The Movie Trade-off Tab

what do you mean, you thought you had made a mistake? you mean, you rewatched the trailer and thought it looked worse than you had remembered, or something?

if you're really uninterested in Peeping Tom - even though you haven't seen it, and I personally think it's hell of interesting and ahead of its time - well, don't force yourself to watch it. i can try to find something else.

i may take a peek at your top 100 again to get an idea.

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The trailer made the film look exactly as you described it -- completely cornballish, sappy, full of crazy relationships. I don't think I ever thought of the film as that. It's hard for me to remember all the events of the movie, but I just thought... it won Best Picture, I liked it, you hadn't seen it, this might work. And then I watched the 5 minute long trailer and I thought, she's either gonna be really moved by it or it's not gonna work at all.

I should see it, but the trailer and what I've seen of it so far just aren't doing it for me.

I can watch Dark Victory. I've got it - I've never seen it. I'm interested. I can have the review up by tomorrow.

I just can't bring myself to watch a guy I'm not attracted to voyeuristically watch a bunch of homely 1960's women and then kill them. At some other time in my life, I might be into it, but I can't bring myself to watch something if I don't really care for the material at the moment. I have to be attracted to the movie for some reason.

haha, fair enough.

i'm always on the Dark Victory recruitment train, but i already recommended that to somebody else in this game, so it feels a bit like cheating. i won't stop you, though! i'd like to see your review on that, to be honest.

Good! That makes my life easier and happier. I'll watch it tonight.

Peeping Tom is much more sickly twisted than you apparently realize, Sexy. Have you seen those home movies where his dad basically teaches him how to be a voyeur? The dad is played by the director. You don't like Karl Michael Boehm? I thought you would go for him.



It's not as great a movie I would like it to be, but it says a lot about movies and how dads affect their sons. It came out just before Psycho and the British critics wanted to crucify director Michael Powell, one of my faves, for being some kind of pervert. A few years later he basically had to exile himself to Australia because he couldn't work in England any more. The funny thing is that when Psycho came out, covering much of the same material, the same critics fell all over themselves praising Hitchcock.

Oh, and by the way, I give Terms of Endearment and have since I watched it several times at the theatre in 1983.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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well said, mark f, except for that last sentence there.

No and I dunno for sure about Karl Michael Boehm.

It sounds interesting but I just wasn't feeling it for some reason. Perhaps I will still give it a watch.

Dark Victory
(directed by Edmund Goulding, 1939)



Not totally in love with this movie, but it has a timeless quality to it and the ending was especially intense as what the whole story was leading up to finally comes to pass -- Bette Davis, playing terminally ill Judy, dramatically and literally goes to her deathbed. Released in 1939, this is what the emos of that time period must have gone to see instead of the happier, giddier The Wizard of Oz.

Bette Davis plays rich socialite and horse lover, Judy, whose friend Ann (or is Ann more like an assistant? I'm not sure - still, a friend) calls for a doctor for Judy one day because Judy has been having some physical problems going on - which she's ignoring and pretending that they aren't serious. The doctor, played by the studly George Brent, examines her and discovers many things wrong with her. They do an operation on Judy's brain -- oh, no, they're gonna have to shave off some of her hair -- but the prognosis isn't good. The prognosis is NEGATIVE. Judy's gonna die in about ten months....

But never tell Judy. That's what her doctor demands. If she knew she was going to die, she wouldn't spend the rest of her time on Earth happy.

So, Judy gets out of the hospital and throws a big party to celebrate her life and thank her doctor for giving her life back to her. She has no idea. Meanwhile, a romance has developed between Judy and her doctor -- Lord knows why. MEN!!! Why get heavily involved with someone if you know they're going to the bone yard before the end of the year? This doctor ends up marrying Judy!

Humphrey Bogart is also in the film, as well as Ronald Reagan, though I didn't recognize him. Humphrey plays another horse lover that also admires Judy -- wasn't too crazy about his role in the film. I dunno -- personally -- I think Humphrey Bogart is very attractive, but he lacks a sort of charisma with me. In everything that I've seen with him so far, I think he's a good looking man, but there's not much energy. Some actors steal my attention away from everything else -- Humphrey cannot do that with me. He seemed like he had a better chance in this film, but I don't think he's a good match with Bette Davis. Bette, I feel, amuses me sometimes, but she's very rattly and nerve jangly. She seems incomplete, volatile -- earthquake-ish. However, she works in this kind of movie and I found that other elements of the movie only bogged it down and almost killed it for me -- the character of Ann, in particular, played by Geraldine Fitzgerald, was strikingly unnecessary and boring and didn't have the right energy. She could have been eliminated.

I enjoyed this film mainly for its subject matter -- the woman who ignores science and her own mortality, trying to make the best out of life by having fun and spending money, and having to come to terms with it all and proving she's capable of taking on the biggest hurdle of them all - eternal rest, the shutting down of all the excitement. It could easily be remade today, although I imagine it might be done terribly and take the darkness of the material to an extreme cheapness. But despite that possibility, I think Dark Victory is mostly a good film recommendation to anybody living today.

Because she's rich and dying in ten months? That's an even better reason to marry than pregnancy!

Something I found really funny about Dark Victory was how it kept showing us pieces of paper that had something written on it -- like her invitation to the doctor for the party she was throwing and all the papers talking about her illness that were in her medical records -- at one point, they even had "PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE" zoom out at us. It really struck me as funny in this film for some reason.

