Titanic. I hated Titanic, and although only a small group of people flip me shit for not liking it, the shit they flip is heavy.
The Deerhunter. I’m surprised I’ve seen so many Wes Anderson and David Lynch films and very few Deerhunters, that film is awful and WAY overrated.
Boondock Saints. I’m not surprised to see so many people including this crap, but I am surprised that anyone would flip me shit for not liking it.
Big Fish. I prayed for an earthquake or a power-outage while watching this, anything to give me an excuse to leave early.
Black and White. FAIL
Boiler Room. I still don’t understand why anyone likes this
Erin Brockovich. Nobody has ever criticized me for finding this film to be meaningless fluff, but I’m expecting to catch some shit at some point.
Ghost and Dirty Dancing. I know nobody here would flip me shit for this but I thought I’d include it because some people – don’t ask me why – actually think these are decent films.
Ghostdog: the way of the samurai. I like Jarmusch, but this movie just doesn’t work on any level.
MPD psycho and about half of Miike’s catalog (although I love the other half)
The Naked City. SNORE
The Sixth Sense. AND ESPECIALLY ANYTHING ELSE BY M. NIGHT SHAMALAHN, mostly because he’s a hack but also because all of his movies are ALL godawful pieces of self-indulgent shit
Saw. because it was torture (to watch)
Strange Days. This one is like Boondock saints IMO
The Ten Commandments. This one I like more than anything else that I included on this list, but I still think it’s overrated and I would prefer not to watch it ever again.
Traffic. This movie was popular because????
Vanilla Sky. not only because it’s a remake of a better film, but because it took a slightly-above-mediocre idea, pumped a ton of money into it, and the end result is a flaccid piece of pop trash.
What dreams may come. Only one person ever flipped me shit for not liking this, but I felt like including it because of how awful it actually is.
TRAINING DAY. I bolded that one because it should have never been released. In fact the screenplay should have been burned and the writer executed before that swill ever made it to celluloid; Training Day’s existence is proof alone that there is no God :-(
Last House on the Left. Firstly, Wes Craven is kind of a shit director to begin with. I don’t like how people describe this film as “first of it’s kind” when it’s a blatantly rip off Berman’s Virgin Spring.
The Last Metro. and I catch shit for not being a very big fan of Truffaut.
And God created Woman. Boring, plus Bridget Bardot is OVERRATED
Blood for Dracula or Flesh for Frankenstein. Paul Morrissey = meh
Jules and Jim. Meh
Kill!. not too great, give me Yojibo or Fistful of Dollars any-day (or that other one even)
Okay, so M. Night Shyamalan has the highest popularity to suck ratio. His films are always widely advertised and they are always godawful. Did anyone see Lady in the Water? What a piece of shit! Also, he has yet to make a half-way decent film so that’s why I offer his name as the most supremely overrated director of all time.
I would also like to mention some other names, Speilberg of course and without doubt. Also, George Lucas, James Cameron, Brian De Palma, Guy Ritchie, Ron Howard, and Michael Bay. I would also include Brett Ratner and Chris Columbus but nobody knows who they are. Also, I would like to point out that UWE BOLL is the worst director to have ever lived, but he’s not overrated because nobody likes him.
The most disturbing film I’ve ever seen is Salo, in fact I found it to be so disturbing that I would probably never watch it again – it’s my least favorite Passolini film. Salo, although disturbing and disgusting, isn’t scary at all. The scariest movie that I’ve ever seen is The Shining. The first time I saw that film I was about ten years old and it scared the hell out of me. Each time I watch it I feel that same kind of dread that I felt the first time I saw it. I’ve seen a lot of horror films since, and nothing has ever affected me as much as the shining did.
SIFF Cinema
we have the Landmark Egyptian Theatre
Guild 45th
Neptune Theatre
Harvard Exit
Northwest Film Forum
Fremont Original Outdoor Cinema
Frye Art Museum Auditorium
Media Arts Center
Grand Illusion Cinema
Broadway Performance Hall
Seattle Art Museum
On a somewhat related note we also have Scarecrow video – one of the largest – and possibly the greatest – independent video store in the world!!!! (I think) If you’re ever in Seattle you have to check it out, it’s one of the few places you can find Kubrick’s Fear and Desire and Terayama’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. I’m not sure why I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, maybe I was just in a bad mood; not it’s one of my favorite films of Gilliam’s catalog. I also hated Cronenberg’s Crash for some reason, now I love it.
Well I’d like to see some films on Criterion that already have pretty good releases, so I’ll try to limit this to films that NEED a criterion release.
Pasolini’s Porcile – this is my favorite Pasolini film and the current release is UNWATCHABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, now that I said that I remember that this one company, I forget the name, released several Psaolini films, including Hawks & Sparrows and The Gospel of Saint Matthew, and the transfers are all terrible.
