MOVIES

[mspart]

1 hour ago, BuckyBadger said:

Somehow, I never watched Jaws….until this week. Man, what a great movie.

 

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

mspart

 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

20 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

interstellar rocked. as did Contact.

anyone see the new Reagan movie. started out a tad wonky but i thought it was very good.

Interstellar is in my top ten. Contact was very good as well. So was Jaws. I had to look up the Reagan movie at Rotten Tomatoes, where it has one of the greatest disparities I've ever seen between critics and audience reactions: 18% versus 98%. That's insane. 

It got me to thinking about movie theaters. 

The last time I watched a movie in a movie theater was the same year that the Nintendo Switch was released. Brexit hadn't even begun to happen. The Atlanta Falcons were in the Super Bowl. That was around the time I cut the cable as well. Are they going to be extinct soon? 

 

 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

I found Casino Royale (1967) on YouTube for free. I've now watched it for a second time. If they had just cut out the first 30 minutes from that movie, it would've been a huge hit with everybody. It's when Woody Allen and Peter Sellers make their first appearances that the film begins to party. 

 

URSULA ANDRESS AS VESPER LYND: "Mr. Evelyn Tremble?" 

PETER SELLERS AS EVELYN TREMBLE/007: "Yes, that's right."

URSULA ANDRESS: "Isn't 'Evelyn' a girl's name?" 

PETER SELLERS: "No. It's mine. Actually." 

 

You have the spinning bed from Austin Powers, Burt Bacharach, beautiful secret agents and double agents. If anything, this version of Casino Royale was the inspiration for Mike Myers' spy parodies, and that makes it important in my book.

 

 

 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

SOME FREE MOVIES ON YOUTUBE

I have listed below just a few of the free movies on YouTube. I will put them into categories as follows: (1) MUST SEE, (2) VERY GOOD, and (3) I REMEMBER THEY WERE GOOD BUT I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND/OR I DON'T HAVE MUCH OF ANYTHING FUNNY OR POIGNANT OR RELEVANT OR INSIGHTFUL TO SAY ABOUT THEM. Please add other free movies that you find. 

Each movie name is a link. I have checked to make sure the links work as of the writing of this post. 

 

1. MUST SEE

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This might be a top 25 pick for me. Absomazing. 92% and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Deserves even better in my opinion. 

Idiocracy. The guy who brought you Beavis and Butthead also brought you a four-star movie. Terry Crews as President Camacho. Wow. I just went and watched a clip of the Costco greeter. 

 

Glengarry Glen Ross. A stupid name for a great movie. What a cast and script. The movie came out in 1992, then in 1997, The Simpsons introduced a brilliant recurring character by the name of Gil Gunderson. 

L.A. Confidential. Still another four-star free movie. There were shenanigans in the Los Angeles police department back in the day? Another all-star cast and a great script. 

There Will Be Blood. A must-see for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance. Tight script. The brutal world of capitalism is on full display. 

 

2. VERY GOOD

Downfall. You know all those video memes that show Hitler having a nervous breakdown while discussing how close the Russians were to Berlin that have been dubbed into anybody or anything losing? This is the whole movie. It has subtitles. Some critics said it humanized Hitler. I thought it made him look pathetic.  

Pitch Black. The movie that catapulted Vin Diesel to stardom. It's Sci Fi and action and horror mixed together like the raisins and carrots and jello in your Aunt's nasty salad thing. But the movie is yummy and a lot better than the 60% and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The Chronicles of Riddick. It follows the Vin Diesel character from Pitch Black. Not as much horror, but lots of Sci Fi and action. It absolutely deserves better than the 29% and 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. I will watch this again. You know, some days I just want to line up all the movie critics for throat punches. 

Riddick. You get to see all three of the movies in this Vin Diesel series for free! Pretty good deal. It's 58% and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's much better than that. 

 

3. THE "I REMEMBER THEY WERE GOOD BUT I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND/OR I DON'T HAVE MUCH OF ANYTHING FUNNY OR POIGNANT OR RELEVANT OR INSIGHTFUL TO SAY ABOUT THEM" MOVIES

Rounders. A movie about Poker that really started (or at least anted up on) the craze that swept the country. Great cast, excellent story. I mostly just remember it being good, especially John Malkovich as the Russian at the "final table." 

Elysium. Gritty Sci Fi. I'm a sucker for that. It got a "Fresh" score of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score is an abysmal 58%. I blame all of you. It's a good movie. 

So I Married An Axe Murderer. I literally remember nothing about this movie other than I liked it quite a lot. Okay, I remember it involved Scots. They are an intrinsically funny people. 

The Arrival. The ending sticks in my mind as scary and funny in equal measure. That's an accomplishment! Oh, and the rest of the movie was good as well. It has a 66% rating from critics and a 44% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. You people disgust me. 

 

As a final note, I am looking at three free movies to watch next. Can you give a brother a hand? What do y'all think of Donnie Darko, The Signal and Once Upon a Time in America. Keep in mind that I'm a squeamish little pussy who scares easily. Also, I'll need a lot of convincing to watch Once Upon a Time in America given its nearly four-hour length. That's more time than I devoted to my marriage. 

 

 

[billyhoyle]

8 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

SOME FREE MOVIES ON YOUTUBE

I have listed below just a few of the free movies on YouTube. I will put them into categories as follows: (1) MUST SEE, (2) VERY GOOD, and (3) I REMEMBER THEY WERE GOOD BUT I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND/OR I DON'T HAVE MUCH OF ANYTHING FUNNY OR POIGNANT OR RELEVANT OR INSIGHTFUL TO SAY ABOUT THEM. Please add other free movies that you find. 

Each movie name is a link. I have checked to make sure the links work as of the writing of this post. 

 

1. MUST SEE

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This might be a top 25 pick for me. Absomazing. 92% and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Deserves even better in my opinion. 

Idiocracy. The guy who brought you Beavis and Butthead also brought you a four-star movie. Terry Crews as President Camacho. Wow. I just went and watched a clip of the Costco greeter. 

 

Glengarry Glen Ross. A stupid name for a great movie. What a cast and script. The movie came out in 1992, then in 1997, The Simpsons introduced a brilliant recurring character by the name of Gil Gunderson. 

L.A. Confidential. Still another four-star free movie. There were shenanigans in the Los Angeles police department back in the day? Another all-star cast and a great script. 

There Will Be Blood. A must-see for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance. Tight script. The brutal world of capitalism is on full display. 

 

2. VERY GOOD

Downfall. You know all those video memes that show Hitler having a nervous breakdown while discussing how close the Russians were to Berlin that have been dubbed into anybody or anything losing? This is the whole movie. It has subtitles. Some critics said it humanized Hitler. I thought it made him look pathetic.  

Pitch Black. The movie that catapulted Vin Diesel to stardom. It's Sci Fi and action and horror mixed together like the raisins and carrots and jello in your Aunt's nasty salad thing. But the movie is yummy and a lot better than the 60% and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The Chronicles of Riddick. It follows the Vin Diesel character from Pitch Black. Not as much horror, but lots of Sci Fi and action. It absolutely deserves better than the 29% and 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. I will watch this again. You know, some days I just want to line up all the movie critics for throat punches. 

Riddick. You get to see all three of the movies in this Vin Diesel series for free! Pretty good deal. It's 58% and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's much better than that. 

 

3. THE "I REMEMBER THEY WERE GOOD BUT I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND/OR I DON'T HAVE MUCH OF ANYTHING FUNNY OR POIGNANT OR RELEVANT OR INSIGHTFUL TO SAY ABOUT THEM" MOVIES

Rounders. A movie about Poker that really started (or at least anted up on) the craze that swept the country. Great cast, excellent story. I mostly just remember it being good, especially John Malkovich as the Russian at the "final table." 

Elysium. Gritty Sci Fi. I'm a sucker for that. It got a "Fresh" score of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score is an abysmal 58%. I blame all of you. It's a good movie. 

So I Married An Axe Murderer. I literally remember nothing about this movie other than I liked it quite a lot. Okay, I remember it involved Scots. They are an intrinsically funny people. 

The Arrival. The ending sticks in my mind as scary and funny in equal measure. That's an accomplishment! Oh, and the rest of the movie was good as well. It has a 66% rating from critics and a 44% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. You people disgust me. 

 

As a final note, I am looking at three free movies to watch next. Can you give a brother a hand? What do y'all think of Donnie Darko, The Signal and Once Upon a Time in America. Keep in mind that I'm a squeamish little pussy who scares easily. Also, I'll need a lot of convincing to watch Once Upon a Time in America given its nearly four-hour length. That's more time than I devoted to my marriage. 

 

 

When is Glengarry Glen Ross a stupid name? What would a better name have been? Death of a Salesman was already taken when David Mamet wrote the play. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

15 hours ago, billyhoyle said:

When is Glengarry Glen Ross a stupid name? What would a better name have been? Death of a Salesman was already taken when David Mamet wrote the play. 

Glengarry Glen Ross is a stupid name now. Then, too. 

They could've named it "Shark Tank" or "The Watch." The watch was the best part. Or maybe, "Gettin' Real Estate."

