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The 80's Draft: The After Party - Page 4

post #151 of 196
9/3/08 at 6:28pm
Some of my favorite lists.

At Play in the Fields of Nostalgia
Dickson
Moltisanti
Nexus 7

These may be nostalgia heavy, but they're all really good lists of movies as well.

Stay Classy, Chud

Dre
Anderson
Henry Hill

Not a selection I don't like in these lists. All have stood the test of time.

The Road Less Traveled

Bailey
Kirby

I was stomping around in this area myself. Bailey had a really strong draft, IMO, with his first two picks of Fanny and Alexander and Wings of Desire alone.

My Favorite Theme

Arjen

Nicely done there. Good movies too.

My biggest regret was not opting for Cinema Paradiso in the bonus round with hindsight. Sentimental, yes, but it's another movie that simply works, especially the end.
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post #152 of 196
9/3/08 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
Is Diner like the proto-modern geek movie? Love it to death, always have. Like to consider myself a "Boogie" or "Billy", but unfortunately may be more of a "Eddie". (Thank God, at least not a "Modell") Do sometimes think Danial Stern's "Shrevie" would really fit in well here.
I consider it the "bridge" film between American Graffitti and Swingers. And, unfortunately, it seems to be sort of forgotten. I think most people think Levinson started with Good Morning, Vietnam.
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post #153 of 196
9/3/08 at 9:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Straxboy - An Anthony Hickox Film View Post
Hellraiser's simply a torpedo of baroque ingenuity. Plus the Resurrection Theme is one of the greatest 3 minutes of film music of the decade.
I'm guessing we're talking the score that plays while Frank's coming back together? Then, yes, I am in agreement.
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post #154 of 196
9/4/08 at 12:55am
They Live was sweet.
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post #155 of 196
9/4/08 at 1:33am
They Live was supersweet. Serious fun. Such a good ending. Such a good alley fight. So many great Roddy Piper moments. I always thought that it should have been Kurt Russell, and that would have been fine, but now I understand the greatness of Piper.

It plays better today than it would have in the eighties, I think. Favorite line was "Figures it would end up being something like this".

Thanks for the heads up. Kirby.
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post #156 of 196
9/4/08 at 2:25am
Fordyce, I've got vague memories of MADE IN USA from catching it once on VHS. Just remember it being bleak as fuck, with Pasdar and Penn looking very strung-out for the duration. And I'm pretty sure Lori Singer got naked at some stage but, hell, when didn't she?

A very underrated '80s flick is THE BEAST, a.k.a. THE BEAST OF WAR, directed by Kevin Reynolds. Jason Patric is a conscientious Russian soldier in Afghanistan who runs afoul of his bloodthirsty commander (George Dzundza) and gets left out in the desert to die. He gets sanctuary from the Afghan rebels and sets off in search of payback. Intense, intelligent stuff.

And DINER is the ultimate proto-geek movie. Levinson was writing awesome banter before Tarantino knew how to spell. (You see what I did there?)

Fat Elvis, I actually liked Modell. Paul Reiser earned a lifetime pass from me for that performance.
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post #157 of 196
9/4/08 at 9:55am
Which screening did you go to Rudd? What time?

And I agree: just as relevant today.
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post #158 of 196
9/4/08 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tommy five-tone View Post

A very underrated '80s flick is THE BEAST, a.k.a. THE BEAST OF WAR, directed by Kevin Reynolds. Jason Patric is a conscientious Russian soldier in Afghanistan who runs afoul of his bloodthirsty commander (George Dzundza) and gets left out in the desert to die. He gets sanctuary from the Afghan rebels and sets off in search of payback. Intense, intelligent stuff.

And DINER is the ultimate proto-geek movie. Levinson was writing awesome banter before Tarantino knew how to spell. (You see what I did there?)

Fat Elvis, I actually liked Modell. Paul Reiser earned a lifetime pass from me for that performance.
THE BEAST is a nice little sleeper. Tense little flick. Reynolds' first flick FANDANGO is a fave too.

Love, love DINER. A testament to Levinson , and his knack for capturing male-bonding in his dialogue, that the movie overcomes casting of both Guttenberg & Reiser.