#1. Lynch’s Lost Highway – Lost Highway is one of Lynch’s greatest film, often misunderstood and almost universally underrated. It also has one of the worst NTSC releases that I’ve ever seen.
Tarkovsky’s Stalker – This is my favorite Tarkovsky film and the NTSC release that I have splits the feature between two discs and the transfer could be better.
reprint Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers
Almodovar’s All About My Mother – No Almodovar on Criterion? Seriously?
Ray’s Apu Trilogy – ALL OF THEM (but released separately)
Kieslowski’s Colors Trilogy AND Decolouge – they already have decent DVD releases, but I’d like to see Criterion release these onto BD.
Lynch’s Mulholland Drive – mostly because the current releases edit a certain part of the film in an ugly way
Tsukamoto’s – Vital, Tokyo Fist, and/or Tetsuo
Also Haneke’s Cache, Code Unknown, or Funny Games.
28 years. B.A. in Liberal Arts with a major concentration in Film/Media theory and comparative Literature. Looking at grad schools, preferably one that doesn’t cost money.
The 1980’s was a wonderful decade for cinema and I think that many brilliant films have been made in this 2000’s: Mulholland Drive, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Elephant, Talk to Her, In The Mood For Love, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Volver, Royal Tenenbaums, Last Life In The Universe, Dancer in the Dark, City Of God, Cache, Pan’s Labyrinth, Amores Perros, Requiem For A Dream, Amelie, Funny Games, Inland Empire, Mysterious Skin, Ichi The KIller, George Washington, Dolls, Bad Education, etc etc
The worst decade for film was, hands-down, the 1850’s
Well, to add to the list, I would include Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Begotten, Brand Upon the Brain, and Careful. I would also recommend anything by Maya Deren, especially Meshes in the Afternoon and Ritual in Transfigured Time. Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising is a definite classic; I also liked Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
I really Dislike M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker, but to be honest I would watch his entire catalog back-to-back before I ever watch another Uwe Boll film. Of Boll’s catalog of crap I’ve seen House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Blood Rayne, In The Name of the King, and Blackwoods and those films are actually 5 of the 10 worst films I’ve ever seen. I could only put one M. Night film into that worst 10 list (Lady in the Water).
So I will say that my answer is, hands-down, UWE BOLL
http://www.stopuweboll.org/
Sign the petition to stop Uwe Boll from making any more films. He agreed that he would quit making films if the petition got 1,000,000 votes, it’s at 320,000 right now so we have a ways to go; please help.
ps. I’m surprised to see so many quality directors have been named in this list. I understand if some director makes films that you simply don’t care for, but Godard, Woody Allen, Danny Boyle, Varda, Kassovitz, Eastwood???? seriously? I personally don’t care for Truffaut’s body of work – except for 400 blows – but I wouldn’t name him on this list. There is a difference between a bad director and a director that you don’t care for. It’s a subtle distinction but there definitely is a difference.
I think that Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases should all be added. I saw the 2nd and the 3rd of the series at the Seattle International Film Festival a few years ago – they didn’t screen the first one for some reason – I rented the 1st film of the series from scarecrow – they had the region 2 PAL dvd – but they don’t have any other of them on dvd, NTSC or PAL or anything (If Scarecrow doesn’t have it then it probably isn’t out on any format on any continent) For that reason, and for the fact that I think these are great films, I propose that Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases be released by Criterion.
I also prefer the remake of The Thing to the original. I also prefer Omega Man to The Last Man On Earth. I prefer the most recent screen adaptation of Crime and Punishment to the two older versions that I’ve seen, although there are several – maybe more than a dozen – versions of Crime and Punishment. Generally I don’t feel too strongly about remaking films that started out as really famous novels or plays, especially since many classic novels have been made into films a lot of different times. Of these three films that I mentioned all of them were novels or written stories before they were made into films. Generally I think of remakes as fitting into a certain category and it’s pretty much only when a certain category of film is remade that I have a gut reaction (why, why, why?) I would say that hearing that The Lives of Others will be remade made my stomach turn a little bit. I had a little more ugly reaction hearing that my favorite Kurosawa film, Ikiru, is going to be remade by Jim Sheridan and possibly star Tom Hanks.
Here are some films that I think are in this category that I thought were good or better than the originals: ‘Fistful of Dollars’ ‘For a Few Dollars More’ ‘The Man Who Knew to Much’ ‘Funny Games’ ‘The Fly’ ‘His Girl Friday’ ‘12 Monkeys’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ ‘Evil Dead 2’ ‘The Maltese Falcon’. I would also include Oceans Eleven, even though I didn’t like Oceans Eleven very much, the original was just plain awful.
When a story was born as a film and is subsequently remade I almost always feel that the original is being violated in some way, for example ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. When a story was born into a different medium I’m not as picky since the first film adaptation isn’t exactly an original.
There’s no accounting for taste.
