Re: Good (or bad) Movies PART 2

[LennG]

Glad to have you join us here. Are you a movie aficionado also?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Glad to have you join us here. Are you a movie aficionado also?

I guess you are addressing me seeing I wrote the previous post.

I like a good movie, but seldom find one anymore. I like a good plot that makes me actually think and I like surprises. I'm more of a reader than a movie buff. I'm a readaholic and read mystery/thrillers as well as a lot of history books.

A good comedy is really hard to find in movies anymore. They can't really compete with half hour sitcoms where personalities get well established. Although, Christmas Vacation still kills me with laughter even though I can probably quote half the movie from heart. And I'm still waiting for a western that can hold my attention as well as Tombstone although Purgatory came close. I don't even mind romance movies as long as they have a good plot and move me like Return to Me, or mixed with adventure like The Thomas Crown Affair (although, it might have more to do with the fact that I have the hots for Renee Russo). I watch a fair share of movies on TV and sometimes I get a good chuckle. For whatever reason, when I'm channel surfing if I come across My Cousin Vinnie I have to stay on that channel no matter how many times I've seen it (again, I also have the hots for Marisa Tomei and she was especially hot in that movie). I also seem to land on Meet the Millers a lot and that makes me laugh.

I guess the answer to your question is that I don't consider myself an expert in movies at all. I don't keep up with the latest movie that's being released and supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I read Jurassic Park and couldn't put the book down. I was so enthralled with it that I actually waited in line at the theater for the first showing and was really disappointed that they had turned the entire story into chase scenes and barely escaping with their lives. Huge disappointment. Haven't gone to an early showing of a movie since.

[jimv]

JBG, I'm really glad to hear that you love a GOOD movie.  Lenny & I  are definitely movie buffs; not afficianados (I don't like that term).  If you're not one of those guys who can't watch a B&W movie, we'll have to introduce you to the REAL Hollywood of filmmaking; the 1930s!  Especially, 1939, the GREATEST year in Hollywood history (although 1967 comes up at # 2).  I can give a list of movies that I think will meet your requirements.

[LennG]

JBG

I fully agree with Jim. We love to talk movies, so jump right in.

If you read thru some of the pages, I usually try to see one fairly recent movie a week and write w review of it. I won't go into how many other movies I watch during he weeks. Like yourself, I love to flip thru the stations and see a movie that I just cannot turn off. I agree about My Cousin Vinny, I always seem to say, I'll watch a piece I enjoy and end up staying for the entire movie. So many other movies like that for me. The other day I found Gladiator, and I just love that movie. I had to stay till it ended, same for movies like Braveheart, and the oldies like Casablanca, High Noon, and my favorite all time movie, The Maltese Falcon (Bogie is my fav actor).

[Jolly Blue Giant]

JBG, I'm really glad to hear that you love a GOOD movie.  Lenny & I  are definitely movie buffs; not afficianados (I don't like that term).  If you're not one of those guys who can't watch a B&W movie, we'll have to introduce you to the REAL Hollywood of filmmaking; the 1930s!  Especially, 1939, the GREATEST year in Hollywood history (although 1967 comes up at # 2).  I can give a list of movies that I think will meet your requirements.

My biggest problem with watching movies is that if there is a Yankee game on, or a Syracuse Orange game on, or a football game, or pretty much any sport - I choose to watch the sports. My DVR gets loaded during the baseball season because I end up checking the score of the Yankee game and find I can't stop watching.

Regardless, I've watched quite a few B&W movies and don't miss the color. Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Roman Holiday, It's a Wonderful Life, etc., are all good and I've watched them multiple times.

I can't remember a movie released in the last couple of years that I would rewatch. And as much as I like dramas, I find it hard to rewatch an intense movie that I've already watched and know the outcome (Django, the Hateful Eight [or any Tarantino film for that matter, although I've watched Pulp Fiction more than once],  Taken, etc.). I will rewatch adventure films, comedies, and romance flicks. Comedies because it doesn't require a whole lot of attention and makes me laugh. Adventure the same way - I've rewatched "Red" and "Red II" several times, usually as I'm channel surfing. "Red" and it's sequel combine all three elements: adventure, comedy, and romance. Maybe that's the key for me.

