Movie Recommendation Experiment

[ie]

I'll let you know when I'm more confident with my Top 20. I did just fill that pesky #18 with zombie horror / car chase excellence, so I guess there's still room for improvement.

I'm not sure if you'll get into Heaven through recommending me movies that are like Grindhouse and Akira, for example, but hey, whatever floats your boat.


If you're bored in the meantime, you can use my current Top 20 (found in my last post) to go over the recommendations that you gave me earlier to see if there are any that stand out more.

Here's that list again:

Dark City, Memento (rewatch), Léon the Professional (rewatch), Donnie Darko (rewatch), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Dog Day Afternoon, Touch of Evil, 3 Women, Chinatown

Five Deadly Venoms (1978), Five Fingers of Death (1972), Boxer's Omen (1983), The Bride with White Hair (1993), Shogun Assassin (1980), Amarcord (FELLINI), The Man Who Fell to Earth (ROEG), Wise Blood (HUSTON), Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (1970), Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972), Gun Crazy (1949). You mentioned thoughts for these two: Full Contact (1992) seems to be up your alley. Maybe the film Amateur (1994) will be agreeable.

A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killing (1956), Zero Effect (1998), North by Northwest (1959), Wages of Fear (1953), The Hospital (1971), L.A. Confidential (1997), Blue Velvet (1986), Speed (1994).

I must say, I looked further into these three movies -- Five Deadly Venoms (1978), Five Fingers of Death (1972), Boxer's Omen (1983) -- and all of them sounded pretty good at the time. They seem kind of hard for me to come across, but I'll see what I can do.

[criterionmaster]

I watched River's Edge and really enjoyed it, for the reasons I guessed I would. It was fun for me to watch, it’s just enjoyable to watch stories where little happens, or just a small thing happens and we get to see where that goes, like a friend kills a girl. Also, I enjoy films when they feature teenagers, I think. I like how the film was over-the-top, yet still felt realistic. The performances were believable, and Hopper is always fun to watch. A very nice recommendation, thanks. Now I will have to check out more. Which one, if you had to pick, out of all the films you recommended me, or any new ones, do you think I should watch next?

ie said:

Good: The music; Gimmie Shelter and I'm Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphys (I like Celtic punk). Not all the plot additions were negative. Some were actually pretty interesting, and some of the obvious points in the remake did help to explain some of what was implied in the original.

There are still some gaps, namely #18, which I'm not quite sure I want to fill with Romero's Dawn of the Dead would fit there, even if I did just get this awesome toy, although I would like to fill it with a horror or zombie movie. Still two more gaps as well; I haven't seen every movie ever made, so I'm just anticipating that I'll really like two of those movies.

Yeah, the music on the film kicked so much ass. I love Scorsese style of music. It is so diverse, and usually makes his films just that much more enjoyable. He really loves The Stones, too. You can't forget the Van Morrison cover of "Comfortably Numb" either, which was one of my favorites used in the film.

Oh, and by the way, that Dawn of the Dead toy you got is badass. Where did you snag it from, and for how much? It looks like, by the package, that there is more than one series, so I would love seeing what they have released. Maybe if they had "Machete Zombie" I could get it and have him sign it when I meet him at the Eerie Horror Fest this year, or, even funnier, if they had Romero's character from the beginning. haha. (By the way, just do it, put Dawn on there. It definitely deserves it.)

[ie]

I got the toy from Spencer's Gift for $10. It was on clearance sale from $15, and when I went there today, I didn't see any others, so I'd suggest you go there soon. They have a few Grindhouse: Planet Terror toys, but they're $15 each and the toys don't look that great, in my opinion.

They have the Machete zombie in another toy line I saw pictures of online, but I think this line only has the Grunge zombie.


I ended up putting Grindhouse at #18.
Dawn of the Dead is my third favorite horror movie at this point, and while I really like it, it has enough flaws here and there where I just can't give it a 10/10, unless we're talking pure fun and nothing else.

