Joey 696568:

Tuesday, October 21, 2003, at 10:10 AM, Joey696568@aol.com wrote:

Subject: Re: top ten movies

1.RESERVOIR DOGS
2.PULP FICTION
3.NATURAL BORN KILLERS
4.SCARFACE
5.FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
6.HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CORPSES
7.THE EVIL DEAD
8.CLERKS
9.THE CROW
10.LABRYINTH

Joey, thanks for writing in!

First off, there's some spoilers ahead on some Tarantino films, so don't read, if you haven't seen...

There's a lot of Tarantino here. But you know what? My favorite (aka the best) Tarantino is Jackie Brown. Reservoir Dogs is a case of style over substance. It's unnecessarily, gratuitously, nasty and violent. There's stuff to like there, it's intense and well-acted, and it's obvious that it's made by a man with talent. That talent was more fully realized in Pulp Fiction, which is still too much style and flash and not enough substance (although much more than Dogs). I don't want to say too much bad about Pulp Fiction because I think it's great. I have a lot to say about that movie, but I won't, not here, not now. I will say that some say that the film has heart in that the Sam L. Jackson character sees his wrong-doing, repents, changes, and survives while, his cohort Travolta doesn't do any of that. I disagree with that. Jackson's character changes and stops his life of crime, but for strictly selfish reasons (also based on a pretty silly superstition). It's the Bruce Willis character, and story-line that I find most effective and affecting. The movie's one moment of a character doing the right thing, just because it was the right thing, happens when Willis escapes from the Deliverance boy monkeys and is practically out the door, when he has a pang of conscious. His one-time boss, who has since tried to kill Willis and have him killed, for double-crossing him by not throwing a fight -- is still in there. Willis knows he's going to be tortured in unknown sick ways and killed, and Willis can't stomach that. He can't let it happen and stand by and do nothing. So he goes back for him (possibly risking his own neck). One could say that Willis goes back to save this guy (Ving Rhames) so that Rhames will call off his dogs and let Willis live, but I don't think so. Willis is pretty much home free already. His girlfriend's waiting out front of the motel and they're leaving the state. I say that what Willis does is purely selfless. Rhames, not being fully evil, and being somewhat decent, tells Willis "there is no us" and that he has until sundown to leave the city and never come back. It's this part that gives depth to the flash. Meanwhile, there's so much excitement of cinema and love of film in this movie, though, that it's quite an amazing, breakthrough, (not to say highly influential -- for good and bad) motion picture.

Anyway, next comes Jackie Brown, Tarantino's most mature and fully realized work. First off, it comes from a strong "pulp fiction" Elmore Leonard novel. It has a great cast. It has beautiful slow scenes that he lets play out. There're are two heroes in lead roles, and at least one other character (Robert Forster's associate -- Tiny Lister Jr I think) who has a strong sense of loyalty and friendship. But there is a very touching love story at the center of this film. There's tons of other great things too. The caper sequence told from three different perspectives; the best part Forster has ever had; the best part Pam Grier has ever had. Probably the best part that Bridget Fonda has yet had, and maybe the rest of the cast too. Michael Keaton is marvellous, and he's usually not, and he's usually in crap. Notably, Keaton would play the same character the next year in an extended cameo in Steven Soderbergh's version of Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight, another masterpiece.

I don't want to see like a prude or something, a film can have all it's characters be evil or immoral or amoral, but there needs to be a point to it or a reason for it.

But back to Jackie Brown, another unbelievably brilliant sequence is when Jackson goes over to Chris Tucker's apartment to get him to help him out with something. It's funny, it's tense, it's dramatic, it's true, but it's beautiful movie-making. Jackson finally talks Tucker into getting into the trunk. Jackson gets in the car, puts on music and drives off. The camera stays where it is. We see Jackson drive off, the music fades, he drives like a block, turns left, drives like another block, turns left again, another block. He stops the car, the music stops, he gets out and walks to the trunk and shoots tucker through the trunk, gets back in and drives off. It's beautiful.

I haven't yet seen Kill Bill. Have you? For that matter have you seen Jackie Brown? I feel you must have, and I feel you must have been disappointed; I urge you to see it again. My sister feels more like you do about Tarantino I think. She likes R.D., then P.F. then J.B., and for me it's the other way around.

