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Movie Walrus: LeVar Goes To The Pictures Part II - Electric Boogaloo... THE REVEAL
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22nd place with 9 pts isosh
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Sub-Category: The Early Bird Special
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040897/IMDB wrote:Two Americans searching for work in Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 70%
Review:
An enjoyable enough western, nothing necessarily wrong with it, but it just didn't make a massive impression on me really. I really enjoyed Tim Holt and Walter Huston, thought they both suited the film well and gave great performances, but Humphrey Bogart felt a bit out of place here for me. I'm far more used to Bogart in the Crime or Film Noir genres, and he just never felt right in the part he was meant to be playing here. His performance wasn't flawed or anything, I'm sure it was grand, but it just felt wrong to me ; it was kind of like when you're out with one group of friends and you run into someone from another of your friend circles (that you never wanted to mix with one another) and there's those awkward few minutes while you make small talk with the one friend as your worlds collide, and your other separate group of friends watch on. Still liked it well enough, but it just never really took off for me.0 -
9th place with 23 pts isElectric Nitwit
Raising Arizona (1987)
Sub-Category: Caged In
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/IMDB wrote:When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 91%
Review:
This just might be my favourite Coen Brothers film (I've seen most of them, this was one of the few that I hadn't) or at the very least it's up there neck and neck with Fargo. It's a fun story with plenty of colourful characters, and everybody involved does a great job. It's a fairly subdued character for Nic Cage to play given a couple of the more out there characters in some of the other Caged In films in this round, but I like that he went for a more subtle performance for this one since the story itself is madcap and eccentric so the characters don't need to be over the top. Nothing negative to say add on this one, really enjoyed it, solid film. As an aside, it definitely feels like this film and particularly Cage's character may have heavily influenced the tv show, My Name Is Earl ; was getting a lot of the same vibes off this film anyway.0 -
I think I should have submitted Raising Arizona than an action Nic Cage flickI did that in a walrus before and it failed spectacularly, some people have no sense of humour. "A baby getting kidnapped isn't funny" :rolleyes:I love Raising Arizona. All films should have babies getting kidnapped :P
I thought a baby getting kidnapped was hilarious and it's a damn fine film...
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23rd place with 8 pts isReberetta
The Stranger (1946)
Sub-Category: The Early Bird Special
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038991/IMDB wrote:An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 64%
Review:
When I first saw the synopsis for this one, I worried the tone of the film would be a bit too heavy for my enjoyment given the film was made only shortly after the end of World War II, that this would be a far more political drama, but it ended up going too far the opposite direction ; tonally it was much too flippant and the fact that the crux of the plot was a Nazi hunt was completely inconsequential. Had they swapped out the Nazi war criminal for any other fugitive responsible for a far lesser crime, who had changed their identity and ingrained themselves into a community, the whole thing would have worked far better for me ; it all just felt a bit like Hollywood capitalizing on a topical buzzword, but not giving anywhere near enough weight to that. Despite that, I thought it was decent enough, although Orson Welles failed to live up to my expectations on this occasion. Edward G. Robinson was the MVP for me, I've enjoyed anything I've seen him in previously, and he managed to elevate the production just enough here to give it an edge over the film ranked directly below this one.0 -
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8th place with 24 pts isReberetta
Terror Train (1980)
Sub-Category: The Teen Scream
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081617/IMDB wrote:Three years after a prank went terribly awry, the six college students responsible are targeted by a masked killer at a New Year's Eve party aboard a moving train.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 93%
Review:
This was a blast, ticks every box you want from a Teen Scream check list, right down to having Jamie Lee Curtis in the cast. It definitely could have been much gorier and I wouldn't have minded in the slightest if it was, but there's actually something to be said for holding back and leaving a bit up to the imagination. I'm a fan of trains, not in a the obsessed nerdy kind of way, I don't know a huge amount about them, and I'm no trainspotter or anything, but they would definitely be my preferred method of transport, and I think they're pretty cool, so I enjoyed the basic premise and thought it was used effectively. The film also had magic and fancy dress costumes, which is always a fun bonus in any movie, so nothing negative to say about this at all. Solid choice, it has become an instant new favourite for me in the genre, and I just enjoyed the films above this just a little bit more, but really loved it.0 -
Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »I thought a baby getting kidnapped was hilarious and it's a damn fine film...Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »9th place with 23 pts is Electric Nitwit
Raising Arizona (1987)
Sub-Category: Caged In
