Movies you are confident will never be exceeded

To be more specific, I am talking about movies from certain genres and topics that you feel are just so perfect that you really can't see how any future film based on the same topic could be better. Here are a few examples from me:


1. Topic: The Arthurian legends.

Film: Excalibur (1981)

A stellar cast, a brilliant choice in music that fit in perfectly with the setting, unique and stunning visuals and a perfect balance in tone between the dark serious stuff and the occasional comedic beat.


2. Topic: WW2 naval warfare

Film: Das Boot

3. Topic: 18th century/early 19th century "Age of Sail" naval warfare

Film: Master & Commander

4. Topic: Modern era naval warfare (post WW2)

Film: Hunt for Red October

5. Topic: WWI aviaton

Film: The Blue Max

6. Genre: Cyberpunk

Film: Blade Runner

I would add to Excalibur's accolades that it was the most accurate to Mallory's stories that I've seen. And on that subject...

Most faithful to the book:
The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers from the mid 70's (staying true to the novel required two movies)

Ah, but WHICH version of Das Boot?
The TV mini series, the cinema adaptation, the Director's cut, the new TV series remake?

I had the Director's Cut in mind but you raise a valid question!

I had to look, I've got "The Director's Cut"...

Blade Runner has already been exceeded by Altered Carbon. Might not be a movie, but a short series, but the point remains.

AC is a very good series but at an emotional level it just hasn't stuck to me like Blade Runner has.

Die Hard. So often imitated, never once duplicated!

Yeah, when it comes to the straight-up action movie genre I'd say the original Die Hard is very tough to beat. Everything about that movie was just perfection.

+ 1 on Die Hard. Besides the Bad Santas, my favortie Christmas movie. The family-friendly Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story are great too (I have a dog named Ralphie and a Red Ryder BB Gun).

I'll say WarGames (1983), also in my above pic. I think my first home movie experience (in 1984), wife had it for Betamax and it's still one of her all-time favorite movies.

Lots of great picks, Panzer!

I especially agree with Master and Commander, Das Boot and has been ages since I've seen Excalibur, but it sure was cool.

So I assume this might mean films that can't or shouldn't ever be remade because the original film was perfect:

1) Sci-fi Horror
"Alien" / "Aliens"

The latter, Aliens, is more perfect than even its predecessor. The writing is soooooooo tight and the special effects, pacing and scripting are flawless, even 30 years later.


2) Sci-fi Space Opera
"The Fifth Element"

Like the movie's namesake, the film is perfect. No other film in history has such brilliant transitions between scenes.


3) Ultra-realistic Contemplative Sci-fi
"2001: A Space Odyssey"

Arthur C. Clarke + Stanley Kubrick can be surpassed? Please. Don't even try. Honorable mention: Interstellar. Unlike 2001, though, Interstellar violated its own universal constraints with rockets to blast off from planets and magic anti-gravity drives on small craft, later in the film, among many other issues.

4) Sci-fi Chronoshifted Social Commentary
"Total Recall"

Rare is a film that mixes multi-layering plus social commentary as well as Total Recall does. But that's Paul Verhoeven. He's a genius and pulls this off in other films such as...

5) Not another Sci-fi action movie
"Starship Troopers"

Based on Sci-fi great's novel, Robert Heinlein, Verhoeven takes the material and adds his own political undertones, brilliantly. If you saw this film and thought it was an action movie, then you missed the point.

6) Crime fantasy Drama
"Scarface."

The movie is like watching candy. 3.5 hours whisk by and you feel fresh and energized after this masterpiece. Brian De Palma delivers, as always.

7) Hitchcockian Noir
"Body Double"

De Palma delivers, again. He takes Hitchcock, and adds his own style.
Honorable mention: Dressed to Kill

8) Mystery/Thriller
"Rear Window"

Hitchcock + Jimmy Stewart? What couldn't go right? Classic perfection.


9) Crime
"The Godfather."

Do I really need to explain why? Like Scarface, this movie is like watching candy. The 7 hour combined version is even better.


