BOT---Revisiting the top 25 of 1987.....We have a tie at number 1!!

[baumer]

Tied at #1

 

Spoiler

 

Gospodin Oformitel

Written by:  Yuriy Arabov, Alexander Grin 

Directed by:  Oleg Teptsov

Starring:  Nicolei Volkov, Vladimir Konstintinov, Sergei Federov

 

 

Famous decorator, maker of mannequins Platon Andreevich (beautiful play of Victor Avilov) has been long trying to compete with God wishing to create a chef-d'oeuvre, over which time would have no power. To decorate a show window of a jewelry shop, he picks a model - young girl in her final stage of tuberculosis. It is clear that the girl will soon die, therefore great is the decorator's amazement, when, after 6 years, he encounters that very young lady who is presented to him as a wife of a rich merchant whose house he is supposed to decorate. The rich merchant (M.Kozakov) is dead set to learn more about his wife's past, to which, he suspects, Platon Andreevich holds a key. This search after truth, however, turns out to be a deadly quest for the merchant: he dies a mysterious death, after having lost all his fortune to the decorator over a card table. Well, as you might have understood, this lady is not the former model, whose neglected grave Platon Andreevich finally locates at one of the Saint-Petersburg cemeteries. It is the waxen mannequin who got the life of its own, having turned into the antipode of its meek original. It is now clear that the decorator is doomed to fall victim to his Frankensteinian monster - the feeling of the inevitable death is enhanced by the beautiful, somewhat muffled recitation of the poem "Don Juan"  

 

The space time continuem is disrupted when a giant meteor is set to destroy Moscow and the city dweller, including Andreevich, now only have days to live.  He must now choose between his love of the church and mannequins, or his one true love, his wife.  What will fate hold for these two?

 

Number of first place votes:  6

 

Imdb summary:  Armageddon meets Silence of the Lambs

 

Tomato Meter:  100%, 9.6/10

 

Academy Awards:  1 nomination for best foreign film of 1987

 

Random Critic Comment:  A plush and brash display of a bucolic lifestyle in a world of mannequins and chocolate pudding.  A symbolic treat for the senses

 

Random Forum comment:  The best film I have ever seen.  @La Binoche

 

 

[baumer]

I was surprised a Russian film finished tied for first

[baumer]

26:  Extreme Prejudice (terrific cast, action, suspense, cowboys and high tech special agents and pure Walter Hill)

27:  Less Than Zero

28:  The Lost Boys

 

All three should have been in the top 25

[Fancyarcher]

Wonderful "#1 choice" folks, (lol).

Edited August 24, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[baumer]

Well, since it's getting late, I guess I can't keep the charade going all night...

 

The real tie for number one

 

Spoiler

 

Raising Arizona

Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Starring:  Nic Cage, Holly Hunter, William Forsythe

 

 

 

 

The Coen Brothers started working on Raising Arizona with the idea to make it as different as possible from their previous film, Blood Simple, by having it be far more optimistic and upbeat. The starting point of scriptwriting came from the idea of the character of Hi, who has the desire to live a regular life within the boundaries of the law. To create their characters' dialect, Joel and Ethan created a hybrid of local dialect and the assumed reading material of the characters, namely, magazines and the Bible. The script took three and a half months to write.

The film was influenced by the works of director Preston Sturges and writers such as William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, known for her southern literature. Joel and Ethan showed their completed script to Circle Films, which was their American distributor for Blood Simple. Circle Films agreed to finance the movie. The Coens came to the set with a complete script and storyboard. With a budget of just over five million dollars, Joel Coen noted that "to obtain maximum from that money, the movie has to be meticulously prepared."  It went on to gross 29 million domestic.

 

Nicolas Cage had a reputation early in his career of being a pain in the ass to work with and he often used his uncle's name thinking it would have some kind of influence on set.  Sean Penn commented on this on the set of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  He  was also disruptive on this set as well. When he arrived on-set, and at various other points during production, Cage offered suggestions to the Coen brothers, which they ignored. Cage said that "Joel and Ethan have a very strong vision and I've learned how difficult it is to accept another artist's vision. They have an autocratic nature."

 

Pure lunacy is what Raising Arizona is. It's got everything you could ask for in a film; kidnapping, jailbreaks, Hell's Angels, explosions and guns, guns guns. Nic Cage is great in the role of a very befuddled conveniance store robber who falls in love with Holly Hunter's Ed. Throw in John Goodman and William Forsythe as a couple of car stealing, bank robbing brothers and you got yourself scenes that will make you giggle when you think back about them. The entire state of Arizona seems trigger happy in the Coen's eyes. Clerks, cops, and crooks pull out firearms and let loose like the finale of the 1812 Overture. Plus, where else can you hear really good yodeling?

 

Number of first place votes:  1

 

Imdb summary:  When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated.

 

Tomato Meter: The cartoon vision of southwestern tackiness doesn't cut very deep, but the mise-en-scene is packed with clever clutter...Pat Graham Chicago Reader

 

Academy Awards:  Nada

 

Random Critic Comment:  The cartoon vision of southwestern tackiness doesn't cut very deep, but the mise-en-scene is packed with clever clutter....Pat Graham Chicago Reader

 

Random Forum User Comment:  One of my all time favorites, and one of Nic Cage's best performances, if not best. @Spaghetti of 1000 Planets

 

 

[4815162342]

6 minutes ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

I was surprised a Russian film finished tied for first

 

 

[baumer]

Thanks for reading everyone.

 

I did all of this on the fly so I hope most of it came out okay.  Sorry for a couple of glitches.

 

 

[baumer]

Just now, 4815162342 said:

 

 

 

What's wrong with a Russian film starring a wrestler and two hockey players finishing at number one?  

[grim22]

Great work @Stutterng baumer Denbrough. You are the Bryan Singer following JJ Abrams and McG 

[Fancyarcher]

Honestly I'm quite shocked & pleased that Raising Arizona made it that high, even tying with Robocop.

[baumer]

6 minutes ago, grim22 said:

Great work @Stutterng baumer Denbrough. You are the Bryan Singer following JJ Abrams and McG 

 

Thanks for all the work you and Tele put into it...and thanks for letting me pinch hit for you guys.

[Plain Old Tele]

Thank you, @Stutterng baumer Denbrough. 'Twas a fun read!  

[Jake Gittes]

I've actually seen that Russian movie.  It's a fucking trip. The best thing about it is the score.

 

 

[aabattery]

This list was actually pretty good and accurate (unlike certain other lists).

 

Solid effort, BOT.

[baumer]

2 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

I've actually seen that Russian movie.  It's a fucking trip. The best thing about it is the score.

 

 

 

That's absolutely hysterical that you have seen this movie. I Googled Russian horror movies from 1987 and that was one of the more obscure ones I came up with LOL.

[WrathOfHan]

3 hours ago, aabattery said:

This list was actually pretty good and accurate (unlike certain other lists).

 

Solid effort, BOT.

Yeah, like the one where Rogue One was in the Top 10.

[Tower]

Thanks for all the work @Stutterng baumer Denbrough@Squadron Leader Tele@grim22. I had not seen any 1987 films before making this list, so I had to make a list from scratch, but it was reasonably close to the one we ended up with.

[Jake Gittes]

2 hours ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

 

That's absolutely hysterical that you have seen this movie. I Googled Russian horror movies from 1987 and that was one of the more obscure ones I came up with LOL.

 

Here it's a bit of a cult object. I haven't seen any other 1987 Russian horror films... don't even know how many there are tbh.

[Kalo]

13 hours ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

28:  The Lost Boys

What!? that was in my top 3!!!

[Kalo]

Really sad hardly any of the actual 1987 set movies/high school dramedies made the list.

 

Adventures in Babysitting, Overboard, Can't Buy Me Love and Some Kind of Wonderful are all great feel good movies and deserve better.

 

...So now that this is finally out of the way can't we get to 1997 already???

@Squadron Leader Tele, @grim22