WWTBAM Bored

Over the weekend, I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs" for the very first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

It was like a Paul Dano film fesitval for us. We rewatched "LIttle Miss Sunshine" and saw "There Will Be Blood" for the first time.

No best picture winners, but yesterday my family and I did go to see Kung Fu Panda (by no means a great film , but lots of fun for kids and adults) and then last night my wife and I watched August Rush on DVD (don't watch it unless you're in the mood for a fantasy/fable - it took us a while to get into it because we had somehow gotten the idea it was a conventional romantic movie).

Jeff and I usually go see movies at the cheap theater. Because we go before noon, tickets are $4.00. Between noon and 6:00, tickets are $5. If we went at night, tickets would be $8.00.

Maddie and her friend Jake went to the movies on Saturday, at a different theater. Her friend had a water polo match, so they couldn't go early and get matinee prices. I asked her how much tickets were and she told me that they were $11 per ticket.

I've never paid that much to see a movie.

And it is right to have enjoyed both, as they are terrific. I am still hanging on to my 75 out of 81 record. Two of the ones I'm missing may surprise some movie mavens here...

So, two questions for you all, just to make it an interesting Monday. One is really easy, the other may take a lot of guessing, which is good news for those of you interested in padding your post count for Beast's rankings.

1. The easy one: how could there be 81 when this year's Oscars were the 80th?

2. Which 6 remain unviewed by me?

KillerTomato wrote:And it is right to have enjoyed both, as they are terrific. I am still hanging on to my 75 out of 81 record. Two of the ones I'm missing may surprise some movie mavens here...

So, two questions for you all, just to make it an interesting Monday. One is really easy, the other may take a lot of guessing, which is good news for those of you interested in padding your post count for Beast's rankings.

1. The easy one: how could there be 81 when this year's Oscars were the 80th?

2. Which 6 remain unviewed by me?

Spoiler

There were two Best Pictures the first year.

Gee, all I watched was the bonus round of Million Dollar Password and the first episode of "When We Left Earth", a visual history of the U.S. manned space program. I knew that this had to be good when the first in-person comments were by Neil Armstrong, who has been as reclusive as possible since 1969. The vintage footage, upgraded to HD as much as technology allows, was truly incredible. Comments by Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft (who I did not realize was still alive), surviving astronauts (when was the last time Frank Borman and Gene Cernan were interviewed on a national broadcast?) ... This is on my DVD buy list. I am, above nearly all else, a Space Age baby. It's why I went into science.

Favorite comment: Alan Shepard's suborbital flight had numerous delays in the launch, with Shepard sitting on top of the "candle". He was the one who decided to go ahead with it, at the end. His last words before the launch to the control group and engineers, according to Chris Kraft, were "'Don't mess this up.' Only he didn't say 'mess'."

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

Spoiler

You have not seen Cavalcade, because it's not out on DVD.

Spoiler

Yep. And as a clue to the second question I'll even say that I preferred "Sunrise" to "Wings".

odd...I replied to one post, and it quoted from another.

But yes "Cavalcade" is one of the six.

gsabc wrote:Gee, all I watched was the bonus round of Million Dollar Password and the first episode of "When We Left Earth", a visual history of the U.S. manned space program. I knew that this had to be good when the first in-person comments were by Neil Armstrong, who has been as reclusive as possible since 1969. The vintage footage, upgraded to HD as much as technology allows, was truly incredible. Comments by Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft (who I did not realize was still alive), surviving astronauts (when was the last time Frank Borman and Gene Cernan were interviewed on a national broadcast?) ... This is on my DVD buy list. I am, above nearly all else, a Space Age baby. It's why I went into science.

Favorite comment: Alan Shepard's suborbital flight had numerous delays in the launch, with Shepard sitting on top of the "candle". He was the one who decided to go ahead with it, at the end. His last words before the launch to the control group and engineers, according to Chris Kraft, were "'Don't mess this up.' Only he didn't say 'mess'."

The version of Shepard's flight in The Right Stuff is supposedly very accurate.

Typical weekend at the SSS Household. In the theater:

Kung Fu Panda (with grandchildrent)
Zohan

Both were better than I thought they would be.

On DVD:

Hang 'em High
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (both chosen by the grab bag nmethod where I reach into the closet and pull something out at random)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (we'd watched the other two Indy movies on DVD the two weekends previously and were saving the worst for last; I had never seen them on DVD before. Next up is the documentary and other stuff next weekend)

Earlier in the week, we'd seen The Night They Raided Minsky's, which just came out on DVD and which I'd never seen before. That one held up surprisingly well, especially the musical/comedy numbers which were a tribute to old time burlesque. And Britt Ekland never looked better, although I doubt it was her in her big "production" number.

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:Over the weekend, I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs" for the very first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Given your Bored name, I couldn't imagine otherwise!

Guess nobody wants to play today.

FTR the six Best Picture (or equivalent) winners I haven't seen are

Spoiler

The Broadway Melody of 1929
Cavalcade
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
Gentleman's Agreement, and
Tom Jones (at least, not all the way through...)

A couple of these are in my Netflix queue, though...

KillerTomato wrote:Guess nobody wants to play today.

I played.

I just had to take kids to school and stuff.

megaaddict wrote:

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:Over the weekend, I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs" for the very first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Given your Bored name, I couldn't imagine otherwise!

