movie recommendations

[mandru]

I'm not much for war movies. I tend to avoid movies that I already know more or less how they are gong to end.  :P

Probably the movie that I have enjoyed the most over the last 10 years was Secondhand Lions with Robert Duvall, Michael Caine from 2003. How this movie ever flew in under the radar and eluded notice for so long baffles me and it's clear that the lack of promotion on the part of the production company was outright negligence.

I would have totally missed it if it hadn't popped up on TV that I had on for background noise one afternoon on a Saturday during the typical doldrums where almost nothing worthwhile is ever on.

Here over the last couple years I've picked up on Hayao Miyazaki's films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro among others that I've quite enjoyed.

I catch all my movies at home once they come out on DVD. I'm just not in that big of a rush to see anything that's been released recently and that way I don't have to make any life threats on idiots in the row behind me at the theater revealing how the movie's going to end or dealing with cellphone owners who think the whole world's more interested in their over loud phone conversations than the movie we all paid $8 to $10 dollars to get in to see.

I've not even set foot in a theater since 1999 for Star Wars episode I Phantom Menace where a woman tried to strike up a conversation via an incoming call on her cell about her friend's poodle puking on the carpet right during the explanation about the level of midi-chlorians and the infected person's ability to access to the Force, causing me to miss that bit.

Think mushroom cloud.   ::)

[fragger]

I've not even set foot in a theater since 1999

I can relate, mandru. The last thing I saw was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and it was a most underwhelming experience. Not the movie, I love these films, but the viewing environment, which sucked.

When I was a young bloke, going to the movies was a big deal - well, actually, if you wanted to see a particular film you didn't have much choice as there were no DVDs or even VCR's then. I remember cavernous movie cinemas where there was an upstairs and a downstairs, and a screen so big that you actually had to turn your head to follow the action. Now you get herded into a space the size of a large lounge room, with small uncomfortable seats and a screen the size of a bedsheet on which the film always seems to be slightly out of focus, and with the sound turned up almost to distortion level. Mind you, you need it loud to drown out all the cretins blabbing away on their mobiles and scrunching chip bags, like you mentioned.

@PZ - One film I could add to your list is Tora Tora Tora. It's a long film, with not much action at all for most of its running time, but it's interesting in that it's extremely historically accurate in the way it details the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbour. When the attack does come, it's breathtakingly realistic, much more so than the more recent Pearl Harbour movie, which was a special effects-driven snoozefest. I hate it when they relegate history to the background for some soppy, chick-flicky love triangle, like Titanic, another soporific ordeal.

I heard once that Where Eagles Dare was the inspiration for the original Castle Wolfenstein game. Just thought of another WW2 film that I like - The Eagle Has Landed.

[fragger]

Incidently, I heard that there's a remake of The Dambusters under way, with Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame involved in some capacity (not directing). May be one to watch out for.

[Fiach]

I sat down last night to watch a dvd (blueray, to check it out and see how great this new PS3 format was ..... a bit meh, truth be told :( ), and My Cousin Vinny was on TV.

I never watch TV, but I love that movie and settled in to watch it. After about 25 minutes the ad's came on ....... I didnt know what to do, its so long since I sat down and watched TV, I had forgotten all about these spawns of satan...... no more TV for me I reckon :)

Although I'm familiar with alot from that list and I did like Von Ryans Express, I can't for the life of me think of a WW movie that I particularly liked.

So for my war movie I'm going to choose Red Cliff.

Its set in China in, I guess, medieval times and is basically about two generals pitting their wits against each other, at a place called Red Cliff.

One a minister, trying to usurp control of China, the other an unorthodox general loyal to the young emperor.

The movie is epic in scope, having a runtime of maybe 4 hours, but never once dropping the ball and decending into boredom.

It has tactics, comedy, pathos, action and a great sense of scale, its really one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Highly recommended.

[PZ]

Similar experience for me in the movie theaters - I go to one perhaps once every 3-4 years or so, and then only a week day matinee to reduce the probability of over crowding.  I really do not like the movie room experience (can't really call it a theater, can we).  The sound volume is so high that I often feel the need to plug my ears, and try to anticipate volume increases.  Another annoyance I find in productions these days is the insatiable need for the directors to use frequent lightning-like strobe effects - I really despise the programs where there are so many flashes of light in predictable patterns that it makes one feel like they are going to suffer an epileptic seizure.

