Community Recommendations

Asking Andy

So I guess the first question anybody would have on seeing this is why should I trust your judgment on movies?

You shouldn’t. Not blindly.

Like all the other mavens, I’ve probably seen more movies than are good for me. And I also like discussing what makes those movies good or bad. Actually, let’s scrub the good or bad.

I prefer interesting or a waste of time.

There are a lot of films that fall apart at some point, but are worth watching repeatedly because they have great cinematography or an interesting twist on a plot. There are movies that I love because I can turn my brain off and watch them for the action and there are ones that I love because they make me question my beliefs.

I think that directors are more important than actors. A great director can save a mediocre movie. Among the directors who I think rarely let you down are:

Christopher Nolan, Sam Peckinpah, John Huston, Spike Lee and Howard Hawkes.

What types of movies do I like:

Suspense

I love a movie that gets me on the edge of my seat and can hold me there for 90 minutes. The Last Seduction was one of those movies that had you yelling at the characters not to be taken in by the bad guy. Why don’t they ever listen?

Action

I’ll be honest, it takes more than a director who can blow stuff up real good for me to like it. Popeye Doyle’s chase scene under the train in The French Connection (1971) is pulse pounding.

Westerns

My favorite is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, because it set you up for the standard story of how the West was tamed, but then twists it. I don’t think Jimmy Stewart gets enough credit for his Westerns.

Foreign Language movies

I am not afraid of subtitles. If you want help picking out something interesting, I’m always up for exploring somebody else’s culture. I don’t go for movies of French people sitting around smoking cigarettes at each other, but if you want to talk about La Femme Nikita, shoot me a line.