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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: unwatchable "great" films
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
L'organist wrote on the equivalent books thread...
quote:
Anyone care to start another thread about unwatchable "classic/great" films?
Okay, first off, I have a personal policy of watching any film to the very last credit, so for the most part, this will just be a list of widely-loved films I wish I hadn't started watching, or at least would never want to watch again.
I really don't like the Coen Brothers. The supposed quirkiness of their films always seems really forced. The kind of stuff that's aimed straight at the guy who sits in the front row at the art theatre and laughs really loud, to make sure everyone knows he gets the joke. That said, I did continue to watch their films after I had decided I don't like them, and I can't guarantee I won't do so again.
I'm a huge Hitchcock fan, but something about Vertigo just doesn't leave an impression on me. I'd have a hard time saying what exactly is wrong with it, because after two screenings, I can't remember much of it. I actually like Hitchccok better when he's more gratuitously perverse and violent(Frenzy is one of my all time favorites).
I know it has a special place in a lot of peoples' hearts', but I find Harvey(seen it twice, over a period of decades) a rather frustrating film to watch. I think it's because I go into it expecting it to be more "adventurous" than it is. Like, at the beginning, Elwood leaves the house with Harvey to go downtown, so I'm expecting him to meet a lot of people and have some zany adventures. But then he meets some people who tell him about a party he should attend, so he goes back home(or to someone else's house maybe?), and we're just kinda back to where we started from.
Later, he goes into a bar, which, in a film, usually indicates that things are gonna get a little on the wild side, but he stays for one drink, and then goes somewhere else(back home again?) The whole thing ends up at a psychiatrist's office, which is kind of anti-climactic since we've already seen the office earlier in the film. Overall, I don't think the story made a successful transition from stage to screen, but I realize I'm in a minority on that.
And while I think it is a pretty good film, I just don't see what is supposed to be so scary about The Exorcist. Especially the stuff that everyone holds up as plumbing new depths of terror(eg. the vomit, the crucifix), I just think is more gross than anything else. Lots of well-executed spookiness(eg. the priest's dream), but nothing that puts me in a convulsion of horror.
I used to think that movie was scary mostly for parents, because it plays on fears of being unable to help a child who is growing progressively sicker and sicker. But I know childless people who think it's terrifying as well.
[ 09. April 2013, 20:54: Message edited by: Stetson ]
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
You do not like Vertigo? the firing squad will be 'round at dawn.
The only Hitchcock film one is aloud to dislike is The Birds.
difficult to be afraid when the problem could be solved with a few swings of a cricket bat.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
You do not like Vertigo? the firing squad will be 'round at dawn.
There's sexist as in only to be expected for the period, and then there's misogynist. And I think Vertigo crosses the line.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
Stetson, you are dead wrong about Harvey. (Elwood: "In this world, you must be oh-so-smart, or oh-so-pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.")
But I will offend many with my own selection. Gone With The Wind. The story of a young girl who is shown to be shallow, self-centered and selfish. Her world then crumbles around her with the war; she is reduced to poverty and hunger; she sees death up close and she emerges from all of this---shallow, self-centered and selfish. Was there supposed to be a point to this movie?
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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AngloCatholicGirl
Shipmate
# 16435
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Posted
I'll second you with Gone With the Wind. A friend and I sat down a few years ago for a viewing (accompanied by wine & nibbles) and at the end we looked at each other and said 'what was all the fuss about?' we really tried to get into it, but we just ended up thinking 'meh'.
I have to confess that 'The Deer Hunter' doesn't do it for me. It just takes so long for anything to happen (especially the wedding-just finish the reception already!) and I lose patience. I've yet to finish it.
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Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise -Samuel Johnson
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
Two truly and deeply dreadful films IMHO - tedious and without interest, the sort of film where after 20 minutes you're longing for the credits. Although the subject matter is totally different, and nobody else will probably be able to see this, to me they are strangely similar and I dislike them for similar reasons.
