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Last Active 07-10-16 10:28 am
Joined 06-14-14
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| Awesome Movies, Vol. VII
Movie trek into darkness. | | 1 |  | John Williams
Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars: An easy choice, but a complicated one all the same due to the tragically misguided prequels that somehow hinder the original three films simplicity. Of course picking three films is sort of a cheat, so, if I had to pick one, I'd choose Star Wars (or A New Hope, as it's now forever known as). While The Empire Strikes Back is undeniably phenomenal in every conceivable way, this original is a true inspiration for what was eventually achieved under such a harsh working environment. Disagreements, egos, unwillingness to change, all of these things had a sour effect on the principal photography of the film, but, like Apocalypse Now, it somehow turned out alright in the end. Why? Simply because films are a team-effort and some men, like George Lucas, try too hard to do EVERYTHING, EVERY WAY they want. What Lucas didn't understand is that the prequels sucked because he had no one to bounce these great ideas off of, instead, he was a one man army and the films suffered for his unfocused efforts, whereas the originals had a sense of wonder to them because they were subdued and left a lot to the imagination. Alike so many others before me, Star Wars opened up my imagination, it showed me that films can be as bold as you can imagine, and also that ideas need to be shared and debated in order to make something truly special (as opposed to being shared and saying "okay" to EVERYTHING). F@#$ you, Rick Berman. | | 2 |  | Electric Light Orchestra
Out of the Blue
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Incredibly fascinating film from Michel Gondry. Clearly Christopher Nolan was inspired by this film when it came to his own dream-based opus, but, somehow, it's a smaller-scaled film here that leaves the biggest impact. Strangely simple, yet extremely complex and unforgettable, this film is a brilliant look inside a crumbling relationship and how time will always be a full-circle no matter how hard we try to change it. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are fantastic as Joel and Clementine respectively, each having their own quirks and all-around charms, each one leading the other to want to completely erase them from their memories. However, when Joel discovers the truth while being under, he tries his best to forego the procedure, leading to some amazingly well-crafted dream sequences that are some of the most imaginative moments ever presented on the big-screen. This is an excellent romantic-comedy that goes above and beyond the call of duty, making you wholeheartedly care about the people interspersed throughout this utterly fascinating story about the act of forgetting. | | 3 |  | Redwood Hill
Descender
Ed Wood: Tim Burton's masterpiece. While Beetlejuice and Batman were also masterpieces, neither of them felt as personal as this biopic did. Burton works brilliantly well with odd characters, and Edward D. Wood Jr. is no exception. He's a cross-dressing, super naive filmmaker who simply loves movies so much that he's just happy to be there, shooting whatever, no matter what goes wrong (for instance, actors bumping into sets, phony looking props, overacting, among a plethora of other things). Though Ed Wood's real-life films were "so bad they're good", this loving, respectful adaptation makes the films of Ed Wood out to be something special, as they were from an artist who all-around loved the art of film and worked his tail off to try and get his own imagination up there on the big-screen where he had seen so many other greats before him (most notably Orson Wells, who makes a cameo in the film, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, who looks exactly like the real-life legend during his early years). Overall, this is a phenomenal film with outstanding performances from Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Jones, and so many others, giving this film another level of heart and soul that couldn't have been any more perfect than it already is. | | 4 |  | Moby
Everything is Wrong
Heat: Wow. Nothing beats the first-time I saw this film, having been familiar with the legendary dinner scene already, I was expecting something pretty good, if not somewhat disappointing. Thankfully I was wrong on all accounts, this film blew me away with how short it felt, at an epic near-3 hour runtime, the film wastes not a single minute on being mundane or unfocused. It's always on the move, a cat-and-mouse film where the roles keep on switching, the hunters become the prey, and so on and so forth. Throughout the film, there's an overarching sense of dread that is left to linger on and on until the bitter end where you want neither man to die, but you know that one of them has to go down, because that's how the game is played and there's no escaping that. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are easily the stand-out performers here, they steal every single scene and leave you wanting more and more, but the supporting cast is nothing to shake off either. Ted Levine, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria, Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, William Fichtner, even a young Natalie Portman help to make this film a star-studded masterpiece through-and-through. This is first-class action filmmaking at its finest, a film I will never stop loving. | | 5 |  | Stevie Wonder
Talking Book
The Thing: Easily the best creature effects ever captured on film, John Carpenter and company present a haunting, bone-chilling adventure that never fails to leave you shaken, hanging by the edge of your seat. It's hard to think of much to say about this film, to put it simply, it's just a horror masterpiece, pure and simple. The synth-score is just as classic as Halloween's, Kurt Russell is a bad-ass leading character, taking charge at almost every turn, keeping you steady and along for the harrowing ride. There are so many great factors that make this film a classic, but the creature effects alone make it impossible to ever shake from your memory. The Thing itself is a terrifying creation, unpredictable, ever-changing and impossible to pin down, there's always something new to discover about this creature and the same could be said for the excellent film as well. To think this ever flopped at the theatres is a shame, but we can forever thank E.T. for that. While that film is a definite classic in of itself, I'd be willing to argue with anyone that The Thing is, by far, the much better film. | |
riffariffic7
02.13.15 | So many other possibilities for the films I could have finished off with, but I'm happy with these ones as they're the ones that have stuck with me the most throughout the years. A couple I was sad to have missed include: Ratatouille, [*REC], Limitless, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Full Metal Jacket, Lost Highway, The Fly, Harsh Times, Training Day, The Godfather, The Fugitive, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, The Fog, Halloween, Toy Story, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Casino Royale, The Ghost Writer, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Commando, Total Recall, Alien, Aliens, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Memento, and too many others to keep track of. There sure are a whole lot of great films out there. | TedSchmosby
02.13.15 | charlie kaufman is my man | Rik VII
02.13.15 | Heat is one of the greatest movies of all time, agreed. | BSS
02.13.15 | 2 and 5 are probably in my top 10, great list | Crymsonblaze
02.13.15 | Never seen heat or ed wood (although burton was great until about mars attacks so it probably rocks), but 1, 2, and 5 are tops | porcupinetheater
02.13.15 | Definitely some good stuff here (from all 7 in general), but you definitely got to take in some more European stuff (outside British productions). The only one I saw the list over was [Rec], and it technically didn't even make the list | riffariffic7
02.13.15 | Yeah, I definitely missed a lot of great films. The Intouchables, Downfall, In Bruges, Pan's Labyrinth and Léon: The Professional are some of the best European films that I've seen (same with [*REC], which is easily my favourite found-footage film). Another film I failed to list is an Australian film known as Animal Kingdom, one of the most unpredictable and brutal films I've seen in years. Such a bleak film, but it's so great because of it. | Silvius
02.13.15 | Has anyone seen Fifty Shades of Grey yet? | riffariffic7
02.13.15 | Haha, I might see it with the girlfriend. But I'm more interested in seeing Kingsman though. That film looks like a lot of fun, whereas Fifty Shades of Grey looks kind of dull and pandering. I don't mind watching these type of sleazy, trashy films once in a while, but Fifty Shades of Grey seems like it's too manufactured to give a damn about, it's simply been made to make a lot of money and nothing else. | Silvius
02.13.15 | 'He touched his chin with his long, skilled fingers' | riffariffic7
02.13.15 | How charming. | DominionMM1
02.13.15 | http://www.theonion.com/video/the-onion-reviews-fifty-shades-of-grey,37998/ | Crymsonblaze
02.13.15 | 50 shades looks pretty funny, the gf and i have already planned to go laugh at it tomorrow |
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