My Favorite Movies -- Star Wars (1977)

Ok, I really shouldn't have to explain this, so instead I'll just give some context. When Star Wars was first released I was 12. 12 year-old-boy meets Star Wars... and love ensues. I saw it in the theater on its original run 7 times. There is no need to discuss all of the great scenes in Star Wars, you've all seen it. I will, however, commend the original Star Wars lack of CGI and lack of shiny new spaceships and the lack of a bloated George Lucas with no creative spark and finally a lack of "a new hope."

Original crawl http://youtube.com/watch?v=iiNQc4RomWE

Oh, and the original star wars has freaking Peter Cushing. Note, Peter Cushing was always cooler than Christopher Lee (Wicker Man excluded).

My Favorite Movies -- The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

OK, let's get some things, er, straight here. I never dressed up, never played the parts. In fact, I never saw Rocky Horror until about 1988, so I was way behind the trend. I had very low expectations the first time I saw this movie. I must confess ... 2 minutes into "Science Fiction Double Feature" I was hooked. First of all, anyone who had seen all the movies listed in that song (like myself) had to be onto something. I found the movie wonderfully campy and cheesy. I don't care... I LIKE the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I actually get a bit annoyed by all the antics making fun of it... because I think it's really a good movie. I know... take me to court... I like it. The songs, of course, are numerous and famous. The performance by Tim Curry is flamboyant and fabulous. And, like any favorite movie, this movie is insanely rewatchable.

Finally, there is something of substance to Rocky Horror. Sure it may seem simplistic... but the "Don't dream it... be it" sort of "carpe diem" message is welcome and can't be spread enough.

Rose-tint my world http://youtube.com/watch?v=vFJqSeprgJE more love of movies presented here.

Science Fiction Double Feature http://youtube.com/watch?v=iN3azigz608

My Favorite Movies -- The Big Lebowski (1998)

I must admit, after the love I had for Fargo, Lebowski didn't really strike me as anything special. It took about my third viewing and numerous people telling me to check it out again, before I finally "got" The Big Lebowski for what it was. It is really quite a fun movie, over-quoted, over-adopted by every stupid, drunken frat-boy. I think in another 10 years Lebowski will fall off the radar of all of the hanger-ons, but will remain beloved by many many movie fans. There is so much dialogue and character-driven goodness to have here. Many of the usual Coen "tricks" are present.... the bungled crime, the misunderstandings, the violence. So, what sets this apart? In the same way Blue Velvet is almost the unintentional perfect 80's movie... Lebowski is the perfect 90's movie. You have the character of "the Dude" stumbling through the all the manipulations and schemes of those around him... and he just wants to stay happy and oblivious. He just wants his White Russian, a good game of bowling, a comfortable bathrobe, and his rug back. So, here's this slacker Mr. Magoo icon somehow "abiding" through all of the chaos.


Key elements:

Inspired soundtrack -- everything from Kenny Rogers to Gypsy Kings

Inspired performances -- notably Jeff Bridges and John Goodman

Crazy casting -- how many movies can boast Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, and Aimee Mann, and Flea??

Bravura moments -- Hotel California bowling sequence, bowling with Saddam dream sequence , any scene with the nihilists, Log Jammin', spreading the ashes , numerous Viet Nam rants.

jesus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX8cJ3PBzZs&feature=related

My Favorite Movies -- Deliverance (1972)

Most people only know Deliverance for "that scene" and for dueling banjos. Most people are missing an incredible story about what it means to be a man... about arrogance and morality... about man vs. nature. Deliverance is the only great film featuring Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights is almost great). Deliverance is one of those movies that just feels "real." The mountain people feel like the real thing.... the locations feel real.... the towns feel real... and it all just heightens the creepy dread that hangs over this film. There are many striking scenes in this film...

A. The first encounter with hill people/dueling banjos

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ydGhd1Da6fo

B. John Voight's character can't shoot a deer (almost copied in Deer Hunter years later)


C. The infamous "squeel like a pig" scene. This scene is still horrible and chilling to this day, nearly unwatchable. The moment before this scene where Voight and Beatty pull over to the river bank always gets me worried for them.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zSrBfjaWkPc


D. The rapids/climbing the cliff.

E. Finding their friend downstream.

F. Unearthing the cemetery. http://youtube.com/watch?v=oZlKc9sZGHU&feature=related

E. The final nightmare.

This movie was based on the novel by noted poet James Dickey. For those interested my favorite poem ever is by James Dickey. The poem is called Falling and is about the last moments of life as a stewardess falls from a plane to her death... intense and beautiful.

