I Can't Handle It: Re-Examining A Few Good Men and the Writing of Aaron Sorkin [Lex]

A film school professor of mine often asked, “What is a movie you are supposed to like but cannot stand?” His answer: Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. He found the main character Guido execrable, and all of Fellini’s magical realism could not cast a spell to overcome his dislike of the lead.

There are many foreign, art, and independent films I know I am supposed to admire. But let’s face it: you need a lot of patience to watch Tarkovsky or Warhol or Cassavetes or Bresson.

In the Hollywood canon of all-time greats, there are movies I find slow or unengaging (Apocalypse Now, The Apartment), but I still respect them.

But after all these years (I graduated film school in 199, there has been no highly praised movie I could not abide. Until recently.

And that is A Few Good Men.
***

Enmity did not come right away. Released in 1991, I do not remember having strong feelings either way about A Few Good Men. Like most, the story intrigued and entertained me.

On the surface, everything about the picture meets the highest standards of film-making. It took me some time, however, to realize the writing does not.

How can I say the writing in A Few Good Men is anything but first class? After all, Hollywood darling Aaron Sorkin penned the screenplay. He is perhaps the best known industry writer since William Goldman.

The characters and dialogue in the movie stand out as some of Hollywood's most memorable, and countless screenwriting programs, seminars, and textbooks hold up the script as something to emulate.

But A Few Good Men is insincere and manipulative.

Strong words I know, but allow me to present my case, your honor.
***
The film begins at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where two Marines administer a beating to a fellow Marine, who later dies. We cut from the attack to Washington D.C, where we see a flapping American flag followed by some fascinating rifle exercises—both set against upbeat, martial music. Seems harmless, but there is already mocking of the military underway. A ghastly assault and an immediate cut to the flag coupled with pomp and circumstance.

Walking past the rifle exercises is Lt. Commander Galloway (played by Demi Moore). A JAG lawyer, she wants to defend the two accused Marines and seeks permission from her superiors to be assigned the case.

No doubt the Captain of this unit is a sexist jerk, but when Galloway first walks in and he offers her a seat, she stupidly refuses it. After being treated like a little girl, her superiors assign the case to Lt. Caffey (Tom Cruise), believing she is too inexperienced to be the lead defense counsel.

We meet Caffey at a softball practice. A prosecuting attorney is there to discuss a case because Caffey did not bother to show up at his office. Caffey belittles the prosecutor while simultaneously plea-bargaining and hitting grounders.

Of course, it is more interesting to have this scene play out on a softball field as opposed to a stuffy office, but the opening sequence sets the table for the entire film where everyone treats everyone else contemptuously or dismissively or confrontationally—and almost always without good reason.

This tone is what caused me to turn on the film after repeated viewings. Sorkin has the characters behave the way he wants them to, for his own purposes, not how they should organically be for themselves.

Only someone writing with an agenda would craft characters and dialogue this way. Did Sorkin’s committed leftism perhaps drive him to write an anti-Corps movie? Or maybe he prefers this style and understands glib and confrontational characters will always strike a chord with audiences.

It is not my goal to see into his mind, and there is certainly nothing wrong with an agenda-driven script. I am only stating my reaction to it upon repeated viewings, and I believe it is far overpraised due to its callowness.

I am not going to breakdown the rest of the movie. I am working on the assumption most cinephiles have seen A Few Good Men. But I do not have to describe any more of the film because the important thing to note is its tone, which, to me, comes from a place of cynicism and almost never waivers from this inauthentic posture.

Caffey treats everyone with nauseating ennui. His co-counsel, Lt. Weinberg (Kevin Pollack) is an insouciant wiseass. The two accused men, Corporal Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and PFC Downey (James Marshall) are both unbelievably robotic even in the face of the charges against them. Caffey talks down to Dawson and Downey, while they are, respectively, stubborn and moronic.

When we ultimately meet the senior Marine officers at Guantanamo Bay—Lt. Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland), Lt. Col. Markinson (J.T. Walsh), and of course the infamous Col. Jessup (Jack Nicholson)—who set the crime in motion, there is not even the pretense of depicting them as sane men.

Spoiler alert in case you are one of the few who have not seen the film. The senior officers ordered Dawson and Downey to carry out the assault that led to the death of their fellow Marine. Besides being unrepentant sadists—leaving out Markinson who wants to do the right thing but is too weak to push back—the three officers seem to loathe one another and goad each other with threats and disparagement.

All I have described occurs in the first twenty minutes of the movie, and it does not change for the next two hours.
***
Were A Few Good Men a parody or satire, this tenor might be more understandable, but it is a straightly played drama, so its defining quality is sheer manipulation.
What am I talking about? All storytelling is manipulation to a certain degree.

When we watch a movie, we suspend our disbelief that the actors are pretending. We are all open to manipulation as consumers of any story. Yet there is a point at which this deference is beyond rescue.

I have friends who are perfectly happy with even the stupidest iteration of the Fast and Furious characters. Over the course of the franchise, the characters went from street-car mechanics to space shuttle pilots, and that does not seem to bother some.

In A Few Good Men, we are not dealing with an offbeat or even absurdist gestalt where human behavior as we know it might not apply. Instead, the film styles itself as an accurate depiction of the Marine Corps—JAG officers in particular. The technical details are flawless, but the portrayal of the characters and the dialogue undercut any fealty to the milieu.
***
If you look at most of Sorkin’s work, this is not an isolated case. From his TV series (The West Wing and The Newsroom), and other films such as The American President –perhaps the most cloying and pretentious in his oeuvre—Sorkin cannot seem to help himself. All of his heroes (and antagonists) are over-stylized to the point where their personas and behavior do not feel authentic to the world they inhabit.

To Sorkin’s credit, he is very crafty about hiding his bias and tactics in A Few Good Men. I think that is why the film does not catch as much flak as it should. Because his sleight-of-hand fools viewers—and I counted myself in this category for a long time. He is distracting you with slick dialogue, oodles of conflict, and plot twists. In this sense, he has done a great job as a writer, but at least I, for one, must reveal the prestidigitation is just that.
***
What exactly changed my view of this movie? How did I come to see that A Few Good Men is an unserious fantasy instead of the hard hitting drama most believe it to be?

I do not believe it is my political leanings, which are conservative. A Few Good Men is decidedly anti-Marine Corps, but I greatly admire Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, and those movies are also not kind when it comes to their depiction of the Corps or the armed forces.

However, while these films are unsparing in their criticism of the military, one never gets the feeling the writers, directors, or producers have inserted themselves into the drama. It does not seem to be enough for Sorkin to tell the story of a crime committed in the ranks of the Marine Corps. In A Few Good Men he wants his voice to be part of that story as well, and it just does not wash.

And if it is not politics, I think my beef with the movie is more a personal reckoning with Hollywood. Not only is the industry a system that creates myths on screen but also off it. Hagiography has always been part of the game, but Sorkin and others have been over-hyped to the extent the system cannot admit it has been reckless with its king-making.

This is especially true when a film earns a lot of money or wins awards. Think ‘The New York Times’ winning Pulitzers for reporting on Russian collusion. It would take profound humility to confess to being gullible, or, worse, culpable, so the path of least resistance is to go along with the conventional wisdom that A Few Good Men is a work of brilliance.

Or perhaps I always had these reservations and did not want to be that guy: the one who is hating on everyone else’s darling. But no longer. I am calling A Few Good Men to the stand where I am exposing it for the juvenile piece of work it is.

I am not sure my film professor had quite this length and breadth of explanation in mind when he posed the question about movies you are supposed to like but cannot stand, but I finally, and without hesitation, have been able to submit this one.
What about you? What truth (or movie) can you not handle?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 The only thing people remember from A Few Good Men is Nickleson telling the way too goody two shoes Cruise that he has not idea what he is talking about.

Basically, what everyone takes from the movie is the opposite of what Sorkin wanted.

Posted by: 18-1 at June 14, 2025 07:35 PM (t0Rmr)

2 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away - Serenity is another one. Joss Whedon is no conservative and he wrote a profoundly conservative series/movie

Posted by: 18-1 at June 14, 2025 07:37 PM (t0Rmr)

3
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has been on. I watched to determine whether my opinion of it may have changed with time.

It hasn't. The longest, zaniest, most unfunny film ever.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 07:37 PM (QnmlO)

4 A film school professor...
====

Now hold on just a second...

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 14, 2025 07:40 PM (RIvkX)

5
Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away

_________

The Young Pope. Pius XIII, hell yeah! The guy we need!

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 07:40 PM (QnmlO)

6 Aaron Sorkin himself has apologized for the film, calling it his starter play.

Posted by: MikeN at June 14, 2025 07:40 PM (HVZOH)

7 Good evening everyone
Took a Couple times watching AFGM before realy thought it was a good movie

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 07:40 PM (tl5zd)

8 2...as we all know most Lefties are conservatives in their personal lives. Not one person in Hollywood screaming about ICE is going to give a spare bedroom (in mansions mind you) to an illegal alien.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:40 PM (y4H1r)

9 I was never confused or fooled by 'A Few Good Men'. It is clearly anti-military, it hates the very real rough men...some of whom are indeed assholes, I've met more than a few I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire...that are required to win wars and kill bad guys.

The sole saving grace of the film is Col. Jessup's speech, which is one huge truth bomb. So big, so powerful, that it drags the evil, manipulative movie across the finish line and makes it memorable.

Fuck Aaron Sorkin.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at June 14, 2025 07:41 PM (xcxpd)

10 I've never watched "A Few Good Men" all the way through (or even much beyond the opening), but I think I know what you're talking about. Feeling a bit too slick for its own good.

My choice for "everyone likes it but I don't" would be Saving Private Ryan. Yes, yes, I know, the opening scene at Omaha Beach is epic, but I don't like any of the movie beyond that. As soon as they've secured the beach, I change the channel.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 07:42 PM (jGGMD)

11 Deeper than my take on A Few Good Men, which is similar but shallow. Almost everyone is an ahole in one way or another to everyone else almost all the time. I don't want to watch a movie where I dislike all the major characters on a personal level so all I can root for is something abstract. In A Few Good Men that is for justice to be served. That's not enough when the characters trying to serve justice are so off-putting. I almost want to root for Tom Cruise to lose because his character is such a jerk, but then Jack Nicholson is a psycho. A story like this shouldn't leave you with the choice of rooting for a jerk or a pyscho.

Posted by: deepelemblues at June 14, 2025 07:43 PM (z9n5F)

12 I find that a lot of Conservatives might not agree with what Jessup did but understand and if forced to choose who to support between the Cruise's character and Jessup most would choose Jessup. But to your main points I agree. I have only watched the movie once to get that take.

One movie I need to watch again is Baby Blue Marine with Jan Michael Vincent I watched as a kid. Only thing I remember is him being punished and forced to hold two full buckets with extended arms to his side. He was able to do it by meditating and thinking of something else.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:44 PM (VofaG)

13 9...I wouldn't say I was ever fooled by its bias against the Marine Corps. That much is obvious, but I never really thought about the tone and how unserious the characters are. If you are going to make an anti-Corps movie do it with a little more maturity. FMJ is decidedly anti-Corps but it treats its grotesque characters with some respect. AFGM does not.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:44 PM (y4H1r)

14 Everyone likes Titanic I was loudly rooting for the iceberg.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 14, 2025 07:45 PM (RIvkX)

15 Yes, it sucked. I thought so on first viewing; bad lawyering REALLY irks me and every character was despicable. Tom Cruise was an insufferable blowhard. Demi Moore was a self-righteous feminist twit. Kevin Pollack was furniture and the accused Marines had a combined IQ of 90. I watched the movie again about 15 years later and thought I had been too kind. It's really, really bad. I'm surprised "Hollywood" thinks it's a classic.

Posted by: LASue at June 14, 2025 07:46 PM (lCppi)

16 A story like this shouldn't leave you with the choice of rooting for a jerk or a pyscho.
Posted by: deepelemblues at June 14, 2025 07:43 PM (z9n5F)
===
I rooted for the psycho in Full Metal Jacket

Psychos and icebergs.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 14, 2025 07:47 PM (RIvkX)

17 I’m in the middle of watching Blackhawk Down and find it to be ok.

Posted by: Jack Squat. Bupkis at June 14, 2025 07:47 PM (dQfJF)

18 I hated A Few Good Men. Garbage.

A more succinct critique.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 07:47 PM (0aYVJ)

19 One movie I need to watch again is Baby Blue Marine with Jan Michael Vincent I watched as a kid. Only thing I remember is him being punished and forced to hold two full buckets with extended arms to his side. He was able to do it by meditating and thinking of something else.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:44 PM (VofaG)

I remember that punishment, too, but mostly that Jan-Michael Vincent was extremely cute. But his adult years were pretty sad.

Posted by: LASue at June 14, 2025 07:48 PM (lCppi)

20 10...I agree on Saving Private Ryan. I hadn't seen it in many years and watched again. After the Omaha Beach scenes, it gets a little dumb. The soldiers disobey Hanks for some reason in a French village and get killed. I didn't remember that and upon watching it again was like what????

Movies can look great but be awful. In fact, most are. Saving Private Ryan might be another one where the action and technical details are spot on but the script lacking.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:48 PM (y4H1r)

21 14. Titanic got James Cameron awards he more richly deserved for The Terminator. I'll take the love story of Reese and Sarah Connor over Jack and Rose any day.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:49 PM (y4H1r)

22 Ever here of captain Dreyfus? Battle of Algiers the people act the way they should.

Posted by: raimondo at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (krmyC)

23 A nice post, Lex. I've only seen the movie once. Yeah, I understand Cruise is supposed to be some hero, but although a bad guy, Jessup is the one who keeps people safe, not the cocky Caffey.

It seems Cruise's portrayal of JAG is the first step in the (cover your eyes, ladies) pussification of the armed forces. This led directly to the hesitancy to prosecute the war in Iraq and other places. If you have to run to ask permission to eliminate your enemy, you've already lost.

As to your question, the only one I can think of is Unforgiven. Why? Because Munny failed. He turned back into a murderous man. I didn't like the ending. Beautiful film, but I never want to watch it again.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (0eaVi)

24 I find Mel Brooks movies meh. Only one I've watched more than once is Blazing Saddles and it was less funny to me on second viewing. This is definitely a minority view.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (VofaG)

25 Film school, huh? Well... OK.

I believe A Few Good Men was a play before it was a movie. Don't know how similar or dissimilar the two are.

As times passes, I think more and more people appreciate the Jack Nicholson speech, even though they tried hard to make him appear off his rocker..

Posted by: Ex Rex Reeder at June 14, 2025 07:51 PM (MZ+PY)

26 OTOH, the AFGM parody on The Ben Stiller Show in the late '80s is a classic. Though Stiller is a leftist twit.

Posted by: Kreskin at June 14, 2025 07:51 PM (zNDRB)

27 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has been on. I watched to determine whether my opinion of it may have changed with time.

It hasn't. The longest, zaniest, most unfunny film ever.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 07:37 PM (QnmlO)

I think it's just a last gasp for some old time actors getting a last hurrah. I don't hate it, but it's not that good. Too long, as well.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:51 PM (0eaVi)

28 I hated the Titanic too. I thought it was absolutely stupid.

Posted by: Gonzotx at June 14, 2025 07:52 PM (nGraA)

29 I rooted for the iceberg too. I took the under.

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at June 14, 2025 07:52 PM (7leMO)

30 I find Mel Brooks movies meh. Only one I've watched more than once is Blazing Saddles and it was less funny to me on second viewing. This is definitely a minority view.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (VofaG)

I will never not find Blazing Saddles funny, if only for the line "Acting like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!"

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 07:52 PM (jGGMD)

31 Written by sorkin produced by meathead back when he was useful

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 14, 2025 07:53 PM (bXbFr)

32 Two other movies most think are great that I find just meh.

Field of Dreams
The Big Lebowski

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:53 PM (VofaG)

33 If you have to run to ask permission to eliminate your enemy, you've already lost. /i]

One of the oddest moments of the WoT was the military bringing a medic up on charges when he tried to help a wounded jihadi and said jihadi attacked him with a knife and the medic killed him in the fight.

The government leaned on the other soldiers to roll over on their compatriot and one agreed on the terms that he got a full and complete pardon. Said compatriot then went on to the stand and said that in fact HE killed the jihadi, destroying the government's case.

But...what the hell? The military's job was to kill jihadis, and a knife wielding one is obviously a perfectly normal target...

Posted by: 18-1 at June 14, 2025 07:54 PM (t0Rmr)

34 I find Mel Brooks movies meh. Only one I've watched more than once is Blazing Saddles and it was less funny to me on second viewing. This is definitely a minority view.

I rewatched Space Balls recently and it holds up...

Posted by: 18-1 at June 14, 2025 07:54 PM (t0Rmr)

35 Hey, All. Went to a play this afternoon in DC. There was a land acknowledgement in the program.

It was otherwise an outstanding production.

Posted by: Bulg at June 14, 2025 07:54 PM (77rzZ)

36 I don't watch Saving Private Ryan after the first 30 minutes anymore. Actually watched a YouTube video critic on it the other day. It's not 100% accurate

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 07:54 PM (tl5zd)

37 Caffey was apparently based on david yglesias who ended up a jeek us atty in new mexico

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 14, 2025 07:54 PM (bXbFr)

38
Two other movies most think are great that I find just meh.

_________

Bull Durham. Wotta load of cobblers.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 07:55 PM (QnmlO)

39 B's this week
Red Blood, Yellow Gold - 1967
Chorizo /S.W. filmed in Spain. Basically the Dirty Dozen plot. Edd Byrne's of 77 Sunset Strip fame and George Hilton star. George was in many spaghetti westerns as well has a handful of gailli.
Riot on Sunset Strip - 1967
Ironically I watched this Saturday when the Newsome, Bass riots were gaining steam. Saw no riot, more like slightly irritated hippies on the Strip. However, Mimsy Farmer's acid dance is not to be missed.
The Dirt Gang - 1972
Early 70's American International flick. They don't ride "hogs". They terrorize on motocross dirt bikes.Still a very violent and disgusting crew. Supposedly George Miller got some ideas for Mad Max from the Dirt Gang.

Posted by: Milotull, B movie guy at June 14, 2025 07:56 PM (iL+fp)

40 The Producers is ridiculous, but hilarious.

Brooks at his best.

Posted by: Bulg at June 14, 2025 07:56 PM (77rzZ)

41 Sen chief gallagher was the one scapegoated there

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (bXbFr)

42 Whenever I see Cruise all I can think is faggot squirt. Hardly a heroic figure.

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (7leMO)

43 As to your question, the only one I can think of is Unforgiven. Why? Because Munny failed. He turned back into a murderous man. I didn't like the ending. Beautiful film, but I never want to watch it again.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (0ea

Not that you are incorrect but did you consider he thought his killing for hire was for a just cause this time and only reason he agreed?

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (VofaG)

44 23. Thanks Orange Ent (for the comments and the assist).

I'd say in script terms, they thought they needed to give Caffey some kind of arc. Everyone else stays the same throughout the movie but Caffey undergoes an evolution from. It's a lame evolution in this case but the kind of thing they teach you in script 101.

When I wrote this I also thought about 12 Angry Men and how the jury goes from believing the defendant is guilty to innocent. AFGM decided to strike the posture that we already know of Jessup's guilt and Caffey has to get it out of him.

But that makes it feel more like an episode of Columbo than a revered feature film.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (y4H1r)

45 Avatar
Interstellar
Oppenheimer

Posted by: Ib1netmon at June 14, 2025 07:59 PM (vTTFR)

46 I find Mel Brooks movies meh. Only one I've watched more than once is Blazing Saddles and it was less funny to me on second viewing. This is definitely a minority view.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (VofaG)

Brooks films need a second or third viewing to get all the jokes, same as Police Squad/Naked Gun. I watched History of the World, Part I quite a few times, and I keep noticing something I missed each time before.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:59 PM (0eaVi)

47 Good Will Hunting

Posted by: Christopher Kiesel at June 14, 2025 07:59 PM (rhoT8)

48
Buster Olney and his stupid bow tie.

Bow ties look good only on 7-year-olds and puppies. And some women.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:00 PM (QnmlO)

49 When I saw Titanic in the theater, during the final death/dream sequence I could hear people audibly sobbing all around me. Everybody bags on it now for its historical inaccuracy and emotional manipulation, but you can't deny that Cameron knows how to push the buttons.

Posted by: Toad-0 at June 14, 2025 08:01 PM (SkxTr)

50 Unforgiven.
Supposedly one of Clint Eastwood's best and one of the best Westerns.

Every single thing in it is a cliche.
It's like they threw at a dartboard before they filmed each scene.

Posted by: Sorry, not a winner at June 14, 2025 08:01 PM (tprJm)

51 Speaking of Brooks, I keep seeing things about SPACEBALLS 2. Is that for real or a prank?

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:01 PM (y4H1r)

52 I'm not a fan of any of Coen Brothers movies except Miller's Crossing . I even like the original True Grit more than the Coen Brothers.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:02 PM (VofaG)

53 I'm watching the Army's 250th Birthday Parade. I have to say that, as someone who has served, and whose ancestors served in the US military since the Revolution, this is one boring parade.

Posted by: Archer at June 14, 2025 08:03 PM (IDphi)

54 I find Unforgiven watchable but it's probably my least favorite Eastwood western.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:04 PM (VofaG)

55 I hadn't really noticed how one dimensional the characters were until I read this. The courtroom scenes with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson were so good I never really analyzed how unrealistic and needlessly hostile the lead up to that was.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at June 14, 2025 08:04 PM (3wi/L)

56 I think Coen Brothers best movie was their first, Blood Simple. A perfect blend of noir and farce.

Posted by: Toad-0 at June 14, 2025 08:05 PM (SkxTr)

57 55...yes, I think that's what inspired me to write this post. I didn't think much about it when I first saw it but upon repeat viewings was like why would Jessup and Kendrick behave in such an obviously guilty and hostile way? But then every character behaves in such a phony way I was like this whole movie is wrong.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (y4H1r)

58 Just finished streaming the parade, that was pretty good.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (e15Ap)

59 Best Coen Brothers movie? Simple. Raising Arizona.

Posted by: Archer at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (IDphi)

60 I remember that Jan Michael Vincent TV movie.

I thought the title was, "Tribes," with Darrin McGavin as the sarge?

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (i0F8b)

61 Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:59 PM (0eaVi)

It's the vaudeville type jokes that I find meh. Admittedly there are some good one liners quotes that I used many times in college and few years after.

Lot of my friends were jokingly referred to as piss boy on occasion.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (VofaG)

62 Best Coen brothers - oh Brother where art thou. Second place, the Big Lebowski. 3rd raising Arizona.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:09 PM (e15Ap)

63 Desert Hearts is supposed to be THE lesbian film. The sex scene is incredible, but to actually think that anything before or after is the predecessor of aftermath to a real relationship between these two women is ridiculous.

Posted by: Nothing special at June 14, 2025 08:10 PM (o1rI2)

64 Good Will Hunting, beautifully acted and filmed. Utterly boring and predictable at all times. Not a single surprising or even mildly obvious course of action is ever taken.

Posted by: Abzod at June 14, 2025 08:10 PM (0X8xl)

65 I like most of the Coen Brothers films, some more than others. My two favorites are Raising Arizona and O Brother Where Art Thou.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 08:11 PM (0aYVJ)

66 I remember that Jan Michael Vincent TV movie.

I thought the title was, "Tribes," with Darrin McGavin as the sarge?
Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (i0F8b)

I couldn't remember the name so I looked it up before I posted. Baby Blue Marine is what the intertubes gave me unless I read it wrong. You could be right.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:11 PM (VofaG)

67 Not that you are incorrect but did you consider he thought his killing for hire was for a just cause this time and only reason he agreed?
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (VofaG)

It may have been in his mind, but I don't think what he did was right. Ok, the girl had her face scarred. She was offered a horse and money, I think, but that wasn't good enough. She was a prostitute. Looking at the town, women were scarce. Scar on face or not, a lonely cowboy off a trail drive would take her anyway. Munny's killing of all those he faced was too excessive for what happened. He lost what he wanted to become and raged at the whole town that he'd come back and kill anyone who tried to get rid of the hookers. Doesn't seem just to me. Buy, that's just what I think.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:11 PM (0eaVi)

68 Desert Hearts is supposed to be THE lesbian film. The sex scene is incredible, but to actually think that anything before or after is the predecessor of aftermath to a real relationship between these two women is ridiculous.
Posted by: Nothing special at June 14, 2025 08:10 PM (o1rI2)

Bound is the bestest lezbo movie.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:12 PM (VofaG)

69 The Lt Kendrick role was envisioned and written by some Hollywood idiot with no idea about the military. Completely cartoonish. COL Jessup wasn't much better.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 14, 2025 08:12 PM (W/lyH)

70 64...haha. In my first pass at this post, I had a section about Good Will Hunting. It was a whole tangent on how Affleck/Damon were hyped as writers to get them to A list status as actors (they never really wrote much afterwards). And so I thought the same thing with Sorkin. AFGM is oftentimes more about praise for Sorkin to promote his legend when if you look more closely you see he's not as gifted as he appears to be.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:13 PM (y4H1r)

71 I remember that punishment, too, but mostly that Jan-Michael Vincent was extremely cute. But his adult years were pretty sad.

Posted by: LASue

I distinctly remember being required to hold my 9.5 pound dummy M1 garand rifle directly out in front of me perpendicular to the floor, along with the rest of my company, at Navy OCS in Newport RI in 1988. That damn thing got heavy after a few minutes.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 14, 2025 08:13 PM (/RHNq)

72 Lex, thanks for letting me read it and give you a critique.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:13 PM (0eaVi)

73 Nice analysis, Lex.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 14, 2025 08:13 PM (/RHNq)

74 Lol

I have been scrolling up through the comments after a horrible day. So many comments about unrealistic movies. And bad movies.

I have seen so few movies but feel free to come on to my lawn, grab a few beers and make yourself comfortable.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:13 PM (jvJvP)

75 Fist bump, pug. Oh Brother I can watch over and over, because it’s more like listening to one of my favorite albums.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (e15Ap)

76 Ahhh, "The Tribe." Vincent plays a hippie drafted. 1970, pre- Baby Blue.

https://tinyurl.com/4859k9b3

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (i0F8b)

77 I’m one of the people who never saw A Few Good Men. I guess I never will.
I’m wondering how it compares to another movie, based on a book by a veteran, James Jones: From Here to Eternity.
The military certainly didn’t get the glamour treatment in that one either.

Posted by: kallisto at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (IfXe7)

78 A Few Good Men with Maverick the JAG was…meh. I didn’t care for it and found the ending super abrupt.

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (vm8sq)

79 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (zZu0s)

80 Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:11 PM (0eaVi)

It was the time and place. Can't judge it on today's morals/cultural norm. Hard times and hard men in real life during that period.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:15 PM (VofaG)

81 Speaking of Brooks, I keep seeing things about SPACEBALLS 2. Is that for real or a prank?
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:01 PM (y4H1r)

Why not both?

He's not writing or directing it, just plans to make an appearance as Yogurt. Think I'll pass on it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:15 PM (0eaVi)

82 250th Army birthday has been a blast.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 08:15 PM (LHPAg)

83 Fist bump, pug. Oh Brother I can watch over and over, because it’s more like listening to one of my favorite albums.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (e15Ap)

Great cast overall, but Tim Blake Nelson was absolutely brilliant.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 08:16 PM (0aYVJ)

84 I like watching Tartovsky and Bresson, but I admit it requires a special mindset. Like Antonioni. You have to watch them in a different way than other films. They're almost like experimental films in a way.

Movies considered masterpieces that I can watch but I think are really overrated:

"The Empire Strikes Back." There, I said it.

"Aliens." Ground Zero for "woke" films.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 14, 2025 08:17 PM (CHHv1)

85 'A Few Good Men' has not aged well with me either.

Meanwhile....a movie from roughly the same era;

'Falling Down' has only gotten better with time. A lot more nuanced film than is noticed at first.

First World Problems: I use YoutubeTV for my golf/racing obscessive watching. The 24 Hours of LeMans is this weekend on MototrendTV. I'm recording it. Or was. It's not recording. Apparently, YT or MTTV, changed the name of event on the 'DVR' guide. Now it's not recording. First World Problems are annoying. The 24Hr LeMans will get uploaded on regular Youtube in a couple of weeks. Still.....grumblegrumblegrumble.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:17 PM (C26rB)

86 When I wrote this I also thought about 12 Angry Men and how the jury goes from believing the defendant is guilty to innocent. AFGM decided to strike the posture that we already know of Jessup's guilt and Caffey has to get it out of him.

But that makes it feel more like an episode of Columbo than a revered feature film.
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 07:57 PM (y4H1r)

12 Angry Men is another movie I've increasingly disliked over time. Really enjoyed it when I first saw it, but since then it's seemed increasingly cliche and unrealistic. I had a lawyer acquaintance who said Fonda's character would've been kicked off the jury the moment he pulled that stunt with the knife.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 08:17 PM (jGGMD)

87 2 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away - Serenity is another one. Joss Whedon is no conservative and he wrote a profoundly conservative series/movie
Posted by: 18-1

Or TV shows.

'The Wire'.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (C26rB)

88 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (zZu0s)

I don't mind watching those gangster/mafia movies but I hate that they make them into something of a hero or brave or other positive traits.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (VofaG)

89 I think in the case of SPR and FMJ, both become ordinary war movies after extraordinary openings.

Whenever the Military Crimes has done a survey on the best war movies, those are #1 and #2, consistently.

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (vm8sq)

90 I’ve really watching the parade and commentaries this afternoon.

DJT has great instincts. He is the right man at the right time.

Posted by: SnakePlizzken at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (G0Od/)

91
Stateless,
We can't fully know or share your struggles but all we Hordians are pulling for you and are happy to listen and try to make you feel you don't have to carry your burden alone.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (QnmlO)

92 Movies are after books on the list.

Thanks for saving me a ton of time....

