MC Yearly Consensus -- 1989

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the thread is locked, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB power search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

Llopin, feel free to tally this one at the end. I wanted to get it going since it has been 4 days since the last one.

[Spinal]

1. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
2. Henry V
3. Santa sangre
4. Do the Right Thing
5. I'm From Hollywood

[Watashi]

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Glory
4. Do the Right Thing
5. Say Anything

Good year.

[Raiders]

1. Speaking Parts (Egoyan)
2. Santa sangre (Jodorowsky)
3. Monsieur Hire (Leconte)
4. My Left Foot (Sheridan)
5. Dekalog (Kieslowski)

[Eleven]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
3. Mystery Train
4. Heathers
5. The Killer

[Ezee E]

1. Do The Right Thing
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Born on the Fourth of July
4. Field of Dreams
5. Santa Sangre

[Sycophant]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. The Killer
5. Chameleon Street

6. Violent Cop
7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
8. Roger & Me
9. God of Gamblers
10. UHF


Those first three are nearly perfect and so hard to put in order.

[Llopin]

Sorry, I was going to open it today... :sad:

[Raiders]

For Your Consideration:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FG2NHA7YL._AA240_.jpg

http://www.commeaucinema.com/images/news/208_13669.jpg

[Spinal]

Sorry, I was going to open it today... :sad:

No problem. I didn't know if you were going to be around. :)

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Violent Cop
4. Say Anything
5. UHF

[Sycophant]

Ahem. For your consideration.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515QB7J9ZVL._SS500_.jpg

[Llopin]

For Your Consideration:

http://master-hunters.blogia.com/upload/20070919220055-kuroiame.jpg

[mindstream]

Does The Decalogue count?

If so:

1. The Decalogue
2. Santa Sangre
3. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
4. Do The Right Thing
5. Mystery Train
---
6. Crimes and Misdemeanors
7. Drugstore Cowboy
8. Kiki's Delivery Service
9. A TV Dante
10. My Left Foot

[Spinal]

Does The Decalogue count?


Yes.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. The Asthenic Syndrome
2. The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover
3. The Unbelievable Truth
4. Dekalog
5. City of Sadness
----------------------
6. Crimes and Misdemeanors
7. Do the Right Thing
8. Black Rain (Imamura)
9. Life and Nothing But...
10. Mystery Train

"Piece Touchee" by Martin Arnold would be my #1 but its only 11 minutes.

[Melville]

1. Roger & Me
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors
3. Do the Right Thing
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
5. Glory

[Russ]

1. Santa Sangre
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Darkness/Light/Darkness
4. For All Mankind
5. Roger & Me

[baby doll]

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
2. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
3. Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)
4. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
5. Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte)

[MadMan]

I've strangely seen a lot from this year for some odd reason. Oh and are we counting short films or not? I can't remember. For now I'll leave them out of my list until I hear otherwise.

1. Field of Dreams
2. The Burbs
3. A Grand Day Out
4. The Last Crusade
5. Do The Right Thing

The next five to be posted later.

[Sycophant]

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the thread is locked, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB power search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

Ahem.

[MadMan]

Bah I never read the fine print :P

[bac0n]

1 The Abyss
2 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
3 Field Of Dreams
4 Batman
5 Kiki's Delivery Service

[Yxklyx]

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
2. Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte)
3. Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
4. The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
5. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh)

6. The War of the Roses (Danny De Vito)
7. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
8. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
9. The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley)
10. Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)

[Gizmo]

1. Glory
2. The Last Crusade
3. Driving Miss Daisy
4. The Little Mermaid (I feel so Wats :cry:)
5. Born on the Fourth of July

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Field of Dreams
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. The Decalogue
4. Crimes and Misdemeanors
5. Say Anything

[Sycophant]

4. The Little Mermaid (I feel so Wats :cry:)
Not even Wats is that Wats.

[soitgoes...]

1. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
2. My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan)
3. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
4. Violent Cop (Takeshi Kitano)
5. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
------------------------------------------------------------
6. Balance (Christoph Lauenstein, Wolfgang Lauenstein)
7. A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit (Nick Park)
8. Batman (Tim Burton)
9. Glory (Edward Zwick)
10. Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah S. Chechik)

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

2. Cinema Paradiso (Guiseppe Tornatore)


1988, according to imdb

[Spinal]

Top Songs of 1989:

1. "Look Away" Chicago
2. "My Prerogative" Bobby Brown
3. "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" Poison
4. "Straight Up" Paula Abdul
5. "Miss You Much" Janet Jackson
6. "Cold Hearted" Paula Abdul
7. "Wind Beneath My Wings" Bette Midler
8. "Girl You Know Its True" Milli Vanilli
9. "Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird" Will To Power
10. "Giving You The Best That I Got" Anita Baker


source: musicoutfitters.com

[Spinal]

The following television programs debuted in 1989:

Inside Edition
The Arsenio Hall Show
Cops
Quantum Leap
Dragonball Z (Japan)
Tales from the Crypt
The Seinfeld Chronicles (later retitled Seinfeld)
Saved By The Bell
Life Goes On
Baywatch
Family Matters
America's Funniest Home Videos
The Simpsons (premiered on FOX with a special Christmas episode)

The #1 show in the Nielsen ratings for 1989:

The Cosby Show

[monolith94]

1. Kiki's Delivery Service
2. The Killer
3. Roger & Me
4. Heathers
5. The 'burbs

[Derek]

First The Decalogue is '88, then it's '87 and now it's '89. I'm really starting to dislike IMdB.

1. The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
2. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
3. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
4. Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Yong-Kyun Bae)
5. Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
______________________________ ______

6. Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone)
7. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
8. Black Rain (Shohei Imamura)
9. Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe)
10. Elephant (Alan Clarke)

[soitgoes...]

1988, according to imdb
Thanks. Yet another imdb switch.

[Spinal]

Time magazine's man of the year for 1989 (and the decade as well):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/gorbachev20time20decade.jpg

[Sycophant]

Like, I've learned a lot more about Gorbachev in the intervening 15 to 20 years, but the first thing I associate him with was when a Martin C. Gardner guest starred as Gorbachev in an episode of the Super Mario Super Show and made pizzas or something.

[ledfloyd]

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Roger & Me
3. Do The Right Thing
4. The 'burbs
5. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

[Boner M]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Speaking Parts
3. Darkness/Light/Darkness
4. Crimes & Misdemeanors
5. Santa Sangre

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

I have also seen them list Paradiso as 1990, seriously, it wasn't the middle ages. It should be easy to pinpoint its release year. A 3 year window for a film released less than 20 years ago is insane!

[koji]

1. The Decalogue (Kieslowski)
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
3. The Seventh Continent (Haneke)
4. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Greenaway)
5. Glory (Edward Zwick)
****************************** ********************
6. Tetsuo (Tsukamoto)
7. The Big Picture (Guest)
8. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
9. sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
10. The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito)

[dreamdead]

1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
2. Speaking Parts
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. Do the Right Thing
5. Violent Cop

[Rowland]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. The Abyss (SE)
5. Violent Cop

[koji]

In defense of IMDB, a film's designated year is probably not their highest priority. I would guess that it doesn't matter that much to most of their readers. And even for us, it doesn't really matter that much which year is used; we just need to prevent the same film being voted on in differnet years.

[Yxklyx]

In defense of IMDB, a film's designated year is probably not their highest priority. I would guess that it doesn't matter that much to most of their readers. And even for us, it doesn't really matter that much which year is used; we just need to prevent the same film being voted on in differnet years.

I'm pretty sure users submit all the information - imdb just checks out the facts, sometimes. It's like wikipedia but with more moderation.

[Velocipedist]

1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
3. Santa Sangre (Alexandro Jodorowsky)
4. Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
5. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)

The Cook wins, this year is bad.

[EyesWideOpen]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. The Little Mermaid
3. Dead Poet's Society
4. Say Anything...
5. Roger and Me

[origami_mustache]

1. The Decalogue
2. Do The Right Thing
3. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
4. Crimes and Misdemeanors
5. The Seventh Continent

6. I'm From Hollywood
7. Mystery Train
8. The Killer
9. Drugstore Cowboy
10. Dead Poet's Society

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Bashu
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Roger & Me
4. Sex, Lies and Videotape
5. Field of Dreams

[koji]

I'm pretty sure users submit all the information - imdb just checks out the facts, sometimes. It's like wikipedia but with more moderation.Yes, that does help explain why the year changes on some films. (Overall, it doesn't matter that much as long as the date doesn't change during this process.)