My Favorite Movies -- Harold and Maude (1971)

Many shrug off Harold as Maude as an inferior knock-off of The Graduate. In many ways I enjoy it more than The Graduate. Sure it has a romance between a younger man and older woman, sure it has a folky soundtrack (Cat Stevens), sure it has social satire... but the characters! In many ways Harold and Maude is a great symbol of the transition between the peace and love 60's and the more cynical, self-centered 70's. You have the incredibly, hilariously morose Harold with his life full of fake suicides and absent rich parents.... and you have the vivacious, life-affirming senior citizen Maude. I so love both characters. If you don't fall in love with Maude by the end of this movie... you have no heart. So many many many great scenes.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYxOWPzZXBM&feature=related

A. Harold commits various suicides to ward off the blind dates set-up by his mother.

B. Harold meets Maude at the cemetary for the first time.

C. Maude saves a tree.

D. Harold converts his jaguar.

E. Maude throws Harolds engagement ring into the bay.

F. The Ending. (spoilers) http://youtube.com/watch?v=TXWr-lBL67k

My Favorite Movies - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Ok, I know this is totally a love-it/hate-it sort of movie. I know it's long, self-indulgent, and mostly plotless. I still love it.

Anytime I come across it on tv I watch a huge chunk of it. The set design, art direction, music/sound design, cinematography, and special effects are groundbreakingly brilliant. These special effects still hold up 40 YEARS later. Just think about that the next time you watch 2001.... it's 40 years old. Amazing. I love the audacity of the film structure. I love the hypnotic (many say boring) pace. Many scenes are just jaw-droppingly beautiful... most notably the entire "open the pod bay doors, HAL" sequence.

Dawn of Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML1OZCHixR0

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU4TQ1NTo50&feature=related

My Favorite Movies - Repulsion (1965)

Both Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are better movies, but I keep returning to this earlier work by Roman Polanski. There is a stark simplicity to Repulsion that I love. Essentially, it's just the story of Catherine Deneuve's character's descent into homicidal madness. What sets this movie apart from the other Psycho clones of the era is the way it is so claustrophobic and internalized. We spend almost the entire movie with Deneuve in a small apartment.


Half of the time we, like her, are not sure if what we are seeing is really happening or just the world from her broken point of view....

a rabbit carcass rots on the countertop to mark the passage of time, a strange man enters her room nightly to presumably rape her, large cracks form in the plaster walls, and hands emerge from the hallway to grasp at her. Highly symbolic and with nods to surrealism and earlier works (Les Daiboliques) Repulsion is definitely an acquired taste.

a scene from the end of repulsion http://youtube.com/watch?v=TTLAlBnoRlA

My Favorite Movies -- Jason And The Argonauts (1963)

Until I was about 10 years old this was my all-time favorite movie. Sure, the story and acting are hokey... but it's Harryhausen at his best. I loved, and still love, the magic of stop-motion. I almost always would prefer animated puppets over CGI. Sure it doesn't look real... but it looks really cool. So what did I love about this movie?

A. The attack by the giant statue (Talos)


B. Attack of the Hydra


C. Attack of Skeleton Soldiers


Harryhausen often mentioned this sequence as the best he ever did.... I agree. As a kid it was both creepy and exhilerating. It is still a great piece of animation. I just love how the skeletons rise from the "seeds" of hydra teeth... then march slowly forward... then... scream and attack!

Skeleton Scene http://youtube.com/watch?v=JlFjNVTiI1c&feature=related

My Favorite Movies -- The Haunting (1963)

Robert Wise's The Haunting is often touted as the best haunted house movie ever. I am not one to defy that opinion. A case could certainly be made that it's a bit dated now... a bit slow... a bit too much "bump in the night." I don't care... no other movie is more responsible for my love of horror than The Haunting. I saw this movie the first time on tv when I was 5 and promptly had a nightmares for weeks. The opening sequence listing the many tragedies to befall the residents of Hill House is just great storytelling.

The possible madness and lesbian tension of the main character is well-known, but for me the whole reason this movie works is Hill House itself. Hill House is crazy spooky.... and Wise gives it center stage... often using highly skewed angles, wide angle shots, and extreme depth of focus.

The cinematography is fantastic... the acting is fevered yet appropriate... the story is a slow creepy burn... the sound design is stellar. If you enjoy horror...you should see this. If you have only seen the horrible remake... you REALLY should see this.

First few minutes of the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAo6WwpV3jk&feature=related

My Favorite Movies -- The Music Man (1962)

This movie holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first I ever grew to love. It was a favorite of my grandmother's and I learned the soundtrack front to back. It stands out from other classical musicals in that it both praises the values of small-town America while holding a critical and cynical eye to it. Very unusual indeed. It is full of great songs that have become standards.... 76 Trombones, Trouble, Goodnight My Someone, Marian the Librarian, Gary Indiana. It boasts Robert Preston as the conman out to rob from the children/families of River City and Shirley Jones as Marian the suspicious and single librarian that the conman pretends to woo. Oh, did I mention a very young Ronnie Howard lisping his way through the movie? If you've only seen bits and pieces of this movie on tv and you have any love of musicals... then rent the dvd and see it in widescreen technicolor glory.

Trouble http://youtube.com/watch?v=GKH9fkSHuH0&feature=related

Marian the Librarian http://youtube.com/watch?v=AnFv29iPACc&feature=related

Return of the Living Dead

For my first foray into the blog universe I wanted to give everyone a tast of my love for the strange in movies, music, and other forms of pop culture. I will start with the inspiration for this blog title... Return of the Living Dead. Below is my defense for this moving being the best zombie movie of all time...


Return of the Living Dead - 1985 Dir. Dan O'Bannon

Ok, this might seem like an outlandish assertion, Return of the Living Dead is the greatest zombie movie ever?! Preposterous.

Isn't that the movie where the zombies yell Brains!?

Yes... that's the one.

Is it the goriest?

No.

Is it the scariest?

No.

Did it spawn the best zombie franchise?

No.

Is it the best?

Yes.

I will make my case...(If you hadn't already guessed... spoilers ahead.)


10. FAST ZOMBIES

If this were the first appearance of fast zombies it would be higher on the list, but alas.... I believe the Italians beat us to it. Nevertheless, for most of the movie-going audience this is the first time they ever considered that zombies might be able to run after them instead of just mindlessly shambling. Such a small thing ramps up the zombie-danger factor significantly. It is also the first sign of unpredictability from this movie. It's like the first time you watched a vampire movie where the cross didn't work or sunlight wasn't deadly. All of a sudden, all bets were off.


9. Punk Rockers


I was a punk-rocker in the 80's and was always annoyed by the cartoon-like portrayals of punks in movies. Ok, sure they are pretty cartoon-like here, but they are more than half the characters in the movies. And, punks are also portrayed with a bit of breadth....Freddy, the main kid, and one of our "heroes" is about the most average type of punk... the kid that had a crappy job and had crazy friends and...so on.

Also, the combination of punks being attacked by zombies, then becoming zombies...pure cinematic gold.

8. The Soundtrack

So, by adding punks to the zombie movie, naturally you could also have a great soundtrack. Surprisingly, the soundtrack is quite diverse....and....awesome!

There are three stand-out numbers.

The Cramps - Surfing Dead (an intro to the punks and a great way to kindof introduce us to the campy feel of the movie.)

45 Grave -- Great great choice. Long members of the L.A. punk scene, 45 Grave were one of the few horror punk sort of bands (Misfits being the other famous one). Partytime was a great tag-line that caught people's attentions and is almost as remembered as "brains."

Roky Erickson - Burn the Flames A truly inspired choice and my personal favorite song sequence in the movie (think crematorium). Roky came to fame in the late 60's with the band The 13th Floor Elevators (great name) but fell into schizophenia. At the time he was writing songs like Burn the Flames he was truly battling demons. Many musicians kept him from falling into total oblivion, notably Willy Nelson. Youtube clip to Roky Erickson documentary... http://youtube.com/watch?v=sVFLqzJB6qw

7. Indestructable Zombies

So here is a big change from the Romero zombie mythos. You cannot kill zombies by shooting them in the head. You cannot kill zombies by chopping them up. I remember sitting in the theater watching ROTLD for the first time...watching the yellow zombie run out of the cooler...get his head cut off and then... the wonderful scene where the headless body runs around causing havoc while the head tries to chew. As a horror fan, what an exhilerating scene from the pure imagination of it to... the implications. From that point forward I knew as a viewer that I wasn't in zombie-Kansas anymore.

The indestructable nature of ROTLD zombies is crucial in that it sets up a real problem... how do you survive? How do you beat them? How do you end the movie? (more on that later)

I think that it's interesting that few other zombie movies have adopted this feature, even though many have taken on the fast zombie thing. It really is a much bleaker zombie vision if they can't be destroyed, but much harder to deal with as a writer/director.

6. Yellow Man Zombie

Well, since I already mentioned the sequence, here is reason number 6...Yellow Man Zombie. He is important for several reasons.

