After reading some amazingly interesting facts from other bloggers including Alex at And So It Begins, Andy at The Film Emporium, Sati at Cinematic Corner, Sam at An Online Universe and the original idea from Stevee at Cinematic Paradox - I’ve decided to string together some facts about me. I hope you enjoy them, I really enjoyed writing it up!
-Time for a film – Alex Thomas
1. I never really got into movies until 2010. Before this year I probably saw 3-10 movies a year.
2. I blame this on my parents, who don’t really watch movies.
3. I’d say there were two major turning points that got me into film – the first was looking at IMDB’s Top 250 list one day when I was bored.
4. I think I had seen about 10 of them, and decided to (illegally) download Oldboy.
5. Oldboy was probably the first foreign film I’ve ever watched and is still one of my all time favourites.
6. I seem to love foreign films overall more then english speaking films.
7. Pan’s Labyrinth is probably my least liked foreign film, but I still really enjoyed it. (I haven’t seen that many I guess)
8. My top 2 films so far this year are both Foreign: The Raid and Cafe De Flore.
9. I still am undecided on what rating system to give to movies. I am currently using letter grades (A+ to D-)
10. The second major turning point was stumbling upon Brad and Laremy’s Podcast at Rope of Silicon. I still listen to the bi-weekly podcast. The movie discussion really excited me.
11. My favourite director is Christopher Nolan.
12. I love all 7 of his movies, giving an A- or better to each.
13. The Prestige is probably my all time favourite movie.
14. I watched it numerous times in 2007/08 when I had Foxtel.
15. I also watched Fracture multiple times around those years.
16. I had never seen a movie with Ryan Gosling until Drive.
17. At least that’s what I thought until I watched Fracture recently and realised it was him!
18. Ryan Gosling is probably my favourite Actor. He’s so diverse.
19. I also love Damon, Dicaprio, Hardy, Bale and recently Fassbender.
20. I only remember seeing two movies with my Dad at the cinema in my life: Wild Wild West and The Dark Knight.
21. After The Dark Knight I remember saying to Dad “How amazing was that!!!” – he said it was just ok.
22. The first movie I ever saw by myself was Avatar.
23. Before Avatar I remember having an argument with my Dad and storming off. I ended up at the cinema!
24. I love Superbad. I have never laughed so much in a cinema before.
25. Superbad is easily (easily!) my favourite Comedy ever.
26. I often cry in movies.
27. #26 has changed recently after seeing Benjamin Button. Every movie after that I seem to be lacking any emotion for lately.
28. I haven’t seen TRON but it is one of the few soundtracks I own. I used to love listening to it. I should probably see Tron soon.
29. One of the few films I hate with a passion is Sin City. I couldn’t get into it.
30. I haven’t really seen a Tarantino movie I’ve liked (eeeep)
31. Pulp Fiction was ok, Kill Bill 1 was decent and I haven’t really seen most of his others!
32. I also didn’t like Goodfellas. I felt it was a bit boring.
33. Martin Scorcese is a director I also don’t love.
34. I haven’t seen Casino or Raging Bull yet. Shutter Island is my favourite of his along with The Departed.
35. Taxi Driver kind of disappointed me too.
36. I’ve watched Drive 10 times, 3 in cinemas.
37. It’s so amazing. The visuals and the soundtrack are probably the best parts.
38. I listen to a few of the songs daily.
39. I have a lot of friends who hated Drive. It upsets me.
40. I have a few friends who love Drive. It makes me happy.
41. I only watched Star Wars Episodes 4-6 this year. I still have to watch 1-3.
42. I did see Episode 1 in cinemas as a kid. One of the few movies I remember seeing with my Mum.
43. I love Twitter!!!
44. Twitter has helped me find so many great movie blogs and people.
45. I love discussing movies, it’s probably the main reason I created my site in January this year.
46. I completed my IT Course at University last year (December) so had some time to spend on watching movies and creating the site.
47. I love ranking and comparing movies. My Top 50 of 2011 was so much fun and I can’t wait for this year’s because I’ll have seen way more movies.
48. I would create more lists but I’m trying to catch up on about 100 or so movies so I am more knowledgeable.
49. I’m very excited to write my ‘Ranking my favourite movies from Nolan/Fincher’ post over the next fortnight.
50. Fincher is definitely my 2nd most loved Director. Him and Nolan are far above the rest for me.
51. I try not to care if I don’t like a popular movie, actor or director. Can only go with your own taste.
52. Getting an invite to my first screening was so exciting and made me very happy.
53. The Raid was the first screening I went to. It was awesome. I recommend it to all my friends.
54. Inception was a movie that I absolutely adored the first time.
55. After watching it a 2nd time I found it a bit long.
56. I have 13 “A+” movies.
57. I have 13 “A” movies. (This is coincidental!)
58. I like a lot of movies but I find it hard to love many. These 26 would probably showcase my type of taste.
59. Only 3/26 of them are before 2000 and those are all in the 90′s (American Beauty, Leon: The Professional and The Usual Suspects)
60. I’m trying to watch a lot more movies from the 60s-80s. They often don’t live up to my pre hype expecations which is a shame.
