Return of the Living SB Movie Experiment: Pontypool

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Okay so I would like to expand my cinematic horizons as I feel I am damn near illiterate when it comes to movies. So I thought of this idea. You guys suggest a movie, I will watch them in the order the suggestions appear and give my thoughts on it. Of course, I invite you to share yours as well. The only way I'll skip a suggestion is that I either already saw the movie (which kind of beats the purpose of this experiment) although I will still quickly give my thoughts on it, or I absolutely could not find any way to see it (which seems unlikely considering I live near many stores, a multimedia library and have access to many streaming sites). On the off chance that I am in a situation where I can view a film listed before it is supposed to be its turn (for example, it's on TV or a friend wants to watch it with me) I will of course not just ignore it. I will watch it and I will review it, then the film whose turn it actually was supposed to be will be viewed. Here are a few rules:


- Only one suggestion per post. If more than one is posted, I will only take the first into consideration.

- Once you have made a suggestion, please wait at least 24 hours before making a second one. This is to prevent receiving too many suggestions from the same people in a row as I would like to represent the tastes of as many people as possible, as well as to keep the possible backlog manageable.
-- ADDENDUM: due to the large amount of suggestions, people must now wait for another user to post a suggestion before posting a new one, the 24 hours rule is still in effect, of course. This will hopefully allow me to catch up a bit while getting a more diverse amount of sources for suggestions. We will go back to the original format once I clear the backlog a bit.

- I know people will try to suggest it if I didn't specify it so no porn even if it's a mainstream success like Deep Throat or Behind the Green Door (or whatever it was called) as those are obviously not meant to be enjoyed for their cinematic value and I fear discussing them in too much details would get me banned. Besides, I know where to find those on my own, thank you very much. I will allow non-pornographic films that include pornographic material, though.

Other than that, go wild. Don't be afraid to suggest very obscure titles and don't forget to suggest "obvious" choices. Horror, fantasy, romance, history, sci-fi, Hell, even documentaries, why not? Whatever tickles your fancy, I'll watch it and I'll discuss it. Of course, if other people want to play along and watch/review the movies too, be my guest.



Movies viewed so far:


1 - 50

SPOILER: Click to show

1. The Battle of Algier
2. Angus
3. Black Caesar
4. Bon Cop Bad Cop
5. My Name is Nobody
6. Pan's Labyrinth
7. Kung Fu Hustle
8. RoboCop (original)
9. Massacre at Central High
10. The Imposter
11. Drunken Master II
12. The Machine Girl
13. Ran
14. Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead or alternately: officialfan.proboards.com/post/10607684/thread
15. Cockneys vs Zombies
16. The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
17. Dr. Srangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
18. Slap Shot
19. Scarface (1932)
20. The Seventh Seal
21. Fubar
22. Cobra Verde
23. Fubar II
24. Starcrash
25. Lawn Dogs
26. Jacob's Ladder
27. Brazil
28. Hobo With a Shotgun
29. The General
30. The Killing
31. Bad Lieutenant
32. Return to Oz
33. Day of the Woman / I Spit on Your Grave
34. Attack the Block
35. Greed
36. The Trouble With Harry
37. 3 Women
38. Persepolis
39. Waltz With Bashir
40. Network
41. Zulu
42. Spun
43. Easy Rider
44. Shaun of the Dead
45. Metropolis (1927)
46. Sharknado
47. Snakes on a Plane
48. Battle Beyond the Stars
49. Deadly Prey
50. Would You Rather

51 - 100

SPOILER: Click to show

51. Ginger Snaps
52. Rosemary's Baby
53. The Shining
54. Plan 9 From Outer Space
55. Dracula (1931)
56. Teeth
57. Ip Man
58. 2001: A Space Odyssey
59. Titan A.E.
60. Thoroughly Modern Millie
61. Memento
62. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
63. Karate Kid III
64. Ikiru
65. Goon
66. The Holy Mountain
67. Lawrence of Arabia
68. Hard Core Logo
69. The Rocket: The legend of Rocket Richard
70. Conspiracy
71. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
72. Eyes Wide Shut
73. Breakin'
74. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
75. The Prestige
76. Go
77. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
78. Tekken
79. Marathon Man
80. The Legend of Billie Jean
81. Vertigo
82. The Kingdom
83. Spring Breakers
84. The Full Monty
85. Blade Runner
86. City Lights
87. Beyond the Black Rainbow
88. The Visit
89. Pontypool

Requested films:

