"Great" Movies You Hate
Feuillade
Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
you love.
What about the films you can't stand?
I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
I'll start. I only have five on my list. These are films I *really* have an
intense visceral dislike for (and it's interesting to note that Stanley Kubrick
has two films out of the five):
2001: A Space Odyssey
American Beauty
A Clockwork Orange
Lawrence of Arabia
Leaving Las Vegas
Those are my choices. What are yours?
Tom Moran
RP Faiola
BLADE RUNNER. Despicable.
Great movies I've avoided:
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
DR. ZHIVAGO
Christopher Snowden
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
>
> I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
> the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
"Napoleon": Ten minutes of eye candy, five hours of tedious costume-pageantry
"Blow Up": What is reality? What has meaning? Who cares? Get me outta this theater
"Last Tango in Paris": More deathly Euro pretension, slightly mitigated by naked
Maria Schneider
Chris Snowden
Unknown Video
http://www.unknownvideo.com
This week: Quotable Quotes II
http://www.unknownvideo.com/it.shtml
Robert Lipton
Christopher Snowden wrote:
> Feuillade wrote:
>
>
>>Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
>>you love.
>>
>>What about the films you can't stand?
>>
>>I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
>>the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>>
>>
Well, I just saw LA PIANISTE and feel about it the same way I do about
tthe Merchant/Ivory crap. Hi! This is a movie about people you don't
care about in situations they could get out of if they thought about it.
Basically, ten hours or so of boredom. I had a long discussion with one
of the intellectuals at the videotape store, and he said that the idea
of a movie about people you don't care about has some esthetic
possibilities, but agreed this was a botched attempt. Even assuming it
is possible, it ai't for me.
Bob
greta de groat
>
> > Feuillade wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> >>you love.
> >>
> >>What about the films you can't stand?
> >>
> >>I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
> >>the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
> >>
> >>
It's a Wonderful Life (i'm a librarian, what can i say? Given a choice between
being an old maid and being married to a whiny Jimmy Stewart, i know what i'd pick)
Though i loved Bringing Up Baby when i first saw it, it now really gets on my
nerves. Maybe because i worked closely with someone for a long time who was just
like the Katherine Hepburn character. It isn't funny anymore.
I'm sure i'd have lots more if i got around to watching more post 1960 films.
greta
Vitaphone
"Singin' in the Rain"
"Citizen Kane"
"Lawrence of Arabia"
"Modern Times"
"The Graduate"
"It's a Wonderful Life"
"Some Like It Hot"
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
"The Best Years of Our Lives"
------
"Are we late?" "Slide, and you'll make it."
ON WITH THE SHOW! (WB-1929)
RP Faiola
>>What about the films you can't stand?
>
>"Singin' in the Rain"
>"Citizen Kane"
>"Lawrence of Arabia"
>"Modern Times"
>"The Graduate"
>"It's a Wonderful Life"
>"Some Like It Hot"
>"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
>"The Best Years of Our Lives"
>
He said Movies You Hate. Not Movies You Think It's COOL to Hate!
Feuillade
> It's a Wonderful Life (i'm a librarian,
> what can i say? Given a choice between
> being an old maid and being married to
> a whiny Jimmy Stewart, i know what i'd pick)
That's one big flaw in an otherwise great film. But what else could they do
with the Donna Reed character? They already had Gloria Grahame as a floozie,
it would have been redundant to have two of them.
They should have had her married to Sam Wainwright. Now *that* would be hell!
Hee-haw!
> Though i loved Bringing Up Baby when i first
> saw it, it now really gets on my nerves.
> Maybe because i worked closely with someone
> for a long time who was just like the
> Katherine Hepburn character. It isn't
> funny anymore.
I've always thought "Bringing Up Baby" was overrated and completely unfunny,
but I don't have the intense visceral dislike for it that I have for the other
films I've named.
Tom Moran
Feuillade
But first quotes me:
Interesting distinction. :)
He's right though -- you have to have a real instictive aversion to the films
in question -- and be willing to explain why.
For example, I thought "Gandhi" was a bore and walked out on it, but I didn't
hate it. Same with "Shane."
"A Clockwork Orange" I really hated. What a repellent piece of shit film,
which seeing it again on BBC America recently only confirmed.
Tom Moran
James L. Neibaur
Fargo
Bullets Over Broadway
Purple Rose of Cairo
Gladiator (I like the Joe E. Brown one, though)
Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump
Shrek
JN
Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:
my Favorite Movies web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/movies.html
and my Favorite Performers web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/rant.html
Foto28
>Fargo
>Bullets Over Broadway
>Purple Rose of Cairo
>Gladiator (I like the Joe E. Brown one, though)
>Shawshank Redemption
>Forrest Gump
>Shrek
Hmm, I love PURPLE ROSE (and SHREK)...I need to see BULLETS OVER BROADWAY :)
I really, really hate anything with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
together...in fact I can't stand ANYTHING with Mickey Rooney. What anyone ever
saw in him, I can't imagine.
Sci-fi. Yuk.
One film that sticks out that I really hated, even though I only saw the first
45 minutes or so, was THE DEER HUNTER. Not that I'd ever have chosen it on my
own, but it was being run in a college film class that I took, back in the dark
ages. I thought it was absolute crap, and told the instructor that I had better
things to do with my time as I walked out on it.
And one silent in particular - A FOOL THERE WAS. Bleah.
Danny
===============
Danny Burk
www.dannyburk.com - fine art photography
Patrick McCart
The Jazz Singer
Al Jolson is great in the film, but other than that, it's a boring movie.
It's a pity they didn't make a movie more suited for Jolson's talent rather
than making such a unbelivable movie. That being said, I'm sure the Neil
Diamond remake is a lot worse. In fact...skip this movie and watch the WB
cartoon, I Love To Singa which is a lot more enjoyable.
Notorious
This one really stumped me. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains are
all actors I pretty much feel that I'm guaranteed to be entertained. While I
saw why it's thought of as a great film, it didn't really impress me that
much. Even Rope is much better to me (any Hitchcock from Rope to The Birds
are my favorites).
The Gold Rush: Redux
I got this film with the Image 4-pack (along with City Lights, Modern Times,
and The Great Dictator, which are excellent) and it just was flat. I'm
certain that it's a cause of it being the re-release rather than the
original cut. I'll still pick up the WB special edition in 2003 and try it
again. City Lights and The Circus are my favorite Chaplins for now.
I was shocked that someone mentioned Napoleon. Sure it wasn't Napoleon
Bonaparte or Napoleon Bonaparte et tu revolution?
I don't really hate these, but just don't care for.
"Feuillade" <feui...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20021114114050...@mb-mu.aol.com...
Glamour Studios
many movies to hate, so little time...), but I have to admit that your revulsion at
those two Kubrick pix has just raised your esteem in my eyes about 35%.
Archie Waugh
Eric Stott
Even Janet Gaynor could not save this for me.
Eric Stott
Mile Films
hates people, that's all...
Yeah, I know, he's a maverick...
Dennis Doros
Milestone Film & Video
email: Mile...@aol.com
website: www.milestonefilms.com
R H Draney
news:3DD3F158...@nyc.rr.com:
>> Feuillade wrote:
>>
>>>I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to
>>>compile a list of the so-called "great" films that people just
>>>can't stand.
Not sure how many of these are considered "great" now or not, but:
CITIZEN KANE
PATTON
THE EXORCIST
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
TITANIC
PEARL HARBOR
> I had a
> long discussion with one of the intellectuals at the videotape
> store, and he said that the idea of a movie about people you don't
> care about has some esthetic possibilities....
Oh, that reminds me:
PULP FICTION
....r
James L. Neibaur
>together...in fact I can't stand ANYTHING with Mickey Rooney. What anyone
>ever
>saw in him, I can't imagine.
I hate Purple Rose and Shrek and love Mickey Rooney in nearly anything, even
bad movies like Atomic Kid (I have a 16mm of that!)
You and I should go out drinking - lol
Brent Walker
GONE WITH THE WIND: should have ended with the first half.
A PLACE IN THE SUN: Picks up a little in the second half, but still
way overrated to me (though I'm not a big GIANT or SHANE fan
either...I think George Stevens had "jumped the shark" by the early
40's).
DR. ZHIVAGO: my mother made me see it every single theater revival in
the 60's.
2001: saw it much too young when it came out and didn't understand it;
saw it years later as an adult and realized there's not much to
understand that isn't of the LSD-induced "heavy, man!" kind of late
60's profundity.
EASY RIDER: has any "great" movie dated so badly? I'd much rather
watch THE WILD ANGELS (or even SATAN'S SADISTS--and I'm not just
saying that because I know the producer's on this list) than watch
this one again.
Brent Walker
eldorado
news:3DD3F005...@earthlink.net...
> Feuillade wrote:
>
> > Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or
films
> > you love.
> >
> > What about the films you can't stand?
> >
> > I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a
list of
> > the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
Don't know if this exactly fits your category, but...
2001: A Space Odyssey
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Star Wars
Star Wars II
Star Wars III
Star Wars IV
Star Wars V ad infinitum....
