I'll never understand why people fawn, or at least they used to, over Woody Allen. Michael Keaton is a criminally underutilized actor. Strategic Air Command is brilliant if only for the cinematography. I watched the first winner of Best Picture, 1927's Wings, when I was in high school. It's a silent film and I loved it. I loath the current trend of remakes. Roger Ebert said it best in that Hollywood should remake movies. But make what was once a terrible movie better. John Carpenter's The Thing is the perfect example.
Instead they redo Ben Hur. BEN BERKIN HUR!
Practical effects is one reason why the original Jurassic Park looks so good even today.
As for confessions there's a bunch I'm sure but one of the top of my head is In Time is a great movie and I love the working-for-time-instead-of-money thing. I even think the lead actor does a good job.....and it's Justin Timberlake somehow
Duke
MegaDork
8/10/21 11:38 a.m.
In reply to Appleseed :
Woody Allen made an handful of pretty funny movies. But just a handful, and nearly all of them early in his career.
Check out What's Up, Tiger Lily? if you have an hour or two to kill being stupidly entertained. It's like watching MST3k, except the comedians are actually in the movie.
Not entirely related but when I was a kid, maybe 10 years old, my parents had an album of Woody Allen doing stand up. I think they won it as a door prize or something, but I listened to that album over and over such that I can still remember some of the jokes. I think, like the album, the humour in his movies is from a different era
noddaz
UberDork
8/10/21 12:07 p.m.
I was born in 1962. If that matters.
I like most movies. Except for the gore for the sake of gore and slasher movies.
I have never seen Titanic. (Ship sinks, the end.)
I have never seen ET.
Thelma and Louise? Nope.
I have seen life of Pi.
I also have seen Monty Python's Life of Brian.
When I watch a movie I have pretty low standards. I need to be entertained. I don't need to be enlightened. I just need to be entertained.
Roll the credits.
I'm so happy I'm not the only one who hasn't seen The Godfather, or Jaws, or some of the other "Top 100" movies like you all mentioned. This opinion of mine won't shock anyone but... I'm close to never seeing a major mainstream picture again, only because everything now has to appeal to literally everyone, and thus getting something unique and interesting is difficult if not impossible sometimes. God bless types like Nicolas Cage, who show the B-side (kinda like gaming now that I think of it) is the only place were "new" stuff is being actively made.
Aside from Bane (4U) I agree that Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy isn't aging well. I feel like The Dark Knight gets by partially because of Ledger, but some of the messages Nolan espouses in those movies makes me pause.
Duke said:
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Very very much like that, except being a privately-run establishment, the owner could also get away with whatever he could get away with. About once a quarter they would have a 'rent party' and play mainstream porn for a couple of late nights. RHPS was a regular Saturday-midnight thing, with bikers providing security inside.
I miss The State. That place laid quite a foundation for who I am today.
Dude, I have so many similar stories! The was a local theater in the Midwest that was from like the ~1900s for vaudeville that would show cult classics and such and exposed me to the magic of The Room. My friends knew half the staff by name and one we paid our entrance (and their silence) in a case of beer so we could get ripped watching Tommy tell Denny "2's company but 3s a crowd!" when I was just out of high school. It's apart of a higher-class clientele now to surrvive (last update to it was in the 50s, it was not doing well internally) but they still do cult stuff, so sometimes I'm getting drunk and loud next to haute society.
Jay_W
SuperDork
8/10/21 12:38 p.m.
Fury Road was as jaw dropping a piece of film as I've ever seen, I'da paid good, good money to be on set watching. From a safe distance.
I was at the star wars world premiere as a kid, at the Mann Chinese. That said, Rogue One is the best starwarrs flick.
Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein will never, ever not be the greatest comedies of all time now and forever.
Independence Day sucked. And Con Air was so bad I walked outta the theater.
Duke
MegaDork
8/10/21 12:47 p.m.
- I don't get the Fury Road hype. I mean, it was OK to watch once, but it's nothing that Road Warrior didn't do better, first.
But I'm totally with you on both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
Beer Baron said:
The only two that really spring to mind as great horror movies in the past 20 years are 28 Days Later, and The Babadook. But those are pushing the envelopes of "horror" and are probably more "thriller".
Saw 28 Days Later in the theater. I'm not a big horror movie guy - they generally don't scare me - but when I was in college I went to see most well reviewed wide-release movies in the theater. I went by myself and was checking my voicemail as I was walking out. I absent-mindedly turned the wrong way and went out the back door of the theater - both the exit to the front and exit to the back were identically marked.
The theater was on the edge of town and backed up to woods. It was a nice summer night, just starting to get dark, and I realized what I had done as the door clicked shut behind me. It was about 75 yards in either direction to get around the corner of the building to the parking lot.
I made it about five calm steps before a branch snapped in the woods and I hauled ass. Thankfully nobody saw me.
It's that good, y'all.
Jay_W said:
Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein will never, ever not be the greatest comedies of all time now and forever.
