Physical-Pancakes wrote:hey, I hope it's not too late to do this, but I'm kind of a film fanatic, and I wanted to join so...
Favorite movie, and why: Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark is probably my all time favorite movie, just because it's really fun, and it's the first pg 13 movie I ever saw, so I guess it kind of has a special place in my heart. I know it's not the truly best of all films or anything, but I smile every time I see it, and something about how it's just fun really makes me happy. There may not be a lot to be said about creative cinematography, or important themes about life, but something about watching Nazis get thrown from vans makes me happy. I love Harrison Fords performance, and Marion's general awesomeness made somewhat of a role model for young me. I love fast-paced action, moving from set piece to set piece, while still giving us a little room to rest in between (Ex: The boat scene, the beginning of the market scene before the action happens). I love the fun tone, and the upbeat music, and how different and also fun all the characters are. Obviously you've everyone saying that it would have played out the same without Indiana Jones, and it might have, but without him who would the audience root for? From a film making perspective the action hero is an important of any action movie that keeps the audience engaged and gives them someone to cheer for, and I love having someone to cheer for. Anyways I guess that's a bit of essay, but there you have it.
And as you can see by my signature and icon, my current movie obssesion is 1920's 'The Mark of Zorro' starring Douglas Fairbanks.
Least favorite movie, and why: Now, I don't know if this movie ever had a theatrical release, but it's on the lifetime channel pretty often, and some of my family members seem to really enjoy putting it on, so I don't know if it's through repeated viewings, or if it really is the bland characters, the awful plot, and the terrible depiction of women, but the movie Something Borrowed is atrocious. I mean, there's bad, there's boring, and there's entertaining bad, and this movie falls somewhere between bad and boring. Basically, there are two girls who have been best friends forever, they meet this guy in college and one of them starts dating him, even though the other has a crush on him. Flash forward a few years and the same girl who was dating him in the beginning in engaged to him, and other girl is still majorly crushing on him. So crush girl and fiancé boy end up starting a relationship behind the guy's fiancé's back. It's mostly about them dealing with the affair, and trying to hide it, and at one point a different male character pretends to be gay to get a girl to leave him alone, and that paves the way for some nice homophobic humor that I won't get into. It's pretty bland, but the end it what really gets me, what just makes me want to scream. Not only is the main character (the girl who is in a secret relationship with her best friends fiancé)'s cheating justified because the girl who was engaged was also cheating on her fiancé, but the main character and her best friend since childhood stop being friends and the main character goes on to marry the guy she was cheating with. So the message of the movie is "Cheating is okay as long as your both doing it!" and "Always abandon your best friends for 'love'!" I just hate it, and I hate that assumes women will just drop their best friends in the whole world because some attractive guy likes them.
Best movies ever seen: The technically best movies I've ever seen are probably Requiem for a Dream, and maybe Murder, My Sweet. I'm a pretty big fan of noir movies so I've seen a lot of them, but Murder, My Sweet is probably my favorite so far. It's a real classic noir film with all the tropes, a femme fatale, a murder, a secret identity, and some really well done voice over, which you don't get often. Usually voice overs kind of suck. There's also classic westerns, like the good the bad and the ugly, which I personally think is way better than a fistfull of dollars, The Man who Shot Liberty Valence is one I found a bit overrated, and as far as john wayne movies go, I think True Grit is still my personal favorite, Taxi driver is good, and shares some interesting Parallels with Leon the Professional, which, aside from a few scenes, I mostly enjoyed, but anyways, I've probably said too much here, so that's that.
Worst movies ever seen: The worst movies I actually enjoy are probably Austenland, and Spacehunter: Adventures in the forbidden zone, and I guess Miss Congeniality and it's sequel, which I actually really like because I think it has an important message about every good deed isn't love, and just about the nature of love, and also the importance of friendship and not pitting yourself against everyone around you, but enough about my secret enjoyment of Sandra Bullock movies. Bad movies that are bad that I don't like include that Adam Sandler movie where he goes to hawaii, not 50 first dates, but you know what, I don't like that one either, so whichever I guess. The most recent worse movie I've seen, however, is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, which I recently saw in theaters at the request of my 15 year old sister. There were only about 8-10 other people in the theater, all with small children, and let me tell you, I heard no laughter out of even the youngest child. The jokes were stale, and more annoying than funny, the chipmunks were cgi monsters, it was as bad as expected, and absolutely not worth ten dollars to go and see. In conclusion, I am an idiot who listens to my sister too much.
