Dissolve's Forgotbusters: Movie Hits That Audiences Forgot

yeah until his fall from grace the only real flop cruise had after becoming tom cruise was legend. dot and far and away may have underperformed but they still did well.

ah, thanks Alfred

tom arnold in 'true lies' was one of the worst roles i've ever seen in an action film, never mind the performance itself. i can't think of anyone who came out of that movie looking good. it was a particularly degrading role for JLC. and i mean iirc arnold's recurring one-liner in the film was him saying 'sorry!' to innocent bystanders during action scenes.

Everything is so misconceived. It should have been somebody you wouldn't expect to be a super-spy as their day job, not this cold-blooded powerhouse. Michael Keaton or somebody. Billy Crystal. You could get some laughs, still do some cool action - I'm thinking, like, a Date Night vibe. His wife should be in on it, because wtf. It's the kid who doesn't know, because they don't think/realize he/she is ready yet. I mean how hard is this shit?

Didn't read the article about that one yet. Wasn't it based on a French movie and if so did the original have the flaws you are pointing out?

I think the film could have gotten away with JLC not knowing if it had been done a lot better. the whole second act where she's fumbling around w paxton and Arnold is stalking her is stupid, creepy, and a total momentum killer. racism and misogyny and bad humor aside (which means 35% of it aside) acts 1 and 2 contain elements of a good action movie. and I like jimmy cams a lot, I think even titanic is really solid and avatar was kinda shockingly great.

And why do I always get it mixed up with Turner & Hooch?

One has a big brown dog. The other has Stallone.

everybody otm abt true lies but i will confess an enduring love for "yes, but they were all bad!"

And why do I always get it mixed up with Turner & Hooch?

One has a big brown dog. The other has Stallone.

One is Kurt Russell. The other is a big brown dog named Stallone.

True Lies is certainly appalling for all of the reasons listed above, but I'm about half in agreement with al on the film. As pure ridiculous action spectacle, it has its moments and, if I were being honest with myself, I'd rather sit through it again than Avatar any day.

As I’ve written before, Disclosure’s possibly my favourite junky ‘90s movie. I’ve seen it four or five times. Michael Douglas is at the apex of his I’ll-screw-around-so-you’ll-feel-sorry-for-me stardom (technically, he’s less guilty than in Fatal Attraction--technically), and Donald Sutherland is still in peak JFK form.

I really like the idea for the piece, but did all of the films listed have cultural impact? (To “recede culturally,” there must have been some to begin with.) I’ve only seen five of them, but some just look like generic concoctions that made a lot of movie. I went through the ‘70s lists (Listal...no idea if they’re accurate: http://www.listal.com/list/top-grossing-films-1970) and found four that would be more my idea of films that a) were argued about/controversial at the time, and b) hardly ever get written about anymore. (Sometimes with good reason--Midnight Express is pretty heavy-handed.)

Joe (1970--#13)
The Hospital (1971--#13)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977--#23)
Midnight Express (1978--#17)

The Michael Crighton-based films were a definitely a big deal culturally around Jurassic Park times, hence Rising Sun and Disclosure doing so well

Looking for Mr. Goodbar doesn't really get shown much anymore but it still comes up often in discussions reflecting the sexism/feminism of the period

Midnight Express gets rerun on TV all the time, foreign prison fear always sells

voted secret of my success because i loved it when i was a kid and i like to wind morbs up.

i really want to see joe

Looking For Mr. Goodbar strikes me as a good choice: cultural phenom based on best-seller, Diane Keaton riding the Annie Hall acclaim.

Are all these essays by Rabin? He's not a very good writer, is he?

I like his asides.

xp he has a schtick which can be effective when skewering the ludicrous but can also get a bit wearing, I think

Also apparently Charlton Heston is in it, which I've forgotten completely and doesn't bode well either.

http://cinemasights.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/truelies-dialogue.png

Goodbar is still cultural shorthand. In my world, anyway.

Goodbear you mean

Last Action Hero had funny/weird stuff in it! I didn't mind it at all, considering the total shit it's been followed by.

Haven't seen True Lies since it was released, didn't really mind that either; racism and misogyny about par, it was Reagantimes.

voted secret of my success because i loved it when i was a kid and i like to wind morbs up.

And for all I know it's the second-best choice. Try harder.

Reagantimes?

agree with morbz here, the racism/misogyny wasn't much different from every non-Terminator Arnie movie. never occurred to me that it was worse than his others, still dumbly enjoyable

http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/r/u/n/running-man-02-g.jpg

i suppose i should applaud your restraint for not going with Sub-Zero

Hannibal is a blast. Makes no attempt to swim the deep waters of SOTL and is all the better for it.

i think the racism and misogyny in a lot of other arnie flicks is more 'received wisdom' type shit that wasn't a major plot element of the story, though, whereas w/true lies the movie stops for entire scenes where arnold and arnold can bitch about women or speculate about the virginity of a 14 yr old girl or w/e.

Reagan...times?

in high school i wrote an op-ed chastising bob dole for praising true lies over true romance

the right ta-ta but the wrong ho-ho

nathan rabin is the king of writing unreadable shit like i'd to read about

on subjects i'd like to read about, i mean

Didn't "True Lies" also cast an Arabic actor (dunno the guy's name) as one of the comedy-relief computer/gadget geeks at the agency? I figured that was Cameron (or the casting department) being self-reflexive about all the negative Arab stereotypes and the anticipated uproar.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hahaha

Weird.

ilx's male predominance at work?

XXX one vote short of "3" votes (3 Xes in title)

guess I should watch The Secret of My Success for the first time in....28 years?

Those of you who voted for it, come forth! why should I rent it?

Dragnet?? we were voting for best right?

What Women Want is a lot of fun if you like a good trainwreck.

I can believe 5 ilxors have fond memories of seeing Dragnet on TV in elementary school that outrank their feelings about any of the other films.

I didn't vote cuz i've seen less than half of these but of what i have, it would have been Tango & Cash.

Which I enjoyed watching drunk with other nerds in college.

The Toy = easiest the creepiest movie in this list.

kid asks his dad to buy a black man.

what do y'all got against nathan rabin? i think he's great.

I kinda liked the guy until he named something Forgotbusters.

I read the one about tango & cash, which is the film I voted for because it is awesome and crazy, and it read a lot like - what was that shitty website that did "funny" scene-by-scene descriptions of bad movies