The Rules of Attraction
Fight Club
Ben-Hur
Fame
Footloose
The Big Lebowski
Heartbeeps
Birdemic: Shock and Terror
Observe and Report
Premonition (2007)
Casablanca
The Cable Guy
Solaris
Christmas On Mars
The Raid: Redemption
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Tiptoes
Dark City
Nothing But Trouble
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
25th Hour
The Collection
Dr. No
Brave
The Fearless Freaks
Citizen Kane
21 Jump Street
The Quiet (2005)
Glen or Glenda
Patch Adams
The People Under The Stairs
Victory
Seven Samurai
Alone In The Wilderness
Crank
Crank 2
The Ruling Class
Taxi Driver
I Saw The Devil
The Rules of The Game
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Sting
The Celluloid Closet
The Usual Suspects
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Celebration
American Psycho
Blood Simple
The Maltese Falcon
Stake Land
Quiz Show
Crash
Spider
Black Book
JCVD
Sharknado 2: The Second One
In the Heat of the Night
Elite Squad
Superbad
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Fargo
The World's End
Robot Monster
The Princess Bride
Blazing Saddles
Dinosaur Island
The Wrestler
No Country for Old Men
Make Way For Tomorrow
Sanctum
Pink Floyd The Wall
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
The Other Guys
Prisoners
Pixels
That's My Boy
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!
Adventureland
Robot and Frank
Torque
Hopscotch
The Last Song
No Holds Barred
One Piece Film: Z
From Russia With Love
Cloud Atlas
Goldfinger
Extract
Hobgoblins
Circle
Thunderball
Stretch
You Only Live Twice
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
Home Alone

[Deleted]

Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers.

[Mister Pigwell]

Angus (1995)

This should be required viewing for everyone!

[kidglov3s]

[Deleted]

Bon Cop, Bad Cop. One of the highest grossing Canadian movies of all time and the highest domestic grossing movie in Canada.

Edit: Great buddy Cop film with interesting social commentary between Anglophones and Francophones. However since the 2004-2005 NHL Lockout and how valuable Canadian markets are now as well with the Canadian dollar being on par with the US, it does feel a bit dated now. Also considering Winnipeg is back in the NHL and every year there are rumours that Quebec City will be back in the NHL.

[Drillbit Taylor]

My Name Is Nobody(1973)

[J is Justice]

Pan's Labyrinth.

[Joker]

Kung Fu Hustle

[Chip]

The original Robocop.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

"Massacre at Central High".

[Jiren]

A Serbian film

[Red Impact]

It'd be easier if we did know what movies you've seen, but since a bunch of people are going obscure, I'll go more mainstream.

The Truman Show

[Deleted]

Documentary from 2012. It's better to go in with as limited knowledge about the story as you can.

[aka Cthulhu]

Drunken Master 2

It was either that or The Princess Bride since I rewatched those two yesterday.

[Glitch]

The best movie ever. It plays off the violence and comedy so well.

[ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul]

Ran, 1985.

Akira Kurosawa's last epic. Based on King Lear as well as some Japanese lore.

Edit: It is a cross production with France as well.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Wow, I didn't expect this thread to work THIS well! Very nice to see people seem just as interested in this as I am. I have already noticed two suggestions for films I have already seen, I'll give my thoughts on those later. In the meantime, I'll be watching The Battle of Algiers. It certainly seems like an interesting subject, especially since it is about a major event in my country's history.

[Push R Truth]

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead

(I streamed it from Netflix a couple weeks back)

Just trust me on this one.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algier)

Suggested by @irontyger


Very interesting choice as it really isn't the kind of films I would have seeked out on my own and of course, being about the independence war in Algeria, the subject matter is very important in my country's history and of course that of Algeria.

I must say I enjoyed it a lot. Considering how soon after the actual events this film was made (keep in mind that when this film was released, it had only been 4 years since Algeria obtained its independence), I wondered how objective it would be, but as it turns out, I didn't find the film to be judgemental of either side. It supports the Algerian people yes, but not the FLN nor the French army. Interestingly, neither of these two is pictured as inherently evil either, but rather as blinded by their desperation to defeat the other, resulting in an escalation of violence. I was especially surprised by the restrained shown during the few torture scenes; it would have been all too easy to depict the torturers as cackling maniacs who get off on torturing people for the sake of torturing, but they are depicted as believable people convinced that what they are doing is, somehow, the right thing. And considering that these days veterans from both sides admit to have been as barbaric as the other, it seems to be a fairly accurate depiction of the events.

As a whole, the story feels very believable, which is of course and excellent thing considering it depicts real events. This realism is the movie's best asset as it makes it all the more tense, but also all the more moving and shows that in real war, there's no clearly defined good guys and bad guys. The only thing that kind of breaks the illusion at times is that while the characters were portrayed by actors from these countries, I feel it shows that the film was written and directed by someone who isn't a native French speaker as some of the dialogues feel a little... off (I can't speak for the Arabic-language parts as I am unfamiliar with this language myself). However, it quickly stops being a distraction as the acting remains solid through the entire film.

Finally, I would like to say that it is a shame that the film was banned in France until 1971 and wouldn't be released uncensored (the scenes showing the French army committing atrocities were cut out from the 1971 version) until freaking 2004 as I feel it would have helped a lot of people understand and forgive one another (although again, both sides admitted to having committed horrible acts. My mom even told me she knew a former FLN member who told her he was tortured by the French army but felt no hatred towards the French because the FLN did the same to them).

Very, very good and powerful film and I am glad it was suggested. I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. What a way to start this "experiment".



Next on the list: Angus

[Deleted]

The Battle of Algiers is also just a visual experience as well. It's akin to a large scale Battleship Potemkin influenced by film noir.

Here's the criterion trailer, if anyone is interested. It shows a good amount without spoiling anything: