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TM2YC's 1001 Movies (Chronological up to page 25/post 481)

TM2YC

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Viridiana (1961)
Director: Luis Bunuel
Country: Mexico / Spain
Length: 90 minutes
Type: Drama, Comedy

There are some initial plot similarities between this and Luis Bunuel's later film 'Tristana', plus Fernando Rey plays a similar figure.  A novice nun enters the country estate of a wealthy uncle (but this is no 'The Sound of Music') who becomes sexually obsessed with her, leading him to commit suicide.  She inherits his estate along with his playboy illegitimate son.  He determines to renovate the property and enjoy the money, while she moves a group of riotous thieves and tramps in to live there, perhaps hoping to be saintly.  Bunuel mocks religion, class, sexuality and morality, most obviously posing the vagabonds as a degraded version of Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'Handel's 'Messiah' also plays on the gramophone as they destroy the paradise Viridiana has provided for them.  The Vatican branded the film blasphemous and it was banned in Spain for 16-years.  This was mid-level Bunuel for me.


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The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970)
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy
Length: 96 minutes
Type: Horror

An all-round assured debut from Dario Argento, if not quite as visually dazzling as his later movies. Beneath the sexy, arty and violent Giallo exterior, this is just a really well executed murder mystery plot, that had me guessing and theorising 'til the very end. Ennio Morricone's score in suitably unnerving but I did miss the Goblin synths.



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Fox and His Friends (1975)
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Country: Germany
Length: 123 minutes
Type: Drama

'Fox and His Friends' (aka 'Fist-Right of Freedom' aka 'The Right of the Strongest') is written by and starring West-German Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fox is a sweet, coarse and naive working-class gay man who wins big on the lottery. He soon becomes acquainted with a circle of middle-class "friends" and starts a relationship with Eugen, the imperious son of a factory owner. Eugen spends Fox's money like there is no tomorrow, constantly derides him for his lack of sophistication and ultimately swindles the trusting Fox, who only wants to please Eugen. Although it's about this central relationship, it's an inherently political story, attacking the bourgeoisie for their lack of morals hidden behind polite manners. Unlike other Directors I could mention, Fassbinder is actually a very fine actor and really makes you feel sympathy for poor Fox. By the way, it was great to see Karlheinz Böhm, star of Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom' in something else.

 

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Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Director: Isao Takahata
Country: Japan
Length: 89 minutes
Type: Animation, War, Tragedy

'Grave of the Fireflies' is as powerful, achingly sad and beautiful as I had heard.  The film follows the bleak struggle for survival of teenage boy, Seita and his little sister Setsuko in the aftermath of the 1945 fire bombing of Kobe.  It's made clear from the opening scene that their struggle is unsuccessful, lending the rest of the film an overwhelming sadness, even when the children find moments of joy.  Director Isao Takahata has said it's not an anti-war film but is supposed to be about isolation from society, it's certainly about the latter but surely the former as well.  It's difficult to not see a basic plot of 'happy kids->war happens->kids starve->kids die' as intended to engender anti-war feelings in the viewer.  Perhaps Takahata meant it wasn't supposed to be read as an explicit condemnation of the follies and policy decisions of that particular war?  I really want to try some 'Sakuma Drops' now (a brand of canned boiled sweets at the emotional centre of the film) but they look very expensive to import.

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Die Hard (1988)
Director: John McTiernan
Country: United States
Length: 132 minutes
Type: Action

I suspect the fact that 'Die Hard' is such an intensely enjoyable, satisfying and immersive action caper, sometimes obscures just what a masterpiece of film-making it is, on all technical levels.  Director John McTiernan develops character and plot through careful shot composition and camera movement. Michael Kamen's subtle score is constantly weaving in touches of 'Ode to Joy' and Christmas instrumentation on an almost subliminal level, taking the listener on a journey toward the moments when these two motifs reach their climax. The dedication to mapping the geography of the location, the expert editing and the clarity of character is something you rarely see in frenetic shaky-cam action movies of today... Die Hard 5 for example!


