Topic: April 2008 Numerical Marathon - Discussion Thread

[lyonsden5]

Can't have a marathon without a discussion thread... right? 


I originally intended to kick off the marathon with a favorite of mine, Air Force One. I love the "get off my plane" line  When I went to get it off the shelf another movie caught my eye, The Big Red One. A better than average WWII movie with Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill & Robert Carridine that I thought I would enjoy even more. I did.

I've seen this movie many times and am entertained by it each time. Lee Marvin's character is great. Hardnosed enough to slit your throat yet for some reason children like him and he seemingly enjoys them.

Griff's story (Mark Hamill) is somewhat typical, a sharpshooter who does not want to kill anyone, but it has a great ending. That scene gets me every time. Makes you really wonder what the men went through who were there.

(click to show/hide)

I couldn't imaging what it would have been like to liberate one of those camps. To actually see the people all crammed together in their cells and to see the ovens. Gives me chills just writing about it.

(Thanks Touti for the spoiler tag )

If you like war movies I recommend this one. I'm not sure if it is an Americanized story (something I've learned to be cautious of around here  ). My guess is if it is someone will let me know   

[Tom]

I kicked off my marathon with "It Happened One Night".
A great classic I enjoyed very much. An early example of a romantic comedy (I think it is the mother of the modern romantic comedy format).

[Achim]

So far I populated my list of 26 titles about 70%. I noticed that I don't own a lot of numbered films and many of those I do have I have just watched rather recently...

So far I have watched The Damned Thing, a fairly good Masters of Horror episode, but rather disappointing horror film, especially given the fact it was directed by Tobe Hooper (well, at least somewhat better than his previous effort in the series). Then came Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I have seen several of the other Star Trek movies (with the TOS cast) and would definitely agree that this is the best of the lot. Not a perfect film, but a great Star Trek effort.


Took a day off (the marathon) today and finished the last few episodes of Undeclared. A great show which I loved watching and which sadly ended all too soon (the Apatow curse...?). It is hilariously funny in most parts and still manages to throw in some interesting dramatic bits; quite an achievement for 22-minute episodes! (I have been thinking how I can put those episodes at least as one combined entry into the marathon, but no rounded solution yet...; maybe I'll just count it for the 10 letters Undeclared has...)

[Kathy]

Hmmm...I'm trying to figure out how to fit Spartacus: The Criterion Collection into this marathon.

If you look at the cover, the sword looks like the number one! 

Or, if I use ya-shin's logic, there's 31 letters in the title...but then do I count the ":" too? Or do I just count the letters in "Spartacus"?

I know...I'll use the number 3 since I watched it 3 times (the movie, the movie w/ commentary and the movie w/ Dalton Trumbo comments)! 

p.s. I really enjoyed this movie. I haven't watched in so long that I really forgot most of it.

One thing I deliberately looked for was the scene between Tony Curtis and Laurence Oliver in the bath; I remember reading there was a lot of controversy regarding the homosexual innuendos between the two. I can not believe that in 1960 anyone could possibly think this was in any way explicate. I thought it was quite clever but inappropriate...you've got to be kidding.

 

[Achim]

I see me and Kathy have a lot in common... I also get all sorts of crazy ideas of how certain films could be molded into this particular marathon

As for the length of the title (Tom's idea, not mine) it should have been 10 (for 'Spartacus' only; 31 would have been too high anyway). Another option could have been 6, the checksum of 105, which is the spine number

[richierich]

As for the length of the title (Tom's idea, not mine) it should have been 10 (for 'Spartacus' only;

I'll courier you over a calculator Achim  cos I count 9

[Achim]

I'll courier you over a calculator Achim  cos I count 9

Don't tell anyone that I work as an engineer...

[RossRoy]

You know, I really do love these marathons that have a theme, but that are still a bit loose. Why? Because they force me to watch stuff I bought, but that I may not have reached for naturally when deciding what to watch.

I am currently watching Bound, which I bought because it was made by the Wachowski Brothers (or is that sibblings now?) and heard good things about it. Yet, it's movie I've never felt like watching really.

Now, because of the numerical marathon, I had to find a movie for #5. Since I don't have one with 5 in the title, I had to go by character count. and it popped up as an unwatched movie (I'm trying to also limit to stuff I've not yet watched), so I thought, why not?

