BlahCade Podcast #20 - Forum Questions Part 1

[shutyertrap]

Blade Runner is extremely acclaimed by film critics. It's #69 on the Sight & Sound critics' poll, which for my money is the closest thing to a consensus best list. I think it's rather extremely overrated, though I haven't seen it in some time.

It wasn't until probably my 5th time watching it that I realized Blade Runner has next to no story. The world building though, oh my god. You fill in so many blanks and imagine so much more than what the script is telling you. Wasn't until I saw Fifth Element that another sci-fi world was so completely realized, and that still was paying a debt to Blade Runner.

For the record, Aliens is my favorite movie. I was 14 when I saw it in the theater, and I can still tell you what theater I saw it at, what movie posters were advertised outside, that's how impactful that screening was on me nearly 30 years later. It took years for me to come to that realization too. Back then I would have said Terminator. A few years later and it would have been Hard Boiled. Ferris Bueller is another movie I could tell you all sorts about the day I saw it, and I can't tell you how long Holy Grail would have been right there. In the long run though, Aliens always seemed to boil right near the top, where others would rise and fall.

 

[Fungi]

For me, it's always been a battle between Aliens and T2. Both Cameron's coincidentally.

 

[Kratos3]

I don't know if I could name a for sure #1 movie for me. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, and Star Wars(Spielberg and Lucas anyone?) probably made the biggest impression on me, and to this day I'll watch any of these if they're on TV, regardless of what else is on. Probably Raiders.

I actually prefer Alien to Aliens. I took a sociology of film class in college that talked about all sorts of stuff going on in Alien(feminism, phallic symbols, etc), but I just like it better.

I tend to not get too deep about movies I like.

 

[invitro]

some favorites...

thirteen
2001
Apocalypse Now
The Way Things Go
The Trial (Welles)
Death Proof
Jackie Brown
Benchwarmers
Memento
Hostel 2
Touch of Evil
The Conversation
Eraserhead
Magnolia
The Wages of Fear
Modern Times
Dog Day Afternoon
Doubt
Donnie Darko
Oldboy
Manhunter
Psycho
The White Ribbon
Titan A.E.
Dune (1984)
Sin City
Twelve Monkeys
Napoleon Dynamite
House of Games
The Spanish Prisoner
Oleanna
Blue Valentine
Waiting for Guffman
The Vanishing (1988)
Solaris (1972)
Straw Dogs (1971)
F for Fake
Capturing the Friedmans
By Brakhage: An Anthology
Waterworld
The Game
Rosemary's Baby
Boogie Nights
Tommy (1975)
Buffalo '66
Miracle Mile
The Bad News Bears
Two-Lane Blacktop
The Last Detail
Dodgeball
Dr. Strangelove
This is Spinal Tap
The Complete Truth About De-Evolution
No Country for Old Men
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Eyes Wide Shut
Funny Games (both)
Spanking the Monkey
Saw
The Exorcist
The Hustler
Citizen Kane
Brazil
Papillon
Wavelength
Taxi Driver
Punch-Drunk Love
Spring Breakers
Reservoir Dogs
Dark City
Star Wars
Tape
Blues Brothers
The King of Kong
Cube, Cube 2: Hypercube, Cube Zero
Salo (if I could watch more than 20 minutes of it...)

 

[Fungi]

Sorry invitro. I didn't see Paul Blart in there so your list is TOTALLY invalid!

 

[Kratos3]

some favorites...

thirteen
2001
Apocalypse Now
The Way Things Go
The Trial (Welles)
Death Proof
Jackie Brown
Benchwarmers
Memento
Hostel 2
Touch of Evil
The Conversation
Eraserhead
Magnolia
The Wages of Fear
Modern Times
Dog Day Afternoon
Doubt
Donnie Darko
Oldboy
Manhunter
Psycho
The White Ribbon
Titan A.E.
Dune (1984)
Sin City
Twelve Monkeys
Napoleon Dynamite
House of Games
The Spanish Prisoner
Oleanna
Blue Valentine
Waiting for Guffman
The Vanishing (1988)
Solaris (1972)
Straw Dogs (1971)
F for Fake
Capturing the Friedmans
By Brakhage: An Anthology
Waterworld
The Game
Rosemary's Baby
Boogie Nights
Tommy (1975)
Buffalo '66
Miracle Mile
The Bad News Bears
Two-Lane Blacktop
The Last Detail
Dodgeball
Dr. Strangelove
This is Spinal Tap
The Complete Truth About De-Evolution
No Country for Old Men
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Eyes Wide Shut
Funny Games (both)
Spanking the Monkey
Saw
The Exorcist
The Hustler
Citizen Kane
Brazil
Papillon
Wavelength
Taxi Driver
Punch-Drunk Love
Spring Breakers
Reservoir Dogs
Salo (if I could watch more than 20 minutes of it...)

A lot of good movies in there.

 

[shutyertrap]

some favorites...

thirteen
2001
Apocalypse Now
The Way Things Go
The Trial (Welles)
Death Proof
Jackie Brown
Benchwarmers
Memento
Hostel 2
Touch of Evil
The Conversation
Eraserhead
Magnolia
The Wages of Fear
Modern Times
Dog Day Afternoon
Doubt
Donnie Darko
Oldboy
Manhunter
Psycho
The White Ribbon
Titan A.E.
Dune (1984)
Sin City
Twelve Monkeys
Napoleon Dynamite
House of Games
The Spanish Prisoner
Oleanna
Blue Valentine
Waiting for Guffman
The Vanishing (1988)
Solaris (1972)
Straw Dogs (1971)
F for Fake
Capturing the Friedmans
By Brakhage: An Anthology
Waterworld
The Game
Rosemary's Baby
Boogie Nights
Tommy (1975)
Buffalo '66
Miracle Mile
The Bad News Bears
Two-Lane Blacktop
The Last Detail
Dodgeball
Dr. Strangelove
This is Spinal Tap
The Complete Truth About De-Evolution
No Country for Old Men
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Eyes Wide Shut
Funny Games (both)
Spanking the Monkey
Saw
The Exorcist
The Hustler
Citizen Kane
Brazil
Papillon
Wavelength
Taxi Driver
Punch-Drunk Love
Spring Breakers
Reservoir Dogs
Salo (if I could watch more than 20 minutes of it...)

Interesting. By the look of it, you tend to like auteurs. I see Kubrik, Tarantino, Mamet, Lynch, PT Anderson, Gilliam, many more. That's your genre. Then I see the guilty pleasures, some of which crack me up. I actually own Titan AE myself, so I get it!

This reminds me of another favorite pastime of mine, seeing what people have on their iPods for music. Because what they own is often different to what they actually tend to listen to.

 

[invitro]

Sorry invitro. I didn't see Paul Blart in there so your list is TOTALLY invalid!

Hey, I gave it a try, maybe twice. I remember being amused a few times, but not overall. I don't have anything against it. I also don't know if you're being serious, but a lot of people really like that movie and it has some decent reviews from critics...

 

[jaredmorgs]

Interesting. By the look of it, you tend to like auteurs. I see Kubrik, Tarantino, Mamet, Lynch, PT Anderson, Gilliam, many more. That's your genre. Then I see the guilty pleasures, some of which crack me up. I actually own Titan AE myself, so I get it!

This reminds me of another favorite pastime of mine, seeing what people have on their iPods for music. Because what they own is often different to what they actually tend to listen to.

Titan AE is awesome!

As is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

 

[shutyertrap]

Titan AE is awesome!

As is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

I own that one too!

 

[Fungi]

Hey, I gave it a try, maybe twice. I remember being amused a few times, but not overall. I don't have anything against it. I also don't know if you're being serious, but a lot of people really like that movie and it has some decent reviews from critics...

I am SO not being serious.

