Movies You Haven't Watched

Reply #31 posted 08/04/18 6:12am

damosuzuki

ufoclub said:

kpowers said:

In what way?

It is not constructed in Hollywood entertainment fashion. It has that radical 70's documentary feel that was carried over to fantasy and scifi back then. The actors and characterization are straight out of Robert Altman.

Alien presents many scenes almost quiely and lyrically. The score is normally quite understated and experimental (there are moments towards the end where is goes full Hollywood bombastic melodrama). The editing style and the way characters are framed is natural, not like the suspense building candystore vocabulary and cues of the sequel...

It's very easy to see the difference between ALIEN and the immediate sequel ALIENS which is completely Hollywood (American pop cinema) in the way it presents the narrative, is edited, is characterized, scored, and structured. ALIENS even had a fakeout dream sequence which goes completely against the naturalistic rules of the first one. The idea of a dream sequence is a narrative contrivance that spotlights audience manipulation and storytelling as opposed to an observational experience of a less audience sweetened film.

Let me post the title sequences which also illustrate what I mean:

Also let me post the difference in style of each films featured chesburster scene:

Feel the difference? Alien is not user friendly Hollywood spoonfed narrative. Aliens is.

great post.
if i remember correctly, scott has said that he was very influenced by the texas chainsaw massacre, and i've always viewed alien in that light - as a perfectly made, controlled slasher. it's one of my favourite films.

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Reply #32 posted 08/04/18 6:35am

damosuzuki

there are tons of classic films i haven't seen. i worked my way through about half of the sight & sound top 250 list in the 2nd half of 2017, and i'm planning to take another run at it starting in september or october.

the most commonly seen films that i've never watched myself would probably include:

goodfellas

godfather 1+2

jaws

forrest gump

toy story 1 + 3

harry potter films

i'll see the godfather films when i take my next go at the s&s list, & i'm sure i'll get to the toy story films one day. i'm fine leaving the other ones off the table. they're just not to my own tastes, i think.

[Edited 8/4/18 6:35am]

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Reply #33 posted 08/04/18 8:40am

ufoclub

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damosuzuki said:

ufoclub said:

kpowers said:

In what way?

It is not constructed in Hollywood entertainment fashion. It has that radical 70's documentary feel that was carried over to fantasy and scifi back then. The actors and characterization are straight out of Robert Altman.

Alien presents many scenes almost quiely and lyrically. The score is normally quite understated and experimental (there are moments towards the end where is goes full Hollywood bombastic melodrama). The editing style and the way characters are framed is natural, not like the suspense building candystore vocabulary and cues of the sequel...

It's very easy to see the difference between ALIEN and the immediate sequel ALIENS which is completely Hollywood (American pop cinema) in the way it presents the narrative, is edited, is characterized, scored, and structured. ALIENS even had a fakeout dream sequence which goes completely against the naturalistic rules of the first one. The idea of a dream sequence is a narrative contrivance that spotlights audience manipulation and storytelling as opposed to an observational experience of a less audience sweetened film.

Let me post the title sequences which also illustrate what I mean:

Also let me post the difference in style of each films featured chesburster scene:

Feel the difference? Alien is not user friendly Hollywood spoonfed narrative. Aliens is.

I understand the realistic texture of Texas Chainsaw as an influence and the restlessness brutal energy stabs between washes of meditative calm. But Texas Chainsaw is filled with comic like camera angles and dynamic action blocking. ALIEN actually hamstrings its potential dramatic appeal by not using conventionally expressive camera angles and editing. I think Scott whether by accident or not stumbled into an Altman like documentary way of the camera being observational, and the general tone being observational rather than instigating. It’s almost a scientific view of what happened. And there’s nothing like “Get away form her you bitch” that is designed to pump the spotlight on the hero and get the audience cheering.

I think that’s why there is a big divide on younger viewers who watch this and prefer the sequel. It doesn’t go for pop appeal. It’s more like National Geographic. I’ll admit it uses pop tropes like the James Bond device of a countdown at the end to a big explosion of the elaborate set, but it presents them in this distant emotionless way that I love.

