I don't know what they have to say
It makes no difference anyway
Whatever it is, I'm against it!
No matter what it is or who commenced it
I'm against it!
Your proposition may be good
But let's have one thing understood
Whatever it is, I'm against it!
And even when you've changed it or condensed it
I'm against it!
*************************************************************************************
Last Semester, Mr. Hand held a pop movie quiz that was generally regarded by most who submitted to its rigorous demands as a pretty good time, as far as pop quizzes go, that is, even if some of the questions were more difficult than anticipated. Well, Mr. Hand has given way to the esteemed Professor Wagstaff, and while the good professor's questions may or may not require the demise of as many brain cells, there are, at least, a few more questions than were offered in March by the pizza-loathing history teacher. But, just like Mr. Hand's Spring 2005 Pop Movie Pop Quiz, the object here is not comprehensiveness, propriety, solid arguments or even common sense, but simply to have a good time thinking of your answers and an even better time reading everyone else's as they post, or when they eventually get compiled by yours truly. This time around, if we're really lucky, we may even have a few participants who are new to our academic exercise, some regular visitors to Sergio Leone that weren't around last time. To Benaiah, Beege, Mojavi, Chris U., and anyone else I may regrettably be forgetting, and especially to those who have heretofore only lurked on this site, come on in-- the water's fine! And to faithful readers Thom McG, Virgil Hilts, PSaga, Alison, Sharon, Loxjet, Murray, Stoogeking, Cruzbomb, Machine Gun McCain, Peet, Twosctrjns, Caption Jockey, the Mysterious Adrian Betamax, Jonas and anyone else my enfeebled mind is preventing me from recalling, I say don't hold back! The last session was so enjoyable, I can't wait to see those answers come rolling in. Naturally, feel free to skip any you might not feel excited about or that don't apply to your interests or experience. And of course, I'll use this occasion to officially welcome back to these pages faithful reader/poster Blaaagh, freshly returned from a hopefully rejuvenating vacation in Jellystone Park. We all missed your comments, Blaaagh, and have done our best to fill in the void and not fret too much over your absence. But it is most exceedingly excellent to have you back, even though you may wish you were still lounging with the Mrs. and Yogi and Boo-boo, and I hope you check in very soon! It's always good to hear your thoughts, reminisences and opinions. I promise I'll call this week, perhaps even tonight, and get all caught up!
All right, everyone, the time has come. Pencils on desks. Eyes front. Quiet. All right, open your blue books and... begin!
1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication)
6) Your favorite nature documentary
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
8) Your favorite concert movie
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland?
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie)
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
24) Your favorite movie about food
25) Your favorite disaster movie
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin?
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
30) Your favorite Marx brother
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?
33) Your favorite movie about high school
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
35) Your favorite animated movie
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”)
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman?
39) Your favorite kung fu movie
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
*************************************************************************************
That's it! Keep watching the comments section on this particular page over the next few weeks as the lists (hopefully) start pouring in. Then, in about a month or so, I'll do another round-up of answers that should be as much fun to read, and to compile, as it was last time! Here's to all our dirty little secrets, up to another 42 of them which are about to be exposed again! And... action!
1. Crime/Film Noir (not Mafia!): Angels with Dirty Faces. The fact that Hollywood rarely makes these types of movies (or Westerns) is appalling.
ReplyDelete2. Depressing Movies: The House of Sand and Fog. I hate when people think a movie is good just because it made them sad. Sure Ben Kingsley did a great job but come on did this movie really deserve an Oscar nod?
3. Daffy. Though if you include the extended family (scrooge and the ducklings) then I give it to Donald by a hair.
4. Rear Window nudges out Psycho. Ignore North by Northwest and Eva Marie Saint’s awful extended forehead (I didn’t know women could have receding hairlines).
5. Waited outside of the theater? No movie, but I waited with breathless anticipation for the new Matrix movies and I learned to never expect much.
6. Blue Planet. Maybe it was just the… altered state of mind, but this one blew my mind.
7. Jim Carrey, but I think this is a generational thing. Considering what Jim did when he got serious compared to the crappy stuff at the end of S. Martin’s career (oh he is still making movies?) I got to go with Carrey.
8. Pass
9. Boonedock Saints. What can I say, fake Irish accents and guns get me everytime.
10. I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my dad in the 80s. Since he actually strongly dislikes new movies (he thinks Hollywood is perverse and they will never top Capra and John Wayne) this is one of the few times I have been to a movie with my dad. Great memories.
11. Scarface, but mostly by default since I thought the Untouchables was crap.
12. Butterfly Effect. I know I know bad movie. However, the first time I watched it I thought it was pretty cool. The second time I was sober and I hated everyone I was with and I was in a better mood to notice all of the clichés and plot holes.
13. Punch Drunk Love. I like it better than Boogie Nights now, but the first time I was just a little shocked.
14. Vivien Leigh and it isn’t close.
15. Shaft is the only thing that comes to mind
16. Peter Pan
17. Red River. I always liked John Wayne.
18. Unforgiven
19. Pass
20. Titanic, though that might have been a weak year
21. Rod Steiger In the Heat of the Night, since Paul Newman should have won for Cool Hand Luke.
22. Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball. She won on the momentum of Denzel’s Training Day win. This one felt too much like affirmative action.
23. Nay. More than anyone this side of John Woo his movies are overrated by people who don’t watch many movies. If I have to hear one more person tell me that the Rock was awesome…
24. Not Supersize Me, that is all I know.
25. The Day After Tomorrow, but only for the unintentional comedy. This is one of the funniest movies I watched last year.
26. Steve McQueen. Papillion, TheMagnificent Seven, and The Great Escape are all closer to my heart than anything Lee Marvin made.
27. American Psycho. The book was unbelievably dark, but the movie managed to be funny, interesting and even have a message. Honorable mention: Sin City.
28. League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Idiots could have written a better script.
29. Push
30. Groucho, but I don’t really like any of the others so it was light competition.
31. About Schmidt, it just seemed like such a cautionary tale of how not to live life.
32. Lugosi.
33. Dazed and Confused.
34. Pulp Fiction with Tarantino, Travolta, Thurman and Jackson (provided Tarantino didn’t pontificate too much. I just want to hear about it all.
35. Akira.
36. Nothing comes to mind. I hate when people say I love you in movies, but that isn’t quite what you are looking for.
37. Red River.
38. Natalie Portman, but not for anything she did in Star Wars. She is an amazing and beautiful actress not that you could tell because of anything you saw in a Lucas film.
39. Pass
40. Walter Sobchak vs Frank Ricard. The laughs would just keep coming. Alternatively, Sanjuro Kuwabatake vs William Munny for sheer badassness. I also would love Paul Giamatti in Sideways vs Woody Allen in Manhattan for laughable non-badassness.
41. L’Aventurra and Hiroshima Mon Amour. I would love to see the wide shots of Italy (and Monica Vitti) and then follow it up with the quiet beauty and passion of HMA.
42. Big Lebowski
This will probably be a total joke for you, Dennis, as I am a proud subscriber to "Entertainment Weekly". ;) But I'll do my best!
ReplyDelete1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it. For a long time it was romantic comedies-specifically anything with Meg Ryan, and more specifically: "French Kiss". Dude. I've got that movie freaking memorized. But now that I get to go to the movies so rarely, I tend to get excited about epics just because it seems like 1) I get a longer date out of it and 2) more bang for my moviegoing buck. I ADORED the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which stunned me. I didn't realize my inner geek was that big.
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it. Horror. "The Haunting" comes to mind as the last horror movie I saw in a theater. And I realize that hard-core horror buffs would probably place "The Haunting" in the comedy category: it scared the piss out of me.
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck? Rubber Ducky.
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. I don't really have one. I've never really gotten into Hitchcock. That being said I think anyone trying to remake his movies is retarded. Why mess with perfection?
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication). Um...I think I waited in line for 2 hours on the opening day of "Fellowship of the Ring" because M begged me to go see it (which is when I discovered my inner geek). I also stood in line for about 3 hours to see the rerelease of "Star Wars" when I was in college.
6) Your favorite nature documentary. Um. Would "From Conception to Childbirth" count as a nature documentary?
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey? NO contest! I love me up that wild 'n crazy guy, Steve Martin.
8) Your favorite concert movie. I don't have one. Unless "Dirty Dancing" counts.
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes. Either "A River Runs Through It" or "Legends of the Fall".
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie. Um. Ahem. The last time I attended a drive in movie, I didn't (ahem) actually WATCH the movie? So...um, yeah. Next question?
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie. Who's Brian De Palma?
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of. Hm. I can think of many that over time I've come to think significantly less of, but none that I saw once, loved, but on a subsequent viewing went, "What the...?!"
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving. Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring.
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland? Hm. Tough call. You know, I always get Donna Reed and Olivia De Haviland mixed up? Which is sort of weird.
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song. Don't have one. I don't know that I've ever seen a blaxploitation film. Does "Shaft" count? Although I didn't see that either, but my dad has the soundtrack on CD (from the television show).
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater. Disney's "The Jungle Book". My dad took me, smuggled in some candy, and I ate it all in like the first 15 minutes. He reached in the bag for a candy bar and there was NOTHING. Two and a half year old me was sitting next to him with a ring of chocolate around my mouth and a serious case of sugar shakes.
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood. Probably "the Jungle Book" because when Dad discovered that I'd eaten all our movie goodies, rather than get angry he just looked at me with big eyes and said, "You ate it ALL?!" in this jokey voice and I just smiled at him, and handed him a Butterfinger (because I didn't like Butterfingers).
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie. Oooo, I just LOVED "Bridges of Madison County"! Heh. Just kidding. While I've watched every single Eastwood movie with my father, I really don't enjoy them.
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie). No clue. Can you use 3-D in a movie without it being a 3-D movie? asked the Entertainment Weekly subscriber.
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture. Didn't "Shakespeare in Love" win? Because while I really enjoy that movie, and I think Joseph Fiennes is freaking hot and looks like my husband, I really never thought it was Oscar caliber.
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor. I don't have an answer for this yet. When Tom Cruise wins an Oscar, I'll come back and change my answer.
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress. I think Gwenyth Paltrow. I like her work, I just don't think (once again) what she did in "Shakespeare" was worth an Oscar.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why? Hey. If you want explosions and little or no emotional entanglements: Bay's your man.
24) Your favorite movie about food Does wine count? 'Cuz I really liked "Sideways". I like it better with the commentary, even.
