Critically panned movies that you liked a lot
Sept 2, 2020 7:25:36 GMT
via mobile
theravenking and Toasted Cheese like this
Post by avocadojoe on Sept 2, 2020 7:25:36 GMT
More fun! 😁
Leonard Maltin's rating/mine
1. "The Exorcist 2: the Heretic" - *1/2/**1/2 - I don't think this is a great movie, but I didn't think the original was all that great, either. I love Linda Blair and it's fun to see Louise Fletcher as her doctor. The locust scenes are over the top and so is Richard Burton, but up until it got to this part, I thought the movie was interesting and very easy to watch. And the high rise movie balcony is one of the coolest sets I've ever seen.
2. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" - *1/2/*** - I think this is a very compelling movie and quite plausible. (Well, it was based on a true story, so, yeah, obviously.) I found the main character sympathetic and very easy to relate to. I am obsessed with the 70s bar scene and "Don't Leave Me This Way" is played more than once and that has to be a good thing! Richard Gere and especially Tom Berenger (sigh) serve as some A+ eye candy. (On the other hand, William Atherton is rather unappealing as her boyfriend.) The violence at the end is explosive and shocking. Memorable final image. Best of all is Diane Keaton's powerful portrayal of a haunted character.
3. "Xanadu" - *1/2/*** - Somewhat delirious movie is nevertheless campy, colorful fun on roller skates! Gene Kelly is charismatic (and at 69, he still looks pretty good) and Olivia Newton-John is sweet lemon meringue pie and lovelier here than she even was in "Grease". Also, ELO's soundtrack is likely my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. The finale with the title tune gives me chills every time I see it. For me, the only real liability is Michael Beck, who is colorless and wooden.
4. "Roller Boogie" - BOMB/*** - This movie does not aim high, but I think it's so much fun. Disco, roller skates, Venice Beach in the 70s and Linda Blair as a nice, rich, sheltered girl who just wants to have some fun. And she does!
5. "The Concorde: Airport 1979" - BOMB/*** Okay, I can understand Maltin's rating for this one, and I couldn't care less. This movie has some seriously funny moments. My favorite of many has to be where the two girl passengers are rockin' out in the galley in stocking feet, drinking Coca-Colas while Jimmie Walker is playing his saxophone in the airplane lavatory! The cast for this one just got off The Love Boat.
6. "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?" - *1/2/*** - Sometimes awkward little movie about two lonely, neurotic people who find their soul mate in each other. I thought it was gentle and touching and actually rather sweet. Appealingly staged on the busy streets of early 80s NYC, the movie is something of a time capsule. The lead actor talks a mile a minute and sometimes can get on my nerves a little bit, but Karen Black is excellent. She can be touching as well as quite funny, and she has a lovely, expressive singing voice.
7. "Empire of the Ants" - *1/2/*** - Cheesy, low-budget "nature run amok" flick from AIP is a lot of fun right from the start. Lots of familiar faces in the died and gone to heaven b-movie cast, with pre-Dynasty Joan "try a meatball, they are really quite tasty!" Collins an obvious stand-out.
8. "Nasty Habits" - *1/2/*** - I actually don't know why Maltin didn't like this movie. It's funny, intelligent and even politically relevant for those who care. The female cast is super impressive - Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Anne Francis and my favorite, a very funny Sandy Dennis, is very impressive. Interestingly, Pauline Kael seemed to kind of like the movie.
9. "The Thing with Two Heads" - *1/2/*** - Absolutely hilarious. Ray Milland and the always lovable Rosey Grier play off each other surprisingly well in this tightly paced camp fest. Another low-budget AIP classic from the early 70s.
10. "Terror Train" - **/***1/4 - My favorite 80s slasher movie by far. Terrific claustrophobic setting and atmospherically photographed, especially with its green tint, which is the perfect touch for this kind of movie. Hart Bochner is very nice to look at, and Ben Johnson is solid and likable. My favorite scary type movies always have lots of atmosphere and, TT (while very far from being scary) is loaded with atmosphere. The setting where the magic show takes place was just too cozy for words. I wanted to be there.
