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This placement is what really counts, these ones just didn’t make the top 3. Harsh, harsh but fair. The top 3 is crazy money, this stuff is just obviously wicked. Enjoy.

Top Ten Movies
4. The Big Lebowski - But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I feel like the cult status of this film has taken away from the fact that the script is just so bloody well written. It may have spawned hundreds of White Russian drinking bowlers, but I feel like the movie runs a lot deeper. This is the Coen Brothers doing Raymond Chandler, and I think they updated it and did it proud. The Coen Brothers are masters at nearly everything they attempt, and I feel that Miller’s Crossing is by far their greatest piece of cinema but Lebowski is my favourite. The dialogue is so tight and the structure of the movie so well thought out. Jeff Bridges is great, but he is supported by John Goodman on fine form, Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman holding it together and easily the greatest performance from Tara Reid ever committed to disc. There are so many laughs to be had here, but none of them cheap. You have to work for them, but all the hard work is already done, so just sit back and enjoy.

Top Ten TV Shows
4. Rescue Me
This show just speaks to me. Denis Leary as a fire fighter in New York. This could easily have been played for laughs, and it is bloody funny, but it also has some crazily real moments. The very first scene you see Leary dressing down some recruits, he’s stern, funny and intense all at the same time. A good intro, but then he gets into his truck and sees the ghost of his cousin, lost in the 9/11 attacks. This just sets the tone for the show perfectly. Throughout the seasons we see sex, swearing, fire and jokes. We also see friends who will do anything for each other, people who will do anything to feel something different, and situations that eventuate from people having done anything and now it all comes back to bite them. Cheating, drug addiction, rape, homosexuality and parenthood. It tackles pretty much any topic with a clear wit and sensibility that can only be found amongst people who are comfortable around each other. You don’t get people’s pretensions, you get them just getting by. It’s a very real show and every actor just marries the part. I am almost shocked to see this in at No 4, but then I just couldn’t knock it down, it is that good.

Top Ten Books
4. Matilda – Roald Dahl
The book that made my childhood had to make the top of the list somewhere. Roald Dahl shaped me as an early reader. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being an obvious starting point, but soon came witches, magic fingers, foxes, peaches and champions of the world. Then one day I was bought Matilda as a birthday present. I have read it dozens of times by now. It was the trusty standby that could get me through at any moment. I loved the situations, the characters and the way it was written, but mostly I loved Matilda. She was a character that I could understand. She was a character that I enjoyed spending time with. Through this book I came to appreciate reading great characters, and to put myself in the book, or its situations, with them. I think that this book first showed me that to be inside a book was the first step of a writer. I owe this book quite a lot.

Top Ten Comic Books
4. Sleeper
I cannot speak more about how good this book is. Not only is the idea unreal, a spy goes undercover, so deep undercover that only one person knows that he is actually not just a defector. Then that one person goes into a coma. But the twist is that he is a superhero spy and the evil organisation is the supervillain group; but this is all treated very seriously. The spy is stuck, stuck in a very evil organisation, with a very evil leader. So the spy has to try to keep himself safe, while mixing it up with an assorted cast of villainous scum. With names like Genocide Jones, Miss Misery, Triple-X Ray, The Nihilist and Turbine you just know it’s well written. Brubaker does a great job with the characters, and the dialogue just keeps it pumping along nicely. With only 4 trades this can easily be read in a short amount of time, and once you start you will want to know the ending, and the ending is pretty good.

Top Ten Songs
4. The Midnight Special – Creedence Clearwater Revival – But you better not complain boy, you get in trouble with the man
This song has the greatest sound ever. That opening is awesome, I get that a lot with my favourite songs, the opening has to rock the shit. But this one really does, it is so good! I love the lyrics, and the more I listened to them, over the years, the more I came to really get what it was all about. I see the people in the song, I hear what they want, but I know what will happen anyway. Not to mention this is awesome to belt out while driving along the highway at ten over the limit.

Only three to go, surprisingly the top 3 all pretty much fell into place on their own. It was 4 to 6 that was the killer, so at least that’s out of the way now. All downhill, the horizon is in sight. Giddy up!

Posted on March 20th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: books, comics, life, movies, music