My point is that I can't stand sci-fi films, even when certain ones (like
those above) are said to be among the "greatest" movies of all time. This
is a true story: When I went to see Star Wars (the 1977 original), I fell
asleep. ASLEEP! I was with my brother-in-law, and he had to shake me awake
because I was snoring.
Our wives weren't there, probably because they knew better than to waste
their time watching a sci-fi picture. Anyway, I got a good snooze.
Dan N.
JMozart17561791
just loved it and thought Janet was superb.I can't remember much about Seventh
Heaven except for Gladys Brockwell who was sensational!
Best Wishes,
James
Joseph Goodman
laxative, it just didn't move me.
"Spartacus"... an ancient Thracian slave with 20th century leftist
revolutionary epithets stuck in his mouth... I much prefer that other Kirk
Douglas/Tony Curtis costumer, the gleefully amoral "The Vikings".
Vitaphone
How you're in any position (seated or reclining) to possibly know why I chose
those films, is beyond explaination. But, since you expressed an unusual
interest in why I listed those titles:
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN: I loathe Gene Kelly, from his dimpled chin to his
ballet-slipper clad toes. Then too, as could be expected, I feel this film
forever changed modern perception of early musicals and ushered in the
still-popular cultural myth that all that's needed to represent "the roaring
20's" either in film or culture is a beaded dress and a sequined headband (with
feather.)
CITIZEN KANE: I can find little (if anything) here that hadn't been done
before, or elsewhere, just as well, or better. Orson permeates every frame of
the film, and my final impression is that I've just watched a precocious child
perform a not terribly interesting magic trick. Also, his treatment of Davies
was unforgivable.
LAWRENCE: Have seen this half a dozen times, from it's original theatrical
release, to video, to DVD, to a recent NYC screening. Try as I might, I can't
find anything to >like< about the film. Not the central character, not
O'Toole, not the script --- nothing.
MODERN TIMES: I thoroughly enjoy and respect Chaplin, and would sooner watch
any of his films than most anyone else's. However, Chaplin's insistence upon
silent-film technique (or near silent) at this late date doesn't sit well with
me. No longer the slightly late Johnny-come-lately of 1931's "City Lights,"
this is someone intentionally out of tune and step with the world around him,
in a self-absorbed sort of unhealthy way, and I just can't get past that.
Ditto with "Great Dictator." Not surprisingly, I'm quite happy with his later
"talkies."
"THE GRADUATE" - Few films of that period seemed to have dated as badly as this
one to me, and I hate the fact that Hoffman's "poor shnook everyman" character
would turn up again, endlessly it seems, in a myriad of guises, for the next
decade or so. Even the Simon & Garfunkle score now has the aura of somewhat
stale patchoulli oil about it.
"IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" - I can't help but feel that if this film had NOT
stumbled into public domain, and hadn't been broadcast half a million times by
every PBS station nationwide for a decade, it would get more than a nod today.
A cloying film is one thing, but this has a calculated stickiness about it
that's quite a different animal all together.
"SOME LIKE IT HOT" - A barely there Monroe, the ulcer-inducing jackrabbit manic
actor Jack Lemmon, and a female impersonation by Curtis that's just a little
"too" good to be normal, and it all adds up to zilch in my book.
"MR. SMITH GOES TO..." - Have >tried< to sit through this a few times, but
always left midway through with a pounding headache. A combination of dialogue
that's yelled, the ultimate "gosh-jolly aw shucks" Stewart dose of acting, and
the overpowring sense of having a vague point put over with a sledgehammer all
make this a must-avoid for me.
"THE BEST YEARS OF.." - To me, this has always played like an extended (vastly
extended) 1950's "Playhouse 90" of sorts, and a mighty dull one at that,
despite the fact that I love just about the entire cast (in other films, that
is.) I much prefer "Since You Went Away" for WW-II melodrama.
A Very Un-Cool Jeff
Karamzin
"Battleship Potemkin"
"Queen Christina"
"Lost Horizon"
"A Day at the Races"
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
"Gone With the Wind"
"The Red Shoes"
"An American in Paris"
"The Band Wagon"
"The Sound of Music"
"Seven Beauties"
"The Godfather"
"The World According to Garp"
"Ordinary People"
greta de groat
oh yeah, that reminds me:
Solaris
That must have been about 16 hours long, and i had no idea what was going on
except that everyone was terribly serious. They actually remade this?
greta
Glamour Studios
> 2001: A Space Odyssey
> American Beauty
> A Clockwork Orange
> Lawrence of Arabia
> Leaving Las Vegas
>
> Those are my choices. What are yours?
>
I had to give this some thought, as I wanted to further refine your parameters to
indicate movies that are ACCLAIMED as great that I just utterly loathed, critical
or public acclaim be damned. Ok, here we go:
5) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - The ultimate Kevin Costner failure, even more
than Waterworld, as it so perfectly showcases his inadequacies as a leading man.
Another in a string of repellant revisionist treatments of historical/mythical
characters, this is about as inept as they come. Costner is so utterly limp as the
title character (think of the original Adventures of Robin Hood as it might play
with Jimmy Stewart instead of Errol Flynn) that we are treated to the embarrassing,
racist spectacle of Morgan Freeman giving a rally-the-peasants speech from a castle
wall before the final battle: "Do it for Robin!!!!" I was half-expecting the
peasants to shout back "Why the fuck should we???"
P. S. Did you know that's not Costner's ass we're seeing during his
nude-waterfall-shower scene? It was too cold that day for candy-ass Kevin, so they
had to bring in a "stunt ass"!
4) Grease - here's a formula for success: take a minor B'way musical about a group
of high school outcasts, put the hottest Box-Office guy and the best-selling
singing gal of the time in the leads, augment the 50's do-wop score with 70's disco
by the fucking Bee Gees, and twist the story about outsiders so that the low-life
punks become the heroes, and the moral becomes "to be popular at school, girls must
become sluts". Best of all, market the whole thing to 12-year-old girls. I wake
up each day joyous that producer Allan Carr is dead.
3) Gladiator - Spectacularly shameless rip-off of Braveheart, without even a Mel to
root for, only the glowering, loathesome Russell Crowe, whose off-screen assholery
was rewarded in true Hollywood fashion with an Oscar ("He's a prick, so he MUST be
cool!"). Did y'all hear about him getting his ass kicked in a London restaurant
the other day? Deeeee-lightful.
The acclaimed digital visual effects LOOKED like digital visual effects, so of
course they got an Oscar too...special note should be made of the moron who
discovered how to add (screamingly obvious) animated birds to the exterior shots of
the Colluseum...he liked the effect so much, he did it EVERY SINGLE SCENE! I half
expected Hitch and Tippi to appear in togas.
Of course, leave it to dumb-ass Ridley to take the most historically interesting
element of old gladiator movies, thinly-veiled homo-eroticism, and completely strip
it out of the film. Since neurotic, insecure Crowe has such a crappy build, we
were treated to only one mercifully brief bare-chested shot of him, and all the
other men with better builds were kept firmly encased in heavy leather curasses,
except for bodybuilder Ralph Meuller, who was cleverly concealed in shadow in all
of his scenes, lest his award-winning physique steal any focus from the saggy
Crowe.
Joaquin Phoenix's demented performance was the only bearable element.
2) Aguirre: The Wrath of God - A beautifully filmed journey into insanity says one
IMDB comment. More likely, this film will simply drive the viewer insane. I hated
this movie so much that I avoided seeing another Herzog film for almost thirty
years, finally breaking down and watching a bargain-bin tape of his Nosfertau a
couple of years ago, and grudgingly liking some of it.
1) Barry Lyndon - Tom, however did you miss this nightmare? This is the ultimate
Kubrick declaration of his loathing towards all humankind, made even more
unbearable by the (admittedly hilarious) casting of a hopelessly out-classed Ryan
O'Neal against a cast of the creme de la creme of Brit thesps. It just went
on...and on....and on...! Three hours of still-life paintings with no life at all.
Archie Waugh
Dr. Giraud
What about the films you can't stand?
I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand. >>
Some "great" awful films have been mentioned. I'd agree with:
A Place in the Sun
Bringing Up Baby
Leaving Las Vegas (wretched beyond comment)
and add:
The End of St. Petersburg (snoozer)
Faust (horrid, 'cept Emil Jannings' great mugging)
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann . . .ugh)
Birdman of Alcatraz (somebody wake up Burt)
Wild at Heart (I like Lynch, but not this crap)
You Can't Take it With You (Capra's worst)
Gladiator (what's all the fuss about?)
Shawn Stone
Dr. Giraud
From: mile...@aol.comnojunk (Mile Films)
Date: Thu, Nov 14, 2002 7:33 PM
Message-id: <20021114193302...@mb-fc.aol.com>
Most of the Robert Altman films, especially in the last ten years. He just
hates people, that's all... >>
Dennis--
That's a bad thing?????? ; )
Shawn Stone
(I love The Long Goodbye, Nashville, and Kansas City)
James Russell
wrote:
>Solaris
>That must have been about 16 hours long, and i had no idea what was going on
>except that everyone was terribly serious. They actually remade this?
Mm-hmm. It just got an R rating, too, cos you can see George Clooney's arse
in it.
James R.
