Monday, December 01, 2008
The Baseline Movie
Does everybody have a baseline film that they watch - something utterly undemanding and familiar? I have two - Men in Black and Men in Black II. I've probably watched each half a dozen times. I cannot explain why. It's a slightly shameful admission, surely I should be watching nothing but Tarkovsky and Bergman. But I was consoled recently when I heard that the great director Terrence Malick watches Zoolander over and over again. The MIBs and Zoolander have something in common - I think it's timing. This lulls and relaxes. Anyway, I just wondered if I was alone in this.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Beau Travail by Claire Dennis, for it's beauty and mystery, with PT Anderson's Magnolia, an epic that gives the lie to that old chesnut about American cinema's curse - the need to package and sell something.
ReplyDeleteFar too highbrow, Mahlerman.
ReplyDeleteThe Men in Blacks and Zoolander are fine comfort movies (we love all those silly American comedies: Anchorman, Blades of Glory, Dodgeball etc) but my best baseliners are Napoleon Dynamite, The Royal Tenenbaums and (me but not the wife) Withnail and I.
Is it allowed to mention Dumb and Dumber on this blog?
ReplyDelete'According to the map we've only gone 4 inches...'
I'll see your Dumb and Dumber, Paddy, and raise you an Austin Powers 2.
ReplyDeleteI tried to watch Austin Powers the other day and found it very demanding, though not in any intellectual way.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mr. Porter! (not specifically that one but that as a good example of the ilk, irrestistable nonsense, not excessively funny).
Starship Troopers. ("Nuke 'em Jonny!"; "The only good bug is a dead bug!")
ReplyDeleteGood call Brit. Puzzled how you could reference Will Ferrell and miss out the peerless Ballad of Ricky Bobby - the story of a man who could only count to #1.
ReplyDeleteAny of the Back to the Future films will do for me.
ReplyDeleteamelia2'Remains of the Day', a forgotten De Niro film, 'True Confessions' and the Paul Schofield / Burt Lancaster double-header 'The Train'.
ReplyDeleteIs it still legal to watch "Zulu"?
ReplyDelete'Groundhog Day', 'Sleeper', 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' and 'Zatôichi' (I really see myself as 'Beat' Takeshi).
ReplyDeleteDie Hard, Predator, Commando, Lethal Weapon - 4 excellent 80s action films, though Predator & Lethal Weapon aren't undemanding as such.
ReplyDeleteDance of the Vampires, Polanski, Jack MacGowran and Alfie Bass's finest, the supreme tongue in cheek vampire flick, now called The Fearless Vampire Killers. Every time we watch it new delights are revealed. Includes Sharon Tate.
ReplyDeleteJean de Florette, simply for the outstanding performances of Montand and Auteuil.
Love Bergman, can't watch very often.
Goodfellas (what a great soundtrack too), Heat, Donnie Brasco and I'll also vote for the Royal Tenenbaums. If in total zombie mode, pretty well any episode of the West Wing will do fine.
ReplyDeleteKing Kong.
ReplyDeleteDemanding in a Freudian way.
Good shout on Fearless Vampire Killers, Malty.
ReplyDeleteKung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer - never tire of those.
As an action thriller, Die Hard is closer to perfection, within its genre, than any other film I've seen.
ReplyDeleteBack to the future, Apocalypse Now, Dumb and Dumber, Stand by me, Confessions of a dangerous mind (Underrated), Terminator, Raiders of the lost ark.
ReplyDeleteMeet the Fokkers both parts generate unending pleasures - as does There's Something about Mary
ReplyDeletePhilmore Butts Taking Care of Business
ReplyDeleteGroundhog Day is my baseline. For some strange reason I can watch it again and again. And again.
ReplyDeleteNot one of you lot had the balls to own up and admit to Bambi.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, I almost did say The Princess Bride, Malty
ReplyDeleteI'd go with Brit's list pretty much - and I'd add Some Like It Hot. Best - and funniest - comedy ever? Tho it takes a while to achieve the required level of restfulness...
ReplyDeleteThe Blues Brothers?
ReplyDeleteWithnail and I, The Time Machine and Zulu, I think. All of them infinitely watchable (pun almost intended).
ReplyDeleteBest in Show, Shrek, Shrek 2, Toy Story 2 (Woody: 'I was a yoyo, I was a yoyo!' Mr Potato Head: 'Wuz?'), Babe: Pig in the City (eat your heart out, Fellini!)and, yes, all right, Men in Black.
ReplyDeleteAmong others, which would include The Three Musketeers and The Italian Job.
A video library without 'Withnail and I' in it would be a very fine video library indeed, even if it had no other videos in it (to paraphrase Mark Twain).
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Big Lebowski.
From Walter in The Big Lebowski: 'Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.'
ReplyDeleteOne more before bedtime, the original Point Blank, Boormans beautifully choreographed violence,
ReplyDeleteand yes Nige, Some Like it Hot, Lemmon and Curtis perfectly teamed up.
I really must find a copy of "Withnail and I." It's an endlessly referenced comedy (by British folk, anyway) and I have never seen it.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand to watch movies more than once nowadays, but I did when I was a kid. I remember going to see "The Sound of Music" four times in two days with my stepbrother (who later turned out to be gay). I know I had a crush on Christopher Plummer (I was a weird kid; I also liked Rex Harrison and Jack Lemmon) but I didn't know until much later why my step-bro was willing to see a dumb musical with me so many times.
The Goonies; Big; Commando; Mannequin; Labyrinth; Total Recall.
ReplyDeleteTwister, Cheaper by the Dozen, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 13 Going on 30, High School Musical...
ReplyDeleteWhat about the 80s classic Highlander? That film is my life. Except i don't carry a samurai sword (an expandable baton is, however, a good substitute).
ReplyDelete