Favorite Director: Probably Guillermo Del Toro, I love Pan's Labyrinth, and all the Hellboy movies, and I just think that all his movies are really creative and interesting, and I wish he hadn't backed out of The Hobbit.
Favorite Actor: I will watch anything Harrison Ford has been in because Indianna Jones and Star Wars ruined me.
Favorite Actress: I think either Sigourney Weaver (Go Ellen Ripley!) Or Saorise Ronan (because her performance in Hanna is amazing.)
Any Film Critics you follow?: Not really, I just listen to some reviews on youtube here and there. I'd like to be a film critic because I love both complaining, and movies, but I dunno.
Anyways, I'm so sorry for the giant wall of text I have just created, I sort of just love movies. Also, This year's Ex-Machina deserves an oscar for something, and I'm really dissapointed that it was nominated in so few categories.
It's never too late to join. ^^ Most of us here have been kinda busy lately so it's nice to get another person in. And, I'll make a wall of text to go with your wall of text. Honestly this is why I made the thread.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is such a fantastic film. It's really the epitome of the action hero movies. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it, because it just does not get boring. Like you said, it's the fun tone and that John Williams music that gets you all excited, and then Harrison Ford. He played the role perfectly, that mixture of being really cocky and full of himself, but also really passionate about his work. He's incredibly reckless, but that works for him. That, and, let's be honest, he's really really hot. His character is kind of written to be the perfect scruffy reckless American adventurer in the same way that James Bond is written to be the perfect suave British gentleman-spy. (Gentlespy?)
You think Miss Congeniality is a bad film? I mean I wouldn't call it a great film myself, but I think it's a pretty funny, well written, well performed comedy chick-flick. I don't think I'd call it my guilty pleasure, nah I'd reserve my guilty pleasure title for Phantom of the Opera. I hate that I love it. Such an over dramatic, creepy, unbelievable plot, all centered around 'love' of course (bleh), but the music really gets to me and I guess I have a thing for the Phantom.
(What is actually wrong with me?)So the only noir films I've seen are The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon, and I wasn't really sure where to go from there. I should probably give Murder, My Sweet a watch, you make it sound like something I'd be into.
And hey you brought up Westerns and that made me super giddy and excited because I've been watching a lot of them the past month! Only last night I watched For A Few Dollars More, and the week before I watched Fistfull. Yeah of that trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is my favorite. It's actually my all time favorite film, in general. IMO, everything about it is perfect. Music, cinematography, acting, plot (exciting and easy to follow). I think the Dollars trilogy kind of gets better with every movie. You have A Fistfull of Dollars, which is
okay, but the plot gets a bit confusing because all of the characters look the same and I can't keep track of who's in what family and what's going on. Eventually I'm only watching it because the music is good and I know there'll be some kind of showdown at the end. Then For a Few Dollars more really improves on the plot itself, I found that the performances were in general a lot better, especially with Lee van Cleef, though the plot does get a little bit muddled near the end. Aaaand then comes The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's just the first two movies, but really perfected. Ennio Morricone nailed the music, especially at the end with The Ecstasy of Gold. The plot is great because it doesn't introduce too many characters like the previous movies, it sticks around the three characters, and only now and then another character comes along, but doesn't remain important. It's a lot less difficult to get confused as to what's going on, and then when you finally get to the showdown, it's paced beautifully. That and this time we get the perfect acting mix, Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef, and Eli Wallach play perfect two dimensional characters, haha. I guess the films only real rival as far as Westerns go, or at least Spaghetti Westerns, would be Once Upon a Time in the West, and the most amazing thing is that they both come from the same director.
Have you seen the Coen Brothers' version of True Grit? I have yet to watch the John Wayne version but it is on my to watch list. I really liked the Coen Brothers film so hopefully the original is even better.
Guillermo del Toro was going to direct The Hobbit, though? Wat? Jeez he probably would have saved it. Poor Peter Jackson, I don't know what happened to him. Lord of the Rings was so amazing... and then we get The Hobbit... I was so looking forward to it, it still upsets me that it was such a disappointment.
Also I'm sorry you had to go see that Chipmunk film.
Sounds torturous.
