Happy to see somebody else has discovered this quiet sleeper of a movie (I listed it on the first page). It takes a while to grow on you, and it’s an unusually “human-sized” story, but once you get hooked it’s a wonderful movie.
Ever listen to it on headphones? The sound design is astonishingly good. You really only notice on headphones.
Fully agree about 52 Pickup, a truly underrated gem. One of Cannon films very few quality movies (Runaway Train being another).
I agree that Glover was wonderfully sleazy as the main villain, but I also loved Clarence Williams III as the quietly menacing, soft-spoken Bobby Shy. In fact the whole trio of villains in that movie practically ARE the movie.
I only clicked on it because I thought it was going to be something more interesting...
My Progressive Workshop at http://soundcloud.com/hfxx
Fifth Element - never tire of that move. Mila is a goddess in that one.
Wowie-wow-wow! Coming in November from Criterion:
Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema
In honor of the Swedish master’s 100th birthday, we’re thrilled to announce the centerpiece of our yearlong celebration: a 39-film box set, featuring classics and rarities, new restorations, hours of supplemental features, and a 248-page book. Arriving this November, Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema is the most comprehensive collection of the director’s work ever released on home video.
Not a bad price ($240), considering we only have two of the films, and most of them I’ve never seen.
Just about any Coen brothers film is worth repeat viewings, especially the comedies. I think I've seen Raising Arizona and O Brother the most but one I really need to revisit is Burn After Reading.
Someone mentioned Quick Change, a Bill Murray film which should have seen far more airings on US cable. Been too long since I've seen What About Bob?
Speaking of Murray and guilty pleasure movies, Kingpin is another favorite.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
In July of 2011, I started writing down all the films I watch in little books. One for horror, one for comedy, one for action/drama and one for what I call Breakfast With The Arts (which takes place most Sunday mornings and can be films of any genre including documentaries). In that time I've logged 401 horror films, 405 comedies, 116 action/drama films and 234 for breakfast with the arts. I don't think there's a single page in the comedy book that doesn't include The Hollywood Knights. Comedies like Animal House (my favorite), Caddyshack and Ferris Bueller get yearly viewings. As do Black Christmas, Halloween and The Burning for horror. So yeah...movies are the best.
"The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen
My Art- http://www.facebook.com/rabidrenfro -My Life
“Where’s my puffer?”
“Hmm, it does have a little wang in it...”
"The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen
My Art- http://www.facebook.com/rabidrenfro -My Life
"I'm a reasonable man who's just seen some very unreasonable things!"
"Who are these people?! Friends of yours? Now, this really pisses me off to no end!"
"Is it too much to ask? Kill me, for me, Thunder!"
Great movie!
A few I always tune in for:
To Be Or Not To Be: The original "Jewish people making fun of Nazis" laugh riot. Jack Benny is a riot as a vainglorious theatrical actor who gets sucked into the Resistance movement as the Nazis move on Poland. The bit where he yawns his way through the "Heil Hitler" then corrects himself, is brilliant. I love how he keeps asking people if they're famliar with "the great stage actor Joseph Tura" (i.e. himself) and the only person who knows who he is a Nazi who says that "What he does to Shakespeare, we are now doing to Poland!
At The Circus: contains my favorite Groucho line, when he notices a woman (one of the antagonists of the story) shoving an envelope full of stolen money down her blouse, he later breaks the four wall and muses, "There must be some way of getting that money back without getting in trouble with the Hayes Office."
The Blues Brothers: One of the greatest comedies ever made, period. ANd it turned me onto the blues too. Too much quotable dialog. "Boys, you're in a lot of trouble".
Sixteen Candles: another movie full of quotable dialog (e.g. "Hey, Howard, there's your Chinaman on the lawn!"). The scene where the grandmother chews out Jake over the phone is great. And I don't care if you're man, woman, gay, straight, whatever, if a piece of you doesn't melt when Jake says "Yeah, you!", I'm sorry, there's is something seriously wrong with you.
Weird Science: Great, great picture. One of Bill Paxton's finest performances. "DO YOU REALIZE IT'S SNOWING IN MY BEDROOM?!?!?!" And I mean, c'mon, Kelly LeBrock!
Heavy Metal: One of the greatest animated feature films ever made. And certainly the best with a rock music score (well, half rock music, half typical Elmer Bernstein orchestral score). More quotable dialog ("You're sorry?! What about me?! I gotta put this asshole back together!!!!").
Rock N Rule: the other great rock oriented animated feature film. Some of the special effects in this movie are dazzling. It's important to know when you watch this or Heavy Metal, computer animation was in it's infancy, and it certainly couldn't do what was done in these pictures, in the early 80's. "Thanks guys! I too love the sound of cats in boiling water!"
Trading Places: The other great Dan Aykroyd vehicle, besides The Blues Brothers. Him and Eddie Murphy are just too over the top in this picture. Sometimes it's not even the dialog. The look Eddie gets on his face, in the men's room, when he realizes the Duke brothers have no intention of keeping him on board, is classic. And it was more or less John Landis' last really really great picture. And it also revived Don Ameche's acting career which had stalled a couple decades earlier, because "they stopped asking me to be in movies", but after Trading Places, he did several more movies, so kudos to Landis for casting him.
