Moviedrome - What are your favorite films....Reviews, opinions and your top 10

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Moviedrome - What are your favorite films....Reviews, opinions and your top 10

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Started 14 years ago by Whiterabbit-uk
Latest reply from triphammer

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Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

I was posting a list of some of the movies (see below) I'll be taking on vacation with me. I though it would be a nice idea if we had a thread where we can discuss our favorite movies, or just get feedback on movies we fancy watching or buying. The following are a selection of movies I'll be taking with me on my vacation. I'd appreciate some feedback as to what you though about the movies. If your writng a short review to make it easy for the community to pick out the films create a title at the head of your post thats centeralized and undelined (using the tool bar above; (though I tend to type in the codes most of the time i.e. [ center][[ u][ b]Title of the film[ /b][ /u][ /center] will give you a bold underlined and centralized title. (though spaces should be omitted)

I'll be taking around 100 movies, most od which I've been saving for the vacation. Some are ones I want to watch again (like Seven Years in Tibet, Three Kingdoms, 2012 and the Alien Quadrilogy), but most I've managed to resist watching. One hundred sounds quite a lot, especially as I'm only going for 15 days, two of which will be travelling days, so effectively I have nearly 8 films to atch each day, lol; however, I like to be able to pick and choose to fit the mood. The ones I'm really looking forwards to watching are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Valhalla Rising, Where the wild things are (with my kids) Inglourious Basterds, Ice Age 3 (with the kids), Warrior King, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (with the kids), Bangkok Dangerous, 28 weeks later, The Kingdom, Jet li's Fearless, District 9, Terminator Salvation, District 13 Ultimatum, and There Will be Blood. I've been waitng all year to watch some of the above, so would appreciate any 'positive' feedback on any of the titles if you've already seen them....... Plus of course please post details and if you have the time the general story line of your own favorites.

Posted 14 years ago #
Inas
Member

Sorry I can't be of help to you with regards to your movie selections, Sir W.R. - I'm more into mushy gushy feel-good movies like the Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, Wizard of Oz," etcetera....

Inas

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

Hi Whabbit. I hope you enjoy your vacation. I notice that you have several martial arts movies on your list. That is the wife's area of expertise and she recommends Yip Man (about Bruce Lee's teacher), King of Beggars (Stephen Chow, just dumb fun), and the Forbidden Kingdom (Jackie Chan and Jet Li, ancient Chinese warriors helping a 21st century kid fight the good fight.)

My interests have been centered around old episodes of the Mystery Science Theater 3000. I watch it on one of the larger streaming channels on the net, but you can also find a few channels streaming it on VLC. (Start VLC, click on media, go to services discovery and select something like shoutcast TV, then check the playlist (under view). I have seen up to 4 MST3K channels on it before.) There are a variety of channels available, some of which hold some forgotten gems.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks, though to be honest I'm dreading the flight over. It's a 9 hour flight with one stop over in Chicago; and New York on the return trip. I wasn't able to secure a first class seat which would have made the journey tolerable. Since the accident I don't travel well.

Hi Happy Person,

Please tell us why you like those films. I also like all of those films. I love some of the old classics as well.

I bought Yip Man a few weeks ago (brilliant film) and also have the Forbidden Kingdom but not King of Beggars. I'll have to look out for it.

I've never heard of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It sounds very intriguing. i'll have to check it out as well. :)

It would be great if you could tell us a little about the series.

My favorite serialized program at the moment are Heroes, The Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, the new V, old episodes of Medium, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (starring Jeremy Brett - who portrayed Sherlock for 10 years and in my opinion created the best characterization of the character that I've ever seen) and Dr Who

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

I'm gonna hafta post in chunks, since I can't recall all that many at once.

otoh, my movie database (movies, specials, haven't got most of the series entered in) is on the sunny side of 1400 (oops, 1512 as of 3 days ago) entries already and climbing- and so far I haven't gotten any of my 800+ vhs tapes moved to digital yet. got a fair number of oooold movies (err.. silent b&w through talkies, including some real old edison recordings) oold movies (early color) through up to the minute ones.

I live just 20 miles south of where 'The General' (buster keaton) was filmed, as well as the final parade in 'animal house', and a taste closer to where the RR tracks are that were in 'stand by me'..

I consider the Alien Quadrilogy to be an incomplete set - as the Predator/Aliens vs Predator movies are interlocking portions of the story line. I personally like predator, AVP, aliens, and alien ressurection best of those. my wife likes Alien far better than I.

we both love Victor/Victoria, Evolution, Air America, From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Grosse Point Blank, Assassins, and El Dorado. Babylon 5 both the series and the movies, the series NCIS, columbo, X-files series & movies, the UK version of the mini-series Life...

(I haven't figured out what they cut, but there's about 5 minutes missing from each episode of the US version once I clip the commercials out of the DVR copy, and the 11'th episode doesn't have any of it!)

guess I'll note more later.

Ok, Time Warp (the slo-mo series) was great too. the Matt Helm movies with dean martin, Hopscotch and First Monday in October with walter matthau, any Gallegher specials I can find- Sledge-o-Matic forever!

for me it'd take a top 1000. and I'll start trying to post the IMDB URL's behind the ones I can.

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

Hi again Whabbit! I can give you a quick and dirty description of MST3K. It is basically a couple of guys making fun of (riffing) bad movies. The back story is a couple of mad scientists do not like a guy that works for them, so they shoot him off into space. He lives on a space station and they force him to watch bad movies. He made a couple of robots to keep him company and they help him riff the movies. They have the 3 of them silhouetted at the bottom of the screen during the movie, so it looks like they (and we) are in a theater. If you are a fan of rated B movies and making fun of them, be sure to check it out. Oh, and do not be surprised if the main host changes. They had 2 "prisoners" on the satellite of love. The first one escaped after 4 or 5 seasons.

I also enjoy warehouse 13 and Dr Who, but since we had the TV shut off ($60 each month to watch 5-6 hours of TV a month seemed rather silly) I cannot keep up with my shows. I find the new Dr Who streamed online occasionally, but I am woefully behind. I will miss the most recent Dr when he regenerates. I liked him, he was fun! Kind of like Tom Baker. At least I can watch Warehouse 13 on Hulu. Best wishes!

Frique

Posted 14 years ago #
Maud
Member

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is often hilarious. It was a series in which a guy and, I believe, his two robot companions were condemned by several other ridiculous characters for ridiculous reasons to watch dreadful old movies. The silly stuff was largely just a framing device for the guy and his two companions to watch these bad movies and offer running commentary on them. The bad movies are often sci-fi movies, but they branched out on occasion to other genres, I believe.

You won't see any good movies watching MST3K, but you will laugh.

ETA: Jinx, Frique!

Posted 14 years ago #
2-SHEDS
Member

You won't see any good movies watching MST3K

Perish the thought. :D

Any James Bond film would be on my list. They're corny at times, but entertaining, none the less. "BladeRunner" is in there too. Too many to list really, so I'll keep my list short.

Posted 14 years ago #
Inas
Member

WR, I like all of the movies I mentioned because they involve people overcoming adversity, and winning in the end, and also people being kind with one another and appreciating what they have. Very simple, nice life principles to live by.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Ah Bladerunner. Yes; that's one of my favorite films from the 80's. It's still as timeless now as it was then, though the 80's hairstyles do date it a little. I bought the directors cut last year to replace my own recording. Not watched it for a few years so may add that to my holiday list. :)

Posted 14 years ago #
BentlyTCow
Member

You can get episodes of MST3K here, Stephen, but they all seem to be region 1. They're hard to get on DVD because each 90-odd minute episode featured a complete film that they had to get the rights to. In putting them on DVD they have to reacquire those rights. The difficulty is that some of the people who own the rights have vowed never to release them again, after what they did to their beloved films. It's unfortunate, really, as they saw much more airtime on MST3K than they ever would have otherwise! Thus, the DVDs you can buy are not in any kind of order.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_16?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=mystery+science+theater+3000&x=0&y=0&sprefix=mystery+science+

The move they made for theaters is fairly easy to find, though it wasn't their best work. Many of the episodes were better.

Here is the opening sequence which, like The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, explains the premise of the show. This was done for two reasons: so new viewers would understand what was going on, and as an homage to the shows creator Joel Hodgson grew up watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcUkKltAidM

There's various clips from different episodes, too, so that should give you some idea.. :)

Hi-keeba.

Posted 14 years ago #
BentlyTCow
Member

As far as movies go, I found Avatar to be pretty boring.. Dances with Smurfs my friend called it. Bladerunner too.. though that may be because I've only seen the "Final Cut".

I would recommend Chinatown, All the Presidents Men, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Then there's always The Princess Bride. Or any of the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies. Naturally, the Godfather movies, even part 3! Nothing with Kevin Costner. Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.. heck, even Spaceballs. As everyone else has said, I could go on and on...