Yeah, Reiser does his thing with Modell. Not knockin' the performance. Though, he walks the line with his usual Reiser-ness. Even a little more would be too much to take!

Like Tarantino & Scorsese, Levinson's use of music is pretty fantastic. Great film.
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post #159 of 196
9/4/08 at 11:47am
I was at the 6:50 showing.
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post #160 of 196
9/4/08 at 1:04pm
Ah. I was at the 9:15pm. Were people laughing a lot in your screening? There's obviously a sense of humor in the film and spots to laugh, chuckle. But there was a lot of places where people laughed that were weird, distracted. I guess some people saw the film as ridiculous and spoofy or something. I don't know.
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post #161 of 196
9/4/08 at 1:07pm
They Live is scary relevant today. But I imagine, without some sort of biblical cataclysm or social revolution (which isn't going to ever happen), this movie will continue to be relevant, no matter what generation.

As much as this movie is about corporate control and faceless greed, it's pointing a big middle finger at all of us, and our god damned complacency. The gasoline prices right now are a perfect example. We'll continue to take it up the ass with a smile, and then get back in line for more.

No, I don't have any of the answers, I'm just as asleep as anybody in the movie, or if I'm awake, I don't give enough of a shit about humanity to do anything about it, because in the end, Meg Foster's just going to shoot me in the back anyway.

EDIT: Kirby, you'd be surprised how many people see They Live as some sort of camp comedy, or something. I've mentioned in previous posts about the people that can't get over stupid shit like the Ghostbuster's props, like that negates the meaning of the film.
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post #162 of 196
9/4/08 at 3:34pm
Everyone was laughing. Including me. It's a funny damn movie. How else do you explain the very end? I think of it as sort of a black comedy/satire. Once Roddy gets the glasses and starts running around the streets with a shotgun, I don't think it can be denied. There's a whole ton more going on in They Live. It's very much science fiction, but it also has horror and action elements, plus the unsubtle thematic heft, but the only unintentional laughter in it might be a couple 80s moments. There was also a very unironic standing ovation at the end of my screening.
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post #163 of 196
9/4/08 at 6:39pm
When he opened the box of sunglasses, someone laughed. When Keith David made any facial expression they laughed. When Keith David put his leg up on a cement block, they laughed.

There's definitely a lot of dark humor and just humor period. I definitely find things to laugh at in the film. But I think a lot of people overdid it. They just anticipated laughing at anything and everything and then did. I think Fordyce is right: people see it as campy.
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post #164 of 196
9/4/08 at 6:48pm
People get like that at these things. When I went to a screening of The Thing earlier this year, people started laughing during the first scene. It was annoying. But, because the movie is awesome, people got quiet half-way through. They Live certainly is campy, but does not deserve leg on cement block laughs.
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post #165 of 196
9/4/08 at 6:53pm
Shit, I had people laughing all the way through The texas Chain Saw Massacre (the original) when that was re-released. And that's a damn effective film, if you go with it. Some people are just dicks.
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post #166 of 196
9/4/08 at 8:27pm
I think that those films are made in such a way that you can watch it in a couple of different ways. They Live can be very campy, just like Die Hard, but They Live happens to have a point to make as well. Shit, so does The Running Man.

