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AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2 (1 Viewer)

Adam_S

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What's Up Doc? - :star::star::star::star:
Laughs list
Passions list
OARDVD
07/08/2005


This is the first Bogdanovich film I've seen, and I must say I look forward to eventually watching his other films. Damn good and very funny film. I don't think I've ever actually heard Barbara Streisand sing something before (at least not when I understood who she was, except that only men who are gay [and according to "In and Out" even if you're not gay and you listen to Streisand that makes you gay] actually enjoy her) so when she belts out that incredible rendition of "You're the Top" over the opening credits I sat is as a singer (chalk up one more reason while In and Out is such a crappy movie).

Anyway Whats up Doc is deliriously funny, hurt only a little bit by Ryan O'Neal's failure to channel Cary Grant. But when he actually takes off the glasses for the courtroom and following scenes he becomes much better because hes no longer an imitation of an image and is actually acting. The script was outstanding. I loved how "Time Goes By" was used amongst the many other movie references. The whole baggage lunacy was utterly inspired, blowing Woody Allen's attempts at silent comedy out of the proverbial water. The big chase scene was incredibly brilliant every moment, step and progression. Marvelous marvelous work.

The only thing it is missing is a leopard. Pity.

Adam
 

Adam_S

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Pillow Talk - :star::star:
Passions list
07/09/2005
OARLD


Funny film with a cracking script and nice style, but not crazy on the chemistry or just the overall story. The satirical remake down with love was at about the same level but funnier because it satirizes all the 'so horrifying they're funny' in this film.

Kind of sad how Doris Day turns into an imbecilic and pathetic high school freshman girl when she hears a Texas accent.
 

Adam_S

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The King and I - :star::star:1/2
Passions list
Songs list "shall we dance"
07/09/2005
OARLD

et cetera et cetera et cetera



Darn good musical that's overlong with mostly okay songs, one standout, one very good and a bunch of really bad acting by the son of Anna. It was an amusing and interesting film, had me laughing in many places. I'd rather see it on the big screen, especially since it's so wide. A bit overwrought, but mostly very good. Yul Brynner is damn good at anchoring the film while Deberah Kerr is delightful to watch (much more so than Doris Day in Pillow Talk watched just before this). some of the stereotypes are annoying but its overall relatively low key for a film about interracial unrequited affection and love (which of course is prevented by an idiotic ending because it is otherwise too scandalous--the ending might work in a straight adaptation of the story, but the musical has a tone that the ending does not match).

My favorite song was not "Shall we Dance" which was a wonderful number, btw, but the song that Anna sings to the children, "Getting to Know You" which was memorable, catchy, singable and perfectly matched to the movie (rather than 'oh its time for a musical number' most of the songs seem to get, like Brynner's solo). Another highlight was the presentation of the children, which was marvelous to watch.

Still I was hoping for this to be much better, it's certainly no Sound of Music
 

Adam_S

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Regarding the Beyond the Forest quote, "What a dump" during the actual special that moment went by so incredibly quickly I didn't even realize until the next day that it was on the list. I thought "What a dump" was on for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? because the special flashed the three second moment of Bette Davis saying the original line and then talked about the line and showed the 45 second clip from Woolf that apparently makes the quote famous.
 

Adam_S

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Risky Buisness - :star::star:
Songs list - "Old Time Rock and Roll"
07/10/2005
OARDVD


Okay film, funny, but not great.
The use of the song is wonderful, but the song itself is better than the movie.
 

Adam_S

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Two for the Road - :star::star::star:
Passions list
OARLD
07/10/2005


Damn good film that's pretty hard to watch. Albert Finney plays a blustering hound dog ass of a man and Audrey Hepburn is his long suffering companion. What Donen does though is intercuts their many experiences together on the roads of Europe over the years of their relationships. Adultury migh follow when they first met followed by their trip with their child, or followed by a trip with their crass friends. It's quite effective and brilliant but more often it is a very painful film to watch with an especially poigant ending between the two as they make up following adultury.

All there really is, is a lost passport to what it is they are to each other, dependency.
 

Adam_S

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Sudden Impact - :star::star::star:
Quotes list - "Make my Day"
OARDVD
07/10/2005


Nice film by Clint Eastwood with wonderful directing and a story that's much more interesting than the first Dirty Harry. Nice to watch a film that's mainly about blowing things up after some of the other films I watched today.

Outstanding editing and cinematography, not so crazy about some of the Harry score cues, but they are quite fun and a good way of identifying the hero if he's not seen clearly in a close up when he enters. Great iconic moment at the end with Calahan in silohuette.

Adam
 

MatthewLouwrens

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Haven't seen Virginia Woolf. If it was that film that made the line famous, you would think that would be the film for which the line was nominated - much like Singin' In The Rain was listed for its songs, rather than the original films that the songs were sourced from.


Bananas

A film completely unlike anything you would expect from a Woody Allen film, it's basically a bizarre abusurdist comedy, right from the opening where Howard Cosell commentates on the assassination of a South American president. Allen stars as a rather pathetic guy who falls in love, is dumped, and goes to a small South American country and joins the rebellion against the military dictatorship. It's the type of film where Allen goes to say goodbye to his doctor/nurse parents while they're in the middle of an operation, and he ends up being pressured by his father into taking over. It's the type of film where a diner owner doesn't flinch wen asked to provide coleslaw for 900 people. Most of the comic set pieces are very funny, but bear little connection to the rest of the film. The plot is threadbare, and serves simply as an excuse to pretend that it's not just a glorified collection of sketches. Ultimately, comedy is a very personal thing, and so your reaction to the film will depend on your own personal enjoyment of this absurdist style of comedy. I loved it. Very funny, and a delight to watch.
 

Adam_S

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Two weeks ago I got to see a brand new print of Sunset Boulevard, and it was even better than the first time. Incredible film to watch, so wonderful on the big screen--which, by the way, is the only way I've seen the film. :)

It was preceded by a deleted song written for the film never before seen publically, "The Paramount don't want me Blues" which was absolutely delightful, but they eventually decided to go with the song that's in the movie (from Paleface) instead. :)

Last Night I caught Streetcar Named Desire. My feelings about it haven't changed much, I find the film somewhat hard to watch because I either can't stand Blanche or can't stand Vivien Leigh's performance, I'm not sure which--but everything I find repulsive in a woman is epitomized by Blanche's personality long before we find out her low and sad past. On the other hand, Brando is incredible to watch in every scene as is Kim Hunter and one of my all time favorite character actors Karl Malden.

speaking of, the 93 year old Malden was there last night and spoke just a few words after, "I've only one thing to say. I'm the only one left. Everyone else is dead. But I got to meet them again tonight. Thank you."

Next week when they show High Noon I'll have seen 30 of the 100 movies list on 35mm or 70mm prints.

Adam
 

MatthewLouwrens

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Grease

Let me start by saying that I know the film is based on a stage show. I am unfamiliar with the original show, so in this post, when I comment on what the show may or may not have been like, I am not speaking out of any knowledge, but rather am speculating based on I suspect the show probably looked like on stage given how it turned out on screen.

I had a number of problems with Grease. For a start, it does not work. At all. It's a mess, with barely enough plot for a half-hour sitcom, let alone a two hour movie. The plot serves solely as a framework for the songs. None of the characters ever even pretended to be real, they were just one-note people. I swear, half an hour after watching the movie, there are two T-Birds and two Pink Ladies that I already can't remember a thing about. The film centres around the "love" between Danny, the car-loving bad boy, and Sandy, the good virginal girl. Will they get together? Who really cares?

Part of the problem was that they kept throwing in these little sub-plots, but never took time to actually develop them. Frenchie's beauty school? Rizzo's pregnancy? Why were these in the film? I know the film was based on a stage play, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the show is probably a lot longer than the film - maybe up to three hours long, perhaps. I can definitely see that these were plots that probably had time to be developed on stage, but had to be pared down to the barest essentials for the film, and as a result, they didn't work. They should hae been omitted - but they weren't, probably because each plotline had its own little song that couldn't be lost. As for the drag race plotline, that really felt like a plot that was added to the film. Why exactly were they even racing again?

Basically, the film did not work for me as a story. As a musical, it worked a bit better. The lot of the big songs from Grease have really entered our collective conciousness. While I've never really been a fan of the songs when heard just as songs, I felt they really worked as moments in the movie. On the other hand, some of the smaller numbers that we've never heard (Beauty School Dropout, Rizzo's song, the drive-in song) were pretty awful, so it may just be me reacting to their familiarity. I will say that, of the big well-known numbers, I really did not like "Summer Nights", which is unfortunate as it was the song on the list. On the other hand, "Hopelessly Devoted To You", which I have always hated, I found myself enjoying in the film. STrange how that works.

The other thing I really did not like about the film was the ending. In fact, this is my major problem with the film. Here we have a girl who likes a guy, the guy is clearly only interested in advancing the relationship physically, and he wants to push beyond a level that she is comfortable with, and at the end of the film she decides that she has to change who she is if she is to get the guy? Really pissed me off. Most offensive to me was the drive-in scene, where he starts to makes advances, she resists, he starts to try and force himself on her, she leaves - and we have to endure an awful tedious film about how badly he feels about being left by the girl. Tough. Shut the hell up. It's his fault. But then the girl decides to abandon who she is in order to get the guy. And we're supposed to accept that as a happy ending? OK, they made a half-hearted effort to have Danny try to change as well to get the girl, but since that amounted only to wearing a "jock" jacket, which he took off immediately on seeing Sandy, please forgive me if I don't think Danny's change was terribly permanent. I don't know, it just felt like the ending was validating the "If you'l love me, you do it" view, which I found absolutely offensive.

I'm just glad I've seen the film, I can cross it off, and never watch it again.
 

Adam_S

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I love Grease and while the ending in one respect does pretty much declare what you're talking about, it's also meant to be really outrageously funny to have it happen. It's also not the classic reformist "everyone repents and makes up" happy ending, it's very much a seventies ending in the vein of Animal House--balls to the walls crazy that doesn't back down. :p

----
The Heartbreak Kid - (0) Zero
Laughs list
07/15/2005
OARDVD


Definitely the worst film I've seen on any of the AFI's list (after another watching and some thought I acknowledge the merits of Birth of a Nation, even if the second half is mostly repulsive). Unfunny, pathetic, vile film. This made me want to go watch "Beethoven's 2nd" to wash the taste of bad movie out of my mouth (and that one isn't much of a good movie either). I found just about everything about this movie after the first five minutes to be offensive and infuriating. I kept hoping that his initial wife would show up and shoot him, but it never did.

Really, really, really dislike this film, more than just about any other film I can think of.

Adam
 

MatthewLouwrens

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You know, I hadn't thought of that. I can see what you mean. I would certainly have been pissed off had Travolta gone good to win Sandy - simply because that would have been horribly preachy and completely unconvincing. So I'll accept it in the way you describe.

I still don't like the film, though.
 

Adam_S

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Take the Money and Run - :star::star:1/2
Laughs list
07/17/2005
OARDVD


Woody Allen's first film is a pretty funny mix of documentary and fiction wit a bunch of movie references thrown in. The running gag of stomping on the glasses was pretty funny. The soap gun was nice, the cello as well, but the highlight was 'gub' 'gun' and 'abt' 'act'.

Adam
 

Adam_S

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Just a heads up that _Private Benjamin_, which is on the Laughs list, but only on DVD in pan and scan will premiere on TCM on September 8th in widescreen.
 

Adam_S

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True Grit - :star::star:1/2
Heroes List - Rooster Cogburn
OARDVD
07/17/2005



True Grit is a film I've seen many times when I was a kid, but I've forgotten most of it except for the John Wayne charge at the end. Actually that still is the best part of the movie. And thank goodness for Wayne saving a movie that was just painful to watch until he showed up. The lead actress just wasn't much of one. Duvall was excellent in his short turn as the other villain. But for the most part this is worth watching just because Wayne has so many outstanding lines and deliveries.
 

DonMac

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Eric Peterson wrote:

The AFI dissed The Empire Strikes Back yet again - what else is new?

