Kevin's Watch

Cail wrote:You are truly a conundrum Malik. Out of your list, 12 Monkeys is the only film I'd call outstanding. A couple are "meh", and a couple are just flat-out bad.

I think I laughed twice watching TD&tPoD.

Your old list had Spinal Tap. I didn't laugh once during that rock comedy (I know, "mockumentary"). I thought TD&tPoD was not only nonstop hilarious, but it has such good music that I bought the CD. Yes, I've bought a couple soundtracks before, but none I'd put up there with my favorite rock CDs. I freakin' love that movie. I could probably watch repeatedly more than any other in my collection.

Anchor Man is the simply funniest movie ever made. Period. Yes, my family unit is full of AM quoters.

Eternal Sunshine is the best existential romance movie ever made (yes, I invented that category label). This is the only one in my list that can actually move me to tears. It captures the temporal nature of conscious as applied to our deepest inter-personal relationship we ever have: falling in love. This movie makes me remember that rush of discovery and excitement when I first met Ki.

And I absolutely love Kaufman's screen writing abilities . . . the writer in me had to list Adaptation. It's a great writer's story. It's self-reflective nature really appeals to me. I love movies with hierarchies of meaning and reference, especially when those hierarchies twist into strange loops of self-reference.

The Truman Show is an existential wonder (seeing a trend, here?). Confronting the artificial world we all take for granted--the world as stage, the world as show, the world as-for-others--and breaking through that artificiality to true authenticity. This is the best metaphorical handling of conquering one's fear in order to get to a "higher" reality I've ever seen. And it was some of Jim Carey's finest work. Very underrated.

SP: BLU was a musical-comedy-animation masterpiece. Is there any other? Name one. (I think people underestimate its "musical" credentials.)

12 Monkeys is probably one I feel less strongly about. I love Gilliam, and I love Willis. This is an unconventional s.f., a dystopian love story with a twist that makes M. Night look like a pussy.

Do I really have to justify Matrix, LOTR, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction? You really think those movies aren't good?

So which did you think were flat-out bad, beside PoD?

Anchor Man has its moments, but off the top of my head, Blazing Saddles, Caddyshack, Young Frankenstein, The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Tapeheads, and Superbad are all way funnier.

Spinal Tap had me rolling on the floor, PoD had a few chuckles. That said, you're right, the songs are really good and are the best part of the movie.

I thought Eternal Sunshine was OK. Not great. Highly overrated. Then again, I saw it about a week before my ex and I separated, so maybe I need to give that another look.

Adaptation is a solid movie, I just wouldn't put it on my top 10 list.

The Truman Show was OK, nothing more, nothing less. Interesting theme somewhat clumsily executed.

SP:BLU is funny as Hell, as is Team America. I can watch both repeatedly, but I think there are better comedies. Better animated (or puppeted) musical comedies don't exist.

As I've said in other posts, The Matrix was an OK film that was too full of itself (and it nearly singlehandedly ruined action-film effects). The 13th Floor is a far better film that tackles the same ideas.

I hated the LOTR films. Absolutely hated them. I'm not a Tolkein fan at all, but I thought the films were dead slow and sacrificed too much of the story. And they were boring. Reminds me of Clerks II, "They're 3 movies about walking".

Who doesn't love Star Wars? I love it, but that's a purely emotional reaction based on my recollection of seeing it in 1977. It's a horribly hackneyed movie with painfully bad dialog. I simply can't put it in my top 10, but I understand why other people would.

Pulp Fiction was OK. Hell, it had moments of greatness ("Zed's dead baby"). I thought Reservoir Dogs was better, and I think Tarentino is overrated.

Strangely enough, I just exposed the girlfriend's mom to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I can see how this movie would push the wrong buttons if you were in the middle of a breakup. It is horrendously painful in the scenes where they are going through their breakup. Nobody wants to see that crap in the middle of their own turmoil. Watch it when you are happily in a relationship. It really is a brilliant film with a fantastic ending.

And I find Malik's list much more compelling than the action-heavy Cail's list. Even though I'd agree with Big Trouble In Little China and Tombstone. But I like-a da freaky.

While there is a lot of action in my list, with the exception of Die Hard and Big Trouble in Little China, they're all dramatic character studies that happen to feature some great action sequences.

I recently re-watched Rocky, and I was just floored with how great of a movie that was.

Edit-I just looked back at my original list, and realized I forgot both Jaws and Blazing Saddles. Both excellent films, but I don't think (at this point) I'd remove anything I put on the new list.

I'll have to revisit the list in a year or so and see where I am. Funny that Die Hard is the only film to make both lists. Guess that makes it my favorite movie.

I agree that Eternal Sunshine would be terribly painful to watch during, or after, a break up. We've all been in a relationship that has gone downhill. We've all been jealous, insecure dicks. The fact that it can so powerfully evoke that feeling of loss--combined with that thrill of (re-)discovery, is evidence of its greatness, imo. Kate Winslet is just amazing. (Ki can still get angry recalling how she lost the Oscar to Helen Hunt when Titanic came out).

I guess we've got a different sense of humor. I'm not a fan of Blue Brothers, Caddyshack, etc. I've never seen the appeal of Spinal Tap. But my tastes change quite a bit. I remember thinking Life of Brian was hilarious, now I think it's merely clever. Holy Grail can still make me laugh. But I find myself fast forwarding to the funny parts.