10) War meets Literature
"Apocalypse Now"

Francis Ford Coppola + Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" + one iconic line from Robert Duvall. I love the smell of napalm in the morning, but this film takes war movies and melts the stereotype, giving us something unique.



Don't ever remake any of these films. Yeah, I listed a lot of sci-fi, but sci-fi is my favorite genre by far and we have far too few films in this genre to watch.

2001: A Space Odyssey. The grandfather of great sci-fi films.

Casablanca. Has there ever been such perfect actor and actress pairing like Bogart and Bergman.

Hollywood likes to remake everything now but I think the reason Casablanca hasn't been remade or rebooted is because even Hollywood knows this is one movie you can't touch!

Lethal Weapon...best buddy cop movie. Also a Christmas movie.

For those of us who are old enough to remember the Cold War, films like "WarGames" and "Hunt for Red October" will always have a special bit of nostalgia and I would also be interested in seeing the reaction to those movies by people who are college aged or younger now. I wonder if they would be able to connect with those movies without ever having lived during those times?

Das Boot - WW2 naval warfare: for the version, I'll keep it simple and stick with the theatrical release that I saw in U.S. theaters.

The Hunt for Red October - techno-thriller.

Man on Fire - directed by Tony Scott - revenge movie.

E.T. - Sci-Fi-Fantasy

Aliens - SciFi Horror - a tough call because Alien (original) will never be exceeded on a purely artistic level, but Aliens should get points for pure entertainment that should not be discounted (Bill Paxton's character).

Point on Alien / Aliens. I've always maintained these are one movie... as in knock the credits off Alien, splice in Aliens and you'd hardly notice they are 2 movies they blend that well storywise / logically.

This makes a lot of sense to me. The only thing separating the two films is Ripley's 57 years in cryo-sleep but we don't miss much there as the audience.

Taken within the context of the entire Infinity Saga then there's no contest: Avengers Endgame.

But I don't think I'd put Endgame up there as a stand alone movie.

Speaking of Blade Runner, the game is on GOG now. I still have this thing, it came on 4 cd's. LOL
It runs parallel to the movie IIRC.
https://www.gog.com/game/blade_runner

I had that game. I ran it on a Pentium 60 computer and played in VGA.

Western:
type: Spaghetti Western: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

They would, PM. Just not on the same level as we do. I'll mention, in case any of you hadn't heard about it before, that Connery almost turned down "Red October". The story goes that when he got the script to read the page that set the movie in 1984 wasn't there and he initially thought it was contemporary, which made no sense since the Cold War was over by then. Fortunately for us, his agent explained it to him.


Crime/Noir/Suspense:
"The Usual Suspects"
It's so well done it's fun to watch even when you know who Keyser Soze is.

Pure fun:
"Smokey and the Bandit"

Disappointing:
"Smokey and the Bandit 2"

Waste of time:
"Smokey and the Bandit 3"

When it comes to epic fantasy, the Lord of the Rings (extended edition) trilogy is probably impossible to beat. Having it made was a miracle in the first place, there are hardly any drop-outs in the cast, production values are high, the things that could be improved upon are so miniscule in comparison to everything that worked out that I'm rather confident that there won't be a better one in my lifetime.

The disaster of the Hobbit trilogy can't take this away.

As far as Das Boot is concerned, my vote is for the original TV mini series (but I'm probably biased since that is the first one that I saw). The original theatrical release was a collection of all the action scenes which changed the pacing substantially, and also altered the character of the whole story. The original story is all about the endless boredom that is war, interspersed with terror, and then a few absurd moments and hard partying either in anticipation of another tour, or in celebration of still being alive.
Obviously, for a cinema release you can't have all the boredom in it, I understand why those decisions were made. But still, the TV series towers above the cinema versions. The Director's cut is, of course, still better than the wretched US theatrical release version.

In the category "Cold War Illustrated": Dr. Strangelove.
It's an excellent comedy, it's an excellent illustration of nuclear weapon release safeguards, it's an excellent illustration of why they wouldn't help as soon as you throw in a dash of irrationality.
The acting is great, the Pentagon War Room set is absolutely brilliant, and the inside of the B-52 still looks pretty good today.
Dr. Strangelove himself is an uncanny amalgamation of Nazi scientist, Hermann Kahn, and John von Neumann, and how their thinking influenced the strategies of nuclear deterrence.

There is a TV version of Das Boot?

yes there was.. was the first time I saw it as a 6 part series here in the UK...

Here's a movie that I think it's perfect and I can watch it over and over and have watched it over and over:

FARGO

Dr Strangelove is an excellent black comedy, but it had zero relevance to real life US nuclear command and control or surety procedures even at the time it was made, and there was never a time when wing commanders or the like could authorize a nuclear strike on their own.

The TV version of "Das Boot" is heads and tails above the movies.

It has an entire episode dedicated to the terror of being hunted by a destroyer while running on silent alert.

I think some of the 50-60s classics will be hard to overcome - just the sheer scale of them and how things was done and the cast involved:

Ben Hur
Cleopatra
Lawrence of Arabia
Spartacus

The Big Lebowski.

Another highlight of the TV miniseries version of Das Boot is when one of the crew members is describing his sexual exploits when in port. I paraphrase, "Sie hat mir auf den Ruecken gepinkelt." "She urinated on my back."

I fully concur with your pick Haggart. I'm really not a big fan of the Western but The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is so good I make an exception for that one.

Absolutely. I believe the Director's Cut is about one full hour longer than the original US theatrical release.


And naturally since I was born and raised in the US, my very first viewing of Das Boot was the US theatrical version dubbed in English. I know, I was definitely deprived in my young age in that instance.

That doesn't surprise me since Germans are known for being rather kinky.

Absolutely. I would also add Quo Vadis to that list.

Additionally, a different genre, but Princess Bride.

And, while we are at it, it seems unlikely the original Star Wars trilogy is going to exceeded or improved upon.

Das Boot is a good movie.

Wow, now that was hardcore! The local video store where I rented "Das Boot" from wasn't nearly that anal about it but this was around 1989 so I think those deposit requirements were done away with so they could compete with Blockbuster. The overdue fees were a real killer though so I had to make sure to always return the movie in time!


**Old man mode on**


Kids these days have no idea how easy they have it with streaming services!


**Old man mode off**

Modern-era western: Open Range. Love that movie.

Don’t know if it fits into a single category, but Shawshank Redemption is my favourite story of friendship in adversity. What a movie that is. Never fail to get a lump in my throat when Red walks down the beach.

Blockbuster is gone, who would had ever predicted that?

Cold War Illustrated: Fail Safe (1964). Simply done, yet so suspenseful!

I haven't seen the original Fail Safe, but the 2000 TV play version of it (it was sent live when it was broadcast) was good.
It also had a stellar cast.

"Open Range" was good. One of only a few (IMO) really good performances by Kevin Costner. Of course, Robert Duvall rarely if ever turns in a bad one.

I have never been disappointed by Robert Duvall. He’s always great even when he’s been in mediocre movies like Days of Thunder.

I just watched it maybe a week ago, and it was a very good movie.

Swords and Sandals or Epics- Gladiator and Troy. Man, i love those two movies.

Gladiator is absolutely perfect on every level even with all of the historical inaccuracies. Troy was pretty good but I don't think it was nearly as compelling.

It was a perfect example of retelling the story by cutting out 50% (the Greek mythology part about divine internations in the conflict), and still everything made perfect sense. I absolutely loved how the invincibility of Achilles was visualized not by showing his skin to be stabbing proof, but by having him always stay clean even after a day of battle, and surviving by superior agility. It's my second favorite Wolfgang Petersen movie, and it deserves more recognition IMO.

Road Movie:
Vanishing Point 1971

Nothing better!

Where does "The Never Ending Story" fall in that list?

What I liked about the Achilles angle is how it gave the myth of his invulnerability to weapons credibility. Early on the young attendant mentions it and he discounts it, insisting on wearing his leather armor into battle. When he's killed he's shown to pull out all the arrows except the one in his heel. Fires are burning and it's reasonable to assume that by the time he's found the only wound visible would have been the stone arrowhead still lodged in his heel.

I saw that too, very impressive that the whole thing was broadcast live! However, it didn't scare the poop out of me like the original.

If you have kids, "The Never Ending Story" is a wonderful, imaginative classic they should see. Great film for what it was.

Concur about Troy. Not a bad film, but not amazing either. Gladiator was better.

Yep. Plus, it has some of the most beautiful cinematography in any western I’ve seen.

Starship Troopers
Forrest Gump
Speed
Dirty Harry
Magnum Force
Bullitt

The Lion In Winter. Patrick Stewart made a very good attempt in the remake, but the original had Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn and ain't nobody topping them.

Predator and Commando.

All of the Predator sequels have ranged from outright bad to forgettable. Predator 2’s only redeeming quality is Bill Paxton’s over the top yet great performance. “Predators” is simply forgettable. Who the hell decided that it was a great idea to cast Topher Grace in a Predator film?? And then “The Predator” from 2018 was just simply moronic.

That film simply had the proverbial “lightning in a bottle” when it came to the cast. Everyone remembers O’Toole and Hepburn of course but Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton were outstanding as well. Oh and this film has a connection with Excalibur. The actor who played Arthur in Excalibur also played one of Henry’s sons in Lion in Winter.

As far as Peter O’Toole movies go i actually think I like “Becket” a little more, but the difference is very slight. What an actor! I think he’s definitely in the top 5 of all time.

Richard Burton was pretty good too.

That guy could have read straight from a phone book and he still would have made it sound profound.

I was excited when they announced Predator 2018 from Shane Black who also wrote Predator.

Then saw the final product!

Was he on drugs when he wrote it and were all the studio heads on drugs when they approved it?

Just to be clear, Black wrote the screenplay for "The Predator" from 2018. The original Predator film was written by the Thomas brothers.

Beckett and Lion in Winter are both likely to never be exceeded. Lion in Winter is brilliant, but Beckett has more "heart," if you will.

I would also through Man for all Seasons into the "never likely to be outdone," as well, in a different genre, Chariots of Fire.

Why have I always thought all this time he also wrote Predator?

I know he wrote Lethal Weapon 1, the Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

My mistake.

Sci Fi:
Interstellar steals the show. It's not even a close race for second place.

Interstellar's intense focus on realistic physics was such a breath of fresh air. It was just such a good movie. I desperately want there to be a sequel of equal or higher quality to find out what happened at the end of the first movie.

Arrival is the runner up - also a fantastic movie, and the soundtrack was a masterpiece. One of the best sound tracks of all time. Terrible shame about the composer.

Naval:

Master and Commander tentatively has top spot - I'd love to see another movie that tops it. Its relatively realistic depiction of 18th/early 19th century wooden fighting square rigged ships will be hard to beat. It did not entirely do justice to the novels, however.

I know quite a few film composers but I have never heard of Arthur Kempel. I noticed he was only 58 when he died.

I have only one gripe here in that although they consulted with Kip Thorne at Cal Tech, they took artistic liberties beyond his black hole research and theory.

Yes, the film seems like the physics are all real, but they aren't. How about the anti-gravity drive on the lander ship? Somehow the ship possesses this magical tech that can fly them off worlds with ease yet they had to use regular rockets to launch the original mission into space. That's a huge break in universe continuity and has always bothered me. The time dilation stuff, though, is pretty awesome.

The ending with the black hole communication was also artistic liberty.

Great film, otherwise, and has an awesome message.

Full Metal Jacket.

IMO, best movie about Vietnam War ever.

I am not a fan of Apocalyse Now.

FMJ is great in the first half, but only so-so in the second.
Apocalypse Now on the other hand is basically a movie version of "Heart of Darkness", set in the Vietnam war era. But at the core it's not about the Vietnam war but rather about re-telling the Joseph Conrad novelly. Oh, and wath the Redux version, makes for almost a different film, really.

I can easily see why Coppola originally cut out those extra scenes that are included in the Redux version. In my opinion they bog down the pacing and are really not necessary for the main story. Apocalypse Now is one of those rare cases where I prefer the theatrical release to the extended version.

It's been my impression that this is almost a universal feeling among fans of the film. The first half is simply so iconic that it overshadows the second half even though the second half is still very good by it's own right.

What's wrong with the 2nd half of FMJ?

The only thing about FMJ is this scene.

In past 20+ years, have rewatched this scene many times over on VHS and then DVD and then Blu Ray.

How did he Lieutenant die?

He was standing behind the tank where then explosions happened, which I presume is from mortar fire since there was no whizzing sound of incoming artillery shells.

Skip forward to about 54 seconds.

I am actually surprised I've actually found this scene on YouTube.

That Lt. was killed by shrapnel from the mortar explosions. So basically super heated shards of metal hitting his body at high velocity.

What surprised me most about FMJ was that is was filmed in the UK.

At the time when I first saw the film (on VHS around 1990) I had no clue at all it was filmed in the UK but later on as I learned more about Stanley Kubrick, it made a lot of sense. He moved to the UK in the early 60's and lived there until his death in 1999 and he was not particularly fond of flying so most of his films during that time were shot in the UK.

Yes, the Ville city was a set build on 2 sites ooutside of London.

Wonder what anyone living nearby thought of the noises and explosions coming from there.



I just had to dig up my FMJ BluRay.

Total of 9 explosions.

Screenshots 1-2 is explosion #1,

screenshots 3-4 explosion #2,

screenshots 5-6 is explosion #3,

screenshots 7-8 is explosion #4 (the LT. is already beginning to topple over at that time),

screenshots 9-10 is explosions #5 and #6,

screenshots 11-13 is explosions #7, #8 and #9.

FMJ is a great movie, but there are other great Vietnam movies out there, like Platoon (which IMHO is better than FMJ).

Platoon, FMJ and Apocalypse Now comprise my "holy trinity" of Vietnam movies.


And while it was only a portion of the movie, I think the Vietnam scenes from "Forrest Gump" were really great.

What? No "Deer Hunter"?

I'm afraid you're confused: Jóhann Jóhannsson was the composer of Arrival, and he was only 48.

They are talking about "The Arrival,"



A much better movie.

Much better, I have the new version, Painful to watch.

Oops my mistake. There’s “Arrival” and “The Arrival”. Doh!

Barry Lyndon
I don't even know if I want anybody to try to redo it.

No worries. No studio today will want to redo it for 2 reasons:


1. It won't make a profit.

2. The Kubrick film is universally recognized as being the absolute best possible adaptation of the Thackeray novel.

1. Legitimate

2. Irrelevant if someone decides that #1 is no longer legitimate. And the examples of that are legion.

I am pretty sure nothing will come close to the sheer epicness of the LOTR movies. Many have tried, and all have failed. That includes the Hobbit movies, which were not at all made by stretching a thin book with a simple story into as much on-screen time as the 1000-page LOTR books, to attempt to cash in on the success of those movies.

I mean:



Just epic. Still get shivers watching that scene. What an amazing job Bernard Hill did as Theoden!

+1 Semmern


It's been a few years since I've watched my extended version LOTR bluray set. I think it's time to watch again.

I still can't believe someone thinks Charlie Sheen The Arrival is a movie that will never be exceeded.

Did they mean a B movie that can't never have a sequel that's better than the original?

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

This movie is like Die Hard.

Perfect.

Flawless.

They tried to remake the Charleton Hestion 1959 Ben Hur epic adaptation of the Lew Wallace novel by substituting CGI for star power, real stunts, and spectacle in 2016. Of course, the 1959 version was a remake of an epic silent film version, but it's hard to compare a black and white silent picture to one in color with sound. Hollywood lost their asses on the new one too.

I personally think that the Coen brothers' adaptation of the Charles Portis novel: True Grit would be hard to surpass. It was just too good and too perfect.---plus it didn't have Glenn Campbell or Kim Darby to muck it up as the John Wayne abortion did. Yeah, I know that the Duke got his one Academy Award for that movie, but that was really just a consolation Oscar for never getting one for any of his arguably better movies from the past.

Cheers

On a cinematic level it is indeed perfection. Just do your best to not think about the preposterous deviations from historical facts and you'll be ok.

What do you mean? There is no Ark of the Covenant?

The Last Crusade is up there with Raiders.
Star Wars and Indiana Jones have been the best adaptations of cheesy old serials ever.

That one is quite obvious. I was thinking more about the German Afrika Korps being in British Mandate Egypt in 1936!

They were there incognito.

Lol. An entire division-sized number of German soldiers and vehicles?

Egypt is a big country.

The British couldn't have people with eyes everywhere.

Was it an entire division?

Looked to me more like a platoon or maybe a company.

Regardless, in 1936 Britain wouldn't have had any legitimate reason to keep them out (although I'll admit that the military presence would have been hard to justify). And Chamberlain's proclivity to concede rather than confront makes Germans in pre-war Egypt even more acceptable within the reality of the movie.

'Just watched 'Zulu Dawn' for the first time again since original release. Despite the inaccuracies for dramatic effect and in equipment, the sheer spectacle of all those men in this and similar productions cannot be surpassed.
The black extras playing the Impi warriors were rightfully incensed when they discovered they were being paid $2.70 a day but the dog who briefly featured was being paid $4.50 a day.
The production was a financial disaster plagued by litigation.

EXCALIBUR 1983 .... EVERYTHING HAS FAILED IN REMAKES

Spaghetti Western:

Once upon a time in the West

The stars were all aligned when John Boorman made the film. The cast, the production design, the music, the cinematography, etc. ALL of it just brilliantly worked together.

100%

Just two I have watched the last couple days mostly because of the leading actors..."The Enemy Below" and the "Spirit of St. Louis " General Stewart is Charles Lindbergh Some classics can never be improved upon

Jimmy Stewart will always stand out to me for the simple fact that he was one of only a handful of film stars at the time who actually served in a combat role. Clark Gable was another one.

Yes sir PM and he played a great Charles Lindbergh captured the man well a movie and book I read once a year and never tire of it,,One of my childhood heroes,,Both Jimmy Stewart and Charles Lindbergh

Casablanca

Funny story about it is the studio expected it to flop at the box office.

The movie was originally budgeted at $325,000 ($5 million 2020 USD), which in 1942 was a fortune.

An average house was $3,700, an average car $900, the average wage was 30 cents per hour, bread was 8 cents a 1 lb loaf, steak was 34 cents a lb, gasoline was 19 cents a gallon.

Then the budget soared to over $650,000 ($10.19 million 2020 USD) and by the time the film was completed, it was $1,039,000 ($16.29 million 2020 USD).





The final scene between Bergman and Bogart is still unmatched in Movie history.

Hardly. Suggestions that it did not exist are nothing more than speculation.

+1

I don’t think what is being discussed is the physical container but the notion that it contained angels of death or any other supernatural entities.

I have this Kubrick collection, and I think I got good value for my money:
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
Full Metal Jacket
Barry Lyndon
(+ Eyes Wide Shut, Lolita, The Shining)

And while it might not surpass The Lord of the Rings in the fantasy genre, in it's own way I'd rate A Game of Thrones very high up there with the many great characters, etc. It loses it a bit over time and towards the end.
The Matrix is another iconic movie I can't see remade. Let's not talk about the second and even worse the third part - to me it feels like they were overwhelmed with the success of the first, and then tried to exploit on it with the follow-ups, but I might be wrong…
Gods and Generals + Gettysburg
All Quiet on the Western Front - in which case I accept the 1930 and the 1979 version, both very good. Is that contradicting the rules for this thread?!?! :p

These two and "Glory" make up my "holy trinity" of American Civil War movies.

Indeed, I "missed" that one because it's not in my personal collection and I could not remember it's name

Another one that probably most perfectly fits into the

The Great Dictator - try to beat that!

--- Topic closed ---

Forrest Gump. Yes, I said it!

Battle of Britain (69). There have been a few newer movies set in the BoB, none of them comes close: its aerial photography, the cast, and general entertainment value even for non aviation buffs remain unsurpassed.


