2 out of 5 ain’t bad.
The Godfather and Coming to America are the best movies on that list.
3 out of 5, I think. The Usual Suspects, The Godfather, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And Coming to America isn’t that bad, either.
Heh, I count four out of five. The Usual Suspects is a lot less interesting when you’re like me and was watching the movie for other reasons than figuring out who Keiser Soze is (I, uh, thought that it would end up not really mattering and that the famous “twist” would indicate something more, say, thematically important? It was my mistake honestly, I just never expected to know who he was and that that ambiguity would inform some other drama in the movie, so that when the reveal occurs I thought to myself, “OOOOOhhhh…. so what?”). This is certainly a movie where I will gladly admit that I really missed the point, but on that matter beyond the twist, what does this movie actually offer you?
—PolarisDiB
Why does he have some Comet scrubbing stuff sitting on his desk?
The Godfather is obviously great, but my biggest issue with that list is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. First off, it’s the kind of philisophical movie I’m always on about. Secondly, the philosophy isn’t even really very profound, and the technical qualities of the film aren’t particularly noteworthy. But then again, I’m probabally being a bit too harsh. It’s just one of those movies (along with A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, anything by Wes Anderson &c.) that for one reason or another appeal to college students.
Why is it surprising?
I find the relationship in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to be very realistic and recognizable, and I believe many people relate to it with similar experiences or feelings from their own relationships. I have never been in a relationship like that one, but in Jim Carrey’s character I found a lot of the struggles with communication and desire I have felt, and in Kate Winslet’s character many of the qualities that have simultaneously attracted and repelled me in some females I have met. I both understand why and how Carrey’s character could feel for her, and also why she really is a flawed person whom he cannot depend on. I love the way they both recognize that the other is not perfect, but it is not in the hokey “not perfect in such a perfect way” but a much more down-to-earth not perfect in a “You know, you make it really fucking difficult to love you, goddamnit” way that more closely resembles what I perceive in my own and other’s real life relationships.
Meanwhile, the technical qualities of the film I believe are very noteworthy, including stuff like the fading books and the single take (that had to be cut together from separate shots) of him following her down a street, a car falls, he turns around and she’s on the other side of the street, etc. Less of the movie is even really about effects and more about careful editing that brings you through the sequences of his working through the relationship than it is about real surrealistic effect. I think the erasing of some memories helps him leave them behind and forces him forward (well, backward chronologically, forward narratively) towards the reasons why he loves and cares for her in the first place, and that if he hadn’t been driven by trying to evade the memories after watching them being played out and erased as an unmotivated spectator, he probably would have continued to dwell on the negative without remembering the importance of the positive, something many other people tend to forget about their relationships.
Which is why the philosophy of the film stands up, for me, because even if a relationship does not work out, that does not mean that you should forget the good moments on it. On the other hand, if you delete the negative moments, like history you may be doomed to repeat the same mistakes, the same choices, and the same arguments. So you should not forget the good, but you cannot choose to forget the bad. This philosophy is backed up not only by the script but the structure of the piece itself and how Gondry bends the world around Carrey’s characters’ emotions and realizations.
—PolarisDiB
haha “I try to make songs like The Usual Suspects” reminds me of his I Used to Love H.E.R. (sometimes called the greatest hip hop song of all time).
Polaris, I also spent the entire movie not thinking about whether Keyser Soze was one of the main characters. I didn’t think the movie would end that way. But I loved the movie any way. When I first saw it when I was 16, it instantly became my favorite movie (not the case anymore) and held up on second and third viewings because I could catch the little details with the twist in mind. What does the film offer you? The same thing all of these other nineties movies offer you: The Silence of the Lambs, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, Heat, Casino, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Boogie Nights, Seven, True Romance, Terminator 2…. fun! I group all of these (and many others) into a category of films that defines mainstream American ’90s cinema.
meh list. 3 of those look like everyone’s choices.
I agree, meh. I wouldn’t say he has ‘good taste’ merely ‘safe taste.’
Personally I don’t any of those five films ‘great,’ merely acceptable. Forrest Gump as a favourite film? Really? Must be an incredibly boring and superficial guy, heh.
His list is about as good as his wack ass music
common? so?
I agree. Very safe and obvious choices.
How many people’s favourite film is really THE GODFATHER? I’m generally skeptical of most people who tell me it’s their favourite film.
At least he didn’t list Scarface
Terrible list. The Usual Suspect sis one of the worst films ever made, in my opinion. Could his list be any more mainstream?
The Usual Suspects is really cheesy, and poorly cast.
Fred Durst listed Taxi Driver and The 400 Blows on his list of his 5 on the website. ’Nuff said.
Safe bets.
However it’s really annoying because you know The Godfather is such a great film that you shouldn’t feel skeptical about people loving it, but you do.
I’d rather see “Scarface” on his list than “The Godfather.” It’s a hip-hop classic, and in my opinion a more entertaining film to watch.
It has nothing to do with hip-hop.
Its a half-ass remake, and people like it because it represents and glorifies a lifestyle that they aspire to.
Yeah The Godfather is a far better film.
If you think “Scarface” has nothing to do with hip-hop, then you know absolutely nothing about hip-hop.
It’s far from a half-ass remake. Somehow the film is dated, yet timeless as well. It’s a film for the ages. I prefer it to Hawks’ film, which is bound to the era in which it was made, and in retrospect is no better than the other classical gangster films of the time.
hip hop is that new york shit anyway, and I don’t listen to a lot of it.
I prefer southern rap and bay area rap from the 90s for the most part.
Some real old hip hop is cool.
But Scarface has nothing to do with it. Some rappers like the movie, because they think its cool, and it matches what they rap about, but the movie is about a Cuban immigrant who becomes a drug lord and then gets killed.
It is a half ass remake, because it changes so very little from the original other than the place of origin for the lowlife anti-hero.
He named top5 with 5 American mainstream movies out of which 4 movies are what all imdb fanboys could list and 1 Eddie Murphy movie that no one cares about, why is this suprising or interesting?
OK, ESoSM could be Shawshank Redemption instead to make it even more generic but other than that?
“Hip-hop” is not New York shit, unless you want to define the term with a reductive thinking. Hip-hop is a culture and a way of life. Music, of all types from all regions, is only one facet of it.
I grew up on/in 90s Yay Area and Southern hip-hop, so we can talk about that all day if you really want to!
“Scarface” has everything to do with hip-hop (you’re obviously not thinking deeply about 90s Southern hip-hop, which you mentioned). You’re looking at it superficially. As a remake, and nothing more. Look closer. “Scarface” doesn’t match what hip-hoppers rap about, it prefigured it. It helped code it and influence it. “Scarface” is a sacred text in the hip-hop canon, for a ton of reasons. But like I said, if you can’t understand that, you can’t really understand hip-hop or the hip-hop mindset. It might be foreign territory for you. But the truth is, the connection is as automatic as clockwork for those on the inside looking out.
Forrest Gump?
^ ^ I’m trying to forget the ‘90s, Bobby, but I will contribute my validation (for whatever it’s worth anyway) to your ‘Scarface/hip hop’ claim and its prefiguring of the evolution of the genre from that “decade which I will not mention.”
-Look closer. “Scarface” doesn’t match what hip-hoppers rap about, it prefigured it. It helped code it and influence it.-
Most obviously, perhaps, with the Geto Boys: Brad Jordan called himself “Scarface” and “Balls & My Word” from their first album is based on actual dialogue from the film.
brady qw
5. The Usual Suspects
4. Forrest Gump
3. Coming to America
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
1. The Godfather
Kind of surprising, actually. He has pretty good taste.