It's Thursday, yet again. I don't mean to sound sad about it. It just snuck up on me, is all. That's okay, though. The topic chosen by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves is an easy one, sort of. We're talking about "Your Comfort Movie." That could mean a couple things. That could be a movie I turn to when I need to be cheered up. It could also mean something I just find myself watching whenever I want to watch something, but don't know what. It's really pretty easy stuff, except for one thing. I have tons of comfort movies. Right this second, I've got about a gazillion different directions I could go in and come up with three perfectly legitimate films I find quite comforting. Instead of going off on some wild tangent down the dark corridors of B-Movie Madness, I'm playing it cool, this week. These are the movies that I can never get enough of, and somehow, find themselves getting played quite a bit more than most of the movies in my collection.
Enter the Dragon
(1973)
When the movie starts, I watch Bruce take it to a game, but overmatched Sammo Hung. Next, I take in his sage advice as he tells his young student not to miss out on the big picture by focusing on the little stuff. "It's like a finger pointing away to the moon," he says. "Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory." Just warms your heart, doesn't it? Click here to see what it meant to me, growing up.
The Warriors
(1979)
This time, things start with us watching groups of disenfranchised young men, in factions of nine with outfits denoting their affiliation, travelling from whatever 'hood they call home to the infamous South Bronx. Our heroes are apprehensive, but hopeful. If only for a moment, their fears are quelled when Cyrus takes the stage and asks "CAN YOU DIG IIIIIITTTTT!" Why yes, yes I can. Click here to see how I got introduced the only gang I was ever a part of.
Coming to America
(1988)
Here, we meet a guy who is living the life I always dreamed about. His servants wake him by playing soft music. Someone else brushes his teeth for him, and beautiful women literally throw rose petals at his feet as he walks. He bathes in a pool big enough for I don't know how many people. Well, he doesn't actually bathe. More beautiful women bathe him. One of them rises out of the water and informs him "The royal penis is clean, Your Highness." It could've stopped right there and been the greatest thing I'd ever seen. Thankfully, it goes on to be downright hilarious from start to finish. Click here to find out why this is my favorite fairy tale.
Only an idiot would argue w/ these picks. I find no fault in any of these. After all, you picked 2 films that are quotable and one... oh, I can almost quote that entire movie....
ReplyDeleteNow I want to bring to the stage as someone very special as you probably know him for his role as Joe the Policeman. I want you to put your hands together for Jackson Heights' own, Randy Watson! Yeah!
That boy good! Mmm-hmm, good at terrible.
Thank you Reverend Brown, thank you. This man has been my reverend since I was a little boy and I thank him. It's very lovely to be here so give yourselves a round of applause. Now I'm going to sing something with my band Sexual Chocolate. Sexual Chocolate.... they play fine, don't you agree?
That's "Joe the Policeman on The What's Goin' Down? episode of That's My Mama" lol.
DeleteAhh, Warriors. My husband loves that movie. I've never seen the other two, but I'm about to show my age here: I never realized "the royal penis is clean, your highness" was from an actual movie. I just remember it in front of that Ludacris song.
ReplyDeleteWow. I'd forgotten about that song. You have to see the movie. I love it to death. As a side note, the video for the Busta Rhymes hit "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See," is also heavily influenced by this film.
DeleteYou're husband obviously has great taste.
This will be an interesting week to see what each person considers comfort films for themselves. I've seen all three of yours.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that others will disagree but one kung fu movie is more or less the same to me. However Enter the Dragon's rep is so huge it was the first one I sought out and therefore the best of the ones I've viewed. Not something I return to but fun at the time.
It's been so long since I've seen The Warriors I don't have much memory of it but I remember liking it.
Coming to America played at the theatre I was running at the time FOREVER! It was funny but by the time I packed it up and saw it on its way I was heartily sick of it and haven't watched it since. That's just a personal thing though, it's a decent film and one of Eddie Murphy's best.
I have dozens of comfort movies so when I went about this week I was very disciplined, I chose a favorite from each of three genres and made myself stop with no extras thrown in.