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (jvJvP)

93 The only reason to keep watching Private Ryan after D-Day is the for the sniper guy (Barry Pepper). I want to say the character's name was Shifty but I think that was the sniper in BoB.

And I watched the parade and enjoyed it.

Posted by: Gem at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (e85zz)

94 I still like 12 Angry Men, but it is too obvious how each juror is a 'type.' In reality, the jurors would mostly be cut from the same cloth, not one white collar, one blue collar, one a racist, one an immigrant, one Whinne the Pooh

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (y4H1r)

95 88 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (zZu0s)

I don't mind watching those gangster/mafia movies but I hate that they make them into something of a hero or brave or other positive traits.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (VofaG)

Encapsulated here is why I do not watch “mob movies” for the most part.

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (vm8sq)

96 Whatshisname with Rorschach.

Like the character, still hate the comic.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:20 PM (zZu0s)

97 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (zZu0s)

I really like Godfather but not Part II, which is opposite to most people I know.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 08:20 PM (jGGMD)

98 Ahhh, "The Tribe." Vincent plays a hippie drafted. 1970, pre- Baby Blue.

https://tinyurl.com/4859k9b3
Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (i0F8b)

Was that the one where he held the buckets up?

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:20 PM (VofaG)

99 I never like AFGM. Granted, when i saw it I was pretty young, and not a film school major, but it just never rang true from even the first viewing. And aside from Nicholson's speech at the end, I really don't recall any of it.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at June 14, 2025 08:21 PM (DIweC)

100
this is one boring parade.

ALL parades are boring.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at June 14, 2025 08:21 PM (63Dwl)

101 87 2 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away - Serenity is another one. Joss Whedon is no conservative and he wrote a profoundly conservative series/movie
Posted by: 18-1

Or TV shows.

'The Wire'.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (C26rB)

I still can’t get over the fact that Hollywood permitted the making of The Killing Fields.

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 08:21 PM (vm8sq)

102 Lot of my friends were jokingly referred to as piss boy on occasion.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:08 PM (VofaG)

Speaking of the piss boy....

There was one scene where Count De Monet is about to take Jacques away to make him up as Louis, and you see Bernaise in the background standing by a statue. He pulls away and you see a guy on his hands and knees behind the statue while Bernaise puts his hat in front of his crotch. I wonder if the actor was getting a blow job, or was having his costume repaired? Once you see it, you always will.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:21 PM (0eaVi)

103 Agree on Saving Private Ryan. After the beach is secured, its all just tripe after that.

I hated Titanic with a hate of a thousand burning suns.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:22 PM (C26rB)

104 I’ve really enjoyed watching the parade and commentaries this afternoon.

DJT has great instincts. He is the right man at the right time.

Posted by: SnakePlizzken at June 14, 2025 08:22 PM (G0Od/)

105 98 Ahhh, "The Tribe." Vincent plays a hippie drafted. 1970, pre- Baby Blue.

https://tinyurl.com/4859k9b3
Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (i0F8b)

Was that the one where he held the buckets up?

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:20 PM (VofaG)

That's where I remember the bucket punishment from. He taught the meditation trick to a fellow recruit, a weakling, and flustered the sarge.

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:23 PM (i0F8b)

106 101. The Sicario movies are solid, and ones I can't believe Hollywood allowed to be made. It proves Trump right for every second of each film.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:23 PM (y4H1r)

107 Desert Hearts is supposed to be THE lesbian film. The sex scene is incredible, but to actually think that anything before or after is the predecessor of aftermath to a real relationship between these two women is ridiculous.
Posted by: Nothing special at June 14, 2025 08:10 PM (o1rI2)

Bound is the bestest lezbo movie.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:12 PM (VofaG)

Somebody ask Ace.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:23 PM (0eaVi)

108 Highly recommended war film that is relatively unknown.

Between Heaven and Hell with Robert Wagner.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:24 PM (VofaG)

109 As a Marine, I'm biased. But a movie where the lawyers who are all assholes are supposed to be the 'heroes'?? Come on man. Of course COL Jessup was instantly a hero to all actual Marines

Posted by: Stacy0311 at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (gwujb)

110
Sorkin caters to every liberal prejudice: all liberals are brilliant and kind and all conservatives are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals without a conscience.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (QnmlO)

111 That's where I remember the bucket punishment from. He taught the meditation trick to a fellow recruit, a weakling, and flustered the sarge.
Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:23 PM (i0F8b)

Thanks for the correction 👍

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (VofaG)

112 There is an interesting corollary truth that goes with A Few Good Men and The American President - Rob Reiner.

If you check the films he has directed, before he did those two, with North in between them, the movies are excellent, from This is Spinal Tap to Misery.

And then he got political.

Those two and North benefit from his past accomplishments and are merely considered weak, but after that you have to dig to find anything that is only blah and not outright terrible.

At least until his most recent pair. One has high ratings simply because it is raw TDS. The other, an homage to his friend Albert Brooks, would appear to be the only truly good thing Reiner has done in over 30 years. We shall have to wait to see what he does with Spinal Tap 2.

All because Reiner dipped into politics and it ruined everything, including simple buddy flicks and rom coms.

Posted by: Sam at June 14, 2025 08:26 PM (7jMef)

113 Other war movies I enjoyed include Tae Guk Gi (from the ROK of course) and A Bridge Too Far.

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 08:27 PM (vm8sq)

114 79 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone

It insists upon itself.

Posted by: Peter Griffin at June 14, 2025 08:27 PM (C26rB)

115 It was the time and place. Can't judge it on today's morals/cultural norm. Hard times and hard men in real life during that period.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:15 PM (VofaG)

Oh, I'm aware of judging yesterday by today's morality. But, it's a modern film, so I think it can be judged that way. Also, no matter how good a gunman he was, he's definitely older and slower, and the fact he guns down so many people is a bit unbelievable.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:27 PM (0eaVi)

116 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away - Serenity is another one. Joss Whedon is no conservative and he wrote a profoundly conservative series/movie
Posted by: 18-1

Or TV shows.

Family Ties

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:28 PM (VofaG)

117 The most disappointing movie for me (mainly because I loved the first one) was the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.
It should of been so much better.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 14, 2025 08:28 PM (W/lyH)

118 Stateless,
We can't fully know or share your struggles but all we Hordians are pulling for you and are happy to listen and try to make you feel you don't have to carry your burden alone.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:19 PM (QnmlO

Thank you so much.

My goal is to pull through and be a blessing to other members of the Horde. Any inspirational movies like that? You should have seen the disturbing movies I watched in Mom's last month. Messed up stuff.

Still. Bad year. Pulling through though.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:29 PM (jvJvP)

119 23 the (cover your eyes, ladies) pussification of the armed forces.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (0eaVi)

A subset of the p-fication of men in general.

And who did it start with?
Arthur Lake! I blame Arthur Lake. And Jerry Lewis. And dis -honorable mention to Don Knotts.

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at June 14, 2025 08:29 PM (Oa7o7)

120 he most disappointing movie for me (mainly because I loved the first one) was the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.
It should of been so much better.
Posted by: Diogenes at June 14, 2025 08:28 PM (W/lyH)

Keanu screwed up on that one.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:29 PM (VofaG)

121 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme or take away - Serenity is another one. Joss Whedon is no conservative and he wrote a profoundly conservative series/movie
Posted by: 18-1

Or TV shows.

Family Ties
Posted by: polynikes

All in the Family.

Posted by: Tonypete at June 14, 2025 08:31 PM (cYBz/)

122 109 As a Marine, I'm biased. But a movie where the lawyers who are all assholes are supposed to be the 'heroes'?? Come on man. Of course COL Jessup was instantly a hero to all actual Marines
Posted by: Stacy0311 at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (gwujb)
I only saw a few scenes Few Good Men, but I agree 100% with your take.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 08:31 PM (LHPAg)

123 70
'praise for Sorkin to promote his legend when if you look more closely you see he's not as gifted as he appears to be.'

He's a gifted propagandist for the left.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at June 14, 2025 08:31 PM (3wi/L)

124
I can't begin to enumerate the flaws of A Few Good Men. Anyway, one is multiple "finales" or "final revelations." One of the most ridiculous was something like "We were supposed to help the little guy" or something stupid like that.

Rob Reiner has always been as garbage a storyteller as Nora Ephron. In fact, he may have more estrogen than her, even though she's dead.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at June 14, 2025 08:31 PM (wbZPZ)

125 109 As a Marine, I'm biased. But a movie where the lawyers who are all assholes are supposed to be the 'heroes'?? Come on man. Of course COL Jessup was instantly a hero to all actual Marines
Posted by: Stacy0311 at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (

Thank you!

Any movie or tv show where the lawyers or journalists are heroes makes me laugh. But I don't see a lot of movies or dramas.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:32 PM (jvJvP)

126 I remember enjoying the movie well enough. Not enough to want to rewatch it but that is true of a lot of movies "with a twist".

De gustibus non est disputandum, so they say.

Posted by: toby928 at June 14, 2025 08:32 PM (+EG6t)

127 The English Patient always sucked..... I HATED IT!!!

Posted by: Elaine Benes at June 14, 2025 08:33 PM (7szT/)

128 I still say Travolta's movie From Paris with Love is the least woke movie in the past 20 years.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:33 PM (VofaG)

129 The English Patient always sucked..... I HATED IT!!!
Posted by: Elaine Benes at June 14, 2025 08:33 PM (7szT/)

Heh. This reminds me that I have that movie on DVD in my collection, still in its shrink-wrap. I may actually watch it someday. See if Elaine is right.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 08:34 PM (0aYVJ)

130 And who did it start with?
Arthur Lake! I blame Arthur Lake. And Jerry Lewis. And dis -honorable mention to Don Knotts.

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at June 14, 2025 08:29 PM (Oa7o7)

Don't forget the man who is the icon for all men like that, Caspar Milquetoast.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:35 PM (0eaVi)

131 Thank you, Lex, for letting me read this early.

It's a really good piece.

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 08:35 PM (GBKbO)

132 129 The English Patient always sucked..... I HATED IT!!!
Posted by: Elaine Benes at June 14, 2025 08:33 PM (7szT/)

Heh. This reminds me that I have that movie on DVD in my collection, still in its shrink-wrap. I may actually watch it someday. See if Elaine is right.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 08:34 PM (0aYVJ)

====

She is.

But the movie won't hurt you. Watch and find out yourself.

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 08:36 PM (GBKbO)

133 Probably not a popular opinion, but Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven isn’t a patch on the ass of The Outlaw Josey Wales. The depth of characterization, the dialogue, and the cinematography of TOJW blows Unforgiven out of the water. Eastwood should have won the Oscar for Wales, but, of course, the Academy members just KNEW he was a troglodyte purveyor of Dirty Harry and “monkey movies” as Gil Scott Heron put it.

TOJW was the real deal. I’m not against Eastwood’s later work. Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino are fantastic pictures. I just always thought Wales was vastly under appreciated.

Posted by: Chris Sheehy at June 14, 2025 08:36 PM (lUCTG)

134 Of course COL Jessup was instantly a hero to all actual Marines
Posted by: Stacy0311 at June 14, 2025 08:25 PM (gwujb)

Here's the obviously problem with the movie: If this were real, of course Jessup would be a monster, and a very stupid one at that. Who would be dumb enough to incriminate himself on the witness stand, just so he could tell off a snot nosed lawyer?

Not a real Marine Colonel.

But as a cartoon, he's fine, he's the hero. We can listen to his speech and say "yeah, you tell 'im."

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:36 PM (lH8E4)

135 All in the Family.
Posted by: Tonypete at June 14, 2025 08:31 PM (cYBz/)

What about all of the black and white rural shows before they transferred everyrhing to the big city? I'd argue conservative but would have to go back to gather evidence.

'Petticoat Junction?'

Damn, it!
If someone here has to do this....

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:37 PM (jvJvP)

136 Any movie or tv show where the lawyers or journalists are heroes makes me laugh. But I don't see a lot of movies or dramas.
Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:32 PM (jvJvP)

May I suggest My Cousin Vinny?

Just snarking. I understand what you mean.

You reminded me though that I need to watch Justice for All again to see if he was a 'hero'.

I admit I thoroughly enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:37 PM (VofaG)

137 Lawyer movies I like: Of course My Cousin Vinnie, but the John Grisham film “The Client” is very good also - Tommy Lee Jones & Susan Sarandon. Tommy Lee is great, as always.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:37 PM (e15Ap)

138 AFGM was only notable for making JAG and the NCIS franchise happen. Sorkin made a fortune for another writer/producer.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at June 14, 2025 08:37 PM (p2GXS)

139 Eastwood should have won the Oscar for Wales, but, of course, the Academy members just KNEW he was a troglodyte purveyor of Dirty Harry and “monkey movies” as Gil Scott Heron put it.

Chief Dan George always steals the show in a movie.

Posted by: toby928 at June 14, 2025 08:38 PM (+EG6t)

140 >>> But let's face it: you need a lot of patience to watch Tarkovsky or Warhol or Cassavetes or Bresson.

Gotta disagree with you a bit on Cassavetes. I know what you mean though. His arty stuff does take patience, often more than I possess. But, he has made other films that are great. Best example: Gloria.

Admittedly, he made that one for the money, so he suppressed his natural inclinations.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at June 14, 2025 08:38 PM (p4nXC)

141 133 Probably not a popular opinion, but Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven isn’t a patch on the ass of The Outlaw Josey Wales. The depth of characterization, the dialogue, and the cinematography of TOJW blows Unforgiven out of the water. Eastwood should have won the Oscar for Wales, but, of course, the Academy members just KNEW he was a troglodyte purveyor of Dirty Harry and “monkey movies” as Gil Scott Heron put it.

TOJW was the real deal. I’m not against Eastwood’s later work. Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino are fantastic pictures. I just always thought Wales was vastly under appreciated.
Posted by: Chris Sheehy at June 14, 2025 08:36 PM (lUCTG)
There is iron in the words of Chris Sheehy for all to see.
- Ten Bears

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 08:39 PM (LHPAg)

142 Stateless

Hang in there no matter what. Even if you have to close your eyes and say'this too shall pass'.

You are not alone.

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at June 14, 2025 08:39 PM (Oa7o7)

143 138 AFGM was only notable for making JAG and the NCIS franchise happen. Sorkin made a fortune for another writer/producer.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at June 14, 2025 08:37 PM (p2GXS)

====

He actually directed a movie. Molly's Game about a lady who ran high dollar secret poker games. It's quite good, very far removed from politics, and full of that dialogue Lex describes.

I see why people like his stuff. Quippy. It also works really well in The Social Network, by Fincher.

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 08:39 PM (GBKbO)

144 One movie I need to watch again is Baby Blue Marine with Jan Michael Vincent I watched as a kid. Only thing I remember is him being punished and forced to hold two full buckets with extended arms to his side. He was able to do it by meditating and thinking of something else.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:44 PM (VofaG)

****

Baby Blue Marine? I remeber it being called "Tribes".

It had a real good portrayal of the Drill Instructor. Top notch.