A. He introduces us to the indestructable nature of ROTLD zombies as mentioned before.

B. He is one of the first zombies I can think of that acts as more of a character...unique and memorable. This movie has three, if not four, very memorable zombies...unheard of before ROTLD and nearly unheard of since (Bub from Day of the Dead, being a notable exception....terrible movie BTW).

C. We get some of the best interaction between three key human characters (Burt, Frank, and Freddy) as they try to destroy the yellow zombie. Their interactions are just well-written and hilarious....often a cross between three stooges and Abbott and Costello. Also, they set up the key working releationship that's relatable to just about anyone. You have the lowly,nobody grunt-worker (Freddy), the middle management guy who is beaten-down and weary with life(Frank), and you have the immoral boss who just wants to cover his own butt at any cost (Burt).

banter http://youtube.com/watch?v=-KWTOE0YtkY

5. Trash

What's a movie like this without a sex-object? Well, here you have a punk-rock chick, obsessed by death, obsessed by being the center of attention....who just happens to get naked... then bit.... then become a zombie! That's pretty cool b-movie stuff right there. This movie single-handedly raised Linnea Quiggley to scream-queen status. If you've seen the movie.... you're male...and heterosexual... you remember Trash.

Best naked dancing on a crypt in cinema history.

4. Tar Man

Probably the single most memorable zombie in movie history! He's cool looking, yet kinda funny looking too. He's gooey. He's one of the non-fast zombies. He growls "Brains." and thus goes down in zombie movie history. In fact the "brains" quote is one of the most universally known movie lines from a movie that most people haven't seen. It is so pervasive that most people assume that zombies are out for brains even though that is solely in the ROTLD zombie mythos. He is just a damned cool zombie... end of story!

3. Half-Woman

OK, for my money, she is the coolest zombie in this movie.... and of all time. Why?

A. She looks cool. She's only half of a corpse, rotted, wagging her spinal cord as she talks.

B. She's a puppet. She is physically present in our actual universe and not a CGI creation. I like puppets in movies.

C. She's badass. She kills one of our heroes by biting through his skull.

D. She talks... and says really important stuff (more on that later).

2. The Mythos (pardon spelling issues to follow)

Well, the reason I rate this so high is that arguably the ROTLD zombie mythos is the richest in zombie cinema. Let's count the ways.

A. Expanding on Romero. At the beginning of ROTLD Dan O'Bannon does an ingenious thing.... he dismisses, acknowledges, and expands upon Romero's zombie legacy.

Romero's zombie world is pretty thin... why do they exist? why do they eat humans, why do they die when you kill their brains?

Well, ROTLD tells us that "the movie lied" and that the zombies are all part of an army experment...etc. What a sly way to dismiss Romero's zombie world while giving a degree of believability to the ROTLD world. Of course the discussion doesn't end there... we learn about the canisters holding the zombies and we learn about the government agency that is trying to track all the canisters down, we learn about the gas that creates the zombies...etc.

B. Brains

ROTLD tells us that that zombies are not just mindless cannibals... they are actually after our brains... because eating brains helps ease the pain of being dead... of feeling one's body rot away. Remember we find all this out from the rotting lips of half-woman zombie herself. Now that is a great moment in horror history right there.

1. The End (spoilers... duh)

This will probably be my most controversial point, because the end of ROTLD is one of the most love-it or hate-it aspects of the movie. Many feel it is a cop-out... a sort of Deux Et Machina (sp?). I disagree... it is the perfect ending... maybe the most perfect ending a zombie movie could ever have.

First of all, as I said previously, there should never have been any sequels to ROTLD. Sure, you can follow other canisters and other zombie outbreaks, but really that goes against the ending of the first movie.

The ending... zombies are taking over the area surrounding the cemetery...medical warehouse... and our heroes decide to finally call the number on the side of the canister. What a great feature... once again illustrating the high level of writing in this movie. Is it not totally like the army to put an emergency on the side of ZOMBIE CANISTERS!!? So funny and so true.

So, the call goes through and the contingency plan.... waiting like the silos of the cold-war.... finally goes into action. Giant nuclear cannon..... destroy everything. So that seems sudden and a bit of a let-down. But then we have one last scene... the repetition of rising gas/mist... rain...into the ground.... into a cemetary... So, of course, the implications are that the fallout from the blast has both...not ended the zombie threat... but SPREAD IT! Apocalyptic.... un-killable zombies... nuclear-zombie-creating-fallout.... cool... perfect...end of the world.

No happy ending. No end to zombies. Zombies Win. Game Over Man!