Movies that hold up vs. those that don't

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Ope3 said:
A bit of a twist on my annual viewing this year. After my golf was cancelled due to cold weather I was looking at the movie listings for an early matinee with a particular new movie in mind. Turns out as part of its 30th Anniversary, Dazed and Confused was showing at 4:20 pm.

It forced me to head to the theater at halftime of the Wolves game, set my DVR and shut my phone off.

It was great to see it again on a big screen. It holds up. Yet again.

"13 starters coming back, 22 lettermen. Looking tough!"

I do wonder how Lee High School football squad fared in the Fall of 1976.

It was a pleasant surprise to watch the Suns get run out of Target Center upon my return home.
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Even though I saw it in the theater a couple of months ago, I rewatched it at home yesterday. It started as sort of an experiment to see how watching a movie with by BOSE/Earbuds for sound. By the time Aerosmith an the Credits were done, I was hooked in for the long haul.

It sort of gave it a Drive In Movie feel to it. The music soundtrack sounded awesome. Not sure I had picked up on it before, but with hearing it that way, I could pick up that when Pink was giving Mitch a ride home from the baseball game, he had Frampton Comes Alive playing in the car.

Also I noticed the old timer at the game who talks to Pink with the "13 starters coming back, 22 lettermen. Looking tough!" line, also says, "I hope this arm has 2000 yards in it". He's touching Pink's left arm. He's for sure a rightly though. When he crumples up Coach's pledge he chucks it with his right arm. Multiple times.
 

Ope3 said:
Even though I saw it in the theater a couple of months ago, I rewatched it at home yesterday. It started as sort of an experiment to see how watching a movie with by BOSE/Earbuds for sound. By the time Aerosmith an the Credits were done, I was hooked in for the long haul.

It sort of gave it a Drive In Movie feel to it. The music soundtrack sounded awesome. Not sure I had picked up on it before, but with hearing it that way, I could pick up that when Pink was giving Mitch a ride home from the baseball game, he had Frampton Comes Alive playing in the car.

Also I noticed the old timer at the game who talks to Pink with the "13 starters coming back, 22 lettermen. Looking tough!" line, also says, "I hope this arm has 2000 yards in it". He's touching Pink's left arm. He's for sure a rightly though. When he crumples up Coach's pledge he chucks it with his right arm. Multiple times.
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I watched it Thursday night per custom. Really focused on background characters this time. Went to the Parkway the night before to see Spinal Tap. That's a lot of classic one liners in two nights.
 

tikited said:
I watched it Thursday night per custom. Really focused on background characters this time. Went to the Parkway the night before to see Spinal Tap. That's a lot of classic one liners in two nights.
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I think I finally identified Renee Zellweger as an extra. She's really hard to spot with the resemblance to Joey Lauren Adams.

She's also a Senior and both are in the parking lot when Parker Posey wraps up the hazing. It's a wide shot and hard to tell which is which, plus they are both wearing Class of '77 shirts.

I'm sure though she's at the Moon Tower doing the beer bong early in the party.
 
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She's in the back of the truck with the beer bong right?
 





Now watching the Firm from 1991 on the JVC BU 3000 that came with the movies. Seems ok.
 




Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Fifteen pages of "Does this movie hold up" without a mention of Mel Brooks?
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Mel is - IMHO - a little tricky. his brand of humor is so much of its time. Don't get me wrong - Blazing Saddles was/is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, but there is no way that movie could be made today - too many people would be offended. Same with The Producers. Young Frankenstein is the one Brooks movie that still works the best, but you have to understand the Universal horror movies to understand what is being spoofed. I know some people really love Spaceballs, but I'm iffy on that one.

his later movies all have their moments, but are very hit-and-miss, including High Anxiety and History of the World. those movies suffer because Mel wanted to be the leading man, and he really wasn't cut out for that. His best movies feature Gene Wilder as his surrogate.
 

I re-watched Stand by Me for the first time in several decades. While I have always revered it, perhaps I have even underated it. It's a classic.

All 4 main kids are great in it as well as Kiefer Sutherland as the bully/villain, it has a fantastic soundtrack with a great mix of humor. I found it even more heartbreaking comparing the fate of River Phoenix with his character, Chris.

Some thoughts:

- I'm not sure I recognized when watching it previously, how they used the song Stand by Me as a subtle score in the early scenes with "the writer"/Dreyfuss.

- Vern gets the best comedic lines, especially in the Superman vs Mighty Mouse debate.

- I had totally forgotten that John Cusack was in it playing Gordie's older brother Denny in flashback scenes.

- For a decade or so, what a roll Rob Reiner was on. Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, American President & A Few Good Men. Wow.
 