Posted by: EFG at June 14, 2025 08:39 PM (c8IdU)

145 TJM, hands down you are the best.

Posted by: Ben Had at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (DLqye)

146 I've never seen Saving Private Ryan all the way through in one sitting. Have probably seen it all in pieces here and there. But when it came out on VHS, my sister rented it for our father to see. He was 82nd Airborne, and in Normandy on D-Day morning, and knew whereof he spoke. My sister said that his first words after viewing the movie was: "Now let me tell you everything they got wrong in that one."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (q3u5l)

147 131 Thanks TJM!!!

I need to rewatch The Verdict with Paul Newman. It's a good attorney movie. He's a drunken slob and doesn't want the case but then takes it and it changes him.

But he's played honestly not as a bored, wiseass the way Caffey is in AFGM.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (y4H1r)

148 Thx Lex. The first time I saw A Few Good Men I thought it was boring. Nicholson was his usual self but the other characters didn't interest me. I've seen it since and my opinion hasn't changed. Sorkin didn't make them interesting, which is worst sin in a movie

Posted by: Smell the Glove at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (akw+7)

149 Sorry to see the hate on Big Lebowski. It's a beautiful movie.

Also Hail Caesar! is awesome and full of meaning.

Posted by: Jack Squat Bupkis at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (dQfJF)

150 Gloria.

Admittedly, he made that one for the money, so he suppressed his natural inclinations.
Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at June 14, 2025 08:38 PM (p4nXC)

Is that the one with Sharon Stone. I came across it half way through. She did a great job from what I watched.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (VofaG)

151 I have a similar problem with Full Metal Jacket. You have an experienced drill instructor, who confronts a crazy private with a loaded weapon, insulting him until the private kills the DI, and then himself.

As cartoon characters, that's fine. It's dramatic and shocking.

As supposed real life characters though, it's complete bullshit though.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:41 PM (lH8E4)

152 147 131 Thanks TJM!!!

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (y4H1r)

===

No problem. It was a pleasure to read.

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 08:41 PM (GBKbO)

153 3
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has been on. I watched to determine whether my opinion of it may have changed with time.
---------------

It's a series of skits stitched together with a theme.
Jimmy Durante kicking the bucket - you know where this movie is going.
Terry Thomas and Milton Beryl - funny
Buddy Hacket at the filling station - funny
Sid (insane) Cesar trying to get out of the hardware shop

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 08:41 PM (6dYPy)

154 Parade did get boring

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (+qU29)

155 Is that the one with Sharon Stone. I came across it half way through. She did a great job from what I watched.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (VofaG)

She's a great actress below the waist.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (0eaVi)

156 127 The English Patient always sucked..... I HATED IT!!!
Posted by: Elaine Benes at June 14, 2025 08:33 PM (7szT/)
---/

I've never seen it because I know instinctively that I will have an "Elaine" reaction.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (kpS4V)

157 Where is Wickedpinto for his commentary on Marine ways when you need him?

(Probably out breakin' a bitch.)

Posted by: EFG at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (c8IdU)

158 Meh, I never let Sorkin’s point of view ruin this for me. I enjoyed it because Sorkin inadvertently screwed up making COL Jessup the real hero in the movie - Jack Nicholson nailed the character. His speech was dead on. Sorkin got two things right: Navy JAGs are pompous asses and USMC colonels are bad asses. I consider myself somewhat more informed than most in this topic having served in the Intruder community when they were flown by Marines and also having a USMC O6 uncle who served as a company commander in Vietnam earlier in his career. Your mileage may vary.

Posted by: ChuckinTX at June 14, 2025 08:43 PM (StqGk)

159 What truth (or movie) can you not handle?

-----------

Dunkirk. Horrible -- I'd have to rewatch it for details on why. Just thought it was awful story-telling despite a personal affection for some of the actors involved.

[I know TJM disagrees with me on this.]

Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (/JOu+)

160 Godfather. It is quotable as hell, but I just do not like any of the characters. I never wanted to be a gangster, so the entire genre falls flat for me.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 14, 2025 08:14 PM (zZu0s)

You should watch The Freshman. Humor, plus Penelope Ann Miller. And a lizard. Oh yeah, and Marlon Brando, too.

Posted by: HTL at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (CbOLC)

161 151. Yes, from a realty standpoint Hartmann should have been way more cautious but I think it was symbolic for how the character can react in no other way than with anger and abuse. A metaphor for many things.

But maybe you are right: if he acted with compassion and understanding it would have been a bold choice.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (y4H1r)

162 149 Sorry to see the hate on Big Lebowski. It's a beautiful movie.

Posted by: Jack Squat Bupkis at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (dQfJF)

*****

In my experience, most people don't really get The Big Lebowski on their first viewing. It takes a second viewing for it to click.

Posted by: EFG at June 14, 2025 08:45 PM (c8IdU)

163 Best Corn Bros movie ,: Miller's Crossing, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, Blood Simple
One of the Coen Bros movies is one that I'm supposed to like but don't: Barton Fink. Same with Burn After Reading

Posted by: Smell the Glove at June 14, 2025 08:45 PM (akw+7)

164 Posted by: EFG at June 14, 2025 08:39 PM (c8IdU

My bad and since this is aos I expect to be corrected more than once on the same mistake 😀

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:45 PM (VofaG)

165 Parade did get boring
Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (+qU29)

It's like golf. I'm sure it's fun to be in it, but if you are watching, you have to wait for the next one to come by, and then... what, watch them leave?

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:45 PM (lH8E4)

166 The Deer Hunter is long, disjointed, delusional, and most of all, boring.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at June 14, 2025 08:45 PM (u73oe)

167
Parade did get boring
Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 08:42 PM (+qU29)

________

I'm a minority of one and I don't intend to disparage the pleasure anyone else gets from them, but parades and fireworks do nothing at all for me.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:46 PM (QnmlO)

168 Rarely do military movies work like reality, and I seen most of them

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 08:46 PM (+qU29)

169 159 I know TJM disagrees with me on this.]
Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (/JOu

====

Always take solace in the fact that I'm an illiterate asshole

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 08:47 PM (GBKbO)

170
Buddy Hacket at the filling station - funny

Huh?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at June 14, 2025 08:47 PM (63Dwl)

171 I vaguely recall Desert Hearts was some big gay movie, so I looked up the female leads...both married men and had kids. Hell one of them was pregnant while making the movie.

Posted by: 18-1 at June 14, 2025 08:48 PM (t0Rmr)

172 161 151. Yes, from a realty standpoint Hartmann should have been way more cautious but I think it was symbolic for how the character can react in no other way than with anger and abuse. A metaphor for many things.

But maybe you are right: if he acted with compassion and understanding it would have been a bold choice.
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (y4H1r)

I think the character was well done, and probably indicative of many such men... until that scene. A man with that much experience working with privates would have instantly assessed the threat, and would have either put the private down like a dog, or vacated the area and let the MPs handle it.

But to stand there and berate a crazy person with a loaded gun pointed at you? That's suicide.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:49 PM (lH8E4)

173 I'm a minority of one and I don't intend to disparage the pleasure anyone else gets from them, but parades and fireworks do nothing at all for me.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:46 PM (QnmlO)
---

Waiting for the tanks to veer into the crowds.

Those robot dogs give me the willies.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:49 PM (kpS4V)

174 >>>Dunkirk. Horrible -- I'd have to rewatch it for details on why. Just thought it was awful story-telling despite a personal affection for some of the actors involved.

Dunkirk is where Chris Nolan's addiction to telling stories out of order really caught up to him. (There were problems with Interstellar, but that one meant to play with the timeline all along, so it doesn't count.)

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 08:50 PM (jGGMD)

175 Spinal Tap is better'n all these crap movies.

Posted by: jsg at June 14, 2025 08:50 PM (iGK7y)

176 What would make a military parade anything but boring would to do them like the Soviet Union did and CCP does.

Military equipment /weapons on display. I'd definitely would stay to the end.

But we can't do that because it's Fascist.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:50 PM (VofaG)

177 “What is a movie you are supposed to like but cannot stand?”

Easy Rider.

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 08:51 PM (i0F8b)

178 Galaxy Quest, 1999. Never give up, never surrender.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at June 14, 2025 08:51 PM (kCBPn)

179 172. That's why it was clearly symbolic. He seals his own fate with his reaction and Pyle's suicide as well.

Even the most gung ho gunney would probably not react that way with a locked and loaded rifle pointing at him with zero cover or support to help him.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:52 PM (y4H1r)

180

The Third Man

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at June 14, 2025 08:52 PM (63Dwl)

181 142 Stateless

Hang in there no matter what. Even if you have to close your eyes and say'this too shall pass'.

You are not alone.

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at June 14, 2025 08:39

Thank you so much.
I will do my best to encourage other morons after this passes.

By the way, I was watching "Avengers Infinity War"

I haven't watched a ton of them. But fun movie. The guardians called each other 'morons.' Sweet.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 08:53 PM (jvJvP)

182 Dunkirk. Horrible -- I'd have to rewatch it for details on why. Just thought it was awful story-telling despite a personal affection for some of the actors involved.

[I know TJM disagrees with me on this.]
Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 14, 2025 08:44 PM (/JOu+)

I add this one to my list. Another movie that should of been far better than it was.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 14, 2025 08:53 PM (W/lyH)

183 Dunkirk is where Chris Nolan's addiction to telling stories out of order really caught up to him. (There were problems with Interstellar, but that one meant to play with the timeline all along, so it doesn't count.)
Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 08:50 PM (jGGMD)

Nolan as a filmmaker is no better than M Night Shamalamdingdong. He has a gimmick, and dammit, he's gonna use it!

Occasionally, the film works (as you note, Interstellar), but usually it's just annoying.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:53 PM (lH8E4)

184 166 The Deer Hunter is long, disjointed, delusional, and most of all, boring.
Posted by: Duke Lowell

I thought they had the feel of Western PA in that time period. My Dad was a steel worker. The scenes of Clairton, PA (filled in by Weirton, WV) always interested me in The Deer Hunter. Those hunting scenes were obviously not Western PA. Or anywhere in the Appalachians. I read it was Olympia NP in Washington. The Deer Hunter gave Cimino the motivation to wreck UA with 'Heaven's Gate', so it had that going for it. (ok, wasn't on purpose but still..)

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:53 PM (C26rB)

185
"But A Few Good Men is insincere and manipulative."

Totally agree. It reminds me of Fail Safe, great performances covering for uncharacteristic actions from characters and a flawed premise.
Has there ever been a Navy JAG who could rattle a Colonel of Marines?

Posted by: Ronzoni at June 14, 2025 08:54 PM (tof4A)

186 The only thing I remember about Interstellar was there was too much talking. Did Nolan take script writing 101: don't tell and less is more. Boring movie.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:54 PM (y4H1r)

187 I think my father , former Marine Sgt. would probably have attempted to disarm Private Pyle immediately . No conversation. I've seen him react that way as a civilian .

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:55 PM (VofaG)

188 Here's mine: I thought "Oppenheimer" was self-indulgent twaddle.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:56 PM (kpS4V)

189 Jonathan Winters, I get them mixed up.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (6dYPy)

190 Reportedly, Sorkin's sister told him a similar true story, he wrote it, Reiner directed and was also an executive producer. (No point in going on about Reiner. He's a story in himself.) Sorkin was not otherwise involved with military life. (Write what you know?)

Casino drives me crazy. I watched parts of it probably a hundred times & put it together in my mind because I've never sat through the entire movie in one shot. I can't. It's a true story but something about the storytelling and the way it unwinds can't be saved by decent (or otherwise) acting.

American Hustle, another. Fascinating, true story. The movie, not so much.

So now it occurs to me I'm a tougher critic of serious works based on true storied & related actors, and more so of the writers & directors, too.

---
The Army Parade has been excellent & I've learned a lot.

Posted by: L- No nic, another fine day at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (NFX2v)

191
Sorkin did "The West Wing" which was sort of his television version of his "The American President" and equally loathsome.

The libs were smart victim/saints and the grasping seizing opponents were ugly meanies.

Kind of like "Hogan's Heroes" without the laugh track.

Posted by: Auspex at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (j4U/Z)

192 177 “What is a movie you are supposed to like but cannot stand?”

Easy Rider.
Posted by: davidt

Why? The guys in the truck were the true hero's of that movie!

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (C26rB)

193 179 172. That's why it was clearly symbolic. He seals his own fate with his reaction and Pyle's suicide as well.

Even the most gung ho gunney would probably not react that way with a locked and loaded rifle pointing at him with zero cover or support to help him.
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:52 PM (y4H1r)

Right, so if you are making a movie that is symbolic, it works, but Kubrick SPECIFICALLY said he was making a move that WAS Vietnam. And had R Lee Ermey doing the single most realistic DI ever put on film... up to that point.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (lH8E4)

194 Aaron Sorkin's scripts put his masturbatory political fantasies on paper.

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (AOsQT)

195 178 Galaxy Quest, 1999. Never give up, never surrender.
Posted by: MichiCanuck at June 14, 2025 08:51 PM (kCBPn
Best Star Trek ever!

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (LHPAg)

196 The only thing I remember about Interstellar was there was too much talking. Did Nolan take script writing 101: don't tell and less is more. Boring movie.
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 08:54 PM (y4H1r

I've watched it at least 4 times. Movies , music, art and women. I love how there is always diametrically opposite opinions. Makes the world go round.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:57 PM (VofaG)

197
Easy Rider.
Posted by: davidt

_________

I love movies with happy endings.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:58 PM (QnmlO)

198 I think my father , former Marine Sgt. would probably have attempted to disarm Private Pyle immediately . No conversation. I've seen him react that way as a civilian .
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:55 PM (VofaG)

And that would have been more realistic. Dangerous, and might have still resulted in him being killed, but more realistic.

Kubrick wanted a movie scene though, not realism.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 08:58 PM (lH8E4)

199 The Deer Hunter filmed some of the bar scenes at The Bowladrome in Struthers (near Youngstown) and some of the old Youngstown Sheet & Tube mills. It was just a few blocks away from our office and stayed open during shooting the scene. One of the ADs walked around with releases for us to sign and told us beers were on him. A few of the locals even made it onto the final print.

Bonus.

Posted by: Tonypete at June 14, 2025 08:58 PM (cYBz/)

200 "Interstellar" is my favorite Nolan movie. It's beautiful.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:59 PM (kpS4V)

201
I'm a minority of one and I don't intend to disparage the pleasure anyone else gets from them, but parades and fireworks do nothing at all for me.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:46 PM (QnmlO)

I appreciate how gently and nicely you stated this.

Posted by: Iris at June 14, 2025 08:59 PM (bOJ2I)

202 >>>Casino drives me crazy. I watched parts of it probably a hundred times & put it together in my mind because I've never sat through the entire movie in one shot. I can't. It's a true story but something about the storytelling and the way it unwinds can't be saved by decent (or otherwise) acting.

I've often described Casino as "Just like Goodfellas, only not as good." Though better in turn than The Departed.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 08:59 PM (jGGMD)

203 I like interstellar, but it’s at least 30 minutes too long. Needed a hardass editor.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 08:59 PM (e15Ap)

204 Thank you for pointing this out. I have caught significant sh*t from my conservative..."conservative" friends for doing so. You may have spoken truth here but I am sure you know by now that speaking that truth makes you an asshole in most conservatives' eyes.

As for myself, there are a lot of films like this one that bug me but there's a book that has done far more fundamental damage some of which probably led to this movi...Lord of the Flies.

Posted by: Wtp at June 14, 2025 08:59 PM (4cfLi)

205 Here's mine: I thought "Oppenheimer" was self-indulgent twaddle.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:56 PM (kpS4V)

Me too. So I won't watch a second of it.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (lH8E4)

206 I was about 10 when I first saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (post-release on TV). Laughed like a hyena. Many years later, watched again...still pretty funny in parts, but not side-splittingly funny.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (XMwZJ)

207 The point where I stopped paying attention to Sorkin was the episode of The West Wing where a conservative right-wing anti-gay pundit is attending the White House and refuses to stand when Bartlet enters because she doesn't respect him. Bartler proceeds to repeat that superficial Internet meme about Leviticus where the author asks how much he should get for selling his daughter into slavery, etc., etc. The pundit is cowed by his superior knowledge of the Bible and at the end he says "..and in this house, when I stand, _nobody_ sits." She abruptly rises.

The whole thing is just terrible, terrible smug leftist Mary Sue fanfic. It's lazy writing. If it were written today, at the end of the scene all the furniture would have stood up and clapped. I've since come to recognize the trope in everything Sorkin writes.

Posted by: Daniel Ream at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (xBngO)

208 Here's mine: I thought "Oppenheimer" was self-indulgent twaddle.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

Yeah, it bombed.

Posted by: Tonypete at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (cYBz/)

209 "Chicago" (1927) I only just learned of the existence of this gem! Mack Sennett bathing beauty Phyllis Haver blows the doors out of the joint as Roxie Hart. I'll def be looking for more of her movies. Yes, jazz music corrupts our women. Ain't it grand?

"Bombers B-52" (1957) Karl Malden can repair any in-flight landing gear problem with a mere screwdriver (flathead,) and any instrument panel failure with only a hatchet. Meanwhile his daughter Natalie Wood is playing rub-and-tug with his CO, impacting morale.

"Blast of Silence" (1961) A scrumptious smorgasbord of NYC location shots, with impressive musical score. Low budget hitman noir with crazy-ass backstory.

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (IEtIu)

210 I cannot imagine Col Jessup being stupid enough to blurt out his guilt on the witness stand

I also couldn't believe the 'illegal fence-line shooting' in Cuba would have merited any investigation at all, considering the military penchant for covering over such incidents

Posted by: Dreddbolt at June 14, 2025 09:01 PM (t6jQ0)

211 My movie I'm supposed to like but can't stand? Terminator 2. The girlbossery, the emasculation of the T-800 at the hands of a snotty ten-year-old, the "Terminator as perfect father" line, it spoils an otherwise good bot-on-bot action movie. When we walked out the theatre in '91, we looked at each other and said "want to rent the first one and watch a _good_ Terminator movie?" and so we did.

Posted by: Daniel Ream at June 14, 2025 09:01 PM (xBngO)

212 I like parades because as a kid in Phoenix-Scottsdale I was in a few. Even got to hang onto one of the balloon ropes once.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:01 PM (e15Ap)

213 "The Racket" (1951) A Howard Hughes crime drama with a knockout cast and good story. Lizabeth Scott is so f'n thrilled to see you:
https://tinyurl.com/mr2w74tv

"Julius Caesar" (1970) Good performances from all except Robards, who's mostly kinda flat. The DVD I watched is distributed by Cheezy Movies, titled "Julius Ceasar" [sic].

"Party Girl" (195

Mob lawyer nurses a lifelong grudge against a drawbridge, hooks up with a hoofer. Entertaining performances from Taylor and esp Cobb. There's a hilariously evil courtroom sketch of John Ireland that I'd love to discover in a prop house or garage sale someday. For a few years after the 1956 attack on Victor Riesel, crime movie scripts occasionally included an acid-throwing thug.

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:01 PM (IEtIu)

214 I've always hated that movie and never understood those making a big deal out of it. The characters seemed to be political cartoons and you need waders to get through the condescension... which is just as much directed at the audience as the Corps. It's like the movie was always elbowing me while I was watching it, going "Get it? Did ya get that last bit? They're super arrogant, see?" Yeah. I get it.

I only watched it once.

Posted by: front toward enemy at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (TIizU)

215 "Government Girl" (1943) Olivia de Havilland handles a Budd Schulberg comic role quite well IMHO. Anne Shirley's cute. Nice big variety of WW2 womens' fashions and hairstyles on display. Bipedal beefslab Sonny Tufts has some psychedelic neckties!

(Wikipedia's got the inside dish on GG: "Considering [de Havilland]'s ongoing lawsuit against her studio [WB] was the reason for her being punished with her assignment to [RKO's] "Government Girl," she was vociferous that she did not enjoy the experience." Meeeeooooowwww!)

"The Hook" (1963) Korean War POW symp story is preposterous and preachy, but I had to stick it out to the end. They cleverly cast Pancho 'Enrique' Magalona as the Asian POW, fooling nobody.

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (IEtIu)

216 199 The Deer Hunter filmed some of the bar scenes at The Bowladrome in Struthers (near Youngstown) and some of the old Youngstown Sheet & Tube mills. It was just a few blocks away from our office and stayed open during shooting the scene. One of the ADs walked around with releases for us to sign and told us beers were on him. A few of the locals even made it onto the final print.

Bonus.
Posted by: Tonypete

I had read they used a steel mill in NE Ohio, near Cleveland. Didn't know it was Youngstown S&T.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (C26rB)

217 I was about 10 when I first saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (post-release on TV). Laughed like a hyena. Many years later, watched again...still pretty funny in parts, but not side-splittingly funny.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (XMwZJ)

So, like The Princess Bride?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (0eaVi)

218 Here's mine: I thought "Oppenheimer" was self-indulgent twaddle.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 08:56 PM (kpS4V)

Me too. So I won't watch a second of it.
Posted by: BurtTC at June 14, 2025 09:00 PM (lH8E4)

Oppenheimer sucks balls. End of story.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (jGGMD)

219 "Hitler: The Last Ten Days" (1974) Of all the bunker genre films, this one has the prettiest Eva Braun, and by far the most chocolate cake!

"Capone" (1975) Ben Gazzara's turn to play Scarface. Early Sly Stallone role as Nitti. Explicit beaver shot from Susan Blakely!

"Covenant" (2023) OK but some parts not quite believable. Gyllenhall chooses (poorly) to channel Nic Cage. Musical score is a relentless drag.

"Alexander Nevsky" (193

Cinematically, it's not all that, but I liked the story and cast.

"Nightmare" (1956) Two fine actors can't save this noir contrivance.

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:02 PM (IEtIu)

220 "The Devil's Wheel" (1926) Soviet featurette warns sailors to be on their guard; you never know what kind of crazy trouble might find you while on shore leave. I like the rapidfire montages and extreme closeups in these old Russian movies.
youtube.com/watch?v=bJGNaFXJfec

"The Red Tent" (1969) Fictionalized drama of the toe-curling tragic 1928 expedition of the dirigible Italia to the Arctic. Claudia Cardinale boned the producer to earn her silly part; I don't know who Sean Connery had to bone. Really *nice* quality cold-weather woolens on display! A ripping good yarn that deserves a serious, authentic, chickless remake.
youtube.com/watch?v=NovoRWvzDCg
youtube.com/watch?v=anxBeXT7YGU

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:03 PM (IEtIu)

221 "The Accountant 2" (2025) No sir. I don't like it.
youtube.com/watch?v=cDGlN6mluGA

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs, Guest Hosted By Mister Horse at June 14, 2025 09:03 PM (IEtIu)

222 Edie Adams was extremely hot in IaMMMMW.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at June 14, 2025 09:03 PM (XMwZJ)

223 Never watched A Few Good Men through. It doesn't catch me. But it can't be as bad as The Graduate.

Posted by: Eeyore at June 14, 2025 09:03 PM (od0dV)

224 My gripe about Interstellar is Jessica Chastaine. Lord she is annoying.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (0aYVJ)

225 Forrest Gump

not a great movie

Posted by: Otto Pen at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (sJHOI)

226 Is that the one with Sharon Stone. I came across it half way through. She did a great job from what I watched.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:40 PM (VofaG)

No, that was a remake. The original with Cassavetes directing and Gena Rowlands starring came out in 1980.

The remake with Sharon Stone was a disappointment compared to the original.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (p4nXC)

227 Those were awesome fireworks. Very good music, too.

Re: low-ish attendance - A lot of people who live around DC have a Fireworks Strategy, which they follow regardless of the rest of the event. So a lot of people positioned themselves for the fireworks, and ignored the parade.

OTOH, the kids along the parade route were having fun, and the adults clearly were, too.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (p2GXS)

228 They've been playing Fat Man and Little Boy with Paul Newman . Have been meaning to watch it.

Any good?

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (VofaG)

229 Most Star Wars movies after the initial one (1978?) really sucked.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (XMwZJ)

230 I really like putting on woke crap movies to go to sleep.

Or tv shows. I may have kept lesbian, black Batwoman on for an extra year by the number of times I streamed that here in Canada.

Marvel stuff too explosive. But 'Star Wars' after 6 is great to go to sleep to. Woke crap. Don't care.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 09:05 PM (jvJvP)

231 Israel has formally requested that the United States join its military campaign aimed at dismantling Iran's nuclear program, according to a report by Axios citing two Israeli officials.

In recent days, Israeli officials have urged the Trump administration to support a targeted strike against Iran's Fordow uranium enrichment facility. The site, which is deeply embedded in a mountain, lies beyond the operational reach of the Israeli Air Force. The United States, however, has the necessary heavy munitions and long-range bombers within striking distance.
...
...The White House has yet to formally respond to the request. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 09:05 PM (6dYPy)

232 I found, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," free on YouTube.

Nic Cage at his Cagiest.

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 09:06 PM (i0F8b)

233 228

Yes

Posted by: Joe Kidd at June 14, 2025 09:06 PM (bA75n)

234 I liked seeing the little kids along the parade route cheer the hardware.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 09:06 PM (kpS4V)

235
Alexander Nevsky
Cinematically, it's not all that, but I liked the story and cast.

__________

Great music. In Thomas Schippers's recording, the start of the Battle on the Ice sounds like a huge locomotive getting underway.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:07 PM (QnmlO)

236 Given the era that it was made in, Col Jessup (Jack Nicholson) is supposed to be a stand in for Col Ollie North.

And yes, it was supposed to be a slap at the Corp.

It was certainly no "The Caine Mutiny". There, the prosecutor (Jose Ferrer) thinks what the defendent (Van Johnson) did stinks. Eventually, the prosecutor (Bernie Greene, Ferrer) breaks Queeg down on the stand, and afterward was drunk and felt really sick about it.

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 14, 2025 09:07 PM (tjZg/)

237
Burt Lancaster's Elmer Gantry was horrible as well, but literally redeemed by the brief scene of peak Shirley Jones as his fallen former girlfriend wearing a...

'scuse me, gotta look something up.

Posted by: Auspex at June 14, 2025 09:08 PM (j4U/Z)

238 The parade was something of a history lesson--even to wearing the uniforms. Those on the tanks/fighting vehicles certainly seemed to enjoy being there--they were waving at the crowd!

Posted by: Lirio100 at June 14, 2025 09:09 PM (zS4/f)

239 IPosted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 09:05 PM (6dYPy)

If we actually have Rods from God , this would be a good time to use them.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:09 PM (VofaG)

240 Citizen Kane. I don't think it's the great film people make out.
I suppose in 1941 it broke the mould compared to the usual studio films but it doesn't do anything for me.

Posted by: stv at June 14, 2025 09:09 PM (+opPw)

241 As a Bostonian, The Town has also always annoyed me. The book made a lot more sense. I wouldn't say it's in the conversation of great movies like AFGM, but it is far, far overpraised. A daylight bank robbery in the North End????

You can't maneouver one of those two seat electric cars on the streets of the North End and those guys are going to pull that kind of job??? And Damon/Affleck are supposedly the final word on Boston movies. Dumb

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:09 PM (y4H1r)

242 They've been playing Fat Man and Little Boy with Paul Newman . Have been meaning to watch it.

Any good?
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:04 PM (VofaG)

Fat Man and Little Boy? The Tim Walz Story?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 14, 2025 09:09 PM (0eaVi)

243 Great music. In Thomas Schippers's recording, the start of the Battle on the Ice sounds like a huge locomotive getting underway.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:07 PM (QnmlO)
----

I have the record! And that is a great description. Prokofiev used the chugga-chugga beat of a train in quite a few jams.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 09:10 PM (kpS4V)

244 Col Jessup's monologue encapsulated the ethos behind those who serve succinctly and totally accurately, in spite of how it was intended.

Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at June 14, 2025 09:10 PM (hKoQL)

245
Burt Lancaster's Elmer Gantry was horrible as well

_________

Just about anything associated with Sinclair Lewis is horrible. I've never read such crap like his books.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:11 PM (QnmlO)

246 I think High Noon sucked .

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:12 PM (VofaG)

247 Citizen Kane. I don't think it's the great film people make out.
I suppose in 1941 it broke the mould compared to the usual studio films but it doesn't do anything for me.
Posted by: stv

Agree. Never understood the hype surrounding that movie.

Posted by: Tuna at June 14, 2025 09:13 PM (lJ0H4)

248
Prokofiev used the chugga-chugga beat of a train in quite a few jams.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 14, 2025 09:10 PM (kpS4V)

________

I hate the interpretations - like Abbado - that clip-clop at that point.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:13 PM (QnmlO)

249 I think High Noon sucked .
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:12 PM (VofaG)

I saw it once. Meh.

My Dad loved Westerns. Not that one, though.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 14, 2025 09:14 PM (0aYVJ)

250 Oddly enough, I have come to the same conclusion that the film professor has about 8 1/2. Forty years ago, when I first saw it - on videotape! - I was dazzled. Today, while it's still impressive, I would rather watch I Vitelloni or Nights of Cabiria, or even La Dolce Vita or Amarcord.

Even worse than 8 1/2 is Juliet of the Spirits. Both pictures try to rationalize the director's real-life adultery, but the later film has both the actual wife and the actual mistress in the cast, which is extremely distasteful.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at June 14, 2025 09:14 PM (BHrzb)

251 My grandfather maintained we had a blood tie to General Nobile. Little's middle name is Umberto more as a tribute to his great grandfather, as no one in the family could find an actual link. Added bonus is it gave him the enviable monogram, GUN...

Posted by: Joe Kidd at June 14, 2025 09:15 PM (bA75n)

252 Right, so if you are making a movie that is symbolic, it works, but Kubrick SPECIFICALLY said he was making a move that WAS Vietnam. And had R Lee Ermey doing the single most realistic DI ever put on film... up to that point.
Posted by: BurtTC

My wife went to see it with her father, who was a combat Marine in Korea. He thought the first half of the movie was great, really realistic. Loved R. Lee Ermey (who was a retired Marine Gunny sergeant).
He thought the second half, portraying combat in a city during the Tet offensive, was really poorly done, not realistic at all. "That's not how you fight in a city!"

