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Defend a Maligned Movie
I don’t believe in “guilty pleasures” – why should I feel guilt because the critical groupthink scorned something I think has merit? It’s not as if those individual critics don’t pull the shades and watch something the rest of the priesthood demeans. (Unless Marty Scorcese gave it a nod in an interview, and then it’s time for a Fresh New Look.) I also don’t believe in watching bad movies to revel in their awfulness, unless there’s some meta-level payoff. (Plan Nine really is the apotheosis of true unintended hilarity.) I’m watching something right now that makes eyes roll if you try to make the case for its importance, but that’s not important right now. (No, I’m not watching Airplane!) I’ll hand it off to you: defend a movie dismissed by the gatekeepers.
Published in General
No, I’d be Warren or Dustin’s brother.
Read the book, saw the movie. The only thing I remember about the movie is a very young Sofia Vergara.
Loved it!
Movies don’t have to be great works of art, they just have to entertain. Jackie Chan is very entertaining . . .
I love that movie!
Love that movie!
Great use of that song in the movie!
I saw the first Star Trek movie in the theater and was blown away by the special effects.
It was so real, people wondered why there was no sound in space. The scene where Bowman blows the pod hatch is realistic. He’s thrust into the airlock silently, then he closes the outer hatch and the sound returns as he brings air in. Sadly, that scene had to be explained to a lot of people.
I remember reading about the first Star Trek TV series, where they decided they must add the “whoosh” in the opening credits when the Enterprise zooms by because most viewers would expect it.
My high school sweetheart was angry with me because I laughed during Jenny’s death scene in Love Story, it was so melodramatic.
Trolling? Ive seen ST;Kahn dozens of times – maybe even 100s – and I really love that movie. (not Jar Jar’s remake) I could watch it again almost any day. The best way to watch TMP again, is on FFWD, so you can stop for the good bits and cruise over all the filler. Probably gets the movie down to 65 minutes.
Short-sighted Star Trek fans.
When the self-destruct device is armed, the cast doesn’t know what to do – they were only pretending. The Thermians? They only built the thing. Who ya gonna call? The fans, who have been poring over floor plans and schematics while arguing the esoterica of the Protector since the series was on the air. They know how to access and disable it.
Death Wish, 1974 edition.
Death Wish foretold the coming revolt of the masses, in dealing with crime.
Critics at the time looked at Death Wish as glorification of vigalantism. The public looked at Death Wish as a husband and father trying to fix a wrong.
This is a movie that was attacked, but is a classic.
My wife insists that I point out the wonderfulness of 1984’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.
When one of the cast members was interviewed about it a few years ago, he said, “It’s been over twenty years since we made that movie, and we’re still not quite sure what it was about.”
Like many other men my age, I remember being dragged to that nightmare by my girlfriend.
But it did produce a great punchline for the movie What’s Up, Doc.
Might have been more interesting if Khan and his people had the chance to be successful.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. It has a 54% on Rottentomatoes, the only “rotten” score for a Park Chan-wook film. Oldboy, his follow-up and the second in the Vengeance Trilogy, turned the director into an international star. As good as the movie is, SfMV is the better film, his best even. Unlike Oldboy and the trilogy finale Lady Vengeance which have a mythic quality, it’s a grounded film that finds ordinary people swept into extraordinary circumstances. The protagonists make horrible decisions, but their motivations are always understandable, and the decisions are usually brought on by the consequences of their earlier decisions. Blood Simple, Fargo, and Reservoir Dogs are brought to mind. You have characters convinced they’re clever enough to get away with their crimes. Like Fargo, the protagonists believe their good intentions ensure good results. Also like those movies, there’s dark humor, suspense, and wonderful cinematography.
The Dark Backward which has 45% on Rottentomatoes and has been practically forgotten, not that it was ever well known. A few minutes into it, I agreed with the general opinion that it commits the sin of trying to be a weird cult movie. Over time, it won me over. Set, one assumes, after some unspecified apocalypse, the colorful but dingy setting is Eraserhead by way of Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Performances are appropriately hammy and the story actually got me invested–that’s the real surprising part. There’s a scene early on where Bill Paxton’s character finds a dead woman in junkyard, then gives the body a lick. I thought “I hope this incident has no bearing on anything later in the story.” My wish was granted! Take that, Chekhov.
Road House. Its greatness is a matter of Euclidian logic, hardly in need of defending.
I’ve never seen the movie, but the Spatula City clip was constantly played as commercial break filler during The Rush Limbaugh Show, especially during in its early years. I never knew the source of the clip until years later.
That reminds me of the Cheddar Goblin commercial from Mandy:
Galaxy Quest is a very highly-rated movie.
Now that you’ve chimed in – and thank you! – here’s the movie that prompted this thread, a strange, surreal, conceptually bizarre movie that for some reason just hits me right and makes me smile and love America.
(whispers)
(Cars)
Among other things, I enjoyed the many familiar voices. Even as my kids were watching it for the 2,475th time, I loved hearing Cliff Clavin’s voice again.
I thought someone had mentioned Clue (1985) – but maybe it was in another thread:
I havent seen this movie either, but it looks pretty good.
It’s alright. Fun to watch all the familiar faces. It looks like they enjoyed making it.
All of the Bronson Death Wish movies are classics in my opinion. Agree No. 4 the best.
I don’t think it was maligned at the time, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom certainly would be maligned today as racist. The banquet scene where they slice open the snake and eat monkey brains was thrilling to me as a kid. Plus, he had that stereotypical Asian sidekick. I would watch that move again–and order some real Indian takeout to go with it!
A brilliant conceit and a big sloppy wet kiss for the people who really count.
And at the end of the movie, the series was back on the air!