[ie]

Since this thread is getting buried, I'd thought I'd post my new Top 25. See if there are any changes to your recommendations:

(01) Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
(02) The Animatrix: Beyond
(03) The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) {1}
(04) {Studio Ghibli slot}

a.) Princess Mononoke
b.) Spirited Away
c.) My Neighbor Totoro
d.) Grave of the Fireflies
e.) Howl's Moving Castle
f.) On Your Mark

(05) Enter the Dragon
(06) American Beauty
(07) 7th Street
(08) Waking Life
(09) Dawn of the Dead (original)
(10)

(11) The Big Lebowski
(12) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(13) Noiseman Sound Insect
(14) Grindhouse
(15) My Beautiful Girl, Mari
(16) Harakiri
(17) The Fountain
(18) Paprika
(19)
(20) Akira

(21) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
(22) 1001 Nights
(23) Jaws
(24) Pierrot le Fou
(25) Aachi and Ssipak

Three favorite directors are about the same. I like Kon more though now.


edit: Saw A Better Tomorrow I. 8/10. Needed more kickass action to it, because some of the melodrama was just kind of average, but I do like it. I think I may really enjoy A Better Tomorrow II

[lordofdance]

ie said:

Since this thread is getting buried, I'd thought I'd post my new Top 25. See if there are any changes to your recommendations:

(01) Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
(02) The Animatrix: Beyond
(03) The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) {1}
(04) {Studio Ghibli slot}

a.) Princess Mononoke
b.) Spirited Away
c.) My Neighbor Totoro
d.) Grave of the Fireflies
e.) Howl's Moving Castle
f.) On Your Mark

(05) Enter the Dragon
(06) American Beauty
(07) 7th Street
(08) Waking Life
(09) Dawn of the Dead (original)
(10)

(11) The Big Lebowski
(12) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(13) Noiseman Sound Insect
(14) Grindhouse
(15) My Beautiful Girl, Mari
(16) Harakiri
(17) The Fountain
(18) Paprika
(19)
(20) Akira

(21) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
(22) 1001 Nights
(23) Jaws
(24) Pierrot le Fou
(25) Aachi and Ssipak

Three favorite directors are about the same. I like Kon more though now.


edit: Saw A Better Tomorrow I. 8/10. Needed more kickass action to it, because some of the melodrama was just kind of average, but I do like it. I think I may really enjoy A Better Tomorrow II

I'll get on it soon, I've been busy with things lately. Thanks for your continued input.

[ie]

Don't worry about it, lordofdance. Take your time, and this time, don't worry about me wondering why it's taking so long... I've been very busy myself, and haven't been feeling my usual 80% for a while now. Odd.

Also, I saw Leon: The Professional a long time ago, I really liked it, but it somehow always fell down in my ratings, so I'll need to rewatch it again.

I'm trying to get ahold of the Five Deadly Venoms and saw about ten minutes of the Boxer's Omen / Mo. I hope it will get crazy awesomer, but it's quite enjoyable so far. I've become much more interested in the work of the Shaw Brothers than, say, Fellini, just as an example.

Good day. ;D

[ie]

Updated as of now, further revisions very likely...

ie said:

(01) Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
(02) The Animatrix: Beyond
(03) The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) {1}
(04) {Studio Ghibli slot}

a.) Princess Mononoke
b.) Spirited Away
c.) My Neighbor Totoro
d.) Grave of the Fireflies
e.) Howl's Moving Castle
f.) On Your Mark

(05) Enter the Dragon
(06) American Beauty
(07) 7th Street
(08) Waking Life
(09) Dawn of the Dead (original)
(10) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

(11) The Big Lebowski
(12) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(13) Noiseman Sound Insect
(14) Grindhouse
(15) My Beautiful Girl, Mari
(16) Harakiri
(17) The Fountain
(18) Paprika
(19) Film, Film, Film
(20) Akira

(21) 1001 Nights
(22) Jaws
(23) Aachi and Ssipak
(24) Pierrot le Fou
(25) Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

I'm going to be doing some further re-arranging, so as not to give off the impression that I'm really into westerns or something like that, but this is an even more updated version of my list. Added a Russian animation, Film, Film, Film and ultra-violent masterpiece Riki-Oh.

These are all just references for when you give me additional recommendations. Also, not too interested in westerns at all and film noirs don't quite interest me as much as they did. Don't worry about how quickly you recommend anything, because my plate is very full at the moment myself, I can imagine you're just as busy, and I still have to get through some of your recommendations, but I figured I'd post the most up-to-date information I could. ;D ;D

[lordofdance]

Looks like the list is coming together. I'll get on it soon. I just saw Paprika and I'm still a bit dumbfounded. Anime creeps me out generally, but there was something about that big scientist guy's face that haunts me. I'm no Anime expert, and there's undoubtedly weirder stuff out there, but Paprika is nuts and vaguely disturbing.

