Desert Island Draft: Movie Edition

[godthedog 0]

 

Breathless

 

this one is just too much fun to pass up. it peters off a little in the second half, but i unabashedly love the first 45 minutes--the jump cuts, the cute jokes, the endless conversations, the cycles of romantic posturing jean-paul belmondo goes through...everything about it is totally insincere, but it still has a youthful, giddy momentum. the first in a string of great godard anti-couples.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I'm going to watch that again today. I remember being kind of disappointed.

[godthedog 0]

godard in general is a pretty weirdly acquired taste. i HATED 'breathless' the first time i saw it, it was my least favorite movie ever for about a year.

[Jingus 0]

I've had a mixed reaction to him. Saw Weekend a long time ago and vaguely remember liking it, but it was like a decade back so no details spring to mind. Tried to watch Alphaville once and fell asleep. Then saw Band Of Outsiders recently and just hated it, aside from the cute "minute of silence" it felt like the whole movie just went nowhere and did nothing. Apparently that one dance sequence has somehow become legendary and much-imitated, though I couldn't possibly tell you why. Just based on his reputation alone I'd be willing to see more though, always meant to do Breathless and never got around to it.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

 

Collateral

 

 

My favorite Michael Mann film that has action, suspense, and even philosophy (albeit in scattered segments of scenes involving Cruise and Foxx in the cab).

[Jebus 0]

With my 4th pick, I choose:

 

 

Back to the Future

 

Big childhood favorite. I've probably seen this movie more than any other. My desert island collection would feel empty without it.

 

[Jingus 0]

 

Clerks

About the most quotable movie of all time. Better than every other movie Kevin Smith has ever made combined. The most perfect portrait of 20somethings having a pre-midlife-crisis, and the unique agony of working in shitty retail jobs. Everyone knows the feeling when they're not even supposed to be here today.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

 

Psycho

 

It's the movie that made me love movies.

[treble 0]

 

The Godfather Part II

 

Almost as good as the first one.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

 

Clerks

About the most quotable movie of all time. Better than every other movie Kevin Smith has ever made combined. The most perfect portrait of 20somethings having a pre-midlife-crisis, and the unique agony of working in shitty retail jobs. Everyone knows the feeling when they're not even supposed to be here today.

Bastard! Looks like we're tit for twat now.

[CanadianChris 0]

With my 4th pick, I choose:

 

 

Back to the Future

 

Big childhood favorite. I've probably seen this movie more than any other. My desert island collection would feel empty without it.

You bastard. Now I don't know what my second pick will be. For that matter, now I'm not sure what I want my first pick to be.

[CanadianChris 0]

 

The Matrix (Wachowski, 1999)

 

The most visually stimulating movie I've ever watched. And the story is really good, too.

 

 

Rocky (Avildsen, 1976)

 

If it's not the greatest sports movie ever made, it's certainly near the beginning of the conversation.

[Jebus 0]

My next pick was gonna be Rocky so it looks like you got me back for BTTF.

[CanadianChris 0]

Wanna trade?

[treble 0]

 

Oldboy

 

Maybe the most shocked and disgusted I'd ever been watching a movie. So awesome.

[Craig Th 0]

What is it about?

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

I've had a mixed reaction to him. Saw Weekend a long time ago and vaguely remember liking it, but it was like a decade back so no details spring to mind. Tried to watch Alphaville once and fell asleep.Then saw Band Of Outsiders recently and just hated it, aside from the cute "minute of silence" it felt like the whole movie just went nowhere and did nothing.

 

That's kinda the whole point. The movie's really about "going somewhere" or "doing something" but is instead trying capture a certain feeling of aimless post-War youthful ennui. Early Godard is all about atmosphere and shit like that.

 

And I can't really grasp the sort of mindset that allows a person to enjoy something as confrontational and purposefully obtuse as Week End while hating the comparatively "pleasurable" likes of Bande à Part and Alphaville.

[Youth N Asia 0]

What is it about?

 

An obnoxious drunkard gets kidnapped and pretty much held prisoner in what looks like a hotel room for 15 years or so. He's one day let out and it's up to him to find out who's done this to him

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

 

The Royal Tenenbaums

 

This movie just clicks with what I think is funny like pretty much nothing else.

[Jingus 0]

And I can't really grasp the sort of mindset that allows a person to enjoy something as confrontational and purposefully obtuse as Week End while hating the comparatively "pleasurable" likes of Bande à Part and Alphaville.

I also liked Deathproof better than Planet Terror, and prefer Dolph Lundgren's Punisher to Thomas Jane's. Nobody gets me, baby, I'm like the wind.

 

 

 

Night of the Living Dead

Still my favorite entry in the Romero zombie saga, and still one of the more effective horror flicks I've ever seen. Single-handedly invented the modern zombie movie. Marked the point of no return from the earlier style of goofy, unbelievable, "safe" horror films and somehow made the idea of reanimated corpses feel realistic. Plus it was the first genre movie I can think of which had a black hero not for any particular reason but just for the hell of it. And the nihilistic ending really pointed the way for how movies, especially horror films, would get more depressing over the next decade.

[Jebus 0]

 

The Shawshank Redemption

 

You've seen it. What can I say?

You've got two great stories in the characters of Andy (Robbins) and Red (Freeman) respectively.

Very touching and uplifting film.

[Jingus 0]

Truthfully, I'm shocked that one lasted this long. I've seen Shawshank on more people's Favorite Movies Evar list than any other film that comes to mind.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I must be the odd man out, because I just don't really give two shits for it.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I like it enough. I won't stop and watch it when its on...which is why I wouldn't draft it.

[Jingus 0]

I feel mostly the same; it's a real good movie, but it wouldn't ever get near my top 20, or hell even my top 100 probably. But the number of people who absolutely worship that movie is fairly staggering.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

 

Training Day

 

My favorite Denzel Washington film, other than one, which I hope to draft next round.

[Black Lushus 0]

I will say that Shawshank isn't one of my all-time favorites...hell I don't own the DVD or anything (it's on TV enough to even worry about that)...but I still maintain that the ending where Red and Andy reunite on the beach in Mexico right at the very very end is one of the most moving scenes I've ever seen.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

godard in general is a pretty weirdly acquired taste. i HATED 'breathless' the first time i saw it, it was my least favorite movie ever for about a year.

 

Bigtime shrug. The fuck is with french endings, anyway? Wages of Fear has a goofy ass "FIN" ending, that comes out of the blue, too.

 

Fake edit: I like how it's so foreign to me, though. Of the highly-regarded French directors I've seen more than one movie of, I like Clouzot waaaaaay more than Godard.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

PLUS, his wife gives me the vapors.

 

 

gaddamn..

[Jingus 0]

 

 

Admittedly, I'm not nearly as well-viewed on the New Wave auteurs as I should be. Only seen those 2.5 by Godard, only one by Truffaut, one Clouzot, one Demy, and none at all from Rivette, Chabrol, Resnais, or Rohmer. Such is the price you pay for preferring to spend your time watching horror flicks and playing video games.