There’s something fascinating about movie lists that seems to capture the attention of anyone who has even a passing interest in cinema — whether it’s an IGN countdown of the top 25 movie heroes of all time,  or goresite Bloody Disgusting compiling a roster of the top 25 slasher flick kills,   these kind of features are an ubiquitous presence on the internet.

I don’t know if the compilation of these kind of features is a futile attempt to bring some kind of  order to the cosmos,  a self-indulgent exercise in cinephile snobbery or in some cases a cynical attempt to generate traffic,  but these lists fire the imagination and provoke debate and derision in equal measures.

I too am currently compiling a definitive movie list for publication next January — armed with a Showcase Cinemas Insider card,  which allows me to preview all manner of cinematic atrocities that are deemed unmarketable by the industry,  my ‘worst romantic comedies of 2008′ countdown is already beginning to take shape.  By the time I preview the critically savaged Lady Godiva on Tuesday  I will already have my first and second placed entries jostling for position.

Ten Bad Dates with De Niro: A Book of Alternative Movie Lists offers a refreshing alternative to the endless catalogues of generic countdowns that you’ll find it hard to avoid on countless sites across the internet.  Compiled by Richard T. Kelly,  the author responsible for Alan Clarke (1998), The Name of this Book is Dogme 95 (2000), Sean Penn: His Life and Times (2004) and the novel Crusaders (2008),  the book is a collection of movie lists running the gauntlet from directors Steven Soderbergh, Mike Figgis and the Coen Brothers to critics Anne Billson and Ryan Gilbey.

To give you a flavour of the book I’ll simply run through a few of the lists included:

• Ten Films To Avoid On Medication (Or Within Reach Of A Cutlery Drawer)
• The Greatest Films Never Made - Ten Sadly Unrealised Masterworks
• Twisted Christopher - Ten Inimitable Walken Line-Readings
• The Ten Baddest Hair Days in Film
• Ten Angst-Ridden Piano-Playing Protagonists
• Capital Offences – Ten Places You Wouldn’t Expect To Find A Severed Head
• The Prying Dutchman - The Ten Most Gratuitous Uses Of Sex & Nudity In The Oeuvre Of Paul Verhoeven
• It’s Not Over ‘til We Say It’s Over – Ten Brave Uses Of Obselete Technology
• Deck The Halls With Bladeless Razors – Ten Christmas Movies To Save Us All From Satan’s Power
• Cinema Will Eat Itself: Loving Acts of Self-Reference.

This is a wonderful coffee table read,  and a book that I feel every cinephile should own.  Weighing in at 458 pages it’s something that will entertain,  educate and make even the most dedicated movie-goer scratch their head in confusion.  There’s not really an awful lot I can say about it beyond that,  other than urge you to go out and snap up a copy.  You won’t be disappointed.

Posted by Elgar in Books & Comics, Reviews • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg