Movie Club - Shawshank Redemption, July 26

Movie Schedule (discussions will run from Saturday to Friday):

- July 19: Gatacca (rated PG-13)

- July 26: The Shawshank Redemption (rated R)

Ok, this is an initial prototype topic for a movie discussion club. I figure most of this population is too ADD for a book club (myself included), so I think this is a good compromise. My thought is to have either weekly or bi-weekly discussions (with hopes to allow people who haven’t seen the movies go check them out). I want to officially invite AlisonClaire to be a co-moderator/leader with me, since this idea was hatched with a conversation we had a while back.

At the moment, I’d simply like to judge interest and get some suggestions for movies. In my previous club, we discussed the likes of Akira, Fight Club, The Siege, Life is Beautiful, etc.

My hope is to pick movies that have at least some sort of philosophical/political depth to them in order to spawn interesting discussion. This should be a little deeper than “Iron Man rocked!” (which it did, I will not deny!). :)

I’m an editor for a filming company, and a movie buff. I’m totally in.

Sign me up Phoenix. Will you be picking the movie or are we to make suggestions?

Oh, I’m all up for suggestions. Ultimately someone will have to do the picking (I can, or perhaps Alison, or BSG since he’s apparently qualified), but I have no need to have any power over this. I just like talking about movies. :) Suggest away!

At this point, I want to get an idea of interest (though that’s pretty decent so far), get some movie ideas, and try to decide on timing/format.

I am not really a “movie person”. My better half micromanages her blockbuster queue and feeds me whatever. I usually prefer the most godawful B horror flick to the stuff like Forrest Gump that people are amazed that you never saw. Off the top of my head I have liked…. Paprika (anime about dreams), Audition (Japanese thriller, have to watch it twice to get it), Grindhouse (Tarantino)... some others but I suck at movies ~:)

I recently watched Wall-E and found that to be far deeper and a much higher quality than I ever expected. That may be a bit too new for a movie club though. Last night I watched Dr. Strangelove. I think that might be a good candidate.

All good suggestions. I’m very much looking forward to Wall-E myself, and Strangelove may work well. Paprika is freakin’ nuts (perhaps moreso than Akira, which is saying something), and Audition was kinda crazy, though I actually was somewhat disappointed by it – I felt like it climaxed about halfway through and then kinda let me down after that. It did have perhaps the freakiest 15 seconds I’ve ever seen in a movie though. I haven’t seen Grindhouse, but I’m skeptical to be honest…

Forrest Gump was a good movie (certainly not faithful to the book though) and one of the only ones listed so far I’ve actually watched.

I’d love to be involved. Plus I have a whole list of movies I could suggest. The City of Lost Children (Cité des enfants perdus, La), Brazil, Uzumaki, and Time Bandits are some of favorites.

I would definantly want to be a part of it.

I’ll join in whenever its about a movie I have seen (that’ll be rarely) but I would love to talk about The Time Machine. It could strike some good discussion.

I will join, and can we disscuss band of brothers first, i rather enjoyed that film.

my personal favourite in depth movies, suggestions for topic -

A Beautiful Mind

Pi (Faith in Chaos)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

A Clockwork Orange

Requiem for a Dream

A Scanner Darkly

Waking Life

i’m in, but i probably won’t be able to discuss the newest ones because we get them a lot later over here.

Cool – keep the suggestions coming, I’ll start putting together a list. I think I am going to favor movies that aren’t brand new (within the past 6 months) because of difficulties getting to theatres, release dates, etc. But most of these should be quite interesting.

What do you guys think about frequency? Is one a week too much? Should we aim for every other week to allow people to watch the movies, or just go every week?

Actually, if we get a list together, we can just make a schedule for weekly discussions and people can have tons of time to watch the ones they want to watch.

This weekend is July 4th (Independence Day in America), so I’m out of town and may have limited availability until Sunday, so hopefully I can get something a little more concrete in 2 days or so. But feel free to keep chatting/suggesting. :)

I am interested in joining but not if its sissy movies like

Akira, Fight Club, The Siege, Life is Beautiful

you want reviewing.

Wow, you think an ultra-violent apocalyptic anime movie, a movie about mayhem and street brawls, a movie about terrorist attacks in New York, and a movie about the Holocaust are “sissy movies”? What the hell do you want us watching? Or did I just miss some forum sarcasm?

Both.

Although I am not to good at coming up with movies to review. I have a long car trip on Sunday, and could do with watch a movie on my Ipod (Because thats how you get the full experiance) on the way. Have any suggestions?

I have no idea what “both” means…

As for suggestions – check out any of the 4 listed above. Depending on how old you are. They’re all kinda harsh… ;)

Shawshank Redemption is also fantastic, and also listed on here that are quite good are Dr. Strangelove, Paprika, Brazil, City of Lost Children, Requiem for a Dream, Forest Gump, etc.

Everyone should be required to get netflix, we’ll all watch some obscure artfag movie that only I and some other guy have ever heard of, and then I’ll explain why none of you got the deep and complex meanings in the throwback shots to a film that no one saw. These things would boost my ego immensely.

BAHAHA to TheBSG. Cinemaphiles unite. Also: movie snobs. God bless Netflix.

I want to officially invite AlisonClaire to be a co-moderator/leader with me, since this idea was hatched with a conversation we had a while back.

I ACCEPT!

Do you think we should have different threads for discussion and film submissions? I wish these forums didn’t suck and we could just have a poll at the top of what people wanted to watch next… But yes, I guess I’ll compile a list of things I love and things I want to see. I don’t know if you guys just want me and Phoenix to pick from your suggestions, or we want to rotate and every week a new person gets to pick a movie or what. I think figuring out how we’re going to do that would be good. I really like the idea of a schedule though, like at least a month ahead. And I’d be down for one a week but we could start with one every other and see how it goes.

This is an alphabetical list of movies that are my favorite. I will bold ones that I think would be good for us to watch/discuss.

12 Monkeys, 300, The 400 Blows, A Clockwork Orange, Almost Famous, Amelie, American Gangster, The Aviator, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Blade Runner, Bonnie and Clyde, Boondock Saints, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Butterfly Effect, Casino Royale, Children of Men, A Christmas Story, City of God, Cool Hand Luke, Deathtrap, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Equilibrium, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Everything Is Illuminated, Fargo, Fight Club, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Jesus Camp, Images, Iron Man, Kontroll, Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King, Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, Lord of War, Lost in Translation, Man On Fire, The Mist, No Country for Old Men, Pleasantville, Pulp Fiction, The Pursuit of Happyness, Quills, Requiem For A Dream, Schindler’s List, Serenity, Seven, The Shawshank Redemption, Shining, Spirited Away, Stardust, Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: Return of The Jedi, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Superbad, Supersize Me, The Terminal, Thank You For Smoking, This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tombstone, Unbreakable, V for Vendetta, Waking Life, The World According to Garp, When Nietzsche Wept, The Yes Men.

While a lot of these are mainstream movies, keep in mind they’re my top 5 star movies. I rent tons of crazy obscure stuff, but it doesn’t mean I consider them fantastic movies.

You forgot Wayne’s World Donnie Darko.

I said “movies I like” not “lucky hits by uninspired hack directors.”

Oh man, Requiem for a Dream will make you never want to get anywhere near heroine. That movie was pretty scary.