[Benny Profane]

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Glory
3. Do the Right Thing
4. Field of Dreams
5. Heathers

[Grouchy]

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. The Killer
3. The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
5. Meet the Feebles

Hard for me to pick between Meet the Feebles and Pumpkinhead. Specially since I don't think any of the two have been mentioned so far. What the hell is wrong with the world, I'll never know.

[Rowland]

I hated Meet the Feebles, but Pumpkinhead is pretty sweet, or so says me circa 10+ years ago. I'll have to revisit that one someday.

[Grouchy]

I hated Meet the Feebles, but Pumpkinhead is pretty sweet, or so says me circa 10+ years ago. I'll have to revisit that one someday.
It's all about the great-looking monster. Director Stan Winston also created the Predator design. I love the movie, I think it's one of the more "professional" Horror films out there, with great cinematography and writing. Lance Henriksen doesn't hurt, either. Only the actors who played the teenager cannon fodder were lousy.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Heathers - "Grow up, Heather. Bulimia's so '87."
2. Dr. Caligari - "I know you're watching me."
3. Sex, Lies, and Videotape - "What kind of 'personal project'?"
4. Glory - "Give 'em Hell, 54!"
5. Teen Witch - "Look at how funky he is!"

[MadMan]

5. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
6. Uncle Buck
7. Lethal Weapon 2
8. UHF
9. Knick Knack
10. Batman

Huh that's two short films featured, and both are animated. I also saw a lot of comedies from this year as well.

[Robby P]

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Roger and Me
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. Henry V
5. Field of Dreams

[Lazlo]

1. Say Anything…
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. When Harry Met Sally…
5. The Abyss

[Llopin]

1. Black Rain (Imamura)
2. Violent Cop (Kitano)
3. A City of Sadness (Hsiao-Hsien)
4. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Greenaway)
5. Kiki's Delivery Service (Miyazaki)

[Llopin]

One more day for voting.

I can't believe there is such passivity towards Imamura's crowning masterpiece.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I can't believe there is such passivity towards Imamura's crowning masterpiece.

I'd love to see it, especially after seeing Vengeance is Mine, but it isn't available through Netflix.

[Thirdmango]

I can't believe there are certain movies listed in this thread that I haven't seen yet, and I even own some of them (cough Kiki cough).

1. Ghostbusters 2
2. Do The Right Thing
3. Glory
4. Batman
5. The Burbs

[Rowland]

1. Ghostbusters 2
WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

[Sycophant]

I can't believe there are certain movies listed in this thread that I haven't seen yet, and I even own some of them (cough Kiki cough).Watch it tomorrow and then come fix your mistake.

[MadMan]

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFHeh, my thoughts exactly. I mean sure its a good, fun film but that's about it. The original is far better and even that isn't a great film.

[Eleven]

The original...isn't a great film.

:sad:

[ledfloyd]

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
That's gotta be an insane typo. There's no way he meant to type Ghostbusters 2.

[Llopin]

Closed.

Results tomorrah.

[MadMan]

:sad:It isn't. I gave it a strong 90 though if that counts for anything, and I loved the hell out of it.

[Derek]

It isn't. I gave it a strong 90 though if that counts for anything, and I loved the hell out of it.

A 90 isn't a great film on your scale? Although, I've only seen you give 85's, 90's and 95's so I already had no idea what was going on with it.

[MadMan]

A 90 isn't a great film on your scale? Although, I've only seen you give 85's, 90's and 95's so I already had no idea what was going on with it.Well I guess you could say it is. But to me a 93 and above is a truly great film. A 90 is pretty strong. If you check my Criticker ratings (the link is in my sig) I rate in the 70s and 80s as much as in the 90s. I'm pretty selective in what I watch, which means I've pretty much cut out any film I don't think I will like or any that received really bad buzz.

[Thirdmango]

Heh, no typo, I love Ghostbusters 2, sure it's not a technically good film, but I love it too much not to give it mad props. It's one of the first movies along with Ghostbusters 1 which got me into movies in the first place. It's like how when we do 1987, Dragnet will be easily in my top 5, cause it's one of my favorite movies of all time. But really, does my avatar of Gozer not give away my love for Ghostbusters? If we're grading based on intellectuality then yeah, Do The Right Thing would be my number one, but going based on pure enjoyment, I liked Ghostbusters 2 better.