 

[invitro]

Interesting. By the look of it, you tend to like auteurs. I see Kubrik, Tarantino, Mamet, Lynch, PT Anderson, Gilliam, many more. That's your genre. Then I see the guilty pleasures, some of which crack me up. I actually own Titan AE myself, so I get it!

Well, I love all those guys bunches, but there's a whole lot of "auteurs" I don't care much for... Spielberg, Woody Allen, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton. And there's a lot of them who have only one movie I think is special... Scorcese, Chris Nolan, Fincher.

I'm certainly on the art movie side, or just the art side, and I love a lot of what used to be called "cult movies." Movies that have something special, something original, and that try to be artistic at least a little bit. A lot of that kind of stuff is called "pretentious"... but it's very annoying to me that that word is used for two entirely different classes of stuff. The first is stuff that is boring and pedestrian and just copies older, true art... but then demands that the audience call it art. It's very postmodern: it's art if I say it's art. Most Oscar nominees fall in this category. I loathe this kind of pretention. The other kind is stuff that the creators have actually put in a load of work and creativity to be art, and then let their work stand on its own. I love this kind of pretension, at least if it comes with a little bit of skill.

I started my list from memory, but I was spending too much time on that, so I consulted the Sight & Sound list, the IMDb Top 250, and the Criterion collection (my tastes are very in line with that). So I'm sure I'm missing a lot of non-acclaimed movies that just don't jump into my memory quickly. I watched movies very seriously -- in theaters or as DVDs or VHS tapes with full attention paid -- for 20+ years, but I mostly just watch what's on TV/cable now while I play TPA or do something else on computer. I wonder if I'll get enough interest to get back into serious movie watching some day, and catch up on all those foreign and older classics that I've missed.

Titan A.E. is special, but I think it's the only animated movie I care about.

 

[invitro]

I took a sociology of film class in college that talked about all sorts of stuff going on in Alien(feminism, phallic symbols, etc), but I just like it better.

I tend to not get too deep about movies I like.

Talking about feminism and phallic symbols (lol) is not going deep... it's the laziest, shallowest analysis possible. I don't think I could sit through three minutes of talking about phallic symbols before trying to undermine the teacher...

There are very few movies that are worth going deep on. I think Donnie Darko probably is, that's one... it took me nine years to get in the mood to sit down with that movie, but when I did, it was one of the absolute best experiences of my life... it's mostly or maybe all B.S., but what an arrangement of B.S....

 

[jaredmorgs]

There are very few movies that are worth going deep on. I think Donnie Darko probably is, that's one... it took me nine years to get in the mood to sit down with that movie, but when I did, it was one of the absolute best experiences of my life... it's mostly or maybe all B.S., but what an arrangement of B.S....

Donnie Darko is a favourite of mine as well. That "Mad World" end sequence is just perfect IMO.

 

[Kratos3]

Talking about feminism and phallic symbols (lol) is not going deep... it's the laziest, shallowest analysis possible. I don't think I could sit through three minutes of talking about phallic symbols before trying to undermine the teacher...

There are very few movies that are worth going deep on. I think Donnie Darko probably is, that's one... it took me nine years to get in the mood to sit down with that movie, but when I did, it was one of the absolute best experiences of my life... it's mostly or maybe all B.S., but what an arrangement of B.S....

I believe it.

Yeah Donnie Darko is good.

 

[Baltimore Jones]

Hahahaha! That's funny.

I don't think I critiqued any of the movies as being 'crap', but there is a certain pretentiousness about that list that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. And you are almost implying that my poor attitude toward indie, documentary, and foreign films means I can't possibly be a serious movie fan. Well, I'm a fan of being entertained. I find nothing more dreadful than some self serious, semi intellectual drama that fails to hit its mark. In fact, I'd rather watch a crappy badly acted action movie, because explosions. There are plenty of indies and serious movies that I have liked. They just don't tend to strike a chord with me. For instance, I thought '12 Years A Slave' was a complete waste of my time. The acting was great, the cinematography was wonderful, but I quite simply hated the story for not being entertaining. I'm not kidding, as soon as I finished watching it I threw in my blu-ray of Django Unchained and was ever so much happier. To each his own, right?