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Batman (1989)
Director: Tim Burton
Country: United States
Length: 126 minutes
Type: Superhero, Action, Crime

Until Christopher Nolan rebooted Batman and The Joker in studiously realistic fashion (films I also love), I don't remember the 1989 original getting the kind of criticism it does now from some quarters. Re-watching it again, I was reminded why I loved it in the first place. The character fits so snugly into the 80s/50s fusion fantasy Tim Burton created, where pinstripe gangsters and modern tech coexist. The Fritz Lang design aesthetic and the expertly lit shadowy Film-Noir visuals look spectacular. Danny Elfman's music is note perfect, threatening yet heroic, like the character. In the last shot as the score resolves in a triumphant motif while the camera swirls up into sky gave me goosebumps.  I forgot how damn funny Jack Nicholson is in the role, when he's not scaring the pants off you. As somebody who has only ever read a few of the more famous comic titles, I can't really comment on how accurate a rendering of the caped-crusader this is but this movie will always be the definition of Batman for me. This has gone way up in my estimation.


Plus it's got Prince's 'Partyman' on the soundtrack. Love that Joker song:

 

Malthus

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TM2YC said:

Three absolute classics. Regarding Grave of Fireflies. I was initially sad upon watching the film but my sadness turned to anger at the stubbornness/pride portrayed by Seita whose refusal to accept help ultimately precipitates the tragic events of the film. I feel it's as much a cautionary tale of the dangers of hubris as it is an anti war movie. One of animes greats.
 

mnkykungfu

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^The top 2 are 2 of my all time favorite films, bar none. (I'm lukewarm on Batman because I'm a reformed comic book nerd. "Partyman" is a stone cold classic though.) Grave of the Fireflies absolutely destroys me every time. At this point I tear up as I'm putting it on. I think what Takahata-san might have meant is that he didn't want people to only view it through the lens of an anti-war message. It's about the humanity of the kids and their journey (which is brought on by the war, but that's almost besides the point.) In theory, he could've told a similar story if they were fleeing an earthquake or tsunami, because his focus was on their experience, not war itself. That's how I interpret the statement anyway.

Those drops are not good, don't bother. Japanese candy as a whole isn't really sweet. It's like the stuff old people hand out at Halloween. They've got some good KitKats though.
 

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mnkykungfu said:
Those drops are not good, don't bother. Japanese candy as a whole isn't really sweet. It's like the stuff old people hand out at Halloween. They've got some good KitKats though.

The UK has a very strong game in traditional boiled sweets.  There are sweet shops with walls of the stuff, so I'd probably be disappointed.  Although I'd like to buy some just for that beautiful red tin design to keep after I'd ate them.  I've been tempted to order some of those Japanese Matcha kitkats before.

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Goldfinger (1964)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 110 minutes
Type: Spy, Action

'Goldfinger' isn't my favourite Bond movie, or even my favourite Sean Connery one but it is still a total classic, the one where they hit on the ideal Bond formula.  007 gets his first gadget car, the iconic silver DB5, a car so sexy, Daniel Craig's version of the character is still driving it nearly 60-years later.  Apart from an ill-advised pastel blue bathing outfit in an early scene, Connery himself doesn't have a thread out of place.  He could walk into any room in 2021 and still be the best dressed guy there.  Gert Fröbe's Auric Goldfinger is also the template for the perfect Bond supervillain.  A vain, overweight, blonde, balding, criminal businessman of German/British extraction, who loves the sound of his own voice, has an obsession for the colour gold, owns his own Golf courses, has a habit of cheating at Golf, harbours dreams of world domination, launches an attack on a US government building but who is ultimately thwarted in his ambitions by a guy with the initials JB... is the kind of character that could only exist in the movies!  All the things that became Bond villain cliches (so successfully skewered in 'Austin Powers'), like explaining the plan before killing his enemies and over elaborate schemes fit the pompous Goldfinger like a glove.  For Goldfinger, it would never be enough to win, he needs somebody to know he won.

