2020 Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft - BONUS ROUNDS
- Thread starter Jack Jack
- Start date
R = The Rock (1996) - R
Michael Bay at his blockbuster, popcorn munching, action packed best. The Rock has one of the most memorable anti-villain foils in Ed Harris' General Francis Hummel. He nobly leads U.S. Marines in a chemical weapons stand off on Alcatraz Island. Coupled with stunning vistas of the Bay Area, an all star cast, headlined with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. This movie gives an adrenaline rush that keeps me watching!
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Quotes:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117500/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Michael Bay at his blockbuster, popcorn munching, action packed best. The Rock has one of the most memorable anti-villain foils in Ed Harris' General Francis Hummel. He nobly leads U.S. Marines in a chemical weapons stand off on Alcatraz Island. Coupled with stunning vistas of the Bay Area, an all star cast, headlined with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. This movie gives an adrenaline rush that keeps me watching!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
Quotes:
General Francis Hummel: [Visiting his wife's grave] I miss you so much... [places flowers] There's something I've gotta do, Barb. Something I couldn't do while you were here. I tried. You know I tried everything, and I still don't have their attention. Let's hope this elevates their thinking. But whatever happens... Please don't think any less of me. [Places his Medal of Honor on the tombstone and kisses it]
Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Three tours in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm, three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Congressional Medal of– Jesus. This man is a hero.
General Al Kramer: Well, I think "legend" might be a better description, Mr. Sinclair.
Sinclair: Yeah, well, now we can add kidnapping and extortion to his list of accolades.
Gen. Kramer: [mildly indignant] Mr. Sinclair, General Hummel is a man of honor.
[Brig General Francis Hummel is addressing the Pentagon about his takeover of Alcatraz, but gets miffed at somebody's snide comment]General Al Kramer: Frank, it's Al Kramer.
BG Francis Hummel: Hi, Al, how you doin'?
Kramer: I don't know, Frank. Ah, why don't you tell me. Got a lot of very, very worried people here, Frank.
Hummel: I'll come straight to the point. Eighty-three Force Reconnaissance Marines have died under my various commands. Forty-seven in northern Laos and southern China.
White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Southern China? We never admitted we sent troops into China.
Hummel: Who is this? Identify yourself.
Sinclair: White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair, General.
Hummel: How old are you, Chief of Staff Sinclair?
White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: I'm 33-
Hummel: Well, Mr. Sinclair, you've probably got no ****ing idea what I'm talking about. By your ninth birthday, I was running black ops into China. My men were responsible for over 200 enemy kills. Now put some rigging tape over Mr. Sinclair's mouth, he's wasting my time!
Kramer: Ah you want to continue, Frank?
Hummel: Remember Operation Desert Storm? Those surgical hits made by our smart bombs, covered so well on CNN? It was my men on the ground that made those hits possible by lasing the targets. Twenty of them were left to rot outside Baghdad after the conflict ended. No benefits were paid to their families. No medals conferred. These men died for their country and they weren't even given a goddamn military burial. This situation is unacceptable. You will transfer 100 million dollars from the Grand Cayman Red Sea Trading Company account to an account I designate. From these funds, reparations of $1 million will be paid to each of the 83 Marines' families. The rest of the funds, I will disperse, at my discretion. Do I make myself clear?
FBI Director James Womack: Except for the Red Sea Trading Company. What is that?
Hummel: Identify yourself.
Womack: This is FBI Director Womack, General.
Hummel: It's a slush fund where the Pentagon keeps proceeds from illegal arms sales.
Kramer: Jesus, Frank! This is classified information.
Hummel: You alert the media, I launch the gas. You refuse payment, I launch the gas. You've got 40 hours, till noon day after tomorrow to arrange transfer of the money. I am aware of your countermeasure. You know, and I know, it doesn't stand a chance. Hummel from Alcatraz. Out. [disconnects video call]
[Stanley Goodspeed's girlfriend Carla has just revealed she's pregnant with his child]
Carla: You didn't really mean what you said about bringing a child into this world...being an act of cruelty, did you?
Goodspeed: I meant it at the time.
Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven-and-a-half seconds ago!
Goodspeed: Well... gosh. Kind of a lot's happened since then.
Commander Anderson: Have you ever been in a combat situation?
Goodspeed: Define combat, sir.
Anderson: Shep?
LT Shepherd: An incursion underwater to re-take an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of US Marines in possession of 81 hostages and 15 guided rockets armed with VX poison gas.
Goodspeed: Oh. In that case, no, sir. Excuse me a moment. [runs to the bathroom and throws up]
Mason: [Gives Goodspeed a handgun] Are you sure you're ready for this? [walks up staircase]
Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
Mason: [stops and motions back to Goodspeed] Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen!
Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.
Mason: [faintly impressed] Really?
Goodspeed: [Cocks his gun] Yeah!
[Mason and Goodspeed are defusing a poison gas rocket when Goodspeed notices a twitching corpse]
Goodspeed: You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal?
Mason: [looks at the twitching corpse] What, the feet thing?
Goodspeed: Yeah, the feet thing.
Mason: Yeah, that happens.
Goodspeed: Well, I'm having kind of a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it?
Mason: Like what? Kill him again?
Goodspeed: Listen, I'm just a biochemist. And most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo--a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here, is one of the most deadly substances the Earth has ever known. So what do you say you cut me some friggin slack?[Goodspeed composes himself for a brief moment before removing its contents]
Goodspeed: A really elegant string-of-pearls configuration. Unfortunately, incredibly unstable.
Mason: What exactly does this stuff do?
Goodspeed: If the rocket renders it aerosol, it could take out an entire city of people.
Mason: Really? And what happens if you drop one?
Goodspeed: Happily, it'd just wipe out you and me.
Mason: How?
Goodspeed: It's a cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within 30 seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you'll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system- [Mason has lifted the chem round to look at it] DO NOT MOVE THAT! Your muscles freeze, you can't breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that's after your skin melts off.
Mason: [wide-eyed] My God.
Goodspeed: [smiles grimly] Oh, I think we'd like God on our side at the moment, don't you?
Gen. Hummel: I thought I'd been in the service a long time... name and rank, sailor.
Mason: It's Army, actually.
Maj. Baxter: Answer the question. And address him as "General, sir."
Mason: Captain John Patrick Mason, General, sir, of her Majesty's SAS. Retired, of course.
Gen. Hummel: You're a long way from home, Captain. How the hell are you involved in this?
Mason': Oh, I have a unique knowledge of this facility. I was formerly a guest here.
Gen. Hummel: Have they bothered to tell you who I am, why I'm doing this, or are they just using you like they do everybody else?
Mason: All I know is, you were big in Vietnam; I saw the highlights on television.
Gen. Hummel: You wouldn't have any ****ing idea of what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into battle and then see their memory betrayed by their own ****ing government!
Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million, and, uh, this is not combat. It's an act of lunacy, General, sir. Personally, I think you're a ****ing idiot.
Gen. Hummel: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
Mason: "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious," according to Oscar Wilde. [Hummel strikes him in the back of the neck] Thank you for making my point.
Goodspeed: Hey hon, wanna know who shot JFK?
Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Three tours in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm, three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Congressional Medal of– Jesus. This man is a hero.
General Al Kramer: Well, I think "legend" might be a better description, Mr. Sinclair.
Sinclair: Yeah, well, now we can add kidnapping and extortion to his list of accolades.
Gen. Kramer: [mildly indignant] Mr. Sinclair, General Hummel is a man of honor.
[Brig General Francis Hummel is addressing the Pentagon about his takeover of Alcatraz, but gets miffed at somebody's snide comment]General Al Kramer: Frank, it's Al Kramer.
BG Francis Hummel: Hi, Al, how you doin'?
Kramer: I don't know, Frank. Ah, why don't you tell me. Got a lot of very, very worried people here, Frank.
Hummel: I'll come straight to the point. Eighty-three Force Reconnaissance Marines have died under my various commands. Forty-seven in northern Laos and southern China.
White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Southern China? We never admitted we sent troops into China.
Hummel: Who is this? Identify yourself.
Sinclair: White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair, General.
Hummel: How old are you, Chief of Staff Sinclair?
White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: I'm 33-
Hummel: Well, Mr. Sinclair, you've probably got no ****ing idea what I'm talking about. By your ninth birthday, I was running black ops into China. My men were responsible for over 200 enemy kills. Now put some rigging tape over Mr. Sinclair's mouth, he's wasting my time!
Kramer: Ah you want to continue, Frank?
Hummel: Remember Operation Desert Storm? Those surgical hits made by our smart bombs, covered so well on CNN? It was my men on the ground that made those hits possible by lasing the targets. Twenty of them were left to rot outside Baghdad after the conflict ended. No benefits were paid to their families. No medals conferred. These men died for their country and they weren't even given a goddamn military burial. This situation is unacceptable. You will transfer 100 million dollars from the Grand Cayman Red Sea Trading Company account to an account I designate. From these funds, reparations of $1 million will be paid to each of the 83 Marines' families. The rest of the funds, I will disperse, at my discretion. Do I make myself clear?
FBI Director James Womack: Except for the Red Sea Trading Company. What is that?
Hummel: Identify yourself.
Womack: This is FBI Director Womack, General.
Hummel: It's a slush fund where the Pentagon keeps proceeds from illegal arms sales.
Kramer: Jesus, Frank! This is classified information.
Hummel: You alert the media, I launch the gas. You refuse payment, I launch the gas. You've got 40 hours, till noon day after tomorrow to arrange transfer of the money. I am aware of your countermeasure. You know, and I know, it doesn't stand a chance. Hummel from Alcatraz. Out. [disconnects video call]
[Stanley Goodspeed's girlfriend Carla has just revealed she's pregnant with his child]
Carla: You didn't really mean what you said about bringing a child into this world...being an act of cruelty, did you?
Goodspeed: I meant it at the time.
Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven-and-a-half seconds ago!
Goodspeed: Well... gosh. Kind of a lot's happened since then.
Commander Anderson: Have you ever been in a combat situation?
Goodspeed: Define combat, sir.
Anderson: Shep?
LT Shepherd: An incursion underwater to re-take an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of US Marines in possession of 81 hostages and 15 guided rockets armed with VX poison gas.
Goodspeed: Oh. In that case, no, sir. Excuse me a moment. [runs to the bathroom and throws up]
Mason: [Gives Goodspeed a handgun] Are you sure you're ready for this? [walks up staircase]
Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
Mason: [stops and motions back to Goodspeed] Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen!
Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.
Mason: [faintly impressed] Really?
Goodspeed: [Cocks his gun] Yeah!
[Mason and Goodspeed are defusing a poison gas rocket when Goodspeed notices a twitching corpse]
Goodspeed: You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal?
Mason: [looks at the twitching corpse] What, the feet thing?
Goodspeed: Yeah, the feet thing.
Mason: Yeah, that happens.
Goodspeed: Well, I'm having kind of a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it?
Mason: Like what? Kill him again?
Goodspeed: Listen, I'm just a biochemist. And most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo--a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here, is one of the most deadly substances the Earth has ever known. So what do you say you cut me some friggin slack?[Goodspeed composes himself for a brief moment before removing its contents]
Goodspeed: A really elegant string-of-pearls configuration. Unfortunately, incredibly unstable.
Mason: What exactly does this stuff do?
Goodspeed: If the rocket renders it aerosol, it could take out an entire city of people.
Mason: Really? And what happens if you drop one?
Goodspeed: Happily, it'd just wipe out you and me.
Mason: How?
Goodspeed: It's a cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within 30 seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you'll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system- [Mason has lifted the chem round to look at it] DO NOT MOVE THAT! Your muscles freeze, you can't breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that's after your skin melts off.
Mason: [wide-eyed] My God.
Goodspeed: [smiles grimly] Oh, I think we'd like God on our side at the moment, don't you?
Gen. Hummel: I thought I'd been in the service a long time... name and rank, sailor.
Mason: It's Army, actually.
Maj. Baxter: Answer the question. And address him as "General, sir."
Mason: Captain John Patrick Mason, General, sir, of her Majesty's SAS. Retired, of course.
Gen. Hummel: You're a long way from home, Captain. How the hell are you involved in this?
Mason': Oh, I have a unique knowledge of this facility. I was formerly a guest here.
Gen. Hummel: Have they bothered to tell you who I am, why I'm doing this, or are they just using you like they do everybody else?
Mason: All I know is, you were big in Vietnam; I saw the highlights on television.
Gen. Hummel: You wouldn't have any ****ing idea of what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into battle and then see their memory betrayed by their own ****ing government!
Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million, and, uh, this is not combat. It's an act of lunacy, General, sir. Personally, I think you're a ****ing idiot.
Gen. Hummel: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
Mason: "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious," according to Oscar Wilde. [Hummel strikes him in the back of the neck] Thank you for making my point.
Goodspeed: Hey hon, wanna know who shot JFK?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117500/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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If it bleeds, we can kill it.
P is for Predator
So many great Ps.
Internet blurb: Pure action cinema at its most efficient and charmingly unpretentious, Predator remains a lean masterpiece over three decades on.
Internet blurb 2: A whole mess of talent working at the top of their games in front of and behind the camera came together at the perfect times in their careers to create the lightning in a bottle that is Predator.
P is for Predator
So many great Ps.
Internet blurb: Pure action cinema at its most efficient and charmingly unpretentious, Predator remains a lean masterpiece over three decades on.
Internet blurb 2: A whole mess of talent working at the top of their games in front of and behind the camera came together at the perfect times in their careers to create the lightning in a bottle that is Predator.
P = The Pelican Brief: The movie is based on a book by John Grisham, who seems to write books that are easily converted to the big screen, this being one of many. This movie has everything to hold your interest with twists and turns a plenty. It has an all star cast with Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, and John Lithgow. The movie is directed Alan J. Pakula.
After two Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, are killed by an assassin, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed. She gives the brief to her law professor and lover Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard), who in turn gives a copy to his good friend Gavin Verheek (John Heard), special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Soon after, Someone is killed by a car bomb. Darby manages to avoid the same fate and is subsequently attacked by an unknown assailant. Realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out to Verheek for assistance.
An informant calling himself Garcia contacts Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) with information about the assassinations, but suddenly disappears. Darby contacts Grantham, who finds her information is accurate.
After two Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, are killed by an assassin, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed. She gives the brief to her law professor and lover Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard), who in turn gives a copy to his good friend Gavin Verheek (John Heard), special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Soon after, Someone is killed by a car bomb. Darby manages to avoid the same fate and is subsequently attacked by an unknown assailant. Realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out to Verheek for assistance.
An informant calling himself Garcia contacts Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) with information about the assassinations, but suddenly disappears. Darby contacts Grantham, who finds her information is accurate.
To fill my "P" column in the alphabetical movie draft, I select:
The Prestige (2010)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
Trailer
In the late 1800s stage magician Alfred Borden (Bale) creates a magic trick ("Michael, it's an illusion!") that nobody can duplicate or explain. In an effort to recreate it, rival magician Robert Angier (Jackman) goes to unthinkable lengths.
While I don't dislike his work, in general I'm not typically a huge fan of Christopher Nolan. And, unlike every other film on my list so far, I've only seen The Prestige once. Between those two facts I've been a bit reluctant to pick it, but the fact is that it's a great movie and I simply can't bear to let it go unpicked. (Plus, selecting it will give me an excuse to watch it again!) The plot of the film is far more engaging than it sounds, and on your first watching it keeps you on the edge of your seat. But there's one scene that comes relatively early in the film that I simply cannot forget. Nolan takes an emotionally-charged scene that seems to be nothing more than a side plot, and he waves the solution to not only Borden's trick but also Angier's re-creation directly in your face but until you get to the end of the movie, you just don't see it. In a movie about magic, it's one of the greatest acts of sleight-of-hand in film, period.
"No, he killed him!" "See? He's all right! He's fine! Look at him." "But where's his brother?"
The Prestige (2010)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
Trailer
In the late 1800s stage magician Alfred Borden (Bale) creates a magic trick ("Michael, it's an illusion!") that nobody can duplicate or explain. In an effort to recreate it, rival magician Robert Angier (Jackman) goes to unthinkable lengths.
While I don't dislike his work, in general I'm not typically a huge fan of Christopher Nolan. And, unlike every other film on my list so far, I've only seen The Prestige once. Between those two facts I've been a bit reluctant to pick it, but the fact is that it's a great movie and I simply can't bear to let it go unpicked. (Plus, selecting it will give me an excuse to watch it again!) The plot of the film is far more engaging than it sounds, and on your first watching it keeps you on the edge of your seat. But there's one scene that comes relatively early in the film that I simply cannot forget. Nolan takes an emotionally-charged scene that seems to be nothing more than a side plot, and he waves the solution to not only Borden's trick but also Angier's re-creation directly in your face but until you get to the end of the movie, you just don't see it. In a movie about magic, it's one of the greatest acts of sleight-of-hand in film, period.
"No, he killed him!" "See? He's all right! He's fine! Look at him." "But where's his brother?"
P = The Party (1968)
Another Blake Edward picture for my collection. Peter Sellers is hilarious as an out of place actor unintentionally invited to a Hollywood hills party in the late 1960s. Calamity ensues!
Link #1
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Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5
Another Blake Edward picture for my collection. Peter Sellers is hilarious as an out of place actor unintentionally invited to a Hollywood hills party in the late 1960s. Calamity ensues!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5
P = The Party (1968)
Another Blake Edward picture for my collection. Peter Sellers is hilarious as an out of place actor unintentionally invited to a Hollywood hills party in the late 1960s. Calamity ensues!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5
Another Blake Edward picture for my collection. Peter Sellers is hilarious as an out of place actor unintentionally invited to a Hollywood hills party in the late 1960s. Calamity ensues!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5
Gonna make this quick. Had planned a few different directions here, but decided, in honor of the fourth, to take one of the more distinctly American movies in my collection.
J is for ...
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Show me the money. Help me help you. Who's coming with me? You complete me. You had me at hello.
There are times a film and its elements become so culturally saturated, inescapable, ubiquitous, and indeed, overrated, that people instinctively feel repellent to its mere mention, even if their initial reaction was neutral or even positive. It's almost a Pavlovian response the same way we feel irritation towards a once catchy song being played incessantly on the radio.
I think Jerry Maguire has suffered this fate, and I don't entirely dispute the characterization. I thought it was 'fine' the first time I saw it. Mildly fun, funny, and fresh enough to find enjoyable, but nothing necessarily earth-shattering. The repetition of the five above quoted phrases in common culture proved exhausting, becoming the lazy nails-on-a-chalkboard go-to comedy lines for parody commercials and buddies at a party the better part of a decade after. And generally, there are parts of the film that are still a tad irksome.
But when I complied films by letter, I didn't have much issue placing this in the J column. Perhaps being more than two decades removed from its zeitgeist has softened its more jaggedly grating edges. Or maybe, you know, it's got a clever writing, a fully committed cast, and a unique enough take on the rom-com making it a special kind of quality worth coming back to.
I think this film has heart. Maybe I bought into a major Hollywood studio trying to win an Oscar over the impending indie movement, but the end product is worth celebrating. I see the entire arc as humanizing these utter soulless caricatures with artificial showbiz relationships, fleshing them out into real people with real connections by the end.
As much as that can be said for Jerry and Dorothy, it's even more evident for Rod and Darcy, who are initially portrayed as shrewd is selfish stereotypes, until we spend more time with them as a family unit culminating in Darcy on the phone with Jerry, as Rod lies unconscious, even with the backdrop of a million dollar contract being on the line, sobbing in earnest because "This family does not work without him."
Oh and one element that never wore out its welcome with me: the Ambassador of Kwan.
The concept completes me.
J is for ...
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Show me the money. Help me help you. Who's coming with me? You complete me. You had me at hello.
There are times a film and its elements become so culturally saturated, inescapable, ubiquitous, and indeed, overrated, that people instinctively feel repellent to its mere mention, even if their initial reaction was neutral or even positive. It's almost a Pavlovian response the same way we feel irritation towards a once catchy song being played incessantly on the radio.
I think Jerry Maguire has suffered this fate, and I don't entirely dispute the characterization. I thought it was 'fine' the first time I saw it. Mildly fun, funny, and fresh enough to find enjoyable, but nothing necessarily earth-shattering. The repetition of the five above quoted phrases in common culture proved exhausting, becoming the lazy nails-on-a-chalkboard go-to comedy lines for parody commercials and buddies at a party the better part of a decade after. And generally, there are parts of the film that are still a tad irksome.
But when I complied films by letter, I didn't have much issue placing this in the J column. Perhaps being more than two decades removed from its zeitgeist has softened its more jaggedly grating edges. Or maybe, you know, it's got a clever writing, a fully committed cast, and a unique enough take on the rom-com making it a special kind of quality worth coming back to.
I think this film has heart. Maybe I bought into a major Hollywood studio trying to win an Oscar over the impending indie movement, but the end product is worth celebrating. I see the entire arc as humanizing these utter soulless caricatures with artificial showbiz relationships, fleshing them out into real people with real connections by the end.
As much as that can be said for Jerry and Dorothy, it's even more evident for Rod and Darcy, who are initially portrayed as shrewd is selfish stereotypes, until we spend more time with them as a family unit culminating in Darcy on the phone with Jerry, as Rod lies unconscious, even with the backdrop of a million dollar contract being on the line, sobbing in earnest because "This family does not work without him."
Oh and one element that never wore out its welcome with me: the Ambassador of Kwan.
The concept completes me.
Attachments
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With my sixteenth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter P to select:
Punch-Drunk Love (2002):
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Dir. of Photography: Robert Elswit
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Score: Jon Brion
Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Hey everybody! My apologies for my continued absence. When it rains, it pours, and all that. Thank you to those of you who have reached out via PM. Everything is okay in my world, for the most part. Just preoccupied with life and all its complications.
I am still without the time to properly expound on my selections, which is a major drag. But this first make-up pick is a really important film to me. It's pretty much exactly what you would imagine a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed romantic comedy would be like, in that it doesn't really read like a traditional romantic comedy at all. It's strange and surreal and discomfiting, but it's also sweet and beautiful and genuinely arresting in its strongest moments.
Despite a recent awards-worthy performance, I maintain that Adam Sandler has never been better than he was in Punch-Drunk Love. Emily Watson is an absolute delight, as ever. And Philip Seymour Hoffman reminds us of how much he could accomplish in even the smallest of roles (RIP).
Punch-Drunk Love (2002):
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Dir. of Photography: Robert Elswit
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Score: Jon Brion
Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Hey everybody! My apologies for my continued absence. When it rains, it pours, and all that. Thank you to those of you who have reached out via PM. Everything is okay in my world, for the most part. Just preoccupied with life and all its complications.
I am still without the time to properly expound on my selections, which is a major drag. But this first make-up pick is a really important film to me. It's pretty much exactly what you would imagine a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed romantic comedy would be like, in that it doesn't really read like a traditional romantic comedy at all. It's strange and surreal and discomfiting, but it's also sweet and beautiful and genuinely arresting in its strongest moments.
Despite a recent awards-worthy performance, I maintain that Adam Sandler has never been better than he was in Punch-Drunk Love. Emily Watson is an absolute delight, as ever. And Philip Seymour Hoffman reminds us of how much he could accomplish in even the smallest of roles (RIP).
With my seventeenth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter W to select:
The Wild Bunch (1969):
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Dir. of Photography: Lucien Ballard
Writer(s): Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Score: Jerry Fielding
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
Genre: Western
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Here is a Sam Peckinpah classic, and one of my favorite westerns of all time.
https://cinephiliabeyond.org/the-wild-bunch/
The Wild Bunch (1969):
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Dir. of Photography: Lucien Ballard
Writer(s): Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Score: Jerry Fielding
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
Genre: Western
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Here is a Sam Peckinpah classic, and one of my favorite westerns of all time.
https://cinephiliabeyond.org/the-wild-bunch/
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Technically I think the second one wasn't a make-up pick, you were on the clock!
@Warhawk is out and about today (he texted me a pic of him wearing a bicycle helmet) and asked me to make his pick for him.
For Warhawk's 17th round pick, he will use the letter "E" to select one of my favorite Christmas movies - Elf (2003).
I'll PM @VF21.
@Warhawk is out and about today (he texted me a pic of him wearing a bicycle helmet) and asked me to make his pick for him.
For Warhawk's 17th round pick, he will use the letter "E" to select one of my favorite Christmas movies - Elf (2003).
I'll PM @VF21.
With my seventeenth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter W to select:
The Wild Bunch (1969):
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Dir. of Photography: Lucien Ballard
Writer(s): Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Score: Jerry Fielding
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
Genre: Western
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
And for my second make-up pick, here is a Sam Peckinpah classic, and one of my favorite westerns of all time.
The Wild Bunch (1969):
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Dir. of Photography: Lucien Ballard
Writer(s): Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Score: Jerry Fielding
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
Genre: Western
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
And for my second make-up pick, here is a Sam Peckinpah classic, and one of my favorite westerns of all time.
C - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - 2000
I admit I'm not generally that fond of this kind of film. The trailer, however, peaked my curiosity and I was not disappointed.
Ang Lee didn't just make a movie. He created a symphony featuring martial arts, breath-taking scenery and compelling drama.
From "Rotten Tomatoes" - "In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. This film was first screened to much acclaim at the 2000 Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals and became a favorite when Academy Awards nominations were announced in 2001: Tiger snagged ten nods and later secured four wins for Best Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, and Foreign Language Film."
This flick is a prime example of artistry in film. Every movement is choreographed for maximum effect. Lee created a true masterpiece, one that reveals more of itself each time I watch it.
L - The LEGO Movie (2014)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/
“Everything is Awesome!!!“ OK, this one full on surprised me when I first saw it with the kiddos. But I may have enjoyed it more than them
Very funny, with loads of clever humor, great voice acting, high quality 3D animation and an uplifting message. High rewatchability.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/
“Everything is Awesome!!!“ OK, this one full on surprised me when I first saw it with the kiddos. But I may have enjoyed it more than them
Very funny, with loads of clever humor, great voice acting, high quality 3D animation and an uplifting message. High rewatchability.Time for some music, let’s crank it up!
I = It Might Get Loud (2008) - PG
This documentary brings together the classically trained blues guitar wizard Jimmy Page, the synthetic pop stud guitar player for U2, The Edge, and the gritty, blues rock/punk upstart from the White Stripes, Jack White. It tells the story of the electric guitar’s influence on the past century of music and their own winding musical journeys. Throughout the film, we see glimpses of the three together, and are treated to a back stage jam session for the ages!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1229360/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
I = It Might Get Loud (2008) - PG
This documentary brings together the classically trained blues guitar wizard Jimmy Page, the synthetic pop stud guitar player for U2, The Edge, and the gritty, blues rock/punk upstart from the White Stripes, Jack White. It tells the story of the electric guitar’s influence on the past century of music and their own winding musical journeys. Throughout the film, we see glimpses of the three together, and are treated to a back stage jam session for the ages!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1229360/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
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I don't know where we're goin', but there's no sense bein' late.
Q is for Quigley Down Under
I’ve danced around taking a western for a few letters now, but it’s time to bite the bullet...especially since I only own like 5 movies that start with Q and two are westerns.
No internet blurb since apparently the internet doesn’t care for this movie like I do, and I’m lazy. Screw you internet. Any movie that has Alan Rickman as a villain is top notch in my book.
Q is for Quigley Down Under
I’ve danced around taking a western for a few letters now, but it’s time to bite the bullet...especially since I only own like 5 movies that start with Q and two are westerns.
No internet blurb since apparently the internet doesn’t care for this movie like I do, and I’m lazy. Screw you internet. Any movie that has Alan Rickman as a villain is top notch in my book.
I'm sure Q is the least favorite letter for everyone. Not a lot of movies that I like start with that letter, but here is one of them. Quick Change, a clever movie about a bank robbery and the chaos that follows.
The film is set in New York City, particularly in Manhattan and Queens, with scenes taking place on the New York City Subway and within John F. Kennedy International Airport. Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty are also briefly seen. The movie stars Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, and Jason Robards. Murray also produced and co-directed the movie.
Grimm, (Murray) dressed as a clown, robs a bank in midtown Manhattan. He sets up an ingenious hostage situation and successfully gets away with $1 million and his accomplices: girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis.
The heist itself is comparatively straightforward and easy, but the getaway turns into a nightmare. The relatively simple act of getting to the airport to catch a flight out of the country is complicated by the fact that fate, luck and all of New York City appears to be conspiring against their escape.
The film is set in New York City, particularly in Manhattan and Queens, with scenes taking place on the New York City Subway and within John F. Kennedy International Airport. Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty are also briefly seen. The movie stars Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, and Jason Robards. Murray also produced and co-directed the movie.
Grimm, (Murray) dressed as a clown, robs a bank in midtown Manhattan. He sets up an ingenious hostage situation and successfully gets away with $1 million and his accomplices: girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis.
The heist itself is comparatively straightforward and easy, but the getaway turns into a nightmare. The relatively simple act of getting to the airport to catch a flight out of the country is complicated by the fact that fate, luck and all of New York City appears to be conspiring against their escape.
I’m really impressed at the two recent Q choices. I’d been wondering how @Sluggah and @bajaden were going to handle that most frustrating of letters. Thought you both just might skip it entirely out of convenance.
Instead you both drop two movies I’m keenly aware of, but have never quite pulled the trigger on watching. Add them to the list.
Instead you both drop two movies I’m keenly aware of, but have never quite pulled the trigger on watching. Add them to the list.
With my sixteenth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter P to select:
Punch-Drunk Love (2002):
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Dir. of Photography: Robert Elswit
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Score: Jon Brion
Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Hey everybody! My apologies for my continued absence. When it rains, it pours, and all that. Thank you to those of you who have reached out via PM. Everything is okay in my world, for the most part. Just preoccupied with life and all its complications.
I am still without the time to properly expound on my selections, which is a major drag. But this first make-up pick is a really important film to me. It's pretty much exactly what you would imagine a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed romantic comedy would be like, in that it doesn't really read like a traditional romantic comedy at all. It's strange and surreal and discomfiting, but it's also sweet and beautiful and genuinely arresting in its strongest moments.
Despite a recent awards-worthy performance, I maintain that Adam Sandler has never been better than he was in Punch-Drunk Love. Emily Watson is an absolute delight, as ever. And Philip Seymour Hoffman reminds us of how much he could accomplish in even the smallest of roles (RIP).
Punch-Drunk Love (2002):
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Dir. of Photography: Robert Elswit
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Score: Jon Brion
Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Hey everybody! My apologies for my continued absence. When it rains, it pours, and all that. Thank you to those of you who have reached out via PM. Everything is okay in my world, for the most part. Just preoccupied with life and all its complications.
I am still without the time to properly expound on my selections, which is a major drag. But this first make-up pick is a really important film to me. It's pretty much exactly what you would imagine a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed romantic comedy would be like, in that it doesn't really read like a traditional romantic comedy at all. It's strange and surreal and discomfiting, but it's also sweet and beautiful and genuinely arresting in its strongest moments.
Despite a recent awards-worthy performance, I maintain that Adam Sandler has never been better than he was in Punch-Drunk Love. Emily Watson is an absolute delight, as ever. And Philip Seymour Hoffman reminds us of how much he could accomplish in even the smallest of roles (RIP).
However, my favorite interpretation of this film is Barry is a de-powered Superman without his cape, and he spends the whole film searching for it.
-Barry Egan is not too far sonically from Jerry Siegel.
-Constantly wears a blue suit with a red tie for the S.
-His sisters are the different forms of Kryptonite.
-His nemesis is a sinister, manipulative business man.
-He is continually shown accidentally breaking things otherwise requiring superhuman strength (unbreakable plunger.)
-Defeats 4 goons alone with nothing but a tire iron.
-Consummate goal is to earn unlimited flight.
-His love interest is Lena Leonard (L.L. for Lois Lane).
-He travels from a phone booth in California to Dean’s mattress store in Provo, Utah and it is edited to suggest he ran there at superhuman speed (still holding the receiver he ripped from the booth).
Sure, it breaks down a bit at the thought of a lonely Superman calling a phone-for-sex hotline, but overall, I think the theory holds up delightfully well.
And what about his cape?
Well, don’t know about you, but in the very final frame ...
I see a cape.
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