Here's an example of how much a movie watcher I am...

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8378-Pt-1-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8397-Pt-2-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8448-Pt-3-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8488-Pt-4-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8514-Pt-5-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8560-Pt-6-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8598-Pt-7-35-Movies-That-Deserve-More-Praise
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8641-Pt-4-Terrible-Movies-I-Admit-To-Recommending
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/10448-The-Movies-I-Saw-In-2014?p=215292#post215292
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/6994-The-Movies-I-Saw-In-2013
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/3095-Movies-I-saw-in-2012-%28like-you-really-care!%29

Apparently I forgot to post my 'Movies I saw" list for 2014. Hmmph. (I just corrected that mistake!) Anyway, that should give you a clear indication of what my viewing habits are. I feel I am an intelligent critic, I just happen to love action movies the most and feel they can be every bit as great as the awards bait that comes along each fall. I like movies I can watch and enjoy over and over again. I like movies that demand to be seen on the big screen. I really just want to be entertained. Not lectured, not informed, entertained. And I will pounce straight into a debate with anyone that actually claims Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made, because they are wrong and parroting nothing more than what they 'learned' in film school.

I didn't have any doubts that you watch a lot of movies. I do question your assertion of yourself as a "serious movie fan" in one breath while writing that you need to be "entertained" and "because explosions" in another breath. Great art is not always about pure "entertainment" and it certainly isn't about explosions (most of the time). It's okay if that stuff is your preference, but then I don't know why you shoot the people down who do care about different things from film (learning something about the world, learning something about themselves, emotional catharsis, philosophy, etc.).

I like to rank films in terms of "what would I take to a desert island with me?" This makes me think about it in a clearer way that helps me to balance entertainment, depth/rewatchability, and "meaning".

No Country For Old Men
The Godfather
David Lynch's "Rabbits"
Citizen Kane
The Godfather 2
Ghostbusters
Back to the Future
Mulholland Dr.
Burn After Reading

That's not in order and it starts to get much more debatable after that. Rocky and/or Rocky Balboa are close, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is very close especially if I can take the series with me too.

 

[shutyertrap]

Let's just say I get tweaked over long standing biases against 'popular' entertainment. There is the implication that a 'serious movie fan' cannot possibly be just that and like the drivel the masses enjoy. I called it at release and I'm calling it now, come awards season it is highly unlikely we'll see Mad Max get any love, and yet it had critics gushing over it. And yet inevitably some costume drama will, simply because it 'looked' important. When was the last time a comedy got nominated as a best picture? I mean one that was truly funny, not a Woody Allen movie? There is a clear bias against presumed 'popcorn' movies, even though they can take you through a rollercoaster of emotions just as well as some thinking man's piece.

I run into this all the time working on film sets. I'll overhear a conversation of one of the producers or the DP, and they'll be talking in high praise about some obscure film they just saw at the local art house cinema, but they would never lower themselves to seeing whatever is in the top 10 at the box office. Meanwhile the very thing we're working on is rivaling Baywatch in storytelling quality.

Believe me, I'm just having a go. If I have the time and the movie is easily accessible to me, I'll watch damn near anything. Except Field of Dreams. Gotta draw the line somewhere! This is what it reminds me of though...

When I was in junior high, we had to do book reports. Now there were plenty of books I wanted to read, lots of fantasy and sci-fi, but my teacher hated that stuff. He wanted books that 'have stood the test of time'. That meant lots of "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "My Brother Sam is Dead" type stuff. Books that hadn't been relevant in at least 50 years, and were just painful to a teen. And so I hated reading. I mean I would read some of the things I had wanted, but there was this overhanging attitude that I wasn't reading 'real' literature. Then I get into high school, and we read 'Lord of the Flies' and I think, wait a minute! This was too good to be a school recommended book! I read Dune, Clockwork Orange, and I'm thinking populist stories can be considered great. It dawns on me that some people just enjoy having a stick up their butt, and that's their problem, not mine.

