The third best gift

Scream theme!

This is the second of today's scream-related posts - you lucky pups! This image relates to one of the funniest moments in this year's Muppets movie - Walter receives some distressing news and screams for what seems like an eternity - distressing his brother in the process. Extending the joke out in this manner really tickled me and many of my fellow viewers but is only one of many great jokes in the film.

The Muppets (2011, dir: Bobin) is as much for adults as it is for kids with it's postmodern knowing glance at itself as a film. Plus, if you saw Bret McKenzie's posing at the 2012 Oscars (at which he received an award for his contribution to the film's music), you'll know there are some really funny guys behind the production!

Taking the ferry

Friends With Benefits (2011; dir: Gluck) - a recent DVD must - is full of self-referential, knowing nods to the cliches of traditional Hollywood rom-coms.

Just as Dylan and Jamie vow to stay "friends with benefits" and not develop feelings for one another, the film almost sets out to expose the flaws in the romantic movies we are used to, with their happy narrative resolutions which give no room for the heartache and fear that often accompany a relationship. But, naturally, by the end of the movie, the audience are praying that the couple get together just as much as they are.

In this lighthearted scene, Dylan and Jamie are getting intimate (shall we say) when Jamie lets out a shriek. Dylan immediately stops what he's doing until asked to continue, justifying it with a hilarious - and perhaps true - "What? When a woman screams it could be misconstrued!"

But the string in my leg's gone!

Double photo madness!

To celebrate my triumphant return to this blog, I thought I'd feature two photos. Also, you can't really have one without the other - it'd be a joke without the punchline, plus the slight change in expression on Sterling Hayden's face is priceless.

This is of course, the classic Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964; dir: Kubrick) and the stupidly amusing scene in which a fabulously-accented and acted Lionel Mandrake is trapped in the office of Jack Ripper as he slowly descends into madness. Here we learn of his fear of contamination, an anxiety that extends even into some, ahem, withdrawal from members of the opposite sex...

This film also taught me a good excuse to get out of doing anything - simply exclaim that the string in your leg's broken and you simply can't stand up...

(apologies for the quality, it really couldn't be helped)