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Author Topic: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time  (Read 235138 times)

1SO

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1100 on: March 26, 2011, 11:18:28 AM »
You better do right by Charade, 1SO. Also, I hope you'll be watching (or watched) the new Criterion Blu-ray, which is so gorgeous-looking, I cried during the opening credits.
Fear not. I've watched it twice last year and a place in my Top 50 is guaranteed. I purchased the Criterion Blu-Ray and have been waiting for the marathon to watch it.

Antares, that's a fine review which I very much agree with, but I would caution that it's best to read AFTER you've seen the film. Two of the points you make can be real suspense killers to someone coming at this film for the first time.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 11:50:31 AM by 1SO »

Antares

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1101 on: March 26, 2011, 01:58:03 PM »
Antares, that's a fine review which I very much agree with, but I would caution that it's best to read AFTER you've seen the film. Two of the points you make can be real suspense killers to someone coming at this film for the first time.

Fixed

It remains the greatest espionage thriller ever put to film. One of my Top 50 of All Time.

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm glad to see it getting the love it deserves. Here's a review I wrote for it last year.

WARNING: Review has spoilers!!!
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

1SO

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1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Charade
« Reply #1102 on: March 26, 2011, 11:38:59 PM »
Marathon Update


Charade
You won't be able to lie on your back for a while, but then you can lie from any position, can't you?

When I first saw it, I took it utterly seriously and was very caught up in the suspense of it.  It wasn't until I saw it a few years later that I realized it was more of a comedy and the more I've seen it, the more the comedic part trumps the suspense part and makes it seem more and more lightweight, with everyone else's characters becoming more and more broad.  I don't care, I still love it.
The frequent comment attached to Charade is it's the greatest Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never directed. Taking a very critical look at the film today I think that's overselling Charade by quite a lot. Aside from a handful of stylized shots, only in the final 15 minutes do I feel the presence of the master. Even then, the suspense is more on par with Hitch's 2nd tier masterpieces. However, no Hitchcock film is this much fun.

Even North by Northwest, which comes close and is a ton of fun, has a large-scale ponderousness to it. Charade is light on its feet and only takes things seriously when it feel the need to. Grant is Grant, whether being squirted in the face by a water pistol or awkwardly rolling an orange over a lady's bosom with his chin (the look on his face during that scene is priceless), the Cary Grant wit and physically comedic goofiness I’ve loved since The Awful Truth is still there. Eva Marie Saint... she's got nothing on Audrey Hepburn. The two most beautiful and elegant stars the movies have ever known define screen chemistry like no other film in existence. Here's a film where one of the high points involves Grant taking a shower in Hepburn's room. I wish they made more films together.  Their meal times are opportunities for some great rom-com writing, and the tension of the treasure hunt story always knows to come in right when things are their cheeriest.

The bad guys are a bit of a goofy lot, but they never lose their threatening air, even when James Coburn is only threatening Hepburn with lit matches. George Kennedy carries a particular menace about him. He has a great rooftop fight with Grant, even if it ends with the lone dialogue clunker. All the while the mystery dares us to figure it out. Obviously now I know where the money is, but I was completely fooled the first time, as are people I show Charade to. Plus there's the truth about Grant, which leads to a final line by Hepburn that I'd put as one of the great curtain closers in cinema.

At times the comedy gets too silly, but for the most part this is a perfect mix of romance, comedy and suspense. It'll be in my Top 50.

For my current rankings Click Here.

Next Up:
Dangerous Liaisons
The 4th Man
The Incredibles
Jaws
Sunset Blvd.
Toy Story

MartinTeller

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Charade
« Reply #1103 on: March 27, 2011, 12:40:04 AM »
The two most beautiful and elegant stars the movies have ever known define screen chemistry like no other film in existence.

"How do you shave in there?" is one of the most perfect throwaway lines ever.

sdedalus

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1104 on: March 27, 2011, 01:08:45 AM »
You know what's wrong with this movie?

Nothing.
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1105 on: March 27, 2011, 08:54:05 AM »
I enjoyed it quite a bit when I saw it recently. Dunno if I would call it an all time favorite, but it was a lot of fun.

tinyholidays

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Charade
« Reply #1106 on: March 27, 2011, 10:37:09 AM »
You know what's wrong with this movie?

Nothing.

