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Movie List

Like I mentioned, BRM has a good list from NPR about the top ‘cult’ movies of all time.  Although what makes a movie ‘cult’ is open to interpretation, but who am I to argue?

So here we go.  The ones I’ve seen are underlined.

2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, 1968 The book was better.
Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988
Angel of Vengeance, Abel Ferrara, 1981
Bad Taste, Peter Jackson, 1987
Baise-moi, Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000
Begotten, E. Elias Merhige, 1991
Behind the Green Door, Artie Mitchell, Jim Mitchell, 1972
La belle et la bête, Jean Cocteau, 1946
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer, 1970
The Big Lebowski, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 1998 Honestly, a good movie, but I’ve never understood what all the fuss was about
Blade Runner, Ridley Scott, 1982 The first “sci-fi” movie I ever watched without a parent.
Blue Sunshine, Jeff Lieberman, 1978
Brazil, Terry Gilliam, 1985
Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale, 1935 Saw it on a real movie screen in a theater that probably showed it during its first run. Just can’t beat watching classics the way they were meant to be seen.
The Brood, David Cronenberg, 1979
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920
Café Flesh, Stephen Sayadian, 1982
Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato, 1979
Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942 Saw it on a real movie screen in a theater that probably showed it during its first run. Just can’t beat watching classics the way they were meant to be seen.
Un chien andalou, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí,1928
Coffy, Jack Hill, 1973
Daughters of Darkness, Harry Kümel, 1971
Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero, 1978
Deadly Weapons, Doris Wishman, 1974
Debbie Does Dallas, Jim Clark, 1978
Deep Red, Dario Argento, 1975
Dirty Dancing, Emile Ardolino, 1987 Yes, I went to high school in the late 1980’s. Yes, I had a girlfriend.  Yes, I got dragged to this gilded turd.  On the flip side, it made for a really good excuse to dance with said girlfriend in a way what would normally have gotten me slapped.
Django, Sergio Corbucci, 1966
Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly, 2001
Don’t Torture a Duckling, Lucio Fulci, 1972
Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton, 1990 Saw this one as a double feature with Rocky Horror one Saturday night.  Girlie Bear recently watched it for the first time, and pronounced it a wonderful love story.  I now have fear about my future son-in-law.
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Aristide Massaccesi, 1977
Emmanuelle, Just Jaeckin, 1974
Enter the Dragon, Robert Clouse, 1973
Eraserhead, David Lynch, 1977
The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi, 1981
Fight Club, David Fincher, 1999  I tried, I really did, but it just bored me.
Flaming Creatures, Jack Smith, 1963
Freak Orlando, Ulrike Ottinger, 1981
Freaks, Tod Browning, 1932
Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, 2000
The Gods Must Be Crazy, Jamie Uys, 1981
Godzilla, Ishirô Honda, 1954
The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell, 1972
Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby, 1971
Häxan, Benjamin Christensen, 1922
Hellraiser, Clive Barker, 1987 A great date movie, if the point of your date is to have the girl in your lap with her head buried in your shoulder.
The Holy Mountain, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973
The House with the Laughing Windows, Pupi Avati, 1976
I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, 1943
Ichi the Killer, Takashi Miike, 2001
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, 2008
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956
Invocation of My Demon Brother, Kenneth Anger, 1969
It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, 1946
The Killer, John Woo, 1989
Lady Terminator, H. Tjut Djalil, 1988
The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, 2001–3
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, George Miller, 1981
Man Bites Dog, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, 1992
Manos, the Hands of Fate, Harold P. Warren, 1966
The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman, 1964
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, 1975
Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987
Nekromantik, Jörg Buttgereit, 1987
Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero, 1968
Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972
Piranha, Joe Dante, 1978
Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood, Jr, 1959
Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon, 1985
Reefer Madness, Louis Gasnier, 1936
Repo Man, Alex Cox, 1984
Ringu, Hideo Nakata, 1998
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Sharman, 1975  I admit nothing.  Absolutely Nothing!
Rome Armed to the Teeth, Umberto Lenzi, 1976
The Room, Tommy Wiseau, 2003
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975
She Killed in Ecstasy, Jesús Franco, 1971
Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995 The Good Feel movie of the year.  Otherwise, a waste of good celluloid and silicone.
Soul Vengeance, Jamaa Fanaka, 1975
The Sound of Music, Robert Wise, 1965 Every Bloody Year Since I Can Remember.  Made me not want to visit Salzburg.
Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977–2005
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Todd Haynes, 1988
Suspiria, Dario Argento, 1977
Tank Girl, Rachel Talalay, 1995 In a theater in Helsinki, drunk as a monkey, with Finnish subtitles.  Need to watch it again sometime because for the life of me, I don’t remember much.
Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, 1974
This Is Spınal Tap, Rob Reiner, 1984
Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974
Thundercrack!, Curt McDowell, 1975
El Topo, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970
The Toxic Avenger, Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman, 1984
Two-Lane Blacktop, Monte Hellman, 1971
Two Thousand Maniacs!, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964
The Vanishing, George Sluizer, 1988
Videodrome, David Cronenberg, 1983
The Warriors, Walter Hill, 1979
Witchfinder General, Michael Reeves, 1968
Withnail & I, Bruce Robinson, 1987
The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming, 1939 One of my favorites.  Used to count the days until it would come on TV, sponsored by Dunkin Donuts Munchkins.  Now have it on DVD and watch it as often as I want to.