By the way, I love Twin Peaks. That show ruined television for me for many years.

 

[invitro]

I like to rank films in terms of "what would I take to a desert island with me?"
David Lynch's "Rabbits"
Mulholland Dr.

Ted: "Hey Red, you know any good ways a man could drive himself insane?"
Red: "I got just the thing for you, Ted. Get yourself isolated, like on a deserted island, with nothing but a TV, power source, DVD player, and a few David Lynch DVDs. But forget about your dreams, dummy, and get back to work!"
Ted: "Awww, Red..."

 

[WhiteChocolate]

Ted: "Hey Red, you know any good ways a man could drive himself insane?"
Red: "I got just the thing for you, Ted. Get yourself isolated, like on a deserted island, with nothing but a TV, power source, DVD player, and a few David Lynch DVDs. But forget about your dreams, dummy, and get back to work!"
Ted: "Awww, Red..."

hehe! "hey loook teehd, tahxi-cahhbs!!!"

actually the part that cracks me up most is when he's all like, "ahh, i'm worn out!" but she's all like, "pahhrty timme!"

p.s. proooobably my fave lynch (outside of obviously "blue velvet") might be "lost highway" - is such a super spooky weird one. buuuuut, a long-time fave - my fave "naughty" i like to call it! - is def "wild at heart"... mmm can't resist laura dern's lil' fake orgy's in that one. but it is such an "american epic", in a small way - just for the sake of staging, it's lynch's epic, by far, in my book ... but i still haven't seen -every- bit of lynch i should to make that judgement.

p.p.s. sooo, where are we in the whole "lynch" thread anyways??? is there gonna be a "blue velvet" table coming, like "big lewbowski"?? hehe would be awesome fun! "i found an ear -an ear-an ear-an-ear!" pounding away at the bumpers... ;0

 

[WhiteChocolate]

Well, I love all those guys bunches, but there's a whole lot of "auteurs" I don't care much for... Spielberg, Woody Allen, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton. And there's a lot of them who have only one movie I think is special... Scorcese, Chris Nolan, Fincher.

well i would agree with you too mostly invitro, along those lines - there's no guarantee that each director/screenwriter (or whatever else role they play) is gonna mean "no complaints" movie-watching experience... it's often just a better guideline than, say, seeing whatever newest "jim carey" or whatever actor's movie is out; something i find most people susceptible to... let alone not knowing whether or not a picture is a pixar or dreamworks-style picture; that galls me, those folks! ;0 least you seem to know who's directing what you see; most people i know don't have any realization of that... sometimes i feel strictor in my own choices than those of my friends about those movies!

p.s. one of my favorite "gripes", although i feel i hardly gripe about cameron - i feel very forgiving of him, spite of my moviei-ish inclinations - i -love- the abyss; short version (but not so much the long version). and i love t2 - but not as much as most "t2 fanatics"... i often feel his "directorishnesh" is out-pacing the story and his actors at that point, and while certainly evident in spades with "titanic" - he obvious spent every penny he got onscreen with that, for the time!! after that, and the gravy train that followed... well, there was no stopping the future, including the modern marvel universe thing (though i so wish raimi's spiderman was not so excluded from the avengers' universe - omg, can you just -imagine- what modern cinema would be like, if raimi was still 'prime'??? ;0 (sh*t i hope he still is... he is soooooo neeeded... nooooo kidding!! i got word that my neice loves spidey-2, as i do also - but horrified that she sees the hospital scene where doc occ chops everyone up with a chainsaw, ala "evil dead 2" - crazy!! "i can't believe she can get through that!!"

anyhow - i hardly see any new movies cuz of financial want mostly; not 'cuz i'm that stingy a movie-watcher - although i have become more of one over the years; i -love-3d, but the extra price of it makes going out even more expensive than ever before (by like 3 bucks easily!!) and that's nothing to sneeze at.