Other People's Favorite Movies That You Haven't Seen

[shereads]

I dug the Royal Tenenbaums and think Passion of the Christ was a milestone in cinema.

However, someone had to pay me to go see Lord of the Rings. They had to buy me dinner, and the ticket, and I still fell asleep halfway through it for a good fifteen minutes (until people got loud during one of the "valient fighting time" scenes).

I saw Lord of the Rings with a spectrum of friends ranging from "Omigod it's finally here" to "Whatever the rest of you want to see."

My friend C has what we call, "social Tourette's syndrome." During the avalanche sequence, in a theater full of LOTR fans, C blurted out, "I hope they're all dead. This is 3 hours of my life I'll never get back."

 

[Dar~]

I think the cinematography in LOTR was fabulous. beautiful sets magnificent costumes and talented actors.

The Passion of Christ wasn't so much about enjoyment for me as it just reaffirmed my love of Christ. It made the suffering he went through so real for me. I will probably never watch it again, but I am so glad that I did.

 

[JamesSD]

My friend keeps bugging me to rent, "Magnolia." I don't want to, but sometimes I say I will just so she'll shut up about it.

You should rent the documentary, "American Movie." You're not going to do it, though, are you.

American Movie is somewhere in the 100ish range on my Netflix Queue.

Magnolia is a good movie, though it's a little weird. It's one thing if you don't watch a lot of movies and have time for it, but if you do I would at least give it a chance.

 

[shereads]

American Movie is somewhere in the 100ish range on my Netflix Queue.

Trust me: Move it up to #3. It's a quirky, funny, painfully honest and utterly charming study of creativity, and how it can burn bright even in the face of relentless evidence that nothing good will come of it. American Movie is a low-budget documentary movie about about the making of an even lower-budget horror movie, by a slacker dude who has a lot of confidence and imagination, no discipline, no taste, no money, and a 6-year-old daughter who recites lines from Apolalypse Now and thinks they're funny. ("The horror...The horror")

It's so entertaining, it's over too soon.

You should definitely see American Movie. I still don't want to see Magnolia.[/QUOTE]

 

[AppleBiter]

Hey, you should see it. It's really good.

No seriously, it's a surprisingly sweet and gentle movie, and terribly refreshing. And if you have kids, it's a terrific antidote to the Disney Kid movies they're always watching.

You have to have a very offbeat sense of humor to get it though. It just goes right by a lot of people.

And if you like Napoleon, you'll like "American Movie". They're kind of like mirror images of one another.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna go insane!!!

 

[Dar~]

Everyone on here needs to watch Duets. No one here has said whether they have or not.

 

[shereads]

Everyone on here needs to watch Duets. No one here has said whether they have or not.

Yes indeed. I saw it and loved it.

(I'm lying. It's better this way for both of us.)

In real life, I can't lie about having seen a movie, even to make someone stop buggiing me about Magnolia. I'm afraid I won't be able to change the subject in time, and they'll want to exchange thoughts on favorite scenes, etc.

I watched 6 minutes of The Matrix just so I could tell a co-worker I had seen it. He wanted to talk about how brilliant it was, so I had to tell him that the concept, plus Keanu Reeves, just made me want to take a nap.

"How can you say that?" he said. "It's empowering to women."

Because that woman could walk up walls and stuff. Heehee. I couldn't stop laughing. I could just imagine having a confrontation with our boss over an overdue pay raise, and just when it began to seem clear that he wasn't going to come through for me, I'd say, "Oh yeah? Well watch *THIS*" Then I'd run across the ceiling. He'd be stunned and give me my raise.

Empowering for women. Heehee.

If I hadn't seen the trailer for The Matrix a zillion times, I wouldn't have known enough about it to laugh.

 

[Dar~]

Yes indeed. I saw it and loved it.
(I'm lying. It's better this way for both of us.)

See, now I need to know if you are lying about watching it or loving it. Most peoplle think I am kind of odd for liking it so much.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I saw the Matrix. It was sort of interesting, but I never turned into one of those Matrix fanatics running around making references to blue pills. I liked it enough that I was willing to see the second one, and wished I'd gotten those two hours of my life back. Totally skipped the third one.

 

[yui]

I saw the Matrix. It was sort of interesting, but I never turned into one of those Matrix fanatics running around making references to blue pills. I liked it enough that I was willing to see the second one, and wished I'd gotten those two hours of my life back. Totally skipped the third one.

I thought I had seen the first Matrix until I went to see the second one. Apparently I hadn't.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I thought I had seen the first Matrix until I went to see the second one. Apparently I hadn't.

LOL! How is it that you thought you'd seen it? Were you thinking of some other movie?

 

[CharleyH]

I thought I had seen the first Matrix until I went to see the second one. Apparently I hadn't.

Kind of like the impending 'Star Bores'.

OH I AM a sucker for anything better than ENTERPRISE.LOL

 

[shereads]

I saw the Matrix. It was sort of interesting, but I never turned into one of those Matrix fanatics running around making references to blue pills. I liked it enough that I was willing to see the second one, and wished I'd gotten those two hours of my life back. Totally skipped the third one.

Did you feel empowered?

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

The special effect developed for Matrix and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger was okay as a one-shot visual, but if I see one more action sequence where the hero suddenly jumps into the air, hangs there for half a minute while the camera dollies in an arc about him, before he kicks his opponent in the bejubies, I feel certain I shall start screaming, and be quite unable to stop.*

It is worse than all the slow-motion running that became popular in the wake of the Six Million Dollar Man.




* I have not attended a film in a theatre for nearly six months, due to this very real fear.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I thought I had seen the first Matrix until I went to see the second one. Apparently I hadn't.

JOY! I understood that, even though I never saw the second one. Perhaps my fears of intellectual non-congruence at the movie level can be overcome!

Still, I don't quite grasp the whole martial arts on guy-wires thing.

I think it dates to an incident when I was in second grade, and a friend's father told me about "sky hooks". He thought it was hilarious. Fuckhead.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Did you feel empowered?

To do what? To never see the movie again or bother to recommend it to anyone? Yes. Otherwise, no, not so much.

 

[JamesSD]

Duets

Everyone on here needs to watch Duets. No one here has said whether they have or not.

Duets was ok. If I recall I really liked one of the sub-plots, thought one was terribly trite, and found the third inoffensive. It was interesting seeing some of the actors who are far from professional singers actually give it their best shot.


I really liked the Matrix, but I'm a 26 year old guy who likes sci-fi

And I'm not using this thread partially to pad my posting stats. Nope nope nope! Honestly I'm really into movies and can't resist any thread about them.

 

[rgraham666]

I liked the first Matrix. But being the type of person who often cogitates about the difference between perception and reality, I would. The other two blew chunks though.

Loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Mostly because I really like women that can kick ass.

Hero was fun too. Wish I knew the significance of the colours in the various scenes.

 

[yui]

LOL! How is it that you thought you'd seen it? Were you thinking of some other movie?

I think I rented it and just never finished watching it. I really did think I had seen it though. You should have seen me sitting there in the theater thinking, obviously I've missed something somewhere…

The special effect developed for Matrix and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger was okay as a one-shot visual, but if I see one more action sequence where the hero suddenly jumps into the air, hangs there for half a minute while the camera dollies in an arc about him, before he kicks his opponent in the bejubies, I feel certain I shall start screaming, and be quite unable to stop.*

Not to be picky, and only because this sort of thing drives me nuts as a fan of HK film, but those wire shots/special effects weren't developed for the Matrix and Crouching Tiger. Yuen Wo Ping, who served as the fight choreographer for both of those movies, had been using the same techniques in Hong Kong movies for many years. Matrix and Crouching Tiger simply brought those techniques to the attention of mainstream American cinema.

JOY! I understood that, even though I never saw the second one. Perhaps my fears of intellectual non-congruence at the movie level can be overcome!

Still, I don't quite grasp the whole martial arts on guy-wires thing.

I think it dates to an incident when I was in second grade, and a friend's father told me about "sky hooks". He thought it was hilarious. Fuckhead.

We can work around this, Huckleman. You can explain Matrix to me, though I understand the basic concept, and I will teach you to love wire-fu and slow moving Vietnamese movies… This just might work!

P.S. What are "sky hooks"?

Hero was fun too. Wish I knew the significance of the colours in the various scenes.

I can kind of answer this question, Rob! In Hero, different versions of the events are highlighted by specific color tones; red designates a more passionate accounting, while blue highlights a version colored by personal loss and sadness. Green, white and yellow come into play too, though for me to assign meanings and motifs to every color scheme would border on presumptuous. It is my understanding, that if anything, the different colors work as an effective narrative device that separates the various versions of the tale.

Luck to all,

Yui

 

[dr_mabeuse]

P.S. What are "sky hooks"?

They're kind of like left-handed screwdrivers, loosening wrenches, and adjustable hammers. They don't exist.

They're what you send the new guy on the job to ask the boss for.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

They're kind of like left-handed screwdrivers, loosening wrenches, and adjustable hammers. They don't exist.