35mm trailer:



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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 136 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi, Crime, Drama

It's always surprising and impressive when a film manages to be transgressive enough to still "achieve" a UK 18-Certificate in 2021 (especially when it was released nearly half a century ago). The "futuristic" costumes and decor are so insanely dated, so vulgar and kitsch that 50-years later, the film manages to look totally unique and otherworldly. Malcolm McDowell is so very, very good, he had me really laughing at the faces he pulls when the Government Minister is feeding him steak.

Epilepsy warning on this vintage trailer :D :


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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Director: Terry Gilliam / Terry Jones
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 92 minutes
Type: Comedy

That this was a stylistic parody of Ingmar Bergman films is something that passed me by when I was younger. Every scene is a comedy classic and I could probably quote the script verbatim but this time I thought the lack of a proper connected story/plot does sap some of the energy in the middle. I'd bet money it was bloody Eric Idle that has George Lucas-ed this thing by adding unbelievably cheap looking animated sing-a-long lyrics to the version I watched.

I love that it came with a special p*ss take trailer originally (I bet that's British/Chinese comedy legend Burt Kwouk doing the voiceover).  It's almost funnier than the film:

 

mnkykungfu

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^Some damn fine viewing up there. Plus, Goldfinger has that absolute classic exchange with him strapped down to the table:
"Do you expect me to talk?"
<surprised> "No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die."
 

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Great reviews all. Holy Grail is peak Python.

re: Goldfinger. It's one of my favorites, and...what you did there. I see it.  :D
 

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Up in Smoke (1978)
Director: Lou Adler
Country: United States
Length: 86 minutes
Type: Stoner Comedy

I thought this seminal stoner comedy was half-baked (pardon the pun), sloppy and meandering.  For example, Cheech & Chong riding around in a van constructed from processed marijuana is a funny visual idea but they called the material it's made from "fibreweed", when a few seconds more thought and they'd have realised that "fibregrass" would've been a much better pun.  A few of the gags made me laugh, like a dehydrated Chong grabbing his trial judge's water glass, spitting it out and shouting "F*ckin' Vodka man!", or Cheech's relatives calling immigration on themselves so they can get a free bus ride to a wedding in Mexico.  I felt a bit of disconnected from the film at the end when they go to compete at a "battle of the bands" and all these gloriously shambolic, energetic young punk bands are performing but I think I was supposed to think they were bad and not totally awesome!  I think if it was still the 1970s and I was wasted and seeing it with a packed audience, it would have killed but today it was just meh.

This vintage trailer is pretty funny, surely riding the line with what you could get away with then and using a pun to imply the audience should get high before they arrive at the cinema "Don't go straight to see this movie!"...


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The Harder They Come (1972)
Director: Perry Henzell
Country: Jamaica
Length: 109 minutes
Type: Crime, Music

I've enjoyed the fantastic Reggae soundtrack for years but I hadn't had the opportunity to see the actual film before. The first Jamaican movie (emerging alongside the earliest entries in the "Blaxploitation" Genre in the US) features Jimmy Cliff as musician/gangster Ivan. He doesn't care if he's famous for his music, or infamous for his crimes, as long as the people know his name. Inter-cutting a cheering Cinema audience, with the final shoot out was an inspired flourish. The low-budget independent nature of the production shows at times but Cliff's charm and his incredible songs shine through.


'Many Rivers to Cross' from the soundtrack has to be one of the greatest things ever uttered by mankind:


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Jaws (1975)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Country: United States
Length: 124 minutes
Type: Thriller

I've watched 'Jaws' so many times, it's so adsorbing and it's so ingrained into the culture that it's difficult to make any critical appraisal beyond "it's damned near perfect". The pacing is what really impressed me this time, I was surprised that the entire Amityville section was only half the film (the rest being the hunt for the shark) yet it never feels rushed. John Williams' main theme is of course famous but the hero theme has such a sense of swashbuckling adventure and freedom. Yes, that scene where the head pops out of the boat still has the power to make you jump.  I have a vivid memory of watching that moment for the first time as a kid, in the dark of my living room and leaping about a foot in the air... of course I didn't but that's exactly how I remember it.