(which may or may not act as an enticement, of course)
--
Hot Buttered Death http://hotbuttereddeath.blogspot.com/
Celluloid Dreams: Wednesday, 8pm AEST, 2SER 107.3 FM http://www.2ser.com/
James Russell
>2) Aguirre: The Wrath of God - A beautifully filmed journey into insanity says one
>IMDB comment. More likely, this film will simply drive the viewer insane. I hated
>this movie so much that I avoided seeing another Herzog film for almost thirty
>years, finally breaking down and watching a bargain-bin tape of his Nosfertau a
>couple of years ago, and grudgingly liking some of it.
I used to have a real problem with Herzog, induced by witnessing the
ghastliness of his second feature "Even Dwarves Started Small" on TV ten
years ago, but I've tried to get over it. As far as "Aguirre" goes, I can't
bring myself to completely hate a film containing a scene where someone's
counting out numbers, has his head chopped off, and the severed head
continues to count...
>1) Barry Lyndon - Tom, however did you miss this nightmare? This is the ultimate
>Kubrick declaration of his loathing towards all humankind, made even more
>unbearable by the (admittedly hilarious) casting of a hopelessly out-classed Ryan
>O'Neal against a cast of the creme de la creme of Brit thesps. It just went
>on...and on....and on...! Three hours of still-life paintings with no life at all.
"Barry" is my second favourite Kubrick film after "2001".
James R
(did his BA Honours thesis on Kubrick)
Nosferatu
overrated films of all time. I just do not get it's supposed appeal.
Second, I must confess to never seeing a David Wark Griffith picture I
actually liked. I may have seen only three of his pictures but these
are the BIG 3 pictures on which his reputation is based: Birth of a
Nation, Intolerance, and Broken Blossems. Beyond a purely academic
understanding of Griffith's contributions to film history, these
pictures fail to engage me. Besides the blatant racism of BOAN, his
overwrought intertitles repulse me in a strong visceral manner.
feui...@aol.com (Feuillade) wrote in message news:<20021114114050...@mb-mu.aol.com>...
> I had this idea the other day.
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
>
> I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
> the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
> I'll start. I only have five on my list. These are films I *really* have an
> intense visceral dislike for (and it's interesting to note that Stanley Kubrick
> has two films out of the five):
>
> 2001: A Space Odyssey
> American Beauty
> A Clockwork Orange
> Lawrence of Arabia
> Leaving Las Vegas
>
> Those are my choices. What are yours?
>
>
> Tom Moran
James Russell
>Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
>you love.
>What about the films you can't stand?
>I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
>the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
I actually don't really hate many film--I think a number of "great" films
are overrated though that's not the same as me hating them--and I'd rather
dwell on films I do like anyway. But since you ask, let me nominate "Taxi
Driver", if only for the fact that I watched it seven times trying to pin
down exactly what it was that I didn't like about it.
James R.
Mack Twamley
about the head and shoulders, but
SUNRISE.
I'd wanted to see this for decades, and was bitterly disappointed in it when
I finally did. I thought I might have been tired or in a bad mood, so I
watched it again a few months later. This time I was even more bored, but
soldiered on, all the way through.
and a few months later, almost knowing what the outcome would be, but hoping
against hope, I sat through it for the third time, trying to find some
redeeming value.
Nothin'. The only thing of interest I find about the whole enterprise was
the fact that on the first boat trip, hubby is rowing like hell, but the
water behind wifey is not even moving. I didn't even like Gaynor in it,
though I have enjoyed her in other pictures.
As a friend pointed out to me, if hubby had an ounce of sense he'd have
thanked the woman of the city for saving his wife's life with the reeds gag,
but no, he tries to choke her!
Sorry, but no more Sunrise for me.
BTW, I appreciate that someone didn't like Leaving Las Vegas. I wish I had
(left Las Vegas), in the middle, and requested a refund. Cage's worst
drunk imitation was pitiful, about like asking Dame May Whitty to snort coke
and dance on a tabletop. The kid never had anything stronger than Dr.
Pepper in his life, by his acting. I was almost moved to shout "So die
already!" as Elaine did in Seinfeld, subjected to The English Patient.
The film was shot in 16mm....it should have been super-8.
Bob Birchard
> I had this idea the other day.
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
>
> I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a list of
> the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
> I'll start. I only have five on my list. These are films I *really* have an
> intense visceral dislike for (and it's interesting to note that Stanley Kubrick
> has two films out of the five):
>
> 2001: A Space Odyssey
> American Beauty
> A Clockwork Orange
> Lawrence of Arabia
> Leaving Las Vegas
>
> Those are my choices. What are yours?
"Amadeus" A really bad movie all the way around and the filmmakers totaly missed
the point of the play. All the actors seem to be working in different movies, the
pedestrian visual style is masked by the fact that they hang a beautiful tapestry
on the wall behind every "talking head" close up, and even the music arrangements
and dancing are amateur night in Dixie. Milos Foreman should have stuck to modern
dress as in "Fireman's Ball" and "Taking Off"
"M*A*S*H" and everything else by Robert Altman, a maker of truly awful fiilms.
"The Strong Man" Kevin Brownlow thinks this is the greatest silent comedy ever
made, and it has never even made me crack a smile. I generally like Langdon and
like most of his other features well enough (except for "Three's a Crowd") but the
"The Strong Man" bites the weenie.
"Bite the Bullit" this one bites big time, too.
"The Wild Bunch" More forced laughter over stuff that isn't funny by a talented
cast that is completely wasted in this dull and largely incompetent mess.
"Red River" Howard Hawks could make great comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl
Friday," "Twentieth Century," et. al.) but with drama and Westerns he was strictly
from the corn. That awful scene in which Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru carry on
a philosophical discussion during an Indian attack is typical of the childish phony
heroics that marked Hawks at his worst.
"Zabriskie Point" the lowest spot in the U. S. serves as an appropriate name for
this p.o.s.
--
Bob Birchard
bbir...@earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm
ChaneyFan
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, I
can only respond, to each his own. You're clearly in a very very very small
minority.
To those who listed LEAVING LAS VEGAS...who ever said it was a great film?
This is a lousy film with a lousy reputation. Great? You're kidding!
My list:
LEAVES FROM SATAN'S BOOK (1921)
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)
THE BROADWAY MELODY (1928)
TALES OF HOFFMAN (1951)
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959)
L'AVVENTURA (1960)
ALPHAVILLE (1965)
REPULSION (1965)
THE SWIMMER (1968)
DEATH IN VENICE (1971)
PURPLE RAIN (1984)
WINGS OF DESIRE (1988)
THE CRUISE (1998)
LOVE IS THE DEVIL (1998)
CHOPPER (2000)
JESUS' SON (2000)
Anything with Joe Penner
Anything directed by Erich von Stroheim
Anything directed by Mike Leigh (except SECRETS AND LIES)
Anything directed by Ingmar Bergman
===============================
Jon Mirsalis
e-mail: Chan...@aol.com
Lon Chaney Home Page: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan
Jon's Film Sites: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan/jonfilm.htm
Tommie Hicks, Jr.
I have always thought CASABLANCA was overated. The same with GWTW.
On the silent side; when I see BIRTH OF A NATION mentioned, I always
wish that 15 reels of now lost silent film comedies would have
survived instead of this film.
Tommie Hicks
Philip
"Vitaphone" <vita...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20021114224338...@mb-mk.aol.com...
> SINGIN' IN THE RAIN: I loathe Gene Kelly, from his dimpled chin to his
> ballet-slipper clad toes. Then too, as could be expected, I feel this
film
> forever changed modern perception of early musicals and ushered in the
> still-popular cultural myth that all that's needed to represent "the
roaring
> 20's" either in film or culture is a beaded dress and a sequined headband
(with
> feather.)
Oddly, I enjoyed this film, but I just can't stand Kelly or Debbie Reynolds
or Donald O'Connor. Makes me think it must be a great film to overcome that
handicap, though I wouldn't watch it again in a hurry.
My list would have to include just about every Spielberg film since JAWS.
And FORREST GUMP. And a whole lot of others that I just don't want to think
about.
Eric Stott
"Tommie Hicks, Jr." wrote:
> BLASPHEMY WARNING!!
>
> I have always thought CASABLANCA was overated. The same with GWTW.
I still like Casablanca, but I lost my serious respect for it at a
college showing. By the end of the picture we were in hysterics each
time Bogart says "Here's Looking At YOU, Kid"
Honestly, I think "Cuddles" Sackall steals the picture in his scenes
with the couple who has "Learned English"
Eric Stott
Glamour Studios
> Barry Lyndon - "Barry" is my second favourite Kubrick film after "2001".
>
> James R
> (did his BA Honours thesis on Kubrick)
> --
Why, of COURSE it is, James.
(Archie smiles, condescendingly, with just a touch of pity in his eyes)
Archie Waugh
Robert Lipton
Glamour Studios wrote:
> 5) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - The ultimate Kevin Costner failure, even more
> than Waterworld, as it so perfectly showcases his inadequacies as a leading man.