My favorite way to watch movies these days is to purchase the DVD from the used shelves of my local video store - can usually get reasonably new titles for less that $5 or so.  Then I pop them into the upscaler and enjoy in the peace and quiet of my home with my sweetie.  To simulate the movie theater atmosphere, I mounted a projector (the kind you use for business presentations) to my ceiling and project the movie onto a white wall above the fireplace.  A rather inexpensive solution to enjoy movies at home.

@fragger - thanks for the "Tora, Tora, Tora" reminder - another one I enjoyed.  That also brought to mind "Midway" also with an all-star cast.

[mandru]

Just thought of an old favorite, The 1965 production of Flight of the Phoenix.

I'll still drop everything I'm doing and watch if that one pops up on the classic movie channel.

[Art Blade]

FYI

I merged the topic "movies discussion" with this one to avoid multiple recommendations and a fragmentation of the subject.

Also, we still have a merc movie topic as a "stand alone"here  ;)

[PZ]

Thanks Art - I looked for a movie thread but never did find one.

@mandru - Flight of the Phoenix is great - Jimmy Stewart played a great role - if I'm not mistaken, it recently was, or is soon to be on either FMC or one of the classic movie channels that does not have advertisements.

[fragger]

Yeah, Flight of the Phoenix is a top movie, I saw that not long ago for the third time. There's a remake, I haven't seen it but I've heard that it's crummy.

Some films I could watch more than once (in no particular order):

Citizen Kane
True Grit (best thing John Wayne ever did)
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Alien (the original, the sequels are pale)
Apollo 13
The Out of Towners (the old Jack Lemmon one)
Little Big Man
The Seven Samurai
The Battle of Britain (just for the WW2 aircraft - I love 'em)
Lawrence of Arabia

These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure I could fill a page. I love some of the old-time actors like Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart (forgot to mention African Queen), James Cagney ("I made it, Ma! Top of the world!")... Not enough space here :) Thinking of more already.
Just like to add that Cyd Charisse had the best legs ever :P

[mandru]

Thanks PZ, will keep an eye out for it

Alien (the original, the sequels are pale)

I loved the original Alien movie.

I got a hold of the "Alien the movie tie-in" paperback that became available several months before the film was released and I must have read it about 12 times before the movie premiered. The paperback was adapted by Alan Dean Foster a very prolific and a top personal favorite author.

It was so accurate to the storyline that when I finally saw the movie I could do a 3, 2, 1, now for every time the Alien would strike. For me anyway, Foster's writing style is so smooth that I forget that I'm reading and experience something more like sensory submersion. The friend that I went to the movie with spent about six hours afterward asking me questions about things in the movie that he had missed because of how ground breaking a w@&k the movie really was. I ended up giving him the book just to get some peace for me and answers for him.

A better choice could not have been made for someone to do the write up and the few variances between the tie-in and the movie I am sure had more to do with script changes made on the fly during shooting, after the original script had been delivered to Foster, than his efforts to clarify and put into his own words what he was describing from the original text. I would bet that if you could get a hold of a copy of that paperback it would, even after all this time and probably many viewings, fill in details that couldn't be picked up in the movie.

The Alien was a perfect monster. From a psychological standpoint if you interviewed 1000 people and asked them to describe 5 attributes a monster could have, that in a confrontation, would absolutely terrify them. I'm sure that about 95 percent of the collected responses would precisely apply to what made the Alien so darn scary.

Even though the line "Come here little girl" was not in the movie those four words to this day cause me to relive the storage room scene. Whew!

I saw the second movie and from it I decided that for me it would be best to skip the rest.

[Art Blade]

fragger, should you want to see Cyd Charisse... check this out ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviMoycMg4s

mandru and fragger, re: Alien

I was at the cinema when the first Alien movie was released and until today I believe it is a milestone in the Sci-Fi Horror genre, and for some reason I admired Sigourney Weaver, hehe. I love that movie, and I got it on VHS back in the day and now on DVD, various releases.

