What Makes A Great Movie?

What About Bob? (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

I am watching a filmed segment with actors and directors who were asked what makes a great film.  Most referred the question onto someone else, for example Robert Downey Junior referred the question onto Werner Herzog, who said it was difficult.  Brad Pitt had a good answer about seeing someone do something better than you would have and Reese Witherspoon prattled on about why her favorite movie was Overboard with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.  Seriously? 

The Fugitive (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

What do you think makes a movie great or a great movie?  I think it's easier to say what I don't think makes a great movie, but even that is what I like or do not like in a movie, not necessarily what makes it great.  I don't like humiliation (think WHAT ABOUT BOB? Richard Dreyfus and Bill Murray)  or hopeless feelings  So, THE FUGITIVE with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones was totally unwatchable.  I don't like movies leading up to an historic death or catastrophe like KENNEDY or TITANTIC.  I am unable to watch anything about the Holocaust or the Salem Witch Trials without becoming hysterical (not the laughing hysteria). But, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL and SOPHIE'S CHOICE are both recognized as wonderful films.  And yet, there are films like PHILIADELPHIA which were made so well I could watch it.  I also don't like films like SIDEWAYS where the whole thing is rambling and disjointed and where it is possible the entire film is ad libbed.

And, many films I love are flat out not seen as good much less great (cough TWILIGHT, which I have probably seen 20 times).

What about you — what makes a movie "IT" for you?  I am thinking of adjectives like great, memorable, or awful, even I love or hate it when_____. I want to know and I bet a few folks want to tell me.  C'mon, you know you want to.

On The Edge of My Seat: What Are The New Year's Most Anticipated?

Cover of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

In my email today, side, by side  Flavor Pill and The Wire both want to share their most anticipated films for 2012. Many are self explanatory, but there are a couple I know little to nothing about.

I hadn't heard that both a realistic Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter were being made.

Life of Pi is hard to imagine on the screen; it's in 3-D and its star has no experience.

Oliver Stone's Savages is a crime drama with drugs as the focus.

Les Miserables has made it to the big screen with an all-star cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter. So many egos in one place!

The return of Dark Shadows brings me back to afternoons hiding from the show my sisters insisted on watching.Johnny Depp will probably bring me out of hiding.

Django Unchained is about an ex-slave befriended by a bounty-hunting dentist.

Ridley Scott directs Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender in Prometheus, indirectly linked to Alien. Mankind's fate hangs in the balance.

Haywire is being touted as a director's movie, expanding Steven Soderbergh's reach into action.  He also brings Mixed Martial Arts fighter Gina Carano to the screen.

We can't have a year without a comic wedding movie, right?  Judging from the trailer, this looks like a keeper! The Five-Year Engagement features Emily Blunt from The Devil Wears Prada and Young Victoria  and the Muppets and Forgetting Sarah Marshall's Jason Segal.

And, The Innkeepers is The Shining style suspense, thriller and horror from Ti West.

Which am I waiting for?  Well most are not on the lists:  One For The Money, Kristen Stewart's Sleeping Beauty, Breaking Dawn 2, The Avengers, Men In Black III.

How about YOU?

The Wire:	Flavor Pill:
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter	The Dark Knight Rises
Dark Shadows	Django Unchained
Django Unchained	Skyfall(James Bond)
Les Miserables	This is Forty
Life of Pi	The Five-Year Engagement
Lincoln	Men In Black III
Prometheus	The Avengers
Savages	Looper
The Amazing Spider-Man	Haywire
The Avengers	The Innkeepers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey
The Hunger Games
World War Z

Cover via Amazon

Cover of Life of Pi

The Five Year Engagement explains itself:

LOOPER- Groovy Motorcycle 

"...No photos or trailer yet (just the above on-set footage); according to IMDb, it’s a futuristic tale of a Mob killer (Gordon-Levitt) who recognizes a target as his own future self (Willis)."Flavor Wire


 

Which Films Make Your Top Ten?

The founder of IMDB.com listed his top ten films for the year. What is sad is that although I have been to more movies in a theater than ever, I only scored one of his picks. http://www.imdb.com/oscars/year-in-review/col-needhams-best-of-2011#10

His film picks are 

• The Descendants, 
• Shame, 
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, 
• The Artist, 
• Melancholia, 
• The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, 
• Crazy, Stupid, Love
• Super 8,



Col Needham, Image by EIFF via Flickr

• Like Crazy, 
• The Ides of March

The only one I have seen is Harry Potter and the DH2.

Col Needham, who is the man who started this company, seriously, from his home office as a hobby in 1990 still runs it from his suburban British home in Stoke Gifford, Bristol. He and his wife have a standing Tuesday Lunch date at the cinema.  

According to the Telegraph in a December 1990 article

His film obsession peaked in the mid 1990s when he was watching more than 1,000 films a year. He would record the credits at the end of a film and then note down every detail.

A chance email encounter in 1989 with a film fan in California prompted him to publish his own personal database online. www.telegraph.co.uk

So instead of some lofty critic telling us his faves, I am going to trust Col.  I have been using IMDB since 1996 when I first logged on to the internet after buying a computer that could handle the new technology. Back then it was all dial up where I lived. I am not certain we didn't move, in part, to get Road Runner service. 

Why haven't I seen these films. The reason is that while I tend to love good movies of most ilks, going to a drama or watching at home is sort of like a long road trip—not bad once you're on the road, but something I have to psych up to do.  Plus, we have a lovely home theater with better sound than a theater so, the tendency is to wait for the DVD. 

Another factor is this new limited release trend. We don't get those limited release films up here in the Arctic, you know, Maine.

Twilight Saga: Each Film in Theatres One Night Only

 

Image by Captivated Designs via Flickr

Once again prior films in the Twilight Saga will be in theaters according to Mandi Bierly in an article for Entertainment Weekly.com's PopWatch section. 

Bierly reports that as a promotion to increase the buzz for the release of Breaking Dawn Part One, Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse will be back in theaters on Twilight Saga Tuesdays.

Twilight Saga Tuesdays: all shows start at 7:30PM local
Twilight	Nov. 1
New Moon	Nov. 8
Eclipse	Nov. 15

 For this endeavor, Summit Entertainment has partnered with National CineMedia (NCM) Fathom.

Twilight Saga Tuesdays will begin with exclusive introductions from the cast members, compelling interviews with the stars answering the questions that Twilight Saga aficionados have always wanted answered and amazing clips from the many fan fests over the years. This special behind-the-scenes content will be immediately followed by the Twilight Saga films.
NCM Fathom

For a list of participating Theaters Click HERE.
BREAKING DAWN Part One releases on November 18.