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Ope3 said:
I re-watched Stand by Me for the first time in several decades. While I have always revered it, perhaps I have even underated it. It's a classic.

All 4 main kids are great in it as well as Kiefer Sutherland as the bully/villain, it has a fantastic soundtrack with a great mix of humor. I found it even more heartbreaking comparing the fate of River Phoenix with his character, Chris.

Some thoughts:

- I'm not sure when I have seen it previously, I recognized how they used the song Stand by Me as a subtle score in the early scenes with "the writer"/Dreyfuss.

- Vern gets the best comedic lines, especially in the Superman vs Mighty Mouse debate.

- I had totally forgotten that John Cusack was in it playing Gordie's older brother Denny in flashback scenes.

- For a decade or so, what a roll Rob Reiner was on. Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, American President & A Few Good Men. Wow.
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Princess Bride has to be one of the most underappreciated films of all time.

And Vern married Rebecca Romijn. 😮
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Slim Tubby said:
Princess Bride has to be one of the most underappreciated films of all time.

And Vern married Rebecca Romijn. 😮
View attachment 31956
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Yes, that's called winning.

What prompted me to revisit Stand by Me was I recently listened to the Rob Lowe/"Literally" podcast with Jerry O'Connell as a guest.

It was his first acting job, nobody was sure about the potential marketability of the film, possibly that it might be a straight to video. In the can for a year it was finally released with very little fanfare, no "premier" ceremony or anything. He wound up seeing it at a matinee showing with his grandparents where they were the only ones that bought tickets.

Afterwards, the theater employee recognized him as being in the movie, so refunded the ticket money. The worker also said they saw a lot of crappy movies, but this was pretty good, so he had hope.

He also said after that he didn't get any roles until he played Kush in Jerry Maguire almost a decade later. Pretty good start in the biz, even with the delay.

IMDB does list him with a couple of minor parts though. Regardless, 2 Classics in my book.
 
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Ope3 said:
Yes, that's called winning.

What prompted me to revisit Stand by Me was I recently listened to the Rob Lowe/"Literally" podcast.

It was his first acting job, nobody was sure about the potential marketability of the film, possibly that it might be a straight to video. In the can for a year it was finally released with very little fanfare, no "premier" ceremony or anything. He wound up seeing it at a matinee showing with his grandparents where they were the only ones that bought tickets.

Afterwards, the theater employee recognized him as being in the movie, so refunded the ticket money. The worker also said they saw a lot of crappy movies, but this was pretty good, so he had hope.

He also said after that he didn't get any roles until he played Kush in Jerry Maguire almost a decade later. Pretty good start in the biz, even with the delay.

IMDB does list him with a couple of minor parts though. Regardless 2 Classics in my book.
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"Stand By Me" required an emotional investment similar to what I felt about "Lord of the Flies" and the "Piggy" character.
 

After watching Dazed & Confused a few weeks ago, for a 2nd movie to enjoy via the Bose/ear buds experience, the choice was obvious, Almost Famous.

It's solidly in my Top 10 favorites all time. For this century it ranks up there with Into the Wild & The Royal Tenenbaums.

It is as perfect as can be in all facets.

After seeing the Big Star documentary a few weeks ago, even though the real Lester Bangs was only in it briefly, I had a greater appreciation for Phillip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal. Crowe had the good sense to let him bring his own sensibility into the performance, and it works marvelously. My 2 favorite Bangs phrases are "Swill Merchants" & "Industry of Cool".

Some great don't blink or you'll miss 'em cameos or before they were famous:

- Eric Stonestreet plays a hotel clerk relaying a message to William from his mother.

- Mark Maron is the PHX promoter upset with Stillwater when they cut their set short after Russell gets electrocuted on stage.

- Minnesota comedian Nick Swardson plays an over the top Bowie fanatic.

- My favorite though was thinking that Eric Stoltz was the World Famous Tour Mgr "Red Dog". Not so. It's actually Zack Ward. Who's that? Well he's a former child actor who played the bully Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story that Ralphie ultimately beats the tar out of him.

- Peter Frampton is another manager in the poker game. Also was the music consultant for Crowe.

Another tidbit I had never noticed, they are drinking Schmidt beer on the private plane.
 

Ope3 said:
After watching Dazed & Confused a few weeks ago, for a 2nd movie to enjoy via the Bose/ear buds experience, the choice was obvious, Almost Famous.

- Peter Frampton is another manager in the poker game. Also was the music consultant for Crowe.
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Frampton is the Humble Pie manager. The transaction eventually leads to this brilliant exchange between William and Penny Lane:

WILLIAM: "He sold you to Humble Pie for 50 bucks and a case of beer."
PENNY LANE: "What kind of beer?"