[ie]

lordofdance said:

Looks like the list is coming together. I'll get on it soon. I just saw Paprika and I'm still a bit dumbfounded. Anime creeps me out generally, but there was something about that big scientist guy's face that haunts me. I'm no Anime expert, and there's undoubtedly weirder stuff out there, but Paprika is nuts and vaguely disturbing.

Don't worry, take your time. I just figure I'll give you the most up-to-date information possible.

Well, the director, Kon Satoshi does make kind of weird stuff. It's always realistic and rooted in reality, for the most part, but of what I've seen, Paprika is the weirdest. Paranoia Agent, for example, starts out normal and fine, but then does a complete 180 degree turn, which seemed to alienate a lot of people. Toyko Godfather has a weird subject matter, but (from what I remember) it's so realistic, you could swear it's a live action movie at times.

I'd suggest you check out Cowboy Bebop. For the most part, it's a fairly straight-up anime, some weird things here and there but it's not weeeird, plus it's about the best place period to start if you're new to animation and want to see what it's all about.

[ie]

I like the idea of this thread, so I have bumped it, so that it will not go away. ;D

[ie]

You haven't been around in a while, but I figured you might like to know that Bride With White Hair turned out GREAT. Honestly, I completely forgot you recommended it until I was looking over my list of your recommendations, because I just saw it sitting at the library and I was like "I've heard that is REALLY good." Did not disappoint.

This would probably be the best place to say this. As of the beginning of this month, I will now focus exclusively on the following types of movies:

1. Animation (Non-Anime)
2. Animation (Anime)
3. Samurai (Chambara)
4. Martial Arts (Wuxia)
5. Documentary (Features)
6. Paracinema (Exploitation)
7. Cultural Movies ()
8. Zombie Movies (Horror)
9. Monster Movies (Godzilla)
10. "Early Cinema" (Silents)

11. Requests / Etcetera


I'll probably modify this list slightly, but that will be it. I am no longer concerned with half of the foce-fed Criterion business. Sure, I may be missing out on a lot of classics, gangster or yazuka movies, film noir, that kind of business, but most don't interest me at all. This way, I don't watch it and be like "man, I hated that shit." And, I get to actually focus on types of movies I'm interested in.

I got so much chambara this month through KG. ;D ;D

Hanzo the Razor ended up being right up my alley completely. Hanzo makes Dirty Harry look like a fucking wimp, and I'm going to check out Bad Lieutenant to see if the main character in that even holds a candle to the kind of cop that will torture himself to find out how best to torture... I mean, interrogate the criminals he brings in. Plus, exploitation and samurai send-ups, man.

But I am still enjoying some of the classier "good" stuff, like Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and Blade Runner.

[lordofdance]

For the last couple months I've only been home like one day a week, so I haven't had much free time for fun projects. I will get back to you soon, especially with all this new information you have to offer.

I'll cut down on fancy schamcy stuff if you like. I'll concentrate more on the stuff you mentioned above.

[ie]

Don't worry about it. It's just I'm kind of worried about some of the cooler people who don't post in a while. Only form of contact is through this forum.

Well, it's not fancy schmancy stuff I'm concerned about. I just don't care about the classics or pretty much most anything that is outside of that list. Maybe some do well, but they're too uneven for me. I might get the good film noir in, but I'd have to sit through a couple that don't work for me at all. Whereas these are genres that have had pretty consistant results: wuxia does really well for me, and I do really like samurai movies, even though I've seen a few lunkers.

If you're interested in samurai movies, you GOTTA check out the Hanzo the Razor trilogy[/URL]. Equal parts samurai send-up and sexploition. My favorite may just be the third movie; Who's Got The Gold?.

And man, by focusing on genres I like, I get to movies that I can highly recommend to others. Great times, these are.

[criterionmaster]

i just watched a film you recommended me, but i will post thoughts in your top list thread.

[ie]

I have a private Bittorrent tracker recommendation for lordofdance and pretty much everyone here:

Cinemageddon

Evan can vouch for it.

[drone]

I want this thread to be revitalized. Right now.

[ie]

Jul 10, 2008 22:49:19 GMT -5 drone said:

I want this thread to be revitalized. Right now.

The main guy who tried out this experiement hasn't been around in a while, along with most everyone that's been through here.