Beageal

If the concept of the Canon is meant to consider more than just one's personal taste, then that means there are going to be movies that should get a YES vote even if you, personally, dislike them. Find 2001 boring? Still a YES. Hate mafia stuff like The Godfather? Still a YES. It's harder to make that auto-YES call with more recent stuff, but when looking at the last 20 years, the easiest auto-YES is The Matrix. The only thing anywhere near as safe a call is The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a whole (and I say that as someone who likes, but doesn't adore, LotR). Lots of the great stuff about it was mentioned in the podcast by Cameron (and even reluctabtly by Amy), but one thing they didn't touch on is how much of a precision machine this movie is. It feels like every cut was carefully planned with purpose, nothing left to chance. Complete control of every aspect of filmmaking, like they nailed everything they asked to do. The Wachowskis didn't manage this in the sequels, and came pretty close in Bound and Speed Racer. Which alone doesn't guarantee quality or even success as a movie, it's just one of those things I love about The Matrix. It's just one of many points in the pro column.

I am STUNNED that this is such a close race. I would've thought slam-dunk guarantee that Ghostbusters would've made it. I am a big YES, I think it's one of the great comedies and an incredibly strong, well-structured script (so much so that they basically reused it for Ghostbusters 2). Great effects, full of fun ideas, and some astoundingly good comedic performances. Bill Murray doing his best Bill Murray; Harold Ramis' stiff, odd Egon (who is pretty darn distinct from Dan Aykroyd's ball of enthusiasm Ray); Sigourney Weaver as the smart woman who sees through Venkman's shit, then flipping into the unhinged, possessed Gatekeeper; and perhaps best of all is Rick Moranis as Louis Tully. I've seen this movie a ton of times, and I've come to appreciate how incredible he is here. Every scene is full of fantastic punchlines and delightful little asides. It's had as much cultural impact as any movie from the '80s -- the catchphrases, the terminology, the spin-offs, Slimer, The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, the no-ghosts logo. I know that I'm at risk for rose-tinting here, but I can recognize those cases in myself (and I do have some, oh boy howdy do I), but any idea that we need to account for nostalgic distortions was washed away by Amy arguing for The Neverending Story, or including Karate Kid or some of the other entries in her left of better-in-1984 list. They may be okay, but they are not great by any standard that doesn't include heaping doses of nostalgia. Glad to have the Canon back, let's welcome it back right. Gotta get Ghostbusters in.