Les Jones: Movies to Watch

March 02, 2005

Scratch Pad > Movies to Watch

So I used to have a Palm back in the Palm III era. I got a cell phone shortly after that and decided that carrying both made me a technology victim. Ditching the Palm was an easy decision. The one thing I miss about it was the notepad feature. It meant that I always had something to write on, and one of the pages in my notepad was a list I kept of movies I wanted to rent.

Fast-forward to 2005. I'm going to try keeping those lists on my blog. There's nothing I mind anyone seeing, and publishing the list may provoke some helpful advice I would have missed out on if I had scribbled this on a Post-It Note and stuck it in my glovebox.

UPDATE: Crossed-out movies are ones that I've seen after adding them to the list.

UPDATE 2: I've joined Netflix, so I'm going to manage my movies to watch in my Netflix Queue from now on. Netflix is very cool, BTW. Without it, there'd be no way to find many of the older movies on this list.

Movies to Watch

Hickey and Boggs
The Music Room, by Satyajit Ray
~~Sin City~~
Million Dollar Baby
Batman Begins
Fantastic Four
Logan's Run
1984
~~MASH~~ (believe it or not, I've never seen the movie)
Caligula
Outland
Gangster No. 1 (Malcolm McDowell)
If (Malcolm McDowell)
Showgirls, which won the Worst Movie Poll.
~~Battlefield Earth~~ (runner-up in the worst movie poll)
Sunset Blvd.
All About Eve
~~Team America~~

These next movies were all recommended in the comments to this post about The Usual Suspects actors and other movies with twist endings.

The Vanishing (Dutch version)
~~Hero~~
Big Top Pee Wee
The Last of Sheila

Movies to Watch Again

~~Snatch~~
Capricorn One
~~Casablanca~~

Lists for Inspiration

Jeff Goldstein's '70s Movies Picks

Posted by lesjones

Comments

I watched the MASH movie again recently. I didn't remember some of the rougher entendres. In the television series Hawkeye represented a kind of liberal, disaffected guy but he was an absolute cad when it came to women. At least if we judge him by contemporary standards he acted like a cad.

Both the movie and TV series used language like that at times to make a social statement. But also at times I have the impression that it was no statement at all. It seems a character could say *anything* about or to "Hotlips" and still be considered a paramount liberal.

There is a particular phrase used repeatedly during the football scene that just made my skin crawl. I am *not* a guy who is easily offended by mere language. It just seemed wierd and out of step with the theme of the movie. Perhaps I simply don't get it; that well could be. But it seemed really wierd to hear the protagonists of an anti-war film using blatantly racist language.

It's definitely a movie from its time.

Posted by: Chris Range at March 02, 2005

Supposedly there's a remake of Logan's Run in pre-production. Rumor has it that Leo is going to star.

The original film has some interesting aspects, but it appears very dated when watched nowadays.

Posted by: Cutter at March 02, 2005

Yep, new Logan's Run coming, probably this year. Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects, X-Men) wrote the story, and I would guess he'd direct it.

Posted by: Les Jones at March 02, 2005

I've been meaning to watch MASH too, I keep hearing how much fun it is.

Posted by: Lainie at March 03, 2005

Hero is the most visually stunning movie that i have ever seen period.

a must see if you like pretty pictures, and the action is good also, with a strong plot.

Posted by: cube at March 03, 2005

Watching the original Logan's Run is like watching Buck Rogers with higher production values...but not much.

It's actually an interesting movie and there's a flash of breast I was shocked (and pleased) they kept in the late-night/afternoon matinee version that was run on TV sometimes back in the day.

I never saw the MASH movie - does it have the same type of humor that the series had from Hawkeye and Trapper?

Posted by: Barry at March 03, 2005