SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Let's pick the Week 172 movie!

Let's pick the Week 172 movie!


  • Total voters
    14
  • Poll closed .

europe1

It´s a nice peninsula to Asia
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Here's a quick list of all movies watched by the SMC. Or if you prefer, here's a more detailed examination.

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MusterX: Since Jeffrey Epstein is the biggest story in the news right now I figured no better time than to do Roman Polanski week.

Yes folks, Steven Seagal wasn't enough to test our ability to separate art from the artist! Now we got to deal with Polanski! Somehow this feels like the ultimate MusterX week, combining conspiracy, satanism, and perverted rich people!


The Tenant (1976)

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas

Premise: A bureaucrat rents a Paris apartment where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.




The Ninth Gate (1999)

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin

Premise: A rare book dealer, while seeking out the last two copies of a demon text, gets drawn into a conspiracy with supernatural overtones.




Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon

Premise: A young couple moves in to an apartment only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins to control her life.




The Ghost Writer (2010)

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Ewen McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams

Premise: A ghost writer, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.




Members: @europe1 @MusterX @Cubo de Sangre @FrontNakedChoke @Tufts @chickenluver @Scott Parker 27 @Yotsuya @jei @LHWBelt @moreorless87 @HARRISON_3 @Bullitt68 @HenryFlower @Zer @Rimbaud82

This Weeks Top Theme "Your top 5 Early/Before they were Famous roles of Actors!"​
 
Well, the one I voted for is winning, so that's good, although there's really only one film on the list that I'm not interested in seeing again/talking about. As for the Top Theme, I'd have to go with...

1) Humphrey Bogart's career in the 1930s - I know that this is cheating, but Bogart famously took forever to take that star turn, and it's a ton of fun watching him in everything that he did in the 1930s, from playing the heavy to James Cagney's and Edward G. Robinson's heroes in stuff like Bullets or Ballots, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Angels With Dirty Faces, and The Roaring Twenties to an ally of Bette Davis in stuff like Marked Woman and Dark Victory to, most fun of all, a doctor's assistant who happens to be a reanimated corpse in The Return of Doctor X :D

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2) Bruce Lee as Winslow Wong in Marlowe - It sucks that he dies by throwing a flying kick over the ledge of a balcony, but it's fun seeing Bruce in a role like this. The office scene with James Garner is the highlight of the film - which doesn't say much for the film but which says a lot for Bruce.

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3) Arnold Schwarzenegger in Stay Hungry - This is a terrible fucking movie, just dreadful, but Arnold lifts weights in a costume and plays the violin, so, you know, there's that.

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4) Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High - What's a list like this without Jeff Spicoli?

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5) Michael Keaton in Night Shift - The last movie he made before Mr. Mom. Aside from being a funny underrated comedy, Keaton's character is basically Kramer before Kramer.

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Honorable Mention: JCVD doing the damn thing.

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Yeah I can’t seperate the art from the artist on this one.. Won’t be participating. Enjoy!
 
Well, the one I voted for is winning, so that's good, although there's really only one film on the list that I'm not interested in seeing again/talking about.
It might be the first time that you, Europe1 and I have picked the same film.

And I too have zero interest in discussing one of these four picks. Not thrilled that we have a Roman Polanski week, given how horrible of a human he was, though.
 
The Ninth Gate might be the ultimate example of "I wish the same guy had directed this earlier in his career".

For earlier performances I'd avoid stuff that actually made people famous like say Portman in Leon, Caine in Zulu or Jack in Easy Rider.

Jennifer Connelly - Once Upon A Time In America - Pretty impressive that she manages to out act the adult version of the same character, a lot of the reason the earlier flashback sections work so well IMHO.

Tim Roth - The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover - To match up with my avi I think this is a great little preview of classic Roth as a slovenly but menacing bastard in a kind of nauseous haze that sums up the film very well.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Big Lebowski - He always gave me the impression of someone who'd been better known for longer than he actually had, its I spose a compliment to the role that he feels like a star taking a small comedy part.

Donnie Yen - In The Line of Duty 4 - Acting wise a bit bland like the film as a whole but action wise I think very underrated indeed, lots of excellent action/fights dispite an obviously pretty small budget.

Nick Cage - Rumble Fish - Not a massive role but he's perfectly suited to manipulating Matt Dillon's lunkhead Rusty James, early glimsp at a classic Cage interview as well...

 
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I'm 100% a Polanski guy so I love this shit

For the theme:

1. Harrison Ford in Apocalypse Now - he really stood out to me in this film. He was the military up and comer getting his first taste of top secret house cleaning



2. Mads Mikkelson in Pusher 2 - titanic performance in this shit. Mikkelson always delivers. It's a very sobering and unglamorous look at small time criminal life. It's Scandinavian so I feel like @Cole train probably had a cameo somewhere

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3. Jason Statham



4. Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun - as someone who usually can't stand child actors I thought Bale was really great in this. Reminded me of Jean-Pierre Leaud back when he was a kid in The 400 Blows and shit

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5. Klaus Kinski in For a Few Dollars More - I guess Kinski had 1000 films before this and I'm sure any one of them could've been here instead because Kinski dominates in every movie he's in

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I'm 100% a Polanski guy so I love this shit

For the theme:

1. Harrison Ford in Apocalypse Now - he really stood out to me in this film. He was the military up and comer getting his first taste of top secret house cleaning



2. Mads Mikkelson in Pusher 2 - titanic performance in this shit. Mikkelson always delivers. It's a very sobering and unglamorous look at small time criminal life. It's Scandinavian so I feel like @Cole train probably had a cameo somewhere

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3. Jason Statham



4. Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun - as someone who usually can't stand child actors I thought Bale was really great in this. Reminded me of Jean-Pierre Leaud back when he was a kid in The 400 Blows and shit

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5. Klaus Kinski in For a Few Dollars More - I guess Kinski had 1000 films before this and I'm sure any one of them could've been here instead because Kinski dominates in every movie he's in

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You insulting me with lumping me with scandis?
 
Alright. Here's what I came up with.

1. Sylvester Stallone in Death Race 2000. Duh!

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2. Sharon Stone in Total Recall. Talk about screen-presence.

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3. Ron Pearlam in Quest of Fire

He plays a Neanderthal in full make-up and gets way more into it than anybody else. The most Ron Pearlman way to start a career.

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4. Helen Hunt in Trancers (good image not found. But I do love Trancers and Hunt is adorkable in it)

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5. Jennifer Connelly in Once Upon A Time in America. Yes, I did steal this from @HenryFlower, but unlike him, I got the name right:cool:

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I had the vote narrowed down to 2 films, the one that is winning and the one I voted for. The one I voted for I have not seen. I'm kinda surprised at the one that is winning right now. It seemed too obscure to take any sort of lead.

5. Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation)
th

4. Mathew Mcconaughey (Dazed and Confused)
th

3. Brad Pitt (Less than Zero)
This one included because of his obscure appearances before he was famous, not because of his performance. The Less than Zero appearance happens in the first 8 seconds of this video.



2. Mel Gibson (Mad Max)
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1. Leonardo Dicaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?)
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And this gif has to be included because he was so young and the look on his face is like he knows the years of not winning are to come.
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Yeah I can’t seperate the art from the artist on this one.. Won’t be participating. Enjoy!

Not thrilled that we have a Roman Polanski week, given how horrible of a human he was, though.

Yea, there is a reason why we haven't had Roman Polanski week and I knew it would be a bit controversial when I decided to do it. With the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in full effect it just felt like if there was a time to do it then its now.
 
2. Mel Gibson (Mad Max)

You should have gone with Tim where he plays a mentally handicapped handyman who falls in love with an older widow. Yes, Mad Max himself, playing someone who is cognitively challenged, and it's the same year that he made Mad Max. It's not the spectable that one might imagine though, since he actually quite underplays the intellectual disability.

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1. Leonardo Dicaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?)
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I watched this in like 7th grade and even then I thought to myself, this Dicaprio is a pretty damn good thespian despite his Titanic skit!
 
You should have gone with Tim where he plays a mentally handicapped handyman who falls in love with an older widow. Yes, Mad Max himself, playing someone who is cognitively challenged, and it's the same year that he made Mad Max. It's not the spectable that one might imagine though, since he actually quite underplays the intellectual disability.

Now that is an obscure reference, and one that I haven't seen.

I watched this in like 7th grade and even then I thought to myself, this Dicaprio is a pretty damn good thespian despite his Titanic skit!

Gilbert Grape put Leo on the map and its pretty crazy how many people I've met that have never seen it. He plays a mentally handicapped kid and perfectly pulls it off in a realistic way.
 
Yea, there is a reason why we haven't had Roman Polanski week and I knew it would be a bit controversial when I decided to do it. With the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in full effect it just felt like if there was a time to do it then its now.

It would be an issue for me if his films looked to support his crimes but the opposite is I'd say the case with films like Chinatown and arguably Repulsion showing the damage of sexual abuse.

Part of the problem I'd say is the current media obsession with hero worshiping people in the arts and indeed celebrities in general.
 
I'm not generally a big fan of direct Shakespeare adaptations but yeah that's one of the few I enjoy due to the production values, Knife in the Water isn't massively discussed here either.

Maybe part of the reason I have less issue with Polsanski is that I'v not followed his latter career very closely as I tend to view him having declined as a film maker by the 80's so its more about historical art than current career.
 
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