I'm a big time reader and like thrillers, mysteries, etc. I was extremely disappointed in "Reacher" having read all the Lee Child's books and I understand why Hollywood chose Tom Cruise to portray Jack Reacher, but he is NOT Jack Reacher. I'm excited to see the upcoming movie "American Assassin" based on my favorite author Vince Flynn, but I doubt they can cast the movie in such a way as to capture the essence of Mitch Rapp. Dittos with the new series based on Daniel Silva's books and hero Gabriel Allon. Maybe they'll nail it, but I doubt it.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

JBG

I fully agree with Jim. We love to talk movies, so jump right in.

If you read thru some of the pages, I usually try to see one fairly recent movie a week and write w review of it. I won't go into how many other movies I watch during he weeks. Like yourself, I love to flip thru the stations and see a movie that I just cannot turn off. I agree about My Cousin Vinny, I always seem to say, I'll watch a piece I enjoy and end up staying for the entire movie. So many other movies like that for me. The other day I found Gladiator, and I just love that movie. I had to stay till it ended, same for movies like Braveheart, and the oldies like Casablanca, High Noon, and my favorite all time movie, The Maltese Falcon (Bogie is my fav actor).

That's funny that I've never watched "The Maltese Falcon". If it's your favorite, I must give it a shot. I too love Bogie and because I'm a genealogist, I know that him and I are distant cousins (8th cousin, once removed). My parents also loved Bogie so as a kid growing up in the 50's-60's I can't tell you how many times I watched "The African Queen" (which took priority over all other shows when it was on TV) and I still hear Katharine Hepburn's heavy accent saying, "are ve goin to shoot the rapids?" and I have a permanent memory of leeches that I wish I could erase from my memory when there are so many good memories that no longer exist in my brain. Also, the whistling soldiers from "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (my Dad's favorite movie) is forever burned into my brain. I enjoyed those movies and they must be pretty good as I can still remember parts that I haven't seen in over 40 years. I guess any movie in which scenes and words remain in your memory bank atop your shoulders must be good or the memories wouldn't be there.

[jimv]

OK, JBG, you said you like Adventure films.  Here are 50 that provide outstanding adventure ( a couple are even comedies):

The Mark of Zorro (1920)
Don Juan (1926
The General (1926)
Wings (1927)
Tarzan and his Mate (1934)
Treasure Island (1934)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
The Crusades (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Call of the Wild (1935)
The Lives of  Bengal Lancer (1935)
The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Four Feathers (1939)
Gunga Din (1939)
Beau Geste (1939)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
The 49th Parallel (1941)
The Jungle Book (1942)
Henry V (1944)
Captain from Castile (1947)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

Rest of the 50 to follow...

[jimv]

Here are the rest:

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950)
King Solomon's Mines (1950)
The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
The African Queen (1951)
Ivanhoe (1952)
Robinson Crusoe (1952)
Scaramouche (1952)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
The Court Jester (1956)
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
War and Peace (1956)
The Naked Prey (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Sundowners (1960)
Magnificent Seven (1960)
El Cid (1961)
Ride the High Country (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Great Escape (1963)
Zulu (1964)
The Professionals (1966)
The Man Who Would be King (1975)

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I've seen a few of those movies in your list. It would take me a few years to get through them.

Out of curiosity, are there any streaming sites that actually make those older movies available? I have Hulu and Amazon to compliment my DirectTV.

[jimv]

To be honest, I know nothing about streaming sites.  I do know that, very occasionally, Netflex shows an older movie; I think Amazon might too.

[LennG]

It's funny. We all have our fav actors  nd actresses. For some reason Kate Hepburn was never a fav of mine. Some times I even go out of my way to avoid watching her movies. I know she was a great actress, but there was just something about her that I never liked. So the African Queen, though a great movie and I've seen it many times, just isn't my fav Bogie movie.

If you are a fan of Bogie, have you ever seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Maybe Bogies best role EVER. Just a wonderful movie and has one of the best lines in movie history towards he end.

[jimv]

It's funny. We all have our fav actors  nd actresses. For some reason Kate Hepburn was never a fav of mine. Some times I even go out of my way to avoid watching her movies. I know she was a great actress, but there was just something about her that I never liked. So the African Queen, though a great movie and I've seen it many times, just isn't my fav Bogie movie.

