The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame IV

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Seen 5 of the movies reviewed so far with The Player and True Romance being my favorites. Both of them are
Million Dollar Baby is good but I'm not a big fan of Clint Eastwood directed movies with the exception of Mystic River and Unforgiven. Something about his movies just feel weird. Cabaret, I'm kind of with a few other people here in that the scenes in the Cabaret are far more interesting than the other stuff. I loved the MC, what a fantastic performance and Liza was very good. Dead Man I haven't seen since the 90's. I didn't like it but that was a long time ago and it was very different from the types of movies I was usually watching back then.



King Kong: I was glad this was nominated because it’s the type of movie I have a hard time starting because I just know I’m more than likely going to respond poorly. Well, I did, but at least I can cross it to fog my list.

My problem with the movie is there just wasn’t any real thought put into the characters or the screenplay. It’s all about getting to Kong and seeing the spectacle. It’s just not enough to carry two hours for me.

I did get some surprises. Cool thanks see the first stop animation. Looks like claymation to me, maybe someone can verify. I didn’t realize that there would be other monsters. I thought that was something added to the lore later on. So that was fun.

Glad I watched it. Maybe I will check out the original Godzilla soon as well.



Come on Kong is awesome, seen it countless times!


Not in 35 years though
I think the connection to stuff you watched when you were young goes a long way.



Going to do a mega-multi-quote and play ketchup!

Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch 1995)...The film has a dream like atmosphere and feels quite poetic at times. The black and white cinematography is beautiful and striking and helps enhance the mood of the film. The score by Neil Young is fantastic and perfectly complements the film...
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I love this film! and for all the reasons you stated too. Back in the day Johnny Depp was an upcoming star and perfectly suited to this film. I've seen a couple other of Jarmusch's films and liked his style, I like to see more.

It's been soooo long since I seen Cabaret that maybe I should uncheck it off my list, so it can be chosen for me sometime I do love me musicals and I remember seeing this back in the late 70s on TV as a kid and liking it. Too bad all of my musical list is checked off.

Million Dollar Baby, 2004
Not a film I would have probably ever gotten around to (especially as I'd already had a significant element of the plot spoiled for me)...
Seen this once and thought it was pretty great, but not the kind of film I'd usually rewatch. I have to say Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite directors, I love how he takes his time with the story and with his edits. So many new films are edited fast...cut, cut, cut, by directors who cut their teeth making MTV videos in the 80s. I need to see more Clint Eastwood films.


Mystery Train, 1989
...I really enjoyed Hawkins and Lee as the night clerk and bellboy respectively....
Overall I liked this one quite a bit. I just wish that the last segment had a little more pop.

I really liked Mystery Train, more so than Night on Earth (which I also liked). The last segment for me was also the weakest. I liked the first segment with the Japanese tourist couple the best and I enjoyed the desk clerk and bellboy too. I wish they had a bit more screen time though.

I just finished watching Fail Safe (1964) and the first word that comes to mind is WOW! Masterfully directed by Sidney Lumet...
I like Fail Safe it often gets compared to that other war film of the time Dr Stranglove which is also good but so different that I don't think they can be really compared. I should check out more of Sidney Lumet's filmography he's made some great films.

Roman Holiday
I love it when you think you know something about a classic and then it totally surprises you. This was a really great pick, and it honestly hadn't been a priority for me to see on my own...Great pick!
When I seen Roman Holiday had been chose for you I thought you might hate it. It seems du jour for many MoFos to hate anything with Audrey Hepburn. I loved the film and Audrey too! And of course I love classic films, especially romantic drama films. Glad you liked it.

King Kong: I was glad this was nominated because it’s the type of movie I have a hard time starting because I just know I’m more than likely going to respond poorly...
I love this old classic. Only seen it once but I was impressed by it's ground breaking movie making techniques which I learned about on the DVD extras. Have you seen the remake with Jack Black?



I love this old classic. Only seen it once but I was impressed by it's ground breaking movie making techniques which I learned about on the DVD extras. Have you seen the remake with Jack Black?
I did in the theater. Monster movies aren’t really for me. They have no life to them.

Why do we consider old techniques that look fake ground breaking but new techniques that look more realistic garish.

I don’t like CGI either, but this idea that older is better bothers me as much as the crowd that won’t watch old movies.



Glad I watched it. Maybe I will check out the original Godzilla soon as well.
I thought that the original Godzilla was excellent, and some of its environmental elements are painfully relevant today. Also, Takashi Shimura is in it!!

Seen this once and thought it was pretty great, but not the kind of film I'd usually rewatch. I have to say Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite directors, I love how he takes his time with the story and with his edits. So many new films are edited fast...cut, cut, cut, by directors who cut their teeth making MTV videos in the 80s. I need to see more Clint Eastwood films.
I thought that the slower scenes were fine, but when combined with extra content (like the whole Danger subplot), it dragged a bit. I think that if the plot had been streamlined a bit, it would have gone a long way because the sequences with the two main characters would have been less diluted.