So, what about all of y’all?

by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in movie

Posted by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/10/movie-list/

Covert War With Iran

Fox News is speculating that the United States has been conducting a covert war of intelligence, sabotage, and assassination against Iran.  They point out Stuxnet, the recent loss of a surveillance drone over Iran, explosions at Iranian military and nuclear facilities, and the killings of Iranian scientific and military personnel connected with missile and nuclear weapons research.

Now, I think it’s pretty clear how I feel about Iran.  If we’re in a covert war against them, I see it as an escalation of the war they’ve been fighting against us since 1979.  Iran and the United States have been fighting each other through proxies for 30 years, and now it appears that things might be getting more sticky.

One question though:  Is this campaign, if indeed we are flying surveillance aircraft into Iranian airspace, attacking their infrastructure, and killing their citizens, no matter how justified it is, legal?

Let’s work from the position that we are indeed attacking Iran through non-traditional means.  I’m assuming that President Obama, if not President Bush, gave  permission for such missions to occur.  Does the President have the power to order the military to commit acts of war without an authorization from Congress?  Remember, the power to declare war rests with the legislative branch, not the executive.  If the President is indeed prosecuting a shadow war against Iran, then what piece of legislation can he point to in order to cover his butt?  Not going to argue that Iran has been committing acts of war against us for decades, because they have.  But we hold ourselves to a higher standard than that to which we hold our adversaries.  We are a nation of laws, and the law states that before the President can start a war, he must go to Congress for authorization.

We also have to ask, will blowing up a couple of installations and killing some key personnel be enough to slow down Iran’s weapons programs enough for other means to dissuade them from going down that path?  I guess the question could be posed this way:  Could damaging Oak Ridge and Los Alamos, along with killing Oppenheimer and some of his top scientists and engineers have been enough to prevent the United States from developing the atomic bomb in time for it to be useful against Japan in 1945?

If not, then are we willing to take the next step in order to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them?  Are we willing to move away from low-level sabotage and assassination and send in large formations of troops, ships, and aircraft to either occupy Iran or to damage their capability to do this research to the point where they have to start over from square one?  Is that even possible?

All of this is conjecture, of course.  It’s quite possible that the explosions and deaths in Iran in the past few months have really been accidents that can occur when you do research on high explosives and solid fuel rockets.  You just have to look at our own early attempts to put a rocket into orbit to see how catastrophically things can fail.  Or it could be another country such as Israel that is conducting covert attacks in Iran, and we’re just providing intelligence and other support.

But if the United States truly is conducting a low-level war against Iran, either independently or in concert with other nations, then the President needs to make sure that the representatives of the people are in on the plan and give their legislative approval for it.  He also needs to do a gut check to make sure that if the current strategy, whatever that may be, doesn’t meet the goals set out before committing to violating the sovereignty of another country, then he is willing to either admit defeat and deal with the consequences, or take the attacks to the next level and deal with those consequences.

by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Iran, military, Politics

Posted by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/10/covert-war-with-iran/

Blogs Roundup

Borepatch does an excellent job laying out the options available to our European cousins.
Big Hollywood discusses how the Red Cross is worried that the violence in video games might have an impact in war crimes.
JayG is going to be doing a test and evaluation of the Ruger LCR.  In the words of the Joker: Where does he get such wonderful toys?
Lawyer does his best to make me feel my years.
Nancy R. shares a bit of her family history with us, and shows us how wicked smart our forebears could be.  If all the modern conveniences were to go away tomorrow, how long would it take for someone to figure out how to do something like that?
Flopping Aces wins the “DaddyBear Should Buy More Kleenex” award for the day.
BRM is starting another internet meme which looks interesting and might fuel some mid-winter movie watching at Case de Oso.
OldNFO has a rather comical conversation with a couple of hipsters.

by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in blogs

Posted by daddybear71 on December 10, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/10/blogs-roundup-10/

News Roundup

  • From the “Twits” Department – Three members of a congressman’s staff were fired yesterday after several news sites reprinted their tweets about drinking on the job and other forms of goofing off.  Apparently being a leech on the ass of the American taxpayer isn’t enough to get fired, but take a couple of snorts off of a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and you’re out of here.  Since the congressman in question is a Democrat, I’m pretty sure his staffers could have kept their jobs if they’d thought to claim they were just emulating Teddy Kennedy.
  •  From the “Another One” Department – Another academic has verbally attacked efforts to gather supplies for CARE packages to soldiers.  The Iowa State University lecturer opines in his screed that American soldiers receive enough from the American taxpayer already, and that their work to fight overseas only creates more terrorists.  Like I said about the professor in Massachusetts who expressed similar sentiments, it’s a free country and he’s welcome to his opinions.  Of course, I’m free to hope he gets run down by a septic system cleaner’s tanker truck, but that’s just me.  And I have to say thanks to him for teaching me a new five dollar word:  eleemosynary.  If you’re playing “Spot the Liberal Arts Major” at home, that was a hint.
  • From the “Good Step” Department – NASA has approved a plan by SpaceX to attempt to send a space capsule to the ISS next year.  Hopefully they’re successful.  Having more than one method for getting supplies and astronauts to the space station will take some of the wind out of the Russian license-to-print-money we have these days.
  • From the “Headcount” Department – China is taking a census of their wild pandas.  Apparently all naturalists in the area are being pressed into the hunt for pandas, which seems to boil down to a hunt for panda droppings.  The government will take the samples of panda waste and analyze them in order to discover how many pandas are in the area.  No word yet on how many pandas will be given the long form containing intrusive questions about their lifestyle, or whether or not law enforcement will be called in on any pandas who refuse to participate.
  • From the “Or Get Off The Pot” Department – Several Democrat members of Congress have asked their leadership to stop the Postal Service from shutting down sorting facilities and laying off thousands of workers in order to cut the agencies losses.  Apparently these legislators have forgotten that there are only so many way to improve the business position of an organization:  cut expenses or sell more product.  Since the amount of product the USPS is selling is falling at a steady rate, then it needs to cut expenses.  Now, how can they cut expenses?  Well, they could cut the workforce and shut down unneeded facilities, they can cut service to the bare minimum that they are mandated to provide, or they could invent a magic fuel that costs nothing and keeps their trucks, lights, and other equipment running without having to do any maintenance.  Apparently these members of Congress are trying to force the government to invest in that fuel.  Next up:  Unicorn ranching and rainbow mines to raise money to cut the federal deficit.
by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in news

Posted by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/09/news-roundup-55/

Quote of the Day

What do we want?
A cure for tourettes!
When do we want it?
@%**!!?##%&!
— Lumberjack

by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Quote of the Day

Posted by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/09/quote-of-the-day-36/

30 Days of Heinlein – Day 6

Life is short.
But the years are long.
Not while the evil days come not.

— Methuselah’s Children

by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Heinlein

Posted by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/09/30-days-of-heinlein-day-6/

Adding Insult to Injury

Louisville police have arrested an individual on charges of attempted murder, assault, and robbery.  Nothing strange about that.  People get arrested in Louisville every day.

The attempted murder charge seems to come from an incident where the suspect and an accomplice robbed and shot a man on the street.   Again, while tragic, nothing out of the ordinary for Louisville there.

However, the story gets weird after that.  A couple of days later, knowing that their victim was still in the hospital and that his home would be unguarded, they burglarized his house.

Talk about big brass ones.  These guys are either masters of planning or complete morons.

