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Poll

Which of these is your LEAST favorite?

Alien
1 (3.6%)
Aliens
1 (3.6%)
Brazil
1 (3.6%)
City of God
2 (7.1%)
A Clockwork Orange
3 (10.7%)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1 (3.6%)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
2 (7.1%)
Die Hard
0 (0%)
The Godfather
0 (0%)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
0 (0%)
Goodfellas
2 (7.1%)
The Graduate
5 (17.9%)
Jaws
1 (3.6%)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
3 (10.7%)
Pulp Fiction
0 (0%)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
0 (0%)
Schindler's List
0 (0%)
The Silence of the Lambs
0 (0%)
Sunset Blvd.
0 (0%)
Toy Story
0 (0%)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
6 (21.4%)

Total Members Voted: 28

Author Topic: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?  (Read 12796 times)

1SO

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1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« on: March 30, 2011, 06:34:11 PM »
I'm looking at the 18 films left in my Top 100 Marathon and I couldn't be more excited. I added in a couple of recent verdicts for even more variety. If this was the release schedule for the next 20 weeks, it would be a most extraordinary year for film.

I know a couple of these films have strong objections from Spotters, but I hope this will be a difficult choice for most of you. I'm predicting at least 15 Dark Green from MartinTeller.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:20:34 PM by 1SO »

MartinTeller

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2011, 07:15:53 PM »
21. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
20. Aliens
19. Die Hard
18. Schindler's List
17. Dawn of the Dead

16. Toy Story
15. Sunset Blvd.
14. The Silence of the Lambs
13. A Clockwork Orange
12. Jaws
11. City of God
10. The Godfather
9. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
8. Brazil
7. Alien
6. The Graduate
5. Pulp Fiction
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
3. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Goodfellas
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

1SO

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2011, 07:21:07 PM »
That makes me  :D

sdedalus

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2011, 07:27:43 PM »
1. The Good the Bad & the Ugly
2. Jaws
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

5. Sunset Blvd.
6. The Godfather
7. Alien
8. Goodfellas
9. Die Hard
10. Close Encounters
11. Dawn of the Dead

12. Aliens
13. Brazil
14. Toy Story

15. City of God
16. The Graduate
17. A Clockwork Orange
18. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
19. Schindler's List
20. Cuckoo's Nest
The End of Cinema

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Antares

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2011, 07:36:19 PM »
For me, it was a close call between The Graduate and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the only thing that tipped for me is that I like Simon & Garfunkel.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Science fiction for toddlers ...lots of bright flashing lights, special effects and a pedestrian narrative. I've always felt that this film and Star Wars ruined the science fiction genre.
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MartinTeller

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2011, 07:49:22 PM »
For me, it was a close call between The Graduate and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the only thing that tipped for me is that I like Simon & Garfunkel.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Science fiction for toddlers ...lots of bright flashing lights, special effects and a pedestrian narrative. I've always felt that this film and Star Wars ruined the science fiction genre.

I would say there's been more intelligent sci-fi in the post-Star Wars/Close Encounters era than prior to it. 

CE3K doesn't pretend to be hard sci-fi.  It's a fantasy with some likeable characters and a lot of "wow factor" spectacle.  I could choose to be insulted by your "for toddlers" remark, but what I love about the film is that it rekindles that childlike sense of awe and wonder in me.  In a way that many of Spielberg's other attempts (E.T., Jurassic Park) don't.

FroHam X

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2011, 07:51:49 PM »
When Dawn of the Dead is the worst film in a list of 20 you know it's a damn good list.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Science fiction for toddlers ...lots of bright flashing lights, special effects and a pedestrian narrative. I've always felt that this film and Star Wars ruined the science fiction genre.

1. Star Wars is fantasy, not science fiction.

2. You ever considered taking another look at Close Encounters? It's not my #2 film of all time for nothing. The plot is very simple, but the arc of the plot is far from simple. It's a complex drama about a man yearning for something more in his life, more even than his beautiful family. His journey to discovering that is fraught with obstacles both external and internal, and along the way he actually hurts his family. Plus, a simple narrative does not have to be a negative. Close Encounters uses the power of visuals, editing, sound and music to create an identifiable reality for its characters and then introduces real awe and wonder within those confines. It's a beautiful film and it's far more complex than mere bright flashing lights and special effects.

I really should get back to that scene-by-scene feature and finish it off.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2011, 08:02:22 PM »
Aliens
Pulp Fiction
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Graduate
A Clockwork Orange
Brazil
Alien
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Godfather
Die Hard
Jaws

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Schindler's List
Dawn of the Dead
The Silence of the Lambs

Goodfellas
Toy Story
Sunset Blvd
City of God



Best lot of films by far. 

Antares

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2011, 08:10:44 PM »
I could choose to be insulted by your "for toddlers" remark, but what I love about the film is that it rekindles that childlike sense of awe and wonder in me.

I didn't mean for this to be insulting, what I was trying to convey is that the special effects reminded me of a mobile above a toddler's crib. Spin it around and the toddler goes ooh and ahhh. Lots of bright lights and special effects and everyone goes ooh and ahhh like a toddler. I like my science fiction to be of the 2001: A Space Odyssey or the works of Isaac Asimov ilk.

What really bugged me about that film was the ending. In typical Spielberg fashion, he caps it with a pretty bow. Every person who has ever been abducted is returned safe and sound. Why is it that we want to believe that if aliens came to Earth, they'd be cute and cuddly? This was why I loved the scene in Fire in the Sky when he's been examined by the aliens on the ship and they are about to drill into his eye. That's how I think aliens would deal with us if they abducted us. They'd examine us just as we examine creatures we find in the wild.
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FroHam X

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Re: 1SO's Final Group: Which is Your LEAST Favorite?
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2011, 08:19:58 PM »
Spielberg did an aliens kill people movie. It was called War of the Worlds, and that movie suffers from more of the problems you are describing.

The reason that the aliens in Close Encounters are all lovey dovey and they return all the people is, well, partly because of the actual plot of the film, but also because Close Encounters is a story about hope and belief and wonder and discovery. It would be completely antithetical for the aliens not to be nice. Furthermore, the film actually does have its scarier moments in which the fear of the unknown, or rather the fear of what might actually be out their waiting for us is conveyed.

And the final 20 minutes of Close Encounters are fine for kids, in fact I'd love for my future kids to watch that film and that sequence one day, but they show is far more controlled and operatic than you are giving credit. It's a bravura squence of not just flashing lights, but a symphony of colours and sounds and music that swell and burst to elicit a strong emotional response. Brilliant filmmaking.
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