When I seen Roman Holiday had been chose for you I thought you might hate it. It seems du jour for many MoFos to hate anything with Audrey Hepburn. I loved the film and Audrey too! And of course I love classic films, especially romantic drama films. Glad you liked it!
I just like what I like and hate what I hate with little input from the wisdom of the crowd, LOL.

I think that her character is a bit annoying and cutesy, but it's fine because it's a result of the restrictive way she has been raised.



...Why do we consider old techniques that look fake ground breaking but new techniques that look more realistic garish.

I don’t like CGI either, but this idea that older is better bothers me as much as the crowd that won’t watch old movies.
I don't think many would say an old 1930s f/x is better looking than today's CG. For me a film like King Kong is historic like the very first Corvette or Mustang cars were. There's something neat about groundbreaking first. Even the first CG that was used in Star Trek was neat to see, though it didn't look as good as practical effects.

Sadly though, the ease and cost effectiveness of CG has caused some movies to be assembly line 'green screen' flicks. As much as I like Star Trek...I watched and hated the CG in the latest series Picard. It's true that the series didn't do a lot of CG but when they did create a CG scene like a space battle, they went way overboard visually and must have had a 1000 ships on the screen! Which made it feel like I was watching a kid's video game.




Alice in Wonderland (Disney 1951)

Reaction
: Appreciative, Neutral

Animation is a long shot for me. I never usually hate it, but I've yet to absolutely love a Disney film. Pixars, Miyazake and Studio Ghibli are more to my liking. But I'm not a fan of magna.

Believe it or not I'd never seen a classic Disney animated film until after joining MoFo...so glad this was nominated. I'm also happy to have a shorter length film to watch, 1:15...perfect for those long work days!

My favorite part was the forest scene with all the creative talking flowers. Liked the Bread & Butterflys too.

The movie didn't do much for me, Disney animation seems to me more like cartoons. This will probably fall in the middle or lower middle part of my list, depends of course on the other movies. Still thanks for giving me the chance to watch it





Stand By Me, 1986

In the late 1950s a group of pre-teens--Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Vern (Jerry O'Connell), and Teddy (Corey Feldman)--hear a rumor about the location of the body of a dead child. Determined to see the body, and possibly claim credit for its discovery, the boys set out on a trek to find the dead boy. Hanging over the boys are their challenging home lives and a gang of older boys (led by a sadistic Kiefer Sutherland) who may also be interested in the body.

This is another movie where the story and my response to it were not quite what I'd expected.

When I was growing up, I didn't have the kind of friend group portrayed in this film. I've always been more of a loner, and so running around unsupervised and going on adventures just wasn't part of my childhood. At the same time, however, I connected with this film on several levels. The first is that so many of the issues faced by the boys--death in their family, a mentally ill parent, being judged by the actions of one's family--are things that my students have experienced. In this film I saw mirrored so many of the boys who have passed through my classroom--I recognized their grief and their struggle and their resilience. And on another level, I think that a lot of people can connect with the idea of the pains of growing up, facing an uncertain future and wanting to be loved and appreciated.

When I've read plot summaries of this film, it's always been presented as the boys going to find "a dead body". I had always assumed that this was the body of an adult. But the body is that of a 12 year old child who wandered off while picking blueberries. This adds a totally different tone to the picture than I expected. These boys are not only being confronted with mortality, they are being shown an explicit example of the indifference and cruelty of the world, even toward children. Importantly, all of the boys have already had a taste of that cruelty, and so their quest feels less like a discovery, and more like a confirmation of something they already feel and suspect.

The film has a lot of elements that I normally don't love in a movie: voice-over narration, flashbacks, and slow-motion. For the most part I felt that it worked here because the film is so deeply entrenched in the subjective point of view of the boys. The sequence in which we watch the visualization of a story that Gordie is telling the other boys was a good example of something that barely squeaked by for me. Much more effective were the flashbacks, revealing the way that Gordie's life has changed since the death of his older brother (John Cusack!).

The heart of the film is obviously the boys and their relationship. While they all have good chemistry with each other and solid comic timing, Wheaton and Phoenix are the standouts as the two central figures. Wheaton plays Gordie with vulnerability and intelligence. Gordie wants to be a writer, but his family (and seemingly the whole town) can't help but compare him to his football star brother. Gordie must deal with both his grief at losing his brother (who was his main ally) and the indifference and even contempt that he receives from his parents. Phoenix is equally strong as Chris, a sensitive soul whose criminal family has put him on a path and led everyone to expect the worst from him. Gordie and Chris take turns comforting each other, and the portrayal of their friendship is touching and memorable. Each boy experiences a sense of doom, while at the same time lifting up the other. In a meta sense, this dynamic is doubly painful knowing that Phoenix would only live a mere 7 years after this film. Toward the end of the school year I was talking with two of my students. One of them said, " I think girls have more emotions than boys." I asked, "Do you think they have more emotions or do you think they show more emotions?" and this other boy jumped in and was like "YES! You're not supposed to show how you feel. You're just supposed to be tough and be quiet." Anyway, I love seeing a film that shows boys in particular productively expressing their fear/anxiety/sadness and getting support from their friends instead of derision.