This may be preferential since it made such a deep impression on me (watched it the first time when I was probably too young), but I vote for the 79 version.

And since you mention Kubrick: I do not want to imagine a remake of Dr Strangelove.


OK, you win

I think what makes almost all Kubrick films safe from being remade is that studio execs today would come to the conclusion that they would not have enough mainstream appeal to be commercially successful.

In addition to that, I think the Kubrick estate and Warner Brothers have some kind of unwritten agreement that none of Kubrick's films will ever be remade.

Just watched True Lies.

This movie is perfect!

They'd be impossible to surpass, too. They are as close to perfect as you can get in film. He was dedicated to his craft.

As long as you watch it as a parody of 80’s action films then you are good to go.

I love that movie, but "perfect" is a bit much.

True Lies is like a Bond film but better than some of the Bond films. Why it's not perfect, F4UDash4?

I'm not sure it was a perfect movie but Jamie Lee Curtis was near enough perfect in it

Yup, she surely was. Too bad she looks quite different today though....


Hard to believe that movie came out 26 years ago. Ugh.

I've never understood the attraction for her. Her face and voice never did anything for me. Great actress though.

Her face was average but that body.....

IMO, she looks mighty fine topless (shape and proportion) in "Trading Places" (1983), don't remember what she shows in "Perfect" (1985) or any others in my collection, including "True Lies" (1994). Very nice 80's butt too.



Quick check...she's 61 and still married to her first husband since 1984 (dude is 10 years her senior and had something to do with Spinal Tap). Her best is burned into his memory, which probably works better than his vision. And if he's still in love, he sees her through love goggles (not as strong as beer goggles but more consistent). So assuming he still cares in his 70's, I bet he ain't complaining.

True Lies is one of my favorite movies, and I think it the best thing Arny ever did.

. . . . so many good (and some bad) ones

That movie really was a barrel of monkeys... so many great moments!

Bill Paxton had me laughing out loud through his whole bit. The only movie I liked Tom Arnold in... Ever!

Quoted for truth.

Nothing from his best film, Hercules in New York?

That's his best film? Even better than Predator, Terminator and Conan?

Sarcasm.

Doh! My sarcasm detector usually works well but you fooled me here.

The Hitchcock thrillers are just of another level, from times when the movie pacing was allowed to take its time, and motives and themes hadn't had to be 'in your face'. Granted, the same can be said about the Kubrick movies, but in the modern era, Hitchcock plots would have far less mainstream appeal than Kubricks. (I would love to see the look on the face of a modern Hollywood agent, that got Birds or Rear Window on his desk)

Wife and I have been watching old movies lately like "Casablanca", also going through our "Twilight Zone" boxset. Next we're going to open our Hitchcock boxset. I want to start with "Strangers on a Train" which is referenced in "Throw Momma from the Train".

A couple of shared favorites:

"A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) - Jamie Lee Curtis has a cute innocent sexiness thing going throughout the movie.

"Kindergarten Cop" (1990 - Schwarzenegger) - Been saying for years that after my parents are gone we're going to retire to Astoria, Oregon (also location of another favorite, "The Goonies" [1985]).

Thanks for this info. I have never heard of Astoria, OR before so I find it amazing that some well known movies were actually set there!


Considering its large size, a surprisingly low number of movies have been set in Miami. The ones that always come to my mind are Ace Ventura, Bad Boys, True Lies and Holy Man.

Just not living in the South for once in my life should be an adventure, and I feel like I've got at least one more big adventure left in me.



Not a movie but cue up the Jan Hammer. Maybe they should make a Miami Vice movie? But should it be serious or parody? "Beverly Hillbillies", "Dukes of Hazzard", "Starsky and Hutch", "The Brady Bunch" ("She's [Marsha] harder to get into than a Pearl Jam concert." - lol), I enjoy them all (despite the hate some of them get).

LOL I guess this fell under your radar?


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430357/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

Well, crap. Guess I should have looked.

Will be watching for bargain DVD or Bluray, thanks for the heads up.

That Miami Vice movie was sorry.

I thought it was decent but it was certainly a box office flop.