25) Your favorite disaster movie. Twister. I saw that thing about 10 times in the theater summer of 1996. It DID get old. And to watch it now is laughable. But I really enjoyed it at the time.
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin? Lee Marvin. Duh.
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie. Mmm--as a general rule, I don't think adaptations of books are generally very good. Although, I thought "Under the Tuscan Sun" was a MUCH better movie than it was a book. OH! And LOTR: that was a fucking amazing adaptation. I think it makes a difference when the film makers have a genuine affection for the source material, rather than thinking, "Gee, this wa a best seller! Let's make a movie!"
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie. Cat in the Hat.
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? I go with Tippi, just because her name cracks my shit up.
30) Your favorite Marx brother. Groucho, because he reminds me of Alan Alda on M*A*S*H, and Alan Alda on M*A*S*H reminds me of my dad. Daddy's girl much?
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie. Some of those psychological thrillers just scare the pants off me. But I can't think of a specific one right now. Seven, maybe?
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi? Don't care.
33) Your favorite movie about high school. "Beautiful Girls"
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it. I guess "Gone With the Wind" would be interesting. Just what that whole experience was like.
35) Your favorite animated movie. Don't really have a favorite. I like all the Pixar movies. Generally avoid the Disney-type movies just on principle.
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”) Um. Motherfucker?
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie. I don't have a least favorite, because I have no idea who Howard Hawks is.
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? For quality of "Star Wars" material: Carrie Fisher. For overall body of work: Natalie Portman.
39) Your favorite kung fu movie. Whichever one just ended.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life. Ouisa Boudreaux from "Steel Magnolias" and freaking ANYBODY else.
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature. Hm. I would have to say a triple feature and do the full LOTR cycle. However, that's a long-ass time to sit in your car.
42) Funniest… movie… ever! It's a toss up between "Holy Grail" and "Blazing Saddles".
I would like to second Beege's 24, Sideways was the best.
ReplyDeleteDennis, you're a maniac!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but that isn't gonna stop you from submitting a list, is it? Maniacs need answers to their silly questions too, you know!
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to fight you back by writing more than you do! Maybe this will end your diabolical ventures!
ReplyDelete1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
I love genre films. I preferred the Hollywood studio system when it was organized around the classic genres that don't really exists anymore. I like film noir, westerns, and musicals (classic pre-Rodgers and Hammerstein). Prime examples? Double Indemnity, Ride Lonesome (1959, Budd Boetticher) w/Randolph Scott and an incredibly evil Lee Van Cleef, Kiss Me Kate (1953) (maybe not a "prime" example, but just was listening to songs from it that rekindled my interest recently, especially "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." I haven't seen the recent stage revivals, so don't think I'm cheesy based on those. See the 3-D original! Yes, it really was shot in 3-D!)
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
Documentary. Yeah, that's not a genre, and there are plenty of documentaries I love, but I think there are so many awful boring ones. They really have to be unusual in style and approach for me to like them, otherwise I prefer narrative or experimental film.
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
This is the most outrageous, ridiculous question I have ever heard. I cannot believe you would even think of asking this. Des-s-s-spicable!! Donald Duck-- don't make me laugh. I'm deeply offended. Daffy is coming over to drop an anvil on your yead.
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie
North by Northwest, but I'm only choosing because you're making me. I'd count about 12 or more of them as equally the best.
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication)
I'm not one of those schmuck losers who waits in lines for frickin' movies like Star Wars nerds.
6) Your favorite nature documentary
I can't think of one. I missed Microcosmos and that flying bird movie. Does Hatari count? Ooh, wait. Perhaps not such a good choice for animal lovers. But there is lots of nature in it and good outdoorsy fun!
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
Kill one and make the other one funny again.
8) Your favorite concert movie
Being in the realm of my detested documentary "genre," I'd have to say I don't have one. Although I'm sure there's some unique weird one that I'm forgetting right now, maybe from the '60s mods and rockers era.
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes
There are so many because many of the great directors tackle big subjects like this, but one that immediately springs to mind is The Flowers of St. Francis (1950, Roberto Rosselini). Really incredibly beautiful movie. (On DVD from Criterion, FYI.)
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie
This is also my first movie memory I am now just remembering! My parents decided to take us to Clash of the Titans. So we went to the drive-in. I don't remember where. Maybe it was in New Hampshire somewhere. I'm pretty sure. The place is long gone now. We came early and saw the last 15 or 20 minutes of The Spy Who Loved Me, which was pretty damn exciting! Then we saw Clash of the Titans, which I don't remember, although I do remember it from TV later of course. But that 20 minutes of Bond excitement I remember for some reason. Maybe I fell asleep during Titans! I must have been only about 7. NOTE: Actually, I just looked up the dates of the movies, and it must have been "For Your Eyes Only," which came out the same year as "Clash of the Titans." But I could swear it was the other one. Also, 7 is kind of old, so maybe I saw movies before that.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie
I'm looking at the filmography, and I just don't want to pick any. Not sure why. If I had to, I'd go with Blow Out I guess. I also have a soft spot for Bonfire of the Vanities because I love extravagant failures and Bruce Willis.
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of
This has happened many times, but not recently, so I can't think of any.
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving
Ditto.
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland?
Not wild enough about either to care about choosing.
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song
I can't really recall them. I remember the movies more. I loved Sweet Sweetback's Baadaaasss Song, so maybe the one from that, except I don't remember it.
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
Raiders of the Lost Ark. (1981 again, the year I guess I started seeing movies!). This may be after the other one listed above, and actually I don't remember seeing it. It's a family story that my father took me and my 5-year-old brother to see this, thinking it was a good idea, but then had to cover our eyes during the ark-opening melting people sequence. So I guess I didn't see that scene until later in life. But what's with traumatizing my early childhood with exposure to Spielberg! Aaah!
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
Kidco! Super Fuzz! C.H.O.M.P.S.!
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
Clint Eastwood director: Bronco Billy.
Clint Eastwood actor: Bronco Billy
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie)
I usually have to watch them in their non-3-D versions. So I can't really answer.
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
All of them!!!!!!!!
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor
I am so not going to talk about the stupid-ass Oscars.
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress
xxxxx
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
Why.
24) Your favorite movie about food
Oh, man. I can't think. You need to provide a list to choose from, bastard! You expect us all to remember this shit? Damn. There are so many, and I can't think of one.
25) Your favorite disaster movie
Earthquake! I love them all. Someone will probably name the one I'm thinking of that I like even more. I do like airplane ones a lot too.
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin?
Lee Marvin.
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
This is the kind of thing that if you provided us with a list to choose from it would be 10,000 pages long. Give us a break! That's more than half of all the movies ever made! You might as well say pick our favorite movie!
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
Ditto.
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
Kind of neither. They're both just okay.
30) Your favorite Marx brother
Let's just wait and see how many people say Harpo. Then there'll be the wise guys who name the fourth or fifth Marx brother. Anyone who says Zeppo is lying. And let's not have any Karl Marx or Richard Marx jokes 'cause it don't mean nothing.
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie
I just watched Stan Brakhage's real autopsy movie last night. Although I wasn't really scared.
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?
I suppose Lugosi. Not sure.
33) Your favorite movie about high school
Man! Again, we need a list! So many. I'll go with "Fucking Amal" (aka Show Me Love) for now, even though maybe that's even younger than high school. Sorry.
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
I think these all already exist. Or there's already too many.
35) Your favorite animated movie
I'll go with "Akira" for now.
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”)
*skipping this one
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
One of the all-time greatest directors, and you have to make me choose!
I have a real big soft spot for "Only Angels Have Wings," but I'd put at least five others right alongside it.
Bonus response:
Favorite SILENT Howard Hawks film:
"A Girl in Every Port" (1928) w/a very young Victor McLaglen and Louise Brooks.
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman?
Carrie Fisher, although by this pairing you are putting this purely in a Star Wars context, at which point no one could honestly answer "Natalie Portman" since that would be like saying they like the new Star Wars movies over the originals.
39) Your favorite kung fu movie
Oh, man!!!! Again, a list would have helped, but who could even compile such a list. I just don't know. Here's some that are springing to mind:
Executioners from Shaolin (even though it doesn't satisfy all the way through), Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, and probably some Jet Li or Jackie Chan movies excited me in the distant past. There are some great ones I can't think of, but it's your fault, evil quizmaster.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
Eraserhead's Baby vs. The Man from Laramie
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature
*skipping this one
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
Just to fit in another Hawks movie, "Twentieth Century." Although "ever" is a bit too strong to live up to. "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" might have to be the one now that I think about it.
- The Mysterious A)dr(ia;n B{et}am;ax
Hahaha!!! That fantasy smackdown, Mysterious A. B. is the funniest...comment...ever! And I dig your Clint Eastwood answers. In fact, you seem to be in a positively cheery mood today! Thanks for an enjoyable list of answers, many of them right on for me.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies to everyone! I thought that maybe I might get the M.A.B's head to explode over this quiz, and I honestly think we came pretty close to seeing a little Scanners action around #27, but it just didn't happen. In fact, he recouped sufficiently enough to come up with the hard-to-beat answer so far, and that is, as Blaaagh rightly suggested, the fantasy smackdown between the Eraserhead Baby and the Man from Laramie. M.A.B., you're mad, baby, ma-a-a-a-ad!
ReplyDelete1) Western: The Searchers (Ford) The creation of nation is depicted here in some of its most important aspects (the importance of family, racism, law, the killing of a race, war, etc.)
ReplyDelete2) Comedy: Vacations of Mr. Hulot. Even though is a very intelligent film, I don't get connected with it. It's a personal thing, my handycap with comedy.
3) Daffy Duck is more human. He is envious, bad manner, egoist, dull... And also more universal. Donald is too American.
4) Shadow of a Doubt
5) Never made a big line for a movie
6) None.
7) Steve Martin is more elegant, though Carrey has done better pictures so far.
8)None
9) Nazarin from Buñuel. Cristianity is not a natural thing in human beings but the product of a conscious effort.
10) None
11) Femme Fatale. Pure cinematic experience.
12) Spring, Summer... (Ki Duk Kim)First I loved it because it looks amazing then I hate it for being Orientalism for dummies
13) The Son (Dardenne Brothers). Hate the camera movements, then got beaten by its portrayal of human behaviour
14) Olivia is beautiful and a gifted actress.
15) None. I'm not Tarantino.
16) Grease (pain)
17) Charlotte's web
18) Unforgiven.
19) Haven't seen anything like that
20) Braveheart. Simply awful.
21) Roberto Benigni. Come on he's a bad clown.
22) Julia Roberts for such a stupid movie and smiling clumsy.
