The Popcorn Club

[Trollheart]

Is it better then to stick with movies we either have not seen and would like to, or that we think the others may not have seen? We could do Buried, which is an amazing one-man vehicle for Ryan Reynolds. Or the wonderful and underrated Strange Frequency. Or how about Brazil?

 

[Windshadow]

I just thought that these films of the 50s through 70s bear the same relationship in time as the films of the 1900 to 1930 period did to me in 1960 once again an old man kvetches that he wants his years back

 

[JunkMonkey]

It a LOOONG time since I watched Charley Varrick and since it comes from that early 70s period Hollywood that I laud so often I would be more than happy to watch that. - well, I AM going to watch it again having been reminded of its existence but it would be nice to watch it in 'company'.

 

[Windshadow]

Brazil is a wonderfully ambitious but flawed attempt at a great film that I am sure film school students dissect every semester I would be happy to dig out my DVD if it is selected and it does make a better fit to sit inside the SFF World tent we are sitting under the others mentioned.

for our initially selected films, I think we should try to stay within the embrace of FSF World

 

[Trollheart]

I can live with that. So I'd put Brazil as the first choice, if Pogo is okay with that. It is quite a long film, but definitely worth it. Do you guys want to begin this month, as in, now, or wait till April for a proper beginning? I'm easy either way.

 

[pogopossum]

As stated earlier, I'll go with the flow.
Iam obviously less of a film buff than y'all, as shown by the fact that I have seen only two of the above mentioned films and have enough memory to comment on one of them.
My self serving suggestion is to go with films that have a fair chance of eliciting comments as they are moderately well known - & as Windshadow suggests as least slightly within our forum baliwick?
If people can start churning out lists, I'll do one.

 

[Windshadow]

Brazil is fine with me and I think we should launch each film at the start of the month.
I will toss in these for future consideration

Outland (1981) ⭐ 6.6 | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

1h 49m | R

www.imdb.com

Outland (1981)
Sean Connery in Outland (1981)
that I mentioned in underrated and also
Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland (2015) ⭐ 6.4 | Action, Adventure, Family

2h 10m | PG

www.imdb.com

Tomorrowland (film) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And

Loved Ones - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The Phantom Tollbooth (film) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[JunkMonkey]

Does it matter, do you think, WHICH version of Brazil we watch?

From IMDb:

There are at least three different versions of Brazil. The original 142 minutes European release, a shorter 132-minutes prepared by Gilliam for the American release and another different version, nicknamed the Sheinberg Edit, from Universal's then boss Sid Sheinberg, against whom Terry Gilliam had to fight to have his version released, A.K.A. the 'Love Conquers All' version.

 

[Windshadow]

whichever version Gilliam likes best

 

[Trollheart]

I suppose whichever version we want. The one I have is, not surprisingly, the European one and seems to run for 136 minutes. If everyone has seen it I can say which ending it has, but in case someone has not, I won't ruin it. Let's say that it's probably not the "happy ending" one though... We can probably compare them if we watch different versions?

 

[JunkMonkey]

Mine has a 136 min run time on DVD too - which means it's almost certainly the142
minute 'European' cut.


(British Pal system 25 frames per second, Film 24 fps so films on UK TVs run approx 4% faster. 136 x 1.04 = 1.41.44 . 142 for our purposes.)

 

[Windshadow]

I will have to dig out my blue ray from under the pile of spring and summer clothes to see which it is.... getting near the time to pack winter clothes in mothballs and restore the warm weather stuff to the dresser and closet.

 

[pogopossum]

Being an el cheapo, just ordered it from the library.
Paying attention to TH & JM I noted that it is also the136 min. cut.

 

[pogopossum]

Here's a list. Not exactly my Besties, but films that I would not expect others to list. Was tempted to add a couple of turkeys, for the fun of chopping them up, but that wouldn't have been a real discussion. Similarly avoided action movies as it would seem that the discussion would be at the level of, "Action Good? Action Bad?". Also resisted, with the obvious exception, films which were too similar.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Brother from Another Planet (1984)
Day Of the Triffids (1962)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
The Quiet Earth. (1985)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
The Thing (1951), The Thing, (1982) Discuss together?

 

[Windshadow]

Enemy Mine (1985)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Those would also make my list. Flight of the navigator I recall using freeze-frame to see how they did some of the early effects shots I do find most child 'actors' hard to watch but these were mostly tolerable

Enemy Mine was a very faithful adaption of the book and the acting through the early heavy makeup was remarkable the acting was in general several levels above what was normal in a genre movie of the era
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a fascinating look at how much rotoscoping had come by 2004 since the days of its use as a pure animation tool in The Lord of the Rings (1978) by Ralph Bakshi
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077869/?ref_=nm_knf_t2
in 1976

 

[JunkMonkey]

Here's a list. Not exactly my Besties, but films that I would not expect others to list. Was tempted to add a couple of turkeys, for the fun of chopping them up, but that wouldn't have been a real discussion. Similarly avoided action movies as it would seem that the discussion would be at the level of, "Action Good? Action Bad?". Also resisted, with the obvious exception, films which were too similar.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Brother from Another Planet (1984)
Day Of the Triffids (1962)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
The Quiet Earth. (1985)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
The Thing (1951), The Thing, (1982) Discuss together?

Some of my all-time favourite films on that list and a some I thought dreadful (but will watch again in case I was wrong) and a couple I haven't seen but should.

 

[pogopossum]

I apologize for mistakenly listing Flight of the Navigator, which actually I have never seen.
It's a lovely coincidence in that it is well liked by Windshadow and seemingly could (will?) be on his list.
I meant to list The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) I was using a two lists totaling several hundred films to remind myself of things that I thought might be interesting - mistakenly listed the familiar sounding name.

 

[Trollheart]

My nascent list, well open to change/criticism. Some here most of us will know, but some perhaps you may not.

Time Bandits (yeah I don't need to tell you about this do I?)
Dark Star (Reviewed in my Box Office; John Carpenter's first movie)
Legend (A young Tom Cruise and a devilish Tim Curry!)
Silent Running (Total classic)
White Dwarf (If you've seen this I'll give you a million pounds... of earth from my back garden)
In Time (Don't let the presence of Justin Timberlake put you off; this is an excellent movie)
The Cold Hard Equations (You have to see this one)
The Sword and the Sorcerer (Conan it ain't!)
Dust Devil (Reviewed in the Box blah blah great movie blah blah shut up Trollheart...)
Children of Men (Dark and depressing but really good)
The World's End (Spoof with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and the lads. Superb)
The Fifth Element (love this movie)
Clash of the Titans (The original of course)
Paperhouse (Technically horror I guess but some good fantasy/magic realism in it)

 

[Windshadow]

Well, Flight of the navigator is totally a kid film So if anyone has kids it would be good to watch it with them. the major strike against it is the voice of Paul Rubens from PeeWees playhouse for one of the animated characters which can be grating on the ears. in 1988 the lady I was with had a 12-year-old and this was her favorite film. so I had to find things of interest in it and the cutting edge CGI for its day was that thing... the kid actor is fine and not a problem but it is a PG Film.

 

[Windshadow]

for a film with Simon Pegg, & Nick Frost I much prefer Hot Fuzz or Paul. but I will go with the flow.