Movie-Blogger’s Most Wanted – Unsalted Popcorn
On our most recent adventure we jetted back over to the UK to beautiful Yorkshire to go and meet up with Kahn, who everyone will know as Unsalted Popcorn. Kahn took some time out from his busy schedule as the editor of New Pathways, a magazine from the charity MS-UK, to come and catch up with us over a pot of tea while we discussed many things including our shared love of comic books and movie adaptions, The Expendables 3 and the awful mess of Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Hi Kahn, we are very grateful you managed to take some time out of your schedule to catch up with us. We always enjoy reading your reviews and you have an excellent writing style. How long have you been writing movie reviews for?
I started as a music reviewer many years ago when I was working on regional newspapers, and then started work on a couple of music mags, Zero then Burn – if you’ve heard of them, well done! But started focusing on films properly at the start of 2013.
Sounds like an interesting ride, I think most people fall into writing movie reviews. Zero does ring a bell, although I have never read it, unfortunately.
So what made you decide to switch to movie reviews?
A few different things came together at the same time – first off, I’ve been listening to the excellent Mark Kermode for years. Through him I realised I’d started watching films differently. Then I had two years with a therapist (I thought I was coping with having MS quite well. I was wrong), which opened my eyes and brain to a more analytical way of thinking. Around the same time I started reading a lot of Hunter S Thompson, and that whole gonzo style of writing really struck a chord. Finally my then job became so dull I realised I needed a new outlet or I was going to go mad again.
Writing reviews gives a whole new outlet and the internet is a great place to showcase work. Plus it is an amazing excuse to watch more movies!
What is your favourite genre of movie?
Honestly don’t have one – I take every film on it’s merits. If pushed (and I’m guessing as you’ve asked the question, there’s at least a slight nudge) it would probably be the current raft of comic book adaptations as I’m a massive comic book fan. As someone who dabbles in stand-up I also like a good comedy, but they’ve been very thin on the ground lately.
Yeah, there has not been much in the way of comedies this year, however, the recent batch of comic book movies have been amazing. It is awesome that they are finally getting the recognition they deserve, Marvel have been pumping out hit after hit.
What was the last movie you saw?
At time of writing, The Expendables 3. But as soon as I’ve answered these questions and written that review it’ll be The Raid 2
We thought The Expendables 3 was a let down, however you are in for a treat with The Raid 2.
What are your top five movies?
These change all the time (and will almost certainly not correspond to the ‘favourite genre’ answer) but today, favourites of all time would include:
All Is Lost,
Y Tu Mama Tambien
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Like Crazy
Blazing Saddles
The Sting
Narrowing it down to five is tough. My top five from this year so far:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dallas Buyers Club
Blue Ruin
Calvary
These all jostling for position in my Top Ten of 2014. Yeah, I know that’s six…
Some excellent choices. Captain America was amazing, a brilliant movie, also Guardians of the Galaxy was also massive hit. And don’t get us started on Blazing Saddles, an absolute classic!
What are your worst five movies?
Bad movies don’t tend to stick in the memory, but I still feel the scars of Movie 43 and Transformers 4 (even though it was better than the previous two). Robin Hood Men In Tights was also pretty terrible, mainly because Mel Brooks is better than that. Mind you, it was better than Crowe’s attempt.
Transformers: Age of Extinction was a real let down. I don’t think anything can save that franchise now.
What do you do when your not watching movies?
Read, listen to music, watch telly, feed an army of cats and dogs, make more pots of tea and concentrate on my day job – ‘cos without that, I couldn’t afford the blog, podcast or cinema trips.
Well you sound pretty busy! But unfortunately day jobs are compulsory, even if wish wish they weren’t. But hey, they good thing is they make us look forward to pay day.
Describe yourself in three words
Lazy control freak
One thing I will never do is …..
Listen to Coldplay voluntarily
We are with you on this one.
If someone had to star in a biography about your life who would it be?
I’m the role Johnny Depp was born to play.
Yep, that could definitely be on the cards.
Where can we STALK you? (Facebook, Twitter, blog, any other sites you write for?)
You can find Unsalted Popcorn on Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Buzzsprout – and on Blogspot obviously. I also review pretty much everything I read at Goodreads. If you still want to find the actual me after that, I’m never far away from those places…
Kahn you have some awesome presence on the Internet!
Its been great catching up with you Kahn, and also fantastic to be back in the UK and drinking some real tea and enjoying some bad weather. Hopefully we will be able to catch up with you again sometime soon.
