halibut's Film thread

Here's the deal, guys

I have 316 movies at home which I have not seen yet. Some of these will be surprising, but only time will tell.

I have attached a random number from 1 to 316 to each film, so it will up to you to decide what I watch.

When I have a few hours free, I shall come to this thread and let you know. First person to give me a number will choose the film in question. The one exception is that if the film you pick is in a series, I will watch the first unwatched film. When watched, I shall post my review in this therad

First film will be this evening, so first person to read this give me a number from 1 to 316!

 

(1)138 ;p

 

Ooh, tonight I shall be watching Chinatown

 

Enjoy and let us all know what you think.

 

40 mins left. Need another number!!!!

 

Well, that was annoyingly dull. I grant that it was made in the 1970s but it was nothing more than a 1hr TV show dragged out for 2 hours.

A perfect example of the tedium is where Jack/Jake asks the receptionist in the Hall of Records for a ruler. It takes about 30 seconds for him to find one. Needlessly timewasting.

A few other moments that caught my attention

1) Is this the origin of the phrase "How do you like them apples"? I don't recall it being in anything before 1974
2) Good to know that Jack Nicholson likes going commando. After the sex, he puts his trousers on without pants
3) Is it just me or is it really annoying when main characters have half their face covered up. I hated Patrick Stewart having a plaster on his nose throughout the poor Conspiracy Theory, and I hated it here. If you're gonna get a big actor, it's nice to see them.

So yeah, very dull but I got through it. Someone will have to explain why it's a "classic", but be brief otherwise I'll get bored again

 

42.

 

Last night, I got the number 69 (heh) from Facebook which was "Clueless"

This was worse than Chinatown. A 90 minute movie where absolutely nothing happened. The biggest "plot" point was the revelation that one of the characters was gay. This was the biggest non-surprise since people realised Kerry Katona was a bad mother. Truly truly awful.

Next, I'm going with the above number 42. This is "Atlantis - The Lost Empire". I'm expecting this to be a lot better than yesterdays films

 

Why do you own 316 movies you haven't watched?

 

I rip them from youtube, because I am cool.

 

So what's at unlucky 13?

 

Atlantis - The Lost Empire

Better than the last two, but had more problems than good points. By far the biggest problem is a major one, and that's the animation. It was horribly square and clunky. Worse than the Direct to video Disney drivel. They had square fingers! And it looked as though it was animated at 15fps. Really really sub-par, and ultimately far too off-putting

The vocal talents were ok, although having seen Stuart Little so many times, Michael J Fox was a bit off-putting. But Jim Varney put in a nice turn, and it's always good to hear Claudia Christian.

Onto the story. A retread of Pocahontas (just like Avatar was) with nothing new going for it. The writers clearly phoned-in their work. Hard to imagine so many people working on it, and not one saying "Haven't we already done this?"

I should end on a good point though. I did chuckle at the notion that the man responsible for the expedition to a mysterious magical lost island was called Whitmore.

 

I thought the animation and style of the film kind of fitted well, like how in Lilo & Stitch everyone has huge forearms and legs and everything is rounded.

I'm going to say 29. It's how old I am and I'm unimaginative like that.

 

You can only pick a number when asked. I'll ask when I've got some spare time to watch a film. I don't want to know a day in advance what I'll be watching next. It takes away the spontaneity!

But I asked on FB earlier for a number and my mother picked 37

The Godfather (1972)

Probably the first big shock on the "halibut hasn't seen this film yet" list. But I am glad that has now been rectified. At last a decent film on the list.

It was almost like watching 2 movies. The first ends with the cafe shootout, and the second begins with Michael in his "new life". The effects were excellent (apart from the fake horse head - though the blood was spot on). The story was engaging with plenty of surprises throughout. Vico's assassination attempt took me by surprise, but on the flipside it was obvious that Michael's first wife wasn't going to last long!

It needs another viewing as there were quite a lot of names to learn and I id get a bit confuddled as to who was whom.

But a very solid film, and I look forward to the next part.

Now, give me another number

 

How about 13?

Edit - haven't seen Godfather in awhile but it was a good film.

 

Tonight, I shall now be watching Forbidden Planet

 

If it's the original that's not a bad film. Look out for a young Leslie Nielsen ('Airplane', 'Naked Gun') in it.

 

also avatar was fern gully not phocahontis (sp)

 

both films were crap and I've never watched The Godfather

 

Forbidden Planet

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I must confess, I have seen part of this film when I was very young. All I remembered was a red monster killing people and me running to my room to hide. It scared the willies out of me. I've also been involved in a production of Return to the Forbidden Planet so I had an inkling of what it was about.

But it was pretty good. Terribly dated attitudes, but there's not getting around that. Very much like an episode of Star Trek. Roddenberry said that this film was a major influence, so I expect it's no coincidence that the first number mentioned in the film is 1701. It's also clear to see how groundbreaking this must have been at the time. The effects are really good. At first I thought the giant flying saucer must have been a matte painting, but the way the camera moved showed it was built for real. All the sets were good. Fun fact: The Doctor's garden is a redress of the Munchkin Village from Wizard of Oz.

Also very unusual is the "score". First score ever made entirely of electrical sounds. As such it was ineligible to be nominated for an Oscar.

The acting performances were solid throughout, and some nice comic relief from the Cook

A great way to spend 100 minutes

 

It's been awhile since I've seen it.

 

Apparently Disney animated the monster's form when its outline appears, clever thing to do since given the effects of the time a big rubber puppet or man in a suit would probably have looked terrible.

 

If you need another number, I give present..... 2