One thing about Tarantino that is problematic is that he'd rather be an actor than a director. And he's an amazing and important director, and barely passable as an actor. He's very bad in From Dusk Till Dawn -- a film, despite a few high points, that I don't think works at all. One thing, it was, I think, Clooney's first film after his TV success on ER, and it was very evident, that this man could be a movie star. He's a great actor, but he has something that many -- most -- actors don't (something that more actors had 50 years ago than today), movie star quality. You see him and you're drawn to him. He's a little like Glenn Ford, a little like Cary Grant, a little like a few other people, but he's also his own man, George Clooney.

I see what Oliver Stone was trying to do with Natural Born Killers, but I think he failed miserably. I think he made the exact kind of movie he was trying to critique. Some good ideas, some good moments, some good performance, but overall nasty. It's from a Tarantino story and Tarantino wasn't too happy with the final product either, I heard.

I don't get the Scarface hoopla. It seems overlong, somewhat silly, loud for the sake of being loud, poorly paced, and outrageously hammily acted -- mainly by Pacino. Al Pacino always walks a fine line, when he's good he's great, but when he falls off the line and lands on the side of ham it's ridiculous -- like his Cuban accent in this film. Scarface is hugely, cultly popular now, especially with gangsta rappers and gangsta rap wanna bes -- they look at this murderous villain who goes from dirt poor to wildly rich as a sort of folk hero. Which I think is strange and troublesome, and shows the deepening rift of understanding between cultures in this country.

I don't think I've heard of House of a Thousand Corpses and I haven't seen Labyrinth. I don't remember particularly liking The Crow. I didn't think much of Clerks, except that it was made for so little money, it gave and gives a lot of want-to-be filmmakers hope. But I think Kevin Smith is a hack and his films annoying, heavy-handed, and never better than mediocre. I can't remember The Evil Dead that well, but it's Bruce Campbell right? I highly recommend his new film Bubba Ho-Tep -- an outrageous horror comedy, with Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK -- I know, you just need to see it to understand.

I hope I didn't seem too hard; certainly nothing personal, because I don't know you. Plus I've been equally hard on other people's lists. But your list is interesting and made me think and it made me write and I thank you for that. You definitely seem like an auteur theory subscriber -- as I am -- to an extent anyway.

Also, one, I have your email address up here on my site, let me know if that's okay, or if you'd rather not give anyone the option to email you. Two, I have you listed as just Joey 696568, would you rather your real name or a partially real name, with a made up last name or something? Get back to me on that and I'll take care of it.

What do you think of Hitchcock? Miller's Crossing? Westerns? McQueen? John Wayne, Clint Eastwood? Where do you stand on trilogies like Scream, Harry Potter, Matrix, Star Wars 4-6, Star Wars 1-3, Lord of the Rings? Have you seen the Godfather films? That's good Pacino. Have you seen Kill Bill yet? What's your take on it? How did you hear of my site?

Thanks again for writing,

Ted

On Tuesday, December 2, 2003, Joey696568@aol.com wrote:

First, thank you for taking the time to write your opinions about the movies on my list. It is interesting to see what people think about certain movies. Yes I guess it is clear that I love Quentin Tarantino. I think he is an unbelievably talented filmmaker. Tarantino and Tim Burton are my favorite directors. I have seen Jackie Brown and I loved it. I have not yet seen Kill Bill, because I want to watch both parts together. I love the Scream trilogy, and the Lord of the Rings. I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies, I guess I just don't like many space movies. And I am sorry to say that I have not yet seen any Hitchcock, McQueen, Wayne, or Eastwood movies, but will definitely watch a few of the titles I saw on your list. And I found your site by surfing the web. Anyways here is another ten movies that I love!

1. Four Rooms
2. Jackie Brown
3. Suicide Kings
4. True Romance
5. Clockwork Orange
6. Kalifornia
7. Basketball Diaries
8. Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
9. American History X
10. Goodfellas

Joey,

Thanks for writing in again! I liked some parts of Four Rooms. Notably Ione Skye's lenghty nude scenes. I liked Suicide Kings okay, and True Romance okay, haven't really seen all of Clockwork Orange in many years. Kalifornia I remember not really liking. I didn't like Basketball Diaries very much, thought it kind of pretentious and didn't think Leo DiCaprio was very good in it. Fear and Loathing was good and well made, but seemed kind of an unnecessary filming of a book, unnecessary in that nothing new was really done. American History X wasn't bad, and Goodfellas was good.

Ted