1. Distant Voices, Still Lives.
2. The Piano.
I like both Harvey and Brother Where art Thou a lot. Less sure about Fargo.
[ 09. April 2013, 21:57: Message edited by: Enoch ]
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The Batman films. Increasingly. Pretentious wouldn't be in it.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
You do not like Vertigo? the firing squad will be 'round at dawn.
There's sexist as in only to be expected for the period, and then there's misogynist. And I think Vertigo crosses the line.
The weird thing is I agree, and yet I find this film haunting.
There's only one Coen Brothers film I have seen that I haven't liked, And I had the same reaction as above to GWTW until I saw it on the big screen in a retro house. Then I saw how hard the actors were working.
But in reviewing the AFI 100 best list, I did realize there is one Great Film I have tried to watch a number of times, and I just haven't been able to get into it. Dr. Strangelove. I know, that makes me a cretin, but I just find it too buzzy-- it gives me the same feeling white noise does..
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I cannot expect people to believe “
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Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Originally posted by the Killer Bunny:
quote:
And I had the same reaction as above to GWTW until I saw it on the big screen in a retro house. Then I saw how hard the actors were working.
If you have not seen a film on a large screen, it is difficult to say you have truly seen it.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif) Word.
Same reaction to first seeing a screening of Rear Window (The good one) I thought, "I've never really seen this film before."
(Still thinking about Vertigo) I think the whole reason I find that one haunting is that there is no question that all of the principal characters are completely fucked up, and therefore on an even playing field.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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ToujoursDan
Ship's prole
# 10578
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Posted
I can't stand "The Wizard of Oz" movie. The book presents Dorothy as a strong determined woman who takes control and rescues her friends, but the film makes her weak and whiny. Also by the end of it, Judy Garland's voice is like fingernails on a chalk board for me. It might be a perfect pitch thing but her voice intones the same notes over and over through the flick and by the end I've had enough.
[ 09. April 2013, 23:17: Message edited by: ToujoursDan ]
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"Many people say I embarrass them with my humility" - Archbishop Peter Akinola
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I saw GWTW in a grand, palatial theatre with a huge screen -- and I was a teenager who loved epic romances (e.g., I was madly in love with Dr.Zvivago). I hated GWTW! Couldn't stand Rhett or Scarlett. And the stupid film seemed to go on forever and ever -- I don't think the Civil War lasted as long as that movie did.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
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Latchkey Kid
Shipmate
# 12444
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Posted
Both GWTW and The Sound of Music.
And is Les Enfants du Paradis meant to count as a great film? Apparently the French think so.
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'You must never give way for an answer. An answer is always the stretch of road that's behind you. Only a question can point the way forward.'
Mika; in Hello? Is Anybody There?, Jostein Gaardner
Posts: 2592 | From: The wizardest little town in Oz | Registered: Mar 2007
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
Both GWTW and The Sound of Music.
And is Les Enfants du Paradis meant to count as a great film? Apparently the French think so.
I haven't seen GWTW except a few bits and wasn't tempted to watch further. Sound of Music? Disgusting. I didn't stay till the end. However ex-MIL watched it every chance she had. When I lost contact with her it was around thirty times she had seen it.
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
I saw GWTW in a theater - not a grand one by any means, but a real theater. I was about 13, and I loved it. I've seen it maybe once since, and I don't have any interest in seeing it again.
I've seen Vertigo in big theaters twice - the first time in a freshly-remastered copy shown at the Castro in S. F. (My date and I walked back to the car past Mission Dolores.) The other time was at the Stanford in Palo Alto - another great movie house.
As a native Bay Arean, I love the film. I reinforces all the romantic images I have of the San Francisco of my childhood. <sniff>.
But that is one seriously creepy film, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go back. If it weren't for the SF connection, I might never go.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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infinite_monkey
Shipmate
# 11333
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Posted
I spent pretty much all of There Will Be Blood muttering to myself, "Is there blood yet? This movie won't end, I suppose, until there's blood. When is the blood coming? Where's the damn blood?"
Tedious. Sodding. Movie.
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His light was lifted just above the Law,
And now we have to live with what we did with what we saw.
--Dar Williams, And a God Descended
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
"The English Patient" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" were two that I tried to watch thinking "Surely they'll improve and become more interesting". But no. I abandoned CCM after a while.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Fr Weber
Shipmate
# 13472
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
1. Distant Voices, Still Lives.
2. The Piano.
O God, yes.
DVSL is unbelievably tedious. It seems twice as long as it actually is.
And I haven't been able to finish any Jane Campion film I've attempted to watch. Although the time spent watching (part of) Angel at My Table was well spent, because now I can amuse friends with my Jinnit Frime impersonations.
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"The Eucharist is not a play, and you're not Jesus."
--Sr Theresa Koernke, IHM
Posts: 2512 | From: Oakland, CA | Registered: Feb 2008
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Fr Weber
Shipmate
# 13472
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by infinite_monkey:
I spent pretty much all of There Will Be Blood muttering to myself, "Is there blood yet? This movie won't end, I suppose, until there's blood. When is the blood coming? Where's the damn blood?"
Tedious. Sodding. Movie.
The first time I tried to watch it I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes, which are extremely slow and in which very little that seems important happens. I still think we don't need to see Daniel Day-Lewis piddling around with a mining rig for 15 minutes right off the bat, but the film does become more watchable if you stick with it. Definitely not P.T. Anderson's best work, though.
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"The Eucharist is not a play, and you're not Jesus."
--Sr Theresa Koernke, IHM
Posts: 2512 | From: Oakland, CA | Registered: Feb 2008
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
"The English Patient" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" were two that I tried to watch thinking "Surely they'll improve and become more interesting". But no.
I agree.
And after an hour of James Cameron's Titanic...Sink, damn you, sink!
Hear hear! To all the above. They were all pants, the lot of them.
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Re not watching to the last credit:
You're missing out--some films put surprises during or after the credits. E.g., some of the Harry Potter films, "Night At The Museum", many of the Jeremy Brett TV versions of Sherlock Holmes stories. And in the movie "Young Sherlock Holmes", there's a crucial plot point AFTER the credits.
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Plus the experience feels more finished when I watch 'til the end.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I have sat through Gone with the Wind once and never intend so to do again. It is Far Too Long™
Another one that I put in the Far Too Long category (and I suspect I may upset more people with this one): Forrest Gump. Especially if you watch it more than once. You realise that you've been sitting there for bloody HOURS and he still hasn't even got to the running thing yet...
[I previewed and everything and still a missing word...]
[ 10. April 2013, 08:18: Message edited by: la vie en rouge ]
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
I spent pretty much all of There Will Be Blood muttering to myself, "Is there blood yet? This movie won't end, I suppose, until there's blood. When is the blood coming? Where's the damn blood?"
Tedious. Sodding. Movie.
A friend of mine theorized that the title was a joke. It promises blood, and then technically fulfills the promise in the end scene. There IS blood, albeit only a little, in Plainview's bowling alley.
My friend also speculated that TWBB was a meant as a tribute to Kubrick, which I would concur with, as far as the beginning(which looks like 2001) and the end(which takes place in a typical "Kubrick room") are concerned.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Earwig
Pincered Beastie
# 12057
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Posted
I first watched GWTW in bed with flu. I assumed it was the illness that made the film seem endless, but a second viewing ended that illusion. I still laugh when the kid falls off her horse tho.
The two dullest films in the world at Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. A date took me to see the directors cut of Apocalypse Now and I seriously considered feigning a fit so I could leave the cinema.
And 2001? Your mind is going, HAL? Mine too, honey, mine too.
Posts: 3120 | From: Yorkshire | Registered: Nov 2006
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Erik
Shipmate
# 11406
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Posted
Yes, I agree with those who have said Titanic and The Sound of Music. The latter certainly wasn't helped by having watch it several times at school (you know- the last day of term when noone does any work) but always having it switched off before all the stuff with the Nazis.
I would like to add Magnolia to the list. I had a lot of people telling me how great it was but I hated it. Nothing happens and all the characters are arseholes.
Oh and while I am at it- Planet of the Apes. Apart from the really slow moving beginning, I really disliked Charlton Heston's character. That and it felt like a rather thinly veiled political lecture.
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Posts: 96 | From: Leeds, UK | Registered: May 2006
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
I really like The English Patient, and remember my friend and I snivelling in the cinema when it first came out, and I enjoyed GWTW, though I don't think I could sit through it again.
I second those who have listed The Piano, Titanic and There Will be Blood - bloody awful. But the one fairly recent film that made me want to slit my wrists was Never Let Me Go - depressing much?! Ye gods. I haven't been so depressed since seeing an Eccleston film of Jude the Obscure. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
But I would encourage people to stay until the credits end - we always do, and apart from possible extra scenes, I enjoy reading the info, eg., what music was used; where location filming took place, etc. etc. All good stuff.
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I like "Gone With The Wind", but I'm a Leslie Howard fan and IMO he’s always been worth watching.
"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" should, according to some friends, also be added to this list, though I haven't seen it myself so can't say whether I agree or not.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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South Coast Kevin
Shipmate
# 16130
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
But the one fairly recent film that made me want to slit my wrists was Never Let Me Go - depressing much?! Ye gods.
Oh, I saw Never Let Me Go! Depressing indeed but I was captivated by it. Must watch it again, in fact...
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My blog - wondering about Christianity in the 21st century, chess, music, politics and other bits and bobs.
Posts: 3309 | From: The south coast (of England) | Registered: Jan 2011
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I rarely go to movies, but ALWAYS stay through the credits. To leave before they were over would be like leaving a live theatre performance before the curtain calls.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Basso wrote:
quote:
As a native Bay Arean, I love the film. I reinforces all the romantic images I have of the San Francisco of my childhood. <sniff>.
If you haven't seen it yet, you might be interested in Family Plot, Hitchcock's last film, also filmed in and around San Francisco.
To quote a detractor, it does at times seem more like a Columbo episode than a feature film, but it has a few scenes shot in the interior and exterior of Grace Cathedral.
Also interesting to see Hitchcock's rather old-fashioned style trying to fit itself into a mid-1970s mileu, with young actors from the "Easy Rider" generation. Some of the sexual dialogue is kinda cornball("Honey, I'm too pooped to pop"), but I imagine woulda seemed fairly daring to people who watched his films in the 1940s and 50s.
LilBuddha wrote:
quote:
The only Hitchcock film one is aloud to dislike is The Birds.
I quite like The Birds. Granted, the special effects don't hold up at all over time, but that's a problem with almost any special effects.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
The two dullest films in the world at Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. A date took me to see the directors cut of Apocalypse Now and I seriously considered feigning a fit so I could leave the cinema.
Sadly, I have to agree about AN. There are some great set pieces in it, but my god there's a whole pile of tedium in between them.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
The Exorcist has to be one of the most over-hyped movies ever made. It's crap, boring, not very scary at all and becomes a self parody of itself even before the credits roll.
There are a whole host of films that have been horrifically over-rated, some of which of course are just plain old bad movies (Pearl Harbour anyone?). I've never really 'got' 'O Brother Where Art Thou?', but I think 'Brazil' has got to rank as one of the worst and most pointless movies ever made. I read so much about it and so much hype and even sensible critics gushing endlessly. As the DVD went back to the menu, the disc was taken directly to the bin. I just couldn't being myself to sell it on to someone and inflict it on some unsuspecting sucker. It would have been morally wrong I tell you!
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
The Exorcist has to be one of the most over-hyped movies ever made. It's crap, boring, not very scary at all and becomes a self parody of itself even before the credits roll.
When it played at a theatre in my hometown, late 90s, the marquis read: THE SCARIEST MOVIE EVER MADE.