At least it was Heineken. Much more regal back in 1973.
 

Frampton managing Humble Pie is a fine meta joke.
 

not sure if this should be in the Movies or TV thread. But --

went down a rabbit hole recently. found a YouTube channel devoted to the Siskel and Ebert movie review show. for younger readers, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were film critics for competing newspapers in Chicago. in 1975, they started doing a local movie-review show on a Chicago PBS station. the show later went national on PBS. then they moved from PBS to a syndicated program that ran until Siskel's death in 1999. Ebert continued the program with other hosts until 2006. they made the "Two Thumbs Up" symbol for a positive review a national catch-phrase.

I re-watched most of their "Best Of" and Worst Of" programs for each year. It was interesting to go back and see what movies they liked and hated, and why. they also did yearly programs where they reviewed the Oscar nominations and discussed who they thought deserved to win.

of the two, Siskel was a little more intellectual in his approach to criticism. his 'best of" lists tended to include more foreign films and documentaries. Ebert was a little more mainstream but he could also be a contrarian. some of the best episodes of the show were when the two disagreed over a movie, including a classic argument over "Benji, the Hunted."

anyway, if you're a movie fan, I recommend checking this out. the YouTube channel is titled Siskel & Ebert.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
not sure if this should be in the Movies or TV thread. But --

went down a rabbit hole recently. found a YouTube channel devoted to the Siskel and Ebert movie review show. for younger readers, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were film critics for competing newspapers in Chicago. in 1975, they started doing a local movie-review show on a Chicago PBS station. the show later went national on PBS. then they moved from PBS to a syndicated program that ran until Siskel's death in 1999. Ebert continued the program with other hosts until 2006. they made the "Two Thumbs Up" symbol for a positive review a national catch-phrase.

I re-watched most of their "Best Of" and Worst Of" programs for each year. It was interesting to go back and see what movies they liked and hated, and why. they also did yearly programs where they reviewed the Oscar nominations and discussed who they thought deserved to win.

of the two, Siskel was a little more intellectual in his approach to criticism. his 'best of" lists tended to include more foreign films and documentaries. Ebert was a little more mainstream but he could also be a contrarian. some of the best episodes of the show were when the two disagreed over a movie, including a classic argument over "Benji, the Hunted."

anyway, if you're a movie fan, I recommend checking this out. the YouTube channel is titled Siskel & Ebert.
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If their Best/Worst of the 1980s episodes are available on the channel, I highly recommend those.

I really enjoyed when they went on Carson or Letterman together. They even squabbled over who got to sit next to the hosts, so they had to keep track of the rotation.
 

Ope3 said:
After watching Dazed & Confused a few weeks ago, for a 2nd movie to enjoy via the Bose/ear buds experience, the choice was obvious, Almost Famous.

It's solidly in my Top 10 favorites all time. For this century it ranks up there with Into the Wild & The Royal Tenenbaums.

It is as perfect as can be in all facets.

After seeing the Big Star documentary a few weeks ago, even though the real Lester Bangs was only in it briefly, I had a greater appreciation for Phillip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal. Crowe had the good sense to let him bring his own sensibility into the performance, and it works marvelously. My 2 favorite Bangs phrases are "Swill Merchants" & "Industry of Cool".

Some great don't blink or you'll miss 'em cameos or before they were famous:

- Eric Stonestreet plays a hotel clerk relaying a message to William from his mother.

- Mark Maron is the PHX promoter upset with Stillwater when they cut their set short after Russell gets electrocuted on stage.

- Minnesota comedian Nick Swardson plays an over the top Bowie fanatic.

- My favorite though was thinking that Eric Stoltz was the World Famous Tour Mgr "Red Dog". Not so. It's actually Zack Ward. Who's that? Well he's a former child actor who played the bully Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story that Ralphie ultimately beats the tar out of him.

- Peter Frampton is another manager in the poker game. Also was the music consultant for Crowe.

Another tidbit I had never noticed, they are drinking Schmidt beer on the private plane.
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Probably my favorite movie of all time. PSH as Lester Bangs is awesome.

While they are not cameos.....it was an early film role for both Jimmy Fallon and Zooey Deschanel.....who "co-starred" less than a year later in Fallon's music video for the song 'Idiot Boyfriend'. Deschanel being a musician herself was featured in numerous music videos....the other that I remembered best was 'She's Got Issues' by The Offspring.

One other actual cameo in the film is Jay Baruchel as the Zeppelin superfan.
 

Admitted oddball here but am I the only one here who doesn’t care for Princess Bride?
 


