Going Through The Backlog Or I Bought Way Too Many Movies

[MadMan]

I decided at the end of April to finally go through all the movies and TV shows I have bought over the years but never watched. The first list is non Criterions-I'll cover those later. Also in no particular order, some of these are rewatches:

Die Hard collection-Viewed!
Labyrinth SE-Rewatch!
SOTD/HF/WE-Finally!
Platoon-Looong overdue
The Big Trail-Yeeehaw!
Oblivion-The Cruise meets M83
Rock 'n' Roll High School-Ramones!
Fort Apache-The west is pretty
Silent Night, Deadly Night-Killer Santa
The Legend of Billy Jean-Fair is fair
The Misfits-Twilight of the idols
Cowboy Bebop The Complete Series-This is the last time I rewatch this. I swear!
Dead Or Alive trilogy-Kickass!
Massacre Gun-Wicked cool
Crimes of Passion-Pruds not apply
True Detective S2
ANOES Collection-Still awesome! Rewatch!
Cinema Paradiso
Back To The Future trilogy
George Carlin
Luther boxset
Hannibal boxset
A Fish Called Wanda-Fishtastic!
The Great Escape-Took me a decade and a half
Ben Hur-Heston will have his revenge
Legend of the Lost-Meh
Sparticus-We all are etc etc
A Night At The Opera-Yey musical comedy
Seven Psychopaths-dark meta!
Kingdom of Heaven-Badass
Minority Report-Crime in the future. The future!
Amelie-Still marvelous and wonderful
12 Monkeys-Time travel is a bitch
Dogma-Religion ha ha!
Major Payne/Sgt. Bilko-Solid military mock comedy double bill

[Skitch]

Silent night deadly night should be top of list if not seen. Ditto cowboy bebop.

Is that Legend of the Lost the dinosaur movie? I adored that as a kid, and that dvd has been on my shelf for some time. If that's same movie I'll rewatch soon too.

Also Major Payne is fucking hilarious.

[MadMan]

Silent night deadly night should be top of list if not seen. Ditto cowboy bebop.

Is that Legend of the Lost the dinosaur movie? I adored that as a kid, and that dvd has been on my shelf for some time. If that's same movie I'll rewatch soon too.

Also Major Payne is fucking hilarious.

I already saw Cowboy Bebop numerous times. This is the final rewatch since I now own it. Legend of the Lost is an old John Wayne film. Silent Night will be viewed soon, probably. Everyone has told me Major Payne is funny.

[Mal]

Is the Hannibal box set the tv show (Great stuff!) or the Hannibal movies?

I wish I only had only that many unwatched movies/series... a local dvd/music store near to me has these $5 grab bags that have 10 single DVDs, and lets just say I probably have around a hundred unwatched, unseen films and shows of varying degrees of possible quality that I've acquired in the last few years. Its bad.

[MadMan]

I just lost an entire Die Hard series review because there is a limit on videos per post. Well that sucks.

Die Hard-Classic
Die Hard 2-Good sequel
Die Hard 3-Yey fun, my favorite
Die Hard 4-Good but a tad ridiculous
Die Hard 5-Sucked


Die Hard 5 was the last one I had not seen before. What a turkey. I got to see Die Hard 4 in theaters and therefore like it for that-luckily there was a DC on the collection. I own them in a steelbook collector's blu ray set I got from WallMart for only $25. Nice! On to the next one.

[MadMan]

Is the Hannibal box set the tv show or the Hannibal movies?

I wish I only had only that many unwatched movies... a local dvd/music store near to me has these $5 grab bags that have 10 single DVDs, and lets just say I probably have around a hundred unwatched, unseen films of varying degrees of possible quality that I've acquired. Its bad.

The TV show. It's on DVD, though. And I am pretty sure if I added in the Criterions the list would be closer to 80 at least. Yeah backlogs are a motherfucker.

[MadMan]

Labyrinth 30th Anniversary Edition



I own Labyrinth on blu ray, of course, as I bought it a year or two ago from Barnes and Noble. I love this movie even if the last act is a mixed bag and some elements simply are too weird to matter or work. Jennifer Connelly is awesome, and I really need to see more of her work. And yey David Bowie rocking it as the Goblin King-I don't see him as a villain so much as an obstacle to her finally growing up and moving on as a person. Metaphor!

This movie has a fox riding a dog and other marvelous characters, and the songs actually work. The costume ball part is actually a nightmare once you realize that it is about Connelly not moving forward as a person and giving into silly meaningless fantasies. Sometimes dreams can turn into nightmares, and friends will hopefully push us towards becoming a more well rounded person. On the other hand you don't have to grow up too fast...

