This is my addition to one of the quintessential lists every movie reviewer should have whether they blog it or not.  As you’re probably aware, the idea behind Desert Island Movie lists is that you are in a hypothetical situation in which you are stranded on a desert island and can only watch a certain number of movies for the rest of your life.  What would they be?  In any case I threw in a book and an inanimate object courtesy of a fellow blogger’s take on the format.

Sounds… Plausible

1.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail

With two Python-heads for parents I essentially grew up with this movie, and I have seen it so much to the point where I can literally turn off the volume and quote the entire movie word for word.  Monty Python’s strange and silly style of humor might not be for everyone, but for me this is cinematic comfort food

Favorite Scene:  Impossible to pick, but I’ve got to go with the lobbing of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

2.  The Dark Knight

What can I say, I know it’s a popular choice but I’m not going to let my inner hipster prevent this movie’s popularity from giving it a well deserved spot on my list.  It’s hard for me to pick my favorite Nolan movie because they’re almost all equally amazing in their own ways, but I’d have to say that The Dark Knight would be the one I choose to bring to a desert island

Favorite Scene:  ”Wanna see a magic trick?”

3.  Anchorman

Will Ferrell has always been a wildcard for me, but this first collaboration of him and Funny-or-Die buddy Adam McKay remains the height of his career in my eyes.  Not intelligent in the slightest, but undoubtedly one of the most quotable movies of the past several decades.  To this day I find myself inventing curse words along the lines of “Great Odin’s Raven!” or “Son of a Bee-Sting!”

Favorite Scene:  The Newsman Gladiator fight, it truly did “Escalate quickly”

4.  Fight Club

Another fairly typical choice but this movie is what truly introduced me to stylized film making, and the twist near the end was one of the most genuinely surprising turn of events in any movie I’d seen at the time.  Aside from cementing Ed Norton as one of my favorite actors of all time, this also gave me a whole new respect for David Fincher after having previously only seen his disappointing Alien 3.

Favorite Scene:  The one man motivational seminar for the Asian shop clerk

5.  Hot Fuzz

You might be able to tell that I absolutely love british comedies, and as far as modern entries to the genre go I can’t think of a movie I enjoyed better than this.  Pegg and Frost play perfectly off each other and Edgar Wright’s in your face style of directing coupled with a fabulously tongue-in-cheek tone make this a joy to watch every single time for me.

Favorite Scene:  The entire shootout at the end of the movie.  Brilliant

6.  Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Of all of the trilogies I can think of, Lord is probably the most effectively capped off of all of them.  The word Epic describes this film in about every way, and any movie which manages to keep its audience riveted to the screen for (most of) its 200 minute run time easily deserves the record tying number of oscar wins the movie received.

Favorite Moment:  King Theoden’s Speech before the Charge of the Rohirrim “Deeeaaaatttthhhh!”

7.  Pulp Fiction

Again, hard to pick a favorite Tarantino movie but this is what really started it all for me.  Aside from putting Samuel L Jackson’s career on the fast track, this movie introduced the world to Tarantino’s manic transitions between amusing casual banter and extreme violence.  While a lot of his later movies showcased his style quite well, nothing quite equaled up to his true masterpiece.

Favorite Scene:  Any scene where Samuel L “Mothafuckin” Jackson quotes bible verses

8.  Office Space

This is another one of those movies I’ve seen a dozen times and still absolutely love it.  Mike Judge’s deadpan style of comedy and brilliant use of Gangsta Rap combined with great Zen-Slacker performance from Ron Livingston make this easily one of my favorite comedies of all time.

Favorite Scene:  Gotta be the beat down on the printer.  Damn it feels good be a gangsta

Book:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

So I’m not going to lie, I haven’t read a book all the way through since high school.  Do I feel culturally handicapped sometimes, yes.  Does it make me want to spend hours reading a book when there are already so many movies out there I haven’t seen?  No.  In any case, I’ve always been a major Potter Head and I firmly believe that this last book of the series is the best of them all.  Rowling did an excellent job of tying together aspects from each of the preceding books into one epic finale (which is even better when you hear Jim Dale get all excited sounding when he reads the audio book)

Favorite “Scene”:  Molly Weasley bringing down the pain on that bitch Bellatrix

Inanimate article:  Definitely my guitar.

Her name is Gabriella and she is a Jet Black acoustic electric Takamine, and being stranded on a desert island with here would be a lovely chance to catch up on some practicing.  Who knows, maybe  after three years or so I could be playing like her namesake from Rodrigo y Gabriella.  A guy can dream

There you have it, stay tuned for my review of Total Recall tomorrow and Happy Friday!

P.S. Here are some other Desert Island lists you should check out

Tyson Carter

The IPC

Sir Phobos