Well, some people have compared my delivery and mannerisms to those of Jack Nicholson, but I am nothing like Hannibal Lecter.

silverscreenselect wrote:
Earlier in the week, we'd seen The Night They Raided Minsky's, which just came out on DVD and which I'd never seen before. That one held up surprisingly well, especially the musical/comedy numbers which were a tribute to old time burlesque. And Britt Ekland never looked better, although I doubt it was her in her big "production" number.

YEARS ago, I recorded Rudy Vallee singing "Take 10 Terrific Girls (but only 9 costumes)" from a radio broadcast in New York (Joe Franklin, maybe?) on a cassette tape.

The funniest version I'd ever seen of the song was the performance by the Muppets on The Muppet Show.

KillerTomato wrote:Guess nobody wants to play today.

FTR the six Best Picture (or equivalent) winners I haven't seen are

Spoiler

The Broadway Melody of 1929
Cavalcade
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
Gentleman's Agreement, and
Tom Jones (at least, not all the way through...)

A couple of these are in my Netflix queue, though...

I didn't get the chance to get here before now.

Spoiler

Broadway Melody of 1929 is corny as all get out although it's a little easier to take when you realize it's the movie that created some of the cliches.

Best to catch it on Turner Classics.

I've never seen the Life of Emile Zola or Cavalcade.

I couldn't make it all the way through Silence of the Lambs.

After seeing the stage production of You Can't Take It with You, I find it hard to watch the movie because the plot was changed so much. I'll take my tape of the Broadway production with Jason Robards as Grandpa.

mellytu74 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:
Earlier in the week, we'd seen The Night They Raided Minsky's, which just came out on DVD and which I'd never seen before. That one held up surprisingly well, especially the musical/comedy numbers which were a tribute to old time burlesque. And Britt Ekland never looked better, although I doubt it was her in her big "production" number.

YEARS ago, I recorded Rudy Vallee singing "Take 10 Terrific Girls (but only 9 costumes)" from a radio broadcast in New York (Joe Franklin, maybe?) on a cassette tape.

The funniest version I'd ever seen of the song was the performance by the Muppets on The Muppet Show.

The movie was obviously very heavily edited (there are a number of scenes that include extensive stock footage of NYC street scenes from th 1920's). Supposedly, the movie took months in post-production being re-edited into its final form. It's apparent the film makers had a tough time turning their raw material into a cohesive film, and the characters change emotions a bit too abruptly.

What's really sad is that this was Bert Lahr's last film and the film makers envisaged a larger role for him (a couple of times he tells people that he can fill in for performers who aren't there). He died shortly after filming began and his role was reduced to a handful of scenes.

Still, for anyone who wasn't familiar with old-time burlesque (which was far more than strippers), it's a good movie to see.

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:

megaaddict wrote:

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:Over the weekend, I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs" for the very first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Given your Bored name, I couldn't imagine otherwise!

Well, some people have compared my delivery and mannerisms to those of Jack Nicholson, but I am nothing like Hannibal Lecter.

Are you sure? Do you like chianti and fava beans?

ulysses5019 wrote:

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:

megaaddict wrote: Given your Bored name, I couldn't imagine otherwise!

Well, some people have compared my delivery and mannerisms to those of Jack Nicholson, but I am nothing like Hannibal Lecter.

Are you sure? Do you like chianti and fava beans?

I am not a wine drinker.

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote:

NellyLunatic1980 wrote: Well, some people have compared my delivery and mannerisms to those of Jack Nicholson, but I am nothing like Hannibal Lecter.

Are you sure? Do you like chianti and fava beans?

I am not a wine drinker.

Ahhh, but you like fava beans!

KillerTomato wrote:Guess nobody wants to play today.

FTR the six Best Picture (or equivalent) winners I haven't seen are

The Broadway Melody of 1929
Cavalcade
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
Gentleman's Agreement, and
Tom Jones (at least, not all the way through...)

Amazingly, I've seen three of the six that KT hasn't. That's amazing only because I've seen about 1 percent of all the movies KT has watched.

Melly is right about Broadway Melody -- wait for it on AMC. It's more interesting from an historical viewpoint than cinematic thrills. I very much liked The Great Ziegfield, which starred William Powell in the title role, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke. (I adore both of those ladies. In addition, Fannie Brice played herself, and that's the only time I've ever seen her perform.) Tom Jones was pretty funny -- and somewhat bawdy for its day. At any rate, it was one of the rare movies that I liked better than the book.

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote:

NellyLunatic1980 wrote: Well, some people have compared my delivery and mannerisms to those of Jack Nicholson, but I am nothing like Hannibal Lecter.

Are you sure? Do you like chianti and fava beans?

I am not a wine drinker.

Sounds like that line from Dracula: "I don't drink...wine."

KillerTomato wrote:Guess nobody wants to play today.

FTR the six Best Picture (or equivalent) winners I haven't seen are

Spoiler

The Broadway Melody of 1929
Cavalcade
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
Gentleman's Agreement, and
Tom Jones (at least, not all the way through...)

A couple of these are in my Netflix queue, though...

This is funny, I've seen hardly any Best Picture Winners (because The Greatest Show on Earth RULZ!!!11), but I've seen 3.7 of the ones you haven't. (Parts of Emile Zola and Tom Jones count as the .7).

I'm surprised you haven't seenThe Great Ziegfeld, as I thought you were a big Myrna Loy fan.