Author Topic: What are your favorite movies? (Read 119916 times)

wraith808 · « **Reply #100 on:** March 13, 2013, 09:47 AM »

Switching gears for a second, does anybody find movies that take place in subways or on trains (or in train stations) particularly enjoyable like I do?
-40hz (March 13, 2013, 01:04 AM)

Check out that movie The Hunted with Christopher Lambert and John Lone. They have a train scene that might cure you of that... It's a good movie. But that train scene was really intense...

Renegade · « **Reply #101 on:** March 13, 2013, 09:49 AM »

I saw a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick - or maybe it was Stephen Segal - same stuff, different name ---- it was on a train. Pretty bad movie. Good for 14 year old boys though.

40hz · « **Reply #102 on:** March 13, 2013, 11:01 AM »

^ For me it's not enough to have a train scene or have the train be just another locked room gimmick. It has to be an integral element to the story. Von Ryan's Express for example. Or The Great Train Robbery. In those, the train introduced unique elements that much of the plot depended on.

The subway fascinates me because I (along with a few equally daft friends) used to be an avid "abandoned," "lost" and "hidden places" explorer back in my college days. It was a very enjoyable hobby that made it almost too easy to get yourself arrested - or even killed. (You soon discovered that better than half those DANGER! KEEP OUT signs were put there for very good reasons.) Anybody stupid and ballsy enough to go crawling around in places you'd ~~probably~~ definitely be better off staying away from will understand what I'm saying here.

wraith808 · « **Reply #103 on:** March 13, 2013, 11:02 AM »

I saw a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick - or maybe it was Stephen Segal - same stuff, different name ---- it was on a train. Pretty bad movie. Good for 14 year old boys though.
-Renegade (March 13, 2013, 09:49 AM)

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory - Steven Seagal. It was pretty much a retread of the first one, which was good, but unlike Bruce Willis' ability to take Die Hard to different territories, this was a failure. Not bad to me, just not good, and with a sense of deja vu thrown in for good measure.

Good Steven Seagal movies: Under Siege, Above the Law, Hard to Kill. Bad ones... just about everything else. Though will say that he seems to have become more in touch with nature, and has done a couple of ones that benefit causes. They're just too preachy though, as most of those types are.

wraith808 · « **Reply #104 on:** March 13, 2013, 11:05 AM »

For me it's not enough to have a train scene or have the train be just another locked room gimmick. It has to be an integral element to the story. Von Ryan's Express for example. Or The Great Train Robbery. In those, the train introduced unique elements that much of the plot depended on.
-40hz (March 13, 2013, 11:01 AM)

Not sure if the Hunted's scene will satisfy you in that regard, then. True, it's not a locked room gimmick- it's a flowing scene in a Japanese Bullet Train. You have to see it... it doesn't really lend itself to words.

40hz · « **Reply #105 on:** March 13, 2013, 11:12 AM »

For me it's not enough to have a train scene or have the train be just another locked room gimmick. It has to be an integral element to the story. Von Ryan's Express for example. Or The Great Train Robbery. In those, the train introduced unique elements that much of the plot depended on.
-40hz (March 13, 2013, 11:01 AM)

Not sure if the Hunted's scene will satisfy you in that regard, then. True, it's not a locked room gimmick- it's a flowing scene in a Japanese Bullet Train. You have to see it... it doesn't really lend itself to words.
-wraith808 (March 13, 2013, 11:05 AM)

Sounds good. just put it on my watch list. thx!

40hz · « **Reply #106 on:** March 13, 2013, 12:25 PM »

I also like "The Warriors" quite a bit - it's kind of a subway movie. I remember watching it on "Joe Bob's Last Call", and he had an MTA map that he used when coming back from the commercial breaks to show exactly what the progress of the Warriors was:
-mwb1100 (March 13, 2013, 01:42 AM)

The Warriors was definitely one of the more surreal but believable quasi-dystopian flicks ever made. A cult classic. And deservedly so. I loved the "droogy" Clockwork Orange look:

Droogs!

... of the Baseball Furies.

I miss Joe Bob.
-mwb1100 (March 13, 2013, 01:42 AM)

Me too.

Joe Bob Briggs was a god!

Drive-In Saturday Night was probably my all-time favorite cable TV show.

sword · « **Reply #107 on:** March 13, 2013, 10:54 PM »

Best by date with my star ratings:

The 39 Steps 1935 (British thriller) Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll *

The Third Man 1949 (British film noir) Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard *****

Born Yesterday 1950 (comedy) Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday ***

Rashomon 1950 (Japanese crime drama) Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura ****

North by Northwest 1959 (American thriller) Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason ***

The Trap 1966 (frontier trapping drama) Rita Tushingham **

Bullitt 1968 (American dramatic thriller) Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset ***

Where Eagles Dare 1968 (World War II action-adventure spy film) Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure ***

The Eiger Sanction 1975 (American action thriller) Clint Eastwood ****

Witness 1985 (crime drama) Harrison Ford **

Bagdad Cafe 1987 (American comedy) Jack Palance ****

40hz · « **Reply #108 on:** March 21, 2013, 10:46 PM »

I very briefly mentioned this little gem of a movie from 2003 earlier. If you like caper films (I'm addicted to them) it's one of the better ones. It's called Foolproof.

It's the story of three twenty-somethings living in Toronto who have formed a very unique club. One that is dedicated to meticulously planning "foolproof" high-stakes robberies. The club has four rules:

Style, finesse and brains are everything. No guns, violence or use of force allowed.
Whatever skills are required to commit the heist must be real skills at least one member of the club actually has
The research and planning must be complete enough that the robbery could have actually been committed if they so chose.
The planned crime is never to be carried out. It's purely an artistic and intellectual exercise.

All goes well until one of the members accidentally loses his copy of one of their heist plans. A short time later, the club members are shocked to see the jewel warehouse robbery they so meticulously planned had been successfully carried out. And from the details the police released to the evening news, it was very clear that whoever had pulled it off used their plan. Shortly afterwards they receive a phone call. Whoever had used their plan admired their expertise - and also knew their identities. He now wanted them to work with him on stealing something even bigger. And just in case they didn't want to help him, he pointed out that he still had the copy of their plan. A plan with enough in it for the police to be able to trace it back to the club should someone ever decide to send it to them."

Neat little film with some extremely clever plot twists and surprises. Recommended!

-----

Note: last I looked the full movie is up on YouTube. Watch it here.

dspelley · « **Reply #109 on:** March 23, 2013, 10:21 PM »

Wonder Boys