Monday, November 10, 2008

Alphabet Meme, Won't You Come Out Tonight

Tagged by SamuraiFrog with a meme originated at Blog Cabins.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.



Just as SamuraiFrog did, I am listing the first movies that popped in my head for each letter.

Alien
I haven't seen this in a while. I like it, but I feel like I have been a little overexposed to it.

Barton Fink
I used to like this a lot. Now, it seems a little too smug and self-satisfied for its own good. In a list more positive to the Coen Bros., I would have picked The Big Lebowski (which I unreservedly love). However, Barton Fink popped in my head first.

Coffy
I had just included a clip from this delightful Pam Grier vehicle in a recent post, so the movie (and Ms. Grier) were still apparently fresh in my brain.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
I first thought, "Dead", and then the first title that came up was this one. I haven't seen it in ages, but I remember it being pretty funny, with some nice silly moments.

East of Eden
A James Dean movie I have not seen.

Firestarter
A Drew Barrymore movie I haven't seen. Probably stinky, I'm guessing.

Gremlins
I haven't seen this movie in a long time, but I think I would still really enjoy it. It was funny, scary, sappy, all good.

House of Sand and Fog
Never seen it. I just like the title.

Ikiru
An Akira Kurosawa movie I have not seen.

Jeremiah Johnson
A Robert Altman Sydney Pollack movie I have not seen.

King of New York
An enjoyable (if somewhat goofy and silly) drama by Abel Ferrara about Christopher Walken as some druglord staking out his turf in New York. VERY goofy, but it's fun. A lot of actors were in this movie before they got their big breaks -- Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, David Caruso. Oh, and if you don't like David Caruso, you should probably see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

Lolita
The Kubrick one, not the one by the guy who did Fatal Attraction.

My Bloody Valentine
The movie that the band took its name from. Haven't seen it.

Network
I've seen parts of it. Meh.

One, Two, Three
My favorite Billy Wilder movie. Amazing.

Phantasm
Haven't seen this in AGES. Saw this when I was very young. It scared the holy shit out of me.

Quatermass and the Pit
I saw the earlier film The Quatermass Xperiment which I thought was great. I haven't seen this one, but reading the synopsis it looks like it would be great as well.

Rope
Nice little tight Hitchcock thriller.

Superman
Enjoyable movie that has an inexplicable thirty-minute beginning credit sequence.

They Live
Not the best movie John Carpenter made, but it's still pretty good. If it only could have been better...

Ugetsu
One of the few Kenji Mizoguchi movies I have seen. It was great -- I need to see more stuff by him.

Victory
Yes, the Stallone soccer movie. Move on, nothing to see here.

Who's That Knocking On My Door?
Scorsese's first feature. It's a lot of fun.

X-Men
I liked it.

Yellowbeard
Never saw it. Last film of Marty Feldman.

Zardoz
Some of this movie is enjoyable, but most of it is interminable. From the mind of John Boorman!


I'm not tagging anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.

4 comments:

SamuraiFrog said...

Sydney Pollack directed Jeremiah Johnson. I love that movie; it's always been one of my dad's favorite movies, but I think he saw it at that age where you want to leave society and go be a man or whatever.

It's written by John Milius. The plot structure is almost the exact same structure he used for Conan the Barbarian.

Splotchy said...

Thank you for the correction! I believe I was a-thinking about McCabe and Mrs. Miller (which I also haven't seen). What those two movies have in common, I have no idea. Alliteration?

If you told me during this movie that Jeremiah Johnson at one point says "Crom!" I'd rent it in a heartbeat.

Comrade Kevin said...

As cave paintings go, Ikiru is one of the most beautiful. It's very slowwwww.

dguzman said...

Oh man, this is cool. I actually saw Jeremiah Johnson (AND remember the theme song) and loved it!