Back To the Past: Jandrew Gets Cultured. Maltese Falcon, Arsenic, Blair Witch, etc.

[Jandrew]

Three Kings was pretty great. That's the DOR that I like, IDK what he was thinking with American Hustle. The characterization was good and the chemistry was there. I was a tad iffy on the shooting style at spots, but overall his direction and writing was very strong. Great acting as well (yes even from Ice Cube) and the music choice was nice, though I felt the score was a little out of place for the setting.

 

Finishing Goldfinger tonight hopefully. The gf is studying hard.

 

Haven't seen War Games in years, it's needed for a rewatch

 

HBO Go.

[Jandrew]

Today is Unbreakable, Lean On Me, and Thunderball. Still haven't finished Goldfinger, but will try to tonight.

A New Hope = Friday

Empire Strikes Back = Saturday

Return of the Jedi = Monday

I'll be doing an extensive analyses of them, not just a quick summary. Let's see how this goes.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Jandrew

[Jandrew]

Had no idea Unbreakable was by Shamayamama. He actually did good. It wasnt great, but it was good enough. Even though they hinted it in pretty much every scene SLJ was in, I didn't realize he was going to end up the "villain." That was a good twist imo. It was a superhero movie, without the superheroes. The ending/climax was weak, and it got a little too melodramatic and drab at times. I will say I loved the cinematography. Shamayamama had some great camerawork in this one. Seeing characters through objects, the shot focusing on objects, the shot focusing on one characters during a dialogue scene between 2. The zoom out and zoom in's. Good.

 

"They used to call me Crazy Joe, but now they call me Bat Man!"  Why is that not in AF1's 100 Quotes list. I liked Lean on Me. We watched a clip of it in class last year and I've been wanting to see it since. It fell into the trap a few times: "i'm pregnant", "i'm leaving and never come back", "I'm smarter than I look", but the movie was still powerful with its chemistry and no-nonsense. Didn't feel like a drama. There was also probably a tad too much yelling, but Morgan Freeman was a boss so that's all that mattered, and his analogies were great. I'm a sucker for those movies. Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, this. A nice inspirational drama that doesn't get too out there.

[Plain Old Tele]

"They used to call me Crazy Joe, but now they call me Bat Man!"  Why is that not in AF1's 100 Quotes list. I liked Lean on Me. We watched a clip of it in class last year and I've been wanting to see it since. It fell into the trap a few times: "i'm pregnant", "i'm leaving and never come back", "I'm smarter than I look", but the movie was still powerful with its chemistry and no-nonsense. Didn't feel like a drama. There was also probably a tad too much yelling, but Morgan Freeman was a boss so that's all that mattered, and his analogies were great. I'm a sucker for those movies. Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, this. A nice inspirational drama that doesn't get too out there.

 

Time to slot STAND AND DELIVER somewhere high on your list.

[RobinHood26]

Today is Unbreakable, Lean On Me, and Thunderball. Still haven't finished Goldfinger, but will try to tonight.

Why would you watch Thunderball before finishing Goldfinger?

[Jandrew]

Why would you watch Thunderball before finishing Goldfinger?

Im not we just have about 30 minutes left, so I didnt think it was worth putting in the title.

[Fancyarcher]

Unbreakable is great, and easily my favorite Shyamalan movie. Glad you enjoyed Jandrew.

[Jandrew]

GOLDFINGER. Best Bond yet. Now thats what i want to see out of Bond. I knew I was going to like it after the title scene, I love that song and reflecting scenes off that womens gold body was brilliant. This Bond still fell in the traps, but got out smartly.

Bond is captured by the villain. But the whole story around Goldfinger was too damn interesting to care. Bond has sex with the female lead. But unlike the first two, she resisted at first and fought his dog ass off. The first female dies. But they did it in such an iconic way: the body covered in gold paint. Bond fights the villain in the end. That airplane fight was boss. Yes its wonky, but its 1964.

Pussy Galore, lol, was the strongest yet imo. Well, maybe I'd put her under Halle Berry, but she held her own. ODDJOB, yes. Oddjob was in my Nightfire video game and I screamed with joy when he appeared. His hat trick is iconic is well, and the way Bond took him out was badass. The Fort Knox setting I enjoyed. The final fight was very well done, better than that shit that went down at Skyfall. And Goldfingers plan actually wasnt stupid. Destroying the US's gold so your Chinese gold worth can inflate in value. Smart. And all those soldiers around Fort Knox fell so choreographed, but I didnt suspect they were faking it, since this was 1964 afterall.

Great, great movie. Strong villain, strong female lead, very little hokeyness, many iconic scenes, strong climax, writing, direction, catchy theme song, and it didnt make things too easy for Bond, like the first two. I doubt Thunderball can top this, but hoepfully we have fun with it.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Jandrew

[Lordmandeep]

Thunderball is like DMC.

 

Big bloated but fun. 

[Jandrew]

Well I'm back I guess. Watched alot while I was away. Some good shit, and some bad shit. Here's what  all I saw. Ps also forgot that i've seen Hindenberg, Charlottes Web, Young Frankenstein, and Miracle Worker before I started this.

 

Thunderball (65) - Okay.
Kramer vs Kramer (79) B - Dustin Hoffman.
Driving Miss Daisy (89) D - Snoozefest. Even the Morgan Freeman had no energy. After a while it became background noise.
Hot Shots (91) D - I had fun with Part 2, but this one sucked.
First Blood (82) B - Solid.
Commando (85) C - Meh.

 

Beverly Hillbillies (93) F - Don't ask.
The Birds (63) A - Hitchcock. Hitchcock. Hitchcock. Obviously some of it looked distractedly fake, but it just got better and better. Wasn't impressed with the lead actress tho.
Dial M for Murder (54) - Meh. Became background noise.
The Warriors (79) B - Solid. Had a lot of fun with it.
Class Act (92) C - Good time passer. Gave it a look because of Kid n Play. Started off solid and then well into lost territory.
North by Northwest (59) A - One of the best movies I've ever seen. The locations, the stunts, the practical effects, the suspense, the tension, what a ride.
Thelma and Louise (91) B - Solid.

 

In the Heat of the Night (67) B - My first Sidney Poitier movie. Really good and it felt pretty natural.
Crimson Tide (95) B - You ask "how do you make a thriller on an isolated submarine?" Well they did and it was glorious. Denzel and Gene make it worth it alone.
Dr Strangelove (64) D - Probably gonna get heat for this, but it was a snooze. I couldn't get into it and didn't see whats so iconic about it. Sorry.
Scary Movie (00) B - It's pretty stupid, but I laughed pretty hard.
Oceans Eleven (01) B - Nice slow burn film. I liked that jazzy score and I liked how it was more character-driven.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (61) B - Good. Wasn't mindblowing, but it was good. Also there was no actual breakfast in the movie. Smh.
Attack of the 50 foot Woman (58) F - Piece-of-shit. The movie is 65 minutes long, and we don't get the "50 foot woman" until the final 5. The poster gets an A, but the movie was a slog. It was a marriage drama disguised as a disaster film. And I don't care if it was 1958, those effects were lazy and eye-rolly. Such an awful movie.

 

Airport (70) C - Disaster film my ass. I thought this was going to the Non-Stop/Flightplan/Die Hard 2 of the 70's, but it was more drama than anything. And there was so many subplots, they could've made a saga out of them. It wasn't "bad", just very disappointing and misleading. Long and slow build up, and then it all goes to crap. So you have to clear the runway before the plane lands. You think its going to be a split-second thing with tension, yet they get the plane off the runway like 5 minutes before the plane lands voided the "climax" any tension. Such a disappointing movie.
Blazing Saddles (74) D - I was ready to turn it off after the 10 N-words and we "we're gonna rape the women" joke. I understand its satire, but the movie was just stupid. Good premise, poor execution. That ending, while very meta and clever, was dumb. I've seen far better comedies.
Alien (79) A - Hell yeah.

 

The Graduate (67) B - Don't see how this is so highly lauded, or how its in like the top 20 most attended all time, but it was good.
War of the Worlds (53) - We haven't finished it yet.

Escape from Alcatraz (79) C - Okay. A lot of digging and creeping and sneaking. Not much tension.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (77) B - Really good, but I had issues with the ending. He just left his family just like that? To go be with aliens? I didn't care for that. It wouldve been better if his family was there when he left and he promised them hed be back. He did all that in the movie to protect and convince his family, and then he just leaves them like that. He's not even supposed to be there, but no one cares. IDK would you leave your 4 year old daughter to go be with aliens? It was also a little too long, didn't need to be 2h 17m. Still thrilling though.
Oh, God! (77) B - Good. Went a little off the rails as it went on, but I liked the satire and allegory.

Predator (87) B - Solid. "GET TO THE CHOPPA!", "I aint got time to bleed!", "If it bleeds, we can kill it", "you're one ugly motherfucker."