> Another in a string of repellant revisionist treatments of historical/mythical
> characters, this is about as inept as they come. Costner is so utterly limp as the
> title character (think of the original Adventures of Robin Hood as it might play
> with Jimmy Stewart instead of Errol Flynn) that we are treated to the embarrassing,
> racist spectacle of Morgan Freeman giving a rally-the-peasants speech from a castle
> wall before the final battle: "Do it for Robin!!!!" I was half-expecting the
> peasants to shout back "Why the fuck should we???"
>
How could I forget this? Self-protection, I suppose.
>
> 3) Gladiator - Spectacularly shameless rip-off of Braveheart, without even a Mel to
> root for, only the glowering, loathesome Russell Crowe, whose off-screen assholery
> was rewarded in true Hollywood fashion with an Oscar ("He's a prick, so he MUST be
> cool!"). Did y'all hear about him getting his ass kicked in a London restaurant
> the other day? Deeeee-lightful.
> The acclaimed digital visual effects LOOKED like digital visual effects, so of
> course they got an Oscar too...special note should be made of the moron who
> discovered how to add (screamingly obvious) animated birds to the exterior shots of
> the Colluseum...he liked the effect so much, he did it EVERY SINGLE SCENE! I half
> expected Hitch and Tippi to appear in togas.
> Of course, leave it to dumb-ass Ridley to take the most historically interesting
> element of old gladiator movies, thinly-veiled homo-eroticism, and completely strip
> it out of the film. Since neurotic, insecure Crowe has such a crappy build, we
> were treated to only one mercifully brief bare-chested shot of him, and all the
> other men with better builds were kept firmly encased in heavy leather curasses,
> except for bodybuilder Ralph Meuller, who was cleverly concealed in shadow in all
> of his scenes, lest his award-winning physique steal any focus from the saggy
> Crowe.
> Joaquin Phoenix's demented performance was the only bearable element.
I don't loathe this, but it's simply ridiculous to me. I went to see it
at a preview and after a dynamite action opener, suddenly two men with
beard and weeping. After six months of this, I walk out. After it won
the Oscar, I rented the dvd. Fell asleep.
> 1) Barry Lyndon - Tom, however did you miss this nightmare? This is the ultimate
> Kubrick declaration of his loathing towards all humankind, made even more
> unbearable by the (admittedly hilarious) casting of a hopelessly out-classed Ryan
> O'Neal against a cast of the creme de la creme of Brit thesps. It just went
> on...and on....and on...! Three hours of still-life paintings with no life at all.
>
BARRY LYNDON strikes me as a movie that Kubrick didn't want to make.
He's finished 2001, he's sick and tired of making movies, and there the
exectives are, pounding on his door. "Hey, Stan baby, what project do
you want to make next?" Desperate to find something that a studio
executive will reject, he looks around his library and sees his set of
Thackeray. "I want to make BARRY LYNDON." "Whatever you say, Stan."
This is bad. So he starts adding conditions. "And no reconstructed
constumes. I want real antique clothes from the period." "We can do
that." "And I want to shoot it using only natural light, which means I
need a camera that can record by candlelight." "Zeiss just came up with
a new lens."
So, desperate, he come up with a condition they'll never meet: a real
dealbreaker. "And I want to star Ryan O'Neal."
Well, he had the contract, he cashed the check. He had to make the movie.
Bob
Glamour Studios
:-)
Archie Waugh
Rodney Sauer
(think of the original Adventures of Robin Hood as it might play
> with Jimmy Stewart instead of Errol Flynn)
Hey! That's "Jimmy Stewart instead of Douglas Fairbanks" on this
newgroup, buddy.
Rodney
Rodney Sauer
I'm not wild about Gene Kelly as an actor -- I thought his Three
Musketeers was just weird, like watching a musical comedy where suddenly
people are stabbed and lie dying in their blood -- but he's a very, very
impressive dancer. SINGIN IN THE RAIN is just so full of energy. I like it.
Rodney Sauer
rod...@mont-alto.com
The Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra
and The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
http://www.mo
R H Draney
news:3DD4F395...@nyc.rr.com:
> Glamour Studios wrote:
>
>> 1) Barry Lyndon - Tom, however did you miss this nightmare? This
>> is the ultimate Kubrick declaration of his loathing towards all
>> humankind, made even more unbearable by the (admittedly
>> hilarious) casting of a hopelessly out-classed Ryan O'Neal
>> against a cast of the creme de la creme of Brit thesps. It just
>> went on...and on....and on...! Three hours of still-life
>> paintings with no life at all.
>
> BARRY LYNDON strikes me as a movie that Kubrick didn't want to
> make. He's finished 2001, he's sick and tired of making movies,
> and there the exectives are, pounding on his door. "Hey, Stan
> baby, what project do you want to make next?" Desperate to find
> something that a studio executive will reject, he looks around his
> library and sees his set of Thackeray. "I want to make BARRY
> LYNDON." "Whatever you say, Stan."
Thinking, as we all did for a least a few moments, "political pictures
are big right now...why *not* a potboiler about the hidden side of the
1964 Presidential election?"...r
AAbrams0264
(yuck-jingoistic, homophobic, rah-rah, crap)
Feuillade
> An interesting idea, Tom...I will have to
> ponder a bit before making my choices
> (so many movies to hate, so little time...),
> but I have to admit that your revulsion at
> those two Kubrick pix has just raised your
> esteem in my eyes about 35%.
Good to know. :)
But keep in mind it's not movies that you don't like, but movies for which you
feel a real visceral loathing.
It's an important distinction.
Tom Moran
Feuillade
> To those who listed LEAVING LAS VEGAS... [...]
That would be me. :)
> who ever said it was a great film?
You'll notice that in the subject header "great" is in quotes.
I included it because it won multiple Oscars, and thus is in the "critically
esteemed and award-winning" category.
I just loathe it.
Tom Moran
Feuillade
> A PLACE IN THE SUN: Picks up a little in
> the second half, but still way overrated
> to me (though I'm not a big GIANT or SHANE
> fan either...I think George Stevens had
> "jumped the shark" by the early 40's).
"A Place in the Sun" is probably the last gasp from Stevens ("Giant" is only
watchable for James Dean).
Overrated? Yes, but watchable because of its stars.
> DR. ZHIVAGO: my mother made me see it
> every single theater revival in the 60's.
Stevens and Lean both were good directors before the war who became bloated
pretentious filmmakers after the war (didn't Andrew Sarris say this, more or
less?).
And while I can't say I like "Doctor Zhivago," I don;t have the deep-seated
revulsion for it that I have for the films I listed. I'd put Zhivago in the
"Gandhi" list. Don't like them, wouldn't sit through them, but can't say I
hate them.
Tom Moran
Matt Barry
think it all depends on whether or not you've seen the film before or
after it's been overhyped. For instance, when I first saw CITIZEN KANE
10 years ago all I knew was that it was supposed to be a good movie. I
now consider it to be the greatest film of all time. But if I had seen
it top one list after another and heard it overhyped as "the greatest
movie ever made" before seeing it, I know I would have been
disappointed. This happened recently when I finally got around to
seeing Preston Sturges' SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. I had heard this movie
being praised to death, and when I finally saw it, I have to admit I
was somewhat disappointed. But I know if I had seen it before hearing
all about it, I would have enjoyed it alot more.
vita...@aol.com (Vitaphone) wrote in message news:<20021114142510...@mb-dd.aol.com>...
> >What about the films you can't stand?
>
Personally, I think this is one of the few musicals I can actually
watch. I even found THE SOUND OF MUSIC (surely one of the most
overrated films of all time, but not necessarily a bad film) to be
hard to sit through at parts. But SINGIN' IN THE RAIN has enough
comedy, impressive choreography and memorable performances to put it
on my top 10. Not to mention a score of great songs!
> "Citizen Kane"
Like I said, this is my favorite film of all time from a technical
standpoint, and I also consider it to be the greatest ever made.
Incredible visuals that haven't been matched since, plus an
interesting combination of the film and theater/radio mediums.
Excellent performances, great dialogue, and probably Orson Welles'
best performance (tied with THE THIRD MAN).
> "Lawrence of Arabia"
Have you seen it in 70mm, though? I watched this on video several
years ago and wasn't too impressed, but I recently saw it at the
Senator Theater in Towson, in 70mm, and went back to see it three more
times. I would rank this as probably my second favorite film of all
time based on its acting, storytelling and technical achievements.
Definitely the most beautifully photographed film I've ever seen.
> "Modern Times"
Well, it was the first Chaplin film I ever saw so maybe that's why I
like this one so much. Not necessarily my favorite Chaplin film (that
would have to be CITY LIGHTS), but still one of his funniest and least
pretentious. This one is really more like a series of "incidents",
which is fun. It's also interesting how in a way this film was
inspired by the screwball comedies of the 30s (especially in the
casting of Paulette Goddard) The ending is really beautiful, too.
> "The Graduate"
I'm not a huge fan of this one. I really like Dustin Hoffman's
performance, as well as the dialogue, but this film seems somewhat
dated now. Not that I let that ruin it for me. Like I said, it's not
one of my very favorites but I don't dislike it either.
> "It's a Wonderful Life"
If CITIZEN KANE is my favorite film based on it's technical
achievments, then IT'S WONDERFUL LIFE is my favorite film based on the
sheer emotion it conveys to its audience still, half a century later.