To be totally honest, and I hope that nobody takes offense here, but I think that the film/cinephile crowd doesn’t have much of a sense of humor; I’ve seen what passes as comedy on IFC and that’s not my only supporting evidence. There are very few auteurs that are actually funny. Take, for example, the comedies of Kieslowski, Godard, or Bunuel, or even the comedic aspects of Fellini’s, Lynch’s, or Hitchcock’s work. These are some of the best film-makers but their comedies are exactly what you might call funny. There are very few examples of a marriage between quality comedy and quality film. Most cinephiles are drawn to what is cutting-edge in film, and if you look through a cinephiles collection you’ll often film the cream of the crop in terms of film, but most cinephiles that I know don’t go anywhere what’s cutting-edge in comedy – I believe the opposite is also true. Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, and Woody Allen may be common-ground for both cinephiles and comedy-buffs, but outside of that ….
Next time you look through a friend’s video collection and you see Magnolia, Kieslowski’s Decalogue, and Bergman’s Persona, check to see if they don’t also have Wet Hot American Summer, Mr. Show, and Tom Goes To Mayor.
I’m not saying that cinephiles don’t have any sense of humor, I’m saying that from my experience there are connoisseurs of film and connoisseurs of comedy and I can’t think of many examples of film auteurs being connoisseurs of both. If I talk to someone about film and they say that their favorite movie is Titanic and that they saw The Seventh Seal once in college and they fell asleep I’m going to assume that they’re not a cinephile. The same kind of thing goes for comedy, if someone says that Dane Cook is their favorite comedian and they don’t like Louis CK and have never heard of Bill Hicks I’m going to assume that they’re not connoisseurs of comedy. I’m not surprised that I got a few @judge, you’re full of shit, because what I’m saying does sound pretty arrogant, but I’m not saying that I have great taste and I get to decide what’s funny, I’m saying that connoisseurs of comedy are very similar to connoisseurs of film. If you look through someone’s dvd collection and you see Evolution, Disaster Movie, and The Devil Wears Prada, and you don’t see any classics or anything that Criterion would ever consider releasing aren’t you gonna assume that this person isn’t a film connoisseur? I have plenty of friends that aren’t cinephiles but are connoisseurs of comedy and if you tell them that The Animal is your favorite comedy and you’ve never heard of Mission Hill they’re going to make the same judgement that a cinephile might make if they heard that Boat Trip is your favorite movie and you’ve never seen Apocalypse Now.
@CRAP MONSTER, liking shitty movies like National Treasure doesn’t really have anything to do with what I’m saying, I have some shitty movies in my collection also, The Rock, True Lies etc. (I also have Big Trouble in Little China, but that is not a shitty movie by any means)
@ANDY I guess the first part of this most was sort of @ you too, but I didn’t say that cinephiles don’t love comedies, I’m saying that most of the time connoisseurs of film are not connoisseurs of comedy and vice versa. Maybe to be a connoisseur of comedy you have to be able to tell the joke The Aristocrats and put your own stamp on it (and make people laugh?), I don’t know what the rules for these things are.
I’m sure that this post seems unbelievably arrogant, but I don’t really mean it that way. If you think about it connoisseurs of comedy and cinephiles can both seem a little arrogant, but when you have a passion for something and know a lot about it you’re bound to come across as a little arrogant sometimes. This is true for all types of connoisseurs, picture a wine club invites a new recruit and he brings a jug of Turning Leaf that he picked up a 7-11, you think that guy is gonna get invited back to the wine club???
p.s. Out Cold had it’s moment, but it’s not the comedic equivalent to the Decalogue. If you had said maybe Arrested Development was next to the Decalogue that would have been a better point to make.
Chrysippus, arguably one of the ten most interesting of the classical Greek philosophers, one of the Godfathers of Stoicism and creator of Stoicism’s formal logic system, died laughing while watching a drunk donkey try to eat figs.
I really love Maya Deren a lot. I’d pick her over Brakhage any day, Criterion should have released her work before Brakhage’s. Also, Shirley Clarke and Marie Menken are worth checking out. I also like Taymor and Sofia Coppolla a lot too. I’m eager to see what Taymor is going to do with Shakespeare’s Tempest; she did such a great job with Titius Andronicus.
I’ve been very happy with blu-ray. I believe that it will be around like VHS and DVD, I don’t think it’s gonna be a short-lived medium like Laser Disc there’s been too much invested into it by the multimedia companies, they wouldn’t abandon it after fighting a format war for the last 2 years. Also, what other formats could they jump to? Like Laser Disc basically got jumped over, in between VHS and DVD, but what is in development beyond blu-ray, the answer is holo-disc (hologram disc) which is very far away from becoming a feasible format – although it’s looking like it will be a great format (70 minutes of UNCOMPRESSED film).
I think blu-ray will basically be like the next DVD and will probably last for the same ammount of time. I think they’re a good investment and they do look better than dvd.
