What movie is most likely to get caught in your challopian tube?

Ha ha. I am such a sucker for Amelie but then I used to live around there for awhile.

really loved Velvet Goldmine. It's kind of a mess and is not historically accurate but is very entertaining to watch. The editing is incredible...I love the way every scene starts out as one thing and ends up as another. And the music was great.

omg amelie
i saw vampires just drunk enough that i didn't feel like walking out

I think its so weird that people expected Velvet Goldmine to be historically accurate. it lays its cards out on the table pretty early that its a FAIRY TALE

Velvet Goldmine historically accurate? The point is that it's about the rumors and not the reality. We all believed this stuff in the 70's.

^^^yep

^^yes. but I remember all of the criticism it got at the time for not portraying the era accurately, which I agree is ridiculous.

there seems to be some revisionist thinking about Forrest Gump. How did it end up at 607 on the 1000-top films list? It was bad the first time and I can't imagine it's going to get any better in retrospect.

I think my problems with historical accuracy had to do with the chronology of various periods and recording history.

you know a movie's great when an actor cuts off his legs just to be in it. that gary sinise guy is amazing! such dedication.

x-post

i didn't even know what velvet goldmine was supposed to be referencing at the time, it was pretty entertaining on its merits.

its not a biopic. its a coming-out movie disguised as a musical fable.

yeah, it's more entertaining when you're not arguing about whether so-and-so is supposed to be representing Lou Reed, Bowie, Iggy, etc. at a given point in the movie.

yes. and right from the first scene you know it's going to be great, with the bullied kid finding Oscar Wilde's brooch, and the camera shooting off to the stars.

the only thing i didn't like about VG was the citizen kane thing

I love Velvet Goldmine. I'm sure there's a thread. But we should be talking about mainstream hits that really suck.

Of recent movies The Dark Knight really bugged me.

bloated, overly-gothic, 4 or 5 pseudo-endings, and it was all taken so seriously...

500 days of summer. SUCKED.

I'd have preferred Magnolia if it was only 5 minutes of raining frogs.

a bit too wishy washy for a challop but I didn't get all the OMG over Shawshank. It's kind of beyond me why it's a favorite movie of all time kind of movie. Maybe if someone didn't already know the story it'd be more exciting? Dunno.

I still can't figure out why I left the theater after seeing Magnolia feeling good about myself and life in general, and it actually made me mad because I never once thought "okay, wow... I'm seeing a meaningful movie." I haven't watched it since.

As far as Stephen King adaptations go, it was better than Apt Pupil. Shawshank I mean

I think people like it because it's not as shit as what they're used to: the actors do their job and the script assumes that you are sober, can follow the dialogue, and won't resent the lack of car chases. It would still be a half forgotten b-movie if it had been produced before 1980, which I understand is the industry cut-off for cable.

tbf it's probably one of the better SK adaptations to screen. I like the Shining the most of all of them though, but then that's pushing the definition of 'adaptation' pretty far.

http://static2.unlike.net/system/photos/0031/9794/wings.jpg

Self-importance is the only quality in a movie that brings out hatred imo.

Totally agree, and as such my additions to this thread are Pay It Forward and The Notebook.

a bit too wishy washy for a challop but I didn't get all the OMG over Shawshank. It's kind of beyond me why it's a favorite movie of all time kind of movie. Maybe if someone didn't already know the story it'd be more exciting? Dunno.

yeah i used to be on imdb a lot and it was the top movie on the charts for like 4 years, i just could not wrap my head around it. and it's not even a dislikeable or remarkable enough movie to warrant mounting an attack, it's just a super-weird phenomenon.

It's because Morgan Freeman is America's cuddly grandpa.

fyi here is the current imdb top 25:

Rank Rating Title Votes
1. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 447,121
2. 9.1 The Godfather (1972) 366,574
3. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 214,585
4. 8.9 Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) 134,203
5. 8.9 Pulp Fiction (1994) 366,430
6. 8.9 Schindler's List (1993) 242,819
7. 8.8 12 Angry Men (1957) 97,448
8. 8.8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 186,551
9. 8.8 The Dark Knight (2008) 394,336
10. 8.8 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 248,624
11. 8.8 Casablanca (1942) 151,099
12. 8.8 Star Wars (1977) 291,471
13. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 320,266
14. 8.8 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 86,128
15. 8.7 Goodfellas (1990) 200,943
16. 8.7 Rear Window (1954) 105,028
17. 8.7 Cidade de Deus (2002) 142,564
18. 8.7 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 220,286
19. 8.7 Fight Club (1999) 332,512
20. 8.7 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 347,127
21. 8.7 C'era una volta il West (1968) 63,184
22. 8.7 The Usual Suspects (1995) 239,441
23. 8.7 Psycho (1960) 126,714
24. 8.6 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 216,850
25. 8.6 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 47,498

Shawshank is not a self-important movie. It's quietly competent. But it really isn't that good.

The Usual Suspects, ugh. I love twist endings as much as the next person, but if you make a film people can only see once, then you've made a bad film.

Unlike Psycho (just below it on the imdb list), the payoff of the movie is in the suspense, not the twist.

i think shawshawk is pretty all right but weird tonally. it's like a lot of stephen king's work in that way (and in that way it gets it right.) it's this wide-eyed almost innocent-style relating of a tale that's filled with shit like prison rape and murder, and then it all gets tied up in a neat bow at the end with a twist and all of the evil characters paying for their misdeeds with ironic fates.

the usual suspects is by far the worst film out of that list imo

(by which I mean Psycho wins and The Usual Suspects loses) xxp

There are films in that list that I quite like, but not one that I love, and there's more than a couple that I secretly despise.

Impossible choice for me between F.Gump and Watchmen.

Watchmen wasn't _that_ awful.

I thought it was OK. But just OK. Nowhere near top 20 great.

On the other hand, I've never seem Forrest Gump, but John Waters was unusually vehement on that one, and, based on the people I know who loved, I really don't think it's going to be my kind of thing at all.

the subtext of Forrest Gump is that sexually liberated women with liberal politics get AIDS and die.

It's because Morgan Freeman is America's cuddly grandpa.

...who we have sex with and get married to.

the subtext of Forrest Gump is that sexually liberated women with liberal politics get AIDS and die.

― I ♠ my display name (sarahel), Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:11 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is a whole genre of movie, the out of control lady movie. i hate it.

but she redeems herself by marrying the retarded patriot and, of course, having a baby.

Splitting hairs, I know, but I'd say it's "a subplot" rather than "the subtext" of Forrest Gump. The subtext of the film is: stumbling brainlessly through life will lead to a wondrous existence filled with magic and stars.

it isn't a subplot, it is a subtext, but not the only one.

i was alarmed by the pro-jogging undercurrent.

I thought it was about the rape of our Gulf coast's seabed just to please gluttonous Americans who crave shellfish.

Another vote for Donnie Darko, the worst film ever made.

Mordy, have you seen Southland Tales?