23) Michael Bay: yes. He has a vision, an awful one, but I can tell his films apart from everyone else.
24) None
25) None
26) Lee Marvin
27) Death in Venice
28) I reject the concept that an adaptation has to be faithfull to a book
29) Tippi Hedren
30) Karl ;)
31) Virgin Spring
32) Bela Lugosi
33) Elephant
34) Cafe Lumiere: Hou Hsiao Hsien
35) Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
36) None
37) Rio Bravo
38) Who is Natalie Portman?
39) None
40) Bogart vs. S. Hayden
41) None
42) Titanic. I laughed during the whole movie...
Wow Elephant? I watched it for the first time this week and it shocked me. Van Sant is something of an enigma to me, I love some of his stuff but the remade Psycho is legendary for being a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I had wondered, before I posted the quiz, if anyone would list Elephant in that category, and I ended up betting that someone would. Interesting choice. Benaiah, I'm right with you on #22-- Halle Berry was way out of her depth in that movie (which itself wasn't very good, I thought). I actually felt embarrassed for her a goodly portion of the time, and not just during that sex scene. Your #42 is awfully hard to argue with too. And I love the idea of seeing L'Aventtura and Hiroshima Mon Amour at a drive-in. Would this venue increase the alienation or balance it by the mere fact you're watching the movies outdoors?
ReplyDeleteNovotny: Welcome! Thanks for checking in. You've got a lot of provocative stuff in there. And both Femme Fatale and Death in Venice are thrilling. Re your #28, I think most would reject that concept too. But faithful or not, adaptations stand or fall on what they are as adaptations. I wouldn't suggest that in order to be any good a filmed adaptation of a book must stick rigidly close to the source. But are you saying that the concept of a failed adaptation is specious because a filmmaker has the creative right, or obligation, to create something new in a film, and so whatever he/she comes up with is okay? I hope I'm not misrepresenting your comment, but it is a very interesting question that it raised in my mind, anyway. There's Pasolini's Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, which loosely transplants de Sade into fascist Italy in World War II to devastating effect. And David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch practically had no choice but to become its own entity, referencing the book and using it largely as a foundation for Cronenberg's own ideas, which were naturally suited to Burroughs anyway. But Beege picked a great example of a movie that crashed and burned when the filmmakers perverted their creative license into a license to kill, the corpse in this case being the legacy of Dr. Seuss. Could an artist, being similarly free in his/her approach to The Cat in the Hat, have raped the source material as thoroughly as did the hacks responsible for the movie that does exist? I think absolutely. What do you think?
Dear Professor Wagstaff,
ReplyDeleteMay I just say before I begin the exam that I think you're a swell teacher? In fact, I'd say without hesitation that you're tops among all the professors here at Huxley College. And if it's not too bold of me, you look awfully dignified in that mortar board. Anyway, I'll sure try my best on the quiz.
Here goes:
1. Favorite Movie Genre, and a prime example of it: I've always liked horror best, and a prime example would be...jeez, which one?! Pick a decade, and I'll give you one: Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist...er, h'mmm...that brings me to the '80s...h'mmmm...
2.. Least Favorite Movie Genre, and a Prime Example of It: Wealthy, attractive white couple with incredible sex life, big house on the water, adorable kid or kids, and minimally busy jobs has a problem: someone terrorizes them, one of them has an affair, or one has an addiction (it's not an official genre, but I'm sure you can come up with some examples).
3. Daffy Duck. Always frustrated and pissed off, like me.
4. Favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie: Arghh! What torture! You know how I love Hitchcock. I'll have to say "Psycho," which I recently enjoyed again, though I could just as easily side with Novotny and pick "Shadow of a Doubt." "Rear Window" is second to none, really, and of course "Vertigo" is in a class by itself. I also love "North by Northwest" for sheer fun. I can't choose.
5. Longest ever waited in line for movie: I believe my little sister Laura (age 11) and I (age 16) waited for two hours or so to see a late-afternoon showing of "Jaws" on opening day in 1975. Even though two tall people came in late and sat in front of us, forcing us to move to lousy seats (we were both very short), it's still one of my all-time favorite moviegoing memories. I can still see the big curved screen in my mind's eye, from our too-close-and-too-much-off-to-the-left seats.
6. Favorite nature documentary: Huh? Well, I still fondly remember seeing "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar," if that counts. I think it was a cofeature with "The Jungle Book" on its original release at the old State Theatre in Oregon City...I went with all my cousins and the brother and sister old enough to go.
7. Steve Martin or Jim Carrey: I'll go with Steve, since he kills me every time in "The Man With Two Brains." I do like Carrey, but I wish he'd find a middle ground between maudlin sentimentality (read: unsuccessful Oscar bid) and over-the-top mugging. I loved the first Ace Venture movie, and I thought he was terrific in "A Series of Unfortunate Events," so maybe he's getting there.
8. Favorite Concert Movie: Does "The Kids Are Alright" (sic) count? I fondly remember multiple viewings with you, Dennis, and I've been itching to see it again lately. I also liked "Bring on the Night," I admit.
9. Religious movie: I thought "The Last Temptation of Christ" was great.
10. Best drive-in story: I have a good memory of when we had moved to Oregon and lived on a farm, and my dad and mom took those of us who'd been born to the drive-in to see "The Day of the Triffids" and probably something else which I slept through. But we wore our pajamas, we got to play on the swing set right under the screen until the previews came on--at which point we ran back to the car--and the triffids were the scariest things I had ever seen, other than King Kong and Godzilla, which were on a small black & white TV, so not quite so impressive. I remember my excitement at Dad telling us we were all going to the drive-in, and how hard I tried to stay awake through the whole movie (I failed, of course--I was maybe four).
11. Favorite Brian DePalma movie: "Carrie", hands down.
12. One movie I initially loved, saw again and thought significantly less of: arggh! I know there are several...how about "The Devil's Advocate."
13. One movie I initially hated, ended up liking or loving: Eraserhead. As you surely remember, Dennis, you and I decided to walk out of it on our first viewing, but later when I braved it again, I found it one of the most fascinating, painful and memorable movies I'd ever seen. I know we just couldn't handle it the first time, being the callow youths we were.
14: Vivien Leigh or Olivia DeHavilland: Ah, you would ask me this one, wouldn't you?! OK, Vivien Leigh for beauty (by a nose) and brilliance as an actress; Olivia DeHavilland for sheer charm, likability and class as a human being and actress. Bet I'd like Olivia better in real life, too.
15. Best blaxploitation theme song: I can't remember the song from "Willie Dynamite," which is the first one I saw in a theatre, so I'll have to choose "Shaft." Damn right.
16. First movie I remember seeing in a theater: "The Moonspinners," with Hayley Mills, I know it was either at the Orpheum or the Fox in downtown Portland.
17. The movie I remember most fondly from childhood: "Doctor Zhivago," which I saw at least twice in the theatre (again, at one of those two theatres above), and was totally obsessed by. I had a goal of growing a moustache like Omar Sharif had...until someone finally convinced me it wasn't possible at age 7.
18. Favorite Clint Eastwood movie: Bronco Billy. 2nd Place: Escape from Alcatraz. Third: Unforgiven/Dirty Harry tie.
19. Best use of 3-D in a movie: "Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D." Maybe I haven't seen enough 3-D movies, but I'd love to see that one again in 3-D.
20. Least-deserving best picture Oscar winner: I'll have to agree with our Italian friend Novotny: "Braveheart". Just absolute crap, and historically just offensively inaccurate...not to mention homophobic. By the way, do people in real battles really open their mouths wide and scream, "AAAAAGGGGHHHH!" as they do in EVERY battle scene in EVERY movie? Anyway, apologies to all the smart people I know who seem to love this movie.
21. Least-deserving Oscar winner for best actor: Tom Hanks for "Forrest Gump."
22. Least-deserving for best actress: Jeez, I looked over the list, and I can't find any of them I've seen who didn't do a great job...so I'll pick Nicole Kidman for "The Hours." I think she's a great actress, very versatile, but I thought this was one of her most uninteresing performances. Depressed...has a fake nose...period.
23. Michael Bay...no. Just no. Why? His stuff doesn't work for me in any way.
24. Favorite movie about food: Big Night.
25. Favorite disaster movie: The Poseidon Adventure!!!! Honorable mention to Airport 1975.
26. Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin? I think Lee Marvin is more interesting. McQueen glowers like he needs a drink...I do want to see more of his stuff again, but I recently saw part of "The Thomas Crown Affair" again on TV, and he kept doing this idiotic laugh. Something about him annoys me; maybe it's his emotional inaccessibility.
27. Best adaptation of a book or source material: "Deliverance."
28. Worst adaptation: I dunno, but I recently read "Lord Jim" at last, and when I found out that Peter O'Toole played Jim in the movie, I decided that I never wanted to see it, and that it had to be one of the worst casting choices ever.
29. Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? I'll take Tippi. She always got criticized for being a lousy actress, and she's rather self-conscious and gives some bad line readings in "The Birds," but she's also got a lot to offer; she's interesting, sensitive and quirky. Novak strikes me as phoney-baloney.
30. Favorite Marx brother: Groucho!!
31. Most frightening movie not strictly a horror movie: Does the new "War of the Worlds" count as not a horror movie? It scared the dickens out of me.
32. Boris or Bela: Boris; he doesn't seem to act so hard...he's just really who he's playing.
33. Favorite movie about high school: Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
34. Movie I'd most like to see with DVD commentary: someone said "Gone With the Wind," and I can't do better: imagine Gable, Leigh, DeHavilland, McDaniel, Howard, Ward Bond, buttinski Evelyn Keyes, not to mention the directors three, yakking away over the various scenes. They'd have to have multiple commentaries, like the "Lord of the Rings" movies. Ah, if only!
35. Favorite animated movie: 101 Dalmations.
36. Most overly familiar dialogue phrase: "We need to talk."
37. My favorite Howard Hawks movie: Oh, man! 1. Bringing Up Baby 2. The Big Sleep 3. Ball of Fire 4. The Thing from Another World
38. Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? In the first Star Wars, nobody beats Carrie for cuteness, spunk and likability (despite her on-again, off-again semi-British accent). Portman, though, is showing some great chops in other movies, like "Closer" and "Garden State." So I can't pick.
39. Favorite Kung Fu movie: I haven't seen enough, but I'll go with "Fists of Fury," which I saw with my big brother at the Esquire theater in Portland, and which was the most violent, silly movie I'd ever seen. A very memorable night at the movies. My brother Ray and I decided that they bashed bamboo poles together to make the sound effects of people hitting each other.
