Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Cinemaniac Reviews Twenty Questions (Part One)

In case you haven't noticed, I'm mostly marking time in the month of September. Here was a 20-question quiz that showed up a while back at Cinemaniac Reviews.

You get the first ten questions today, the next ten tomorrow. If you answer them on your blog, leave a link in the comment section. Or just answer them in the comment section.

I live for this kind of stuff.

1. What’s your favorite movie?
Ostensibly, Casablanca, but in the past few years, Katie-Bar-The-Door and I are much more likely to watch The Thin Man, The Thing From Another World and Rio Bravo.

2. Least favorite movie?
Endless Love, starring a young Brooks Shields. Worst. Movie. Ever. Or at least the worst I ever paid to see. I don't blame her though—I blame Franco Zeffirelli who despite helming this fiasco is somehow still allowed to direct.

3. Name one movie you loved upon initial viewing but eventually grew to hate (or vice-versa).
From love to hate? The Big Chill. On repeat viewings, I realized I loved the soundtrack, hated the story and characters.

From hate to love? Apocalypse Now. When I first saw it, I thought it a sprawling, self-indulgent mess with no ending. Maybe because I read and fell in love with the source novel, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (or maybe because I got smarter or maybe because I grew out of my teens), I came to love it (love it, I tells ya) as a commentary on just how thin the veneer of civilization really is.

4. Name your biggest “guilty pleasure” film.
I guess some would feel guilty about loving Used Cars, but
I never feel guilty about my film pleasure. Why should I?

5. Favorite quote from a favorite actor/actress (must be a line from a movie)?
I could literally, I think, spend an entire day relying on nothing but movie quotes to communicate meaningfully with my fellow human beings, but back in the day I always got the biggest laugh for my imitation of an S.Z. Sakall line in Casablanca—falling spectacles included—"Honest?! As honest as the day is long!" (Pardon the colorization.)



This, by the way, is the line Katie-Bar-The-Door mentioned at dinner:



6. Favorite quote from a favorite actor/actress (must NOT be a line from a movie)?
"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."—by who else, Cary Grant

7. Three favorite movie scenes?
What, just three?
Off the top of my head:
The airport sequence at the end of Casablanca
The end of City Lights
The conclusion of the filibuster scene at the end of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
But ask me tomorrow and I'll tell you something different.



8. Four films that should NOT have won Best Picture?
What, just four?
Here are four of the earliest that I wouldn't have even nominated for best picture, in chronological order:
a. The Broadway Melody (1928-29), which won over The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Wind and Steamboat Bill Jr..
b. Cimarron (1930-31), which won over City Lights, Dracula and The Public Enemy.
c. Cavalcade (1932-33), which won over Duck Soup, King Kong, Trouble in Paradise, Dinner at Eight, The Bitter Tea of General Yen and M.
d. The Great Ziegfeld (1936), which won over My Man Godfrey, Dodsworth and Modern Times.

9. Top five of the year (currently)?
Well, I've only seen three movies released in 2012: Ted, Hit and Run and John Carter (of Mars). So Ted, Hit and Run and John Carter (of Mars).

10. Bottom three of the year (currently)?
Ted, Hit and Run and John Carter (of Mars).

7 comments:

Erik Beck said...

1 Favorite Movie?

For years I have said my favorite is a four-way tie between Star Wars, Raiders, Princess Bride and Return of the King.

2 Least Favorite Movie?

I'm gonna go with a tie between GIJOE and the Transformers films because they make me feel like my childhood has been raped.

3 One Movie you Initially Loved?

I wouldn't say I loved it initially, but I'm about to publish my 2006 Best Picture nominees and it's stunning how much Little Miss Sunshine drops every time I think more about it.

4 Biggest Guilty Pleasure?

Possibly the original Battlestar Gallactica.

5 Favorite Quote (in movie?)

Using two of my favorite actors of all-time:

"I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"But we're in the middle of the desert."
"I was misinformed."

Bogie and Rains. Perfect.

6 Favorite Quote (not in a movie?)

Not a quote per se, but I love that when filming Phantom Menace, Ewan McGregor had to be told that the sound designers could do better lightsaber effect noises than the ones he was making out loud while swinging his lightsaber around. I love that he did what every kid swinging around a lightsaber does.

7 Three favorite movie scenes?

The ride of the Rohirrim in Return of the King
The end of Say Anything
"Say goodbye to Frankie" in In America

8 Four Films that shouldn't have won Best Picture:

The worst four to win, in order by crappiest to least crappiest:

The Broadway Melody 1928-29 (Alibi was the best of a pathetic group of nominees, Nosferatu was the best eligible film, Steamboat Bill Jr the best American film)

Cimarron 1930-31 (The Front Page was the best of another bad group of nominees, City Lights was the best film)

The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 (High Noon was the best of the nominees, Rashomon was the best eligible film, Singin in the Rain the best American film)

Braveheart 1995 (Sense and Sensibility was the best nominee and film)

9 Top Five of the Year

I've seen 9 films from this year so far. Two were okay (Hunger Games, John Carter). Four were great or very good. Three were fairly bad. So I'll list four here and three below.

Top 4, in order:

The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
The Secret World of Arietty
The Woman in Black

10 Bottom Five:

Bottom 3, in order (from worst to least):

Wrath of the Titans
Mirror Mirror
Haywire

mister muleboy said...

I offer my thoughts over on the Mouth O' the Mule.

Yvette said...

I'm posting my answers on the morrow, Monsieur Monkey. I'll link back to you from my post. Don't know how to do live links in the comments.

Enjoyed your post very much. I love movie quizzes!!

Mythical Monkey said...

I'll make the link clickable for you, Yvette!

Yvette said...

Okay, Monsieur Monkey, I'm up and running. Here's the link for you to liven. :)

http://yvettecandraw.blogspot.com/2012/09/cinematic-reviews-20-questions-part-one.html

Mythical Monkey said...

And as promised, here's the clickable link to Yvette's answers:

Here

Corporate Gifts said...

Question 3 is interesting, I think it is difficult to find a movie that I first love it and later start to hate it.