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (88) B - A lot better than I thought it was gonna be. I had a lot of fun with it, very well made. Had no idea it was Zemeckis. 
Guess Whos Coming To Dinner (67) A - The last few speeches had me teary. Amazing film. And being in an interracial relationship myself, it made the movie more personal. 
The Mummy (99) B - A lot of fun. Charismatic, thrilling, and it doesn't really drag or go off the rails into fuckery territory. 
Creature From the Black Lagoon (54) C - Okay. A little dumb.
Silence of the Lambs (91) B - Chilling and thrilling.

Scream 2 (97) B - Thought it was gonna be dumb, but it was alright. The climax was effing awesome, how Neve Campbell was like dropping stage lights on the reporter lady.

 

The Rock (96) B - Like Mummy, a lot of charismatic and popcorn fun. And the villains motive actually wasnt stupid.
Bambi (42) - I don't really know how to grade this, but it was good.
Mad Max (79) C - Eh. Not my tempo particularly. Still gonna watch Mad Max 2, but this one felt more run-of-the-mill.
It Came From Outer Space (53) - Okay for a black and white 50s alien movie.
Bride of Frankenstein (35) - Okay.

Escape From New York (81) C - Not as "epic" or bad ass as I expected. Too many slow bits in-between the "action."

The Invisible Man (33) B - A lot of fun. 

Face/Off (97) A - Bruh. That was good shit. It was weird at first, but it just kept getting so better. The camera angles, the plot, the score. The doves actually worked here too.
Platoon (86) B - It was good, but I didn't feel Oscar worth to me. 1986 must've been a weak year.
Dracula (31) - It was more background noise while I did other stuff.
Temple of Doom (84) B - It was fun, but I didn't really care for the dark, demonic tones. It was surprisingly dark, I knew it had a hand in causing PG13, but damn. So many scarred kids back in '84. Not as good as Raiders obviously, but good fun. The female didn't do anything tho other than complain. But Shorty was bad ass. My favorite.

 

How To Steal A Million (66) - We're into Hepburn now. I kept dozing off so I missed some parts, but it was solid what I did see. 
Superman (78) A - What Man of Steel shoudve been. I didn't know it was good to be so charasmatic and charming. MoS was so broody and serious. This makes MoS look even worse. And Reeve did so much talking to citizens and what not in this as Superman, did Cavill talk to anybody in MoS that wasn't the military or Amy Adams? Speaking of Reeve, the best superhero casting yet. Yes even better than RDJ as IM. He's basically playing himself at this point. Oh and "you've got me? Well whos got you!?" is also the best line in any superhero movie. Period. Yes better than anything Joker said in TDK.
Last of the Mohicans (92) C - Eh. The score was good, the rest was standard.
Dune (84) F- - See my Letterboxd review below.

 

Fantastic Voyage (66) B - Fun.
Wizard of Oz (39) B - I see why it's a classic. I wasn't blown away, and the munchkin scene had me ready to quit, but it was cute and fun.
Superman II (80) B - First two acts were very solid, but the third started to get a little dumb. The Zod/Ursa/Nom vs Supes fight had no thrill because theyd basically punch and throw each other around for 5 minutes, and then take a break for 5 minutes.
The Mummy (32) - Alright.

 

I didn't watch Star Wars because I want to wait till I was back. They'll be coming shortly. Also told the gf I'd give Harry Potter a chance, and I got to see LOTR's still, they're just so-fucking-long. That's one thing I discovered while watching all these movies: I don't like long movies. After 2 hours it starts to become a struggle. I might watch 2001 today, but that 2h 40m runtime really makes me sigh. Oh well, I'm back. 

 

Dune review: 

At the 25 minute mark I realized I was going to need to drink to survive this. At the 45 minute mark I realized I wasnt going to get what was going on or remember any names. At the 1 hour mark I started contemplating joining in on my girlfriends Greys Anatomy marathon. At the 1 hour 20 minute I decided to go pee without pausing. At the 1 hour 45 mark I watched the BvS trailer on my phone just because. At the too late mark I started feeling the effects of my drink.

 

This movies biggest enemy is itself. The ambition was too big and it didnt pay off in any fronts. The acting, writing, plot (was there one?). Nothing made sense, and I didnt feel the need to care about anything or anyone. It was also nasty to look at. That shriveled ballsack alien thing, the haircuts, the "floating fat guy" and his boily face, the vagina worms, the fetus, I had to keep looking away. All I can say is I'm glad I wasnt eating during this movie.

I dont give F's to movies I dont want to see again, I give F's to movies I wish I'd never seen in the first place. Ps. that blonde dude looked like Kurt from Good Burger with TASM2's Goblin's hair. 1 star for the poster (and because I cant go lower).