The "sequels" should not be compared to each other because each and every one of those represent the w@&k of different directors (apart from different storylines, too). If you look at it this way, you'll notice those directors had different "signatures" and if you watch them more than once, you might change your bearing on them.

I did like the second one because it was quite a bit of an action movie, sort of Rambo in Space, but I didn't like the prison planet one at first and for quite some time, only when I watched it again without comparing it to the other movies, I started to like it. The last one was cool again because it combined a many characteristics of the previous three. However, the best will always be the "original" first Alien.

[Fiach]

I remember when Alien was released, they had a "Making of Alien" on TV, which I saw before the movie. It showed this little model Alien being pulled by a string onto a camera lens, So I figured that, no way that scene would scare me ..... boy was I wrong! :)

I remember getting my first surround sound system and Aliens on DVD, there was a scene in a laboratory, where Sig and the wee girl are hiding. Then a test tube drops to the floor and rolls from side to side, with the surround sound it sounded so freaky and scary, it was amazing.

I actually liked Alien 3, but the monster at the end was so rubbish, it kinda tarnished the whole movie.

I liked the spin off Alien vs Predator movie, with Lance Henriksen making a cameo appearence. A good action movie for a saturday night in. I really like Lance in movies, check out Near Dark, one of the best vampire movies ever made, Its kinda like The Lost Boys, but with balls.

There is an Alien Vs Predator game due Q1 2010, if its successful, there will be a spin off called Colonial Marines released about 6 months later.

There are also two very good PC games AvP and AvP2, well worth checking out (both FPS games).

[fragger]

The "sequels" should not be compared to each other

I guess that did sound a tad shallow and opinionated back there, just like to add that the last thing I would expect is for everyone to agree with me! :) These are just my own subjective impressions.

Actually, "Aliens" is a good film, it just doesn't send me the way the first one did.

and the few variances between the tie-in and the movie

Have you seen the director's cut, mandru? There's not much extra, but there is one scene in particular that is in the novel but was cut from the original film release. I won't say what, don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but you'll know it when you see it. I don't know why they cut it, it's a kind of important scene.

@Art, thanks for that Cyd link mate, some very nice photos there!  :-X

[mandru]

Thanks fragger, I'll have to look that up.  8)

And as far as opinions go, I learned long ago that my preferences and opinions may have no foundation in anyone else's reality and have learned to be agreeable with someone else disagreeing with me.  :)

[Art Blade]

I did not want anyone to start to apologise for their oppinions. It was my oppinion that the alien movies should have a fair chance by treating them seperately :)

[RedRaven]

The Battle of Britain (just for the WW2 aircraft - I love 'em)

A great movie, here is my little list of movies that get played alot (good job a DVD wont get worn out like VHS)

Black Hawk Down

Highlander

Empire Strikes Back

Kelly's Hero's

Last Samurai

i like all the StarWars stuff but Empire has to be my Favorite, and never really used to rate Tom Cruise as an actor but Last Samurai changed that, reckon its his best w@&k.

there are many, many more war films that could add to the list, mostly WW2 or Modern settings and not just English ones, 9th Company  is a good Russian-made film set in 1980's Afghanistan. Worth checking out.

[Art Blade]

I think Tom Cruise did well in "Collateral"

[RedRaven]

True. Though was more impressed by Jamie Foxx (good in The Kingdom too). Very talented man, stand-up comedy & film, and music ! not sort of thing would usually listen too but heard some in a Taxi and liked his piano playing.

On a comedy note a film i didnt list but really should of is "Cannonball Run" every time i see it cant help but laugh at the gags and tongue-in-cheek way it pokes fun at its cast. Fantastic film for a sunday afternoon chill. ;D

[fragger]

a film i didnt list but really should of is "Cannonball Run" every time i see it cant help but laugh at the gags and tongue-in-cheek way it pokes fun at its cast. Fantastic film for a sunday afternoon chill. ;D

I loved the way Roger Moore sent himself up in that! :-X

One funny film I love is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I saw that when it first came out, I was in stitches before the opening credits were even over ;D The "Swedish" subtitles are a hoot! :-X

[fragger]

I also enjoy movies that are innovative, off-beat or a bit "out there".
Some examples:

Steppenwolf (really out there)
Jacob's Ladder
The Number 23
12 Monkeys
2001: A Space Odyssey
Eraserhead
Brazil

The last one's not to be confused with "Boys from Brazil", which is not a weird film at all, but quite interesting all the same.

