A mid eighties film about a guy who invents a television that you can use to tune into heaven. He hijacks a bus full of old people. A strange wonderful film.
Bliss:
Another OZ classic, about a man who has a heart attack and changes his life completely. Has some amazing creepy scenes, his son and daughter act out this dealer and addict scene that has to be seen to be believed.
[The Quiet Earth is a helluva film too]
Buckaroo Banzai:
Since no-one else mentioned it.
Brazil:
Ditto.
Hard Boiled:
A John Woo film, the opening scene in the Tea House (at the time) was superb. The final showdown in the Hospital isn’t bad either.
A lot of good films so far, I’ll recommend “The Quiet Earth” again.
Did anyone else think “Dark City” was an (extrememly well done, and with a more interesting point of view ) expansion of “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”? Does anyone know what I’m talking about? (Since this is the highest number of people I’ve seen who even recognize “Dark City” I’m just wondering out loud.)
My favorite movie ever is “Faraway, So Close!” (In Weiter Ferne, So Nah), a German film directed by Wim Wenders. It’s about an angel who wants to experience life as a human, and gets the chance to do it; the perspective on human life is wonderful. It was the second of his “angel” films (the first was “Wings of Desire” Der Himmel ueber Berlin, another good film but very different). I hate to mention it in the same paragraph, but these films did provide the inspiration for “City of Angels”, which I haven’t seen but might be more recognized.
A movie which I really liked but probably can’t be found anywhere is “Love Letter” AKA “Letters of Love” AKA “When I Close My Eyes”, a Japanese film directed by Shunji Iwai. It’s a very sweet and good story, wonderfully told, involving two unrelated women (played by the same actress) who look exactly alike. I saw it a few years ago in a theater in Santa Monica, but I have no idea where it’s gone off to now.
And all this mention of “Cube” has for some reason triggered a memory of a Russian film (post 1990) which I think involved three men trying to get into a cube or something like that. I can’t remember the title, I think I’ll post a question in GQ about it.
Well, I;ve seen Cube, Pump Up The Volume, The Basketball Diaries and Creator.
I can’t think of any to add to the list though. Undercover Blues, possibly, because no one I know IRL has ever heard of it, other than my immediate family, who had to put up with me begging for it 3 or 4 Christmases in a row, because I could never find a copy.
A seriously bizarre film from the early '70s, directed by Carl Reiner. George Segal stars as a middle-aged man who still lives with his senile mother (played by the always brilliant Ruth Gordon). He’d made a deathbed promise to his father that he would never put his mother in a home, but she’s driving him crazy and ruining his life. So he decides to try and kill her. And if you’re thinking, “that’s terrible!”, trust me, by the end of the film, you’re going to be hoping he succeeds. It really is a twisted, funny black comedy.
I watched Pump Up the Volume a few months back. My roommate remembered it as one of his favorite movies. I remembered liking it, too. Turns out, it’s horribly predictable and cliched. Oh well.
Roger Ebert named Dark City as the best film of the year in which it came out. I haven’t seen it yet, but my curiosity grows.
Anyone know a non-WWW place where I can get Cannibal! The Musical on DVD? I’m in Michigan, if that helps.
I will second the following movies: The Sweet Hereafter
The Game
Bottle Rocket
In the Company of Men
The Spanish Prisoner
I’m really looking forward to seeing Snatch and especially The Gift** since it’s done by Raimi (who went to my university) and has an incredibly good cast, including the lucious Katie Holmes…
Seen Cube, The Quiet Earth, Run, Lola, Run and Blood of Heroes (aka Salute of the Jugger), and I bought Kentucky Fried Movie, Amazon Women on the Moon and Meet the Feebles on VHS (now if only they’d re-release UHF.
For those who liked The Princess Mononoke, the same animator (Hayao Miyazaki) has done several other excellent films. Hotaru no Haka (The Firefly’s Grave) is one of the darkest, most depressing films I’ve seen (it opens with the main character, a 10-year-old boy, dying of starvation in the middle of a crowded train station, and just goes down from there). My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky are much lighter, but all worthwhile.
I loved The Game! My dad rented it when I wasn’t around and I saw about fifteen minutes of it… he didn’t like it that much so I had to beg him for months to rent it again!
It also has Sean Penn in it right? (as the brother).
I heard good things about Cube but haven’t rented it yet.
These movies weren’t mentioned (I don’t think), so here goes: The Lounge People
It starred Christine Ebersole (mom from Richie Rich) as the wife of an obscenely rich couple that live on an island. It’s very bizarre. B.D. Wong’s character is unforgettable. I only saw it once and remember really liking it.
Your Friends and Neighbors
Not sure if I liked it but it certainly wasn’t what I expected.
The Sweet Hereafter
Not quite the tear-jerker I was expecting, but still interesting.
Other movies mentioned that very few people I know saw, let alone heard of, that I liked: In the Company of Men
Not exactly the ending I expected. Very good, though. Cube
Although I need to see it again to determine if I like it or not, it was a very unique movie. The Mighty
What a great movie. I cried at the end and never forgot the characters. The Spanish Prisoner
I liked this movie. Nice plot twists. My hubby actually refused to watch it at first because of the title.
Well, I’m in Tokyo at the moment, so it’s in every corner video store in my neighborhood. Many college anime clubs have bootleg copies with fan-written subtitles (that’s where I first saw it). The quality varies, but it may be the only way to see the uncut originals in the U.S. Some of them lend out their videos, so you might try asking there.
To return to the topic, Ringu (The Ring) is a nearly bloodless horror movie that scared the bejeezus out of me. It’s about a video that causes people to die exactly one week after viewing it.
One of my favorite movies of all time is a Japanese documentary called “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On.” It’s about a Japanese World War II veteran who’s gone crazy trying to deal with the horrible things he experienced during the war. I saw it in a theater in the late 80’s and I’ve never seen it in a video store. But I just now discovered that, amazingly enough, the IMDB review of it was written by my brother, who I didn’t see it with, so maybe it is out on video.
Early John Carpenter (1974) low-budget sci-fi pic so hysterically funny I am practically wetting my pants right now just thinking about it. 4 burned-out members of a cosmic wrecking crew and their cryogenically-sustained dead captain confront their mortality when one of their planet-destroying bombs decides to blow up a little early.
“Talk to it, Doolittle…” “Sir?” “Talk to it. Teach it…phenomenology…”
“Don’t give me any of that intelligent life shit! Find me something I can blow up.”
More:
“The Wind” – superb silent film with Lillian Gish.
“My Favorite Brunette” – Nice little underrated Bob Hope comedy.
“The Idolmaker” – film about the making of a rock 'n roll star. Ray Sharkey plays an ambitious agent who tried to promote a Fabian-like no talent to stardom.
“Those Lips, Those Eyes” – Frank Langiella as a down-on-his-luck actor doing community theater.
“The Tenant” – Roman Polanski’s horror masterpiece (but see “Rosemary’s Baby” first). One of the best twist endings in film.
“Movie Movie” – two movies in one! Both are parodies of 30s films, a boxing flick (“Tonight it’s different. Tonight you lose”) and a Busby Berkeley-stype backstage musical. George C. Scott kicks the bucket in both (literally).
“Springtime in the Rockies” – Obscure 40s musical. Mostly for Carmine Miranda, who is nothing like the characatures of her. Her rendition of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” – in Portugese – is a highlight. Also the only other film I’ve seen starring John “Miracle on 34th Street” Payne.
“Mr. 880” – Speaking of “Miracle,” this stars Kris Kringle – uh, Edmund Gwenn as your friendly, neighborhood counterfeiter. Bert Lancaster tracks him down.