I think IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is every bit as good as everyone says.
But I almost feel like it's only a fluke that this film is so popular
today. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it slipped into the
public domain thanks to an error in the copyright renewal, and there
was a glut of showings of this film on TV from the 1970s until
recently, when NBC started showing it only once a year. To show a film
that often just because you don't have to pay for it is a complete
disrespect to the original arists work (look at the way TNT runs A
CHRISTMAS STORY 24 hours a day on Christmas eve). But at the same
time, it created a huge audience who made this film a regular part of
their holidays. There are other Christmas movies (SCROOGE, MIRACLE ON
34th STREET, BABES IN TOYLAND) but none have even come close in
matching the audience dedication that IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE now
receives. I think in a way, there is alot more to this film than it's
annual viewers realize. Ironically, it was both Capra and Stewart's
favorite of their films, even before anyone has really "heard" of it.
In a way, this film almost trancends being just a "movie" and becomes
more a part of peoples' lives in a way I don't think any other movie
has before. I'd be very interested in hearing other people's opinions
on this one. For what it's worth I've heard more people consistently
rank IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE as their favorite film of all time than any
other.
> "Some Like It Hot"
I can see where a first time viewer who has heard it ceaselessly
advertised as the greatest comedy of all time might wonder what all
the praise is about. But there is something about this movie that
works so perfectly that it's still very popular 45 years after its
release. Despite your feelings about the rest of the film, you have to
admit that "Nobody's perfect" is the all time best ending line from
any movie.
> "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
I guess I'm biased since Capra is my personal favorite director. It's
very similar in its theme to MEET JOHN DOE. Capra definitely liked his
message pictures and this one is one the most relevant and strongest.
> "The Best Years of Our Lives"
Well, not one of my favorites but I can why this is seen as such a
landmark film. Compare it to other 1940s films about war and it treats
the subject with much more dignity, realism and respect than alot of
films of the period.
>
>
>
>
>
> ------
> "Are we late?" "Slide, and you'll make it."
> ON WITH THE SHOW! (WB-1929)
Matt
Feuillade
<snipsky>
> 1) Barry Lyndon - Tom, however did you
> miss this nightmare?
Ironically enough, this is just about the only Kubrick film (aside from "Dr.
Strangelove") that I actually like.
> This is the ultimate Kubrick declaration of
> his loathing towards all humankind, made
> even more unbearable by the (admittedly
> hilarious) casting of a hopelessly out-classed
> Ryan O'Neal [...]
Have to disagree here. I thought he held up quite well.
> [...] against a cast of the creme de la
> creme of Brit thesps. It just went on...and
> on....and on...! Three hours of still-life
> paintings with no life at all.
I would put it in the category of "Ivan the Terrible" and "Tokyo Story" of
films you have to work at. It doesn't come to you -- you have to come to it.
Many people don't want to make the effort.
I will say however that I think Kubrick blew it with his use of the zoom lens.
*Very* obtrusive and annoying. He should have known better (although Scorsese
defends it in the new Kubrick documentary, so maybe he knows more than I do).
Tom Moran
Brent Walker
<snip>
> "Red River" Howard Hawks could make great comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl
> Friday," "Twentieth Century," et. al.) but with drama and Westerns he was strictly
> from the corn.
TWENTIETH CENTURY is another one for my list. Barrymore and Lombard
annoy the hell out of me throughout the picture...even the few moments
where I can actually understand their dialog amongst all the
screaming. To me, the best ending would have been for the train they
were on to run off the tracks and intro the drink.
I think it was a poor casting choice to have two over-the-top actors
opposite each other, instead of one ham and one more low-key
performer. Lombard was much better with this type of high-strung
character two years later opposite the more subtle William Powell in
MY MAN GODFREY; Barrymore did better in a number of films with
actresses that could counterbalance him. I stop caring about their
characters about 10 minutes in on this one (and perhaps part of the
blame should go to Hecht & MacArthur as well). (Hawks did much better
with BRINGING UP BABY and HIS GIRL FRIDAY, both of which I really
enjoy. Of course both have Cary Grant, who's the perfect
counterweight to Hepburn's high-strungness in BABY--though I know some
people feel the same way about that film that I feel about TWENTIETH
CENTURY.)
Brent Walker
Karamzin
When joking about surefire hokum scenes in movies, Ed Bernds would
intone dramatically, "We'll always have Paris!"
Ed Watz
Brent Walker
> "Christopher Snowden" <unk...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:3DD3F005...@earthlink.net...
> > Feuillade wrote:
> >
> > > Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or
> films
> > > you love.
> > >
> > >
> list of
> > > the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
> >
>
>
> Don't know if this exactly fits your category, but...
>
> 2001: A Space Odyssey
> Close Encounters of the Third Kind
> Star Wars
> Star Wars II
> Star Wars III
> Star Wars IV
> Star Wars V ad infinitum....
>
> My point is that I can't stand sci-fi films, even when certain ones (like
> those above) are said to be among the "greatest" movies of all time. This
> is a true story: When I went to see Star Wars (the 1977 original), I fell
> asleep. ASLEEP! I was with my brother-in-law, and he had to shake me awake
> because I was snoring.
>
> Our wives weren't there, probably because they knew better than to waste
> their time watching a sci-fi picture. Anyway, I got a good snooze.
>
> Dan N.
I like very few science-fiction films that lack one of the three key
sci-fi ingredients for me: 1) giant insects/reptiles; 2) little green
men with bulbous heads; or 3) shrunken/enlarged people & animals.
(THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and many "Twilight Zone" episodes are
the exception.)
With that said, however, I did enjoy the first STAR WARS for reasons
completely unrelated to sci-fi or the special effects: the characters
were interesting. However, I can't say the same for any of the
sequels (though I haven't--and won't--see the newest one; my wife and
some friends dragged me to the PHANTOM MENACE at the $1 movies.
Fortunately, there was a guy behind keep a running wisecrack
commentary throughout the movie that was hilarious--without him, I
don't think I would have made it.
Brent Walker
Dan
comedy ever made. For me it is a film that thinks having a group of
hysterical characters chase each other around over a two hour period
is comedy. Maybe for some - but not me.
Precode
>
>
> "Bite the Bullit" this one bites big time, too.
>
> "The Wild Bunch" More forced laughter over stuff that isn't funny by a talented
> cast that is completely wasted in this dull and largely incompetent mess.
>
> "Red River" Howard Hawks could make great comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl
> Friday," "Twentieth Century," et. al.) but with drama and Westerns he was strictly
> from the corn. That awful scene in which Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru carry on
> a philosophical discussion during an Indian attack is typical of the childish phony
> heroics that marked Hawks at his worst.
>
Those are three of the best, IMHO; methinks you just don't like "A" westerns.
Mike S.
"It ain't like it used to be...but it'll do."--Edmond O'Brien in TWB
Precode
>
> Solaris
>
> That must have been about 16 hours long, and i had no idea what was going on
> except that everyone was terribly serious. They actually remade this?
>
Yes, I've seen it. It's only about 90 minutes long--but it FEELS like 165!
Mike S.
(so this is laris)
James L. Neibaur
>"A Day at the Races"
I thought I read that you liked that one. I am thinking about the passage in
the W&W book where you pointed out that you found Chico funnier than most Marx
fans. I thought you also indicated a preference to Races over the more lauded
ones.
Guess I'm wrong (again).
JN
Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:
my Favorite Movies web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/movies.html
and my Favorite Performers web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/rant.html
James L. Neibaur
LOL we are talking about "Great" films we hate. Which one is the "great" Joe
Penner film. I guess Go Chase Yourself, eh?
Rodney Sauer
That's odd. That's my line to my wife when the kids throw up or we drop
a bowl of spaghetti on the rug.
--Rodney
Brent Walker
The thing about Gene Kelly's acting to me is that there's always a
small underlying sense of melancholy coming through, intentional or
not, even when his character is supposed to be in an upbeat mood.
Which is what makes AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, where they're really aren't
any hugely upbeat MGM musical moments, very hard for me to take
(especially with bum-out king Oscar Levant also in the cast).
Unfortunately, the "great film noir musical" was never made, because
Kelly would have been perfect for the lead character.
Brent Walker
Max Nineteennineteen
10. Lifeboat. This is the dud in the classic Hitchcock era, a WWII
propaganda film by a master that can't quite reach the level of
believability in characterization achieved by Sherlock Holmes and the
Voice of Terror. The only good thing to come out of it is a great
anecdote (the one about makeup or hairdressing).
9. The Lost Weekend. Some good moments (Frank Faylen's terrific for
about ten lines) but overall it's a pill and Ray Milland is TERRIBLE.
He's as convincing a drunk as Paul Muni is a Chinaman. Which is why
they both won Oscars.
8. Shane. It's art. Why? Look, real mud! Look, slow pace! George
Stevens should have spent a few years second-uniting for Anthony Mann
or Budd Boetticher, he might have learned something about making
westerns without treating them like they're the greatest story ever
told.
7. A Place in the Sun. It's art. Why? Look, uh, it's based on a
serious book and has big stars! Look, slow pace! George Stevens
should have spent a few years second-uniting for Anthony Mann or
Joseph H. Lewis, he might have learned something about making films
noir without treating them like they're the greatest story ever told.
