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Share your unsung movie
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If anyone has followed the different geeklists I have created, you probably have noticed a theme. I am not the most experienced "gamer" on this site. I can't challenge all of you guys who have played 90% of the new releases. I'm still trying to catch up on all the great games that I have missed. Because of this lack of expertise in the gaming front I like to talk about my other passion a whole lot. MOVIES! In particular I've focused on the Star Wars movies, because those are my personal favorites. But recently I was watching a movie and I thought "I don't hear many people talking about this movie." Which got me to thinking, perhaps some people don't know about it. So that's what this geeklist is going to be about. Add an item for your favorite movie that you think others need to know about. Avoid those movies that EVERYONE has probably heard of. I certainly don't need to waste time singing the praises of Star Wars, but use those movies that you love and you think other BGG members might love too. If possible include a picture and a favorite quote or two. If you see someone else has posted a movie you love then maybe take the time to share your comments on that movie as well.
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Posted Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:22 pm
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1.
Board Game: Sneaks
[Average Rating:5.21 Unranked]
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Sneakers is a great movie that I have enjoyed since I was a teenager. It is a great combination of comedy, and action. The actors are all top notch and the humor is so strong, it's one of the few movies that can make me laugh out loud even when watching it alone.
Favorite Lines
Martin: Come on, the FBI'd give him twins!
Mother: It's the same setup that NASA used when they faked the Apollo moon landings.
Whistler: I want peace on Earth and good will toward men.
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In Legend of 1900, Tim Roth plays an agrophobic piano genius living all his life aboard a cruise ship plying the Atlantic route. The film's narrator, Max, is his best friend, a man with shifty eyes and a gift for trumpet. This is the Age of Jazz, and the music envelopes the film in beauty and magic.
1900: "Take this piano: keys begin, keys end. You know there are eighty-eight of them. Nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You are infinite... And on those keys, the music that you can make is infinite. I like that. That I can live by.
...Land? Land is a ship too big for me, it's a woman too beautiful, it's a voyage too long, perfume too strong."
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Someone decides to make a science fiction movie that isn't all the usual crap. No thumping techno soundtrack and black leather and slow-motion gunfights. There's a great sense of style and homage to past masters. It's a lot of fun, for a change, instead of the usual grim and dour stuff.
And suddenly geeks, who will go see ANYTHING, decide to display a heretofore unknown idea that they have some kind of standards to maintain. The same people who raved about the idiotic Matrix movies decided that Sky Captain didn't have enough characterization and plot for them. The hell?
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Children of Heaven
A very charming movie about a boy who loses his sister's shoes.
Roger Ebert's review:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19...
Roger Ebert wrote: It lacks the cynicism and smart-mouth attitudes of so much American entertainment for kids and glows with a kind of good-hearted purity. To see this movie is to be reminded of a time when the children in movies were children and not miniature stand-up comics.
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The Wizard of Speed and Time
This 1987 film started out as a live-action stop-motion sequence that was called "Wizard Run", which eventually became one of the last sequences of the film. The rest of the film is basically a true-to-life account of the making of the sequence, and to a larger extent, the movie itself. The stop-motion sequences are out of this world (sometimes literally  ) and there are many, many hidden messages/imagery throughout the film.
Unfortunately, Mike Jittlov got screwed out of just about everything except the final print. The movie is only available on VHS if you *can* find it, but unfortunately Mike doesn't get any money from it, and according to him, it's also an inferior cut of the film.
Years ago, in alt.fan.mike-jittlov, there was at least one person who had a laserdisc copy of the movie and was dubbing them onto VHS tapes with Mike's blessing. I haven't kept up, so I don't know if that service is still available. I seem to recall there was a mention of getting the film onto homebrew DVD at some point, but, again I have no information on that. I still have my copy of the above-mentioned *inferior* VHS version.
As of the time of this post, as far as I know, Mike is still looking for the time/money to finally release his true vision of The Wizard of Speed and Time.
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6.
Board Game: Astronaut
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
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American Astronaut(2001)
A black and white science fiction musical comedy. Director and star Cory McAbee fronts the band The Billy Nayer Show, who also did music for the soundtrack (which is a lot of fun). The plot, as such, is pretty bizarre. It involves our hero, the titular Samuel Curtis, ferrying things around the galaxy while avoiding his nemesis who is trying to forgive him so he can kill him. Features a character named "The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast".
Old Man: Hey. Is it just me, or do my balls itch?
Samuel Curtis: I think it's you.
Old Man: Good. For a minute, I thought my balls itched.
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Big Fish
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, ...
Plot Outline: The story revolves around a dying father and his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating his father's elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to understand his father's great feats and his great failings.
Memorable Quotes:
Young Ed Bloom: There's a time when a man needs to fight and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny's lost, the ship has sailed and that only a fool will continue. The truth is I've always been a fool.
Will Bloom: We have to take Glenville to avoid the church traffic because the damn church people drive too slow.