[Llopin]

#10

http://www.filmski.net/slike/slike//news02/20/haneke-ins..jpg
The Seventh Continent
director: Michael Haneke

Georg and his wife Anna realize how monotonous and isolated their life is when their daughter Eva, in a desperate attempt to get attention, suddenly pretends to be blind. The family decides to break with their trot and plan to emigrate to Australia.

This marks Haneke's first feature film after more than a decade on television. The film deals with the deterioration of an average middle-class family by focusing obsessively on mundane life details. As images and actions start repeating themselves, it becomes clear to the family (and to us) that their lives are little more than a collection of routines, without joy or meaning. The conclusion they reach is better left as a surprise.

"The Seventh Continent is Haneke’s first feature film and shows his moral aesthetic as already fully formed. Haneke is concerned with the moral implications not only of what he shows us but of how he does that; of what is contained within the shot and what is excluded. In this film, this takes the form initially of showing us only fragments of the bodies of his characters, according these close-ups of hands, backs of heads, etc., the same status as the close-ups of objects, and vice versa" - Ian Johnston

[Llopin]

#9

http://victoryatseaonline.com/war/otherwars/images/glory-broderick.jpg

Glory
director: Edward Zwick

Based on the letters of Colonel Robert G. Shaw. Shaw was an officer in the Federal Army during the American Civil War who volunteered to lead the first company of black soldiers. Shaw was forced to deal with the prejudices of both the enemy (who had orders to kill commanding officers of blacks), and of his own fellow officers

Won three Academy awards. Many of the first shots of the movie were taken from the 125th anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1988, in which up to 15,000 participants took part. The scenes filmed at the Gettysburg Reenactment were fused into the depicted Battle of Antietam scene which was filmed near Jonesboro, Georgia. Viewers can distinguish the two separately filmed locations either by the massive amounts of reenactment troops that were at the Gettysburg event; or by the browner dry summer background of Pennsylvania in 1988, and the greener spring background of Georgia in 1989. The relief sculpture in the credits is the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston Common, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

"Glory is, without question, one of the best movies ever made about the American Civil War. The reason isn't just the way in which Kevin Jarre's script illuminates a frequent oversight of history books, nor is it the fine acting or epic feel that Zwick achieves on a modest budget – although those elements are part of Glory's effectiveness. Rather, it is the way in which the filmmakers weave an impressively large historical tapestry without ever losing sight of the characters that make up the individual threads. [The film] has important things to say, yet it does so without becoming pedantic" - James Berardinelli

[Llopin]

#8

http://www.mopsquad.com/movies/images/field_of_dreams.jpg

Field of Dreams
director: Phil Alden Robinson

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field.

This was Burt Lancaster's last theatrical film. After the movie was completed test audiences didn't like the name "Shoeless Joe" because they said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called director-screenwriter Robinson to tell him that "Shoeless Joe" didn't work, and the studio changed the title of the film to "Field of Dreams". When Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author of the book, and told him the "bad" news, but apparently he didn't care, saying that "Shoeless Joe" was the title the publishing company gave the book. Kinsella's original title was "Dream Field". Kinsella and J.D. Salinger, on whom the character Terence Mann is based, were friends. In fact, Salinger accompanied Kinsella to Chisolm, Minn. in 1975 in search of Moonlight Graham, who had died 10 years earlier. Kinsella said he chose Graham's character for his book "Shoeless Joe" because he was intrigued by his nickname when he came across it while thumbing through the Baseball Encyclopedia.

"Field of Dreams will not appeal to grinches and grouches and realists. It is a delicate movie, a fragile construction of one goofy fantasy after another. But it has the courage to be about exactly what it promises. "If you build it, he will come." And he does" - Roger Ebert

[Llopin]

#7 (tie)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2100/2121389240_33525ab534_o.jpg

Roger & Me
director: Michael Moore

A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.

This is the only movie where there has been a successful lawsuit against Moore - filed by former friend Larry Stecco who successfully argued that his portrayal in the movie was not an accurate reflection of his character ("False light invasion of privacy" is the legal term) and won. Stecco was interviewed attending a society fund raising ball and was made out to be a high-society rich pig who partied while people where starving outside. He was actually a lawyer who worked pro-bono for the poorer residents of Flint. When Moore decided to start a documentary about Flint, Michigan and General Motors in the mid-1980s, he knew very little about the technical side of filmmaking (camera-work, lighting, etc.). He met a fellow low-budget documentary filmmaker, Kevin Rafferty, who helped him learn this side of the director's job on the project, and served as one of the cinematographers.

