You picked Amores Perros right before me, then you took Psycho which I was considering for the next round. And I like your other 2 picks too, so it seems logical you are going to grab another movie from my short list
I believe habernac is back from vacation but to keep it going...
With the 117th pick, habernac selects The African Queen in the black and white category.
This film is actually in Technicolor (IMDB or WIkipedia), although I can see how there can be confusion because all the stills are in monochrome.
P.S. Congrats to everyone who picked yesterday. Very impressive how quickly the picks were made as well as how excellent their quality was. My shortlist is hurting big time!
With our 5th pick, Team That's What She Said, would like to select from the Documentary category, the 2006 film - Shut Up & Sing.
This film follows the Dixie Chicks from the perch atop the music world in 2003 thru the death threats, public record/cd/dvd burnings & general abuse they received following a statement made by lead singer Natalie Maines at a concert in London. As the USA launched its attack on Iraq, an action questioned & criticized by many people at home and abroad and George W. Bush enjoying extremely high approval ratings, Maines said to her London audience, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.“
The documentary attempts to give context to her comment, which was made in the wake of a huge anti-war protest in London. Maines apparently wanted to show solidarity with the Brits and was taken aback that her quip sparked a firestorm in which the band was branded as traitors by some Americans.
The film examines the backlash created by her comment and takes a fascinating, fly-on-the-wall look at damage-control efforts. We see the Chicks and their families, their various reactions to the death threats, being called traitors and essentially discovering that, as the tagline for the film states: "Freedom of speech is fine as long as you don't do it in public."
I wasn't a huge Dixie Chicks fan before this but I am now a fan of these women - and the fact that agree with them or not, they showed that there is more to patriotism than just parading around with a flag in your hand and blindly following along with the people in charge.
The Preview Trailer:
A longer clip...worth the watch!
(Potentially NSFW tho due to some language)
Video for "Not Ready To Make Nice" the autobiographical song of what they went thru...
Last edited by JerzeeGirl; 08-20-2008 at 04:12 PM.
Reason: added NSFW warning
With our 5th round, 127th overall, team snoogans is happy to select SWINGERS in the comedy category.
Mike (Jon Favreau), a recent transplant to Los Angeles, has recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend of six years and is still having trouble letting go and moving on. His friend Trent (Vince Vaughn) takes him on an overnight trip to Las Vegas in an attempt to get him back in the game. Trent picks up two cocktail waitresses, but Mike's obsession with his ex-girlfriend spoils the one-night stand. Back in Los Angeles, Mike attends various Hollywood and Los Feliz hot spots while his swinger friends coach him on the rules of seduction. Mike makes several awkward attempts at speaking to women, but they all end disastrously. Along the way, the group discusses movies, video games, and their floundering careers in show business. When Mike learns to accept himself and eschew the pretenses and self-promotion involved in the Hollywood dating scene, he finally connects with a beautiful girl named Lorraine. The next day, he gets a call from the ex-girlfriend he's been obsessing over but rejects her offer to get back together when Lorraine rings in on the other line.
Great pick Sadora, and you'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like that movie.
Watching the clips, it's crazy how young Vaughn and Favreau look!
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
To make it a more formal post, the B-List Celeberties are proud to select the movie that made Marliyn Monroe a star - in the pre 1960's category, Some Like It Hot.
Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on impersonation.) The script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is beautifully measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. Aspiring screenwriters would be well advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy." Some Like It Hot is so delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an unhappy Monroe on her worst behavior. The results, however, are sublime.
In round 5, TEAM Wishwedidaporndraft is happy to select into the DRAMA category, the very powerful AMERICAN HISTORY X!!!
Backed by an unreal performance by the very talented Edward Norton, American History X tells the story of a former neo-Nazi coming home from prison to try and get his brother out of the life that he lead him down before he was sent away.
This movie is just filled with strong scene after strong scene after strong scene, here's a couple,
Derek Vinyard attacking his mother's Jewish boyfriend at the dinner table. Very well written and directed scene.