Which I mentally finished off with: "...featuring Lee J. Cobb". I woulda said Max Von Sydow, but The Seventh Seal gives The Exorcist a run for its money in the terror department.
But like I said at the beginning, I think there is a lot of well-done spookiness in the film. I do think, though, that some people believe the "puke and stabbing" stuff is frightening as all get-out simply because they were told it is before watching the film.
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
"The English Patient" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" were two that I tried to watch thinking "Surely they'll improve and become more interesting". But no. I abandoned CCM after a while.
"The English Patient" was an absolute GIFT if, like me, you read the book and couldn't figure out what the heck was going on (a recurring problem for me with Ondaatje's novels). After I saw the movie I could figure out what the plot was meant to be, and then was able to re-read the book and make some sense out of it.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
A Clockwork Orange.
Care to elaborate on your reasons for not liking it? ACO is my all-time favorite film, even though I would now classify it as a bit of a juvenile enthusiasm.
Pauline Kael absolutely hated it, but wrote a review that, in my opinion, captures the whole spirit of the film perfectly. The opening paragraph alone is worth the click.
Paradoxically, I think it's Kubrick's stunted-adolescent mentality and didactic philosophizing that give the thing its artistic force.
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
I just thought it was over-hyped and ultimately did nothing for me. I'm not a film critic in the sense that I can analyse films like those arty-farty types. I was just unimpressed by it.
[ 10. April 2013, 14:31: Message edited by: Ad Orientem ]
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
A friend wanted to watch 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' We rented the DVD, and as she watched and enjoyed, I suffered. The last three-fourths of the movie I piddled around, getting snacks, refilling drinks, going to the bathroom. Anything else was better than watching that tedious movie.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
And in the movie "Young Sherlock Holmes", there's a crucial plot point AFTER the credits.
Right, they set up another generation with the myth that Moriarty was an ongoing nemesis in the Holmes stories. (That movie scared the crap out of me as a kid- didn't sleep well for a few days.)
quote:
Originally posted by Erik:
I would like to add Magnolia to the list. I had a lot of people telling me how great it was but I hated it. Nothing happens and all the characters are arseholes.
Here here. And then, after about two and a half hours (seriously, this movie is three hours of people being miserable) it rains frogs for no reason. Like they are trying to convince us that the movie is deep and arty, despite the fact that the last two and a half hours have failed to prove that point over and over again. The whole "stories of people who at first glance don't seem to be connected but in fact are because of their shared humanity" genre never did it for me.
[ 10. April 2013, 15:44: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Any of the James Bond films. Every last one of them is a waste of celluloid, watchable for about half a picosecond before sending me eating my own toenails in utter boredom.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by South Coast Kevin:
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
But the one fairly recent film that made me want to slit my wrists was Never Let Me Go - depressing much?! Ye gods.
Oh, I saw Never Let Me Go! Depressing indeed but I was captivated by it. Must watch it again, in fact...
With the book you can times all that by ten, but I, too, loved them both.
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
"The English Patient" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" were two that I tried to watch thinking "Surely they'll improve and become more interesting". But no. I abandoned CCM after a while.
Thank you, and thank you.
RE: Clockwork Orange It could be one of the most relentlessly nihilistic things that I have ever seen, and too painful to watch,but for two things-
1.Classic Kubreckian cinematography-- the camera tells a story all its own, it's masterfully shot.
(film nerd moment: I particularly appreciate Malcolm McDowell's penis in this film. Let me explain. I love how , in the rehabilitation center scene, they go through all that Austin Power hide-the-dick-shot nonsense and then some tech swoops in and removes a stack of boxes, and there's Malcolm in all his glory. Perfect comedic timing. I found it -- cinematically refreshing. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) )
2. The Beethoven reconditioning bit got to me in a way that I still haven't gotten over. The idea that something you love can be turned against you like that. (shudder.)
[ 10. April 2013, 15:54: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Evita
Questionable storyline = So-so musical
So-so musical + Annoying star = Terrible movie.
Enigma
Lets re-write history so that the AMERICANS get their dibs on an Enigma coding machine, lets forget about the code-breakers almost entirely, ignore Bletchley Park and then get Mick Jagger to pay for the movie. An insult on every level.
any Barney the Dinosaur film
Call yourself a masochist? You haven't experiened anything until you've been shut in a cinema with 100+ over-stimulated under 3s, all screaming. Hell on earth.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Bob Two-Owls
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# 9680
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Posted
I don't really like any films but I particularly dislike Citizen Kane. I think I don't like it precisely because everyone tells me I should love it and as I said, I don't really like any films.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Kelly wrote:
quote:
RE: Clockwork Orange It could be one of the most relentlessly nihilistic things that I have ever seen, but for two things-
1.Classic Kubreckian cinematography-- the camera tells a story all its own, it's masterfully shot.
One thing Kubrick carried over from his days as a magazine photographer was a talent for making static images look interesting. Granted, he was usually aided in this by the use of very effective musical scores.
re: the frogs in Magnolia...
My take on that was that the film was, in part, tributing those 1970s disaster movies(Earthquake, Towering Inferno), which followed the morally problematic lives of various individuals in a city(often in California), and then had them all swept away or burned up in an Old Testament-style catastrophe.
Except that Anderson gives us a catastrophe that is not just Old Testament-style, but a direct lift from the Old Testament.
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
And 2001? Your mind is going, HAL? Mine too, honey, mine too.
While I cannot argue with most of the entries here there are two I don't agree with. A Clockwork Orange is not an easy film, but I enjoyed it. Definitely watchable.
2001 - again, not an easy film. Youngest son fell asleep when it was on. But, once again, I find it a great example of arty sci-fi.
Not to mention containing Hal the psychopathic computer, who is a brilliant creation.
I can accept that others do not appreciate Kubrick, and he is an acquired taste, but worth acquiring, given some of the other rubbish around.
I am often prepared to give films a chance, even if they are difficult, in the hope that they are worth the effort. Often they are, and it makes me feel justified.
The Bond films I don't mind, but do not get excited about. I don't make a point of getting to see them, and have still not seen the latest.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Barnabas62
Shipmate
# 9110
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Posted
I've really tried with this thread, but I seem to have this ability to forget the title of every truly unwatchable movie.
But I do remember this. So appalling it became a cult movie.
Bela Lugosi died during its making and his double simply covered the bottom of his face with a cloak. Night became day in between cuts. Amongst other "delights" of a movie with production values close to minus infinity. You can get a flavour from watching the trailer.
Edward D Wood's Jr's film is truly unwatchable unless you get some fun out of a movie-maker's "trainwreck masterpiece". (I did, I'm ashamed to say). Nobody ever did it worse than Ed Wood and I reckon this was his nadir.
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Who is it that you seek? How then shall we live? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Posts: 21397 | From: Norfolk UK | Registered: Feb 2005
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Baptist Trainfan
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# 15128
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Posted
I saw 2001 on the big screen when it was first released (I think it was in 70mm). Yes, it was too long. The end sequence was difficult to understand. And the "Neanderthal" sequence would probably look ludicrous today.
But it still made a great impression, especially the SFX.
(Clarke's original short story "The Sentinel" is better than his expanded novel "2001" which went with the film).
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
I've got a dvd of this - but I got it after seeing the brilliant Ed Wood with Johnny Depp as Ed and Martin Landau as Bela. Laugh out loud funny but truly touching as well. A lovely film... which really can't be said of Plan 9, which has its own, jawdroppingly brand of WTF??!
eta: in reply to Barnabas62, of course
[ 10. April 2013, 17:36: Message edited by: Pine Marten ]
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Yes, Ed Wood is miles better than Plan 9. I had to see the latter as part of a high school film class. Only two movies in my life that have literally put me to sleep, that is one (my teacher didn't like that) and the other was Young Einstein.
[ETA: Glen or Glenda was pretty cool, though.]
[ 10. April 2013, 18:19: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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