11. "Airport 1975" - *1/2/***1/4 - My favorite disaster movie. It contains all the elements that make this genre fun for me. It's not very suspenseful - certainly not as much as "The Poseidon Adventure" was - but I watch these movies for the casts, which are typically all over the place, and for new levels of ridiculousness. This has the best disaster movie cast by far and the pre-disaster flying sequence is sublime. It fascinatingly stars Karen Black (who gives her usual excellent performance), Susan Clark, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roy Thinnes, George Kennedy, Erik Estrada, Christopher Norris, Linda Blair (!), Helen Reddy (!!), Gloria Swanson as herself (!!!), Myrna Loy, Sid Caesar, Norman Fell, Conrad Janis, Jerry Stiller, Alan Fudge, Irene Tsu, Beverly Garland, Virginia Gregg, Ed Nelson, Larry Storch, Martha Scott, Laurette Spang, Nancy Olsen, Sharon Gless (look quick), Guy Stockwell, Marjorie Bennett, Austin Stoker and "Large Marge" herself, Alice Nunn. -- "I know, Mother, but it's so exciting! People are so interesting!"
12. "The Driver's Seat" - BOMB/***1/4 - Fascinating character study with Elizabeth Taylor as a thoroughly alienated individual looking for danger and then some. Film is dark and moody and has the psychological complexity I accused "Vertigo" of lacking. I wouldn't think most people could appreciate this movie, let alone enjoy it. Though there are a nice handful of posters here who posted positive, even glowing, reviews and seemed to be as taken by it as I was.
13. "Persecution" - BOMB/***1/2 - Lana Turner's penultimate feature film is a total hoot, as you're asked to be terrified by the evil, murderous presence of Turner's fluffy, chubby lap cat, "Sheba". Most of the film takes place in Lana's dark and gloomy mansion (more atmosphere), but the film's funniest scene takes place in the maze of hedges in the backyard. "Persecution" also noticeably fits in story elements from "Psycho" with Lana taking it all in with a straight face. I'd say this movie is in the top five funniest movies I have ever seen.
14. "BOOM!" - **/***1/4 - Overripe film treatment of overripe Tennessee Williams' play. But I liked it a lot and thought it held together pretty well. Some of the dialogue is just crazy and John Barry's calliope-influenced score is very good, memorable. Beautiful scenery somewhere in Greece, I believe. Great, imaginative "Flintstones"-influenced dwelling for Elizabeth Taylor, who, two years after she won the Oscar for her first blowsy shrew in the overrated, IMO, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", had finally stopped trying to be a "good" actress and was now content to be an uninhibited marvel to behold. It would either be my second or third favorite performance of hers, her aging prostitute in the same year's "Secret Ceremony" being the other. (Leonard Maltin actually liked SC and gave that one ***1/2)...
15. "16 Candles" - **/***1/2 - I think this movie is LOL funny from start to finish, with a large collection of eccentric and hilarious supporting characters. I don't even know who would be my favorite out of this group. Probably Grandma Helen and Long Duk Dong. Oh, the movie is blissfully un-PC! Anthony Michael Hall is great as "Geek" and Molly Ringwald's charming, funny and believable performance is what elevates the movie from good to great. It's also maybe the most quotable movie I know. "16 Candles" is also a very warm movie. I don't know what Maltin's problem was with this one.
16. "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" - BOMB/***1/4 - The movie is cute and funny and unpretentious with a likable, spirited performance by Cassandra Peterson as sexy, endearingly goofy Elvira. Plot is straightforward and serviceable, if sonewhat obvious and predictable, but that's really kind of beside the point here. With humor that resides somewhere between PG and PG-13, there really is nothing to get offended by, unless your name is Chastity Pariah or, I guess, Leonard Maltin.
17. "Burnt Offerings" - **/***1/2 - Wonderfully atmospheric big, old haunted house type movie. One of the most appealing, attractive small ensemble casts imaginable, with Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Lee H. Montgomery, Eileen Heckart, Burgess Meredith (okay, not so crazy about him) and Anthony James as creepy chauffeur. I can watch this one over and over.
18. "And Then There Were None" - *1/2/***1/2 - Big, all-star international cast, headed up by Oliver Reed and Stephane Audran. Creepy Agatha Christie murder mystery with spectacular death scenes. 2nd coolest movie hotel ever, right after "Last Year at Marienbad". The movie has an odd, but effective tone. ATTWN is nothing BUT atmosphere.
19. "Reform School Girls" - *1/2/***1/2 - For me, this movie begins and ends - and makes pit stops all along the way - with Pat Ast. She's my patron saint of humor, my number one go to gal and conveys the most comically vivid grasp of irony imaginable. In his review of RSG, Maltin actually stated that Pat Ast was born to play a prison matron. (Oh, you speak the truth here, Leonard.) Virtually every line that comes out of her mouth makes me laugh and makes me laugh hard. And when "Edna" takes a corner at a steep angle for reasons of centrigufal force, Pat Ast can make me laugh without saying a word.
20. "Body Double" - *1/2/***1/2 - My second favorite Brian DePalma movie after "Carrie". Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith are both extremely likable and have great chemistry. Griffiths is a minor key force of nature. A memorable characterization and Holly Body is very funny. I love how this movie really feels the seedy L.A. of the 80s in scenes like the one where Jake goes to Tower Records at 3 in the morning and the place is packed. And nothing beats Pino Donaggio's "Telescope" theme.
21. "Motel Hell" - *1/2/***1/2 - This one has all the usual suspects. Spooky, but fun atmosphere. Moodily photographed. Cute and funny throughout, with a special nod to Nancy Parsons, who has been one of my favorites. The relationship between Ida and Vincent is warm, likable and even sweet at times, which would not seem to be the usual order of things for a silly, low-budget, little horror comedy. Lots of great one liners. I love "Motel Hell".
22. "X, Y and Zee" - **/***1/2 - Right now, I'm just going to say that this is the movie for me that "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was for almost everybody else. Elizabeth Taylor's performance is unfathomably good.
23. "Blood and Black Lace" - *1/2/**** - Saturated and submerged in yellows, blues, greens and pinks, my favorite Mario Bava movie is a visual masterpiece.
Leonard Maltin's rating/mine
1. "The Exorcist 2: the Heretic" - *1/2/**1/2 - I don't think this is a great movie, but I didn't think the original was all that great, either. I love Linda Blair and it's fun to see Louise Fletcher as her doctor. The locust scenes are over the top and so is Richard Burton, but up until it got to this part, I thought the movie was interesting and very easy to watch. And the high rise movie balcony is one of the coolest sets I've ever seen.
2. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" - *1/2/*** - I think this is a very compelling movie and quite plausible. (Well, it was based on a true story, so, yeah, obviously.) I found the main character sympathetic and very easy to relate to. I am obsessed with the 70s bar scene and "Don't Leave Me This Way" is played more than once and that has to be a good thing! Richard Gere and especially Tom Berenger (sigh) serve as some A+ eye candy. (On the other hand, William Atherton is rather unappealing as her boyfriend.) The violence at the end is explosive and shocking. Memorable final image. Best of all is Diane Keaton's powerful portrayal of a haunted character.
3. "Xanadu" - *1/2/*** - Somewhat delirious movie is nevertheless campy, colorful fun on roller skates! Gene Kelly is charismatic (and at 69, he still looks pretty good) and Olivia Newton-John is sweet lemon meringue pie and lovelier here than she even was in "Grease". Also, ELO's soundtrack is likely my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. The finale with the title tune gives me chills every time I see it. For me, the only real liability is Michael Beck, who is colorless and wooden.
4. "Roller Boogie" - BOMB/*** - This movie does not aim high, but I think it's so much fun. Disco, roller skates, Venice Beach in the 70s and Linda Blair as a nice, rich, sheltered girl who just wants to have some fun. And she does!
5. "The Concorde: Airport 1979" - BOMB/*** Okay, I can understand Maltin's rating for this one, and I couldn't care less. This movie has some seriously funny moments. My favorite of many has to be where the two girl passengers are rockin' out in the galley in stocking feet, drinking Coca-Colas while Jimmie Walker is playing his saxophone in the airplane lavatory! The cast for this one just got off The Love Boat.
6. "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?" - *1/2/*** - Sometimes awkward little movie about two lonely, neurotic people who find their soul mate in each other. I thought it was gentle and touching and actually rather sweet. Appealingly staged on the busy streets of early 80s NYC, the movie is something of a time capsule. The lead actor talks a mile a minute and sometimes can get on my nerves a little bit, but Karen Black is excellent. She can be touching as well as quite funny, and she has a lovely, expressive singing voice.
7. "Empire of the Ants" - *1/2/*** - Cheesy, low-budget "nature run amok" flick from AIP is a lot of fun right from the start. Lots of familiar faces in the died and gone to heaven b-movie cast, with pre-Dynasty Joan "try a meatball, they are really quite tasty!" Collins an obvious stand-out.
8. "Nasty Habits" - *1/2/*** - I actually don't know why Maltin didn't like this movie. It's funny, intelligent and even politically relevant for those who care. The female cast is super impressive - Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Anne Francis and my favorite, a very funny Sandy Dennis, is very impressive. Interestingly, Pauline Kael seemed to kind of like the movie.
9. "The Thing with Two Heads" - *1/2/*** - Absolutely hilarious. Ray Milland and the always lovable Rosey Grier play off each other surprisingly well in this tightly paced camp fest. Another low-budget AIP classic from the early 70s.
10. "Terror Train" - **/***1/4 - My favorite 80s slasher movie by far. Terrific claustrophobic setting and atmospherically photographed, especially with its green tint, which is the perfect touch for this kind of movie. Hart Bochner is very nice to look at, and Ben Johnson is solid and likable. My favorite scary type movies always have lots of atmosphere and, TT (while very far from being scary) is loaded with atmosphere. The setting where the magic show takes place was just too cozy for words. I wanted to be there.
11. "Airport 1975" - *1/2/***1/4 - My favorite disaster movie. It contains all the elements that make this genre fun for me. It's not very suspenseful - certainly not as much as "The Poseidon Adventure" was - but I watch these movies for the casts, which are typically all over the place, and for new levels of ridiculousness. This has the best disaster movie cast by far and the pre-disaster flying sequence is sublime. It fascinatingly stars Karen Black (who gives her usual excellent performance), Susan Clark, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roy Thinnes, George Kennedy, Erik Estrada, Christopher Norris, Linda Blair (!), Helen Reddy (!!), Gloria Swanson as herself (!!!), Myrna Loy, Sid Caesar, Norman Fell, Conrad Janis, Jerry Stiller, Alan Fudge, Irene Tsu, Beverly Garland, Virginia Gregg, Ed Nelson, Larry Storch, Martha Scott, Laurette Spang, Nancy Olsen, Sharon Gless (look quick), Guy Stockwell, Marjorie Bennett, Austin Stoker and "Large Marge" herself, Alice Nunn. -- "I know, Mother, but it's so exciting! People are so interesting!"
12. "The Driver's Seat" - BOMB/***1/4 - Fascinating character study with Elizabeth Taylor as a thoroughly alienated individual looking for danger and then some. Film is dark and moody and has the psychological complexity I accused "Vertigo" of lacking. I wouldn't think most people could appreciate this movie, let alone enjoy it. Though there are a nice handful of posters here who posted positive, even glowing, reviews and seemed to be as taken by it as I was.
13. "Persecution" - BOMB/***1/2 - Lana Turner's penultimate feature film is a total hoot, as you're asked to be terrified by the evil, murderous presence of Turner's fluffy, chubby lap cat, "Sheba". Most of the film takes place in Lana's dark and gloomy mansion (more atmosphere), but the film's funniest scene takes place in the maze of hedges in the backyard. "Persecution" also noticeably fits in story elements from "Psycho" with Lana taking it all in with a straight face. I'd say this movie is in the top five funniest movies I have ever seen.
