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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
 Posted - 09/05/2005 : 7:36:30 PM
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Nice concept, zombiewhacker - what about the other side of the coin?
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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packratshow
Altar Boy of Jabootu
7 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 9:17:43 PM
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Hands down(for me at least) is Zero Effect.
I'd never heard of it, and everything clicked with me when i saw it on a fluke.
www.packratshow.com
www.destrucity.com |
Edited by - packratshow on 09/05/2005 9:21:22 PM |
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Dirk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 9:51:11 PM
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Return of the Jedi. People seem to love writing this off as the "worst" of the Star Wars films, but it's always been my favorite. You've got Jabba the Hutt AND the Emperor in addition to Vader - it's undoubtedly the best sci-fi villain line-up in history.
And I like the Ewoks (ducks barrage of stones and rotten vegetables). |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 10:45:36 PM
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Dirk, you-sa likes the Ewoks? You-sa head go bye-bye!
I've always thought Something Wicked This Way Comes deserved better than it got. True, it had some serious problems, but Johnathan Pryce was one of the best villains ever. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 11:13:00 PM
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Trivia note: Ray Bradbury originally wrote Something Wicked this Way Comes for Gene Kelly, but at that time Kelly couldn't get the financing to get the project off the ground.
My personal picks for underrated status:
Firecreek
James Stewart vs. Henry Fonda in the last of the great old-time (read: old-fashioned) westerns. If this had been made in the '40s and '50s instead of the '60s it would have been considered a minor classic. I certainly enjoyed it more than the similarly themed oater High Noon, which come to think of it deserves mention in the overrated films thread.
Proof of Life
Tony Gilroy is fast becoming one of my favorite screenwriters. Who could sneeze at a career that includes such films as The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and Dolores Clairebourne?
And this movie. Russell Crowe was great as the hostage negotiator. David Morse as the kidnapped husband, David Caruso, and especially Pamela Reed were all top-notch. Taut, suspenseful, realistic action scenes. A good involving story. The only nadir was Meg Ryan, who didn't have the acting range to pull her character off. Rather than strong and sympathetic, she came across as whiney and rhymes-with-itchy.
Ronin
Like Proof..., this was a thinking man's action thriller that was largely dismissed when it was first released. Judging from reader comments on the IMDB, however, it has slowly but surely built up a deserved cult reputation.
My only two complaints, one that fans might find heretical:
MINOR SPOILERS
#1 We never find out what's in the freaking suitcase. That's just the screenwriter being lazy. Come on, Mamet, try harder.
#2 My heretical point: though car chases were one of the selling points of this film, I thought the final car chase was flat-out overdone. How many innocent bystanders do DeNiro and Reno have to run off the road and kill in order to get the stupid briefcase back? Especially since... well... reread #1. |
Edited by - zombiewhacker on 09/05/2005 11:14:24 PM |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 01:43:01 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
Return of the Jedi. People seem to love writing this off as the "worst" of the Star Wars films...
Strangely, they only did so until around 1999. I wonder why...
If by "Underrated" we mean "actively and unfairly disliked", I'm gonna have to say Hudson Hawk, Eyes Wide Shut, One From the Heart, The Matrix Reloaded, RoboCop 2, and Day of the Dead. Also, I first saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when I was 13 and I still bear the same level of love for it that most do for Raiders.
If, on the other hand, we're talking about "overlooked", I'm going to go with Return to Oz, The Tall Guy, Gremlins 2, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, American Psycho, and The Thief and the Cobbler (I'll bet most of you haven't even heard of that one.)
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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John Nowak
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1017 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 08:05:46 AM
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Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Probably the most "loyal" translation of the book I've ever seen, it's not a great film, but it's much better than its 30% tomatometer implies.
We've always been united in stupidity. That's why there is no hope. But, then again, when has that ever stopped us?
-- hbrennan |
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Culfy
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
United Kingdom
113 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 10:30:37 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
Return of the Jedi. People seem to love writing this off as the "worst" of the Star Wars films, but it's always been my favorite. You've got Jabba the Hutt AND the Emperor in addition to Vader - it's undoubtedly the best sci-fi villain line-up in history.
And I like the Ewoks (ducks barrage of stones and rotten vegetables).
Great, someone who agrees with me.
I never saw the Ewoks as embarrasing as people claimed and I thought they provided a valid reason to why the Rebels won and the Empire lost (the empire underestimated the Ewoks, considering them primitives, and as a result failed to make allowance for them). I think the rescue scene from Jabba's barge and the forest fighting seens are the equal of anything in the sequence.