[Ezee E]

True Detective S2 - didn't finish the season. Was so bad by the third or fourth episode that it would be a miracle for me to return. I heard I made the right call.

Cinema Paradiso - was told this was a must... maybe I should try it again.

Back To The Future trilogy - 1 & 2 are a ton of fun. The first is almost kind of a perfect comedy in a way.

Ben Hur - worth it for the chariot race

A Night At The Opera - Groucho still works to this day

Kingdom of Heaven - LONG... and not good

Minority Report - Quite possibly the best 2000's Spielberg movie.

Amelie - one of my top twenty. Favorite Romantic Comedy, and something I recommend as a foreign film to anyone that's trying to break into foreign films

[MadMan]

Amelie and BTF trilogy are rewatches. The rest you listed are long overdue first watches. I heard True Detective S2 is bad but I have to know.

[MadMan]

Cornetto Trilogy



Finally I watched The World's End. I had seen the others before, although it had been a while since I had last seen Shaun of the Dead. I love this trilogy dearly, as it is funny, entertaining, and mostly great batch of movies. Edgar Wright is a unique talent who so far in my opinion has yet to make a bad or poor film, and I look forward to whatever he does next.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)



I did a review of Wright's zombie romcom for the Corrino years ago, so this is covering similar ground. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are perfect together, and their interactions are priceless. I like how SOTD pays homage to the zombie genre while also making fun of such classics as Night of the Living Dead and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. Oh and this flick has a surprising amount of gore and mayhem-at least more than I remember. My favorite joke is still "You've got red on you."

Hot Fuzz (2007)



This is the gem of the entire series, mostly because it is highly entertaining and also for the awesome number of action movie references. There is even a David Lynch homage that is cleverly included. I keep laughing at the "Greater good" line, which I noted recently in another thread is unfortunately still relevant. Frost and Pegg had their best chemistry in this one.

The World's End (2013)



Maybe it is because Pegg's Gary is a tad cringe worthy in this one, or perhaps events take too long to get rolling. I donno but while I did like this one I didn't love it like the others. Still there is a lot of good humor in The World's End, and I can relate to getting dragged into something crazy by that one friend we all have. The robots were a neat touch, and I liked when Frost's Andy went crazy on a bunch of them. Perhaps a later rewatch will change my mind on this one. I donno.

Overall: Loads of awesome. I got this in one of those "Three in one" blu ray collections at Half Price Books. Yet each of them have plenty of bonus features. Glad I grabbed it.

[Morris Schæffer]

A fish Called Wanda is hands down the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Usually, actors don’t win oscars for appearing In a comedy, but Kevin Kline sure did, and it’s easy to see why.

I also think Hot Fuzz is the gem of the trilogy. I recall at the time that the ending of Shaun didn’t sit well with me because it abandoned its comedic aspect in favor of a more violent and traditional ending. Still a good movie though. The world’s end started really well, but it got so outlandish that I felt there was probably a better movie in there had it simply been about friends reuniting, causing some mischief and dealing with open open wounds like with the Marsan character facing his bully. My least favorite of the trilogy.

I love Die hard 2. It bothers me when people say it apes the original’s one location concept and thus feels like a copycat. What? Folks can’t be at an airport picking up someone?

I remember not liking back to the future 2 all that much. Too convoluted, losing the simple charms of the original. Part 3 was a return to form, but part 1 is tops for sure.

Ben Hur and Spartacus are astonishing, 2 colossal epics especially the former. A rewatch is long overdue. Their definitive bluray releases, which i own, are supposed to be revelatory, making both look brand new.

Amelie was ok, but I found its stylistic flourishes and fairy tale-ish whimsy not to my liking.

minority report is amazing, perhaps spielbergs last great movie, with Munich.

the great escape. Top 20 fave. Criterion recently released a bluray remaster, but so far not for region 2. Which fucking hurts.

cinema paradiso is looong, but a rewatch is equally long overdue. Thats another bluray i own but haven’t yet thrown in the player. Morricone’s score is fabulously moving.

[Skitch]

Agreed on Hot Fuzz. I was bored with Worlds End.

DH2 is sweet. BTTF2 was my favorite for a long time, until I noticed a glaring plot hole. But that's nitpicking. It's still fun as hell.

[MadMan]

A fish Called Wanda is hands down the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Usually, actors don’t win oscars for appearing In a comedy, but Kevin Kline sure did, and it’s easy to see why.

I also think Hot Fuzz is the gem of the trilogy. I recall at the time that the ending of Shaun didn’t sit well with me because it abandoned its comedic aspect in favor of a more violent and traditional ending. Still a good movie though. The world’s end started really well, but it got so outlandish that I felt there was probably a better movie in there had it simply been about friends reuniting, causing some mischief and dealing with open open wounds like with the Marsan character facing his bully. My least favorite of the trilogy.

I love Die hard 2. It bothers me when people say it apes the original’s one location concept and thus feels like a copycat. What? Folks can’t be at an airport picking up someone?

I remember not liking back to the future 2 all that much. Too convoluted, losing the simple charms of the original. Part 3 was a return to form, but part 1 is tops for sure.

Ben Hur and Spartacus are astonishing, 2 colossal epics especially the former. A rewatch is long overdue. Their definitive bluray releases, which i own, are supposed to be revelatory, making both look brand new.

Amelie was ok, but I found its stylistic flourishes and fairy tale-ish whimsy not to my liking.

minority report is amazing, perhaps spielbergs last great movie, with Munich.

the great escape. Top 20 fave. Criterion recently released a bluray remaster, but so far not for region 2. Which fucking hurts.

cinema paradiso is looong, but a rewatch is equally long overdue. Thats another bluray i own but haven’t yet thrown in the player. Morricone’s score is fabulously moving.

I have only seen bits and pieces of A Fish Called Wanda on TV, so I grabbed a cheap DVD copy from Barnes and Noble.

I like that Shaun ended the way it did-had it not, it wouldn't have fit in with most zombie movies. I agree for now that World's End could have ditched the robots, but I think Wright felt that they added to the film's discussion of how Pegg's character failed to move forward and how his friends were dealing with their own issues.

Die Hard 2 is still good imo, even though I kind of feel that they went with another bottle episode style movie again. I liked the airport setting, though. I feel that at some point I will properly review the whole series, using another format that does not lose my posts when I take too long. I had no idea there was a 6 videos per post limit, but I guess that makes sense.

Back To The Future Part 2 will be discussed later, but yeah it's not as good as 1 or 3. For some reason people bash 3 but I like it a lot.

I unfortunately only own Ben-Hur and Spartacus on DVD. Spartacus was a gift, Ben-Hur was a random Half-Price Books purchase.

Amelie is one of my favorite movies. More on that later...I bought Minority Report at the same Best Buy that I got The Great Escape from. Both were $5 DVDs, and they were purchased years ago in Iowa City during a trip I made there with friends. I will be getting rid of my copy of The Great Escape since it's going to be a Criterion.

I bought Cinema Paradiso on blu ray at Barnes and Noble last year, I think. People kept telling me to watch it, so I will.

[MadMan]

Agreed on Hot Fuzz. I was bored with Worlds End.

DH2 is sweet. BTTF2 was my favorite for a long time, until I noticed a glaring plot hole. But that's nitpicking. It's still fun as hell.

What is the plot hole? I think World's End started off way too slow, where as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead had funny moments right off the bat.

[Peng]

My favorite of the Cornetto films is The World’s End because its view on (I think I mention this in its thread) toxic nostalgia is incisive, yet still incredibly heartfelt (best Simon Pegg performance, ever) by not denying the sincerity of how powerful or enticing those bygone feelings may be, and also grounds the usual humor and fun hijinks something fierce. Watch all of them once though, need to see them again.

[MadMan]

My favorite of the Cornetto films is The World’s End because its view on (I think I mention this in its thread) toxic nostalgia is incisive, yet still incredibly heartfelt (best Simon Pegg performance, ever) by not denying the sincerity of how powerful or enticing those bygone feelings may be, and also grounds the usual humor and fun hijinks something fierce. Watch all of them once though, need to see them again.

I liked that it attacked nostalgia, yes. I actually thought Frost gave his best performance of the trilogy in this one-I think Pegg was at his best in Hot Fuzz. Also I forgot to mention that Paddy Considine is fantastic in The World's End, and his character gets shoved aside a bit too much.

[Peng]

Also, my opinion on Cinema Paradiso is probably unusual in that my first time is the theatrical version, which I liked a fair bit but still not over the moon or anything. But then a few years later I watched the director’s cut, and it became one of my all-time favorite films. Most who have watched both that I encounter seem to be the opposite, preferring the theatrical cut.

[MadMan]

Platoon (1986)



34 years later I finally viewed the movie Platoon after seeing a couple other Oliver Stone movies. I still think out of the bunch I have seen that JFK is his best flick, however Platoon and Wall Street are a fantastic one-two punch from a director who's left leaning ideals appeals to me. I can see why Tropic Thunder pokes fun at this movie-at it's heart, Platoon is an oddly sentimental look at a harrowing war experience that, despite being fictional, rings true based on accounts of Vietnam from different soldiers. Stone may overly dramatize war at times, yet the film's main set pieces-the torching of the village, the multiple battles sequences, especially the last one, and the brotherly bounding that takes place-all seem to work really well.

