BS: movies you're supposed to like

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 08:46 PM

Inspiring movie--Lorenzo's Oil. If parents can go so far for a child, and Nick Nolte can win me over in a movie, anything is possible.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 08:42 PM

I like Austin Powers all right, I generally like Mike Myers. Unlike other SNL alumni, he can keep a straight face, or a crooked face, or any sort of weird grin, under any circumstances, he's good, and I think a real humorist. I tend to like certain short bits better than the extended movies. Guess I like short comedy pieces. I'll have to look for the Live Python, I've never heard of it.

I really didn't like David Lynch's Wild At Heart, but even that had a few okay things--like Harry Dean Stanton sympathetically growling with a pack of wolves on the nature channel--like a Far Side cartoon of a guy watching sports. Aaaahg! and, YES!

   Another great line in Blue Velvet when Kyle McLaughlin was standing with the nude and battered Rosellini on the front lawn. Couple of guys from school in a car on the street stop and throw out a comment. Who's that--your mom?

   Been trying to think of a teen movie I could defend. Um. Anyway. The documentary Dogtown and Z Boys fascinated me, although I've never skateboarded, and don't care anything about it. Ghostworld is the closest I can get. The art class was my favorite part. A friend of mine saw it with a Japanese audience, and they didn't laugh at the any of the instructor's remarks, but howled over the students' drawings. Go figure.

   Sometimes offensive comedy is like when Jerry Seinfeld went to talk to a priest about the dentist who became Jewish for the jokes. The priest says And that offends you as a Jew? Jerry says It offends me as a comedian. I get offended by movies that make hard things seem easy. I don't mean over-the-top musicals in which everything glides effortlessly in a frictionless world, but things that portend to relate to real lives. We're all handicapped people, is what I think. So I like things like Raging Bull, and Camille Claudel--things that consider what it costs you sometimes to try really hard. I liked Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian" documentary, for that humility.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 08:30 PM

Funnest: Support Your Local Sherriff

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 07:41 PM

Wouldn't even give them the time of day, LH!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 05:06 PM

Hmm. Well, I guess there's no explaining these things, Kat. How about those silly Austin Powers movies? My initial reaction to them was quite negative, but then I all of a sudden switched around and started really enjoying them for some reason.

"Crikey! I've lost my mojo!" I like 'em because they are so utterly silly, they know it, and Austin has a sort of innocent exuberance that's really rather likeable. He's a happy sort of bloke.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Beccy
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 04:16 PM

Have all you other Python fans seen "Live at the Hollywood Bowl"?
I LOVED that one!
Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 02:54 AM

sexiest - at least two come to mind: an Argentine one called "Tango" and "Tattoo" with Bruce Dern, which has a very scarey edge to it, too.

Poignant and sad: "Always" with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss and "Ghost" with Patrick Swayze (who also made it qualify as pretty sexy, too!)

LOVED Brannagh's Henry V!!

Not sure what it was about a Fish Called Wanda, LH. It hit me wrong from the beginning; I think I only watched about 15 minutes before I got up and left. I was expecting to like it because of the actors.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 06:55 PM

Kim C, I didn't mean to disparage Blazing Saddles, although I don't really know how to enjoy it. The pace is odd, slow, the jokes knock and wipe their feet before entering. The racial terms seem at best un-necesary to the do the jokes. I wanted suggest that it's a little unfair to lump newer risky comedies that might easily offend someone. It's nothing new, or peculiar to movies that young people tend to like. Or maybe I like the newer stuff better, but who the hell am I, anyway. I'm afraid I find very awful things pretty funny. I thought Adaptation was hilarious. Storytelling is a serious movie in many ways, but it's also a scream.

   I liked Raising Arizona quite a bit. Did I mention I like Holly Hunter? I like Holly Hunter.

   I always enjoyed the python show more than the movies. The show seemed more exhuberant, not having to tie things together, and when it went on too long the foot would come down. I missed the foot, in the movies.

   I don't usually think movies about sexy stuff are very sexy. Some of the old rock and roll dance footage is pretty sexy to me, it's so sweet, physical, silly, and fun.