First, you mug a guy then shoot him six times.  Then, taking advantage of his condition, you rob his home.  No thoughts that maybe doing so many things to one guy might make it easy for the police to tie it all up in a nice little package for the prosecutor.

Where do people come up with these ideas?  It would never occur to me to tell someone “Carry your gun when you walk down the street so that someone doesn’t rob you and then burglarize your home while you’re laid up.”

by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in crime

Posted by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/09/adding-insult-to-injury/

Is there something in the water?

Is someone spiking the water at mosques across the world?

A few days ago, I commented on a recent opinion from a Muslim cleric that allowing Saudi women to drive would lead to prostitution, homosexuality, and a lack of virgins in the kingdom.  
Now, a cleric in Europe has advised Muslim women to avoid phallic produce such as cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots because they might lead the women into having unclean thoughts.  If women do want to eat them, then a male relative is supposed to prepare the food.
I’m not going to tar an entire religion with the brush these two men provide.  There are kooks and extremists in every group, especially groups that try to advise people on how to live a ‘holy’ life.  I’ve heard preachers rail against dancing and instrumental music.  I’ve listened to environmentalists harangue people for the crime of eating meat or eating vegetables that weren’t produced using 17th century levels of technology.  I’ve heard politicians of every stripe from multiple countries say things that just make me shake my head.  And yes, I’ve heard pro-gun people say things that set my teeth on edge.
But lately, it just seems there are more of these stories.  Maybe I’m just noticing them because I’m paying a bit more attention to the news than usual. Maybe the media is reporting them more.  Or maybe there are just more kooks.
But seriously, am I the only one that wonders if some of the conspiracy theories about stuff in the water might be true based on some of the news of late?
by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by daddybear71 on December 9, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/09/is-there-something-in-the-water/

News Roundup

  • From the “Bless His Heart” Department – President Obama has pledged to stay in Washington DC over the Christmas holidays if Congress is still in session to work on a tax bill.  Apparently, in this time of economic and social strife, the President is willing to make the great personal sacrifice of not jetting off to a tropical paradise on the taxpayers’ dime in order to do the job for which we pay him.  Let me be the first to support the canonization of Saint Barack the Martyr, he who gave up a couple of weeks on the beach in order to be available to sign his name on a bill.
  •  From the “Sausage Factory” Department – A representative of Egypt’s military has asserted that the Egyptian parliament will not be the final decider on any changes to that countries constitution.  The military seems to believe that Islamists, who seem to be gaining a majority of votes in recent voting, don’t truly represent the people of Egypt.  I predict celebratory fire from the election to start impacting on Egypt’s military headquarters in five, four, three…..
  • From the “No Kidding” Department – A new study finds that a large number of young women binge drink early in their college career, and 59% of those report that they are sexually assaulted in some way after getting drunk.  This is the kind of research that I have to look at sideways.  If you don’t know that college students drink to excess, and that college boys have been known to take advantage of a drunk college girl, you have been living under a rock.  I want to see a study that shows that if young girls are taught how to effectively de-testicle an attacker, even when drunk, would the number of sexual assaults on campus go down?  Maybe we should have studies to see if parents teaching their daughters to not drink to excess or to always have a trusted friend stay sober to protect inebriated friends has an impact on the number of girls who are violated.
  • From the “Like a Steel Trap” Department – Former Senator and New Jersey Jon Corzine is expected to say that he doesn’t know where the money his former company, MF Global, took in from investors ended up.  Let’s see, you’re given billions of dollars by investors, you do yearly independent audits of your books, you’re smart enough to have been elected to the United States Senate and the office of governor of New Jersey, and you want us to believe you have no idea where all that money went.  This is kind of like a man telling his wife he has no idea how all the glitter got into his hair when he went out drinking with his friends.
by daddybear71 on December 8, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in news

Posted by daddybear71 on December 8, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/08/news-roundup-56/

30 Days of Heinlein – Day 5

The future is better than the past. Despite the crepehangers, romanticists, and anti-intellectuals, the world steadily grows better because the human mind, applying itself to environment, makes it better. With hands…with tools…with horse sense and science and engineering. — The Door Into Summer

by daddybear71 on December 8, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Heinlein

Posted by daddybear71 on December 8, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/08/30-days-of-heinlein-day-5/

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