Before Watching the Movie:
While I was disappointed by the selection I found this week, I’m excited to write about this movie. More excited to write than to watch. Supposedly, this is a “great comedy,” the seminal film in Steve Martin’s career. Reading the box though, it looks like the sappiest kind of romantic comedy. I’m expecting boredom, diabetes, and scenic Los Angeles vistas, and to like it better than I expect.
Before watching the movie:
One thing I love about browsing for movies, especially from online streaming sites, is the ability it gives me to find films I know absolutely nothing about. I’m used to watching movies that I already know many details from because of trailers or various online sources. Who’s Harry Crumb? is a movie I found in a streaming service’s collection that I’ve never heard of. It stars John Candy, who is apparently a bumbling detective. It sounds madcap and slapstick, so this should be pretty fun.
Before watching the movie:
Here’s a film (and hit title song) that’s often parodied, been remade relatively successfully, and launched an entire genre of movies, but how many people have actually seen it?
I know that Shaft is a detective, and that he’s awesomely cool. Also he’s black. That’s supposed to be important.
Before watching the movie:
Somehow, this movie started as a Saturday Night Live routine. Now it’s a cult classic slightly more mainstream than Wayne’s World. Why? I haven’t a clue. That’s why I watch these movies.
It has Dan Akroyd and John Belushi (or as I know him, Jim Belushi’s father). Apparently they wear cool suits, and they play Blues, though their family name actually is Blues. This routine lasts two and a half hours (though apparently I have the extended version).
Before watching the movie:
According to the blurb, this movie is pretty much its title. Hercules gets bored of Olympus and goes to New York City, where crazy things happen. I found this movie looking through YouTube’s movie collection, and I’m interested in seeing if the fact that it’s not listed under Comedies is an oversight on the part of Youtube, or on the part of the writers.
Before watching the movie:
I’ve always kind of wanted to see a movie knowing nothing more about it than who’s in it and what genre it is. Once Upon A Crime is a murder mystery spoof with John Candy. I found it on Hulu and decided to watch it on those credentials. Apparently, he wears a mustache in it.
Before watching the movie:
This is a film I’m not so much looking forward to seeing as having seen. I’ve read summaries of the plot before, and the only thing that made sense was how bleak and depressing it is.
I know Terry Gilliam makes weird, often bleak films, so I can’t say I expect to be proven wrong, but at least it should be funny, or else darkly satirical.
Why else did I choose this film? Well, I needed a 1985 movie for related reasons I can’t disclose at this time, and this was very handy.
Before watching the movie:
Robocop probably isn’t in the Canon, but it’s big enough that it at least gets a “How Did You Miss It?”
What I understand of this film before seeing it is that there’s a policeman who gets the nightmare version of the Lee Majors/Inspector Gadget treatment. From what I understand, when he gets blown up and put back together with bionics, he’s more machine than human, and dishes out harsh justice unstoppably. Also the future looks like 1982.
From what I can tell, the appeal is violence and explosions, which aren’t my thing. Then again, I probably don’t have that great a grasp on the story, so we’ll see.
Before watching the movie:
Why did I chose this movie? Because it’s definitely in the top ten of the Canon of Movies You Should See In This Era. At the same time, I really don’t know why it’s there.
Sure, I know a bunch of stuff about it already, like the early computer effects used to have the character interact with famous dead people, and he’s supposed to have a low IQ.
There’s also the memes that spread before we knew memes were memes, like “Run Forrest Run,” “Life is like a box of chocolates,” and the way Forrest says “Lieutenant Dan.”
But then, how can I avoid knowing about a movie that’s been parodied by The Simpsons and Weird Al? I even read a MAD Magazine parody of it… not that I got much of it at the time. I’ve even sat on what King’s Island claimed was the actual bench from the film.
I watch this movie because I want to know why everyone knows about this one and not Being There.
Before watching the movie:
Several years ago, I was introduced by complete accident to the Back to the Future trilogy, and through that to Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. At that age, I’d get excited about a new actor and watch a bunch of movies they starred in.
In Fox’s case, Family Ties reruns were being broadcast in my town, and his autobiography Lucky Man had just been released, so he left a little more impression on me than most of the actors I sampled in that phase. Yet only one of the several movies I saw is included with the Michael J. Fox comedy favorites collection, which I found while browsing my local library.
That fact gives me a little hope for this movie, since quite frankly it’s the least interesting-looking one in the collection, but if it won over Life With Mikey, it can’t be too terrible.
What’s it even about? Find out in the main article.
Yesterday's Movies 