.
7: Kingsman: The Secret Service
I love “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” As a movie, it knows it’s a ridiculous spy flick and it even sometimes compares itself to Bond. Not to mention there’s a dog in the movie whose name has the initials “JB,” when the main character of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin is talking with Michael Caine’s character of Arthur, Arthur asked if the initials meant “James Bond,” which they didn’t. He also asked if they meant “Jason Bourne,” which also wasn’t the case. By the way, they mean “Jack Bauer.” It has obvious product placement in one scene, but in ways it can probably bring chuckles. One of my favorite scenes in the entire movie takes place in a church. Colin Firth’s character of Harry Hart is there, this church is full of people in a hate group. The antagonist of the film, Valentine, played by Samuel L. Jackson is planning on initiating a test associated with the SIM cards introduced in the film. Harry gets up out of his seat, he tries getting by one lady, and she wonders where he’s going and what his problem is. Hart responds by uttering this:
HARRY HART: “I’m a Catholic whore, currently enjoying congress out of wedlock with my black, Jewish boyfriend who works at a military abortion clinic. So hail Satan, and have a lovely afternoon, madam.”
This is basically going against the ideas of this specific church and the way this line is delivered is pure quality. How often have you always wanted to say to anyone in a hate group, it could be anything, “You’re wrong, I’m right, everyone deserves to be happy, have a fine day.”? Not to mention this sets up one of my favorite action sequences in movie history. Valentine initiates the test, and then literally everyone in the church starts killing each other. It’s well shot, well choreographed, and the music choice, otherwise known as “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd was a great pick for this scenario. If you haven’t seen this movie, I’ll remind you it’s not for everyone, but the church scene alone is a work of art. The cinematography and music, combined with the shock value in that scene is amazing. I honestly CANNOT wait for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” it’s gonna kill!
6: V For Vendetta
When it comes to some of my most recent discoveries throughout my movie watching experience, “V For Vendetta” is definitely up there with my favorites. This is a film that I bet some people don’t even realize is based on a DC Comics graphic novel. Maybe I’m wrong, but who knows really. There’s a lot I like about the movie, the characters, the effects, the story, the acting, and the score. Another thing that stood out to me is this quote near the end of the movie given by V, played by Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Captain America: The First Avenger).
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.
What I love about this quote is specifically the last sentence. Before the given quote, V is interacting with the character of Creedy, and by interacting I mean fighting. It’s V for himself against a bunch of other people trying to take him down. What makes the quote so lovable to me, given time to marinate, has not really too much to do with the character of V or even the film itself, it’s mainly about how one can take an idea, try to put it into action, and regardless of whether or not it works out, the idea itself will never go away. This even includes stupid ideas, and I’m not just saying that to make people feel better about a stupid idea.
5: Inception
I LOVE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN. He is one of my favorite directors of all time. He’s done some movies revered by many people such as “The Dark Knight,” “Memento,” and the movie I’m gonna be talking about here, “Inception.” There’s a lot of great moments in this film, from the first time Ariadne and Cobb are in a dream together, to the hotel hallway fight, and the AMAZING climax. I already mentioned Cobb is a character in this movie, in fact, he’s the lead character played by none other than Jack from “Titanic” himself, Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s another character in this movie who goes by the name of Mal, she’s played by Marion Cotillard, who eventually went on to play Miranda in “The Dark Knight Rises.” The two in this movie were once married, I won’t go into any further details than that, but that’s an important element during the film. Although let’s get into a quote which can associate with that. This quote is mentioned more than once throughout the picture, and here it is:?
As stated, this is not the only time it’s mentioned in the movie, but this is just one example. This is also mentioned during a scene towards the end of the film that’s pretty much a reversal of this. There’s also a time that Mal mentions it again that gets more haunting the more I think about it. What I love about this quote is how much it goes along with a motif that we witness during the movie. We start off the movie, Cobb is on a train, and he says “I don’t like trains.” Then we get this quote, which comes up again later, and we also have a scene where a locomotive is sliding through a city street, which by the way, sounds awesome on Blu-Ray. Not only that, but once again, I’ll mention, the quote itself is haunting, and that is during the time Mal is saying the quote and Cobb is shouting at her. The last time it’s stated, there’s actually a train in the frame as it’s being spoken. If you haven’t watched “Inception” I highly recommend it, one of the greatest movies ever made.
4: Whiplash
I know a lot of people have been talking about the movie “La La Land” which was directed by Damien Chazelle, but I feel that a lot of people are either forgetting about or just don’t know the work he did before that came out. To be more specific, the work I’m referring to is “Whiplash.” This movie’s about an aspiring drummer named Andrew Neimann, played by Miles Teller (Fantastic Four, Divergent), he goes to a school which is basically THE music school to attend, and he meets JK Simmons’s (Juno, Oz) character of Terence Fletcher. This is also the movie which gave JK Simmons his first Golden Globe, and his first Oscar, both of which in my book are amazingly beyond well deserved. I also have to give credit to how his character is written along with casting JK Simmons in the first place because not only was his character well written, this kind of seems like a role that only someone such as JK Simmons could really play. Think about it, JK Simmons has done more than one role playing someone arrogant or bossy. Just watch Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy or TBS’s “Men at Work.” This movie’s character, to me, feels like a tribute to JK Simmons. So what’s my favorite line from the character? Well, it’s this:
TERENCE FLETCHER: You are a worthless, friendless, faggot-lipped little piece of s*it whose mommy left daddy when she figured out he wasn’t Eugene O’Neill, and who is now weeping and slobbering all over my drum set like a f*cking nine-year old girl! So for the final, FATHER-F*CKING time, SAY IT LOUDER!
I bet some of you are wondering what the hell is happening when this line is coming out of this character’s mouth. Well, I’ll tell you. Terence is instructing the students to play a certain song, and they’re all playing it. Andrew is playing the drums, and Terence Fletcher keeps telling Andrew, in a polite tone, that he’s not playing the way he should. Then all of a sudden, no more interruptions are happening, but soon thereafter, Terence throws a chair at Andrew. Soon, they start getting into a rivalry with words. Andrew is just trying to cooperate and Terence is basically yelling at him! At one point, Andrew even starts tearing up, Terence is embarrassing Andrew in a way telling him to yell the fact that he’s upset, which he does multiple times. After saying it once more, the line shown above comes into play, and after Terence shouts “SAY IT LOUDER,” at the end, Terence says he’s upset one last time. The reason why I love this line so much is because it’s well acted, well written, and it shows how intense certain teachers can get. If you watch this movie, chances are you could relate to this line, because teachers like this exist. Terence sounds more like a drill sergeant as opposed to a jazz teacher. This is not even the only great line this movie has, Terence also gives a memorable line that I still think about today.
TERENCE FLETCHER: There’