joel_rosenbaum

From Blake Harris' Slashfilm on Bloodsport (Sheldon Lidditch interview) Can you imagine?

Here are the Rottentomatoes scores (borrowed from the thread started by Ryan_Sz) for every episode in chronological order, in handy chart format with completely worthless trendline for good measure:

By the way, I completely agree about Boyhood. One of my less favorite Linklater movies.

Amy studied abroad in Lund? That's something we share in common. Wonder what year -- I'm guessing not the same one, although we are close in age, since the international/english speaking students all tended to know each other.

In this case, it's GIlliam showing fidelity to the source material, because the movie is almost a perfect visual approximation of Thompson's novel.

Rob Reiner really had a strong start to his career: Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men... (I'll give him a pass for The Sure Thing, which has aged poorly). In that run, you could convince me that the Princess Bride is his best film -- a perfect partnership with William Goldman -- and it's definitely my favorite. Would Reiner be worthy of two films in the Canon? I'm not sure. Although I like the Princess Bride most, it's hard to argue against the influence that Spinal Tap had. Looking at Reiner's career in the rearview, It's actually kind of remarkable how much his output has tapered since the early nineties. Not in terms of volume -- he's kept right up with that -- but the quality has suffered dramatically. North was really a pivot point in his career. It's like two different filmmakers. I guess I should be excited for his upcoming movie on Lyndon Johnson but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that it will be more than (at best) a straightforward biopic.

This hagiography of Def Jam (with Blair Underwood playing the role of Russell Simmons) is, well...

One thing that wasn't discussed in this episode was one of the biggest non-sequitur scenes in the entire movie: Chunk had just escaped kidnapping from a family of violent gangsters! He and his friends had gone missing for (hours, days?). His mother had *just* seen him for the first time since his disappearance. She is, for all that we know about her, a financially struggling single parent. So, at that moment, we're to believe that she's going to greenlight Chunk's adoption of John Matuszak and his horrible facial makeup?

Isn't this, essentially, the Ecce Homo argument?

Thank god (for June's sake), that the Stretch Armstrong movie was cancelled.

Amelie versus Delicatessen would be my choice.

Well, for recent examples of "pure cinematic garbage", they've recently covered the Apple, Kazaam, Steel, Lifeforce, Death Spa, Masters of the Universe, and Maximum Overdrive.

I'm surprised to find myself writing this, but my favorite might be Fast Times at Ridgemont High. My least favorite is probably Rocky Horror Picture Show -- never had much feeling for camp, personally -- although I recognize its widespread influence/importance. I don't really feel like any movies have been unfairly excluded. But my favorite non-inductee? Probably Mad Max.

It was better than Alien^3...

I wonder if we can start considering production and directorial credits as appearances in the all stars? Right now, Golan and Globus have four films: Cobra, Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, and Bloodsport.

This was, and is, my lonely stance for a very long time. I will say that I've always liked Batman more than Superman. But when it comes to iconic superhero movies, it's Superman without question. Growing up in the eighties, Superman was about as big a cultural phenomenon as Star Wars. It's easy to overlook that in retrospect, and while Batman was huge in its time -- the merchandising and the Prince soundtrack were everywhere -- there's no comparison. None.

Sleepaway Camp is still a horrible movie, but it "goes there" on a lot of issues that were taboo at the time (child molestation, transgenderism, and homosexual relationships between consenting adults) that have gained widespread social recognition. It doesn't cover for the fact that the movie is badly cast, shot, edited, and has an incoherent plot, but what might have made it shocking for its time is a lot less so.

Did anyone else find it surprising that Sadiq Hossein was obviously played by a non-arab actor? The actor, Bernard Mariano, is Filipino and bears almost no resemblance to a middle eastern person. Did the director (probably correctly) assume that he could simply have a brown-skinned guy wear a keffiyeh and the audience would just go for it? What's especially striking about this casting decision is that they already cast an actor, Michel Qissi, who while perhaps not Arab was at least ethnically North African, in the role of Suan Parades. Incidentally, Qissi would be cast as Tong Po in the de facto sequel/remake of Bloodsport, Kickboxer. So, maybe these guys just liked playing against ethnic type.

I understand that he's a trained secret weapon and all, but isn't Frank Dux guilty of desertion in this movie? According to the movie's timeline, the year is 1975 so the Vietnam war has either ongoing or has just ended. Would Helmer and Rollins really allow Dux to continue fighting in the Kumite once they found him in Hong Kong, which was at the time not part of, but certainly proximal to communist China? Furthermore, one Dux evaded arrest, wouldn't they bring in the military police corps to arrest Dux (and at the very least, prevent his escape from Hong Kong)? In fact, wouldn't this be especially true if Dux is a military asset (e.g. trained secret weapon)? What would prevent the PRC from kidnapping Dux and interrogating/torturing him into revealing his valuable training?

Any reason for excluding Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

They made sequels? Is Corey Feldman the Chevy Chase in this scenario? Even Rodney Dangerfield wouldn't touch the Caddyshack sequel. ETA: Looked it up, yes.

Election is one of my favorite movies, and I'm happy to find out that I wasn't alone in feeling like it captured the essence of high school (during the nineties) perfectly. Agreed in this being one of the best episodes to date.

Honestly, Demolition Man and Face/Off aren't bad movies, either, yet they're two of the best HDTGM episodes yet. Sax man is obviously the most absurd aspect of this movie, but there's plenty of other silly fun aspects (The hair metal vampires, particularly Alex Winter, Santa Cruz being the murder capital of the world, the debut of the Coreys) that are ripe targets. I've been on the record of preferring episodes with kinda good (or bad in a good way) movies anyways, so this is my line of thinking.

I am so fucking pumped for this you guys.

Hey, this thing is on! Advertising this show on HDTGM was a good idea. I don't have a big story to tell about Forrest Gump, except for the fact that I worked one winter as a host at a Bubba Gump's restaurant. Here's what you can takeaway from this experience: to earn promotions and pay raises, workers at the restaurant (~fifteen years ago) have to pass trivia questions about the movie. I can't recall the exact questions, aside from their inanity and how completely insane this promotion system was. Anyone on the service end of this restaurant has been subjected to Gump hundreds, if not thousands of times. Not just in the trivia-based promotions, but in the constant loop that would run in the restaurant gift shop. So I can appreciate your analysis of this movie. This film is breathtakingly cynical. What's remarkable is how the franchise has been marketed is even more so. The story about Winston Groom getting screwed out of his share of the fortune is new to me (but not especially surprising!). The restaurants (operated by an independent restaurant group under license) aren't half-bad for a chain, but the crass commercialism is awe-inspiring. It makes Jimmy Buffett's places look subtle by comparison. If you're curious, there's an iteration of this restaurant in most western tourist locales in the country, including at least one in Los Angeles. If you go, pay attention to the small details: the dumb catchphrases that the restaurant staff are obligated to use, the intentionally disheveled table settings, the folksy host who sits down with your party at the end of your table, all of it. Maybe they've lightened up on the tackiness in recent years, but I doubt it.