A ROUND OF APPLAUSE

HITCH

Having just seen Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren in Hitchcock I have to admit that I left the cinema feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Portraying such a well known character like Hitchcock is clearly a tough task for any actor. Hitch himself of course was well known for appearing in his own movies but there have been surprisingly few portrayals of the great man. You would think that he would be easily mimicked as he was frequently on the small screen and cut a distinctive figure, but not so. Here are the faces of Hitchcock as played by others.

Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock

Homer Simpson as Alfred Hitchcock

Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock

Roger Ashton Griffith as Alfred Hitchcock

Raymond McNally as Alfred Hitchcock

The Man Himself

GOOD SEQUEL BAD SEQUEL

Sequels, Part twos, follow-ups, these are the films that viewers go to for more of the same. Some are the second half of the preceding movie, Godfather 2 for instance, some expand on the original, some do little more than reference the parent film. There is always great debate as to the value of the sequel yet we are drawn to them. When the first movie is of high quality it makes the sequel a poison chalice

Here’s ten of the best sequels to good movies

1. Bride of Frankenstein

2.Aliens

3. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

4. Die Hard 2: Die Harder

5. 28 Weeks Later

6. From Russia With Love

7. Airplane II: The Sequel

8. The Empire Strikes Back

9. Magnum Force

10. Carry On Nurse

…and some of the worst

1. Grease 2
2. More American Graffiti
3. Return To Oz
4. Beyond The Poseidon Adventure

5. Babe: Pig in the City

6. Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

7. Blues Brothers 2000

8.Clerks 2

9.The Sting 2

10. The Fly II

11. Candyman 2: Farewell To The Flesh

12. The Two Jakes

13. The Howling 2: Your sister is a Werewolf

14. Be Cool

15. Escape From LA

16. Staying Alive

17. The Great Escape 2: The Untold story

18. American Psycho II

19. S. Darko

20. Exorcist II: The Heretic

MY HIT LIST: THE OFFICE (Dunder Mifflin inc)

So I took it upon myself to watch seasons1-5 of The Office. I began on January 1st and finished on 25th January: that's a total of 100 episodes in 25 days. Phew! I am taking a pause before commencing seasons 6, 7 and 8.

I approached the Office, or as it's call here in the UK, The US Office with the expectation that it would be just another copy of a successful comedy format. The quality of series 1, 2 and the Christmas special of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's The Office set an extremely high bar so I started viewing with trepidation. I needn't have worried: its wonderful. 

The trials and tribulations of the staff of the Scranton Branch of Dunder Mifflin paper company make for some of the best entertainment of recent years. The standard of writing and performances are consistently high and guest directors such as Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams take the helm for the odd episode seamlessly confirming the quality of the regular directors.

The cast (the family if you like) consist of tremendous characters each given time and room to develop.

Michael Scott joins the pantheon of classic comedy characters whose comedic attributes and clod hopping sensibilities are underpinned by genuine pathos. The relationships are the heart of the office, in particular that of Pam and Jim whose ongoing  "will they won't they" storyline becomes something meaningful.

Dwight Shrute is the assistant to the regional manager whose loyalty to Scott is just one aspect of a obnoxious yet fascinating character. The other workers of the office develop over the seasons and we glimpse into their lives, but never too deeply.

The Office grows and develops over the seasons and becomes something more with each episode. Extremely funny but also genuinely moving at times. I personally, would put The Office right up there with the best of US Situation comedies like Frasier, Cheers, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. It really is that good.

I look forward to seeing how things unfold for the employees of Dunder Mifflin with great enthusiasm and, this time, with no trepidation at all.

Michael Scott's best quotes

15.) “I am Michael, and I am part English, Irish, German, and Scottish, sort of a virtual United Nations.”

14.) “Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and say, ‘Hey man, I love you this many dollars-worth.’” 

13.) “Nobody likes beets, Dwight. You should grow something everybody does like. You should grow candy.”

12.) “Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.”

11.) “I’m friends with everybody in this office. We’re all best friends. I love everybody here. But sometimes your best friends start coming into work late and start having dentist appointments that aren’t dentist appointments, and that is when it’s nice to let them know that you could beat them up.” 

10.) “Between the sheets, we were like Jordan and Pippen.”

9.) “Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for corporate, so he’s really not a part of our family. Also, he’s divorced, so he’s really not a part of his family.” 

8.) “Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”

7.) “You don’t call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards … when they’re acting retarded.”

6.) “You may look around and see two groups here: white collar, blue collar. But I don’t see it that way, and you know why not? Because I am collar-blind.”

5.) “I love babies. I think they are beautiful in all sorts of different ways. I try to pick up and hold a baby every day, if possible, because it nourishes me. It feeds my soul. Babies are drawn to me. And I think it’s because they see me as one of them. But … cooler and with my life put together a little bit more. If a baby were president, there would be no taxes. There would be no war.” 

4.) “My proudest moment here wasn’t when I increased profits by 17 percent, or cut expenditures without losing a single member of staff. No, no, no. It was a young Guatemalan guy, first job in the country, barely spoke a word of English, but he came to me and said, ‘Mr. Scott, will you be the godfather to my child?’ Didn’t work out in the end. We had to let him go. He sucked.”

3.) “You’ll notice, I didn’t have anybody being Arab. I thought that would be too explosive, uh, no pun intended. But I just thought, “too soon” for Arabs, maybe next year. You know, the ball’s in their court.”

2.) “Happy birthday, Jesus. Sorry your party is so lame!”

1.) “If I had a gun, with two bullets, and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice.”

Via http://haphappy.com/2011/04/27/15-funniest-michael-scott-quotes/

Michael-regional manager, motivator, inspirer, leader, comedian, lover, friend (his words) 

Jim-office good guy and king of pranks Pam-secretary who dreams of a better life/life partner

Angela- tightly wound cat and Christ lover with a secret, Dwight-Beet farmer and lateral thinker

Darryl-laid back wise man from the warehouse

Andrew-Buttoned down in every sense of the word

Ryan- from optimist to eternally deluded cynic

Stanley-crossword expert waiting for retirement

Roy-warehouse operative, fiancé

Charles-irritable trouble shooter

Creed-Office shirker supreme

Holly-self confessed dweeb and Michael's soul mate

David- Head honcho who rules with an iron palm 

Meredith-Alcoholic who's up for a liaison

Kelly-air headed Hindu

Jan-powerful career woman meets mad woman

Toby-HR man and Michael Scott nemesis

Karen-The one that Jim  gave away

Oscar -gay and prone to exasperation

Phylis-malleable mother figure

Kevin-Sloth like number cruncher

Further Viewing:

Actors from The Office have starred in movies also,most being standard fare however here's a selection of great smaller movies featuring members of the cast

Steve Carell-Dan In Real Life

Rainn Wilson-Super

John Krasinski-Away We Go

Amy Ryan- Win Win

Jenna Fischer-A Little Help