14. "BOOM!" - **/***1/4 - Overripe film treatment of overripe Tennessee Williams' play. But I liked it a lot and thought it held together pretty well. Some of the dialogue is just crazy and John Barry's calliope-influenced score is very good, memorable. Beautiful scenery somewhere in Greece, I believe. Great, imaginative "Flintstones"-influenced dwelling for Elizabeth Taylor, who, two years after she won the Oscar for her first blowsy shrew in the overrated, IMO, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", had finally stopped trying to be a "good" actress and was now content to be an uninhibited marvel to behold. It would either be my second or third favorite performance of hers, her aging prostitute in the same year's "Secret Ceremony" being the other. (Leonard Maltin actually liked SC and gave that one ***1/2)...
15. "16 Candles" - **/***1/2 - I think this movie is LOL funny from start to finish, with a large collection of eccentric and hilarious supporting characters. I don't even know who would be my favorite out of this group. Probably Grandma Helen and Long Duk Dong. Oh, the movie is blissfully un-PC! Anthony Michael Hall is great as "Geek" and Molly Ringwald's charming, funny and believable performance is what elevates the movie from good to great. It's also maybe the most quotable movie I know. "16 Candles" is also a very warm movie. I don't know what Maltin's problem was with this one.
16. "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" - BOMB/***1/4 - The movie is cute and funny and unpretentious with a likable, spirited performance by Cassandra Peterson as sexy, endearingly goofy Elvira. Plot is straightforward and serviceable, if sonewhat obvious and predictable, but that's really kind of beside the point here. With humor that resides somewhere between PG and PG-13, there really is nothing to get offended by, unless your name is Chastity Pariah or, I guess, Leonard Maltin.
17. "Burnt Offerings" - **/***1/2 - Wonderfully atmospheric big, old haunted house type movie. One of the most appealing, attractive small ensemble casts imaginable, with Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Lee H. Montgomery, Eileen Heckart, Burgess Meredith (okay, not so crazy about him) and Anthony James as creepy chauffeur. I can watch this one over and over.
18. "And Then There Were None" - *1/2/***1/2 - Big, all-star international cast, headed up by Oliver Reed and Stephane Audran. Creepy Agatha Christie murder mystery with spectacular death scenes. 2nd coolest movie hotel ever, right after "Last Year at Marienbad". The movie has an odd, but effective tone. ATTWN is nothing BUT atmosphere.
19. "Reform School Girls" - *1/2/***1/2 - For me, this movie begins and ends - and makes pit stops all along the way - with Pat Ast. She's my patron saint of humor, my number one go to gal and conveys the most comically vivid grasp of irony imaginable. In his review of RSG, Maltin actually stated that Pat Ast was born to play a prison matron. (Oh, you speak the truth here, Leonard.) Virtually every line that comes out of her mouth makes me laugh and makes me laugh hard. And when "Edna" takes a corner at a steep angle for reasons of centrigufal force, Pat Ast can make me laugh without saying a word.
20. "Body Double" - *1/2/***1/2 - My second favorite Brian DePalma movie after "Carrie". Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith are both extremely likable and have great chemistry. Griffiths is a minor key force of nature. A memorable characterization and Holly Body is very funny. I love how this movie really feels the seedy L.A. of the 80s in scenes like the one where Jake goes to Tower Records at 3 in the morning and the place is packed. And nothing beats Pino Donaggio's "Telescope" theme.
21. "Motel Hell" - *1/2/***1/2 - This one has all the usual suspects. Spooky, but fun atmosphere. Moodily photographed. Cute and funny throughout, with a special nod to Nancy Parsons, who has been one of my favorites. The relationship between Ida and Vincent is warm, likable and even sweet at times, which would not seem to be the usual order of things for a silly, low-budget, little horror comedy. Lots of great one liners. I love "Motel Hell".
22. "X, Y and Zee" - **/***1/2 - Right now, I'm just going to say that this is the movie for me that "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was for almost everybody else. Elizabeth Taylor's performance is unfathomably good.
23. "Blood and Black Lace" - *1/2/**** - Saturated and submerged in yellows, blues, greens and pinks, my favorite Mario Bava movie is a visual masterpiece.
