A Personal Journey with The Gunslinger45 through the Movies: A Top 50+

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I haven't seen Eraserhead and it doesn't really look like my kind of movie, so I might not get to it. I've seen the remake of The Producers and really didn't like it. I doubt I'd like the original any better.



It is a comedy. The only musical element in the original is the Springtime for Hitler piece. Otherwise it is just a regular non singing comedy. The remake is based off the Broadway play that was a musical version of this movie.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Dick Shawn does a few funny songs in the original, but he's in character, and I'd never call it a musical because of those bits, unless you call Young Frankenstein one for "Puttin' on the Ritz" or History of the World Part I one for "The Inquisition". Mel Brooks is just a song & dance man at heart, like Holden.
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18.



Blazing Saddles: 1974 (R) -10
USA / Warner Brothers
89% (CF)



Where The Producers was my favorite Mel Brooks movie in concept, Blazing Saddles is my favorite Mel Brooks film measured in laughter. This is easily one of the funniest movies ever made and a movie that can never be duplicated again. It was just made at the right time with the right cast. A movie that takes a clever satire of racism and turns it into one big live action Merrie Melodies style comedy. Hell the bit where Sheriff Bart invents the candy gram and delivers it to Mongo looks like it was pulled straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Blazing Saddles is also a very special comedy to me as it helped me through a tough time. In Basic Training I was seriously injured and required surgery and a substantial amount of time to recover. Recovery was done at the Fitness Training Unit in Fort Benning. Needless to say it sucked hard. Being treated like a dumb POS private while dealing with an injury and surrounded by weak willed whiners who exaggerated their injuries so they could get out of the Army and snag some benefits. And let me tell you those ***** bags really affected my morale. Thank God for church so I could find my center and relieve some tension. One weekend our acting Senior Drill Sergeant gave us use of our cell phones and electronic devices for the entire afternoon. And after a call to the folks I sat down and watched Blazing Saddles on my iPod. Needless to say after about a month and a half of this crap I needed a spiritual pick me up. And this Mel Brooks classic made life a little easier for me that day. My own Sullivan’s Travels moment if you will. Making this a very special movie in that regard as well.




It is a comedy. The only musical element in the original is the Springtime for Hitler piece. Otherwise it is just a regular non singing comedy. The remake is based off the Broadway play that was a musical version of this movie.
Well if that's the case, I may give it a shot some time. My watch list is already quite long though, so it probably won't be anytime soon.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
I hope As I Was Looking At The Lustrous Beams Of Light In My Tea I Immediately Thought of Cupcakes gets a honorable mention. You were really impressed with it and even tried to interpet it in this thread some time ago.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



I hope As I Was Looking At The Lustrous Beams Of Light In My Tea I Immediately Thought of Cupcakes gets a honorable mention. You were really impressed with it and even tried to interpet it in this thread some time ago.

Ah yes your "art short" which I pulled a BS pretentious interpretation out of.



17.



Rashomon: 1951 (NR) -11
Japan / Daiei Film Co.
100% (CF)




By the time I was 27 I had discovered Kurosawa and was fan given the few movies of his I saw. This movie on the other hand (plus the rewatch of a certain other movie of his) turned me from Kurosawa fan, into a raging Kurosawa fan boy! Rashomon was the fifth Kurosawa movie I ever saw, and holy crap was it a doozy! I first saw this movie over Christmas break and I had rented it via iTunes. I sat down to watch it one night and was completely entranced by the film! The way the film cut together, the separate accounts of the individuals who testified at the trial, and the tight writing that made every scenario believable in some way really added to the mystery of this film. And the ending needless to say was an absolutely beautiful scene! A damn near perfect film if ever one was made!

Trivia note: for a brief period of time, this was my favorite Akira Kurosawa movie. It was not until I rewatched another of his films which would earn my title of my favorite Kurosawa movie. But I will get to that movie later.




I hope As I Was Looking At The Lustrous Beams Of Light In My Tea I Immediately Thought of Cupcakes gets a honorable mention. You were really impressed with it and even tried to interpet it in this thread some time ago.

Very Bela Tarr-esque.



16.



Hobo with a Shotgun: 2011 (R) NEW
Canada / Magnet Films
66% (CF)




I love a lot of classy movies, but let’s face it I love my trashy sleaze too! And this movie certainly delivers on both accounts. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that the past summer was not kind to me when it came to the movies. Between The Purge, Man of Steel, and World War Z it might very well have been the worst summer movie season I can remember. And I had to ease my distaste with a movie that was actually good. I did that with a review of Hobo with a Shotgun, a perfect blend of 70’s exploitation with Troma style over the top acting and one note villains.

I actually first watched this movie on con leave due to my injury in Basic. I had an internet connection and I was stuck in bed for a month so I watched a lot of videos from That Guy with the Glasses and rented a crap ton of movies from iTunes. One such movie I purchased was this film. It is trashy, violent, over the top, silly, and looks very cheap. And I love the hell out of it! A film that is pure exploitive fun. The best viewing was easily when I and a couple of guys from the barracks watched it together on Netflix. It was a hilarious experience!

Objective

Exploitive ranking



15.



Gran Torino: 2008 (R) -9
USA / Warner Brothers
79% (CF)




This is the final film from 2008 to make my list. And it also happens to be my favorite movie starring Clint Eastwood. I like my Eastwood characters to be tough, pissed off, and more than a little surly. And boy is Walt a prime example of that. But we have an interesting twist. Walt is less Dirty Harry, and more a grouchier and more racist sort of father figure. He is teaches him to be a man; to grow as a person; and Thao actually helps Walt to do the same. It is not a crime thriller or a spaghetti western, it is a macho melodrama. Equal parts touching and badass with more than a few subtly funny moments. It also has the badass parts like when Walt tells a group of gangbangers to “Get off my lawn.”



Something about crotchety war vets threatening violence to sh!tbags is pretty damn cool. I first saw this in theaters with an old college buddy of mine. He is a movie guy too, so we saw this together. Never thought my buddy would like a character who was clearly racist this much. Then again he is not Asian so that helps. Either way it is a film with fantastic dialogue, a very memorable character with several great performances, and it seems Eastwood’s final on screen role. Great way to say good bye to Clint as an actor, but we still got him as a director.