Honestly, watching that movie on tv doesn't do it justice, all the good stuff cut out of it and all the commercials. You have to watch it right, no interruptions and in widescreen with good soundsaround.
Agree. I used that as a larger part of my justification than the 4 hours of sleep I would've ended up with.
__________________ 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
With our 6th pick, BF & the BFFs are proud to select, in the category of War, the late Anthony Minghella's WW2 masterpiece... One of the better novel adaptations you will ever see - not in terms of faithfulness to the source material, but in terms of adapting the novel for a different medium, creating a new work of art that can stand alone, but that also maintains the spirit and feeling of the original... Featuring a top-notch cast, breathtaking cinematography, and a brilliant score... One of the least linear plots to win best picture in the last 20 years... The English Patient
Quote:
The film garnered widespread critical acclaim and was a major award winner as well as a box office success; its awards included the Academy Award for Best Picture, the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, winning out over Lauren Bacall for The Mirror Has Two Faces (it would have been Bacall's only Oscar win, and in her acceptance speech Binoche commented that she had expected Bacall to win). Anthony Minghella took home the Oscar for Best Director. Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor. In all, The English Patient was nominated for an impressive 12 awards and ultimately walked away with 9. It is the highest-grossing non-IMAX film (and second highest-grossing film overall) to never reach the weekend box office top 5.[2]
An episode of Seinfeld was devoted to lampooning the film's fervent supporters: Elaine is dumped by her boyfriend because of her tepid response to the film, and her critique culminates with the outburst, "Quit telling your stupid story, about the stupid desert, and just die already! Die!!".
Since weekend box office top 10 rankings were first recorded in 1982, The English Patient and Amadeus are the only two Best Picture winners to never enter the weekend box office top 5.[3][4] Pulitzer Prize winning critic Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times gave the movie a 4 star rating, saying that "It is the kind of movie you can see twice--first for the questions, the second time for the answers."[5]
No time today to see if it's been picked or to put up the usual goodies, so perhaps I will later.
But in the interest of keeping this thing moving along, I don't think it's been picked yet, so with Team Pineapple's sixth round pick, we are proud to select in the category of Thriller, A Few Good Men (1992). It stars (a pre-crazy) Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore (as the most useless chick ever).
Great movie, the courtroom scenes are fantastic. I can recite most of the lines by heart, I've seen it so many times. And it spawned the catch phrase, "You can't handle the truth!"
No time today to see if it's been picked or to put up the usual goodies, so perhaps I will later.
But in the interest of keeping this thing moving along, I don't think it's been picked yet, so with Team Pineapple's sixth round pick, we are proud to select in the category of Thriller, A Few Good Men (1992). It stars (a pre-crazy) Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore (as the most useless chick ever).
Great movie, the courtroom scenes are fantastic. I can recite most of the lines by heart, I've seen it so many times. And it spawned the catch phrase, "You can't handle the truth!"
Nope hasn't been picked yet.
Last 2 choices were excellent!
__________________
Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
I really disliked The English Patient, despite it's undenibaly great cinematography and score. I will probably give it another shot sometime soon.
A Few Good Men is classic. I miss J.T Walsh!!!
__________________ 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
We need a central list of movies that have been picked which are going to be on TV. Here's a list of movies that have been picked so far that are appearing on TCM or AMC in the next month. If one of your movies is appearing on a different channel and I've missed it, let me know and I'll include it, and update it weekly.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: AMC Tue Aug 26 @ 11AM (right now!)
Usual Suspects: AMC Aug 26 @ 5:30 PM
Psycho: TCM Aug 26 @ 10:00 PM
Some Like it Hot: TCM Aug 27 @ 8:00 PM
Apocolypse Now: TCM Aug 29 @ 1:15 AM
The African Queen: TCM August 30, 10:00 PM
Twelve Angry Men: TCM Sept 01, 6:15 PM
Casablanca: TCM Oct 04, 3:30 AM
Usual Suspects: AMC Sept 5 @ 2:00 AM
Usual Suspects: AMC Sept 5 @ 3:30 PM
Dr Strangelove: TCM Sept 08, 10:15 PM
The Great Escape: AMC Sept 09, 10:30PM
Dr. Zhivago: TCM September 13, 2:30 PM
Rear Window: TCM Sept 13, 2:00 AM
Some Like it Hot: TCM Sept 23 @ 1:00 AM
The African Queen: TCM Sept 28, 10:00 PM
Psycho: TCM Sept 30 @ 3:30 PM
Note: TCM and AMC use different systems for listing their early morning (between 12 and 6) movies; for TCM, their listed as being under the date of the previous evening, for AMC their listed as the following day. Just double-check your TV listings before staying up late to watch any of these.
Some like it Hot is on right now. Never seen it before, it's pretty good so far.
I didn't get a chance to post any goodies for my sixth round pick, A Few Good Men, so here it is, for those that may be interested.
Plot/Cast Info
Released in 1992, A Few Good Men stars Tom Cruise as Navy lawyer Daniel Kaffee, who is picked to defend two marines on trial for murder. Demi Moore and Kevin Pollock are assigned to help him prepare his case. Kevin Bacon plays Cpt. Jack Ross, who is prosecuting the case. Jack Nicholson plays Jessop, a high ranking Colonel at the base where the murder took place. Noah Wylie, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Keifer Sutherland all have bit parts.
As an aside, did anyone else hate Demi Moore in this movie? I hated her character in this movie. I said earlier, she was completely useless in this film. The character was just irritating. Just had to say that. That would be my biggest complaint about this film.
Trivia
Tom Cruise impersonates Jack Nicholson in the film, it was not scripted.
In the scene where Sutherland is driving Cruise and co. around the base to conduct their investigation, Sutherland had trouble driving the wide vehicle and actually hit several of the soldiers in a few of the takes.
The word "sir" is said 164 times, an average of once every 50 seconds.
The line "You can't handle the truth" ranked #29 on the American Films Institutes top 100 movie quotations, and #92 on Premieres "100 Greatest Move Lines."
Youtube Stuff
Here is a short trailer for the film:
Here is the opening of the film. I figured I would include it because I think it's pretty darn neat to watch, so enjoy:
The film itself is famous for its courtroom drama, in particular, the confrontation between Colonel Jessop (Nicholson) and Lt. Kaffee (Cruise).
Here is that scene, courtesy of Youtube.
***Two warnings here: This is the climax of the film, so if you haven't seen it and don't want it ruined, don't watch this clip. Secondly, there's some questionable language so NSFW.***
This is my favourite scene, aside from the courtroom scene above.
This is the scene where Moores character has screwed up and hurt the case, so Kaffee gets drunk and tells her what's what. I love it.
"Galactically Stupid," that's awesome.
***This scene occurs late in the film, so it's slightly spoiler-ish***
Hope you enjoyed that!
__________________
-Elle-
Last edited by Eastern Girl; 08-27-2008 at 09:51 PM.
Reason: spacing is all weird and it won't let me fix it, sorry
With our 6th round pick, Direct2Video selects A Fistful of Dollars in the Western category.
Quote:
A Fistful of Dollars was at first intended by Leone to reinvent the western genre in Italy. In his opinion the American westerns of the mid to late nineteen-fifties had become stagnant, overly-preachy and unbelievable and because of this Hollywood began to gear down on the production of such films. Leone knew that there was still a significant market in Europe for westerns yet also realised that Italian audiences of the time were beginning to laugh at the stock conventions of both the American westerns and pastiche work of Italian directors hiding under pseudonyms. His approach was to take the grammar of the Italian film and transpose it into a western setting. Clint Eastwood was not the first actor who was approached to play the main character. Originally, Sergio Leone intended Henry Fonda to play the role of the "Man With No Name". However, the production company could not afford to engage a major Hollywood star. Hereupon, Leone offered Charles Bronson the part who, in turn, declined the role arguing the script was too bad. Both Fonda and Bronson would later star in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Other actors who turned the role down were Ty Hardin and James Coburn. Leone then turned his attentions towards Richard Harrison, who had recently starred in the very first Italian western, Gunfight at Red Sands (Duello nel Texas). Harrison, however, had not been impressed with his experience on his previous film, and refused. The producers later established a list of available, lesser-known American actors, and asked Harrison for advice. Harrison suggested Clint Eastwood, whom he knew could play a cowboy convincingly. Harrison later stated: "Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint for the part".
nice pick, flamesguySJ. I love reading about the stuff in the background of these movies. Who could see anyone other than Eastwood as the Man with No Name?
The Roger Ebert Experience is proud to select, in the best picture category, the epic western Dances with Wolves.
At almost 4 hours, it seems long, but I remember it going by very quickly the first time I saw it. Terrific cast, wonderful story and great acting. Rodney A Grant is probably my favourite character in the movie. Lots of people get down on Costner for whatever reason, but he's had some terrific films.
Originally written as a spec script by Michael Blake, it went unsold in the mid-1980s. It was Kevin Costner who, in early 1986 (when he was relatively unknown), encouraged Blake to turn the screenplay into a novel, to improve its chances of being adapted into a film. The novel manuscript of Dances with Wolves was rejected by numerous publishers but finally published in paperback in 1988. As a novel, the rights were purchased by Costner, with an eye to his directing it.[4] Actual filming lasted from July 18 to November 23, 1989. Most of the movie was filmed on location in South Dakota, but a few scenes were filmed in Wyoming. Filming locations included the Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, the Sage Creek Wilderness Area, and the Belle Fourche River area. The buffalo hunt scenes were filmed at the Triple U Buffalo Ranch near Pierre, South Dakota, as were the fort Sedgwick scenes, the set being constructed on the property. [5]
Because of budget overruns and production delays, and the general perception, after the fiasco of Michael Cimino'sHeaven's Gate, then considered one of the most mismanaged Westerns in film history, Costner's project was satirically dubbed "Kevin's Gate" by Hollywood critics and skeptics during the months prior to its release. [6]
The language spoken in the film is a fairly accurate, although simplified[citation needed], version of the actual Lakota language. Lakota Sioux language instructor Doris Leader Charge (1931--2001) was the on-set Lakota dialogue coach and also portrayed Pretty Shield, wife of Chief Ten Bears, portrayed by Floyd Red Crow Westerman.[7]
According to the "Making Of" documentary on the Special Edition Dances With Wolves DVD, not all of the buffalo were computer animated and/or puppets. In fact, Costner and crew employed the largest domestically owned buffalo ranch, with two of the domesticated buffalo being borrowed from Neil Young, and used the herd for the hunting scene. The hunt chase was filmed live and Costner did his own stunts for the shots. The only computer animation and puppetry special effects that were used were for the shots of the buffalo falling.
Despite portraying the adopted daughter of Graham Greene's character Kicking Bird, Mary McDonnell, then 37, was actually two months older than Greene, and less than two years younger than Tantoo Cardinal, the actress playing her adoptive mother. In addition, McDonnell was extremely nervous about shooting her sexscene with Kevin Costner, requesting it be toned down to a more modest version than what was scripted.[8]
6 Degrees of Troy McClure is proud to select, in the Drama category, Royal Tenenbaums. A great cast, with Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Luke and Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray and Danny Glover. Not necessarily my favorite Wes Anderson film, but I think it's the best in terms of writing, direction and acting.
Sorry, no time to post clips right now. Except maybe one.
Did you or anyone watch the Tony Curtis movie that followed SLIH? Wow, I didn't know they wrote scripts like that in 1957.
I didn't watch most of it, but I was channel surfing later, and caught a couple scenes of it that seemed to have great, emotionally rich, but not over-the-top dialogue. Seemed to be a very different role for Tony Curtis than most of the ligth comedy films I've seen him in.
while this next selection doesnt strike one as a typical western with cowboys and indians and oh i dont know....lets say, wagon painting; IMDB does list it as a western, and as far as "westerns" go, its one that I can get into
with the 156th pick overall, in the Western category, DVD-eh selects:
El Mariachi
the directorial debut of Robert Rodriguez, filmed in Mexico for a budget of $7000 US, tells the story of an out of work musician who is mistaken for an escaped convict that is killing his former partners men using a stash of weapons that he has hidden in his guitar case
no clips as Im at work, but will try to add some tonight
*its apparently incredibly difficult to find clips from the first el mariachi...Ill see if i cant find somethign though*
__________________
Thank you for not discussing the outside world
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