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This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Author
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Topic: MOVIE OF THE DAY
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Don Bruechert
Mmmmmmmmm, bird!
Posts: 340
From: Manitowoc, WI, USA
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 04-05-2003 07:30 PM
Since someone requested it in chat the other night, and since I also think it is a great movie, for April 5th I nominate Explorers (1985) for the movie of the day.
Explorers is a kids movie, but it is very well done, and will easily keep adults amused as well. It is about a kid that dreams a way to build his own homemade spaceship, and then experiences the journey that it takes him on. I was definately entertained by this movie, and most of the little kids I know that watched it thought it was great. Of course this kid is also interested in a girl at school, and they find a way to integrate her into the plot as well. Try it, you'll like it!
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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 04-06-2003 01:10 AM
Silent Movie (1976)
Some fifty years after the talkies spelled an end to the silent movie, Mel Funn (Mel Brooks), Marty Eggs (the late Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) set out to revive the concept and create a modern-day silent flick in a gimmick to rescue a movie studio facing bankruptcy. Along the way, the trio become enmeshed in a host of wacky circumstances as they attempt to enlist the likes of Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, and others to star in their little project. Meanwhile, the conglomerate of Engulf and Devour plots to take over and shut down the studio assisting the trio's project and also put a stop to the silent-movie revival, and nearly succeeds.
"Silent Movie" unreels in the style of a silent movie, intertitles and all, but in color (Brooks had his B&W fix in "Young Frankenstein") and with a modern orchestral score. Given the lack of dialogue, a wide assortment of sight gags, visual puns, and sound effects are employed to propel the story along. Some of the more memorable gags include...
- A fly in a restaurant patron's soup. Sounds pedestrian, until you see where the fly "flew" in from.
- A very bizarre high-speed wheelchair pursuit of Paul Newman across hospital grounds.
- A malfunctioning Coca-Cola vending machine which is later put to good use in a fight to rescue the film print form the Engulf and Devour goons.
- Marty Eggs serving as a highly unusual film reel.
- And, even though this movie is almost dialogue-free, a most unlikely character utters the sole spoken word in the soundtrrack.
Silent Movie also features a couple of projection booth scenes (a carbon-arc changeover booth!) near the end of the film.
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Gunnar Johansson
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 181
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 04-09-2003 04:24 AM
I nominate for toadys movie (april 9):
Yellow submarine (1968) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0063823
A classic in musical entertainment, and damn funny too. I saw this on TV as a kid, and picked it up not too long ago, to watch over and over again...
Itīs got great music (Beatles being a personal favourite) and some really nice animations..
Itīs also got an interesting plot, with the Beatles trying to save a world (Pepperland) from going under, as they are being attacked by the Blue meanies
Classic comments like:
Ringo: Hey, I wonder what'll happen if I pull this lever.
Old Fred: Oh, you mustn't do that now.
Ringo: Can't help it. I'm a born lever-puller.
John: It's blue glass.
George: Must be from Kentucky, then.
John: It appears to be a group of fellas.
I just keep laughing, and enjoy the music. Itīs one of those films you can see over and over and over again. And then just one more time for good measure...
Hope you enjoy this one...
//Gunnar
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Gunnar Johansson
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 181
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 04-11-2003 04:06 PM
Not too many postings here the last few days... Hope it wasnīt my fault. Assuming it wasnīt me, Iīll take another swing, and nominate Bad Boy Bubby http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106341
All he needs is love
Bad Boy bubby is a movie set i Australia about a grown man who is kept severly subdued by his mother, she keeps him locked up, and wonīt let him out. After she dies he goes out into the world, and sees it all for the first time. He meets a lot of people and experiences many things.
I saw this in a filmfestival years ago, and was thoroughly confused, but I really liked it. Havenīt seen it since, but I have to go find it now, since it hopefully is the movie of the day. Perhaps some of our australian friends have seen and/or know something about it. It was bizarre but enjoyable, and questioned some of the things we take for granted in modern society...
//Gunnar
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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-12-2003 07:14 PM
The Goonies (1985, Richard Donner, Warner Bros.)
Ostensibly, "The Goonies" is a film about a group of kids from the wrong side of the tracks who embark on a treasure hunt in a desperate effort to save their homes from being foreclosed and bulldozed.
