Not Fade Away

Ahem, that'd be me. Guess I've seen the wrong Quaid movies. The Last Detail is on my Netflix queue, has been for a while. Guess I'll find out when I see it.

Another one I've been meaning to see but haven't got around to it yet.

The Beast- Little seen war film that takes place during the Russian-Afghanistan War. A mix between David & Goliath, Apocalypse Now, and Das Boot, it's about a group of Afghan fighters that try to destroy a Russian tank with some help from an unlikely source. It's based on a stage play of all things.

Columbia Pictures decided to dump this with little fanfare. Not sure of the reasoning for this; either because it was 1988 and the war was coming to an end or because of problems within the studio. I caught this on Starz over seven years ago and was blown away by it. It has an excellent score by Mark Isham and the ending gets me every time.

If it makes any difference, Roger Avary called this the greatest anti-war film ever made.

That's an excellent film for this thread. I had been trying to picture something I was fond of that really deserved mention here and as soon as I saw your post I had to smack my head.

It's a phenomenal film that pays off with some serious stunt casting. THE USUAL SUSPECTS is the only other film I can recall at the moment that could be so damn good and star a lesser Baldwin. The almost unrecognizably slim George Dzundza steals the show as the gruff tank commander. And Mark Isham's spare and ethereal scoring is just a shade more effective here than in THE HITCHER. Also, the "just speak it in plain English" approach is clearly better than hoary accents. Kevin Reynolds used the same method on another one of his films, the (IMHO) underappreciated RAPA NUI.

BEST SELLER with James Woods and Brian Dennehy. An interesting take on the hit man.

I think this movie is enjoying a bit of resurgence, it's even been on the Comcast On Demand free movies section.

COP is another James Woods flick that needs more attention, and not just from the people on CHUD.

And guess what, I'm going to mention some Walter Hill, because Extreme Prejudice and Johnny Handsome are criminally overlooked amongst the general populace.

I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker!

Quick Change, the greatest movie nobody remembers, if they've seen it at all.

Wather in the Woods isn't so much about the "holding up today" thing, it must be said. Lady in White does though.

Sean Connery's two best movies, The Man Who Would Be King and The Name of the Rose, are often unseen or forgotten completely in geek circles, while everyone in the world has seen Zardoz and Highlander 2. Man Who Would Be King is easily one of personal favorites, offering everything I want in a movie: drama, adventure, comedy, strong characters, great dialogue, thematic heft, and a riveting story. It's one of the most evocative looks into a little seen corner of the world I've seen, as well. Name of the Rose, similarly, creates a very deep and immersive version of the Dark Ages, probably the most accurate I can think of. Everything is dirty and awful and shrouded in superstitious dread. It's also a rocking Sherlock Holmes-style mystery and has a willingness to let it's characters be creepy, ugly, weak, and fallible. Add in a weirdly graphic sex scene in which Christian Slater is actually losing his real virginity and a cadre of great character actors (William Hickey, F Murray Abraham, Ron Perlman as a retarded hunchbacked heretic), and you've got a somehow overlooked classic. It even does justice to the unadaptable Umberto Eco.

A few:

Who'll Stop the Rain- a pretty special 70s thriller with a superb ending, and one of the essential Nick Noltes. He plays a Nietzsche reading Nam vet lunatic hardman trying to live by his own fucked up code. Yep, it's as good as it sounds. Bonus: Michael Moriarty.

Still of the Night- fun murder mystery starring Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep. Shades of Hitchcock and shades of giallo, but more subdued than DePalma's Dressed to Kill and actually a little creepier because of it (love both films though!). There's one wicked little bit set in Central Park that makes me wonder what genre greatness Robert Benton could have produced had he more of an affinity towards suspense/horror.

The Border, starring Jack Nicholson. I like this one for the same reason I like Clint Eastwood's True Crime... at its heart it's a story about a worthless bum doing the right thing. In this case, he's trying to help an innocent mexican woman get her baby back (a woman played by the excellent Elpidia Carillo, who would go on to do variations on basically the same role in a bunch of other films, yet still do a great job each time, e.g. My Family, and her amazing performance in Loach's Bread and Roses ... kind of sad that such a great actress' most recognizable work is a side role in Predator). The film also boasts a truly fucking classic full-of-regret-and-broken-dreams Ry Cooder/Freddie Fender country song that WILL stay in your head.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xw63EfQSQ

Really? Hadn't heard that before.


To mix things up a bit...

I'm gonna add BOYS' NIGHT OUT w/ Randall, Garner, and Novak. As far as "sex" comedies of the 60s go, the Doris Day, etc entries get the most mention and attention, but I think this one of one of the best. Cute premise and hilarious outcomes. 4 discontented buddies (1 single and 3 married) decide to rent an apartment in the city where they can stash a live-in girlfriend that they can all share. A crafty psych student (Novak) with plans of her own answers the ad.

