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JazzyJ
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
114 Posts |
 Posted - 10/06/2006 : 6:34:00 PM
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Hi all.
I got thinking about this in an earlier thread (talking about Conan and Ator), and would like to put a thought out to the community here, and ask a question.
Intro: Ken mentioned a long time ago (I think...) that in order to appreciate the true junkiness of the typical Jabootu offering, you have to have seen some good movies, so that you have something to compare and contrast with. Then, Ken and Lyz have both talked about the most influential films -- not by critical acclaim or audience acceptance, but by the sheer number of times they are copied, especially by bottom-feeding production companies.
So, long winded intro finally over (WHEW!), I would posit that there is a fairly short list of (usually) genre films that are required viewing for anyone wanting to be a Jabootu-maven. What do you all think, and what movies do you think belong on the list? Here is my own paltry start to the list:
Alien/Aliens -- so MANY monster and millitary movies!
Jaws -- Killer X movies
Halloween -- the slasher genre
Conan the Barbarian -- modern-day sword and sandals
The Road Warrior -- apocolyto films
Superman -- superhero
Lord of the Rings(?) -- perhaps a bit early to tell -- will these be ripped off, or are they too expensive?
(Obviously betraying my age by picking mostly films that premiered during my teen years... sigh)
Jazzy J
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2006 : 7:08:05 PM
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For strictly sci-fi (and a little into monster territory) I'll go with:
2001: a space odyssey,
THX 1138 (Director's Cut)
Forbidden Planet
Godzilla/Gojira (original Japanese version)
Blade Runner (Director's Cut)
Rollerball (1975)
The Day The Earth Stood Still
That's a pretty good cross section of style and era, don't you think??
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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Mark Hawley
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
Canada
48 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2006 : 7:45:32 PM
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| I'd definitely add The Terminator, Night of the Living Dead, The Birds and Psycho to the list. |
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TheFoywonder
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2006 : 8:53:10 PM
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LETHAL WEAPON - Forefather to the modern action buddy comedy pic
DIE HARD - The forefunner of the one man vs. a bunch of bad guys in or on a specific place
PREDATOR - Could be considered a variation of ALIEN but just look how many PREDATOR-specific knock-offs there have been
PORKY'S - It's success lead to an onslaught of teen sex comedies to follow
Now Playing in Foyeurism at Foywonder.com:
REGION FREE-FOR-ALL - Video game thrills, Thailand terror, & George Hamilton is Santa!
Plus: B-WARE THE BLOG is alive at http://www.livejournal.com/users/foywonder |
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Capt. Nemo
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
630 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2006 : 10:03:49 PM
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Airplane- Even though an "Airplane" style spoof is critic proof, there are ones that fall flat and leave you cold.
Basic Instinct- There are a LOT of direct to video films that try the emilate that one. Many fail.
Goldfinger- Most of the Bond cliches started here.
Rambo: First Blood: Part 2- Introduced the concept of the ONE MAN ARMY. See Foywonder's blog about "The Marine".
Uncommon Valor- Introduced the lets go back to Vietnam to rescue P.O.W. movies. See previous entry. The french arms dealer in Asian land has been repeated in a few movies. See any film that has the words "Chuck" or "Norris" near the title from the 80's.
Lean on Me- If you get just the right government paid educators you can turn around any public school.
French Connection- Anytime you see a cop throwing his weight around in a movie, it usually is a hat tip to "Popeye" Doyle.
Body Heat- Much like Basic Instinct quite a few direct to videos are inspired by this tale of Seduction in to Murder.
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"Ward, the Beaver blew up the 7-11 again."
"I'll have a talk with him Dear" |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2006 : 10:53:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Nemo
French Connection- Anytime you see a cop throwing his weight around in a movie, it usually is a hat tip to "Popeye" Doyle.
Plus, it featured a legitimately innovative use of hand-held camera to give a documentary sense of immediacy to the action, which has since become a ridiculously overdone cliche in all genres of movies. Was also a forerunner of the cop buddy film, which brings us to:
48 Hours
-which I think deserves more notice than Lethal Weapon as the first real cop/buddy/action/comedy movie.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
Edited by - Sardu on 10/06/2006 10:55:40 PM |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2006 : 02:56:11 AM
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| I'd add RoboCop to the list, and JC's The thing. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2006 : 04:17:21 AM
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Them
Granddaddy of all the giant (fill-in-the-blank) movies, leading to myriad rip-offs by Bert I. Gordon, all of which are Jabootu worthy and many of which have been MST-ied.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Grandmomma of all the aliens replacing/taking over humans movies.
Psycho
Arguably the first slasher film; also inspired a sub-genre of Jabootu-worthy horror films about killers with split personalities (ex., Tourist Trap).
And since we're on the subject.
Twitch of the Death Nerve
Never saw this one myself, but this Mario Bava horror movie was the inspiration for Friday the 13th, and we all know what that means...
Halloween
Along with the aforementioned slasher films, one of the most influential horror pics of our time.
