Best Movie Ever!

[Pork]

Has Transformers been named in this thread yet? I'll say that's one of my favourite movies. It's awesome!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I really wanna see it!

I've also heard that dodge ball is a pretty good film, too!

Mam! I really don't get a chance to see very many movies.

 

[D'Snowth]

You must be really be pushing for 10,000 yourself, William.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Well, yeah! But I'm just trying to catch up because I'm a little behind.

 

[Winslow Leach]

I think I'll briefly talk about 8 specific films by one of my favorite directors, Roger Corman, which are being collected in a box set and due to be released next month.

A Bucket of Blood (1959) - the first of an unofficial Corman "trilogy" (the others being The Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea) of black comedy/horror spoofs, written by the great Charles B. Griffith. Bucket stars the wonderful Dick Miller, who seems to have been in every movie ever made from the 1950s to the present. After Corman stopped directing (to produce) in the early 70s, Miller became a regular in Joe Dante films, and is probably most recognizable for his role as Mr. Futterman in Gremlins and Gremlins 2. But this guy's done sooooo many movies...he also appears in Corman's Little Shop as a flower-eating customer. Bucket stars Miller as Walter Paisley (a name he would use in several films), a busboy at a beatnik bar. He's an aspiring artist, but his works with clay are less than inspired. When he accidentally kills his landlady's cat, he gets the brilliant notion to cover it in wax and display it as an original piece. "Dead Cat" becomes a hit, and soon Paisley is the toast of the beatnik crowd, due to his brilliant, "lifelike" work. But fame is fleeting, and Paisley needs a new creation. This leads him to murder, covering the bodies in clay, and he is hailed as a genius. This may sound grim, but the film itself is actually quite comical. Corman spoofs the coffeehouse/beatnik scene, and gives Paisley, at the height of his fame, a ridiculous-looking "artistic" garb. The film seems almost like a dry run for the kooky humor that would flower (pardon the expression) the next year with The Little Shop of Horrors. The film co-stars Broadway actor and future game show host Bert Convy.

The Premature Burial (1962) - one of Corman's Poe adaptations (House of Usher, The Pit & the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Haunted Palace and The Tomb of Ligeia), and the only one not starring Vincent Price, who was working on another film. Corman cast actor Ray Milland (Beau Geste, The Lost Weekend) as a nobleman with a fear of being buried alive. So much so that he devises his own crypt, that, should he accidentally be buried while still living, he can escape. Like most of Corman's other Poe films, Burial has little to do with the original source material, but is an entertaining and enjoyable little film nonetheless.

The Young Racers (1963) - one of the few Corman films I haven't seen, but I know the backstory, which is pretty interesting. Corman was shooting this film in Ireland. One of his assistants was a young Francis Ford Coppola. While they were on location, Coppola noticed an ancient castle that he thought would be perfect for a film. Corman said if Coppola could come up with a story and shoot it within a certain amount of days, he would not only allow Coppola to make the film, he would also lend the set, crew and actors William Campbell, Luana Anders and Patrick Magee from Racers to the young director. Coppola came up with a story about a series of ax murders in and around an old Irish castle. He made the film, and it was released as Dementia 13, a not-bad little shocker that, for its time, features some rather graphic violence.

X - The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963) - Corman and Ray Milland teamed up again with this story of a scientist (Milland) who concocts a serum that allows him to see through things. Unfortunately, the serum gets out of control, and causes the scientist to slowly go mad. The film's final scene is considered one of Corman's finest moments. X features comic Don Rickles in a supporting role as a carny who exploits the scientist as a sideshow attraction.

The Wild Angels (1966) - interesting motorcycle drama (one of the better ones that were churned out in the 60s before Easy Rider), with Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Diane Ladd, Michael J. Pollard and Bruce Dern.

The Trip (1967) - the first major studio film to deal with the effects of LSD, The Trip stars Peter Fonda as a director who takes a "trip" for the first time, and experiences a bizarre, sometimes frightening world. Corman shot the film utilizing strange special effects and colors to give the viewer an uneasy feeling. The film was written by Jack Nicholson, and co-stars Susan Strasberg (daughter of famed acting coach Lee), Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern.