They're what you send the new guy on the job to ask the boss for.

Actually Doc, they do. 'Sky Hook' is a common term used in construction for a Heavy Lift Helicopter. Also known as a 'Sky Crane'.

http://www.erickson-aircrane.com/images/pastat2b.jpg

Although I doubt this is what the original person was refering to.

 

[shereads]

The special effect developed for Matrix and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger was okay as a one-shot visual, but if I see one more action sequence where the hero suddenly jumps into the air, hangs there for half a minute while the camera dollies in an arc about him, before he kicks his opponent in the bejubies, I feel certain I shall start screaming, and be quite unable to stop.*

It is worse than all the slow-motion running that became popular in the wake of the Six Million Dollar Man.

I appreciate the effort and imagination it takes to develop new special-effects software, but I'd rather appreciate it during a 30-second TV commercial than sit through a movie that wouldn't have been made otherwise. My friends think I don't like science fiction, but that's not the case. I get bored by films made to show off software, and most of those are sci-fi films.

I loved 2001, which unfortuantely suffers when viewed on TV; so much of its power is the way it used negative space to convey loneliness and isolation, in space or in a Holiday Inn lobby on the moon. The people I know who love 2001 and aren't luke-warm about it, saw it in theaters the first time and can appreciate it on the small screen because they remember it large.

I liked the original Star Wars, which had a wicked sense of humor and worked as something other than a commercial for stuffed Wookies.

I liked Twelve Monkeys, the only time-travel flick I've seen that was so free of logic-holes, I got a headache trying to find some. I watched it twice before I knew why the woman from the future, on the plane with Bruce Willis at the end, tells him she's "in the insurance business."



Other sci-fi favorites: The Andromeda Strain; Alien and its first sequel; Close Encounters as it was originally released, before they ruined the ending by editing the mashed-potatoes sculpting scene and revealing the inside of the Mother Ship, which looked like a huge Hyatt Hotel with an atrium-lobby. Oops! Anticlimax.

Bits and pieces of the Mad Max movies were enjoyable when I sat through them to make my ex happy. In general, though, movies set in a post-apocalyptic world of the future don't do much but make me feel lousy.

Unless they make me laugh. Like the Rod Taylor version of The Time Machine, where the future looks like an upscale drug-rehab center in Santa Barbara, populated with floaty blond pacifists. And "the Thing," with James Arness as a giant carrot-person; laughing at that one in the wrong company is not a good idea. And Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, God bless it, which treated me to a fit of uncontrollable laugher thanks to Kirk's marvelous scenery-chewing during his eulogy to Spock. ("'Tis a far, far better place I go..." )

Without a doubt, the best laugh I ever got from a sci-fi film I owe to the 3-minute trailer for Kevin Costner's The Postman. I never saw the movie. If the whole thing was as funny as the preview, I couldn't take that much entertainment all at once.

You should rent it.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Without a doubt, the best laugh I ever got from a sci-fi film I owe to the 3-minute trailer for Kevin Costner's The Postman. I never saw the movie. If the whole thing was as funny as the preview, I couldn't take that much entertainment all at once.

You should rent it.

Read the book first. While certainly not one of the great works of Sci-Fi written, it was a passable way to spend a few hours.

However it does make the movie much, much more painful.

 

[NoJo]

Science fiction stuff...

Yes, I saw 2001 when it first came out, in CCC-I-N-E-R-A-M-AAA. This was a huge, almost semicurcular screen which required three projectors. It was, and still is, the best film I've seen for evoking the awful agoraphobia of space. As well as all that lovely Strauss and Lygeti, Kubrik also used complete silence, a simple and powerful effect, and of course, scientifically accurate.

As many people have mentioned since, probably the most far-fetched part of the movie (besides the psychedelic ending) is the idea of a computer with the intelligence of HAL.

Ziyi Zhang, plus the most lush visuals I've ever seen in a movie, made "House of Flying Daggers" a lot of fun to watch for me. I much preferred it to the Matrix, which seemed like a crap video game to me.

Two films you should rent (both are animated features): "Belleville Rendezvous", and "Spirited Away."

 

[OhMissScarlett]

"Area Girlfriend Has Never Seen Apocalypse Now" was one of my favorite news stories in the Onion.

You should find it and read it if you haven't. And of course you should see Apocalypse now.

All my guy friends used to bug me to watch this movie and I never would. Last week when I was sick, I finally watched it and it was indeed brilliant. Martin Sheen was kind of hot back then!