Here we go with week two of the film challenge where I collate all my biased, ill-informed Tweets from the last week into one handy, celluloid-based post...
Day Eight
A film where you liked the soundtrack more
Fantasia ( 1940 )
Whilst obviously ground-breaking and technically brilliant I find this film incredibly slow and I'd rather just listen to the score which is basically Classical Music's Greatest Hits.
Day Nine
A film you hate that everyone else liked
The Shawshank Redemption ( 1994 )
Painful, smug and painfully smug. And it features Tim Robbins. No more needs to be said.
Day Ten
Your favourite superhero film
While we're clearly living through a golden age of superhero movies ( okay, pre-pandemic ) I always go back ( unsurprisingly ) to Superman The Movie ( 1978 ) / Superman II ( 1980 ), still my absolute, inseparable faves.
Day Eleven
A film you like from your least favourite genre
As I said here in my original Massive Movie Meme posts, my least-favourite genres are a tie between what I think of as "cowboy musicals" and the odious "torture porn" horror movies. Neither of these fit the bill so I'm going with romantic comedy. I'm not a great fan of rom-coms as I find many of them too formulaic but Marc Webb's ( 500 ) Days Of Summer ( 2009 ) is an exception - bittersweet and genuinely funny with two eminently watchable lead actors and a cool indie soundtrack.
As a bonus treat, here's another photo of the lovely Zooey Deschanel. You're welcome.
Day 12
A film that you hate from your favourite genre
Well I don't hate it but Silent Running ( 1972 ) is a science fiction film that has a lot going for it - still impressive special effects from Doug Trumbull, a typically twitchy performance by Bruce Dern, cute robots - but the whole premise is fatally flawed ( why would a dying Earth send its last forests into space? where are they going? ) even before the point Dern, a botanist, realises going further away from the sun will kill the forests ( duh! ). And then bloody Joan Baez turns up to warble over the end of the movie. ( At least it's not as painful as her murdering The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. )
Day 13
A film that put you in deep thoughts ( ??? )
Who writes this stuff?
The Ninth Configuration ( 1980 )
William Peter Blatty's sort-of follow up to the themes of The Exorcist. An arty, pretentious but brilliant movie about the purpose of evil, God's indifference to Man and the difficulties of adapting the works of Shakespeare for dogs.A truly unique film with unforgettable performances and cracking dialogue. Warning: although very funny this film also gets extremely dark and despairing before the final, redemptive scene.
Day 14
A film that gave you depression
Again, who writes these categories???
No film "gave me depression" but the 2015 documentary Amy is one of the saddest movies I've ever seen, documenting the meteoric rise and heart-breaking fall of Amy Winehouse.
Day 14 ( supplemental )
I don't really want to end this post on a downer, so I'll just mention that James and I ( finally ) watched Bong Joon-ho's extraordinary Parasite ( 2019 ) on Blu-Ray yesterday. Is it as good as they say? No, it's even better. Part black comedy, part horror, all social satire, constantly twisting and turning, and beautifully shot... even the scenes of toilets overflowing. Highly recommended.
4 comments:
A few films on your list this time that I I am not aware of so I will check some of them out. A bit surprised to see “Silent Running” on your “hate” list I haven’t seen it in an age but liked it at the time, perhaps it needs second viewing. Was good to read that you liked “Parasite” as I had been looking at picking the DVD up but wasn’t sure I would like it. Anyhoo onto my lists:
Day 8 A film where you liked the soundtrack more – 200 Cigarettes
Oh there are so many but this film gets it for me as it just seems to have been made to showcase a bunch of (then) rising stars including Paul Rudd, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci etc) sadly they forgot to provide the film with any understandable or even mildly entertaining, storyline. Not the worst film in the world but not great but it was saved by a really good mix tape soundtrack with songs for Blondie's "In the Flesh," The Cars' "Just What I Needed," The Ramones' "I Don't Care," Joe Jackson's "It's Different for Girls," and Roxy Music's "More Than This."
Day 9: A film you hate everyone else likes – Lost in Translation
I seriously found this a tedious film and I really don’t understand why so many people love this film - (similar to your comments on Shawshank for me this is smug and pretentious.
Day 10: Favourite superhero film – Guardians of the Galaxy 1
I think this genre has produced so many great films and I have enjoyed most of them but Guardians 1 gets it for me due to a great soundtrack and its just a fun adventure move. As a comic book fan (and fan of the 70s Guardians comic in” Marvel Presents”) I never thought I would ever see these characters in a film, let alone done to such a high standard (even although I know they are not the original comic book Guardians) .
Day 11: A film you like from your least favourite genre – The Thing (1982)
Probably the only movie genre I don’t like is Gore horror (as opposed to mystery horror) it’s just brutal to me and I can’t think of any in that genre that I actually like but I read that John Carpenters version of “The Thing” is considered by some to be gore horror movie (although I think its more a SF horror film) . A great move no matter the genre.
e. So next on my list is historical
Day 12; A film you hate from your favourite genre – Battlefield Earth
There are undoubtably some really awful SF films and I wasn’t expecting anything special from a film based on a book (by L Ron Hubbard) that is closely related to the made up religion of Scientology but this was just (as we say in Scotland) “total mince” - a really poor story with abysmal acting and dodgy special effects.
Day 13 - A film that put you in deep thought – Imitations of life (1959)
This was the first film I saw that made me aware of race issues .This is an brilliantly emotionally traumatic movie dealing not just with race but also with female identity and social hypocrisy . The final scene where the black lady dies and her daughter (who rejects her as she wants to be seen as white) realises what she has done as her funeral takes place is genuinely heartbreaking. A beautiful film.