Honeykid, I think you're right about that. For being so smart, here's another Whoopi Goldberg picture:

If I ever get to NY, I'm going to hunt you down and beat you for these pics.

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Directed by: Lloyd Kaufman
Written by: Daniel Bova and Gabriel Friedman

If you learn anything from this movie it is that building a Fast Food restaurant on top of a Indian burial ground is a very bad idea. Arbie and Wendy (yes it’s part of a joke along with other characters names such as Denny, Carl Jr., Humus, Jose Paco Bell) are the two main characters of this film. Wendy goes off to college and becomes a lesbian while Arbie gets a job at the fast food restaurant named American Chicken Bucket. After a few really bloody deaths the people finally figure out that something is wrong, and of course with the help of the reincarnated Paco Bell who comes back as a Sloppy Jose sandwich.



This film insults EVERYONE, if you are easily offended then don’t watch this movie. Luckily it is almost impossible to offend me so I loved it, enough blood and body organs being ripped out to make a Japanese Ultra Gore movie blush, and more nudity then a softcore porn. What’s not to like?
The song and dance numbers are hilarious and insanely offensive, oh yeah and Ron Jeremy even has a cameo in this. They completely rip on Jared the Subway guy (the guy that has ruined my name for the rest of my life) which is more than okay with me.



The pop culture and political references as well as every race, creed, color, sexual preference, and body type in this film are very thick and hilarious. I think this is definitely the best Troma film I have ever seen.

Thanks for recommending this one Pyro.

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Your real name's Subway Guy?!? What cruel parents.

I hope you do. I've been dying to try out my new Whoopi Goldberg Boxing Gloves.



Ready to get ya in da face!

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And the Lord said unto John, "Come forth and receive eternal life." But John came fifth and won a toaster.

Incendies (2010)
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Written by: Denis Villeneuve and Wajdi Mouawad

Starting in Canada twins Jeanne Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin), and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette) are being read their mothers Last Will and Testament. The dead mother, Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) asks that the twins go and find their father whom they thought was dead and a brother that they did not know existed. Simon does not have much of a part in the first half of the film, mainly it is Jeanne somewhere in the middle east (I believe in Lebanon as most of the flashbacks take place during the Lebanese civil war during the 1970’s) trying to find anyone who has a connection or any information about her mother. There are flashbacks during a lot of this showing Nawal Marwan taking a major role in the civil war and ending up in prison, the flashing from past to present at times for me was a little confusing, this is one of those films where you really have to concentrate and not miss a single line of dialogue. I think that’s all I will say about the flashbacks as to not spoil anything for others who have not seen this because most of the story and twists in this movie happen during those moments.



During the second half of the film the brother has a large part when he starts helping his sister retrace their mother’s past, but for the most part I did not feel like he made much of an impact in the movie at all. The twins start discovering stuff about their mother that they would never have imagined and parts of their childhood that they were much too young to remember. I really think this is an amazing story of what a mother will do for her children as well as the lengths the children will go to too make their mother’s last wishes happen no matter what obstacles come up along the way. There is a bit of violence in the movie and it is the kind that is quite disturbing as most of it happens to very young children, but I am sure a lot of that kind of violence especially in that part of the world happened much too often in real life. This is an amazing movie, a very moving movie, and a twist ending that I did not see coming and it blew my mind, everyone should watch this.

Thanks a ton Ash, this is another one of those that I would never have picked out on my own so thanks for the great recommendation.

oop, sorry, didn't see this.

yes. i knew you'd like this a lot. sorry it took so long to get to you, though, if i had known it'd be so much trouble i probably would have given you something else.

i remember when i was watching it the jumping timeline was confusing mainly because the two female leads - mother and daughter - were played by actresses who looked so similar (intentionally, i suppose) and their situations almost mocked each other. i loved watching the contrast of the two, how the daughter was softer and more tranquil, and the mother was much more brazen yet twice as compassionate.

i agree. everyone should watch this film.

The Toxic Avenger (1984)

This is the second Troma in a row that has been recommended to me, I know a lot of people do not like these movies but I get a kick out of them, if you are looking for a serious horror then please look elsewhere.



98 pound Melvin is basically a doormat for anyone who wants to just walk all over him, and not to sound mean but if I saw him in real life I might find it hard to resist also I mean wow the teeth on that kid, I am really hoping that was some kind of movie magic and not the real deal. As you can pretty much guess from the title Melvin has an unfortunate encounter with a vat of toxic waste while the drivers of the toxic waste disposal truck were getting REALLY HIGH and did not notice anything. That is one of the main reasons that I like Troma films, the mix between comedy and horror. There is also a romantic twist thrown in when Melvin meets saves a blind woman from a group of thugs and they wind up falling in love, the make-out scenes were the hardest part of the movie to watch I mean that is a girl that is dedicated to her job.



I think that the best laugh I got out of this movie was the voice when Melvin got turned into the Toxic Avenger, the voice over they did was perfect and hilarious. There is also the gratuitous nudity which did not hurt at all, what killed it for me was the overacting of the main bad guys, all the screaming and yelling, the “I just can't take it anymore I've gotta drive something” that kind of was a bit over the top for me even for a Troma film.
All in all I thought this was a good movie and would suggest this to anyone who likes movies that are a little different, a nice mix of comedy and horror and all that B-Rated goodness. So thanks to Sexy for recommending this one, I did enjoy it.