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I have this thing in which I want to rent a ton of movies out of my local library, but the very second I try to figure out which ones I want to put on hold, I seem to forget all of them. So feel free to suggest movies, any movies, even bad movies that will annoy me to know end because anything can be intellectually stimulating. The sort of movies I like: Poignant stories about people triumping over adversity Kung Fu movies. Anime, especially Miyazaki Movies about people who are just so cool. Historically accurate docudramas A drama with comedic elements.
Movies I hate: Romantic comedies with irratating political messages engrained in them. Annoyingly hyper-patriotic crappy films like Independence Day and Armegeddon. Movies about freaking serial killers unless Emily Watson is in it. Most old cowboy movies Stupid teenager comedy movies except for American Pie.
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Legend, Labrynth, Never Ending Story, Ewoks, nd the Dark Crystal it's best to see those when you're little and let them help shape your imagination growing up, but it's never too late
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*Claps* I've seen a few of those movies and they rock! The book version of the Neverending Story is so excellent!
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You NEED to watch movies by Akira Kurosawa. I recommend The Seven Samurai, if you can sit still for three hours, anyway. It's just so... wow. I also loved The Bad Sleep Well, which is harder to find but EXCELLENT.
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*cheers* I love Kurosawa! Especially a movie I saw in Japanese movie class called No Regrets in Our Youth. It was about this woman who married a guy who was some sort of political protestor. It's about how she changes and becomes strong. It has such brilliant scenes like the bushes shaking as they seem to mock her. Then you have Rashomon to consider. Another great old Japanese movie I saw was called Love Suicide and it had koken (i think that is what they are called) in it like a bunraku play. So awesome.
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Some of my favorites of his are Who am I?, Gorgeous, and the Legend of Drunken Master. Warning: Gorgeous might be construed as "romantic comedy" but you know how much better it is in Chinese. I also love City Hunter, which is a chinese Jackie movie based on an old anime. It's hilarious. Posts: 264 | Registered: Jan 2002
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*loves Jackie Chan* Especially his Hong Kong movies. They are better than the American movies in my opinion. Then you have Jet Li who is so cute (We need a heart smilie) I lvoe him in Tai Chi Master. Then there is the awesome Peking Opera Blues. If you can get this movie, see it, it's the best. It has some of the neatest scenes in it and Bridgette Lin is in this movie being so cool. Then there is Farewell My Concubine which is a depressing movie and isn't even a Kung Fu movie, it's just in my top ten.
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Yep, Golden Harvest movies are a million times better than the American ones.
You will be happy that Jackie and Jet are doing a movie together not too far in the future. Did you hear about that?
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I learned about it at Hollywood Stock Exchange. Almost nothing is known about this movie except that I think it's the one they're working on at the moment. It doesn't have a name yet either. Sorry no more info. Posts: 264 | Registered: Jan 2002
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For a while, I was afraid that my black comedy -- an anime about a cool young Kung Fu expert who loses both legs in a tragic accident but comes back to save his sassy, sardonic girlfriend -- was perhaps too "niche" to find an audience. But now I know Synth would watch it. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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"Poignant stories about people triumping over adversity." It's not a movie yet, but I want to make a film about this poor guy in WWII, true story. I think he was Polish. So the Nazis capture him; he escapes. The Russians capture him. I think he escapes from them at least once. Then they ship him off to Siberia. This camp is not guarded well because they are in the middle of nowhere. The Russians guard the one train that comes in over the Trans Siberian Railway. If prisoners want to escape to starve in the wilderness with no gear they can. Our hero escapes with a few other prisoners. They proceed to hike thousands of miles with no equipment, all the way to friggin' India! Through Siberia. Through China. Through the Gobi Desert that the Mongols called "the Roof of the World." Through Tibet. Over the Himalayas, the tallest mountains on Earth. All the way to British India, on foot, no maps, no equipment, nada.
Presumably, they took a break then. They had earned one. I have never heard a story quite like it and it would make an awesome film in the right hands. Someday I hope to write the screenplay as a tribute to one man who just refused to give up, NO MATTER WHAT. Kind of puts my dateless weekend in perspective. The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawizc. "with nothing but an ax, a knife, and a week's worth of food." My bad, he had a axe and a knife. Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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My little brother read that in his English/History class last year and he really liked it- like, it was more interesting than the game cube for an entire weekend
Posts: 66 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Two of my favorites might fit your criteria:
Awakenings features really good performances by Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Based on a real event, it tells the story of a number of patients who, after about 30 years of what everyone thought was complete oblivion, came awake. Great movie that had the misfortune of being overshadowed by Dances with Wolves that year.
Which brings me to my second recommendation, Smoke Signals , based on short stories by Sherman Alexie. It tells the story of two young Indian (the term used in the movie) men who go on a journey to claim the body of the other's long-missing father. It's modern-day, poking fun at mainstream white culture as well as reservation culture. There's also at least one little jibe at Costner's film. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I don't like Grand Canyon. I got to figure out why that is... I think it's politics or something... hmm I love Smoke Signals! I got to see one of the guys who was in the movie (who is so good looking, by the way.) I loved the part when they were singing about John Wayne's teeth on the bus and the women that drove backwards all day long listening to Dar Williams. And Awakenings is awesome too! Oliver Sach is a cool man. I saw him on this show called the Glorious Accident talking about migraines. He seems quiet.
