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Films/DVD Asylum Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star. |
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Films/DVD Asylum Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star. |
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In Reply to: Favorite movie you can watch over and over again? posted by brewthunda on September 4, 2001 at 11:03:08:
"Animal House" -- I know when the classic Belushi scenes are coming, but I laugh anyway."The Godfather" saga -- just saw that on television again. Al Pacino in a bravura performance, nicely set off by Diane Keaton.
"Chinatown" -- Jack Nicholson not doing schtick; best Faye Dunaway performance out there; Roman Polanski directs before he becomes persona non grata in the US on a morals charge.
"Maltese Falcon" -- prototype for "Chinatown" and lots of others. Bogie as 100% tough guy; the creepy Peter Lorre; the slimy Sidney Greenstreet; the deceitful Mary Astor. What a cast!
"Rear Window" -- The impossibly beautiful Grace Kelley, the nice on the outside but creepy on the inside Jimmy Stewart (see "Vertigo") and Alfred Hitchcock -- what an all-star combo!
"Run Silent, Run Deep" -- Ok, I'm a sucker for WW2 sub films; but this is the best. Tightly plotted and edited, atmospheric in gorgeous black and white, with Clark "frankly, I don't give a damn, my dear" Gable and Burt Lancaster. From the novel by WW2 sub skipper Edward L. Beach, so its the real thing.
"Annie Hall" -- California meets New York. Diane Keaton when she was young enough to get away with all her "cuteness"'; Woody Allen before he turned creepy.
"Remains of the Day" -- Two top actors showing what acting is really about -- Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Nothing happens in the movie, which is precisely the point.
"Beauty and the Beast" -- Yes, the Disney cartoon. The cartoon as opera. The best of the Mencken-Ashman collaborations for Disney, and that's saying something. Non-intrusive use of the computer: check out the ballroom scene where Beauty and Belle are dancing to the title theme. An SG workstation did the "flying camera" animation -- breathtaking! Right from the quiet and delicate opening sequence introducing the story, which segues into a rousing ensemble musical number introducing all the players (except the Beast), you know this ain't no Mickey Mouse cartoon. Genuinely moving.
Close runner-up -- "Little Mermaid": not as good a plot and not as integrated music-story concept. But the music itself is tops: "Kiss the Girl"; "Under the Sea" -- broadway musical-style writing just doesn't get better than this. Regrettably, these two gems have been buried by the Disney studio's subsequent cranking out of increasingly bad attempts to capitalize on their success. The trajectory was, IMHO, pretty steadily downward, with a small uptick for "The Lion King." It didn't help, of course, that Ashman died of AIDS before the next film after "Beauty", "Aladdin," was finished. What a loss!
"Casablanca" -- I'm sorry folks; call me a sucker -- for "As time goes by," for Ingrid Bergman (today she would have had her teeth capped; but ask yourself: does it really matter that her teeth aren't perfect?) and for that wonderful plot device of having the whole story revolve around an affair remembered: ("We'll always have Paris, Elsa.") Sorry, folks, this ain't no "B" movie in my book. This is a romance between grown-ups, not adolescents (or grown-ups who act like adolescents) -- the kind of movie that is not made any more (although I will give a nod to "The Horse Whisperer" for at least making an attempt.)
Final call: -- "The Apostle": the only Hollywood film I have ever seen that shows any understanding of what Christianity is about. A fantastic, hold-nothing-back performance by Robert DuVall as the deeply flawed evangelical preacher. And, among other things, a really great performance by former T-and-A queen Farrah Fawcett as his wife. Who'd a thunk it?! Charlie's poster-girl Angel giving a serious performance! This movie is about the Big Stuff: sin, redemption, forgiveness, and so on. It does not disappoint.
A quirky group, to be sure, and I could add more. But there they are.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Favorite movie you can watch over and over again? - Bruce from DC 13:01:05 09/06/01 (1)
- I second your thoughts on Disney animation... - marantzman 06:12:46 09/07/01 (0)
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