[Art Blade]

I know some of the aforementioned films, and Brazil is outstanding. I loved the film ever since it was released, and have watched it countless times. Robert DeNiro this time only supporting actor, yet splendid.

Another couple of films in that direction I think are

Blade Runner 1982 (seen it at the cinema, and I have the original 1997 remastered Director's cut, when it was first released on DVD hehe)
Dark City 1998
Franklyn 2008/2009
Den brysomme mannen 2007/2008 [(German title, which isn't even German: Anderland. Aka The Bothersome Man (Canada: English title: festival title) ... aka Vandræðamaðurinn (Iceland)]

There are more, but can't recall them all, right now... I have so many DVDs :)

[DKM2]

Das Boot, good WW2 sub movie, quite likely the best.

[Art Blade]

Yeah, das Boot 1981 (149 min) was cool.

But if, by any chance, you come across the director's cut 1997 (209 min), go get it. Wolfgang Petersen (director) supervised the new cutting himself and rearranged the entire film, obviously adding scenes that didn't make it into the cinemas due to the already quite long runtime. Petersen felt that those re-inserted scenes as well as the (chronological) rearrangement of various scenes resulted in a film he originally had intended. It's like watching a different film :)

[fragger]

Geez, how did I overlook the director's cut of Das Boot, considering that I own a copy! Yeah, it's quite different to the original theatrical version, much better I think, and considerably longer, as Art mentioned. I have it in the original German, which I prefer, even if it means reading subtitles. Tremendous movie.

A recent film which really impressed me is Downfall, about Hitler's last days. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film in 2005. Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler, gives an amazing performance, and the film is, as far as can be established, utterly historically accurate. I highly recommend this one for WW2 history buffs, as well as for anyone who simply enjoys a superb production.

[Art Blade]

Indeed, a good film, and a good decision to watch it undubbed (I always do that with foreign films, and when I don't speak that language, I read subtitles :) )

Another production that I liked is called "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" (2003)

Tagline "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Starring: Robert Carlyle as Hitler (geez, I already liked that actor a lot, but that was tremendous), and some more: Peter Stormare (also a great actor) as Ernst Röhm, and geez... Peter O'Toole (what happened to him, uniform way too big and stuffed? lol) as old von Hindenburg. Many more actors in it, good film.

What makes that film so special is "the rise" - starting with young Hitler and his family, his notorious attempts of becoming a great artist, the foundation of NSDAP etc... As far as I can tell, it is not really accurate but illustrates some aspects of Hitler you don't see often in films. If you ignore a few flaws... Example, you only get to see the SA (Röhm) but never the SS (Himmler). Quite a list of things missing, and well, Hitler himself... I like how Carlyle acts, sort of over the top, and kind of making you hate Hitler which is obviously intended. And those eyes, heavy.

* * *

I'd like to add a few words. You know it's coming from a German and I am aware of that, so I want to be clear about one thing: I have no sympathies whatsoever for him or what he stands for and all that. I am looking at history I was not part of.

* * *

The real person was successful (until, obviously, towards the end of the war) not because he was insane, mad, angry, always yelling, unstable or agitating, but because he had charisma and charm and was well-spoken. He knew the right words for those people to whom he addressed his speaches. Unfortunately.

I talked to eye-witnesses and read biographies, basically they concur in how he was a charming and charismatic person. Like, you wouldn't know what a freak he was until you saw what he did. My grandma was around 30 when she saw him once in person and would still remember his blue eyes, and she told me he didn't have black hair as pictures or films suggested, but blond. It was both interesting and disturbing to interview my grandma about stuff like that, especially because she seemed to have some fond memories. When I confronted her with that, like how she could remember those times with a smile on her face, she was like zoned. That only shows what kind of charismatic person he must have been, that even knowing what had happened, to be able to remember the good (if only imaginary) and to ignore the horrible truth.

I was quite lucky I had a chance to talk to her about all that, in private, because she passed away shortly after. The strange thing was that I kind of had a sensation what was going to happen and I thought, ask her now, or never.

However, if you are interested and if you haven't thought about checking Wiki... here's the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler