Movie Collection

[bascule]

Re: Movie Collection

Nowhere have I seen mention of Orwell's "1984". Excellent film, better book. Also, as far as books go, Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (1966), was one of my favorites while in high school and I always believed that it should have been made into a movie.

As far as books-that-should-be-movies go, #1 on my list continues to be: Snow Crash

[TheCotMan]

Re: Movie Collection

Actually, you're thinking about Demon Seed. Dark Star was John Carpenter's UCLA student film released commercially after they found a backer.

Yes, but Dark Star is still another good film to add to this list.

Imagine a bunch of 70's-style, groomed men with lots of hair, traveling through space with a near-dead captain kept at precisely absolut zero, and is somehow able to think, and "talk" to the crewmen. Their job was to look for intelligent life, and civilizations, but they got bored and switched over to find planets at risk for unstable orbits which could cause collision with their suns and cause a nova or super-nova. Once they found these planets, they would then proceed to BLOW UP those planets. (Yes. Science-*FICTION*.)

Other than, "the evelator scene," (Thanks for selecting to clean...) the best parts of this movie, after so much suspension of disbelief, are the discussions between a human and an AI near the end.

Hilarious film, and "darkstar" was a default hostname given to machines when first installing a very old copy of Slackware from a Slackware Distro.

[converge]

Re: Movie Collection

Hilarious film, and "darkstar" was a default hostname given to machines when first installing a very old copy of Slackware from a Slackware Distro.

Still is to this day if you neglect to configure hostname/networking at installation .. well, at least as of 10.2. Can only assume so for newer and forever, per rc.M:

# Set the hostname.
if [ -r /etc/HOSTNAME ]; then
/bin/hostname $(cat /etc/HOSTNAME | cut -f1 -d .)
else
# fall back on this old default:
echo "darkstar.example.net" > /etc/HOSTNAME
/bin/hostname darkstar
fi

.. but after nearly a decade of devotion, I have laid my slackware allegiance to rest. RIP sane inits.

[Rance]

Re: Movie Collection

I just remembered a movie that I'm going to have to add, Spaceballs

[bascule]

Re: Movie Collection

Hilarious film, and "darkstar" was a default hostname given to machines when first installing a very old copy of Slackware from a Slackware Distro.

The default "darkstar" hostname on Slackware 2.3 would later turn me on to both the movie "Dark Star" and the Grateful Dead (whose most requested song during concerts was inevitably Dark Star)

[Thorn]

Re: Movie Collection

Yes, but Dark Star is still another good film to add to this list.

Imagine a bunch of 70's-style, groomed men with lots of hair, traveling through space with a near-dead captain kept at precisely absolut zero, and is somehow able to think, and "talk" to the crewmen. Their job was to look for intelligent life, and civilizations, but they got bored and switched over to find planets at risk for unstable orbits which could cause collision with their suns and cause a nova or super-nova. Once they found these planets, they would then proceed to BLOW UP those planets. (Yes. Science-*FICTION*.)

Other than, "the evelator scene," (Thanks for selecting to clean...) the best parts of this movie, after so much suspension of disbelief, are the discussions between a human and an AI near the end.

Hilarious film, and "darkstar" was a default hostname given to machines when first installing a very old copy of Slackware from a Slackware Distro.

If I recall correctly, in the novelization of the movie by Alan Dean Foster, the explanation was that the suspended captain's brain had become a superconductor, allowing him to continue to think and communicate with the crew.

Trivia: Dan O'Bannon, who played Sgt. Pinback, wrote a little movie script five years after Dark Star which gained him a bit of fame. You may have heard of Alien.

[nak]

Re: Movie Collection

Some of my suggestions:
The Yes Men
Fight Club
Shaun of the Dead

[r3coiL]

Re: Movie Collection

Excuse me if this was already mentioned:

Army Of Darkness

[Nikita]

Re: Movie Collection

Well, Since everyone is attacking the tech/hackeresque categories, I will tip toe in slightly and mention a few overlooked ones in other categories. In my usual great and lengthy fashion.....

New Release- Crank
I love it for a few scenes, especially the sex scene in the middle of china-town with the bus full of onlooking Japanese schoolgirls.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0479884/
Plot Outline: Professional assassin Chev Chelios (Statham) learns his rival (Cantillo) has injected him with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops.

Comedy- Smala Sussie/ Slim Suzy
Its weird and I just remembered it. I liked it.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0323998/
Plot Outline: A young man returns to his hometown to look for his missing sister.

Also worth mentioning is Little Miss Sunshine.
Any movie with a herion addicted grandpa, dead bodies in the back of the family vehicle ala griswold style and suicidal gay professors is worth looking into
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449059/
Plot Outline: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

Horror-
This list could go on an on and on as I am severely addicted to extremely gory, violent, zombie and or any horribly acted b horror movies. But in the name of picking one you may not have seen....... Which is hard to do considering I have a few i would love to recommend but in a group of my peers chances are you have seen it too. I'll try these two:

Bubba Ho-tep
Bruce Campbell plays elvis....nuff said.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281686/
Plot Outline: Elvis and JFK, both alive and in nursing homes, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian Mummy.


Undead
A horrible horrible POS, but for the low budget and all that is considered...its not that bad. They did great with the special effects and gore. The plot is insane and weird. You have to get through the first 10 minutes of slow boring uselessness and then it gets going. Its like combining, shaun of the dead with dawn of the dead and army of darkness but with alien zombies and a chick Ash.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339840/
Plot Outline: A quaint Australian fishing village is overcome by meteorites that turn it's residents into the ravenous undead, leaving a small group of those unharmed to find a way out.

Drama- A love song for Bobby Long.
I just saw it recently and loved it. Reminded me of growing up and living in New Orleans.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369672/
Plot Outline: A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.

Action- Boondock Saints
This movie is not for everyone, however it is very comedic and a wonderful delight.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0144117/
Plot Outline: Fraternal twins set out to rid Boston of the evil men operating there while being tracked down by an FBI agent.

Animation- Hoshi no koe/ Voices from a distant star (Anime)
can be slow but the story is simple, short, and poetic. Visually its wonderful. The space/robot/fight scenes dont seem out of place with the love letters via sms that take 5 years to reach earth plot. Its really a must see.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0370754/
Plot Summary: The story of the high school students Mikako Nagamine and Noboru Terao. When the alien Tarsians attack...

Independent- Hard Candy
One of the best movies to tackle the "beware who's online" subject Ive seen in awhile. Its really nothing like you would expect. I dont care if you crap on every other movie i recommend, just watch this one, its that freaking good. really, really good.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0424136/
Plot Outline: A mature 14-year old girl meets a charming 32-year old photographer on the Internet. Suspecting that he is a pedophile, she goes to his home in an attempt to expose him


Romance- Entropy
Oh so good. Best scene in modern film:
Smoking+ Talking Cat

http://imdb.com/title/tt0156515/

Plot summary:
Stephen Dorff narrates this tale about how his life goes astray as his character attempts to strike a balance between the demands of directing his first film and the pressures of his new romance with a model. U2's Bono plays a role in this film as both himself and Dorff's character's conscience.


Anti-Romance
Love Stinks-
"Sometimes the best sex in the world...just isn't worth it."

Every man in the world should see this movie and realize he can be an p-whooped idiot too.

Every woman in the world needs to see it to accept the simple fact she will at some point in her life be a heinous bitch or have one or two things in common with the main character. ( myself included)
Best scene "Angry sex"
http://imdb.com/title/tt0188863/

( There will be a special viewing of this film at my Valentines day party Sat 2/10 )

Documentary-
Blair witch.
Just joking, all the hacker docs were listed in some thread somewhere, and all the others ive watch are surely obvious...super size me, bowling for columbine, an inconvient truth, etc etc.


Also, worth mentioning is the dinner scene where will farrell says grace in the movie Talladega nights the ballad of Ricky bobby. The movie itself was not a great masterpiece but i could watch that scene over and over again. And I recommend creating a collection of Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarentino, George Romero, and Guy Richie films.

For the record i have seen more movies than i would have liked to, it makes going to blockbuster an hour long event and a usual unsatisfactory compromise.
/rant

[Nikita]

Re: Movie Collection

And since no one has mentioned it.

The CUBE series of movies.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0123755/
Plot Outline: 7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.

The math and the traps gets cooler and explained more if you watch all 3 movies.
Cube 2: Hypercube
Cube Zero

[bascule]

Re: Movie Collection

The CUBE series of movies

The Cube was awesome

The other movies?

Not so much

It's kind of like the Matrix in that respect

[Floydr47]

Re: Movie Collection

I can't believe that no one has mentioned "Independence Day". Defeating the alien mothership by uploading a virus was a stroke of pure genius (cough-cough-bullshit-cough-cough).

