What’s going on everybody? Today we have the long-awaited return of “Follow Fridays!” The blogging schedule has conspired against me turning my attention to these posts for a couple of months now, but if you thought I was going to be content to pass the torch to Bubbawheat, think again!
Today’s “Follow Fridays!” features Mark Walker’s “Marked Movies”. Mark is a blogger from Glasgow, Scotland, and he’s had his blog open since the beginning of this year. Since then he’s reviewed in the neighborhood of 250 movies. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. Click through to read more about it!
Mark’s site focuses primarily on reviews. He keeps them short and sweet… in his own words, “I try to keep my reviews concise as I’m aware that interest can be lost when someone chooses to waffle on.” (I’m going to have to keep an eye out for that myself, I wouldn’t want to waffle
) He doesn’t focus on movies from any set time frame, so he’s willing to put up reviews from any and every decade. In his first eight or so months of blogging, he’s reviewed numerous great movies, including such classics as ”Blade Runner“, “Goodfellas“, “On the Waterfront“, and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest“. He also turned his attention recently to one of my personal favorites, “Midnight Run“
His blog is also a great destination for some of the better “indie” fare out there… the things that here I might categorize in my “Under the Radar” category. He’s hit movies such as the “The Hunter“, “The Guard“, “Troll Hunter“ and “Exit Through the Gift Shop“, all of which were excellent selections for lesser known fare to report on for people. .
You can check out his top ten favorite movies here.
But he’s also run a series entitled “Let’s have a sit down”, where he takes two actors and squares them off against each other, using actual quotes from movies they’ve been in. To date, he’s done DeNiro vs Pacino, Jack Nicholson vs Samuel L Jackson, and George Clooney vs Tom Cruise. Each post in the series is essentially a collection of smack-talking quotes from the characters that the actors have played, volleying them back and forth in a loosely strung together fashion. It may not always hold together narratively, LOL, but they are ALWAYS hysterical to read. Check ‘em out!
All in all, Mark is an up and coming blogger with a great review “voice” and a burgeoning comedic series. I’m looking forward to seeing what he has to offer coming up, so be sure to check out Marked Movies by visiting http://mrmarakai.wordpress.com/ and follow him on Twitter as @MarkusMaraki!



Fogs! You are the man!!! Thanks very much for your very kind words and recommendation. I’ve had shout outs before but never to this extent. Can’t thank you enough bro. Cheers!
No problem, man. Trying to get this series back up in the air, and yours was long overdue.
Lookin good over there, keep up the good work!
I’ll do my best sir. I’ve got another “Sit-Down” in the works which might be the most outrageous yet. It’s taking some time but it will happen.
Nice shout out Fogs, and well deserved. Mark has been kind enough to share some of his reviews for my site, he does excellent work
I didn’t know you had done so many, impressive stuff dude!
Yeah, I think the 250 is about right. LOL. I tried to estimate.
He’s definitely highly prolific though, no matter how you get at it.
Theres me thinking you’d done your homework as well Fogs. I think it’s at about 305 reviews. But hey, who’s counting?
Thanks again bro.
OHHH wow. Sold you short?
I forget how I got at that number (I actually had this in motion last week at this time) – I couldnt just count categories, cause you put movies in multiple categories! Didnt make it easy, man! LOL
Not to worry. If truth be told, my older reviews are a bit lazily written and I wouldnt count them anyway. I’m just glad for the shout out.
If truth be told though, a lot of those reviews I had already done on Rotten Tomatoes which I transferred over to my blog. Speaking of which, I had a “Super Reviewer” status on that site until recently. They chose to revoke it because I, apparently, swear too fucking much. Go figure!
Does any of the transfer to your blog? Do you get any through traffic from contributing to RT like that?
No it wasn’t a direct transfer and I get no traffic from there. It was more a copy and paste thing, to give some consistency to my blog and I think I’m eventually going to dump RT. By taking away my status, they have made an enemy of me. LOL
Much deserved! I’ve not been blogging for long but Mark is always someone i look out for on my Reader, along with yourself of course Fogs
Good stuff.
Much appreciated Chris. Much appreciated. I too look out for Fogs’ stuff. There’s always a handful of blogs that jump out at you and this man is the proud owner of one of them.
Heh. Good stuff indeed.