Amazon Women On THe Moon: An episodic ode to late night television, circa mid 80's. It's basically a bunch of skits parodying B-movies, TV commercials, and alll that other weird dren you used to see on late night TV. BB King hosting a segment on the Association For Black People Without Soul is one of my favorites. So is the funeral/roast, and the museum fire sale ad ("Matisse! Gaugin! Cezanne! And the chairman of the board himself, Leonard Da Vinci, can all now be yours, priced to move at $29.99! But hurry, because at the Museum Of Metropolitan Art, every Van Gogh must go!"). The Video Pirates segment (featuring actual pirates raiding ships carrying VHS tapes) is another favorite.
Secret Admirer: One of the most indescribable pictures I've ever seen in my life. Chaos and hilarity ensue when two anonymously signed love letters get passed around between a pair of families. A pre Full House Lori Laughlin plays the author of the two notes, and Fred Ward plays a vice cop who thinks his wife is having an affair. All I can say is this one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Probably the best movie Cliff DeYoung was ever in.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins: speaking of Fred Ward, this was probably his best movie ever, playing a cop who gets drafted into a shady espionage outfit who intend to go after the criminals the law can't handle. Joel Grey plays the elderly martial arts expert who trains Remo, and Kate Mulgrew (half between Mrs. Columbo and Star Trek: Voyager) plays a military officer who finds her superiors are involved in some dirty dealing. Oh, and Tommy Shaw has a song that plays over the closing credits. The scene where Remo and several henchmen fight on the scaffolding surrounding the Statue Of Liberty (this was around the time they were renovating it) was actually shot in Mexico City, just before they had a seriously bad earthquake there. The "The Adventure Begins" part of the title was due to the producers expecting to get to make sequels, an window that closed when the picture bombed at the box office.
Head: How can you not love a movie that has The Monkees, Sonny Liston, Annette Funicello, Jack Nicholson, Timothy Carey, Teri Garr, and Victor Mature in it? Anyone who doubts whether the Monkees could actually perform as a band should see the Circle Sky sequence, during which the band are shown playing the song, onstage, and with no backup musicians. When I told Peter Tork Head was one of my favorite movies, his response was, "You have a sick mind!".
Adventures In Babysitting: Another picture that's hard to describe. When a teenage babysitter gets a call from a distressed friend who's stranded at the bus terminal downtown, she's forced to load the kids she's supposed to be watching and descend into another madcap adventure. Albert Collins has a great scene stealing cameo, when the kids wander into a blues club, while Albert is performing. "AIN'T NOBODY LEAVING UNTIL YOU SING THE BLUES!"
National Lampoon's Vacation: another movie where I have the ability to recite most of the dialog ("SHE BREATHED ON ME! A DEAD WOMAN BREATHED ON ME!"). Most of who have probably seen this one, so I shouldn't have to explain it to you.
Going Berserk: John Candy plays a limo driver, who's engaged to daughter of a senator. But some weird religious cult leader, who is being investigated by the senator, tries to brainwash Candy into killing his prospective father-in-law. Yeah, right! "This guy's not an assassin! He's a yutz!". There's a lot of craziness in this movie, all worth sitting through.
Delirious: My other favorite John Candy vehicle, where he plays a soap opera writer who gets into a car accident, and when he wakes, he finds himself trapped inside the soap! And anything he types on his typewriter, actually happens. Raymond Burr is great as the patriarch of the rich family who "owns" the town, pining away about the trouble he's having with his cable TV service ("I've got black bars on 2! AND 11!"). Soap vet Emma Samms plays Burr's daughter, who Candy's character has the hots for, and Muriel Hemingway plays another woman who gets mixed up in the debacle. "Lox and cream cheese on...CINNAMON TOAST?! GET IT OUTTA HERE!"
The Party: I love Peter Sellers, and this is probably my favorite movie of his. Apparently, virtually everything in the picture was improvised. Peter plays an accident prone Indian actor, who, after accidentally destroying the set of a movie he was an extra in, inadvertently gets invited to a party at the house of the owner of the studio who was making the picture Peter's character just destroyed. I saw this movie when I was about 5 years old, but literally the only thing I remembered was "Hey, man! CLOSE THE DOOR!" (if you've seen the movie, you know the scene I'm talking about). Fortunately, A&E, back when they were still into showing watchable stuff, aired this in the early 90's, and I finally found out what that mystery picture I saw when I was a kid was (and I also found out why the four guys were hiding in the closet, and why the guy who says "HEY MAN, CLOSE THE DOOR!" lets out a puff of smoke as he utters his immortal line). Mahogany Frog named a piece of music after an exchange in one scene (Gavin MacLeod tells Peter, "You're mesuggah!", and Peter replies, "I am not your sugar!"). Apparently, the house didn't really exist, it was just a set on a soundstage, but for many years I wanted to live in a house like this one (you'll have to see the movie to understand what was special about the house...trust me, it was very cool, even if it didn't really exist).
Jaws 3: Yeah, yeah, I know, the original Jaws is one of the bona fide classics of modern horror movies. But I like the third one best. You can't top Bess Armstrong in a wetsuit. "Are we talking about some damn shark's mother?!" "We're not blowing it up over some, some, some DAMN FISH!!!!!!!"
My Progressive Workshop at http://soundcloud.com/hfxx
OH, and Meatballs is still my favorite Bill Murray picture.
Bookmarks