NSFW....language and content
Continuation of that scene
Derek curb-stomping....very NSFW.....very hard scene to watch
Maybe the best scene in the movie, moving stuff
VERY COOL VID, COMPILATION OF SCENES DONE UP WITH METALLICA'S NOTHING ELSE MATTERS......VERY COOL
Very happy to pick American History X, not sure how you could watch this movie and not be moved by it. I will never forget this movie. Ed Norton was robbed of the Oscar, he was simply brilliant.
Last edited by VANFLAMESFAN; 08-21-2008 at 07:41 AM.
I don't have time for a big write-up, but I'll make my pick now to keep it moving...
"Houston, we have a problem."
In the "Documentary/Non-Fiction" category, team Hot Buttery Topping is proud to select Ron Howard's ambitious and faithful dramatization of the incredible true events of the ill-fated lunar landing mission Apollo 13.
Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton star as the astronauts aboard the Saturn V rocket which suffers a near-catastrophe while on its way to the moon. Ed Harris and Gary Sinise are among the earth-bound cast who must find a way to get the crew home -- alive.
Howard wanted his movie to be as technically accurate as possible, going so far as to shoot every scene that takes place in zero-gravity aboard NASA's weightlessness training vehicle, nicknamed "The Vomit Comet".
Mission Commander, Jim Lovell (who is portrayed by Hanks in the film), wrote the book "Lost Moon" about his experience aboard Apollo 13, and actively participated in the production to assure it remained as accurate to real events as possible. All of dialogue between the crew and mission control in Houston is based upon the archived transcripts of the mission communications.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Team Pineapple Express is thrilled that it's time to make another pick! With this fifth round pick, Team Pineapple Express is proud to select in the category of Sci Fi, Donnie Darko.
I think I love you..
__________________
Who is in charge of this product and why haven't they been fired yet?
The MacGuffins will select, with a heavy dose of nostalgia, their fifth team selection and 130th overall pick, for entry in the Fantasy category:
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Come.
Stay.
After watching all sorts of short-listed picks fall off the board (Amelie, Strangelove, Donnie Darko, Malkovich, Trainspotting, Kill Bill, and especially Butch Cassidy), I figured it was time to fill a category that had a handful of options, but only one movie I really love- the first movie I ever saw in a theatre (at age 9 months), E.T. One of Steven Spielberg's true masterpieces, this is the quintessential family movie, and a film that I could watch again and again.
One of the most profound things about E.T. is that it seems to suck viewers in, as a flood of childhood memories wash over them. It's almost as if this wonderous state of innocence overtakes people, and whisks them back to being an age in the single digits. Little kids and great-grandparents sit there transfixed, and even film buffs, hip teenagers, and jaded adults find it irresistable and come along for the (bike) ride.
What is it about this film that does that? From a technical standpoint, Spielberg relied heavily on POV shots, so much so that almost the entire movie is seen through the eyes of either E.T. or Elliot. The camera is often low to the ground, bobbling around (think the chase/bike scenes), or obstructed (blanket over E.T.'s head), helping the viewer to experience and understand what's happening just like an innocent child (or alien) would. As the plot moves forward, and it becomes apparent that E.T. is sick and the evil scientists (see how I am in kid mode already?) are banging down doors looking for E.T., everything is seen from that same kid perspective. Viewers immediately and instinctively identify with both E.T. and Elliot, and tend to watch with a childlike sense of anticipation and wonderment.
Those technical decisions set up the emotional aspect of the film brilliantly. Of course the feelings brought about are helped by the outstanding acting by the child actors, one of John Williams' best scores, and some very memorable, classic scenes. However, the beautifully simple story of love, friendship, compassion, and unselfishness maintains to this day its power to render almost anybody completely stripped bare. Upon my most recent viewing, I remember tears trickling down my face during the last few minutes, completely overwhelmed and engrossed.
A movie for absolutely everyone, E.T. is a magical cinema experience, and I am happy to add it to The MacGuffins!
