Faithful, consistent readers of my reviews and blog know that I developed a love for cinema very, very early on in my life. Instead of buying the coolest toys that were out when I was around six or seven, like most kids did, I spent my money on VHS tapes (up until 2003 when my family upgraded to DVD). I purchased a ton of films on tape and watched them again and again. The same ones. I remember buying films such as Just Married, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, etc just because and then coming home and having a blast watching them. The question is - how many of those films etched themselves in my head to make me love the art form even more? How many of those VHS tapes actually stuck with me, to become films I hold near and dear to my heart to this very day? The answer is five. Five films that would become some of my top favorites, and would prove themselves to have an everlasting effect on me. Here are the five movies that made me love movies.
1. Clerks: You all saw this one coming. If you don't know the slightest bit of information about me, just know that I love the low budget film Clerks. My uncle let me borrow this film years ago, probably when I was around eight years old. It was a VHS tape and I remember putting it on and expecting absolutely nothing. Some will say that's what I got. The film is about two slackers, one working on his day off, the other barely working at all, who tend to a counter all day, harassing customers, ditching responsibility, and well, just growing up. It's a special kind of coming of age film because it deals with the "post high school" drama. Your life is in limbo, you're nowhere near successful, and you're trying to make end's meet. The film packs some of the most realistic, believable dialog I've ever seen in a film, and some of the richest, most entertaining characters as well. Shot for around $27,000, with most of the money going towards the music rights, and in black and white, which I believe perfectly compliments the tone of monotony and the dreary plod of the minimum wage lifestyle, Clerks has a limitless amount of wit and remains as my favorite film of all time. I like to joke and say that almost everything I say is inspired by Clerks. What can I say? I'm a firm believer in a philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule.
My full length review of Clerks, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=perfect&thread=1851&page=1
2. Tremors: Here's a fantastic example of a film I was introduced to by my father. It's interesting to note that everything he's recommended to me, from The Boys in Company C to Pulp Fiction, always ends up receiving praise from me. He didn't really recommend Tremors to me. He was channel surfing and stumbled upon it. He dubs it as "all right." (unlike Clerks which he dubs "stupid"). Tremors is more than "all right." It's a fun, brilliantly executed mock-western about a desolate town that is being attacked by subterranean worms with multiple tongues. The effects on the worms are great, and the film occupies a fun sense of suspense and terror even in its sunny nature. It possesses a liking for its characters and doesn't leave them as underdeveloped caricatures that are faceless up until they are eaten. They serve a purpose. After the film was a surprise hit on video after being lukewarm at the box office, Tremors spawned three sequels (with the second one being is very, very good) along with a Television series which was hit or miss. I don't think you can get much better of a duo in the west than Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. While being decent rehashes, the third and fourth film just don't satisfy ones need for B movie style western action.
My full length review of Tremors, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=franchise&action=display&thread=1204
3. Casino: By the time I was ten years old, give or take, I could pretty much watch whatever I wanted on Television. My parents knew that I could understand the difference between fact and fiction, and I wouldn't try to imitate things I saw on TV. That is why Casino is on this list. It's Scorsese's underrated masterpiece that I like more than his other works such as Goodfellas. It has such a high level of respect for storytelling and the history of mob. It also develops its character so that we feel we're involved with these plans, and we're there in the room when they're going down. It's a gritty, honest look at the mob life paralleled with some amazing music, a fantastic script, slick and stylish direction from a great, and three main actors that almost never fail to impress.
My full length review of Casino, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=perfect&action=display&thread=1252
4. Rat Race: Where would I be if I wasn't introduced to Rat Race at a young age? This was the film that introduced me to all the big name actors, and was the first ensemble cast film I had ever watched. Its plot is recycled from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Scavenger Hunt, but its humor is impeccably funny and the actors are extraordinary. Like I stated in my review, it doesn't aim of the highest denominator of comedy, but instead of floundering aimlessly in the area of slapstick, like Three Amigos, for example, it hits home in the slapstick genre. Not to mention, two actors of in the film, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Jon Lovitz, went on to be some of my favorite actors. I might have to do a blog on that some day.
My full length review of Rat Race, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=reviews&action=display&thread=2126
5. Speed: When I was young, Speed was couch-jumping movie. A movie that, whenever I'd see, I would jump on the couch during an action sequence. There were a lot of them, and my mother's furniture never fully recovered. If there's one action film that stands out from all the others when it could've easily been submersed into a never-ending pool of cliches, it's Speed. Action films are so lazy and tired nowadays, trading valuable things like character development, plausibility, and consistency for madness, exhaustion, persistency, and shallowness. I hate to break it to some people, but after about an hour of Transformers I grow very weary of the concept. It's not entertaining anymore. I was never tired of Speed. Maybe because it wasn't as insisting as Transformers, and wasn't as unapologetically ridiculous. Whatever the case, it's a well done action film that focuses on the primaries of the genre. Not the secondaries.
As of 2012, I have not yet published a full length review of Speed.