 

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^Awesome reviews. I've been meaning to rewatch Jaws since Covid and all the comparisons have been drawn to the mayor's handling of the shark attacks in the film and my own state's governor's handling of Covid in FL. The tourism must go on, the spice must flow. Whatta jackass.
 

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The Big Red One (1980)
Director: Samuel Fuller
Country: United States
Length: 113 minutes
Type: War, Drama

I'd watched the 47-minute longer 2004 "The Reconstruction" version before but this was my first viewing of the original 1980 theatrical cut.  The shorter version was already critically applauded and included in the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' book prior to the longer 2004 release.  It's also on a fine looking blu-ray, which the standard-definition 2004 recut is not.  I did miss the opening "This is fictional life, based on factual death" titlecard.  I think the shorter cut has an energy that the longer version has less of.  This time, I was struck by how much gallows humour there is, it's almost a full-on misanthropic comedy.  The film follows a group of four young infantry men as they follow Lee Marvin's gruff "The Sergeant" across the various theatres of WWII.  Along the way they encounter moments of unexpected tenderness and cruelty.

There is no real overall story, it's more a series of ironic vignettes, which add up to a cynical vision of warfare.  It doesn't matter where they fight, who they fight, or why they are there, they just need to get on with it.  A young soldier gets one of his balls blown off by a mine and Marvin simply picks it up, tosses it away and says "It's okay, that's why they gave ya two".  The squad later deliver a French baby in a German tank, using bullet belts as stirrups, a cheesecloth as a mask and condoms for gloves.  There is much hilarity around them shouting the French word for "Push", which is "Pousser".  When they're tasked with liberating a mental hospital, simply bombing it is suggested but Marvin says "Killing insane people's not good for public relations", they answer him back "but killing sane people's okay?" and he grins and says "That's right".  The last line of dialogue in the film is Marvin telling an injured German soldier "You're gonna live you son of a b*tch... if I have to blow your brains out!" which is literally described in the voiceover as "The final joke of the whole God damn war"Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine do fine work as the young soldiers.  'The Big Red One' has gone way up in my estimation, from a solid war movie, to a satirical masterpiece.  I want to revisit the long cut now.


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Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Country: United States
Length: 169 minutes
Type: War

I'll never forget the impact that the beach landing scene had back in 1998, no film before had prepared you for the shock of that level of violence, chaos and sound.  Everybody shooting a war film since has copied the style, editing and sound techniques Steven Spielberg and his team used, so it's lost some of that impact 23-years later but damn it's still brutal.  Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski removed the coating from his lenses to make the image defuse, used the bleach bypass process to decrease saturation and increase contrast and adjusted the shutter timing to give everything a jittery movement and capture falling debris.  Many films have tried to reproduce all this digitally but it never looks quite as good.

I've often seen/heard 'Saving Private Ryan' being criticised for not having anything else in the rest of the movie that tops it but I'm not sure that's true.  The sniper town sequence, the hill assault and the defence of the bridge are just as nerve shredding.  The problem is the tension of those sections is surrounded by long scenes of inactivity and dialogue, which saps some of their momentum.  A half hour from the credits and the characters are still sitting around chatting and joking for minutes at a time.  All those dialogue scenes are wonderfully written and acted though, it's just a pacing issue.  The apparent moral lesson for the desk-jockey interpreter always felt misjudged and still does, he basically learns that "war crimes are good".  Watching this so soon after 'The Big Red One', I was thinking that maybe Tom Hanks was slightly miscast as the Captain.  His performance is flawless but perhaps somebody more grizzled and cynical in the Lee Marvin mould might have worked better?  You never truly believe Hanks is going to do anything other than the right and noble thing.  This time I was struck by how terrific Tom Sizemore was as Hanks' right hand man.  The whole ensemble cast is great, with so many well played little cameos.  Unsurprisingly for Spielberg, the groundbreaking FX still hold up.  Some nitpicks aside, 'Saving Private Ryan' is a modern classic.

