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Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Sandy  (Read 56556 times)

jdc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #250 on: May 01, 2021, 11:38:30 AM »
Quite a few of these I like and a couple overlaps to my top films and many I never consider to watch.  Let me try to put that list together, somewhere between your choice and what I can find it will be.
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #251 on: May 01, 2021, 04:14:57 PM »
Going to watch Another Year and a pick of the host's choice.

To note, I have seen:
Jane Eyre (the newer one)
Pride and Prejudice
It's a Wonderful Life
Singin' in the Rain
You've Got Mail
Galaxy Quest
The Empire Strikes Back
E.T.
Cast Away
Penelope
Fiddler on the Roof
Casablanca
Finding Neverland
LOTR
Harry Potter
The Girl Who Leapt through Time
Moulin Rouge!
Ameilie
True Grit
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Matter of Life and Death
City Lights
Willy Wonka
The Fountain
Charade
It Happened One Night
Schindler's List
Toy Story
Robin Hood
The Hitchhiker's Guide
The New World
A.I.
North by Northwest
Read Window
Upstream Color
Short Term 12
V for Vendetta
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

The only ones I prefer not to watch are Little Women (saw the more recent one, not terribly interested) and Jane Eyre (saw the more recent one for your past movie month, don't feel the need to see the older one). Besides that, I'm open!
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Bondo

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #252 on: May 01, 2021, 04:31:27 PM »
Charlotte Gainsbourg Jane Eyre is everything though.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #253 on: May 01, 2021, 09:38:07 PM »
I haven't seen Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
I want to re-watch The Wiz.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #254 on: May 02, 2021, 08:07:35 PM »

Gonna be Strictly Ballroom for me.

My bookend. :) It always stays at #100, being the most silly and weird film, yet emotionally relatable. It's sometimes hard to believe it exists.

I'm looking to get to The Poseidon Adventure and Summer Stock this month (leaving Shadowlands and Great Expectations as the only unseen on the list).

Wow! You only have a few left! You probably know my tastes more than most. When I started this thread, I asked for recommendations and looking back you mentioned seeing Leave it on the Floor and liking it for it's "community support stye." I'm going to watch that for the Musical marathon.

You picked two very different movies. :)

There is so much goodness in Sandy’s top 100 that I problem skip it.  But I am going to find something this month to watch...

Quite a few of these I like and a couple overlaps to my top films and many I never consider to watch.  Let me try to put that list together, somewhere between your choice and what I can find it will be.

Whenever your month comes up, I'm always amazed how different our lists are thematically (and yet, there are some that could easily be in my top 100, like Children of Men). I have to ask myself what level of challenge am I up for and then pick accordingly. :D

Going to watch Another Year and a pick of the host's choice.

Fun!

The first one that comes to mind is To Sir, with Love. It's about an educator in an inner city school in London. I'm very interested in what you make of it. Does it feel real? Does it address current issues very well, or does it feel too out of date?

(If you prefer another movie, I could give you another option.)

Quote
The only ones I prefer not to watch are Little Women (saw the more recent one, not terribly interested)

I did not love the current Little Women. It was not presented in a way that was accessible, unless someone was VERY familiar with the material.

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and Jane Eyre (saw the more recent one for your past movie month, don't feel the need to see the older one). Besides that, I'm open!

:)

Charlotte Gainsbourg Jane Eyre is everything though.

In complete agreement!  -->

My favorite Jane is actually Charlotte Gainsbourg, but the whole of the 2011 version makes Fukunaga's unbeatable.


I haven't seen Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
I want to re-watch The Wiz.

I just added Seeking a Friend...! Knowing you haven't seen it yet, makes me extra glad I did so.

I was thinking back to what movies have stayed with me the most and this one was a top contender. I've only seen it once and am interested in what you think about it. :)


oldkid

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #255 on: May 03, 2021, 08:10:25 PM »
The Wiz

Every generation has to have their on-screen version of the Wizard of Oz.  The first is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, released in 1910, complete with a cow and a donkey, who accompanies Dorothy and Toto and the Scarecrow (!) to Oz in a tornado.  Many failed film adaptations later, and only after the death of Frank Baum, the creator of Oz, did the greatest of film adaptations happen, The Wizard of Oz, in 1939.  Every adaptation had to follow this great comedy and color success. In 1969 there was an animated version of the Land of Oz.  In 1976 there was an Australian musical Oz-- A Rock n Roll Road Move.  There is a live action sequel to the 1939 classic, Return to Oz (my favorite of the non-1939 versions), which is pretty scary for kids. There's the prequel about the Wizard, and other animated adaptations.

The most successful of the post-1939 adaptations is The Wiz, staring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, with Richard Pryor as the Wiz.  It pretty closely follows the storyline of the 1939 classic, with some nods to the original novel (the shoes are silver, not ruby).  But this version is distinctly Black and distinctly 1970s New York.  Garbage bags are everywhere and Coney Island is closed and buildings are crumbled-- until they reach the Emerald City with an apple for a sun, and everything is fashion and glitz and metal. The Wicked Witch of the West is a sweatshop owner telling all her workers that there would be no lunch break.

Just like the 1939 film, the sets are huge and spectacular, although not always as colorful.  Munchkinland is drab and it takes a bit to get to the first real color of the film-- the yellow brick road.  The colors gradually open up-- grey at the public library, red in the "poppy fields" and white in the subway-- until in the Emerald City there is a long sequence, similar to Sesame Street, which glorifies Green, Red and Gold with filters and a huge traffic light.

All this is amazing, and some of the scenes work particularly well.  The sweatshop with the Winkies, the Flying Monkeys Motorcycle Gang and Evilina, the Witch is eye-popping.  Nipsey Russell, who played the Tin Man, was a lot of fun and he had the opportunity to sing the song about lubrication which was mildly risque.   Michael Jackson is adorable and his (one) song is wonderful. There's a lot to appreciate here.

In the end, I think it is a mediocre film.  I think it mostly fails as a children's film, which is what it is trying to do, with the morals and fables and eye-candy.  But there are too many dull songs-- usually and surprisingly sung by Diana Ross-- that anchors the film, which should have sailed smoothly into popularity. There are eighteen total songs in this film, and that number could have been cut in half, easily.  Even if the slower songs were shorter, to allow the more entertaining parts to be highlighted, this movie could have done well.  Also, and I hate to say it, they really needed a child protagonist, not a kindergarten teacher in Diana Ross. It is this very point of contention that caused the original director to leave, and they had another Dorothy in mind (teenager Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the original stage production), but no one could say no to Diana Ross in the 70s and she had made up her mind.

As it is, the film is remembered fondly, and there are quite a number of sections which are amazing.  As a whole, it is okay.  I'd say the same for the music.  Ease on Down the Road is always a great song, no matter how many times they reprise it.  But so is You Can't Win, Don't Nobody Bring me Bad News and Believe in Yourself.   In the end, just too many snoozers on the list.

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Antares

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #256 on: May 03, 2021, 08:22:11 PM »
Gonna be Strictly Ballroom for me.

Many years ago, when Blockbuster was king, my wife grabbed it off the wall. To be honest, with my distaste for musicals, which I thought it was, I wasn't keen. When it ended I was glad she grabbed it. It's a campy and cute film, which I eventually bought on DVD and have watched at least a half a dozen times since.

A bit of trivia, and it isn't a spoiler. There's a scene where the main couple are dancing on a roof and the song that they are dancing to is a cover of Cyndi Lauper's Time after Time. But instead of a solo female singer, it's done as a duet between a male and female singer. I can't remember who the male singer was, but the female is the lead actress in the film, Tara Morice. The song works better as a duet, so much so, that the next time you hear Cyndi Lauper sing it, you'll see how weak her version really is compared to this one.
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #257 on: May 03, 2021, 09:57:13 PM »
Did a little digging and the other singer was Mark Williams, who in Australia and New Zealand would have been best known as a member of the band Dragon (their big hit was April Sun In Cuba)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHFFuukk9Y8

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #258 on: May 03, 2021, 11:37:41 PM »
When The Wiz came out I was staying with a friend for two weeks while my bedroom was being remodeled. His father took us to see The Wiz and we loved it. I probably watched it at least 10 more times on video. I have a lot of fond memories, I'm reluctant to revisit it since I fear it won't hold up. The "Can You Feel a Brand New Day" (not sure if that's the title) finale is well lodged in my brain... as is the horrifying subway scene.

oldkid

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #259 on: May 04, 2021, 09:50:28 AM »
When The Wiz came out I was staying with a friend for two weeks while my bedroom was being remodeled. His father took us to see The Wiz and we loved it. I probably watched it at least 10 more times on video. I have a lot of fond memories, I'm reluctant to revisit it since I fear it won't hold up. The "Can You Feel a Brand New Day" (not sure if that's the title) finale is well lodged in my brain... as is the horrifying subway scene.

That subway scene was great, especially frighting when seen from they eyes of a kid.
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