For J I will take the original Jumanji of my childhood. I remember seeing this with my older sister and finding some of the chaos a bit frightening. I also remember Robin Williams - in this movie and several others I guess I can't name - it is sad he is gone.
I originally had this film as a finalist for my "T" selection but went a different direction, so I'm happy to have a second chance to get it in. Unfortunately, the trailers I can find were not super compelling (I imagine that in 1934, the idea of the trailer was a bit different than it is now) so instead I've linked a clip that actually does a very good job of setting up the story, based on a Dashiell Hammett novel: Nick Charles, former detective, and his spunky wife Nora are vacationing in New York when the daughter of an old friend bumps into them and informs them that her father is missing. Nick doesn't particularly want to get back into the detective racket, but if an old friend is missing...
Eventually, the film turns into a classic murder mystery, down to the good old "invite all the suspects to dinner to figure out which one did it" trope. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this story pioneered that trope.) But the real star of the film is the chemistry between Powell and Loy, who quip and banter and argue while all the while being madly in love with each other and drinking as hard as they can in the immediate aftermath of Prohibition (which ended in December of 1933). The movie was so successful that it spawned five sequels, and all of them are based on a fundamental misunderstanding. Because William Powell was slender, audiences who didn't pay much attention to the plot of the film thought that Nick Charles was the "thin man". But the "thin man" was actually the murder victim in the original film, whose body was buried in a fat person's clothes to throw the coppers off the scent. Oh, well.
For me, a lot of comedy films from this era just lose their punch, mostly because a lot of the jokes don't translate across eras, but The Thin Man is timeless - its jokes typically aren't contemporary references but instead poke fun at human nature, and that, it would seem, does not change.
I don't like crooks. And if I did like 'em, I wouldn't like crooks that are stool pigeons. And if I did like crooks that are stool pigeons, I still wouldn't like you.
One of my favorite all-time movies, partially because of my mom. The repartee between Myrna Loy and William Powell stands up to the test of time even today. This is IMHO what makes some films of the Golden Age of Cinema stand out even today.
XXX is an exhilarating mix of an extreme sports stud, with a James Bond job, James Bond girl, and a Czech James Bond villain. Sure it is a homage to 007, but this re-imagination is exciting too!
Interesting note about the Foresthill Bridge... It was designed and built to span the lake that would be created by the completion of the Auburn Dam. The Auburn Dam was on the drawing board for years but never actually built because of earthquake concerns.
Way back in the first round, Padrino selected a film based on a Philip K. Dick story, and we've made it all the way to the 26th round before we get another one. This movie is a pretty solid mindbender. It's set in the near future in a world that has been decimated by widespread addiction to a drug called Substance D. Keanu Reeves plays the small-time Substance D junkie Bob Arctor who has a secret side job as an informant for the government. When meeting with the cops, Arctor's actual identity (as well as those of the government agents) is hidden by a full-body "scramble suit" which constantly displays shifting faces and bodies, so he is known to the Feds only as "Fred". But things start getting interesting when "Fred" is asked to spy on Bob Arctor, whom the Feds suspect of being a Substance D kingpin - and it only gets better from there.
This is my only animated film, though I suppose some might object to the use of the term "animation" to refer to what is properly known as "rotoscoping". The movie was shot on traditional film, and then a computer-based process was used to convert the film into an animation. For whatever reason I find rotoscoping to be intensely watchable, and in the case of this movie, it was not only a great stylistic choice, but it might have been a necessary one. The "scramble suits", which play a big enough role in the film to need to be done right, are difficult enough to conceptualize, but could never be pulled off in the real world today. That means that if the film didn't go animated, it would have to have some cheesy (and almost certainly terrible) CGI to create them, whereas in the animated realm, it's seamless and completely believable.
Your sins will be read to you ceaselessly, in shifts, throughout eternity. The list will never end.
An animated feast for the eyes is a brilliant description for this film. From the jaw-dropping visuals beautifully rendered in 3D, to the flawless animation of the characters and dragons, this was one film that didn't disappoint.
Our protagonist is Hiccup, a boy viking who doesn't possess much in common with his dragon slaying dad. However, when he finds a new friend in Toothless, the most feared dragon of its species, he learns that dragons are not the fearful creatures he was brought up to believe.
What I enjoyed the most was the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless the dragon. This was dealt with wonderfully and we see their relationship develop over a series of scenes which were done with great humour and action.
The 3D holds its own in every sense, and I would go as far as saying that some scenes rival the groundbreaking Avatar. The scenes that especially stood out were the flying segments where the dragon soars over crystal clear sea's and jaw-dropping backdrops.
Whilst this is a film that may seem as if it's solely directed at the younger generation, its stunning visuals and well-told story means that it will keep any adult satisfied.
There are a lot of excellent reviews out there, I will just discuss a single point. What got to me the most in this movie is the message I got out of it, I got it from a single line uttered by the hero and it just burned in my memory, it's about how when we look deep in the eyes of our enemies -the ones we fear the most- we will see that they are afraid of us just as we are afraid of them, we might realize their humanity and that they are not what we thought, monsters.
As Slim may or may not have alluded, I'm the only drafter who didn't take the otherwise lay-up letters "I" and "A" during the regular rounds, saving them for last into the bonus rounds behind such troubling behemoths as Q, X, and Z.
The why for "A" I'll get into with my next pick, but the reasoning for "I" is a little convoluted.
I've been trying to track down a highly praised romantic drama from a Hong Kong director that I've been pining to see even before @hrdboild took it in the last draft. Alas, that somehow proved impossible for me even as I stalled for months with little more than the chance of liking it enough to snatch it up here.
Digging deeper, I was willing to go to such lengths because its alternate (a movie which I otherwise thoroughly love and am taking now) is a full-length animated feature. Now there's no shame in that, as Cap demonstrates with A Scanner Darkly, animation is simply one medium used to present a myriad of artistic concepts, ideas, emotions, and experiences. The "cartoons are for kids" maxim is woefully binary.
But the thing is, this movie was indeed made explicitly "for kids," and it was tough for me to accept, in a draft with two participants under the legal drinking age, I would be the only one to take multiple animated features, and maybe a half dozen that could be classified as live-action cartoons.
Well, I might as well lean into this. We are who we choose to be, and at this point, my choice has been made clear.
Su - Per - Man
I is for ...
The Iron Giant (1999)
This has a lot of E.T. vibes, if the alien was a skyscraper-sized robotic weapon of mass destruction, and it was set during the paranoid height of 1950s Red Scare McCarthyism in rural America. The opening shot is of Sputnik hovering menacingly over the United States. Not particularly subtle, but effective nonetheless.
Unlike E.T. though, the people would have every right to be terrified of the Giant for reasons that go well beyond it being both different and huge.
The Giant is essentially a 60 foot tall metallic super soldier sent from an unknown and unseen race of aliens bent on exterminating life on earth in preparation for a full invasion. Think Terminator meets Independence Day.
But thanks to the power of friendship (and a healthy dose of amnesia), the Giant is little more than a docile, precocious child filled with curiosity and wonder. This is expressed perfectly through the voice acting of Vin Diesel as the Giant, it seems honing his talents for his role as Groot years later. Like E.T. the Giant's vocabulary is exceedingly limited to a few words or simple sentences, but with an added gravelly strain of metal scraping to emphasis his status as an otherworldly machine. Still, Diesel is able to emote such charm and earnestness in the Giant, he quickly becomes humanized and ultimately endearing.
" ... Roooccccck ... Trrrreeeeee ..."
The voice acting across the board is really rather special. Eli Mareinthal puts in great work carrying the majority of the speaking parts as child protagonist Hogarth. Jennifer Aniston is solid as Hogarth’s mother, effortlessly portraying the world-weary savvy of a single mother with a rambunctious and reckless son. And Harry Connick Jr. nearly steals every scene he's in as cool beatnik Dean.
The animation itself is vivid and really captures the atmosphere of the era its set without seeming dated, even now 20 years later.
Additionally, I love the theming of choosing your own destiny. When Hogarth is flipping through his comic books and comes across the image of supervillain Metallo, who is a spitting image of the Giant, wreaking havoc across Metropolis, the Giant very consciously at that moment chooses a different path.
I've been trying to track down a highly praised romantic drama from a Hong Kong director that I've been pining to see even before @hrdboild took it in the last draft. Alas, that somehow proved impossible for me even as I stalled for months with little more than the chance of liking it enough to snatch it up here.
Although it would appear that the only person eligible to select that film under either its English or Chinese title is you, I'll refrain from naming it, but I will say that I think it suffers a bit from its reputation. I went in expecting "great" and got "very good". Whereas, for Iron Giant I went in expecting a decent kids movie and was blown away. Is Iron Giant the better of the two (very different!) films? Perhaps. But what it has on top of the other film is that it moved me in a way I didn't expect going into it, and I find those sorts of films really memorable.
I thought it might be. I had it narrowed down to a couple and even looked at all your old music picks. I just rewatched the movie the other day. I missed lot of the cinematography the first time. It's a beautiful film and the music certainly matches.
Although it would appear that the only person eligible to select that film under either its English or Chinese title is you, I'll refrain from naming it,
I thought I'd be safe simply naming it, but too many words and letters for me to track, so didn't risk it. Not as if you'd need Batman's help to solve my riddle though.
but I will say that I think it suffers a bit from its reputation. I went in expecting "great" and got "very good". Whereas, for Iron Giant I went in expecting a decent kids movie and was blown away.
I fear this may mirror my experience in the end. It's a consummate concern for me when diving into films already swimming in praise. I really don't know how to combat the subjectivity of expectations, and it's sadly fed into our "overrated" stamps of disapproval in lieu of actual critiques.
That's an interesting comparison, which I strangely never even considered making even while the two have been indirectly vying for the same spot. I'm obviously not in a position to argue either way because I maddeningly still have not seen the other film, but it's not as much of a stretch to compare the two. They are both highly-stylized, visually striking, self-contained narratives exploring a central emotionally evocative theme. Hmm, they may have more in common than at first glance.
Once I finally catch the second film, I'll get to digging.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extending this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
It would also come with the proviso that Slim gets Black Panther.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extended this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
I admit, this movie is flat out a guilty pleasure on my behalf.
I was looking at my list of options for this pick, but kept coming back to the idea of "what would I want to watch repeatedly during extended stay-at-home periods". I also strongly contemplated a sequel to a movie I already picked, but I think I got the best one of that gangster series already. I was thinking of using this to pick "Three Billboards", but the draft commissioner ruled that the "#" pick had to be a numeral and not a "written" number, so I juggled things around a bit and am glad to be able to add this flick as well.
Definitely a top 10 Marvel movie for me - with the Tony Stark/Iron Man origin story (which really kicked off the MCU in film) taken care of already, this movie really just dives into the action and shows Tony Stark really settling into the "Iron Man" character. I really enjoyed the Black Widow's introduction to the MCU in this film. War Machine and Justin Hammer are great additions as well. Whiplash is an interesting villain. Tony Stark's humor and interaction with all of the above (and Pepper Potts) just ties the whole thing together. There are also enough Phil Coulson and Nick Fury sightings to help keep things interesting.
Also, having never read much in the way of comics as a kid (lived in the country and didn't have many of them around), I had no clue that Iron Man had multiple sets of armor in different configurations until I saw this film (the "suitcase" armor in this movie, for instance). It was fun to see that idea start to play out in this movie and then continue throughout the MCU films.
Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said, "To find a comic-book hero who doesn't agonize over his supergifts, and would defend his constitutional right to get a kick out of them, is frankly a relief".
Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, a one-time Marvel Comics writer, said that, "In a refreshing and unexpected turn, the sequel to Iron Man doesn't find a changed man. Inside the metal, imperfect humanity grows even more so, as thought-provoking questions of identity meet techno-fantasy made flesh."
Tony Stark: Let the record reflect that I observe Mr. Hammer entering the chamber and I am wondering if and when any actual expert will also be in attendance.
Tony Stark: [about Natalie Rushman] Who is she? Pepper Potts: She is from legal and she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that.
Justin Hammer: These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine RDX burst. It's capable of busting a bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it'd write a book, a book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's Third. My Pieta. It's completely elegant, it's bafflingly beautiful, and it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it "The Ex-Wife."
Ivan Vanko: My father is the reason you're alive. Tony Stark: No, the reason I'm alive is because you made a shot, and you missed. Ivan Vanko: [laughs] If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you. Tony Stark: Where will you be watching the world consume me from? Oh, that's right, a prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap.
Tony Stark: You know, the question I get asked most often is, "Tony, how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?"
[pauses with eyes closed] Tony Stark: Just like that.
Adam Goldstein: [peeking up from behind laptop] Yes, Mr. Stark? Tony Stark: Give me phat beat to beat my buddy's ass to.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extended this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
It would also come with the proviso that Slim gets Black Panther.
Director: Cheh Chang Writer(s): Cheh Chang and Kuang Ni Score: Fu-Ling Wang Cast: Kuan Tai Chen, Alexander Fu Sheng, Nan Chiang, Mu Chu Genre: Action, Drama, Historical Fiction Runtime: 1 hour 33 minutes
IMDb Summary: Hung escapes Shaolin after the temple is attacked by the Ching, only to be jailed with the help of Fang (also of Shaolin) who mistakes him for a bandit. Fang must now help Hung escape so they can challenge the Ching together.
First off, I was much older than I want to admit before I realized that Heroes Two was not a sequel to a movie called Heroes. Being unable to speak any Chinese dialects, I wasn't aware that the title of the movie, in the original language, was simply the names of the two protagonists. Though, considering how often their names are repeated throughout the movie, I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised.
Fang Shi Yu yu Hong Xiguan is a tremendously popular movie in the genre which, as I mentioned in my now-undredacted write up for my previous pick, is a fictional account of two students who trained at the "36th Chamber" created by legendary monk San Te. This movie is not a true sequel of my previous pick (that movie actually had a wildly popular sequel of its own), but the events in this do chronologically follow that one, despite the fact that this movie was actually released four years earlier, making it a perfect complementary selection, in my opinion. It's worth noting that Kuang Li, who co-wrote Fang Shi Yu yu Hong Xiguan, was also the principle screenwriter for Shao Lin san shi liu fang, so I'm not inclined to think that the similarities were a coincidence. Hung Hsi-kuan was apparently a real historical figure, who is believed to have studied under San Te; Fang Shih-yu is a little harder to pin down, he's widely believed to have been a folk hero, more legend than real person.
The movie begins in the wake of a siege on the Shaolin Temple. Hong Hsi-kuan (Chen) is injured, but escapes from the rampaging Manchus, led by the inscrutable General Che Kang (Chu). Though hurt, Hsi-kuan manages to incapacitate or kill several of the general's forces, as he attempts to evade Manchu reinforcements. Fang Shi-yu (Sheng), another Shaolin fighter who was not at the temple at the time of the attack, encounters some of the badly beaten Manchus, and Che Kang takes advantage of Shi-yu's naïveté, tricking him into thinking that they were revolutionaries, who were attacked by an unidentified Qing fighter.