Enter the Dragon
The movie that really ignited the martial arts craze.
The Bad News Bears (original)
The "from-worst-to-first" sports genre was born here.
Rocky
Not the first boxing picture by a longshot, but really the most influential.
Pygmallion/My Fair Lady
Whether the original or the remake, this formula is still being imitated to this day. "Take a pretty girl with glasses and hair in tied in a bun, remove her glasses and undo the bun. Voila! A beautiful prom queen is born!"
Bullitt
The French Connection and Dirty Harry owe a lot of their success to this film. Also, in case you didn't hear by now, there's a car chase.
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Pip
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2006 : 5:33:19 PM
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Has someone mentioned Reservior Dogs and Pulp Fiction? And what was the first talking dog movie?
Pip |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2006 : 5:53:39 PM
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No one's mentioned Star Wars, so here it is. And we gotta consider The Usual Suspects, since so many movies now are resorting to the REALLY BIG TWIST at the end.
And let's add Saving Private Ryan to the list. How many action movies have we seen since 1998 with at least one sequence where the color is muted down, the action is shot herky-jerky style with a narrow camera shutter, or the film looks all stripped and dirty? Unfortunately, Spielberg is one of those ripping off his own film. |
Edited by - BradH812 on 10/08/2006 6:00:39 PM |
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Ken HPoJ
Supreme Potentate
USA
1530 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 12:51:13 PM
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Most/all of these have been mentioned, but a second or third vote for:
Dirty Harry. The Exorcist (The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, et al). Death Wish. The Birds. Jaws. Night of the Living Dead. Dawn of the Living Dead. Psycho. Halloween. Them! Alien. Aliens. The Road Warrior. Escape from New York. John Carpenter's The Thing.
PEGGY: I don't see how having a girl on the team would ruin it. Did a woman judge ruin the Supreme Court?
HANK: Yes, and that woman's name was Earl Warren.
--King of the Hill |
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The Rev. D.D.
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
203 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 12:51:30 PM
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The real big twist films...I don't know if that's really something that can be pinpointed, can it? I mean, before The Usual Suspects we had The Crying Game, The Empire Strikes Back, Psycho...I would agree that The Usual Suspects, along with Seven and The Sixth Sense definitely inspired the current glut.
I love Gojira dearly, but we can't forget the grandaddy of giant monster movies, King Kong. KK and Creature from the Black Lagoon inspired the "they want our women!" theme in so many monster movies.
There's also One Million B.C., which started the whole "cavemen vs. dinosaurs" thing.
Twitch of the Death Nerve and Halloween definitely inspired the slasher film, but the progenitor of them all was really Friday the 13th, which convinced many many people that they could do the same thing, but even cheaper. As the illustrious Ms. Kingsley pointed out, it set down a LOT of the "rules" for future slasher movies. So it should probably be on the list too.
I'm surprised no one's picked out Evil Dead yet--very influential, especially to future cinematographers.
Dracula and Frankenstein still influence films to this day, and should definitely be included.
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So many movies, so little time... |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 1:23:18 PM
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Terminator 1 and 2.
The Shining.
Second the nomination of The Exorcist, but also nominate The Exorcist III, with George C. Scott.
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 3:16:48 PM
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Hat tip to the Rev for remembering One Million B.C.. (I assume Rev's referring to the original 1939 film with Lon Chaney Jr., Carole Landis, and Victor Mature - what a cast!!!)
Night of the Living Dead shouldn't be mentioned without at least acknowledging its predecessor, The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, which preceded Night by four years.
As far as twist endings go: I think Vertigo might have started it all. |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 8:23:25 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by The Rev. D.D.
I love Gojira dearly, but we can't forget the grandaddy of giant monster movies, King Kong. KK and Creature from the Black Lagoon inspired the "they want our women!" theme in so many monster movies.
Oops- can't believe I glossed over KK. You're right.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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The Rev. D.D.
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
203 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2006 : 11:16:07 AM
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Vertigo may very well have been the first for movies with twists, and a hat tip back for remembering it.
Eh, we should just credit Hitchcock with 'em and leave it at that.
I was indeed talking about the 1939 movie. The 1966 remake is remembered by a lot more people thanks to Raquel Welch and her leather and fur bikini (and good ol' H.R.'s dinos), but it was definitely not the first "cavemen vs. dinosaurs" film. If only the effects in One Million B.C. could've matched that cast...even as a kid I never bought lizards as dinosaurs. I gladly bought into lots of things in movies back then, but I was too big a dinosaur lover for that particular trick to work.
I suppose we shouldn't forget disaster movies, since so many of them are disasters themselves. The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport, Earthquake....what was the first giant meteor movie? Gorath? First volcano movie, whatever that was (Krakatoa, East of Java, perhaps?)
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Is it a sign of a wasted life when you can argue the relative merits of the men who've played Tumak? |
Edited by - The Rev. D.D. on 10/10/2006 11:18:29 AM |
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