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MOVIES
June 22, 2021
A friend of mine posted a massive list of his picks for
best movies of all time-- it wasn't a bad selection,
but it struck me that it was a little conventional--
lots of well-known award winners and such.
I thought I'd take a stab at a list of the great
but (somewhat) overlooked...
"The Magic Christian" (1969)
Peter Sellers and Ringo Star. A rich guy explores the
power of money to create some mystery in people's lives...
"The Undead" (1957)
UNDEAD
One of Roger Corman's best: Time travel along a hypnotic
regression link to a past life. Witches, imps, the devil,
and a comic relief gravedigger that gives Shakespere a run.
"Space is the Place" (1974)
Cosmic psychedlic big band science fiction blaxsploitation.
"Are you for real?"; "I am *not* real. I'm just like you."
"Design For Living " (1933) BOHEMIAN_ZERO
Fredrick March, Gary Cooper, Miriam
Hopkins... and Edward Everett Horton!
THE_FALCON
An extensive reworking of a notorious Noel Cowell play with
the only possible happy ending to a romantic triangle.
"The Fearless Hyena" (1979) Hong Kong
The young Jackie Chan in his prime. Live-action bugs bunny.
"Dhoom 3" (2013) India
A circus performer/magician that moonlights as a super-thief.
Has one of the world's great trailers.
"Downtown 81" (2001, shot 1980/81) BASQUIAT
An indie film about the east village scene of the early 80s,
which stars Jean Michel-Basquiat playing himself. "I could
see the writing on the wall. It was my handwriting."
"Caddyshack" (1980)
A teen comedy that pushes through dumb and comes
out the other side. "That's what they said about
Son of Sam!"
"Bendover Boyfriend" (1998); "Slide Bi Me" (2001)
From the days when Good Vibrations led the way.
"Infra-Man" (1975) Hong Kong
Where Ultraman was *beyond* human, this Chinese knock-off is
comfortably in the all-too range. A large troop of fabulously
low-budget monsters is led by "Princess Dragon Mom", including
the She-Demon, "Witch Eye" who fires ray beams from the eyes in
the palms of her hands.
"I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't
thought of that film." -- Roger Ebert
"Arise!" (1987)
The Church of the Sub-Genius training video, a direct-to-video release.
"This tape has only one side, do not attempt to play the other
side. If you do find another side, do not watch it."
"Slacker" (1990)
"It's not about the church-- but it *is* about *slack*." -- Ivan Stang
"The 10th Victim" (1965) France
Marcello Mastrioni and Ursula Andress. From a story by Robert Scheckly,
set in a future dominated by a new sport of legalized assasination
games. Light-hearted and ice cold.
"Our Neighbor Totoro" (1988) Japan
THE_NEW_KAWAII
One of the world's best known animes, but I think still often
overlooked by people who dismiss it as a mere kids movie.
"Goodbye Charlie" (1964)
A womanizer dies suddenly and undergoes instant
reincarantion in the form of Debbie Reynolds, who
handles the butch mannerisms surprisingly well.
With Tony Curtis and Walter Matteau.
"Cyclo" (1995) France/Vietnam
Cyclo is a movie about a Vietnamese pedicab driver that
gets involved with some local gangsters, one of whom is
an infinitely sad, elegant young man in a white suit
known as The Poet. Beautiful, twisted cinematography.
"Pull My Daisy" (1959)
An actual Beat film (not merely "beatnik"), Written and
narrated by Jack Kerouac, starring Allen Ginsberg, Peter
Orlovsky and Gregory Corso. With star power like that,
who needs plot?
"Weird San Francisco" (1988)
Documentary by Charles Gatewood, A grab bag of odd characters
from the post-punk pre-yuppie days of San Francisco.
"Tuff Turf" (1985)
Teen comedy-drama, starring the young James Spader.
Covers the usual turf, but is tougher about it than usual.
Jim Carrol makes an appearence at the close.
"I Love You Alice B. Toklas" (1968)
Peter Sellers. Marijuana brownies. Dropping out of straight
world, giving up on hippie world-- the closing scene shows
what LA actually looks like, a first for Hollywood.
REAL_GENIUS
"Buckaroo Banzai" (1984)
One of the worlds greatest. Known perhaps,
but not well enough.
"Wonderland" (1997)
Documentary about Levittown on Long Island and the
fall of western civilization. Includes an interview
with the great Bill ("Zippy") Griffith.
"Zebra Man 2" (2010)
If you think no one makes movies to rival "Barbarella"
any more, this is for you. Highlights include Naka Riisa
dressed in strappy black leather outfit, dancing around singing
"I am the Zebra Queen".
"Blindspotting" (2018)
An excellent Oakland movie that had the misfortune
to be overshadowed by "Sorry to Bother You". Some
eminently realistic "gunplay", and a nice depiction
of a dot-com party in the middle of old Oaktown.
"Two Weeks Notice" (2002)
My solution to the xkcd "underrated" challenge: can you find
a movie from this century that you genuinely liked but is
currently underwater on rottentomatoes?
A romcom with Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock: the CEO of a large
development firm and a neighborhood activist face off, and exogamy
rules triumphant.
Some nice dialog, I thought: written and directed by Marc Lawrence.
It was not so difficult for me to think
of unpopular movies I like, what was
difficult was to think of movies I've
bothered to watch that came out after 2000.
Japanese and Korean series have been
taking up much of my attention.
OTAKU_YAKI
KDRAMA
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