Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
I've seen a good amount of 80s movies mentioned here, so I have to ask: Any Joe Dante fans? As far as I'm concerned, he's the best director of the 80s. Between 1984 and 1990 he did both Gremlins movies, Explorers, Innerspace and The 'Burbs. I can't think of a director who put so much quality work in such a short timespan. Yeah, they're niche films, but he's really good at what he does. I always got a kick out of how Gremlins 2 came about. The first Gremlins was supposed to be a lot darker than what we got, but the studio held him back so they could market it to a wider audience. He was unhappy with them, but the movie ended up being huge. They asked him to do a sequel and after turning them down multiple times, he finally agreed but only if he was given complete creative control. The studio agreed, and he went on to make one of the most absurd sequels ever.
The BBC did an exhaustive poll of over 200 critics all over the world to rank the greatest non-English-language films.
Got some good discussion there.
Here is the list:
I was reading through the thread from the beginning and came across this list. I've seen 82 of these. There's a few I did not see how great they were. For example, I didn't find Children of Paradise interesting at all. I didn't get The Rules of the Game when I saw it the first time. Now I think it's one of the greats.
I've caught up on a few of these the last couple years, in particular the two by Edward Yang. If you haven't see them, do. They are among the best, most humane films I've seen.
It occurs to me that I may have seen too many films, but I haven't wasted my life.
I've seen a good amount of 80s movies mentioned here, so I have to ask: Any Joe Dante fans? As far as I'm concerned, he's the best director of the 80s. Between 1984 and 1990 he did both Gremlins movies, Explorers, Innerspace and The 'Burbs. I can't think of a director who put so much quality work in such a short timespan. Yeah, they're niche films, but he's really good at what he does. I always got a kick out of how Gremlins 2 came about. The first Gremlins was supposed to be a lot darker than w
I'll take Oliver Stone's 1986-1991 stretch. In those 5 years he had:
Salvador
Platoon
Wall Street
Talk Radio
Born on the Fouth of July
The Doors
JFK
And he wrote all of them, as well as directing them.
I'll take Oliver Stone's 1986-1991 stretch. In those 5 years he had:
Salvador
Platoon
Wall Street
Talk Radio
Born on the Fouth of July
The Doors
JFK
And he wrote all of them, as well as directing them.
That's an impressive list. I'm surprised that The Doors came out in 1991. Feels more like 1996. I guess he was ahead of his time. Anyway, I've never seen Salvador, but the others are all great.
I've seen a good amount of 80s movies mentioned here, so I have to ask: Any Joe Dante fans? As far as I'm concerned, he's the best director of the 80s. Between 1984 and 1990 he did both Gremlins movies, Explorers, Innerspace and The 'Burbs. I can't think of a director who put so much quality work in such a short timespan. Yeah, they're niche films, but he's really good at what he does. I always got a kick out of how Gremlins 2 came about. The first Gremlins was supposed to be a lot darker than w
I've never seen any of the gremlins movies not into horror really at all but godamn now I really want to watch gremlins 2 lol.
the burbs was great obv.
I've never seen any of the gremlins movies not into horror really at all but godamn now I really want to watch gremlins 2 lol.
the burbs was great obv.
You really have to watch the first one and then compare it to the sequel, but what Dante did was brilliant. Example: In the first movie, the dad is an inventor, but his inventions are really bad and never work. In the second movie someone references this...
"Hey, your dad told me to say "Hi" and wanted me to let you know he was working on a new invention."
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
"I don't know. Reversible toilet paper or some ****."
Dante really did make a mockery out of the first movie and didn't hold back:
Key & Peele did a great sketch on Gremlins 2 that Dante described it as "accurate.":
I've never seen any of the gremlins movies not into horror really at all but godamn now I really want to watch gremlins 2 lol.
the burbs was great obv.
gremlins is a kid friendly action fantasy with some mild horror elements
gremlins 2 is army of darkness meets dude where's my car
Gremlins is fantastic, wonder what it would be like now (haven’t seen it since I was in high school)
Gremlins is fantastic, wonder what it would be like now (haven’t seen it since I was in high school)
i rewatched it a few years back when i learned my gf hadn't seen it
it was entertaining but no longer a child, it lost all the wonder and magic which made it one of my favorite films as a kid
Blink Twice - pretty decent thriller/horror. Women get whisked off to billionaire's private island for endless partying, until things turn sinister. Definite Get Out vibes to the mansion staff with their creepy smiles.
Even though it's less than two hours long, the film feels baggy in places. There are an unnecessary number of scenes of partying and drug-taking, causing me some impatience while waiting for the mystery to unfold. The story does eventually take a very dark turn, going to nastier places than Get Out.
The male characters are, deliberately I think, not given much to do. Even Channing Tatum's lines consist mostly of saying variations of, "are you ok"? and "are you having a good time?" The story's told mostly from Frida's perspective. I don't theoretically have a problem with that, but maybe fleshing out the male antagonists a bit more may have meant fewer redundant partying scenes.
On the topic of 80s movies, I’m seeing The Last Starfighter at Alamo Drafthouse this week. It’s gonna be tubular.
Spoiler
Anybody have any favorite movie podcasts? The ones that I have been listening to have grown a little stale.
Speaking of "how did this get made", I just finished Brewster McCloud. I'm struggling to figure out what the hell it was all about. Bud Cort lives in the Astrodome and is making wings to fly. There's some girl that seems infatuated with him, but he isn't interested. There's a serial killer that might be him, or maybe Sally Kellerman who I guess is his guardian angel. I don't know. Then Shelly Duvall shows up and sleeps with Cort, then calls the cops when she thinks he's the serial killer. Then Cort puts on his wings and flies around the astrodome.
The biggest plus for me at least was the car they were driving during a really really bad chase scene. 1970 orange road runner. I had that car.
The end was truly bizarre. The actors introduced themselves as circus performers.
The whole thing was just weird.
If I'm the only Brewster McCloud fan on this forum, do be it.
bigger, you can't just sit down to watch a Robert Altman movie and expect to see normal movie things.
btw, don't watch Nashville!
Brewster McCloud is not good lol
I haven't seen Fast Times since it came out. I remember it as flawless, but will have to watch it again.
Anybody have any favorite movie podcasts? The ones that I have been listening to have grown a little stale.
So a few weeks before the pandemic, if not a few days before the pandemic, I played poker with Joe Dante's long-time assistant at Commerce in L.A. We bought each other some drinks and she told me she was Joe Dante's long-time assistant, and I said "who's that?" She said he was the director of this movie, and that movie, and "...Gremlins" and I said oh yeah, I loved Gremlins when I was a kid. Phoebe Cates was my first movie-star crush when I was 5 years old.
Broken YouTube LinkShe told me a bunch of Joe and Phoebe stories that I either don't remember or won't share, but later she recognized my radio voice and mentioned something about contacting Joe and starting a podcast together. She gave me her phone number and email and I know we emailed at least once, but then the pandemic happened right after that.
Forgot about all that but sadly Gmail has deleted all my emails before 2022 and that happened in 2020. Phoebe looks too young in that movie now but it still reminds me of a certain time in my life.
Wow, 5yo seems rather young to be having movie star crushes lol.
never heard of brewster mcloud