40. Fantasy smackdown: Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) vs. Cynthia Rose Purley (Brenda Blethyn) from "Secrets and Lies" in a Battle of the Blubbering British Babes:
"Take that, sweetheart! Boo, hoo, hoo"
"I will END you, dear! Boo hoo hoo hoo."
41. Ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature: oh man, this is difficult...how about "Prophecy" (1979) with co-hit "The Bees" (1978). However, the one we saw in San Luis Obispo was pretty unbeatable: Stallone in "Daylight" with co-hit "Dante's Peak" starring Pierce Brosnan.
42. Funniest...movie...ever! "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."
Arghh...that was the hardest test I've ever taken. Good night.
I'm a little late to the party, but here goes. I've only answered the ones whose answers came easily. It's too hot to think!
ReplyDelete2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it. Horror. Blood, guts, stupidity. Who needs it?!
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck? Guess I’d better say Donald since I work for the Mouse!
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. Rope
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication) 8 hours for the original and in my mind the best – Star Wars (when it was re-released, mind you).
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey? Steve Martin, if we’re talking comedy.
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes. Dogma
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie. Untouchables
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song “Shaft” You’re damn right.
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater. King Kong
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie. Bridges of Madison County Probably because of the incomparable Meryl Streep
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture Gladiator
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress Cher. WTF?!?
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why? Yes. If you’re looking for overblown, cheese-tastic, mindless action fun, Michael Bay is your man
24) Your favorite movie about food Big Night
25) Your favorite disaster movie Poseidon Adventure
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin? Steve!
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone & Chamber of Secrets. Boo, Chris Columbus, you hack!
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? Kim, I guess
30) Your favorite Marx brother Groucho
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie The Exorcist. Blame it on my Catholic upbringing
33) Your favorite movie about high school Mean Girls
35) Your favorite animated movie Beauty and the Beast
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie His Girl Friday
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? Carrie rules!
42) Funniest… movie… ever! Young Frankenstein
7/22/05
Maybe it is just Kevin Costner, but I just didn't dig the Untouchables. De Niro was great, but he wasn't on screen enough to make up for how much I wanted Costner to die. Also, how the hell did Connery drag himself into the house? He was shot like 400 times! I realize it is a movie and he is the "badass" but come on!
ReplyDeleteI like The Untouchables just fine, but it's a bit on the impersonal side-- not what I think of when I think of "a Brian De Palma movie." What I'm thinking of is-- Wait a minute! I haven't posted my list yet! I'll try and do it tonight!
ReplyDeleteBlaaagh: God bless you for #40 and the tears I shed laughing this morning just imagining it. Inspired! That's right up there with Glenda Jackson in Women in Love-- "Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah"...!
1) Your favorite movie genre: Action / Drama – Lord of the Rings
ReplyDelete2) Your least favorite movie genre: Horror – Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck? Donald Duck, the great UofO mascot.
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie: Vertigo
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie: The longest line I waited in was at the Esquire Theater in Klamath Falls, Oregon to watch “Billy Jack”
6) Your favorite nature documentary: The Crocodile Hunter – Croc Files
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey? Steve Martin
8) Your favorite concert movie: Tie between Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes: Moses
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie: Going to “Patton” at Circle J Drive In Theater in Lakeview, with girl friend now wife of 31 years expecting to steam the windows, and ended up watching the movie unstead while she napped.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie: Blow Out
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of: Titanic
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving:
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland? Olivia
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song: Can’t Say
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater: Walt Disneys “Sword in the Stone”
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood: Old Yellar
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie: “Paint Your Wagon”
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie): Can’t Say
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture: Chicago
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor: Denzell Washington – Training Day
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress: Nicole Kidman – The Hours
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?: Absolutely. My kind of movies, I own 4 of them.
24) Your favorite movie about food: Chocolat
25) Your favorite disaster movie: New = 10.5, Old = Towering Inferno
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin? Lee Marvin – Paint Your Wagon
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie: Thirteen Days
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie: Dr. Suess “The Cat in the Hat”
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? Kim Novak
30) Your favorite Marx brother: Zeppo
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie: When I was a kid “Old Yellar” scared me so much I would always check under the bed for rabid dogs. Other than that, “The Shining”
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi? Neither (See least favorite Genere)
33) Your favorite movie about high school: “Porky’s”
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it: “Patton” General George Patton
35) Your favorite animated movie: “Land Before Time” and anything Pixlar
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”) “Dude”
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie: El Dorado
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? Carrie Fisher
39) Your favorite kung fu movie: House of Flying Daggers
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature: Rambo meets the Terminator
42) Funniest… movie… ever! “Son In Law”
Correction: The answer to No 41 is Rambo meets The Terminator.
ReplyDeleteAnd No 42 Best Double Feature at Drive In would be the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
AWESOME smackdown, Thom! Maybe the best yet. I can't stop chuckling about it, those deep chuckles that kind of hurt. Cool list in general. As for "Pulp Fiction"...sigh. I keep waiting for/dreading the day it's going to please me. May it never come.
ReplyDeleteSharon, great list, too--I have to admit I loved 'The Bridges of Madison County," too--and the book was nowhere near as good. Cheesy, in fact. Only thing about the movie was the introduction of all those cheap actors as Streep's kids at the end. But Eastwood and Streep are both heartbreakingly good.
1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it The Western. Like the horror film (probably number two for me), it seems infinitely adaptable to so many contemporary and historical concerns and subtexts while even staying within its relatively conservative boundaries. There are so many good choices for a prime example that I'll cite one that I only saw recently for the first time-- Anthony Mann's Bend of the River, which seems to me a perfect piece of genre storytelling and visual mastery.
ReplyDelete2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it The floridly emotional romantic dramas of the 50s and 60s, particularly, but not limited to, those of director Douglas Sirk. Try as I might, I just fail to understand why so many people get so worked up over Imitation of Life or Written on the Wind.
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck? Murray makes a good point: Donald is the University of Oregon mascot, and I seem to be suited to him temperamentally at times, despite my best efforts. But Daffy, an insufferable crank in his own right, has visual and verbal wit on his side, courtesy of great cartoon directors like Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson. Advantage: Daffy
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie At 9:46 p.m. on Friday night, July 22, 2005, it's Notorious. In three minutes it'll be Shadow of a Doubt. At 10:01 it'll be North by Northwest. At 10:37 it'll be Notorious again...
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication) I was writing film reviews for a newspaper in Ashland, Oregon during the summer of 1984. My deadline was on Thursday morning, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was opening on Wednesday. In order to give myself enough time to see the movie and write the review for publication that weekend, I had to see the very first show. So I lined up at 6:00 a.m. for the 1:00 p.m. show (there were about 20-30 people ahead of me at 6:00 a.m.) By 10:00 a.m. there was a very exuberant party atmosphere underway. By 12:45 p.m. we had our prized seats. By 1:30 p.m. I wanted to run screaming from the theater...
6) Your favorite nature documentary Microcosmos. Full of sights and sounds to dumbfound almost any viewer. I am in awe of the patience it must have required to make this movie, and I think about it every time my daughters and I lay down or play on our front lawn.
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey? Carrey in Oscar-bait mode (Man in the Moon, The Majestic) is nearly unwatchable, and Martin has been in some of the worst mainstream comedies ever made (Mixed Nuts, Sgt. Bilko, Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride II, Cheaper by the Dozen). But Carrey was very good in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and near-great in Dumb and Dumber, and Martin has made mainstream comedies that are exceptional (the underrated Parenthood and Bowfinger). However, the scale tipper is that Martin has appeared in a genuine comedy classic, and Carrey, despite the brilliantly silly Dumb and Dumber, has not just yet. Advantage: Martin, thanks to The Man with Two Brains. (He gets points for returning to form as Mr. Acme in the terrific Looney Tunes: Back in Action too.)
8) Your favorite concert movie Music (tie): Stop Making Sense and Rust Never Sleeps. They both capture the essence of their subjects-- Talking Heads, Neil Young and Crazy Horse-- better than any other rock films I can think of. Comedy: Richard Pryor Live In Concert-- nothing else even comes close to what Pryor does in this performance.
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Others that are right up there are Scorsese's tryptich of religious faith-- Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun-- and, believe it or not, Tron.
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie My first make-out session (at a drive-in) came just before the end of my senior year of high school. Somehow I ended up in my car with a girl I had a huge crush on and, incredibly, she made the first move, and for the next two hours we had lots of fun steaming up the windows of my 1968 VW Bug. And what was the romantic film that served as a background to our fun? That classic of love and passion, Marathon Man, which is why that girl is still known (to Blaaagh and I, anyway) as M.M.W., the Marathon Man Woman.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie De Palma has made four movies I would consider masterpieces-- Carrie, Blow Out, Casualties of War and Femme Fatale-- and many more that I love to varying degrees-- Dressed to Kill, Phantom of the Paradise, Hi, Mom!, Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible, The Fury, Sisters. But if I had to pick one it'd have to be Blow Out, a very important movie for me in my growth as a discerning viewer of films.
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving Steven Spielberg's 1941
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland? Vivien Leigh, for Blanche DuBois. But Olivia DeHavilland reminds me of my grandma, and I always respected her for maintaining her dignity even with a bunch of killer bees crawling all over her face in The Swarm.
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song Oh, man... Isaac Hayes' brilliant scores for Truck Turner and Shaft, Willie Hutch's theme from Foxy Brown, Roy Ayers from Coffy ("Coffy is the color"), Bobby Womack's title track from Across 110th Street, Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" from the movie of the same name, the Four Tops' "Are You Man Enough?" (from Shaft in Africa)-- all masterpieces of their kind. But they all have to bow down to Curtis Mayfield and the score and title tune from Superfly.
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater A feature-length cartoon about cats running loose in France called Gay Purr-ee, with voices by Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, Morey Amsterdam, Paul Frees and Hermione Gingold, at the long-gone Marius Theater in Lakeview, Oregon, somewhere around 1963.
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood Disney's Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus. I had the comic book too.
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie As an actor: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Dirty Harry is an almost imperceptibly close second)
As a director: Unforgiven (Bronco Billy, A Perfect World and Million Dollar Baby are in an almost imperceptibly close three-way tie for second-- how's that for a hedge?!)
