baumer Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 I'm very sorry for not getting to this on the weekend everyone. Been busy but I will try to get this done as much as I can tonight. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #27 Crimes and Misdemeanors Martin Landau, Woody Allen, Anjelica Houston Directed by Woody Allen Number of Lists: 4 Number one placement: 0 Top 5: 1 Roger Ebert: Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a thriller about the dark nights of the soul. It shockingly answers the question most of us have asked ourselves from time to time: Could I live with the knowledge that I had murdered someone? Could I still get through the day and be close to my family and warm to my friends, knowing that because of my own cruel selfishness, someone who had loved me was lying dead in the grave? This is one of the central questions of human existence, and society is based on the fact that most of us are not willing to see ourselves as murderers. But in the world of this film, conventional piety is overturned and we see into the soul of a human monster. My take: Martin Landau, a successful doctor, contemplates murdering a former mistress who threatens his easy life while Woody Allen, an unsuccessful filmmaker, contemplates having an extramarital affair. This film, alongside "Annie Hall," will one day be rated as one of Woody Allen's greatest achievements. It is an important, intelligent work that explores the implications of whether or not this is indeed a moral universe. It also very funny. The subplot about Allen making a film about his successful, conceited brother-in-law (Alan Alda.) A masterpiece. I personally feel this is Allen's best film. 13 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #26 Major League Starring: Tom Berenger, Renee Russo, Charlie Sheen Directed by: David S Ward Number of Lists: 8 Number one: 0 Top 5: 2 Critic summary: This is a cast that just works, as well as epitomizes the late ’80s/early ’90s with names like Berenger, Sheen and Bernsen in the lead roles. All the actors mentioned here have high points, and they all culminate in the final effect of us being completely on this team’s side when they are in a one-game playoff with their rivals, the New York Yankees. I’ve been more of an Atlanta Braves fan over the years than the Indians, although I still have loyalty for the Tribe. When the Braves had their own worst-to-first run in 1991, it was hard not to see parallels with this film. I love underdogs, mainly because I feel like one myself. “Major League” has some of the craziest, but really is one of my favorites. My take: Simply one of the funniest films I've seen. I put it up there with other 80's comedy classics like Porky's, Beverly Hills Cop and Planes Trains and Automobiles, in terms of humour. It's just funny from start to finish. From Cerrano, the voodoo practising, curve ball cursed giant of a man, to Lou the manager, to Ricky Vaughn, who is more comfortable in a ripped and sleeveless shirt than he is in a baseball uniform, the cast is what does shine in the film. Major League was one of the better films of the year. 11 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #25 Driving Miss Daisy Starring: Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd Directed by Bruce Beresford Number of lists: 12 Number one: 0 Top 5: 0 Roger Ebert: "Driving Miss Daisy" is a film of great love and patience, telling a story that takes 25 years to unfold, exploring its characters as few films take the time to do. By the end of the film, we have traveled a long way with the two most important people in it - Miss Daisy Werthan, a proud old Southern lady, and Hoke Colburn, her chauffeur - and we have developed a real stake in their feelings. The movie spans a quarter century in the lives of its two characters, from 1948, when Miss Daisy's son decides it is time she stop driving herself and employ a chauffeur, to 1973, when two old people acknowledge the bond that has grown up between them. It is an immensely subtle film, in which hardly any of the most important information is carried in the dialogue and in which body language, tone of voice or the look in an eye can be the most important thing in a scene. After so many movies in which shallow and violent people deny their humanity and ours, what a lesson to see a film that looks into the heart. My take: What Ebert said. 12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #24 My Left Foot Starring: Daniel Day Lewis, Brenda Fricker Directed by Jim Sheridan Number of lists: 6 Number 1: 1 Top 5: 1 Washington Post: AT THE beginning of "My Left Foot," a man's foot pulls a record from its sleeve, lowers it tremulously onto a turntable and, after the foot's owner catches his breath, starts the music. This excruciating maneuver, a mere instant in the troubled life of cerebral palsy sufferer Christy Brown, launches not only a protracted, vicarious struggle for the viewer, but also the beginning of an immensely affecting experience. This Irish film, adapted from Brown's true-life account, and powered by a collectively true cast, has an existentially constricted beauty of its own that steps dexterously over cloying, civic-minded sympathy. It gets in close with Christy, and shows the dark, initially wordless storms inside his head. But it also wheels that thematic grimness towards an increasing sense of glory, as Christy's free-moving foot shows his mother, his crowded Catholic family and the world that its owner is an artist with a normal desire for love -- the non-pitying, committed and physical kind. The dual performance, by Hugh O'Conor (as the younger Christy) and Daniel Day-Lewis (as the older one), is, appropriately, the movie's most prominent force. The youthful determination in O'Conor's contorted face as he variously crouches under the family stairs, kicks the front door screaming for help and painfully scratches a significant word on the parlor floor (a piece of chalk wedged between his toes), is stirring and heart-stopping. When Day-Lewis seamlessly takes over at Christy's 17th birthday, the British performer of "My Beautiful Laundrette," "A Room With a View" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," leads the movie with his best screen work thus far. It's also one of the best films of the year. My take: I never did see this one. 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #23 Henry V Starring: Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh Directed by: Kenneth Branagh Number of lists: 7 Number 1: 1 Top 5: 2 Roger Ebert: There is no more stirring summons to arms in all of literature than Henry's speech to his troops on St. Crispan's Day, ending with the lyrical "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." To deliver this speech successfully is to pass the acid test for anyone daring to perform the role of Henry V in public, and as Kenneth Branagh, as Henry, stood up on the dawn of the Battle of Agincourt and delivered the famous words, I was emotionally stirred even though I had heard them many times before. That is one test of a great Shakespearian actor: to take the familiar and make it new. Branagh is not yet 30, and yet already the publicity machines are groaning to make him into the "new Olivier." Before his "Henry V," he had made only one other movie (he was the sunburned young husband in "High Season"), but he has triumphed on the London stage in such talismanic roles as Jimmy Porter in Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," and his stock could not be higher. It was a risk to make this film, and it could have been a disastrous failure, but instead it is a success. That it is not a triumph is because Branagh the director is not yet as good as Branagh the actor. He knows better how to play Henry V than how to get him on and off the screen, and his pacing could be improved. The film begins slowly, bogs down in the seemingly endless battle scenes and then drags to its conclusion through Henry's endlessly protracted and coy courtship of Katherine. Branagh himself seems to know that the opening sequences - involving a rebellion in the English court - are in trouble, and he attempts to speed them along with distractingly intrusive music, which only gets in the way of the words. Part of the problem is in Shakespeare, who dawdles with diplomatic matters before getting to the heart of his story, and Olivier dealt with this problem in his 1944 film by facing it humorously. As the French ambassador and others squabble over boundaries and treaties, a frisky wind blows their documents around the stage. In Branagh, all is solemn, and hard to follow. My take: Not really into Shakesperean films, but this one was pretty good. #22 Lethal Weapon 2 Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci Directed by Richard Donner Number of lists: 12 Number 1: 0 Top 5: 0 Critic comment: Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), Los Angeles Police Officers, are in hot pursuit of a unknown criminal who is carrying South African coins across Los Angeles; but soon Riggs and Murtaugh are taken off the case and assigned to protect a Federal government crime witness, Leo Getz (Joe Pesci). They find that the two cases are intertwined and a host of persons with diplomatic immunity are more criminal than innocent. The rest of the story is ‘take out the bad guys’ as fast as you can. My take: 'Lethal Weapon 2' is the absolute perfect example of why the eighties were the renaissance of the action film. I've seen so many bad action films that it becomes hard to decipher what makes an excellent one but I feel that 'Lethal Weapon 2' should be studied as an example. It has all the ingredients I think are essential to making a good action film. The movie most importantly has incredible loud action sequences that have weight because they aren't mired in computer effects or post production trickery and have stunt performers. It also isn't fearful in indulging in violence without being gratuitous. Most importantly are the characters and the acting. This film solves the problem of the first film in having memorable villains. The whole South Africa apartheid villainy is played for all the hate you can project on these goofy characters. Joss Ackland is so delightful. His performance masterfully skates at being just campy enough to get all the smiles you can without going into the ridiculous. But of course the bulk of the praise must go to the leads. Glover and Gibson are so charismatic and likable that the scenes where they drive to the shoot outs are still highly entertaining. And of course the casting coup of the year (along with another film on this countdown) is Joe Pesci as Leo Getz. 12 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 Well, we got a few done tonight and we'll get some more done tomorrow! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrestrial Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 8 hours ago, baumer said: #24 My Left Foot My take: I never did see this one. I hope you'll watch it sometime, I still get goosebumps even only thinking about it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Gittes Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 11 hours ago, baumer said: #27 Crimes and Misdemeanors Number of Lists: 4 11 hours ago, baumer said: #25 Driving Miss Daisy Number of lists: 12 Madness. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabattery Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 11 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said: Madness. If it's any consolation, I didn't vote for either. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadShot Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 waiting for KIKI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 Well get to the top 20 later this morning. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) On 8/30/2019 at 11:33 PM, baumer said: Anyone who cares, you can watch this video Lindsay Ellis made back in 2012. God bless the Russian subtitle makers for preserving these videos on dailymotion. Edit: OK that's actually a Russian Dub. I guess all non-dubbed versions are scrubbed from the internet. Transcript here: https://thatguywiththeglasses.fandom.com/wiki/All_Dogs_Go_to_Heaven Edited September 3, 2019 by cannastop 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 We will resume this in about 30 minutes 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 On with the countdown! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #21 The Killer Starring Chow Yun Fat, Danny Lee Directed by John Woo Number of lists: 6 Number One: 0 Top Five: 4 Critic review (Hong Kong DVD review): While performing a contract job in a nightclub, suave professional assassin Jong (Chow Yun-fat) accidentally injures singer Jenny (Sally Yeh Chian-wen), who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plagued by guilt, he makes it his duty to look after the all-but blind woman but stops short of revealing to her just who he is. Fed up with the business, Jong wants to quit but decides to pull one more hit for triad boss Wong Hoi (Shing Fui-on), before taking Jenny abroad for a cornea transplant. However, upon performing the killing, Jong is betrayed by his middleman, Sei (Paul Chu Kong), under orders from Wong. While he has every reason to kill Sei, Jong spares him out of friendship. One of the cops assigned to protect the man Jong just murdered, Inspector Lee (Danny Lee Sau-yin) gets onto the killer's trail quickly and gains significant ground by befriending Jenny, without disclosing his identity or intentions to her. After an initial confrontation results in Jong's escape, Lee manages to catch Jong and Jenny together but, before he can take them into custody, a small army of assassins appear and the trio barely escape with their lives. The incident cements a growing mutual respect between the killer and the policeman that blossoms into intense camaraderie when the two men lose their best friends to Wong's gunmen and must fight for their lives against wave after wave of heavily armed opponents. Inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 classic LE SAMOURAI (released in America in a dubbed and truncated version called THE GODSON) and possessing roots in the classic Chinese swordplay dramas of director John Woo's mentor, Chang Cheh, THE KILLER is a rapturous mixture of ripe melodrama, elegant introspection, vivid characterizations, intoxicating style, and incredible, over-the-top gunplay, all framed by Woo's distinctive views of honor and male bonding. Moving, exciting, tragic, noble, and wonderfully unself-conscious, this is the archetypal gangster tragedy kinetically reinvented by a master filmmaker and anchored by one of Chow Yun-fat's most iconic performances. Lowell Lo Kwun-ting contributes a fine score but cues lifted from the Hollywood films RED HEAT and HERO AND THE TERROR (both 1988) can still be detected by perceptive viewers. Taiwanese prints run an extra 25 minutes, fleshing out the characters but compromising the pacing. However, if you are deeply impressed with the HK cut, this version is still well worth seeing, if only to reveal how Woo tightened and improved this, his finest achievement to date. Kenneth Tsang Kong, Ricky Yee Fan-wai, Yip Wing-cho, Barry Wong Ping-yiu, Tommy Wong Kwong-leung, Parkman Wong Pak-man, and Lam Chung also appear. My take: Always wanted to see this one, never got around to it. 13 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #20 Say Anything Starring John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney Directed by Cameron Crowe Number of lists: 13 Number one: 0 Top 5: 2 I'm going to put most of Ebert's review here because Say Anything is one of my faves. Then first time Lloyd Dobler calls Diane Court to ask her out on a date, he dials all but one digit of her phone number, then looks in the mirror and brushes his hair with his hand before dialing the final digit. He wants to look his best. He gets her father on the phone. Her father has received a lot of phone calls from guys wanting to talk to his daughter. Lloyd stumbles through his message, carefully repeats his number twice, and then says, ''She's pretty great, isn't she?'' ''What?'' asks the father. ''I said, she's pretty great.'' ''Yes,'' says her dad, ''she is.'' This scene, early in Cameron Crowe's ''Say Anything,'' reflects many of the virtues of the movie. In a lesser film Lloyd would have gotten Diane on the phone with the first try. But it is important to establish her father James (John Mahoney) as a major player, a man whose daughter chose to live with him after a divorce, and who tells her she can say anything to him. The movie is about honesty, which is why Mr. Court has to grin at Lloyd's earnest closing line, and it is also about dishonesty. Lloyd (John Cusack) is tall, loyal and true, tells the truth, and seems especially frank about the fact that he seems to have absolutely no future. His career plans do not include college. He talks vaguely about a future as a professional kick-boxer, but the only time we see him engaged in the sport professionally is when he's teaching a class of pre-schoolers. Diane (Ione Skye), on the other hand, is a golden girl, the class valedictorian, winner of a scholarship to England. She is also beautiful, which Lloyd appreciates with every atom of his being, but she doesn't date much, because she intimidates the other students. When Lloyd confides his love to his best friend Corey (Lili Taylor), she says simply: ''She's too smart for you.'' When Lloyd takes Diane to the all-night party on high school graduation night, someone asks her, ''Why'd you come with Lloyd Dobler?'' and she says, ''He made me laugh.'' Diane perceives that she does not laugh enough. She tells her dad how much she enjoyed the party, and says she missed that kind of fun in high school: ''It's like I held everyone away from me.'' Lloyd and Diane begin to date, tentatively, and she notices that he is instinctively a gentleman. The moment he wins her heart is when he warns her not to step near some glass in a parking lot. Lloyd's biggest problem, in the eyes of Mr. Court, is his complete lack of a reasonable career plan. Even Lloyd hardly seems to think kick-boxing is a workable profession. But he's clear about what he doesn't want to do: ''I don't want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything as a career.'' Most people go to love stories in order to identify, in one way or another, with the lovers. Usually they are unworthy of our trust, especially in the modern breed of teenage movies that celebrate cynicism, vulgarity and ignorance. ''Say Anything'' is kind of ennobling. I would like to show it to the makers of a film like ''Slackers'' and ask them if they do not feel shamed. ''Say Anything'' exists entirely in a real world, is not a fantasy or a pious parable, has characters who we sort of recognize, and is directed with care for the human feelings involved. When Entertainment Weekly recently chose it as the best modern movie romance, I was not surprised. Cameron Crowe, who also wrote this, his directorial debut, seems able to tap directly into his feelings and memories as a teenager. His autobiographical ''Almost Famous'' (2000) was set backstage at rock concerts, a much different world than the Seattle of ''Say Anything,'' but the characters played by Patrick Fugit and John Cusack could be twins in the way they earnestly try to be true to themselves. Both characters have career ambitions that are not respectable (to become a rock critic is not much better than becoming a kick boxer, in the eyes of parents). Both are so consumed by their dreams that they ignore conventional ambitions. Both fall in love with apparently inaccessible girls, although Lloyd Dobler has the good luck that Diane loves him, too. The film follows them gently and tactfully through the stages of romance at 18. When it finally finds them in the back seat of a car and perhaps about to have sex, it doesn't descend into the sweaty, snickering dirty-mindedness of many modern teen movies, but listens carefully. ''Are you shaking?'' she asks him. ''No,'' he says. ''You're shaking,'' she says. ''I don't think so,'' he says. When she comes in late the next morning--the first time she has not called home to let her father know where she was--he is angry, but loves her enough to cool down and listen to what she has to say. The way she describes what happened is one of the movie's flawless moments. The two lovers both have confidants. For Diane, it is her father, played by John Mahoney as a reminder that this actor can be as convincingly nice as anyone in the movies. He exudes decency. That quality is right for this role, in which we learn that there is a great deal Diane doesn't know about her father. When the IRS looks into the financial records at the nursing home he runs, Diane goes to a local agent to argue her father's case. And the agent (Philip Baker Hall) in a small but indispensable role, tells her flatly but not unkindly, ''But he's guilty.'' My take: Cameron Crowe's best film, imo is Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Say Anything is a close second. Both films benefit from Crowe's ability to write characters like very few can. Here, Lloyd Dobbler is real. He's real and he's authentic and we can see ourselves in him, or at least we can see the person we would like to be, in him. He is old fashioned, he's chivarlous and he's a romantic. He loves Diane Court from afar and when he finally decides to throw his fears over board, nothing will stop him from trying to win her love. Say Anything is filled with memorable scenes and biting dialogue. The ghetto blaster scene has been imitated many times over and as memorable as it is, there are other lines that have stuck with me even more. "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen." This is uttered by Lloyd after Diane breaks up with him. And then there's one of Diane's interesting moments....I have this theory of convergence, that good things always happen with bad things. I know you have to deal with them at the same time, but I just don't know why they have to happen at the same time. I just wish I could work out some schedule. Am I just babbling? Do you know what I mean?" And my favourite scene in the movie is after Diane comes back to Lloyd, and he has a moment of clarity, before he finally just gives in to the fact that he just got his love back...."One question: are you here 'cause you need someone, or 'cause you need me?... Forget it, I don't care." Say Anything is simply one of the finest films about relationships, ever made. 14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #19 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Starring: Keanue Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin Directed by: Stephen Herek Number of lists: 8 Number one: 0 Top 5: 2 Washington Post: "Bill & Ted" is the shaggiest of shaggy dog stories. The movie is mounted entirely on the notion of having these two wholly oblivious geeks mix with the great minds of the world -- not in and of itself a bankrupt premise for a teen comedy. But Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, who wrote the script, have made only the sketchiest attempts to draw their historical characters. They exist as foils and nothing else, and the gags that are hung on them are far from first-rate. The stars themselves are frisky and companionable, like unkempt ponies. If ignorance is bliss, these are the most blissed-out kids ever. But because the characters they're playing and the lingo they spout are already out of date, the timing of the picture seems out of whack. It's peddling last year's hip. If the director, Stephen Herek, has any talent for comedy, it's not visible here. More than anything, the picture looks paltry and undernourished. Even the warts on Lincoln's face look slapped on. My take: "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" is most definitely just that! This is just an all around FUN movie! The plot is far from anything serious, but deep down there are some good morals and such things to take from this film. "Be Excellent To Each Other" That is some good advice, is it not? The comedy in this film is just superb! I've seen this movie more times than I can count with my fingers and every time it gets even better! There are so many lines in this film that you just can't help but repeat, because they're just so funny and well done! There are a number of times that I find myself just cracking up at the scene, situation, or what have you. If you don't laugh at least a little during the course of this film, then I think you've got some problems. The acting is great. Everybody knocks Keanu Reeves for his acting, but I think he's great. And he does a great job in this film. Alex Winter also plays a great part. The rest of the cast is great too. Not only is the comedy and the acting great, but there are some REALLY good science fiction sort of idea's in this film. The scene where Bill and Ted meet the future Bill and Ted is just amazingly well done, and such a cool idea. I love that you first see the scene from the perspective of one set of Bill and Ted's, and then later the Bill and Ted that the story follows becomes the other set of Bill and Ted's. Did that make sense? Well, anyway, see the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about. There were a few other really good scenes and ideas throughout the film. All in all, I would definitely recommend seeing this film, it's not a complex story by any means, and just a whole lot of fun. Try not to take the film too seriously and you'll hopefully enjoy it. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #18 Weekend At Bernie's Starring: Andrew McCarthy. Jonathan Silverman, Terry Kiser Directed by: Ted Kotcheff Number of Lists: 8 Number one: 0 Top 5: 1 Peter Travers: This one has all the elements for hot-weather success: It’s crude, tacky and tasteless. You may laugh, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning. Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman play two jerky New York-insurance-company trainees whose boss (the eponymous Bernie) invites them to his Hamptons beach house so he can pin a rap on them for his latest shady deal. But before the jerks arrive, Bernie gets offed — via drug injection — by a hit man. The boys fear they’ll be targets for the Mob and the cops unless they can make Bernie look alive for the weekend. It’s a cadaver comedy. Not the luckiest of genres. Remember Bette Midler dragging around the dead body of husband Rip Torn in Jinxed? Of course you don’t. That’s my point. The film did a box-office belly-flop. Ditto S.O.B. and The Loved One. Even Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t coax giggles out of a carcass in The Trouble With Harry. That leaves a big job — on the order of raising Lazarus — for the collection of has-beens gathered here. Director Ted Kotcheff’s most recent films (The Winter People, Switching Channels) were bad enough to make you forget that he was once capable of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and North Dallas Forty. Robert Klane’s inane screenplays for The Man With One Red Shoe and National Lampoon’s European Vacation quickly dulled the memory of his incisive Where’s Poppa.The two stars are also fresh off losing streaks: McCarthy with Kansas and Less Than Zero; Silverman with Caddyshack II and Stealing Home. My take: Weekend At Bernies is just a hoot. It's audaciously funny and it's all because of Terry Kiser, who plays the dead Bernie. I met Terry Kiser last year at Scare-A-Con and he was happy to talk about Weekend at Bernies....said he loved the movie and loved making it. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) Come on guys Say Anything... is better than at least Bill & Ted. Edited September 3, 2019 by tawasal 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