Underneath the high gloss of the production, we have a Freudian nightmare/fantasy that addresses the problems of adolescence and impending adulthood. The kids in the film are a depressed lot -- even the weather is crappy. Everyone's feeling down about having to pack up and move out. As a means of lifting the mood, they sneak into the attic -- always a cinematic analog for "the mind" or "memories" -- and there they discover a treasure map that once belonged to the infamous pirate, One-Eyed Willie.
Pause!
One-Eyed Willie? Yes, you read correctly. He's our clue. This movie is all about sexual adjustment.
Now I know that most people attributed the success of this film to Spielberg's involvement as Producer and Richard Donner's involvement as director. It's true that the film has a whimsical charm, good pacing, a really cool poster and a rockin' song by Cyndi Lauper but those are superficial attractions -- those things make you buy the ticket. The sexual connection is what makes "The Goonies" a classic and One-Eyed Willie is the key to our new-found awareness of this fact.
All right, I'll admit it: Moving sucks. But it's not the end of the world, either. First and foremost, what these youngsters are resistant to is change. Note that they are all in some phase of puberty which is a time that is marked by changes. Puberty sucks way worse than moving.
Almost without doubt, the pubescent transformation made a lot of us anxious about our physical appearance. It is a text-book expectation that teenagers will become alarmed -- possibly even depressed -- by growth spurts, "breaking" voices, acne and the appearance of body hair. The feeling is that their physique is out of control...stumbling and general miscoordination is common during growth spurts. There is also a great deal of anxiety about the end result : "Will I still be cute?"
What does all of this have to do with "The Goonies?" Well, it's all very simple, really. For this explains the significance of Sloth, the grotesque, malformed member of the Fratelli brothers. (By the way, the word "fratelli" is Italian for "brothers.") First, there are a few observations we ought to make about Sloth in terms of decoding him as the personification of puberty within the subtext of the film.
Sloth is neither man nor boy. He is in-between.
Sloth has difficulty speaking. So do many pubescent males.
Sloth's hair is going its own way.
Sloth's face is disfigured.
Apart from the children, only Sloth has a nickname.
Initially, the kids fear Sloth. He is first presented as an unseen threatening monster; a caged thing waiting behind a locked door. By the end of the film, he is embraced by the children. As far as the plot is concerned, this seems intended to resolve the problem of adolescence and the natural process of fear giving way to understanding and acceptance of self.
Seeing as how the film ends here, it almost goes without saying that "The Goonies" does not even begin to deal with the process of mourning the loss of one's childhood. Instead, the film tackles a problem that is closely related to the process of puberty. Namely, the psychological condition known as "sublation of the father." This is primarily a male phenomenon. Simply put, this is the process of downgrading one's father from being all-powerful and/or threatening "father figure" to becoming a mere mortal man who works for a living, pays bills and puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. This mental image of "dad" begins to change at the onset of puberty, typically when we start "hanging out" with persons other than our parents and family. The process is complete when we become independent adults with our own place to live -- no more of that "under my roof" crap -- and financial autonomy. Reunion and true bonding with the father usually follows the next logical steps in a typical man's life -- marriage and parenthood.
So let's look at the movie and see what we find...
The Walsh brothers have to face the fact that although their dad is a top-notch historian, he is no match for Troy Perkins' dad who has enough money to buy and transform the entire neighborhood. We like to think of our dads as being super heroes. The plot of "The Goonies" begins and ends with solving the problem of learning that one's dad is human, flawed and quite capable of failure. In this case, Mr. Walsh is also rendered as being "impotent." Indeed, our first vision of him is a shot in which he is trying to get his flag up! And that brings me (conveniently) back to One-Eyed Willie.
Prior to events that occur on-screen, Mr. Walsh had organized an exhibit at the museum. This introduced everyone to the town's history and the significance of One-Eyed Willie in terms of its history. Thus, from an intellectual standpoint, Willie belongs to Mr. Walsh. This is important because when the children find the lost treasure, they are essentially restoring Mr. Walsh's masculinity and rendering him potent once again.
Meanwhile, the characters Chunk and Sloth develop a bond that resembles brotherhood and parenthood. Chunk convinces his parents to adopt Sloth and the scene plays as though Sloth might actually be regarded as something closer to a pet. Thus it is implied that Chunk will be the primary caregiver to Sloth which would undoubtedly give him a glimpse of parenthood.
So we can see that "The Goonies" attempts to address some vitally important issues about the future, by taking us on a journey into the past. It's ingenious and I am certain that this is why the movie remains as relevant today as it was at the time of its creation.
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