 :)

It's perfect. The more I see it, the more I see its perfection. I showed it to my boyfriend last month, and it was his first time seeing it. I was so tense the whole time, thinking that he was going to figure out the ending. When you know what it is, you see that it's everywhere in the film. But he didn't! No one does! Even the trapdoors of identity continued to come as a pleasant surprise. The movie is a beautiful game of Mousetrap.

And it's filled to the brim with lines I use all the time, like:  "I already know an awful lot of people, and, until one of them dies, I couldn't possibly meet anyone else."

It is exciting, romantic, and fun, with the two most charming film stars to have ever worked, and a wonderful supporting cast of strange and familiar faces. When the movie was over, boyfriend said, "Why isn't this the goal for every movie? Why try to do anything else? This is what people want to see."

1SO

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1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Sunset Blvd./Toy Story/The Incredibles
« Reply #1107 on: March 27, 2011, 11:28:16 AM »
Marathon Update – Triple Shot

Sunset Blvd.
No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.

This marathon has caused a major rethink of Billy Wilder for me, so it brings me great joy/relief to say Sunset Blvd. retains its power and is the best film of the marathon so far. The blacker than dark comedy that Hollywood deserves, now that I work in the business I see how much sympathy Norma Desmond warrants. Her kind still exists out here, a discarded waste product of the dream factory. This is the first time I saw her as the hero and writer Joe Gillis as the villainous cad. I used to think Norma was pathetic and felt bad that Joe fell into her web. This time I really despised how much he pitied this has-been even though he’s a never-was. It’s Norma who lowers herself to be with him. His return to her on New Year’s sealed that for me.

If I had to describe a tone for Sunset Blvd. I would compare it to a funeral. Wilder fills his ‘ghost’ story with horror movie imagery. The story is morbid and seems obsessed with death. It also takes some penetrating stabs at the living, mainly the early scenes with agents, producers and studio heads. The humor here is much smarter than my previous Wilder encounters, and it’s lined with a true anger towards the business built on illusion (more like delusion), where people grow old while their young selves remain forever on film.

This is a film you can analyze from a lot of angles, and they all look great. I don’t even have anything negative to say about it, and that final scene still holds up to its reputation. Even better than the classic lines is the moment when Norma has to break character and thank everybody because she’s so happy.

The marathon’s entered a whole new level with Sunset Blvd. This one will end up in my Top 25.


Toy Story and The Incredibles
To infinity… and beyond!

For better or worse, 11/22/1995 is one of the most important dates in the history of cinema. The debut and instant success of Toy Story changed the face of Animation, and started the most acclaimed and successful run of films for a single production company. Even more telling for this marathon, Toy Story was the first ever animated film nominated for Best Screenplay, validating the very core of Pixar’s success… story.

The original Toy Story shows its age more than any other Pixar film. (I would be all for a computer upgrade, so long as the original version remained available.) Also, while I’ve grown to like “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, Randy Newman is easily the worst thing about this movie. Still, this is one of the funniest films ever made. I feel in time it will drop as my favorite Pixar film, but even with its small, unavoidable faults Toy Story remains on of my Top 25 films of All Time.

The Incredibles is technically at the other end of the scale. Brad Bird was the shot in the arm Pixar needed at just the right time and tested the limits of what the company could do. Bird had the perfect idea, a fresh take on the superhero genre that is the story of a family at its heart.

I didn’t rewatch The Incredibles today, but trust me I’ve seen it plenty, including twice since my Best of the Decade Marathon. (Review Here.) Bird is one of the great filmmakers working today. His perfectionism meshed with the great Pixar artists to create the greatest superhero film of all time.

For my current rankings Click Here.

Next Up:
Alien
Dangerous Liaisons
The 4th Man (De Vierde Man)
Jaws
United 93
« Last Edit: October 01, 2019, 09:27:51 PM by 1SO »

FroHam X

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1108 on: March 27, 2011, 11:31:47 AM »
A post with three movies and I agree with all three reactions!
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #1109 on: March 27, 2011, 11:38:02 AM »
Randy Newman is one of the few reasons why I will never love the Toy Story films.

The Incredibles is great stuff, but every time I see it I find it not quite as incredible as I thought it was. It's certainly one of the best superhero films. I'd probably place it behind Hellboy II and Watchmen as the third best superhero flick.

And Sunset Bvld. is a decent film, not nearly as good as The Apartment or Double Indemnity, but I don't despise it like some of Wilder's other films.

Also, I think you're confusing The 4th Man with The Third Man...or maybe not.

 

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