I hate you, Numbers.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Jandrew

[Blankments]

Time to slot STAND AND DELIVER somewhere high on your list.

Stand and Deliver is sooo dull.

 

BTW, happy to see someone agrees with me on Close Encounters. It's great until the end which just ruins it for me. *high-fives Jandrew*

[Plain Old Tele]

I love your DUNE review. (Even though I disagree.)

[Jandrew]

Stand and Deliver is sooo dull.

 

BTW, happy to see someone agrees with me on Close Encounters. It's great until the end which just ruins it for me. *high-fives Jandrew*

 

Yeah Close Encounters didn't really click with me until he was in his truck and sees the light. Then I was like "oh this is gonna be good", and it was. But that ending...It'd be different if his wife took the kids and left like right after he comes home all hysterical, but the fact that he was with his family majority of the movie and a lot revolved around them, then he just acts like they don't exist once the climax hits, I couldn't dig it. 

 

What I thought would happen, and what I wanted to happen, was I thought that big dirt mound he was building in his house was going to amount to something and the aliens were gonna come to his town and everyone would realize he wasnt crazy, and then the aliens would leave. Can't believe he just said "well fuck it" and got on that ship. What made it worse was the mission of the woman he was with was to get her son back. He had 2 sons, so obviously they had to be on his mind, but he gave no fucks. And then he kisses ole girl and you can tell he starts getting attracted to her, so it's like he was gonna run out on his fam regardless. Spielberg's better than that. 

[Blankments]

Yeah Close Encounters didn't really click with me until he was in his truck and sees the light. Then I was like "oh this is gonna be good", and it was. But that ending...It'd be different if his wife took the kids and left like right after he comes home all hysterical, but the fact that he was with his family majority of the movie and a lot revolved around them, then he just acts like they don't exist once the climax hits, I couldn't dig it. 

 

What I thought would happen, and what I wanted to happen, was I thought that big dirt mound he was building in his house was going to amount to something and the aliens were gonna come to his town and everyone would realize he wasnt crazy, and then the aliens would leave. Can't believe he just said "well fuck it" and got on that ship. What made it worse was the mission of the woman he was with was to get her son back. He had 2 sons, so obviously they had to be on his mind, but he gave no fucks. And then he kisses ole girl and you can tell he starts getting attracted to her, so it's like he was gonna run out on his fam regardless. Spielberg's better than that. 

I like the ending up until the very ending, when I thought he was going to turn down the aliens and say his family is what matters, after seeing the girl reunite with his son, but NOPE.

 

I also like Dreyfuss's current thoughts on the film:

 

Richard DreyfussVerified account‏@RichardDreyfuss

Close Encounters was released 35 years ago. One day we'll make a sequel where I return & have a difficult reunion with the kids I abandoned

[RobinHood26]

The hand in the box scene in Dune is fantastic, that alone makes it not terrible. Definitely too ambitious though. 

 

High five on Alien and Face/Off and I will add I really enjoy Escape from Alcatraz. 

 

Keep them coming! 

[Jandrew]

Also feel free to basically request/suggest anything now. Ive found alternative methods to see these movies.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Jandrew

[Plain Old Tele]

MAD MAX 2 is night and day from MM1. Different feel, different looking "universe", you can really see how Miller matured as a filmmaker between the two.

 

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is part of a subset of genre movies that hardly exist today... the super-low-budget genre movie that still gets a theatrical release and makes an impact. It'd be sort of like if MACHETE KILLS did EQUALIZER or PACIFIC RIM numbers and ended up profoundly influencing the whole genre and future filmmakers.

[4815162342]

Hahaha at your Dune review.

Shame on you for Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, etc

[Blankments]

My suggestions for movies not listed in here (only looking at first page and this page)

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Empire Strikes Back

Back to the Future

When Harry Met Sally

Dead Poets Society

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Scrooged

The Terminator

Star Trek II

Star Trek IV

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Ghostbusters

The Breakfast Club

Christmas Vacation

Star Wars

Rocky

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Muppet Movie

The Sound of Music

Last Year at Marienbad

Mary Poppins

Fahrenheit 451

101 Dalmatians

The Bicycle Thief

The Maltese Falcon

12 Angry Men

Some Like It Hot

Seven Samurai

A Man Escaped

Singin' in the Rain

High Noon

Edward Scissorhands

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The Player

Reservoir Dogs

A Few Good Men

Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast

[Jandrew]

^ lol ive seen half of those. Come on now I know I missed alot of oldies, but Im not incompetent

Ive seen 1,078 movies accoring to Letterboxd. They cant all be from last decade, lol.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Jandrew