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

I have Chinatown, All the President Men and The Good the Bad and the Ugly (still after one of the trilogy) but not got The Princess Bride . Is that the one where a fairytale princess is teleported into the real world? Thanks for the links. :)

Posted 14 years ago #
BentlyTCow
Member

You're thinking of Enchanted. This is much older, from 1987. With Cary Elwes, Robin Wright-Penn, Andre the Giant, Peter Falk. It has everything: "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.." If you've never seen it then it should go on your list. It is an absolute classic!

I understand kids like it too :)

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

"get some rest- if you don't have your health you don't have anything"

The Princess Bride should be required watching, at least in the US since it's gradually become part of the cultural bedrock and is quoted in series (NCIS for sure- The Dread Pirate Roberts gimmick was used and explained) and books....

yes, aside from 'enchanted' and MST3K (never got into it) virtually all the ones mentioned after my post certainly are all in my top 1k.

spaghetti westerns, ahhh... Two Mules for Sister Sara can take on Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- my wife says eli wallach shoulda been the ugly), Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars) is good, Giù la testa (aka Duck You Sucker aka A Fistful of Dynamite) has it's moments.

It's on the dark side of Bladerunner (there's a companion film called Soldier set on an outworld starring Kurt Russell, btw), but I'm amazed nobody has mentioned Videodrome...

Sunset with Bruce Willis as Tom Mix and James Garner as Wyatt Earp is a blast.

Big Buck Bunny is freely downloadable here in up to 1080p, is only 10 minutes long, but is a must-see.

Heavy Metal and Frank Frazetta & Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice (the plot and other details are flat wrong on IMDB, but the date and pics are right- strange) are both good animations- hm2k isn't nearly as good.

Posted 14 years ago #
sparky
Member

Ditto The Princess Bride here. Definitely a classic.

@goodgotd I think that Eli Wallach was the ugly wasn't he?

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

maybe it was Lee Van Cleef, and I mixed 'em up- 15 years of 30 mg a day of valium does that.

odd- Feuer und Eis uses a retitled frazetta F&I illustration as a photo but has nothing to do with it...

Tango & Cash is great, the bond films I prefer the Sean Connery films first, though Roger Moore did a credible job when Connery turned down $5 mil for the role- a bit of a different slant, but not bad. I think Roger did some of his best work in the series The Saint.

60's camp, but Our Man Flint and In Like Flint are amusing.

Posted 14 years ago #
Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming Acolyte

I'm partial to fiction and cartoon feature films, but I remember some striking psychological dramas I saw when I was a kid. I can barely recall the names of those dramas but I found information on the IMDB website on this French Classic: L'histoire d'Adele H. (1975) directed by Truffaut.

IMDB movie details:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073114/

Brief reviews of the movie:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/47059/The-Story-of-Adele-H-/overview

Image of the poster:
http://images.fan-de-cinema.com/affiches/drame_psychologique/l_histoire_d_adele_h,0.jpg

The FaceBook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LHistoire-dAdele-H/110775848947365

Some background info on the director:
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/truffaut.html

Website dedicated to the Director:
http://francoistruffaut.com/

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

I forgot- Two Mules for Sister Sara really wasn't a spaghetti western, it was mexico, not italy.

Das Boot was worth subtitles.. La cage aux folles I think was better than The Birdcage. I like both Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Heaven Can Wait..

Posted 14 years ago #
triphammer
Member

Bladerunner is definitely on the list. That's a tough one to top. I like the old comedies myself. All the Abbott and Costello stuff. Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, and let's not forget Monty Python... the series and the movies. Anyone remember Yellowbeard?

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Yes. His son (that he didn't know existed) joined the Royal Navy I think. It;s a long time since I saw it so only got vague memories of it.

I loved Das Boot, though always though the ending was too sad. It's still one of my favorite submarine dramas, and it gives me a chance to revise some German. :) I was watching Fistful of Dynamite only the other day. A great film to fill three hours. :)

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

ah, Yellowbeard- Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong, Marty Feldman, Graham 'Spam Spam Spam' Chapman- "Yellowbeard, a pirate's pirate, is allowed to escape from prison to lead the authorities to his treasure."

not one of the 'smoke' movies, but a heck of a romp.

the 'road' movies with Bob Hope(less) and Bing(a-ling) Crosby.

The 'Thin Man' movies with William Powell & Myrna Loy are great stuff.

William Powell and Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey is not to be missed.

The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are good, the The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor just wasn't the same without Rachel Weisz.

Broken Arrow, Swordfish and Get Shorty are quite tasty.

I prefer Get Shorty to Pulp Fiction, though terri ranks them the other way around.

Jackie Chan has a batch of good ones, but avoid Dian zhi gong fu gan chian chan (Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) if at all possible. the Lethal Weapon movies are pretty good, as is Bird on a Wire.

more later...