I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the first time last night (over the past couple nights--I've been fighting jet lag) and it was pretty kick ass--the freakiest moment may have been seeing uncredited Robert Duvall as a priest on the kiddie swing at the beginning of the movie. I was also compelled to watch it because of Donald Sutherland's recent passing and was reminded throughout the movie how much I enjoyed his work--one of those actors who seemed to elevate everything he was in, whether as the star or in a brief role.

I also watched Dressed to Kill recently--I had not been aware of this 1980 movie until listening to a Rewatchables podcast recently (for Blow Out) and I can understand why it slipped under my radar when I was 8 years old--holy sh_t, the first five minutes made me feel that I was ducking into a sleazy mid-Manhattan movie house dressed in a trench coat and sunglasses. It was entertaining throughout, but as I find with many Brian DePalma movies, quite heavy handed at times and I'd say that the storyline hasn't aged too well. Not a movie that's making it into theatres these days, for a bunch of different reasons. Angie Dickinson though--whew, she was a definitive MILF in this movie.
 
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coolhandgopher said:
I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the first time last night (over the past couple nights--I've been fighting jet lag) and it was pretty kick ass--the freakiest moment may have been seeing uncredited Robert Duvall as a priest on the kiddie swing at the beginning of the movie. I was also compelled to watch it because of Donald Sutherland's recent passing and was reminded throughout the movie how much I enjoyed his work--one of those actors who seemed to elevate everything he was in, whether as the star or in a brief role.

I also watched Dressed to Kill recently--I had not been aware of this 1980 movie until listening to a Rewatchables podcast recently (for Blow Out) and I can understand why it slipped under my radar when I was 8 years old--holy sh_t, the first five minutes made me feel that I was ducking into a sleazy mid-Manhattan movie house dressed in a trench coat and sunglasses. It was entertaining throughout, but as I find with many Brian DePalma movies, quite heavy handed at times and I'd say that the storyline hasn't aged too well. Not a movie that's making it into theatres these days, for a bunch of different reasons. Angie Dickinson though--whew, she was a definitive MILF in this movie.
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just curious - have you seen the original version of Body Snatchers from 1956? B & W directed by Don Siegel (and with an uncredited bit part by Sam Peckinpah). the basic story structure is very similar but some of the character details are different. I like both versions, but I'm a little more partial to the original, being an old-movie buff.

on Dressed to Kill, this was when DePalma was into his full-blown Hitchcock homage period. the Psychiatric explanation at the end is a clear reference to Psycho. but a great cast including Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz and Keith Gordon.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
of the two, Siskel was a little more intellectual in his approach to criticism. his 'best of" lists tended to include more foreign films and documentaries. Ebert was a little more mainstream but he could also be a contrarian.
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I think Ebert just embraced the words of Pauline Kael more than Siskel:

"Movies are so rarely great art so that if we can't appreciate great trash there is little reason to be interested in them."

Of course, Ebert also said many times: "It's not what a movie is about, it's how the movie goes about it."

So, Ebert could enjoy dumb movies like Road House and Lone Wolf McQuade in a way that Siskel probably couldn't.

Perhaps Siskel took a more intellectual approach but he couldn't match Ebert as a writer. Even Siskel admitted that. Siskel said that his writing was more in the line of a reporter while Ebert was a true essayist. I had a couple of Ebert's movie guide books and they were good reading even if you hadn't seen the movies.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
just curious - have you seen the original version of Body Snatchers from 1956? B & W directed by Don Siegel (and with an uncredited bit part by Sam Peckinpah). the basic story structure is very similar but some of the character details are different. I like both versions, but I'm a little more partial to the original, being an old-movie buff.

on Dressed to Kill, this was when DePalma was into his full-blown Hitchcock homage period. the Psychiatric explanation at the end is a clear reference to Psycho. but a great cast including Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz and Keith Gordon.
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I never have seen the original, but I'll track it down now, as I'm similar to you with my admiration for the old school movies.

Good call on De Palma/Hitchcock, after reading your comment, I did one of the old V-8 slaps to my head--of course this movie was an homage to Psycho.
 

The other night I watched Thief with James Caan which was Michael Mann's directorial debut on the big screen ('81). Really enjoyable, even if it lagged at times, Caan was such an electric actor and the dialogue of the script was so much fun. Chase this with The Rewatchables podcast (back in April '21) with Simmons, Ryan, and Fennesy and it brings out the enjoyment even more--it's worth it just to hear Caan's top 4 quotes. Turned out to be the film debuts for James Belushi, Dennis Farina (who had been a Chicago cop prior to being cast here), and Robert Prosky, with an interesting turn from Willie Nelson as Caan's best friend.
 

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