6. Gunga Din. Suppose Ben Hecht came up with the idea of giving
Kipling's story the plot of The Front Page. And then it wasn't until
shooting started that they realized no one had actually written a
script, so the director just kept the camera running while Cary Grant
and Victor McLaglen mugged, and mugged, and mugged.
5. Mon Oncle. Squeak! Whee-woo whee-woo whee-woo. Squeeeeeeeak!
Repeat one billion times.
4. Gigi. It's a musical about teaching a young girl to be a whore.
Am I the only who finds that offensive? Okay, even if I am, it's fake
French, fake sophistication, fake everything, and half the cast is
dubbed by Paul Frees. With movies like this, why did it take until
Star! and Paint Your Wagon for the musical to die?
3. Pelle the Conqueror. When anything bad can possibly happen to a
set of characters, it will. That's as unbelievable as the reverse.
2. Forrest Gump. Not just a pernicious work of rightwing claptrap
(it's one thing to take a rightwing view of the 60s-- easy, George--
and another to just flat out invent stuff, like Stripper-Folksingers,
to make every social change in the last 25 years look bad). But...
it's not funny. It's dumb. (See, honey, Forrest done invented the
Shit Happens bumpersticker, hyar hyar hyar!) And it's three
meandering, pointless hours of dumb. It makes you appreciate the
crisp satirical eye of That 70's Show. What could be more damning
than that?
And the winner is...
1. Wuthering Heights. The fairly good Laurence Olivier and the great
Geraldine Fitzgerald suck it under in a vanity production for some
producer's can't-act girlfriend. Characters sacrifice their own
happiness for no discernable reason. California doubles for Bronte's
wildly romantic England about as well as Yorkshire would have served
in Point Break.
Bert Laney
are some films which, I accept, are works of art. However, I happen to
personally hate them:
*Broken Blossoms - Giffith (1919). Makes Dickens look a Vulcan.
*The Passion of Joan of Arc - Dreyer (1928). The only phrase allowed
to be spoken on set: "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Dreyer." Great
for fans of facial warts and crazy googly eyes. Absolutely nothing
happens until the last ten minutes. Thank you Jon Mirsalis for
bringing some balance to the ams discussions of this film.
*Sullivan's Travels - Sturges (1942). Why Hollywood is better off
making mindless entertainment.
*Alphaville - Godard (1965). It may have seemed fresh in its day, and
it has some cute ideas, but today it just seems amateurish. Science
fiction done right requires more than all the pennies in the big jar
on your dresser for its special effects budget. I've seen better
cinematography on America's Funniest Home Videos.
*The Night Porter - Cavani (1974). Two people meet in a small hotel
room, then
spend the rest of the time in a small apartment. Little action, little
dialog. When you're supposed to read between the lines, there should
be some lines.
*Vagabond - Vardes (1985). My mind has blocked all memory of this film
to protect itself.
*A Taste of Cherry - Kirostami (1997). For two hours, a guy drives
around a desert looking for someone to bury him in a hole. Really.
Most films are intended as entertainment rather than art. I tend not
to really and truly hate these films, even if at the time I thought my
head would explode from boredom or irritation. These pop-culture films
bother me to the extent that people try to turn them into something
more than what they really are.
*The Marriage Circle - Lubitsch (1924)
*The Thief of Bagdad - Walsh (1924)
*The Blue Gardenia - Lang (1953)
*Kiss Me Deadly - Aldrich (1955)
*Night of the Hunter - Laughton (1955)
*The Searchers - John Ford (1956)
*The Manchurian Candidate(1962)
*Shock Corridor - Fuller (1963)
*Fatal Attraction - Lyne (1987)
*Anything by Paul Leni
*Anything by Douglas Sirk
*Anything by Gerard Depardieu
*Anything by Steven Spielberg (an easy target I know, but his films
show up on so many top 100 lists)
Just so this isn't totally negative, here's a few "great" films which
are not widely recognized as such.
*The Indian Tomb - May (1921).
*Faust - Murnau (1926)
*The Love of Jeanne Ney - Pabst (1927)
*Hangmen Also Die - Fritz Lang (1943). The only film I've seen after
Lang arrived in the US where he was allowed to use his silent-era
style. I just don't think Lang was a great director working in any
other style. Perhaps he got away with it under the cover of
over-the-top WWII propaganda, which this is.
*Anything by Orson Welles - "The Trial," "Othello," and even "The
Stranger" are all great films. I get so tired of hearing that only
"Citizen Kane" is great.
So many of the great films lists are nothing more than Hollywood
trying desperately to pretend they've made artistically-significantly
films when really they've just made entertainment. For most of its
history, getting an art film from Hollywood is about as likely as
getting a filet mignon from McDonalds - when it does happen, you have
to wonder how and why.
Bert Laney
P.S. I agree with Jon Mirsalis about Erich von Stroheim but am too
cowardly to put him on my official list.
Precode
Okay, them's fightin' words, mister! You, me, pistols in the bois at
dawn tomorrow!
Mike S.
"It is typical of my career that in the great crises of my life, I
should be surrounded by in-com-po-tent al-co-hol-ics."--JB in TC
Glamour Studios
his equally annoying boyfriend) necessarily "homophobic", any more than I would
consider a movie that has one evil black character "racist". Sometimes these
things are merely story devices, not statements of political or social
significance.
To me, the king's gay son in Braveheart is merely a spoof of Prince Herbert in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail!
As to being jingoistic or rah-rah crap, I'd say no more so that Errol Flynn's
Adventures of Robin Hood or, for that matter, any movie about a nationalist hero.
Sorry, but tree-hugging one-world-ism just can't be expected from films set in
pre-twenty-first century times.
Archie Waugh,
who thinks Braveheart more than makes up for any perceived homophobia by being
decidedly homoerotic!
Glamour Studios
Hood".
Let's not mix our decades, they screw up the metaphors.
If it was "Robin Hood", think Conrad Nagel instead of Doug Fairbanks.
AW
Glamour Studios
Rodney Sauer wrote:
> I thought his Three
> Musketeers was just weird, like watching a musical comedy where suddenly
> people are stabbed and lie dying in their blood -
Oh? You mean like West Side Story?
Archie Waugh
flatheadmt
PARK...
I know, Altman is mentioned, but this film needs its own catagory in the
Death by Film arena.
Norm
"Feuillade" <feui...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20021114114050...@mb-mu.aol.com...
> I had this idea the other day.
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or
films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
>
> I think it might be interesting (and certainly revealing) to compile a
list of
> the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
> I'll start. I only have five on my list. These are films I *really* have
an
> intense visceral dislike for (and it's interesting to note that Stanley
Kubrick
> has two films out of the five):
>
> 2001: A Space Odyssey
> American Beauty
> A Clockwork Orange
> Lawrence of Arabia
> Leaving Las Vegas
>
> Those are my choices. What are yours?
>
>
> Tom Moran
>
>
Robert Lipton
Max Nineteennineteen wrote:
> My Bottom 10:
> 5. Mon Oncle. Squeak! Whee-woo whee-woo whee-woo. Squeeeeeeeak!
> Repeat one billion times.
>
Thanks for reminding me. Anything by Tati. THat brings us back to
silent films. I cannot begin to describe my utter boredom with Tati. I
keep looking for something.... something.... anything. This is a
comedy, isn't it? Doesn't that mean there will be something funny?
God! No wonder the French think Jerry Lewis is a genius.
Bob
Greta de Groat
most of the other post 1960 films mentioned, but admittedly most sound dismal.
greta (yes, and used to like Masterpiece Theater too when they would tell
stories in 13 episodes instead of two and hired actors who didn't blubber)
Eric Stott
Robert Lipton wrote:
I alugh at Tati, but sometimes I think I laugh at the ideas behind the gags
rather than the gags themselves. Sometimes he's great- his run through a
house with a load of luggage in HULOT is flawlessly executed- then again,
Jerry Lewis has his isolated briliant gags. Tati is dated- a number of his
jokes are based on a society that is deader to us than the 20's. I HAVE
laughed out loud at JOUR DE FETE, but that isn't typical Tati.
Eric Stott
Glamour Studios
sit through it again, but I am somehow not surprised that it's the one Kubrick
film I most loathe, and you liked it.
Second on my list is The Shining, only because I spent 48 hours speed-reading the
book in anticipation of the film; I loved the book, and was disgusted with what
Kubrick did to it...he took the characters, the set-up, and threw away the
narrative in favor of his own bullshit. And what was clever about casting
Nicholson as a guy slowly going crazy? He looks nuts from the very first frame!
By the end, it's silly self-parody. And Shelley Duval, who I am sure is a very
nice lady, is about the worst actress in movie history, even worse than Mary
Philbin...Kubrick's attempt to make her ineptitude and her annoying personality
work on some level of knowing amateurness completely fails for me. It's another
example of a film where Kubrick really wasn't interested in the people at all,
preferring to explore the hotel as a character. On that, I will give him
credit...nice job. Remind me in another 20 years to watch a movie where the main
character is a building.
But my main reason for posting again was to bring up the issue of Great Awful
films...there seems to have been a lack of clarity in the group as to whether this
applied specifically to silents, or just to films in general. Sine all my picks
were talkies, I will veer back toward topic by listing my most loathed "great"
silents:
1) Dreyer's Joan of Arc or whatever the hell it's called. Excrutiating. Some
agree, some disagree, and the reasons have been stated, mosty effectively by Dr.
Mirsalis.
2) Gee, you know what? That's all I could come up with. Most of the "great"
silents that survive really do have something to offer, and none have actually
offended me on a gut level. I'm not wild about a lot of Russian and French stuff,
but at least most of it is interesting and experimental, but I don't think I've
ever seen another major silent that I could really foam at the mouth over.
Whoops! My Bad!
3) Oh, except for Harold Lloyd's "Safety First" - that really stunk up the joint;
the sequel, "Safety Last" is much better.
Archie Waugh
James Russell
Or "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut"?
James R.
(blame Canada!)
--
Hot Buttered Death http://hotbuttereddeath.blogspot.com/
Celluloid Dreams: Wednesday, 8pm AEST, 2SER 107.3 FM http://www.2ser.com/
Your Pal Brian
> > Barry Lyndon - "Barry" is my second favourite Kubrick film after "2001".
>
>
> Why, of COURSE it is, James.
> (Archie smiles, condescendingly, with just a touch of pity in his eyes)
Let them laugh that win.
Brian
James L. Neibaur
It isn't the great unwashed of France, it is people like Godard and Truffaut
who branded Lewis with that "genius" thingy. It was usually within the context
of pretentious essays in Cahiers du Cinema.
But garnering the respect of Chaplin, Keaton, and Stan Laurel carries a little
more weight.
JN
(who doesn't mind Mon Oncle, but did hate Jour de Fete)
Your Pal Brian
> Since all my picks
> were talkies, I will veer back toward topic by listing my most loathed "great"
> silents:
What about your old favorite Salt For Svanetia?
Brian (Whose favorite Kubrick films are Barry Lyndon and The Shining (which is a
comedy, by the way))
Your Pal Brian
> Second, I must confess to never seeing a David Wark Griffith picture I
> actually liked. I may have seen only three of his pictures but these
> are the BIG 3 pictures on which his reputation is based: Birth of a
> Nation, Intolerance, and Broken Blossems. Beyond a purely academic
> understanding of Griffith's contributions to film history, these
> pictures fail to engage me. Besides the blatant racism of BOAN, his
> overwrought intertitles repulse me in a strong visceral manner.
Me too. I've never actually finished a Griffith.
Brian
Your Pal Brian
> *Anything by Orson Welles - "The Trial," "Othello," and even "The
> Stranger" are all great films. I get so tired of hearing that only
> "Citizen Kane" is great.
"Now I’m going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to
cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. No, said the frog, no
think you; if I let you on my back you may sting me, and the sting of a
scorpion is death. Now where - asked the scorpion - is the logic in
that? For scorpions will try to be logical. If I sting you you will die,
and I will drown. The frog was convinced and allowed the scorpion on his
back, but just in the middle of the river he felt a terrible pain and
realized that after all, the scorpion had stung him. Logic, cried the
dying frog as he started under bearing the scorpion with him, there is no
logic in this! I know, said the scorpion, but I can’t help it -- it is my
character."
Let's add Mr. Arkadin to the list.
Brian
James Roots
> On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 23:48:57 GMT, Glamour Studios <glam...@gte.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>Rodney Sauer wrote:
>>
>>> I thought his Three
>>> Musketeers was just weird, like watching a musical comedy where suddenly
>>> people are stabbed and lie dying in their blood -
>>
>>Oh? You mean like West Side Story?
>
> Or "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut"?
>
> James R.
> (blame Canada!)
Fellow Canadians, please note: the "James R." who posted this
despicable racist assault on our country is a raving loony bastard
in Australia, not the delightful and demure James R. who lives
in Ottawa.
As for you, Russell, just don't skate into the corner boards
with your head down. Got me, punk?
Jim,
sharpening his elbow pads.
Paul Penna
<est...@localnet.com> wrote:
> Tati is dated- a number of his
> jokes are based on a society that is deader to us than the 20's.
Hence the widespread indifference to films of that era on this
newsgroup?
--
Paul Penna
Edbina
Wheeler & Woolsey book about "A Day at the Races":
"The Marx film, with its big-budgeted gloss and MGM hype, predictably emerged
as the hit comedy of the [Summer 1937] season. Today 'A Day at the Races'
seems unfunny and pretentious, an overblown melange of mediocre routines
performed by the Marxes in calculated slow motion."
Chico is indeed my favorite Marx brother, but his parity matching wits with
Groucho gradually vanishes as the MGM years dragged on (with the exception of
RKO's ROOM SERVICE in the middle of their MGM period, in which Chico gets to
say most of the film's best lines. The only problem here is that it's still
ROOM SERVICE!).
Ed Watz
Chico Marx Society, local 12
"Send a Pastrami to your boy in the Army"
Stephen Cooke
It's funny, I've heard that scorpion tale quoted in a bunch of different
movies recently, including Blake Edwards' Skin Deep (I forget what some of
the other ones were). Was Arkadin the first time it was used?
swac
Edbina
jimn...@aol.comomomomo (James L. Neibaur) wrote in message
news:<20021115162608...@mb-mt.aol.com>...
> Ed stated:
>
> >"A Day at the Races"
>
> I thought I read that you liked that one. I am thinking about the passage in
> the W&W book where you pointed out that you found Chico funnier than most
Marx
> fans. I thought you also indicated a preference to Races over the more
lauded
> ones.
>
> Guess I'm wrong (again).
>
> JN
Hey Jim boss, atsa no problem! Here's what Eddie Watz (whoz?) says in his
William Hooper
>
>> *Anything by Orson Welles - "The Trial," "Othello," and even "The
>> Stranger" are all great films. I get so tired of hearing that only
>> "Citizen Kane" is great.
>
>"Now I’m going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to
>cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. No, said the frog, n
o
>think you; if I let you on my back you may sting me, and the sting of a
>scorpion is death. Now where - asked the scorpion - is the logic in
>that? For scorpions will try to be logical. If I sting you you will d
ie,
>and I will drown. The frog was convinced and allowed the scorpion on h
is
>back, but just in the middle of the river he felt a terrible pain and
>realized that after all, the scorpion had stung him. Logic, cried the
>dying frog as he started under bearing the scorpion with him, there is
no
>logic in this! I know, said the scorpion, but I can’t help it -- it is
my
>character."
ROFLMAO!!!!
"Comedy is character."
-- Lee Strasberg
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Article poste via Voila News - http://www.news.voila.fr
Le : Sat Nov 16 06:12:05 2002 depuis l'IP : host-209-214-45-29.mob.bellsouth.net [VIP 9946225]
Red Molly
> my
>>character."
Reminds me how much I liked "Crying Game." (Enough to try to write a paper on
it- on the poor media images of Republican women. Or, as my prof has termed it-
"Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS")
I still can't stand Wizard of Oz. I hate Judy Garland.
Thin Red Line- Right out. I can't see where it got any critical praise at all.
And Gladiator almost killed me. When I wasn't laughing myself sick.
There are others which are an effort to watch- not that I hate them, I just
avoid them if possible.
M
Joseph Goodman
>
> My point is that I can't stand sci-fi films,
> is a true story: When I went to see Star Wars (the 1977 original),
There's your first mistake, thinking that "Star Wars" is in any way a
science fiction picture!
Glamour Studios
Your Pal Brian wrote:
> Glamour Studios wrote:
>
> > Since all my picks
> > were talkies, I will veer back toward topic by listing my most loathed "great"
> > silents:
>
> What about your old favorite Salt For Svanetia?
the topic was supposedly GREAT silents...I don't think anyone seriously thinks
that...
> Brian (Whose favorite Kubrick films are Barry Lyndon and The Shining (which is a
> comedy, by the way))
Oh, is THAT what it is?
Archie Waugh
TJNORT
of the border the way he did in VERA CRUZ, GARDEN OF EVIL and THEY CAME TO
CORDURA.
Think about it.
RED RIVER always seemed to me to carry a bit too much of that MUTINY ON THE
BOUNTY-but-gone-soft-at-the-end ballast for my taste. Frankly it would have
been a better movie if it had taken aboard some of BILLY BUDD's cargo. (With a
Robert Ryan in the Wayne part, you wouldn't have had that nonsense of a
reconciliation ending -- Dunsan would have remained a Claggart to the end.)
Montgomery Clift would almost certainly have made a better prairie Billy Budd
than he did a landbound Fletcher Christian. Harry Carey, Sr. as a frontier
version of Captain Vere, anyone?
Haven't seen BITE THE BULLET.
> Hate
>From: michael_s...@spe.sony.com (Precode)
>Date: 11/15/02 10:42 AM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <9e5627eb.02111...@posting.google.com>
>
>Bob Birchard <bbir...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
>news:<3DD4B297...@earthlink.net>...
>>
>>
>> "Bite the Bullit" this one bites big time, too.
>>
>> "The Wild Bunch" More forced laughter over stuff that isn't funny by a
>talented
>> cast that is completely wasted in this dull and largely incompetent mess.