It's (criminally) not available on DVD.

Trailer.

Brainstorm was the beginning of my love of Walken. It also engendered a desire (that persists to this day) to have a recumbent bicycle like the one his character rides in one scene. What can I say, I was 10, I thought it was the coolest.

Most people only remember this as the last film that Natalie Wood made, but it's better than just a curiosity. The movie is bonkers, but atmospheric, and Walken is fantastic in it.

Still of the Night is running on the Comcast On Demand free movie thing right now.

Alone in the Dark, not that one, but the 1982 slasher fest directed by Jack Sholder, really should get more attention.

More support for The Man Who Would Be King here. It's one of the few perfect movies.

The Sure Thing. I'm repeatedly amazed to meet people who can quote Better Off Dead verbatim, yet have never heard of this far superior early Cusack vehicle.

Meeting Venus. Istvan Szabo's farce, set during an international post-Glasnost production of Tannhauser, may be the greatest let's-put-on-a-show movie ever. Yes, even better than The Band Wagon. If you never found Glenn Close sexy, check her out here, as a Swedish soprano (with Kiri Te Kanawa's voice). It's not on DVD, and critics ignore it-- perhaps because of its satirical attitude towards union performers.

ETA: The Grand Tour, a great little thriller by David Twohy. Jeff Daniels is a widower, morose and obsessed with the past. You could say he's living in the past, but that's not precisely true. That would be the strange group of visitors looking for a hotel with a good view of the town...

I just re-watched this the other day....a bit episodic, the four segments don't quite hang together, but it's still a pretty fucking solid flick. Really, the worst thing I could say is that it appears to be trying a bit too hard.

Don't get me wrong - I fucking loved it. Still do.

...and I still think Leningrad Cowboys Go America's Spinal Tap-meets-Napoleon Dynamite aesthetic needs more love, but it isn't like it was a major release with any recognizable stars, so it probably should go under a different thread.

Speaking of Jamie Lee, she's the love interest in Dominick & Eugene. Sharp little character piece about a med student (Ray Liotta) and his brain-damaged brother (Tom Hulce).

Already talked it up briefly in one of the '80s Draft threads but I've gotta reiterate my love for APARTMENT ZERO, a psycho-thriller set in Buenos Aires with Colin Firth as a closet-case weirdo and Hart Bochner as a charismatic sociopath. It's like Almodovar remade PERSONA with dudes, and if that doesn't turn you on, well, I dunno what will!

Also: Steve Kloves' back-to-back character pieces, THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS and FLESH AND BONE.

Glad to see THE BEAST and QUICK CHANGE getting their props.

I second the love for Dominick and Eugene. What the hell ever happened to Tom Hulce?

Last thing I remember seeing him in was Peter Weir's Fearless. Another recommendation, by the way.

Hulce was apparently in JUMPER but I'm damned if I remember him.

And while FEARLESS is truly great, Hulce gives a horribly one-note performance. He's the worst thing in it, and this is a movie with Rosie Perez.

I guess I'm saying I don't miss this guy at all.

I second Johnny Handsome. Cruelly overlooked.

My vote: Mad Dog & Glory. Bill Murray & Robert DeNiro playing against type, Uma Thurman in one of the few performances I've really liked her in, all from the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (which could be another entry in this thread). Highly recommended.

John Dahl's The Last Seduction is a really underrated gem, the lead performance by Linda Fiorentino is like a distillation of every bad girl/femme fatale performance in film history.

Luschino Visconti's Rocco and his brothers, it's a really long film but worth checking out, it proved Alain Delon could act, it was also Visconti's last attempt at neo-realism before moving onto more visually daring films like 'The Leopard'

John Ford's The Long Voyage Home, it has fantastic cinematography by Gregg Toland but the film is an interesting character piece on the lives of sailors with John Wayne in a small supporting role.

I'll also dig deep and recommend some of Hitchcock's silent films, The Ring and Easy Virtue (Which is apparently being remade)

My favorite obscure Hitchcock is Number Seventeen.

Cutter's Way, which I liken to a dramatic version of the Big Lebowski and reads like a commentary on the '80s even though it was made at the start of the decade. Shows why John Heard is a criminally underrated and underused actor.
Also, At Close Range is one of those terrific films I bought in the Wal-Mart $5 bin that is now one of my favorite films to watch on a lazy Sunday. One of Walken's best performances and a beautifully shot film. I'll be damned if James Foley doesn't have one of the most inconsistent careers in the history of film.

I guess it's a matter of which one you see first. I've always characterized Lebowski as the Disney Musical version of Cutter.

Another great "watch out for the '80s" film is Phillip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I actually prefer it to the 1956 version.

HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968, directed by: John Boorman)

Lee Marvin & Toshiro Mifune... WW II enemies alone on a deserted island. Will they kill each other or work together for survival? Inspiration for ENEMY MINE. Great performances and excellent tension. Recommended to me by my film-geek ex-boss and I don't know too many people who have seen it.

And no, Mifune doesn't give birth to his own child.

They hunted each other as enemies...they tormented each other as savages...they faced each other as men!

I suppose I could have defended this in the fail draft, but Dahl's Unforgettable is really not that bad. Unfairly maligned.

Another broken record from me, but Tony Scott's REVENGE, with Costner, is probably my favorite work from either of them.

Another noirish thriller, WHITE SANDS, is all but forgotten.

STRAIGHT TIME -- Consistently the most overlooked of Dustin Hoffman's phenomenal 70s run. Another adapted Eddie Bunker tale (ex-con and author, played Mr. Blue, also wrote RUNAWAY TRAIN -- which is another list contender) of small-time crooks living desperately. Not only an overlooked Hoffman performance, but probably my favorite. Cast is great across the board; M. Emmet Walsh is at his scariest, and brand newcomers Gary Busey and Kathy Bates are great as well. I can see its influence all over Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and, hell, the "We should have shotguns" line in Pulp.

Love this, was afraid that like ROLLING THUNDER it'd never make it to DVD. Bare bones is better than nothing.

Second the love for Straight Time. Great stuff.

Good point, I didn't see it till a couple of years ago.

The Coens had to have been influenced by that film right? I mean, casting Bridges against a best friend/Vietnam scarred paranoid nutcase embroiled in a conspiracy seems like an outright homage to Cutter's Way...not to mention that the character of Richard Bone seems a lot like The Dude ten or twenty years younger.

Zero Effect: awesome work by Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller. Deserves a bigger cult following.

Ace In The Hole: Watched this one in the super-cool Criterion edition. This Billy Wilder classic is pretty relevant in this TMZ/Fox News era of media.

Bugsy Malone: I've been on a Paul Williams kick lately. This would have been something I would have watched on a Saturday afternoon when I was 10.

Local Hero: It has Burt Lancaster AND Peter Riegert. You're welcome.

Any love for Michael Ritchie's Prime Cut? A bit campy (and knowingly so), but with a lot of bad ass sequences like the combine chase. Also, Sissy Spacek's debut (and lots of nudity from her).

Paul Schrader's Affliction is a great drama that doesn't get enough love, even though it won James Coburn an oscar, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek do some fine work, the ending is really quite depressing.

Reminds me of another one: The Year of the Sex Olympics, a BBC film from the 1960s. It's like the writer (Nigel Kneale of Quatermass fame) somehow peered into the future and saw the nightmare of escalating reality TV. Probably quite hard to find, but look it up anyway.

This thread is the reason why I love this site. So far, I've seen way too many favorites of mine mentioned:

Quick Change
Extreme Prejudice
Straight Time
Zero Effect
Big Wednesday
Cop (one of my bonus Action Draft picks)
Johnny Handsome

Beldar nailed his assessment of Cutter's Way. A fantastic film that works completely well as part of a double bill with Lebowski, and not just because Jeff Bridges is a protagonist in both. A huge inspiration on a script I'm working on, I might add. John Heard hauls ass in that one. I'd also go as far as to say the recent director's cut of Revenge has themes that could exemplify itself as a nice undercard to No Country for Old Men.

Some unmentioned ones:

Charley Varrick - not just the origin of the "they're gonna go to work on you with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers" line from Pulp Fiction, but a hell of a great minimalist character study/crime drama from the likewise Don Siegel. Walter Matthau is surprisingly a badass in this, with Joe Don Baker and John Vernon at their cold, calculating best.

Streets of Fire - another Action Draft pick of mine, possibly my favorite Walter Hill film. Like Sin City 20 years beforehand, but with a divinely hot Diane Lane and Willem Dafoe as the bad guy (with Lee Ving as one of his henchmen!). Awesome 80's music. Sledgehammer fight. A lot of people getting the shit beaten out of them, many of them by Michael Pare and Amy Madigan. Rick Moranis as a scumbag. Bill Paxton with a pompadour. If that alone doesn't provoke an add to your Netflix queue, I don't know what to say.

Pretty Maids All in a Row - a truly twisted little movie not on DVD with Rock Hudson as a cad of a guidance counselor killing the nubile 70's hotties he sleeps with to protect his rep. A rather surprising and solid early 70's ensemble (Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowall, Angie Dickinson), and a script by, of all people, Gene Roddenberry.

L.A. Story - Steve Martin's second funniest after Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, with the same sweet core/balls-out hilarious philosophy that followed. HIGHLY recommended.

Charley Varrick is a good one. Makes a nice gritty 70s Matthau triple bill with Pelham and The Laughing Policeman.

I must have watched Streets of Fire seventeen times in my twenties. I'm afraid to see it again now.

Guess what, Streets of Fire and Charley Varrick are both on the Comcast On Demand free movies right now. I should get paid by Comcast, the pimpin' I do for them.