"Moore will never be accused of being an objective documentary filmmaker, but his lively works are highly entertaining as his confrontational camera meanders from one scene to the next. After years of dry documentaries, Roger and Me demonstrates that this genre can be as hilarious as any comedy on the market and provide some sharp political muckraking to boot" - John Nesbit

[Llopin]

#7 (tie)

http://www.phantasmagoria.nl/assets/images/Pic0005.jpg

Santa Sangre
director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother. Against his will, he "becomes her arms" and the two undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.

As a tribute to Mexican horror films, Santa Sangre includes a scene with masked wrestlers and a "superwoman" named La Santa. The project was launched when Jodorowsky was commissioned to write and direct a film based on real-life Mexican criminal named Gregorio Cárdenas. Jodorowsky's sons Adan Jodorowsky & Axel Jodorowsky both play the part of Fenix at different ages. The movie Fenix is watching is the 1933 classic The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains.

"It is a movie in which the inner chambers of the soul are laid bare, in which desires become visible and walk into the room and challenge the yearner to possess them. When I go to the movies, one of my strongest desires is to be shown something new. Jodorowsky is not boring. The privilege of making a film is too precious to him for him to want to make a conventional one. It has been 18 years since his last work, and all of that time the frustration and inspiration must have been building. Now comes this release, in a rush of energy and creative joy" - Roger Ebert

[Llopin]

#5

http://hugereviews.com/Presents/Indiana_Jones/indian12.jpg

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
director: Steven Spielberg

Indiana Jones, famed adventurer and archaeologist acquires a diary that holds clues and a map with no names to find the mysterious Holy Grail- which was sent from his father, Dr. Henry Jones, in Italy. Upon hearing from a private collector, Walter Donavan, that the mission for the Holy Grail went astray with the disappearance of his father, Indiana Jones and museum curator Marcus Brody venture to Italy in search of Indy's father. However, upon retrieving Dr. Henry Jones in Nazi territory, the rescue mission turns into a race to find the Holy Grail before the Nazis do- who plan to use it for complete world domination for their super-race. With the diary as a vital key and the map with no names as a guide, Indiana Jones once again finds himself in another death defying adventure of pure excitement.

The temple right at the end of the movie exists, but not in Alexandretta. It is in Petra, in Jordan. However, there is no inside to it - the doorway that can be seen on screen is huge, eight or nine people shoulder to shoulder can easily walk thru it. It leads to a huge empty square room carved from the top down over two stories high. Similarly, they would be unable to get "lost" down the valley as the valley stretches for about a mile or so, and there is no other route but out. # In the movie the grail is located in the Republic of Hatay near the city of Alexandretta. There actually was a Republic of Hatay from 1938 to 1939, after the region was granted independence from French Syria and before it became a province of Turkey. The capital of Hatay was Alexandretta before 1939 when the city's name was changed to Iskenderun and the capital moved to Antioch. An early title indicates the movie's action takes place in 1938.

Donovan's death sequence by rapid aging was the first all-digital composite. In previous films involving computer generated visual effects CG elements were output to film and added to final film print using optical printers. For "Last Crusade" ILM scanned several filmed makeup transformations of "Donovan's demise" and "morphed" the elements together digitally. By doing this, film (was for first time) scanned, digitally manipulated, and output back to film rather than arranging film elements with an optical printer.

"There is a sense of welcome immaturity to the entire production, letting you know that it's all in the name of fun. It's a loving send off [?] to one of the most beloved characters in movie history, and even if the humor sometimes gets into the realm of corniness, we like the characters so much, even those moments will make us smile. For every Indiana Jones fan, it's must-see viewing, literally watching Indy and friends ride off to the sunset together" - Vince Leo

[Llopin]

#4

http://pixhost.eu/avaxhome/avaxhome/2006-08-04/PDVD_001.jpg

Dekalog
director: Krzysztof Kiewslowski

This is a series of ten shorts created for Polish Television, with plots loosely based upon the Ten Commandments, directed by Kieslowski. They deal with the emotional turmoil suffered by humanity, when instinctual acts and societal morality conflict.

