New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

[The Rube]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Well how about the over-convoluted piece of garbage that is "The Way Of The Gun."

A semi-twisty premise, ok. Wait, not twisty-turny enough for you? Here's a bunch more needless crap that makes soap opera storylines seem as simple as ABC! Whee, isn't this fun? And for a bonus, here's some gunplay and cliched dialogue, along with some horrible acting. That should do it.

Yep, that did it. Shut that sh*y movie off about halfway through.

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

so was Freejack (awesomely bad) now that you mention it

We may be the only two people on earth who actually saw Freejack.

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

A semi-twisty premise, ok. Wait, not twisty-turny enough for you? Here's a bunch more needless crap that makes soap opera storylines seem as simple as ABC! Whee, isn't this fun? And for a bonus, here's some gunplay and cliched dialogue, along with some horrible acting. That should do it.

They remade Unforgiven?

 

[Handyman]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

We may be the only two people on earth who actually saw Freejack.

Oh no I know plenty of people who saw it

You didn't like Unforgiven...dude you should not be allowed to ever talk about movies!

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

You didn't like Unforgiven...dude you should not be allowed to ever talk about movies!

Don't panic, nobody's taking that Oscar away. It was a lifetime achievement award for Eastwood, which he richly deserved. But the movie itself was such sophomoric, overheated tripe it was almost unwatchable. And worst of all, it was utterly humorless* about itself, which was unique for an Eastwood flick. What if Dirty Harry took itself seriously?

I'm not surprised Departed fans would love it, though. Same hamfisted delivery, same mess of cliches. Same cry of OH GOD I'M SO DARK AND PROFOUND!!!!

I looked up "false profundity" to see if I could find what I'm looking for in one word. I didn't find it, but here is a devastating (and really funny) description of this at work in another medium.

What Bacon produced are not paintings, at least not satisfying ones. They are little more than rectangles of canvas inscribed with noirish graffiti: angst for dummies. Bacon turned his clever little quotations from the masters, old or modern, into the twentieth century's most august visual claptrap.

Jesus, that could have been written specifically for Departed or Unforgiven. If you take a dookie on film but Photoshop it to look like marble, there will be people who think it's a masterpiece.

I'm just glad Clint got his payday. He's done so much good work he deserves the last laugh.

* An exception to this Eastwood Rule: Play Misty for Me is humorless about its main dramatic element, but that movie works brilliantly, particularly because Eastwood is playing so against type. That's actually the perfect antithesis to the self-important mess of the later movie:

Play Misty for Me : Unforgiven :: Five Easy Pieces : The Departed

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

So let me get this straight. Kepler didn't like Unforgiven, The Departed or The Dark Knight, but he thought Zoolander was a good movie... Do we really need to know more than this?

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Ok Kepler, you obviously have a...different...taste in movies as the rest of us. So out of curiosity and to see where you are coming from would you mind listing your, lets say top 10 movies. I have no intention of giving you crap for it (though I wont speak for others). Just want to get an idea of what movies you do like. By the way though I do like Unforgiven, I too was not a huge fan of The Departed. I didnt neccessarily dislike it, it just left me with a feeling of "meh".

I feel like my likes are fairly wide range from the typical things you might expect: The Godfather I and II, Goodfellas, Animal House, Star Wars, Fargo, Alien etc. to some classic type movies: Odd Couple, French Connection, Cool Hand Luke, 12 Angry Men and foreign stuff: City of God, Seven Samurai (and other Kurosawa films), Pans labyrinth, The Sea Inside, The Lives of Others etc. Admittedly those are probably a lot of typical movies people might say but I am trying to expand on that. If we start to include some TV series that to me at least almost feel like just long movies I would add Band of Brothers, Deadwood and The Wire.

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I feel like my likes are fairly wide range from the typical things you might expect: The Godfather I and II, Goodfellas, Animal House, Star Wars, Fargo, Alien etc. to some classic type movies: Odd Couple, French Connection, Cool Hand Luke, 12 Angry Men and foreign stuff: City of God, Seven Samurai (and other Kurosawa films), Pans labyrinth, The Sea Inside, The Lives of Others etc. Admittedly those are probably a lot of typical movies people might say but I am trying to expand on that.

Every one of the movies you listed is great, IMHO. Goodfellas isn't in the same class but I loved it for what it is (and it doesn't try to be anything more). I've never seen The Sea Inside or The Lives of Others, but if you recommend those I'll bite.

BTW, I don't mind if anybody gives me crap for my favorite movies (that would be pretty hypocritical because I give them crap for theirs ). I don't think falling into the trap of liking a falsely profound flick makes somebody a bad person. I will go to my grave responding to "Do you ever win a fight?" with "Nobody ever wins a fight," dammit! -- there is a time and a place for that kind of windbaggery (and a comedy is usually it).

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

So let me get this straight. Kepler didn't like Unforgiven, The Departed or The Dark Knight, but he thought Zoolander was a good movie... Do we really need to know more than this?

But you've hit it exactly, yourself. Zoolander is good because it's supposed to be stupid, is, and does it well. Unforgiven and The Departed aren't good because they aren't supposed to be stupid, are, and don't know it.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about Dark Knight. That kind of gritty-voiced-over-the-top delivery has a whole other connotation in superhero movies that I shouldn't have discounted. (I was actually making your Zoolander comparison fallacy, myself, and that was wrong.)

Take this list. I'll bet everybody has at least 10 on it they think are not good movies but for the most part they're great.

In bold are the ones I would consider metaphysical perfection. In italic are the ones I'd consider massively overrated. The asterisks are the ones I have somehow never seen.

The only three movies on this list I would actually rate as Terrible are Intolerance (which is only there because it was a landmark film but I'm sorry it is unwatchable -- Sunrise, for example, is a movie from that period which is very challenging to view through modern eyes but is still well worth the effort), Easy Rider (which is only there because Boomers love themselves so much), and Unforgiven, for all the excellent reasons put forth in other posts. And I only listed Some Like it Hot as overrated because it's often considered the greatest comedy of all-time, which it is nowhere near, but it's still an excellent movie.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)*
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)*
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)*
25. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound of Music (1965)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North By Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1977)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)*
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1958)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)*
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)*
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All the President's Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)*
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)*
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)*
90. Swing Time (1936)*
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)*
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)*
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)*
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959)

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Zoolander is good because it knows it's stupid. Unforgiven and The Departed aren't because they don't. I'm starting to have second thoughts about Dark Knight. That kind of gritty-voiced-over-the-top delivery has a whole other connotation in superhero movies that I shouldn't have discounted. (I was actually making your Zoolander comparison fallacy, myself, and that was wrong.)

Need I add, it's all a matter of taste? I mean, yes, I'm right. But you can think you're right too if you like...

I just thought that Zoolander was one of the 5 worst movies I've ever seen, and I can't think of anything likable about it.

I really don't care what movies you like or don't like, and I'm sure that I like some movies that others hate. I've absolutely hated any comedic brittish movie that i've seen, and I know that many people like that kind of movie.

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I just thought that Zoolander was one of the 5 worst movies I've ever seen, and I can't think of anything likable about it.

I really don't care what movies you like or don't like, and I'm sure that I like some movies that others hate. I've absolutely hated any comedic brittish movie that i've seen, and I know that many people like that kind of movie.

Comedic British movie? Like what? I consider a movie like Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels to be a comedic British movie. I also thought it was good.

Oh and Ben Stiller is rarely funny.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Comedic British movie? Like what? I consider a movie like Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels to be a comedic British movie. I also thought it was good.

Oh and Ben Stiller is rarely funny.

That one and Snatch. I can't think of many of them.

I don't like dry humor that, to me at least, seems more prominent in brittish movies. Maybe that is inaccurate, but I guess I don't really care.

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

That one and Snatch. I can't think of many of them.

I don't like dry humor that, to me at least, seems more prominent in brittish movies. Maybe that is inaccurate, but I guess I don't really care.

Which was the one with the Aussie, the swimming pool, and badass Ghandi? Because that was great!

 

[Kepler]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I've absolutely hated any comedic brittish movie that i've seen, and I know that many people like that kind of movie.

Same problem here with RomComs. Except Fifty First Dates and When Harry Met Sally, which somehow got through my defenses. But the rest... gak.

I can't think of another movie where Ben Stiller is funny. That's why it was such a surprise. It was like seeing Julia Roberts put in a good acting job.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

But you've hit it exactly, yourself. Zoolander is good because it's supposed to be stupid, is, and does it well. Unforgiven and The Departed aren't good because they aren't supposed to be stupid, are, and don't know it.

Thats an interesting thing to say about Zoolander. Typically I find if a movie is supposed to be stupid and tries to be stupid, then its stupid...and also bad, really bad, as is the case with Zoolander in my opinion.

Do look into The Sea Inside and Lives of Others though. They are just 2 that I thought of off the top of my head. Sea Inside is the story of man who is paralyzed and wanting to die with dignity (assisted suicide) and Live of Others takes place during the Cold War in Berlin. About a guy who is an expert at surveillance and how he gets wrapped up in the lives of those he is watching. Oh and also watch The Counterfeiters if you havent. Set in WWII about Jewish counterfieters who were used by the Nazis to make counterfeit money. Pretty good I thought.

 

[jmh]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Last night I watched Pirate Radio (which was originally released in the UK as The Boat That Rocked). Funny movie, I thought. Good cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Darby ("Flight of the Conchords"), Rhys Ifans (the kicker from The Replacements), and smaller roles by Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), January Jones ("Mad Men"), and Jack Davenport ("Coupling").

 

[ScottM]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Comedic British movie? Like what? I consider a movie like Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels to be a comedic British movie. I also thought it was good.

Oh and Ben Stiller is rarely funny.

I'd throw "In Bruges" into that category too.

And Ben Stiller is more annoying than funny IMHO.

 

[Handyman]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Last night I watched Pirate Radio (which was originally released in the UK as The Boat That Rocked). Funny movie, I thought. Good cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Darby ("Flight of the Conchords"), Rhys Ifans (the kicker from The Replacements), and smaller roles by Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), January Jones ("Mad Men"), and Jack Davenport ("Coupling").

It is an enjoyable movie...not great but pretty entertaining.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

83. Titanic (1997)

I would watch Tech and AIC attempt to play hockey every Saturday night for the rest of my life, before I ever sat through that bloated waste of a film again.

 

[The Rube]

Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I would watch Tech and AIC attempt to play hockey every Saturday night for the rest of my life, before I ever sat through that bloated waste of a film again.

Again?!

And Stiller was amusing in Dodgeball. I'd say that's been his funniest role. How sad.