Shi-yu and Hsi-kuan know each other by reputation only and, without identifying themselves, begin to fight, with Shi-yu inadvertently helping the Manchus capture the wounded Hsi-kuan. Only after meeting up with the other rebels is Shi-yu made aware of his mistake, and much of the rest of the movie is devoted to Shi-yu working to free Hsi-kuan, before they team up to defeat the general, and his forces. As a comic book enthusiast, you can probably see why I appreciate this movie so much: the fight-over-a-misunderstanding/make-up/team-up is one of the most time-honored tropes in comic book mythology. And the respective legends of Hong Hsi-kuan and Fang Shi-yu basically makes this the kung fu theater equivalent of [REDACTED].
(How about that? I managed to sneak in another "comic book movie," even though it's not really a comic book movie!)
With my twenty-sixth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter Q to select:
The Quiet Earth (1985):
Director: Geoff Murphy Dir. of Photography: James Bartle Writer(s): Bill Baer, Bruno Lawrence, Sam Pillsbury, Craig Harrison (based on the novel by) Score: John Charles Cast: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith Genre: Science fiction, drama, mystery Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Summary: A man wakes up to find himself literally alone in the world, and goes about trying to find other survivors, as well as to find out what happened. He suspects that a government research project he was involved in had something to do with the disappearance of everyone. Eventually he finds several other people, and once they begin to trust each other they try to figure out why they were left on earth.
Since q is a bit of a challenge, I'm selecting a cult film that I once rented when I used to work for Hollywood Video as a high schooler (what a different time that was). I don't necessarily love The Quiet Earth in total, but it has an absolutely dynamite final scene that really helped cement my love for the power of images in film, and the way they can inspire the imagination to take off to entirely new worlds.
Tom Keogh said:
Not every apocalypse involves zombies or vampires. “The Quiet Earth,” a newly restored 1985 New Zealand science-fiction classic, makes a good case that the real threat to survivors after global catastrophe would be our own worst impulses.
Loosely based on Craig Harrison’s 1981 novel, “The Quiet Earth” is most visually startling in its first half, when the screenwriters and director Geoffrey Murphy go to impressive — even bold — lengths to illustrate what the world would look like if most people suddenly disappeared.
Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence), a scientist who believes he’s the last person alive, finds streets deserted and half-eaten meals on tables.
An audience expects all that, but not the breathtaking aftermath of an empty passenger jet’s collision with a city street.
After days of isolation, the psychological toll on Hobson eliminates all his restraint and brings out latent megalomania, acquisitiveness, a hint of gender-identity confusion and wanton destructiveness. A stunning moment involving an assault weapon and a huge crucifix would never fly in an American movie.
But it’s the second half of “The Quiet Earth” that suggests how insidious human beings in small numbers could be. Hobson meets Joanne (Alison Routledge) and Api (Peter Smith). In no time sexual hubris, suspicion, jealousy, race-based assumptions about intelligence (Api is Maori and the others are white) and passive-aggressive violence ensue.
Fans of the 1959 doomsday movie [REDACTED] starring Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens and Mel Ferrer, will find echoes of that film’s complicated love triangle — with its own racial component — in “The Quiet Earth,” albeit with a very different outcome.
That last point leads to Murphy’s dreamy, ambiguous ending, a striking image hinting at karma-generated worlds ahead. It’s a haunting note on which to end this strange, vivid movie.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extending this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
It would also come with the proviso that Slim gets Black Panther.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extending this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
It would also come with the proviso that Slim gets Black Panther.
I hesitate to propose this because it’s been a long haul for everybody, and school is starting up, but ...
How would everyone feel about extending this 3 more rounds to give us an even 30? The second bonus round would have no letter restrictions. We’d be able to scoop up those dangling favorites that were blocked by slightly more favorite films with the same letter.
It would also come with the proviso that Slim gets Black Panther.
Afailed reporter is bonded to an alien entity, one of many symbiotes who have invaded Earth. But the being takes a liking to Earth and decides to protect it.