I hope I don’t shatter your group A group B theory, but my 2 all-time favorite Kurosawa films are Ikiru and Red Beard. I guess that I could say that I prefer Kurosawa’s earlier work, but it’s not that simple for me. I love Dursa Uzula and I love Drunken Angel while I dislike Sanshiro Sugata and I dislike Madayo. For me Kurosawa’s career didn’t really have a high point or low point, and I don’t see a difference between his early films and his later films in terms of quality, just style and subject. I know that on any given day if I had to choose a Kurosawa film to watch 7 times out of 10 it would be an older one (pre-1962) but only because I feel that his later work is more of an emotional investment and I’m not always in the mood to make such an investment – I could watch Stray Dog or Yojimbo anytime.
An old professor of mine once said that when it comes to Japanese Cinema you’ll either prefer Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, or Ozu. These three directors are easily three of Japan’s greatest auteurs and they each have completely different approaches to making film. She said that almost all American’s will prefer Kurosawa because of his western influence – either from western film or on western film. I also remember her saying that Ozu was the most “Japanese” of all of Japan’s directors. I do love Ozu’s work but I would have to say that I do prefer Kurosawa – although I could watch Record of a Tenement Gentlemen anytime. Also, if I could choose to hang out with any one of these three I’d pick Ozu
I left out any pre-twentieth century classical music (or even pre-1950) but I would include Bartok, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Chopin, Gershwin, Bach etc.
Yann Tiersen – Amélie
Don Cherry – Orient
Iggy Pop – The Idiot
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads
Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun
The Mars Volta – Amputechture
Beck – Odelay
John Coltrane – Stellar Regions
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing…..
Brian Eno – Another Green World
Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Sage Francis – Human the Death Dance
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – F♯A♯∞
Beck – Sea Change
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Björk – Homogenic
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O.
Gorillaz – Gorillaz
Billie Holiday – 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Billie Holiday
Kid Koala – Scratchappyland
Clint Mansell – Requiem for a Dream [Kronos Quartet]
Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium
Slint – Spiderland
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
GZA / Genius – Liquid Swords
Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Mogwai – Come on Die Young
The Beatles – Abbey Road
Mogwai – Happy Songs for Happy People
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
Mono – Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
Tool – Lateralus
Mono – You Are There
múm – Green Grass of Tunnel
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
Aesop Rock – Labor Days
Ween – Chocolate and Cheese
Aphex Twin – Richard D James Album
Explosions in the Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Kronos Quartet – Black Angels
Pixies – Doolittle
Agalloch – The Mantle
Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Billie Holiday – Body and Soul
King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
EPMD – Strictly Business
Radiohead – OK Computer
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
Sigur Rós – Ný batterí
Tenacious D – Tenacious D
Radiohead – Kid A
The B-52’s – The B-52’s
The Tiger Lillies – Bad Blood + Blasphemy
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Thelonious Monk – Criss-Cross
Pixies – Come On Pilgrim
The Tiger Lillies – The Sea
Air – Moon Safari
The Tiger Lillies – The Gorey End
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Nino Rota – 8½
Mono – One Step More and You Die
Tool – Parabola
Venetian Snares – Meathole
Tom Waits – Alice
múm – Finally We Are No One
Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
Primus – Frizzle Fry
Doors – Strange Days
The National – Boxer
Tom Waits – Blood Money
anyway, for me the last movie I saw was Lucky You (2007) and it was god awful. I was recommended the film because I play poker and it’s a poker movie. This is, without a doubt, one of the worst movies ever made. The screenplay is paper-thin, there’s no interesting conflict, the two leads have ZERO chemistry, and the main character has no personality. There are a number of awkward poker pro cameos, it even has Jennifer Harmon playing a character for some reason. Even Robert Duvall manages to suck in this thing.
What films do you always catch shit for for not liking? over 3 years ago
Titanic. I hated Titanic, and although only a small group of people flip me shit for not liking it, the shit they flip is heavy.
The Deerhunter. I’m surprised I’ve seen so many Wes Anderson and David Lynch films and very few Deerhunters, that film is awful and WAY overrated.
Boondock Saints. I’m not surprised to see so many people including this crap, but I am surprised that anyone would flip me shit for not liking it.
Big Fish. I prayed for an earthquake or a power-outage while watching this, anything to give me an excuse to leave early.
Black and White. FAIL
Boiler Room. I still don’t understand why anyone likes this
Erin Brockovich. Nobody has ever criticized me for finding this film to be meaningless fluff, but I’m expecting to catch some shit at some point.
Ghost and Dirty Dancing. I know nobody here would flip me shit for this but I thought I’d include it because some people – don’t ask me why – actually think these are decent films.
Ghostdog: the way of the samurai. I like Jarmusch, but this movie just doesn’t work on any level.
