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Speaking of Spielberg, saw Empire of the Sun in English class the other day... damn. Made me re-watch some of his others and do a new set of rankings: 1. Schindler’s List 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark 3. Jaws 4. Jurassic Park 5. Empire of the Sun 6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 7. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial 8. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence 9. Munich 10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 11. Minority Report 12. Catch Me If You Can 13. Saving Private Ryan 14. The Terminal 15. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 16. Hook 17. War of the Worlds still need to see Always, The Sugarland Express, The Color Purple, Amistad, and Duel for it to be a complete list. Fuck 1941. |
I'm not entirely sure I'd put Schindler's List at the #1 spot, and well...actually my list would look a lot different from yours, but at least you put the wretched War of the Worlds at the bottom position. :up:
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Schindler's, Jaws, and Raiders are basically interchangeable and I'm sure after I re-watch E.T. and Close Encounters they'll be higher. War of the Worlds is the only movie on the list I genuinely dislike.
Saving Private Ryan goes down on the list every time I see it, there's just something missing after the opening sequence. I never fully buy into the characters other than Tom Hanks' Capt. Miller. I also forgot about The Lost World, pretend it's before War of the Worlds. |
Let's see here:
1. Jaws (not a single misstep in this entire picture, it's pure Spielberg doing what he does best) 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (see above, just make it not quite as amazing) 3. Saving Private Ryan 4. Schindler's List (would be #1 if not for the last 20 minutes) 5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 6. Poltergeist (would probably be #2 if he has really directed it) 7. Munich 8. A.I. 9. Jurassic Park 10. Minority Report 11. The Last Crusade 12. E.T. 13. Catch Me If You Can 14. Hook 15. The Temple of Doom 16. Duel 17. War of the Worlds |
Should a Top 5 spot be cleared for Interstellar? I'm leaning towards a 'yes.'
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The top 5 is a top bunch to crack.
I'm praying to God it will though. And the new camera system the Wachowskis are using on Speed Racer nearly has my member at full salute. |
Everything about that movie screams awesome to me:
the cast, the Wachowskis, and it's fucking Speed Racer! The world needs a Johnny Quest movie and everything will be alright. |
Christ, Lance, Saving Private Ryan at #3? If you can see through the worst moments of Schindler's I would think you'd be equally tough with Ryan, which is flat out RUINED by the bookends. The lack of three-dimensional characters other than Hanks (what Lemon said) and a weak screenplay doesn't help either. It seems to me that people are so blinded by the technical achievements in the Omaha Beach sequence that they can't objectively watch the rest of it. It's like having sex with someone who's loud and acrobatic for 10 minutes and then lays there for the next 30. Would you say they're good in bed?
I can't participate in this listmaking because I have so many problems with many of the films I even partially enjoy. The only three I can say I admire unequivocally are Jaws, Close Encounters, and Raiders, in that order. I think A.I. contains his best work, and wish it and Minority Report didn't end so horribly because so much of them were good. Catch Me If You Can and Always were nice, old-fashioned modest affairs and therefore unmarred by Steve-O's usual tendencies. After that I can't even begin to rank these half-baked productions, like the entertaining but awful adaptation of Jurassic Park, the well-intentioned but uneven Color Purple, the emotional blackmailing of Schindler's List & Saving Private Ryan, etc. I hated E.T. even as a kid, and if you actually thought The Lost World, Hook or War of the Worlds were actually good films I feel very, very sorry for you. |
lazarus, have you seen Empire of the Sun or Munich?
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The bookends of SPR might not have been entirely necessary, but they also don't cause the movie to break down to a complete cheese-fest (ala Schindler's final rant) or utterly break the illusion of the film like the colour sequence at the end of Shindler's. THe SPR bookends were just short little bits that gave the audience a glimpse of whether of not Ryan actually did "earn it". And while that might not be a good choice (I don't really care either way to be honest), it doesn't break the film in any way like the end of SL does.
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Lance--that doesn't take away from the notion that SPR has weak characters and a weak script. Not to mention it was made by someone who was just a student of war films, instead of a veteran himself. You look at the war films of Samuel Fuller and see someone who really knows what it was like, specifically his WW2 epic The Big Red One, which was re-released with an extended cut not too long ago. Fuller was actually AT Omaha Beach, and there is more truth in one frame of his film than the entirety of Spielberg's. You want to talk about "earning it", Fuller did in spades.
