posted
John Landis is a great writer, director and producer and has done many classics.
Here is my top 5. It is hard to order them but I'll try.
1. An American Werewolf in London 2. Three Amigos 3. Trading Places 4. Coming to America 5. National Lampoon's Animal House
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1. An American Werewolf in London 2. Kentucky Fried Movie 3. Into the Night 4. National Lampoon's Animal House 5. The Blues Brothers
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
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Yeah Blues Brothers 2000 sucked. Maybe John Landis was just trying to defend himself but I saw an interview with him and he said he was tricked by whatever studio into doing it.
I agree that he has not done any decent movies lately which is most surprising considering the calibre of movies he is capable of.
IMO he had the potential to be the greatest film maker ever.
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posted
John Landis is one of my favorite directors of all time. Here's my top 5, all IMHO of course:
1. An American Werewolf in London 2. Trading Places 3. National Lampoon's Animal House 4. Coming to America 5. The Blues Brothers
Honorable Mention: Thriller (I know, I know, it's not a movie but it is a fantastic music video so I felt it deserved to be mentioned among Landis's best work).
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posted
1. Trading Places 2. Spies like Us 3. Coming to America 4. Into the Night 5. American Werewolf
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Glad to see so much love for Into the Night here. It's special (Who hasn't had insomnia and wished for an adventure like Jeff Goldblum has? Killer B.B. King score too!). I like Innocent Blood a lot too.
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1. The Blues Brothers 2. Three Amigos 3. Spies Like Us 4. Trading Places 5. probably have to say Coming to America, although I am in the minority who found Beverly Hills Cop III at least somewhat reasonable
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I just don't get Into The Night. If you like it, all well and good but too me it is severely boring. Enough to turn it off. Not trying to put a damper on things by any means though Posts: 2586 | From: Defrauding the company from abroad | Registered: Jan 2010 | Site Updates: 24
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1. An American Werewolf in London 2. The Blues Brothers 3. Coming to America 4. Trading Places 5. Three Amigos
Worst films of his: Oscar (1991), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), The Stupids (1996)
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1. Into the Night 2. Three Amigos 3. Trading Places 4. Spies Like Us 5."Damn that boy is good" Coming to America
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quote:Originally posted by The Good Package: im the only one putting spies on the list?
I love Spies Like Us, but there is just too many good ones. Probably in 6th spot for me.
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I am not trying to be harsh here, but can someone pease explain to me what is so great about Inot The Night which has got alot of mentions.
Like I said in a previous post I find it really boring.
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Since I love this film, I will give it a go. Jeff Goldblum's character, Ed Okin, is like most of us. He's marking time through life to the point where he just can't sleep because he can't deal with his issues, and he can't move forward. He reluctantly decides to act impulsively, and Michelle Pfeiffer falls on the hood of his car, plunging him into an adventure that will change him. Folks threaten him, pull guns on him, and there is chaos all around him. He's not really afraid, yet he's not a hero. He's just too burned out, apathetic, and tired to care. The viewer completely sympathizes with and cares for him because he is every one of us at some point in our lives. By the end, there is a full character arc, which I won't spoil. And which guy among us wouldn't want to grab Pfeiffer's hand and act spontaneously to protect her? (And I think that this is the only time that she's naked in a film. )
On another level, it succeeds as a film-buff insider movie. It's like an old school noir in plot, yet it is in color and quite differently done. All those film directors show up in cameos that are witty in an ironic way outside the plot--David Cronenberg talking about scanners, for example. Everything exists in a movie-movie universe here.
Finallly, it's just wonderful John-Landis-in-great-form filmmaking--beautiful night time cinematography, perfect editing, cool locations...and an amazingly haunting B.B. King soundtrack, one that I sometimes play as background to my own life as I imagine my own fantasy of saving my own unobtainable, out-of-my-league girl.
What's not to like?
[ 03. March 2011, 18:28: Message edited by: Crash ]
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It's an easy paced movie about a guy who is almost sleepwalking through an adventure, and he barely even notices it. I used to watch it a lot. It's just a light, amusing movie with some nice performances and scenes. The intro where he finds his wife cheating on him is really good in an understated way.
I'm not so sure it's a movie that can be labeled as 'great'. But I do think it's consistently good.
Edit: Crash got in first, and Crash said it best.
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quote:Originally posted by Crash: And which guy among us wouldn't want to grab Pfeiffer's hand and act spontaneously to protect her? (And I think that this is the only time that she's naked in a film. )
What's not to like?
Yes - it is. And at a time when, for me at least, this very beautiful actress looked as good as she ever has....
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I agree, Paul. I don't think that Michelle Pfeiffer has ever looked better than around the Into the Night/Scarface period. Sometime around "Wolf" in '94, it looked to me like she had some cosmetic surgery done on her face. She still looks good, but I preferred her back in the day.
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Right on guys and of course we have add Grease 2 to the list.
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quote:Originally posted by aTomiK: Right on guys and of course we have add Grease 2 to the list.
As a Landis classic?
As far as a Pfeiffer-fest, I can't ever include Grease 2, basically because I can't actually watch anything 'starring' Maxwell Caulfield.
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
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So no semi-classics like Electric Dreams and The Boys Next Door for you, Paul?
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Electric Dreams yes, because he basically gets very little real screen time and certainly doesn't "star" in the movie - Miles, Madeleine and Edgar are the stars. Until you reminded me, I really had forgotten that he was even in it.
And The Boys Next Door is a movie I've never seen. Which is kinda my point, I think (although given time, it'll sound metter...)
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