   Raging Bull is my wife's saddest movie, I proudly relate. It could be mine. But Camille Claudel is up there to. Death of a Salesman. There are some good ones.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 05:40 PM

Oh, Amergin! That ain't why I cried during The Patriot! ;-)

Can't wait to see Pirates of the Caribbean. I love Johnny Depp.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 03:05 PM

kim...i cried the way through the patriot too....was bored to tears...

as for funniest movie...well it would be life of brian....or dr strangelove....or the toxic avenger....

sexiest....behind the green door...BG...seriously....i would probably say an affair to remember...and indiscreet....

saddest movie...I would probably have to say Titus...with Anthony Hopkins and Angus MacFadyen....or This Is My Father...with Aidan Quinn...

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,Desdemona at work
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 02:31 PM

The anachronistic weaponry was the LEAST of the historical accuracies in "Braveheart": they've got a man carrying on with a French princess
(whom he'd never have had a snowball in hell's chance of laying eyes on in any case) who didn't even arrive in England until 6 yaers after he'd been drawn & quartered, besides the point that while Edward II definitely fancied his male favourites, he still went both ways, as he & Isabella (the "She-Wolf of France", as she came to be known after she & her lover had her husband murdered with a hot poker up his bum---NICE) went on to have 4 children, including the extremely war-like Edward III, who was Edward I all over again. Rubbish.

Movies I really, really like tend to be the ones with their tongues firmly in cheek---"Young Frankenstein", "Monty Python & The Holy Grail", "This Is Spinal Tap", even "Shakespeare In Love", which was excellent. Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V" and "Much Ado About Nothing" were great fun. I can also go for a really well-made romantic comedy like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" or "When Harry Met Sally"...I don't generally look to the cinema to "elevate" or "enlighten" me these days, but more for a bit of fun.

Saw "Pirates of the Caribbean" last night---very campy & over-the-top; Johnny Depp's pirate interpretation (apparently based almost entirely on Keith Richards---manner, accent, fashion sense, the lot) is well worth the price of admission!

D.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 01:49 PM

Funniest? A Fish Called Wanda. Sexiest? Body Heat. Saddest? I don't know...I tend to avoid really sad movies, I guess.

Cat Ballou was really neat, all right.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 01:41 PM

Funniest movie - Cat Ballou. The scene with the horse is yet unmatched, as is the scene with the coffin. Lee Marvin was wonderful.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 11:54 AM

I think Raising Arizona is probably one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

Sexy - well, the movie isn't sexy really, but I thought the scene in Out of Africa where Redford washes Streep's hair was pretty good. Don't underestimate the value of the simple & mundane.

Sad - hmm....... I cried all the way through The Patriot, and didn't stop till after I got home. Mister bought the video but I have refused to watch it again.

Blazing Saddles is a great movie because it makes stereotypes look totally ridiculous. Notice, the Sheriff is the ONLY person in the whole story who has any sense at all - and it's his savvy that makes everyone else look completely stupid.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 11:43 AM

Funniest movie: Monty Python I
Sexiest movie: Vertigo (James Stewart undresses Kim Novak while she is probably pretending to be unconscious, but we don't know that, and never learn the truth. He is driven mad by unrequited passion and guilt. He makes love to another woman who he has transformed into the first woman, his ideal woman, the woman he has dreamed about, and lost).
Saddest movie: Vertigo (James Stewart sees the woman he loves fall to her death twice, and he believes himself to be responsible for it, twice. He is driven mad by unrequited passion and guilt. He makes love to another woman who he has transformed into the first woman, his ideal woman, the woman he has dreamed about and lost).

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 10:34 AM

Well, I didn't mean I took Something About Mary that way, particularly, although it may have something like that in it. I just meant that Diaz looks exactly like those girls I went to high school with, and she does the whole repetoire of girly facial primpings and dirndlings, like a prissy school-kid.