Bloody Mama (1970) - my favorite film out of this bunch, Bloody Mama is a mostly fictional (despite what the opening credits say) depiction of the life and career of the "notorious" Depression-era bank robber Kate "Ma" Barker and her four sons. I put the word notorious in quotes, because the real Ma Barker was nothing like the various books and exploitation films make her out to be. Yes, her sons were in crime, but the real Ma stayed home, and "couldn't even cook a proper meal, let alone wield a tommy gun," according to a modern crime writer. J. Edgar Hoover perpetuated the myth that Ma Barker was a crazed, bloodthirsty gangster, "the most dangerous woman in the United States." Whatever the truth, there's something fascinating about seeing Shelley Winters (as Ma) holding up a bank with a tommy gun, or shooting it out with the police and FBI. This was Corman's third attempt at re-creating crime in the Roaring Twenties and Depression Thirties (the other films were 1958's Machine Gun Kelly starring Charles Bronson, and 1967's The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre). In addition to Shelley Winters's powerful presence, we get Pat Hingle, Bruce Dern, Don Stroud (as the most psychotic of Ma's boys), and, in an early role, a young Robert De Niro as another of Ma's boys. This film is worth the price of the set alone.

Gas-s-s-s (1971) - one of the last films Corman personally directed, this post-apocalyptic comedy is about a mysterious gas that kills everyone on earth over the age of 25. A small group of young survivors try to put an end to the lethal leak. Features early appearances by Cindy Williams, Ben Vereen, Talia Shire and Bud Cort (the film version of MASH, Harold & Maude). The soundtrack has some tunes by Country Joe and the Fish.

 

[Telly]

Roger Corman you say? The same one that did that awful Fantastic Four film back in 1994(?). Well some say it was bad. I say it was so bad it was good!

 

[Drtooth]

Has Transformers been named in this thread yet? I'll say that's one of my favourite movies. It's awesome!

Which one? I've been meaning to see both.

The animated one features Eric Idle and Orson Wells. Unless it's really bad, that gets a notch in my book.


Anyway, Unless I already stated the first and fourth TMNT movies.

TMNT 1 (1989) was purposely shot on budget so they could afford to get Henson to make the suits. And it's a good thing they coaxed him into making them too. The suits for #3 aren't terrible, but Splinter was horrid looking.

there are 3 differences from the comics....
April as a news reporter. For the reasons of it being too confusing for kids to know she was anything else, and the second being that the plot of the movie (to follow the comic) would have to have involved Baxter Stockman.

Raph as opposed to Leo getting knocked unconcious (I forget which issue, but I have it) by the attack of the foot soldiers. It does help the plot of the story on the grounds of the 2 brothers that fight the most, Leo and Raph, actually do care about each other (which would later come up in the 2007 movie), but somehow it focuses the friendship of Casey Jones to Don instead of Raph.

Third... and this is kinda nitpicky. They escape in the movie to April's farm in North Hampton MA, (where the creators of the comic live, hint hint). but the farm is actually (in the comic and new series) the Jones family farm. The nit pick being that Casey complains about having to go to the farm, when in the comics it was his idea.

TMNT 2007. AS I've said about 30000000 times in the Alvin and the Chipmunks thread, instead of this being a remake, it was an open sequel to the first 3 movies. The plus side to it, IMO, is that Shredder didn't have to carry the franchise (One of the only things I liked about TMNT 3), dispite having been mentioned in the opening. While I usually don't prefer CGI to puppetry, they could NOT have made this film any other way. I also loved how Casey and April were in the spotlight as well, showing their developing relationship (sort of a Princess Leia, Han Solo type deal). Especially since Casey was integral to the first and third movies, the comic series and the new cartoon. Sadly he only appeared in 2 episode od the old series, and he was much differrent.

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Something funny about myself is that I seem to like movies everyone else hates. Ralph Bakshi's infamous animated Lord of the Rings movie for example. Personally I like this version's Mines of Moiria* scene better than Peter Jackson's because of all the creepy backgrounds and the lack of music. Despite the orcs having slightly goofy faces, I liked how they look with the roto-scoping. There's several things I enjoyed about this movie.

 

[D'Snowth]

Something funny about myself is that I seem to like movies everyone else hates. Ralph Bakshi's infamous animated Lord of the Rings movie for example. Personally I like this version's Mines of Moiria* scene better than Peter Jackson's because of all the creepy backgrounds and the lack of music. Despite the orcs having slightly goofy faces, I liked how they look with the roto-scoping. There's several things I enjoyed about this movie.

That's not so funny; I usually like things that everyone else hates as well.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Roger Corman you say? The same one that did that awful Fantastic Four film back in 1994(?). Well some say it was bad. I say it was so bad it was good!

Yep, the very same. Only he produced the film, he didn't direct it.

Roger stopped directing films in 1971. He returned to directing briefly in 1990 to helm Frankenstein Unbound, which is a pretty decent flick.