Go-Go-Gone
Just what you were hoping for on Christmas, a new top ten list from Jesse Walker.
https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/happy-xmas-lists-arent-over-ive-listed.html
This time it's the best of 1980. A good time to be alive. (I'm just saying that. Generally it's better to be alive than not.)
Here's the list:
1. Mon Oncle d'Amerique
2. Melvin And Howard
3. The Long Good Friday
4. UFOria
5. The Stunt Man
6. Bronco Billy
7. Kagemusha
8. The Falls
9. Raging Bull
10. The Shining
Some good stuff here, some not so good stuff.
Mon Oncle d'Amerique and Kagemusha are okay but far from the best from these directors.
Melvin And Howard would make my top ten list. So would The Stunt Man. The Long Good Friday would make my top twenty.
Haven't seen UFOria (though it sounds like fun) or The Falls (which sounds interesting).
As for the rest...
I'm not a big Clint Eastwood fan, but Bronco Billy is poor even for him.
Raging Bull is another "classic" that mystifies me--as I've noted before, a better title would be Two Pointless Hours With A Lout.
The Shining was a disappointment when released, but has since become a classic. While it looks great, and has some memorable moments, taken as a whole, the first reaction was closer to the truth.
Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:
11. Bad Timing
12. Atlantic City
13. Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
14. The Last Metro
15. Bye Bye Brazil
16. Airplane!
17. Out Of The Blue
18. The Ninth Configuration
19. Ashes To Ashes
20. The Blues Brothers
Haven't seen 11, 13, 17 or 18. 19 is a music video.
12 would make my top ten list (and be at or near the #1 spot--saw it last week and it still holds up). 14 and 15 are okay. 16 would make my top ten list. 20 has some nice musical performances, but isn't much of a film.
Here are some other movies that would have made my top ten (or twenty):
Dressed To Kill
The Elephant Man
The Empire Strikes Back (still surprised not to see it after all these years)
Return Of The Secaucus 7
Stardust Memories (which keeps going up in my estimation, the more bad movies Woody makes)
Superman II
Here are some other films I liked (at least in part):
Breaker Morant, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Carny, Altered States, Where The Buffalo Roam, The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Gong Show Movie, Health, Used Cars, Hero At Large, Private Benjamin, Flash Gordon, From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China, The Life And Times Of Rosie The Riveter, Seems Like Old Times, Spetters, Serial
Other films of interest:
American Gigolo, Any Which Way You Can (Eastwood's better movie of the year?), The Big Brawl, The Apple, The Big Red One, The Blue Lagoon, Brubaker, Caddyshack (another disappointment turned into a classic), Can't Stop The Music, Cannibal Holocaust, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, City Of Women, Coal Miner's Daughter, Coast To Coast, The Competition, Cruising (like to see how this looks today), Divine Madness, D.O.A., Don't Answer The Phone, Fame, The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Fog, The Formula, Foxes (just watched it last week), Friday The 13th, From The Life Of The Marionettes, Galaxina, Gilda Live, Gloria, Gnomes, He Knows You're Alone, Heaven's Gate, The Hollywood Knights, Honeysuckle Rose, Hopscotch (watched it last month), How To Beat The High Cost Of Living, The Idolmaker, In God We Trust, Inside Moves, It's My Turn, Just Tell Me What You Want, Karl Hess: Toward Liberty, The Last Married Couple In America, Little Darlings, The Long Riders, Loose Shoes, McVicar, The Mirror Crack'd, My Bodyguard, Nijinsky, Nine To Five, The Nude Bomb, One Trick Pony, Ordinary People, Popeye, Prom Night, Roadie, Rockshow, Rough Cut, Rude Boy, Simon, Sitting Ducks, A Small Circle Of Friends, Somewhere In Time, Stir Crazy, Terror Train, That Sinking Feeling, Times Square (just watched it last month--what a weird film), Tom Horn, Tribute, Union City, Up The Academy, Urban Cowboy, Wholly Moses!, Willie & Phil
posted by LAGuy @ 1:51 PM
5 Comments:
Airplane! would have made it into my top 10 if I hadn't re-watched it recently. Not only is it not as funny as I remembered, but I saw it not long after rewatching the Naked Gun movies—and they were as funny as a remembered.
(Naked Gun also feels far more contemporary than Airplane!, which is odd, given that it was made just eight years later.)
I don't remember the last time I saw Airplane! (though by chance I saw Zero Hour!, the drama it's based on, last month), but I certainly remember it as one of the funniest films of its time. (And Airplane! made it look easy. It's not, as AIrplane II: The Sequel shows.)
Which leads to a question: Is a film as good as the last time you saw it, or as good as the best experience you had with it?
This is a nice little holiday surprise.
Here are a few comments. I guess no one likes Ordinary People anymore. Of course, critics have always thought they were better than ordinary people.
I'm willing to defend Popeye, both as an Altman film and a Robin Williams film.
The Big Red One is to Fuller what Kagemusha is to Kurosawa.
Sitting Ducks was unique, a film made by improv, and it shows in the haphazard plot.
Times Square has become a cult film for lesbians.
Best porn of the year: The Blue Lagoon.
Best title: Loose Shoes (especially if you know where it comes from).
I used to confuse Carny and Roadie. Here's how you tell the difference. Carny is the one without Carney.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Haven't seen 1, 2, 4, 6, 13, 15, 17 or 19.
As for the rest.
The Falls is my favorite from Jesse's list (Greenaway's best "experimental" film and I'm pretty sure one of the books in my favorite of his is just The Falls).
The Long Good Friday, Atlantic City, The Shining are on my list as well.
Haven't seen Raging Bull, Kagemusha or Blues Bros. since high school.
Felt like The Stunt Man should have been great but was too uneven (still pretty good).
Airplane and 9th Configuration are just ok.
1. The Elephant Man;
2. The Falls;
3. Atlantic City;
4.Popeye;
5. The Empire Strikes Back;
6. The Long Good Friday;
7. Dressed to Kill;
8. Hopscotch;
9. The Shining;
10.Don't Play with Fire;
11.Return of the Secaucus 7;
12.Bad Timing;
13.The Spooky Bunch;
14.Toward the Terra;
15.Return to the 36 Chambers;
16.American Gigolo;
17.The Stunt Man;
18.Altered States;
19.We're Going to Eat You;
20.The Sword;
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