I also think that Empire is slightly overrated - the much proclaimed 'darkness' to the film is very much overhyped; after all is anyone ever in doubt that the goodies will survive? That Han will do the right thing despite arguing with Leia? That Lando Calarissan will come over to the right side?
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Notes from a small cavy
www.culfy.blogspot.com |
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Food
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 12:12:11 PM
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| Runaway, with Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, and Kirstie Alley. Yes, it's dated as hell, and there are plot holes, but I love it anyway. It's a good exciting movie with a relatively fresh plot. |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 1:18:59 PM
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About Ronin, the reason we don't know what's inside the case is because that is not important. Like everybody in the film, we are mislead from Sam's real intentions, which are not to recover the case, but to stop the main villain. It's what Hitchcock called a McGuffin, a minor detail that drives the plot. If I remember well, at some point Sam asks what is in the case, and inmediately asks who is behind the whole plan to steal it. As we later learn, Sam really wants to know the answer to the second question, the first one is a distraction. I don't know how to call it, byt certainly it's not lazy writing.
I'll add another film to the underrated list, Heaven's prisoners, a noir starring Alec Baldwin that addapts one of James Lee Burke's novels featuring Dave Robicheaux. It's not without faults, mainly the long running time, but it has brilliant dialogue, good acting and it is one of the few modern films that tries to offer an old-fashioned hard-boiled and succeeds. Plus we get to see Eric Roberts playing a badass in a good movie(a rare opportunity) and Teri Hatcher's boobies. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 2:53:32 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neville
About Ronin, the reason we don't know what's inside the case is because that is not important. Like everybody in the film, we are mislead from Sam's real intentions, which are not to recover the case, but to stop the main villain. It's what Hitchcock called a McGuffin, a minor detail that drives the plot. If I remember well, at some point Sam asks what is in the case, and inmediately asks who is behind the whole plan to steal it. As we later learn, Sam really wants to know the answer to the second question, the first one is a distraction. I don't know how to call it, byt certainly it's not lazy writing.
I understand the McGuffin plot device all too well. The difference is in most Hitchcock-style films we're at least given some hint as to what the villain is after. Here, we're never given a clue.
Contrast Ronin with the lesser film Black Rain. Throughout that film, we're kept guessing as to what was in the box the Yakuza stole in the restaurant. Later on we discover the truth: they were plates for counterfeiting money. Now we know. The movie doesn't belabor the point, but at least it kept us guessing, and the answer turned out to be something we didn't automatically expect. (In 99% of crime films the McGuffin is either diamonds, a suitcase of cash, or drugs.)
Sorry, Neville, you're talking to an old Sherlock Holmes fan, and if in Pearl of Death we didn't find out why Rondo Hatton was smashing into people's homes or in Dressed to Kill Basil Rathbone never got to the bottom of why music boxes were being stolen, all because it was a "McGuffin" and therefore not relevant to the plot, I and a lot of mystery fans out there would have felt ripped off.
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 3:36:03 PM
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But the truth is that there are hints about the contents of the case.
[SPOILER SPACE]
We can imagine it contains some kind of weapon that will allow Seamus to make a terrorist attack and make the IRA - UK peace talks to fail.
Either this, or I am remembering a different movie. |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 7:36:23 PM
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For me, it's "Brother John". It's an often overlooked, "hard to catagorize" film with an excellent performance by Sidney Poitier. It has an eerie quality to it while making some very strong sociological statements. My cousin took me to see it when it first came out and I've never forgotten it.
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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Triviachamp
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
254 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 8:58:46 PM
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quote:
Sorry, Neville, you're talking to an old Sherlock Holmes fan, and if in Pearl of Death we didn't find out why Rondo Hatton was smashing into people's homes or in Dressed to Kill Basil Rathbone never got to the bottom of why music boxes were being stolen, all because it was a "McGuffin" and therefore not relevant to the plot, I and a lot of mystery fans out there would have felt ripped off.
Last I heard Ronin was not a mystery or a Sherlock Holmes film. |
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jedimom
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1239 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 9:34:40 PM
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And an additional vote from me for both "Return to Oz" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". I love both those films and most people I mention them to have never heard of them.
"Oh, that is so lame! You will pay for your use of inappropriate dialogue!" --Mojo Jojo, "Power Prof" |
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packratshow
Altar Boy of Jabootu
7 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 9:44:08 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Prankster
...The Thief and the Cobbler (I'll bet most of you haven't even heard of that one.)
I love parts of that movie. It's another cheap movie i gambled on and won. Quite a history on that one and truly a lost opportunity.
www.packratshow.com
www.destrucity.com |
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