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Reply #34 posted 08/04/18 12:38pm

Ugot2shakesumt hin	The lion king
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Reply #35 posted 08/04/18 2:08pm

EvilAngel	Titanic Harry Potter movies
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Reply #36 posted 08/04/18 2:28pm

kpowers

avatar

ufoclub said:

kpowers said:

In what way?

It is not constructed in Hollywood entertainment fashion. It has that radical 70's documentary feel that was carried over to fantasy and scifi back then. The actors and characterization are straight out of Robert Altman.

Alien presents many scenes almost quiely and lyrically. The score is normally quite understated and experimental (there are moments towards the end where is goes full Hollywood bombastic melodrama). The editing style and the way characters are framed is natural, not like the suspense building candystore vocabulary and cues of the sequel...

It's very easy to see the difference between ALIEN and the immediate sequel ALIENS which is completely Hollywood (American pop cinema) in the way it presents the narrative, is edited, is characterized, scored, and structured. ALIENS even had a fakeout dream sequence which goes completely against the naturalistic rules of the first one. The idea of a dream sequence is a narrative contrivance that spotlights audience manipulation and storytelling as opposed to an observational experience of a less audience sweetened film.

Let me post the title sequences which also illustrate what I mean:

Also let me post the difference in style of each films featured chesburster scene:

Feel the difference? Alien is not user friendly Hollywood spoonfed narrative. Aliens is.

The newer movies use CGI to have the Alien bust out. Not the same feeling and it defiantly loses something

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Reply #37 posted 08/04/18 5:01pm

Brendan

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Sorry, people! Bolded for easy scanning of response to question.

I started out with something totally informal that would fit in a single Tweet, then I started to branch out.

—

Six Movies I Haven’t Watched, And Why

There was a time perhaps 15 to 20 years ago where I was voraciously attacking the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die as if the title were to be taken literally. Strangely enough I did end up getting a brain tumor shortly thereafter, so perhaps despite my extremely good fortune of fully recovering beyond my wildest imagination, I perhaps somehow knew more than I realized. wink

This book long ago lost is cover like some archetypal buried in some university art class, has highlighter smearing most of its 1,000 pages, and presently is being held together at its weathered binding with clear, heavy packing tape. I haven’t opened the book for years until right now.

I would guess that I have so far seen about 75% of the more than one thousand films listed here (that “1001” is just a marketing guideline) before I moved on to some other nonsense. I love movies, but I’m much more of a generalist than a specialist. I was probably getting too close to knowing stuff, so I moved on from this intensity. wink

Over the past several years I’ve kept telling myself to go back to this resource for more checkmarks because today it’s probably at more like 90%, but so far I have not. There is also some really fine writing here that often puts to shame those professionals writing reviews for publication deadlines that must always consider their audience less they risk losing their jobs. How often, for example, do you see critics admitting to mistakes or digging into something so well that they not only uncover things about the movie but about themselves? It happens. Just not as often as it could.

The book certainly has its flaws — some of them perhaps huge. It’s far too limiting for starters. If I remember correctly, there are like 3 movies from Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest filmmakers ever. Come to think of it, all of Asian cinema is far too brief.

I don’t know exactly, but perhaps worldwide there has been some half million feature-length films made. Even attempting the impossible task of trying to represent the most essential 1 percent to all of humanity (from the massively successful to the barely known, with the idea that only perhaps something like 1 out of every 100 movies making a theatrical release is a masterpiece or something like it) you would still probably need at least 5 or 10,000 movies here.

Not that everyone needs to be a massive film buff at all, just that we need more space to be able to pick out what level currently suits us from among the ever-widening pillars that make us all feel a little proud for having been there and done that. To see something that has carved out our names on the inside of our reflex gasp that hurls us off helplessly into deeper and wider, from Animal House (if we so prefer) to Persona (if we so prefer).

But it’s still the best, most objective source I’ve yet found. I can’t easily label it. In other words, it is not a book containing a lot of my movies, then a bunch of others bought and paid for by aliens who know nothing of this earth. It’s a real mishmash. Closer to the voyage life presents us, from teetering toddler to the impossible shores of objectivity that attempt a diversity that can at times perhaps separate us from ego just long enough to uncover something new about ourselves.