 

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Aliens (1986)
Director: James Cameron
Country: United States / United Kingdom
Length: 137 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi, Action

'Aliens' remains one of my tip-top favourite movies ever.  Apart from it obviously being one of the most exciting action films ever made, it's the strong underlying themes of motherhood and personal redemption that keep it fresh.  Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is having nightmares, cold sweats, stammering and hyperventilating for the first half of the movie but when the alien threat she's been dreading finally reappears, she switches to a protective, fearless, no-nonsense mother figure for a new surrogate daughter and a group of frightened marines.  Her APC rescue and quest into the atmosphere-processor to bring back Newt from the Queen's lair (basically a knight, the evil castle and the princess) are endlessly exhilarating.  James Horner's Wagnerian score is astonishing considering he wrote and recorded it in 3-weeks.  All the props and Sci-Fi tech are make up wha is possibly my favourite imagined movie world, including Terry English's Colonial Marine armour, the APC, the drop-ship, the power-loader, the smart gun and of course the "M41A Pulse Rifle, 10mm, with an over-and-under, 30mm pump-action grenade launcher".  This time I went for the Theatrical Cut but I find it difficult to choose between that and the bloated "Special Edition" because it does have a couple of extra important character moments which the shorter cut sadly lacks.  I'm also not crazy about the cold green grade on the blu-ray but it's not bad enough to tarnish this action classic.


Film music doesn't get much more thrilling than this:


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Top Gun (1986)
Director: Tony Scott
Country: United States
Length: 110 minutes
Type: Action, Romance

I can enjoy this 100% genuinely and 100% ironically at the same time, it's overblown and cheesy but totally awesome. Tom Cruise's character is called "Maverick" because he is a maverick... who needs subtlety right? I can never decide if the homoeroticism was by accident, or deliberate mischief by Director Tony Scott. There is a film of glistening sweat on the toned, tanned skin of every man in the film at all times but not a drop on their perfectly ironed clothes (except Top Gun Chief Tom Skerritt, who has skin like the bark of a desert tree). I'm sure there must have been a whole team of sweat wranglers. The boyish charm of Cruise works so much better in a romance with an older woman (Kelly McGillis), than he does with the string of ladies half his age from more recent films. Harold Faltermeyer's music is so ludicrously heroic that you can't help smiling from ear to ear. Scott and Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball's super-stylized, filtered visuals make every shot look like a lustrous car commercial. It exists in that timeless 80s/50s hybrid world that was fashionable back then. The fake looking back-projection cockpit shots can't spoil the thrilling real aerial dogfight photography shot with mounted Super-35 cameras. I wonder if the delayed sequel can recapture those same thrills, when you know subconsciously that it could all be faked in a computer with digital cameras.


By the way, I always reckon Andrew W.K.'s epic track 'Never Let Down' sounds like a song from the 'Top Gun' soundtrack... and I love it more for that reason:


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Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Country: United States
Length: 99 minutes
Type: Crime, Drama

This is a 90s pop-culture cornerstone, mixing up movie genres and heavily influenced by Hong Kong cinema (specifically Ringo Lam's excellent 'City on Fire'). It's a genius first-film script because it requires 95% of the movie to be shot in one old warehouse (and various areas around and above it), no doubt allowing the bulk of the small budget to be spent on incredible acting talent. Michael Madsen is still electrifying in every frame he is in and Steve Buscemi too. Tim Roth is the only weak link in retrospect, he just comes across as a British actor trying way too hard to act like how he imagines an American cop/crook would behave. Quentin Tarantino got much better at writing believable humorous banter after this one.  I buy two hardened criminals shooting the sh*t about hamburgers and foot massages (from 'Pulp Fiction') but not the relative merits of Madonna's Discography. There is some sort of satisfying real-world, grimy, street-level flavour in 'Reservoir Dogs' that I think is lacking from more recent Tarantino films (not that I don't love those too).