61. The Alien quadrilogy did though and I wasn’t expecting them to. I loved ALL four of them (but the first two the best definitely)
62. I’m glad I watched them before Prometheus, which I also really enjoyed.
63. I love understanding and recognizing popular phrases and references more and more everyday. Movies are awesome.
64. I followed the Oscar’s really closely for the first time last year. None of my Top 10 were best picture nominated. I really wish Drive and Warrior got more praise but I know they are loved within the critic/internet communities.
65. I try to avoid trailers for movies I know I’m going to see.
66. It’s very hard as I still go to a lot of public cinemas to see movies.
67. Playing guess the trailer is always fun with mates, I always win though!
68. I now stay for the end-credits of a movie every time. It’s amazing how many post-credit scenes there are (maybe 25% of the time which is a large enough number for me!)
69. I don’t know if anyone else in the world stayed for the Battleship post credits sequence. It actually helped me decide between a C or C+ for it – was cool!
70. I try not to think about my movie rankings at all during the movie. But often if it’s average I’ll be thinking about it towards the end.
71. I’ve never been to a film festival but will be 100% attending The Melbourne International Film Festival this year.
72. Full time work is ruining my movie watching time, I took that for granted in Uni.
73. Lately I’ve been writing some stuff for the site at work. This is very naughty of me! 
74. My celebrity crush is Anna Kendrick. She’s amazing 
75. I will watch a movie if she is in it (although I haven’t seen any of the Twilight series)
76. Other actresses I like include Caery Mulligan, Chloe Moretz and Natalie Portman.
77. The best child performance I’ve seen was Natalie Portman in Leon.
78. I also thought the kid from The Shining was awesome. It’s the only movie he’s done and he didn’t know he was in a movie at the time. Still, was brilliant.
79. Alex Withrow‘s encouragement when I first created the site really encouraged me to keep doing it. I honestly don’t know if I’d have had the motivation to keep going after a couple of months.
80. Australian cinema is cool but I haven’t seen much of it.
81. Animal Kingdom is probably one of my favourites, helped due to the fact I recognized so many of the locations. One scene was filmed at the bowling alley about 3 minutes walk from my Dad’s house. I loved that.
82. I remember liking The Castle but need to see it again to refresh my memory.
83. While some don’t like Rebel Wilson, I am a big fan. When I was an immature teen I loved her on The Wedge so it’s great to see her in so many Hollywood movies recently.
84. Julian, Cameron and Andy really helped point me in the right direction when I got started so a big thanks to them.
85. I find my love for movies growing stronger by the day. There used to be days I wasn’t interested in watching a film, but now I’m the opposite.
86. I often find terrible excuses to not go out on a Friday/Saturday night so I can stay home and watch movies.
87. I am basically obsessed with AFL (Australian Rules Football) and thus any movie with any mention of it becomes likeable to me. Funny People had a scene with some footy in it and I was stoked!
88. I tweet ‘celebrities’ or footy players movie suggestions when they ask for opinions. Sometimes they reply and thank me. Again, I love Twitter!
89. Helping others see great movies is awesome. I love being asked for recommendations from friends.
90. I think my taste has developed greatly over the last year. Not sure I would have liked Drive in the 00′s.
91. I don’t think I like Romance movies, but Like Crazy was so real and deep. I think the ending is what made me really enjoy it, not your typical ending.
92. I still am undecided on whether to list movies as ‘The Bourne Identity’ or ‘Bourne Identity, The’. It’s something that’s on my mind more often then it should be.
93. I love hearing Michael Caine’s voice. I think it’s why I love The Prestige so much.
94. I think my favourited animated movie is Wall-E. Although I loved Monsters Inc and need to see it again and give it a rating.
95. I found a Grade 6 time capsule where I picked my ‘favourite movies’ the other day. It included Bad Boys and American Pie. I thought Bad Boys 2 was awesome and was devastated to see it have such poor ratings when I looked it up the other day.
96. I have a current watchlist on imdb of ~60 movies. This has been trimmed down significantly.
97. I’m hoping there will come a time where I am content with the amount of movies I’ve seen. It probably won’t be for a while.
98. I bought a Blu-Ray player last Friday. I decided I needed one after winning a copy of Arriety (thanks Matt).
99. I am anticipating The Dark Knight Rises more then I have ever anticipated a movie before. I cannot wait. Less then a month!
100. I’m also excited for Killing Them Softly, Only God Forgives, Looper and Cosmopolis.
Thanks for reading. I really enjoyed writing this!
The Square is the most underrated Aussie movie of my time, and Look Both Ways has great heart, but may not get a lot of mentions.
It’s always hard to nail down favourite movies of all time in order, but in the conversation for me in no particular order and for a variety of reasons are: LA Confidential, The Departed, The Rock, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Wedding Crashers, The Fugitive, A Few Good Men, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Pride and Prejudice.
I’m sure I’ve left several out, as well as some you’ve already mentioned.
As a Bale fan I’m sure you’ve seen 3:10 To Yuma, but if not, make sure it’s on your short list too.
I will have to see The Square Cam! Look Both Ways is a movie I had to study for in Year 12 English, so I enjoyed it the first time and then had to over-analyse to pieces.
Cheers for the suggestions, I’ve only seen a few of them so definitely have a lot more catching up to do. I also haven’t seen that Bale movie embarrassingly
No worries. 3:10 is one of the forgotten, underrated classics, great pairing of Bale and Crowe, two of the best.
You need to watch 3:10 to Yuma, such a great movie.
Oldboy was one of the first foreign movies I ever watched either, I am trying to watch more and more of them now, they are always so different to typical hollywood movies.
DRIVE!!!!!
Just got it on bluray, was waiting for it to come down in price, no way am I pay $35 for it in store, love cranking “Tick of the Clock” to make everything feel intense.
We are so similar with our movie taste hey!? Love that Tick of the Clock song, both perfect for the movie but perfect for real life too!
So glad you did one of these!
1. Better later than never!
6. Yup.
9. That’s what I do… works for me.
13. Nice! Excellent flick.
32-36. Ouch.
74. Oh, I love her.
79. This was really nice of you… Glad I could help, just keep on going brother!
85. They grow on you, they really do.
88. I love that too! Who’s the person you were most excited about receiving a tweet from?
95. Bad Boys is the shit. Still love that movie. Mike… LOWERY!
99. It’s gonna rock.
I knew I would offend many with 32-35! Might grow to love them over time.
#79 – You are more then welcome!
#88 – There’s a few footy players mainly. Probably Rebel Wilson was the most ‘famous’ haha. One of The American Pie Reunion Director’s Retweeted my review which was cool. Yourself?
#95 – I have to watch them again. Hard to give a rating when I saw it in my pre-teens.
Cannot wait for Dark Knight Rises, just watched The Dark Knight again!
Man, I have been crazy fortunate on Twitter, in terms of celebs tweeting me back. Edward Burns telling me how much he enjoyed my Newlyweds review was remarkable. But it’s gotta be when Elias Koteas tweeted me randomly after I featured him on my blog. I didn’t even tweet him first. I was stunned for days on that one. Love twitter!
Bale has been my favourite actor for years now, my top 10 performances of his are below.
1. American Psycho
2. The Machinest
3. The Fighter
4. Rescue Dawn
5. Empire Of The Sun
6. Public Enemies
7. Batman Begins
8. The Prestige
9. The Dark Knight
10. Harsh Times
His role in the Machinist was awesome. Such dedication to lose all the weight just for the movie too. I still have to see American Psycho as well as #4, #5, #6 and #10 on your list!
Considering you started really getting into films quite recently, you’re doing pretty well! I love that you love Gosling, and also that you didn’t realise it was him in ‘Fracture’. He is pretty damn creepy in some roles. Never feel bad for staying in and watching movies – its the best relaxation at the end of the week. I’ll hopefully be down for a few days of MIFF, so see you then!
Thanks Sam! How can anyone not love Gosling hey? Looking forward to hopefully meeting heaps of people around MIFF time, already working on taking some time off work for it.
Awesome list! I’m waiting for Killing them Softly too, maybe Brad Pitt will finally win his Oscar for this one.
I love Twitter too though lately it doesn’t work all the time, which is annoying because it usually happens when I have something cool to tweet.
Initially I too was upset Drive got so little love during Oscars but the film has such a big following I think it is the thing that will make it into cult classic and truly revered movie.
I didn’t realise Pitt hasn’t won an Oscar yet, how crazy. He definitely deserves one.
I’m hoping in years to come Drive will be the movie remembered from 2011. I really can’t vision it being anything else (I guess Tree of Life, but that wasn’t a movie I loved)
Twitter is amazing, isn’t it? So good to catch up and chat with blogging peeps, even when I don’t have much time to blog.
My parents aren’t major cinephiles either, but I do owe my love of Star Wars to Dad! I grew up watching 4, 5 and 6!
Alex, Andy, Sati and Sam are all da bomb!
Great list!
So many great minds on Twitter. Love hearing about new release movies so quickly as well as classics!
I still have to catch up on Episodes 1-3 sometime in the next month!
Thanks Ruth
Great post! I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog. I really like Tarantino, and I couldn’t get into Inception. That’s one of the things I love about movie and book blogging — we all have different opinions and reactions.
Congratulations on graduating from the university, though I know what you mean about full time work interfering with your movie viewing. 
Your blog looks terrific, by the way. I love the layout and header.
Thans Stephanie! Yeah I agree 100%, it’s so cool that a movie can leave so many polarizing opinions, and also that even people you usually agree with can have varying thoughts on movies. It’s good getting a job and all but yeah I wish I could be at home watching movies sometimes
Hey Alex, very interesting post, I need to get around to doing one of these lists soon. You mentioned getting invites to screenings, how did you manage this? Can bloggers be classed as Press here in Oz? Enjoy MIFF, I can’t make it this year but will be going to the Canberra Film Festival in October.
Cheers
Will
I’ve shot you an email Will. I think after MIFF I will have a new found love for festivals, might be going interstate a lot more!
Thanks for stopping by Will