12 Movies Meme

Tag! I'm it! Fletch has tagged me for his turn in the game called 12 Movies Meme, which originated from Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre. The game is simple. Pick twelve films that break into six double features and explain away. Then tag five more people. So, here are mine, in no particular order, but in the order to be played. Here are the movies of my life.

The Prestige & Bowfinger

I love movies. And these are my two favorites movies about movies. One is clearly about making movies and the other is a more cerebral look at the creative mindset of filmmakers.

North By Northwest & Children of Men

In my life, I have always felt like I'm being pursued. These are my two favorite chase movies. And I think they both have feel-good endings.

Dark Knight & Empire Strikes Back

Life isn't always sweet. Sometimes, things turn to shit before getting good again. These two films exemplify that.

Rushmore & Back to the Future

These two movies always remind me of my high school years. High school was about rejection and fear of being inadequate.

Dogfight & Stripes

These movies remind me of being in the Marines. I was a smart ass, but trying to be myself and do the right thing. Although, Jarhead is the closet film I've seen to the real thing.

Young Frankenstein & Goodfellas

Just my two favorite movies.

Now, who do I tag? Hmmm...

Alan at Daily Film Dose
The Mad Hatter at Dark of the Matinee
Jen at Jen Reviews Movies
Ibetolis at Film for the Soul
Graham at Movie et al.

Study the Seventies

Yesterday I posted a review of Mark Harris’ book, Pictures at a Revolution, about the film industry at the end of the Sixties. With so many changes going on both the world and Hollywood, the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1968 propelled American films forward into the Seventies, one of the most exciting decades in cinema. It’s my theorem that the great decades come every twenty years. The Thirties, the Fifties, the Seventies and the Nineties all have me looking forward to new movies in a few years time. Isn’t it interesting that forty years after those films, The Dark Knight is changing how we think about comic book movies, summer blockbusters and 70mm prints? But I digress…

I got Seventies on the brain so here are a few quick lists for those of you unfamiliar with the extraordinary films of that time. I’m talking about the teenagers who populate IMDB message boards and whose top ten lists include no films A) in black and white, B) older than fifty years OR C) more than two Tarantino films. So, here come some of my thoughts, in no particular order at all. Sorry, no pictures. If you’re not willing to read it all, sadly, this information is probably just what you need.

Top Five Movies from the 70’s

1. The Godfather/The Godfather Part II (1972/1974)

Sorry, but if Dark Knight reminds of us anything, it’s that these two films both stand the test of time and are almost always talked about as a pair. Brando, Pacino, DeNiro and Coppola, along with Gordon Willis, Nina Rota and many others created one of the consummate American myths.

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

For anyone who has ever wanted to fight the system, Jack Nicholson fights for you in this movie. Whether he’s absconding mental patients for a fishing trip or watching a baseball game on a television set that isn’t even turned on, he has never been better, except in…

3. Chinatown (1974)

What can you say about this movie except that it’s like Mary Poppins. Practically perfect in everyway. Direction, acting, writing, camerawork, everything in this movie works together to achieve something that they just can’t seem to make anymore.

4. Taxi Driver (1976)

In the year of the Bicentennial, nobody had ever seen a film like this before and I don’t think we have since. Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader and Robert DeNiro collaborate to tell a very disturbing, very involving story of alienation that grows more important every time I watch it.

5. French Connection (1971)

When does an action movie win Best Picture? When it is the precursor to all modern action cop films. Billy Freidkin directs Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider with shaky hand held cams, brutally realistic dialogue and yes, one of the greatest car chases ever.

My Five Favorite Movies from the 70’s

1. Young Frankenstein (1974)

My favorite Mel Brooks film, I can watch it over and over again. Plus, Gene Hackman is in it! “Sedagive?!”

2. Star Wars (1977)

Yes, the second one is the best, but we never would have had it without the first film. And who doesn’t want to leave home and join the Rebellion?

3. Alien (1979)

This film took science fiction in a different direction from the previous movie on this list and we are all better for it. And Ridley Scott gave us Sigourney Weaver in her underwear. Thank you, Sir Ridley.

4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

I may be slightly disturbed for wanting to watch this movie over and over, but in my formative high school years, this film grabbed me with its style, then bashed me over the head with its message. I think I am better for it.

5. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Huh. Same thing goes for this one.

Top Five Films from the 70’s You Might Not Have Seen, But You Really Should.

1. The Conversation (1974)

Don’t want to go too much into this one, but Coppola + Hackman= Awesome.

2. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Jack Nicholson is great again as Jack Nicholson, but he’s given so much great stuff to do in this script and turns in an ‘anti-Jack performance’ like we would not see again for thirty years.

3. The Last Detail (1973)

Another great Nicholson film, showing us how great he really was. Featuring a young Randy Quaid, it doesn’t really matter. Jack spits out Robert Towne’s profanity with such venom, he might pull out that horse cock and go upside your fucking head! “I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker!”

4. Mean Streets (1973)

The good thing about this film is that it’s one of those that even if you haven’t seen it, you probably have. Martin Scorsese’s first film with Robert DeNiro and second with Harvey Keitel, it works as a matter displacement device and puts you in Marty’s neighborhood of Little Italy with Johnny Boy, pool halls and The Rolling Stones.

5. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Another one of those ‘they-don’t-make-‘em-like-they-used-to’ films, every aspect of this film is excellent. It is an American masterpiece in the European style and universal in its appeal and endurance.

Five Films that Could Not Have Happened Without the 70’s

1. Boogie Nights (1997)

2. Jackie Brown (1997)

3. The Ice Storm (1997)

4. Zodiac (2007)

5. (tie) A Decade Under the Influence (2003) AND Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003)

Best Actor to Come Out of the 70’s

Gene Hackman – You need only look at the dreck of the past two decades produced by his counterparts DeNiro, Nicholson and Hoffman to see that when Hackman was in danger of succumbing to the same pitfalls, he stopped making movies.

Best Actor Who Never Made it out of the 70’s

John Cazale – He only made five films, including Dog Day Afternoon and Deer Hunter, before he passed away in 1978 from cancer.

Best Director to Come Out of the 70’s

Martin Scorsese – Fuck Spielberg, Marty is still the money. Robert Altman said before he died, “When’s the last time you got excited for a movie? Besides the newest Scorsese film?”

Best Director Who Never Really Made it out of the 70’s

Peter Bogdanovich - I love this man and his ascots. Probably known now for his work on The Sopranos, Peter is an accomplished writer, director and actor who never really rebounded from his failures as well as others. Luckily for us, he still does all three of those things very well.

What do you think readers? Give me some of your opinions.

Top Five Movie MILF's

What is it about the term or the idea of the MILF that is so arousing? It is the deeper Oedipal complex inside all of us or merely a flirtation with the forbidden and taboo? I don’t care, the MILF’s on my list are unbelievably hot.

Basically, the list came about after a long discussion with a friend about my number one. It quickly evolved into a ranking system and the explanation that the list needed to consist of women who had played roles as mothers, in films where the children figure into the story as importantly as they do.

5. Annette Benning as Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty

Not only should Mrs. Warren Beatty have won the Academy award for this role, but she looks absolutely stunning in the entire picture, outshines her younger teen counterparts and screams, “Fuck me, your Majesty!”

4. Lea Thompson as Lorraine Banes in Back to the Future

True, she does not realize that she is a mother through most of the movie, or that she will be the mother or her crush. It gets slightly confusing, but the point is she is exuding sexuality at young Marty while he tries desperately to rebuff her advances. Way to go Marty, I don’t think anybody else could have resisted.

3. Sigourney Weaver as Janey Carver in The Ice Storm

I’m not sure if it’s the rocking 70’s hair styles, the cigarette smoking or the fact that I’ve had a crush on Sigourney Weaver since Ghostbusters, but when she toys with her son’s whip on the patio, I get a warm sensation on my back that needs to be scratched. Or whipped.

2. Rachel Weisz as Rachel in About A Boy

Rachel Weisz is gorgeous and really great as a single mother in this movie and always hot when speaking without her American accent. But she is at her hottest in a deleted scene when she shows up at Hugh Grant’s door and asks him, “What would you rather do? Watch Countdown or have sex with me?”