Back later with what I thought of it.


EDIT: Review posted here

[richierich]

You know, I really do love these marathons that have a theme, but that are still a bit loose. Why? Because they force me to watch stuff I bought, but that I may not have reached for naturally when deciding what to watch.

I am currently watching Bound, which I bought because it was made by the Wachowski Brothers (or is that sibblings now?) and heard good things about it. Yet, it's movie I've never felt like watching really.

Now, because of the numerical marathon, I had to find a movie for #5. Since I don't have one with 5 in the title, I had to go by character count. and it popped up as an unwatched movie (I'm trying to also limit to stuff I've not yet watched), so I thought, why not?

Back later with what I thought of it.


EDIT: Review posted here

Glad you liked it Seb, I love the movie mostly for Gina Gershon, she is complete  material

[Achim]

Today I thought I do something slightly different. After listening to a podcast yesterday, mentioning a real funny audio commentary, I though tI too want to transform a horror movie into a comedy!

So today I watched House of the Dead with the audio commentary switched on, where Uwe Boll accompanied by two producers and an actor, handout trivia and useless tidbits about the film. While apparently not as funny as the one for Alone in the Dark (which is the one that was mentioned in the podcast) it still made me laugh several times. Uwe really is full of himself. Funny also how the others are occasionally irritated by the things Boll says and their attempts to have a "normal" commentary going regularly fail...

[Jimmy]

Uwe really is full of himself.

Hey I like him, he is one of the few actual director who made entertaining movie. But you know my taste, so ... 

[Achim]

Hey I like him, he is one of the few actual director who made entertaining movie

But not House of the Dead...? It has some gore at least and the idiotic plot could be mistaken as a comedy (according the commentary not the intention).

I have only seen House of the Dead (at that time I know nothing about Boll) and later Afraid of the Dark (hadn't informed myself properly who made the film). I am afraid to give him another chance, as those two films totally s*#%ed.

[Jimmy]

But not House of the Dead...? It has some gore at least and the idiotic plot could be mistaken as a comedy (according the commentary not the intention).

I have only seen House of the Dead (at that time I know nothing about Boll) and later Afraid of the Dark (hadn't informed myself properly who made the film). I am afraid to give him another chance, as those two films totally s*#%ed.

I agree that "Alone in the Dark" is not really a good movie : the movie is badly cast, the CGI effects are weak and the story make no sense. The only way to appreciate it is to completly turn our brain to off and I'm not sure of that.

But "House of the Dead" is not so bad if we take it for what it is : an horror action movie. It is not in the same class of any Romero zombie movies, so forget about the social commentary or the story in general. The only problem with this film is the use of the game screen (I can't see any good reason for using them), I don't like the running zombie but I've decide to deal with that. In fact "House of the dead" is better than ROTLD 4 & 5 and Resident Evil (I really don't like this movie, one of the worst zombie movie ever made. Even Zombi 4 is better than that).

If you want to give another chance to Uwe Boll try one of his first "american" movie, they are not horror and not based on computer game. "Heart of America" is a good one based on the US school shooting, it's not perfect (the end came to fast) but I find that it's an honest movie. Another good one is "Backwoods" that I've reviewed some time ago, you can read my review.

His German movies are maybe good, but I can't watch them : they are in German only. I don't understand why it's so hard to use english subtitles (we have the same problem in French Canada too), I want to see them but the German industry doesn't want that the non native speaker to watch them. It make me angrier when I see that "Postal" is already release in Germany on dvd and I can buy it, but the dvd is in German only with German subtitles.

[RossRoy]

the German industry doesn't want that the non native speaker to watch them. It make me angrier when I see that "Postal" is already release in Germany on dvd and I can buy it, but the dvd is in German only with German subtitles.

Well, you know what's left to do. Learn German!   

Says the one who gave up trying to learn Japanese

[Jimmy]

Well, you know what's left to do. Learn German!   

Says the one who gave up trying to learn Japanese

I've try with spanish, but I've give up after the beginner class (beginner 1, 2 and 3). But if I try German maybe I will understand the story of one of my movie.

But I don't think that it's worth the trouble