I’m going to go through this book that I probably haven’t opened in nearly a decade and choose the six most obvious misses I still haven’t seen, trying to skip at least some of the more obscure stuff that might only be of interest to a jackass like me who has seen a few thousand films. (Six is the number that just naturally happened as I randomly flipped through this massive book. I was shooting for five, but I wasn’t yet close enough to the end.)

1. Babes In Arms (1939) - A Busby Berkeley musical I haven’t seen? Sounds great. Can’t wait.

2. Avatar (2009)- Last I heard this was the biggest box office smash ever. This total still doesn’t include my 5 or 10 bucks. James Cameron is a great filmmaker. The first two Terminator films, The Abyss, Aliens, Titanic are all great mainstream cinema that me. I just haven’t felt the need yet to take his next step. I don’t feel the same passion anymore to see a lot of big commercial things. Though I have nothing against it, and would likely enjoy the hell out of it. It also doesn’t help that for years it got the Disney treatment. You could buy it and rent the physical object, but if you wanted to see it otherwise it was mostly on commercial television. I don’t want to see it edited with 37 commercial breaks. Last I checked you could actually rent the stream, so maybe soon!?

3. Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) - I see things now when I see things. Some misses no doubt would label me a fool. Others weird. Others pretentious. I hopefully don’t care anymore.

4. Alphaville (France, 1965) - A low-budget science fiction film by Jean-Luc Godard. Sounds like it would be either bizarrely magnificent or a deeply earnest attempt at reinventing the nature of a thing such that when plugged in seems caught between a laughable flop and something more profound than even its creator knew.

5. A Brighter Summer Day (Taiwan, 1991) - I suppose I don’t want to be too disappointed. This is the same filmmaker, Edward Yang, that made Yi Yi: A One and a Two, one of my favorite films ever (also immortalized in this book that’s now losing some of its pages).

6. The Usual Suspects (1995) - I saw it, but not really. I wasted way more energy trying to stay awake than to possibly understand all the twists and turns. I couldn’t tell you one thing about this plot, or much of anything about how it made me feel . All I know is that like Shawshank Redemption it seems to be colored in more of a masculine hue.

As you can hopefully tell, although I adore escapism — after all, it’s a big part of the human condition — I’m still probably more natively (biased-ly) comforted and coherent with a picture that’s bartering in a type of figurative existentialism that could potentially set the hair on fire of someone looking to see all their flaws and fancies and good fortunes expertly marched before the tribunal. This energizes me. At times leaving a theater can be like a benediction.

Of course all films, all of life, really have a bit of both. The Wizard of Oz can potentially work on you at age 5 just as expertly as that childhood fever dream you remembered at 40. Going one step further: perhaps one of the of most challenging films ever made, Mulholland Drive, by David Lynch, is something akin to the extremely grownup version of this very same childlike Never-world that freewill will always render hopeless.

While The Wizard of Oz just might scare the literal kid out of you. Mulholland on the other hand leads down a more figurative analysis of bowel movements as categorized by astrophysicists who don’t mind entertaining the continual embarrassment of not yet understanding most things.

==
[Edited 8/4/18 17:11pm]

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Reply #38 posted 08/05/18 2:52am

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kpowers said:

sexton said:

I believe these are all considered "classics":

1. Jaws

2. Alien

3. The Shawshank Redemption

4. Schindler's List

5. Animal House

The fact that these were all released in the '70s or later and have huge mass appeal makes me less motivated to see them.

They are all good movies worth seeing. For sequels all the Jaws movies sucked. For Alien, only watch part 1 & 2.

I thought Jaws 2 was a pretty good sequel ... obviously doesn't top the first, but I'd put it up there.

It had an amazing poster/tagline campaign, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...", and some great set pieces, particularly the water skiing scene. And there were some nice little nods to the original, like Brody using those yellow floating barrels from the Orca as flower pots in his garden.

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Reply #39 posted 08/05/18 3:03am

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NorthC said:
Saying Private Ryan. I always had a feeling that this was a movie where the Americans are trying to make it seem as if they won World War 2 all on their own. As far as I know, the idea of the film is that a patrol is sent out to rescue a soldier because his mom would feel so sad if another one of her sons would get killed. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) So this movie is about Americans rescuing another American in Europe without having anything to do with what was happening in Europe during WW2. It's a movie about making America great and that's why I never wanted to watch it.

