That’s fair, I was editing in some of the arnold classics but a fresh post with more content will do.
I don’t watch them. I’ve seen 1 or 2 superhero movies in the last 10 years. (Joker and the newest Batman).
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90s is my favourite decade.
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There are some great movies from the 90s.
For clarification, I’ve watched a heap of movies from the 60s onwards.
Not so many prior but I have made the effort in recent years to try and catch up on more.
But then I run up against the expectation of reading how “movie x” is a classic and when I watch it, I am left scratching my head as to why.
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My top 10 80’s movies in no particular order:
Predator
Terminator
Conan The Barbarian
Aliens
The Thing
Robocop
Rocky 3
Blade Runner
The Shining
Die Hard
Indiana Jones 1
I think there’s actually 11 there, and I probably missed some to squeeze into the bottom. Top 6 are locks for me. Predator is my favourite movie ever.
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So I’ve watched 8 of the 11 listed there.
Die Hard is clearly the standout (for me…it’s my number one Christmas movie) followed by Raiders of the Lost Ark. I liked all the ones that I’ve watched.
The ones I haven’t watched are Aliens, The Thing and Robocop.
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You gotta do it man. At least watch The Thing. It absolutely holds up, there’s gore but you got through Bone Tomahawk.
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Cutting my 2010s list to top 10 (well, actually 11)
Inception
Zero Dark Thirty
Edge of Tomorrow
John Wick
The Hateful Eight
The Martian
The Revenant
Spotlight
Atomic Blonde
Wind River
The Gentlemen
This happens with me sometimes too, and occasionally the reason why is that a lot of things that made that movie innovative, cutting edge, acclaimed etc at the time have since been copied, iterated and widely adopted and utilised. So looking back now for the first time it doesn’t seem special, but at the time it was a revelation.
There are some classics that are timeless though IMO. I rewatched the Godfather recently, 50 years old and still amazing. Tremendous acting, classic scene after classic scene
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When I think of fantastic older movies, my first point of call is always Lawrence of Arabia…shot on site with thousands of extras and little if any special effects. Beautifully shot, well written and acted.
But on the other side of the coin, I recently watched Rashomon…which is always showing up in best movie lists…just could not see why. Another more recent acclaimed movie that did nothing for me was Barry Lyndon…well shot but the main character was a d*ck with no redeeming features…it went for over three hours and was slower than peak hour traffic in New York.
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I think there is a well-known industry trend: Hollywood prefers to work with ‘proven’ material.
It’s lower risk…to just feed the audience something familiar.
That way, they know the movie will attract a baseline number of viewers. That de-risks the film financially.
So we get:
- Endless movie sequels.
- Copy/paste remakes like Total Recall/Orient Express.
- Batman/Spiderman origin story version 3…because they have been rebooted that many times.
- Movies based on popular comics/books.
- Movies based on computer games (just about the worst group of movies ever made IMO).
- Etc.
I found it very interesting scanning through the above lists of your ‘best’ films…I think you’ve generally avoided the above trend.
You’ve chosen a lot of original, standalone movie stories, as your ‘best’.
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I haven’t seen Rashomon for years but I remember it as fantastic.
I don’t think Barry Lyndon was ever regarded as a classic, for the reasons you gave. Plus Ryan O’Neal being a hopeless actor, and Marisa Berenson too. Strictly for the diehard Kubrick devotees, that one.
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Genuine question…what it about Rashomon that makes people rave about it?
Even allowing for it to be 70 years old, to me, the acting was wooden, the plot shallow…I just did not get it.
Well I disagree about the plot and the acting, and then there’s the telling of the same story from four(?) different viewpoints, all of which are true.
Fair enough…I don’t see it that way but that’s just my opinion.
Put some respect on Hugh in Prisoners.
Perhaps his best role, what a cast and the writing . Genuinely wanted to jump through the screen and help the protagonist.
Such an uncomfortable film.
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It’s hard to respect something that I haven’t seen.
I’m not certain that I’ve ever watched a Kurosawa film…maybe Seven Samurai…I don’t think I enjoyed it.
But, I remember watching this YouTube video…and it kind of highlighted that there is a lot of artistry in his films.
I’m not smart enough to pick up on these elements when watching a film…maybe my subconscious catches a little…I’m pretty unsophisticated I guess:
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I’m not sure if we should have to be sophisticated to watch and enjoy a movie.
To me, a good movie is one that I enjoy watching…I don’t need critics/experts to tell me what I should watch and/or enjoy.
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I agree in general that a lot of old films that were thought wonderful in their day are really very hard to watch now, even making allowances for their age.
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