I cast "Raise Dead Film"

[Mallus]

Hudson Hawk is one of my favorite films.

To this day my friends use the lines "History, tradition, culture, these are not concepts, they are trophies I keep in my den as paperweights!" as a toast at all important occasions. Like when we drink too much.

I think it was just ahead of its time. Audiences weaned on the Raimi/Tappert shows would have enjoyed it.

Joe Versus the Volcano is also great. A charming whimiscal fairytale of a film about a despondant Tom Hanks being paid to sacrifice himself in a fiery volcano. Never has so intentionally fake a movie rang so true. And the last thing this film is, is dumb...

This Island Earth now this is what sci-fi is, or was, whatever. I'll not forgive the MST3K crew for using it in their feature film.

The Hudsucker Proxy gets the least acclaim of all the Coen Brothers movies, but its my favorite. Jennifer Jason Leigh is fantastic as every fast-talking proffessional 40's dame rolled into one. Its a perfect tribute/skewering of Old Hollywood moviemaking.

The Royal Tenenbaums probably doesn't belong on this list, it was the critics darling. But I know a lot of people who hated it, or were bored silly by it. I think it was one of the greatest, most life-affirming films of last 20 years.

Yeesh, enough already...

 

[Hand of Evil]

The Man Who Knew Too Little - Starting Bill Murray

The Man with One Red Shoe - Staring Tom Hanks

Big Trouble in Little China - Almost everyone I know says it is just okay.

The Trouble with Harry - old movie but damn great

Brazil - Terry Gillian's

Currently I cannot get enough of...The New Guy

 

[Hand of Evil]

Oh...

The Last Action Hero!

 

[Viking Bastard]

People didn't like Last Action Hero?

What is the world coming to?!?!

 

[KChagga]

I would agree with most of what everyone has posted great movies! My personal favorites which have already been mentioned Buckaroo Banzai and Big Trouble in Little China.

I personally don't really like Pauly Shore, but I love the movie BioDome. Egads that movie is grade A stupid though, so take that as a warning even though I have probably seen that movie about 75 times.

Another personal favorite is Dune the 3 hour block buster movie not the mini-series. This movie did crap in the movies got panned by all the critics and gets bad mouthed by all sorts of scifi nerds. I personally thought it was great. I've read the first three dune novels and I thought it was a good adaptation of it. Much better than that crummy miniseries that SciFi made a couple years ago. Blech.

 

[WayneLigon]

Another personal favorite is Dune the 3 hour block buster movie not the mini-series. This movie did crap in the movies got panned by all the critics and gets bad mouthed by all sorts of scifi nerds.

I had read the books, so I really didn't have a problem with it. I knew that it, as a film, was in trouble when I went to the theater to see it and with the ticket I got a glossary sheet... (Some films used to give you little promotional thingies; I bet the sheets lasted two or three screenings and then there were no more, leaving everyone else confused )

When it showed on network TV, they showed the full four hour version of it, with the 30 minutes or so that was lopped off the beginning whole and entire. That explained the background, etc.

To this day, though, when someone in a game is trying to be mysterious and prophetic, they'll whisper 'Dune, Arakis, desert planet...' or 'Tell me of your homeworld, Usal'. He's seeing the future. We get the bloody point already.

 

[Crothian]

Rustlers' Rhapsody, starring Tom Berenger as the good guy and Any Griffith as the bad guy. This was a great, tongue in cheeck, comedy western.

The trouble with Harry is great, Hitchcock doing comedy!!

Metropolis, the original with a good sound track, not the Loverboy soundtrack. A great movie, and it's just one that few people have seen.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

I had read the books, so I really didn't have a problem with it. I knew that it, as a film, was in trouble when I went to the theater to see it and with the ticket I got a glossary sheet... (Some films used to give you little promotional thingies; I bet the sheets lasted two or three screenings and then there were no more, leaving everyone else confused )

When it showed on network TV, they showed the full four hour version of it, with the 30 minutes or so that was lopped off the beginning whole and entire. That explained the background, etc.

This thread will now devolve into Dune discussion...

The "expanded" version of the film that was shown on TV is actually about 2:50, not four hours (that figure includes commercial time.) Nor is it the "original" cut - it's a special version arranged by the bigwigs to "salvage" an "incomprehensible" movie. The added footage at the end is about 10 minutes and consists exclusively of still shots of bad paintings, with a voice-over by the dunken trucker that they got to replace Viginia Madsen's (admittedly bad) narration. This was clearly shot just for the TV version. David Lynch, the film's director, was outraged and demanded that his name be taken out of the credits.

A fair bit of other footage was also added, some of which was okay, and some of which was flat-out horrible. And the sound was completely retracked over the movie, badly.

To this day, though, when someone in a game is trying to be mysterious and prophetic, they'll whisper 'Dune, Arakis, desert planet...' or 'Tell me of your homeworld, Usal'. He's seeing the future. We get the bloody point already.

It's no more heavy-handed than it was in the book.

The film has tons of problems, though - don't get me wrong.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Another personal favorite is Dune the 3 hour block buster movie not the mini-series. This movie did crap in the movies got panned by all the critics and gets bad mouthed by all sorts of scifi nerds. I personally thought it was great. I've read the first three dune novels and I thought it was a good adaptation of it. Much better than that crummy miniseries that SciFi made a couple years ago. Blech.

If it's any consolation, I thought the recent Children of Dune miniseries was much, much better.

 

[Mallus]

This thread will now devolve into Dune discussion...

Can't resist....

Star Wars might claim be set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", but Dune feels it. It's better than any other SF film I can think off at portraying alien cultures{well, human but, thens of thousands of years removed}.

The glossary aside, the film itself isn't overly didactic... in a way its artistc direction serves as expositionl.

Its really is a marvel of adaptation; using the strengths of film to convey Herbets strengths as a novelist and world-builder.