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

Hi all,

Currently the best place to find information on MST3K is probably the Digital Archive Project, located here. It has the master list of episodes and tidbits of information about them. They also operate a tracker located at this here that has the last of the fan copies they are allowed to distribute. These are digital copies made from old VHS recordings of the show. They have an agreement with the MST3K group (and others) that allows them to trade the "tapes" until they are released on DVD. Now there are only a couple dozen episodes left, but they are worth checking out. You will need a bit-torrent client like Vuze or uTorrent and you need to register to use their tracker. There are also other shows on the site like Cartoon Planet and old episodes of Dennis Miller. Not for everyone, but it might be worth checking out.

edit: the DAP tracker only has a few dedicated fans on it, so it will take a long time to download anything. Speeds of 2-3 kbps are quite common. Do not despair, you will eventually get to see your show. It just might take a week or two.

Posted 14 years ago #
Inas
Member

Another good movie is "Grease", with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. The movie is being re-released in July - and, by the way, John Travolta and his wife (Kelly Preston) are expecting another baby - I'm very happy for them, and although this miraculous event will in no way compensate them for the tragic loss of their 16-year-old son, Jett, I hope their new baby will give them a lifetime of happiness.

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

Yep, Grease isn't bad- I also like Xanadu, a couple years later. on a similar theme, there's the memorable American Graffiti, where one gets a rare bit of Wolfman Jack.

The series "Due South" (season 1-2) (season 3-4) was a great culture clash way-more-than-a-bumpkin vs the big city (it goes *waaaay past "McCloud")- it has many twists and turns and was just plain fun.

Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghost Busters, Scrooged, and Groundhog Day make a nice handful of Bill Murray.

1941 and Animal House are classic John Belushi.

The Blues Brothers pairs him with another great, Dan Acroyd, who has films like Doctor Detroit, Trading Places, Spies Like Us, Dragnet (thank god they didn't try to try to play it straight as the series,) Loose Cannons (he plays a wonderful nut), and Grosse Pointe Blank (a nut *and* assassin.)

The Frisco Kid and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory are films that show Gene Wilder's range of acting, while though I miss the series, Harrison Ford did real well in The Fugitive.

The Guns of Navarone and The Bridge on the River Kwai are both great nail biters.

a nicely different slant on vampires shows up in Innocent Blood

High Road to China is a well done travel/romance film.

of course, ignoring Casablanca would be a sin.

The Ice Pirates is a bit hard to find, but is off-the wall comedy.

Danny Kaye had several films that were wonderful, including Wonder Man and A Song Is Born.

The Goodbye Girl and Moon Over Parador are a couple of Richard Dreyfuss' many great roles.

The Gumball Rally and The Addams Family were good- I miss Raul Julia.

Dogma is a wonderfully irreverent film.

the Tremors quadrilogy, though it has some rough spots and sometimes is corny as all get out, is well worth the watching.

back to thinking....

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

Oh, I have to give time bandits a mention. It is a funny flick from Terry Gilliam. I lot of fun and so wrong in places... I loved the bit with Napoleon.

*update on the DAP tracker, it looks like there are a few more people on it now. I am getting decent speed on an MST3K episode. I am averaging 150 kbps for this episode with only 9 seeds, but one of them is supplying most of that. Without that one, I would be using about 20 or 30 kbps.*

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

Really bad movie, and I wish you luck finding it... Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. I ran across it on one of the streaming channels. Yes, it is as bad as the name suggests. Religion, vampires, lesbians, and a Mexican wrestler. Oh, and it turns into a musical at one point. If you are a fan of "B" movies, give it a try.

Frique

Posted 14 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

sounds more like a D- to me. The Lost Boys is much better, I bet.

Posted 14 years ago #
2-SHEDS
Member

let's not forget Monty Python... the series and the movies. Anyone remember Yellowbeard?

OMG! Yes all of Monty Python stuff. YellowBeard was dabomb. Have to give "Jabberwocky" and "Eric the Viking" a mention too. Move it forward to "A fish called Wanda" and "Fierce Creatures".

Posted 14 years ago #
Frique
Member

I love "The Lost Boys." It is one of my all time favorite films. I just threw JCVH out as a thought for anyone who enjoys B movies. B as in BAD. Or maybe I should rate it VB because it really is very bad. All in all though, a lot of fun.

Arthur, I should have known you would bring up Python. I do love the Python crew and their subsequent movies. Don't forget The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. It is not exactly a python flick (even though it is by Terry Gilliam), but it definitely has a bit of the Python surrealism to it.

Posted 14 years ago #

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