>>
>> "Red River" Howard Hawks could make great comedies ("Bringing Up Baby,"
>"His Girl
>> Friday," "Twentieth Century," et. al.) but with drama and Westerns he was
>strictly
>> from the corn. That awful scene in which Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru
>carry on
>> a philosophical discussion during an Indian attack is typical of the
>childish phony
>> heroics that marked Hawks at his worst.
>>
>
>Those are three of the best, IMHO; methinks you just don't like "A" westerns.
>
>Mike S.
>
>"It ain't like it used to be...but it'll do."--Edmond O'Brien in TWB
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Brent McKee
"Feuillade" <feui...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20021114114050...@mb-mu.aol.com...
> I had this idea the other day.
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite
films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
People keep telling me that "Being There" is a great movie. I can't
see it myself. In my view it suffers from two major flaws -- Peter
Sellers (in his dotage) is in it and it is relentlessly pretentious.
I think I put Sellers' presence as the major irritant actually -- I
like Sellers in the Ealing comedies and some of his stuff he starred
in during the early 1960s but as he went on I became increasingly like
Herbert Lom in the "Pink Panther" movies.
--
Brent McKee
To reply by e-mail, please remove the capital letters (S and N) from
the email address
"If we cease to judge this world, we may find ourselves, very quickly,
in one which is infinitely worse."
- Margaret Atwood
"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more
constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of
openness to novelty. "
- Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)
Bob Birchard
> Bob Birchard <bbir...@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<3DD4B297...@earthlink.net>...
> >
> >
> > "Bite the Bullit" this one bites big time, too.
> >
> > "The Wild Bunch" More forced laughter over stuff that isn't funny by a talented
> > cast that is completely wasted in this dull and largely incompetent mess.
> >
> > "Red River" Howard Hawks could make great comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl
> > Friday," "Twentieth Century," et. al.) but with drama and Westerns he was strictly
> > from the corn. That awful scene in which Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru carry on
> > a philosophical discussion during an Indian attack is typical of the childish phony
> > heroics that marked Hawks at his worst.
> >
>
> Those are three of the best, IMHO; methinks you just don't like "A" westerns.
Oh, I don't know about that. I love The Searchers, The Big Country, How the West Was Won, Union
Pacific, The Big Trail, Cimarron (1931), The Anthony Mann/Randolph Scott pictures--especially
Comanche Station (though these might be considered "nervous A's"), Unforgiven, The Shootist,
Stagecoach, Destry Rides Again (1939), Law and Order, and on and on.
--
Bob Birchard
bbir...@earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm
Brent McKee
"Patrick McCart" <pmc...@tds.net> wrote in message
news:umVA9.11840$Hs2.1...@kent.svc.tds.net...
> Here's a list with a detailed explaination:
>
> The Jazz Singer
>
> Al Jolson is great in the film, but other than that, it's a boring
movie.
> It's a pity they didn't make a movie more suited for Jolson's talent
rather
> than making such a unbelivable movie. That being said, I'm sure the
Neil
> Diamond remake is a lot worse. In fact...skip this movie and watch
the WB
> cartoon, I Love To Singa which is a lot more enjoyable.
Not in any way trying to dissuade you from your opinion, mainly
because I generally agree, but "The Jazz Singer" was a _major_
Broadway hit when Warner Brothers decided to put it on film. Don't
ask me why it was a big hit -- I find the story schmaltzy and paper
thin -- but it was. The two remakes -- there was one with Danny
Thomas and Peggy Lee from 1953 -- don't do anything to improve things.
The only good thing I can say about the Neil Diamond version is that
Lucie Arnaz is in it, and I've always had a big soft spot for her.
ChaneyFan
Joe
Penner film. I guess Go Chase Yourself, eh?
I put this in tongue-in-cheek. But I'll add that my Dad tells me how
incredibly popular Penner was in the 30s and how hilarious he was. I know you
can't judge a radio star from movies (case in point...Fibber McGee and
Molly...great on radio, awful in movies), but I find him to be the working
definition of unbearable.
===============================
Jon Mirsalis
e-mail: Chan...@aol.com
Lon Chaney Home Page: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan
Jon's Film Sites: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan/jonfilm.htm
PT Caffey
> I had this idea the other day.
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
>
> the so-called "great" films that people just can't stand.
>
Tom, great idea for a list! I personally despise silent films
generally and, each night, pray to the gods of nitrate film stock to
HURRY UP, ALREADY! DESTROY YOURSELVES! Who isn't thrilled by the
idea of noxious, cartoonish, sepia-tinged silent performances rotting
away inside aluminum tins? We all should be; dust is a must. I
concede that a handful of fans may still swoon over such buffoonish
offal--witness the recent mass delusion in the wake of the hilariously
awful London After Midnight "reconstruction." But, deep down,
everyone knows how little silent films have to offer. Bubblegum
comics have had a more profound impact on our culture. I'm just sorry
to see dvd's of Griffith, Browning, Chaney, Keaton, Chaplin, Murnau
and fellow hacks made available. I hope, at least, that Harold Lloyd
is allowed to sink into the inky folds of the infinite curtain without
last-minute intervention. Do not resuscitate!
Thank goodness that members of youthful generations reveal no
discernible interest in films lacking sound. With a few decades of
such neglect, silent film fandom will be snuffed like polio.
I hate 2001, too! Monkeys throwing bones? What's up with that?
Eric Stott
Brent McKee wrote:
> "Feuillade" <feui...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20021114114050...@mb-mu.aol.com...
> > I had this idea the other day.
> >
> > Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite
> films or films
> > you love.
> >
> > What about the films you can't stand?
>
> People keep telling me that "Being There" is a great movie. I can't
> see it myself. In my view it suffers from two major flaws -- Peter
> Sellers (in his dotage) is in it and it is relentlessly pretentious.
> I think I put Sellers' presence as the major irritant actually -- I
> like Sellers in the Ealing comedies and some of his stuff he starred
> in during the early 1960s but as he went on I became increasingly like
> Herbert Lom in the "Pink Panther" movies.
>
> --
> Brent McKee
It was funny when it was new, but it's dead as a mackerel now.
Eric Stott
James Russell
>Fellow Canadians, please note: the "James R." who posted this
>despicable racist assault on our country is a raving loony bastard
>in Australia,
Well I'm sure anyone who's noted my recent advocacy of "Salt For Svanetia"
and "Barry Lyndon" in this forum have already worked that out for
themselves.
>not the delightful and demure James R. who lives
>in Ottawa.
No comment from me...
>As for you, Russell, just don't skate into the corner boards
>with your head down. Got me, punk?
Punk? I'm not punk, I'm post-punk. I'm so post-punk I'm almost goth (that
Joy Division T-shirt gives me away every time...)
>Jim,
>sharpening his elbow pads.
James R.,
still blaming Canada; after all, which country gave the world Bryan Adams
and Celine Dion?
James L. Neibaur
>as the hit comedy of the [Summer 1937] season. Today 'A Day at the Races'
>seems unfunny and pretentious, an overblown melange of mediocre routines
>performed by the Marxes in calculated slow motion."
I probably read another book around the same time in which an author mentioned
a preference for Races, and then misremembered that you had not cared for it.
I'm getting older much too quickly.
Thanks for clarification.
JN
James L. Neibaur
>incredibly popular Penner was in the 30s and how hilarious he was.
My Dad tells me that too.
However the fact that Penner actually died young because he realized how much
he sucked is proof that audiences of the 30s can indeed be wrong.
James Russell
wrote:
>Brian (Whose favorite Kubrick films are Barry Lyndon and The Shining (which is a
>comedy, by the way))
Comedy? I thought it was supposed to be a western...
James R.
(you think I'm joking, don't you?)
Donna Hill
>
> Everyone (myself included) makes lists of great films, favorite films or films
> you love.
>
> What about the films you can't stand?
A Streetcar Named Desire
Dr. Zhivago
My Man Godfrey
Giant
Annie Hall
Nashville
Of course, on the other side of the coin, what I consider to be one of
the most *really bad* and really stupid films of all time, I
absolutely love, Casino Royale.
Go figure
Donna Hill
Gary
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I don't think any explanation is required
Your Pal Brian
>
> > "Now I’m going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to
> > cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. No, said the frog, no
> > think you; if I let you on my back you may sting me, and the sting of a
> > scorpion is death. Now where - asked the scorpion - is the logic in
> > that? For scorpions will try to be logical. If I sting you you will die,
> > and I will drown. The frog was convinced and allowed the scorpion on his
> > back, but just in the middle of the river he felt a terrible pain and
> > realized that after all, the scorpion had stung him. Logic, cried the
> > dying frog as he started under bearing the scorpion with him, there is no
> > logic in this! I know, said the scorpion, but I can’t help it -- it is my
> > character."
>
> It's funny, I've heard that scorpion tale quoted in a bunch of different
> movies recently, including Blake Edwards' Skin Deep (I forget what some of
> the other ones were). Was Arkadin the first time it was used?
So far as I know. Welles claimed he learned the fable directly from an ancient
Chinese in Shanghai or Singapore or Rangoon or some such place, but that sounds
like the kind of story he liked to make up.
Brian