Movie confessions thread

I'll preface this by saying I enjoy movies.  I was born in 1965, which may or may not be relevant.

I have the following movie confessions to make:

1. I have never seen any of the Godfather movies.  Not one minute.
    
2. I have never seen Jaws all the way through.  I haven't even seen the whole thing over multiple sittings - not by a long shot.
    
3. Same with The Goonies.
    
4. And Die Hard.
    
5. I really don't like Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight movies, and the more I see them, the less I like them.  Especially the third one.

I'm sure there's more, but hopefully that's enough to start a discussion.

Born in 87 in case it matters.

I grew up on a steady diet of Saturday spaghetti westerns, and I have no idea to this day how Clint Eastwood has a film career.

The Goonies was horribly boring and I don't understand the cult following.

Jaws was a masterpiece.

The only decent godfather was the first one and even that was hard to sit the whole way through.

I will take ANY cheesy 80s horror movie over just about anything made in the last 20 years. 

Live action remakes of cartoon movies are garbage profit grabs. 

I have never watched any of the terminator movies. 

I dont get why people like scarface so much.

I loved the goonies when I was a kid. I tried to rewatch it as an adult and didn't make it 15 minutes. It was just a bunch of kids constantly screaming. 

RevRico said:

I will take ANY cheesy 80s horror movie over just about anything made in the last 20 years. 

The only two that really spring to mind as great horror movies in the past 20 years are 28 Days Later, and The Babadook. But those are pushing the envelopes of "horror" and are probably more "thriller".

Cabin in the Woods as well, but more horror satire than strait horror.

Occulus, Hereditary, and Get Out get honorable mentions as well. Unfortunately the latter two in particular are seriously let down by revealing what's going on. It's really hard to do a serious horror film and not have it brought down when you reveal what's going on behind the scenes. Then things unravel fast if you have any loose ends.

RevRico said:

I grew up on a steady diet of Saturday spaghetti westerns, and I have no idea to this day how Clint Eastwood has a film career.

This may very well be the single most offensive thing I've read this week.  Maybe this month.  Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry movies are the pinnacle of the filmmaking art.

It is sad to see how far we have fallen.

What's a Goonie?

Repo Man is a vastly underrated film.

1988RedT2 said:

What's a Goonie?

I simply don't like horror or "scare" movies.  I don't see the thrill and I honestly think I could make one FAR scarier then most.  If I did, it might go into the realm of actual psychological damage, so maybe not a good idea.

I really don't like the current tendency to use CGI for almost anything.  As a fill and an enhancer (e.g. changing a background to make it historically correct) certainly, but for primary action / stunts... please stop.  Imagine Top Gun using all CGI flight scenes..., bleeeh. I suspect most of it is because of wildly unbelievable action and just simple physics violations (e.g. Red Tails, Midway, or Pearl Harbor could have had decent action with all CGI, but they couldn't resist going absurd or simply had no idea what they where actually portraying)

Born in 62, I have movie confessions.

I love a good movie, unfortunately, I think most movies are junk.

I have never seen any Star wars, or any science fiction movies. Nor do I have any interest.

I cannot recall ever seeing a good action movie and won't even try

I had a terrible experience as a kid and cannot watch horror movies.

I love a good, or even marginal, gangster movie, including The Godfather(s), which can be both

My favourite movie, Memento, is a Christopher Nolan movie, but that's not enough to convince me to watch anything Dark Knight

I really enjoy a quirky, berkeley with your head type movie

I like just about anything from the Coen brothers, and also enjoy a good (bad) B movie like Eating Raoul.

Born in 71.

It freaked out my GF when she found out I'd never seen "Princess Bride".

Inconceivable!!!

1988RedT2 said:

RevRico said:

I grew up on a steady diet of Saturday spaghetti westerns, and I have no idea to this day how Clint Eastwood has a film career.

 

This may very well be the single most offensive thing I've read this week.  Maybe this month.  Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry movies are the pinnacle of the filmmaking art.

It is sad to see how far we have fallen.

What's a Goonie?

Repo Man is a vastly underrated film.

 

 

 

Repo Man is perhaps the finest piece of cinema ever. 

In school, I worked in our movie theater--like, I had a big part in the scheduling. Saw a ton of films. We showed everything, from sneak peeks of forthcoming blockbusters to cult movies to family favorites. One week's schedule could have included Field of Dreams (before it was in the theater), a Muppet movie, classic Bond, a John Waters classic and then something from Akira Kurosawa. A buddy I worked with has since gone on to have a career in Hollywood--with the appropriate hardware on the shelf. 

Since school, not so much. We see maybe one movie per year--maybe--and usually it's the latest Star Wars. We barely watch movies on the television, too, although I have watched a few docs lately. 

My movie confession, though: While I don't really watch movies, I do enjoy reading Wikipedia pages about movies. 

I get the strangest reactions when folks find out I have never seen the Lion King. Really any Disney film since the early 80's, but the lion king seems to be a hill most folks want to die on

When it came out I had just turned 21. I was out at bars and touring with my bands. I never had kids. I don't understand how everyone thinks I have to had watched it.  At no point in my life since I was 11 has anyone asked me if I wanted to sit down and watch a Disney cartoon.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That sounds a lot like the dear, departed State Theater in Newark, DE. <sniff>  I saw everything from My Dinner With Andre to The Man Who Fell To Earth to Mad Max to Head to Fellini movies to Debbie Does Dallas there.  Oh, and Pink Flamingoes and Breaking Away and...