The Road Warrior. Both sequels do not come close to it.

The third one with Tina Turner is completely forgettable. In fact, the only two things I remember about that movie is her and the line "two men enter, one man leaves". I have not seen the most recent one with Tom Hardy and Charleze Theron.

1985, when music mattered...I bet you remember the main theme.

TINA TURNER ★ We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)【music video】...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcm-tOGiva0

Yes unfortunately I do remember it. The 80's had some great music but also plenty of cheese.

The Thing (1982). A perfect film.

Wait, you dissin' Tina's theme? I've always liked it.

Point is that music was important as it helped to sell the movie. As you remember, with no internet or MP3 players, movie advertising was limited to newspaper and TV ads, and pre-movie theater trailers. But also music. You got into your car and unless you bothered with cassette, you turned on the radio to Tina's song, or one from Huey Lewis or ZZ Top ("Back to the Future" themes), or "Footloose", or any number of charting movie themes (including of course, all of the James Bonds). Maybe it's the same today and I've lost touch, but at the time, it's all there was so it was important.

Bingo. Music back then was much more important in selling a movie since there was no internet and no social media. It also helps explain why movies with very memorable soundtracks are much less common today than they were in the past.

Yeah, I can hum two three songs off the top of my head from 1986's "Top Gun". I wonder if "Maverick" will have any memorable tunes. I doubt it.

Coincidence you mention Top Gun because I just order this this morning.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Top-Gun-4K-Blu-ray/265018/

I need the speed feel in 4K!

Top Gun is another film that can't never be exceeded.

The sequel title of Maverick is wrong. Old Guns is more appropriate.

Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer did the music for the new film but I agree that it will be VERY difficult to make lightning strike twice.

One of the few cases where the remake is arguably better than the original.

And no, not the 2011 one. The 1982 one was better than the 1951 one: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/
Then again, you can consider the 1982 version either a sequel or an homage to the original.
The 1951 version is still worth a watch.

The one from 2011 was a waste of time and effort. It was completely forgettable even though it was a prequel to the events in "The Thing" and not a remake.


While the original 1951 film is a classic, the John Carpenter remake is by far the best adaptation and will stand the test of time the longest. Only serious film buffs still watch the original from 1951 while the 1982 version is still being discovered by younger sci-fi fans today.

What's wrong with the 2011 one? It's nice to know what happen before the 1982 film.

I just felt it was unnecessary to have to explain everything and the cast was pretty blah. There was none of that on-screen chemistry that the cast from the 1982 film had. I'll put it this way: I've seen the 1982 film at least 20 times and I will be seeing it many more times before I die. I watched the 2011 movie one time and have not felt any desire to see it again.

Disagree. Mad Max 2 was awesome. The Road Warrior can't decide whether it's a post-apocalyptic drama, or a cop movie. It was still revolutionary in the uncompromising way it utilized car stunts, but only Mad Max 2 and Mad Max Fury Road turned up car stunts to 11. Mad Max 2 is great because all the fights are chaotic, nothing works, it's not the kind of highly artificial dance choreography that is passed as a "fight scene" these days.

When you say Mad Max 2, you are talking about The Road Warrior and not Mad Max (3) Beyond Thunderdome. The Road Warrior is Mad Max 2.

I think what NoFlyBoy meant by "both sequels" are the two films that came after "The Road Warrior". So hence, "Beyond Thunderdome" and "Fury Road".

Okay... but I still think that PM should go and watch Fury Road. It's dialling Mad Max 2 up to eleven. It may not offer a better story, but then again Mad Max 2 isn't about a profound story either.
In fact, I pity you for not having it seen in cinema with a giant monster screen and sound system. Some films are just made to fill your entire field of view. Fury Road is one of them.

My critique was about the original Mad Max.

I seem to remember a documentary or some such, stating that it is actually a trend started more or less with The Graduate from 1967 with Dustin Hoffman, and the soundtrack using some Simon & Garfunkel songs. Speaking of non-musical themed movies using air-played songs, so excluding all the Elvis, "Singin' in the rain" etc. movies made to promote the musician/band....