1. Ellen Burstyn as Lois Farrow in The Last Picture Show

Why do I love Ellen Burstyn so much? I’m not really sure, but her hurt expression on the couch waiting for a date that will not come and wearing sunglasses in the convertible before flipping everybody off remains the two images from that movie that stay in my mind. Yes, more than naked Cybil Shepard. I love the film, love Ellen and will watch anything she’s in. Congrats, Ms. Burstyn, you are the hottest MILF.

My Top Ten Beauties in Black and White

I love films in black and white. As much as some scholars used to believe that silent movies were superior to those with sound, with every passing year my affinity for classic black and white films grows stronger. I feel like there was a greater emphasis on the image then and most starlets of the time had a favorite director of photography that would be the only one allowed to film them. Hollywood lore is full of tales of actresses carrying on affairs with their cameramen instead of directors or actors. Whatever the dynamic in the relationship, it did capture some of the most beautiful women in the world on film forever. With this blog, I present to you a loving tribute of my top ten favorites.

10. Carla Gugino in Sin City (2005)

This is more of a special mention since the film was released in 2005, but not only has Carla Gugino been smoldering hot since Son in Law, in this movie she commits fully to the character as originally conceived in the graphic novel, which is more than I can say for other actresses in the film. *cough JessicaAlba

9. Tracy Reed in Dr. Strangelove (1964)

As Ms. Scott, the only woman in the cast of one of my favorite movies of all time, Tracy Reed on this list is a bit of an indulgence. But, she is simply stunning in her bikini and again in her Playboy spread that the crew admires on the B-52 bomber.

8. Jane Russell in The Outlaw (1943)

She may have exuded more sex appeal later in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but in this picture her ample assets defied the Hays Code, caused the Motion Picture Censor Board to demand cuts in the film (as depicted in The Aviator), was banned in several states, got theater owners arrested for indecency after playing it, had Howard Hughes designing custom brassieres and made Ms. Russell a star.

7. Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946)

We all know that Rita Hayworth was a Latina and that she was the first poster purchased by Andy Dufrense up in the ‘Shank, but did you know she gave birth to Orson Welles’ baby just before filming this movie and before that was the first choice to star in Casablanca?

6. Teri Garr in Young Frankenstein (1974)

This might be my favorite movie of all time and every time I watch it, I cannot decide who is better looking, Teri Garr or Madeline Kahn? I bit the bullet and cast my vote for Teri, because she never looked better in anything else she did and Madeline had more to do in Paper Moon.

5. Audrey Hepburn

Sabrina, Roman Holiday, Funny Face, who can decide? Regardless of your personal preference, Audrey remains one of the most beautiful women ever to shine on the silver screen and became immortalized by hipsters and teeny boppers to this day. And I have to choose Sabrina, even though she won the Oscar for Roman Holiday.

4. Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita (1960)

In one of the most influential films ever, Anita captivated audiences all over the world and was practically canonized in Italy, even though she was a native Swede. A classic beauty, she set the standard for such Europeans actresses to follow including Monica Bellucci and Eva Green.

3. Ingrid Bergman

In spite of being the most attractive nun ever in The Bells of St. Mary, how many other movies do we remember her from? Casablanca? Notorious? But, to truly understand and appreciate the beauty of Ingrid, you have to watch her films with Rossellini, which she considered her best work.

2. Natalie Wood in Love with a Proper Stranger (1963)

I have been in love with Natalie Wood since I was twelve years old and watched her in West Side Story. I fell in love with her all over again a few months back when I caught her in this movie opposite Steve McQueen. She was gorgeous, talented and taken from us far too soon.

1. Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Yes, she was a troubled woman creating a troubled production in the midst of her troubled marriage. But, through sheer screen presence and charisma, Marilyn turned her most memorable performance in one of the most beloved films of all time. She was the penultimate sex symbol, the Blonde Bombshell, but above all else, she took her craft seriously and studied under Lee Strasberg at The Actor’s Studio, in order to be thought of as more than just a pretty face.