More movie confessions:

6. I hate Return Of The Jedi.  The only SW movies I genuinely like are New Hope, Empire, and Rogue One.
    
7. While we're n the SW universe, I think Rae is boring and one-dimensional even by SW standards.

Born in '82. 

I think the original 3 Star Wars movies are pure garbage. 

But then I love movies like Big Trouble in Little China. I love cheesy 80s movies and horror movies. The first Halloween and Halloween II are great. I also love "mindberkeley" movies. 

Absolutely don't care for comic book movies and the like, or over the top action movies. 

Repo Man is an excellent movie.  I put it up there with Dawn of the Dead (the original) as great anti-consumerist satire.

My confessions:

1. A couple of my favorite 80's movies are Streets of Fire and The Warriors.  Some of the acting is suboptimal, but the settings, costuming, cinematography, and sound/music are about perfect.
2. I cannot get into mafia movies.  Watched the Godfather, Goodfellas, etc, and just can't enjoy them.  I have Scarface on my shelf for years, but have still never watched it.  Even being a huge Sergio Leone fan, I don't ever want to sit through Once Upon a Time in America ever again.

Easy Rider and that movie with toast are the worst films ever.

Flesh Gordon, though, is genius.

I guess my confession is that when it comes to movies, I'm a basic bitch. I love Star Wars, Bond, comic book movies, mafia movies, Indiana Jones, weird cult stuff, pretty much all of it. I don't like EVERY movie, but generally, the ones I dislike are the ones that everyone else dislikes, but even some of those fall into the "so bad it's good" category for me.

Streetwiseguy said:

Easy Rider and that movie with toast are the worst films ever.

OK, yes, I'm with you there. Rocky Horror is just stupid.

Easy Rider is OK at best. Very much a product of it's time.

There is nothing visually appealing to me about any Tim Burton film. 
 

I have never seen Titanic.

I have no interest in horror movies, superhero stuff, or anything Game of Thrones-ish. 

I don't give a E36 M3 about zombies. 

David S. Wallens said:

My movie confession, though: While I don't really watch movies, I do enjoy reading Wikipedia pages about movies. 

Yes!

Duke said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That sounds a lot like the dear, departed State Theater in Newark, DE. <sniff>  I saw everything from My Dinner With Andre to The Man Who Fell To Earth to Mad Max to Head to Fellini movies to Debbie Does Dallas there.  Oh, and Pink Flamingoes and Breaking Away and...

That was pretty much us. Just a few rules (no penetration, for example) and we had to finish each quarter in the black.  Oh, no Rocky Horror, too, because of the mess. I think we eventually showed this outside, though. (Our theater was pretty nice and the adults wanted to keep it that way.)

Each week followed a form, more or less:

Wednesday and Thursday: movies fit for the entire audience, school and local residents, so Muppets to Bond.

Friday and Saturday: usually second-run movies or similar.

Friday and Saturday at midnight: cult classics.

Sunday: foreign flicks.

Closed Monday and Tuesday unless we were sneaking something.

Some of our calendars--and, remember, this is all 1988-'92 so we're talking about having just a typewritter, a copier and a waxer:

In reply to Duke :

1 & 2 are the same, seen 3 & 4, heartily disagree on 5.  Nolan's Dark Knight series is a masterpiece. 

The Dark Knight is amazing and I rewatch it for Heath Ledger's Joker performance at least annually. Ledger is completely unrecognizable and delivers quite possibly the best acting performance I've ever seen.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Very very much like that, except being a privately-run establishment, the owner could also get away with whatever he could get away with.  About once a quarter they would have a 'rent party' and play mainstream porn for a couple of late nights.  RHPS was a regular Saturday-midnight thing, with bikers providing security inside.

I miss The State.  That place laid quite a foundation for who I am today.

aircooled said:

I really don't like the current tendency to use CGI for almost anything.  As a fill and an enhancer (e.g. changing a background to make it historically correct) certainly, but for primary action / stunts... please stop.  Imagine Top Gun using all CGI flight scenes..., bleeeh. I suspect most of it is because of wildly unbelievable action and just simple physics violations (e.g. Red Tails, Midway, or Pearl Harbor could have had decent action with all CGI, but they couldn't resist going absurd or simply had no idea what they where actually portraying)

The CGI/Practical Effects divide is interesting to me.  The fans of each camp were vicious with each other in the early days of CGI (and up until recently at times) but the kids that grew up with both camps are mixing the two together and it is amazing.  
Fury Road?  berkeleying Amazing
The Star Wars sequels? Absolute suck from a story standpoint, but visually they are the most stunning of the three trilogies
Ex Machina
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

etc

clutchsmoke said:

The Dark Knight is amazing and I rewatch it for Heath Ledger's Joker performance at least annually. Ledger is completely unrecognizable and delivers quite possibly the best acting performance I've ever seen.

Yes, he does...

...in an otherwise mediocre movie, which is unfortunately the best of the trilogy.  At least it's focused on something and has a coherent plot.  The Dark Knight Rises is terrible - too long by half, the plot doesn't make any sense, and there's no reason that about half the characters are even in it.

I'm not anti-Nolan.  He's made some seriously great movies - Dunkirk, the aforementioned Memento, and even Inception.  But he's also made some meandering, overwrought piles, too.