My Top Ten Alan Rickman Movies

I did My Top Ten David Bowie Songs last Thursday so this week I figured I better do My Top Ten Alan Rickman Movies. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the Harry Potter films (I far preferred the books) but Snape was a great character & Rickman was perfect in that role. As always with these actor Top Tens, though, I’m ranking these according to how much I like the film. Maybe someday I’ll do these based on the actors’ specific roles.

R.I.P. Alan Rickman (1946 – 2016)

Here are My Top Ten Alan Rickman Movies counting down to my favorite (I’ve seen exactly ten of his films! But I’ve counted the Harry Potters as one):

10. Alice In Wonderland

9. Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves

8. Love Actually

7. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

6. Dogma

5. Galaxy Quest

4. The Harry Potter Movies

3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

2. Sense And Sensibility

1. Die Hard

**This is a quick note to thank Luke of Oracle Of Film for once again running Fantasy Acting League, in which bloggers choose three actors & three actresses for the year and then earn points according to their starring roles and what star ratings are given to their movies by Empire magazine. You can see all of this year’s teams in Luke’s post HERE. I had a lot of fun with it last year (and came in at a very close second place!) so am looking forward to seeing how my team does this year. 🙂

My Choices:

Actors
Michael Shannon
J.K. Simmons
Woody Harrelson

Actresses
Rooney Mara
Teresa Palmer
Kristen Wiig

Help me win this year, Teresa Palmer!

Music Video Friday: Gwen Stefani, Tom Petty & Jefferson Airplane (An Alice In Wonderland Special)

Today’s music videos all have an Alice In Wonderland theme to them. Here’s my thought process:

While playing Just Dance with my daughter, I often choose What You Waiting For? by Gwen Stefani because I really like the song (but my favorite Just Dance routines are the ones for This Is Halloween and for Dynamite by Taio Cruz in case you want to know). 😉 So when I last played it, it got me thinking about the Gwen Stefani video and I decided that I’d do it for my Music Video Friday. But then I of course thought of Tom Petty’s very famous Alice In Wonderland-themed video for Don’t Come Around Here No More so it made sense to post them together.

I then went Googling shit as I clearly need a life and, holy hell, there have been soooo many Alice In Wonderland-themed things. It must be one of the most widely adapted stories ever (there was also an Aerosmith video that I’d never seen called Sunshine – video HERE). I was never big on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland (a bit too weird for me) but I can understand its appeal, especially to artists such as these.

Gwen Stefani’s What You Waiting For? video was directed by Francis Lawrence (director of The Hunger Games films Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1 & Part 2). I’ve always really liked a lot of Stefani’s songs (and have probably always kind of wanted to be her) and I think this song is one of her very best. I love the video’s style and am sure she had a lot of fun making it and getting to wear all the clothing by designer John Galliano:

Don’t Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers is more special to me as I’ll always love videos from the Eighties above all others and I saw this one many many times in my pre & early-teen years. I’d never have called myself a big Tom Petty fan but I did really like a few songs & this one was probably my favorite. This video was directed by Jeff Stein. Stein directed The Who documentary The Kids Are Alright and the videos for Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell, Heart’s These Dreams, and… Oh no…. Warrant’s Cherry Pie. No! Not Cherry fucking Pie!!! Ugh. Well, none of them beat the Tom Petty video, which is an all-time classic:

Finally, when doing my Googling, I was reminded of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, which uses Alice In Wonderland references in order to sing about druuuuuuuugs. I’ve always loved this song since I was a hippie druggie in my past life (before I was reincarnated as a boring 80’s kid) so I had to include it. Go ask Alice!:

Mondo Gallery to Host Full Disney Art Exhibit at SXSW

Mondo & Disney?! It’s like a dream come true for me! I cannot WAIT to see more artwork from this! This Alice In Wonderland piece by Ken Taylor is the only one we’re being shown for now. The following & poster are from this link: SlashFilm

Every year, the Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas hosts a massive art exhibit during South by Southwest but, this year they’ve outdone themselves. They’re teaming with Oh My Disney for a show called Nothing’s Impossible, and it’s all art based on Disney properties.

The show opens March 7 and remains open until March 11.

My Top Five Metallica Songs

In honor of Ryan Gosling’s Metallica – Ride The Lightning t-shirt in The Place Beyond The Pines (Good movie – read my review HERE), I thought I’d post my Top Five Metallica songs. I’d like to point out that I’ve mellowed out now. My metal days are over & I can’t say I’ve listened to Metallica much since about 1992. But I did love them at the time. Okay… I do admit that all of these are on my iPod so I may be fibbing a little.

1. Master Of Puppets
2. One
3. Fade To Black
4. Seek & Destroy
5. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Honorable Mentions:

Battery
The Thing That Should Not Be
For Whom The Bell Tolls

And I love these (more than some of those above) but figured they shouldn’t be in the top five as they’re covers:

The Small Hours
The Wait
Am I Evil?
Die, Die My Darling (yes I like the Misfits one)

Sexy Ryan Gosling rocking the metalhead look:

And in searching for the Ryan Gosling photo, I found this one. Ha! Ties in to my recent post about Disney Princesses, I guess. I’m digging Alice In Wonderland’s new look. I think all the Disney girls need to get themselves some tattoos & piercings.