Heck yeah!!! I LOVE Mark and not only ’cause he’s from the same town as my Gerry
Fogs thank you for highlighting such a well-deserving blog like Marked Movies, no doubt he’s a Super Reviewer on RT, wow, that’s a badge of honor. I should set up a swear jar for you though, like Abigail Breslin did for GB on the set of Nim’s Island. You Scots do swear too much!
Thanks a lot Ruth. You know I’ve always appreciated your support. I must correct you though… I WAS a super reviewer on RT. I’d had it a while but just found out yesterday that it’s been revoked. They did warn me but I refused to yield.
B*#%ards! And yes, my daughter is enjoying the idea of a swear jar too. Lol.
Foul-mouthed AND defiant, hmmm I wonder if I should revoke my support now, ahahahaha… What’s your daughter’s name? Yes, I’m with her about that swear jar, we should team up!
I am trying to stop it but sometimes when a film is so bad, swearing is a requirement to emphasise my feelings.
I’ve toned it down though.
I have two daughters – Willow & Bonnie but the wee one is too young to notice yet.
LOL. That’s funny. They told you and you were like screw it? Go ____ yourselves? Thats something to be proud of right there!
LOL. Something like that man. I edited a review that they dug me up for and then straight away, BANG! I hit them with another. Why compromise man? It’s my stuff and I’m not overly vulgar or anything. Gimme me a break, you know?
well played Mark, superblogger!
As long as there’s no capes.
[Edna Mode] NO CAPES! [/Edna Mode]
Ha, “that’s a new feature”
That reference is wasted on me. I really need to watch more superhero stuff I think.
The Incredibles
Aah! I remember it now. I may not be a massive fan of the genre but The Incredibles is class man. One of my favourites.
I guess prolific would be an understatement to say the least (250 in 7 months WOW). Nice highlight; it’s a fun follow. I enjoyed his Midnight Run writeup.
“Let me ask you somethin’.
Those sunglasses. Are those government-issued or
do all you guys go to the same store to get them?” Walsh (DeNiro), Midnight Run
“Get him outta here” – Agent Alonzo Mosley (Kotto), Midnight Run
!
LOVE that movie. LOVE it.
“Make yourself a sandwich, drink a glass of milk… Do some f#*kin’ thing.” – Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina).
No wonder you love that movie. I think every character IN it needs a “swear jar” LOL.
I love it though. Serrano’s a great villain. Farina’s finest hour, for sure!
“You and that other dummy better start getting more personally involved in your work, or I’m gonna stab you in the heart with a pencil. You got the message?”
LOL. Absolutely. “swear jars” all round.
You’re right though Farina is superb and never been better. For a film that has a fairly light heart, when he makes an appearance you realise there’s a real seriousness involved as well.
“Is this Moron number 1? Put Moron number 2 on the phone.”
Mark, I actually found your blog via RT. You were the only person I saw that hated on Titanic, when I was looking for some hate to quote on the film. I loved how you did not suffer fools gladly, when some jackass got his panties in a bunch about your review. I have been reading your stuff ever since
Nice choice Fogs
You were one of the first people to help me out and point me in the right direction Adam. Since then my blog has grown and a lot of that thanks is to yourself. I’m glad you stumbled upon me and I remember you mentioning my “super reviewer” status on RT when you gave me a link award. Like I mentioned in previous comments, they took my super reviewer status off me for swearing too much.
Oh, and that guy I had a little tete-a-tete with over Titanic never made an appearance again. LOL.
Well at least RT was good for something
Glad to see your site getting the recognition it deserves and that you are now officially on board at the LAMB.
No more glad than I am Adam. I can tell you sir. I started off really slowly with my blog but it’s definitely been picking up fast. Who needs RT and super reviewer nonsense, when the blogging world is so much more civilised.
Things like that tend to have an exponential curve to them. The pace of the growth increases as you go…
A well-deserved shout out. I really like Mark’s reviews, and more than a few films have made their way onto my “to see” list based on his recommendations. Plus, the “sit down” posts are hysterical.
I haven’t read too many of his reviews yet, but Let’s Have a Sit Down is really awesome. Glad to see a return of the original Follow Friday!
Heh. It was long overdue!
Glad you brought the series back my man.
Yeah, it was overdue, I didnt want to bench it intentionally, I just had things like Comic-Con, vacation, etc…
Pingback: Blog’s 1st Anniversary « MARKED MOVIES