Posts filed under 'favorites'
April 15th, 2009
I’ve seen this idea on a few other movie-related blogs (namely here and here), so I decided to swipe it. Here are a few of my favorite characters (not actors or actresses) from movies. Feel free to share your own in the comments.
Morrie from GOODFELLAS
Gale and Evelle Snoats from RAISING ARIZONA
Inspector Yang from SUPERCOP/POLICE STORY 3
Lonesome Rhodes from A FACE IN THE CROWD
Frank Hackett in NETWORK
Clementine Kruczynski in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Carl Denham in KING KONG
Sol Roth in SOYLENT GREEN
Uncle Charlie in SHADOW OF A DOUBT
Sidney J. Mussberger in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
Hans Gruber in DIE HARD
Chester Kent in FOOTLIGHT PARADE
Jeff in USED CARS
J.J. Hunsecker in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
Major Kong in DR. STRANGELOVE
Klaus Daimler in THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
Jeff Sheldrake (right) in THE APARTMENT
Roy Baty in BLADE RUNNER
December 31st, 2008
Here, from the fine folks at Smashing Magazine, are 30 great opening title sequences. I especially like the inclusion of LORD OF WAR, a so-so movie with truly imaginative and visually stunning opening titles.
One problem: These listmeisters included a few James Bond openings, as they should have, but left off my favorite, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. I’m rectifying that error here…
I mean, come on — the still-sounds-good song, the girls-and-guns motif, the peekaboo sillhouette nudity? What more could you want in a title sequence?
November 10th, 2008
Here’s a fun film meme, as described by Dylan over at Blog Cabins. Make a list of 26 of your favorite movies, one for each letter of the alphabet. Here’s mine. Feel free to share yours in the comments:
AMERICAN MOVIE (1999)
(THE) BLACK CAT (1934)
CAT PEOPLE (1941) Producer
DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004)
(A) FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
GOODFELLAS (1990)
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)
J-MEN FOREVER! (1979)
KING KONG (1933)
(THE) LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004)
MULHOLLAND DR. (2000)
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939)
(THE) PARALLAX VIEW (1974)
Q, THE WINGED SERPENT (1982)
ROBOCOP (1987)
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
TAXI DRIVER (1976)
USED CARS (1980)
VIDEODROME (1983)
WILD IN THE STREETS (1958)
X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963)
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)
ZELIG (1983)
November 3rd, 2008
I was reading Some Came Running, writer Glenn Kenny’s excellent movie blog, and while describing a discussion with his wife of the original PLANET OF THE APES, Kenny made a description of a sort of movie I’m definitely familiar with, but had never thought about specifically until now:
“For a lot of people, APES belongs in that very special, peculiar category of film appreciation: a movie you always loves despite knowing it’s not much good.”
I have a lot of movies on my personal “Loved But Not Good” list, and the original APES is one of them. (So, strangely enough, are the other Charlton Heston end-of-the-world movies THE OMEGA MAN and (especially) SOYLENT GREEN. In fact, the early ’70s account for a lot of those movies, probably because I was a kid then, and came to love certain films before I realized they were lacking in the actual quality department.
How about you folks? Any less-than-good movies you love?
October 16th, 2008
With Oliver Stone’s Bush biopic W. opening in theaters this weekend, a number of Web sites have Stone-related content. The Onion AV Club has an interview with the man himself, and the Museum of the Moving Image site has thoughtful essays on three of his films: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, JFK and NIXON.
As someone who considers JFK one of the very best films of the 1990s but doesn’t necessarily agree with the conspiracy thesis at its heart, I especially enjoyed this point made my Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz in their piece:
From the opening newsreel Stone presents a myth, one that pervades this stage of his career: government as oppressive patriarch, motivated largely by military and capitalistic interests and operating largely out of view of a public blinkered by patriotic propaganda. This government, Stone asserts, treats its subjects like children. But JFK goes further to reach a darker conclusion concerning the effects of a nation denied access to reality. When the government hides the true story and treats its citizenry like children, the children are bound to make up their own stories.
People who dismiss JFK because they think Stone’s conspiracy theory is the bunk are missing the point: The movie is a collection of theories, with Costner’s character descending deeper and deeper into the dark side of modern American history. He’s like a classic film noir detective character who keeps learning things he’d be better off knowing as he tries to solve a crime (in this case, a very big crime.) As directed by Stone, JFK is a brilliant collage of images that creates a nightmarish funhouse full of mirror images, hidden passages and dead ends.
Is it true? Probably not. But then again, neither is the Warren Commission report.
September 18th, 2008
The Onion AV Club’s excellent New Cult Canon finally works its way around to David Fincher’s 1999 masterpiece about office drones, broken bones and DIY explosives, FIGHT CLUB. Writer Scott Tobias delivers a smart defense of the film, and the peanut gallery chimes in with hundreds of comments (some smart, some less so).
When FIGHT CLUB hit theaters nine years ago, many mainstream critics — most of them baby boomers — called it irresponsible, fascist and downright dangerous. These were some of the same writers who praised earlier controversial films, such as A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and STRAW DOGS, but having the message aimed at a younger generation apparently upped the fascism factor. Here, for instance, is what Roger Ebert said…
FIGHT CLUB is the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-star movie since DEATH WISH, a celebration of violence in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink, smoke, screw and beat one another up.
