Here’s a great video inspired by the Die Hard movies. I think this quote sums up the entire movies (Alan is the big-boned copper from the first two movies):
And we know what the basic gist is.
There ain’t no Alan, and it’s not Christmas.
We don’t know but we’re pretty sure that
John McClane kicks ass.
My Favourite Movie
I’m sure you’re all just dying to know, so in the interests of a good night’s sleep for all it’s The Matrix. I know, it’s not something worthy like The Killing Fields, arty like Lost In Translation, or even traditionally great like Citizen Kane. Good films all, but when I’m sat at home and have an unquantifiable need for something to watch, Keanu wins the day.
I was reminded of this today (yes I’m watching it now to cheer myself up after endless build problems) when I realized I hadn’t listened to the commentary track. I started it off, but switched it off after barely a minute – I’m sure it’s very good, but I was missing the film.
Oh, and for me it has one of the greatest lines certainly in an action film, on the roof of the office block where Morpheus is held prisoner: “Dodge this”. Man, I can already feel the testosterone flowing, and not just because of the vinyl jumpsuit.
Random Trivia
Just watching ’12 Monkeys’, during which Bruce Willis says “All I see are dead people”.
Wash
I tend to avoid these things, but hey, it’s Firefly/Serenity.
I am Wash (Ship Pilot)
| You are a pilot with a good if not silly sense of humor. You take pride in your collection of toys. You love your significant other.  |
Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test
Update: Apparently Serenity is the best Science Fiction film ever. And that’s from an official poll of people who don’t get out much, so you know it’s true.
I’ll see your bacon number and raise you…
..an Erdős–Bacon number. Paul Erdős was a mathematician who published some 1,500 papers with 509 different collaborators, in some way paralleling the prolific career of Kevin Bacon. As with the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game that gives actors a Bacon number according to the number of co-stars required to link them to Mr Bacon, published academics can be assigned an Erdős number.
Still with me? Then here’s the cool bit. There are a number of academics who have made small cameo appearances in movies, mostly in recognition of advice they have given. But there are a small number of ‘proper’ actors/actresses who have also co-authored academic papers. The two most notable are Natalie Portman and Danica McKellar. In case you’re stuck, McKellar was Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years. She was rather attractive then; in fact if you are male and currently aged between 30 and 40 I’d hazard that you either had a crush on her or you didn’t have a TV. And now…well let’s just say that it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, she’s smoking hot. She’s also the McKellar of the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem
