1974
Submitted by Kza on Wed, 04/13/2005 - 04:59
Tags:
- Juggernaut (Richard Lester) [93]
- Thieves Like Us (Robert Altman) [90] [under review]
- Ali -- Fear Eats The Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [88]
- Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis) [88]
- The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola) [87]
- A Woman Under The Influence (John Cassavetes) [82]
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper) [80] [under review]
- Black Christmas (Bob Clark) [80]
- California Split (Robert Altman) [78; could up on 2nd viewing]
- Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Bo Arne Vibenius) [77]
- Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma) [73]
- That's Entertainment! (Jack Haley Jr.) [70]
- The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg) [69]
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese) [68]
- The Terminal Man (Mike Hodges) [65]
- Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks) [64]
- Busting (Peter Hyams) [62]
- The Black Windmill (Don Siegel) [58] [Gimme a letterboxed, non-commercial interrupted version, and watch it go up 10 or more points.]
- Foxy Brown (Jack Hill) [56]
- Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah) [55]
- Lenny (Bob Fosse) [55]
- It's Alive (Larry Cohen) [52]
- The Lords of Flatbush (Stephen F. Verona & Martin Davidson) [43]
- Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (Brian Clemens) [31]
- Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (Michael Cimino) [27]
- 99 and 44/100% Dead (John Frankenheimer) [27]
- Garden of the Dead (John Hayes) [23]
- The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin) [12]
- Seen But Unrated (approximate rating): A Woman Under The Influence (John Cassavetes) [90], Black Christmas (Bob Clark) [80], Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah) [45], Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette) [90], Chinatown (Roman Polanksi) [75], Deathdream (Bob Clark) [59], Earthquake (Mark Robson) [50], The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola) [95], Grave of the Vampire (John Hayes) [35], Homebodies (Larry Yust) [58], Juggernaut (Richard Lester) [80], Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (Jordi Grau) [52], Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky) [77], The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula) [55], Shanks (William Castle) [56, Jesus, what a weird-ass movie], Stavisky... (Alain Resnais) [74], The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent) [65], The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester) [70], Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks) [80]
- Unseen: Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders), Amarcord (Federico Fellini), The Black Windmill (Don Siegel), California Split (Robert Altman), Cockfighter (Monte Hellman), Death Wish (Michael Winner), Effi Briest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), The Fierce One (Tolomush Okeev), The Gambler (Karel Reisz), Garden of the Dead (John Hayes), It's Alive (Larry Cohen), Jacob the Liar (Frank Beyer), Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle), Lancelot of the Lake (Robert Bresson), Lenny (Bob Fosse), The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich), The Lords of Flatbush (Stephen Verona), Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser a.k.a. Every Man For Himself and God Against All (Werner Herzog), The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani), The Odessa File (Ronald Neame), Primate (Frederick Wiseman), Rabid Dogs (Mario Bava), Still Life (Sohrab Shahid Saless), The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg), The Terminal Man (Mike Hodges), Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Bo Arne Vibenius), The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin), The Traveller (Abbas Kiarostami), Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan), Uptown Saturday Night (Sidney Poitier), We All Loved Each Other So Much (Ettore Scola), Xala (Ousmane Sembene)
Author Comments:
Title (Director) [rating]
[under review]: I told myself to get tougher with the ratings this year (2005); these ratings are from 2004 or earlier, and I plan to revisit these films and see if they hold up.
[approximate rating]: Just a guess based on how strongly I feel about these films right now; some of these I haven't seen in 10+ years.
Rating system, adapted from the one used by SteveR:
100-97 = All-time favorite
96-90 = Fantastic; best of the year
89-80 = Remarkable
79-70 = Very Good
69-60 = Good
59-50 = Okay
49-40 = Mediocre
39-30 = Bad
29-20 = Horrible
19-10 = Torture
9-0 = Would end a war if dropped on opposing country
If you can hook yourself up with Hellman's "Cockfighter," do so. Warren Oates is at his best in it.
Also: "Phantom of the Paradise" higher rated than "The Conversation"?!
For now, yes. Please note the "under review", however.
(I was kinda disappointed with The Conversation this last time. Obviously not *that* disappointed -- 87's nothing to sneeze at -- but I found it lacking.)
And I got Cockfighter on the Netflix list, so, yeah, pretty soon.
Didn't realize Netflix had "Cockfighter" available again. Have to check on "Two-Lane Blacktop." I just can't seem to get into it for some reason and have yet to finish watching it.
For some reason, Two-Lane is on "save" status -- which is crazy, cuz I got it from the library a few years ago.
And I got it from Netflix about three years ago. Honestly, though, I probably wouldn't have the time or patience to sit through it again. Have to save my time for "Meet the Fockers." ;-)
Cockfighter sounds interesting, I'll have to queue it up! Did you see the humorous fake tagline (off-color humor warning).
Ha! That's awesome.
You've seen "Shanks"? Lucky sumbitch.
Not only did I see it, but I used to have it on VHS. (Not sure if it was taped from cable or duped from a rental tape -- I didn't make the copy.) Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it got lost, like a lot of other tapes, during one of my many moves.
But... I still have some of those tapes. (I know I still have Darren McGavin's Run Stranger Run, thank god.) I should probably check...
What about Herzog's "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser"? Haven't seen it myself, but it's supposed to be a goodun.
Done and done!
Now, if we can just get Netflix to carry Herzog's "Stroszek."
Wait, wait, wait... 12 for The Towering Inferno? Ok, it is far from being great, but it is not that bad.
I have to disagree. It's definitely the worst Best Picture nominee I've ever seen, and I've seen The Greatest Show on Earth. Bloated beyond all reason, so contrived it makes the puzzles in the Resident Evil 2 videogame seem like common sense, and can we get something other than freakin' medium shots? This aint Playtime. And the less said about the acting and the dialogue, the better.
So yeah, for me, that bad.
To nominate it for 'Best Picture' is certainly exaggerated, but IMO the acting for example is not bad at all. I mean, it could have been much worse (also much better, of course). The dialogues are awful, Ok, but that is typical for disaster movies , isn't it? As far as I'm concerned with this genre of films, I'd prefer The Towering Inferno to all the others I have seen. The film managed quite well to entertain me, and that is exactly what I expected. But you are by far not the only one who hates this movie. I know many others who would absolutely agree with you on this, but not me.
I just saw the Fassbinder yesterday, and it is indeed "remarkable".
You really must see "Rabid Dogs" soon.
Best. Ending. Ever.
But... but... Netflix doesn't have it. [Insert teary-eyed face with quivering lower lip here.]
I'll have to make a trip to Scarecrow...
That's right, the DVD is OOP. I'd forgotten. I'd heard there were plans to release the film again under the title "Kidnapped", but apparently that never came to fruition. (Maybe Bava fans realized they'd already paid once for the film.)
Where is The Gambler?
Cool. I think it's the best film on gambling ever made, and it's hardcore Toback (have you seen Fingers?).
I also don't see F for Fake on there. That should be on your radar; it recently received the Criterion treatment.
And how could you whip out your list without including Blazing Saddles?
(I just came across this site and can tell I'm going to be wasting a lot of time here in the future.)
Haven't seen Fingers yet, but I plan to, eventually.
I believe I have both F for Fake and Blazing Saddles down as 1973 -- I can't check my spreadsheet, though, because I had a catastrophic computer failure, and while I didn't lose the spreadsheet, I did lose Excel :-( I suppose I could check IMDB...
Please spend more time here, Jeff! One of us, one of us....