Author Topic: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 395776 times)

skjerva

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #30 on: June 30, 2009, 01:11:03 AM »
nice write-ups, both :)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

Thor

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #31 on: June 30, 2009, 01:11:24 AM »
I loved DRS as a kid,....

I refuse to believe anything else. "Not Mother?" :D.

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Wanting for Thor what Thor wants for Thor.

Bill Thompson

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #32 on: June 30, 2009, 08:22:48 AM »
Pretty in Pink is easily Hughes' worst 80s work.

That honor belongs to the thoroughly disappointing Weird Science.

THATguy

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #33 on: June 30, 2009, 12:35:15 PM »
That statement makes no sense, as after Ferris Bueller, Weird Science is Hughes's best.

Here's how I'd rank them..

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. Weird Science
3. The Breakfast Club
4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
5. Sixteen Candles
6. Uncle Buck
7. Pretty in Pink

Not seen: She's Having a Baby
« Last Edit: June 30, 2009, 12:38:15 PM by THATguy »

Bill Thompson

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #34 on: June 30, 2009, 12:56:39 PM »
That statement makes no sense, as after Ferris Bueller, Weird Science is Hughes's best.

Weird Science is probably last in my rankings, terribly misogynistic and mean just for the sake of being mean, plus it wasn't smart like the rest of Hughes work, it was broad and stupid.

skjerva

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #35 on: June 30, 2009, 01:41:43 PM »
That statement makes no sense, as after Ferris Bueller, Weird Science is Hughes's best.

Weird Science is probably last in my rankings, terribly misogynistic and mean just for the sake of being mean, plus it wasn't smart like the rest of Hughes work, it was broad and stupid.

i knew you were an ally in the good fight :)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

THATguy

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #36 on: June 30, 2009, 01:49:30 PM »
While I see something like Sixteen Candles as a teenage female fantasy, Weird Science is the ultimate teenage male fantasy film, and it ultimately succeeds as that more than just about anything else Hughes has done.

Bill Thompson

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #37 on: June 30, 2009, 03:48:42 PM »
That statement makes no sense, as after Ferris Bueller, Weird Science is Hughes's best.

Weird Science is probably last in my rankings, terribly misogynistic and mean just for the sake of being mean, plus it wasn't smart like the rest of Hughes work, it was broad and stupid.

i knew you were an ally in the good fight :)

I do try.  :D

skjerva

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #38 on: July 03, 2009, 02:19:43 PM »
The Natural
1984, Barry Levinson
vs.
My Dinner with Andre
1981, Louis Malle


The Natural - disgusting
My Dinner with Andre - delicious

some spoilers

I can't quite believe The Natural is an admired film.  From the typically saccharine Newman score that opens (punctuates and closes) the film, to Redford dully filling the simpleton golden boy role with the occasional beefcakey shots of him in odd poses, the film offers nothing but cliché on cliché riffing on the good-ol'-boy institution of baseball.  the women in the film fill ridiculous roles of dangerous (when they are dressed in black) and angelic (in white).  if they have "a past" they are certainly bad (Basinger's character); she also relies on her "womanly ways" to get what she wants - money, attention, men - and this is clearly bad.  Iris (Close) is a cipher that is introduced as an early love and appears much later as a fuzzy angel in white that somehow gives Roy Hobbs (Redford) the power to fulfill his nature.  the film closes on iris disclosing she had Hobbes' kid 16 years ago, this is somehow heartwarming, the family coming together.  vomit.  the film trades heavily on rigid gender roles and hierarchy.  there is some crap line about "think of all the boys you've influenced", and this film is clearly about baseball for boys - as players and fans.  i suspect that for every scene at the ballpark Levinson cuts to crowd reaction shots that feature head shots of boys basking in the game.  more vomit.  while there is some mild critique of the greedy owners and gamblers attached to the game (mild i suspect because boys will be boys, which also forgives Hobbs any responsibility for abandoning the mother and son - gasp - out of wedlock), the greatest critique is awkwardly leveled at Max Mercy (Duvall) the baseball writer, when Hobbs sneers at him and drawls did you ever play ball, Max?, it is certainly unclear where this problem with the baseball writer comes from, the assumption is that baseball writers "market" players and the game, whereas really, the game just is.  the prominence of the locomotive as a tedious motif of the film suggests this fate-like movement of players to greatness, of women to men, and baseball to all that is right.  fortunately enough for those of us that don't believe in those certainties, the film is so shabbily constructed that we're not seduced by those oppressive ideas.  despite how much i hated this one, it was still fun to dip into the 80s with it :)

My Dinner with Andre easily critiqued the culture that The Natural represents - one of lazy, non-thinking habit.  with the exception of a minute at the film's open and close, the duration plays out at a dinner table with Wally (Wallace Shawn) and Andre (Andre Gregory) in philosophical conversation led by Andre, broadly about the meaning of life.  Wally becomes more prominent as he is made uncomfortable by the stated beliefs of Andre, which plays perfectly to Andre's (and we suspect, the film's) ideas (this is also suggested by the clever self-effacement Wally sets the film up with as he introduces the audience to the conceit).  Andre justifies the film's form as he critiques so much of the mass culture we are bombarded with as both common and as is - what we need is a new language, exactly what My Dinner with Andre delivers.  this new language, to a new world of joy and expression - living with abandon - is suggested to be too much.  we prefer to live in comfort and habit.  when we are shown ourselves - and made uncomfortable - we recoil, sickened.  while this film doesn't quite work as the antidote it might desire itself to be - sadly affirmed by the fitting closing of Wally on the platform: i came home, there was debbie, home from work, and i i told her everything about my dinner with andre - it is still a breath of fresh air.  sadly there aren't more like this.  i'll have more to say on this one as i revisit it soon, especially once i track down the new Criterion edition with some of the additional features
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #39 on: July 03, 2009, 02:51:54 PM »
I can't wait to watch My Dinner With Andre, whether it's for this bracket or just. I read the first few sentences of your review and I was sold. Sounds like the right choice to me. Nice write up skjerva.