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie) This question probably could have been worded more clearly, but in essence what I meant was, a single film, or a single instance within a film, which showed off the 3-D process better than any other, and not the best movie to have ever used the 3-D process. Here you gotta hand it to the horror films. Blaaagh is right on in his appreciation of the relatively clever ways (at least for the Jason series) to which stereovision is put to use in Friday the 13th Part 3, and of course House of Wax, with its melting eyeballs and that paddle-ball sequence, merits mention. But the most indelible, and indelibly gross, 3-D image from a horror movie, or from any movie, comes in Paul Morrissey's Andy Warhol's Frankenstein when the good doctor's housemaid discovers the grisly goings-on in the underground laboratory and ends up disemboweled for her concern. There is a cut to a shot from deep beneath a drainage grating through which we see the maid, guts exposed and still barely housed within her violated torso. She falls face first on the grating, and as she lays there her intestinal tract begins slipping out, through the grating, unfurling and dangling right into the camera...
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture Oh, there are so many-- The Sound of Music, Around the World in 80 Days, The Greatest Show on Earth, Out of Africa, Gandhi, Rain Man. I could go on, but why bother when such an obvious candidate as Braveheart is there to raise its ugly blue head? Especially since it won over Babe.
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor Paul Newman, The Color of Money, or perhaps Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress No other winner pops to mind as quickly as Halle Berry in Monster's Ball.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why? In general, no, for the deleterious effect his very popular movies have had on the inclinations of other directors (usually ones without half the talent he has at staging action) and studio heads in pursuing and green-lighting similarly A.D.D.-afflicted action films. But I'd take Michael Bay in a hot minute over Rob Cohen (XXX, The Fast and the Furious, Stealth) or, as David Edelstein recently pointed out, Stephen Sommers (The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing).
24) Your Favorite Movie about food Probably Tampopo. I was obsessed with this movie at a time when I was falling in love with this Japanese chick and learning to love the fabulous cuisine of the culture, and the way this movie twisted up food and sex and desire like the ingredients of the perfect bowl of ramen was exactly what I needed when I needed it.
25) Your favorite disaster movie Could be no other than The Poseidon Adventure ("O Lord! Not this woman! Not this wo-oman..."), although no one blusters through the genre quite like George Kennedy as Joe Patroni in the Airport movies. (He wasn't credited as Joe Patroni in Earthquake, but come on, we all know who he really was, don't we?)
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin? For The Great Escape alone McQueen would merit attention, and almost more for his way with a baseball than with a motorcycle. But Lee Marvin is, for me, the more potent mix of cool and toughness. I need look no further than The Big Heat, Point Blank, The Dirty Dozen, Emperor of the North Pole or The Big Red One for convincing proof.
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie The movie versions of Jaws and Carrie both resulted in leaner, bolder, more imaginative and provocative versions of those stories than could be found in their relatively bloated, clunkily conceived literary forms. But a great movie was also born from a great book when Emilio Fernandez adapted John Steinbeck's The Pearl in 1949.
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie It's a blind toss-up (or toss-out) between the raping of the Dr. Seuss legacy in the deceptively titled Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat and director Larry Peerce's ghastly translation of Bob Woodward's Wired, in which a vivid, pulpy account of the last days of John Belushi itself gets pulped.
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? Tippi, for exactly the reasons Blaaagh states, but also for her nearly indescribably dazed sexuality in both The Birds and Marnie, and for that creepy and insinuatingly electric scene inside Suzanne Pleshette's house in The Birds, just before the bird shit really starts to fly.
30) Your favorite Marx brother I'd never argue with anyone who'd choose Groucho here, but Harpo gets my vote for that gigantic toothy grin that bursts out of nowhere in every one of the films, for the candle burning at both ends in Horsefeathers and, of course, for those beautiful, incongruous harp solos.
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie The recent documentary The Corporation would qualify as my number-one choice at the moment, but Pasolini's Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom and the Martin Lawrence concert film Runteldat would be good alternative picks.
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi? While it is certainly not true that no one gives two shits for Bela (at least in my book), Karloff gets the edge for starting off strong as one of the "X" men in Howard Hawks' Scarface and, of course, Frankenstein's beleaguered monster in the early '30s and carrying a vibrant career in horror films all the way into the '70s. And in him Chuck Jones found the perfect Grinch. Case closed.
33) Your favorite movie about high school No question about it-- Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused is so good, so well-drawn and accurate, so true to the fun and the details and the boredom and the adolescent despair of its milieu and characters that it's not only the best movie about high school that I can recall, it's also the best movie about small-town life, and about the '70s, I can think of as well.
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
So many great possibilities throughout film history come to mind, but honestly, I think I'd love to hear a scene-for-scene running track of what Jesus Christ Himself would have to say about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Talk about the final word...!
35) Your favorite animated movie With apologies to Pinocchio, Dumbo, The Iron Giant, Kiki's Delivery Service and The Incredibles, right now, at 12:11 a.m., Saturday, July 23, 2005, I'd give the edge to South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. (See "Favorite Hitchcock Movie" answer for indication of title rotation here as well.)
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”) Well, I can't use "Do the math!", so I'll give it up for when a too-cool dude cuts through all that long-winded expository shit and just says, "You know the drill!"
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie Oh, God, who comes up with these questions? Okay, I'm invoking the Hitchcock/South Park Rotation Precedent and naming His Girl Friday, but acknowledging that Rio Bravo, Red River, To Have and Have Not or Only Angels Have Wings could take that slot at any time.
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? Carrie Fisher, not for her dubious thespic achievements as Princess Leia, but instead for those bawdy, hilarious, tough-broad-navigating-the-sleazy-world-of-Hollywood stories she tells without peer on Jon Favreau's program on the Independent Film Channel.
39) Your favorite kung fu movie It ain't the best, but it was the first one I ever saw, which I recently got on a very cheaply produced DVD that seems to capture the movie's essence just fine: Five Fingers of Death.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two (OR PERHAPS FIVE- Ed.) movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
I'm imagining a sleazy back room filled with smoke, the smell of stale beer and the liquored-up shouting of fifty or so desperate men tossing wads of cash into a 20x20 sawdust ring, until the ringmaster, a wasted-looking greaseball played by Warren Oates, wanders into the ring, scoops up the cash, grabs the mike and announces the Fight to End All Fights for ultimate porcine supremacy-- a five-way free-for-all grudge match between the reigning champ, the seasoned prizefighter, the down-on-his-luck punk, the pretender and the Man Who Would Be Pig, complete with ripped flesh, fearsome squealing and the occasional accidental defecation. Last pig standing takes it all.
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Van (1977). Leatherface and Stuart Getz! Hey, I think just thought of another great smackdown idea!
42) Funniest… movie… ever! Right this second I'd have to say The Big Lebowski, but Blazing Saddles would have to be in the rotation too.
Oh, my cow! I gotta go to bed! I hope we get at least 10 or 20 more of these lists before this page quiets down. This is my idea of fun. (Yeah, I know, PSaga-- Maniac!)
Dennis, Right On and Amen! to your answer on Question #34.
ReplyDeleteYeah I have to say your 34 blows everyone elsse's away. For that matter I would like to see Scorsese and Gibson comment on The Last Temptation of Christ, with Jesus providing the color.
ReplyDelete1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
ReplyDeleteThe Western. The Magnificent Seven.
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it.
Yeah, Dennis is right. Those romantic melodramas from the '50s and '60s were killers. Lana Turner in Madame X.
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
Daffy. Rabbit season!
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. The Birds.
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication) I can't remember the length of time spent in line, but I remember getting up early to queue up for tickets for Close Encounters at the Cinerama Dome, and the line went halfway around the old Dome parking lot, and then I had to go back later in the day and get in line to see the movie.
6) Your favorite nature documentary.
Yeah, probably Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. I haven't cared to see one in years.
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey
Neither one. I'd rather see a nature documentary.
8) Your favorite concert movie
Gimme Shelter.
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes. None. I avoid religion. Hold it, I think there's a Jehovah's Witness at my door right now. Son, don't open that do... Dang it!
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie. I can't recollect going to a drive-in. My parents tell me that they took me once, so that probably tells you something.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie Uh... Pass.
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of. Apocalypse Now.
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving. Madame X. Nah, just kidding. Can't think of anything here.
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland? Dennis, Woody Allen was a better Blanche in Sleeper, and Carol Burnett, curtain rod, green drapes and all, was a better Scarlett. To answer the question, neither.
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song Pass
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
How The West Was Won.
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood. I guess that would have to be The Magnificent Seven.
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie. Play Misty For Me.
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie) Pass.
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture. Dog pile on Mel Gibson! Braveheart.
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor. I'm with Thom McGregor on this one. Rex Harrison does pretty much stink up the joint.
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress. I have to profess that I haven't always been paying attention. I have no answer here.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why? No. Why? Movies. Cut. In. A. Bass-O-Matic. Not. My. Cup. Of. Tea.
24) Your favorite movie about food. A whole movie? Huh. I got nothin', but I've always liked the scene in The Godfather where Richard Castellano shows Al Pacino how to make spaghetti sauce.
25) Your favorite disaster movie. The Hurricane with Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour fascinated me when I was a kid.
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin?
Steve McQueen.
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
Gee. Throne of Blood adapted from Macbeth.
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie. Apocalypse Now inasmuch as it is often referred to as an adaptation of Heart of Darkness. And The Natural, which truly sucks in comparison to Malamud's novel.
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak? Tippi Hedren.
30) Your favorite Marx brother. Harpo.
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi? Boris Karloff.
33) Your favorite movie about high school. Gregory's Girl.
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it. Orson Welles, Herman Mankiewicz, Pauline Kael and William Randolph Hearst discussing Citizen Kane.
35) Your favorite animated movie.
The Wrong Trousers, with Dumbo not far behind.
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”)
I can't think of one that fits the criteria of the question, but I have never liked the use of the phrase "Are you deaf?"
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie. The Thing From Another World.
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman? pass
39) Your favorite kung fu movie. I can't think of the title, but it's the one with the little kid in the baby carriage that was outfitted by Q from James Bond. Pretty wild.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life. Okay, let's take the Sharks and the Jets out of West Side Story and drop 'em into Walter Hill's The Warriors. The Lizzies take 'em all out in a minute.
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature. Got nothin' here.
42) Funniest… movie… ever! Again, I have to go with Thom on this one and say Raising Arizona.
Gotta go. I promised that fella I'd read The Watchtower and talk to him about it next week.
Virgil Hilts
Dennis: I was going to say my new favorite genre was the Western! Surprisingly, I find myself wanting to watch them more and more often. Murray, I too appreciate your pointing out that Donald is the duck who's our alma mater's mascot. I am officially ashamed to have chosen the other duck. On nature documentaries: I suddenly remembered the two ant movies I saw on a double bill as a kid: Phase IV (1974) and some other ant movie which was a documentary, and also used macro photography of ant behavior (Phase IV was kind of a thriller with ants as the antagonists). Does anyone remember what that documentary was called?? Phase IV was directed by Saul Bass, of all people.
ReplyDeleteTo all of you who named "Stop Making Sense" as their favorite concert movie, I can only slap my forehead and ask myself how I could've forgotten it! Dennis, all I can say about your drive-in memory and Marathon Man Woman is that she's still hot! Or at least she was several years ago when we ran into her in Lakeview. Danger, danger! (Just kidding, Thom--you know we have more sense than that).
Funny about your ordering of DePalma films, Dennis; I'd have put "Sisters" second, and "Casualties of War" has never been as important for me as it is for you--but I should probably brave it again; same goes for "Blow Out," which I couldn't watch last time I tried.
I'm bested once again in the 3-D department, for that great guts-through-the-grate scene in "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein."
Dennis, your smackdown is brilliant--but here's what I get when I try to look at the picture of Arnold the pig: Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /images/pig_arnold3.jpg on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Hmph...what's this world coming to, when I don't have permission to look at pig photos?? And what have I ever done to receive a 404 error?
Guess Dennis, Virgil and I will have to start our own Tippi Hedren fan club. Virgil, did you mean "Hard-Boiled" as your martial arts movie? I remember Dennis dragging me to that and how surprised I was how much I liked it. In closing, I have to stand up for Rex Harrison: it takes a lot of guts to talk-sing your way through a musical role, and I thought he did it beautifully, and embodied Henry Higgins memorably. It's not his fault the ending of the movie is such a sucker-punch, souring all that came before it. If only they'd had Eliza throw those slippers at him, or light them on fire and put them under his chair...
Nice call on #40. The first time I watched the Warriors (which was my freshman year of college, 2 years ago) I was absolutely amazed. One of the trippiest movies of all time with the absurd gangs (roller skating gangs and mimes? are you kidding me!), the 70s radio announcer, and the dialogue ("Warriors, Warriors. Come out and play..."). It was one of those movies that should never have been made, yet we are all fortunate that somehow it was.
ReplyDeleteBlaaagh (and everyone): My apologies about the "Forbidden!
ReplyDeleteYou don't have permission to access /images/pig_arnold3.jpg on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request." I didn't notice that access to the image was restricted (and it was a really hot picture too) until after I'd posted my list, and by then I was so groggy there probably would be no scenario in which I would have noticed anyway. For those who still or ever cared, it was a photo of the pig Arnold Ziffel staring at a gramophone in a parody of the RCA Victor "His Master's Voice" pose.
And I think the answer to your question is The Hellstrom Chronicles. That's the one with the weird twist ending, right? (I forget what the set-up, or even the punch line is-- I just remember that there was some pulling of the rug from underneath the feet of viewers that happened toward the end.)
As for Virgil's martial arts movie, I think what he's referring to is the Lone Wolf and Cub series, also known as the Baby Cart series. Is this right, Virg?
Once again, though these things are exhausting to complete, I'm having a lot of fun reading everyone's answers, and I hope everyone else is too. I'm gonna refrain from commenting too much more on individual answers, 'casue I aim to do what I did last time-- that is, in about another two weeks or so, when I'm sure the string has been played out and everyone who is moved will have had a chance to chime in, I'll do another compilation of answers.
Thanks to everybody who's posted so far. I'm still hoping to hear from some of you, and I hope to get some surprise submissions too. Professor Wagstaff is a patient instructor, but don't push him too far!
"casue" = "cause" (or "kazoo")
ReplyDeleteRe #35 Favorite Animated Movie
ReplyDeleteI'll always remember hearing you laughing when you were captioning SOUTH PARK. Now keep in mind that I was in the next room and I heard you through the wall AND through my headphones! Nor will I forget the sight of your red, tear-stained face when I went next door to see what the hell was going on. Thanks to you, I eventually bought the movie on PPV, and must say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. However, if not for your wonderful captions, I still wouldn't know what the hell they were saying!
Dennis, you captioned "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut"?! Cool. You're right, that may be a better choice for funniest movie ever. Sharon, I can relate to your memory of laughing, red-faced Dennis: he and I saw it at a matinee in Westwood on a rainy summer day in 1999, and I'll never forget how his uncontrollable mirth filled that big theatre, alternating with gasps for air.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot to ask: how did you manage to caption Kenny's lines?!
ReplyDeleteSharon, Blaaagh: Yeah, creating the closed-captions for South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was definitely a high point in my captioning/subtitling career, and one of the most difficult jobs I've ever undertaken. Almost every scene required that we think of some new way around our stylistic and technical requirements in order to accurately translate what was going on. And I seem to recall that "Kyle's Mom's A Bitch," a very brisk two-minute number, took me over three hours to complete, when a normal two minutes of even the most difficult movie can usually be finished in about ten minutes. But as hard as it was, Sharon's right-- it was a pretty heady, laugh-packed week when that movie came through. It seemed that everybody got a taste of it at some point, whether they wanted to or not. The laughter SP:BLU generated in our office seemed to respect no boundaries, walls or attempts to work in a peaceful environment by wearing industrial-strength headphones. Thanks for the kind words about the work. As you know, we don't hear such things very often! As for Kenny, I just looked at the file again, and it looks like I went with
ReplyDelete[ Muffled ] or [ Muffled Response ], and if I could actually understand what he was saying, which happened occasionally, I'd throw a
[ Muffled ] on top of the line of dialogue. Poor little fella. All of the sudden, I'm really in the mood to see that movie again... Cartman: "Mom, you'd tell me if you were in some German scheiss video, wouldn't you?"
1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
ReplyDeleteI love them all, mostly… really and truly. It’s kind of like music—if it’s good, it’s good, be it jazz, classical, rock, punk, reggae, polka… YES, polka. Frankie Yankovic was a GOD, may he rest in peace.
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
Try as I might, I can’t quite dig anime. Oh, I acknowledge the brilliance, I just can’t relate, much to my dearest dear’s chagrin (he loves that crap, and won’t tolerate my mocking).
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
It’s gotta be Daffy, especially his early work… you know, pre-greed, post-schizophrenic.
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie
"Rear Window," no question… tho’ "North by Northwest" is fabulous, and… Oh, hell, they’re ALL good.
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication)
I plead the fifth. I’m too embarrassed to confess the truth here… but I will admit it involved either dinosaurs or vampires, I’m not exactly sure which. I was stoned at the time.
6) Your favorite nature documentary
I love them all—and I DO mean ALL—but "Microcosmos" sticks in my mind… if only for the fact that it was one of my early reformats at the Caption Factory. And while we’re on that subject, may I ask here and now what heinous goods Dennis has on the Scheduling Department that he got that project AND the subtitling gig for "CastAway"? Dude, I know you’re elite, but you must have some amazing photos of Renee/Marilyn/Hylari/Susan/Etc. stashed in your safe deposit box, that’s all I’m sayin’...
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
Steve Martin, no doubt—"The Man with Two Brains," "Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid," "The Lonely Guy," "The Jerk"—but Carrey’s not chopped liver. Matter of taste, I guess.
8) Your favorite concert movie
As great as "The Last Waltz" and "Stop Making Sense" are, I could watch "Down from the Mountain" every day and not tire of it—Allison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, the late great John Hartford… damn!
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes
Sharon and I are of a mind on this one—"Dogma" beyond a doubt… but "Last Temptation of Christ" and "Jesus of Montreal" are tied for second. I’ve got a whole long riff about how Scorsese over-explicated the movie before it came time to shoot (what with the production and his original cast getting yanked out from underneath him, etc.) thereby explaining the obvious flaws in the movie, but, to be honest, that diatribe bores even me at this point.
If you really wanna hear it, buy me three vodka tonics and you’ll get the whole story.
Buy me only one vodka tonic and I’ll do what I’m told is a highly amusing rendition of Ethel Merman singing “Feelings” (you SCTV fans wil no doubt be familiar with Andrea Martin delivering Ms. Merman’s touching love songs from the album “Wake Up and Love Me”).
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie
When I was a tiny kid, there was a double feature of some innocuous family movie AND "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (drive-in theaters can pair 'em off like nobody's business). I think my parents assumed my sister and I would be asleep by the time "BtVotD" rolled up, but I remember it vividly. I believe this explains a great deal of the damage to my psyche.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie
Here’s blast from the past: "Phantom of the Paradise." My girlies and I got obsessed with this flick in high school, and we saw it at least 10 times at the La Paloma in Encinitas. It was on Cinemax just a few nights ago—at 4:00 in the morning—and I recited/sang along, amazed I could remember every goddamn word of every goddamn song, and nearly every goddamn line of dialog.
Oh, yeah. I was hip as all get-out in 1974.
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving
I was tricked (by former dear friends) into seeing "Love Actually"… WHICH I LOATHED upon first viewing (thank God I snuck into the next pod at the googleplex and cleansed my palate with "Bad Santa" immediately afterward). HOWEVER… upon incessant subsequent viewings on cable (there’s often nothing else on, unless you count Rachael “The Human Chipmunk” Ray on the Food Network, and she’s the Antichrist), I don’t hate it, and am often touched by a few—FEW—moments… usually those featuring Liam Neeson and that wonderful tiny blond actor-boy.
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland?
Miss Vivien, bless her unbalanced little heart.
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
"Lt. Robinson Crusoe, U.S.N." starring Dick Van Dyke. (My folks were big on taking my sister and me to only drive-in movies until we were old enough to sit still in a theater setting—see above drive-in story for the unintended consequences of this policy.)
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
Not my childhood, but my nephew’s—I was proud to introduce him to "A Christmas Story."
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
"Unforgiven." No question. The BEST ever. Period. Paragraph. Amen.
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie)
I gotta go with Patty here and back Dr. Tongue’s ouvre in its entirety.
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
Yeah, "Bravehear" was a suckfest, but "Titanic" sucked even louder.
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor
Ben Kingsley for "Gandhi"… not that he wasn’t award-worthy, but Paul Newman was SO FUCKING ROBBED for his performance in "The Verdict" (granted, it was a bitch of year, with Hoffman for "Tootsie," O’Toole for "My Favorite Year," and Jack Lemmon for "Missing"). Yeah, so he went on to get the Elizabeth Taylor "Butterfield 8" Compensation Award for "The Color of Money." It’s not the same.