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 14, 2025 09:15 PM (tjZg/)

253 237
Burt Lancaster's Elmer Gantry was horrible as well, but literally redeemed by the brief scene of peak Shirley Jones as his fallen former girlfriend wearing a...

'scuse me, gotta look something up.
Posted by: Auspex at June 14, 2025 09:08 PM (j4U/Z)

Pencil skirt?

Posted by: Cow Demon at June 14, 2025 09:15 PM (vm8sq)

254 This tone is what caused me to turn on the film after repeated viewings.

You were either never in or an officer.

A Few Good Men captures the hubris and self-promotion of 90% of the officers I served under.

Posted by: Mike Armstrong at June 14, 2025 09:16 PM (u1Ef4)

255 I usually dislike dark movies with sad or tragic endings ( I don't watch movies to feel bad) but the movie The Human Stain was like a car wreck I could not stop looking at.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:16 PM (VofaG)

256 I don't mind 8 1/2. Amarcord is his best. But European art films are really a different breed. Many of Bergman's films would put you to sleep. That kind of stuff doesn't translate today, though oddly a movie like Tokyo Story by Ozu I could watch repeatedly.

Still, there is a whole class of movies one is supposed to like but are slow. Yet I don't have contempt for them the way I have come to feel about AFGM.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:16 PM (y4H1r)

257 And yeah, Aaron Sorkin is a terrible partisan hack writer.

And the only good movies Meathead ever directed were This Is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at June 14, 2025 09:16 PM (BHrzb)

258 Most Star Wars movies after the initial one (1978?) really sucked.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent

To be perfectly fair, I think they all pretty much stunk. Harrison Ford is really about the only one that can act, and he's not that great.
They were very entertaining, when they came out, and were received with a lot of popular enthusiasm. Made a lot of money for George Lucas, who now thinks he is some kind of movie making savant.
But they weren't really "good".

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 14, 2025 09:18 PM (tjZg/)

259 2001: A Space Odyssey

best part was Bowman vs HAL

the rest was a snoozefest
and the ending? come on, man

IMO, YMMV

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:19 PM (AOsQT)

260 I saw "The English Patient" at the theater with a group of friends, long before the Seinfeld episode. Our after-movie dinner was basically the episode - they loved it, I said it was a piece of shit with loathsome characters. They couldn't believe me. I couldn't believe them.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at June 14, 2025 09:19 PM (5YmYl)

261 Citizen Kane might have been groundbreaking but it's kind of boring

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 09:19 PM (+qU29)

262 2-0 FLA begin 2nd

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:19 PM (AOsQT)

263 I was half expecting for Neidermeyer from Animal House to show up and start calling everyone "worthless and weak." Or maybe they just could have given Nicholsen a Snydley Whiplash mustache he could twirl the whole time.

I don't care how realistically or not it reflects negative aspects of the service. It's a shit movie.

Posted by: front toward enemy at June 14, 2025 09:21 PM (TIizU)

264 Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 14, 2025 09:18 PM (tjZg/)

My meme about Harrison Ford is he has never smiled or laughed in a film unless it was a smirk or sarcastic.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:21 PM (VofaG)

265 The first "Star Wars" was great, as was "Rogue One" (except for the ridiculous records-center scene.) The rest range from "meh" to "suck."

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at June 14, 2025 09:21 PM (5YmYl)

266 After 4 long years of a Brain Dead President that thought the US Military for a Gay Pride Experiment, we have a Real Man and a Real President that loves the Military and the young BIOLOGICAL MEN and WOMEN that serve.

Posted by: Franklin Stein at June 14, 2025 09:21 PM (1sBXy)

267 "But they weren't really "good".
Posted by: A face in the crowd"

The first Star Wars movie was entertaining, which is all a movie needs to be.

Posted by: fd at June 14, 2025 09:22 PM (gc+OO)

268 I've only seen snippets of "A Few Good Men" but I kind of figured the writing must have been stupid because one of the scenes I did see was Tom Cruise preaching that "this man has rights" after Jack Nicholson's admitting to order the code red.

Yes, the defense attorney who just got a hostile witness, and who is, by the way, about the lowest ranking officer in the room, is going to immediately mitigate the impact of this important reveal by lecturing his superiors that they need to protect this loathsome witness.

Good job! We're you born retarded, or was there some sort of traumatic brain injury involved?

Working also ruined The Social Network by opening the story by having his super genius main character seriously spout off the line about there being more geniuses in China than people in the US. Only a mouth-breathing coozergibbet would say something so foolish.

Posted by: tankdemon at June 14, 2025 09:22 PM (MWf2b)

269 255 I usually dislike dark movies with sad or tragic endings ( I don't watch movies to feel bad) but the movie The Human Stain was like a car wreck I could not stop looking at.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:16 PM (VofaG)

There's been some great dark asian movies I enjoyed.

If you have Roku, they are on Pluto, Tubi et all.

Want to feel good?

First season of "Joan of Arcadia" on Roku. Pretty teen girl has God sending her on missions.

I think I am going to watch that right now. Horrible year.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 09:23 PM (jvJvP)

270 264...I have always felt that way about Kevin Costner. Never a smile or a grin or anything like that in anything he did. I'm not sure the man has teeth.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:24 PM (y4H1r)

271 I think Star Wars was more entertaining than a Few Good Men but what do I know I'm just a guy who knows what he likes.

Posted by: fd at June 14, 2025 09:24 PM (gc+OO)

272 What's the movie you won't admit to your friends that you like?

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:26 PM (AOsQT)

273 I never see it anymore, but I always liked One Two Three with James Cagney.

Posted by: jsg at June 14, 2025 09:27 PM (GrEml)

274 I have always felt that way about Kevin Costner. Never a smile or a grin or anything like that in anything he did. I'm not sure the man has teeth.
Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:24 PM (y4H1r)

Coincidence but I just watched a movie where he did laugh and smile but agree that it's an exception to the rule.

One of his early roles. Silverado

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:27 PM (VofaG)

275 272. You mean besides the XXX ones?

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:27 PM (y4H1r)

276 The one bit from "A Few Good Men" that I like is at the beginning:
(JAG Captain): Commander Galloway, why don't you get yourself a cup of coffee?
(Demi Moore): Thank you, sir, I'm fine.
(JAG Captain, total deadpan): Commander, I'd like you to leave the room so we can talk about you behind your back.

Posted by: chilansl at June 14, 2025 09:28 PM (8eueQ)

277 What's the movie you won't admit to your friends that you like?
Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:26 PM (AOsQT)

Beaches

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:28 PM (VofaG)

278 273. One Two Three is great. Billy Wilder. One of the best.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:28 PM (y4H1r)

279 Oh shit I just admitted it.

Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 09:28 PM (VofaG)

280
In spite of Ryan O'Neal, Barry Lyndon is a movie I could keep watching just for the scene set ups.

Posted by: Auspex at June 14, 2025 09:29 PM (j4U/Z)

281 "272 What's the movie you won't admit to your friends that you like?"

'Hedwig's Angry Inch.'

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:29 PM (IEtIu)

282 Why wasn't I invited to the Army Celebration Parade in DC today ??

I served in the Army or something and retired as a Sgt Something. I almost went to Persian Gulf also.

Posted by: Tim "Born to Kill" Walz at June 14, 2025 09:30 PM (1sBXy)

283
I served in the Army or something and retired as a Sgt Something. I almost went to Persian Gulf also.
Posted by: Tim "Born to Kill" Walz at June 14, 2025 09:30 PM (1sBXy)

__________

Deserter

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:31 PM (QnmlO)

284 I laughed at the climax of Titanic, when the girl let DiCaprio drown. Utterly imbecilic. Did not see it in a theater, fortunately.

Posted by: Nazdar at June 14, 2025 09:31 PM (NcvvS)

285 Aaron Sorkin on twitter complained that he showed too much gosh-darn nuance in his characters on West Wing. There was a political fight in the comments, with unreachable shitlibs putting up a fierce fight. But what was never once mentioned (conspicuous to me if no one else) was the name of a single character.

I've said about Sorkin that he has politicized the Mcguffin, such that with a thick script in hand it would take me ten seconds to change a fierce fight about education to a fierce fight about gun control.

Watch this clip, and then tell me with a straight face that Sorkin doesn't suck his own dick every day.
https://youtu.be/3CPjWd4MUXs?si=rPx5peiVphH9T90i

If you said that Star Trek was nuanced (true or not depending on the show) then the comments would bring up episodes where the villain or the villainized turned out to be more correct than previously thought.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 14, 2025 09:31 PM (lhenN)

286 Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. A movie I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty about not liking.

I thought it talked down to me. It was also boring. But most of all I felt it reduced history to a cartoon level.

That's quite different than doing violence to history (Oliver Stone's "JFK"). Lincoln doesn't do that. More like it reduces history to a Classics Comic Book.

Posted by: mnw at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (kd60y)

287 Actually that could be a whole separate thread topic - movies that lefties wrote that accidentally have a conservative theme
_____________

The archetype: High Noon.

Apparently intended to support the commies called before HUAC, but not knowing that, as a college kid, I thought it an allegory on our European "allies" caving to the Soviets.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (YqDXo)

288 Crap. My previous comment was in response to the Red Tent movie reference. Copy/paste fail...

Posted by: Joe Kidd at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (bA75n)

289 I love movies with happy endings.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:58 PM

Like Thelma and Louise?

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at June 14, 2025 09:34 PM (Wnv9h)

290 288 Yes, I caught it!

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:34 PM (IEtIu)

291 In the movie "A Few Good Men", why would the Base CC who is a Bird Colonel care about a single PFC?

That would never even reach the O-6 and would have been handled at the Platoon level and maybe the Company level.
A good NCO would take care of that in 5 minutes.

Posted by: Mike Hunt at June 14, 2025 09:35 PM (aKoaI)

292 Oh, yes, The English Patient... 😖. Wuthering Heights - the novel & 1939 movie. The only time I bought Cliff Noted from the drugstore.

Ordinary People - guaranteed to depress

The Replacements always cheer me up.

Thanks!!

Posted by: L- No nic, another fine day at June 14, 2025 09:35 PM (NFX2v)

293 272 What's the movie you won't admit to your friends that you like?
Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:26 PM (AOsQT)

Manos, the Hands of Fate.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:35 PM (e15Ap)

294 I rooted for Chong Li in Bloodsport

Posted by: Tim Walz at June 14, 2025 09:35 PM (GrEml)

295 Just finished watching "The Grudge" writer/director's new horror movie, "Best Wishes to All".

I love "The Grudge" but this is pretty much a bore and only exists as a "message movie" in support of the socialist/communist world view., ie. we only have happy lives because others have miserable lives.

In case you missed the point, one of the characters specifically references the third world and Africa.

so, if you're up for a boring, slow, commie propaganda session, check out, "Best Wishes to All".

Otherwise, avoid.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 14, 2025 09:36 PM (iJfKG)

296 new theme song for socal
youtu.be/-PkPfYXwlUw

Posted by: gKWVE at June 14, 2025 09:36 PM (gKWVE)

297
Like Thelma and Louise?
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at June 14, 2025 09:34 PM (Wnv9h)

_________

Yeah, but it would have been better if a bulldozer pushed them off the cliff. Isadora is another movie with a delightful ending: Vanessa Redgrave dying stupidly.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:36 PM (QnmlO)

298 He thought the second half, portraying combat in a city during the Tet offensive, was really poorly done, not realistic at all. "That's not how you fight in a city!"

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 14, 2025 09:15 PM (tjZg/)
_____________

I remember as a kid my late father, a veteran of Iwo Jima, yelling at the TV screen showing war movies, "SPREAD OUT, GODDAMNIT!"

I just found his after-action report on operation on Iwo Jima. Fascinating reading.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at June 14, 2025 09:37 PM (YqDXo)

299 The Postman.

Worst. Movie. Ever.

Posted by: nurse ratched at June 14, 2025 09:37 PM (ueXh5)

300 Yeah, but it would have been better if a bulldozer pushed them off the cliff. Isadora is another movie with a delightful ending: Vanessa Redgrave dying stupidly.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:36 PM

Shame about the t-bird, though.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at June 14, 2025 09:37 PM (Wnv9h)

301 To Mike Hunt.................

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH !!!"

Posted by: Allotta Fagina at June 14, 2025 09:37 PM (aKoaI)

302 I love movies with happy endings.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

So do I. I absolutely avoid anything with a sad, tragic or ambiguous ending. Life is too short to walk out of a movie theater feeling miserable. I swore off bad ending after "Cold Mountain".

Posted by: Tuna at June 14, 2025 09:38 PM (lJ0H4)

303 24 I find Mel Brooks movies meh. Only one I've watched more than once is Blazing Saddles and it was less funny to me on second viewing. This is definitely a minority view.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 07:50 PM (VofaG)

I had the misfortune of the 1st Brooks film I ever saw was by far his best - History of the World Part I. Everything was downhill from there. While I also love Young Frankenstein, I consider Brooks' more beloved films like Spaceballs and Blazing Saddles to be not all that funny and way overrated.

Posted by: Ultra Magas Brother Bob at June 14, 2025 09:38 PM (tBfGm)

304 I recently saw "The French Connection" for the first time.

Holy crap. It is shit and it stinks.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 14, 2025 09:38 PM (ZmEVT)

305 I love movies with happy endings.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 08:58 PM

Like Thelma and Louise?

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at June 14, 2025 09:34 PM (Wnv9h)
______________

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at June 14, 2025 09:39 PM (YqDXo)

306 There is nothing worse than having a bunch of people agree that a terrible movie is good. I am quite convinced that The English Patient was voted best picture by people who could not be bothered to see it.

Red Letter Media did us all a favor when they asked several people to describe the characters in The Phantom Menace, but only talking about their personality. They struggled to say anything.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 14, 2025 09:39 PM (lhenN)

307 My favorite movie was "Brokeback Mountain"...

Posted by: Barry O at June 14, 2025 09:40 PM (q/j2W)

308 A new aspect of disinformation:

Jason Brodsky retweeted Shayan Sardarizadeh@Shayan86 . 27m

While there are real videos of Iranian missiles making impact in Tel Aviv tonight, this clip is AI-generated and fake.

The missile, debris, fire and damage on the building all seem consistent with AI generation. Several projectiles also appear out of nowhere

https://tinyurl.com/58zr7ev5

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 09:40 PM (6dYPy)

309 Forrest Gump. Ugh...

Posted by: Darth Randall at June 14, 2025 09:40 PM (Gcn+Q)

310 I had to watch ‘Apocalypse Now’ about 8 or 10 times before i finally believed I had gotten it.
It all revolved around the “pile of little arms”

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 09:41 PM (GITLP)

311 I saw Fury, for the first time recently. I thought it was a great movie, especially the depiction of the tank fights. From what I’ve previously read about the armor quality between the German tanks and ours, the battle scenes were powerful reminders why we need an industrial base if we keep fighting conventional wars. Although, it seems that drones technology may put an end to that notion

Posted by: Unkaren at June 14, 2025 09:41 PM (LPL2Y)

312 272. What's the movie you won't admit to your friends you like?

Cabaret.

Posted by: Case at June 14, 2025 09:41 PM (k7qYZ)

313 311 Recommended.

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at June 14, 2025 09:41 PM (IEtIu)

314 Nic Cage at his Cagiest.

Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 09:06 PM (i0F8b)
_______________

A low bar. A VERY low bar.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (YqDXo)

315 Last night, watched 'In Harm's Way' the old WW2 John Wayne flick...

Worth a rewatch.

Later tonight I'm a thinking the last Midway Movie... which was well done, and surprisingly played straight even in the woke Hollyweird of the time.

Posted by: Romeo13 at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (mP0Kj)

316 Never saw Brokeback Mountain

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (+qU29)

317 A movie I would be embarrassed to tell friends that I liked it?

Fun thought experiment.

"Downton Abbey," I guess. Assuming that a miniseries counts. It's just a soap opera with extraordinary production values.

Posted by: mnw at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (kd60y)

318 American Beauty...disturbing and depressing about getting older in your peak earning years and into a long marriage.

Posted by: Admiral Spinebender at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (hftn9)

319 Movies lose their fame and esteem over time, and not always gradually. Gone With The Wind was on top-100 lists for about 40 years and then dropped off suddenly. Not for political reasons as far as I can tell.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (lhenN)

320 Look at all the other shit etched in stone. See? Nobody cares.

Posted by: Deplorable Minion at June 14, 2025 09:43 PM (QSrLX)

321 "Manos, the Hands of Fate.
Posted by: Tom Servo"

I would watch Manos again before A Few Good Men. With the bots, of course.

Posted by: fd at June 14, 2025 09:43 PM (gc+OO)

322 Movie Jawn, Dec. 19, 2022
The Postman at 25. The kind of failure we don't get anymore.

🤣

Posted by: L- No nic, another fine day at June 14, 2025 09:43 PM (NFX2v)

323 Question to the military folks about AFGM. If a Marine is physically incapable keeping up why would his fellow Marines hate him or want to code red him. Pyle got the blanket party because he made stupid mistakes which got the rest of them in trouble. But in AFGM Santiago was just not fit enough. Wouldn't a transfer have solved all the problems? Why would they loathe him if he had a heart condition or whatever that prevented him from duty? I can see them despising him because he broke the chain of command but it was clear he just wasn't fit enough. I never understood why Jessup thought 'training' him with a code red would get him to run faster. You wouldn't want someone in your unit anyway who was unfit because it's a life and death problem.

Posted by: Lex at June 14, 2025 09:43 PM (y4H1r)

324 I would gladly serve under Col Jessup.
If Sorkins ran America, we would be speaking English, because we never would have rebelled.
I speak 'Merican.

Posted by: jimmymcnulty at June 14, 2025 09:43 PM (PHmbR)

325 299 The Postman.

Worst. Movie. Ever.
Posted by: nurse ratched at June 14, 2025 09:37 PM (ueXh5)

/sings...

Puberty.... loveeeeee....

Posted by: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes at June 14, 2025 09:44 PM (mP0Kj)

326 Apocalypse Now, as originally released to theaters, is great. "Redux" doesn't add anything to the story except running time.

IMO

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:44 PM (AOsQT)

327 Spacey is creepy...got to play himself.

Posted by: Admiral Spinebender at June 14, 2025 09:44 PM (hftn9)

328
Last night, watched 'In Harm's Way' the old WW2 John Wayne flick...

Worth a rewatch.

________

Otto Preminger always showed great skill in taking good books and making awful movies from them.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 14, 2025 09:45 PM (QnmlO)

329 Although, it seems that drones technology may put an end to that notion
Posted by: Unkaren

Read Philip K Dick's short story: Second Variety.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 09:45 PM (C26rB)

330 I don't mind watching those gangster/mafia movies but I hate that they make them into something of a hero or brave or other positive traits.
Posted by: polynikes at June 14, 2025 08:18 PM (VofaG)

I think you're kind of missing the point of the Godfather movies. In that the characters like Michael are the protagonist, but they're in no way heroes. They're just more clever.

They win the world, so to speak but lose everything that matters.
.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 14, 2025 09:46 PM (iJfKG)

331 I first watched the movie, The Hurtlocker, while on vacation. It was available from the hotel on an endless loop.
I still don’t have any idea where it starts and stops.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 09:47 PM (GITLP)

332 Why would they loathe him if he had a heart condition or whatever that prevented him from duty?
---

Because Sorkin wants you to see the Marines as the villains of the piece.

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:47 PM (AOsQT)

333 286 Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. A movie I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty about not liking.

I thought it talked down to me. It was also boring. But most of all I felt it reduced history to a cartoon level.

That's quite different than doing violence to history (Oliver Stone's "JFK"). Lincoln doesn't do that. More like it reduces history to a Classics Comic Book.

Posted by: mnw at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (kd60y)

Never felt any guilt for disliking. The timing felt like a lecture that we should all swear fealty that closeted gay dude that Big Mike is married to.

Posted by: Ultra Magas Brother Bob at June 14, 2025 09:47 PM (tBfGm)

334 "Waterworld"

Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 14, 2025 09:47 PM (ZmEVT)

335 ______________

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara
----------------

👍

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 14, 2025 09:48 PM (6dYPy)

336
This whole thread reminds me of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" bad movie examinations.

Posted by: Auspex at June 14, 2025 09:48 PM (j4U/Z)

337 Posted by: mnw at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (kd60y)

Like the recent Napoleon movie... pure crap.

Posted by: Romeo13 at June 14, 2025 09:49 PM (mP0Kj)

338
Otto Preminger always showed great skill in taking good books and making awful movies from them.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Ever see Skidoo?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063612

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (63Dwl)

339 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has been on. I watched to determine whether my opinion of it may have changed with time.

It hasn't. The longest, zaniest, most unfunny film ever.

It’s no Cannonball Run!

Posted by: Unkaren at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (LPL2Y)

340
Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. A movie I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty about not liking.

================

Steven Spielberg is one of the most intolerable lecturers in Hollywood. To worsen matters, he sometimes gets his facts wrong in his historical projects.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (wbZPZ)

341 Rosebud was Luke's father.

Posted by: mindful webworker - captain spoiler at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (Z5w4n)

342 304 I recently saw "The French Connection" for the first time.

Holy crap. It is shit and it stinks.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 14, 2025 09:38 PM (ZmEVT)

I agree. Doyle is a memorable character and it made Hackman’s career, but the movie sucks.

Midnight Cowboy is another famous movie that stinks on ice.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (e15Ap)

343 333 286 Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. A movie I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty about not liking.

I thought it talked down to me. It was also boring. But most of all I felt it reduced history to a cartoon level.

That's quite different than doing violence to history (Oliver Stone's "JFK"). Lincoln doesn't do that. More like it reduces history to a Classics Comic Book.

Posted by: mnw at June 14, 2025 09:32 PM (kd60y)

Never felt any guilt for disliking. The timing felt like a lecture that we should all swear fealty that closeted gay dude that Big Mike is married to.
Posted by: Ultra Magas Brother Bob

The definitive Abraham Lincoln movie is 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (C26rB)

344

Lapd getting ready to go medieval...

Posted by: Elderly Git at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (qBZfr)

345 I like apocalypse stories. The Postman, Lucifer's Hammer, Walking Dead. You find out what ordinary people are capable of.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 09:51 PM (LHPAg)

346 The Postman don't come around here no more.

Posted by: Boss Moss at June 14, 2025 09:51 PM (aF9v+)

347 One movie that seemed to disappear that I can remember seeing in college is “Summer of '42”.

Most memorable line: “Thank You, Hermie”

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 09:51 PM (GITLP)

348 316 Never saw Brokeback Mountain
Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (+qU29)

That’s the one movie that has always cried out for an all-female remake.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:53 PM (e15Ap)

349 347. And rightly so.

Posted by: L- No nic, another fine day at June 14, 2025 09:53 PM (NFX2v)

350 340
Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. A movie I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty about not liking.

================

Steven Spielberg is one of the most intolerable lecturers in Hollywood. To worsen matters, he sometimes gets his facts wrong in his historical projects.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at June 14, 2025 09:50 PM (wbZPZ)
I never liked Lincoln as a President and never saw the movie. Got nothing to do with Spielberg.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 09:54 PM (LHPAg)

351 293 272 What's the movie you won't admit to your friends that you like?
Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:26 PM

Japanese college school documentaries. In uniform. And groups.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 09:54 PM (jvJvP)

352 Tom Servo and that movie I want to see

Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (+qU29)

353 The Big Lebowski.

Sorry guys, I just don't get it.

Posted by: Don Black at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (AOsQT)

354 Watched The 39 Steps today. Good film - back ground music was absent for much of the film. Most current films have loud over-bearing BGM. Can't stand the assault of noise for 2 hours plus.

Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (vneJl)

355 348 316 Never saw Brokeback Mountain
Posted by: Skip at June 14, 2025 09:42 PM (+qU29)

That’s the one movie that has always cried out for an all-female remake.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:53 PM (e15Ap
Me neither. Maybe you're right on the remake.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 09:57 PM (LHPAg)

356 I found, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," free on YouTube.

Nic Cage at his Cagiest.
Posted by: davidt at June 14, 2025 09:06 PM (i0F8b)

Within the last year, I saw two nick Cage movies that I hadn't seen before and were flops at the box office, yet were highly entertaining near great movies in my estimation.

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" directed by Werner Herzog

and

"Bring Out the Dead" directed by Martin Scorsese

Both are dark comedies in which the main character has a great arc and finds a kind of redemption in the end.

Cage is great in both. I suspect all he needs is a strong director to help him pull off a great performance.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 14, 2025 09:57 PM (iJfKG)

357 One movie I just didn’t like was “District 9”
Something about fuzzy aliens just didn’t do it for me. The PR saying that it was “the future of science fiction” certainly didn’t help.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 09:58 PM (GITLP)

358 354 Watched The 39 Steps today. Good film - back ground music was absent for much of the film. Most current films have loud over-bearing BGM. Can't stand the assault of noise for 2 hours plus.
Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (vneJl)
Earplugs.

Posted by: Eromero at June 14, 2025 09:58 PM (LHPAg)

359 The first time I saw Big Lebowski, I didn’t get it. 2nd time, I started to snicker a bit. 4th time it was absolutely hilarious!

And the best character by far is Walter B. Sobchak.
(Who is actually John Milius)

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 14, 2025 09:59 PM (e15Ap)

360 354 Watched The 39 Steps today. Good film - back ground music was absent for much of the film. Most current films have loud over-bearing BGM. Can't stand the assault of noise for 2 hours plus.
Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (vne

My friend got me out of the house to see the second Avatar movie.

My first movie in years. And I thought I should bring earplugs.

DAMN RIGHT. Insane volume levels.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 09:59 PM (jvJvP)

361 I loved “The Fifth Element” but Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” just was a film too far for me. The main characters were just unlikable.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 10:01 PM (GITLP)

362 357 One movie I just didn’t like was “District 9”
Something about fuzzy aliens just didn’t do it for me. The PR saying that it was “the future of science fiction” certainly didn’t help.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 09:58 PM (GITLP)

A great movie to fall asleep to.
I don't give a damn either.

Posted by: Stateless.. 28% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 14, 2025 10:01 PM (jvJvP)

363 354 Watched The 39 Steps today. Good film - back ground music was absent for much of the film. Most current films have loud over-bearing BGM. Can't stand the assault of noise for 2 hours plus.
Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 09:56 PM (vne
===

Lack of music is an early sound limitation. Sound mixing didn't really become a thing until about 1935.

Posted by: TJM's phone at June 14, 2025 10:02 PM (GBKbO)

364 I like "John Carter" and "Battleship."

Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 14, 2025 10:02 PM (ZmEVT)

365 I forget details of tis film, but imo, most crap out of Hollywood is controlled by leftists, and its aim is propaganda.

This is done in multiple layers of denying ... for example, "Christian values", or "American values", or multiple other attacks on Freedom. Whether that is in accepting/adoring LGBTQ crap, or pushing hate for American Principles ... most of "Hollywood" is about destroying "The West" and undermining the Values that made us Great, in the first place.

Posted by: illiniwek at June 14, 2025 10:03 PM (vbXSk)

366 Avatar just seemed the result of a mind with a recent stroke. Blue people and floating islands seemed too lame.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 10:05 PM (GITLP)

367 Thanks for saying that about Cassavettes. Watching one of his films is like watching paint dry.

Posted by: Texican ette at June 14, 2025 10:05 PM (SNf74)

368 "John Carter" seemed like fun if you gave it the appropriate level of suspension of disbelief.

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 10:07 PM (GITLP)

369 358 Earplug-I am deaf in my right ear so I would need just one. Also have serious tinnitus in right ear. I'm old.
I am not interested in most recent movies. TCM FTW.

Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 10:07 PM (vneJl)

370 367 Thanks for saying that about Cassavettes. Watching one of his films is like watching paint dry.

Posted by: Texican ette at June 14, 2025 10:05 PM (SNf74)

yeah, one of many that basically ruined feature films in the 60s and 70s (Not all of them, just....a fair number)

Posted by: zigggggy at June 14, 2025 10:10 PM (K5Rdg)

371 Klaatu: I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure. Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. Now, we of the other planets have long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression. The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is, we live in peace …

Now that is writing

Posted by: SMOD at June 14, 2025 10:10 PM (GITLP)

372 Intergalactic busybody.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at June 14, 2025 10:11 PM (63Dwl)

373 The male lead in Valerian killed the movie. The female lead is fine and a ~~would~~ binary one. I love the first four minutes of the movie, but it is saccharine in a Star Trek kind of way.

The leaner Luc Besson is, the better the movie.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 14, 2025 10:11 PM (lhenN)

374 Even the Tom Cruise stuff, where an isolated group stands up to, and generally takes down "The Borg", they leave us depending on a few superheroes to "Save Us" from the central evils.

imo, that is not how we defeat The Evil, though Trump and his "gang" is now sorta accepted as that SuperHero group. But it is the voter class that gave Trump that power. ... idk, but I think Hollywood is controlled with intent to destroy us ... no SuperHeroes will save us ... only action by we the free people.

"Actions by Free (allegedly, but really bought) People" is the Astroturfed action underway with the current protests ... it is all coordinated action with globalist funding (in the billions).

Posted by: illiniwek at June 14, 2025 10:12 PM (vbXSk)

375 TCM shows too much gay crap if you ask me. I
II would rather see a movie like "The Romance of Rosy Ridge" or "So Goes My Love" with Don Ameche and Myrna Loy. Both are good family films.

Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 10:12 PM (vneJl)

376 To TJM,s phone -I did not know about the sound limitations. Thanks. I still would rather hear less back ground music. Didn't Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid have minimal BGM -excepting ths Raindrops song?

Posted by: Glenn at June 14, 2025 10:20 PM (vneJl)

377 Butch Cassidy has interesting choices for music throughout, as some 70s movies do. Not minimal.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 14, 2025 10:22 PM (lhenN)

378 The characters all treat each other contemptuously because that's how lawyers are. They all think they are God's gift to the universe. I know as I have worked at several law firms.