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"the women that drove backwards all day long listening to Dar Williams."HAHAHA That was one of the funniest parts in the movie.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Warning - I am about to do some shameless namedropping!
quote:I love Smoke Signals! I got to see one of the guys who was in the movie (who is so good looking, by the way.) I loved the part when they were singing about John Wayne's teeth on the bus and the women that drove backwards all day long listening to Dar Williams.
I got to meet and talk with Sherman Alexie for awhile about a year and a half ago at the strangest of places. We have a number of things in common, one of them being hydrocephalus, and he happened to be keynoting this conference I was at. (Probably won't go to another one, but that's another story.) He gave me his phone number and email address, but I have yet to follow up. He was interested in the baby pictures I have on my website and thinking of putting some of his own up.
quote:And Awakenings is awesome too! Oliver Sach is a cool man. I saw him on this show called the Glorious Accident talking about migraines. He seems quiet.
I corresponded with Sachs back about 10-11 years ago. I sent him a chapter from a 1932 book that described the entry of a bunch of "sleepers" into an Oklahoma institution and their "awakening." I got a nice letter back from him and I also got a copy of the original documentary produced by the BBC.
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If Farewell My Concubine is in your top ten, you might enjoy To Live, a Chinese film directed by Yimou Zhang (Shanghai Triad) and starring Li Gong (Farewell). It tells the story of an impoverished husband and wife dealing with their daily struggles during China's Cultural Revolution. Although there is a lot of political commentary in the movie, they never take attention away from the personal stories which is the heart of the movie.
Morbo~ I hope you write that screenplay!
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Some days it's a good day to die. Other days, it's a good day to eat breakfast.
I adore Smoke Signals, init?
especially, "I will feed you all!"
Anyway - back to the subject at hand - I reccommend highly Kurosawa's Dreams. Very artsy. Lovely, lovely, lovely. It's especially good for breaking in your cowgirlly roommates.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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I have to see Smoke Signals. Is Keith Secola's music in it?(he is a native American rock singer)Someone I know. Jerry garcia? Was that the one he was featured in?
One of my all time favorite movies was "Harold and Maude."
And, OK, I have to say it, "The In-Laws," the old one.
"GRAMMY Magazine, FEATURES - Native American Pop Moves Toward The Mainstream. A number of artists have the near-term breakout potential that could springboard the genre... Keith Secola (tribal affiliation: Anishinabe) could be the Native Bruce Springsteen. His music talks about the day-to-day lives of Native Americans in language any working-class American can relate to. Secola's songs "Frybread" and "Indian Cars" are already standards on reservation radio. His fierce performances with Secola's Wild Band Of Indians made fans out of Jerry Garcia, Jim Creegan of Barenaked Ladies, Doors' drummer John Densmore and other rock heavies. He's just finishing work on his seventh self-produced album, Native Americana. "
Keith Secola is very, very good, and his song, "Frybread" was in "Smoke Signals."(I saw him this summer. Annie, go see him if he comes your way)
The Jerry Garcia movie was plain old "Smoke."
Now I can go to sleep, but I had to figure all that out. The movie will be my next pick for Netflix.
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sndrake, I loved Awakenings, it was probably one of the best movies I've ever seen. I don't know if I could ever watch it again, but I was in shock for days after I saw it. Wow.
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Amelie! Amelie is the best! It should have won Oscar, but what do you expect from people who won't give Emily Watson an Oscar? Anyway, it's a great movie. I saw it once in a movie theatre with a balcony!
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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If you like Kung Fu movies and Anime, I reccomend the cartoony Kung Fu/Anime hybrid, the live action Kung Fu superhero movie. A couple of good ones to start with are The Heroic Trio and Storm Riders.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Don’t forget some of Akira Kurosawa’s other great Samurai flicks, like Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and The Hidden Fortress. I found Throne of Blood a bit slow, and Toshiro Mufune did the worst acting job at the climax (Kurosawa insisted on using real archers to shoot arrows at him. Toshiro wasn’t acting; he was genuinely terrified. )
For anime, try Akira (if you can stomach the gore) and Ghost in the Shell.
Don’t forget the classics. Lawrence of Arabia (wide-screen only—you don’t want to miss out on the spectacular desert scenery), Casablanca, and just about any Academy Award-winning picture.
And Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder. I’d also recommend One, Two, Three, except that it is a comedy with an overt political message. However, the message is about the Cold War, so it may not be offensive anymore. On the other hand, some may not catch many of the jokes.
And for a historically accurate war drama, Zulu is an absolute must.
Posts: 2473 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I didn't like Wedding. It was cute and happy and everything, but the portrayal of the fiance was really flat and disappointing. There was no meat to the story, it was just a lame little "let's laugh at how pushy big families are" blah movie. I was surprised at how big the hype was, given I laughed all of once.
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Now, Bend it like Beckham was a good pseudo-mainstream foreign flick! It was charming, honest, hilarious, and taught me a few things about the Indian subculture in England. Very enjoyable, it did everything that Wedding didn't.
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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ALR, I wasn't surprised. I saw the movie before it was in wide release, and I remember thinking that everything in the movie felt familiar - that I'd seen it all before, but I couldn't quite place the source. I figured it was fine, just okay, but really, that should have been my clue that it would be an astounding success. It was like old jeans, it was clean, and the lack of personality on the part of the fiance was a plus - you can fill in your fantasy.
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it's best to see those when you're little and let them help shape your imagination growing up, but it's never too late
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