   It's an interesting problem with comedy. Some people seem perpetually opposed to Aristotle's basic idea that comedy is generally about characters who are worse than average, and seem to think stories about role models would be funnier. I don't mean anybody here, but you run into people like that. I sometimes think that making fun of people, in the right way, is really friendlier and more inclusive than insisting on everyone's immaculate dignity. But striking the right tone for everyone seems out of reach. Of the three questions
      What's the funniest movie you've seen?
      ...the sexiest?
      ...the saddest?

--the last one is the easy one for me. Movies do pretty well with sad. On paper Gogol's General Inspector might be my Funniest play, but I don't know about movies. The Gods Must Be Crazy seems to appeal pretty broadly. "Inspiring" is hard too--most Inspirational movies seem depressing.

    I tried to watch Blazing Saddles the other night. Yow. The racial language, the rape jokes, the bikini babes, the Gene Wilder. But I suppose if I liked the jokes, was in the general spirit of it, the sheer audacity of using such language, of riffing on slurs in a put-on way, and of hiring Gene Wilder as an actor, would heighten it. I really don't know. It reminded me of a Rat-pack joke I heard as a kid maybe 30 years ago, that isn't even a joke, but it was actually told, and people dutifully laughed. "Why do they call it a bikini? Because that's where they dropped the atom bomb"--just thinking of it gives me an electric charge of disgust, like stepping on a slug. It's so fascinatingly absurdly horrible.

   Best I can make out, comedy strays from humor because people dutifully laugh when you tickle them in places where they have some tension, or you nudge them to congratulate themselves for getting something, and so it looks as though something is actually funny. My wife does this thing at plays, she just laughs when something is funny--not at the designated kodak-picture-spots where you are supposed to laugh to show that you got that reference to the philosophy of Kant, or whatever--and then the audience laughs a beat after her. Comedy has a seedy, gross, social-group dynamic. It seems a little easy to pick on the teens about that.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Peter T.
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 05:01 PM

Interesting remarks about Cameron Diaz -- I hadn't thought about the film as a projection of the male (or female?) hostility towards the most popular girl in school, and the cruelty of the gods towards lesser mortals. It does make sense (and of course all the dopy men get punished in the end, but one, so the goddess wins after all). The dog bit out the window is funny, beautifully timed, but of course one saw it a hundred times replayed before one actually got to see the film. I think you have to have a cruel streak to find much of the rest of the film funny, there is something debasing about it -- probably because the audience is made to be complicit.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 04:42 PM

My parents somehow made the mistake of going to see "There's Something About Mary" at the theatre...and they were so disgusted that they haven't gone to a movie since! :-) What a tribute to the marketing brilliance of Hollywood...

Hey, Kat, I thought "A Fish Called Wanda" was the funniest movie I ever saw in my life, and have happily re-viewed it on 5 or 6 occasions since! Gosh, makes ya wonder, eh? Are you deeply offended by jokes involving a stutterer or was it something else? If so, rest easy, cos no one would dare do that anymore, except in a teen exploitation film where they dare to do much worse things (and in a totally mean-minded and moronic fashion, too). I despise the political correctness of the present age, which preaches tolerance and non-prejudice (in the form of enforced conformity) out of one side of its mouth and markets astounding vulgarity and violence out of the other side without blinking an eye.

It isn't what you show on the screen that matters...it's the spirit in which you show it. And boy, is there ever a crass spirit out there making a lot of movies these days.

As for "Blair Witch Project", well, that was kind of like paying to have a low-level migraine headache. Fortunately, I saw it for free. Still, I really think that the people who made it owe me a few bucks for the wasted time... :-) Be advised that it has also spawned (according to what I've read) two...count 'em, two...of the poorest computer games of ALL TIME!!!! YAYYYYY!!!! (picture Kermit the Frog waving his little greeen arms frantically in the air...)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 04:20 PM

I went to college with Something About Mary's brother, Earl Brown, and still remember how excited he was when he told us he'd been accepted at Second City. I thought some of it was pretty funny--defibulating the dog, an absurd varitaion of the ball-off-the-balcony story Truman Capote liked to tell.

   Is Cameron Diaz really the image of innocence? She seems to really enjoy doing smut humor, that wiggly dance she always does, and likeably will try to sing even though she utterly can't. She seems to me more like a perfect clown-face of the high-school popular girl, with that streak of wide-grinning cruelty they had toward the others.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 01:18 PM

Beccy you are just going to *love* Adaptation.

On a minor note I believe the comments about sundance awards, but I know they do not apply to Two Family House which is an entirely unpretentious and satisfying little filmette.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Peter T.
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 09:22 AM

Speaking of horror films, "There's Something About Mary" must be one of the weirder films ever made -- it certainly spawned a whole generation of monsters, whose end is not in sight. I finally saw it a month ago, and it had a sort of weird fascination -- it was in such appalling taste, and yet had the kind of sheen of a big budget film. It obviously broke some barriers that didn't need breaking: we get to laugh at the disabled, naked old women, people with AIDS, watch someone masturbating, etc. It is only held together by the sheer fascination of watching the epitome of the image of beautiful innocence, Cameron Diaz, surrounded by total sleaze, and every once in awhile having her say things like "I'm fucking with you, Ted," as if the directors decided we would like the image of a goddess smeared with horse manure. It is certainly weird. I suppose if you were sixteen it would also be incredibly daring and funny (at least when it came out). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 09:09 AM

I don't usually like gangsta movies, but boyz in the hood isn't really, and I liked it a lot. It came out about when... um--was it Grand Canyon? What was the movie that Steve Martin and Kevin Kline, and everyone catalogued yuppie fears and worries and pretended to present some sort of universal insight? Anyway, that one.

   By contrast Boyz in The Hood seemed a little flawed in the opposite way, by fitting a big picture in too small a frame. It's a good movie about the world.

I thought Sixth Sense was pretty darn good. Then The Others came too quick on it's heels, spoiled the twist for me.

I liked Flirting as a coming of age movie. The jazz class at the all girl school was lovely. I remember seeing a movie called Hadley's Revolt, maybe even made for t.v., about a young wrestler who eventually quits, which had some fine touches of acting, and was oddly inspiring. About quiting. What does that say about me.

   Drumroll. I don't care much for Citizen Kane. The Rosebud thing tends to make me giggle.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Beccy
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 08:36 AM

Jenny Islander- Thank you for reminding me.

American Pie -I couldn't sit through more than 8 minutes of it.

American Beauty -Thanks, Mr. Spacey... I can do without the picture of you doing THAT in my head. Ick.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Li'l Aussie Bleeder
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 06:04 AM

My favorite must see movie is 'Travelling Birds.' I know we're supposed to like it, but I loved it, 90mins of pure joy.

Bleeders' Partner

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Jenny Islander
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 05:13 PM

Adam Sandler anything. Gross-out humor in general--was my generation the last to be told "Grow up and stop telling ca-ca jokes!" or what? Just about anything American labeled "coming of age" because most of the characters coming of age are well-built jerks who learn nothing except new sexual positions. Gangster flicks. Gangsta flicks. Yes, life sucks for a lot of my fellow Americans and for many people around the world. I learn the gory details from NPR and the newspapers; I go to movies to escape. That said, I do enjoy films that make me think as long as they are not depressing.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Beccy
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 04:23 PM

Dances with Wolves and Analyze This were two of the movies that made me doubt the taste of my fellow countrymen.
I thought Dances with Wolves was interminable and unbearably dull. I kept wondering how the heck Kevin Costner got the job (same as in his Wyatt Earp and Water World). Why in God's green earth people keep allowing him to make epic snoozers is beyond me.

Analyze This ought to have been funny, but DeNiro and Crystal just didn't work together for me. My poor husband sat through the whole thing muttering, "No, we won't shut it off yet- there must be SOMETHING funny in this movie. It's getting great box office receipts and everyone we know loved this. We're not shutting it off now." I walked away 30 minutes into it, grabbed a book, and shut myself in another room so that I could be done with Lisa Kudrow's whiny ablutions and the painful attempts at humour by De Niro (who CAN be funny) and Crystal (oh the agony- I love that guy- but this film bit.)