And there you have it. The movies that made me love movies. Don't forget to check out all of my reviews at "The Steve Pulaski Message Board," http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com
"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"
1. Clerks: You all saw this one coming. If you don't know the slightest bit of information about me, just know that I love the low budget film Clerks. My uncle let me borrow this film years ago, probably when I was around eight years old. It was a VHS tape and I remember putting it on and expecting absolutely nothing. Some will say that's what I got. The film is about two slackers, one working on his day off, the other barely working at all, who tend to a counter all day, harassing customers, ditching responsibility, and well, just growing up. It's a special kind of coming of age film because it deals with the "post high school" drama. Your life is in limbo, you're nowhere near successful, and you're trying to make end's meet. The film packs some of the most realistic, believable dialog I've ever seen in a film, and some of the richest, most entertaining characters as well. Shot for around $27,000, with most of the money going towards the music rights, and in black and white, which I believe perfectly compliments the tone of monotony and the dreary plod of the minimum wage lifestyle, Clerks has a limitless amount of wit and remains as my favorite film of all time. I like to joke and say that almost everything I say is inspired by Clerks. What can I say? I'm a firm believer in a philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule.
My full length review of Clerks, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=perfect&thread=1851&page=1
"That's how they getcha. They're under the god-damned ground!"
2. Tremors: Here's a fantastic example of a film I was introduced to by my father. It's interesting to note that everything he's recommended to me, from The Boys in Company C to Pulp Fiction, always ends up receiving praise from me. He didn't really recommend Tremors to me. He was channel surfing and stumbled upon it. He dubs it as "all right." (unlike Clerks which he dubs "stupid"). Tremors is more than "all right." It's a fun, brilliantly executed mock-western about a desolate town that is being attacked by subterranean worms with multiple tongues. The effects on the worms are great, and the film occupies a fun sense of suspense and terror even in its sunny nature. It possesses a liking for its characters and doesn't leave them as underdeveloped caricatures that are faceless up until they are eaten. They serve a purpose. After the film was a surprise hit on video after being lukewarm at the box office, Tremors spawned three sequels (with the second one being is very, very good) along with a Television series which was hit or miss. I don't think you can get much better of a duo in the west than Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. While being decent rehashes, the third and fourth film just don't satisfy ones need for B movie style western action.
My full length review of Tremors, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=franchise&action=display&thread=1204
"You beat Nicky with fists, he'll come back with a bat. You beat Nicky with a knife, he'll come back with a gun. And if you beat Nicky with a gun, you better kill him, because he'll keep comin' back till one of ya is dead."
3. Casino: By the time I was ten years old, give or take, I could pretty much watch whatever I wanted on Television. My parents knew that I could understand the difference between fact and fiction, and I wouldn't try to imitate things I saw on TV. That is why Casino is on this list. It's Scorsese's underrated masterpiece that I like more than his other works such as Goodfellas. It has such a high level of respect for storytelling and the history of mob. It also develops its character so that we feel we're involved with these plans, and we're there in the room when they're going down. It's a gritty, honest look at the mob life paralleled with some amazing music, a fantastic script, slick and stylish direction from a great, and three main actors that almost never fail to impress.
My full length review of Casino, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=perfect&action=display&thread=1252
"I'm winning! I'm winning!"
4. Rat Race: Where would I be if I wasn't introduced to Rat Race at a young age? This was the film that introduced me to all the big name actors, and was the first ensemble cast film I had ever watched. Its plot is recycled from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Scavenger Hunt, but its humor is impeccably funny and the actors are extraordinary. Like I stated in my review, it doesn't aim of the highest denominator of comedy, but instead of floundering aimlessly in the area of slapstick, like Three Amigos, for example, it hits home in the slapstick genre. Not to mention, two actors of in the film, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Jon Lovitz, went on to be some of my favorite actors. I might have to do a blog on that some day.
My full length review of Rat Race, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=reviews&action=display&thread=2126
"See, I'm in charge here! I drop this stick, and they pick your friend here up with a sponge! Are you ready to die, friend?"
5. Speed: When I was young, Speed was couch-jumping movie. A movie that, whenever I'd see, I would jump on the couch during an action sequence. There were a lot of them, and my mother's furniture never fully recovered. If there's one action film that stands out from all the others when it could've easily been submersed into a never-ending pool of cliches, it's Speed. Action films are so lazy and tired nowadays, trading valuable things like character development, plausibility, and consistency for madness, exhaustion, persistency, and shallowness. I hate to break it to some people, but after about an hour of Transformers I grow very weary of the concept. It's not entertaining anymore. I was never tired of Speed. Maybe because it wasn't as insisting as Transformers, and wasn't as unapologetically ridiculous. Whatever the case, it's a well done action film that focuses on the primaries of the genre. Not the secondaries.
As of 2012, I have not yet published a full length review of Speed.
And there you have it. The movies that made me love movies. Don't forget to check out all of my reviews at "The Steve Pulaski Message Board," http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com
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