and my life has never been the same since. It is a visual feast by one of the UK’s best (and most under-rated) director’s Nicolas Roeg, see also his super-natural horror film Don’t Look Now (I still have to close my eyes at the end) where the co-stars were (falsely) rumoured to have literally had sex during their love scene. Fun fact, Roeg did second unit photography on the legendarily classic film Lawrence of Arabia. Anyway, everyone needs a film by Nicolas in their top five, so this is my Roeg One :-)

Here's a little trailer: https://youtu.be/wd9vU1KaQiY

Point Break (1991)
It occurs to me at this point that Taylor wasn't even born when any of these films were made, but if his film Tracers is anything to go by, I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t watched Point Break already. An action film classic, making me instantly hooked on Kathryn Bigelow’s work, it was clear from this film she was going to go far. I also became more than a little interested in Keanu Reeves, who in many ways is probably the ideal career role model for Taylor to learn from when it comes to having a successful career. Plus, both have a shared interest in martial arts, so that would give them something to chat about. It would be great to see Taylor inject a little more Johnny Utah style attitude in some of his upcoming performances. Best on-foot chase sequence ever: https://youtu.be/8ECsKEDSdgk

Stardust Memories (1980)
Woody Allen has made more than his fair share of film classics, but this one doesn’t get the love that it deserves. A wonderful blackly comic homage to the trials of fame and celebrity, something I think Taylor would be able to relate to having experienced Twilight level hysteria. I just love the scene where aliens land and ask the director to make more films like his early funny ones. It’s a reminder of how difficult it can be for artists to escape their past, or in the case of Taylor, to escape the role of Jacob. Oh and this film also stars Charlotte Rampling, who I think is a wonderful actress. Here come the aliens: https://youtu.be/CQ-I2qa0ZQY

The Shining (1980)
Now if Taylor ever fancies making a horror movie, this is definitely a film he should be checking out for Jack Nicholson’s delicious portrayal of a deadly descent into possessed delusion. Stanley Kubrick at the top of his game (again) with his signature framing of shots and in this film, the birth of the Steadicam. It also teaches us a very important lesson in life, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Good job Taylor has his work life balance in check: https://youtu.be/4lQ_MjU4QHw

A Touch of Evil (1958)
While many would say Citizen Kane is Orson Welle’s greatest work, for me it is the film-noir “A Touch of Evil”. When I first watched this film I thought, so this is where modern cinema begins, I can’t think of any other classic black and white movie that feels so contemporary by comparison. Oh and that opening shot, that will forever be the best opening shot in cinema history. If Taylor has ambitions to direct his own film one day, this film is where the lesson begins. Here's that opening scene, all in one continuous take: https://youtu.be/Yg8MqjoFvy4


And that dear friends is my list of five films I would like to show Taylor :-)


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"All I want is fist bumps and hugs" - Taylor Lautner

Interesting choices. I love Point Break. If Taylor didn't have such a baby face, which I do like but it does kind of hinder him, I would have liked him to do the remake they did.