Wednesday, January 25, 2012

F This Movie! - Mike's Favorite Movies

We're almost done with the favorite movies series, but not before Patrick and Mike talk about Mike's five favorites, discuss the movies that made them love movies and get another visit from the F This Movie! cookie fairy.

There's still time to enter the F This Movie! Win Our Stuff! contest before the first-ever F This Movie Fest on February 4th!



Download this episode here. (73.6 MB)

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Also discussed this episode: The Tree of Life, Nice Guy Johnny, Rashomon, Ace in the Hole

17 comments:

  1. Yay, two podcasts in a row in which my e-mails are read aloud (plus the second appearance ever in "FTM" history of Erika's movie-shaped cookies we don't get to see... why?!). Not only does this increase my odds of winning 'F This Movie's' cool stuff contest, but it further spreads my "Star Wars" manifesto throughout the land (muhahahaha!). Thanks Patrick for saving the e-mail and unleashing it on Mike (who I had in mind when I wrote it). I knew referencing Patrick's Jake Lloyd impression would win Mike over after I had just s*** all over his precious "SW" franchise (and for the record, "Sucker Punch" isn't as bad as "SW" because all the badness is contained within just one flick, not spread over six films in a 28 year time span). And I can honestly say Mike's Top 5 list is one I not only approve wholeheartedly but that I've seen every movie in the list (even "Pulp Fiction," which I saw in theaters once when it premiered in '95 and haven't watched again since, even though I own the original DVD release and now even the Blu-ray that came out last year... yes, I'm weird! :-P)

    Patrick, since you liked Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" you must watch its follow-up, 1985's "Ran," as soon as humanly possible. Everyone agrees, "Kagemusha" is the dress rehearsal... the real epic samurai show is "Ran," the last truly great Kurosawa movie he did before dabbling in quieter, smaller movies until his death. Bold use of color, frame composition, music (by Toru Takemitsu) and epic Shakespeare-inspired plot along with some of the most bad-ass battle sequences ever shot on film. The lead actor from "Kagemusha" is also the main star of "Ran," and the whole thing feels like a last hurrah for Kurosawa's grand master filmmaking skills. Like "The Third Man" though the Criterion two-disc DVD with the better bonus features is OOP (but, unlike "Third Man," it's relatively cheap to get). A Studio Canal R1 Blu-ray is available and it's just OK visually, but the extras are not as cool as the one's in the Criterion.

    "Rashomon" has always been to me what "Citizen Kane" is to you Patrick: the homework movie whose reputation and influence I can understand and appreciate, but the movie itself just bores me to tears. It's an OK Movie but way down at the bottom of my Kurosawa (let alone movies, period) favorites. "Ace in the Hole" is awesome, one of those old movies that anybody can see and then compare to their current reality and see how little we've come as a society. The newspapers then = TMZ/news cable channels of today. For a guy that is perceived as a mainstream Hollywood filmmaker of his time Billy Wilder sure had a mean streak of 'noir' in him ("Sunset Boulevard," "Double Indemnity," etc.).

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    1. Thanks, J.M. I need to track down RAN; now I'm kicking myself for not buying the used copy I came across a couple years ago. STUPID!

      I was surprised how much I ended up liking Rashomon. For the first 20 minutes or so, it was exactly the movie you describe it being for you. But then it got way more interesting, and I found the last scene really moving.

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  2. Patrick, you son of a bitch! Making your pregnant wife make you cookies in a hot kitchen while you talk about Nuns on the Run and drink Coke Zero?! I'm just kiddin'. It's too bad there are no visuals to go with the podcast because I was really curious about those cookies, particularly the phallic one and the two little pieces that could be body parts.

    Good show as always. Mike, your picks are conventional, but as stated in the episode, you gotta be true to yourself. Everybody's top 5 list is personal, and those are the movies that work for you. The Nuns on the Run story was entertaining and something I could relate to. For instance, I quote Hook about as frequently as you quote NotR. There's a part toward the beginning when Captain Hook steals Peter's kids from their nursery and Wendy and the Nanny are telling this to Peter and his wife. It all culminates with her melodramatically delivering the line "and the children were screaming....THE CHILDREN WERE SCREAMING!" So every time I get the chance, I bust that one out. "Man, I had a rough day today. Traffic was terrible, my boss was in a terrible mood, and the children were screaming...THE CHILDREN WERE SCREAMING!" Like so. Now I'm going to have Nuns on the Run lines rattling around in there, too.

    I had way more to say, but I can't remember it. I need to start taking notes while I listen. I do think I need to get Mike's parent's address so I can write them a letter about letting their youngest and baby boy watch Goodfellas at what I can only assume to be the age 4. I picture one of his friends breaking one of his toys and then him yelling "You see? This is why we can't have nice things!"

    I can't wait for next week.

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    1. Thanks, Heath! I should have taken pictures of the cookies. Or, better yet, I should have had ERIKA take pictures of the cookies.

      We still quote the trailer from Runaway Bride a lot in our house. The old lady saying "Well I do!" Also, Taryn Manning saying "Oh my God, you're SO obvious!" from the Crazy/Beautiful trailer. The world would be a better place if we quoted movies that were good. Or that anyone even remembered.

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  3. Damn, cookies and everything... Great podcast.

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  4. "You call this going straight?"

    Funny as f***. I clearly remember that line from the trailer too (but, oddly enough, I also remember it from within the movie itself). I also recall not quite getting it until many years later.
    Younger me: "But nuns aren't criminals, of course they would be straight."
    Oh younger me, how niave you were......(it was a sex thing)

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  5. Heath, I was 12 OR 13 when I saw GOODFELLAS. Not that it's much better, but at least I was out of diapers.

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    1. To be fair, though, you still had TERRIBLE parents.

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    2. Mike, 12 or 13 is old enough to drink in Alabama (where I live), so that's certainly old enough for some Goodfellas (Goodfellatio?). Of course, many 12 and 13 year olds from Alabama are still in diapers, whereas you were not, so that's one point for you.

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    3. I wouldn't presume to know Mike's diaper situation, if you know what I mean.

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  6. Wow, great list - I can see how it would be very difficult to narrow your favourites down to 5 - I can say for sure that Mike's would at least be in my Top 20 if not 10, and I've actually watched all of them in just the past few months (with the exception of Jaws which I am holding off on until this August's blu-ray release).

    Btw Patrick that was me talking about Godfather - bonus points for pronouncing my name correctly!

    And thank god for parents who ignore parental guidance labels. Jaws was my very FIRST favourite movie - I don't remember exactly under what circumstances I first watched it, but I shit you not I'd watched it a half-dozen times before I turned FIVE. I was probably the only seven-year-old who would name Roy Scheider as his favourite actor. When I was 8 or 9 I successfully begged my parents to rent an additional VCR just so I could dub my own VHS copy (hopefully the FBI doesn't monitor this site!) and hand-drew a replica box for it and everything. Goddamn I LOVE that movie and I was glad to hear it make someone's Top 5!

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    1. I think I was probably too young when I saw Jaws, because I was scarred by the final image of Quint and remembered it being WAY more graphic than it actually is. That and the dude's eyes bulging out in Flash Gordon really stuck with me in a horrifying way.

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  7. That was a great show. I could have listened to you guys talking about Jaws and The Godfather for a whole show easily; they were really interesting discussions

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  8. Great show, as always. I wholeheartedly agree with all of Mike's picks (except for Goodfellas, but that's just me *ducks*), most especially Fargo. I LOVE that movie, and William H. Macy was robbed at the Oscars (Cuba Gooding, Jr? Really? The guy who was later in Boat Trip and Daddy Day Care???). Ok, I feel better now. Speaking of lines you love to quote for no apparent reason, my mother and I have this habit of occasionally saying "...and I guess that was your acahmplice in the woodchipper." Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you.

    I'm also totally with Mike in being a sucker for "making of" features. It's definitely amazing how many films should have been a complete disaster but turned out to be classics. Jaws and the Godfather as mentioned on the show; The Fugitive had no script when filming started; Star Wars was an epic mess; who can picture Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly?

    Loved the favorite trailer discussion too. I do remember seeing the trailer for Inception and thinking "Damn, that movie looks awesome! I have no clue what it's about, but it looks great!" Going back a little farther, I remember the trailers for "Star Wars, Episode I" and thinking "F, yeah!" and then later seeing the movie and thinking "F, no!!!"

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    1. Thanks, Carl! I find myself saying "Not sure I agree with you 100% on your police work, there" whenever I don't agree with someone. I'm sure it's not annoying!

      The newly-released "kid friendly" trailer for Phantom Menace is completely terrible, but that's probably what they should have put out in 1998. I don't think anyone would have been disappointed when they saw the actual movie.

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