Movies I've Liked
Everyone has a list of movies they liked. Here's mine, in no particular
order...
Car Movies--------------------------------------------------
The California Kid
It's 1957 in a small speed trap town in New Mexico. A bad cop gets his
jollies by killing speeders. Only thing was, one of them had a semi-
hoodlum brother with nothing better to do than to even the score.
Mad Max
This movie spawned a rash of imitators and sequels, enough to establish a
whole new genre of post-apocalypse movies. It's the story of a good cop who
tries to get out before he becomes indistinguishable from the criminals he
hunts, and how he winds up there anyway. Most reviewers appeared to miss
the emotional content entirely, barely recognized the strong plot, and
concentrated only on the violent aspects of the film. The original Australian
cut and the original US film release were considerably longer than the
butchered-for-gentle-American-sensibilities TV and videotapes.
Vanishing Point
All right. The movie sucks big time, but the Zen of the image of that
Mopar screaming through the desert sinks right down to my bones...
Gumball Rally
Corvette Summer
Cannonball
(even though the photography is *awful*)
Road Games
(okay, it's a truck movie...)
Science Fiction Movies--------------------------------------
Heavy Metal
Animated, but it's not 'anime'. Based on the severely weird illustrated
magazine of the same name. Good vs. Evil confront each other across all of
space and time. Excellent artwork. Good stories. Sound track by Black
Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Stevie Nicks, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey,
Donald Fagen from Steely Dan, Sammy Hagar, and others. Put it on the big TV,
stick the audio out into the Carver preamp and let a thousand watts of rock
and roll dance those speakers across the floor!
A Clockwork Orange
The one. The only. Rated X in some places when it came out, banned in
others, all with less sex or violence than you can see on G-rated 1990s TV.
Stanley Kubrick claimed "2001" was just a warmup for the Orange. Viddy this,
droogie, and get ready for a little of the old ultraviolence...
Forbidden Planet
What can I say? Forty years later and still looking good.
Videodrome
Most people don't "get" this movie for some reason. I dunno, it scared the
hell out of *me*. The program director of a small Toronto TV station decides
to broadcast some pirate S&M programming. Strange things begin to happen...
until you realize you've been watching it from the protagonist's point of
view, and he's bugfuck crazy. The programs are Trojan Horses, with embedded
signals that cause brain damage, they were bring broadcast by upright, clean
cut citizens who figured anyone who watched that kind of stuff deserved
whatever they got... I've *met* people like that. Brrr...
Time After Time
Malcolm McDowell (of A Clockwork Orange) portrays H.G. Wells chasing a killer
to the 1980s with his Time Machine. *Not* what I expected, and not bad.
Battlestar: Galactica - pilot movie
What can I say? I thought BG kicked ass, even if the Trekkies usually hated
it.
Terminator
Terminator II
One of the few sequels as good as, if not better than, the original.
Star Wars
I saw Star Wars when it first came out. It's hard to explan to younger people
what a big deal it was then - it was an entire paradigm shift. Nowadays
people mostly criticize the special effects. Who cares about that? Star Wars
broke the mold; our protagonist was a not-too-bright shitkicker farmboy, the
princess was coyote ugly and had the personality of a pit viper, Han Solo was
a sleazeball... and then there was the Millennium Falcon. Before, starships
were immaculate altars to technology in white or chrome. We first see the
Falcon listing slightly to one side on its landing jacks, which are oozing
hydraulic fluid. Solo walks up the ramp and pushes the door button, which is
ringed with grime. Inside, it's full of trash, access panels are missing,
wires are hanging out... and the Falcon isn't exactly *reliable*, you
understand?
Alien
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
The only one of the Star Trek movies that was worth a damn. Not only pretty
good, just as a Trek movie, but pretty good all on its own.
Escape From New York
I Was a Zombie For The FBI
Filmed as a class project by a college in Memphis, mostly on campus, in black
and white. It uses '50s style camera angles and typical '50s stilted
dialogue. It *could* have been a spoof, but they played it serious; in terms
of the genre, it's not too bad. It's not a great movie, but it's well worth
watching just to see how they handle things.
Adventure Movies--------------------------------------------
The Born Losers
First and best of the Billy Jack movies with Tom Loughlin. Like Mad Max, it
spawned a whole genre. Like Mad Max, the original movie is largely forgotten.
A small Northern California town is falling under the control of a biker gang,
and the only one who will do anything about it is the town crazy.
Tank
James Garner plays an Army sergeant who uses his restored Sherman tank to
break his son out of a crooked sheriff's labor camp.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
What the hell, *I* liked it, even with the weirdo-religious ending. The
sequels all sucked.
Some Kind of Hero
Ladyhawke
Highlander
Horror Movies-----------------------------------------------
Phantasm
There are at least half a dozen variants of this cult movie, butchered to
various lengths. I don't know why. None of the edits I've seen is complete
enough to make a whole lot of sense, but it's a gripping movie nonetheless.
There was a sequel (Phantasm II) that was pretty much a waste of time.
Evil Dead II: Army of Darkness
Trapped in the past - surrounded by Evil - armed with a chainsaw - and running
low on gas...
Innocent Blood
It's a vampire movie. Sort of. Deadpan, no canned laugh tracks (yea!),
so funny I fell out of my chair onto the floor.
Comedies----------------------------------------------------
Airplane
Airplane II
Superman- with Richard Pryor
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Our Man Flint/In Like Flint
Other Movies------------------------------------------------
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