I can piss everyone off by saying that I agree that Blazing Saddles is the funniest movie in existence, but I have repeatedly tried to watch Young Frankenstein and it barely makes me chuckle.
In reply to Duke :
I think what many of us love about Fury Road was it was a noticeable return to practical effects. After 15+ years of preposterous CGI it was refreshing yo not have to mentally shout at the screen OH THAT'S BULLE36 M3! every ten seconds.
Duke
MegaDork
8/10/21 1:09 p.m.
In reply to psteav (Forum Supporter) :
Nah, I get that. You have to have grown up with hours and hours of Saturday-afternoon vintage horror fests on UHF TV to have the proper fertilizers for Young Frankenstein grow on you.
Unpopular opinion: Monty Python and the Holy Grail is just terrible. Maybe 5 minutes of weird British humor dragged out over what, 4-5 hours?
I've tried, FSM knows I tried in college. I watched it straight, high, drunk, wide awake, sleepy, nothing improves it. Absolute garbage.
The only reason I am on this form at all is because of Fury Road and people whom claim its not as good as they thought are dead to me.
psteav (Forum Supporter) said:
I can piss everyone off by saying that I agree that Blazing Saddles is the funniest movie in existence, but I have repeatedly tried to watch Young Frankenstein and it barely makes me chuckle.
Same actually.
psteav (Forum Supporter) said:
Jay_W said:
Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein will never, ever not be the greatest comedies of all time now and forever.
I can piss everyone off by saying that I agree that Blazing Saddles is the funniest movie in existence, but I have repeatedly tried to watch Young Frankenstein and it barely makes me chuckle.
I love them both. Unfortunately, something like Blazing Saddles will never be made again.
I like every star wars movie made.
Young Frankenstein is fantastic.
I don't understand the Big Lebowski. It seems stupid to me.
Gravity was cinematically beautiful, but the most boring movie I've ever seen.
In reply to z31maniac :
Y'know, everyone says that. "Oh, you couldn't make Blazing Saddles today".
It's true...but it damn near didn't get made in 1974. Brooks had to fight tooth and nail to get Warner Brothers to get through production without it being neutered, and then it almost didn't get released. IIRC, the fact that they had Richard Pryor writing it meant they could eventually convince the suits that it was coming from the right place, and it really kinda is an equal opportunity offender.
j_tso
Reader
8/10/21 2:19 p.m.
A car chase does not make it a car movie. Bullitt and The French Connection have great chase scenes, but they are cop movies.
noddaz said:
When I watch a movie I have pretty low standards. I need to be entertained. I don't need to be enlightened. I just need to be entertained.
Roger that.
For some reason I haven't seen any of the Fast and Furious movies all the way through, just haven't got around to them. Maybe they need to sell something more than just cars. I love dumb spy-action flicks, with the Mission:Impossible movies being F&F James Bond.
Oh, and by the way, Airplane! is the funniest movie ever made.
slefain
PowerDork
8/10/21 2:54 p.m.
I speed watch movies, drives my wife nuts. I just jump from action scene to action scene.
I've only ever seen two F&F movies, even thought I interviewed (and wrote and article about) building all the cars for F&F 5.
Never seen Titanic, Hunger Games series, or any Harry Potter movies.
I will watch "Rango" every single time it comes on cable, and sometimes on-demand for giggles.
Duke said:
I'm not anti-Nolan. He's made some seriously great movies - Dunkirk, the aforementioned Memento, and even Inception. But he's also made some meandering, overwrought piles, too.
Indeed. I love the ones you mention, and will throw in "The Prestige", as well. But with "Tenet", I dunno. I think he's starting to do weird for the sake of weird, and he's too far up his own ass to know he's doing it.
bobzilla said:
I don't understand the Big Lebowski. It seems stupid to me.
Well, you know, that's just like, your opinion, man.
Duke
MegaDork
8/10/21 3:58 p.m.
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:
Duke said:
I'm not anti-Nolan. He's made some seriously great movies - Dunkirk, the aforementioned Memento, and even Inception. But he's also made some meandering, overwrought piles, too.
Indeed. I love the ones you mention, and will throw in "The Prestige", as well. But with "Tenet", I dunno. I think he's starting to do weird for the sake of weird, and he's too far up his own ass to know he's doing it.
Agreed, I forgot The Prestige, but it is excellent. Tenet was completely unfollowable, even leaving the time-travel bit out of it.
RevRico
UltimaDork
8/10/21 4:04 p.m.
There's never been a good spider man movie.
There, I said it.
I'm not a comic nerd, never really was into mainstream comic books as a kid, just taking them as action/hero movies, none of them have really been any good. Certainly not good enough to need so many of them.
z31maniac said:
bobzilla said:
I don't understand the Big Lebowski. It seems stupid to me.
Well, you know, that's just like, your opinion, man.
The only reason I skimmed to the end of Lebowski was because I wanted John Goodmans character to die horribly.