I agree completely with your Star Wars criticisms. I actually though about leaving it off my list. But I've got such fond childhood memories of that one, I didn't have the heart to give it the boot.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan. I was one of those people who checked the Internet for LOTR news daily from 1998 to when it came out in 2001. I agree with others here that Fellowship is the best, but I consider them all one story.

There are lots of movies listed in this thread I love. Die Hard is definitely one. Of course Rambo. I need to rewatch Rocky. Tombstone was merely ok (but probably Val Kilmer's best role).

Movies that get honorable mention:

Fight Club
Memento
Close Encounters
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Unforgiven
Terminator trilogy
Shawshank Redemption
The Big Lebowski
Ghostbusters
Raising Arizona
Jacob's Ladder
Natural Born Killers
Pitch Black
Undercover Brother
American Beauty
Groundhog Day

Movies I don't understand how anyone can love:

Lost in Translation
Last of the Mohincans
Casablanca (couldn't finish this boring turd)
Princess Bride (NOT funny)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (gay)
The Usual Suspects (couldn't sit through it long enough to get to the super-special ending)
300 (what a disappointment after reading Gates of Fire)

Yes, Tarentino is overrated. Can't stand the Kill Bill movies.

I absolutely hate picking my "favorite" movies. To give you some indication of why, let's just say that my collection currently numbers at close to 300 DVDs, and it's growing all the time.

Malik wrote:Last of the Mohicans (could have, at least, spelled it right)
Casablanca (couldn't finish this boring turd)
Princess Bride (NOT funny)

I know you're tired of me calling you crazy, so I won't, I'll just rack it up to differing tastes-As for Anchorman, Will Ferrell affects me the same way Hydrocodone does: I start to get violently ill just seeing the name.

Malik23 wrote:Movies I don't understand how anyone can love:

Lost in Translation
Last of the Mohincans
Casablanca (couldn't finish this boring turd)
Princess Bride (NOT funny)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (gay)
The Usual Suspects (couldn't sit through it long enough to get to the super-special ending)
300 (what a disappointment after reading Gates of Fire)

Yes, Tarentino is overrated. Can't stand the Kill Bill movies.

I agree on all of those except The Princess Bride.

danlo wrote:

Malik wrote:Last of the Mohicans (could have, at least, spelled it right)

Actually I just copied/pasted from Loremaster's list. I did a quick scan of everyone's favs, and then built my hate-list from there. There are actually quite a few more that I can't stand, but I didn't bother if they weren't praised here.

Anyway, they're just movies. I don't respect any of you less because you like one I don't.

I'm curious how often people watch their faves. Are these movies you really watch over and over, or just movies that you feel make up an impressive list?

I've had the Rambo DVD since it came out, I've probably watched it 3 or 4 times. I probably watch the rest of the list at least once or twice a year.

By the way, I hope I didn't offend anyone by calling Rocky Horror Picture Show "gay." It is about transvestites and male-on-male sex, after all.

But if my language is offensive, I'll retract it.

In no order:

Fight Club
The Bourne Series
Pleasantville
American Beauty
North by Northwest
12 Monkeys
The Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump ???
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Man, that's tough. Lotsof honorable mentions.

One of the reasons I didn't mention a lot of these movies is an embarrassing amount of movie ignorance. If I made a list of all the movies in this thread that I haven't seen, it would probably be longer than my honorable mention list.


On a related note: ANCHORMAN 2 To Propel Ron Burgundy Into The 1980s!! Hell yeah!

I couldn't be bothered to watch Spinal Tap. And, as a major DeNiro fan I still haven't seen Taxi Driver or Raging Bull-hey my NetFlix queue is empty...hmmmm................

This is tough to do, but on the spur of the moment, this is what I came up with.

LOTR
Godfather
Godfather, Part 2
Tombstone
Casino Royale
Old School
Gettysburg
Better Off Dead
Alien
Empire Strikes Back

danlo wrote:I couldn't be bothered to watch Spinal Tap. And, as a major DeNiro fan I still haven't seen Taxi Driver or Raging Bull-hey my NetFlix queue is empty...hmmmm................

Really? Your queue is empty? How do you manage that? Carla and I consistantly have around 300 in the queue.

MR, Casino Royale is my favorite Bond movie, even though I loved Brosnan. I wish they had given him a good script.

CR is the first Bond that Ki actually liked. Her gauge is if a movie can make her cry; she wasn't expecting that out of a Bond movie at all. The shower scene did that for her, the way this action hero consoled a freaked out Vesper.

Of course, Daniel Craig coming out of the ocean scene didn't hurt her impression, either.

Totally agree, Malik. Brosnan should have been great in the part - but yeah, the scripts were not the best.

CR succeeded for me becuase it took everything seriously - well, maybe not some of the action sequences - but from a character standpoint it was serious. Instead of the ultra-sauve Bond of previous incarnations we got to see what a real person might be like who lived in these circumstances.

I'm totally psyched for Quantum of Solace. (in November?)

See, now I haven't seen CR, but I think Dalton was the best Bond for the same reasons you're talking about. Dalton's Bond was a badass, and there wasn't any (well, much) of the cutesy BS that ruined the later Connery and all of the Moore films (and frankly, all of the Brosnan ones too). Both The Living Daylights and License To Kill stand atop the Bond franchise for me.

I was unable to accept Dalton as a badass. It was difficult for me to accept Matt Damon as Jason Bourne being a badass, but he won me over. Dalton didn't. Brosnan would have been hard to take as one as well, but the tortuous beginning of Die Another Day was awesome, and Brosnan did very well in that role.