Everyone likes the part where Charlie Sheen, Keith David and co. get high and sing along, but I also liked the intense fight between Tom Berenger and William Dafoe, with the two of them obviously representing the dueling sides of humanity. Apocalypse Now may have done such things in a bit more complex and bleaker manner, yet Platoon stands out for me as well because it is very human, and seems to focus more on the soldiers involved.

My biggest complaint however is that the last scene is a tad simplistic, and there are points where Sheen's narration is underwhelming or a tad too obvious. However I liked it overall, as some parts warranted some overlying thoughts. I did not realize how excellent this movie's cast is, as well: so many famous and before they were famous names involved. I am wondering what Oliver Stone movie to view next, and I think I may hold on to my copy of this film and view it again, perhaps as a double bill with Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket if I ever buy that as well.

Overall Verdict: I have no idea if it deserved to win Best Picture, but this movie is exceptional. Glad I bought this from Best Buy on Blu ray-the picture and quality was exactly what I expected.

[Skitch]

What is the plot hole?

[

Show Spoiler

Biff steals the DeLorean to give his younger self the sports almanac, then returns to his same time line which is impossible (but if they didn't, Marty and Doc would've never got the car back). That time line wouldn't be reachable as long as young Biff has the book.

]

[MadMan]

[

Show Spoiler

Biff steals the DeLorean to give his younger self the sports almanac, then returns to his same time line which is impossible (but if they didn't, Marty and Doc would've never got the car back). That time line wouldn't be reachable as long as young Biff has the book.

]

Ah. I will keep that in mind when I go through the whole trilogy again.

[BuffaloWilder]

MadMan, no such thing as buying too many movies. I have a collection of easily over 2,000 - 300 Criterions and an assortment of Shouts!, Arrow's, Kino's and Indicator's. This is the medium we live for. Better to surround ourselves with it than not, while we're here. At least you have them on hand.

[MadMan]

MadMan, no such thing as buying too many movies. I have a collection of easily over 2,000 - 300 Criterions and an assortment of Shouts!, Arrow's, Kino's and Indicator's. This is the medium we live for. Better to surround ourselves with it than not, while we're here. At least you have them on hand.

Whoa! That is awesome. At some point I was probably heading towards 400 or more movies but I sold a bunch over the years. Also I am moving on to blu ray.

[MadMan]

The Big Trail (1930)



I have seen and liked a number of Raoul Walsh movies over the years. I really liked The Big Trail, despite it being really dated. John Wayne is a dashing young man desperate for revenge and the love of a nice young woman he accidentally met in a cabin. The shots of the frontier are stunning and look great in black and white, although the blu ray restoration probably helped. Walsh couldn't resist adding some comedic elements, yet it is the main plot of Wayne seeking frontier justice for his friend that works best here.

Walsh and Wayne would work again together on Dark Command, a solid western I saw years ago on AMC. However I prefer The Big Trail, which is a slightly better film and is more interesting. I suppose I have not seen enough wagon train movies, and I would like to view others. Also I have a deep love of westerns.

Overall Verdict: Solid, and for some reason I can't recall where I bought it from. Maybe Barnes & Noble? I own enough John Wayne so I will probably sell this one when Half-Price Books opens back up.

[MadMan]

Oblivion (2013)



After Oblivion and Tron Legacy I rather like this Joseph Kosinski. He makes good movies that entertain me. Oblivion also has Tom Cruise, who despite being crazy in real life still makes some good and great movies-this is one of them. I heard mixed opinions about Oblivion and so I went in with no expectations, which probably helped. I dug the cool space flying vehicle he had in this movie, too. Kosinski borrows a lot from different sci fi movies and oddly in the process creates his own, interesting work.

Sure I have some questions, and I was a little unclear about certain parts of the film. One of the trailer's gave away that Morgan Freeman was in this movie, which is lame but I guess they thought "Why not advertise Cruise and Freeman being in the same movie together?" So that makes sense. I liked his first exchange with Cruise, although they didn't quite give him enough to do, and honestly both main female actors weren't given much to do, either.

The M83 score is absolutely stunning, and I dug the really pretty visuals. The final shot is also really neat. I thought to myself that Cruise made both this and then Edge of Tomorrow in a two year span while still being involved in the Mission Impossible series. That kind of crazy work ethic is a bit impressive to me. I also hope that Kosinski continues to get work in Hollywood.

Overall Verdict: Awesome, and purchased cheaply at Half-Price Books. I already want to watch it again.

[Skitch]

I thought the trailer for Oblivion looked mediocre at best. I wont underestimate Kosinski again. Even the fire fighting movie he made was really good.