Author Topic: Son of the Film Poll: Week 9  (Read 4834 times)

Ocicat

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on: December 05, 2007, 07:04:25 PM
For those who came in late, here's how this works.  I have a big list of films, created from IMDB's top rated list, and their top rated SF, Horror, and Fantasy films, plus a few beloved movies from my own collection.  Each week's winner goes on to the next poll, to face four new randomly drawn films.  I've decided that winners will get retired after they've won for four weeks.  There will probably be some sort of playoff with all the winners in the end, but that's not for a long time yet.  Links go to amazon.com, and if you buy after visiting the link, Escape Artists gets a donation, without costing you anything.

This week the random draw pulled some of the more obscure films from my favorite's list, so I don't expect everyone to have seen all these and thought I'd provide some descriptions...

Harold and Maude: Possibly the oddest and most death obsessed romance movie ever. Features a geeky 20 year old boy who's favorite passtime is elaborate fake suicides who falls in love with a 79 year old woman who's really too cool to adequately summarize.

The Lion in Winter: An adaptation of the stage play. Medieval court intrigue, verbal sparring, and showing your family love with daggers. Peter O'Toole as King Henry II. Katharine Hepburn, Hollywood's most impressive woman, as Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of history's most impressive women. Anthony Hopkins thrown in for good measure.

Time Bandits: From (most of) the people who brought you Holy Grail, and somewhat like that only with more surreal Gilliam imagery, Pure Evil, and a lot more midgets. Sean Connery thrown in for good measure.

Terminator 2: A quirky and thoughtful time travel story, featuring themes about man's inhumanity to... what? you've seen that one? okay, nevermind.



Darwinist

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Reply #1 on: December 05, 2007, 09:28:33 PM

Harold and Maude: Possibly the oddest and most death obsessed romance movie ever. Features a geeky 20 year old boy who's favorite passtime is elaborate fake suicides who falls in love with a 79 year old woman who's really too cool to adequately summarize.


I saw this movie in a high school class and it didn't do much for me at the time.  Maybe I should watch it again now that I'm a geezer.  Tough call between Monty Python and T2. 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


DKT

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Reply #2 on: December 05, 2007, 09:51:28 PM
That's funny -- I just read an interview with Eddie Vedder about how inspirational that movie was to him.  Maybe it's a musician thing. 

I voted for T2. 


Darwinist

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Reply #3 on: December 06, 2007, 02:25:52 PM
That's funny -- I just read an interview with Eddie Vedder about how inspirational that movie was to him.  Maybe it's a musician thing. 
 

....or maybe something to do with creativity, which I lack.   BTW, I did like Eddie's music for the movie "Into the Wild".   

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


DKT

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Reply #4 on: December 06, 2007, 04:48:55 PM
BTW, I did like Eddie's music for the movie "Into the Wild".   

Did you see the movie?  I picked up the soundtrack but the movie's not playing anywhere really close by.  I do really like the soundtrack, though. 


Darwinist

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Reply #5 on: December 06, 2007, 05:42:52 PM
BTW, I did like Eddie's music for the movie "Into the Wild".   

Did you see the movie?  I picked up the soundtrack but the movie's not playing anywhere really close by.  I do really like the soundtrack, though. 

I did see the movie....twice.  Once with a friend and once with my wife.  For some reason it was only playing in select theaters in the Twin Cities for a while.  It eventually made it out to my area and is now playing even at the smaller area theaters so maybe it will eventually move closer to you.

I thought the movie was excellent.  There were a few minor inconsistancies with the book.  I'm not sure why Penn strayed from the book, the changes had no bearing on the story.  Maybe I'm just too nit-picky.  I thought the young man chosen to play Alexander Supertramp was excellent and so was Hal Holbrook as the Ron Franz charachter.  Penn filmed this thing in the same locations Chris visited on his trek, including the Alaskan Bus.  The scenery was great and I thought it was neat see the actual locations Chris visited.  If you enjoyed the book I would highly recommend the movie.   

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan