Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy...

[The Widow of Brid]

... and your conclusions are highly questionable.

Ghostbusters, that's a great film. As, to a lesser extent is Ghostbusters II^*. Films that are unashamedly pop culture, conservative in structure, blatant product and yet also fucking brilliant. It might as well be Bill Murray letting off fireworks in front of a wall with "I heart NY" painted on it, yet it manages to make that seem like a fully realised universe.

What's your favourite rigidly mainstream film, CaB? And why?


*_{Personally, I slightly prefer Ghostbusters II. But I know popular opinion is against me.}

[non capisco]

As, to a lesser extent is Ghostbusters II
*_{Personally, I slightly prefer Ghostbusters II. But I know popular opinion is against me.}

Madness. Ghostbusters II is a charmless misfire, surely? Apart from the bit where Egon is disguised as a roadmender and says "yo".

I could, and often do, watch the first one til the cows come home. There's just something so right about it. It's strangely got the small-scale atmosphere of a personal project despite the fact its a big budget film from a bunch of Saturday Night Live guys that was marketed the shit out of and clearly designed from inception to be massive.

...The FLOWERS are still standing!

My favourite rigidly mainstream film is still Raiders Of The Lost Ark though, another example of something that could so easily have been shit (a conscious recreation of 1940s b-movie serials, this could have been The Rocketeer) but turned out magic. Not even the other Indiana Jones movies come anywhere near as close. If we're doing controversial opinons, I think 'Crystal Skull' is really no better or worse than 'Temple Of Doom'.

[The Widow of Brid]

Ah, come on. Ghostbusters II has "Let's see what happens when we take away the puppy.", Venkman on World of the Psychic, the Titanic docking, "The blackout was a problem for everybody. I was trapped in an elevator for two hours and I had to pee the whole time. But one time, I turned into a dog and they helped me. Thank you. plus Vigo the Carpathian and the angry ooze!

It's no Gremlins II, agreed, but still.

[Lee]

Got to be Home Alone 1 and 2, although the first in particular. Every hammy moment of it is absolutely perfect - casting, script, direction, soundtrack... what a film. And it's got Tommy DeVito and Dilbert in it! Just don't get me started on 3 and 4... >:(

Back To The Future also. Again, probably the first more than the other two, but still what a great set of films. A friend of mine says watching the first one was the very reason he decided to learn the guitar, and I can see why. I've yet to see Ghostbusters II, but the first one's definetely a winner. Makes you wonder why no-one seems to be making genuinely great populist films any more. And the last Indiana Jones film does not count, on account of being shit.

Spoiler alert

_{He was raped!}

[close]

[non capisco]

Ah, come on. Ghostbusters II has "Let's see what happens when we take away the puppy.", Venkman on World of the Psychic, the Titanic docking, "The blackout was a problem for everybody. I was trapped in an elevator for two hours and I had to pee the whole time. But one time, I turned into a dog and they helped me. Thank you. plus Vigo the Carpathian and the angry ooze!

It's no Gremlins II, agreed, but still.

You're never gonna convince me. Cute baby, stupid new logo, shit montage, dopey retread of Mr Stay-Puft with the Statue of friggin Liberty walking about, him out of Ally MacBeal chewing the scenery, Bill Murray looking like he'd rather be doing anything else as opposed to giving his career best performance in the first film. It just ain't Ghostbusters! I refuse to recognise the cartoon either. Slimer isn't meant to be their mate!

Having said that, the Burger King tie-in meal with the tub of ooze was alright.

[An tSaoi]

Forrest Gump. Everyone says that it's over-rated, sentimental, conservative rubbish, and that Hanks only won the Oscar because Hollywood loves people playing retards, but I think it's a really great film. It has everything: comedy and drama, romance and action, it's a war movie, a buddy movie, a love story, a period piece, a satire, a character study, an adventure story and much more.

Hanks is great in it too.

[Danger Man]

What's your favourite rigidly mainstream film, CaB? And why?

Casablanca?

Brief Encounter??

Anything by Spielberg???

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Off the top of my head, I'd say the Lord of the Rings films. Yes, they might be overrated in same quarters, and they'd be half as long if all the characters spoke at a normal pace, but they've got excitement and adventure and thrills and spills and a giant spider. Those folk who say that it's three films of nothing but people walking from one place to the next are fools, quite frankly.

Plus, hearing the rousing main theme tune always makes me feel christmassy.

[The Boston Crab]

I agree with many of these.

Home Alone and Ghostbusters are endlessly rewatchable, bursting with joy, innumerable moments that seem to be break the intended tone but which fit perfectly somehow. MAGIC STUFF.

I watched Gump again a few months back, my girlfriend had never seen it. We both ended up with silent tears and shaky blubs. I saw it about six times at the cinema. Whatever criticisms you can throw at it, it absolutely emotionally engages.

My absolute favourite film of all time, which I've mentioned on here repeatedly, is Bugsy Malone. Sepia-tinted joy from start to finish. Shall I expand?

[rudi]

Hmmmm. Groundhog Day, maybe. Or The Longest Day, perhaps. The film version of West Side Story's pretty ace and, at the least, means I can sneak The Producers in as a genre piece that's bloody wonderful; I can't watch the DVD version as it removes a 30 second slice which, in a film where not a single line is wasted, seems like a crime.

[boxofslice]

My top three films are all what would be considered mainstream, popcorn - Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Die Hard and Jaws.

As for Ghostbusters II, I remember being really let down by it when it first came out and nothing has changed to alter that opinion. God knows what kind of awfulness the rumoured third one will be if it ever gets made.

[biggytitbo]

Raiders, Ghostbusters and Back to the Future are perfect blockbusters of the like nobody makes any more.

I'd throw the controversial Temple of Doom into the mix. Say what you like about it, but it's a bloody crowd pleaser.

[Jemble Fred]

You're never gonna convince me. Cute baby, stupid new logo, shit montage, dopey retread of Mr Stay-Puft with the Statue of friggin Liberty walking about, him out of Ally MacBeal chewing the scenery, Bill Murray looking like he'd rather be doing anything else as opposed to giving his career best performance in the first film. It just ain't Ghostbusters! I refuse to recognise the cartoon either. Slimer isn't meant to be their mate!

In more enlightened times, you would have been burned for this. Especially dissing the cartoon (currently saving up for the massively expensive Region 1 Firehouse DVD set).

[Pedro_Bear]

Obviously:



And then years later its thematic Spanish neice of sorts, although this one probably doesn't count for the thread:



The escape into free-form fantasy for both the protagonists and the audience, complete with effortless suspension of disbelief make these films tower above the usual genre offerings. The idea that make-believe empowers a person facing social exclusion is eminently aspirational, and has roots firmly grounded in mythology.

Sarah defeats Jared on her own terms, the only way he can be defeated. Ofelia empowers herself over the adult world gone to sheer Hell around her in much the same way. Ofelia's fantasies rebel directly against her hideous step-father personifying the horrors of the civil war, while Sarah's rub up against more abstract ideas of adult responsibilty. Both work as kids' films without patronising children watching them, they treat the viewers like adults, although Labyrinth is clearly the more accessible to a general audience. Pan's Labyrinth doesn't flinch from its ambiguous ending, we have to choose Ofelia's fate, something that perhaps certain adults are uncomfortable with. Fantasy prone kids have no such reservations.

Negotiated friendships, puzzle solving, and irrational choices drive both plots, infusing their cinematic unrealities with a sense of awe and wonder. That and Labyrinth has David Bowie dancing with muppets, sheer entertainment.

[rudi]

Rigidly mainstream, though?

[Pedro_Bear]

How are we defining that? Multi-screen release? Loads of marketing hype? Popular? Labyrinth kicks arse for all of those. True, Pan's Labyrinth had subtitles, but it was a big hit at the box-office.

Ghostbusters is kind of difficult to put your finger on, it's an ensemble comedy at heart. Well, in that case, The Addams Family Values?



For blatantly obvious reasons including that it was one of the only ensemble performances of the 1990's?

[Talulah, really!]

Mama Mia!

Pure entertainment. A joyous celebration of life.

Speaking of which, High School Musical. Any of them, all of them. The energy, the enthusiasm, the sheer exuberant spectacle of them.

Harry Potter, they just keep getting better and better, the effects in the latest one are so advanced you could almost believe Daniel Radcliffe can act!

Twilight, is that a step too far? Kristen Stewart is great in that yet receives no recognition for it.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is another brilliant film, great songs, great set pieces, with a wonderfully vivid sense of place realised throughout. The same goes for Bugsy Malone and yes, please do write more Boston Crab.

[boxofslice]

Both work as kids' films without patronising children watching them

Mmm... not sure I'd let any kids of mine watch Pan's Labyrinth. It's a bit unpleasant in parts and if I recall it didn't get a PG rating.

Anyway back on topic, I get a lot of enjoyment out of Con Air and The Rock. Sure they're big and dumb Hollywood outings but they're done with such relish you can forgive them. And who doesn't get pleasure out of Sir Connery saying, "Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot".

[rjd2]

Die Hard 1 for sure.

EDIT ...Would Field Of Dreams or Shawshank Redemption count for this thread? If so both of them.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

Good call on Labyrinth Pedro, that flick's probably had more play in my house than any other film<3

I always thought it was some kind of freudian 'coming of age' thing myself - sarah's basically just started having her periods and jared represents her attraction/fear of male the male sex. Stealing the baby is obviously symbolic of men (sexuality) stealing her childhood away from her.

It's all in there if youre willing to look - I didnt ace my gender studies & fairy tales course for nothin u know.

[Pedro_Bear]

It's great, isn't it? It's one of the only films I've watched every year since first seeing it, it doesn't get tired. The final confrontation is beautiful, she simmers and pouts with indignation, upstaging Bowie in full attention-seek mode. Sarah is one of the very few girl protagonists in cinema who acts like a real girl. They fucked up Coraline by injecting a boy into the film, presumably because the producers focus-grouped that boys wouldn't go see a film without one, how fucking stupid is that? You can watch Labyrinth with anyone and they'll love it.

Maybe that's the common link with all these great films? Their sort of universiality (GTFO Ofilia)? We'd better mention The Goonies then, top film.

Romancing The Stone, or am I the only person who has ever watched this?



No-one seems to have heard of it at uni. It's sort of like Welcome To The Jungle but has a better set-up, with a novelist of awful romantic fiction as the protagonist. It's well worth a look, it's 80's action comedy that works. Again, you can watch it with anyone.

Evolution was made by the same team that made Ghostbusters, and had a similar ensemble approach to the comedy action, yet was less engaging.



Similar thematic characters to Ghostbusters, too, and proper internet referencing for 2001. Great cast, and one of the biggest and bestest on-screen fart jokes still couldn't save it from obscurity though. There is something missing from the film, but I honestly couldn't tell you what it was. It's fun though.

[rudi]

Ooh yeah, Romancing the Stone: pulp fiction done good.

I wasn't denigrating your previous choices, by the way, just asking whether you thought they fitted the remit (as you can guess I've no idea).

[Serge]

'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' wipes the floor with all that 'Star Wars' drek. The 'Back To The Future' trilogy definitely. And I've always had a soft spot for 'Independence Day', though I could happily edit a couple of scenes out of it.

Funnily enough, I saw 'Ghostbusters' again this year and hated it. Even Bill Murray. Sorry about that.

[Vitalstatistix]

[biggytitbo]

The dark reflection of Labyrinth is of course Phenomena, filmed at the same time yet one of the most utterly mental films ever released. Jennifer Connoly ends up in a swimming pool full of mashed up corpses in this one, that definetly does not happen in Labyrinth.

[The Widow of Brid]

Though it does have music by Goblin, meaning the two films can sit comfortably side by side in a pub quiz question.

[Serge]

I forgot about that. I even love bits of part 2.

[dr beat]

Anyway back on topic, I get a lot of enjoyment out of Con Air and The Rock. Sure they're big and dumb Hollywood outings but they're done with such relish you can forgive them. And who doesn't get pleasure out of Sir Connery saying, "Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot".

See also, as far as I'm concerned, Crimson Tide.  And what about The Blues Brothers? Similar in spirit, if not style, to Ghostbusters?

[An tSaoi]

Blues Brothers beats the shit out of Ghostbusters. If Bill Murray had been in it, it would be the greatest film ever.

[Ginyard]

Its difficult to announce a winner as its a photo finish for the most part. It might be The Empire Strikes Back or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or maybe Inner Space. I don't know. If I had to choose one to watch right this minute it would probably be Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I just love that film.