 

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American Beauty (1999)
Director: Sam Mendes
Country: United States
Length: 122 minutes
Type: Drama, Comedy

I think Sam Mendes is going for a Steven Soderbergh/'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' feel with this one but it lacks Soderbergh's curiosity for troubled characters, he's looking down on them instead. They're all awful people, which would be okay if they learned to be better, which they don't, or if the film had more sympathy for them but it doesn't. I didn't realise until just now that Mendes even cast Peter Gallagher, the same actor from Soderbergh's film as basically the same sort of douchey guy. Some of the images Mendes creates are rightfully iconic, like the showers of rose petals and the plastic bag dancing in the breeze. The performances are all excellent, especially Chris Cooper. 'American Beauty' was such a big deal in 1999 (winning Best Picture and more) but I'm not sure it has held up.





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Toy Story (1995)
Director: John Lasseter
Country: United States
Length: 81 minutes
Type: Animated, Fantasy, Comedy

I watched this on Disney+ in 4K and despite the high resolution scrutiny, it mostly still holds up a quarter-century later. It being 95% about plastic toys helps a lot because the CG animated humans (and a dog) look terrifying. They didn't look great on blurry VHS back in 1995 but they look truly woeful in 4K. The beautiful way the toys are animated, the hilarious voice acting and the strength of the story still shines. As a youngster I thought "Why is Mr. Potato Head being so mean to Woody?" but now I viewed him as the realest character in the piece. He's the only one who can see what an entitled a**hole Woody has become deep down, after years of being the pampered, privileged favourite of Andy and Mr. Potato Head doesn't mind saying so. It takes the arrival of usurper Buzz Lightyear to make Woody realise it too and become a better, more humble "person" by the end and regain the respect of his friends. There's a few things I hadn't noticed before, like the carpet in Sid's "house of horrors" being the pattern from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. R. Lee Ermey effectively reprising his drill Sergeant from 'Full Metal Jacket' being another reference. Being a Warhammer fan back in the 90s, I could see Buzz Lightyear's design was modelled after 40K Space Marines but I could see a 'Robocop' influence in there too this time. 'Toy Story' sadly heralded the death of a lot of Hollywood 2D animation, Disney all but stopped making non-CG films within a decade but you can't really blame the film for being too good.





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Ghostbusters (1984)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Country: United States
Length: 105 minutes
Type: Fantasy, Comedy

I've seen 'Ghostbusters' many times on TV, VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and on the big screen and it never gets old. The pacing is precise, not just of the story but in the seamless way the film takes the viewer on a journey from spooky chills and mundane reality in the beginning, to bonkers crowd-pleasing fantasy by the end. A few of the stop-motion shots aside, the FX still look fantastic. Nobody plays a hissable pr*ck like William Atherton, you want him to lose, almost more than you want the heroes to win. The subtlety of the soundmix really impressive, there were lots of little creepy noises I'd never noticed before. Rick Moranis' character is probably too silly but he sure is damn funny. Some of the pop music on the soundtrack has dated but Elmer Bernstein's score and Ray Parker Jr.'s theme haven't. A few of those quibbles aside, it's a near perfect movie.

 

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The Breakfast Club (1985)
Director: John Hughes
Country: United States
Length: 97 minutes
Type: Comedy, Drama

I couldn't fail to be aware of this 1985 coming-of-age comedy but I was too young to have watched it at the time and I'm perhaps too old to appreciate it now. Plus the portrait of teens breaking down the barriers between rigidly defined social cliques in the US high-school system didn't seem like any school I could relate to. The script's mild racism, misogyny and strong homophobia wouldn't fly today (hopefully). Plus having two female characters out of a group of five, in one room, for 97-minutes straight, without the two of them ever actually having a conversation together, seems like a textbook case of the Bechdel Test (which first appeared in a comic strip in the same year). Still, some of the snarky dialogue still snaps and the performances are often strong but I didn't think Judd Nelson was that convincing. The soundtrack featuring Simple Minds and Wang Chung still rocks.




