Wednesday, June 18, 2014

What movie do you have no doubt you would watch if it were on tonight?

Maybe this doesn't have the impact it once did. We can get movies more easily now than ever before. Between streaming, renting, buying it's not so hard.

But if GOODFELLAS was on tonight, without commercials, I would sit down and watch it.

What about you? What would you watch if it was on TV tonight?

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if it was Jackie the answer would be something like INDEPENDENCE DAY or THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW for sure.

Most of the movies I would pick are things I already have on DVD so could watch them at any time - CASABLANCA, IT'S A GIFT, TWO FOR THE ROAD, GROUNDHOG DAY, ANIMAL HOUSE.

So it would have to be something I don't have and the movie we've been looking for which isn't available on DVD is AMERICAN HOT WAX, a highly fictionalized story about Alan Freed.


Jeff M.

Anonymous said...

I'd watch The Big Chill if it were on. Never became a blockbuster, but to me, a great film.

pattinase (abbott) said...

OH, yes! My second choice, Margot. Have never seen that one, Jeff.

Ed Gorman said...

Dodsworth with three heavyweights Walter Houston, Mary Astor and Ruth Chatterton and The Letter with Bette Davis, the only picture of hers I ever liked. And number three The Big Lebowski which still hypnotizes me.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Laurel and Hardy and any other good comedy or animated film.

Deb said...

As always: Jaws, Close Encounters, Animal House, Moonstruck, Soapdish. Actually these I would watch WITH commercials--I've seen them so many times, I won't miss anything.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Ed on BIG LEBOWSKI, though Jackie will only tolerate it. It's a classic.

As for others mentioned, I have BIG CHILL of course - by coincidence we were just talking about watching the DVD - as well as JAWS.

Patti, AMERICAN HOT WAX purports to be about Freed's first big NY rock & roll show and has Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis as themselves as well as Laraine Newman as a young Carole King type, Jay Leno as his driver, etc. The late Tim McIntire (some of John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan), who died way too young at 41, did a wonderful job as Freed.

The music is great and the scenes in the recording studio ring true to me. We liked it so much when we first saw it (March of 1978) we sat through it twice.

And that's probably more than you wanted to know!

Oh, one more. It has one of the great opening scenes, that sold the movie for me. Freed walks into the studio and finds a stack of 45's with a note from the station manager saying "DON'T PLAY THESE!" The top record is "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, which he proceeds to put on and play at full volume.

Jeff M.

Randy Johnson said...

Probably JAWS, one of the great thrillers/horror films.

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

pattinase (abbott) said...

Somehow I thought AHW was about teenagers. Was there another WAX?
I wonder why I have never seen DODSWORTH although I did read every book Lewis wrote at one time. TBL is one of my favorites too. Almost all COHN brother movies.
JAWS I would save for the big screen. You need to feel threatened, which I don't in my house.
But all the others, yes.

Ed Gorman said...

Hi Patti-Dodsworth is the only movie I've ever seen that was written by and for adults. I think you need to be at least in your forties to truly appreciate its resonances.

Erik Donald France said...

Goodfellas is a great one, for sure. But tonight, probably nothing would do the trick. I leave for Spain tomorrow by way of jet aeroplane.

The spaghetti Westerns filmed in Spain usually draw me in. Just about anything Mad Men or Sopranos, too.

Erik Donald France said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charles Gramlich said...

Maybe Once upon a time in the west.

Kieran Shea said...

JAWS, GOODFELLAHS, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, THE GETAWAY, SORCERER, ZULU, THE WILD BUNC and (of course) THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX.

George said...

FARGO and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.

Deb said...

Patti--you may be thinking of Hot Wet American Summer which is a (quite funny) spoof of teenage movies, featuring lots of familiar faces such as Bradley Cooper, David Hyde Pierce, Janine Garofalo, etc.

Rick Robinson said...

I'm with Jeff, I've been looking for AMERICAN HOT WAX for decades. Beside that, I'd be up for RED RIVER, THE SEARCHERS, CHINATOWN and AMERICAN GRAFFITI.

Anders E said...

These days, nothing. There's some serious football going on, you know. Chile vs. Spain at the moment.

But at any other time:

The original LADYKILLERS
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
DUCK SOUP
John Carpenter's THE THING
ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE

And from Sweden:

MAN ON THE ROOF - I've seen this a countless number of times and I own the DVD but when it aired a couple of weeks ago I watched it again anyway. By far the best ever crime movie made in Sweden. And I don't see how it can ever be bettered.

Kelly Robinson said...

Anything with Conrad Veidt.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Wish I could see MAN ON THE ROOF. THe SEArCHERS is my favorite western. How can you not love CHINATOWN. DOG DAY AFTERNOON just blows me away every time. Wow Kelly, I could not name one movie with Conrad in it but I am going to look right now.

Kent Morgan said...

Paperback Hero, a Canadian-made hockey movie starring Keir Dullea and Elizabeth Ashley. It's not on DVD. I once wrote a Forgotten Movie review about it. And I would likely watch The Deer Hunter, Deliverance or Play Misty For Me.

Cap'n Bob said...

Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! It probably stinks but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. Also The Cisco Kid movie with Barbara Billingsly. The Gay Caballero or something like that.

Cap'n Bob said...

Okay, it was The Valiant Hombre and her name is spelled Billingsley.

Graham Powell said...

The Road Warrior. The action just sort of sucks you in, even if you know how it will all turn out.