What’s funny is how the condemnations of the boomers solidified FIGHT CLUB as a Gen X movie. (In his AV Club piece, Tobias calls it “the quintessential Generation X film.”) The DVD release, in fact, included many of those critical quotes in its self-aware packaging. Its cult has only grown in the last nine years, and though many people — even its fans — miss some of its complexities and ambiguities, it still ranks as one of the best films of the last 25 years.
September 12th, 2008
Here, just because I feel like it, is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time — the development of the Hula Hoop from the incredibly underrated Coen Brothers film THE HUDSUCKER PROXY…
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September 4th, 2008
Over at the Onion AV Club, Scott Tobias continues his excellent series, “The New Cult Canon,” with one of my favorite films, the 1999 documentary AMERICAN MOVIE. Focusing on Mark Borchardt, a struggling Wisconsin filmmaker who’s working on a no-budget horror movie titled COVEN (pronounced COE-VEN, so it doesn’t rhyme with “oven). The movie is very funny, but I’ve always thought it was a lot more than just an amusing look at an oddball director, and Tobias agrees. Here’s how he sums up the film:
“But American Movie isn’t about filmmaking per se, it’s about the dreams and delusions of a man who comes from blue-collar stock, but refuses at his peril to fall in line with what’s expected of him.”
For all his goofiness — and there’s plenty of it, believe me — Borchardt is a genuinely inspirational figure in AMERICAN MOVIE. His film, COVEN, isn’t a cinema classic, but it is much better than you might expect having seen its creation, and parts of it show a genuine talent for setting up shots and finding the unnerving elements lurking just beneath the scene. But in a way, COVEN’s quality isn’t really what matters. It’s that Borchardt made it, period. That he did something with his life besides work menial jobs, hang out with his buddies and drink beer (though, if you’ve seen AMERICAN MOVIE, you know there’s a lot of that, too.)
Several years ago, Borchardt visited Rockford for a screening of AMERICAN MOVIE and COVEN at the now-defunct Storefront Cinema. I had a chance to go out for dinner (and drinks!) with him, and he’s exactly as he appears in the film — friendly, energetic, opinionated, quirky and truly one of a kind. Sitting there with him at the Olympic Tavern, as he asked the waitress to bring him a beer until the drinks arrived, or watching him waving a half-full can of Pabst around the theater during the question-and-answer segment, you could hardly believe this is a guy who’d made a film.
But, as AMERICAN MOVIE shows, that’s the whole point.
September 3rd, 2008
Very interesting– if not overly cheery — profile of Alec Baldwin over at the New Yorker. Sure, these days he’s best known for his excellent comedy work on 30 ROCK, but the man has a movie resume few actors can rival. However, he’s had his rough spots, too. Here’s his own summary of his work after starring in THE MARRYING MAN with future wife (and ex wife) Kim Basinger…
“After that, I did ‘Glengarry Glen Ross,’ where I only had a very small role, regardless of how appreciative people are of it. Then I did ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ ”—based on a very successful theatrical production, in which Baldwin starred—“and that was a bomb. In 1992, I did ‘Malice,’ with Nicole Kidman. And that movie was a very cookie-cutter thriller. It did pretty well. In ’93, I did the remake of ‘The Getaway,’ with my wife. That was a bomb. I did ‘The Shadow.’ That was a bomb. In ’94, I did ‘Heaven’s Prisoners.’ That was a bomb. In ’95, I did ‘The Juror.’ That was a bomb. In ’96, I did ‘The Edge’ and ‘Ghosts of Mississippi.’ And that’s when you hear the sound of the wheels of the train screeching to a halt. “
Like every other guy my age, I love Baldwin’s performance as Mitch and Murray’s axe man in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, and I actually thought he was good in THE SHADOW and very good in MALICE . His speech in that movie, where he explains that, as a surgeon, he is God, is the film’s highlight. Here it is …
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/LqeC3BPYTmE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Trust me. It’s hilarious.
June 20th, 2008
It strikes me that I haven’t been doing as much to hype obscure, oddball films on this site as I should, so here’s the trailer for a movie I’m really looking forward to seeing. It’s director Guy Maddin’s latest, MY WINNIPEG, and it looks to be his usual combination of twisted autobiography, surreal images and bits and pieces of old movie traditions. It’s playing the art theater circuit now, so it’s a toss-up whether or not it will actually show in Rockford, but it’s bound to be worth a look, whether on the big screen or DVD. If you’ve never seen a Guy Maddin movie before — and there’s a good chance you haven’t — here’s your introduction to his unique cinematic universe…
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/aY9BtROpNQ4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Everything else he’s done is on DVD, so start Netflixing. I’d recommend starting with THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, then moving onto either ARCHANGEL or (my personal favorite) COWARDS BEND THE KNEE. Heck, it’s all good. And it’s all strange. (His most recent movie, BRAND UPON THE BRAIN, arrives on DVD next month.)
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