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Unforgiven (1992)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Country: United States
Length: 131 minutes
Type: Western

I know when I first watched Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven' because I was obsessed with a May 1993 Sci-Fi/Western cover story in 'Judge Dredd the Megazine' which parodied Clint's film poster pose but with the most ridiculously massive six-shooter you've ever seen (drawn by genius artist Frank Quitely), so I sought out the film as a consequence. 'Unforgiven' explores similar themes to the 1953 classic 'Shane' (and shares some of the narrative structure) but with the grim, violent, revisionist, anti-romance of 'Heaven's Gate'. Eastwood plays aged pig farmer, former outlaw and notorious murderer Will Munny (who could be seen as the retired "man with no name") reluctantly embarking on one last bounty killing, with a young wannabee gunslinger and old friend Morgan Freeman. The film reflects on Eastwood's fast-drawing characters from the 1960s as if they were fantasy legend, where as this is the bleak reality, where it isn't about the ace who shoots first, it's about the man who shoots last, the one who can slowly stay calm under incoming fire and pick their shot. At first, it's doubtful to the other characters (and us the audience) if Munny is the ruthless killer of his reputation, he can barely remember how to shoot, or ride a horse. The antagonist, Gene Hackman's merciless Sheriff 'Little Bill' is such a total b*stard, that he makes the outlaws heroic in comparison. Richard Harris is a real treat as conceited gunfighter 'English Bob'.


I didn't realise until I searched for the 1992 trailer, that Ken Watanabe had starred in a 2013 Samurai remake of 'Unforgiven'. Continuing the back and forth between the Chanbara/Jidaigeki and Western genres. I'm going to have to see this sometime:


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asterixsmeagol

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Plus having two female characters out of a group of five, in one room, for 97-minutes straight, without the two of them ever actually having a conversation together, seems like a textbook case of the Bechdel Test
It's not a lot, but there is the scene where Molly Ringwald does Ally Sheedy's makeup.
 

TM2YC

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It's not a lot, but there is the scene where Molly Ringwald does Ally Sheedy's makeup.
I wasnt counting that one, it's barely a line and a few seconds. You don't need to write meaningful dialogue for girls, when you can just have a make over! The boys had to talk through all their issues in depth but Sheedy getting makeup tips from Ringwald solved all of her life's problems. It would have been better if she'd got a pony too but the budget might not have stretched to that. :LOL:
 

mnkykungfu

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Saving Private Ryan (1998)

I've often seen/heard 'Saving Private Ryan' being criticised for not having anything else in the rest of the movie that tops it but I'm not sure that's true. The sniper town sequence, the hill assault and the defence of the bridge are just as nerve shredding. The problem is the tension of those sections is surrounded by long scenes of inactivity and dialogue, which saps some of their momentum. A half hour from the credits and the characters are still sitting around chatting and joking for minutes at a time. All those dialogue scenes are wonderfully written and acted though, it's just a pacing issue.
Personally I've always chocked those comments up to armchair criticism from people who only think they know what makes a movie work. It's a rare film that goes full bore on momentum and actually connects. Crank comes to mind. For me, the ebbs and flows in S.P.R. are essential for us to get to know the characters and care about them. It also reflects that war isn't all action and heroics, it's a lot of drudgery punctuated by moments of sudden fear and stress. There is no pacing problem by including these, the pacing problem comes by skipping over them (one reason I vastly prefer this to The Big Red One.)

Watching this so soon after 'The Big Red One', I was thinking that maybe Tom Hanks was slightly miscast as the Captain. His performance is flawless but perhaps somebody more grizzled and cynical in the Lee Marvin mould might have worked better? You never truly believe Hanks is going to do anything other than the right and noble thing.
I don't fault TBRO for including Marvin's stereotypical grizzled Sergeant. Those guys did exist. But Hanks' Captain Miller is far more interesting to me. He's not someone like Lee Marvin that you think just walked into the war hardened and stony. He's an ordinary man who has to do some extraordinary things. And he's had to make some hard choices, and I totally believe he would again if forced to. It's a genius bit of casting, and makes the movie work much better than putting in some character type. That he's an earnest, normal guy trying to do his best is kind of the whole point of the movie.
 

TM2YC

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There is no pacing problem by including these, the pacing problem comes by skipping over them

Including them is never an issue, where, when and how long is where you get pacing problems.

he's had to make some hard choices, and I totally believe he would again if forced to... he's an earnest, normal guy trying to do his best

That's what they are going for but he's still got lines where he's openly dismissive of his orders and the chain of command in front of his men (like it's from an earlier pre-Hanks draft where he was more of a Marvin type character) and then you get the bit toward the end where Tom Sizemore's character (who is in the gruff Marvin mould) talks Hanks round to doing the noble thing with a little speech out of nowhere, in a reverse of their two characterisations.

I still love the film but a few tweaks here and there and it'd be even better.



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The French Connection (1971)

Director: William Friedkin
Country: United States
Length: 104 minutes
Type: Crime, Thriller, Action

There is real forward momentum in the way William Friedkin directs this one, the camera barrels along down the street as Gene Hackman's cop "Popeye" Doyle strides through New York City like a destructive tornado. Him and sidekick "Cloudy" (Roy Scheider) almost make the cops look worse than the criminals, abusing their power, using excessive force and totally disregarding public safety. They're drunken, eating disgusting looking food, chain smoking and living in filth but they're totally committed to their jobs. The car chase through busy traffic coming from all directions is insane. Don Ellis' Jazz Funk synthesiser score is terrific. The script is a fictionalised depiction of real cops (some who served as advisors on the movie) and real drug smugglers. The names are changed but the events are fairly accurate, plus Friedkin worked in details from their lives. I've owned 'The French Connection' on blu-ray since 2009 but it was Friedkin's notorious re-graded version, blending together digitally smeared layers to create some kind of hideous photocopied look. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it that way, so for this viewing, I imported a blu-ray of the redone 2011 Region-1 "Signature Series" transfer, which Cinematograper Owen Roizman approved. It now looks fantastic. So be careful which version you buy/rent.




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French Connection II (1975)
John Frankenheimer's
sequel isn't quite up there with the first movie but it's decent crime thriller, plus it concludes some unfinished business from the end of William Friedkin's movie. This time NY cop "Popeye" Doyle has followed French drug kingpin Charnier (Fernando Rey reprising his role) to Marseilles. He's reluctantly teamed up with French cop Henri, with whom he immediately butts heads. It's a lot of fun seeing "fish out of water" Doyle raging against the legal system of a different country and being perpetually furious because he doesn't understand the language. One of the only communication breakthroughs he makes is getting p*ssed with a French bartender, sharing bottles of Whiskey and Chartreuse. The main problem is the pacing. The whole middle of the movie is set in two rooms where Doyle is first shot up with Heroin by the drugrunners for a fortnight, then goes cold turkey in a police cell for more days/weeks. Gene Hackman is tearing out his soul like he's doing a one-man play on drug addiction, so I can see why they'd not want to cut it down but it's way too long. 'French Connection II' is 15-minutes longer than it's predecessor, so it's easy to say where those minutes could be trimmed from.

 

mnkykungfu

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and then you get the bit toward the end where Tom Sizemore's character talks Hanks round to doing the noble thing with a little speech out of nowhere, in a reverse of their two characterisations.
It's been awhile since I watched, but I remember this as being a great subtle display of how real friendship and camaraderie works. Sometimes you have to fight so hard to convince everyone that you're making the right call, but all the time their criticisms are chipping away at your resolve. It takes a real friend to come along and basically say 'I was wrong, and you convinced me. I support your call, don't give up now!' It's what makes the Captain/Sergeant relationship so great in SPR.

I still love the film but a few tweaks here and there and it'd be even better.
I'd normally agree and say that's a safe statement about nearly every film. lol However (if it wasn't clear already) I think SPR is probably a "perfect movie" and one of Spielberg's absolute best. You'd have to make the edits and show me your version to prove to me that you're right and it's better. (Which I totally welcome btw ;))

Do you have a Best War Movies list? Either of these qualify?
 
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