Four of Them

Best Film (according to rottentomatoes.com): Slumdog Millionaire

Worst Film: The Beach

Favorite Film: Trainspotting

Least Favorite Film: The Beach

Favorite Actor(s): Ewan McGregor (3), Cillian Murphy (2), Robert Carlyle (2)

Films You've never Heard Of: Millions

Films You Can't Get Away From: Slumdog Millionaire

Most Underrated Film: A Life Less Ordinary

Most Overrated Film: Slumdog Millionaire

First Film: Shallow Grave

Last Film: Slumdog Millionaire

Next Film: '127 Hours'

Other Film(s): 28 Days/Weeks Later, Sunshine

Why: Here is, in my opinion, one of those directors that you will not immediately recognize if you were flipping through the stations. He does not have any immediately obvious trademarks. With a Tarantino film, you will see the cartoonish violence, excessive cursing, long conversations about nothing, non-linearness, angry, jive talking black men played by Samuel L. Jackson, badass women, and almost no actual sex. In a Scorsese film, you'll see angry dudes, rebellious attitudes, grittiness, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, sociopathy, and corupt authority figures. But with Boyle, he has no obviously distinguishing marks, aside from an everyman protaganist of sorts. For the longest time, I had seen almost all of his movies, but didn't know he made all of them. I later rewatched all of them, and saw the small nuances that made them his. Or something like that, I'm not getting into it.


Shallow Grave: A relatively straight thriller about the madness that ensues when three roommates come upon a suitcase of illicit money.

Notable For: Being Boyle's first feature-length movie.

Fun Facts: When it premiered at the Cannes Films Festival, three extra screens had to be set up to meet demands. Ewan McGregor's mother has a cameo as a prospective flatmate. And, Keith Allen is in both this and Trainspotting, both drug dealers, who Boyle implies is the same character.

Trainspotting: Follows the misadventures of a group of young junkies, headed by Renton (Ewan McGregor), who just wants to get clean.

Notable For: Unflinching, gritty look at drug addiction and urban poverty in Edinburgh, Scotland. Toilet-diving.

Fun Facts: For its American release, the first 20 minutes had to be re-dubbed to make the Scottish accents more intelligible. Irvine Welsh, author of the book, cameos as Renton's drug dealer. Senator Bob Dole through a bitch fit because he thought it glamorized drug use, later admitting to not actually seeing it. Kevin McKidd (Tommy) missed the photo shoot for the promos because he was on holiday. This resulted in him being the only lead cast member not to be in any of the promotional posters or even the video cover. So, now he's on Grey's Anatomy. Here.


A Life Less Ordinary: A janitor (Ewan McGregor) is replaced by a robot and takes his boss's daughter (Cameron Diaz) hostage. Two angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) who are in charge of human relationships on earth, offer help to bring the couple together.

Notable For: Boyle's first real flop.

Fun Facts: Starting with issue 1063 publishing date 7-oct-1997, the UK comic 2000AD printed an eight-part, 48-page, drawn strip adaptation of the movie. Scripted by David Bishop and drawn by Steve Yeowell, it met with a mixed reception from readers. First cover is posted under miscellaneous URLs.

The Beach: Twenty-something Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to Thailand and finds himself in possession of a strange map. Mind-fuckedness ensues.

Notable For: Sucking

Fun Facts: During filming, a boat accident endangered the life of several crew members, including Boyle and Leonardo DiCaprio. Danny Boyle originally wanted Ewan McGregor, but the studio cast DiCaprio before Boyle could do anything. While McGregor says he blames the studio, the two haven't spoken since. Aw.


28 Days Later: Almost a month after the Rage Virus wipes out Britain, four survivors struggle to live through the breakdown of society and the frothing Infected that skulk the abandoned streets.

Notable For: Being fucking terrifying.

Fun Facts: For the scenes in London, poilce would close the roads at 4am and filming would begin immediately. It would last for one hour, and at that time the police would reopen the roads. As well as having to deal with traffic, the producers also had to ask clubbers to find alternative routes home. In terms of the traffic, the producers correctly predicted that asking drivers to either wait for up to an hour or find another way might cause some considerable consternation. As such, they employed several extremely attractive young women (one of whom was Danny Boyle's daughter) to make the necessary requests. This plan had the desired results, as the drivers responded quite amicably to the young girls. Here.

Millions: A 7-year old (Alex Etel) finds a bag of Pounds just days before the currency is switched to Euros and learns what we are really made of.

Notable For: Hm...

Fun Facts: Hm...




28 Weeks Later: (producer only). After all the original Infected have starved to death, Britain is declared relatively safe and repopulated. Guess what happens. Go ahead.

Notable For: Being a good sequel, for once.

Fun Facts: A new day-for-night technique was created specifically for the film by director of photography Enrique Chediak. The very last scene was shot guerilla style, last minute, with only three crewmen and 12 local actors.


Sunshine: In 2057, with the Earth in peril from the dying Sun, a crew is sent to reignite it with a massive stellar bomb, a nuclear device with the equivalent mass of Manhattan Island.

Notable For: Using real science, international cast (though they all are required to speak English), avoiding comedy, sex, or romance, little to no makeup or music, basically making it as real an experience in space as possible. Being underappreciated.

Fun Facts: The name of physicist Robert Capa (Cillian Murphy) has been taken from photographer Robert Capa, made famous because of his legendary "Falling Soldier" photo, that depicted a falling soldier in the very moment of being killed by a bullet. As of 2009, this is the only movie where Fox Searchlight Pictures has their lead-in advertisement at the start of the film played backwards. Anything else involves spoilers.

Slumdog Millionaire: A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

Notable For: Winning a shitload of awards, 'Jai Ho', the child actors still living in the slums, among other money-related business.

Fun Facts: Mercedes-Benz asked that its logos be removed in scenes taking place in the slums. The company, according to Danny Boyle, did not want to be associated with the poverty-stricken area, fearing that that might taint its image. Was almost released straight-to-DVD.