Posted by: WarEagle82 at June 14, 2025 10:33 PM (YcfMX)

379 There was a blanket party in my BCT company in 1968. One trainee got nailed because his fellow trainees thought he was a jerk, and also got them in trouble via group punishments. He was gone the next day.
So Sorkin should have added two lines to Col. Jessup's script: "Of course I didn't order a "code red". I didn't have to."
Later on I watched "Battleground" with my stepfather, a WW2 veteran. He thought it was one of the funniest (aka most authentic) movies ever, explaining all the dialogue, which was mostly soldiers griping.
Movie I didn't like - Cloud Atlas. Some good action scenes, but a lot of pretentious tripe also.

Posted by: Chizbro at June 14, 2025 10:47 PM (lzTRY)

380 All these comments and NOT ONE mention of 8-½. Just the greatest movie ever made - story, cinematography, editing, music. A movie about making movie about a movie-maker's inability to make a movie. Genius. And so beautiful. Just remember that when Guido touches his glasses the next scene is either memory or fantasy., and it all makes sense.

Not a story to be told, but a depiction of a deep dive version into filmmaking itself. In the dance on the circus ring scene at the end you see the b-camera unit and ask why?and are instantly rewarded by the reverse shot from there to Fellini himself directing the scene. Every movie since 1960 has used some film-making element from this absolute masterpiece. The others are just Hollywood money-makers.

Posted by: norm neeke at June 14, 2025 10:49 PM (58MMP)

381 I can't stand Silence of the Lambs. Absolutely disgusting.

Posted by: Pervy Grin at June 14, 2025 10:51 PM (M1f92)

382 #1 on the list for me is American Beauty. I hated it from the moment I knew what the "big twist" (read: tired, clichéed boring nonsense) was going to be (little more than halfway through the movie). Even without the stupid twist it was just a turgid, self-absorbed Boomer angstfest. It winning Best Picture was the end of the beginning of the Oscars losing any relationship they'd had with relevance.

Posted by: Amuk at June 14, 2025 11:30 PM (iv4RJ)

383 Tootsie was simply awful, as were Avatar, Titanic, and Jurassic Park.

Posted by: ChupaMe at June 15, 2025 01:06 AM (eQ3DO)

384 Sorkin's "message" has NEVER been subtle.
I found A Few Good Men watchable, but not recommendable. I found An American President and The West Wing to be much the same, and pretty much avoided anything attached to Sorkin's name after that. I guess the older I got, the less I was willing to be preached at by the entertainment industry.

Posted by: Guy Fleegman as Crewman #6 at June 15, 2025 01:12 AM (vydmm)

385 imo "The Natural" is really overrated.

Posted by: Dagwood at June 15, 2025 01:20 AM (CC0N1)

386 Good Will Hunting, as others already said.
But why?
And I realize that EVERY movie with Robin Williams falls into my category of over-rated.
It's too bad, because Williams was a gifted comedian and actor. But his comic and acting gifts were ALWAYS used purposely by him as a tool toward a further end, which was to undermine and mock American values and Christian morals. It was never enough in Williams' mind to simply exult in his gifts and entertain. He was on a mission. He HAD to mock and indoctrinate. He was good at it, but not so good as to camouflage his animus fully, and once you see it, it grates more and more each time you see it. I think, in the end, his underlying and pervasive bitterness and hate did him in.

Posted by: bradc at June 15, 2025 01:39 AM (2HoCb)

387 #385 So is the book.
This topic is an excellent one, partly because it speaks tot he problems of good storytelling, and partly because it reveals the groupthink contagion psychology.
I hope to be entertained or educated by movies, never lectured to or belittled (if I wanted either I'd have stayed with my 2nd ex-wife).
All examples here are excellent.
Hud with Paul Newman - I cannot get over wondering what made him so mad at the world and at his dad?
Anything with Henry Fonda; he ruined Grapes of Wrath with his stoic emptiness and early embrace of FDR/Socialist muck.

Posted by: Dan Patterson at June 15, 2025 04:59 AM (oksAf)

388 The Big Chill.
I forgot to spread the word on how awful that pos is.

Posted by: Dan Patterson at June 15, 2025 05:00 AM (oksAf)

389 I had the same reaction as the OP.

I served in the Marine Corps 1991-97, in the infantry.
3 years in 29 Palms, 3 years Lejeune, including the 31st MEU-SOC (Pacific float) and Operation Restore Hope (Somalia)

My DD214 backs me up. Its coincidentally posted online to refute Sarah Hoyt's false accusations stolen valor here: tinyurl.com/FenDD214. If anyone could fwd it to her so I could get a retraction and end this torture, I would appreciate it.

It is true that Fleet Marine is tougher than the rest. We don't like to disparage the Air Wing or support because 1) our philosophy is that every Marine is a rifleman and 2) working in S-3 Ops setting up combined arms training really helps you see how all the moving parts make uo the tip of the spear.
3) I've seen Army Rangers try to make distinctions between themselves and support units, and just comes across as insecure. Its like Reagan said, Marines don't have that question.

So let's just say that Victor Units are more strict. If you start questioning orders thats the beginning of the end.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 06:24 AM (ciYHQ)

390 People who talk about refusing to follow lawful orders are naive. These are the same who agree that "a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client" in contradiction. Sorkin does manage to capture the intensity and order of a Victor Unit.

Unfortunately, the only authentic Marine character in the move was CPL Barnes testifying how he found the chow hall. Most the guys I knew were like him.

Col Jesup: There is no way an officer with his defects of character would make it that high up the chain on command. It would have come out under the stress of leadership as a Company Commander. As a Captain, 3 ranks below. Working in Ops I encountered many Marine officers, they were the epitome of Honor and Integrity. I'm very hard on civilian men now because these officers set a standard that's very difficult for most men to meet.

Lt Col Markinson. A sympathetic character but in reality a Battlion XO would not have his dilemma. He would have fought Jessup. And falling on his sword would have been reporting Jessup at the risk of his career. While it was a dramatic scene, a Marine officer would view suicide as escaping the consequences of his actions, as well as enabling Jessup

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 06:25 AM (ciYHQ)

391 as well as enabling Jessup to do even more damage at his next post, the NSC. The relationship is also reversed - the CO plays the forgiving Father figure that you don't want to disappoint, the XO is the hammer that enforces discipline.

Lt Kendrick. Type cast out of Deliverance. Most LTs are not this arrogant. They're haunted by the fact that they don't have the experience of command and one mistake could get good men killed. Most have an informal training relationship with their NCOs.

Dawson. He's a contradiction. A Marine that locked on ( ie highly disciplined and motivated) is not going to disrespect an officer in protest (hands in pockets instead of saluting). That's like being a pious Christian who sneaks into Church after hours to do his Mistress on the altar. It just doesn't pair. We also don't salute uncovered indoors.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 06:26 AM (ciYHQ)

392 Downey: people like to think we're stupid because they don't understand Honor, so they reach for an explanation that makes them feel less inferiorlr. Sorry Sorkin, we're not trapped in Iraq. I scored a perfect ASVAB with a 135 GT. I could have gone Helos and made bank as a civilian pilot. Unfortunately I majored in English Lit and was a bit idealistic - I went Marine Infantry guarenteed contract. Because I wanted to defend Arthur's Dream that Might could be channeled for Right. Yeah, the one with the knights and round table. Sorkin is such a tragedy - I loved West Wing even though I despise Democrats. That's a testament to his genius. But .. how does it go Aron? "..the voices of his better angels were shouted down by his" partisan bias. Its like watching Michelangelo paint, but only with half the color spectrum.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 06:27 AM (ciYHQ)

393 If there is common thread that accounts for the Valor of Marines it's not that we're stupid (although I feel rather foolish these days after being betrayed the people I fought for) , it's that we come from broken families and we're looking for a wolf pack. It sounds silly but have you ever dreamed about being on the bridge of Stark Trek's Enterptise? To be part of that machine that effective and that stands for what's Good and Right. That's why we join. Not all, but it's a pattern that keeps cropping up.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 06:28 AM (ciYHQ)

394 Except for "Chinatown", of course.

Posted by: norm neeke at June 15, 2025 08:30 AM (58MMP)

395 So the film professor didn't like Guido's character. I got ⅔ through Isaacson's "Musk" when I realized I really didn't like Elon as a person. But my opinion doesn't detract from his almost superhuman accomplishments. Dolly back and look at the big picture (so to speak).

Posted by: norm neeke at June 15, 2025 08:43 AM (58MMP)

396 "Good Will Hunting," which others have noted. The film turns phoniness into an art form. Nothing in this movie could have happened. And talk about failing up in re the matter of the writers.

Posted by: George O'Har at June 15, 2025 08:52 AM (erx+/)

397 There was a founding writer at one of the right-leaning websites - Hot Air or PJ Media who used to be a leftist screenwriter. I want to say Roger Simon (?). He would talk about his political conversion happening when he realized he always used the rough “right-wing” character to deliver the necessary dialogue. IIRC, he’d cite the Jack Nicholson dialogue from A Few Good Men (the ‘we live in a world with walls’ bit) as an example of that. It’s an entertaining movie, and Kevin Bacon is always engaging.

Posted by: Advo at June 15, 2025 11:05 AM (jO4mz)

398 Finally, an honest take on a sub par flick.

Posted by: Ghost of the Tsar at June 15, 2025 11:08 AM (dweVS)

399 Anyone that spent time in an Army or USMC infantry unit during the 1990s thought the plot of “A Few Good Men” was laughably stupid. Sorkin has zero clue how things get done in an infantry unit or the military In general. Colonel Jesup would have handled Private Santiago through his command Sergeant Major, the command’s senior NCO. At no time would gaggle of officers be involved in the fantasy Sorkin dreamed up. Not to mention the CSM would be crafty enough to know how to motivate Private Santiago without (1) killing him and (2) without blow back. It’s amazing how miserable you can make someone doing common infantry tasks.

War is not a 9 to 5 job. It isn’t a democracy. War is embodiment of hell on earth. There is no place for liberal soft headed weakness and sympathy.

The best part about “A Few Good Men” is absolutely no one remembers a line from that movie , except Jessup’s “Walls need to be guarded” speech.

Posted by: Batboy at June 15, 2025 11:47 AM (3XMoj)

400 I saw through and hated A Few Good Men the first time I saw it. Basically, I agreed with Jessup.
I also hated Forest Gump for many of the same reasons particularly the treatment of Jenny.

Posted by: leber at June 15, 2025 12:37 PM (w2wW/)

401

"Question to the military folks about AFGM. If a Marine is physically incapable keeping up why would his fellow Marines hate him"

Discipline is enforced at the group level, so if your fellow Marine is unsat (unsatisfactory) the entire platoon is punished, usually physically: "PFC Myers doesn't want to sound off, thank him for adding another 3 miles to this run" THANK YOU PFC MYERS!

Or imagine you can't see your wife and kid this weekend until PFC MYERS passes the land nav course. I guarantee that by 6am Saturday morning, after you and 3 other NCOs are done giving him a 12 hour crash course, he's going to be an instructor for land navigation.

There is a culture in the Marine Corps: if you see someone doing something wrong and you don't correct them? You are considered just as guilty as them. That may seem harsh but removes plausible deniability - no one gets to look the other way.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 12:43 PM (ciYHQ)

402 But in AFGM Santiago was just not fit enough. Wouldn't a transfer have solved all the problems? Why would they loathe him if he had a heart condition or whatever that prevented him from duty? "

It was a movie, but in RL the unit would probably think he was malingering. You have to remember, our Sick Bay runs on Motrin. We even joke about it. Got Cancer? Here, have a Motrin. Sucking Chest Wound? Have two Motrin. I grew up with wealth, so I know what the best medical care money can buy looks like. Not bashing Navy Corpsemsn - they're awesome, they don't get our training but not only do they keep up with us, they skyline themselves on the battlefield with an IV bag held over their head tending to the wounded. That takes brass balls. But overall one look at the VA tells you that medical treatment is not a priority.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 12:44 PM (ciYHQ)

403 I ran into this, I had some kind of condition that felt like I was being bitten by bugs. Couldn't get more than 3 hours of sleep a day. For 6 months, it was driving me nuts. One day I'm coming down the stairs and the Doc (who had ruled I was imagining all this) was coming up. He suddenly froze, staring at me in shock: "You just turned green!" I laughed and said "Camo upgrade Sir. I have a very powerful imagination". I shouldn't have been a smart ass, he was doing his best, but it felt good.

"but it was clear he just wasn't fit enough. I never understood why Jessup thought 'training' him with a code red would get him to run faster. "

Again, I can't speak to the character of a character LOL but, based on my 6 years in a Marine Infantry unit, I can see how this might happen. It wouldn't be an officer, maybe a Staff NCO. He wouldn't have believed Santiago had a condition that couldn't be overcome by willpower. That may seem silly but as a Marine you routinely encounter herculean tasks that seem impossible. You quickly discover from firsthand experience that human beings can do alot more than they think. And so much of that is due to willpower.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 12:45 PM (ciYHQ)

404 After a few Agean Stables, It might seem reasonable to set a "mind over matter" standard. There's an essay we all read called Message To Garcia. Short version: don't order a Marine to bring you the Sun, because he'll find a way.

I never saw leadership ignore a physical handicap, they dread making a wrong call that results in the death of anyone under their command. Every interaction you can see it, something guarded, in the back of their eyes. But if there was ever a case like Santiago's, that's probably the most likely reason it would happen.

But I think the short answer is that Sorkin is an idiot with an agenda. He hates Marines because we are a constant reminder that he's not really a Man.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 12:46 PM (ciYHQ)

405 --His answer: Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. He found the main character Guido execrable--

I love 8 1/2, and Guido is supposed to be execrable, at least until the end

Posted by: teejuss at June 15, 2025 12:52 PM (0KkTW)

406 I've always wanted to get a T-Shirt that simply says, "Jessip was right." I would be speaking, of course, about his "You can't handle the truth" speech. Most of which was true.

Posted by: drocity at June 15, 2025 12:53 PM (T2q+/)

407 Edit, I meant Unlawful orders

"People who talk about refusing to follow UNLAWFUL orders are naive. These are the same who agree that "a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client" in contradiction.

Ie. When that moment comes, there won't be an ominous soundtrack playing in the background, you'll likely be in the field without an attorney, without internet access. You roll the dice and you're wrong? You're going to Leavenworth Prison. And when you get out, your future is working drive thru.

An it's not always obvious. I was a gunner for LAV-25s. I seem to recall that its a "war crime " to shoot infantry with a 25mm main gun. Hold up Somali tech vehicle, while I look it up

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 01:10 PM (ciYHQ)

408 Here we go

"In summary, there is no absolute ban on 25mm ammunition under international law. Its legality depends on various factors, including the specific type of ammunition, its intended use, and whether it complies with the principles of international humanitarian law, particularly concerning exploding projectiles under 400 grams and the prohibition of superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. "

Raise your hand if you think Fen is going let his wingman get chewed up by AK fire because the Coax has jammed again and all he's got left is 25mm HEIT.

Posted by: Fenrisulven at June 15, 2025 01:14 PM (ciYHQ)

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