Saturday, April 25, 2015

Better make a copy of this...it's a pretty good list!




repost


      I love widescreen movies!  
I don’t mean “matted” screen...I mean REAL widescreen flicks or letterbox...mostly on TCM...occasionally on Max or Showtime.
Now with HD being paramount...they don’t run them often.
If I actually buy a dvd and it says widescreen but turns out to be matted I am really pissed. I have to be careful because it generally says “widescreen” but isn’t.
Murphy’s Romance was like that...but that flick is so good and Garner and Field are so good I didn’t mind.  A lot of folks don’t like Sally Field but you just could not dislike her in that movie.  Garner was a bit “grumpy” for my tastes but I accepted that as part of his demeanor. Sally’s pic on the cover of the dvd is “hot” and I mean hot.
Your response to my personal music list has opened up the possibility of me “publishing” a long list (I have a lot of em) of my favorite movies that you may or may not agree with.
So...hang onto your seat and fill your drink...here we go.
These are not in any special order:
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL...the original with Edward Fox (scary sob)
AVANTI....Jack Lemmon (Billy Wilder)
THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN....Anthony Quinn
FLAWLESS....Demi Moore & Michael Caine. Stealing diamonds. 
FFOLKES...Roger Moore & Anthony Perkins(he’s scarier in this than in Psycho! And Moore loves cats..so do I!)
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT....Annette Bening & Michael Douglas. (Ignore the left wing script...enjoy the Prez getting laid)
3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR.....Robert Redford
MOON OVER PARADOR....Richard Dreyfuss
THE GOOD THIEF....Nick Nolte (outstanding...except matted...not letterbox even with “widescreen” and full screen choices.
GIANT.....James Dean is just too much on the screen for Liz and Rock! 
EMPIRE RECORDS...but only because Liv Tyler runs around in short plaid and even removes it for us! Wow! Otherwise this sucks.
OCEAN’S 11 (THE ORIGINAL)...Takes me back to my days in Vegas in this era.  Angie Dickinson was cool & HOT!
BOTTLESHOCK...Alan Rickman....makes you thirsty as hell!
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR...Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.  The music is great too...but the heist is better!
THE RUSSIA HOUSE....Sean Connery & Michelle Pfeiffer.  Great twists...fine music and letterbox best!  Thank you Russia for the beautiful locales.
MAROONED...Gregory Peck.  The original “Lost In Space” epic,another great “letterbox” flick.  Don’t miss the scene where the cop...who just stopped Peck for speeding, gets a call on his police radio from the President!
RONIN...Robert De Niro and Jean Reno(steals the show) and letterbox on the Riviera! Wow.
WAG THE DOG...Another DeNiro film with a script right out of the Clintonian era.
COMING TO AMERICA...Eddie Murphy.  Not a big fan of his but this is a fun flick.
VANISHING POINT (original)...Barry Newman.  Two sides one for U.S. and other for U.K.?  Says “widescreen” but ain’t...but on the U.S. side the great outdoor scenery looks pretty good matted.
ABSOLUTE POWER....Clint Eastwood. Nasty folks in DC. Judy Davis is too much!
STRIPTEASE....Demi Moore (as you’ve never seen her before or again).  Awful flick but how can you not love that body!
CITY OF ANGELS....Meg Ryan.  C’mon Meg....a heart specialist? But she did a good job pretending and I still have a crush on her. Hated the ending...awful. Great music!
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED....Michael Caine & Robert Duvall.
ARTHUR.....Dudley Moore.  Whole cast is great along with script etc.
JFK....Kevin Costner (Oliver Stone).  See my posts on Jim Garrison and Jim Marrs, author.
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR.....Tom Hanks.  I collected $ for them before Wilson even knew them!
1776....William Daniels and Howard Da Silva
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN....Dustin Hoffman & Robert Redford.  The retelling of the media coup d’etat that changed our history. 
SIX DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS....Harrison Ford & Anne Hech. Fun and real letterbox for the island scenery. 
TO CATCH A THIEF....Grace Kelly & Cary Grant on the Riviera! Sad to say it says “widescreen” but it’s not letterbox.
GOOD ADVICE....Charlie Sheen & Angie Harmon.  I got a kick out of this one and I’ve had the hots for Angie for years!
DAVE....Kevin Klien & Sigourney Weaver
CHANCES ARE....Robert Downey, Jr.& Cybill Shepherd (she’s still looking fine here!)
THE LAST OF THE DOGMEN....Tom Berenger & Barbara Hershey.  Great letterbox here....but Barbara looks good any old way.
VOLCANO...Tommy Lee Jones & Anne Heche.  “The Coast Is Toast”...logo beats anything Mad Men could come up with.
GETTYSBURG....Martin Sheen & Jeff Daniels.  Great epic.
MAD MONEY....Diane Keaton & Katie Holmes.  How can you go wrong with a scene where Katie is stuffing bills in her panties! Right guys?
SPEECHLESS.....Geena Davis (at her most beautiful) and Michael Keaton.  Not a great script but the two play well off each other. Stupid ending though.
THE STALKING MOON....Gregory Peck & Eva Marie Saint. Excellent dramatic fare without one crashing “car”...but the chase is scary as hell and the Indian Chief trying to rescue his son is rarely seen which makes it more suspenseful.  This is real letterbox and shot outdoors mostly so enjoy.
DER TUNNEL (German)Nicolette Krebitz & Heino Ferch.  Bunch of E. Berliners dig their way out.  Great, Great, Great flick!  Nicolette is more than "hot".  Don't miss their dancing scene.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING....Sandra Bullock & Bill Pullman. Love ya Sandy!  Chicago scenes as usual are great.
MIDWAY....Charlton Heston & Henry Fonda. This “widescreen” is really “letterbox” so enjoy the action.
KISS THE GIRLS....Morgan Freeman & Ashley Judd(hot)  
KELLY’S HEROS....Clint Eastwood & Telly Savalas.  Get the gold guys!...letterbox too!
COPYCAT....Sigourney Weaver & Holly Hunter.  Don’t watch this (letterbox) with the lights off!
TORA TORA TORA....Epic on the attack at Pearl Harbor....and letterbox too boot!
CONTINENTAL DIVIDE....John Belushi & Blair Brown.  Matted but acceptable with the great scenery.  Belushi at his best...Brown at her prettiest.
STARMAN....Jeff Bridges & Karen Allen.  One of my all time favorites and true “letterbox”. Why no sequel?  He left her with a baby.  I want to know what happened to the alien baby!
FRENCH KISS...Meg Ryan & Kevin Kline.  My Meg favorite here...and I know you’ll pick Sleepless or Mail...but this is the one for me.  Probably because I love France so much. True letterbox too.
BLACK WIDOW....Debra Winger & Theresa Russell (as the widow) Man she is bad!
DEEP IMPACT....Morgan Freeman as the Prez.  Love the way the FBI kidnaps a member  of the press right off the highway and dumps her in the White House basement for the Prez. One wonders if Nixon’s group could have done the same for those Washington Post guys.
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER....Alec Baldwin & Sean Connery. Real “letterbox” in this one.  Very suspense filled from start to finish.
LOVE ACTUALLY.....Hugh Grant & Keira Knightley (yep I had to mention her, right)  Some great songs here and some miscasting but it all works out in the end.  Grant as PM is akin to Ryan as a heart doc!
But enjoy it...it’s fun. KK is hot and London in letterbox is good too.
LIVE FROM BAGHDAD...or how CNN conquered the world. Michael Keaton & Helen Bonham Carter (before becoming a Queen.) Having been in Nam for NBC News I could relate a bunch to this script and two guys I know well were written in...Bernie Shaw and Peter Arnett because they were there when the bombs fell. 
MISS CONGENIALITY...Sandra Bullock & Michael Caine
THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL....Peck, Olivier & James Mason.
could that have really happened?  Is there a DNA Hitler among us today?
NOTTING HILL....Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant.  My favorite JR flick.  Letterbox too!
WARGAMES....Matthew Broderick & Ally Sheedy(yummy)
ENEMY OF THE STATE...Will Smith & Gene Hackman. Letterbox.  On the set of Bad Boys ll (I was an extra) I wanted to ask Smith about this film but it was a no-no to talk to superstar!
ARGO....Ben is good and the plot great. Best pic
ZERO DARK THIRTY....catching & killing Bin Laden. Best pic

That’s it for list ONE.  Oh yes...you can expect another soon...and still another Stan's list of my favorite movie songs!

stanmajor@aol.com



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