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Day 14 – A film that gave you depression – Flint: The Poisoning of an American City"
A brilliant documentary showing the total disregard big business and government has for people. This focuses on the largely black population of the city of Flint who have had their clean water diverted for use in a car plant miles away and are given stagnant water laced with lead to drink from a poisoned river system.
Hi Paul! Sorry for the late reply.
In the same way there are films on my list you don't know, I've never seen Flint, Imitation Of Life, 200 Cigarettes or indeed Battlefield Earth. Can't say I'm too bothered about searching out that last one :-) That's the good thing about these challenges - they give you insights into films, comics, music you may not have encountered otherwise.
As for Silent Running - as I said I don't actually "hate" it ( trying not to be too negative here ) but it's a film that disappointed me when I re-watched it recently. As my mate Pete ( of The Kids From Rec Road fame ) said, it's a film that's probably best left as a childhood memory.
And, just to prove how subjective all this is, I absolutely love Lost In Translation. I agree there's an element of pretension to it but I also think it's a subtle and witty meditation on how disconnected people can be in the modern world, with some fine performances and gorgeous visuals. And that last scene, soundtracked by the Jesus & Mary Chain! One of my fave movie moments of this century.
Guardians is a lot of fun, isn't it? It was obviously a big gamble for Marvel to highlight such offbeat, obscure characters but it certainly paid off. It would be great, though, to see those original Guardians on the big screen wouldn't it?
The Thing is definitely a gory film but, as it's John Carpenter at the height of his powers, the quality of the film-making makes it bearable. I certainly find the old school prosthetic effects preferable to any modern CGI which can make gore effects too believably realistic. I think I've definitely become more squeamish as I've got older...
Thanks for the comment, Paul, always appreciated.
Seeing as you're already on Week 3 Simon, its about time I got to Week 2...
A film where you liked the soundtrack more -
Paul makes a good point about "mix tape" soundtracks, and in an era when more and more films seem to be soundtracked by market research there are going to be plenty of awful ones with decent music licensed in. But to make this category a bit more meaningful I'm going to limit myself to music specifically created for a film.
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Not that its a terrible film, but it doesn't match the quality of John Carpenter's music. Can't think of any other director who composes his own music; curiously, his best film, The Thing, was the first soundtracked by somebody else... and impressively, Carpenter's themes were more memorable than the one by Ennio Morricone.
A film you hate that everyone else liked -
Star Wars (1977)
Your favourite superhero film -
Batman (1966)
Can't say I'm much into superhero films - Jack Kirby's artwork does more for me than the latest CGI fx - and maybe you have to be a kid to get the most out of them (possibly theres a similar logic at work in your choice of Superman...?).
A film you like from your least favourite genre -
Generally I dislike what you might call "music films"; you know, following the progress of someone - real or fictional - who wants to make it in the biz.
But I do like Rockers (1978). Love the cameos - back when I first saw it, you'd never have expected to see someone like Big Youth in a film - and the more general window on 70s Jamaica.
A film you hate from your favourite genre -
I like sf, but I'm not sure that makes it my favourite genre as I also dislike a lot of sf films! But I'm going for it anyway, and as there are so many bad sf flicks I decided just to choose one that I expected to be better. Or at least not terrible...
Prometheus (2012)
A film that put you in deep thoughts -
Solaris (1972)
I always thought it was a good film, but when I watched it more recently, a few years after my wife died, it really got to me.
Oh dear, thats not very cheerful, is it? Just in time for a film that gave me depression (;
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Just remembering I actually went to see it is depressing enough...
-sean
Hi Sean. Again, apologies for the late reply.
Assault On Precinct 13
A film I haven't seen for a very long time but remember really enjoying. Carpenter's scores were great back in the day, weren't they? The Halloween score in particular is just perfect for the movie.
Star Wars - controversial :-)
Batman
I really struggle with the "campiness" ( is that a word? ) of the Adam West Batman. Even as a kid I knew this wasn't *my* idea of Batman... but you took what you could get back then. There's obviously an element of nostalgia in my choice of Superman and I'm aware of the movie's faults ( especially in California ha ha ) but I still think it's a great example of the superhero genre. I especially love the beautifully pastoral view of the young Clark Kent's life in Smallville and could easily have watched a full Superboy film in that mode, and I usually couldn't care less about Superboy as a character.
Rockers
I've never seen or heard of this. Just had a quick Google and it looks great - I'm a sucker for 60s / 70s reggae, ska, bluebeat etc. I know what you mean about music biz films, they're usually very ropey and follow the same old formula. I recently saw Judy, the biopic of Judy Garland that won loads of awards - fine performances but the story was as predictable as Brits packing out a Bournemouth beach in a heatwave...
Prometheus
I couldn't agree more. There was no justification for this movie except for milking the Alien cash cow. Just painful. What were you thinking, Ridley?
Solaris
Very sorry to hear of your loss, mate. I'm sure Solaris must have been a tough watch, considering the subject matter.
BVS
I couldn't bring myself to watch this movie. I understand that there will always be different takes on such long-running characters but this just looked wrong on every level, as if the film-makers were deliberately throwing out the fundamentals of Bats and Supes to make some kind of ridiculous point - "These aren't your grandfathers' heroes!" etc.
Thanks again for commenting, Sean, and hey! the next category is a lot more cheerful...
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