How does a movie become a classic? By the way, what is a
classic movie? Many people classify an artwork as a "classic"
because it was made by a well known artist or simply because it was created a
reasonable time ago. Good artists can produce unexpressive works and time is
a universal agent, making everything become old, doesn't matter if it is good
or bad.
Movies that bring new concepts, the "pioneers", don't have
their place assured as classics. Many movies where "the first of its
kind", but were unable to survive through History. On the other hand,
many movies that reused old concepts became classics. One thing is common to
most classics, they are "well done". A careful production, based on
a good idea, original or not, generally results a good movie. And among the
few good movies that may be produced every year, there's a very small chance
of one of them becoming a classic.
Beside the classic movies, there are the "cult movies". A cult
is a production, not necessarily a classic, that gathers a specific group of
fans. A famous example of cult movie/series is "Star Trek". It moves
crowds of fans, the trekkers (the most "addicted" ones) and
trekkies (the less affected by the "trek fever"), to
conventions every year to talk about, to watch and even to drink "Star
Trek" (there's a funny blue beverage brought by an alien
civilization).
Thousands of movies are made every year, but it's far more difficult
to find a good one than anyone could expect. Even reviewers and critics have
misjudged many movies. They have classified some really bad movies as
"art works" and simply ignored some outstanding productions.
I've seen no one saying anything bad about "Gone With The
Wind", for example, which I consider one of the most boring movies ever
made. The script is terrible and its pseudo-actors did their worst for it. If
you have never seen that thing, believe me, you lost nothing (you won't really
want to see someone promising to never be hungry again - ugh!)
I use to classify movies based mainly on their stories and then on their
productions. A good story is far more important than a good production. A
cheap production is very enjoyable if the story has a good plot, but a bad
story can't survive even with the most expensive productions. Unfortunately,
in the last few years, most movies are of the second type: no story and
marvelous very-expensive super-ultra special visual effects (also known as
"F.X." or "S.F.X."). To take an example, there is
"Terminator 2", a movie that impressed most people by its SFX. But
if you look just a little better, you will be able to find a completely
careless direction and production behind (blame James Cameron). The story is
terrible and was not supposed to happen: it is a sequel to
"Terminator", in which a time-loop is created by a future killing
machine that tries to eliminate its worst enemy sending a hunter to the past
to "terminate" his mother. Due to this act, she prepares his son to
be the worst enemy of the machine. The first movie alone is acceptable as
other time-loop movies, but a sequel is too much, because a lot of questions
are simply ignored, like why didn't the machine stop itself of sending the
first hunter or why didn't it try again and again and so on, sending more and
more hunters behind her (for it thought that was a good idea at first)?.
Instead, the machine sends only one more terminator, a better one, but one,
and only many years LATER, to kill its enemy while it is still a child (why
not sending it to the time before the first, so she won't be warned againt the
danger?) But even if you ignore the script (something that I cannot do - I
swear I tried), you stumble in the terrible direction: the second terminator
can change its shape and, dispite that feature, it appears almost ever with a
face seen only in the first scenes, and ever as a human being (why not
approaching the kid as a dog or something that seems harmless?) And if you are
one of that people that goes to the theater to have fun, don't matter the
story or the direction, just for the spectacle, you will find out the errors
in the SFX (they are so obvious that most cannot notice them at first). Here
are two: in the elevator scene, the T2 melts and you can see the elevator's
floor reflected on its surface, BUT there is a missing element in it, the
lamp, which is hanging from the ceiling. A second and worst error is found in
the scene when the robot friend (yes, there is a robot friend, the same kind
of the first movie, even with the same face, what is just ridiculous) starts
to fire against the police cars using an air battle cannon: the empty capsules
jump out of the weapon, wonderfully, but no one ENTERS! You can see the stream
of bullets attached to it but they simply don't move. You can almost hear the
director saying "Okay! Enough with the machine gun! Now drop it and use
the assalt cannon..."
And it doesn't stop there. Some of those movies were based on good
stories, which were completely destroyed by the production. "Jurassic
Park" is one of such movies. It was slightly based on a book with the
same name, written by Michael Crichton. The original story contained a very
good idea and story. The movie has only part of the idea and even less of the
story. And if you want to watch to it because of the F.X., forget it. Some
scenes are relatively well done (mainly the ones made in the dark - you can't
see the flaws), but most are not. The velociraptors (a kind of dinosaur) seem
to disregard the "gravitation law" and inertia when they are jumping
in the kitchen.
Another bad movie based on a good story is "Total Recall". It's
based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You, Wholesale", by
Philip K. Dick. Only the first minutes of the movie are based on the short
story. The F.X. are terrible, most like a "trash movie" (the very
low cost movies, generally with bad plots and pseudo-actors, classified by
the studios as "B movies" once).
I generally don't mention bad productions for nothing,
because even the simplest comment about them is too much, but there is one
that must be remarked, the one that I classify as the worst movie ever made,
namely "Natural Born Killers" (I haven't yet seen "Plane 9 from
Outer Space" - people say it is too terrible that becomes good). If you
are a Quentin Tarantino fan, you may disagree, of course, but my aversion for
it is not for free. It joins a good writer, Tarantino, a great director,
Oliver Stone, an above average group of actors (some even very good actors),
some excellent cinematographical scenes and... throws them all in the garbage.
The script looks like some of the worst trash movies I have ever seen. In the
middle of the movie I was already able to foresee the ending (of course, the
killers of the title escape and leave a track of blood behind). By the way,
the soundtrack is pure trash, too. People that like the movie argue that
"it's a creative/different way to tell a simple story" or that
"it tries to show how two addicted killers see the world" (complete
with psychedelic fashioned images in VHS and other media). I thought about
those and other alternatives, but none was satisfatory. The scenes do not
match with the characters' points of view and there is nothing creative or
different in two idiots shooting at will. Most that don't like the movie
classify it as "gratuitous violence". I do not, because I saw no
violence. The movie is so inexpressive that everything in it seems false. The
complete lack of depth makes it even worst than "Gone With The
Wind", although, fortunately, it is not so long. Well, but it is up to
each one to like or hate it (as a friend of mine pointed, this is one of the
few movies that doesn't allow people to more-or-less-like-it). And for one
thing, many that have seen the movie have, at least, reflected about it enough
to, at least, see cinema with different eyes...
I present here two lists of my favorite movies, one with the movies that
I like most and another with good movies that should be seen.
Note: this Page is under construction. Links marked with an "!"
are not yet available.
Some reviews contain summaries of the stories. If
you don't want to read them, don't follow the links marked with an
"*".
My Favourite Movies
(!) This is an anime, an American and Japanese
co-production that tells the story about a unicorn, the last of her kind.
She starts a quest for the others, what takes her into a fairy
tale...
A couple of lovers are cursed to live apart by an
evil bishop. To fight him, they are helped by a smart boy...
Hinotori is a firebird goddess that helps the
humankind to evolve. Two men antagonize one another, surviving in the
ancient Japan, fighting against their own sins.
A cyberpunk adventure about a detective
searching for escaping androids.
(!) Flinn, an arcade game programmer, must invade a computer network to
gather proofs against a thief, but he ends literally invading the
computer, through a matter digitizer.
(!) Classic science fiction about a very advanced alien civilization,
mysteriously vanished from their home planet.
A research group finds an alien artifact in the Moon, leading them
to Jupiter. Problems with the boarding computer may finish the secret
mission of the spaceship Discovery to the giant planet.
An excellent movie about a private investigator involved in a very
confuse case of love, death, war and lots of classical artists (part of
the fun, for the fans of cinema, is to name them!)
Imagine a world where no one is born with any disease, where people
are stronger and smarter, better in all possible ways. But this is not a
better world, despite everything. The body has changed, but not the mind.
This world is Earth in the very near future...
A weather reporter finds himself locked inside a strange time loop,
forced to live the same day time after time. Wonderful movie with a
comic view of the situation.
Do you believe that there are aliens from outer space living among us?
M.I.B. is a special organization within all organizations, beyond all
government, assigned to control the imigration and emigration of alien to
and from Earth.
The head-man of a factory of a well known beverage has to deal with his
young daughter, who has fallen in love for an idealist. This is a very
fast comedy with a wonderful script and the perfect interpretation of
James Cagney as the industrial. A black and white classical that must
be seen (and, please, if some idiot colorizes it, turn off the colours of
your TV while watching it...)
Many years ago, a cientist constructs a time machine, which is used
by a murderer to escape to the future: our time. He decides to hunt
him and to bring him back to be judged.
A good comedy about two men, one rich and successful and the other a
poor vagabond, whom have their places exchanged by two rich Wall Street
investors.
A young boy accidentally invades the computer system of the U.S.
Army and starts a game with an artificial intelligence computer that
may end with the destruction of the world.
A parody of the classical story "Frankenstein" about the
scientist that brings a dead body to life using electricity.
International Links
Anyone can easily find almost anything in the Internet just
going to the "search engines" available. Unfortunately, there are so
many Pages about so many movies and others that has nothing to do with
Cinema at all that a search is becoming a very tedious task. My suggestion is
to go to Internet Movie Data Base, one of my
favourite sites, very well organized and with a very large data base.
This Page is dedicated to Charles Chaplin. He still makes me
laugh without saying a single word...
![[Cinema]](Cinema.gif)
Cinema, TV and Anime
![[The Last Unicorn]](LastUnic.gif)
![[Ladyhawke]](Ladyhawk.gif)
![[Hinotori]](Hinotori.gif)
![[Blade Runner - The Director's Cut]](BladeRnr.gif)
![[Tron]](Tron.gif)
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION ![[Cyberknight Home Page]](../images/CyberIcn.gif)
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