Has recieved diverse awards in different years throughout the 90s and 2000s. Director Stanley Kubrick described 'Dekalog' as the only masterpiece he could name in his lifetime.

"Kieslowski is not a prisoner of consistency. All of the films do share his maddeningly slow, almost dumbstruck camera work. Where he does show some variety of thought is in the method he uses for revealing his characters. Sometimes he is an idiot observer who knows less than we do. Sometimes, he is an all-knowing invader speaking from somewhere inside the character's heart. But even when he seems to know all about his people, he still maintains a distant, often cold point of view. You may want to have a hot toddy handy when you watch these. But while Kieslowski ducks the responsibility to guide the viewer, he makes the ambiguity work. He makes no connection between one's behavior and one's rewards. The world is filled with random acts of violence, he is sure, and also random acts of kindness" - Barbara Shulgasser

[Llopin]

#3

http://thenewgamer.com/content/files/images/ctwl_1.jpg

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
director: Peter Greenaway

The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband's restaurant. Food, colour coding, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed but brutally uncompromising modern fable which has been interpreted as an allegory for Thatcherism.

Greenaway uses specific colors to represent each set of the film. The exterior of La Hollandaise is predominantly blue. The kitchen is mostly green. The seating area of the restaurant is red and the restrooms are stark white. Georgina's dress colors and the sashes that Albert and his associates wear change colors to match this scheme as they move from room to room. Another thing that changes is the color of Georgina's cigarettes. The car that Albert Spica drives is listed in the credits as a Valentine Lindsay AT V12. It is in fact a modified early-'70s Dodge Dart Swinger. Valentine Lindsay is the name of a British car enthusiast and racer who works with the V12 Team of Harrier Racing, and most likely loaned the car to the production. In Michael's book depository, a marker can be seen bearing the label "Death in the Seine." This was the name of a short film by writer-director Greenaway, made the previous year.

"It is truly among the most powerful and affecting films ever to have been produced. Making use of Sacha Vierny's skillful cinematography, which infuses every scene of the movie with a sensual, breathtaking loveliness, the director has crafted such an exquisite vision that he is able to give the various acts of cruelty and desperation he depicts a feeling of timelessness. Instead of merely presenting the crimes and miseries of various petty, nasty, vacant persons, he makes manifest the deep, powerful emotions present within all human beings and allows the viewer to experience them with a remarkable intensity" - Keith Allen

[Llopin]

#2

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Crimes and Misdemeanors
director: Woody Allen

Opthalmologist Judah Rosenthal has had an affair with Dolores for several years, and now she threatens to ruin his life if he doesn't marry her. When his brother Jack suggests to have Dolores murdered, Judah is faced with a big moral dilemma: destruction of his life or murder. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Clifford Stern is trying to make a film of a philosophy professor, but instead he's commissioned to make a portrait of succesful TV producer and brother-in-law Lester, who to Clifford represents everything that he despises.

One third of the film was discarded, rewritten and re-shot by Woody Allen: it had Allen's character shooting a documentary on old vaudevillians, with Mia Farrow as the head of the institute to which they belonged. Allen didn't like the scenes in the final cut. During postproduction he cut an entire third of the film, then rewrote and re-shot the third of the film from scratch. As a result, Sean Young's scenes were cut out, and Daryl Hannah's role was reduced to a brief cameo. Role of Prof. Louis Levy, subject of Cliff Stern's documentary in this film, is played by non-actor and therapist friend of Woody's, world renowned Martin S. Bergmann, clinical professor of psychology of New York University post-doctoral program. Allen felt that he had been too "nice" to the characters in the end of Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), so he wrote this film as a response to those feelings.

"The film is a pleasure to watch but when it’s over and I’m left to reflect on it, its disturbing ramifications, the brutally cold world view it presents, leaves me sad and despondent. Its coda is like a punch to the gut that fades into a dull ache. Without an imposed moral order, however dubious, it argues, the world is left in chaos and people to fend for themselves. Without the state or the eye of God, represented by the blind rabbi, guilt fades and the wicked are left happily unpunished. Some critics have questioned the depth of Allen’s serious films, claiming that they’re superficial and pretentious. Crimes and Misdemeanors obliterates that assumption" - James Sloan

[Llopin]

#1

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Do the Right Thing
director: Spike Lee

It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and tensions are growing there, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie, Sal's delivery boy, manages to always be at the center of the action.