MPD psycho and about half of Miike’s catalog (although I love the other half)
The Naked City. SNORE
The Sixth Sense. AND ESPECIALLY ANYTHING ELSE BY M. NIGHT SHAMALAHN, mostly because he’s a hack but also because all of his movies are ALL godawful pieces of self-indulgent shit
Saw. because it was torture (to watch)
Strange Days. This one is like Boondock saints IMO
The Ten Commandments. This one I like more than anything else that I included on this list, but I still think it’s overrated and I would prefer not to watch it ever again.
Traffic. This movie was popular because????
Vanilla Sky. not only because it’s a remake of a better film, but because it took a slightly-above-mediocre idea, pumped a ton of money into it, and the end result is a flaccid piece of pop trash.
What dreams may come. Only one person ever flipped me shit for not liking this, but I felt like including it because of how awful it actually is.
TRAINING DAY. I bolded that one because it should have never been released. In fact the screenplay should have been burned and the writer executed before that swill ever made it to celluloid; Training Day’s existence is proof alone that there is no God :-(
Last House on the Left. Firstly, Wes Craven is kind of a shit director to begin with. I don’t like how people describe this film as “first of it’s kind” when it’s a blatantly rip off Berman’s Virgin Spring.
The Last Metro. and I catch shit for not being a very big fan of Truffaut.
And God created Woman. Boring, plus Bridget Bardot is OVERRATED
Blood for Dracula or Flesh for Frankenstein. Paul Morrissey = meh
Jules and Jim. Meh
Kill!. not too great, give me Yojibo or Fistful of Dollars any-day (or that other one even)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Overrated
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Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Okay, so M. Night Shyamalan has the highest popularity to suck ratio. His films are always widely advertised and they are always godawful. Did anyone see Lady in the Water? What a piece of shit! Also, he has yet to make a half-way decent film so that’s why I offer his name as the most supremely overrated director of all time.
I would also like to mention some other names, Speilberg of course and without doubt. Also, George Lucas, James Cameron, Brian De Palma, Guy Ritchie, Ron Howard, and Michael Bay. I would also include Brett Ratner and Chris Columbus but nobody knows who they are. Also, I would like to point out that UWE BOLL is the worst director to have ever lived, but he’s not overrated because nobody likes him.
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The scariest or most disturbing film you have EVER seen. over 3 years ago
The most disturbing film I’ve ever seen is Salo, in fact I found it to be so disturbing that I would probably never watch it again – it’s my least favorite Passolini film. Salo, although disturbing and disgusting, isn’t scary at all. The scariest movie that I’ve ever seen is The Shining. The first time I saw that film I was about ten years old and it scared the hell out of me. Each time I watch it I feel that same kind of dread that I felt the first time I saw it. I’ve seen a lot of horror films since, and nothing has ever affected me as much as the shining did.
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A List of Good Repertory/Specialty Theatres in Your Various Cities over 3 years ago
Seattle
SIFF Cinema
we have the Landmark Egyptian Theatre
Guild 45th
Neptune Theatre
Harvard Exit
Northwest Film Forum
Fremont Original Outdoor Cinema
Frye Art Museum Auditorium
Media Arts Center
Grand Illusion Cinema
Broadway Performance Hall
Seattle Art Museum
On a somewhat related note we also have Scarecrow video – one of the largest – and possibly the greatest – independent video store in the world!!!! (I think) If you’re ever in Seattle you have to check it out, it’s one of the few places you can find Kubrick’s Fear and Desire and Terayama’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow_Video
http://www.scarecrow.com/
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IF WE IGNORE 81/2 AND DOLCE VITA, WHAT'D BE THE BEST FELLINI MOVIE? over 3 years ago
I’d say Amarcord, but also maybe Juliet of the Spirits or Nights of Cabiria
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The Emperor's New Clothes over 3 years ago
Deerhunter
Crash (not the Cronenberg, the other one)
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Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
I’d say that Yojimbo, Harakiri and Sword of Doom are the three best samurai films that I’ve ever seen
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Films you hated at first but then... over 3 years ago
Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. I’m not sure why I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, maybe I was just in a bad mood; not it’s one of my favorite films of Gilliam’s catalog. I also hated Cronenberg’s Crash for some reason, now I love it.
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Well I’d like to see some films on Criterion that already have pretty good releases, so I’ll try to limit this to films that NEED a criterion release.
#1. Lynch’s Lost Highway – Lost Highway is one of Lynch’s greatest film, often misunderstood and almost universally underrated. It also has one of the worst NTSC releases that I’ve ever seen.
Also Haneke’s Cache, Code Unknown, or Funny Games.
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Age / Level of education? (An informal poll) over 3 years ago
28 years. B.A. in Liberal Arts with a major concentration in Film/Media theory and comparative Literature. Looking at grad schools, preferably one that doesn’t cost money.
