I recently saw ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973). Good picture, a little slow perhaps by today’s standards but worthy of any movie enjoyer’s time! So this movie was shot in Venice. Venice itself being an already beautiful spot to film even today. The way we get to look in a time capsule of Venice in the 70s makes the movie that much better!
People in the 70s could not in fact appreciate it the same way we do now. Concurrently we also can’t do it for today’s movies. Some movies can only be truly appreciated over time is what I believe. This matter can be expressed in both the movie’s message or, as I did, its cinematography. Hence my question now to you.
I saw Alien 1 just a couple of weeks ago for the first time and I was amazed how good it still looked. The design of the spaceship and the alien itself still looked amazing in 4k on an OLED TV. And also the story still seemed like a fresh idea. Of course there are moments with stupid acting people, but all in all the decisions made felt plausible and logical, not the normal stupid horror movie group. And also the story twist came (for me) as a real surprise and not like a thing you knew after the first 5min. (And I’m also surprised that after all these years it’s still a surprise, cause everybody knows the alien but not the story of the first movie?)
Alien 1 is in 4k?
Yes, I think it was the 40th Anniversary release. Aliens is also supposed to be getting a 4K release soon.
Film is actually capable of holding way more detail than 4k. This is the crux of complaints when cinema projectors started to change from film to digital. I love it when old films get remastered in ultra high definition. It makes you realize that what the original audiences actually saw was much more high quality than what we associate with old films, like grain, burn spots, blur and stretching distortion, etc.
Though often it was limited by grain size, rarely much more than hd quality.
Idiocracy
The Thing is a god-damn perfect horror movie, and it hasn’t aged a day.
Nearly everything Terry Gilliam made has aged very well for me. He creates strange and interesting visual worlds that never really seem dated because they all sort of exist in their own time-space.
Also anything Jim Henson company touches seems to become immortal. Dark Crystal and Labyrinth are masterpieces.
And to a lesser degree Don Coscarelli has made some pretty timeless films. Beastmaster is still very watchable.
Gah! Now I need to go watch Dark Crystal again. That’s such a good movie, and I recently watched Labyrinth. I’ll cue it up, and then stick Brazil right behind.
Have you seen the Netflix Dark Crystal series? If not do yourself a favor- it’s great.
Loved that series. The only downside is it’s kind of depressing because, given that it’s set before the movie, you know how it ultimately has to end for the gelflings.
I hadn’t, but I was nervous given how many of the reboots and extension series attempts seemed to miss the mark. Maybe I should give it a try, anyway.
I was going to mention Brazil because it’s one of the great distopian films. And I don’t know how to describe 12 Monkeys, it’s just really good.
Demolition Man, they even predicted exactly how covid would work and when.
I still don’t know how to use the three seashells. 😞
Although it was most likely for humor, if I had to guess how it would work in their world, it’s probably akin to silverware, where each shell is used for a different poop texture.
Excuse me, could you pass a #2 seashell under the stall?
(Nightmarish bowel sounds)
Uhh, better make it a #3.
Jurassic Park. Those dinos beat many of today’s CGI films. Mixed in with the animatronic ones they just blend in so well. The story is simple (to quote Dr Malcolm) God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs. There are so many quotable lines, as shown just now, and the music is pretty unforgettable too.
IMO, the early 90s was a golden age for movie effects. There was CGI but it was so primitive and expensive it was used sparingly. Like you mentioned that blend of practical and special effects was amazing.
Another great example of this is Terminator 2. They obviously used CGI for the T-1000 but then they actually flew a helicopter under a highway overpass, drove a semi-truck off a bridge into the LA river, and blew up an office building.
I would say a lot of Spielberg’s work. It just doesn’t seem to age. I watched Munich a few weeks ago, and to me it could have come out yesterday. Same for Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List.
The mummy
People hate this movie. I’m not entirely sure why because it was quite a good movie.
People hate the remake. The original is priceless.
If he was talking about the original then yes. I suppose in comparison the 1999 one was worse.
Sir, you have taken my words and misconstrued them to make me appear foolish. To that I say… Touché.
So let’s get extremely technical and a little petty.
…
If we only count movies with the title “The Mummy” then we have:
The Mummy (1911) The Mummy (1932) The Mummy (1959) The Mummy (1999) The Mummy (2017)
I propose that because you immediately suggested that the “remake” I was referring to was the 1999 film and was immediately precided by the “original” then you are MISTAKEN!!!
That would mean that you believed the 3rd movie in this list was actually the “original”. How utterly foolish of you. I laugh at your expense. Ha ha ha.
…
But seriously, I grew up loving the 1999 Mummy movie and I refuse to see the newest one.
I saw it. You’re not missing anything.
It wasn’t the worst movie and some of the effects were quite good but aside from my one watch through I’ll probably never intentionally decide to watch it again.
2001: A Space Odyssey still holds up pretty well both technically and narratively.
That movie pissed my ex off. 23 minutes before there was any dialogue. Should have known then and there the relationship was doomed.
That sounds pretty similar to our experience. I’ve always heard great things, but never saw it.
20 minutes in I apologized for suggesting it and we watched some paint dry instead.
Same. Any time I’ve discussed this movie, I always critique it that chapter 1 should have been shorter, 2 and 3 should have been longer and 4 should have been skipped entirely.
That said, the soundtrack and visuals are amazing. Watching it as a music video, like Interstella 5555, would be decent.
There really wasn’t anything to do in the 70’s, so people were more used to sitting around and waiting for something to happen.
And getting high. Which, tbh, chapter 4 seems like an LCD hallucination or something, which fits.
it’s definitely not a movie best enjoyed sober
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
They Live is pretty awesome.
The original Blade Runner(1982)
That sparse and bleak mood will never age. Poses excellent dilemas and moral questions about cyborgs too.
Also Citizen Kane. I watched it a couple of years ago because of it’s position in film history. Yes, it is that good of a masterpiece.
I feel like Citizen Kane is only good with a little bit of prep. Most people are watching movies for an entertaining story, and it doesn’t have that by today’s standards.
I took a film history class in college and we spent a week learning about the framing, lighting and symbolism used throughout the movie BEFORE we watched it, and I had never appreciated the movie until then.
The original Blade Runner(1982)
Except for sexual assault scene.
Dang. I had to watch this scene again. Definitely not consentual. Shes like running out the door before he steps in front of her.
My vote goes to trading places, because it had both aged incredibly well (a tale of class solidarity against evil eugenics-peddling billionaires), and incredibly poorly (a story about nondiscrimination with that damn train scene right in the middle).
I’d also like yo mention RoboCop and American Psycho because their satirization of American hyper capitalism has only gotten more accurate. It really is depressing that we have the exact same social issues that we did in the 80s.
I’m trying to get the young lads at work (early 20s) to watch movies like Trading Places. All they want to watch is Fast n Furious.
Careful my guy. If you haven’t seen it in a while, Dan Akroyd does blackface. I think overall the movie has a positive message that fits in well today, but how they delivered that message only really hits if you’re a white guy from a couple decades back.
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) — hard to say anything without spoiling the plot
Blair Witch Project (1999) — I just admire how great idea / concept extended beyond the movie itself. No-one can ever watch it again for a first time during ‘99 but it is iconic and great as a case study of having almost no budget and making something really impactful / special
Her (2013) — this one is my answer for the same question but asked in 2061…
Appreciate the love for BWP. I really enjoyed it when it came out. My friends/family all made fun of me, parroting the usual criticisms.
Oh! I didn’t see it when it came out. I saw it around 2002 — and let’s just underline one thing here, some people in my family can really pull proper pranks. With this movie (all this is not happening in the US) my cousin made the whole introduction for me and others “this movie is not actually a movie, it was not played in many cinemas, it was banned almost instantly, you can not buy it or rent it, I ordered this tape via a magazine about unresolved police investigations from around the world and this is just a montage of what was found there… I saw it only once, it is pretty disturbing, weird. I don’t believe in anything supernatural but fuck, this movie makes me question some things now…” — like… come on! I heard and read so many different versions of this story from others and their experiences almost always boiled down to the same conclusion for me, the movie was just a possibility to make everything around the movie so much more impactful than the movie in itself, urban legend for creating more urban legends. Next level sneaky move. On the other hand, “Yeah I saw it, it’s all fake and made up, someone explained to me how it’s all a hoax, really nothing special, stupid, boring and not scary at all” — how circumstances can change everything.
The other, similar one was during “The Ring” where my uncle was calling from his cellphone on their home landline every time the phone rang in the movie. They were so boggled about it to the point where they were rewinding the movie to test it… They didn’t finish it. One of family legends was born on that night…
I saw Her and thought it was an instant classic but was floored people I recommended it to thought it was dark or unrealistic or other things. It was almost contemporary when it came out!
The Wicker Man (1974) is better every year and every viewing. That island gave him every chance to mind his own business.
It also helps that the 2006 remake is hilariously bad in contrast.The only thing it gave us, is some quality time with Nicolas Cage and the bees.
Whole Britt Ekland thing though… was kind of pervy. Films possibly dont do that as much now as people go to P***hub.
I absolutely love the 70s Wicker Man!! It’s weird in the best possible way with Christopher Lee jamming it up to 11.
