godthedog

Before my time. I started watching in 1994, and the oldest tape I have is WrestleMania 1. I started watching in 2001, and even I have seen Hansen *Shrug* I have less access to older tapes. you got connections you don't even know about, yo. just PM somebody in the puro folder & if they don't hook you up themselves, they can point you to a handful of people who will. eric: it looked about as good as a cothesline spot in the wwf can look this side of angle/benoit. molly just kinda held her arm out there, but gail took it great: ran right the fuck into it, went down hard, and you could see her head bounce off the mat. she looked legitimately dazed. favorite segment: highlight reel. i can't even remember what jericho referred to himself as this time, but i remember laughing at it. nash also got to put his natural charisma to good use, & he's pretty magnetic when he's just talking casually and goofing off.

hardys/conquistadores, no mercy '00. i love it. especially all the outdated offense that E & C use, i think it's hilarious.

ever notice how "take it to the limit" takes it easy, and "take it easy" takes it to the limit? the eagles surely are geniuses.

that was hypothetical, i was saying "if we take importance into account..." earlier in the thread, i said that a movie should be judged on its own merits anyway, and not on its influence. rant disagreed, so i said if we do judge on influence, we have to look at good influence v. bad influence.

two men entered. one man left.

fiona apple - "paper bag"

true. i did single it out unfairly.

i'd ask him to back his shit up. if he could successfully argue that 'star wars' was a better movie, with points and stuff, then i'd concede. i'm not. there is a difference between saying "i LIKE x more than y" and saying "x is BETTER than y." i LIKE 'the last boy scout' more than 'breathless', but i'd never in a million years argue that it's a better movie. your personal taste and objective value claims (like "this is good," "that is bad") are different. the word "better" implies standard notions of good and bad, and joe blow would have to prove to me that 'star wars' is better than 'bonnie and clyde' based on those notions. if he says 'star wars' is his favorite movie, i can't say anything to refute that. if he says 'star wars' is the greatest movie ever made, then he's got some proving to do (as does anyone when they say "such-and-such is the best movie ever). and you can't argue both ways. you brought importance into it, i didn't. you said i have to think a movie is greater by the effects it had, now you say i can't think a movie is worse by the effects it had. if i can't hate a movie for starting a trend, why should i think it's great for starting a trend? importance is basically the effects a movie has on moviemaking, the industry, the public, etc., right? if we're judging the greatest movies on importance, then it seems reasonable that we can judge it on how good or bad its effects are. you said we should take the importance of 'star wars' into account, i'm saying it had bad effects, making it a worse movie. i don't think it would make sense to argue for a movie's greatness just because it had a lot of effects on cinema, without taking into account how good those effects were. 'heaven's gate' is an important movie, it had a lot of effects on the moviemaking/industry/public (most notably bankrupting united artists), so shouldn't we argue that's a great movie too? of course not. if a movie's importance is part of the overall picture of its "greatness," why should it be great if it did harm to movies in general?

if we're judging on importance, then we should hold 'star wars' and 'jaws' responsible for the present shitty "event blockbuster" hollywood system that we have, and having bad effects would make them less great. before the "event" franchise, in the late 60s and early 70s, the big moneymaking films were 'bonnie and clyde', 'the graduate', 'the godfather' and such. in the wake of 'star wars', we essentially get a bunch of brainless shit where lots of stuff blows up. and going on the influence of overall style in movies (with some particular trends that 'star wars' followed), 'bonnie and clyde' was also more influential anyway. either way, it wins. i personally don't really think importance should enter into it. if i didn't think 'kane' was still enjoyable, i wouldn't consider it great just because of the innovations. i'd just be like "yeah, okay, it's important and all, but i don't find it all that good." which is exactly what i do with 'star wars'. this seems to be saying that even if a movie is better, it still shouldn't be considered better. bottom line: 'bonnie and clyde' is a better movie than 'star wars'. period. a list of "great movies" is supposed to give you some idea of which movies are the best. if 'bonnie and clyde' is better, it should be higher up. also, back on topic with overrated shit: any movie i've ever seen by john cassevettes. i hate that motherfucker. his shit is boring, hokey and trite.

but this is supposed to be a thread of essential albums: 'velvet underground and nico', 'doolittle', 'revolver'...albums that you are not supposed to be able to live without. even if you think it's good, there's no way in hell this should be essential. maybe it belongs on a list like "good radiohead albums." if you like it, fine--i don't agree with it, but i can understand. but to put it in the same league with the ones i mentioned just has no basis in reality at all.

