baumer Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 #17 Born on the 4th of July Starring Tom Cruise, Frank Whaley, Raymond J Barry Directed by Oliver Stone Number of lists: 9 Number one: 0 Top 5: 2 Caz: The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for. Ron Kovic was a very well-loved and thought of young man, in High School with the world at his feet, in the wrestling team and enjoying his time with his friends. When the Marine’s give a speech in his high school he is very patriotic and wants to fight for his country which he loves more than anything. This will see him head straight over to Vietnam. The things which happen in the war would remain with him forever, playing back on his mind about how they killed innocent women and children and how he accidentally shot one of his fellow marines in a crossfire incident. We see how a man must deal and adjust to never being able to walk again, after an incredibly active life after the effects of war deny him the chance to ever walk again. I really did find it heartbreaking watching him trying to force himself to be able to walk again with the crutches and rushing around. He was in denial and did not want to accept that he would never walk again, he wanted his life to be back to normal and that was never going to actually happen. The next heart breaking time comes as he heads back home to the States and his parents who don’t seem to be able to deal with how he now is, especially when he turns to drink very quickly on his return. His mother always pushed him to go further when he was a child and growing up as we are shown these scenes throughout the film. This leads Ron to head to Mexico to be with other men left paralysed by the war. My take: "Born on the Fourth of July" is an absorbing piece of work, based on a true story, about Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a gung-ho Marine-turned-war-protester. We first meet Kovic as an all-American boy as strong in his faith as he is in his will to succeed. After high school he proudly joins the Marines, hoping he'll be shipped to Vietnam to stop the spread of communism. But the barbarities of war, including civilian casualties, friendly fire and a paralyzing bullet through the chest, gradually turn him against the conflict. Director Oliver Stone's method of telling Kovic's story over a period of several years is highly effective and convincing. Cruise is at his best as Kovic, portraying a wide range of emotions and developing apathy with the viewer. The audience feels what he feels, from confusion on the battlefield to the terror of being paralyzed from the waist down. Now for the bad news. The picture is overly political, with Stone once again (and unnecessarily) casting Republicans as the bad guys and Democrats as the good guys (seemingly ignoring that the Dems initially sent the troops to 'Nam). The film also takes a while to build up steam, and the all-American life of the pre-Marine Kovic seems a little too perfect to be believable. Obviously a story such as this requires adequate screen time, but the 145 minutes is slightly drawn out, particularly toward the end. And although one of its central themes is the opposition to the war that greeted returning vets, the genesis and rationale of that opposition are not adequately explored. As a whole, however, "Born of the Fourth of July" is recommended. Kovic's biography and Stone's masterful storytelling are a perfect match. It's not your typical war movie. In fact, it's not your typical movie, period. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 I'll take a short break while I wait or the honourable Tawasal to get me a write up for the next film. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 #16 Heathers Starring: Winona Ryder and Christian Slater Directed by Michael Lehman Number of lists: 8 Number one: 1 Top 5: 2 Tawasals take: The dialogue is an ocean of iconic oneliners. One is the plot, another is the razor-sharp, completely insane dialogue. There is a lyrical, almost Shakespearean sound and implied slang in all the conversations that gives the film a timeless spirit. It's hard to pick, but the two highlights must be Heather Chandler's "fuck me gently with a chainsaw" to Veronica, and one of Veronica's many diary journals, starting with "my teen anxiety bullshit has a body count." My take: Christian Slater exploded onto the scene with this brilliant portrayal of a toxic and explosive high school student who just ticks a little bit differently than most others do. He might just want to watch the world burn. Unlike many of the teen movies that have enjoyed enduring appeal, "Heathers" survives not due to nostalgia, but because of its intelligence and searing, midnight-black wit. Winona Ryder is Veronica, the disillusioned popular girl who falls in with a dangerous loner - Christian Slater as the malefic J.D. The two attempt to right their high school's social wrongs and end up on a killing spree. Released on the cusp of the 1980s, the film feels strikingly prescient and more disturbing than ever today. 12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 This is the last one of the night as we crack the top 15. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 So my top two movies are outside of the top 15. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 minute ago, tawasal said: So my top two movies are outside of the top 15. I'm just learning about my favorites. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 #15 Field of Dreams Starring: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta Directed by : Phil Alden Robinson Number of Lists: 12 Number one: 0 Top 5: 0 @Plain Old Tele Take: Baseball is the one American sport that lends itself well to myth and fantasy. In the case of FIELD OF DREAMS, these fantasies and dreams are grounded in a story that appears to be firmly un-fantastical: Ray, a neophyte farmer lives with his wife and daughter on their family farm in Iowa and struggles to make it work. But this is no ordinary cornfield, and when he hears a whisper in the corn, “If you build it, he will come”, Ray decides — against all logic and reason — to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his field. One by one, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other players from the 1919 White Sox appear (they had been banned from baseball for throwing the World Series). FIELD OF DREAMS is about dreams deferred, dreams lost and then regained, and small acts of redemption that can bring people together. It’s one of my favorite movies about baseball, and like all great baseball movies, it’s about so much more than just the game. My take: I really enjoyed it as well. Not much to add. 9 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 That's it for tonight folks. I'll get to the top ten tomorrow where our next special write up will come from @cannastop 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 3 minutes ago, baumer said: That's it for tonight folks. I'll get to the top ten tomorrow where our next special write up will come from @cannastop aww man. thanks though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 @baumer I am loving the countdown so far even though I am grieving. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 hour ago, baumer said: #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. It’s really awesome you have met him and he was so nice about your request. I live in Europe so I don’t get to meet a lot of my movie idols. But still get to see some awesome footballers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 5 minutes ago, tawasal said: It’s really awesome you have met him and he was so nice about your request. I live in Europe so I don’t get to meet a lot of my movie idols. But still get to see some awesome footballers. Well you live in Europe so you might get everything else a decent society should have though. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannastop Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 hour ago, baumer said: I'm so glad my parents introduced me to this 80s cheese. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 4 minutes ago, cannastop said: Well you live in Europe so you might get everything else a decent society should have though. I also live in Scandinavia. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dementeleus Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 hour ago, tawasal said: Come on guys Say Anything... is better than at least Bill & Ted. Heresy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawasal Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 27 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said: Heresy. I am wounded. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrestrial Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 3 hours ago, tawasal said: So my top two movies are outside of the top 15. What shall I say? Out of the 16 titles already posted only 5 are even on my top 30 list and those 5 titles include my #1 and my #2 Still, all is very interesting 😉 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baumer Posted September 4, 2019 Author Share Posted September 4, 2019 #14 Sex Lies and Videotape Starring: Andie MacDowell, James Spader, Peter Gallagher Directed by Steven Soderbergh Number of Lists: 11 Number one: 0 Top 5: 1 Summary: John and Ann Mullany, a junior partner at a law firm and a housewife respectively, are a young, upwardly mobile couple, who most would deem to have a perfect life. Ann's outward perfection belies the fact that she is in therapy, dealing with the stress over worrying about global issues with which she has little to no control. She does not see certain things with which she does have control being problems in her life, namely her sexual repression or her disinterest in sex as an activity, that is until it manifested itself in this stress which in turn is having, what she believes, a negative impact on her marriage. What she is unaware of is that, long before her stress began, John embarked on an affair with her sister, bartender Cynthia Bishop, who she doesn't admire as being too "loud". John reconnects with a close friend from college named Graham Dalton, who, to John, appears to have lost his way in life in the years that they have not been in touch. Graham, via the method in which he deals with his emotional and sexual problems - which is also believes is being totally forthright to all concerned - has a profound effect on Cynthia, John and Ann, who in turn, especially Ann, have a profound effect on him. Roger Ebert: The story of “sex, lies, and videotape” is by now part of movie folklore: how writer-director Steven Soderbergh, at 29, wrote the screenplay in eight days during a trip to Los Angeles, how the film was made for $1.8 million, how it won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, as well as the best actor prize for Spader. I am not sure it is as good as the Cannes jury apparently found it; it has more intelligence than heart, and is more clever than enlightening. But it is never boring, and there are moments when it reminds us of how sexy the movies used to be, back in the days when speech was an erogenous zone. 12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