Any complaints I have are very minor. I already mentioned having mixed feelings about some of the sequences that take us away from the boys. I also felt as if the dynamic with the gang of older boys was left a bit unresolved, especially as they are the threat that drives the action in the third act.

A very pleasant surprise!

Somewhere between
and
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Another well crafted & reflective review, Takoma. I enjoyed Stand By Me. I've seen it a number of times, the last being for an HoF. I too rate it highly. You perceived more than I would have ever noticed in the film. Some good observations by you. I do think you love the movie watching experience more so than many of us, and that's cool to see



Stand By Me was nominated for a HoF not long ago. I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it like I did as a teen.

I haven't seen Alice in Wonderland since I was a kid, but it at least brought us White Rabbit.



Great review, Tak. It is a film I've seen many times and never fails to move me.
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“If I listen to any more of your monologue, I’ll fall asleep right in this chair.”


I thought I was going to hate this, when it started, as a whole collection (!) of things I really don’t like in film showed up. First, the camera focusing on parts of Haydee’s body in an objectifying sort of way. Then a lot of voiceover and a lot of unlikable characters sitting around and talking endlessly about their philosophies about love and sex and life and not really doing anything.

Then it became clear that the film is actually sort of subverting all of these things. The camera gaze on Haydee is how the men in the film see her. The unsympathetic characters are not supposed to be sympathised with, they are shown up to be narcissistic jerks, the voiceover similar – what Adrien says about the situation is frequently at odds with is actually shown on screen. He says Haydee is interested in him while the camera shows her lounging, completely uninterested, in a nearby chair – he is an idiot, or lying to himself, or both, and his morals or philosophies of life are a load of nonsense.

But, amusing as this sometimes is, it’s not really enough to sustain a whole film. We’re still left with an hour and a half (which feels more like two hours, at least) in the company of these horrible, deluded men who are say awful things to this young woman. The persistent voiceover and sitting around talking is still quite annoying. People doing nothing out of some kind of philosophy of cultivating laziness is still quite boring.

Visually, there are some nice languid shots of the beach, the countryside and the town. The inside of the house is ugly. I don’t know whether this is some kind of metaphor or just an example of late sixties decorating.

I definitely didn’t hate it in the end, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it all that much either. I just don’t think Rohmer is for me. Although this was about a million times better than Claire’s Knee.



I watched Little Big Man (1970). Directed by Arthur Penn, the film stars Dustin Hoffman as a very old man looking back on his life and experiences including being raised by Native Americans. For me, Hoffman was the best part of the film. His performance is fantastic. The film itself is somewhat uneven. There are some interesting moments, but sometimes the story meanders and feels repetitive. It goes on for too long and could have easily been at least 20 minutes shorter. This is the 3rd Penn film I have seen and although it is not as good as Bonnie and Clyde and Night Moves, it has enough good points for me to rate it a
.



Sunrise: The Song Of Two Humans Maybe I shouldn’t have a favorite silent director yet, but it’s hard for me to imagine I will respond to anyone the way I do Murneau. His films are just visually stunning. He seems to have a contrast in his B&W that others don’t.

He also tells really cool stories in an engaging way. I was pretty stunned from the start how dark this was willing to go. Awesome middle third that makes the finale pack a punch. Perfect film.

I don’t think it passed Metropolis for my fave silent, but it’s pretty damn close.



Another well crafted & reflective review, Takoma. I enjoyed Stand By Me. I've seen it a number of times, the last being for an HoF. I too rate it highly. You perceived more than I would have ever noticed in the film. Some good observations by you. I do think you love the movie watching experience more so than many of us, and that's cool to see
Thanks!

I am very much in the "movies as empathy machines" camp. When I make a personal connection to a film it gives me an opportunity to reflect on my own life, and I find those to be very powerful viewing experiences.



The trick is not minding
Thanks!

I am very much in the "movies as empathy machines" camp. When I make a personal connection to a film it gives me an opportunity to reflect on my own life, and I find those to be very powerful viewing experiences.
I’m very much in agreement with CR.
Have you seen Better Days? It’s about bullying, and given your experience as a teacher, I wonder what your thoughts would be in comparison.



I’m very much in agreement with CR.
Have you seen Better Days? It’s about bullying, and given your experience as a teacher, I wonder what your thoughts would be in comparison.
I haven't. Just added it to my watchlist, thanks!