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Movie Collection

Nikita offers some good suggestions, but many of the listed movies have a very specific audience and, as such, are unlikely to become a part of common culture (unlike most of the other movies in this thread).

As usual, TheCotMan has already suggested many of the movies I would have put on the list. I might, however, suggest the following in the same vein as the aforementioned films:

Layer Cake - Guy Ritchie-esque movie dripping with style which follows a conflict between the business and gangster elements found in the drug industry.

Revolver - This one is by Guy Ritchie but seemingly done for fans of Donnie Darko. It has never been released in the US (probably due to its very artsy, open-to-interpretation plot), but I'm sure you can find it.

Memento - I sure hope no one has ruined this film for you ... and I'm not about to. An incredibly refreshing and original film (plus, it stars Trinity ), you must watch this film at least twice.

Team America: World Police - Okay, sure, there is a lot of base humor, but it is also an incredibly good piece of satire that is relevant to almost every major conflict. The end lesson had me laughing as I hadn't expected ("Dicks also fuck assholes..."), but it may not be as original to fans of South Park (which I do not watch).

I can't believe that no one has mentioned "Independence Day". Defeating the alien mothership by uploading a virus was a stroke of pure genius (cough-cough-bullshit-cough-cough).

Funny you should mention that since I recently ran across this write-up that explains my views rather well. In short, it is not that unreasonable that given 50 years, an unlimited budget, and a team of professionals that you could discover a security hole in an extremely complex computer system.

[TheCotMan]

Re: Movie Collection

A bit more in the realm of geek, more than, hacking, there are several films from Lars von Trier which are pretty good.

One of his early works was Riget (Imported, subtitled, was originally a kind of made-for-tv mini-series, that was later sold on DVD as a 4+ hour video/movie.)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could cross, ER with Poltergeist, and add a little bit of TwinPeaks? That is kind of what this is like. It is a story that takes place in a hospital, but things are not quite what they seem.

After a cliff-hanger ending, he did eventually create and air on TV, Riget II, the second of what was supposed to be a 3 part series.

However, after the death of 2 or 3 of the stars, no plans were made to create the 3rd part of this series.

This film has such a following, that there was an attempt to "American-ize" it for U.S. audiences by Stephen King. You may recall seeing, "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital" or "Stephen King's: The Kingdom" on ABC , but it was not very good.

Lars von Trier has made other films, and one you may have more likely heard of called, "Dogville" (Nicole Kidman . Lauren Bacall , James Caan , more) which was out in 2003 at many American movie houses.

I know 12 techie-people tha have seen Riget and Riget II, and 3 that own their own copies. Maybe this is just regional.

Then there is the whole class of films like Spaceballs! and Army of Darkness mentioned above:
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Airplane! (1980)
Top Secret! (1984)
Ice Pirates (1984)
The Princess Bride (1987)
The Naked Gun (1988) (1991) (1994)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Canadian Bacon (1995)
Scary Movie (2000) (2001) (2003) (2006)

Frequently, these kinds of movies include puns, comments about current events, parody, and other humor.
Airplane! was a geek-type film as well as mainstream. There were a number of funny things that took place in the background for observant geeks, while the foreground entertained the masses.



There is also a class of movies as secret weapons that have hidden value when in a movie collection. You ever have relatives over for a visit, and you want them to leave, but can't find the words? Play these smash hits and they'll find find or make exits as needed for quick departure.

Additionally, they can be used to, "get even." with those that offend you, if they have not heard of these fillms.

Street Trash: No protagonist, no antagonist, no point. Homeless people gang-rape a drunken hooker, allegations that someone had sex with her corpse, severed penis and a game of keep-away in a junk yard, stuff in a bottle that causes people to lose control of their bowels. I found it under "comedy" in a video store. No on-screen penetration, this is not porn-- it is just a bad movie.

A Star Wars Christmas Special / The 'Star Wars' Holiday Special: Where would you be at Christmas without this gem? It has everything you could ever want in a Christmas Special! Wookies singing in wookie language! Grandpa Wookie trying to scope out some wookie Porn! At least one actor from Star Wars looking like they were high on drugs while on the set when cameras started rolling! Oh yes, and you must play the commercials too!

Manos Hand of Fate : Yeah, but not the MST3K version. Get the full version without funny or witty comments.

[Rance]

Re: Movie Collection

You know I think i might have opened a can of worms, If i get ever one of the movies listed (which i will) I'll need to add on to my house maybe build a theater.