To be fair, the opening focuses on the Omaha beach assault which was predominently US troops. And if you accept the conceit that the US Army are sending a platoon to bring back one US soldier its unlikely that other Allied troops would be involved in a mission like that. I see the film as a small side story running alongside the main war. The film definitely isn't a U-571 (2000) where they tried to "Americanise" what happened during WWII.

If nothing else watch the opening 45mins with Omaha beach. I read at the time that some veterans that saw movie were shocked at how close a representation of the action Spielberg created. One of those films that gives you a new appreciation of what folks back then went through, and some of them went through hell.

And not to give the ending away, but it doesn't leave you with a feeling of 'making American great again' ... Spielberg is definitely not a filmmaker who goes for that sort of thing.

[Edited 8/5/18 3:08am]

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Reply #40 posted 08/05/18 3:35am

kpowers

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DaveT said:

kpowers said:

They are all good movies worth seeing. For sequels all the Jaws movies sucked. For Alien, only watch part 1 & 2.

I thought Jaws 2 was a pretty good sequel ... obviously doesn't top the first, but I'd put it up there.

It had an amazing poster/tagline campaign, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...", and some great set pieces, particularly the water skiing scene. And there were some nice little nods to the original, like Brody using those yellow floating barrels from the Orca as flower pots in his garden.

of all the Jaws sequels it was the best

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Reply #41 posted 08/05/18 4:44am

iZsaZsa

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It’s A Wonderful Life - I forget to watch it every year.
Goonies - It’s a dick flick.
The Way We Were - People talk about it enough.
The Ring - Too scared. (When the bitch came out of the well I turned off my TV. And I’m never going back.)
Bond films - Too many to go back to, but I’ve seen all of Daniel’s James.

What?

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Reply #42 posted 08/05/18 10:41am

RodeoSchro

damosuzuki said:

there are tons of classic films i haven't seen. i worked my way through about half of the sight & sound top 250 list in the 2nd half of 2017, and i'm planning to take another run at it starting in september or october.

the most commonly seen films that i've never watched myself would probably include:

goodfellas

godfather 1+2

jaws

et

forrest gump

toy story 1 + 3

harry potter films
Animal House - Owed to RodeoSchro because he watched that art film and live blogged it

i'll see the godfather films when i take my next go at the s&s list, & i'm sure i'll get to the toy story films one day. i'm fine leaving the other ones off the table. they're just not to my own tastes, i think.

[Edited 8/4/18 6:35am]

FIFY smile

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Reply #43 posted 08/05/18 11:26am

Ugot2shakesumt
hin

damosuzuki said:

the most commonly seen films that i've never watched myself would probably include:

goodfellas

godfather 1+2

jaws

forrest gump

toy story 1 + 3

harry potter films

[Edited 8/4/18 6:35am]

I wouldn’t rush out to see the Harry Potter films
lol

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Reply #44 posted 08/05/18 6:31pm

damosuzuki

RodeoSchro said:

damosuzuki said:

there are tons of classic films i haven't seen. i worked my way through about half of the sight & sound top 250 list in the 2nd half of 2017, and i'm planning to take another run at it starting in september or october.

the most commonly seen films that i've never watched myself would probably include:

goodfellas

godfather 1+2

jaws

et

forrest gump

toy story 1 + 3

harry potter films
Animal House - Owed to RodeoSchro because he watched that art film and live blogged it

i'll see the godfather films when i take my next go at the s&s list, & i'm sure i'll get to the toy story films one day. i'm fine leaving the other ones off the table. they're just not to my own tastes, i think.

[Edited 8/4/18 6:35am]

FIFY

it's coming up soon! tomorrow, potentially, depending on what the day brings.

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Reply #45 posted 08/06/18 1:40pm

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I just watched The Poseidon Adventure (1972) forgot about that one. Dang women did a lot of screaming in movies back then.

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

This moment is all there is...

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Reply #46 posted 08/07/18 1:51am

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biggrin

onlyforaminute said:

I just watched The Poseidon Adventure (1972) forgot about that one. Dang women did a lot of screaming in movies back then.

