movies...

[Gilly]

I don't think Blockbuster Online has Two Lane Blacktop. At least they didn't when I used it. It's still on long wait on Netflix as well. I really want to see it but can't.

[bruce]

I don't think Blockbuster Online has Two Lane Blacktop. At least they didn't when I used it. It's still on long wait on Netflix as well. I really want to see it but can't.

It's well worth the money for the Criterion DVD of it. It's jam packed with things including the complete screenplay.

[masterofsparks]

I actually wasn't that impressed with Prime Cut. The fact that there's a bad guy named Weenie gave me hope, but I never really got that interested. Great to see Hackman and Marvin together, but that was about it.

Another recommendation for Two-Lane Blacktop right here. It's everything Easy Rider should've been.

[masterofsparks]

One more from me:

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

See it now before the Tony Scott remake comes out.

[bruce]

One more from me:

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

See it now before the Tony Scott remake comes out.

Also the movie ending is better then the books. But the book gives you a whole lot of who is who on the subway car.

[Omar]

Michael Ritchie is an underappreciated director (or just unknown to most). He's hit-and-miss, but check out this awesome 1-2-3 punch he made in the early seventies:

Prime Cut (1972)
The Candidate (1972)
Smile (1975)

To make those three amazing, wildly different films back-to-back-to-back is quite a feat. (Consider them all recommended.)

You totally left out probably one of the best sports movies ever the original The Bad News Bears

Has anyone seen Downhill Racer?  It's a 1969 Ritchie skiing drama starring Redford and Hackman, so I suspect it's one the best films ever made.  As far as I know it's never been released on DVD.

[Oogie]

I just saw Rocket Science and loved it. I am toughing my way through Lake of Fire, and recommend it, but it's a documentary (150 minutes on the abortion debate.)

i saw lake of fire at a festivus last year and walked out after first abortion aftermath. too gross for old grimlock. went to the bathroom, put some water on the head, did some breathing, went back in, and the punk rock girls were doing dirty coat hanger dances. then toothless priest from 1940s talks some crazy shizzit. then peter singer is interviewed with kid gloves. then 90 more minutes.

booed.

a beautifully shot, hideously muddled film.

[Martin]

Michael Ritchie is an underappreciated director (or just unknown to most). He's hit-and-miss, but check out this awesome 1-2-3 punch he made in the early seventies:

Prime Cut (1972)
The Candidate (1972)
Smile (1975)

To make those three amazing, wildly different films back-to-back-to-back is quite a feat. (Consider them all recommended.)

You totally left out probably one of the best sports movies ever the original The Bad News Bears

Has anyone seen Downhill Racer?  It's a 1969 Ritchie skiing drama starring Redford and Hackman, so I suspect it's one the best films ever made.  As far as I know it's never been released on DVD.

It's on my wanted list! Sounds great, doesn't it?

EDIT: It's actually out on R2 DVD!

[Martin]

I hereby recommend Little Murders (1971). One of the darkest, most twisted comedy-dramas produced in the early 70s - an era filled with dark, twisted comedy-dramas. The setting is New York City, "now", only things are slightly off. There's an end-of-the-world vibe in the air; society is cold and cynic, human relations are strained, rooftop snipers cause paranoia with seemingly random killings. And in the middle of this, an emotionally numb photographer played by Elliot Gould is invited to his girlfriend's home to have dinner with her parents. What follows is an absurd social interaction almost worthy of Ionescu.

It's directed by Alan Arkin(!), who also turns up as a neurotic detective about midway through it. Written by Jules Feiffer (from his play), who the same year also wrote Mike Nichols little-seen misanthropic masterpiece(/mess, depending on who you ask) Carnal Knowledge.

[Pat K]

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

See it now before the Tony Scott remake comes out.

Oohhhh. I want so badly to believe that that's a joke, but I know better.

I've always had a soft spot for Morituri - an atmospheric WWII potboiler from the 60s with double-agent Marlon Brando trying to sabotage the Nazi cargo ship that Yul Brynner is captaining. Features Marlon Brando trying to pass as a German, doing his best cheesy Churr-mannn accent.

And incidentally, after seeing just that screenshot, I am SOLD on Little Murders.

[TL]

While we're on all these gritty, pre-Giuliani NYC movies, can I take it way back to black and white and toss The Incident into the ring?  These two street toughs, seemingly right out of "West Side Story" (one of them is the young Martin Sheen), turn out to be actually "tough," if not downright sociopathic, and hold a subway car hostage, physically and psychologically messing with all the passengers, one by one, none of whom will lift a finger to challenge these guys, which only pisses them off more - it's a gut wrenching hour and a half.

[Spoony]

I watched Prime Cut for the first time last week, and although I loved the first 45 minutes, I was disappointed in the rest. At a certain point it turned into a "hooker with a heart of gold" story, and that is my #1 peeve. Don't get me wrong, any time spend with Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman is time well spent, but it was a let down after Point Blank.

I rented The Assasination of Jesse James at the Hands of the Coward Robert Ford this weekend and loved it. It takes it's time, so make yourself comfortable, but it's worth it.

Side note: don't watch it for the Nick Cave cameo! You will have to wait hours! I put a shot out and named it My Nick Cave Shot... and that shot and I stared at each other for the duration of this 2.5 hour movie.

I like the guts,
Chris

[Chris L]

I rented The Assasination of Jesse James at the Hands of the Coward Robert Ford this weekend and loved it. It takes it's time, so make yourself comfortable, but it's worth it.

YES!  I liked this a lot.  It's practically an honorary 70's movie. 

PRIME CUT is pretty crazy.  Hackman literally keeps his hookers in stables and hauls their drugged bodies around like slabs of meat. 

[buffcoat]

I three-quarters heartedly recommend the horribly-named "Duck You Sucker" by Leone, the middle one of his second trilogy.  It's a good weird western in the Leone style, with the revolution-era Mexican government standing in for the Nazis.  Rod Steiger's accent is embarrassing.  James Coburn is good but I kept wanting to say "Good... lauck..." every time he got in a stagecoach.

The name stuck because Leone insisted (over Steiger and Coburn's repeated objections) that Duck, You Sucker was a common American phrase.  Some places you'll see it called "A Fistful of Dynamite."

[dave from knoxville]

I recently saw Little Murders, as I am a big fan of both Gould and Arkin. Ooooh boy. It does NOT age well. It was just way too stagey for me, and "wacky" to boot, a lethal combination. I wanted to like it, but just couldn't. Maybe I better never plan to go to a BS meet-up.