Lemon--I have not seen Empire of the Sun and would like to at some point. The less said about Munich, the better. Once again some good filmmaking marred by some truly awful choices--the sex scene at the end juxtaposed with the Munich flashbacks is one of the most awkward things I've ever seen, and the meeting between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the safe house was totally phony, while attempting to have the politics of the film both ways. And it wasn't nearly as thought-provoking as some of its supporters seem to believe. Even when S.S. thinks he's being controversial, it's still a compromise. |
Munich wasn't perfect, the sex/flashback scene in particular, but overall it's a good film, at least really enjoyable.
About Spielberg/Private Ryan, does someone have to be involved in the war to make a believable war film? David Lean wasn't a POW but still made Bridge on the River Kwai. |
I don't really care how realistic a film is, as long as it's a good film, which I beileve SPR is. I don't think the characters are weak, and I think it has a fine script. Whatever. :shrug:
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No, but it adds yet another layer of disbelief to a film that I find to be a pretty empty flag-waving (literally, at the end!) exercise. Also, the film suggests you're seeing the action through Hanks' character's eyes at the beginning, only to reveal Damon's character as the old man at the end, which is totally cheap and false. If the old man is Ryan, how could he be remembering the events at Omaha Beach? As usual with Spielberg, little is left up to the audience to process for themselves, as the screenplay and music combine to make sure you're feeling exactly you're supposed to be feeling as a patriotic American. Again, I can only suggest a viewing of The Big Red One to see a truly great depiction of World War II, made by a man who was at some of its most famous scenes, and who never tries to beat you over the head with a jingo stick, or convince you how heroic it is to die for the powers that be. |
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Saving Private Ryan's flawed, but still enjoyable. |
Mr Bean's Holiday is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!
Discuss................. |
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I finally got around to watching The Big Lebowski this past week.
Brilliant. I was struck by the perfection of the delivery of every line by every actor. John Goodman in particular was born to be Walter Sobchak. The scene at the mortuary near the end is my favorite in the film... THE DUDE AND WALTER --- They sit side by side, forearms on knees, in a nondescript waiting area. Walter bounces the fingertips of one hand off those of the other. They sit. They wait. A tall thin man in a conservative black suit enters. He eyes the Dude's bowling attire and sunglasses and Walter's army surplus, but doesn't make an issue of it. MAN Hello, gentlemen. You are the bereaved? DUDE Yeah man. MAN Francis Donnelly. Pleased to meet you. DUDE Jeffrey Lebowski. WALTER Walter Sobchak. DUDE The Dude, actually. Is what, uh. DONNELLY Excuse me? DUDE Nothing. DONNELLY Yes. I understand you're taking away the remains. WALTER Yeah. DONNELLY We have the urn. He nods through a door. Another man in a black suit enters to carefully deposit a large silver urn on the desktop. DONNELLY And I assume this is credit card? He is vaguely handing a large leather folder across the desk to whomever wants to take it. WALTER Yeah. He takes it, opens it, puts on reading glasses that sit halfway down his nose, and inspects the bill with his head pulled back for focus and cocked for concentration. Silence. The Dude smiles at Donnelly. Donnelly gives back a mortician's smile. At length Walter holds the bill towards Donnelly, pointing. WALTER What's this? DONNELLY That is for the urn. WALTER Don't need it. We're scattering the ashes. DONNELLY Yes, so we were informed. However, we must of course transmit the remains to you in a receptacle. WALTER This is a hundred and eighty dollars. DONNELLY Yes sir. It is our most modestly priced receptacle. DUDE Well can we-- WALTER A hundred and eighty dollars?! DONNELLY They range up to three thousand. WALTER Yeah, but we're-- DUDE Can we just rent it from you? DONNELLY Sir, this is a mortuary, not a rental house. WALTER We're scattering the fucking ashes! DUDE Walter-- WALTER JUST BECAUSE WE'RE BEREAVED DOESN'T MEAN WE'RE SAPS! DONNELLY Sir, please lower your voice-- DUDE Hey man, don't you have something else you could put it in? DONNELLY That is our most modestly priced receptacle. WALTER GODDAMNIT! IS THERE A RALPH'S AROUND HERE?! :lol: :lol: Furthermore, the following scene in which Walter actually scatters the ashes and they end up flying all over The Dude, and The Dude just stands there motionless before exploding...fucking perfection. POINT DUME -- DAY It is a high, wind-swept bluff. Walter and the Dude walk towards the lip of the bluff. Parked in the background is one lonely car, Walter's. Walter is carrying a bright red coffee can with a blue plastic lid. When they reach the edge the two men stand awkwardly for a beat. Finally: WALTER I'll say a few words. The Dude clasps his hands in front of him. Walter clears his throat. WALTER Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was. . . He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors, and bowling, and as a surfer explored the beaches of southern California from Redondo to Calabassos. And he was an avid bowler. And a good friend. He died--he died as so many of his generation, before his time. In your wisdom you took him, Lord. As you took so many bright flowering young men, at Khe San and Lan Doc and Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And Donny too. Donny who. . . who loved bowling. Walter clears his throat. WALTER And so, Theodore--Donald--Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your mortal remains to the bosom of. Walter is peeling the plastic lid off the coffee can. WALTER the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. AS HE SHAKES OUT THE ASHES: WALTER Goodnight, sweet prince. The wind has blown all of the ashes into the Dude, standing just to the side of and behind Walter. The Dude stands, frozen. Finished eulogizing, Walter looks back. WALTER Shit, I'm sorry Dude. He starts brushing off the Dude with his hands. WALTER Goddamn wind. Heretofore motionless, the Dude finally explodes, slapping Walter's hands away. DUDE Goddamnit Walter! You fucking asshole! WALTER Dude! Dude, I'm sorry! The Dude is near tears. DUDE You make everything a fucking travesty! WALTER Dude, I'm--it was an accident! The Dude gives Walter a furious shove. DUDE What about that shit about Vietnam! WALTER Dude, I'm sorry-- DUDE What the fuck does Vietnam have to do with anything! What the fuck were you talking about?! Walter for the first time is genuinely distressed, almost lost. WALTER Shit Dude, I'm sorry-- DUDE You're a fuck, Walter! He gives Walter a weaker shove. Walter seems dazed, then wraps his arms around the Dude. WALTER Awww, fuck it Dude. Let's go bowling. :lol: :lol: Also, the scene in the bowling alley where Jesus Quintana accuses Walter and The Dude of pulling 'bush league psych out' stuff is classic. Based on this scene, I am now convinced that John Turturro could take a dramatic role in a dramatic film playing a total psycho and at the very least get nominated for an academy award for it. DUDE AND WALTER Each with a beer at the scoring table. WALTER Sure you'll see some tank battles. But fighting in desert is very different from fighting in canopy jungle. DUDE Uh-huh. WALTER I mean 'Nam was a foot soldier's war whereas, uh, this thing should be a fucking cakewalk. I mean I had an M16, Jacko, not an Abrams fucking tank. Just me and Charlie, man, eyeball to eyeball. DUDE Yeah. WALTER That's fuckin' combat. The man in the black pyjamas, Dude. Worthy fuckin' adversary. DONNY Who's in pyjamas, Walter? WALTER Shut the fuck up, Donny. Not a bunch of fig-eaters with towels on their heads tryin' to find reverse on a Soviet tank. This is not a worthy-- VOICE HEY! The Dude and Walter look. Quintana is bellowing from the lip of the lane, and is restrained by O'Brien. QUINTANA What's this "day of rest" shit, man?! Walter looks at him innocently. QUINTANA What is this bullshit, man? I don't fucking care! It don't matter to Jesus! But you're not fooling me! You might fool the fucks in the league office, but you don't fool Jesus! It's bush league psych-out stuff! Laughable, man! I would've fucked you in the ass Saturday, I'll fuck you in the ass next Wednesday instead! QUINTANA He makes hip-grinding coital motions as O'Brien leads him away. QUINTANA You got a date Wednesday, man! Walter, his head cocked, and the Dude, peeking over his shades, watch him go. WALTER He's cracking. :lol: :lol: |
You ready to be fucked, ma'?!?!
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Going back to the Bearded One, I can understand the hate towards WotW because I felt so incredibly frustrated by the ending (I mean, WHY? If he can feed an innocent kid to a shark why not let a feckless one be killed in warfare?) but upon reflection there were some great moments in this below par film.
I loved the way Cruise arrives back at his house after the opening attack in what is viewed as insignificant dust t be scrubbed off, just like how the aliens view us on Earth. I loved the way they were forced out of the car by the crowd of people, everybody thinking only of themselves. I loved the long shot of them weaving between broken down traffic on the freeway beforehand too. And I may be one of the few who thought Tm Robbins character really added something good to the film and appreciated the resolution to that plot strand. So overall, it may be a sub-par film but Spielberg still has some great moments in it. Also, Duel is a fantastic debut, wracking the tension up to breaking point and never feeling the need to give the antagonist a back story or superhuman abilities. |
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