Tuesday, June 06, 2006

A Night at the Movies, Part II

Hey Gang--thanks for all the comments and insight on my movie picks--I knew it would be a fun topic for everyone. Because of all the interest, I have a few responses...

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son..." is from Animal House--Dean Wormer said it to Flounder, I believe. Coincidentally, I got the same message in an email from a jealous lurker after posting a Vegas trip report one time. High praise, indeed, if you ask me.

And as expected, there are a few movies that I'd forgotten, and some that were mentioned that I purposely left off.

Yep, I don't know how I forgot about The Untouchables, Fletch, or The Big Lebowski, but that's the beauty of the comments section, I can count on the rest of you to keep me straight. I'm also kicking myself for forgetting to add Friday to the list--I think it's one of the funniest movies ever.

As far as Dumb and Dumber goes, I'm just not into slapstick, especially in movies--I'm more into the 'cerebral' type of humor (as in, I prefer Dennis Miller's type of comedy and I'd never pay to go see Carrot Top) And every Jim Carey movie I've ever seen starts out ok, but the last 45 minutes or so of each one is just an endless parade of him falling down over and over and making faces. Stupid as shiat. None of his movies make the cut.

Full Metal Jacket is extremely quotable, but the second half of the movie kind of falls flat, once they get 'in country' (Pyle, your ass looks like a hundred and fifty pounds of chewed bubble gum!). Didn't much care for Platoon, although I was considering using a quote from it as a headline on a post yesterday that went unwritten--"When the machine breaks down... we break down". Besides, 'being the best Vietnam war movie ever' isn't even that much of an accomplishment. It's like 'having the most teeth in Arkansas'. There just ain't that much competition.

Also, Risky Business didn't come close to making the list--I never thought it was that great. I thought All the Right Moves was a much better flick if we're comparing Cruise's earlier work before he got hugely famous and turned bat-shit crazy.

And being a big fan of war movies, I can't believe I left off Tora! Tora! Tora! I watch it every time it comes on cable. The wooden acting by the Japanese characters with the English subtitles gives it a great Kung-fu-esque quality, while still being a damn good war flick.

There were also a few movies on the list but got scratched because of my self-imposed 100-title-limit. Major League, Top Gun, Aliens (the second one), Rattle & Hum, The Gauntlet, Pretty Woman, Mr. Holland's Opus, and Catch Me If You Can were casualties of that rule.

Oh, and in a confession sure to piss off the geeks out there, I absolutely hated the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I never read the books, but with all of the hype I thought I'd give the movies a shot. I swear, I tried, twice even, to sit through the first one, but I was so bored that I literally fell asleep in the theatre. Tried renting it from Netflix a year later, and gave up after an hour. Sorry, but I just don't get it. It's not for me.

I think it's a pretty solid list overall, and it was easier than trying to come up this one than the music one (that gave me fits for a week). But since it's been so much fun, I'm working on another topic along these same lines that I'll post next week.

Mikey

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