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Johnny Apollo
His Girl Friday
Waterloo Bridge
The Great McGinty
The Philadelphia Story
Remember The Night
They Drive By Night
Ball of Fire
High Sierra
The Lady Eve
All Through the Night
Rage In Heaven
To Be or Not To Be
Casablanca
Johnny Eager
This Gun For Hire
Double Indemnity
Laura
The Clock
The Lodger
Mildred Pierce
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Blue Dahlia
Gilda
It's a Wonderful Life
The Killers
Open City
Paisan
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Undercurrent
Dark Passage
Dead Reckoning
Nightmare Alley
Nora Prentiss
Out of the Past
Crossfire
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Bicycle Thief
The Big Clock
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Drunken Angel
He Walked By Night
Force of Evil
Born To Kill
The Naked City
Act of Violence
All The King's Men
The Bribe
King Hearts and Coronets
The Set-Up
Pinky
Knock on Any Door
Stray Dog
Germany: Year Zero
Thieves Highway
They Live By Night
White Heat
I would have guessed your favorite bit would have been the prostitute who with her found money spends the night alone. I like when, after getting in bed, she ferociously throws out the second pillow.
That one's up there, too, but everything I love about W.C. Fields is right there in that "Take that, you great snorting road hog" cry. And even better, Alison Skipworth's closing line with a steering wheel around her neck: "Oh, Rollo, it's been a glorious day!" It's hard to imagine that Barry Levinson hadn't seen that Fields short when he directed my favorite modern comedy, The Tin Men.
Absolutely, and IIRC it was due to a tout by either you or someone else here on BTF sometime in the past year. Great movie, as is just about every Fuller movie I've seen, particularly The Steel Helmet and The Naked Kiss.
It's fifty years since the release of Psycho. Should be a national holiday of some sort. And I'm not even into horror/slasher movies much.
I think you overstate - for example, it's not like Benji Button failed to earn nominations. For that matter, I didn't think Zodiac was a best pic quality movie (since we (my wife and I, not you and I) had kids, our TV/movie time has plummeted so I'll refrain from my own selections). It was well acted, well shot and I liked the way the pacing mirrored how such an investigation would feel - but that doesn't make for mega-compelling viewing. Anyhoo:
I like the idea/gimmick of director to ballplayer analogies. Anyone wanna throw other ones out there?
I'd watch all of these films before seeing Zodiac
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Mr. Brooks (A great great unheralded film)
Eastern Promises
Shoot'em Up
Superbad
Bourne Ultimatum
Pirates of the Caribbean
Harry Potter
American Gangster
3:10 to Yuma
The Kingdom
The Number 23
Balls of Fury
The Mist
Grindhouse
Hot Fuzz
Walk Hard
Next
Run Fatboy Run
and a couple more guilty pleasure movies as well
It was a great year for films and I found nothing special about Zodiac.
David Fincher: Jeff Francouer
Spike Lee: Jeff Francouer
Christopher Nolan: Jeff Francouer
Noah Baumbach: Jeff Francouer
Richard Linklater: Jeff Francouer
(...)
Brian De Palma: Bobby Grich/Darrell Evans/Bert Blyleven/Tim Raines
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (only movie I ever saw 3 times in the theater; have only seen three movies even twice in the theater)
Match Point (almost flawless; a bit slow-moving until it gets going, but that was part of the buildup)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (not perfect but very entertaining; great music)
Small Town Crooks (first half only)
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Hannah and her Sisters
Annie Hall
I'm watching this for the first time as we type. So far so good.
*I should mention that I'm not a Woody Allen fan.
But with that, I'm off to Haneke's _Funny Games_.
The only movies I've seen more than once in a movie theater is Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Jurassic Park with Star Wars probably being the only film I've seen more than twice.
Which just about sums it all up.
That movie takes the cake for worst V.O. in recent memory. Which is too bad, it's a somewhat decent effort otherwise. But christ, that V.O. is just scene after scene of the "narrator" explaining *exactly* what's clearly and obviously happening on screen and with the characters. It's 90 minutes of play-by-play for the short bus crowd ...
Don't do it!
I deduct points from any movie with a narrator. Usually means the action/dialogue aren't doing the job. I like some narrated films, but it's points off from the start.
"Another Woman" is one of my favorite Woody Allen films. Doesn't seem to get mentioned often. Other Allen films I like quite a bit: "Manhattan," "Annie Hall," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Husbands and Wives." I sort of like "Deconstructing Harry," but it gets too self-indulgent toward the end.
It would rank as the second worst Simon Pegg movie I have ever seen. I think How to Lose Friends and Alienate People would be the worst Simon Pegg movie I have ever seen.
I'll like any Widmark (my favorites are Kiss of Death, which we all love [and which I accidentally omitted from my 40's list]), and one that's different but maybe even better, Time Limit; and pretty much any Vincent Price where he plays a villain (The Bribe, Shock, countless others) or a con man, which means I loved The Baron of Arizona. Haven't seen Run of the Arrow, but so far I haven't seen any Fullers I didn't like.
Another 40's great I forgot to list: I Wake Up Screaming, with Laird Cregar in the key role of the sick detective, later played almost as well by Richard Boone in the 1953 remake, Vicki. It's not that easy to choose between them.
I'm not sure which camp I fall in, lol. My wife always calls me a film snob. My response is always the same. Two of my favorite movies are Cry-Baby and Joe Versus the Volcano... that HAS to disqualify me from film snob status, right?
I really didn't understand this either. It's not like it's something Allen always does. He must have had a reason for it.
VCB was good and had some terrific moments, but there were too many parts that had me squirming in my seat. The voiceover was the first problem. ScarJo, despite her wonderful breasts, is an atrocious actress, and one of the world's least convincing bohemians ever. Except for Allen himself, - I forget what movie it is, but there's one where he decides (at the age of 55 or something) to move to Paris, get a tiny apartment in the Left Bank, and start playing guitar, possibly all to pick up girls.
Cregar was just perfect as the suave "His Excellency" in Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, judiciously weighing Ameche's argument that he belongs in the nether regions. His Satan was an impeccably accoutered high-class maitre'd in an old-fashioned posh hotel, deciding who has enough class to get in, who doesn't.
Best movie to prominently use voiceover: Rounders.
Just finished Match Point. It was a very good movie, probably my favorite from Woody Allen. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that it didn't feel like a Woody Allen film.
I remember thinking that the voiceovers were used to great effect in "Election".
Best movie to prominently use voiceover: Rounders.
Don't pretty much all Neil Simon movies have a voice over?
Personally I'd go with A Christmas Story as the best movie with a voiceover. Fallen was okay with it and I just saw another film where they had a dishonest voiceover but it was a big letdown, basically the film was about the other guy that always gets dumped for the perfect guy in Rom-coms. Didn't Memento have a voiceover as well?
Taken was possibly the most fun I've ever had watching a movie. Liam Neeson kicking ass does not get old.
"Now is not the time for dick-measuring!"
The Michael Caine movie Pulp uses voiceover to great sardonic effect, I remember. It's used as a counterpoint to the action, to further establish an attitude. How Green Was My Valley , since it's about a man remembering his childhood, uses just enough narration to evoke an nostalgic sense and to complement the enormous visual lyricism. Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run uses a documentary style narrator to good effect: "The jungle is no place for cellist."
I recall it being by far the worst directed movie I've ever seen--worse than even Kevin Smith's worst. He just had absolutely no clue whatsoever on how to stage, shoot and edit a scene from start to finish.
Which sucked, because Showalter's obviously a very funny man (he's a member of the comedy trio Stella), and I enjoyed the screenplay...but my God was that an ugly one to watch!
Until then, it's Goodfellas. Solely for the closing courtroom scene, where it subverts the whole concept of using the voiceover narrative device to aestheticize violence in film.
Scorcese, you cheeky bastard...
No, The Good Guy.
That's uncanny then.
Wikipedia's plot description for The Baxter:
Apocalypse Now
Clockwork Orange
Diving Bell and Butterfly
La Jetee
Taxi Driver
Sunset Boulevard
Little Big Man
March of the Penguins
Annie Hall
Amadeus
Saw that movie in college and thought it was the dumbest flick I'd ever seen. Watched it again after being out in the working world for a number of years and it made complete sense, loved it.
It isn't like Hollywood does not run out the same themes over and over.
Shock to the System used voiceover well- especially when you realize that Caine's not actually narrating- the third person voice over is his character's thoughts as things are unfolding- and yes despite the fact that he is able to function normally in society- APPEAR to function normally in society, he's completely batshit insane.
"... oh, you have a plane?"
I thought it was universally agreed that the worst movie made from an SNL skit was It's Pat.
Well, since no one else is going to do it, I am going to stand up for Harpo, who I believe is only slightly less funny than Groucho. It's Harpo's comedy that has aged best IMO (I'm 25). The Marx Bros. were funny because of their subversive and nasty behavior towards nearly everyone else on screen. Every actor, except for the obligatory young leads, was a punching bag for the Bros. to beat up on camera. Groucho was the most up front about it, and although some of his insults seem tame today, his delivery and his obvious contempt for those he shared the screen with make him eternally funny. But Harpo's subversiveness also goes beyond his time. This is a character who chases every attractive woman he sees, with at best, the intent to commit sexual assault. He spends part of Duck Soup in an open sexual relationship with a horse and that is hardly the only time his characters are romantically involved with a farm animal. He robs everyone he can get his hands on, in every film he is in. He is a pure creature of malevolence, only reigned in by Chico and occasionally a romantic lead or two to advance the plot. Harpo's work wasn't just subversive in the 30s, it's subversive now, 80 years later. You have to go to shows like Always Sunny and Family Guy to find comedies testing the boundaries of decency the way Harpo did way back when, and even they ultimately fall short of his unfettered indecency. And he did it all without saying a word.
No, really, that is an interesting take. To me, it sounds better in the abstract than in view of Harpo's actual performance on screen, but it is something to consider, which I will. Thanks.
One of my favorite scenes is where he's fighting with the big vendor (Edgar Kennedy?) and as a final retaliation, does the grape-stomping bit in his lemonade.
You are a crazy person. A danger to yourself and others. You should be locked up, for the public good.
I did a spit take when Harpo saw an attractive woman getting ready for bed through the window, broke into the house... after a minute the camera followed, you see her feet poking out the end of the bed, a gap, the next bed (cowards I'm thinking), Harpo's feet poking out of the next bed, continue panning... a set of horses feet poking out of Harpo's bed too.
I don't remember the name of the movie, but I recall watching an old 40s/50s film once, there was a scene where the two leads were arguing, they agreed to disagree, the male lead says, well it's late, I should turn in.. scene fades to black... and unfades to a steam locomotive entering into then leaving a tunnel- absolutely hysterical- then to really pound it in, the movie re-continues the next morning with the two leads in separate rooms, both too tired to respond to their respective alarm clocks.
For sheer entertainment value, I don't know what's better that, or seeing virtually everything. (When i was 18 I'd say seeing the T & A, but now? married with kids? I no longer know)
Awesome ridiculous film. I reference "brain cloud" to this day.
My pleasure. Harpo has been an unfailing source of joy for me since I was five. I couldn't not defend him.
One of my favorite scenes is where he's fighting with the big vendor (Edgar Kennedy?) and as a final retaliation, does the grape-stomping bit in his lemonade.
I love that entire exchange! I forget when exactly Duck Soup became my favorite movie, but it's been so long now, it feels like it always has been. And that whole scene is one of the high points in a movie filled with scenes that would be high points in other comedies.
For sheer entertainment value, I don't know what's better that, or seeing virtually everything. (When i was 18 I'd say seeing the T & A, but now? married with kids? I no longer know)
At 18, definitely T & A. Now, I see the unseen as an opportunity to be more creative. Most sex scenes seem to be content with just being sex scenes (sorta like car chases or fights), while not showing almost forces a director's hand to be creative.
CP: I also found your defense of Harpo great. I really have no interest in engaging those who cannot appreciate the Marx Brothers talent and comic genius. They were so immensely talented it's like trying to convince someone denying the talents of Bach. It makes no sense to me.