If you are a fan of Bogie, have you ever seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Maybe Bogies best role EVER. Just a wonderful movie and has one of the best lines in movie history towards he end.

In my opinion, one of the GREAT movies of all time.  There's a story about Bogie.  He always played down his movies & made light of them.  Then someone mentioned "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."  He rubbed his chin & said, "Yeah.  That was a pretty good one,"

[Jolly Blue Giant]

It's funny. We all have our fav actors  nd actresses. For some reason Kate Hepburn was never a fav of mine. Some times I even go out of my way to avoid watching her movies. I know she was a great actress, but there was just something about her that I never liked. So the African Queen, though a great movie and I've seen it many times, just isn't my fav Bogie movie.

If you are a fan of Bogie, have you ever seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Maybe Bogies best role EVER. Just a wonderful movie and has one of the best lines in movie history towards he end.

I never cared for Katharine Hepburn either - she seemed stuffy to me with an air of faux superiority. Now Audrey Hepburn, that's a whole other story. Loved her.

So, besides the "Big List", a couple of movies that I should put on my watch list early on are: "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" - got it. The two biggest challenges for me will be to find them (without buying a DVD on Amazon or eBay) and then finding the time to watch them. With Direct TV I can search for the movies and if they are listed at some point in the future, I can tag them to be DVR'd. A lot of stuff that I'd like to watch is broadcast at 1:00 in the morning or some other strange time when I won't be awake or around. Love the DVR.

[LennG]

Last night we decided to watch a movie that Ed sort of recommended, "The Shack' starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer. I didn't decide to watch it based on what Ed said, but I did look at the trailer and the plot line and it did seem fairly interesting, so we said, let's do it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872518/

Not to rain on Ed's parade, but I did not care for this movie one bit. Not that it was a bad movie, as my DW did enjoy it, but for me, it just seemed like an hour and a half infomercial about God, and what it's all about, etc, etc. It just wasn't my thing. I can see maybe some one like Jim, who may be more into something like this, really enjoying it, but I found it slow, boring, and in many ways, just plain silly.,

Not sure if Ed did any synopsis, but a nice family goes camping and thru no fault of anyone, their youngest daughter goes missing and presumed dead. The father, while doing some snow removal, finds a letter from God in his mailbox, asking him to meet at the shack where they think the little girl was killed. What comes next, as the father goes, meets God and his journey to try and understand the terrible tragedy and maybe find some peace. What follows, as I said--FOR ME, was the rest of the movie as an infomercial about God. I just didn't get into it and all the sort of preachiness about it. Again, some may find it fascinating the way they had Ms Spencer portray God, I just didn't.

Just my take, the father blamed God for the tragedy, basically saying if God was real how can she let this happen to an innocent child, and God's side is that she cannot stop every bad thing that happens in the world, but she was with the child every step of the way and thr4 child was indeed happy now. I guess it depends on how you want to view the debated.

Anyway, I can see the entire family watching this movie and maybe having a good discussion about certain aspects of it afterwards. It is not for young children as the plot is just too deep. As I said, some may find it a very good movie, I just didn't.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I haven't seen the movie, but I read "The Shack". The story reminded me of Bunyon's "Pilgrim's Progress", which is basically an allegorical story of the personal life of a Christian who deals with all the unfair trials of life and the mental struggles of trying to live a Godly life. "The Shack" is just as you say, a tragedy in the family causes the father to lose faith in God and in fact, blames God. I can relate to this somewhat as I too have lost a child and my sister lost three of her children and husband when hit head on by a drunk driver. My sister's husband was the pastor of a Baptist Church and Christian Academy. I watched my sister go through a terrible ideal questioning God as to why if He was a loving God, He would allow such a thing to happen to innocent children and a devoted Christian father.

I think this movie (if it follows the book) is meant for a target audience of Christians who understand the everyday trials and tribulations they face during their path through life. The Shack is a feel-good story because it actually allows a fictional individual to finally have the opportunity to get answers to questions with no logical answers. I am going to watch it at some point and more than likely, compare it to the book (in my mind anyway) as that's what I always do when a movie is based on a book that I've read. Spoiler alert: the movie is NEVER as good as the book - LOL