The Prize (1963)-It’s Nobel Prize week in Stockholm and as the winners gather reprobate writer Andrew Craig (Paul Newman) begins to suspect that one of the other winners physicist Max Stratman (Edward G. Robinson) has been replaced by an imposter. As he blunders about looking for answers his initially doubtful chaperone Inger Lisa Andersson (a very beautiful Elke Sommer) comes to believe him and tries to help. Both fun and suspenseful this is the Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock didn’t make!
Women’s World (1954)-Ultra luxe, star studded drama of a corporate competition for the top job at an automobile company. Three couples, the loving Midwesterners (June Allyson & Cornel Wilde), the wry but troubled East Coast couple (Lauren Bacall & Fred MacMurray) and a Texan and his rapacious wife (Van Heflin & Arlene Dahl) are brought to New York by the owner of Gifford Motors, (Clifton Webb) so he can assess not only who is best for the job but whose wife is the most suitable. Shot in Cinemascope, laced with humor, nicely directed in sumptuous settings (the offhandedly mentioned country house is a mansion of enormous size!) with a fine group of performers cast to their strengths this makes no heavy demands on the viewer, like wrapping yourself in a warm, cushy blanket.
My Dream is Yours (1949)-Doris Day’s second film is a bandbox pretty concoction. She plays Martha Gibson, a hopeful widowed singer with a young son discovered by radio agent Doug Blake (Jack Carson) who has a hard time getting her a big break despite the fact that she sings like a bird. That doesn’t stop him from trying everything under the sun with the help of his good friend Vi (Eve Arden). In the meantime Martha falls for radio star Gary Mitchell (Lee Bowman), a pompous jerk with a drinking problem. Eventually her chance comes, she’s a smash but there’s pesky romantic complications to deal with. Cheery musical loaded with great music, a bright studio sheen and Doris at her early best. There’s a sequence where she and Jack Carson dance with Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird and other animated Warner cartoons that is like some kind of fever dream!! Though it’s radically different from the other movie Martin Scorsese has sited this as his inspiration for his “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”.
I've literally seen hundreds of martial arts flicks and, yeah, there are only a handful of plots. That said, Enter the Dragon goes a little outside the box and I'd really more of a James Bond flick than a traditional Kung Fu movie. However, it is arguably the best Kung Fu movie.
DeleteAnd Coming to America IS Murphy's best.
Haven't seen any of yours, sadly. Sounds like I need to.
Murphy's very variable for me and I think since his main star period I've only seen him in Dreamgirls, where I thought he was okay but I didn't understand all the praise heaped on his performance, Bowfinger, he was hilarious in that, and Daddy Day Care which while ridiculous was fun. Oh wait I tried Pluto Nash and it was just so awful I turned it off. Of what I've seen though Coming to America was the best.
DeleteObviously I love all of mine, but I think you'd enjoy The Prize the most. It's very smartly put together and Newman-right in his movie star prime-gives his character just the right balance of humor and seriousness. Being set around the Nobel Prize a lot of it was filmed in Sweden so it has some unusual locales added in.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on Murphy's work in Dreamgirls, as I thought he was excellent. I do plan on seeing The Prize, though.
DeleteDell I can't believe I forget to mention this fact about My Dream is Yours considering this follows so closely on the heels of Girl Week! The house band at the radio station a great deal of the story revolves around, Carson is constantly trying to get Doris a shot on the air and Eve is the station manager's secretary, is an all girl orchestra. And they aren't just a random collection of extras pulled together to appear to be group but Ada Leonard's All-American Girls a popular touring orchestra of the time. Ada even has a few lines.
DeleteThere were a few all female orchestra at the time, the most successful was Ina Ray Hutton's which had several hits during the 40's, but they were one of the more popular ones so it's nice they were recorded in a feature film rather than the soundies that were the usual practice and a lot of which are lost. It adds a unique touch to the film.
That makes it a bit more intriguing. Never heard of an all-girl orchestra. Thanks!
DeleteThree great picks. I love all three. "Randy Watson and Sexual Chocolate" will never not be funny. But my favorite moment is John Amos saying "Say another thing about Lisa and I'll break off my foot in your royal ass!"