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/
]
I am glad it was submitted and faired well, great choice EN0 -
24th place with 7 pts isthe purple tin
Odd Man Out (1947)
Sub-Category: The Early Bird Special
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039677/IMDB wrote:A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 63%
Review:
It's very hard not to be critical of the accents in films set in Ireland, and while this was no Yanks doing twee Begosh-and-Begorrah levels of injustice, it certainly didn't manage to capture Belfast in the slightest. Aside from a group of street kids, who were all actually from Belfast, none of the remainder of the cast really attempted to do a Nothern Irish accent. There were a number of actors from Dublin and a handful of others from the South-Easternly quadrant of Ireland, who all more or less did their own accents, and presumably by association all the British actors involved ended up doing accents that wouldn't sound amiss in Leinster, so it wasn't a complete assault on the ears, but disappointing all the same given the setting. As for the story itself, I really enjoyed the first half of the film enough to overlook the lack of Beal Fierstian timbre, but it kind of lost the run of itself in the latter half and meandered about in circles for a bit before limping into an unsatisfying conclusion. It was a shame because there was a solid premise in the beginning and it could have been much better.0 -
7th place with 25 pts isosh
Braindead (1992)
Sub-Category: To B or Not To B
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103873/IMDB wrote:A young man's mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 94%
Review:
For some mad reason I thought I had seen Braindead a good twenty years ago as a teenager, and had written it off as overrated, but I've never seen this, so it's likely what I had seen as a teen was Brain Dead starring Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton which is an entirely different film. This one though, deserves all the praise and cult appreciation that it gets, because it's bloody amazing. Horrible and hilarious, with gory visuals that made me both grimace in disgust and fist pump the air in delight simultaneously. I made the mistake of ordering take-away when I sat down to this one, and when the food arrived I had to pause the movie and go eat at the other side of the house listening to the soothing sounds of Enya so that I could actually ingest my meal without throwing up ; and that's actually the greatest compliment I could give this film. Madness to think that Peter Jackson is most famed for directing Lord Of The Rings when he was making masterpieces like this long before he was up to his ears in Hobbits and Orcs.0 -
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25th place with 6 pts isIrish Aris
Young Guns II (1990)
Sub-Category: The Estevez Festivez
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100994/IMDB wrote:In 1881, cattle baron John Chisum pays a bounty to Patrick Floyd Garrett to kill outlaw Billy the Kid.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 41%
Review:
This was a fine middle-of-the-road but instantly forgettable and ultimately irrelvant cinematic entry. This was one film I was looking forward to on the casting alone, so was left very disappointed that it was simply a lesson in wasted potential. How you can have Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, and Alan Ruck all in a film together and not end up with an instant classic has left me scratching my head, but none of the actors were allowed any breathing room nor were the characters given any chance to develop any chemistry ; now some of this could have been done in the first movie, but a good sequel would re-establish such a rapport, and the new characters certainly weren't given any development, so the whole thing just feels like lazy writing to me. Emilio Estevez and Christian Slater I felt put in solid performances considering what little they had to work with to be fair to them, but Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and to a lesser extent Alan Ruck clearly didn't want to be there and phoned it in. It wasn't awful, there were aspects I liked, and there are films I enjoyed far less in both this round and the overall Walrus, but overall a letdown unfortunately0 -
6th place with 26 pts isArghus
Red Rock West (1993)
Sub-Category: Caged In
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105226/IMDB wrote:Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter is mistaken for a hitman, but when the real hitman arrives, complications ensue.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 95%
Review:
Excellent pacing, really fun story, well written, solid acting, just a really great film from beginning to end. Based on the synopsis I had a bit of a fear that this might be the type of movie that would get too bogged down in a dense script and focus too hard on making a stylish drama at the expense of entertainment ; basically I had a sinking feeling that it would be a load of **** and I'm not even sure why (its getting harder not to have pre-conceived notions on what a film will deliver, especially after reviewing eighty or so other films). Thankfully I was wrong and Red Rock West kept things relatively simple even as layers and revelations were added to the story, and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable ninety-something minutes of cinema. The handful of films above this just elicited a bit more of an awe factor from me and the top end of this round was absolutely stacked, but can't fault this in the slightest.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 49730
aaronjennings wrote: »Happy with mid-table for Final Destination 3... athough the fact my second movie hadn't appeared yet is really not a good sign...