One of my faves! I think everyone did a lot of screaming in that film ... I remember Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine pretty much shouting all their lines at each other.

Love seeing Leslie Nielson as the ships Captain ... any serious roles you see him in now are unintentionally hilarious

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Reply #47 posted 08/07/18 9:43am

Empress	I have never seen... Any Star Wars movies Any Super Hero movies Any Harry Potter Movies Any Lord of the Ring movies And, many more that I just don't have any interest in watching.
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Reply #48 posted 08/07/18 11:16am

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DaveT said:

onlyforaminute said:

I just watched The Poseidon Adventure (1972) forgot about that one. Dang women did a lot of screaming in movies back then.

One of my faves! I think everyone did a lot of screaming in that film ... I remember Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine pretty much shouting all their lines at each other.

Love seeing Leslie Nielson as the ships Captain ... any serious roles you see him in now are unintentionally hilarious

Yeah, it was a dire situation, a lot of stress but I was just taken aback about seeing women just standing there screaming to the top of their lungs like Jason was getting ready to hack them to death.

I felt the same way about Leslie, like lookie here him playing a serious role.

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

This moment is all there is...

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Reply #49 posted 08/11/18 8:47pm

MickyDolenz

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Golden Swallow
Dolomite (other than the clips in the ODB video for Got Your Money)
Flashdance
Killer Of Sheep
St. Louis Blues (Nat King Cole)
The Heroic Trio

You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton

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Reply #50 posted 08/13/18 1:34am

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MickyDolenz said:

Golden Swallow
Dolomite (other than the clips in the ODB video for Got Your Money)
Flashdance
Killer Of Sheep
St. Louis Blues (Nat King Cole)
The Heroic Trio

Sounds interesting lol lol

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Reply #51 posted 08/14/18 12:06pm

MickyDolenz

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DaveT said:

MickyDolenz said:

Golden Swallow

Sounds interesting

I watched a lot of martial arts flicks when I was going to school. They used to come on Saturday afternoons on Kung Fu Theater after Soul Train went off. I haven't seen many made before the 1970s and that one is from the 1960s.

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Reply #52 posted 08/14/18 7:28pm

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MickyDolenz said:

DaveT said:

Sounds interesting

I watched a lot of martial arts flicks when I was going to school. They used to come on Saturday afternoons on Kung Fu Theater after Soul Train went off. I haven't seen many made before the 1970s and that one is from the 1960s.

Have you seen

Throne of Blood

a 1957 Japanese samurai film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama.

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

This moment is all there is...

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Reply #53 posted 08/15/18 8:10am

PurpleJedi

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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory!

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Reply #54 posted 08/19/18 6:53pm

MickyDolenz

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onlyforaminute said:

Have you seen
Throne of Blood

a 1957 Japanese samurai film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama.

nope

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Reply #55 posted 08/19/18 9:48pm

avatar

MickyDolenz said:

onlyforaminute said:

Have you seen
Throne of Blood

a 1957 Japanese samurai film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama.

nope

I only heard about because it made a classic movies top 10 list, and I got an opportunity to see and thought it was very good. Thought I'd throw it out there since you mentioned pre 60s martial arts movies. I had one.

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

This moment is all there is...

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Reply #56 posted 08/20/18 1:56pm

FullLipsDotNos
e

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I usually don't enjoy watching films, so I even haven't seen these:

- Schindler's List

- any James Bond film

- La La Land

- Atonement

- Godfather

- Jaws

etc.

full lips, freckles, and upturned nose

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Reply #57 posted 08/21/18 3:57pm

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any of the Saw movies. But I don't watch horror so that list is long anyway.

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

This moment is all there is...

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Reply #58 posted 08/24/18 3:52pm

SPYZFAN1	The Bodyguard...Avatar...Schindler's List..Whiplash...The Butler...The Color Purple...Gone With The Wind,,(too damn long),
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Reply #59 posted 08/24/18 9:07pm

kitbradley

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I still haven't watched Black Panther. eek I haven't watched any super hero movies since the Batman movie with Michael Keaton, which I believe was in the early 90's?

[Edited 8/24/18 21:09pm]

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"The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing." - Socrates

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