Happy Thanksgiving... and 1985 Randomness

by Nathaniel R

Dear readers, thank you for the private messages and public comments welcoming me back after my long hiatus. I’m thankful for you. And Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. I’m still in the warm-up mindset in terms of my ‘comeback’ and I'm never going to be daily multiple articles a day again -- it's not 2014 and the world has changed -- but I do have a couple plans for 2025 brewing which will and won’t be like past Film Experience shenanigans.

Anyway, back on topic. We hope you’ve enjoyed this 80s party. We’re doing it for about one to two more weeks interspersed with current Oscar discussions of course. There’s still a few more years of top tens to share and two seminal 80s features to discuss – one from 1987 that I promised a write up of for a reader a long long time ago (forgive me!) and one from 1989 that I have personally felt a strong urge to reconsider because it's been a million years since I saw it and I wonder how it's aged. But for this Thanksgiving Weekend intermission ~ let’s talk 1985…

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Remembering Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

by Nathaniel R

"All those moments will be lost like tears in the rain."

Thus went the immortal words of Roy Batty, in Blade Runner (1982) as he breathed his last, betrayed by the cruel brevity of life. Rutger Hauer improvised one of cinema's all-time greatest death scenes when he was just 38. The actor, who turned 75 this past January, has now passed on, dying at his home in The Netherlands after a short illness.

Rutger Hauer first came to worldwide fame in 1973 as the star of Paul Verhoeven's Oscar-nominated sexually provocative Turkish Delight (the most successful Dutch film of all time). More buzzy international hits from his home country followed. Hollywood soon came calling as they usually do when someone who can speak English fluently has multiple imported hits...

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Tuesday Top Ten: 1985 Favorites!

Because we'll be seeing what various cinephiles around the web think of Peter Weir's Witness for "Best Shot" tonight here's an entirely rando top ten list of 1985, direct from my brain. Or, rather, from web archives or my brain. Which means it's an unholy amalgam of things I loved when I was young and things I love now after many watches over the years and things I possibly would only love ironically now because I loved them when I was young. 

1985 silliness after the jump...

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Second Helpings. How Often Do You Have Them?

Ten years ago today Spider-Man 2 (2004) was released. I loved it so much that I went back the next day for seconds. This is not in my nature. This is so infrequent for me, in fact, that I can remember every single time it's happened. The othertimes being Queen Margot (1994) and Ladyhawke (1985) and, once on DVD if you want to count that, with Trouble in Paradise (1932). Because those four movies are so similar, what.

So I guess my next-day-rewatches are on the same timetable as Cher's #1 singles and Diane Keaton's Oscar nods arriving once per decade; We're due for another.

This still from Sam Raimi's awesome movie (still my choice for best superhero film) neatly sums up how I feel about the hateful reboot franchise which is just wasting so much money and talent (Andrew Garfield, who was supposed to be one of our great new actors, has literally been in nothing else since Social Network and it's been FOUR YEARS). In case you need help interpreting the photo the reboot is James Franco and he's trying to kill the best superhero. Greed ruins everything.

Anyway...

How often have you seen the same movie on consecutive days? I doubt I'll ever start doing this but I will probably end up seeing movies a second time more frequenty than I used to since MoviePass makes the money much less of an obstacle. I saw Snowpiercer today and may actually need to see it a second time to clarify my feelings. 

Animal Pairs I'm Hoping To See in "Noah" This Weekend

I'm off to see Noah. No, I don't know how or why I missed the critics screenings (boo) but don't tell me which animal pairs get screen time or cameos. I love animals muchly and want lots of screen time for them. Except for maybe mice. Mickey and Minnie aside, I never want to see them and am really pissed that God made Noah take them.

I'm hoping to spot the following couples in the massive march, slither, hop, swim (or wait, maybe he didn't have to worry about the swimming animals?), scurry, swing, and run to the ark.

A full gallery at the jump...

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