Funnily enough, I was only thinking last week that I should watch Flight of the Phoenix, I saw the remake about 10 years ago and would love to give the original a crack
My second one hasn't either, and it's the one I was nervous about
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Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »
Well a longer dramatic pause than usual as I need a quick breath of fresh air and go find my laptop charger, so go grab a can of Smithwick or a bottle of Merlot and get back here as the Top 5 and Bottom 5 movies countdown begins in 10 minutes at 8pm
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26th place with 5 pts isSawduck
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
Sub-Category: To B or Not To B
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094077/IMDB wrote:When the son of a gun-wielding woman is murdered by neo-Nazi surf punks in the post-apocalyptic future, his Mama hunts them down for some bloodthirsty revenge.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 39%
Review:
This had been on my watchlist for quite a few years now, and with a title like Surf Nazis Must Die and coming from Troma Entertainment (who are kind of like the HBO of terrible yet amazing B-Movies) it should have been an absolute slam dunk, but it was all far too tame and just a bit too 'meh' for my liking. There's a great premise, but far too much time is spent "setting the tone" and the main plot-line only gets about fifteen minutes to play out when it should have been the guts of the movie, and even then they could have had much more craic with it and it just fell a bit flat. In general the main premise felt like an afterthought when they realised there should probably be some semblance of a plot instead of just a series of random scenes for eighty minutes. I did like the characters, they had a bit of personality about them, and even if the execution of the plot was a fail, just the mere idea of Surf Nazis garners some good will with me.0 -
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5th place with 27 pts isArghus
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Sub-Category: The Early Bird Special
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041546/IMDB wrote:A distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 96%
Review:
I may or may not have started a slow clap in my living room, to an audience of just me, when this one ended. I'm a big fan of black comedies, and this one is absolutely superb. A truly fantastic and hilarious premise, it was just a joy to watch this. Dennis Price was superb in the lead role, a great supporting cast in Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood, and of course a whole range of impressive performances from Sir Alec "Obi-Wan Kenobi" Guinness as he portrayed eight different characters. Sometimes when watching all of the Walrus films, buzzwords and phrases tend to pop into my head that I might later use when doing these write-ups, and one of the things that sprung to mind while watching Kind Hearts and Coronets was that it almost feels like this is the sort of film that might come about if Oscar Wilde had met Alfred Hitchcock, they smoked some weed, and decided to make a movie together, because I was getting elements of The Importance of Being Ernest from this as well as Strangers On A Train and several other Hitchcock films. Great choice for this round indeed.0 -
27th place with 4 pts isthe purple tin
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Sub-Category: It's The End of the World As We Know It and I Feel Fine
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/IMDB wrote:A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called into to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 26%
Review:
It was intriguing enough in the beginning and I initially felt this had the potential to be a great film, but it wasn't long before the story just became fairly bland and uninspired, and my interest just went completely over a cliff edge, that just finishing the film was a bit of a chore. I did like the set pieces, it had a very pleasing aesthetic, the acting was good, and I will give it a certain amount of credit for appealing to me in the beginning. It's a well made film and has it's place in low budget sci-fi cinema, and in theory it should have been something I enjoyed, but ultimately it just simply wasn't for me.0 -
4th place with 28 pts isJP Liz V1
Con Air (1997)
Sub-Category: Caged In
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118880/IMDB wrote:Newly paroled ex-con and former U.S. Ranger Cameron Poe finds himself trapped in a prisoner transport plane when the passengers seize control.
Have I Seen It Before: Yes
LeVar's Approval Rating: 97%
Review:
I had seen this before, but it was years ago in a Hotel Residents Bar at about 2am with a few friends after a night out on the tear in London, so my memories of the film itself are somewhat hazy to say the least, but I do remember enjoying it at the time and had been meaning to sit down and watch it properly at some stage. It's actually the last film I've watched in the entire Movie Walrus and talk about going out on a high, because having watched it in a sober state, it has instantly become one of my favourite action films of all-time, and just a joyous way to spend two hours (which honestly flew by - pun intended). It works well because it's very character driven and you can immediately relate to Cameron Poe as your main protagonist. Nic Cage is brilliant, and surrounded by a star studded crew of actors who are equally as watchable, and need to give a shout out to a load of them, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Colm Meaney, Ving Rhames, Mykelti Williamson, M.C. Gainey, Danny Trejo and even though I'm not a fan of his stand-up Dave Chappelle is great here too, but no weak links in the cast at all, everybody gets in and gets the job done and they seem to have fun doing it.0 -
28th place with 3 pts isIrish Aris
Wild At Heart (1990)
Sub-Category: Caged In
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100935/IMDB wrote:Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 13%
Review:
Usually I really like David Lynch films, and am a big Twin Peaks fan, so had high hopes for this, but it's by far the worst thing I've seen from Lynch and nothing really gelled for me at all. I've seen far better performances from Nicolas Cage in this round, and his Elvis inspired character here just felt like a step down in comparison to what I've become acclimatised to. Laura Dern's performance was fine, but again I've seen better from her. It was cool to see a few cameo's from a handful of Twin Peaks actors, and I really enjoyed Willem Dafoe's performance ; he was by far the best thing about this movie, but it's not enough to really drag up the rating very much. The premise had potential, but the execution let it down.
Apologies Aris, our tastes have clearly not really aligned much throughout this particular Walrus unfortunately0 -
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3rd place with 29 pts isNecro
Crawl (2019)
Sub-Category: It's The End of the World As We Know It and I Feel Fine
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8364368/IMDB wrote:A young woman, while attempting to save her father during a category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.
Have I Seen It Before: No
LeVar's Approval Rating: 98%
Review:
As you may have guessed from my love of The Shallows in the previous round, I'm a big fan of these types of films and this one was just brilliant in terms of building tension ; I was on the edge of my seat from the moment the first Alligator appeared until the second the credits rolled, and I love a film that can get to my nerves like that. I've always really liked Kaya Scodelario since back when she was just Tony's little sister in Skins, and have enjoyed Barry Pepper in everything I've ever seen him in, so loved the cast and it was easy to root for their characters. Always great when someone takes a really simple premise and churns out an effective and enjoyable hour and a half ; what more can I ask for from a film than that. 'Nuff said, great choice.0 -
Join Date:Posts: 49730
aaronjennings wrote: »13% and not even last :eek:
Surely my nomination is in the bottom two, there's no way it's at the top :pac:
I'm thinking that too
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