(I personally think that, with the exception of the two Best Picture Oscar winning sequels The Godfather Part II and LOTR: Return of the King, the AFI is completely biased against sequels, no matter how good the movies actually are.)
 

Adam_S

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The quotes list is in a most odd place. As many have pointed out, there are many films that are much more quotable that simply aren't represented, on the other hand, a few VERY quotable films like Casablanca and Wizard of Oz are represented in spades. I think the problem is that so few films really reach the major cultural zeitgeist to the point where they're incorporated in most everyones lives. On the other hand "No, I am your father" is just such a quote, and it's exclusion is just kind of mind boggling.

Outside of the zeitgeist, quotes, and quotable films are entirely generational--thus you won't see AFI voters nominating current college-gen favorites like Tommy Boy (single most quoted film in my entire generation, everyone knows at least five or six of the best exchanges in it), Clerks, Tombstone, Mallrats, Big Lebowski, Happy Gilmore, Braveheart, Billy Madison, Spaceballs, The Waterboy, The Princess Bride, & Chasing Amy for example. I don't think the second most quoted line of the eighties, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" was even nominated, and it's the sort of quote that could have been.

Then beyond the simple generation-gap, there is the fuzzy distinction between famous quotes and famous movie lines. Many of the quotes on the list are famous as lines, as moments (I'll never go hungry again, tomorrow is another day) than for their quotableness, imo.

-------
The Court Jester - :star::star:1/2
Laughs list
OARDVD
07/18/2005

The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice with the palace holds the brew that is true


Quite funny farcical and lighthearted musical spoof of movies like Adventures of Robin Hood, and, well, Adventures of Robin Hood. Quite funny, with a nice script and a lot of very humorous mugging by star Danny Kaye. Good light way to spend an evening.

Adam
 

Adam_S

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Go West Young Man - :star::star:
Stars list - Mae West
OARVHS
07/23/2005


Mae West stars as a Hollywood starlet whose contract forbid her from marrying, Warren William plays her press agent who trys to keep the preying mantis from capturing a mate.

Unfortunately their car breaks down after a big screening in Washington. They're stuck at a podunk boarding house/gas station. The gas station owner is a hunk, the boarding house owner doesn't like the shame of having to depend on the gas station in the depression and her daughter is in love with the station owner. Throw in a cast of colorful and nincompoop characters and hilarity is supposed to ensue. It never really does. It's an okay little film.

The most astonishing thing about the film is how well Mae West turns just about any line into a piece of innuendo. The rest of the film is pretty predictable and tame, which is a shame.

Adam
 

Adam_S

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Stowaway - :star::star:
Stars list - Shirley Temple
OARVHS
07/23/2005


Shirley Temple is the orphan ward of a couple of missionaries, since "god did not send us here to run," the missionaries are apparently condemning her to death, but her Chinese friend stows her away to the safety of Shanghai where her money is promptly stolen and she only has her dog for company.

Not to fear though, because when this six year old wanders the streets of Shanghai alone she just naturally happens to encounter a millionaire in need of translation. She becomes friends and then accidently stows away onto his cruise ship where she becomes friends with a woman engaged to another man. Naturally her benefactor and this woman fall for each other and the rest of the plot is muddied up with machinations to get them together somehow or another.

At about 86 minutes, this film is about twenty too long, but it's still sweet and relatively well made. The excuses for Temple to sing are appallingly thin, at best, including an entirely pointless closing number that's only there because it's a closing number. Temple is a pretty good performer, but overall this isn't much of a film.
 

Adam_S

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Naughty Nineties - :star::star:1/2
Quotes list - Who's on First?
Taped off TV VHS
07/23/2005


Yes the whole thing is worth watching for the Who's on First Routine, which is still one of the funniest things ever thought up. The movie's pretty dull up to that point, but afterwards most of the sketches really work, especially the Cat Dinner, the fishing/spying, sleepwalking, and big final chase routines.

The plot is pretty then, Bud and Lou work on a showboat, the showboat's in debt to crooked New Orleans gamblers who trade on the good reputation of the boat to set up fixed gambling games and make a bundle. It's up to Bud and Lou to figure a way out of this mess and save the day while making a funny as well.
 

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