Beccy

P.S. Anything with Adam Sandler annoys the heck out of me. I can't stand a comedian who laughs all the way through his own jokes. It's like a laugh track. It's only there 'cause otherwise you wouldn't laugh with him.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 01:53 PM

I confess that The Unbearable etc was pretty Unbearable, maybe because I disliked all the characters. The only film of Daniel Day Lewis' that I haven't liked. Also, I inevitably compared it to Kieslowski's films like The Double Life of Veronique or Red, which are in another league.

A horror film that completely sucked me in was Sixth Sense. I was the perfect audience for it, having just broken up with someone -- the classic alienated male!

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 01:35 PM

Funny, but I didn't like Unbearable Lightness Of Being the first time I saw it, and I'd almost swear the opening was different at the theatre than on the video. It seemed like soft porn with no story. We saw it again just for help with Czech accents when my wife was in Larry Shue's play Wenceslas Square, and watching it again with no expectations, it killed us. When they buried their dog. It ambled around, plotlessly, but the details, and rendering of the characters were the whole story.

It's odd. My whole life my mother has said how surprised she was when she saw the Mona Lisa, how small it was. So when my sister and I saw it, we were shocked how friggin huge it was.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Li'l Aussie Bleeder
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 10:36 AM

'The Elephant Man'   left a lasting impression on me, both visualy and emotionally. I thought B/W was the perfect medium for the film.
I also loved the Godfathers'

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 10:10 AM

Well, Fred, maybe I will have to watch Blue Velvet and Blair Witch again. I'd certainly be willing. I guess the reason I didn't like them at first viewing was, they were not what I expected. I didn't like 13th Warrior the first time either - but the second time, I was hooked.

I'll admit to some junk, too - I absolutely LOVE kung fu movies.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 09:43 AM

I think I've saved an awful lot of time not seeing most of the movies people in this thread have said they hated.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 09:39 AM

Kim C, Funny you mention the Gods Must Be Crazy, I was thinking how tired the humor in D with Wolves was, as opposed to how fresh the same sort of stock physical gags came out in Gods. The double door slam, the jeep window, that stuff was funnier than it should be.

   But I thought Blue Velvet was pretty entertaining, and still like to say Why are there people like Frank? Why is there so much trouble in the world? Didn't like much of Lynch's other stuff too well, a few bits and pieces.

   I thought Blair Witch was pretty brilliant. I grew up on old school horror movies, John Carpenter used to be my babysitter. The last time I was startled at a horror movie was when my wife abruptly dumped her coke in my lap. I thought the script was really very good, in a time when most horror movies are written by the special effects crew. Kept wondering how they were going to up the tension. They found ways. The gilligan's island banter was note-perfect stupid banter, utterly believable. "The Captain? It was the SKIPPER, you t.v. illiterate people"! Try to write lines like that. And the final image was so bizarre, not over-done, just enough, well-earned. I liked it.

   The thing about The Hours was I was WAITING for Ed Harris to jump out a window. I started to care a little about most of the characters, in some scenes, but it just kept playing the same few notes. (No Philip Glass jokes please.)Compare it to Juliette Binoche in Unbearable Lightness of Being. Life was "heavy" for her. And you felt it more, and cared more, because she didn't spend every second on showing you that life was heavy for her, but laughed, skipped like a schoolgirl, wondered why nekid vomen were so interestink, and so pathetically tried to get out of it. Tried not to be sad, tried not to care so much. That was a good performance, I thought, and I could imagine how a good actress could easily have ruined it.

   I think Scorcese probably was self-consciously referencing other movies in Gangs, and most good artists probably like to comment about their business along the way, but for me it didn't seem to tie in, or add up, it just seemed flippant and silly. I didn't suffer either, I just didn't get it.

   I may have said before, Strictly Ballroom. Very dopey, and great fun. Every dance movie cliche you've ever seen in one neat, healthily subversive package. Wake the kids.

