This has been flinging around the web for a few days; I saw it on the Mobius Home Video Forum. My answers below. Anyone else care to take aim?
1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
King Kong(1933).
2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.
Die Hard (five, on two continents).
3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Jack Nicholson, still.
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
The smarmy Josh Lucas gives me pause, but if the movie is interesting I'll see him, or the increasingly dull Jude Law and Colin Farrell, in it.
5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
This time of year, The Ten Commandments (1956): "So it is written, so it shall be done." "Moses, you adorable fool, Moses." "Now we have new taskmasters!" [TC may be the only movie of its vintage still shown, and still capable of drawing big ratings, on one of the Big Three networks.]
5. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band--not such a surprise, as rock lyrics stick to my brain more easily than traditional show tunes.
6. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
The Wizard of Oz.
7. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Citizen Kane. At least once.
8. Name a movie that you own.
One movie? Most recently, The Naked City (1948).
9. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
The improbable Arnold Schwarzenegger.
10. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
First was Bullitt; last, a few years later, was Heaven Can Wait (1978). Both with my parents, in NJ.
11. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet gotten around to it.
The Sound of Music.
12. Ever walked out of a movie?
Bad movies usually exhaust me too much to flee them. I fall asleep during turkeys. I conked out for at least a half-hour during a screening of the arthouse flop Dear Wendy, which many of my colleagues fled.
13. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
The Whole Wide World (1996). The way the climactic suicide is revealed, in a letter read aloud, kills me. Also Glory (1989).
14. Popcorn?
Usually, but a small bag now, lightly buttered and salted. Have to watch my levels. I sometimes stop by NY's Film Forum just to buy a bag of their sea-salted popcorn.
15. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Maybe three or four times per week, press screenings mostly.
16. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
As a "civilian," Shooter. I'll cop to it.
17. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
All things considered, still horror, though I feel somewhat alienated from the genre of late.
18. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Bullitt. It was a reissue, as the preview for Ben (1972) tagged to it made a far greater impression on me and sent me on my monster-strewn path.
19. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
The fact that I wish I had never seen Salo, which revolted me, sort of makes me glad that I saw it. I suppose I'm sorrier to have spent so much time on higher-profile, big-budget pablum, still a hard habit to break but, as with movie popcorn, I've reduced my intake.
20. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
I suppose Last Year at Marienbad counts as "weird," but I dig it.
21. What is the scariest movie you've seen?
The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I ran all the way to my dorm room after my first viewing, at midnight.
22. What is the funniest movie you've seen?
Off the top of my head, Used Cars never failed to make me laugh, the 15 times or so I caught it on HBO and Cinemax many years ago after its failed 1980 opening. [I've seen KONG even more often, though.]
2 comments:
1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
"Laura." Don't know what this says about me.
2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.
"Sweet Smell of Success," almost every time in Film Forum.
3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Hm. Not sure. I don't tend to see films because of an actor. Maybe Campbell Scott or John Cusack.
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Nicholson, actually. He stopped acting 30 years ago, except for occasional flashes of seriousness, like "About Schmidt."
5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
"Sweet Smell of Success," again. Lots of different film noirs and Cukor films.
5. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
"Singin' in the Rain."
6. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
Ditto.
7. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Citizen Kane is a good choice. Rules of the Game, too. Anything by Preston Sturges.
8. Name a movie that you own.
Just one? Double Indemnity.
9. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Stumped.
10. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Sure. Grease.
11. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet gotten around to it.
Oh, tons. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise, for one.
12. Ever walked out of a movie?
No.
13. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Life Is Beautiful. It's true.
14. Popcorn?
Yeah, often.
15. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Maybe once a year, at this point. I have a kid.
16. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
Breaking and Entering. Oy.
17. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Black comedy.
18. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Not counting animated films, Hair. I've had a thing for Beverly D'Angelo ever since.
19. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Reservoir Dogs.
20. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Dunno.
21. What is the scariest movie you've seen?
Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a good choice.
22. What is the funniest movie you've seen?
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. It's funnier than Some Like It Hot or Duck Soup or Bananas or any of the other movies people call the funniest movie of all time.
On another subject: What? No mention of Bob Clark's death? I know he made a lot of crap, but for me "A Christmas Story" forgives a lot of sins.
Thanks for an erudite list. It's all a matter of taste, but at this point, I would say that John Cusack has amassed as many crappy credits as Nicholson, it's just that they go unseen.
If Reservoir Dogs bothered you, I don't what you'd make of Grindhouse.
You don't want to know what I think of Life is Beautiful...
I'd hate to go a year between movies with Breaking and Entering as the last one viewed. Not the worst, but a whole year...
As for Clark, well, Death takes a holiday, and so do obit writers. He was killed while I was off-duty. But up till A Christmas Story he was doing fine; his other Christmas story, the original Black Christmas, is an unnerving thriller, as are the earlier Deathdream (Vietnam horror) and a movie that scared the hell out of me and my sister when we were kids, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (what a title--and this was a cut, commercial-plagued TV print we were watching). Murder by Decree is a noteworthy Holmes and Watson picture with Christopher Plummer and James Mason on the case, and Porky's was a rite of passage at my high school. But he really crested with A Christmas Story, and couldn't build on the momentum. One movie everyone adores, however, is an achievement.
And RIP as well to Roscoe Lee Browne, Calvin Lockhart, Stan Daniels, Barry Nelson, set designer George Jenkins, and the writer who helped many an adolescent make some sense of the adult world ahead, Kurt Vonnegut.
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