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TM2YC

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The 25 Halloween films were a blast. 'The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue' is a lesser known gem that needs the full HD blu-ray treatment. 'The Cars That Ate Paris' was pretty awful but the rest were great.

If you haven't seen it already, I can definitely recommend Dr Sapirstein's restoration of Phantom of the Paradise, despite the few rough edges I much prefer it over the mutilated theatrical version.


I went with my blu-ray for the first time watch because I didn't want to be distracted by the fanedit changes but I was distracted by the original cut's changes anyway :rolleyes:. Sapirstein's edit is the way to go.



That's another 5x5 list complete https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/5-directors-5-films-part-xviii/ (although I'm still working on one). The five Terry Gilliam and Shane Meadows films were gold, I love these two directors. I've now seen all of Andrea Arnold's fiilmography, which is challanging, if not always my taste. Steven Soderbergh's 5 were all fun but not perfect. Verhoeven's five were fascinatingly bad, or fascinatingly brilliant! (or both at the same time). Overall a great set of 25 films.

Time for another 5x5 list but this time featuring 5-actors, instead of directors, which I'm challenging myself to watch (mostly) for the first time (Although I've seen 'Contact', 'Amistad', One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'A Few Dollars More', 'High Plains Drifter', 'Magnolia' and 'Minority Report' before) https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/5-actors-5-films-part-xix/:

Matthew McConaughey - He's been in some stinkers and some respected movies. Let's watch five of the latter.
Lone Star 1996
Contact 1997
A Time to Kill 1996
Amistad 1997
U-571 2000

Jack Nicholson - Some real glaring omissions here.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975
Terms of Endearment 1983
Prizzi’s Honor 1985
The Two Jakes 1990
A Few Good Men 1992

Clint Eastwood - Five of his most acclaimed Westerns, some new to me, some not.
A Fistful of Dollars 1964
For a Few Dollars More 1965
High Plains Drifter 1973
The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976
Pale Rider 1985

William Hurt - It's amazing that he made these back-to-back critical darlings in the space of 5-years and I've seen none of them.
Body Heat 1981
The Big Chill 1983
Kiss of the Spider Woman 1985
Children of a Lesser God 1986
Dark City 1998

Tom Cruise - These five should be fun and I've not seen 'Magnolia' in a long time.
Risky Business 1983
Cocktail 1988
Magnolia 1999
Minority Report 2002
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
 
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mnkykungfu

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^Oh man, you're in for some real fun with those! William Hurt especially. And you've never seen A Few Good Men!?
owen-wilson-midnight-in-paris.jpg
 

TM2YC

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^Oh man, you're in for some real fun with those! William Hurt especially. And you've never seen A Few Good Men!?

Yes some big gaps there. I think the only things I've seen Hurt in are Altered States, Broadcast News and Marvel movies. A Few Good Men is a bonus Cruise film too. There are a couple of crossovers in these films. Keifer Sutherland is in A Time to Kill, Dark City and AFGM. Meg Tilly is in The Big Chill and Two Jakes.
 

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I've done a list of the new BFI Sight and Sound magazine critics poll: https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/sight-and-sound-magazines-100-greatest-films/

"Sight and Sound Magazine's once-a-decade Top-100 updated for winter 2022. As it says in the magazine "We'll give you ten years to work through your new watchlist, and then let's meet back here in 2032 to see what's changed again"."


I've still got the 2012 issue of the magazine with the last poll around somewhere. As of this moment I've seen 80 of this new top 100 and 17 of the top 20. I'll be making an effort to watch the remaining films soon, including the new no1 spot. Not by accident, the BFI plugin channel on Amazon Prime has many of the films included.

Considering this is a British Film Institute curated list, it's interesting that only 6 films by British Directors are in the top 50, 11 in the top 100 (but which I'd class as Hollywood made films) and 3 Kubrick films made in the UK, there are only 3 films in the list which I'd classify as British and the highest is ranked at 65. 'Lawrence of Arabia' has controversially been removed from the list this time and there is also no 'Trainspotting', 'Chariots of Fire', 'Life of Brian', 'Withnail and I', 'Get Carter', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' etc. As one of my all-time favourite films 'Once Upon a Time in the West' is at the 100 spot, it could be that they've got the list backwards and don't want to admit it :LOL: .
 
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I've still not quite finished my 17th 5x5 list but I have completed my 19th list of 5x5 actors (https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/5-actors-5-films-part-xix/). The Clint Westerns were all classics. The William Hurt films were mostly unknown to me but very good, my pick was 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'. Tom Cruise's screen charisma made all five of his mixed films very watchable, 'Magnolia' is still one of his very best. Nicholson's five were mixed too, 'Cuckoo's Nest' is still considered a masterpiece for a reason. The McConaughey ones were generally quality films but 'Lone Star' was my favourite.

So now on to a 20th list of 25-films by 5-Directors which I'm challenging myself to watch (mostly) for the first time (Although I've seen 'The Snowman', 'Hero', 'Catch Me If You Can', 'War of the Worlds' and 'Crystal Skull' before).


Raymond Briggs - Okay so the late great illustrator/writer didn't actually "direct" any of these films but the animations are so heavily based on his drawings, that he might as well have.
The Snowman 1982
When the Wind Blows 1986
The Bear 1998
The Snowman and The Snowdog 2012
Ethel & Ernest 2016

Zhang Yimou - I loved 'Hero' when it came out but I haven't gone much further into his filmography.
Red Sorghum 1988
Raise the Red Lantern 1991
Hero 2002
House of Flying Daggers 2004
The Great Wall 2016

Shane Meadows - I loved the last five I watched, so I'm eager to see some more.
TwentyFourSeven 1997
This Is England ’86 2010
This Is England ’88 2011
This Is England ’90 2015
The Virtues 2019

Werner Herzog - I want to watch all his volcano docs, alongside the new 'Fire of Love' doc, plus watch the only one of his infamous collaborations with Klaus Kinski I'm yet to see.
La Soufrière 1977
Cobra Verde 1987
Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010
Into the Inferno 2016
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft 2022

Steven Spielberg - Apart from his new one, I've already seen virtually everything by Spielberg but I haven't seen these in a long while, or reviewed them. They can't be as bad as I remember right? It's Spielberg!
Twilight Zone: The Movie 1983
Catch Me If You Can 2002
War of the Worlds 2005
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008
The Fabelmans 2022
 

Last Impressions

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This Is England ’86 2010
This Is England ’88 2011
This Is England ’90 2015
You are in for a treat my friend. I am not sure if you have seen the movie that kicked this series off ? but i suggest you watch it before you embark on this journey. Them three series are like watching a VHS of my life growing up, especially 1990. Enjoy.

I also need to watch my Werner Herzog boxset that i purchased a couple of years back. Too many films not enough time.
 

mnkykungfu

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Zhang Yimou - I loved 'Hero' when it came out but I haven't gone much further into his filmography.
Red Sorghum 1988
Raise the Red Lantern 1991
Hero 2002
House of Flying Daggers 2004
The Great Wall 2016

Werner Herzog - I want to watch all his volcano docs

Steven Spielberg - Apart from his new one, I've already seen virtually everything by Spielberg but I haven't seen these in a long while, or reviewed them. They can't be as bad as I remember right? It's Spielberg!

Twilight Zone: The Movie 1983
Catch Me If You Can 2002
War of the Worlds 2005
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008
The Fabelmans 2022

Instead of the pretty universally underwhelming "The Great Wall", may I suggest "To LIve"? I found Yimou's 1994 film to be even more moving and human than either his '91 or '02 films.

I didn't know Herzog had done so much volcano stuff! I guess it makes a lot of sense when you know him...

I'd submit that none of those are bad Spielberg movies. He does have a couple bad ones, but those were just underwhelming. Twilight Zone is actually great, and CMIYC is up there with some people's top Spielberg films! (Not me, but some people.)
 

TM2YC

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Instead of the pretty universally underwhelming "The Great Wall", may I suggest

Too late! I already watched Great Wall and it was pretty decent.

I didn't know Herzog had done so much volcano stuff!

I didn't even include a fictional volcano film he did with Nicole Kidman because it got widely panned.

CMIYC is up there with some people's top Spielberg films! (Not me, but some people.)

Exactly why I wanted to revisit them. I found CMIYC and WOTW to be forgettable when they first came out but most people seem to rate them very highly.
 

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^Most of the praise I've heard for WOTW is from people who are reading in a lot of extra-textual stuff, like on how it's commenting on/paralleling 9-11. Personally, I think it's a mediocre film just taken on its own. CMIYC is better.
 

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It's taken me a whole 5-months to work through my 17th 5x5 list (https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/5-directors-5-films-part-xvii/). Because some of them were a slog to get through but it was worth it to experience new flavours of cinema. 'Blow Up' was the only Michelangelo Antonioni film I actually liked so far. I rated Bernardo Bertolucci's five a bit higher overall but '1900' was epic. This was my first encounter with Wong Kar-wai's work and I'd now say I'm generally not a big fan of his aesthetic but 'In the Mood for Love' was a masterpiece and 'Chungking Express' was decent too. My 2nd 5x5 dig deeper into Paul Verhoeven's filmography impressed me again, I've not reached the bottom of the barrel yet with PV. The big surprise was with Paul Schrader. I loved all five and might've found a few of my new favourite movies in 'Blue Collar', 'American Gigolo' and 'Mishima'.



Onto another 5x5, this time with actors, rather than directors: https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/list/5-actors-5-films-part-xxi/

Steve Martin - Mostly a re-view of some favourites that I used to watch the hell out of.
The Jerk 1979
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid 1982
The Man with Two Brains 1983
¡Three Amigos! 1986
Roxanne 1987

Robert Duvall - I've lots of his films but he's done so many across a 60-year career.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution 1976
The Natural 1984
Falling Down 1993
Open Range 2003
Widows 2018

Daniel Day-Lewis - Three really famous films here that I've not got round to yet.
My Beautiful Laundrette 1985
A Room with a View 1985
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown 1989
The Last of the Mohicans 1992
There Will Be Blood 2007

Paul Newman - Not my favourite actor for whatever reason but I've got to see these classics.
Torn Curtain 1966
Hombre 1967
Cool Hand Luke 1967
The Hudsucker Proxy 1994
Road to Perdition 2002

John Cusack - A couple of notable omissions here.
Say Anything… 1989
Fat Man and Little Boy 1989
Shadows and Fog 1991
Being John Malkovich 1999
Grosse Pointe Blank 1997

(8 films are included in the 1001 films list I'm also watching through)
 

mnkykungfu

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^Interesting to hear your top picks from that lot! For the new ones, if you haven't seen Falling Down, you're in for a real treat. It was controversial even at the time, and I think it'd be really interesting to revisit now, trying to see where it falls in terms of Depiction vs Endorsement. I don't remember Duvall having a big role in that though... but he's great in Open Range!!! Such an underrated gem!

Some amazing ones there for Daniel Day and Cusack! Have you not seen any of those, @TM2YC ??
 

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^Interesting to hear your top picks from that lot! For the new ones, if you haven't seen Falling Down, you're in for a real treat. It was controversial even at the time, and I think it'd be really interesting to revisit now, trying to see where it falls in terms of Depiction vs Endorsement. I don't remember Duvall having a big role in that though... but he's great in Open Range!!! Such an underrated gem!

Some amazing ones there for Daniel Day and Cusack! Have you not seen any of those, @TM2YC ??

I forgot to say, I've seen 'The Man with Two Brains', 'Three Amigos', 'Roxanne', 'Falling Down', 'The Last of the Mohicans', 'There Will Be Blood', 'Road to Perdition' and 'Being John Malkovich' before. Six of the ones I haven't seen yet have been in my DVD/blu-ray collection for years but I haven't found the time 'til now.

IIRC Duvall is the co-lead in 'Falling Down', I watched that one a lot back in the day. Looking forward to 'Open Range', I've only heard good things about it and I love Westerns. I didn't rate 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Road to Perdition' that highly, so I'm interested in if my opinion has changed, in line with just about everyone else loving them.
 

mnkykungfu

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^You're got some really enjoyable ones from DDL and Cusack to see then. I'm not too high on PTA and have never really vibed with There Will Be Blood, but I could practically hear Criterion-heads salivating as soon as it came out. My Left Foot is more for me, which is a very different type of big, commited performance, and one based on real life.
I literally just remember Falling Down as Michael Douglass wandering through LA looking to vent some pencilneck rage in the worst ways possible. May be time for a rewatch.
 

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I’ll dissent here and say There Will Be Blood is amazing. But it’s also a very American film and may not be as impactful for you as a result. I also happen to love Paul Thomas Anderson, who I think of as a sort of post-post modern filmmaker. And that is admittedly not for everyone. It’s amazing to me that his films get the mainstream attention that they do.
 

mnkykungfu

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^I was born in the US, so culture isn't an issue. I just don't love PTA as much as some, and certainly I'm in the minority of cinephiles as far as TWBB. My favorite film of his is actually Punchdrunk Love. TWBB falls into that category of films that I very much admire all the craft behind, but did not "like" it at all and have zero urge to rewatch. It joins some other very respected films in that category, like Mean Streets, Barry Lyndon, The Graduate... I'm sure there's a common thread somewhere with these, but not sure what it is.
 
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