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress
I think Julia Roberts is underrated as an actor (vs. movie star, that is), but her statuette for "Erin Brockovich"? Not so much. Check out the much-maligned "Mary Reilly." Really. I’m not kidding.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
Yes… but only for his “Got Milk?” spot featuring the Aaron Burr fan with a mouth clogged with peanut butter. To this day, I can’t say the ill-fated man’s name without pronouncing it “Aawanh Buuh!”
24) Your favorite movie about food
I’m with Dennis on this one (mostly)—"Tampopo." God, what a fabulicious movie! Take sex, food, and satire from Kurosawa to Siegel to Leone and back again with a sure hand and several sharp twists—like chopsticks in a bowl of ramen, a fork in a plate of pasta. Then again, I love "Big Night" beyond all reason; that last one-shot scene where Stanley Tucci makes eggs… oh, Lordy. I weep every time. My only complaint is that he’s got the fire on too high on the stove, but Italians DO like a frittata-like brown on their scrambles.
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
"Being There." Even Jerzy Kosinski said that Peter Sellers (who obsessed over the novella for years, trying to get it made) brought more to the character than was in the original material. Also excellent: "Slaughterhouse Five."
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
It just kills me that Robert Downey, Jr. won’t be able to play Charlie Chaplin in a good movie. He was so brilliant and so perfect for the part, and that movie was such crap…
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
Kim Novak, bien sur. I remember seeing a Dick Cavett interview with both De Palma and Scorsese where De Palma said the only thing wrong with "The Birds" was that Tippi Hedren simply was not interesting. I couldn’t agree more.
30) Your favorite Marx brother
Ooh, this is a tough one, but I think I have to go with the inspired, anarchic lunacy of Harpo—seeing a pretty woman and chasing after her in a dead run, etc. But I do love Groucho’s absurd wit and Chico’s piano antics…
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie
"The Passion of the Christ" Christ...
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?
I believe Boris Karloff is an underappreciated genius. In an unrelated note, his daughter, unfortunately, looks just like him.
33) Your favorite movie about high school
When I saw "Dazed and Confused," at first I laughed my ass off… then it just dissolved into a recognition fest—“I had that purse. Mary had those shoes. That girl in Algebra wore that exact same poncho all through junior year…” "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was pretty great, but I think I have to go with the absurdity of "Three O’Clock High," another gem I would have missed were it not for the Caption Factory.
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
I’d love to hear ANYTHING Scorsese had to say about ANY movie, but I’d sit in thrall at Billy Wilder’s feet if he’d talk about "Sunset Boulevard" and/or "Some Like It Hot."
35) Your favorite animated movie
This is hard, but I think I’ll weasel out and choose the "Toy Story" & "Toy Story 2" combo.
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”)
WITHOUT A DOUBT: "I'm too old for this shit." "Lethal Weapon" (ad nauseam), "Bull Durham," etc., etc. NO ONE should EVER be allowed to utter this phrase under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, not even Rose Kennedy forced into a break-dancing contest with George Burns.
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
"Bringing Up Baby," tho’ I fear it doesn’t hold up as well as one would like upon repeated viewings.
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman?
Fisher is a wonderfully raw and honest raconteur, but Portman’s a real actor.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
See the above re: Rose Kennedy and George Burns.
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
I laughed so hard I hurt when I first saw "What’s Up Doc?", but "Young Frankenstein" is my favorite. Still, "Animal House" holds up brilliantly, and "The Tall Guy" is solid gold, and "Blazing Saddles" is pretty tough to beat, and "Some Like It Hot" may be the perfect comedy, and you’ve got to consider "Horse Feathers" and "A Night at the Opera," "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" made me laugh almost as hard as it did Dennis (I did the subtitling for that-- not as tricky a task as the captioning, but it took me forever to get through "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch," too…]
I guess I should go back to question #1 and admit that comedy is my favorite genre, huh?
xoxo
Jen
P.S. Apologies for the typoos. I do, in fact, know how to spell "Braveheart" and "oeuvre," among other big words...
ReplyDeletexo
Jen
DENNIS: "Toby Tyler"... what a great call! Oh, man, do I remember this movie (along with "Bullwhip Griffin," a forgotten Roddy McDowall flick from the late '60s, if memory serves), and the book as well. My sister actually wrote the author a fan letter and got a lovely handwritten reply. Years later, when I was a Hollywood development stooge, I chatted (far too often, actually) with the ancient author's agent...
ReplyDeleteGee, what a fascinating story, huh?
I'll go back to lurking now...
xo
Jen
8763 Wonderland: I loved "The Omega Man," too: thought it was scary and funny, and Rosalind Cash made a big impression on my young self. Charlton Heston ain't perfect, but he sure made a cool hero in that movie, in "Planet of the Apes," and in "Soylent Green" (which I saw at the long-gone Canyon Drive-In outside Portland).
ReplyDeleteYeah, 8763 Wonderland, I was similarly heartened to discover another "Omega Man" aficionado! I have never seen the Vincent Price version, but have always wanted to, and now that I have your enthusiastic recommendation, I'll seek it out anew.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about Anthony Zerbe: every time I see him on TV or in a movie I appreciate his work, and every time I think of Mathias. I also think he's aged gracefully and well. It is puzzling he hasn't become more prominent; seems to me he was onstage in some major production here in the bay area several years ago (which I unfortunately missed).
Whew! Well, at least est can be considered a thing of the past(I think!); Scientology still seems like a sinister cult. Thanks for reminding me of that play he did here in SF. Wonder if there's an anthonyzerbe.com...
ReplyDelete1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
ReplyDeleteWesterns:
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Wild Bunch
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
I think they're commonly called "Romantic Comedies," or "Chick Flicks." This is not at all to say that I don't like good romantic comedies, such as Hepburn/Tracy flicks or screwball
comedies. It's just the sacchrine horribleness of movies like "The Mirror Has Two Faces" that cause me to want to injure myself.
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
You're joking right, Coz? Daffy by a mile!!
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie
Psycho.
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication)
Waited about 12 hours for the first Tim Burton Batman at the Chinese.
6) Your favorite nature documentary
Deep Throat.
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
Steve Martin.
8) Your favorite concert movie
The Last Waltz by far.
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in
movie
Never been. Not even when there was one in Burbank... actually about a block from Captions, Inc.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie
I hate this guy. But I kind of like the first Mission Impossible.
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending
up liking or loving
Last Tango in Paris.
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland?
Viv.
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song
There must be one for Dolamite. But I can't remember it.
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
Deep Throat
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
Grease. And The Jerk.
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
The Good the Bad and the Ugly.
Directorially, Million Dollar Baby
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie)
Deep Throat
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
The one that just sprang to mind is that overwrought CGI obscenity, Gladiator. But then I just remembered A Beautiful Mind, Braveheart, Dances with Wolves, Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man, The Greatest Show on Earth...
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor
Russell Crowe, Gladiator. Incidentally, I like Russell Crowe
as an actor. But, please...
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress
Sally Field.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
No! No! No! Because gigantic budgets and cardboard characters do not a movie make.
24) Your favorite movie about food
I really liked Big Night when I saw it in the theater. Driving
home dimeless through North Beach after it let out was excrutiating. I saw the movie since and didn't like it nearly as much. Eat, Drink, Man, Woman was pretty good.
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin?
I don't have a strong opinion about either.
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
Kim Novak's eyebrows are an entity of their own in Vertigo.
But I'm gonna have to go with Tippi. For the pigeons.
30) Your favorite Marx brother
Why, Gummo, of course. No, really, it's Groucho.
33) Your favorite movie about high school
Rock and Roll High School.
35) Your favorite animated movie
I liked the South Park movie.
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
Haven't seen many.
39) Your favorite kung fu movie
Probably Enter the Dragon
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
Duck Soup. Runner up: Love and Death.
I've abstained from reading the other entries, just so I'll answer as honestly as possible and not shy away from giving some of the same answers as someone else. I'm planning to go back once I've completed the quiz.
ReplyDeleteSo, here goes!
1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it?
the Western: 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. I could have chosen a classical choice, but I figure this sums up the entire genre in one perfect film.
2) Your least favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
This looks like it may be the hardest to answer, because I think I'll give everything a chance. That being said, martial arts films really don't appeal to me. A prime, if unlikely, example: 'No Retreat, No Surrender'
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
Daffy Duck, of course
4) Your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie
'Rear Window' today, 'Family Plot' tomorrow, 'The 39 Steps' on Wednesday, etc, etc, etc.
5) The longest you ever waited in line to see a movie (and, of course, the name of the movie that inspired such preparation and dedication)
For some reason, the two answers that come to mind are both Tim Burton films and I was both under ten years old: 'Beetlejuice' and 'Batman'
6) Your favorite nature documentary
'The Mysterious Monsters' - hosted by Peter Graves, and focusing on Bigfoot (played by Richard Kiel), it's the only film coming to mind that could constitute as a documentary with nature footage somehow inserted inside.
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
Steve Martin, because of 'The Jerk'
8) Your favorite concert movie
'Stop Making Sense' or 'Otis [Redding] Plays Monterrey'
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes
'The Wrong Man' by Hitchcock
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie
There are quite a few, as I've attended quite a few 'Dusk Till Dawn showings with various groups of friends growing up. I'm far too much of a cinephile to have anything too juicy - I usually just watched the films.
11) Your favorite Brian De Palma movie
The more I think about it, the more I love 'Raising Cain'
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of
It happened recently with 'Wedding Crashers'.
13) Name one movie you initially hated, saw again, and ending up liking or loving
Altman's 'Nashville'
14) Vivien Leigh or Olivia De Havilland?
De Havilland
15) Favorite blaxploitation movie theme song
"The Boss", from "Black Caesar"
16) The first movie you remember seeing in a theater
'Good Morning, Vietnam'
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
'Return of the Jedi'
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
'The Gauntlet'
19) Best use of 3-D in a movie (not Best 3-D movie)
Jason Voorhees throwing a spear at the camera in 'Friday the 13th, Part 3'
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
'The English Patient' comes to mind
21) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actor
Russel Crowe
22) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Actress
Charlize Theron, perhaps
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
No, and not because I don't believe in brainless action-oriented entertainment, but because his whole MTV, quick-cut aesthetic gives me a headache
24) Your favorite movie about food
'Eating Raoul'
25) Your favorite disaster movie
I was watching some of 'Earthquake' again recently, and it's actually not so bad. Walter Matthau's 70's attire especially.
26) Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin?