   I never saw any of the Star Wars movies til episode 1 came out, so I missed how fresh they must have been. They just seem generally all right to me. Jar Jar Binks reminded me of the informant/pimp character from old t.v. cop shows like Barretta and Starsky and Hutch. Rooster, Huggie Bear, Jar Jar. What if Liam had grabbed J.J.'s tongue and said "You will not say another word for the rest of this movie".

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 07:15 AM

I'll second Forest Gimp! APPALLINGLY BAD!

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:37 PM

Little Hawk,

But I didn't like the original Star Wars trilogy.

I thought the point of the thread was to admit to not liking something that one is supposed to like.

I didn't like original trilogy because I grew up on the SF classics in book form.

Such much annoyed me about the trilogy that I cannot even begin. Isaac Asimov would never have invented body armor for Imperial troopers that proved vulnerable to EVERYTHING including arrows fired by teddy bears.

Russ

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:25 PM

i hated forrest gimp....i thought it was the mostboring long...piece of right wing shit ever....also I hated the hell out of gone with the wind...thought it very boring...and that the main character was nothing but a spoiled little bitch with no redemming qualities...

as for braveheart...i loved it when it came out...thought it had a decent story and everything...but when i read about wallace...i found tha the only part they got right in it was that he was drawn and quartered....ever since then I have found it hard to sit through...

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Grab
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:10 PM

Latest Terminator - what a load of rubbish. First two were pretty good, but this one just sucks. Maybe it'd be more acceptable as a comedy-thriller if the first two hadn't been so ground-breaking, but this one pissed on the grave of the first two. It's even more a shame bcos the plot concept was just brilliant (tying up the logical hole of T2) and a competent director could really have made something special of it. Instead they got Jonathan Mostow who's not made a good film in his life, and the whole thing turned into Batman & Robin (or insert your most hated trash film here).

I'll second (or third) the hatred of the latest Star Wars films. Lord of the Rings is a great example of how to put effects seamlessly into a movie (with very few exceptions), and the reissued original Star Wars trilogy managed to digitally add stuff pretty well too. In the new Star Wars films though, every other scene screams "FAKE!!" at the top of its lungs. Although even those were better than Final Fantasy which was made by animators who'd apparently never seen a living human being.

The Matrix didn't do too much for me either. I suppose there was some good stuff, but it was stomped so comprehensively by Crouching Tiger a couple of months later that I can't now remember anything impressive about it.

Junk I do like: God help me, but I have to own up to Top Gun, Tango & Cash, and the old classic swordfighting films like Captain Blood or Zorro. I'm a sucker for action films, but unless you care about the characters then you might as well be watching paint dry.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 07:58 PM

That reminds me -- has anyone seen the Japanese film "Tampopo"? We've watched it several times -- a wonderful film in which the Japanese spoof their own culture, America's, and every cliche you can imagine.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: curmudgeon
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 06:42 PM

Films I have not liked include:

The Graduate;read the book, hated it, movie no improvement.
Barry Lyndon; great cinematography and music, no acting talent.
Braveheart; unfaithful to history, Wallace was weilding a 16th c. German sword.
Rob Roy; drivel with no concern about the real Rob Roy MacGregor. Disney's version was much better.
And almost everything made in the USA in the past 20 years -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 06:40 PM

I detested "The Hours," both film and book. Pointless.

Last night I rented a film which was good, and hasn't received a lot of PR. It's called "Max," and stars John Cusack. NYT called it one of the best films of the year. I won't say what it's about, so as not to spoil it, but suggest renting it.

Another that no one has heard of and which is equally good: Susan Sarandon in "Safe Passage."

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 06:32 PM

A Fish Called Wanda - hated it, walked out.

Ditto for Little Shop of Horrors and I LOVE going to the movies! That schmatlzy song from Annie, "Let's go to the movies" could've been written for me!**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 05:54 PM

Any of the Godfather films. I still don't see the attraction.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 04:40 PM

I haven't seen Colors, but I'm squarely in the Duvall camp. He has a new cowboy movie coming out, but I don't know when. He's in his 70s and still does most of his own stunts.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:02 PM

Robert Duvall can do no wrong? Apparently some of you haven't seen the movie 'Colors'.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 01:45 PM

Oh, Fred I sat through Gangs of New York this weekend as well. I wouldn't call it suffering because I was more amazed at how bad it was. I thought maybe Scorsese was sending some sort of coded message through the badness of it all. A wounded Day-Lewis wrapped in an American Flag for no reason. How. . . what? Artsy? no. Profound? No. A mystery. Amazing attention to costume detail, and then to let it fill a screen that looked, during the street scenes, like a documentary about film studios - i.e., bad lighting, artifical in all appearance. Why??? What was the point?? I just don't know. And the hokey speeding up of the film where, e.g. the kid tripped that guy, and a few other "action shots." That was so bad it was no accident. Scorsese wants us to debate his intent? To ponder his genius? I dunno. Must stop thinking about it.

The Stone Boy is not available on DVD, too bad for me. I'll look forward to it.

Tonight I will watch The Man Who Cried. Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett. The netflix fans decribe it as a failed attempt to make an "art" film, with total failure as the direct result. We'll see.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 01:10 PM

All them fancy awards don't mean doodley-squat.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Burke
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 12:33 PM

I go to very few movies & don't rent many videos either. When Chicago came to my local discount movie house a month or so ago, I decided to go since I remebered it had been up for awards. I should have saved my money.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 11:29 AM

Peter, what about The Gods Must Be Crazy? Dang, but that is one of my favorites, and I haven't seen it in years.

Another one of those movies you're supposed to like: Blue Velvet. How awfully STRANGE. I can't say I liked it at all. Isabella Rosellini definitely cannot sing.

As for movies you're not supposed to like: I have my own copy of the much-maligned Ishtar. Should be required viewing for all songwriters everywhere. ;-)

I haven't seen Gangs of New York yet, but plan to rent it. My friend Howard liked it, and he is not what I'd call an Easy Sell. I will have to see it simply because my man Daniel Day-Lewis is in it. Another of my friends described his character in this movie as "a cross between Snidely Whiplash and the Cat in the Hat."

I also did not like The Blair Witch Project. Bunch of sissy kids screaming at each other in the woods. Pah! However, the fact that it was a hit made on a shoestring budget is pretty encouraging for other indie film makers.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Sam L
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:30 AM

Aw. I thought Castaway was all right, even though Helen Hunt creeps me out. My ideal movie to not see would star Michael Douglas and Helen Hunt in a Merchant-Ivory production of a book by E.M. Forster, or any story about English real-estate. But to be fair, Douglas makes a convincing asshole, and I'd still probably see it if Helena Bonham Carter appeared in period non-costume.

   I wish Fight Club had developed her character. The beginning with the support-group voteurism was interesting and funny, but the whole doppleganger thing left me wondering what I had found so interesting. I think they may have exaggerated the theraputic effects of violence, a wee bit. Batman got dragged down by a trumped-up identity issue also. He's Bruce Wayne AND Batman, that's the deal, get over it.

    I remember watching Castaway with my wife and saying If he gets back and she isn't married, I'm turning it off. She was, but then I made my wife sign an agreement that if I'm ever stranded on an island for four years with a volleyball, on my return, re-married or not, I get a little more than a hug.

   I can't say I didn't enjoy Dances With Wolves a bit, but there was all that silly stuff that cheapened it--Costner's character had no family or history--it was kind of like a young-adult time-travel fantasy. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as that, but it had some pretentions and weak moments--the humour especially was pretty tired stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:16 AM

I've seen "Glory" and thought it outstanding. I also thought that "Gettysburg" was quite good.

I wasn't able to sit through "Braveheart" or "Bruce," though. Unable to willingly suspend disbelief, I guess.

As for humor, I like "Blazing Saddles" and "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" for their satire. I might just have low tastes in comedy, however. "Young Frankenstein" has its moments as well.

Subject: RE: BS: movies you're supposed to like
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:44 AM

The first two Star Wars movies were great -- the third was a disaster. Wookies, I mean really. Shining dead people!

yours,

Peter T.