actually, it has. from the american film institute's list of the 100 greatest american movies ever made: 1. CITIZEN KANE (1941) 2. CASABLANCA (1942) 3. THE GODFATHER (1972) 4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) 5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) 6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) 7. THE GRADUATE (1967) 8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) 9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) 10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) 11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) 12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) 13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) 14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) 15. STAR WARS (1977) 16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) 17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) 18. PSYCHO (1960) 19. CHINATOWN (1974) 20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) 21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) 22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) 23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) 24. RAGING BULL (1980) 25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) 26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) 27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) 28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) 29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) 30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) i think this gets to the heart of the overrated status of 'star wars'. the afi thought that 'star wars' was almost as good as 'schindler's list', 'singing in the rain' and 'it's a wonderful life'. the afi thought that 'star wars' was a better movie than 'raging bull', 'chinatown', 'dr strangelove' and 'bonnie and clyde'. this is just a seriously fucked up thing to say, and if i was a member of the afi i'd never forgive myself. sorry, but this was an all-around kick ass movie, and had some of the best writing of any american movie i've seen in the last few years. its sense of humor was just pitch-perfect, being hilarious and horribly bleak at the same time. it's got a great "slice of life" atmosphere, and the characters are so deftly written i just sat there in awe of the whole thing. it's got subtleties on top of subtleties, & i can't stress enough how much i love this movie.

'auto-focus' and 'about schmidt', $10 each. the former is pretty good. the latter is AMAZING.

...

haha, you got to take a whole course on nicholas ray? that's awesome. indeed. best commentary i've ever heard by a critic. he never runs out of stuff to say, and basically guides you through the style of the movie, helping you notice things that average moviegoers don't catch. got a good, upbeat voice too.

"that girl"? you don't know who gina gershon is? i'd never heard of mario cantone before, but his shit was GREAT. leary's own stuff at the end of the show was great as well. the rest was pretty uneven. clarke was good, the priest was a lot better than he had any right to be, the dog routine by gottfried was good. that's about it.

the heights - "how do you talk to an angel" en vogue - "my lovin' ( you're never gonna get it)" richard marx - "hazard" wreckx-n-effect - "rump shaker" jon secada - "just another day"

stereo mc's - "connected" ace of base - "all that she wants" tony toni tone - "if i had no loot" tasmin archer - "sleeping satellite" snow - "girl i've been hurt"

sinead o'connor - "nothing compares 2 U" i first heard that song in a game room about a week after seeing 'eraserhead', before i even knew who the pixies really were. i dropped everything and went "holy shit."

i think the hospital scenes in the exorcist hold up just fine, and those have always been the most effective scenes in the movie. joe bob briggs said that when they had to get ambulances & shit, the main reason was because of those hospital scenes.

but since staying in on friday night is the new getting your dick sucked, then conversely, getting your dick sucked is the new staying in on friday night. so congratulations: you stayed in on friday night, and i got my dick sucked.

damn good match.

was that an exploder?

it's just the way that wong kar-wai thinks. he almost always goes into his movies with 2 or 3 ideas and shoots on the fly; sometimes it works, sometimes it's a mess. there's a lot of parallels & contrasts that tie the stories together (people who have been hurt, missed opportunities, inability to directly show one's affection and having to show it in other little ways, the effects of time on human life and love, etc.), but i think the execution is just uneven. there was a great movie somewhere in there, screaming to get out; but it's okay, cause wong kar-wai's gotten lots better at the way he makes movies. the actor in question is tony leung, who is a god (and just got stuck with some subpar material in this case). they work together all the time, & his performance in 'in the mood for love' is amazing. IIRC, he won best actor that year at cannes.

i was told that pitt has the #2 philosophy dept in the country, which was why i was looking into it at the time. sad but true: i studied an entire semester of east asian cinema, with an east asian professor, and never got exposed to a single frame of anything from hong kong (even though it is, IIRC, the #2 exporter of films in the world). leading me right into... 'chunking express': i like the hong kong style, and i've got a mile-long hard on for wong kar wai, but i think this is severely overrated. the first segment is really sad & beautiful, but the second one just goes on and on, & substitutes a shallow kind of romantic comedy cuteness for the depth of the first one. i didn't know enough about the characters to particularly care about them at all, and when they start doing the weird stuff it just pulls me right out of the movie. 'amelie' did it better, and makes that segment look boring in comparison. after a while, the rapid-fire editing and the really fast-moving handheld camera with the crooked angles and the fluorescent lights...the style isn't pretty or fun anymore, it just gives me a headache. every other wong kar-wai movie i've seen is better than this one. and it also made me NEVER want to hear "california dreaming" again.

that kicks some ass, i've got a good friend who goes to pitt. great school, i love the campus & the whole atmosphere (at least, for the short time i was there). i visited him a couple years ago & thought about transferring up there, back when i just wanted to be a philosophy major.