ReplyDeleteLike Joel, I have a lot of movies I love going back to, but I'll limit myself to three that I watch about once a year.
Hot Fuzz--for my money, it's the best of the three "Cornetto Trilogy" movies because of how perfectly it plays with the buddy cop genre and still ends up having fun action sequences, good one-liners, and a working plot. I don't think it takes a step out of place.
Field of Dreams--There's a scene or two that runs a bit clunky, but I don't know that I'd change a frame of it. There are moments in it, like James Earl Jones talking about the importance of baseball or Burt Lancaster talking about a sky so blue it hurts to look at it that I think are absolutely perfect.
The Devil's Backbone--It shows that a good horror movie can be scary, but also beautiful and poetic.
My favorite part changes with the wind. Lately, I've been on "You ain't never seen Martin Luther The King." Just having that "the" there cracks me up.
DeleteI prefer Shaun of the Dead, but Hot Fuzz is hilarious. My favorite bit is the Keanu Reeves inspired roll over and fire into the air when the bad guy gets away. Such a perfect payoff to joke that was set up long before that moment.
Field of Dreams...i dunno. At the risk of sounding heartless, that one didn't quite work for me. The dialogue is all sorts of poetic, even more so with James Earl Jones delivering all the best lines. It's quite literally like having King Mufasa impart wisdom on us. The story is what fell apart for me. I do intend on watching it again to see if I still feel the same way.
Haven't seen The Devil's Backbone, but I do want to.
All of Burt Lancaster's performance in Field of Dreams is so perfect and beautifully observed. His looks, phrasing and gestures are so natural to the character. James Earl Jones is great but Burt kills me every time.
DeleteAbsolutely. JEJ has the one speech that really is wonderful, but it's Lancaster who makes the movie.
DeleteI haven't seen any of these but I always wanted to see Coming to America. When I saw it playing on TV it was already well into the movie. I have to check it out
ReplyDeleteI would recommend not watching it on network TV. Way too much will be cut.
DeleteCOMING TO AMERICA! YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI know, right.
DeleteOMG so much YES to Coming to America!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's how I feel about it.
DeleteI gotta see THE WARRIORS already. +1 on COMING TO AMERICA!!
ReplyDeleteOh, please see The Warriors.
DeleteEddie Murphy...I was SO into his movies in the eighties. Wasn't everybody? :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, we were.
DeleteComing to America is very rewatchable, and I can relate to having comedy as comfort. I suppose childhood favorites are comforting movies for me, such as The NeverEnding Story (1984), Big (1988) or The Breakfast Club (1985). Escapism and nostalgia is what I'm looking for in a comfort-watch. I had fun with Enter the Dragon, which was a later discovery, I love that wise quote you shared
ReplyDeleteI think I covered nostalgia and escapism, lol. The Breakfast Club is great, and so is The Never-ending Story. Would you believe I've never watched Big? Sad, but true.
DeleteAh man my friend has been trying to get me to see The Warriors for an age - I should really want this. But we keep getting distracted by Star Wars. I've not seen the other two but don't ye worry - I have heard of them and caught a bit of Coming to America.
ReplyDeleteOh, you've got to see the rest if Coming to America...and The Warriors is a must.
DeleteOkay, so I'll put Coming to America on my list any f--king day of the week. Doesn't even matter what list, either. That shit's going right to the top. There isn't a minute that goes by in that film where I don't crack up.
ReplyDeleteBruce I'm a little weaker on, but few people have ever had IT the way that Bruce does. I should probably re-watch all of his movies in a row, if only to be a better person. And father. And teacher. Excellent call.
As for the Warriors....well...*gets on the blocks*....I've uh, never seen it. AND HE'S OFF!
Yes...Coming to America...yes.
DeleteBruce had an abundance of IT.
I'll sell it to you the best way I can...92 minutes minus credits.
That fake McDonalds still cracks me up too.
ReplyDeleteMcDowell's, home of the Big Mick, lol.
Delete