Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
the bad guy has spoken
― darraghmac, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 00:04 (sixteen years ago) link
haha - I like how with these polls no matter how much whining there is from posters about the "no brainer"/most obvious winner, the obvious choices still win
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link
eh scarface is better than a bunch that got votes
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
surprised untouchables got shut out
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 02:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Almost all the movies that got zero votes basically deserved to. Even Greetings is done better with Hi, Mom!
― Eric H., Tuesday, 8 January 2008 03:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I probably should've hedged my best and voted Dressed to Kill.
― Eric H., Tuesday, 8 January 2008 03:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I saw Obsession at the Castro in SF last year (after seeing it on TV in my yute), and it's way better than films that got votes.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 14:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Wedding Party should have gotten the Bonfire votes and Untouchables should have gotten 4 of the 7 Scarface votes. Then it'd be cool.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 15:05 (sixteen years ago) link
and if the Fury and Blow Out got some of Body Double and Carlito's Way's votes.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 15:07 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, if only we all had second votes to invalidate the first votes of everyone else.
― darraghmac, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 16:45 (sixteen years ago) link
or just do it by TELEPATHY!
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 16:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Obession is too dour. Even Femme Fatale manages to transgress its allegedly lurid De Palma milieu without resorting to Paul Schrader b.s.
― Eric H., Tuesday, 8 January 2008 17:57 (sixteen years ago) link
haha, IN A WORLD where BS plagues us... [controversial deletion re The Fury ]
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
much appreciated
― Eric H., Tuesday, 8 January 2008 20:57 (sixteen years ago) link
70yo today.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 11 September 2010 17:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Mission: Impossible is really underrated. Femme Fatale didn't get enough love here. Surprised no Untouchables, if only because you'd assume somebody would have just wandered into the thread.
― a cankle of rads (Gukbe), Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Carrie >>>> Scarface
― Bo Jackson Cruise Control (San Te), Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:32 (thirteen years ago) link
the ceiling-hanging scene in M:I was stolen from jules dassin's topkapi
― Mosquepanik at Ground Zero (abanana), Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:42 (thirteen years ago) link
finale stolen from The Great Train Robbery iirc
― a cankle of rads (Gukbe), Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:49 (thirteen years ago) link
wouldve voted body double
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:50 (thirteen years ago) link
mission 2 mars is really great, i think.
― swagula (Lamp), Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:53 (thirteen years ago) link
mission to mars is horrible! it's not even an interesting failure, it's just stupid.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:41 (thirteen years ago) link
woulda voted Blow Out, but Body Double is some awesome shit.
― circa1916, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:46 (thirteen years ago) link
I love Body Double. Watched it the other night, in fact!
I think Obsession is my favorite.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:48 (thirteen years ago) link
― latebloomer, Saturday, September 11, 2010 7:41 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
no wai the part where hes working out in the spaceship to van halen, also i mean the ending come on
― ice cr?m, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:49 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll always be mystified as to how anyone considers Scarface anything but laughably bad.
― clemenza, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:49 (thirteen years ago) link
im vaguely mystified that people take scarface at face value
― ice cr?m, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:57 (thirteen years ago) link
OTM. can be applied to a lot of De Palma stuff.
― circa1916, Saturday, 11 September 2010 23:59 (thirteen years ago) link
― ice cr?m, Saturday, September 11, 2010 11:49 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark
the van halen thing was stupid (mind-boggling to me how that's been help up by some De Palma stans as some kind of "pure joyous expression of cinema"--uuggghhhh stupid). the m&m's were stupid. the dialog was stupid. the alien hologram thingie was reeeeeaaallly stupid. especially when they showed dinosaurs evolving into wooly mammoths and shit (stupid!). the crying alien---beyond stupid---like "this is what stupid is" picture-in-the dictionary stupid. the ending is stupid.
i've seen this movie three times by now (stupid me). i love de palma as much as the next guy but "m2m" (stupid abreviation) is just a failure. stupid, stupid, stupid.
― latebloomer, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:02 (thirteen years ago) link
So people like Scarface because it's like Plan 9 from Outer Space? You're right, I didn't pick up on that. Did someone tell Pacino? It's hard to tell if he's in on the joke or not.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:03 (thirteen years ago) link
crying_alien.gif
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I will give "M2M" that it has decent effects (except for the alien hologram crap) and a couple of okay-ish setpieces but the last act ruins any goodwill I had toward the movie by that point.
― latebloomer, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:15 (thirteen years ago) link
it is an exceptionally silly movie, i know
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:17 (thirteen years ago) link
*opens hidden door in palm tree sunset wall, walks through*
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:19 (thirteen years ago) link
heh
― latebloomer, Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:26 (thirteen years ago) link
I get Mission to Mars mixed up with John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (full title) in my memory but both are awesomely, very entertainingly bad iIrc--should have called it Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars.
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:05 (thirteen years ago) link
rewatched scarface last year and it was such a plodding, dull film. barely saved by pacino's hamming. my friend says carlito's way is the best de palma, haven't seen it yet. love mission impossible though
― dayo, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:17 (thirteen years ago) link
The first half hour of Scarface is timelessly great IMO. The rest is a haywire Oliver Stone metaphor for America or whatever. I'm scared to rewatch Carrie or Blow Out because The Fury was so ridiculously bad on re-viewing a couple years ago--maybe whatever meta games he's playing were really vital cinema at some point, but now they just look cheesy. Casualties of War was the first Kael review where I was like, "Oh, come ON." Her review of Body Double is equally true-blue insane (for how mildly she pans it). Carlito's Way has good scenes and Al Pacino, and a vaguely persuasive love relationship. Did Blow Out have that?
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Scarface is great when you can't hear Oliver Stone speaking
― da croupier, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Ha, and when is that? I should say, I gave the book of the script to a high-school kid into the movie and just getting going on reading. As haywire metaphors for America go, there are ones with fewer classic lines or scenes of excess.
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Ha, and when is that?
When there's gunfire or a buzzsaw.
― da croupier, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:37 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought Kael was way off on a few films towards the end of her tenure (and in some of her post-retirement pronouncements in various interviews--including her continued attachment to De Palma), but I think she was exactly right about how great Casualties of War is. (And, as I remember it, she was one of the few critics who didn't lose sight of it in the wake of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and the late-'80s wave of Vietnam films, none of which I think is as good.) That would have got my vote in this poll, followed, in order, by Blow Out, Carrie, and Dressed to Kill.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:54 (thirteen years ago) link
o dude u know what we do to people who dont like full metal jacket around here
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 01:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Gouge out my eyeballs and skull-fuck me? I do like it, especially (obviously) the first 40 minutes. But I think COW is better.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 September 2010 02:02 (thirteen years ago) link
lol was gonna go w/unscrew yr head and shit down yr neck
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 02:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Carlito's WAy is sooooooooooooo much better than Scarface. It actually has an anti-hero that you don't think is a complete piece of shit, for one.
― Bo Jackson Cruise Control (San Te), Sunday, 12 September 2010 05:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Fuck you all, The Fury is fucking great.
― Eric H., Sunday, 12 September 2010 05:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I loved it too much as a kid to let it go forever, but is there something to the idea that transgressive shifts of tone and over-the-top slow-mo and otherwise toying with audience expectations in a new way have a shelf life? Because once I rejected those things, I just saw one-dimensional characters and Penthouse cinematography.
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 12 September 2010 13:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Still haven't seen Snake Eyes. Should I?
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 12 September 2010 13:12 (thirteen years ago) link
really liked Casualties of War, I think more than his previous film The Untouchables
― Dan S, Saturday, 18 January 2020 10:07 (four years ago) link