Edited September 30 by ILLINIWrestlingBlog

[Danny Deck]

16 hours ago, billyhoyle said:

When is Glengarry Glen Ross a stupid name? What would a better name have been? Death of a Salesman was already taken when David Mamet wrote the play. 

On set they called it "Death of a ***duck**in' Salesman."

[Danny Deck]

On 9/28/2024 at 1:20 PM, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Interstellar is in my top ten. Contact was very good as well. So was Jaws. I had to look up the Reagan movie at Rotten Tomatoes, where it has one of the greatest disparities I've ever seen between critics and audience reactions: 18% versus 98%. That's insane. 

It got me to thinking about movie theaters. 

The last time I watched a movie in a movie theater was the same year that the Nintendo Switch was released. Brexit hadn't even begun to happen. The Atlanta Falcons were in the Super Bowl. That was around the time I cut the cable as well. Are they going to be extinct soon? 

 

 

Movie theaters are definitely going to contract. There will probably always be enough of a market to keep them alive in some capacity. On Saturday night I went to a 30th Anniversary screening of Pulp Fiction at our local independent theater. It had a pretty good crowd for the second night of the showings and minimal advertising. 

But they're getting squeezed pretty hard by there not being enough new movies being released. There are fewer studios putting out fewer movies now. And that's before Covid and last year's strikes limited supply even more. 

It seems they're planning to convert into places that have several entertainment options, bowling, pickleball, etc in addition to movies. I assume that will mean my closest theater will go from an AMC 20 to an AMC 10 plus bowling. 

[Danny Deck]

1. The Godfather

2. Casablanca

3. Tombstone

4. No Country for Old Men

5. The Social Network

6. Pulp Fiction

7. Die Hard

8. Snatch

9. Dazed and Confused

10. The Big Lebowski

Didn't think too hard on this. Lots of others I love, but these are probably up there on ones I've watched the most. 

[mspart]

For historical fiction  - The Princess Bride and Spinal Tap.

mspart

[billyhoyle]

5 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Glengarry Glen Ross is a stupid name now. Then, too. 

They could've named it "Shark Tank" or "The Watch." The watch was the best part. Or maybe, "Gettin' Real Estate."

I don't know if you're being facetious, but those are awful names for a movie.

4 hours ago, Danny Deck said:

On set they called it "Death of a ***duck**in' Salesman."

Now that is a good name for a movie and very fitting. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

I was at a hotel a couple nights ago and saw that The Rise of Skywalker was coming on. Since I've only seen the movie once, I thought I'd watch it again. I reached the end of the standard Star Wars opening scroll and turned it off. I could not watch it. 

On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 51% from critics and 86% from the audience. Here are quotes from a couple of the critics:

It's hard to believe, at the culmination of 42 years and nine movies, that the last three would be essentially improvisational exercises by all directors concerned.

Kudos to J.J. Abrams for doing something extraordinary: he has made me not care about Star Wars for the first time ever. I'm kind of relieved that it's over, because it has stopped being fun.

 

Like all Star Wars movies, it has a great poster. It also made over a billion dollars at the box office. I'm going to count this as a me problem. 

[Scouts Honor]

they have all been remakes of the first movie

since about 2007

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

5 minutes ago, Scouts Honor said:

they have all been remakes of the first movie

since about 2007

That's what's so maddening. There's a whole universe out there....

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

HOW TO WATCH THE MOVIE TENET WITHOUT ENDING UP IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP

 

I have Tenet as Honorable Mention in my list of best movies. That wasn't always the case. You see, the first time I watched it, I just let the movie run straight through, and it was extremely frustrating, as if the movie's director, Christopher Nolan, had decided to abuse me. 

Every actor was a Mumbly Joe, and even when they shouted, there was ambient noise that drowned them out. Additionally, much of the movie is dark and hard to see. Then, people started moving backwards. WTF! I wanted a divorce from the movie and full custody of the popcorn. 

But, then, my friends, I decided to give the movie a second chance. 

That's when I came up with these rules for watching the movie. Please note that these aren't suggestions, they are mandatory. There are no "mays" or "coulds" here. There are only "nots," "shalls" and "musts." If you fail to follow these rules, I will find you:

 

• Do NOT watch the movie for the first time in a theater. 
• Do NOT watch the movie for the first time on somebody else's tv or screen.
• You MUST watch the movie at home first, with complete control of the remote.
• During first viewing, you SHALL put on close captioning. 
• Your remote MUST have easy rewindability. 
• Do NOT watch the movie with a Talkie Tina or a Gabby Greg.

 

This is the absolute worst movie to see for the first time in a movie theater or with friends or without complete control and dominance of your remote. Tenet has a 70% critics rating and 76% audience mark on Rotten Tomatoes. Very underrated. The critical consensus reads: "A visually dazzling puzzle for film lovers to unlock, Tenet serves up all the cerebral spectacle audiences expect from a Christopher Nolan production."

I would suggest that the puzzle was in how to watch the movie, and I thought that was pretty cool. 

 

 

 

 

[ionel]

Sometimes the venu makes the movie.  Saw 1) Jaws, 2) Star Wars, 3) Apollo 13 all in the same big old wooden chain theater every seat full, line wrapped around the block to get in.  Even if you weren't scared at those 2 times in Jaws you still jumped because everyone jumped out of their seats.  Recall in line for Apollo 13 we were talking about how we were pretty sure knew how it ended yet paid to go in anyway. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

1 hour ago, ionel said:

Sometimes the venu makes the movie.  Saw 1) Jaws, 2) Star Wars, 3) Apollo 13 all in the same big old wooden chain theater every seat full, line wrapped around the block to get in.  Even if you weren't scared at those 2 times in Jaws you still jumped because everyone jumped out of their seats.  Recall in line for Apollo 13 we were talking about how we were pretty sure knew how it ended yet paid to go in anyway. 

Hard agree here. Unless the venue is offering a 3D movie where they spray **** in your face. 

You name three great movies that should be seen in a movie theater. A crowd is nice as well. I would go to a theater right now and watch them. Soda, box of Milk Duds, and bag of popcorn. Three Duds, two handfuls of popcorn. Wash down with soda. Repeat as necessary. 

[ionel]

54 minutes ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Hard agree here. Unless the venue is offering a 3D movie where they spray **** in your face. 

You name three great movies that should be seen in a movie theater. A crowd is nice as well. I would go to a theater right now and watch them. Soda, box of Milk Duds, and bag of popcorn. Three Duds, two handfuls of popcorn. Wash down with soda. Repeat as necessary. 

milk duds ... were you a wrestler?

[Wrestleknownothing]

Dune 2 at an IMAX theater is the only way to see that movie.

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

2 hours ago, ionel said:

milk duds ... were you a wrestler?

I don't take **** from no Starburst guy. 

And yes, I used to wrestle humans. I found them to be very ... uncooperative. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

1 hour ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Dune 2 at an IMAX theater is the only way to see that movie.

One of my blind spots is not having ever seen a movie in an IMAX theater. I loved the first Dune movie -- even liked the 1984 version with Sting -- and I bet this new series would look really good as an IMAX experience. 

[ionel]

17 minutes ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

I don't take **** from no Starburst guy. 

And yes, I used to wrestle humans. I found them to be very ... uncooperative. 

Hey now ... we had no Starburst in my day ... I was an ice cream man preferred home made.   

[Lipdrag]

1 hour ago, ionel said:

Hey now ... we had no Starburst in my day ... I was an ice cream man preferred home made.   

The Starburst accusation was very near an ad hominen attack.  Fighting words.

[ionel]

7 minutes ago, Lipdrag said:

The Starburst accusation was very near an ad hominen attack.  Fighting words.

If IWB doesn't issue a public apology i may never read the Sunday comics again ... maybe.  

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

THE MOVIE THREAD HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

I have two questions for all movie lovers during the Halloween season: First, what is the scariest movie you have ever seen? Second, what movie scared the jammies offa you as a child? 

SCARIEST MOVIE

For me, there is The Exorcist. Everything else is at least 150mg of Adrenaline behind it. There are only two changes I would make in this masterpiece. They did the backward crabwalk down the stairs shoot for the original movie, but they didn't originally release it. I'm glad it is in the movie now. That was so creepy, and so far ahead of its time. Second, I wish they had good CGI at the time they did the 360° head spin. They used a dummy for the movie, and it worked on me as a child, but it could've been better. 

FIRST MOVIES THAT SCARED YOU AS A CHILD

There was The Exorcist, of course, but there was also Trilogy of Terror. The latter had three episodes in one movie, and one of the episodes freaked me out. You know which one it was. I saw the movie with my little Sister, and we were both frightened. She brought it up a while back, and I determined to get her a Zuni Warrior figure as a goof for her birthday. 

As a way to exorcize a bit of shared childhood trauma. 

I found only one on the internet, and it sold for something like $600 to $800. Outside my practical joke budget! So, I made a papier-mâché figure, boxed it up, and wrapped it in festive birthday paper. What you don’t see below is that I decided to wrap a tiny thread around the ankle of the monster, punch a small hole in the box and wrapping paper, and keep the end of that thread in my hand as I handed the gift to my Sister and she unwrapped it. 

After she had opened the box, I was going to pull the thread so that the little monster moved around. Unfortunately, the thread got tangled in the unwrapping process and did not work. Still, she loved that ugly little creature while it lasted.