filmfan's diary

This is pretty cool. If you like movies (films, really, but its a US-centric blog today) as much as I do you'll spend ages exploring the snazzy interactive thingy from The New York Times. They've plotted the box office takings of the films that were out in the last 22 years and its quite interesting to see what was popular at a particular time and how long it lasted. 

I found out about this at one of my new favourite haunts online - www.firstshowing.net . I'll try not to blog about everything they do, but I thought this was pretty fun.

Bits and pieces now.....

The BBC's movies section (oddly part of their Film section) is a great resource. I like the film diary, but the whole site is invaluable to a cinephile such as myself. Full of great interview, reviews and so on.

Obviously IMDb is like catnip to me. Its a time-sponge is what it is. I'm working my way through the Top 250, I'm almost a fifth of the way through. At the rate I'm going I might have seen them all before I'm 100. Mind you, it is updated so I might do better if I keep picking corkers like Juno and No Country For Old Men.

Not to be outdone, Channel 4 are great for movie stuff. Film4 the channel is free, which is great for me, and the related Facebook app. is quite good too. The website's Movie Rush is great for trailers, interviews etc. and the Box Office Top 10 bit at the bottom of the Cinema section is great for sorting the wheat from the chaff and cutting through the hype to find the films worth seeing.

The Guardian's film section is worth a look too. 

I am Legend is definitely worth your money. And i'm looking forward to Walk Hard (out Jan 18th), Cloverfield (out Feb 1st) and Juno (out Feb 8th) here's why I think those things.

I am Legend stars Will Smith as a scientist in the future. Not as far in the future as in I, Robot and without the robots. Instead its about the last man on Earth, and his fight to save humanity. 

Based on the book of the same name by Richard Matheson, its already been made into a film twice, with at least as many more attempts since it was first published in 1954.

This new version rocks. Its visual style and plot do lend itself to comparisons to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, so much so that the London-based film's release delayed this New York-based blockbuster, but this is a compliment. Watching one won't spoil the other, and when I am Legend is out on DVD, along with 28 Weeks Later, you could make one hell of a film night!

Will Smith is the film, so if you hate him (but how could you?) you'll hate this. But if you hate him for Fresh Prince, then worry not, because although funny in parts, I am Legend is about the tougher sides of humanity. Loneliness and loss. Despite this, you will scavenge something in deserted New York to love, you'd have to be a dummy not to.

Walk Hard is to musician biopics (Ray, and Walk The Line more specifically) what Anchorman was to TV News. At least i think it is. I haven't seen it yet but the trailer sold me before it had even finished. If you can't laugh at the prospect of Paul "It's called Sex Panther" Rudd (who was great in Knocked Up last year) as John Lennon then I can't help you. The best bit is that he's not even in the main cast, so the quality of the humour in the main story's gotta be high. 

If you're worried about music being belittled in Walk Hard then all i can say is - Jack White as Elvis

February kicks off with the latest film from J J Abrams, the mind, nay genius, behind Alias and Lost. The fact that it was only recently named Cloverfield, after a seemingly never-ending list of names were put to it, just proves the level of work thats gone into this movie. Add to that the massive online advertising campaign, which if you played along could take you from a Japanese drinks company to a will-they-won't they couple in New York, and you have a recipe for box office success. If you like the sound of this so far, take note that i haven't mentioned a single actor or anything like a plot yet. There are no majors stars in Cloverfield (but they will be stars soon enough) because J J didn't want you to be able to guess who'll survive. Which leads me to plot. Actually, the trailer does it better than I could, so click Cloverfield in the box on the right. 

Last but by no means least (which says A LOT) is Juno. This is being dubbed 'The Little Indie That Could' and 'The Next Little Miss Sunshine', but from the looks of the trailer and the surrounding buzz, Juno is anything but little. And despite the influence of über-evil media mogul Rupert Murdoch via indie-seeker Fox Searchlight, Juno has heart. That's the work of tonnes of people but the ones you'll hear of most are:

Ellen Page, as the eponymous, wisecracking teen - last seen in Hard Candy but more widely seen as Shadowcat in X-men 3 (to misquote Vinnie Jones' phallic foe "She's a juggernaut, bitch!")

Diablo Cody, Juno-scribe, ex-stripper and blogger-with-something-interesting-to-say, she is who to thank when you have another set of quotables to add to your pile from Walk Hard.

Jason Reitman, Director. He's the guy behing Thank You For Smoking and he's worked on two Arnie films (which ones? only the best ones. what Terminator? no, silly. Kindergarten cop and Twins - don't worry he wasn'...