Now, this is tough. But I'll have to go with Lee Marvin
27) Best adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
'Rumble Fish'
28) Worst adaptation of a book or other source material into a movie
'Stick'
29) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
Kim Novak
30) Your favorite Marx brother
Groucho
31) The most frightening movie you've seen that is not strictly a horror movie
'Negatives', there's a spooky sequence amongst mannequins that frightened me as a child. I had no idea what the movie was about while watching it, and thought perhaps it was a horror film.
32) Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?
Karloff
33) Your favorite movie about high school
'High School Confidential'
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
'Streets of Fire', with Walter Hill
35) Your favorite animated movie
'I Love to Singa'
36) Most overly familiar dialogue phrase used in screenwriting, usually to connote coolness of a character or, more often, the screenwriter (Example: “Do the math!”)
Any character reciting a nursery rhyme in an ironic, detached tone
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
'Red River'
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman?
Carrie Fisher, who looks particularly cute in 'Shampoo'
39) Your favorite kung fu movie
'Come Drink with Me'
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
Ethan Edwards ('The Searchers') vs. Frank (Henry Fonda, from 'Once Upon a Time in the West')
41) Your ultimate fantasy drive-in double feature
'Rock All Night' / 'Carnival Rock'
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
'The Heartbreak Kid'
Dear Professor Wagstaff,
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between questions 23 and 33, my head DID explode à la SCANNERS. I’ve managed to scrape together enough brain chunks to submit a tardy, incomplete list of answers, but I think it’s probably best at this point for you to flunk me back to the remedial courses…
1) Your favorite movie genre, and a prime example of it
I wish I could say westerns, but I haven’t seen enough. I wish I could say kung-fu action movies, but I haven’t seen enough. I guess the genres I’m qualified to name as favorites would have to be “quirky dramedy types which I deem brilliant” (DOWN BY LAW) and “movies that don’t totally suck in my opinion” (you know, stuff that isn’t TITANIC or SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET or LEGENDS OF THE FALL—hmm, maybe “movies that don’t star Brad Pitt”—or GANGS OF NEW YORK).
3) Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?
Daffy for sheriff!
6) Your favorite nature documentary
MICROCOSMOS. Nothing quite like taking in a nature movie at the local park, watching a couple of giant escargots making love to opera music under the stars.
7) Steve Martin or Jim Carrey?
Steve Martin from THE MUPPET MOVIE through the 80s, more or less. Jim Carrey only when he’s crying in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.
8) Your favorite concert movie
STOP MAKING SENSE tied with BIG TIME
9) Your favorite movie about or incorporating religion or religious themes
LIFE OF BRIAN
10) Your best story (long or short) about attending a drive-in movie
Mom claims she took me and my younger sibs to see LABYRINTH and DARK CRYSTAL at the Garrett, Indiana drive-in. I sure as HECK remember the movies (which made a huge impression on me), but sadly I don’t remember the drive-in experience. [ Sighs ] That’s the best I can do, Dennis.
12) Name one movie you initially loved, saw again and ended up thinking significantly less of
All them LORD OF THE RINGS movies – so sick of ‘em! (Kidding!) I'm gonna say Baz Luhrmann's ROMEO + JULIET and MOULIN ROUGE! Somehow I was very into them at the cinema, but later viewings have mostly given me headaches. Leonardo DiCrapio is such an annoying and whiny creep. MOULIN ROUGE!-- Well, although I’d still watch any of the Ewan McGregor numbers anytime (Meow! Can I get a "meow" there, Thom?) and, of course, David Wenham's star turn there toward the beginning, I’m just bored with Baz. Baz, baby, pulease would ya slow down enough to let us admire the pretty costumes and the pretty dancing and that pretty HOT Scot? This all came to a head when I was watching STATE FAIR (1962) and I noticed the blatant influence of the Ann-Margret striptease number on Satine’s big entrance and actually found myself liking the Rodgers & Hammerstein gig better! Man…
17) The movie you remember most fondly from childhood
STAND BY ME. Watched it unsupervised in my folks’ family room on HBO with a friend sleeping over. First R-rated feature I’d ever seen, probably a parental oversight. I was all South Park kid with mouth agape-- “Wow!”-- at first spate of four-letter words. I jumped up and down and squealed the entire scene at the train bridge. I still have a crush on Wil Wheaton to this day.
18) Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie
IL BUONO, IL BRUTTO, IL CATTIVO, or the one with the monkey that my dad always liked. (Sorry, Caption Jockey. I mean, ape.) And what’s all this about Eastwood DIRECTING movies?
20) Least-deserving Oscar Winner for Best Picture
I thought GLADIATOR was a very bad comedy. Its win was a classic case of mass delusion.
23) Michael Bay— yes or no, and why?
I TOTALLY agree with Michael Bay who wrote recently in the ONION about MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, deploring the sad state of entertainment in a summer “when a futuristic techno-thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as escaped clones on levitating jet bikes doesn't outgross the shit out of a glorified Discovery Channel rerun… These days, I guess old-fashioned values like ‘megawattage,’ ‘high-octane thrill rides,’ and ‘explosions’ just don't matter anymore. Well, I call that a sad day for American moviemaking.”
Yeah! Michael Bay all the way!
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/37499
33) Your favorite movie about high school
GHOST WORLD. This is what high school was like for me, except it’s way more cool.
34) The movie you'd most like to be subjected to a DVD commentary, and the person or persons (living or dead) who you'd like to hear talking on it
I’m gonna duck as I declare that I’m not really into audio commentaries. Most of ‘em are kinda boring and annoying, no? If Thom got her wish on MULHOLLAND DRIVE though, I might change my mind!
35) Your favorite animated movie
MONONOKE HIME. I love animated movies! Wait a minute. Is that a genre?
37) Your favorite Howard Hawks movie
HELL’S ANGELS. No, wait— D’oh! I always get those Howards confused…
38) Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman
Natalie who?
39) Your favorite kung fu movie
See #1.
40) In the spirit of Freddy vs. Jason, devise a fantasy smackdown
matchup between two movie characters, fictional or drawn from life
Christopher Walken as Annie Hall's brother vs. Crispin Glover as Lula's Cousin Dell
42) Funniest… movie… ever!
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT is the funniest movie EVER. Bless you dear people who understand.
Hi! Found your blog while looking for reviews about MANDINGO... and found your excellent post on guilty pleasures.
ReplyDelete1. As far as a favorite genre, I guess it would be ‘black comedy’ if that indeed does count as a genre. THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST for me, is near the top of the list… an on-target satire of surveillance culture, among other things, that still retains some bite, despite some aspects being considered ‘dated’.
2. Romantic comedy. I’ve never enjoyed or believed the contrivances involved, nor are any of the characters or their behavior appealing. Watching WHEN HARRY MET SALLY was like a slug writhing in a desert of salt.
3. Daffy Duck.
4. NORTH BY NORTHWEST… everyone involved was in top form and hitting all cylinders.
5. I believe it was the opening for STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE. STAR WARS had its lines, but I don’t remember having to wait for very long to get into any screenings of it. The line for the first STAR TREK film – it was like waiting in line to see the Pope.
6. THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE – a big fan of those 1970’s “We’re all doomed!” films and HELLSTROM scared the hell out of me when I was little, watching it on network television. Granted, the title character is fictional, but the information involved isn’t.
7. Steve Martin, before he got old and didn’t give a shit anymore. Jim Carrey is just trying too hard.
8. THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
9. THE RAPTURE
10. I have no good drive-in stories… I remember attending drive-ins twice with family members – an odd billing of AT THE EARTH’S CORE with OLD DRACULA; and then watching IT’S ALIVE with IT LIVES AGAIN as a birthday present from my grandfather. During the heyday, the drive in seemed to be this forbidden place; seeing the ads in the newspapers, which promised sights so lurid, one would have to be lucky to survive an evening.
By the time I was of age to get into drive-ins, cable and vcr’s were killing them off – the movies weren’t the same, and my ‘date’ wasn’t very cooperative.
11. I used to love DePalma; then when I started watching Hitchcock films, started to love him a lot less. DRESSED TO KILL holds up a lot better than some of his other films.
12. no answer
13. no answer
14. Olivia DeHavilland
15. It’s a tie – Isaac Hayes’ SHAFT and Curtis Mayfield’s SUPERFLY
16. YELLOW SUBMARINE
17. WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
18. THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES/THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
19. Nothing comes to mind.
20. SHAKESPERE IN LOVE
21. Dustin Hoffmann for RAIN MAN… Jeremy Irons should’ve been nominated and won for DEAD RINGERS
22. Gwyneth Paltrow
23. No – Bay is extremely talented, technically; but appears to be incapable of being able to tell a coherent story or to capture something emotionally substantive in his films. The ADD kid does get all the attention – until you get tired and whack him over the head to cease his constant spazziness.
24. TAMPOPO
25. THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE – it was one of the first and best… it didn’t insult the audience’s intelligence too much and was genuinely thrilling.
26. Lee Marvin – he could kick McQueen’s ass without breaking a sweat.
27. There are two, done by the same team – Robert Wise and Nelson Gidding for THE HAUNTING and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.
28. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND – proof positive that everyone involved with this must’ve been high.
29. Kim Novak
30. Groucho
31. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE – I’ve only seen half of the movie, it creeped me out so much
32. Boris Karloff
33. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
34. TORN CURTAIN with commentary by both Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann.
35. don’t have a favorite
36. Not sure what the current catchphrase is in films right now, though I suspect “Hug it out!” will be big for the next year or so.
37. Actually, I’m not a Howard Hawks fan
38. Carrie Fisher, of course!
39. An obscure hybrid, THE STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER
40. hmmm – it’d be between Susan Tyrell’s character in NIGHT WARNING up against Betsy Palmer in FRIDAY THE 13th.
41. MANDINGO paired with THE KLANSMAN – “Guilty of Being WHITE” Night at the movies.
42. CADDYSHACK
PSaga: Thanks for the list! Your musings upon Scottish actors have caused my wife to become a purring, mewing creature, and for that I will be forever thankful, not to mention just a little bit jealous.
ReplyDeleteRobert: Many thanks for your list as well! I must confess, I've never thought of Mandingo as a unifying source for much of anything, so I'm at least glad it somehow led you here. And your mention of The Stranger and the Gunfighter had me giddy with good memories of seeing that Lee Van Cleef/Lo Lieh Hong Kong martial arts/spaghetti western hybrid at the local drive-in on almost every one of the five nights it played back in 1977 or so. This one can't make it to DVD fast enough! Thanks for the smiles. Now that you and PSaga have checked in, watch out for a round-up of all the more inspiring and hilarious answers coming soon to a post near you!