Thank you. I've taken on people's disregard for the Marx Bros. as a sort of challenge. I am blessed that my wife loves the Marx Bros. but I have found nearly no one else my age who has even heard of the Marx Bros. and generally the few of those who have seen a movie of theirs don't find them funny. I am hoping that I can win over a few converts as the years go by, I've had some moderate success working backwards from Woody Allen, the Muppet Show and The Looney Tunes.
What is wrong with those movies?
May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.
I have no response to that.
The mini-monologue from the chauffeur about clothes is great, too.
I think the VO is used well there, and I personally love Shawshank, but I do not think that the latter is a widely held opinion on BTF.
Taken away and given to Brian De Palma.
If Shawshank were a baseball player, it'd be Bill Bergen, because it is Godawful with no redeeming qualities.
I liked Shawshank, I'd say Bob Uecker, much better at Voice Over than as a player.
Your opinion would be totally different if they'd fingered Andy instead of raped him, wouldn't it?
Grant/Hepburn has aged less well than the Marx Bros. And I love Bringing up Baby and I laugh pretty hard at the Philadelphia Story every time I watch it(I feel like I'm forgetting at least one movie in which they pair up, the one where she is on a desert island, that's Hepburn right? That's a funny movie). They are wonderfully funny people who together take their game to another level reached by almost no one else, but I don't think they are in the same league as the Marx Bros.
And Sid Caesar's show was written by a bunch of guys who were clearly influenced by the Marx Bros. However, never having seen more than a clip or two (I can't watch the clip you posted, but I have saved it for when I get home), I can't say one way or another. I have wanted to watch that show since I was a kid and my father explained to me that Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner all used to write for the same show. It's like learning about the Yardbirds, only I imagine instead of being mostly disappointing (like the Yardbirds), it would be a life altering experience.
Problems with the Yardbirds:
1: Relf wasn't a very good singer, certainly he was a poor match for the band's instrumentalists
2: Clapton wasn't Clapton yet, he was in his, "If we are not going to be playing 'real' blues" I'm quitting" phase.
3; Jeff Beck wasn't Jeff Beck yet
4: Jimmy Page wasn't Jimmy Page yet- he started appearing during the Yardbirds last live shows, but not yet on vinyl.
The Yardbirds were kind of like a baseball team that has 3 HOFers on it's roster, but only for the first inconsistent 3-4 years of each- and no more than 2 playing regularly together- with one forced out of position.
Nothing's wrong with most of them. It's just that no more than two or three are even arguably better than Zodiac.
I mean, Run Fatboy Run? Really?
I think that is a dead on perfect summation of them. I am totally going to steal it.
Despite this, I liked it - though I don't consider it great or anything. A lot of you guys like Field of Dreams, after all.
I also have defended Joe Versus..., albeit somewhat half-heartedly. Brain cloud is very funny.
I'd like to echo the love for your Harpo comment, Cowboy.
Now, if Brian De Palma actually meant that to be a serious drama, then it's clear that his subconscious is the truly talented filmmaker and just likes to let the conscious think whatever it wants to for its own sake.
I think Cary Grant is the best comic actor in the history of Hollywood. It doesn't matter who he's with or who he's playing--from the emasculatory opening of Bringing Up Baby to the sexually aggressive train scene with Saint in North by Northwest--it's always top-notch. My absolute favorite actor ever.
No. It's Pat has officially been surpassed by MacGruber, possibly the worst movie ever made.
But none of the SNL movies are good, are they? Is there a good one in the lot? I know I'm shocked that bad 6 minute comedy sketches can't support a movie.
Until 1 minute ago I'd always assumed that Stone directed Scarface, but what do you know, both Wiki and IMDB say DePalma did- but Stone wrote it...
Personally I preferred King of the City to Scarface.
I certainly understand and sympathize with the former, but I don't quite get the latter here.
Edit: Oh, and obviously Blues Brothers itself.
That it's full of ####? What part of the movie doesn't seem full of ####? It's the Coldplay of movies.
Also, Cary Grant is great. No doubt.
Someone has just been temporarily possessed by a, well, sentient being.
Agree wholeheartedly.
The Blues Brothers is pretty good. And I remember Wayne's World having some funny bits, though it's been years since I saw it.
But other than those two... yeah. Not much there.
Did he make a third one? Because The Green Mile sure wasn't, either.
Well, hard to argue with those facts.
I was just asking you to explain this part. That it was unrealistic? In a film? I just don't get this indictment of the film you've proffered.
I can agree with that, too. Beginning with The Awful Truth and continuing to the end of his career, he performed at a consistently high level for a remarkably long time. He considered Arsenic and Old Lace his worst performance, and all I can say is that if that's his worst performance (it really isn't) that's like saying your lowest test score was a B+. I find him (Stewart and Stanwyck are two other giants I'd say the same about) just endlessly fresh and modern and (considering as a player he was careful to "stay within himself") inventive. And he was able to adapt his persona seamlessly to heavy drama. Like Bob Dylan said about John Wesley Harding, he hardly ever made a foolish move.
I caught part of wayne's world on some channel about a month ago. Wow it's really dated. I never realized how almost all the jokes rely exclusively on pop culture.
Shawshank Redemption isn't even Frank Darabont's best prison movie featuring a Magical Negro based on a story by Stephen King.
Are you serious?
I don't understand your confusion. The movie offers a simulacrum of human emotion or, more specifically, it offers a version of what emotions the films creators think humans feel as if they've spent a lifetime viewing humans from afar and are now pretty sure they have a handle on what this whole being human thing is about. Nothing about the film feels authentic at all. Luke Skywalker complaining that he can't get a good price on his Lightspeeder is more authentic than anything in Shawshank.
It's one of the most hardcore 90s movies ever. I just watched it a week or two ago and was taken aback by how 90s it was. I don't mean that as a criticism though. I still enjoyed it.
Respectfully disagree. Great as they are, the Marx Bros. are a bit of a Johnny One Note. Grant/Hepburn's humor fits far better into their movies---and you don't have to suffer through any musical interludes with harps or pianos, or Tony Martin, or Allan Jones. (Of course in their Paramounts, the Groucho musical riffs are sublime.)
And Sid Caesar's show was written by a bunch of guys who were clearly influenced by the Marx Bros. However, never having seen more than a clip or two (I can't watch the clip you posted, but I have saved it for when I get home), I can't say one way or another. I have wanted to watch that show since I was a kid and my father explained to me that Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner all used to write for the same show. It's like learning about the Yardbirds, only I imagine instead of being mostly disappointing (like the Yardbirds), it would be a life altering experience.
The clip I linked to was from Caesar's Hour, with Caesar and Nanette Fabray, who was Imogene Coca's successor. Having seen both of them, I can't choose between the two, although Coca's run (in Your Show of Shows) was much longer and more celebrated. OTOH while I've seen a fair number of Coca skits that seem kind of forced (though not many), Fabray's have all been gems. And BTW the best things about all of Caesar's routines is that so many of them (including that Argument to Beethoven's 5th) are totally improvised.
-----------------
I think Cary Grant is the best comic actor in the history of Hollywood.
I'd find it very hard to argue with that, though I'd include Hepburn along with him. Hepburn with Grant is infinitely better than Hepburn with Tracy.
I recall thinking how 80s it was when it came out personally.
Fair enough, thanks. I was thinking I would disagree but wanted to make sure.
I would place Shawshank in the "good story made into a obviously enjoyable above-average mass-market film that I don't care about that much" category. My confusion regarding what you said simply comes from the fact that I don't see the emotions and motivations and actions in the film are so skewed as to be inauthentic or false at all. I mean, that's a criticism of something like Gummo. The great love and popularity of Shawshank seems to bear that out, in my opinion, even if it doesn't make it a great film.
Funny how actors often have far more stringent standards about their own performances than we do. IMO Joan Crawford's and Walter Huston's Rain was maybe the best sendoff of religious hypocrisy that Hollywood has ever produced (Joe Breen sure knew it, and he used it as an Exhibit A for tightening the noose on the industry), and yet Crawford herself refused even to watch it. Go figure. This seems to be a fairly common occurrence among stars.
I find him (Stewart and Stanwyck are two other giants I'd say the same about) just endlessly fresh and modern and (considering as a player he was careful to "stay within himself") inventive.
Stanwyck is easily my all-time favorite actor, but aside from The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire, it's hard to remember many other comedies of hers that stand out.
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