User Showcase
Flickchart on Tumblr
Posts Tagged ‘1977’
Star Wars at 35
25, May 2012
Thirty five years ago today, the original Star Wars was released. It opened in the U.S. on a Wednesday, in just 38 theaters. The studio chose the pre-Memorial Day slot in the hope of getting a jump on the other, bigger movies coming out that summer. George Lucas, the film’s director, was worn out after a long, frustrating shoot, and was not convinced that his movie would be a success. He’d even gone so far as to trade 2.5% of the film’s profits as a bet with his friend Steven Spielberg in the belief that Close Encounters of the Third Kind would out-gross Star Wars.
In Search of Best Picture
17, Feb 2011
by Nigel Druitt
As the Oscar telecast creeps up on us again, it begs the question: How many times has the Academy really gotten this “Best Picture” thing right, anyway?
Think about it. How many controversial decisions are there in the Academy’s history? How many times is a movie other than Best Picture long remembered as the best of the year?
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: (500) Days of Summer, 127 Hours, 1941, 1977, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 28 Days Later, 3:10 to Yuma, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, A Serious Man, academy awards, adaptation, Alfonso Cuarón, American Beauty, An Education, Ang Lee, annie hall, Atonement, Avatar, Babel, Batman Begins, Best Picture, Big Fish, Black Swan, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Casablanca, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Children of Men, Chocolat, Christopher Nolan, Citizen Kane, City of God, Clint Eastwood, Crash, Crouching Tiger, District 9, Donnie Darko, Eastern Promises, Erin Brockovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Fight Club, film, films, Finding Nemo, Flickchart, Forrest Gump, Frost/Nixon, George Lucas, gladiator, Gone Baby Gone, Good Night and Good Luck, Gosford Park, Guillermo Del Toro, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, heath ledger, Hidden Dragon, hot fuzz, How Green Was My Valley, How to Train Your Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, In Bruges, In the Bedroom, Inception, Inglourious Basterds, Iron Man, Juno, Kick-Ass, Kill Bill, Let The Right One In, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Luc Besson, Martin Scorsese, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Memento, Michael Clayton, Mickey Rourke, Milk, Million Dollar Baby, Moon, moulin rouge, movies, Munich, Mystic River, No Country For Old Men, Oldboy, Orson Welles, Oscar, Pan's Labyrinth, Peter Jackson, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Pulp Fiction, Reese Witherspoon, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Sandra Bullock, Saving Private Ryan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Seabiscuit, Sean Penn, Serenity, Shakespeare in Love, Shutter Island, Sin City, Slumdog Millionaire, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Soderbergh, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Aviator, The Blind Side, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Departed, The Fighter, The Hours, The Hurt Locker, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, The Lives of Others, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Pianist, The Professional, The Queen, The Reader, The Shawshank Redemption, The Social Network, The Town, The Wrestler, There Will Be Blood, Tim Burton, Toy Story 3, Traffic, True Grit, Up, Up in the Air, Walk the Line, WALL-E, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, William Hurt, Winter's Bone, Woody Allen, Zodiac
by Nigel Druitt
In This Corner…
The 2009 hit film Star Trek garnered many fans, as it became a big hit at the box office. But many new fans may not have realized that it was not the first movie in a new franchise, but rather the eleventh film in a franchise that celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Tasked with revitalizing a venerable franchise that was on life support (Star Trek: Enterprise, the franchise’s fifth television series, had been canceled six years previously, and the tenth film, Star Trek: Nemesis, was a critical and box office dud in 2002), Star Trek actually faced a similar situation encountered by another film 27 years earlier. In many ways, the films are quite similar, and yet, in others, they are diametric opposites; as such, they become, as Mr. Spock might say, fascinating mirrors for each other. Join us as Reel Rumbles heads to the Final Frontier for a battle of galactic proportions: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan vs. Star Trek.
- In: Reel Rumbles
- Tags: 1969, 1977, 1982, 2002, 2009, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, DeForest Kelley, eric bana, film, films, Flickchart, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, James Doohan, Jennifer Morrison, Karl Urban, Leonard Nimoy, matchup, Mission: Impossible III, movies, Nicholas Meyer, Reel Rumbles, Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: Nemesis, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars, Time After Time, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, Zachary Quinto
Scenes I Love… In Movies I Don’t
1, Dec 2010by Nigel Druitt
There are some films on my Flickchart that rank higher than they might have, simply because they contain just one scene that held me captivated. Overall, I may not have cared for the movie, but one particular scene or sequence just caught my attention, and I had to admit: I wish the whole movie could have been like that.
Here are a few films that find themselves pulled from the dregs at the bottom of my Flickchart, buoyed in the middling middle on the strength of one or two effective scenes. One is the first R-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar. One is considered a modern-day masterpiece. One is a mediocre action flick from a director best known for mediocre action flicks. They all have one thing in common: I didn’t love them…but I loved something about them. (Caution to those who might not have seen the films discussed; there may be a few minor spoilers.)
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: 12 Rounds, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1993, 2004, 2008, Al Pacino, Best Picture, Brian De Palma, Carlito's Way, Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island, Daniel Day-Lewis, Deep Blue Sea, Fernando Rey, film, films, Flickchart, Gene Hackman, GoodFellas, Inglourious Basterds, Jaws, John Lithgow, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, movies, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, Renny Harlin, Samuel L. Jackson, Star Wars, Sylvester Stallone, The Departed, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Lord of the Rings, There Will Be Blood, Uma Thurman
Reel Rumbles #19 – “Jaws” vs. “Predator”
1, Mar 2010
In This Corner…
Just when you thought it was safe to head back to the Flickchart Blog, another Reel Rumbles is here to determine once and for all what is scarier: a murderous great white shark on the loose in a small fishing village or a lone member of a mysterious alien race haunting the jungles of Central America? Separated by twelve years and undeniable advancements in special effects, this looks, on paper, to be a match for the ages. But is it really that close? Does testosterone-fueled action and a Die Hard pedigree trump master filmmaking and deep characterization? Read on and find out in Jaws vs. Predator.
- In: Reel Rumbles
- Tags: 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 2010, 52 Pick-Up, All That Jazz, Apollo Creed, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blue Thunder, Carl Gottlieb, Carl Weathers, Commando, Die Hard, Elpidia Carrillo, Jaws, Jesse Ventura, Jim Thomas, John McTiernan, John Thomas, John Williams, Kevin Peter Hall, Lethal Weapon, Marathon Man, Moby Dick, monster, Nomads, Peter Benchley, Pierce Brosnan, predator, Reel Rumbles, Richard Chaves, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Rocky, Roy Scheider, Shane Black, Sorcerer, Steven Spielberg, Still of the Night, The French Connection, The Seven-Ups