Fun Movies, Tier One
Submitted by jim on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:16
Tags:
- Men In Black
- The Abyss
- Splash
- The Fugitive
- Terminator 2
- Tarzan (Disney)
- The Matrix
- Tombstone
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- X-Men
- Chicken Run
- The Negotiator
- Deep Blue Sea
- Tootsie
- Face/Off
- Shanghai Noon
- Ghostbusters
Author Comments:
Happily pay full price.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Flash Gordon (1980)
Flash Gordon! How could I forget? It has been dutifully added to my "guilty pleasures" list (somehow seems more appropriate there :). As for Raiders, it is already on my "rewatchable" list. Thanks!
Why isn't the Little Mermaid on this list?
It is now! The kitchen scene alone earns it a spot.
I was pleasantly surprised by Blast from the Past. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. A lot of that has to do with Dave Foley who was great (just as he was in NewsRadio.)
I have to say, some of them I would have put on a rewatchable list -- Fugitive, BHCop, and MIB most notably.
Dave Foley was in "Blast from the Past"? Damn, now I'll have to rent it!
I would probably put those movies on my rewatchable list as well, except for the fact that I haven't actually rewatched them, so I can't move them over definitively until I have (I'm kinda a stickler that way). Except for Jaws (which I've seen a billion times on TBS), I own all my "rewatchable" movies, so I know I find them rewatchable.
The holiday season approaching, I am finding The Santa Clause to be surprisingly rewatchable (or maybe it's just that our 2-year-old will tolerate it, and I've seen it about a billion times fewer than Mary Poppins (which is highly rewatchable - up to a point)). It helps that I like Tim Allen.
And yeah, Dave Foley was great. But I liked pretty much everybody in Blast From the Past - a nice movie with some laugh-out-loud moments.
Jim, perhaps you know by now that THE ABYSS is now available in a 'director's cut' version. It's a far superior movie to the original release. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's James Cameron's best. That's right, better than A2, T2, and T. [Huh! AT&T. Ignore all between brackets.]
Yeah, actually I've seen it. And I agree that it is better than the theatrical release. But I'd have to disagree about it being Cameron's best. I'd rank his movies like so:
I did have some slight misgivings about placing The Terminator so high, as I might have enjoyed the The Abyss a bit more. But I had to allow for the special effects-driven "wow!" factor clouding my judgement (The Terminator was made in 1984!).
And yes, I cheated by giving T1 and T2 a tie for second. Again, allowing for the "wow!" factor.
These were surprisingly hard to rate. Cameron is pretty reliable. There's a decent drop off after Titanic, though. But this little project has reminded me to add True Lies to my Guilty Pleasures list. :)
TRUE LIES gave me a major pain - except for the Tom Arnold character who made it chucklesome/painful. And it's a wonder Cameron didn't have the Titanic sink after colliding with a nuclear warhead. Have you noticed how many of his movies indulge in the pornography of nuclear destruction?: A2, T2, THE ABYSS, and TRUE LIES.
Last night, I was working and Four Weddings and a Funeral came on. I finished up about half way through, (about 2am,) and stayed up to watch it as far as the reading of the W.H.Auden poem at the funeral. I'd say it's definitely rewatchable, (even if it didn't have Land Rovers in it!) and I'm tempted to added to my FbG list as a Tear-Jerker.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if I actually rewatched it, it would have any problem making my "rewatchable" list.
so what did you think of the X-men, other than fun?
I think it was just about as good as a comic book adaptation gets. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan carried the movie, but the supporting cast held their own quite nicely. Some folks have complained about the extended setup (half the movie is just putting the pieces in place), but I enjoyed that. It was well-paced, with enough action interspersed to keep it moving, but not so much as to detract from the plot (such as it is). I liked rooting against and feeling sympathetic towards our villians at the same time, and I liked the way Wolverine was used to poke fun at the various conceits. At the end, I found myself wanting more (which is a good thing, since they set the stage for any number of possible sequels).
I had intended to see Chicken Run, but we were too late. Ultimately, I wasn't disappointed. Worth the $7.00.
I see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nowhere on this list. Why not?
I haven't seen it. To be honest, I never really considered seeing it. Should I? If so, why?
Well, I enjoyed it. It's my second favorite movie. You'll really like it if you enjoy the Turtles themselves, family films, Jim Henson's creatures, and light action movies. But a word of notice: If you're expecting other Turtles films to be just like the first one, don't see the sequels. They're really wacky and not so much action oriented. I liked them, though.