Young Ed Bloom: It was that night I discovered that most things you consider evil or wicked are simply lonely, and lacking in the social niceties.
I really enjoyed this movie. The father's stories and the son trying to making sense of it all. Brought a tear to my eye on several occasions thinking about how little I know about my own father's life.
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BRICK (2005)
Oh so very full of good goodness. Think hard-boiled detective film noir like The Maltese Falcon but set in high school. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the youngest kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun) does a great job of being the guy who knows all the angles and would play any and all of them, except he hates everyone else and doesn't care to fit in. Nora Zehetner (recently from Heroes) is the high school fashionista femme fatale and Emilie de Ravin (Claire from Lost) is the girlfriend whose killer must be found.
Fun little verbage they create for the subculture. Don't feel guilty if you have to watch it the first time or two with subtitles on.
I went back and saw it in the theaters three days in a row. After all, who doesn't love the idea of Humphrey Bogart worrying about acne?
Laura Dannon: Do you trust me now?
Brendan Frye: Less than when I didn't trust you before.
Or the best one-liner I've heard in a long long time:
Brendan Frye: Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I've got all five senses and I slept last night, that puts me six up on the lot of you.
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Kelly's Heroes. 1970.
I've seen this movie several times, and still enjoy the opportunity to watch it again. Clint Eastwood leads troops behind enemy lines in WWII France to pull a bank heist. Once you get past the weird 70s theme song, you'll be treated to the likes of Clint, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas. Hell, even Don Rickles and Gavin MacLeod! But the actor who really steals the show (IMO): Carroll O'Connor. I believe his role as an American general in this film may be his best work.
Find this on DVD, pop some corn, and prepare for some laughs.
You'll even get to see how the GIs deal with the “Tiger” tanks guarding the bank.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065938/
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Suture
Michael Harris and Dennis Haysbert as identical half-brothers who take each others place, sort of. Of course Harris is a skinny little white man and Haysbert is a tall, athletic black man but nobody seems to notice. Really slickly done. It challenges preconceptions about race, class, and identity.
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The World's Fastest Indian
Starring: Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro
Plot Outline:
The life story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle -- a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.
Okay, I'll admit there are some cheesy scenes and some questionable dialog but I still really enjoyed this movie. Seeing a no-nonsense, hard working, and eccentric guy, fulfill his dream after years of effort. Neat.
Having driven through Invercargill on a recent trip to New Zealand makes it extra sweet.
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Six String Samurai
In the Fifties, the Russians launched their nuclear missiles at us and attempted an invasion. They only made it partway into the West from Alaska. Elvis moved to Las Vegas and was made the King. It was stalemate.
Now it's decades later. The US is a nuclear wasteland filled with strange cultures. Elvis has died and young men from all across the land are streaming to Las Vegas, katanas and guitars slung across their backs, to claim the throne.
The hero looks like a cross between Clint Eastwood and Buddy Holly. It's low budget but very, very well done; a mix of Fifties apocalytic, end-of-the-world movies and Seventies Chinese kung-fu movies. Incredibly funny, too.
Bad Guy: If I were you, I'd run.
Six String Samurai: If you were me, you'd be good looking.
Death: Only one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!
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13.
Board Game: Lottery
[Average Rating:2.67 Unranked]
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Waking Ned Devine
Starring: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, and Fionnula Flanagan
When fisherman Ned Devine wins the lottery, the shock is too much for his poor heart. But the charming scoundrel Jackie O'Shea (Bannen) enlists his too honest friend Michael (Kelly) to impersonate Ned long enough to cash in the winning ticket. But when the stakes get richer, the entire village of Tully More gets in on the act.
A delightful comedy which is really about friendship, love, and the wealth that money can't buy. It never fails to make me smile.
Jackie O'Shea: Michael O'Sullivan was my great friend. But I don't ever remember telling him that. The words that are spoken at a funeral are spoken too late for the man who is dead. What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral. To sit at the front and hear what was said, maybe say a few things yourself. Michael and I grew old together. But at times, when we laughed, we grew young. If he was here now, if he could hear what I say, I'd congratulate him on being a great man, and thank him for being a friend.
Annie O'Shea: But he's never told a lie in his life.
Jackie O'Shea: Well, he's making up for it now.
edited for clarity
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Not Carter but CARPENTER.
They live is a great popcorn movie that I think is underappreciated (Along with "Big Trouble in Little China")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/
"I have come here to chew bubblegum or kick a**, and I'm all out of bubblegum"
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Primer (2004)
A real thinking-person's time-travel movie. As soon as I'd watched it the first time, I immediately watched it again to try to figure it all out. I couldn't fill it all in, but I'm pretty sure it makes sense.
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Posted Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:21 pm
Film Noir in a high-school. Probably one of the most original screenplays of the last few years. Rent it now. 
Buddy: Who Are You?
Favorite line:
Crease: "Wait a minute! You're not going to tell me the CIA killed Kennedy!?"
Mother: No... They shot him, but they didn't kill him..."