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10 films you MUST have seen to even be in with a chance of being a true Cinephile over 3 years ago
metropolis, seven samurai, the seventh seal, breathless, 400 blows, la dolce vita, citizen kane, spartacus, the godfather, casablanca
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Last movie you saw and rate it over 3 years ago
The Steel Helmet 6.8/10, hey Mr. King, maybe we were at the same screening ;-)
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Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
I agree with Kevin :-(
But I really really don’t like M. Night’s work at all
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2000's worst decade in cinema? over 3 years ago
The 1980’s was a wonderful decade for cinema and I think that many brilliant films have been made in this 2000’s: Mulholland Drive, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Elephant, Talk to Her, In The Mood For Love, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Volver, Royal Tenenbaums, Last Life In The Universe, Dancer in the Dark, City Of God, Cache, Pan’s Labyrinth, Amores Perros, Requiem For A Dream, Amelie, Funny Games, Inland Empire, Mysterious Skin, Ichi The KIller, George Washington, Dolls, Bad Education, etc etc
The worst decade for film was, hands-down, the 1850’s
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Help make The Auteurs totally awesome over 3 years ago
adding Masahiro Shinoda to the list of auteurs would be an improvement.
Also, a larger Library would be nice
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Most Experimental Films? over 3 years ago
Well, to add to the list, I would include Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Begotten, Brand Upon the Brain, and Careful. I would also recommend anything by Maya Deren, especially Meshes in the Afternoon and Ritual in Transfigured Time. Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising is a definite classic; I also liked Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
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Directors that consistently make terrible films over 3 years ago
I really Dislike M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker, but to be honest I would watch his entire catalog back-to-back before I ever watch another Uwe Boll film. Of Boll’s catalog of crap I’ve seen House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Blood Rayne, In The Name of the King, and Blackwoods and those films are actually 5 of the 10 worst films I’ve ever seen. I could only put one M. Night film into that worst 10 list (Lady in the Water).
So I will say that my answer is, hands-down, UWE BOLL
http://www.stopuweboll.org/
Sign the petition to stop Uwe Boll from making any more films. He agreed that he would quit making films if the petition got 1,000,000 votes, it’s at 320,000 right now so we have a ways to go; please help.
ps. I’m surprised to see so many quality directors have been named in this list. I understand if some director makes films that you simply don’t care for, but Godard, Woody Allen, Danny Boyle, Varda, Kassovitz, Eastwood???? seriously? I personally don’t care for Truffaut’s body of work – except for 400 blows – but I wouldn’t name him on this list. There is a difference between a bad director and a director that you don’t care for. It’s a subtle distinction but there definitely is a difference.
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You choose the book to make into a film. Then choose the director. Go! over 3 years ago
Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore : Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Dostoyevsky’s House of the Dead : Directed by Peter Greenaway
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
I think that Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases should all be added. I saw the 2nd and the 3rd of the series at the Seattle International Film Festival a few years ago – they didn’t screen the first one for some reason – I rented the 1st film of the series from scarecrow – they had the region 2 PAL dvd – but they don’t have any other of them on dvd, NTSC or PAL or anything (If Scarecrow doesn’t have it then it probably isn’t out on any format on any continent) For that reason, and for the fact that I think these are great films, I propose that Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases be released by Criterion.
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TOP BERGMAN over 3 years ago
This is my 10 favorite Bergman films in order!!!!!
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WHAT IS YOUR PICK FOR THE WORSE MOVIE EVER MADE? over 3 years ago
scarecrow, scarecrow slayer, and scarecrow gone wild. Bloodrayne, Exterminator city, House of the Dead. Also 1408 was pretty terrible
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Remakes that improved on the original over 3 years ago
I also prefer the remake of The Thing to the original. I also prefer Omega Man to The Last Man On Earth. I prefer the most recent screen adaptation of Crime and Punishment to the two older versions that I’ve seen, although there are several – maybe more than a dozen – versions of Crime and Punishment. Generally I don’t feel too strongly about remaking films that started out as really famous novels or plays, especially since many classic novels have been made into films a lot of different times. Of these three films that I mentioned all of them were novels or written stories before they were made into films. Generally I think of remakes as fitting into a certain category and it’s pretty much only when a certain category of film is remade that I have a gut reaction (why, why, why?) I would say that hearing that The Lives of Others will be remade made my stomach turn a little bit. I had a little more ugly reaction hearing that my favorite Kurosawa film, Ikiru, is going to be remade by Jim Sheridan and possibly star Tom Hanks.
Here are some films that I think are in this category that I thought were good or better than the originals: ‘Fistful of Dollars’ ‘For a Few Dollars More’ ‘The Man Who Knew to Much’ ‘Funny Games’ ‘The Fly’ ‘His Girl Friday’ ‘12 Monkeys’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ ‘Evil Dead 2’ ‘The Maltese Falcon’. I would also include Oceans Eleven, even though I didn’t like Oceans Eleven very much, the original was just plain awful.
When a story was born as a film and is subsequently remade I almost always feel that the original is being violated in some way, for example ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. When a story was born into a different medium I’m not as picky since the first film adaptation isn’t exactly an original.
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Except for the acknowledged classics, I am finding that most people in these forums prefer dramas over comedies. Why is that so? over 3 years ago
There’s no accounting for taste.
To be totally honest, and I hope that nobody takes offense here, but I think that the film/cinephile crowd doesn’t have much of a sense of humor; I’ve seen what passes as comedy on IFC and that’s not my only supporting evidence. There are very few auteurs that are actually funny. Take, for example, the comedies of Kieslowski, Godard, or Bunuel, or even the comedic aspects of Fellini’s, Lynch’s, or Hitchcock’s work. These are some of the best film-makers but their comedies are exactly what you might call funny. There are very few examples of a marriage between quality comedy and quality film. Most cinephiles are drawn to what is cutting-edge in film, and if you look through a cinephiles collection you’ll often film the cream of the crop in terms of film, but most cinephiles that I know don’t go anywhere what’s cutting-edge in comedy – I believe the opposite is also true. Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, and Woody Allen may be common-ground for both cinephiles and comedy-buffs, but outside of that ….
Next time you look through a friend’s video collection and you see Magnolia, Kieslowski’s Decalogue, and Bergman’s Persona, check to see if they don’t also have Wet Hot American Summer, Mr. Show, and Tom Goes To Mayor.
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Except for the acknowledged classics, I am finding that most people in these forums prefer dramas over comedies. Why is that so? over 3 years ago
I’m not saying that cinephiles don’t have any sense of humor, I’m saying that from my experience there are connoisseurs of film and connoisseurs of comedy and I can’t think of many examples of film auteurs being connoisseurs of both. If I talk to someone about film and they say that their favorite movie is Titanic and that they saw The Seventh Seal once in college and they fell asleep I’m going to assume that they’re not a cinephile. The same kind of thing goes for comedy, if someone says that Dane Cook is their favorite comedian and they don’t like Louis CK and have never heard of Bill Hicks I’m going to assume that they’re not connoisseurs of comedy. I’m not surprised that I got a few @judge, you’re full of shit, because what I’m saying does sound pretty arrogant, but I’m not saying that I have great taste and I get to decide what’s funny, I’m saying that connoisseurs of comedy are very similar to connoisseurs of film. If you look through someone’s dvd collection and you see Evolution, Disaster Movie, and The Devil Wears Prada, and you don’t see any classics or anything that Criterion would ever consider releasing aren’t you gonna assume that this person isn’t a film connoisseur? I have plenty of friends that aren’t cinephiles but are connoisseurs of comedy and if you tell them that The Animal is your favorite comedy and you’ve never heard of Mission Hill they’re going to make the same judgement that a cinephile might make if they heard that Boat Trip is your favorite movie and you’ve never seen Apocalypse Now.
@CRAP MONSTER, liking shitty movies like National Treasure doesn’t really have anything to do with what I’m saying, I have some shitty movies in my collection also, The Rock, True Lies etc. (I also have Big Trouble in Little China, but that is not a shitty movie by any means)
@ANDY I guess the first part of this most was sort of @ you too, but I didn’t say that cinephiles don’t love comedies, I’m saying that most of the time connoisseurs of film are not connoisseurs of comedy and vice versa. Maybe to be a connoisseur of comedy you have to be able to tell the joke The Aristocrats and put your own stamp on it (and make people laugh?), I don’t know what the rules for these things are.
I’m sure that this post seems unbelievably arrogant, but I don’t really mean it that way. If you think about it connoisseurs of comedy and cinephiles can both seem a little arrogant, but when you have a passion for something and know a lot about it you’re bound to come across as a little arrogant sometimes. This is true for all types of connoisseurs, picture a wine club invites a new recruit and he brings a jug of Turning Leaf that he picked up a 7-11, you think that guy is gonna get invited back to the wine club???
p.s. Out Cold had it’s moment, but it’s not the comedic equivalent to the Decalogue. If you had said maybe Arrested Development was next to the Decalogue that would have been a better point to make.
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Except for the acknowledged classics, I am finding that most people in these forums prefer dramas over comedies. Why is that so? over 3 years ago
Chrysippus, arguably one of the ten most interesting of the classical Greek philosophers, one of the Godfathers of Stoicism and creator of Stoicism’s formal logic system, died laughing while watching a drunk donkey try to eat figs.
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Favorite Female Auteurs? over 3 years ago
I really love Maya Deren a lot. I’d pick her over Brakhage any day, Criterion should have released her work before Brakhage’s. Also, Shirley Clarke and Marie Menken are worth checking out. I also like Taymor and Sofia Coppolla a lot too. I’m eager to see what Taymor is going to do with Shakespeare’s Tempest; she did such a great job with Titius Andronicus.
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DVD vs. Blu Ray? over 3 years ago
I’ve been very happy with blu-ray. I believe that it will be around like VHS and DVD, I don’t think it’s gonna be a short-lived medium like Laser Disc there’s been too much invested into it by the multimedia companies, they wouldn’t abandon it after fighting a format war for the last 2 years. Also, what other formats could they jump to? Like Laser Disc basically got jumped over, in between VHS and DVD, but what is in development beyond blu-ray, the answer is holo-disc (hologram disc) which is very far away from becoming a feasible format – although it’s looking like it will be a great format (70 minutes of UNCOMPRESSED film).
I think blu-ray will basically be like the next DVD and will probably last for the same ammount of time. I think they’re a good investment and they do look better than dvd.
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Which Kurosawa are you? Which cinephile are you? over 3 years ago
I hope I don’t shatter your group A group B theory, but my 2 all-time favorite Kurosawa films are Ikiru and Red Beard. I guess that I could say that I prefer Kurosawa’s earlier work, but it’s not that simple for me. I love Dursa Uzula and I love Drunken Angel while I dislike Sanshiro Sugata and I dislike Madayo. For me Kurosawa’s career didn’t really have a high point or low point, and I don’t see a difference between his early films and his later films in terms of quality, just style and subject. I know that on any given day if I had to choose a Kurosawa film to watch 7 times out of 10 it would be an older one (pre-1962) but only because I feel that his later work is more of an emotional investment and I’m not always in the mood to make such an investment – I could watch Stray Dog or Yojimbo anytime.
An old professor of mine once said that when it comes to Japanese Cinema you’ll either prefer Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, or Ozu. These three directors are easily three of Japan’s greatest auteurs and they each have completely different approaches to making film. She said that almost all American’s will prefer Kurosawa because of his western influence – either from western film or on western film. I also remember her saying that Ozu was the most “Japanese” of all of Japan’s directors. I do love Ozu’s work but I would have to say that I do prefer Kurosawa – although I could watch Record of a Tenement Gentlemen anytime. Also, if I could choose to hang out with any one of these three I’d pick Ozu
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Greatest Albums of All-time over 3 years ago
I left out any pre-twentieth century classical music (or even pre-1950) but I would include Bartok, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Chopin, Gershwin, Bach etc.
Yann Tiersen – Amélie
Don Cherry – Orient
Iggy Pop – The Idiot
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads
Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun
The Mars Volta – Amputechture
Beck – Odelay
John Coltrane – Stellar Regions
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing…..
Brian Eno – Another Green World
Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Sage Francis – Human the Death Dance
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – F♯A♯∞
Beck – Sea Change
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Björk – Homogenic
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O.
Gorillaz – Gorillaz
Billie Holiday – 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Billie Holiday
Kid Koala – Scratchappyland
Clint Mansell – Requiem for a Dream [Kronos Quartet]
Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium
Slint – Spiderland
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
GZA / Genius – Liquid Swords
Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Mogwai – Come on Die Young
The Beatles – Abbey Road
Mogwai – Happy Songs for Happy People
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
Mono – Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
Tool – Lateralus
Mono – You Are There
múm – Green Grass of Tunnel
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
Aesop Rock – Labor Days
Ween – Chocolate and Cheese
Aphex Twin – Richard D James Album
Explosions in the Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Kronos Quartet – Black Angels
Pixies – Doolittle
Agalloch – The Mantle
Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Billie Holiday – Body and Soul
King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
EPMD – Strictly Business
Radiohead – OK Computer
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
Sigur Rós – Ný batterí
Tenacious D – Tenacious D
Radiohead – Kid A
The B-52’s – The B-52’s
The Tiger Lillies – Bad Blood + Blasphemy
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Thelonious Monk – Criss-Cross
Pixies – Come On Pilgrim
The Tiger Lillies – The Sea
Air – Moon Safari
The Tiger Lillies – The Gorey End
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Nino Rota – 8½
Mono – One Step More and You Die
Tool – Parabola
Venetian Snares – Meathole
Tom Waits – Alice
múm – Finally We Are No One
Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
Primus – Frizzle Fry
Doors – Strange Days
The National – Boxer
Tom Waits – Blood Money
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Last movie you saw and rate it about 3 years ago
: JonnyB, Heat, a 1/10?? really???
anyway, for me the last movie I saw was Lucky You (2007) and it was god awful. I was recommended the film because I play poker and it’s a poker movie. This is, without a doubt, one of the worst movies ever made. The screenplay is paper-thin, there’s no interesting conflict, the two leads have ZERO chemistry, and the main character has no personality. There are a number of awkward poker pro cameos, it even has Jennifer Harmon playing a character for some reason. Even Robert Duvall manages to suck in this thing.
Lucky You, a REAL 1/10 kind of experience
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