There's no sense in going in totally serious though. While a message may be given, the primary concern here is to entertain.
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post #167 of 196
9/5/08 at 1:48pm
The Running Man has the same basic plot: satellite dish slavery.
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post #168 of 196
9/5/08 at 1:58pm
Thread Starter 
Watched The Hitcher last night. (Felt like an appropriate coda to the RNC). Can never quite love it. Reminds me of Jeepers Creepers, where the first twenty is so perfect, the rest can't live up to it. It has me hook-line-and-sinker, until C. Thomas hits the bus. Then it becomes a routine chase-thriller. I'd argue once Jennifer Jason meets her maker (in an admittedly unexpected twist), it comes apart. The last half-hour is just bad.
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post #169 of 196
9/5/08 at 2:18pm
Thread Starter 
Also watched Eight Men Out the other night. Love John Sayles (My second fave, after Lone Star). One of those movies that captures the collective loss of innocence. John Cusack is really the heart and soul. Flippantly, mentioned always crying at the end, but it does get me everytime. (When the bleacher bums are disparaging Shoeless Joe & the Black Sox-the wince on Cusack's face wrecks me) Great flick. (Oh, the Rooker plays a great slimeball / asshole too)
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post #170 of 196
9/5/08 at 2:31pm
Elvis, you seen City of Hope? That's a great Sayles film, one I appreciate even more than Lone Star.
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post #171 of 196
9/5/08 at 2:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sackley View Post
Elvis, you seen City of Hope? That's a great Sayles film, one I appreciate even more than Lone Star.
Man, it's been forever on that, at least fifteen yrs! (Still no DVD?) Remember it being a really ambitious, interesting film. Lumet by way of Do The Right Thing? Bassett nudity was a plus. Unfortunately, last hurrah for Vincent Spano.
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post #172 of 196
9/5/08 at 3:11pm
The Hitcher only gets weirder and better as it goes, in my tiny opinion.
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post #173 of 196
9/5/08 at 3:21pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm in the weird one percent on this. (How weird is it to prefer ROAD GAMES?) Wish I loved it more. Do love how unraveled C. Thomas gets as it goes on. And, of course, Rutger is up there with the best of the decade's villains.
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post #174 of 196
9/5/08 at 4:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
Man, it's been forever on that, at least fifteen yrs! (Still no DVD?) Remember it being a really ambitious, interesting film. Lumet by way of Do The Right Thing? Bassett nudity was a plus. Unfortunately, last hurrah for Vincent Spano.
Yeah, it's too bad City of Hope never got any of the attention that some similar later films (like say, oh, Crash) did.

P.S. I would count The Tie That Binds as Spano's last hurrah. Oh, Moira Kelly...
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post #175 of 196
9/5/08 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
Watched The Hitcher last night. (Felt like an appropriate coda to the RNC). Can never quite love it. Reminds me of Jeepers Creepers, where the first twenty is so perfect, the rest can't live up to it. It has me hook-line-and-sinker, until C. Thomas hits the bus. Then it becomes a routine chase-thriller. I'd argue once Jennifer Jason meets her maker (in an admittedly unexpected twist), it comes apart. The last half-hour is just bad.
It does kind of falter after what may be the most perfect movie opening in horror film history, but I do like the end film suggestion that C. Thomas Howell and John Ryder are different sides of the same personality. There's definitely something supernatural going on in that movie with Rutger Hauer, and I'd like to believe there's an element of the whole thing going on in C. Thomas' head, because the narrative is pretty disjointed and filled with questionable chronology. Does the sequel directly pick up from the first?
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post #176 of 196
9/5/08 at 8:00pm
I thought the Hitcher was going to pull a split personality twist on me, and then all of a sudden, cops are seeing Rutger.
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post #177 of 196
9/5/08 at 8:04pm
The Hitcher is such a blast of unrestrained nihilism. When I first saw it, I was so sure that Jennifer Jason Leigh was going to survive that predicament. I mean, there's no way they're going to dispatch the female lead like that, right.

Right?
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post #178 of 196
9/5/08 at 8:08pm
Thread Starter 
Doubt I'll ever watch the sequel, KABONG. Agree that the ambiguity was more interesting; liked the idea that Howell was going crazy. Guess as it is, we're supposed to take Ryder as some sort of (suicidal?) demon.
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post #179 of 196
9/5/08 at 8:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Fordyce View Post
The Hitcher is such a blast of unrestrained nihilism. When I first saw it, I was so sure that Jennifer Jason Leigh was going to survive that predicament. I mean, there's no way they're going to dispatch the female lead like that, right.

Right?
The way they killed her off though was really stretching the credibility!
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post #180 of 196
9/6/08 at 3:57pm
The sequel starts out... "okay"... but then it very quickly falls flat. The baddie, well, I'm still not sure why he was what he was, but he sucked... and they kill off Howell pretty much right away and disconnect us from the first film almost all together by doing so.

The explosion at the very end was cool though.
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post #181 of 196
9/6/08 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
1. The Right Stuff

2. Once Upon A Time In America

3. Blow Out

4. Raging Bull

5. Blue Velvet

6. Do The Right Thing

7. Last Temptation of Christ

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark

9. The Verdict

10. Drugstore Cowboy
Next 10

11.Empire Strikes Back

12.Empire of the Sun

13.REDS

14.Lost In America

15.The Shining

16.King of Comedy

17.Used Cars

18.Heaven's Gate

19.Blade Runner

20.Thief
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post #182 of 196
9/7/08 at 3:56pm
Thread Starter 
The score to Heaven's Gate is pretty great too.

Watched the Director's Cuts of Blade Runner & RoboCop last night. Robo might just be the meanest, almost nihilistic popular movie ever!

Bored on a Sunday afternoon, so I'll propose the star of the decade question again. Any thoughts?

Harrison Ford seems the easy-and probably correct answer-but my heart says Mickey Rourke.

(Something slightly sleazy, and oh, so 80's about him! Know 9 1/2 Weeks changed all our lives)
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post #183 of 196
9/7/08 at 4:37pm
I'm an Arnold Schwarzenegger guy myself...
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post #184 of 196
9/7/08 at 5:32pm
Thread Starter 
Think Sly could probably make a better case for the title....but hey, only one guy got a political career outta the deal. And Arnold doesn't have the lows of Rhinestone & Staying Alive.
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post #185 of 196
9/7/08 at 5:38pm
I watched Prince of the City today. Now that's a movie.
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post #186 of 196
9/7/08 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
I watched Prince of the City today. Now that's a movie.
Treat Williams.

Was supposed to be the next big thing. Never quite made it. Damn shame, because he's really awesome in that. (One of a string of classics during the period that Travolta turned down or walked away from)

Sure I'm not telling you anything new, Rath, but since you dug, check out Q & A. Another overlooked Lumet cop drama. Nolte tears it up!
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post #187 of 196
9/7/08 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
....but hey, only one guy got a political career outta the deal. [/I].
Now, don't forget Jesse Ventura.

But yeah, its Arnie or Harrison's decade. Probably Harrison.
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post #188 of 196
9/7/08 at 6:35pm
Q & A is great.
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post #189 of 196
9/7/08 at 9:09pm
Thread Starter 
God, I can't stop watching Diner! Had it on loop all day. So great!

Mentioned Mickey Rourke being perhaps my star of the decade. Just remembered that I adapted his speech pattern for the early part of my teenage years. Thought it was cool at the time! Still want to find a girl who'd rather watch Barfly than When Harry Met Salley... Not sure they're out there.
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post #190 of 196
9/14/08 at 2:01pm
I watched "Best Seller" this weekend. That was pretty crap.
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post #191 of 196
9/14/08 at 2:34pm
Haven't seen it in a while. I wonder if True Believer holds up.
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post #192 of 196
9/14/08 at 2:41pm
Dennehy and Woods were both good and I liked their relationship, but I felt like there just wasn't enough of a story/set up to make it all that engaging.
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post #193 of 196
9/14/08 at 2:48pm
I remembered not liking Best Seller, but chalked it up to being younger and figured the movie might be good, especially with those two. But I have no burning desire to revisit it, especially if you say that.
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post #194 of 196
9/14/08 at 2:54pm
I will say this: It's a movie that they could update/remake to today and have it still be pretty relevant, perhaps even more so. I definitely thought of "If I Did It" more than a couple of times while watching it.
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post #195 of 196
9/14/08 at 4:05pm
I still think its a really decent thriller. Woods can do those parts in his sleep, but that was the first time I'd seen him really, and it was also one of the nastier films of its sort that I saw when I was a kid, so perhaps nostalgia comes into play a bit. But I stand by the pick, even if its not changing the world.

I do agree that they could update it and make more of the backstory.

Curious as to how you would do it if you remaking it.
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post #196 of 196
9/14/08 at 7:48pm
Here's a little-seen '80s movie I heartily recommend: APARTMENT ZERO. Psychological thriller set in Buenos Aires, starring pre-romcom Colin Firth as tightly-wound mama's boy and movie buff who takes in charming, charismatic lodger Hart Bochner (Ellis!), only to suspect that Bochner might be a serial killer. Skin-crawling stuff with a slightly Almodovar-ish feel, written by David Koepp.

Hey, speaking of Almodovar, did he get much of a look-in during the draft? The likes of WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, MATADOR and TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN were all eligible, as far as I can tell.
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