Mitch's Top Hunny

[HoodooMan]

From the Crash Review thread:

Which is why Swerb needs to go ahead and post our Top 100 film choices, as you can ascertain a lot about a critic by looking at the types of movies that he ranks highest.

Things I'm ascertaining about Mitch:

He reached regular-movie-watching age roundabouts the mid-60s.

He likes Steven Spielberg. A lot.

He doesn't do subtitles.

He's the one guy on earth who agreed with Forest Gump over Pulp Fiction in '94. [insert less cutesy winking emoticon here, since I like our emoticons even less than others]

He must not care for spaghetti westerns. One of the more surprising things for me to see was that Unforgiven was ranked, but all three of Clint's Leone westerns failed to make the list.

He doesn't agree with me on a whole heck of a lot (only 11 movies in his top 50 have spots on my Top 50 list).

[Guest]

Pretty close on the 60s thing...but more like the early to mid 70s. From my count (which I'll admit to having to go back and check), I have 20 of 100 from pre 1965, but they are all classics that you'll find on the AFI top 100...I've not really ventured into anything outside the typicals from the time prior to my teenaged years.

Yep...I'm a huge Spielberg fan. Except War of the Worlds. Absofuckinglutely horrible. Want to get bored as shit? Ask me to pontificate about "Band of Brothers".

Forest Gump over Pulp Fiction? You got me there. I love both...just depends upon my mood which I'd rather watch more. Ranking-wise, Gump gets higher points in my book due to the cinemetography and technology...IOW, I loved the technology in Zelig...but Woody blew it on the story. Zemeckis did it right with Forest. And that's all I have to say about that.

You're right...I don't do subtitles. Despite a background in the arts as a stage actor, I'm not really an artsy film type of guy...as a matter of fact, the only subtitled movie I've watched in the last 10 years has been "Crouching Tiger". OTOH...for a "people's critic"...I'm not a big comedy fan (I still ridicule Swerb for liking "Old School")...so go figure.

Spaghetti westerns? I guess I'll have to admit a personal bias there. Getting John Wayne shoved down my throat from an early age did not endear me to Westerns...and I'll readily admit not seeing many of them (just caught 3/4ths of "Hang 'em High" on cable a few weeks ago and fell asleep). But then again...I never saw "The Shining" until four weeks ago, and it's now in my top 50.

Everything is relative.

[HoodooMan]

Pretty close on the 60s thing...but more like the early to mid 70s. From my count (which I'll admit to having to go back and check), I have 20 of 100 from pre 1965, but they are all classics that you'll find on the AFI top 100...I've not really ventured into anything outside the typicals from the time prior to my teenaged years.

I'd imagine anyone who isn't a film historian or a director or somehow actively involved in the bizness is in the same boat. While the movies on my list from my teenage years on don't account for the majority of my list, that period of time is still probably represented disproportinately. Pretty unavoidable, I think. Even if you go back and try to see a lot of old movies, as I have, the ones you grew up loving are still going to tend to mean more to you.

You're right...I don't do subtitles. Despite a background in the arts as a stage actor, I'm not really an artsy film type of guy

I know that's a very popular attitude, but I really think everyone should at least give a few a try before closing their minds completely. I think you at least have to concede that the odds of all the greatest films in history having their origin in the USA are pretty damn slim, and you're inevitably missing out on some great stuff by not venturing outside Hollywood.

It's not all high-brow stuff either. Even though the actors are speaking English, films like Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and the others in the Man With No Name series are Italian films. There's nothing high-brow about Kurosawa's samurai pictures or Fellini's, and Bunuel's to an even greater extent, sense of humor either. Just like Hollywood films, there's something out there for everyone and no one's going to like it all.

[Jumbo]

I know that's a very popular attitude, but I really think everyone should at least give a few a try before closing their minds completely.

I agree. Every so often, I'll get into a streak of watching foreign films. Just like are American movies, some are better than others, and some are horribly overrated. (The Motorcycle Diaries - but maybe I'm just not a Che Guevara fan.)

Crouching Tiger is a good representative of the genre. Japanese anime has a lot of gems, with Miyazaki a class unto himself. There are quite a few good Spanish-language movies, like Amores Perros.

A movie that very few people have seen isL'Auberge Espangole (The Spanish Apartment). The best way to explain it is that it's a (fictional) European "Real World." I was concerned at first, because the beginning of the movie feels like it's trying too hard to be "artistic" but it ends up being very funny. Also, there actually aren't that many subtitles....as the roommates all come from different countries, the only language they have in common is English.

[P.O.PUPPY]

I'm so surprised that Jacobs Ladder wasn't on either list. I went and saw that movie and it blew me away because of the ending. But why I think it's so good is how one can view the different characters and what or who they represent. Everytime you watch that movie a person can see different ways to view some of the charaters. Example is the chripractor. That movie has so many twists and turns and kept me sitting on the edge of my seat and I'm not really a person that enjoys watching movies to often. This one of the few movies that actually kept me sitting down and watching it intensly.

Just wonder why it wasn't mentioned. That's all.

[HoodooMan]

Just wonder why it wasn't mentioned. That's all.

I've actually never seen it.

As for Mitch, if it's as good as you say, I'd have to assume it's not on his list due to his clearly inferior taste in movies. [wink!]

[Guest]

I think DJK would probably love Jacobs ladder, since bizarro movies rank pretty high on his list..."Being John Malkovic", "Eternal Sunshine", and "Adaptation" being indicative of that preference. Plus, there are some really gross moments of gratuitous violence...another plus for Mr. Pulp Fiction is #1 (wink).

It was a good flick, AFAIC, but the surrealism isn't exactly my cup of tea.

[P.O.PUPPY]

Mitch thanks for getting back to me on this. I guess I do prefer surealistic movies as well parodies. Naked Lunch is still one of my all time favorites too.

Take Care