EWB Film Club

[King Ellis]

What about the extended family of a president, that way we can enjoy the fine work of Roger Clinton!

[GoGo Yubari]

The saddest thing about the possible "US President appeared in it" rule is that now Home Alone 2 is eligible

[Liam]

10 minutes ago, GoGo Yubari said:

I have two ideas, one less-creative but maybe a little easier and one more-creative but maybe a little harder.

Less Creative: Oscar Best Picture winners.

More Creative: A movie that either features an actual US President as a character (not necessarily the main character) or that an actual US President appeared in.

The More Creative idea sounds fun.

[I Don't Mind]

I'm a little confused by the more creative option. The way you describe it, is it like:

Quote

A movie that either features an actual US President as a character (not necessarily the main character)

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is eligible because it features James Adomian playing George W. Bush

Quote

or that an actual US President appeared in

Bedtime for Bonzo is eligble because IRL Ronald Reagan played Professor Peter Boyd

Is that about right?

[Liam]

6 minutes ago, I DDT 'Em. said:

I'm a little confused by the more creative option. The way you describe it, is it like:

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is eligible because it features James Adomian playing George W. Bush

Bedtime for Bonzo is eligble because IRL Ronald Reagan played Professor Peter Boyd

Is that about right?

That is how I read it.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yep, that's exactly how I meant it.

[King Ellis]

Going the easy route of using Netflix, I could have easily followed suit with one of my fellow club members (To Kill a Mockingbird, Funny Girl etc) but with a stipulation as broad as this, I feel it unimaginative to have repetition. So, I went with the 1968 public school-em-up If...., exploring the rebelliousness nature of a handful of young students with a sprinkling of homoeroticism thrown in. A very strange film indeed, with it's infrequent change from colour film to black and white (is it symbolic or merely a cost saving measure?!) and it's fantastical scenes of violent uprising. It stars Malcolm McDowell and, by alll accounts, served as the genesis for his casting in A Clockwork Orange.

The easy thing to do would be to write off the black and white scenes as perhaps dream sequences but with a film as surreal as this, there were bizarre occurrences in the colour scenes as well so I have trouble deciding quite where the reality ends and the fantasy begins.

[Jimmy]

25 minutes ago, King Ghidorah Ellis said:

Going the easy route of using Netflix, I could have easily followed suit with one of my fellow club members (To Kill a Mockingbird, Funny Girl etc) but with a stipulation as broad as this, I feel it unimaginative to have repetition. So, I went with the 1968 public school-em-up If...., exploring the rebelliousness nature of a handful of young students with a sprinkling of homoeroticism thrown in. A very strange film indeed, with it's infrequent change from colour film to black and white (is it symbolic or merely a cost saving measure?!) and it's fantastical scenes of violent uprising. It stars Malcolm McDowell and, by alll accounts, served as the genesis for his casting in A Clockwork Orange.

The easy thing to do would be to write off the black and white scenes as perhaps dream sequences but with a film as surreal as this, there were bizarre occurrences in the colour scenes as well so I have trouble deciding quite where the reality ends and the fantasy begins.

I remember getting a lot out of If... and it's one of my friends favourite films. I think it has a lot to do with the depiction of rebellion, assumably a mood that was mirroring something political, or a general feeling of the time. I definitely need to watch it again, but I remember McDowell being great and some genuinely amazing imagery thrown in for good measure. I've wanted to watch more Lindsay Anderson like O Lucky Man and This Sporting Life, the form of which also stars McDowell. 

Also, for you lucky USA folk who wanna keep delving into new great stuff, check out Film Struck, a new streaming website which has a lot of the Criterion stuff. So jel.

[C-MIL]

3 hours ago, Gigan Lars said:

I've watched Charade (1963), I don't want to give anything away from the plot but damn Cary Grant is amazing, Hepburn is beautiful and classy and the film is loads of fun!

Ran low on time so I scored this one too, off of youtube. What a killer movie. Tons of twists and turns. By the end, they got a little predictable, but still very cool. Something I never would've thought to watch without this project.

Would something like Dave qualify for this week? I've already seen it so I'm not asking about it specifically, just to make sure I understand the criteria.

[GoGo Yubari]

It wouldn't unless we wanted to expand it to movies about fictional US presidents, since looking at Wikipedia none of the politicians who cameo'd didn't go on to become President.

[C-MIL]

That was my confusion. I thought you meant something like Independence Day where the U.S. President was a character. I guess that's a better example of what I meant... though I guess that's out.

[King Ellis]

4 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

I remember getting a lot out of If... and it's one of my friends favourite films. I think it has a lot to do with the depiction of rebellion, assumably a mood that was mirroring something political, or a general feeling of the time. I definitely need to watch it again, but I remember McDowell being great and some genuinely amazing imagery thrown in for good measure. I've wanted to watch more Lindsay Anderson like O Lucky Man and This Sporting Life, the form of which also stars McDowell. 

Also, for you lucky USA folk who wanna keep delving into new great stuff, check out Film Struck, a new streaming website which has a lot of the Criterion stuff. So jel.

From what I was reading on If, McDowell's Travis character is in O Lucky Man and then Britannia Hospital as well, though they're not strict sequels per se?

Of course, This Sporting Life is of particular interest to me since it's set in Wakefield. I don't think I've ever seen it fully but I remember it being on TV once and my Dad mentioning this factoid.

[I Don't Mind]

I watched The Pink Panther Strikes Again, featuring Dick Crockett as President Gerald Ford. Not being a big history buff, his minimal involvement in the story was a good summary of what little I know about Ford. I had never seen any Pink Panther movies before this, and this being the third in the franchise, I probably wasn't seeing the best of them. But it was still pretty great most of the time. A much stronger first half than second, I think mostly suffering from the conflict and world getting too grand for it's own good. Some of the jokes haven't aged well, IE the racist, homophobic, and transphobic stuff, but that was pretty few and far between.

[Benjamin]

Do the Night at the Museum movies count? That has presidents in it, right?

Or I could just combine both of GoGo's ideas and finally watch Lincoln. 

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, those would count for Teddy Roosevelt, I'd say. But watch Lincoln! It is wall to wall sassy 19th century politician barbs.

[Benjamin]

I might watch both! I'm still halfway through Battle of Algiers for last week's assignment  

[King Ellis]

GoGo seems to have set himself up for a week of defining his own rule.

"What about Back to the Future 2 with that 15 seconds of screen time for Max Headroom Ronald Reagan in the 80's nostalgia cafe?!"

[MDK]

Fictional presidents count? Confederated States of America isn't bad.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Watched 12 Angry Men yesterday. Pretty brilliant. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

19 hours ago, MDK said:

Fictional presidents count? Confederated States of America isn't bad.

I think it would because there's historic, real presidents in that. I caught it once late at night on some pay cable channel and nothing else was on, so I gave it a watch. It was pretty intriguing, and the film had an "expanded timeline" to go with it that was posted on its website.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070101110942/http://www.csathemovie.com/timeline/moreinfo/crusades.html