This film was inspired by an actual incident in New York where some black youths were chased out of a pizzeria by some white youths in a section of New York known as Howard Beach. The story takes place at the intersection of Bedford and Stuyvesant Avenues. In reality, the two do not cross each other, however the film was shot in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Lee originally wanted Robert De Niro for the role of Sal. But De Niro turned down the part, saying that it was too similar to many of the parts he had played in the past. The key scene when Danny Aiello and John Turturro talk alone approximately midway through the film was partly improvised. The scripted scene ended as the character Smiley approached the window. Everything after that until the end of the scene was completely ad-libbed.

"At the time of its release, Do The Right Thing was attacked for allegedly painting a hopelessly bleak view of American race relations. But the film's supposed nihilism isn't as striking as its warm, empathetic depiction of a community wracked with poverty, aimlessness, and misdirected anger, yet still bursting with vitality and solidarity. Rather than peddling false uplift, the trademark of Hollywood dramas about racism, Lee's film depicts a universe where the social strictures designed to maintain order are forever endangered by an underclass no longer willing to work within a system that has failed them" - Nathan Rabin

[Sycophant]

Awesome! There's nothing here that I've seen that I wouldn't agree with. However, I'm grimacing over the humongous snub that was Kiki's.

[Spinal]

Apart from Field of Dreams and the very silly Indy 3, this list kicks ass. Cook/Thief getting to #3 is a pleasant surprise. Can't argue with #1.

[monolith94]

Apart from Field of Dreams and the very silly Indy 3, this list kicks ass. Cook/Thief getting to #3 is a pleasant surprise. Can't argue with #1.
Um, I can.

No Kiki! Booo.

[monolith94]

Um, I can.

No Kiki! Booo.
Oh, and I can argue with #2 too.

[Rowland]

I wish more people had seen Tsukamoto's visionary debut, Tetsuo. Otherwise, from what I've seen, this isn't a bad list.

[Spinal]

Oh, and I can argue with #2 too.

Are you feeling well?

[Winston*]

I wish more people had seen Tsukamoto's visionary debut, Tetsuo.
I have seen it. I did not like it. At all.

[Spinal]

I have seen it. I did not like it. At all.

Me too.

[Llopin]

1. Do the Right Thing 102.5
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors 62.5
3. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 40
4. Dekalog 32
5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 31.5
6. Santa Sangre 25
7. Roger & Me 25
8. Field of Dreams 24.5
9. Glory 24
10. The Seventh Continent 20

------
11. Kiki's Delivery Service 17.5
12. Violent Cop 16.5
12. Speaking Parts 16.5
14. Say Anything 15.5
15. Heathers 13.5
15. The Killer 13.5

I feel bad about Kiki's and Kitano, but otherwise I think it's a nice list. Sad not to have Jarmusch, Tsukamoto or Imamura around.

[monolith94]

I enjoyed Crimes and Misdemeanors reasonably well, but felt that it's themes were obviously presented and the ethical dilemmas lacked subtlety. Too much mirroring without enough visual artistry to make it work really well. It's certainly not a bad film, just not one that I would place in the top 5 of the year.

[Mysterious Dude]

I found Tetsuo unbearable.

[ledfloyd]

I really need to see the Dekalog. I love the three colors trilogy and the double life of veronique.

[MadMan]

Apart from Field of Dreams and the very silly Indy 3, this list kicks ass. Cook/Thief getting to #3 is a pleasant surprise. Can't argue with #1.Bah. Indy 3 is great, as is Field of Dreams. Anyways I really must see more from 1989, as it really seems like a great year for film that doesn’t get mentioned enough.

[Rowland]

Yeah, I remember that Buff hates Tetsuo too.

Y'alls a buncha lightweights. :)

[Grouchy]

By sheer coincidence, I rented Tetsuo today.

Rockin' Top10, which reminds me I still need to see Do the Right Thing. I'm sad The Killer didn't make it.

[MadMan]

One last thing: this thread also reminds me how much Do The Right Thing got screwed over by the Academy. But hey they went with the safe, soft, non-threatening movie about racism that was made in 1989 I guess :rolleyes:

[Sycophant]

Oh, man. Kiki's was so close. This Haneke film better be good.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm really surprised that Say Anything... didn't make the top ten at all. I didn't expect it to show up in the top five, but figured it'd at least make the list.